What Remains of Ylisse
Cordelia's Tale: Act I
Child of Chaos
Part I
Smoke filled her lungs as she scrambled through the burning halls of the outpost. Bright flames flickered and danced before her eyes, eating away at the walls and floors. She covered her eyes with her arms as she coughed.
Mere moments ago she had been tending to her pegasus, and the next her nose was filled with the smell of smoldering flesh. The screams of her comrades pounded at her ears and made her heartbeat climb.
Her foot slipped on a pile of ash, sending her tumbling to the hot floor. She hurriedly sat upright and tried to get to her feet, but a rough hand shoved her back to the ground.
She looked up from the burning floor to see a man with a steel covering over his jaw. He was one of the ones who started the fire; she was sure of it. He pushed her down with his free hand and raised an axe with his over. She shut her eyes in terror as the steel weapon began to swing down towards her.
A clang of steel forced her terrified eyes open to reveal a woman holding the man's axe at bay with her blade.
"Cordelia! Get up!" She yelled as she used all her strength to shift the axe away. "You have to get out!"
"Deaca!" Cordelia yelled back as she got to her feet. "I'm not leaving you!"
"Yes you are, gods-dammit!" Deaca shifted her feet and continued to block the axe. The man was bearing over her with a demented grin. This was the same girl who had started the trend of calling Cordelia 'Little Lady Genius.' Why was she saving her life?
"B-but…" There had to be a way for Cordelia to save her. "I can help you! We can take down these-"
"You can help me by staying alive and getting the hell out of here!" Deaca growled back as the axe slid down the blade of her sword. She knew her time was running out. "That's an order, cadet! Now move!"
Regretfully, Cordelia took a few steps back and broke into a sprint in the opposite direction. She resumed her escape as Deaca's screaming was added to the chorus of flame and wailing.
An open doorway shone at the end of the hallway; safe haven from the flames of war. Cordelia ducked her head underneath the crumbling support pillars for the roof and emerged into the sunny outside. She panted for breath and turned around.
Amidst the snowy mountains near Regna Ferox, the outpost of the Ylissean Pegasus Knights burned with an intense flame. A circle of wyvern knights flew above as though they were vultures.
She had to force her eyes away from the bright flame as she ran towards the stables. Inside, the frenzied neighs of the pegasi made Cordelia cover her ears as she opened the gates that kept them inside.
One by one, the pegasi fled the stables and flew away in various direction. One remained in the stables; a mare by the name of Aurora that Cordelia treasured from the first day she joined.
Cordelia mounted the steed and flew off. Her grip tightened on the reigns as she remembered what Phila had told her earlier today. Chrom and the Shepherds were going to march through Breakneck Pass. If she could intercept them to join their ranks, she could inform them of what had occured.
Her thoughts drifted back to her comrades. Why had they saved her?
"Sir, please! You have to listen to me!" An old man wearing a green hat fell to his knees before another man clad in red armor riding a wyvern. "Gangrel promised me amnesty!"
Vasto turned his attention from the groveling Hierarch to a group of Ylisseans that were fast approaching, led by a man dressed in white with blue hair. His wyvern gazed around at the mountain ridge to the right before growling at the old man.
"Tell me why you did it." Vasto sneered. "More specifically, turn around and tell that Chrom fellow why you ratted his sister out and caused her death." He would greatly enjoy watching the newly-crowned exalt slice this old codger into ribbons with that fancy sword of his.
"Al-alright…" The Hierarch coughed, got to his feet, then turned to face Chrom.
"Why? Why did you murder Emmeryn?" Chrom scowled as he struggled to remain upright; Robin supported Chrom with his shoulder. After his injuries he had taken in the ambush on the castle last week, Chrom knew it would take some time for his knee to heal. "You taught her everything she knew, and you slaughtered her!"
"It was all about…" The Hierarch struggled to breathe. He felt sick to his stomach as the stares from the Shepherds tore through him like knives through a sheet of paper. "Gangrel offered me gold and safe haven in exchange for information. I simply had to-"
Robin watched in shocked horror as Vasto's wyvern reared up behind the Hierarch and angled its head sideways. The wyvern chomped into the man's sides, who shrieked in horror as he was lifted into the air and shaken around like a chew toy for a dog.
