I glanced at my surroundings, wondering where I was. It certainly wasn't the Northern Fortress, which was odd considering I wasn't allowed to leave it.

I was surrounded by nothing but fields of emerald green grass with small groves of trees scattered throughout. From beyond one grove I could hear the sound of… some sort of conflict, perhaps? But it was hard to tell from this far away. I paused for a moment, straining to hear the sounds in the distance and basking in the warm glow of the sunlight.

Wait… sunlight? That couldn't be right. Nohr wasn't exactly known for it's sunlight. My homeland was eternally dark, and on the rare occasion the sun did decide to grace Nohr with its presence, it was never this… bright.

Distracted by the strange scenery around me, I didn't notice the soldier creeping up behind me until it was too late.

I gave a shriek of pain as I felt the axe bite into my side and twirled around to see a fighter in steel armor readying his axe for the finishing blow. A fighter in Nohrian armor. A traitor, then?

I reached for my sword, desperately attempting to block his next swing before it found its home in my neck. My efforts were for naught, however, as a Pegasus rider swooped down and finished off the soldier with a quick blow to his chest.

Pegasus rider? Where did she come from? She turned her steed around and landed behind me, twirling her strange, curved lance expertly and mumbling something that sounded suspiciously like "Nohrian scum" before turning to face two more people that had appeared behind me during the scuffle.

One was a young girl holding what appeared to be a healing staff. It looked strange though, with odd bobbles and streamers hanging down from the end of it. The girl holding the strange staff had pale pink hair and appeared to be no older than 14. I couldn't distinguish any other facial features though, as she shyly stared at the ground instead of meeting my eyes. The boy next to her looked to be a little older. Closer in age to me, but still younger. He had light grayish hair in a high ponytail and brown eyes. Brown eyes which were currently staring me down with an intensity that could melt ice cubes. While the younger girl was holding a staff, he gripped a bow. It was an ornate, golden thing that left me baffled as to how one was supposed to wield it, given there was no string that I could see. If I was being honest though, I was a bit relieved that he couldn't use the bow. If the look he was giving me was anything to go by, he just might use it on me if he could. The woman that had saved me looked like the oldest out of the three. Her flaming red hair complimented her fiery expression as she proudly sat atop her pegasus, strange lance still gripped loosely in her right hand.

"Nicole, are you all right?" The woman on the pegasus said, jumping down from her mount. She rushed over to me, concern evident on her face as she grasped my shoulders and checked me for injuries. When her eyes found the wound in my side, a dark look crossed her face. "Sakura, take care of Nicole's injury while I go ahead," she ordered.

The young girl, Sakura, nodded to the older woman as she moved to mount her Pegasus again. I felt a gentle heat wash over me as Sakura poured the staff's healing energy into me. I was once again struck by the peculiarity of the girl's staff. Having trained with the sword since a young age, I was intimately aware of how the magic of a staff feels to the person being healed, especially since I had an opponent as fearsome as my older brother. However, this staff didn't feel the same. In times past, it was always a numbing cold, like putting ice on a burn. This magic produced a soothing warmth throughout my body.

We stood in awkward silence for a few moments, the girl shyly focusing on healing my wound and the man glaring daggers at me. I was about to say something to relieve the tension, despite not knowing what in the gods names was going on, when yet another soldier appeared out of nowhere.

I closed my eyes, bracing myself for another axe in the side for my carelessness, but the blow never came. I opened my eyes to see an arrow embedded in the soldier's chest. Unsheathing my sword, I delivered a swift blow to the man's neck, sparing him a slow death to the archer's wound.

I turned to the young archer and glanced at his bow. Where there had been nothing before, there was now a shimmering string of blue light. Strange, I've never heard of a bow that could do that before, I thought warily. Despite my misgivings about the strange weapon, I still turned to thank him.

However, the words of thanks died in my throat as I saw that he was still glaring at me with more distaste than I ever thought a person could achieve with a single look. I swallowed my angry response to his continued glares by reminding myself that he did just save my life, but it was close. I was spared having to further force myself not to rise to the archer's provocations by the return of the crimson haired Pegasus knight.

She spared the dead soldier a glance and turned back to us. "Good work," she said, beaming at the three of us, "Takumi, take Nicole and Sakura and meet up with Ryoma and the rest of the army. I'll meet you up there." She once again took off, flying over the grove of trees that separated us from the sound of conflict I had heard earlier.

