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"Out with it," Ced says with a scowl. Tine startles.
"What?" she asks, still fidgeting with her hands.
"You clearly intend to ask me something," Ced says. "I'm tired of waiting for you to gather your courage. So just tell me whatever it is."
"Ah..." Tine says. Ced isn't wrong. It's just... what she wants to ask from him is something entirely unreasonable and comes with great risk to Ced's person as well as the Liberation Army. She hardly knows how to begin. "You have a Silence staff, right?" she asks first.
"Yes," Ced says. "Lord Seliph asked me to preserve it, thinking that it could be useful for the fight against Julius. Go on."
"What if..." Tine hesitates. "What if you didn't use it against Julius?" Ced narrows his eyes.
"Who would you have me Silence?" he asks.
"M-my-- my cousin," Tine says quietly. Ced's eyes widen.
"Ishtar? The goddess of lightning?" he asks incredulously.
"Yes," Ishtar says softly, looking down at the ground. "I just-- she's always been kind to me. She has a kind heart. I don't want her to die."
"This is a war," Ced says, not unkindly. "Good people will die. Good people have already died. She is certainly going to do her best to kill us. We've already killed her brother, and her parents are equally unlikely to just let us seize Friege while they yet live. We also must kill her fiancee, whom she loves dearly. You know this."
"Yes," Tine says again. She knows that it's selfish of her. Ishtar herself probably wouldn't even want to live without Julius and her parents and her brother... all of whom the Liberation Army must kill or has already killed.
"Why?" Ced asks. "Why spare Ishtar, among so many?"
"I--" Tine starts with a stumble, "I don't have a good reason," she admits. "I just don't want to lose her, too."
Ced is quiet as he thinks. "Would she surrender? If we can keep her occupied until Lord Seliph defeats Julius, do you think that she would surrender?" he asks.
"Yes," Tine says, confident this time. "Without Lord Julius, she would have no reason to fight."
"Not even for vengeance?" Ced asks. Tine's confidence falters.
"I don't know," she admits. "Maybe if I'm the one asking to her stop."
Ced rubs his chin. "We can try it," he eventually says. "We may have to kill her anyways, though. Prepare yourself for that possibility."
Tine nods. She feels tears welling up in her eyes. "Thank you, Ced," she says, giving him a quick hug. It's a chance, at least. Maybe they won't even face Ishtar in the upcoming battles.
#
Ishtar sorties, of course. Tine's heart sinks, even though she knew that this was an inevitability as soon as they killed Hilda to seize Friege. She looks to find Ced, who's already watching her. He nods at her, and Tine summons her courage.
Their plan was simple. Ced would Silence Ishtar, and then he and Tine would do their best to keep her cut off from the rest of her forces. Lord Seliph would help them as best he could, before pressing forwards to Belhalla. If Ishtar is able to escape them and retreat to Belhalla for reinforcements, if she manages to kill one of the Liberation Army's own, or if she doesn't surrender after Julius's defeat-- then Ced would unleash lethal force.
"Ishtar, please, stop fighting!" Tine shouts across the battlefield to Ishtar once she's in earshot. "You've been nothing but kind to me my whole life. I know you want no part of this battle."
Ishtar's face is solemn, more serious than Tine had ever seen her before. "I may be in the wrong," Ishtar says, "But I could never turn back now. Forgive me, Tine..."
You're already forgiven, Tine wants to say. I would forgive you a thousand times. She says nothing as she watches Ishtar prepare Mjolnir. And then... she stops. Ishtar grasps at her throat, and her mouth moves, but no lightning comes down on the Liberation Army. Ced must have Silenced her already. Tine steels herself. Now comes the difficult part.
Tine and Ced do their best to lead Ishtar away from her forces, but they have more success in whittling down her numbers. Seliph and the other members of the Liberation Army help them cut down Ishtar's soldiers, but continue to press forwards to Belhalla before they're all routed. It's fine. This is how they planned it. Tine and Ced can handle the remaining forces.
It isn't long before they've routed all of Ishtar's forces. Tine tries to stay between Ishtar and Belhalla, but her cousin manages to slip past her anyways.
"Wait!" Tine shouts after Ishtar. We don't have to kill you. You don't have to die. Just surrender. There's so much that she wants to say-- but before she even has the chance to try, Ishtar is hit with a flash of light and falls to the ground.
Horrified, Tine runs up to Ishtar. No. Ced had said that he wouldn't kill her unless she successfully got reinforcements-- but maybe when she had slipped past Tine, he had decided to stop her before the reinforcements came. Tears blur Tine's eyes. This was her fault. She couldn't stall Ishtar, and that had gotten her beloved cousin killed.
"Hey, hey, calm down," Ced shouts from a distance as he runs towards her. "She's not dead! Check her pulse."
Tine crouches down next to Ishtar, and wipes the tears out of her eyes. She sees the faint rise and fall of Ishtar's chest, and feels for her pulse. Ishtar is alive.
