Chapter 4: You're in the Army Now (Judy)
O sorceress
clad in the flames of Hell...
let thy fiery incantation bear its fangs
The words of Masebde, the High Sorceress
A host of fireballs sprang from her hand curving through the air from several different sides hitting the stone target at staggered times. 'That looked similar to Genis' Fireball spell' Judy thought as closed the Fire Tome with a snap.
"Not too shabby" Hank commented inspecting the rock for visible damage. "Well, you didn't have enough power to melt it but that'll make chumps think twice about attacking you." It had been six months since Judy had arrived in this world. Aside from her first three days here she hadn't cried once, she had been far too busy learning how to conjure flames from thin air.
Opening the tome she turned to page 18 "I'll try to put more oomph into it" she said.
"Don't bother, we're done" Hank answered, standing back up. Judy quirked an eyebrow, the sun had not yet hit its zenith so it was too early for lunch.
"What's the matter, old man? Slowing down" she asked with a smirk.
"Hell no" he barked "We're done, got it?"
"Uh…no?" Judy replied "Done with what? This session?"
"Naw, we're done. Period. There ain't nothing more I can teach ya." Hank explained "From here on out ya gotta learn from a professional."
"The army" Judy said, hazarding a guess.
"Yep, we're heading for Ylisstol."
The rest of the morning was used to prepare for the trip. Judy packed the supplies they would need while Hank yoked the oxen to the wagon. Before long they were meandering down the same road Judy had taken when she had tried to leave. "How long until we get to the capitol" Judy asked from her position within the wagon.
"Two weeks" Hank replied "I expect you to keep practicing your incantations."
"What else is there to do" she asked looking about the wagon. Aside from their bedrolls and the food there was nothing to entertain herself with. Sighing Judy leaned her head back against the side and began to sing.
O sorceress
clad in the flames of Hell...
let thy fiery incantation bear its fangs
The words of Masebde, the High Sorceress
Two weeks was a long time when you had very little in the ways of entertainment. Judy caught up on her sleep and worked on her magic, it was her only defense against the drudgery. Hank was resistant to conservation, she hadn't gotten a lot out of him since she had arrived but right now he was especially taciturn. Eventually the road joined to a larger causeway that led them straight to the capitol. There was more hustle as merchants and families traveled alongside them providing them with snippets of gossip. The word of mouth was about the recent rash of brigands that seemed to be prowling around the borders of Ylisse. It was an open secret that these "bandits" were in fact either hired by Plegia, their nasty neighbors, to raid their borders or actual Plegian soldiers decked out in furs and face paint. The army had their hands full chasing them around the countryside leading to much grumbling and groaning as to the lack of action from the Exalt to address this more effectively. One person, during one of these whining sessions, pointed out that the Exalt's own brother, Prince Chrom, was riding about taking down bandits himself.
For Judy these conversations were eye opening, in an uneasy way. The general consensus from the masses seemed to be that Prince Chrom was a shining example of a noble actually doing things while Emmeryn was badmouthed as a ruler with no spine. The game made it sound like the people were falling all over each other with adoration for their leader. It seemed like the Exalt had not managed to shake the stigma her father had left, unlike her brother. The fact that the perspective was so different made her uncomfortable. She was ramming head first into the realization that there were a lot of perspectives that had not been present in the game. What did this mean to her? Her only way out of this hellhole was by beating the game and one of the few aces she had was knowing what the game was going to throw at her. Could there be portions that the game never touched upon? She felt a small wave of despair overcome her and retreated into herself for the remainder of the trip. As they approached Hank broke his silence to teach her about the basic history of Ylisstol.
The first Exalt, after the Schism, began constructing the castle in the fifteenth year of his reign. Mining the plentiful marble from the area the entire castle was a gleaming white, people came all the way from the Valm continent to admire it. Along with its many rooms, hallways, and passageways was the large chapel that lay at the heart of the building. Ylisse was a theocracy, along with ruling the land the Exalt guided the souls of their people as the hierophant of the Naga religion. Tiki, the voice of Naga, was the only other person who outranked them. Every fourth day the people would gather in castle's chapel in order to hear the words of Naga.