"Rats like you deserve a dishonorable death…" Vasto laughed maniacally while his wyvern continued to shake the old man in its jaws. "Before they are thrown off the ship!" Using his reins to direct his mount, Vasto grinned from ear to ear as his wyvern tossed the lying rat of a man through the air.
"Gods!" Sumia, Lissa and various other Shepherds let out a cry of disgust as the Hierarch's lifeless body sailed through the air as though it were nothing more than a sack of vegetables, then tumbled down the side of the cliff face.
"Alright men!" Vasto raised his axe towards the blue skies with a cheer. "Overrun them! Then, we'll move onto the capital, and pillage all we can!"
The hoard of armed soldiers behind Vasto roared as they charged into battle behind their commander with demented grins on their faces.
"Alright everyone, battle formations!" Robin stepped out in front of the Shepherds and began waving his hands as though he were conducting an orchestra. "Chrom, you're riding with Sully today. Stahl and Vaike, follow Sully and Chrom in case any lancers give them trouble."
Robin watched as Vaike clambered upon the back of Stahl's horse, who rode by the side of Sully's horse towards the enemies. "Kellam, go protect Miriel. Lon'qu, bring up the frontlines with Lissa." Robin's focus shifted to see Gaius whistling to himself while kicking a pebble, and Sumia clasping her hands to her face in horror at the death of the Hierarch.
"How could that man just… Gods, is mercy even taught in Plegian schools?" Sumia muttered to herself as she turned to face Robin.
"Gaius, go calm Sumia down and protect her from archers." Robin noticed the immediate look of annoyance from Gaius.
"Buddy, if you think my scrawny body is gonna protect her from some pointy arrows, then you are the worst tactician this side of Ylisstol." Gaius laughed to himself before he noticed that Robin wasn't laughing with him. "Oh, wait. You're serious. Let me laugh even harder then."
Gaius' chuckling was cut short when he felt a rush of air tickle his back, then felt a pair of hands grab him by the waist and lift him up. "What the hell!" Gaius frantically waved his arms and looked behind to see that it was Sumia who lifted him up.
"Hey, you said you have a scrawny body, so don't blame me for taking advantage of it." Sumia sighed as she placed Gaius in the back seat of her pegasus, clambered aboard, then began to fly off. "Wait, Robin! Could you please go check the gorge to see if the Hierarch's still alive?"
"A fall that high surely must have killed him," Robin answered back.
"I know, but there's always a chance. Plus, if he somehow survived, I doubt we'd want him revealing all our sensitive information." Sumia shrugged her shoulders then flew off while Gaius glared at Robin from the second spot on her saddle.
"She makes a good point…" Robin decided there was no harm in checking the cliff as he began walking towards it.
What Robin didn't understand was why Gaius was so resentful at the idea of working with Sumia, considering Robin would often catch him sneaking glances at her while she wasn't looking, and waiting outside her tent until she woke up so they could go candy shopping. " Denial is the first part of acceptance, I guess …"
Now that Robin could get a view of the canyon floor, he discovered why exactly it was called Breakneck Pass; a fall from the pass to the canyon floor would quite literally break one's neck without a shadow of a doubt.
At the very bottom of the gorge, he could see the faint outline of the Hierarch's body being swept downstream in crimson water. One less informant for Plegia taken care of, but it was too late to undo the damage he had done.
Like a lost child returning to their mother, his thoughts drifted to that night last week, the night Emmeryn had been slain. Robin had followed Chrom while he tore through waves of Plegian assassins, even with his bleeding knee.
The look on Chrom's face, as he stood over Emmeryn's corpse with tears in his eyes… It wasn't a look Robin wanted to remember, but it was imprinted in his mind all the same. Even Lissa fell into a similar slump, and it took the combined efforts of Sumia, Maribelle, and Lon'qu to help her out of her grief.
If he was being honest, the whole ordeal reminded Robin of when he lost his mother to some unknown disease, and the weeks of grief it caused him before he finally buried her body.
After Robin left his mother, however, he met Chrom and Lissa in a field, so it wasn't an entirely awful event, and it helped Robin find his place in life. Once Gangrel was put down, Robin hoped that Chrom could find a similar peace of mind.
"Hold it right there, buddy." An unfriendly voice spoke behind Robin, and he turned around to see a Plegian soldier standing before him with a bow drawn and aimed at his heart. "Guess you should've been more observant of your surroundings, huh?"
