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Metastable; Chapter 11
title: metastable
series: fire emblem: heroes
sub-series: feh originals
characters: all of the feh originals basically
rating: T
warnings: canon-typical violence, embla's continued harassment of bruno
--
Kiran hadn’t been on a rollercoaster in years, even before arriving in Zenith, but they could still remember the pull of gravity when the cart rocketed up and down and through loop-de-loops.
Maybe these days it would be better to compare g-force to a flyer’s experience on the upward. Had Kiran the time or inclination to delve into that, they would have been perturbed at how Zenith’s reality was slowly but surely replacing the old. But it was a half formed thought. Less than the memory of a dream and not quite the time to dissect a potential existential crisis.
“Keep back!” Kiran wanted to shout, but their jaw felt welded shut and the words wouldn't form. Their world was reduced to light and pressure and an intense ringing in their ears from the initial BANG.
The force of the beam emitting from Breidablik made the weapon weigh heavily in Kiran’s hands as the relentless torrent of pressure came bearing down all around them. It was like trying to stand straight under a waterfall. A waterfall of blinding light that was. The beam jettisoned upwards into the distant storm clouds above to rip and scatter them apart in its wake.
Where does it end? Kiran wondered, stuck in the effort to keep Breidablik and the light facing skyward.
“-immense pressure! Stay back!” Kiran could hear Alfonse order when soldiers nervously gathered around to witness the famed Summoner do their rarely-seen work.
Kiran squinted upwards, past the light, past the clouds, and beyond. They had felt a lesser version of this before, they realized, but in reverse when Fjorm had finished the Rites of Frost that her mother and Gunnthra had begun. And again on the molten steps of Surtr’s throne room.
Shouts of surprise came from all around Kiran, but they could not tear their eyes away from the multitudes they witnessed in the light. Worlds they had visited, worlds they had not, splashes of color and suns and moons, and everything in between.
A barren world of gnarled dead trees. A skull looked down upon Kiran. A void that blanketed each world, each realm, each life.
Kiran felt Death looking down on them.
The shouting turned louder, but Kiran could not look away. Death was reaching a skeletal hand out, as if to ask them to dance. A demand to dance.
And then Death vanished. Twin twisting gales of wind, snow, and smoke all slammed against the side of the mountain. People scattered, knocked about like dandelion seeds in the sudden storm.
The dragons - for they were dragons now Kiran could see even in their enormity - scrambled, claws of wind sending boulders scattering like pebbles and people to the ground to avoid being hit.
Unharmed, unmoved, Kiran stood their ground with their knees buckled from the strain of keeping Breidablik pointed upwards into the infinity of the sky and to the infinity of realms.
Instead of coming forth, summoned, the twisting bodies flew up into the light. Racing each other to the sky until they had vanished into the infinite.
Kiran pulled the trigger, quaking with the effort.
And just like that, Breidablik stopped.
The beam of light closed and vanished, leaving a faint sulfuric smell and a terrible flashing behind everyone's eyes. No longer staggering under the pressure of force from Breidablik, Kiran lowered the weapon with shaking arms. They didn’t quite holster it yet, but stared down at the ancient relic.
The coating of ice that had never melted, even in the volcanic capital of Múspell, had finally cracked to flake away on Kiran’s gloves.
-
Her heart leaping in time to her strides down the entrance steps, Sharena made for the soldiers that had gathered around someone on the ground.
Or rather, gathered around Helbindi who had someone pinned to the ground. A flash of steel white hair and-
“Bruno!” Sharena couldn't shove pass the others quickly enough. “You’re here- Please, Helbindi, he’s an ally- our friend-”
“I thought you were Zacharias,” Helbindi said, purposefully redundant, even as he let off his hold on Bruno’s arm.
Helbindi “helped” Bruno to his feet, if with an expression of “are you sure” directed at Sharena who was more than familiar with it in her life.
“Try anything funny and it won’t be the book next time,” Helbindi warned.
“Bruno, I'm so glad you're okay, and that you’re here- Fjorm and Empress Laegjarn undid the bindings of frost and flame-! It’s practically a miracle! And I wrote down-”
“Sharena-.”
“-What I saw, but it might-” Sharena cut herself short.
Even with the mussed hair and mask askew, Bruno looked intense. Intense in the way that soldiers from the Askr-Embla war were, or Heroes that had seen too much.
“Are you-”
“-too close to the gods themselves sets it off, huh?” Bruno snarled to himself, fingertips pressing hard against his mask.
Sharena waved the guards down before they trained their weapons at Bruno again. He was surrounded and restrained. And more importantly - Sharena’s friend.
“Bruno... it’s alright.”
She had missed Bruno’s laughter - quiet, deep, refined - but she would have gladly never heard the distorted bubbling laugh that came out of Bruno’s throat ever again.
“Is it? Once again… once again I must leave before I harm anyone. Before I can get my hands on the information I seek-!”
Bruno’s voice curdled like milk in the sun and he drew in on himself as though he had been struck in the stomach. Breathing just as harshly, Bruno rigidly forced himself to stand once more. Sharena wouldn’t have the time to invite him to talk, to explain what she saw, or what Laergjarn and Fjorm knew.
“I have information, Bruno. I’ll send it to Veronica.” Bruno’s attention switched, briefly, at Veronica’s name, and Sharena took that to be a good thing. “I will write down everything I know for you. I’ll ask Laegjarn to leave the temple open for you to explore.”
“Let me go-” Magic crackled in Bruno’s palm and he struggled in Helbindi’s hold. Another soldier joined in to help. “I will kill all of you if you do not-!”
“Princess-?” The captain of Laegjarn’s guard turned. “We need to arrest him-”
“No! Let him go, please!” Sharena gestured to Bruno’s mare. These were Múspell guards, they had no reason to obey her. “It’s a long story, but you have to let him leave while he still wants to.”
“Release him.”
Laevatein strode past Sharena, hand on her sword hilt and eyes sharp. Behind her, a guard had gotten a hold of the mare’s reins to bring her over.
The captain’s face scrunched up as if to argue and Helbindi barked out, “Are you serious?”
“We have no quarrel with Embla.” Laevatein said, voice brooking no argument.
For a moment no one moved except for Bruno in his struggle. And then the guard and Helbindi released him, leaving him to stumble forwards.
Tension ran high again when Bruno collected himself. Sharena could have reached out and touched him. Hugged him. The empty eye sockets of Bruno’s mask betrayed nothing but she stared up all the same. They each stood waiting for the other to move.
Sharena offered her hand.
“Alfonse and I won’t stop fighting for you, Bruno.”
Bruno’s face twisted, but either in pain or to hold back words Sharena couldn’t say which. He spoke not a word as he made his way past the guards who stiffly stood aside, and leapt into the saddle.
It hurt, having Bruno vanish once more without so much as a goodbye. He clicked his tongue to spur his mare into a canter and they sped by with a dozen eyes fixed on Bruno’s back. Soon, and much too soon, the low rolling hills and the dusk swallowed Bruno up.
“Anybody mind telling me what the fuck just happened?” Helbindi said, jerking several of the guard out of their staring.
“Alfonse will be disappointed.” Sharena said to herself, feeling a bitter smile come on. Her eyes searched for one last glimpse of a white cloak. She pushed it aside. “Yes- I’m very sorry and will explain what I know. Thank you, all, for your help.”