As they entered the town through the southern gate, known as the Gate of Plenty, the street opened up into a large square where a massive crowd had been gathered. Directing the carriage to the side Hank pointed to what the crowd was surrounding. "This is important" he whispered to her. A large stage had been constructed there and several people were moving about on top of it. At first Judy thought it was a play of some kind but then the riff raff of the crowd died as the booming voice of one of the people on stage sounded off.
"Greetings fellow worshipers of Naga" the voice cried "Once there were two forces, creation and destruction. Each of them formed into a physical being. One is our beloved Naga, goddess of life!" The crowd screamed in approval and Hank took this lull to whisper
"Those were the abridged version of the opening lines Sancta Draco, the Naga Religion's first holy book."
"First" Judy replied "How many of them are there?"
"Nine, it's a boxed set." Hank said before the crowd calmed allowing the speaker to continue.
"The other, the incarnation of destruction itself, became the dark dragon Grima." More screams but these were ones of rage and hatred instead of approval. "Naga created mankind out of her unfathomable love and once we were happy but Grima envied that happiness" the speaker preached forcing his voice above the din of the crowd "All she asked was our devotion, all she asked was our obedience, not such a great task upon us. She has blessed us time and again for our faithfulness so then I ask why…" The man turned and pulled a sack off the head of one of the people standing, it was at this point Judy got a clue about what was going down.
"Why do these men choose to worship Grima, the enemy of mankind, over our guardian Naga?" The crowd whipped itself into a frenzy. Screams of "kill the Grimleal" and "punish the traitor" rang from the masses like waves on a beach. The man accused of being a Grimleal began to scream back at them but thanks to all the noise Judy couldn't make out what he was saying. More sacks were removed revealing a small cabal of men who screamed back at the crowd. One in particular in was convulsing like mad, his eyes cast skyward staring at nothing in particular.
"Grima, glorious Grima, look at these pigs squealing in their squalor" his thin, reedy voice managed to pierce through the noise like a knife "Please, kill them all. Please, kill me and accept me into your bloodstained arms. Kill them all, kill them all, KILL THEM ALL!" He whipped his head from side to side and began to froth at the mouth making several people in the audience charge the stage. The knights guarding the perimeter pushed them back, clearly letting the Grimleal be disemboweled was far too easy a punishment. Instead the priest bent down and grabbed an unlit torch from the one of the clergy in the audience.
"Look at evil infests their soul! So saturated by their sick, twisted desires they call out for the judgment of Grima!" Sensing the crowd's impatience the priest decided to get on with it "The punishment as appointed by divine Naga for the worship of Grima is to be burned at the stake!" At this point Hank felt like they had seen enough and began to lead the wagon down one of the many streets that branched out from the plaza but Judy tapped him on the shoulder.
"I want to see this" she whispered to him. He didn't reply but he did stop the wagon. Using a firestarter the priest lit the torch and presented it in front of the Grimleal. "Know that Naga has forsaken you" he informed them before placing the flame onto the stage. The wood was nice and dry so the fire grew quickly. Judy watched as the Grimleal burned. All the while the heretics supplicated Grima for the destruction of everything. Soon they were little more than charred meat which pleased the crowd greatly. Hank watched the fire burn before continuing eastward, down a main street that lead to the military district.
"I'm surprised" Hank commented "I thought you'd start vomiting or something." Judy furrowed her eyebrow; it did seem a little strange how apathetic she was feeling right now. She was a girl from a city in one of the most tolerant countries in the world. Within reasonable logic she should have been emotionally traumatized.
"Like I care" she murmured "Why should I care what these people do to each other? This isn't my world."
"Good answer" Hank said "Keep that feeling close to your heart, it'll help keep ya alive." They had to disembark at another gate, called the Gate of Glory, which led into the military district. Using Hank's broad figure as a shield Judy looked about; more and more pedestrian were sporting armor and uniforms. They moved at a brisk pace as they exited and entered the buildings around them. A large, five story mansion stuck out from the rest of the two story buildings. Even from a distance Judy easily deduced that this was where they were heading. The top of it was covered in flags "Those are the flags of the noble houses of Ylisse with the Exalt's flag at the center." Hank explained "Registration is to the right." Filtering in through the large double doors along with many others the pair swung a right down a hallway decked with all sorts of military paraphernalia.