Robin slowly raised his hands to the sky in an act of surrender. None of his friends were in the immediate area, so he needed to think of something. "Put the magic book down before I let this arrow loose."
A sigh escaped Robin's lips as he dropped his tome to the ground. "I… I did it! I outsmarted Ylisse's master tactician! I'm a hero!" The soldier began to smile and speak in a giddy tone while he kept his drawstring taught. "Man, Gangrel's gonna have fun picking your brain for secrets about your friends. Maybe he'll be kind enough to torture you."
"This should stall him for time…" Robin rolled his eyes as he kept his hands up, then began to speak. "What is your name?"
"George. Not that it matters, but I'll tell you that much." The soldier responded.
"Alright, George. I'll let you in on a secret about me. Everything I say is a lie. Am I telling the truth?" Robin smirked.
George's eyes began to shift around the area as he pondered the question.
"No, because you said everything you say is a lie. But! That means that you told the truth! So everything you say isn't a lie! But then you lied about saying that you lied, so you just lied, proving your statement wrong, and-" As George's mind stumbled and tripped over itself, he turned his focus away from Robin and to the side.
Before Robin could blast this fool with some magic, the soldier was knocked over by a blur of crimson and white that floated above the ground and sounded like a horse.
As George tumbled to the ground, his hands let fly an arrow and he watched as it sailed into Robin's knee. George smiled as he watched Robin fall to the ground in pain, then looked up just in time to see a lance impale his heart.
Intense pain shot through Robin's knee as he lied on his side and stared at the arrow sticking out of it. He slowly turned his head to see George, dead and stabbed through the chest by a figure standing above him. He looked up with a pained expression to see who his savior was.
The first thing Robin noticed was her long strands of red hair that flapped in the wind like cloth on a flag. She looked to be a pegasus knight, judging by her pegasus behind her and her armor that bore similarities to Sumia's, just with a red and white motif instead of purple and pink. She held a bloodied lance upright in her metal gauntlets as she stood against the setting sun, and Robin noticed that her armor had scrapes and cuts on it that revealed parts of her skin.
"Um… Hello there." Robin coughed out as he clutched his knee and noticed that this woman was mumbling, completely oblivious to him. "Hello?" She looked as though her mind was someplace else.
"Ah!" The woman jumped up in surprise as she noticed Robin and leaned over him, then noticed the bloodied section of his pants around his knee. "Oh, gods that's a great deal of blood..."
"Can you please help me out here?" Robin said
"I have some salve here…" Robin watched as the woman walked to her pegasus and grabbed a bottle and some cloth out of a saddle bag. He swore that she mumbled 'Gods, they're all dead' while she reached into the bag. "My name is Cordelia, by the way."
"Wait, you're the Cordelia? The star recruit of the Ylissean Pegasus Knights?" Robin couldn't believe his luck; rescued by the most capable pegasus knight in the land.
"I… suppose…" Cordelia got down on her knees and dabbed the cloth into the bottle. "Please don't call me the star recruit. Just Cordelia is fine."
Robin watched as she pulled her gauntlets off to reveal her feminine fingers that held his knee. "Now, this might sting a little, but this is the only way to treat arrow wounds." What confused Robin was that Cordelia seemed to be fighting back tears. "I can do this… I can do this…" She quietly spoke to herself.
But Robin had other things to think of, like the searing pain that shot through his body as Cordelia pulled the arrow out of his knee and quickly applied salve to his wound. "Sorry! Sorry! I'm just trying to help!"
"No, no! You're doing great! It just stings is all!" Robin tried to comfort her given how obvious her distress was.
Once Cordelia applied a bandage to Robin's wound, she helped him to his feet. Now that they stood together, Robin noticed that Cordelia was roughly the same height as him. They both determined that Robin would have trouble walking for the next few hours, so Cordelia suggested that Robin take a ride on her pegasus.
"How did you know who I was?" Cordelia asked as Robin sat behind her with his arms wrapped tightly around her waist for support.
"Phila told us before we left that you were going to join our group along the way," Robin responded. "But why is your armor so damaged?"
Cordelia's silence told Robin that she wasn't ready to answer questions like that and that he should instead feel awkward as he felt Cordelia's skin against his hands.
By the time Cordelia had gotten to where Chrom was, Vasto had been killed by Gaius with a dagger to the back and laid dead on the canyon floor.
