The Second Princess [indefinite hiatus.]

Chapter Five

I don't own Fire Emblem!

...

Back to present time again.

Diana fingered the quill in her hand, sighed, and put it down on the paper.

Might as well begin from the start.

...

Diana's eye twitched. She had been so dumb on so many levels. She couldn't believe that she had actually fallen for that.

Now, one move can mean her end. It could be over. It could be-

Robin causally placed the black piece onto the checkerboard. "Checkmate."

...DAMMIT.

Of course – her mother's skills had never faded away in the years to come. Diana wanted to slap herself – what was she thinking, actually wondering that she could win?

"You win. For the fourth time," Diana said, rolling her eyes as she began to put the pieces away. "I couldn't expect more from the Grandmaster."

"You flatter me," Robin said teasingly.

As they put away the board, Diana observed her mother. Diana, as a young child, had never come close to actually beating her mother. The only person in the family that was even close to being on par with Mother was Morgan, of course.

But it was strange. Even though Diana's skill has been far more improved, being a tactician had not been one of her best. It was actually one of her weaknesses – she couldn't calculate her moves without much thought carefully and relied on the opponent's skills and patterns to find out a way to defeat them. That's why she mostly depended on her brother or her mother for the plan of attack if she was barreling face first into hordes of armies.

But in the game of chess, Diana had been extremely close to winning, closer then she had ever been in her whole life. It made her wonder...

Was Robin distracted?

It would make sense. After all, in just a few days, the man she loved was going to meet with three women that he was going to court, the ladies that she herself had chosen for the benefit of the country.

The meeting was going to take place in a ball three days from now. It had been a month since the proclamation, mid-April. Lucina's reply had come through about two weeks ago, and she was just as panicked as Diana was. She urged Diana to fix things, quickly before a paradox happens.

And it wasn't like Diana didn't want to (after all, the very idea of not existing was not...pleasing). It was just that there wasn't anything she could do, of the late.

She had tried to talk Alina out of it, but the results were the opposite of what she wanted. Convincing Macentos was out of the question. As for Chrom...he already told her he had tried to object with other reasonable solutions but this one was the easiest.

"What about Robin?" Diana said angrily later that night when she attempted to convince him again. "What about your affection for her? You wouldn't be happy!" She almost added "Robin wouldn't be happy either," but decided against it.

Chrom shook his head. "I'll just have to try my best not to fall for the women I'm going to court. Honestly I doubt that she would accept my feelings even if this wasn't happening."

Diana bit her lip and looked down, tugging on the silk glove covering her Brand.

...

The few days flew by as the final preparations for the ball was finally organized.