phoenixflame
by elinciacrimea is a Fix Fic of Celica's route of Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. It reimagines key elements of the story and goes further in-depth into different characters while maintaining the general thrust of the original plot.
This fic is part of a series; you can also read from bruises flowers grow and orange skies, both set in the same continuity.
phoenixflame contains examples of:
- 11th-Hour Ranger: Alm and his companions join Celica for the final battle against Duma.
- Adaptational Badass:
- Conrad's mother, Lady Bryony, teaches swordplay to both Conrad and Celica, and is also among the few characters who actually acknowledges that Mila and Duma are two halves of a whole, that people need compassion and strength. In Echoes, she's just an unnamed noblewoman.
- Rinea, who guides Alm's party through the basement of Rigel Castle and knows enough white magic to help in the battle against Duma.
- Celica is able to outfox Jedah, gets her own version of the Falchion, and is clearly a hero in her own right instead of playing second fiddle to Alm.
- Adaptational Heroism: Sonya and Deen were conned into joining Grieth's slave trade, and jump at the chance to get out.
- Adaptational Sexuality: When the author said she was making the story "100% gayer," she wasn't kidding. Celica and Mae are the main couple of the story, and the epilogue implies or states marriages between Forsyth and Python, Leon and Valbar (though Leon was already gay in the source material), and Faye and an unnamed woman (another fic in the same continuity reveals it to be Silque). Throughout the story, Est also needles Palla about her relationship with the Whitewings' commander, Princess Minerva.
- Adapted Out: Mila's Turnwheel, since it serves little to no narrative purpose, and the Echoes' version of Prince Conrad.
- Age Lift: Saber is six years younger than his game counterpart and seven years older than canon Conrad.
- And This Is for...: Celica tells Jedah as he dies that this is for his daughters.
- Batman Gambit: The crux of the entire fanfic is Celica ultimately not falling for Jedah's manipulations and returning the favor in kind. Celica knows that Jedah is watching every move she makes...and she also knows that he thinks so little of her comrades that he won't even bother watching them. So she writes down a vague set of instructions for Mae, telling her to concoct a diversion and an ambush with the rest of the army without letting Celica know anything about it. Upon fighting their way through Duma Tower, Celica goes to the top floor by herself and pretends to give herself up. Jedah, certain of his victory, has none of his magical wards up, allowing Celica to stab him with Beloved Zofia. As he reels from that, Mae arrives in time to blast him with lightning—a diversion allowing Celica to hit him with a point-blank Ragnarok. In the aftermath of the blast, he flees downstairs...right where the rest of the army is waiting. The plan isn't enough to do him in—he summons Hestia and Marla to cover his escape to the basement—but it puts him on the run, and he isn't able to fully recover from his wounds, giving Celica a leg up in their final confrontation the next day. And it's the only time Sonya has ever seen her father truly afraid.
- Big Damn Kiss: Celica plants one on Mae as she reunites with the group after killing Jedah and claiming the Earth Falchion.
- Composite Character: Saber is Prince Conrad in disguise, one of the key twists of the fic.
- Continuity Nod: The Whitewing sisters often mention their commander in passing, and share their knowledge of fighting manaketes as Celica and Alm's combined army prepares to battle Duma.
- Dark Is Not Evil: In Sonya's epilogue, it's mentioned that the witches under her command are pretty much harmless.
- Death by Adaptation: Conrad is killed in the fire, and Saber assumes his duties in the storyline. Subverted when it turns out that Saber is Conrad.
- Decomposite Character: There are two Valentian Falchions—the Earth Falchion and the War Falchion.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Her status as Mila's champion gives Celica prophetic dreams from Mila, though she can never fully remember them when she wakes up, leaving her with vague premonitions.
- Experienced Protagonist: Palla's previous battles with the dragonkin are brought up right before the final showdown with Duma.
- Foreshadowing: The author sows plenty of hints regarding Saber's true identity as Prince Conrad:
- His Stunned Silence reaction to Celica offering him Beloved Zofia as payment for his mercenary service.
- He admits to being Rigelian; Conrad's mother Bryony was a Rigelian priestess of the Duma Faithful.
- He admits to having a little sister who he hasn't seen in a while, thinks he's dead, and resembles Celica.
- He's able to identify Ragnarok, the sacred spell of Mila.
- He warns Celica of the burden that accepting the crown will bring.
- Crucially, he takes over Conrad's key appearances in the game's original story—protecting her from the Cantors outside Zofia Castle, and saving her in the rockslide.
- Hero of Another Story: Alm is having his own adventure facing Rudolf and the Rigelian Empire, but it takes place almost entirely offscreen.
- I Surrender, Suckers: Celica's plan against Jedah. As in the game, she ascends to the top floor of the Tower of Duma alone to meet with Jedah, pledges herself to Duma...and as Jedah reaches for her, she buries Beloved Zofia in his side.
- King Incognito: Celica, of course, who by birth is Princess Anthiese, and also Saber, aka Prince Conrad.
- Like Brother and Sister: Alm and Celica, rather than their original romantic relationship. However, this doesn't stop them from ruling the united kingdom of Valentia together.
- Mercy Kill: Every enemy witch is treated as one, particularly Marla and Hestia, Sonya's sisters.
- A Minor Kidroduction: The story starts with Celica and Conrad growing up in their villa, then covers the fire, Mycen taking Celica to Ram Village, Mycen taking Celica away from Ram Village, and then Celica's time at Novis Monastery. It all takes up the first two chapters of the fic, leaving the main plot of Echoes to begin in chapter three.
- Mythology Gag: Boey's Trademark Favorite Food, to Mae's consternation, is raw flour—a Mythology Gag to Echoes, where it's one of the types of food you can feed to your units.
- Oblivious to Love: When Mae attempts to confess her feelings to Celica, Celica thinks that Mae is telling her that she's in love with Boey.
- Oh, Crap!: Sonya says that Celica's successful gambit against Jedah is the only time she's ever seen him truly afraid.
- P.O.V. Sequel: Acts as a sequel to from bruises flowers grow and is set in the same continuity, and there are actually a couple of scenes where both Rinea and Celica are present that are lifted word-for-word from the former.
- Red Baron:
- Celica is given the moniker of Phoenix Queen in the epilogue.
- Sonya's epilogue moniker is changed from Vengeful Mage to Witch-healer.
- Related in the Adaptation:
- Sage Halcyon is not just a father figure, but a blood grandfather to Conrad; his mother Bryony was Halcyon's eldest daughter.
- Saber is composited with Conrad, and is thus her biological older brother.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: Saber knows from the start that Celica is Princess Anthiese. He would, since he's her older brother.
- Spared by the Adaptation:
- Sonya and Deen both survive Celica's campaign against Grieth and join her army, where in the original game you had to kill one of them. Additionally, Sonya in the epilogue is successful in finding a cure for the witches, where Echoes implies she becomes one herself in the end.
- Rinea survives Alm's route of the story, detailed in a prior work of the author's.
- Tears of Joy: In the epilogue, it's said that Queen Celica wept at the news that Sonya found a cure for the witches.
- That Man Is Dead: Saber has long since abandoned his previous life as Prince Conrad.