"Alright, we earned our respite!" Chrom raised his sword with a cheer as Robin and Cordelia both got to their feet. "I'm proud of each and every one of yo-"
The Shepherds watched in mild horror as Cordelia leaned over Vasto's body and aimed her lance down at his lifeless face. She knew that this man commanded the Plegian Wyvern Knights; the same knights who attacked and killed all of Cordelia's comrades.
She mumbled something as she stabbed Vasto's head with her lance. She stabbed his head again. All of the Shepherds, besides Robin and Chrom, took a step back. Once Vasto's head resembled a bloody pile, Cordelia sat atop his body and began punching it with her fists. With every strike, she could feel her comrades presence with her. Both the rage and exhaustion in her voice was at a peak as she let out a scream of rage.
Vasto's body was unrecognizable as Cordelia stood up, looked at the Shepherds, then began to sob profusely before Robin began to walk towards her. She needed a shoulder to cry on and-
"Coming through!" Sumia shoved past Robin and ran to Cordelia's side. "Everyone, just give her some time."
Cordelia began to sob profusely into Sumia's shoulder. "She's been through a lot..."
After the battle winded to a close, Cordelia went to discuss her joining with Chrom and Frederick. Robin, on the other hand, immediately made a beeline for Sumia.
"Do you know her?" He asked. His shoulders still hurt from being shoved aside.
"Childhood friends." Sumia quickly answered as she stroked her pegasus' mane. "She just told me our squadron was wiped out."
"Oh..." Robin replied as he looked to the rocky ground. "She was close with them, wasn't she?"
"You could say that." Sumia turned and looked to Robin. "You seem to be trying to get close to her, though."
"What? No, no." Robin held his hands up and forced himself not to blush. "I just want to understand everyone that I order. That's all."
"Yeah, yeah. Keep telling yourself that."
Later that night, Cordelia paced back and forth in the armory of the Shepherds' camp. She wasn't worried about fitting in with her new group, as they gladly accepted her with open arms, but instead all she could think about was the constant screams of her comrades in her head.
Every step she took, every second she spent since her escape, she heard them. She heard all of them. All of her friends screaming in pain mixed with the crackling of fire and the sounds of wyvern knights overrunning the barracks.
It had gotten to the point that Cordelia began sorting the weapons in the armory as a means to distract herself from the wails of her past. She was so absorbed in sorting that she failed to notice Chrom enter the tent.
"Cordelia, are you alright?" Cordelia's heart nearly skipped a beat as she turned to face Chrom. Ever since she was a child, she wanted to serve the Exalt, but only now were her dreams staring her right in the face.
"Oh! Yes, I'm fine…" Cordelia stopped sorting the weapons and sat down on a chair. She looked intently at Chrom, who shuffled his way to the chair beside her. "Actually, if we're being honest… I need help."
"Go on…" Chrom gave her a reassuring smile that she immediately wished was there to greet her whenever she woke up.
"My comrades… The Pegasus Knights of Ylisse… They were all killed in that attack this morning, but they spared their lives so I could escape." She took a pause as she spoke and stared into Chrom's eyes. "Why? I was the youngest recruit, yet they saved me..."
"Because they knew you're the future of your squadron. They knew you had the most promise, and they wanted to see you survive." Chrom answered back as Cordelia's eyes began to water. "Yesterday, when Phila informed us that you were joining, she was singing your praises for a solid hour or two."
"B-but… Every second, I hear their screams! I tried taking a rest and all I got was nightmares! Even when I talked with Robin after the battle I coul-"
"Do you need a hug?" Cordelia was taken aback by how informal Chrom was.
Emmeryn had taught Chrom that everyone needed a little physical contact once in awhile, regardless if you were the commander of the army.
"...Yes…" She quickly stood up and felt Chrom's arms wrap around her as she held him with her own.
"Everything is going to be okay, Cordelia."
As they stood there, with Cordelia bawling her eyes out, she realized something. When Chrom was near her, she didn't feel the weight of her comrades bearing down on her. She felt at peace with herself, and most importantly, she felt cared for.
"If you ever need someone to talk to, you know where to find me." Chrom pulled away from the embrace, much to Cordelia's dismay, and began to walk out. "Oh, and one more thing. Thank you for sorting the weapons."
Cordelia stood there in silence for a good five minutes or so before she finally came to a conclusion.
