A few months had passed since the Demon King's defeat, and Ephraim found himself in constant stress, ve didn't only had to rule the kingdom he had inherited from his father, but also had to help with the rebuilding efforts in the Grado Empire, all of these duties didn't left him with time to spare, the situation was specially infuriating due to Seth refusing to let the young king deal with bandits attack on his own, saying they couldn't risk losing another king so soon after the war.
"He does have a point..." Ephraim groaned as he walked through the halls of Reanis Castle, while he had to let his knights deal with the bandits and monster still roaming the land, the young ruler had a slight comfort, be could explore every inch of his family's ancestral seat.
While the Castle didn't have that many secrets to him, after all he and Eirika spend their childhood running around the palace, but there was one room their late father never allowed them to explore.
"The treasury" he mumbled to himself, opening the age old door, revealing the room he hadn't opened since he and Eirika defeated Orson and reclaimed the castle, just to then retrieve their sacred weapons from this same room, of course Sieglinde and Siegmund were now resting in the secret chamber were they had been for hundreds of years but there were still thing to see here.
"Hmmm" Ephraim stroke his chin as he inspected the treasury, were the weapons and armours of past king of Renais rested, axes, sword, lances and bows, most of them resting next to shinning green armours that reminded him of Fado's, he wonder if he should bring his father's belongings here, after all he had been the Peerless Warrior King, with a title like that his weapons clearly were worthy of standing among the other relics, not to mention that the late Fado was still an inspiration for his young son, but this thought also reminded Ephraim of something, to time for the king to fight in the frontline was over, now his people needed him to rebuild the nation.
It was hard to believe something resembling peace had come back to wartorn Renais, but that thought was enough for Ephraim to notice the other artifacts resting on the treasury, necklaces and earrings and braces, the latter being the ones that really catched his attention.
He picked up one of the braces, it reminded him of the one he wore during the war, but unlike the solar brace, this one had a different design, many dots forming want appeared to be two sticks figures, reminding him of a constellation associated with twins, "I wonder of Eirika would like them" he mumbled, he hadn't had much time to spend with her since the end of the war, a token of his might brighten her mood, but he wanted to make sure it wasn't too uncomfortable to wear.
When he put on the bracelet he began to feel off, this one didn't feel like the Solar Brace that went unnoticed lots of the time, this odd new bracelet was making him feel dizzy, his legs lose strength, his whole body quivered, the world went deaf and his vision became blurry, and then everything went dark.
---
"-----?" a soft voice said but he couldn't understand anything.
"...ugh?" Ephraim managed to mumbled, his vision still fussy but a figure was forming in front of him, had he fallen unconscious? Had a guard come to check on him?
The embarrassment of that ideas was enough to make him blush, he could only imagine Eirika's reaction once she returned, but now the blurry figure of the guard was starting to take shape, it went from a blue and pink spot to a person with a long blue mane and a armor...no just a short dress, 'Wait a minute, a guard is wearing a dress on duty?' he asked himself.
An answer came to that question as the person in front of him became clearer, standing in front of him was Tana, his and Eirika's friend, the Frelian princess, but why was she here? Wasn't she supposed to be in Frelia? Eirika had left to go see her after all.
"Eirika?" she said, placing one of her gloved hands on his forehead, concern clear on her face, "Are you feeling alright?"
"Alright? I..." he tried to say but stop himself as he head his voice, despite sounded half asleep he could tell that wasn't his own voice, it sounded too sweet and melodious to be his, not to mention he had noticed a few odd thing about this interaction, not only was Tana here but she was also calling him by his sister's name, and below the hand she placed on his forehead he could see his hair had grow longer? And why did Tana looked so tall?
"I'm...well" he managed to say, taking a step back from Tana and hearing a clacking sound, a quick glance down revealed the source of the sound and of the many odd thing he had experienced, instead of being greeted by his muscular frame clad in armor, he was met by a familiar sight, a small golden breastplate covering a short red dress that showed off a thin waist, below it he saw a white skirt and below that a pair of red kneehigh boots, while this last part explained that clack sound, Ephraim's mind was no longer interested in that.
