Appendix A: Henry and the Risen

Pyrrhus had received a message from Henry that requested his presence, and it was for that reason that he made the long, dark descent into the dungeon below Ylisstol. Henry had set up a laboratory of sorts there, for the creation and perfection of new spells to aid the Shepherds. Both Tharja and Miriel utilized the space as well, Miriel to brew the inhibendics used by several of the female Shepherds, and Tharja for whatever dark medicines and poisons she had the mood to cook up.

The stair was treacherous with his limp, but with the aid of his lance as a cane, he was able to navigate the winding staircase without incident. He didn't bother to knock on the door before entering.

As usual, Henry was hunched over a magic circle, making notations in a journal. He turned around at the sound of the door opening. "Haha, Pyrrhus! You got the message!" He snapped the book shut and stood up.

"I did," Pyrrhus replied, walking in. "What's this about?"

Henry walked over to his desk and set the book down upon it, while Pyrrhus took the opportunity to examine the room. Separate desks for each of the three mages lined the wall nearest the door, each one covered in equal measures of papers, scrolls, and vials of murky liquids. Miriel had cordoned off a single corner for what she called "natural philosophic endeavors," and it was mostly empty. Tharja had a cauldron bubbling with something pernicious-looking near that. But his attention was drawn towards an unusual sound from Henry's corner. It was sort of like a rattle, but whatever the noise, it was coming from behind a black curtain that Henry had clearly hung up to hide the source.

"You mentioned after the last battle that you were looking for a way to save as many Ylissean lives as possible. I think I might have found a solution."

Pyrrhus was intrigued. "Really? That's amazing; I didn't even ask you for help. I was going to approach some mercenaries from Valm about signing on and plundering Plegia to pay them after the war. What's your idea?"

Henry's face shifted through several different expressions before he settled on determination. "Well, here, why don't I show you?" He walked over to the curtain and pulled it back.

"Gah!" Pyrrhus nearly fell over as he jumped back. Behind the curtain, held by steel shackles to a wooden table, sat a grim monstrosity. It bore the features of a man in a mask, but its color was a dark, purplish hue. Idle strands of the purple gas that seemed to compose the body drifted off into the air, disappearing into nothingness. The rattle Pyrrhus had heard was what passed for the creature's breathing, but pulling back the curtain must have enraged it. It began jostling the manacles, gasping at the two men in the room, obviously trying to break free.

Pyrrhus felt sick. "What... is that thing?" he asked, tempted to flee the room and bolt the door shut behind him.

"I call it a Risen," Henry announced with no small amount of pride. "I made it myself."

"That doesn't really answer my question," Pyrrhus replied, taking a cautious step closer to the beast.

Henry seemed to notice his trepidation. "Oh, don't worry, he can't get out. Those shackles are secured with magic." He took another step closer and leaned in to examine the mask that seemed to be its face. "It's a wonder of dark magic."

"Where did it come from?"

"Like I said, I made it," Henry explained. "It's actually pretty simple. I was thinking about all the people we've killed, and how angry they must be. After all, dying sucks, right? And dying with your mission unfulfilled has gotta be even worse! So then I thought, if I could capture their angry souls and put them into a body, they'd obviously want to fight! And I was right!"

Pyrrhus took a deep breath. The sacrilege that Henry had created here was almost incomprehensible. "Let me get this straight. You took a deceased, wandering soul, and you gave it a body?"

"Oh, heavens no!" Henry said, laughing. "I turned the soul into a body! Come now, Pyrrhus, I know you're not much into magical theory, but the laws of matter creation are beginner's stuff! I manipulated the soul magically to convert it into a corporeal state!"

Pyrrhus sighed. "It's an abomination!"

"Oh, yes, it definitely is," agreed Henry. "But isn't it interesting? If I could summon an army of these, we'd never have to use another Ylissean soldier in battle again! Especially once I started conversion of the enemy dead into Risen."

It was one of the more terrifying moments in Pyrrhus's life, and that was saying something. After all, there were times in his past that he abjectly refused to recollect, the memories were so painful. He noticed the way the beast seemed to be trying to get at Henry. "It doesn't seem to like you," he recognized.

The growling from the creature seemed to subside a bit as Henry took a step back. "No, as a matter of fact, he hates me. And you. And everything. I can't figure out how to focus the blind rage he's feeling."

"So you can't control it then."

"No, if we were to use them, we'd have to summon them in a place we didn't mind being desecrated. But with Plegia on our doorstep, it shouldn't be too hard to find places like that. It'd take me years to even determine whether controlling them is possible. Certainly Grima could."

"Why Grima?" Pyrrhus asked, suddenly very aware of the brand on the back of his hand.

"All dark magic on this plane is rooted in power gifted by Grima to his followers. The applications from which I derived this method of animancy are old, very old. And they're from Grima."

Pyrrhus regarded the creature once more with a look of disgust. "I suppose they'd have to be, to make a monster this vile."

Henry pulled back the curtain, and the rattling behind it calmed a bit. "So, what do you think? I can start working on replication and conversion into a repeatable spell, if you'd like."

"I'll tell you what I'd like," Pyrrhus replied, walking over to the curtain. He readied his lance, and in a single swift strike, stabbed right through the curtain and into the abomination behind it. The creature released a strangled gasp and an eerie hiss before growing silent. Pyrrhus pulled his lance from the wood of the table behind the curtain with a dull thunk, then pulled the curtain aside. The creature appeared to have dissipated into thin air, as there were no remains. In fact, there was nothing to indicate that a creature had been there, save for the locked manacles and the scar in the wood from the lance tip.

Henry looked at the empty table with interest. "Fascinating, a lethal strike appears to render the soul's corporeal status!"

Pyrrhus turned the lance upon Henry. "You are never to make another of those beasts, you hear me?" Henry nodded solemnly, careful not to scrape his chin on the lance tip. "Good." Pyrrhus lowered the weapon and began heading for the door. He paused briefly. "What happened to the soul when I killed it?"

Henry tapped his finger to his chin and thought. "Huh... I can't be sure, mind you. If I had to guess, I'd say it was probably destroyed. The soul can't just 'go back to being incorporeal.'"

"You will tell no one of this. Destroy all your notes on the subject. You never summoned that... thing, you weren't even experimenting with it. If the Grimleal learn that this is possible..."

Henry gasped. "Oh, jeez, that'd be awful!"

"Exactly." Pyrrhus walked out, and shut the door behind him.

A/N: I'm not sure exactly in canon where the Risen originated, but I like the idea of Alternate Timeline Henry being the one who came up with them (since Current Timeline Henry studies them and suggests that he might be able to replicate the process). Ylisse never pressed them into service, obviously, but the resurrected Grima took the idea and ran with it. This story obviously takes place in that other timeline, but I don't anticipate being able to cram this information in anywhere else. So it's an Appendix.

"Inhibendics" would be the equivalent of magic birth control. It seems plausible that they'd exist in-universe. I imagine most "healing magic" in Fire Emblem as returning the body to its natural state. Libra, Lissa, and the other healers would be practitioners of that sort of thing, but since the fundamental aspect of birth control is to alter the body from its natural state, more ordinary magic would be used. I imagine it maintains roots in dark magic, but the mass production of a product with such high demand would cause it to spread into the ordinary mage's repertoire.

Don't expect this to be updated very frequently. It's just for when I have ideas that I can't fit in anywhere else.