She was madly in love with Chrom. He was the only person she met who made her feel special, and he was able to lift the weight of her grief with his presence.
He was someone Cordelia wanted to spend the rest of her life with, both as a knight and as a lover.
In order to get Chrom's attention, however, she needed to make herself invaluable to the army. If he complimented her on sorting a simple weapons rack, then surely he would want her hand in marriage if she were to sort the entire contents of the camp within a single night.
"Hey, Cordelia. Are you in here?" Robin asked as he opened the flap to the armory tent and looked around. All he could do last night was think about Cordelia, and he wasn't sure why. Even the soreness of his knee wasn't a priority compared to her. "Chrom said you were distraught last night and I wanted to ask if you were alrig-"
Robin's eyes settled on Cordelia, who stood upright with bloodshot eyes and two lances in hand. She placed both of them on a rack before collapsing to the floor with a wheeze. "Gods, are you okay?"
"Oh… Hi Robin…" Every word she spoke was long and drawn out. Robin knelt down beside her and looked at her eyes. "I sorted all of the tent… Aren't you proud...?"
"Did you stay up all night doing this?" Robin asked in a worried tone.
"Yes… It's not that important though… I'm making myself invaluable to the Shepherds and to Chro…"
Cordelia shut her eyes and began to snore on the spot as Robin sighed. He stepped outside the tent and eventually got Sumia to help carry Cordelia to her tent.
By the time Cordelia had been placed on Sumia's bed, Robin was already starving and eager to finally get a meal. He smiled and waved to the various members of the Shepherds as he made his way to the mess tent, but he still was unable to think of anything besides Cordelia.
Frankly, Robin was troubled with how much he cared about her, considering they had just met yesterday.
After Robin entered the yellow-ish interior of the tent and got his plate of food from Stahl, who was on cooking duty, he found Sumia and Gaius sitting down at a table counting jars of honey.
"Twenty-one… twenty-two… twenty-three jars of honey?!" Gaius threw up his hands in anger. "That merchant promised me twenty-five!"
"You still got twenty-three jars of honey. It's not the end of the world or anything." Sumia looked incredibly frustrated with Gaius, but she perked up the instant she noticed Robin sit down on the other side of the table. "Oh, hi Robin! Thanks for helping out with Cordelia."
"No problem. Speaking of her, though…" Robin would've continued before Gaius butted in.
"Oh, sure. Hijack my conversation with Sumia. Why not just steal my honey while you're at it." He spoke in an annoyed voice before Sumia turned to glare at him.
"You cannot do that. Robin is just as entitled as you are to have a conversation. You can't just come in here, plop your honey collection down and force me to talk to you, then act all mad when Robin does something similar." Sumia stuck her pointer finger directly in front of his mouth while she glared. "You and I are going to have to work on your people skills."
"Who are you: my mother?" Gaius smirked as he tried to focus his attention away from Sumia but was unable to.
"If it means teaching you how to interact with other people, then sure." Robin was slightly unsettled by how serious Sumia could be when she wanted to.
"Alright, mommy. Can you teach me how to suck my thumb while you're at it?" Gaius looked obviously frustrated and stood up before Sumia grabbed him by the hand. Robin was too busy thinking of the myriad of explicit situations where Gaius could refer to Sumia as 'mommy.'
"You want me to help track down this merchant? Then sit here and listen to Robin's troubles. You do something for me, and I do something for you. It's called cooperation." Sumia kept Gaius down on the bench, then completely shifted to a smile as she faced Robin. "So what's up with you and Cordelia?"
"Listen, if you two want some alone time, I'd completely understand and-" Robin noticed that Gaius seemed to be mouthing the words 'help me.'
"No, please. Continue." Sumia's eyes were piercing into him. "I insist."
"Well, I'm worried about Cordelia. I only met her yesterday and already I can't stop thinking about her." Robin slumped forward in his chair.
"Ohohoho! Looks like someone has a case of the lovebugs!" Gaius laughed to himself as Robin's cheeks began to match the color of the apple on Sumia's plate.
"Oh, be quiet, you." Sumia tossed a glare at Gaius and debated elbowing him in the gut, but decided against it. "Robin, you shouldn't feel bad about caring for her."
"I know, but I have a sneaking suspicion that what Gaius said is true, and I can't have that." He dragged his fork through his food before deciding to eat it later.
"And why is that?" Sumia leaned forward and used her elbows to support her head.