Ryoma, Takumi, Sakura… just who are these people. I thought, warily following the newly dubbed Takumi. I was concerned, however, by her mention of an army. While I didn't think my current companions would harm me, I had already come face to face with two enemies in a short period of time, and, unless you counted training, that was already more combat than I'd ever faced.

We soon walked past the forested area and found the army the knight had ordered us to meet up with, or at least, the army I hoped she ordered us to meet up with. My nerves were calmed when I saw them wearing the same white and red color scheme as my current companions, though this made me feel slightly out of place in my own silver and black armor. We made our way through the sea of red and white to the front lines, the other soldiers parting for us to approach a man I assumed to be the commander, only to be faced with a second army. And based off of the glares I could see from all the way across the valley that separated us, these people were definitely not allies.

"Ah, Nicole," I turned to the sound of the voice. The commander, and the man I assumed to be Ryoma, beckoned me over to where he and the Pegasus knight stood facing the commander of the enemy army. Ryoma turned to him and started accusing him of some sort incident in a capital. Something about his mother was also mentioned, but I didn't have any idea what he was talking about.

I glanced at the enemy commander and was overjoyed to see my first familiar face… but why was he the enemy commander.

"Xander!" I called out. He paused his intense staring contest with Ryoma to give me a shocked look.

"Nicole, we thought you were dead. Have they harmed you?" He asked, concern the only thing maring the relieved smile he had gained upon seeing me alive.

Finally, I see someone familiar, and my brother to boot. But… why would he think I was dead? What was going on?

I took a step towards Xander, but Ryoma's hand shot out and gently grasped my shoulder. "Don't let his words fool you Nicole. You belong with your family in Hoshido, not you false Nohrian family," he said hesitantly, as if he was afraid of upsetting me.

My Hoshidan family? I was a Nohrians princess by birth. What did he mean "my Hoshidan family"?

As my thoughts continued to swirl tumultuously around in my head, more familiar faces appeared next to Xander. Camilla, Leo, and Elise, my other siblings, charged in on their respective mounts and smiled in relief upon seeing me unharmed. That relief quickly morphed into anger, however, when they saw who stood next to me.

"Ah Nicole, why don't you come over here and greet your big sister," Camilla said in a sweet tone with an undercurrent of something dark, something that promised violence if anyone prevented me from doing so.

"No need, she is already right beside her big sister," the Pegasus rider said in a similarly falsely sweet tone. Her eyes promising the same violence if anything removed me from her side.

"Hinoka," ah, so that was her name, "please handle this a touch more delicately," Ryoma beseeched Hinoka with the same placating tone he had used on me earlier. He seemed to be attempting not to frighten me, but it definitely wasn't working.

"This is ridiculous, release our sister at once or face the wrath of my magic," Leo said, eyes flashing with malice.

"Yeah! Leave her alone or… or you'll be sorry," Elise declared, her threat undermined by the her pout.

"Brother, they aren't going to listen to reason. Let's just kill them all and be done with it," the archer, Takumi, said to Ryoma in response to my sibling's threats. I wanted to scream, warn everyone what was coming, but I couldn't force the words past my lips.

The young healer, Sakura, seemed to mistake the look on my face for one of fear. "D-don't worry… b-big brother won't l-let anything b-bad happen to us," she said with a nod.

Big brother? Did she mean Ryoma? Did that mean Ryoma, Hinoka, Takumi, and Sakura were all related? Did that mean I was related to all four of them? What was going on?

My thoughts were halted by a feeling of intense cold through my whole body. Wait… not my whole body, just my head. The feeling intensified enough for me to feel it's origin. A pair of hands on either side of my face emanating an icy cold was the source of my discomfort. As the faces of my siblings, both real and imaginary, grew hazy, I heard a voice in the distance.

"Wake up Lady Nicole!"

In another part of the world, an old man, known as the rainbow sage, stumbled back as the spell he had been casting was abruptly cut off. He sighed, feeling his work was only half completed. He worried that he had not done enough.

"Oh well," he muttered to himself. "I have to hope she will be prepared enough with the small glimpse of the future I gave her."

He had hoped to give her more knowledge of what was to come. Show her more information she would need in the trials to come. Not enough to be considered interfering. Not enough to attract the attention of certain beings he wished to avoid the gazes of. But enough so that he might ease the girl's burden.

He might have succeeded if it wasn't for those maids.

But it was no matter. He couldn't change it now. Aside from a few fateful decisions on the girl's part, the fate of the world was sealed.

Some people might call Jakob obsessive. This was, however, grossly inaccurate. He was simply devoted. Was it so wrong to be devoted to the person who had given you your entire life? Jakob lived his life by answering no.