Hank paused in front of one of the doors "Here we are" he said placing a hand on her back and leading her inside. The room was very small, only one man and a desk lay beyond the door. On the desk were two stacks of paper, between them was seated a bespectacled man with glasses and severe frown lines. A typical bureaucrat. "Hey" Hank called out, if he hadn't the guy probably would never have noticed them.
"Can I help you" the guy asked clearly annoyed that they were taking time away from his paper work progress.
"Yeah, she wants to join the army" Hank said jerking his thumb at Judy "How do we do that?"
Grabbing one of the papers from his desk he shoved it forward "Sign here, here, here, initial here, sign here, and initial here." He offered them an ink dipped quill which Hank took on her behalf and jotted down the relevant information. Once the ink dried it was a done deal "Welcome to the army, miss" the bureaucrat droned offering a limp handshake "Report to the mage department. You'll get assigned to a study. It's down the hall, take the first right. It's the door on the left." His attention slipped from her face back to his stack of papers.
The pair exited into the hallway "Later" Hank said as he shuffled back towards the entrance.
"Wait…what?" it took Judy a second to realize what was going on. Dashing forward she grabbed his shoulder "What the hell? Are you just going to abandon me here?"
"Yep, my part is done" Hank said, shaking her grip "Good luck." He took three more steps before she latched back onto him
"Well, are you going to come see me. I know we aren't family or anything but…" Judy sighed "You're my only link to the real world."
"Sorry kid but I ain't sticking around" Hank snorted.
"Well, the least you can do is say a proper goodbye" Judy grumbled.
"What number are you" Hank asked turning around and staring her right in the face.
"What?"
"What number are you?"
Judy hesitated for a second before answering "Number thirty eight."
Hank didn't say anything, he just stared at her until the implications sank in.
"Fuck you" Judy said bitterly before pivoting and stalking down the hallway.
She found the room easy enough but she had to pause outside the door and take a few deep breaths. It helped calm the spite gnawing at her gut. Once she was ready she grabbed the handle and entered the room. The room was made of the same gray stone as the rest of the building was but colorful banners hung up on the wall. A few portraits of wizened old men and women in brightly colored robes hung on the walls, perhaps notable sorcerers of the past? A few people were lounging about on wooden benches; they immediately took notice of her. "Can I help you" a girl with chestnut hair asked.
"Yeah, I joined the army" Judy explained "They put me in the mage division."
"Ok, then" the girl said with a nod "I think Commander Hastings is around here somewhere." Leading her down the hall the girl ducked into several rooms asking the occupants within where the Commander was. Finally they found him tutoring someone in one of the many common rooms scattered throughout the division.
The commander was a short man with a neat bowl cut and a dapper little moustache. "Commander, we have a new recruit" the girl said pushing Judy forward.
The captain stood up and offered his hand "Hello, it's nice to meet you. My name is Grant Hastings, I'm the Commander of the 4th Mage Study of the Ylissean army. I welcome you to our outfit."
"My name is Judy" she replied shaking his hand "Thanks for taking me on."
"Quite the opposite actually, we've been starved for new recruits for quite sometime now." The Commander turned to the chestnut haired girl "Kathy can you get her a room and help her settle? I'll meet you in the anteroom in a half hour."
"Of course" the girl replied before gesturing to the door "This way please." They wound around the corridors until a large pair of double doors stood before them. "This is the girl's quarter" Kathy explained "Boys aren't allowed here and vice versa for us and their dorm. Getting caught means a serious infraction, possibly instant expulsion from the military."
Inside was a common room where several groups of girls were scattered about, studying or playing cards or conversing with each other. Strolling to the bulletin board posted on one of the walls Kathy looked at it "All right let's see…Room number 44 is open. This lists the room assignments. Because there is a shortage of personnel you'll get a room all to yourself." Grabbing the quill near the list she jotted down Judy's name. "Did you bring anything with you?" Judy shook her head no; aside from the clothes on her back she had nothing. "Sheesh, not even a brush?" Kathy asked "You know we don't get paid, right?" Judy shrugged, she felt too hollow to care about being broke. "Ok then" Kathy said "Want to see your room?"