The attire he was wearing, combined with long light blue hair and the fact that the breastplate had a very feminine figure, as if it was made for a female warrior, and for what he felt under the armor, parts of him he hadn't felt before and parts that he couldn't feel anymore, he had a hunch he might fit the criteria to wear the armor.
"Oh I see!" Tana said, bringing him back to reality, she was smirking and pointing a finger at him, "You're nervous! Don't worry, you and I will speak to him together, so brush that blush off your face!"
"Blush?" he asked, taking a hand to his cheeks he could not only tell how smooth the skin felt but how warm it was, this embarrassing pink cheeks only grew when Tana got close to him, intertwining one of her arms with one of his own, she seemed to pick on this and began to laugh.
"I never expected to see you like this Eirika, so nervous and insecure, we can leave this for another day" she said with a smile, then her eyes light up, "We can take a ride on my pegasus! That always calms my nerves!"
"No!" Ephraim quickly answer, the memories of the one time he agreed to ride Tana's beast was still fresh on his mind, "Let's just leave that for later" he said as she whimpered and started to walk, dragging hin behind her.
As Tana walked, Ephraim had time to analyse the obvious, he had somehow ended up in his sister's body that much was clear, and if the walls that surrounded him, covered by Frelian banners were another clue he supposed he was in Castle Frelia.
He had to admit that his memories of the castle weren't many, and most of them were in the castle's training ground, were he and Innes sparred more times that he could count, so the interiors were mostly a mystery to him, that's why he wasn't too shocked when his walk with Tana lead him to a garden he had never seen before, the ground covered with a vast amount of flowers he hadn't seen before, all of them surrounded a little path made up of tiny stones.
"Brother!" Tana shouted, once again gaining Ephraim's full attention, he didn't noticed Tana took him deeper into the garden, where he could see a pond and a few tables, and sitting in one of them was Innes, with a bow resting on his knees, was he fixing it's string?
"Tana?" the prince asked, looking to his sister, a scowl forming on his face, "What do you want? What are you doing here? Don't you see I'm busy?"
"Innes!" Tana said, letting go of Ephraim's arm, placing her hands on her hips as she stared at her brother, "How can you be so rude? Don't you remember we have a guest?" she pointed to Ephraim, "Princess Eirika came all the way from Renais just to speak with you, you promised you would show her around once the war was over"
"I did but I expected to have a day to prepare for that, unlike you I have duties, and unlike you I don't run away from them"
"I'll let you know I take my duties very seriously, my visits to Renais aren't luxury trips! I go to see how King Ephraim is doing, to see if he needs any help rebuilding his nation or dealing with the monsters roaming the countryside, and unlike you he has enough time to spare to show me his castle! You always want to challenge him in any field but apparently not in etiquette"
Innes got up, rolled her eyes and left his bow on the table, "Fine I'll show her around, now go pester someone else, Tana"
This answer was enough for Tana to smile, she turned around and turned to leave the garden, but before doing so Ephraim could swear she winked at him and whispered, "Good luck"
"..." as Tana left, Ephraim realised he was alone with Innes, with none of the two muttering a word, as usual the prince of Frelia had his scowling expression on, for a moment Ephraim even forget what was going on and expected to be challenged instead Innes did something that the young monarch had never seen before, he smiled and made a slight bow, "I'm sorry for being so rude Princess Eirika, I didn't expect your visit to be today, please forgive me, I love my sister but sometimes she gets on my nerves, now why don't we begin our tour?"
If seeing Innes being kind was odd enough, the fact that he offered Ephraim his hand was even stranger, he had an easier time accepting he had somehow switched placed with Eirika than accepting Innes could be so polite, was he like that in the presence of Eirika? After seeing Innes' hand was still expecting to be taken, Ephraim decided to...
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