Corrin woke in the keep to the sound of spattering rain agains the side of a window. She shifted her arms and found them as heavy as lead. Shaking the exhaustion from herself, she rose to find herself face-to-face with crystal blue eyes and a shock of light pink hair held in a frilly band. With an alarmed yelp, she rolled away back into the predictable darkness of her pillow, sending her quilts flying.

"I'm s-so sorry! Were you still asleep? I was given orders to try to check up on you!" babbled the high-pitched voice of a young maidservant.

The girl darted nervously like a rabbit fleeing an archer's bow. "You had asked for an early wake-up call, and I thought…" Felicia was about her and Jakob's age, but lacked either's nerves or temperament. Ice and a few snowflakes materialized in her palm as she spoke. Corrin wondered what it would look like if she had aimed daggers at a foe like Jakob did while sparring. Likely, she had a side to her that would be quite capable in battle.

"No, I'm fine, I'm up. You did a fine job." mumbled Corrin, holding her hand to ward the Ice Tribe maidservant off.

"Is that what getting a wake-up call means for everyone in this castle?" She rubbed the side of her face with a clean washcloth, taking the soap that the maid proferred to brush the sleep-grime away. A hollow, weightless feeling settled into her chest despite the fact that, at the very least temporarily, she was safe. No one thought of her as anything other than someone that could be useful to Prince Xander and King Garon. Felicia had stolen away somewhere to gather her clothes, leaving her alone, staring into the eyes that no courtier failed to comment on when she walked past, alone or by Xander's side.

A week had passed since her entry into the court and the occasion where she had proved herself to be a capable protector of Nohr's Crown Prince. The time had been spent mostly in repose, recovering from the wounds that their small cobbled-together rescue team had picked up in their search for Leo and Elise. The two royals had taken to her, particularly the youngest daughter of the King. Corrin caught the girl's eye in the courtyard, she on foot and Elise on horseback.

"Good morning, Corrin!" the voice of the princess piped up as she guided her small brown pony out in the courtyard. Corrin looked overhead as the small girl, accompanied by a groom, was riding from another part of Castle Krakenberg. In Elise's hand was a plainly carved healing staff.

"Training already?"

"I'm want to be as strong as my brothers Xander and Leo!" She grinned. "That means getting up early, just like them!" Her mood was bright, but she sagged in the saddle a little. The spirited confidence was something Corrin understood, but it would do no good to have a princess so young hitting her limits.

"Do you want to know a secret?" Corrin wasn't that much older than Elise, but she had a few years on her and knew how to be gracious, if only when it came to talking about fights and sparring.

She shifted closer. "It's okay to take things a little slower." She said simply. "You don't have to be Xander to be brave. I promise."

"Don't have to be who?"

Startled, Corrin jumped back, flinching away from the familiar voice. Xander strode into the courtyard. "You know what I meant. It's weird to want your siblings to be exactly like you." She rolled her eyes. "But your decisions are yours, Milord. That's just the opinion of this humble retainer." The words weren't hers, but they were the proper things to say.

"I see," His mouth set into a stern-looking line that she had seen a few times during meetings with the King. It was obvious that he had been working on a good poker face to deal with whatever the Court would throw at him.

Following Xander was Leo and a purple-haired girl she hadn't seen before. The new girl stood tall and wielded a poleax nearly as tall as she was. Looking it over, Corrin noticed that it was likely something one wielded from the back of a mount.

A shadow swooped from the sky in thundrous flaps as the dust in the courtyard was kicked up in billowing, eye-stinging clouds. Corrin drew back against the walls as something large thudded into the gorund, shaking the bricks of the courtyard a little.

"That's my girl," purred Camilla, catching the reins of the coal-colored wyvern. With a hop, she stepped onto the stirrups and was on the ferocious-looking creature in an instant. Its eyes flashed menacingly and Corrin wondered, as she stared it down, if that was what it felt like when other people looked at her. Dragons and Wyverns were of different stock, but still, the connection was one she had made. "Well, I enjoyed breakfast with my two favorite brothers, but a patrol awaits with my newest retainer, who's already above Nohr on her mount. Perhaps I'll bring her by for a playdate with this one," she gestured at Corrin. Blowing a kiss with the confidence of someone a few years older than her, Camilla struck the reins of her wyvern, speeding off into the sky with a ferocity that left even stone-faced Corrin impressed. Trailing behind the wyvern rider was the poleax, bearing the bright blue standard of Nohr flapping merrily in the breeze.

"There she goes," Leo mused. "Flashy as always."