It was bigger than what she was expecting, it could easily have held seven beds as well as three chest of drawers within its confines. Then again, it was built to room multiple people. The only bed in it lay in the far right corner with a small chest at the foot of it used to store clothing or personal items. There were no windows but a brief inspection of the bedding revealed that it was thin enough to keep the occupant cool at night. Perhaps they changed out the linens for thicker ones during the winter months?
"Well, since you have no luggage I guess we could head for the anteroom now" Kathy said. The pair exited the dormitory and rewound their ways back through the halls until they entered a medium sized room with a long table taking up the center of the room. Judy sat down and Kathy left.
Twenty minutes later Commander Hastings entered "Oh" he said seeing Judy sitting there patiently "That was quick."
"I didn't need much help settling in" she explained. Nodding he took a seat across from her.
"May I start with a few personal questions?"
Judy shrugged "Sure, fire away."
"What's your age?"
"Twenty two."
"Any relatives?"
"Both of my parents are deceased."
The Commander regarded her with pity "I'm so sorry to hear that. Bandits?"
"The plague" Judy replied trying to sound as sullen as possible. Hank had worked out her backstory for her and they had gone over it multiple times. It was pretty simple too.
"Here's the million gold question though. Any particular reason you chose to join the Ylissean army rather than the Feroxi army?"
It took Judy a tick to realize he was inferring to her skin color "The climate suits me more. I never cared for nine months of snow followed by three month of slush."
"Understandable" the Commander said "How much magic do you know?"
"I think I'm a novice" Judy said.
"Mind if I quiz you?" Commander Hastings asked. They went through the breadth and depth of basic magic, the physics behind it, and how to read the meter of an incantation. A small test of her actual casting capabilities later and Commander Hastings was satisfied. "Not bad" he said watching her fireballs arc about the air before sizzling out. "You have very little innate talent" he commented "But with lots of dedication and practice I'm sure you'll be able to master up to Arcfire." Judy nodded; she had heard the same thing from Hank. "Dinner will be in two hours and the lights go out at 0100 hours. We begin our day at 0700. The full schedule of day to day training is up in the common room and dormitories." With that he exited the room leaving Judy to her own machinations.
She spent the three hours sulking in her room before heading to dinner. Around her the conversation focused on the return of the Shepherds a fortnight earlier as well as their impending departure to Regna Ferox. "Hey, new girl, What's you homeland like? Never been to Regna Ferox." A guy sitting next to her asked.
"Lots of ice and snow" Judy replied "Not much else."
"I heard that Miriel is accompanying them" one girl commented.
"The legendary Miriel? Isn't that a bit overkill?" one guy said "I mean, this is a diplomatic mission, right? No reason to break out the big guns."
"Haven't you heard? Monsters have started popping up all over the place" the guy sitting beside her said "Sheesh, do you live under a rock? There was a huge panic in the city not five days ago."
"You need to spend less time in the library" another girl sniffed "They're taking the Shepherds and the legendary Miriel to guard the Prince against monster attacks."
"Man, first Plegia then monsters" another guy groaned "Did we sin against Naga or something? It seems like we've been cursed at times." There was a small moment of silence as everyone around Judy ducked their head and sent a little prayer to the Divine Dragon for protection.
"Monster and the legendary Miriel aside, have you heard about Peggy?"
"The fact that she's a got a boyfriend? Who'd have thought that porky Peg would ever score a man?"
"And you accuse me of spending too much time in my books" the library boy sniped "She went on an extreme diet and now has a bangin' body."
"Her body would be the only reason you ever looked up from your tomes."
