Chapter Nine

The streets were empty. Quiet. Peaceful.

Lucina was tense the entire way back to the port, almost as if her body didn't want to believe what her eyes were seeing. She saw no hint of any Risen anywhere on the streets. None shuffled about aimlessly. No mindless groans filled the air. The only thing to be seen or heard was Port Ferox's stubborn blanket of fog and the purr of the cold air as it swept from over the sea.

Laurent's team had done a very thorough job.

Empty streets meant that it was safe for Minvera to return. Gerome popped two fingers into his mouth and whistled. The black wyvern flew down from overhead a few minutes later, returning from wherever she'd roosted for the past couple of days, somewhere within earshot of Gerome's call. The wyvern snorted in Gerome's spiky hair in greeting before allowing the children to load the satchels of tools and supplies on her harness.

Once the supplies were loaded, the kids surrounded Minvera in a protective circle, guarding against the worst on the way back to the port. Halfway there, they reunited with the Chon'sin boys from Ren'yi's crew, adding to the ring of protection around the wyvern. But the empty streets offered no challenges. Lucina could hardly believe it when they reached the port gates unopposed. Were all of the Risen of Port Ferox really gone?

Raucous cries of joy arose as they entered the gates.

"They're back!" someone cried. "All of them!"

"Thanks be to Naga!"

"Hail the Princess of Ylisse!"

The refugees of the town crowded around them as they entered the gates, lifting praises for their safe return. Some of them bowed back slightly at the sight of Minvera, who snorted in discomfort at the sight of so many people.

The wyvern was led off by Gerome to the side and quickly unloaded, the tools within the satchels rapidly scattered into able hands as Cirus collected a crew together to begin the repairs on one of the damaged vessels.

As she was the only one who'd sustained any serious injuries, Lucina was quickly whisked off to a tent at the furthest end of the harbor, where Hosh's wife and Nico had prepared an emergency hospice in case anything had gone amiss doing the mission.

Hosh's wife, who'd been a midwife in Port Ferox before the insurgency, gave Lucina's lacerations a thorough inspection before determining that, though they'd been scored due to Risen claws, were not malignant or poisonous. She disinfected the scratches with the whiskey they had on hand before wrapping them in sterile bandages.

She left the medical tent only to be swept by her friends off to the other side of the port, to where Hosh and Cirus had chosen a prospective vessel to repair.

The boat, one of the only remaining ramming vessels from Port Ferox's eradicated army, by the looks of it, had somehow gotten itself twisted up and toppled over the side of the harbormaster's abode, the sharp masthead plowing through the small house's flimsy walls.

"What do you think, Princess?" Cirus asked.

Lucina frowned at the state of the boat. "I don't know," she told the tool smith. "Will you be able to get it...out of there?"

"Yes, how long will that take?" Gerome asked. "We're on a timetable, after all."

"We could give ya a smaller ship," Cirus said, pulling at his modest mustache, "but the stretch o' blue ya got in front've ya ain't gonna be no picnic, Highness. Figure what ya need is a nice sturdy specimen like this."

"I'm not sure I agree," Laurent said.

"Well, it got all twisted up into the harbormaster's house, and it's still in one piece," Hosh pointed out. "Some of the other boats lying around here would take months to fix. And truly, with all of the storms ravaging the continent these days, an army-built water vessel would truly be the best choice."

Severa raised an eyebrow at Laurent. "Well, Specs?" she asked him, jabbing him in the side. "Got anything to say to that?"

Laurent grumbled something incomprehensible under his breath and fixed his spectacles. "I stand corrected," he relented. "Lucina, what do you think?"

Lucina ran her gaze up the boat's length, from prow to stern. It certainly did look hardier than some of the other vessels she'd seen lying about the port of Ferox. And truly, she didn't really have the right to question Cirus's choice of ship. She'd been so worried about finding a way to actually get to the other side of the continent that she hadn't considered what type of ship they'd need to make the journey.

She nodded. "I agree with Cirus," she said, nodding to the boat. "We'll take it."

-----

Cirus and his hand-picked crew went to work immediately, setting about excavating the ship from the ruins of the harbormaster's house. With a minorly-intensive amount of work hours, Cirus told her, the ship would be out of the house and moved down to the harbor by the end of the week. From there, repairs could take anywhere from another week to little under a month.

And apparently, that was being generous.

Though the timetable worried Lucina deeply, she resigned herself to it - there truly wasn't anything she could do about it. She wouldn't dare demand that Cirus and the crew work harder, not after the refugees of Port Ferox had so selflessly taken them in, treating them to their limited food and supplies. She would just have to wait and hope that the rest of her comrades were waiting safely for them with Lady Tiki at the Mila Tree.

She especially worried about her younger sister, and prayed fervently that her childish antics had not gotten her killed yet.