"I'm the tactician. I can't have personal connections to my troops, or else it'll affect my judgment when I have to make decisions."
"Oh, come on. You make it sound like we're going to die on you any minute." Sumia couldn't help but laugh before shifting back to a smile. "You're already friends with all of your troops, and I know you worry about all of us. So we already impact your judgment." She leaned in close to Robin to drive her point home. "There's nothing wrong with having romantic feelings for someone you work with. It's not like we're working in a church or palace."
Robin couldn't exactly disagree with her, but still had something on his mind.
"But isn't it weird that I care so much about her considering we only just met?"
"Everyone born on this land has a soulmate that they're destined to spend their days with. If you meet them early, then you've just got a headstart on spending your life in love." Sumia began twiddling her fingers and sneaking quick glances at Gaius. Robin began to think that maybe the concept of tough love was still alive and kicking.
"I just… I need to mull it over." Robin sighed.
"Denial is the first step to acceptance," Gaius spoke in a serious voice while he handed Robin a small book. "While you come to terms with your affection, you should spend more time with her. And while you do that, take notes on her personality. That way you have a headstart in case you do want to get into her miniskirt."
Sumia glared at Gaius and fought the urge to slap him as Robin stuffed the journal into the pocket of his cloak.
"I agree with Gaius, although on a less vulgar level." Sumia stood up and yanked Gaius up with her. "Cordelia's a great person, and you'll get along with her just fine. Now, Gaius and I have to go track down a scamming honey merchant." Sumia left the tent with Gaius in tow, leaving Robin to his thoughts as he poked his food.
Eventually, when Cordelia did wake up, Robin was the first person to greet her as she slowly stumbled out of her tent and into the warm sunlight of the afternoon.
What didn't surprise Robin was that Cordelia immediately wanted to get back to work around the camp.
"Can I help you out with all your chores?" Robin asked, and Cordelia was taken aback.
"Oh, no I cannot. I don't deserve your help." Cordelia simply couldn't have her commanding officer (of sorts) helping her around the camp. "It would paint the image that we're friends…"
"Is there a problem with that?" Robin raised his eyebrow as he looked directly into Cordelia's red, slightly tired eyes.
"Well, no, but it would be strange to have my tactician working with me in an informal way." Cordelia glanced at her side nervously.
"It's only weird if you make it weird." Clearly, the ice queen would need some defrosting. "Come on, there's a few crates in storage that need to be moved around and I need your help. You wouldn't want to leave your tactician carrying crates by himself, now, would you?"
Cordelia knew that Robin had verbally trapped her in a corner with that silver tongue of his.
"If you insist." She responded, then walked with Robin towards the storage tent.
Many, many centuries ago, a single man with short, brown hair sat by himself in a run-down bar while moonlit poured in through a window. He clutched his head in his hands and began to quietly sob.
"My… My life is a mess…" His thoughts were riddled with distraught. "My wife left me, my son hates me… I don't know what to do…"
Suddenly, a low, growling voice began to speak to him.
"I can… grant you unlimited power." It seemed to be only heard in his thoughts, as none of the other bar patrons noticed it. "Just do as I wish, and go to where I direct you."
"Who… Who are you?" The man whispered to himself, and the people around him scooted away as a result.
"The Fell Dragon. Now, what is your name?"
"Lagermil." His voice was louder now.
"Now, Lagermil. You must go to the ruins of Thabes and find a labyrinth. I shall direct you." Once the voice spoke, Lagermil decided that he had no other options and that trusting this mysterious voice was the only thing he could do.
You've probably noticed that big 'Cordelia's Tale: Act I Part I' sign up above by now and thinking "What the hell? How can a story have acts and parts?"
Allow me to explain.
This story is split into ten acts, five for Cordelia, and five for Severa. Each act has a subtitle (for this act, it's Child of Chaos) that can be used to identify it. After one act ends, the story will alternate to the other character's act. For example, this act is followed by Severa's Tale: Act I, and after that is Cordelia's Tale: Act II, and the cycle continues from there.
Every act has multiple parts, which are about the length of a standard chapter/mini-chapter. This act has nine parts, for reference. This is so that you, the reader, don't have to read one massive chapter. The last part of every act will be labeled as finale.
With that explanation out of the way, I sincerely hope you enjoy the following story, and I suggest you buckle up. It's a long ride ahead.