Honor Above All

Finally finished a new drawing of Gen 2 (FE4/FE6) Galen. Not pictured : Brahma, the big red dragon he rides.

@devotionwing​ | Nyes hello gaylen

     And what exactly was a Thracian doing here, out of all places? It made the sage somewhat worried- perhaps, due to the rumors he had heard about them. Though, it was only a worry and not a fear- after all, he had his fair share of fighting against mounted– no, flying– units. Eyes narrowing, the blond sat upon the branch he had been standing on before he heard the other arrive- a bit hard to not hear that one with such a huge beast for a mount. A sigh fell from Eirian’s lips.

   He would only become hostile if the other showed any hostility. So jumping off the branch, he landed on his feet rather quietly- something to thank his ability to use his own magic to silence himself- before moving toward the bushes and eventually just coming out to the pathway.

              “..I didn’t think that your kind would be found over here.”

“Calm, Brahma.”

     The green-haired rider coaxed the dragon as it landed, the large red beast allowing itself to stretch in an almost cat-like manner before folding its wings along its back. The rider slipped off and gave his mount a firm pat along the neck, taking a moment to stretch himself before noticing his beast hadn’t truly relaxed.

      Just as Galen turned to follow Brahma’s gaze, the young man stepped onto the path and made himself known. The rider gave a sigh - of course someone would be here - but at least he didn’t seem immediately hostile.

"The greatest weapon anyone can use against us is our own mind."

"Sorry to interrupt your regularly scheduled plotting."

"I should have left months ago but, you know, life gets in the way."

"Memory lane isn't exactly a road I like to go down."

"Justice, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder."

"It's just an engagement. Anything can happen."

"Please don't say you're sorry. You, so clearly, are not."

"Apparently when you have a fight with a friend you're supposed to apologize."

"When deception cuts this deep, someone has to pay."

"As of late I find my perception is blinded by only one thing. Revenge."

"And here I thought you were offering me a way out of this."

"Why are you so interested in this girl anyway?"

"Don't let them see your weakness. That's the first thing they'll use against you."

"Trust is the one luxury I cannot afford."

"The worst betrayals come from those we trust the most."

"Thanks for picking me up on the street corner like a prostitute."

"What I want is someone to hang out with this summer."

"I'm sick of the same. I want different."

"What a waste of humanity."

"When everything you love has been stolen from you, sometimes all you have left is revenge."

"It's hard to know who to trust when it comes to money."

Appearance: Generation 1 (Fire Emblem 4 Gen1 / Fire Emblem 7) Age: 16 years old

(minus the faded Holy Mark for Elibe verse)

Generation 2 (FE4 Gen2 / FE5 / FE 6) Age: 34 (FE 4/5 G2) 36 (FE 6)

FE 6/7 Bio: Class: Dragon Knight ( Wyvern Rider , Gen1) Dragonmaster (Wyvern Lord, Gen2)

A loyal dragon knight of Bern, although he has a bit of a reputation for being lazy. Rumored to be a bit of a troublemaker, his results on the battlefield are what keep him employed.

Although he is rather cordial towards Eliwood’s forces as a teenager, as an adult he has become jaded by the reality of war and , unless otherwise convinced, likely dies facing Roy’s army.

FE 4/5 Bio: Class: Dragon Rider (Gen1) Dragonmaster (Wyvern Lord, Gen2)

An young, idealistic and loyal dragon rider of Thracia, Galen somewhat idolizes King Trabant and his efforts to improve / save Thracia from their state of poverty. Together with his lover they join the flight of riders that ambush Cuan and Ethlin in what will later be known as the Yied Massacre. As they fly on to attack Sigurd’s army they are quickly struck down by Levin. 

Here he should have been fated to die, but an older merchant woman stumbles upon Galen and two of his companions and takes them back to her home, impartial to their part in the war. In the end Galen is the only one of the group to not succumb to his wounds and after a long recovery period eventually makes his way back to Thracia.

By Celice’s time he has seen a couple promotions in rank and serves dutifully as a general in the army. Upon encountering Leaf (princeoflenster) and mistaking the disguised prince for a Thracian citizen he tries to lend him his aid. 

Dropping canon muses from this sideblog. Will be focusing MOSTLY on Galen (FE4/5). Will be adding profile pages to match down the line.

 “For showing your face? No, no of course not. Why would you ever think something like that?”

   Despite his words there was a dark look on the mages face, all anger and hatred and pain. Shadows seemed to cling to the edge of his form, more of them gathering as his emotions swirled and twisted. The past year had given him more control over himself, but when faced with Galen.. he seemed to lose it all in an instant.

 “It’s not like I spent an entire year cursing your name and wondering what I had done to make you get tired of me and vanish like that. It’s not like I spent a year trying to get the fuck over you. I definitely didn’t spend all that time looking for you or trying to figure out why everyone I ever fucking care about just.. disappears.”

   Each word was laced with equal parts venom and badly buried heartache. No matter how hard he’d tried he hadn’t been able to move on like he knew he should. It wasn’t a good choice, to make someone such an important part of his life. That was something he should have learned the first time around. But no, he had done it again with Galen and had suffered for it.