Because of this devotion, it came as no surprise that he would accompany Flora and Felicia to wake up their mistress on such an important day. Of course, she herself was not aware of the days significance, as he only knew due to the penchant Princess Elise had for spilling secrets. One such secret was that Lady Nicole's "lesson" today was, in actuality, a test.

A test to see if she would get to leave.

Jakob knew the significance of this, and while he was not overly invested in Nicole's training, he was very much invested in his lady leaving the accursed fortress she had been confined to most of her life. He knew how much she longed for freedom beyond the stone walls that had imprisoned her for nearly twelve years. It may have been a large cage, but it was still a cage nonetheless. His desire for her release was made even more potent by the fact that he knew the reason for her imprisonment, and that made him feel guilty.

Guilty, because he had never told her the truth, but how could he? How could any of them? If they were to tell her, if the king decided she was no longer useful to him after she knew, what would become of her? This fear stilled his tongue, even when the guilt of keeping it from her tore him up inside. Still worse was the fact that he was personally responsible for her forgetting the first four years of her life. If he were to just stop giving her the tea…

… but if King Garon were to decide it was too much effort to make her forget a second time…

So, Jakob would hold his tongue. For the time being, at least.

The small army gathering to wake up his mistress continued on past hall upon dreary hall, the monotony of the color scheme only occasionally broken up by paintings of bleak landscapes. Eventually, they came to a tower and finally started to see signs of life in the fortress. A few cheerful paintings and vases of flowers acting as a trail to his Lady's chambers. He entered into her room behind Flora and Felicia to see her still sound asleep in bed. Limbs askew and long, purple hair everywhere. It both gladdened him and made him sick to see her so at peace. Because, while he wished for nothing but peace for her, he knew that all of this was a lie.

"Milady, time to wake up," Flora said gently, nudging Nicole's shoulder. No response came from their sleepy mistress.

"Lady Nicole, you've got to wake up!" Felicia, Flora's twin, said a touch more vigorously, shaking Nicole's shoulder instead of gently nudging it like her sister had.

Their attacks on the sleeping princess continued, growing more and more desperate until, finally, the two sisters resorted to their infamous ice magic, and, being from the ice tribe, the two were experts at it.

"Gahhh!" Shrieked a startled Nicole as she awoke with a start. "I'm awake! You can stop with the ice magic now!"

Her retainers chuckled, still amused at her reaction to ice magic despite having become intimately familiar with it by now.

"Milady, you have training with Prince Xander today. He arrived a few moments ago. He is currently awaiting you on the roof of the western tower, and you know how much he likes to be kept waiting…" Gunter informed the still sleepy noble. Any trace of sleepiness evaporated at Gunter's words as a flicker of fear showed on Nicole's face.

Jakob chuckled again, amused by her fear of training with an irritated Prince Xander, despite knowing that her fear was well founded. While the Northern Fortress was small by the standards of Nohrian strongholds, it was still a decent size for running lap after torturous lap around the inner fortress.

His amusement quickly faded however when his mistress said, "I do wish I could have continued my dream though. It was the strangest thing, and it was so vivid too! Some people that looked like Hoshidans acted like they knew me, and Nohrian soldiers kept attacking me. But that doesn't make any sense, I'm a Nohrian princess. Why would I be fighting with the Hoshidans?"

So lost in thought was Jakob's mistress, that she didn't see the flicker of fear and guilt that crossed his face. Nicole's other retainers were similarly struggling to hide their reactions to their lady's words with varying degrees of success, Felicia being the worst as she looked ready to burst into tears.

"Lady Nicole," Jakob interrupted before Felicia could make a scene, "did you drink your tea last night?"

"My tea?" Nicole responded with a confused look on her face. "No, I must have forgotten about it. Why do you ask?"

"You must be thirsty," Jakob said, trying to recover from the abruptness of the question. "Allow me to finish brewing you some more." He set to work pouring cream and sugar into the tea he had already prepared. However, that wasn't all he put into it. He also added something else, something it killed him to add to her nightly tea, but something he knew was necessary if this charade was to continue. A single drop from the vial Jakob always kept tucked in the pocket of his vest. A vial the king made sure to restock every month. A vial that erased anything that had to do with Lady Nicole's childhood, and, on the rare occasion she dreamed about her homeland, her dreams too.

"Here you go Milady," Jakob said with a brittle smile that felt liable to shatter at any moment.