"See? She's fine," Ced says as he catches up to them.
"What did you do?" Tine asks.
"Sleep stave," Ced answers. Tine's eyes widen in shock. Ced had gotten ahold of a Sleep stave? It was such a valuable weapon... and yet, he had used it on Ishtar. For her, Tine knows. Ced had done this for her. Tears cloud her vision again, and this time she doesn't wipe them away.
"Thank you," she tells Ced. Ced just shrugs.
"I don't know how long it will last," he says. "I'm going to tie her up, okay? So she can't run or fight when she wakes up."
Tine nods. She gently takes the Mjolnir tome out of Ishtar's hands, and puts it in her bag. Ced ties Ishtar's hands and feet, and then picks her up.
"Come on," he says. "Lord Seliph might need our help."
Oh, right. The battle against Julius. The two of them were on foot, and they'd be arriving late, but maybe they could still help Lord Seliph.
As they walk towards Belhalla, Ishtar stirs.
"Julius?" she murmurs as she wakes up. Tine watches her stiffen as she takes in her surroundings. "You're not Julius."
"Nope," Ced says in a light voice. "Don't fight back, okay?" he continues. "We're not going to hurt you unless you force us to."
"And why should I believe anything you say?" Ishtar asks, and Tine can tell that she's afraid.
"I won't let him," Tine says, speaking up. "I won't let him hurt you unless you try and escape or fight back. But our deal is that if you do, he gets to kill you."
Ishtar's head swivels to Tine, her face one of shock. "Tine?" she says aloud.
"Please, Ishtar," Tine says. "Just... stop. You've done enough for Julius." Mentioning Julius was a wrong move, one that Tine realized as soon as she had said his name.
"Lord Julius!" Ishtar squirms in Ced's arms. "I have to protect him!"
They're almost to Belhalla. Tine bites her lip. Ced's Sleep stave is broken, and she doesn't know how many more uses his Silence stave has left. If Ishtar manages to escape them here and fight back, there's no longer any way that Tine can see her making it out of this alive.
Suddenly, Arthur arrives on his horse. "Tine!" he calls to her, smiling brightly. "We did it! Lady Julia and Lord Seliph defeated Julius!"
Tine is happy to hear that, but she can't help but look towards Ishtar, who has sagged and gone limp.
"Lord Julius... is he..." she murmurs.
"They killed him, then?" Ced asks Arthur. Arthur's face goes solemn.
"Yeah," he says. "There wasn't any other way. Lady Julia said something about him being possessed by Loptous. There was nothing left of Julius anymore except for his body being puppeted around by a monster! But don't worry, he's dead. He won't be coming back."
"Lord Julius..." Ishtar whispers. Tears form in her eyes. Tears that she can't even wipe away, what with her hands being tied up. "Why did you let me live?" Ishtar asks, crying. "Why do I have to live in a world without them in it?"
Ishtore, Bloom, Hilda, Julius. Even Reinhardt, Tine remembers, Ishtar's loyal general, had been killed by Leif's division. One by one, the Liberation Army had killed Ishtar's loved ones, and yet she alone is spared.
"I didn't want you to have to die, too," Tine tells her cousin softly. "Please, Ishtar. I know you didn't want this. I didn't want you to die for something that you never even wanted in the first place."
"Do you know why I agreed to Lady Tine's pleas to spare your life?" Ced says as he sets Ishtar down. He doesn't move to untie her yet, though. He crouches, meeting Ishtar's eyes and looking at her honestly. "When I was in Munster, I heard rumors that you were opposed to the Child Hunts. That you went out of your way to hide children from Julius."
"And you spare me based on rumors? You're a fool," Ishtar spits back at him.
"Only if those rumors weren't true," Ced replies easily. "I heard a lot of them, though. Far too many for it to be an unfounded idea."
"Please, Ishtar," Tine repeats. "Will you surrender? Your life is still worth living."
Ishtar sighs. "Very well," she acquiesces. "I will not fight you." She closes her eyes. "But... if it is at all possible... I would like to be alone for a little while."
Ced nods, and then starts to untie the ropes he had tied around Ishtar's hands and feet. "Let's get to Belhalla first," he says. Ishtar sighs once again, but stands up once her limbs are free.
"Very well," she says. She wipes at her eyes with her hands. Tine moves to stand beside her, but not too closely. She had spared Ishtar, but Ishtar may very well hate her for that, or for joining the Liberation Army. Whatever Ishtar's feelings are towards her, Tine will respect them.
To Tine's surprise, Ishtar turns and hugs Tine. "You haven't been gone very long at all, and yet look at you now," she says quietly. "You're blossoming, Tine."
Tine blushes. "Th-thank you," she stutters. Ishtar's kindness always knocks her off-kilter. Even now, it seems, outside of the Friege household's torments.
Together, they walk towards Belhalla. The future is still ahead of them. Tine made this future with her own hands; she made a future where she could be with Ishtar again.