   He walked forward slowly, the shadows seeming to dance like fire in the light breeze. As soon as he was close enough he reached out, fingers tracing the new scar on Galens face with a gentleness that didn’t match his anger. For a moment it seemed he was going to try and take a less violent path to this reunion. But as soon as he reached the end of the scar he pulled his hand away and brought it down across his face in a hard slap.

 “You abandoned me to a world I wasn’t ready to face alone, and you have the balls to just.. show up like nothing happened? Congratulations on being the biggest fucking prick I’ve ever had the misfortune to fucking deal with.”

   The light breeze picked up in intensity, swirling around the two of them with great force. He shoved Galen away, letting the strong winds pull him off his feet and throw him across the field. There was no sense of satisfaction in the action. It didn’t make him feel any better. But it did give him a small moment to wipe his eyes without Galen seeing that he was starting to cry.

 “You know what the worst part about it all is? The worst part about this whole stupid situation? I still don’t fucking hate you. I should, I’ve tried so fucking hard. But I can’t. I can’t..”

   His voice cracked and wavered as he spoke. His emotions were too strong for his words to contain and he couldn’t keep himself sounding steady. All he wanted to do was beat Galen senseless until he got a proper apology and an explanation. The little card that he’d gotten a few days before didn’t count. Just writing something didn’t make it true. He wanted to make Galen take responsibility for the problems he had caused, but he couldn’t will himself to move.

 “I don’t forgive you. I don’t even know if I can..”

     Being tossed across the field and slapped wasn’t exactly outside expectations for the encounter. As the dragon knight hit the ground he let out a small grunt, Brahma simply watched the motion with a tilt of his head and a swish of his tail. After a moment Galen sat up and shifted to get to his feet once more.

“You don’t have to. Forgive me, that is.” 

      He shook his head softly as he reached back to scratch his head. Aoba didn’t hate him, an incredible revelation considering -- wait, how long had it been for Aoba? The man had mentioned... wait, a year? Only a year?

What then had...

“...The past fourteen years I’d... well, I’d worried about how fast I was dragged away. You probably won’t believe me but it wasn’t... I didn’t want to.” It didn’t change what had happened though. He also could have tried to return sooner, but he also couldn’t turn his back on his country once he’d returned. 

      Even so, moments like this were enough to make him grateful that he’d chosen to live. Back then he’d almost made the choice to die with the rest of those from his time (save Sir Hannibal, perhaps), to allow those remaining to move forward without the influence of the past generations. It had been then that his prince had instead convinced him that his help was still needed and that renewed faith in himself that had led him to seek out the other things he’d left behind.

“Had I known I’d be taken away as suddenly as I’d arrived, well, I’d not have dared get close to you like that. It wasn’t fair at all, I know that. I know what it’s like to just... just lose someone, and then it happened again when I was dragged back.” It took him enough effort to finally look away from the emotional mage, trying himself to not tear up any further.

{☾} Then why was it like this…?

For someone who had met that man years ago, when the previous war was just about at its end, he wouldn’t understand the details. He wouldn’t understand what had gone on between that time. There were times Sety considered it was something akin to trauma, but wouldn’t that make him more protective of his family? After what happened to his aunt during Silesia’s civil war, as told to him by his mother, wouldn’t he want to protect his family and be sure they all survived…?

Still, Sety really had become that hope for others. Among those in the Liberation Army, the Silesian prince was by far the most aggressive and brash. He had the power to do what he did though, could stand alone and still survive squad after squad attacking him. He couldsurvive… and that was far more than most of the adults in the last war could say. Even if he didn’t exactly approve of the way most people saw him, the way most people perceived him, it wasn’t untrue that he was a natural leader.

How much had Levin told this Thracian? Their meeting was supposedly brief, but the now Silesian king had apparently mentioned his son to the man during that time. Fury had told Sety that Levin had had the hardest time parting ways with him as an infant after what had happened in Silesia, that he hadn’t wanted to let go of his family after having done so once already. The fact was, Levin had truly loved him in the past, and that wasn’t to say he no longer did, but he lacked any showing of that affection now.

“I don’t know what he told you back then… but if that was what he wanted, his wish has happened.” So why did Sety have to be just like everyone else to him? Another major holy blood in this army capable of taking down the Empire? Sety had struggled with this even more after meeting Galen, and he wouldn’t be at all surprised if the Dragon Knight had long caught on. More was expected of him not because he was the son of the adviser, but because he had the capabilities to help this army win.

By now, Sety couldn’t even imagine the kind former Silesian prince that the people had loved so much. He couldn’t imagine what the person Galen had met was like. Even if he asked Levin himself, he would brushed off entirely. How did one explain some odd idea of love such as watching someone from afar when they were right beside them? Why did Levin feel the need to hide any feelings he might have?

“I don’t know anything. I don’t know if he’s proud to see what I’ve grown up to be. I don’t know why he doesn’t scold me when I do something he doesn’t approve of. It ends up relating to whether or not it benefits our army. I won’t ask you to talk to him about it… because I know he’ll brush you off and make you drop the subject. I’ve grown so selfish out of desire to just be acknowledged by him at all that I’m… okay just being able to stand where he can see me, and where I won’t lose track of him. It’s a bit pathetic, if you ask me… how desperate I wound up being just for my own father’s attention.” {☽}

“You shouldn’t think it as pathetic, Prince Sety.”