In an attempt to keep those restless, anxious thoughts at bay, Lucina set about helping the refugees reconquer Port Ferox.

It hadn't been wishful thinking: somehow, with Laurent's superior magic, Severa's brazen determination, and the panther-like skill of Ren'yi's comrades, the kids had exterminated every purple body that had occupied the port town, leaving the streets empty of any threats.

After a couple of days in the port, Lucina led a few of the refugees out into town, checking one quadrant of the town for any undead. On the way back, they scavenged supplies from the shops to take back to the port.

The day after that, Lucina and the refugees again went out, rechecking the initial section of town and then another, looking for zombies to slay. By day three, more refugees ventured out into the town they'd once called their own, emboldened by the continuous absence of Risen.

While the townsfolks of Port Ferox regained the courage to move about their own town, Lucina and her comrades skirked around the edges of town, checking the borders that separated Port Ferox from the surrounding feral wilderness. Here they found Risen shambling about, most likely migrating from the mountainous forest from which Lucina and her friends had initially come.

They reported that to Hosh later that evening, who turned pensive at the news.

"What do you suggest we do?" he asked them. "Everyone is so eager to move back into their homes, but is that even an option? We may have cleaned out the town, but the Risen are still out there. They could easily rise up and attack again."

Laurent nodded. "Given the volume of typical human activity, that's very likely," he said, to Lucina's dismay. "I know it's very pessimistic of me, but wherever there are humans, there are Risen, it's as simple as that."

"He's right," Gerome added. "They'll keep coming, like moths to a flame. There's nothing you can do about it."

To Hosh's pale, distressed look, Lucina gave Laurent and Gerome a different look before saying, "I disagree. There's always something you can do. The first will be learning how to defend yourselves. No more running."

Hosh paled at that too. "How, Princess?" he asked her. "We have no soldiers here. Our army was..." He didn't say it, and didn't have to.

"Soldiers are made, not born, Hosh," Lucina reminded him. "If you no longer have an army anymore, make one." She gestured back to her friends. "We'll help, as long as we're able."

Severa and Laurent grumbled at that, but otherwise, her friends agreed.

Hosh frowned. "Are you sure this is the only way, Princess?"

"I am, Hosh," Lucina replied. "And I know we can do it."

So, with Hosh's consent, Lucina rounded up all willing men and women and began a basic fighting seminar, arming the refugees with sticks and showing them how to perform basic thrusts, slashes, dodges, and parries. Gerome and Severa helped, acting as sparring partners in the absence of dummies. Laurent conducted a separate class on magic and strategy, teaching the townsfolk what kinds of weapons to pair against foes armed with axes, swords, lances, or magic.

To Lucina's great surprise, Ren'yi and his friends volunteered to help out, adding lessons on speed and grace to Lucina's rudimentary curriculum.

When she confronted him about it, he shrugged and said, "I've realized that I've no one to pass the Chon'sin style down to. I need pupils."

Days passed, weeks. Cirus continued repairs on the kids' ship, and Lucina and her crew continued helping the townsfolk reclaim Port Ferox and training them in combat. Progress was slow: Ren'yi commented that the townsfolk probably couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, but Lucina thought that they were improving, slowly but surely. Still, Hosh was right - some of them weren't cut out to be soldiers.

Still, they proved their worth - Lucina set the relatively prominent townsfolk out on watch at strategic areas around the town to ward off any wandering Risen that came by. One group - two men and one woman - were approached by the biggest group of Risen anyone had seen in a while, a group of four axe-wielders. By the time Lucina and Gerome had gotten wind of the news and arrived at the scene, the group had already downed three of the Risen, slaying them with stabs to the chest with their sharpened sticks.

Lucina was proud of them, but worried - what if, against her hopes, all of this training was for nothing? What if another huge heard of Risen came by, plowing through the town, driving the people back to the port, right back where they'd started?

One day, near the end of the month, Lucina was on patrol around town with Severa when Ren'yi appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. He fell into step beside Lucina and glanced past her at Severa.

"Do you think I could have a minute?" he asked the girl.

Over the weeks, Ren'yi and the kids hadn't become friends, but they'd grown less hostile towards each other. Lucina thought that Severa and Gerome were secretly in awe of Ren'yi's flawless fighting style; even Laurent, who didn't warm to people very well, seemed to have taken a secret liking to the swordsman, who knew enough about politics to suit the mage's taste.

Still, Severa glanced at Lucina, who nodded her permission. The girl detached with a huff, heading over to where a lookout was stationed on the opposite side of the street.

