[Fire Emblem Fates Novelization.]
Nohrian twins Princess Kassandra and Prince Norton have been estranged for six years: separated by stone, distance and hearts. When they're kidnapped by Hoshido and told of their true lineage, they're suddenly drawn...
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Prince Norton of Nohr
For all her sulkiness, Flora was an efficient maid. By the time I reached my room, she'd already caught wind of my mission and my bag was halfway packed. Sixty seconds later, she'd finished her task. A blink of an eye, and she was gone.
I paced alongside my weapons rack, waiting for someone to inform me that everyone else was ready. My maid hated me. Xander was cold towards me. Leo loathed me. Kassandra was angry with me. Elise was half afraid of me. All that left was Jakob and --
There was a knock on my door, and Camilla's voice drifted through the wood. "Norton? May I come in?"
I lifted my favourite sword from my rack and picked up a whetstone. Sitting on my bed, I began sharpening the blade. "No."
She opened the door and peered around it, waves of purple hair tumbling over her shoulders. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"
"Always." I dragged the whetstone across my sword with an especially sharp zing!
She came all the way in and closed the door behind her. "I just wanted to make certain that you're prepared for the journey. Is there anything you need?"
"No." I stood up and examined my sword, making a show of turning the blade this way and that before I sheathed it. Then I took another off the wall to sharpen.
But no one, not even Xander, was as ferocious as Camilla on the battlefield. It would take more than a threatening display of my swords to warn her off.
"Please keep your wits about you when it comes to Hans," she said softly. "And please protect Kass from him."
I sneered. "So that's what this visit is really about. The safety of Kassandra."
Camilla recoiled. "Norton, please. You know that I care about you."
"I can't think why," I muttered.
But we both knew the truth. Bastard children were largely accepted within Nohr, and King Garon was no exception to them. Camilla, Leo, and Elise all fell into that category. When Kass and I were added in, the only child who'd come from both Father and his first wife was Xander.
The rest of us felt, in different ways, scarred and unwanted.
Camilla and I had bonded through our scars, and of all my siblings, I'd been closest to her until six years ago. I had been the most tolerant of her constant doting, because it had filled the deep need within me to belong. And in letting her fuss over me, I had fulfilled her own need to act in the maternal way that her own mother had not.
There was another knock on the door. Without waiting for my permission, Camilla opened it. One of my men was standing there -- Belden. "Hans and your retainers are waiting on the First Bridge...my lord."
My sword almost slipped from my grasp. "It's sir."
Belden smiled, his eyes filled with awe. "We have been given leave to call you by your real name from now onwards, Prince Norton. We never knew --"