     What sort of child didn’t long for their parents’ attention and approval? It would be strange had Sety not desired that sort of acknowledgement from his father, especially as distant as Levin had become -- a far cry from the personable and actually rather friendly young man Galen had met all those years ago. A man who’d taken his time to mend Galen’s wounds despite being the one who had inflicted them in the first place.

“I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t want their father’s acknowledgement, no matter how distant he appears to be. I ... haha, I wouldn’t have known such a thing though had your father and I not discovered our shared blood.”  Although Galen was only a minor blood he had learned back then rather valuable information that the next heir to the Holsety bloodline had already been born. Learned, and then promised the boy’s father to keep it a secret.

Well, it wouldn’t do if opening his big mouth had led to the death of a child.

“I can’t tell you how much I’ve done hoping my father would step forward and make himself known. All Ma ever said was he was another Dragon Knight, nothing more. Not a description or if he was still alive. For a long time I thought if I distinguished myself enough in the army he might acknowledge me, but I don’t even know if he still lives.”

“I know it might not be the praise you’re expecting, but I believe in his own way he’s acknowledging you. In his current position he probably can’t elevate anyone to personal importance, such thinking might be a critical failure to a tactician whose goal is to place the next Emperor on the throne.

Even if he can’t say it for some reason there’s a reason he looks to you as capable and I don’t think it’s just your holy blood.”

     Even if he’d never understand why Levin had changed so drastically over the years he couldn’t say the man was wholly closed off yet. If he hadn’t wanted to acknowledge his children he wouldn’t so much give them the time of day.

“Ho~? You said do not burn it down? My, you should have been more specific, it is not as if I can undo a good razing.

This man… had one of those beasts with him?

At the moment, he had lost sight of Fin, and the child was beginning to panic in his search for him. He had only insisted he was going to the river to get water, as right now, even if it wasn’t the best source of water, it was their best chance for survival. It had been a while though, and the brunet had started to wonder if maybe he had run into trouble. Despite that the knight had told him to stay where he was, if it turned out something had happened to his guardian, he would only die if he stayed in one place for too long and Fin had simply never come back.

Not only that, but if Fin was in danger, he would want to help. Leaf was tired of feeling like nothing but a weight on Fin, but there was hardly anything he could do. While he could no doubt lift a sword, it was difficult trying to truly fight with one. Now that he stood here in front of this Thracian, if he was recognized, now would be the best time to actually know how to fight. Even then, the small prince wasn’t sure he could honestly take a life.

“I… Who are you…? Why did you land near me?!” He found himself backing up more nearly with each word, and even without the stranger speaking yet, he was still beginning to panic even more than he initially was due to the absence of his guardian. If this person recognized him, he was probably done for. Despite his age, he was raised with the knowledge that a Thracian would show no mercy regarding his life, no matter how young he was at the time.

The sight of the beast before him alone was enough to make his heart pound, and his eyes shifted just to keep from coming into contact with it. The thing was huge, and far larger than him. There wouldn’t be a way to escape this thing easily at all, but the more he looked at it, the more freaked out he grew. “I haven’t done anything wrong, so… you can… be on your way…”

This child...

     It seemed to be an impossibility that he’d stumble across this person at this time. There was little mistake that the child before him was the same person he’d helped hunt down when that child would have been little more than an infant... the same boy whose parents he had helped slaughter all those years ago.

     Galen couldn’t deny that he was tempted now to snatch up the child and haul him straight back to his King. There was no doubt that turning him in now would ease his own financial burdens, not to mention secure a promotion... and yet he could only imagine what would happen were Princess Altenna to discover her true brother’s fate. A heavy sigh saw him slipping down from the red wyvern’s back, lance secured safely at the beast’s saddle. Arming himself now... that would do no good. 

“You’re.... lost, aren’t you?” The dragon knight shook his head slowly. He’d promised to not break the young Altenna’s heart further if he could help it, not when he couldn’t bury the gnawing guilt in the back of his mind. It was just my job. He reassured himself. It was necessary for Thracia to grow, but right here... killing this child wasn’t necessary. It would do no good, not with the way things were now.

“It’s okay, kiddo. If you’re lost I’ll help ya find your way back to whoever you’re supposed ta be with. Can’t in good conscience leave a kid alone out here. Aahhh, don’t worry about Brahma there. He looks scary, but he’s about as dangerous as a puppy. He ain’t gonna chase you.”

       Maybe... he’ll just pretend he doesn’t know who this person is. Or would it be okay to let him know? It might just scare him further, wouldn’t it...?

“Flowers...?”

      It had been a long time since someone had gone out of their way to give him a gift on this holiday and while he wasn’t entirely sure what it meant, the dragon knight had a good idea of where it came from. He’d have to say thanks later and perhaps find a gift of his own to give, at least he figured as much as he picked up the flowers and held them to his face to smell them.