Lucina and Ren'yi headed to the north side of town, neither of them saying a word. Dusk had since fallen, but the city streets were anything but empty: there were plenty of people about, moving things back into their homes, cleaning, reorganizing inventory in shops. Everyone was keeping a lookout, not just the watches - the ingrained awareness of Lucina and her group had leeched into the town, making everyone alert. Though, so far that day, the only threats Lucina had heard about had been a tiny group of Risen wandering too close for comfort. They'd quickly been put down.

"I spoke to Cirus earlier today," Ren'yi said as they reached the tool smith's old shop. Lucina found it hard to believe that a few weeks ago, the place had been crawling with Risen. "He says that your ship will be ready in a matter of days."

Lucina raised an eyebrow. Wow. She'd been so busy helping out with fortifying Port Ferox that, unbelievably, she'd almost...forgotten about the boat. About moving on. About journeying across the sea to fight through a land infested by Risen, struggling to get to Lady Tiki, her friends.

"Oh," she said. She didn't like that she sounded almost disappointed.

Ren'yi seemed to pull her thoughts from her voice. "You sound less than enthusiastic."

"Yes," Lucina admitted. "Well..." She shrugged, embarrassed. "I suppose all of...this has just lured me into a false sense of security."

Ren'yi nodded. "You've been here for a month, shed blood and sweat over this place, fought tooth and nail to reclaim it for us," he deduced. "I suppose it's begun to feel like - "

"Home," Lucina finished, nodding. Ren'yi was absolutely right. Port Ferox had lured her into a false sense of security, and that explained why she was now suddenly so reluctant to leave it.

She shook her head. Yes, this place may have felt like home, but she already had one, a real home, called Ylisse, that was currently still occupied by Risen. She was the only one who could stop that, and her friends were counting on her, bleeding for her, so that she would have a change to end Grima's reign.

Secure or not, she couldn't stay.

"Yes, this place feels like home," Lucina said, stopping in front of Port Ferox's main exit, a path that led out into the woods, "and I expect for this place to still be standing when I return." She stared up a Ren'yi. "Is that understood, Ren'yi?"

The Chon'sin swordsman's lips actually quirked into half a smile. "Thanks to you, we aren't going anywhere, Princess," he said, actually saying the title with a degree of respect. "I only hope that you fulfill our expectations."

"And what would those be?"

"To stand by your word. To perform the Awakening. To kill Grima."

Lucina felt a little shiver go through her. Both tasks bore a heavy weight because of their near impossibility. But despite that fact, Lucina met Ren'yi's eyes steadily and nodded sharply.

"I swear on Naga's name that I will perform the Awakening," she said. "I will kill Grima, and end this nightmare that we live in."

When Ren'yi's smile grew, Lucina almost felt that she could do it - that she could truly accomplish this hazardous, dangerous task that she'd set out to do. She had the support of her friends, of Ren'yi. How could she possibly fail?

The swordsman reached up and removed his butterfly-shaped mask. After a pause, he extended it out towards Lucina. She stared down at it and then back at him, surprised.

"This was my father's," he said quietly. "A just and decent captain of Chon'sin's ground forces. When the insurrection began, my father was on the front lines with his platoon, mired in our country's rice patties, surrounded by undead on all sides. They sent a messenger back to the capital for help, but the Emperor, cowed by the display of Grima's power, of Grima's cruelty, refused to send aid to my father, left him and his platoon for dead in the mud." His teeth clenched. "This was all they could recover from him."

"Gods." Lucina's voice was a whisper.

"Since then, I have never trusted nobility," Ren'yi said quietly, still holding out his father's mask. "I've found that all show their cowardly colors in times of strife, leaving the innocent to die, rallying their armies around them to protect them from the threat of death. I thought them all selfish..." His smile returned. "Until now."

He meant her; Lucina blushed at the praise, because praise from Ren'yi was very rare indeed.

"Please," the swordsmaster said. "Take this." He held the mask closer to her.

"Ren'yi, no." She shook her head. "I can't take it. It's the only thing you have left of your father."

"This mask is a symbol of my trust," Ren'yi said, "something I rarely hand out. I'm giving it to you, Lucina, because, despite my initial distrust of you and your mission, I now know that you are the one to save the land. You will save us from Grima. I am sure of it."

His words should have been flattering, but instead, they filled Lucina with doubt. She found herself looking down at her boots, wringing her hands together.

"How do you know?" she mumbled. "How can you be certain of that?"

"You wield Naga's power," Ren'yi said. "You may not know it yourself, but you do. You were willing to sacrifice your life for the assured safety of the Argent Gemstone. Only someone with such drive will defeat Grima." He took one of her hands and folded her fingers around the mask. "Please," he said.

Lucina clenched the mask. His trust, he'd said. But not just his. She held in her hands the trust of her friends. The refugees. The entire world. Against her will, she'd given them hope.

She would not betray it.

"Thank you, Ren'yi," she said.