"Thank you, Jakob," Nicole responded with a confused smile, wondering at the strange behavior of her retainers. She took a long sip of the tea and a vacant expression came over her face, clouding her eyes for a moment before she gave them all a beaming smile. "It's delicious, but remind me again… what were we talking about?" She said with a slight furrow in her brow as her smile gradually faded.

"Your dream, Milady. The one about Princess Elise's tea party," Flora supplied.

"Ah, that's it! Thank you Flora. Now, will you help me get ready before Xander breaks down the door to find out what's taking us so long?" She asked with a small smile, both dream and lapse in memory forgotten. Then again, that was the nature of the draft Jakob had given her.

"Of course Lady Nicole," Felicia assured her as Jakob and Gunter left the room, gathering Nicole's armor to prepare her for the "training session".

Jakob sighed once outside Nicole's room, the guilt suffocating him. Gunter placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder with an expression of guilt on his weathered face similar to the one Jakob wore. Not that he would ever admit it, but the brief moment of camaraderie was reassuring. Even if he was deceiving the most important person in his life, at least he wasn't alone in his sins.

Xander was angry. Well, perhaps angry was not the right word. He wasn't sure the person who had caused this unnamed emotion could ever make his truly angry.

Frustrated, that was it.

He gave another impatient sigh, finally drawing the gaze of his younger brother.

"Did you really not expect her to oversleep? I know you demand quite a bit out of Nicole, but you should never expect her to wake up early. You are bound to be disappointed," Leo said in an amused tone.

Another sigh in response. "I know, but for her to forget this lesson in particular…"

"It's not like this session slipped her mind, she's just asleep. Her retainers are already attempting to wake her up, and you know Flora and Felicia can use their ice magic if all else fails," Leo responded in an attempt to placate his impatient brother.

They had arrived about half an hour ago, and Nicole had yet to make an appearance. Leo had tried to delay Xander during the journey, knowing Nicole was unlikely to be awake if they came too early, but he could only do so much. Now, Xander was growing more and more frustrated with every minute that passed as they waited for her.

Deep down, Leo was worried for his sister. An annoyed Xander would be much harder to best than a cheerful Xander. And if Nicole didn't win… Leo didn't let his thoughts go that far. She would win, she had to. If she didn't, he'd never get a moment's respite from Elise's whining about wanting Nicole out of the fortress.

"I'm sure she is on her way ri-," his reassurances were interrupted by the sound of the door to the roof crashing open. A purple haired maiden sprinted through the door at full speed while pulling on silver gauntlets. Her unruly, waist-length hair trailed behind her as her ruby eyes settled on her brothers standing in the middle of the circular roof.

"Well, speak of the devil," Leo said in greeting, smirking at his sister.

"You're late," said Xander. His eyebrows were raised, and his lips were faintly quirked into something that resembled a smile, but the look in his eyes promised a brutal training session for her tardiness.

Leo and Xander saw Nicole gulp at the look Xander gave her, and both men internally chuckled at the flicker of fear they saw in her eyes.

Well, Leo thought, at least she has a some sense of self-preservation.

I shouted in pain as the dull training sword bit into my side and fell away from my assailant. Xander certainly wasn't going to take it easy on me. I suppose I shouldn't have expected anything but a brutal training session considering how late I was.

"Is that all Nicole? You keep me waiting for the better part of an hour and then you fall so quickly to my blade? Ready yourself again," Xander commanded. For a crown prince, he could be awfully impatient.

"It's not just Xander's training you're supposed to be demonstrating," Leo admonished me from the sidelines, "remember my training as well. I've spent considerable time tutoring you in tactical knowledge."

I was tempted to snap back at him, but I held my tongue as I knew that wouldn't get me anywhere. I knew tactics, sure, but right now all that did was show me how very much doomed I was. Tactics didn't help when you were up against someone ten times stronger than you were.

But it does help when you're twice as fast as your opponent. I thought, an idea quickly forming in my head. Xander was about as fast as me normally, but he had on twice as much bulky armor as I did. It would slow him down, and give me the edge I needed to win.

I stood up with only minor difficulty and prepared to face Xander again. He sat upon his horse at the far end of the roof, waiting for me to come to him. I charged straight at him, knowing he expected me to ignore Leo's advice and choose brawn over brains. As I predicted, an exasperated expression came over his face as he prepared to deflect my head on assault. At the last second I dashed to the right and swung my sword upwards, severing the reigns he used to steer the mount he had somehow brought up to roof. Normally, he'd be able to deflect an attack like this easily, by he hadn't expected me to go after his reigns.

He fell from his horse and landed heavily on his back. Before he could so much as twitch towards his sword, I pointed my practice blade at his neck.