"I want to show you something after practice." Xander said. "Both of you." He held the dulled iron blade impatiently, and had another two swords slung over his shoulder in an equally battered sheath. "Leo, you were interested in pursuing the blade, were you not?"

The boy grimaced. "I…I profess it's not my weapon of choice, but I may find it useful, should I be without my tomes."

"I can go first if he's not sure." Corrin piped up. Despite the bit of awkwardness with Felicia the maid in her quarters earlier, she was eager to try to figure out what Xander was like as a fighter. The clash in the copse of trees seemed lik ea blur now, with time and injuries casting a bit of distance between them. Their previous interaction with a sword, he had laid down his weapon, a different choice entirely. But now, there was a new opportunity.

She found her footing in the practice grounds easily, staring down Xander. She had never noticed how much taller he was. He held the practice longsword straight over his head before charging at her with an overhead swing. It wasn't the fastest of strikes, but Xander wasn't a fast fighter. He timed how he would strike an opponent, decided, and overpowered them.

Even knowing what he was going to do, the blow struck the sword in her hands hard, knocking her off balance. That was fine. Her next steps were an open question. He circled her, sword at the ready again. She imagined him fighting atop a horse again, and realized that even on foot, Xander stayed in motion. Motion meant patterns, and that meant she could catch him unawares. Knights were never surprising in their habits, after all.

Corrin put weight on one foot and leapt off to the side, taking her blade and driving the flat of the sword at one of his shoudler pauldrons. If she had an agility advantage on a foe, that meant attacks from the side or a leaping strike would do the trick .At the last minute, Xander's sword caught the blade of hers.

A flash of blue light at her neck filled her field of sight as the fight in front of Corrin faded. She saw in a glimpse a vision of her current foe, older and armor-clad, and atop a horse. A longsword the color of night glinted in his hands. At the edge of her vision was another blade, golden and shining, in the hands of someone she couldn't see.

She awoke face up on the practice grounds.

"Can you get up?" asked Xander. He looked at her quizzically, feeling like the victory in the practice bout hadn't quite been earned. Corrin seemed distracted by the rays of a lantern's light catching her dragonstone with a glint. Winning a bout with her should have been more difficult than it was, and claiming the practice round had given him no more confidence that he was improving.

It had been a curious opportunity to spar with the mysterious girl that his father had kept talking about. She had honed her skills with othe rknights, true, but held a power that couldn't quite be rationalized away with that.

There were abilities that likely still lay dormant within the retainer he had been assigned. Ones that could claim glory for Nohr, and ones that could destroy it. Whichever ones Corrin could use, he wasn't sure. If she already knew how to use those abilities, there still remained the question of whether or not she wanted him to know.

"Leo, is something the matter?" Xander asked, his thoughts still lingering on what the girl was really capable of doing. The words were a distraction from his questions about Corrin, and partially away from the critical comments he had towards his own performance in the sparring session. The boy had peered at the stone around Corrin's neck for a while, and if Xander was honest, he was the likeliest of the three of them to know what was going on.

"Nothing at all," replied the young mage. For all he meant, it simply could have been that Leo needed a little more time to figure out what was really going on.

A messenger with the castle footman's livery and a familiar pale grey ponytail strode into the courtyard.

"Prince Xander. Prince Leo. Miss Corrin." Jakob had gained a spike of confidence, evidently, and stood taller. That was a good sign. Having servants, soldiers and retainers able to walk away from skirmishes in one piece was testament to a leader's success."The King has a request of you in his chambers. I will be accompanying you." Bowing, he allowed Xander to lead the way back into the castle.

The hallway was lined with portraits of Nohr's past kings, queens and nobility. Weapons and ceremonial armor lined the corridor leading to King Garon's offices. Leo's eyes locked on a purple-colored spellbook, Brynhildr propped open to an illustration of a tree. It lay on an elegantly carved wooden pedestal and was said to be a compendium of sorcery that baffled the most advanced of Nohr's dark mages.

Despite the fact that he was usually focused on what he was told, Xander's gaze was drawn to a sword mounted against a nearby wall and locked away in a flat glass case. He knew its dark colored metal and strange forked shape by heart. His attention was seized by the blade Siegfried like nothing else. It meant only one thing to him.

Worthiness.

Corrin, Leo, and Jakob looked at him expectedly. He had been caught staring, and it especially unnerved him to see the girl's red eyes flicker from him to Siegfried and back.

Blushing in embarrassment, Xander quickened his pace towards timelier deeds, looking straight ahead so he wouldn't have to look at anything else.