"And you're dead," I said with relish, basking in the feeling of finally beating Xander in a sparring match.

"Yeah, after he killed you five times over," Leo said with a smirk from the sidelines.

"Leo, can't you just let me have my moment?" I responded in exasperation. His response was merely a widening of said smirk, much to my displeasure.

Xander stood, giving me a nod of approval and started making his way over to where Leo had been standing during our duel. I followed behind and noticed something rather… odd about Leo's attire. A wicked smile came over my face as I thought about exactly how I would use this knew piece of information.

However, it wouldn't serve me well at this particular moment. It was like Leo said. He trained me in tactics, and one of his first lessons was to never give up an advantage until it can serve you to maximum effect. I was only following his advice after all.

"Well done, little princess," Xander said when I reached them. "You've finally bested me in single combat."

"Of course, if this were an actual battlefield, I doubt the enemy would let you warm up for five rounds before starting the actual duel," Leo said, once again rubbing my face in the fact that Xander still bested me five times out of six.

"At least I can actually best him in swordplay," I responded with an equal amount of snark.

"At least I can get up in the morning without the aid of four retainers," he retorted.

Checkmate, "At least I can actually dress myself in the morning," I said, relishing in his dumbfounded expression as he glanced down at his clothes. His face turned as red as his beloved tomatoes when he realized his collar is inside out.

I cackled mischievously while Leo desperately tried to right his collar with little success, embarrassment making his normally deft fingers clumsy. Meanwhile, Xander smiled and rolled his eyes in response to our antics.

"Oh, my poor Leo! Do you need help with your collar?" Came a voice from behind me. I turned to see a beautiful lavender haired woman and a cheerful girl with long blond hair in pigtails coming through the door I had crashed through earlier.

Leo blushed even more, humiliated that Camilla and Elise were now here to witness his wardrobe mishap. I half thought his head would explode from embarrassment as Camilla strode over to him and fixed his collar. I giggled, refraining from tormenting Leo further. Elise, however, had no such qualms as she took pleasure in further embarrassing her older brother.

"Well big bro, at least your shoes are on the right feet this time!" She said in her usual overexcited, peppy manner. Her eyes glinted mischievously as she readied another barrage of insults to hurl at Leo.

"Alright, that's enough, let's give Leo a break," Xander said, finally deciding to take mercy on his younger brother. "Besides, we have to give Nicole the good news."

"Oh, she won the duel then," Camilla said, a brilliant smile on her face.

"Well, that depends on you definition of winning," Leo responded, only to receive a sharp elbow in the side from me.

"Yes, she won which means-" Xander started.

"Oh, let me tell her Xander," Camilla pleaded. "Nicole, you're coming back to the castle with us! You finally get to leave this drafty fortress!"

I froze, not entirely believing what I was hearing. Leave the fortress? I'd never left the fortress in living memory. "So the duel was a test," I asked slowly, still not fully comprehending that I was finally able to leave.

"Yep, I actually managed to keep it a secret for an entire week!" Elise exclaimed, practically bouncing from happiness.

"I'm truly leaving?" I asked, once more trying to ascertain this was real.

The smiles and encouraging nods from my siblings were what finally convinced me that I was actually leaving. I smiled and hugged my siblings as tears gathered in the corners of my eyes. Their joyful banter and congratulatory words quickly gave way to talk of preparation for the trip to the capital. It was decided that Gunter and Jakob would accompany me while Flora and Felicia would stay behind and join us at a later date. I was saddened that they were staying behind, but I knew we would see each other again soon.

In a few short hours, everything I would be taking with me was packed, Jakob and Gunter were ready, and I'd said my goodbyes to the twins. We walked to the stables, waiting for Elise to gather few things from the room she used when she was allowed to stay overnight, and found Lilith, my friend from the stables.

"I'm so happy for you, Lady Nicole," she said, swinging her blue and red braid over her shoulder to fiddle with it nervously.

"Thank you Lilith. I wish you were coming with us," I said, sad that I would be seperated from her as well as the twins.

"What do you mean? I am coming with you," she said. It was only then that I noticed the large rucksack she was carrying and the traveling clothes she was wearing.

"As good as you are with animals, sister, we do want the horses to survive the trip to the capital, so Lilith will be accompanying us," Leo said sarcastically. I ignored his snark and gave Lilith a beaming smile, happy that there was one less friend I'd be separated from.

Elise returned a few moments later. We mounted our horses and, for the first time in twelve years, I passed through the gates of the Northern Fortress and into the world beyond.

I didn't look back.