Judy retired early; she wanted to be rested for tomorrow. The next day was quite eventful. The whole system was less like boot camp and more like college in her experience. After a half hour for morning ablutions there was breakfast then lecture on magic for two hours. Two hours before breakfast the entire division went out into the courtyard for calisthenics. A healthy body leads to a healthy mind was very much a motto among these mages. Once lunch was over the real work began. Choral practice for four hours, for the first week Judy's voice was hoarse until she got used to such rigor. Mages were shuffled and reshuffled as different combinations of sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses blended to make the most potent magic they could produce. The next two hours were spent one on one with the more experienced mages tutoring the newbies. Dinner was late at night with the few hours before curfew being the only free time they had. The only day off, which constituted as a weekend for Judy was every fourth day which was considered a high holy day on the Naga calendar. While everyone went to the chapel to worship Judy would get to sleep in. Her unabashed atheism didn't earn her any ire but it was broadcast loud and clear from her teammates that it would be best for her not to flaunt it.
Without Hank to keep her from spiraling into depression Judy learned to preoccupy herself. Idle thoughts were the enemy. Without much to do Judy found herself practicing her magic with an intensity she had never exerted before. The songs became a mantra she rarely stopped singing. In the bath, exercising, between bites of food, hell she might have even been doing it in her sleep. In whispery tones she hummed the incantations as she walked to and from her room. "Effort beats talent every time" Judy sighed to herself as poured over the sheets of Elfire incantations. That sage advice from Pepitta Rossetti proved to right on the money. Commander Hastings had taken notice of her fervor and began to work with her one on one. With two months she had mastered the entire score to Fire. It wasn't the fastest anyone had done it, word of mouth had it that it had taken the legendary Miriel a week to move from Fire to Arcfire, but she was still ahead of the curve. Elfire proved to be a tough challenge. The stanzas grew much more complicated with entire sections weaving in and out with deceptive languor.
The speed of her progress ground to frustrating crawl. At times Judy felt like throwing a tantrum as she continually botched stanza after stanza with horrendous pitch. Commander Hastings proved to be a wonderfully patient teacher as he corrected her flaws and weathered her moods. Four and a half months passed, and then things got real. First, word came that the duke of Themis' daughter, Maribelle, had been kidnapped by Plegia when she had tried to stop them from ransacking one of the villages. The news had barely time to register when better news came on its coattails. Prince Chrom had returned from Regna Ferox having successfully obtained an alliance from the khans. The minute he stepped into the palace the Prince took command. The army was mobilized but all out war was not declared. The recent past with Plegia was on everyone's mind during this time, could the last fifteen years of peace be shattered so easily? Calmly Emmeryn weighed the facts and decided to be prepared to react. A small number of troops were moved out to the forts surrounding the border between Plegia and Ylisse. Not enough to make a statement, if questioned the military could tactfully explain the increase of personnel as bandit deterrent.
Within the ranks, however, it was a well known fact that war was a definite possibility. The ransom letter Gangrel, King of Plegia, sent to Ememryn confirmed it. It was the Fire Emblem or war. The 4th Mage's division led by Commander Hastings rode out into the field heading at full steam for the Victrion Stronghold. Overseeing a major thoroughfare between the two countries this military structure would be high on the Plegian list of priorities when they invaded. The wall of mountains that created the borders would be hell to traverse and make maintaining a steady supply line damn near impossible. The atmosphere among the knights of the fort was extremely grim. For the first time in six months Judy felt something other than freezing apathy. Her nails were soon bitten down to the stubs, sometimes they would bleed because she would cut them too short. Every sound in the night was a Plegian soldier bearing down at her from the dark. She was not alone in her fear; many of the soldiers were just as twitchy. They might have all gone insane if it weren't for the veterans of the previous war. Commander Hastings was hyper vigilant making sure that all of his soldiers were ok.
He found Judy hunched over her tomes in one of the common rooms of the fort picking at her nails unconsciously. "Any shorter and they'll start to bleed" he warned her as he pushed her fingers apart.
"Sorry" she sighed trying something to occupy her hands with "All this waiting is killing me."
Commander Hastings gave a knowing smile and pushed the Elfire tome in front of her "Let's review; it'll take your mind off things." They ran through the material several times until the sunset. It had been an overcast day so the dark just got darker but it was enough of a difference to drive everyone inside.
"I think I might be going be going crazy" one of her teammates whined as a group of them sat down around Judy and Commander Hastings.
"Hey Commander, how did you deal with this when you were in the Crusade?" The war the previous Exalt, Chrom's father, had waged against Plegia had been religiously motivated qualifying it as a Crusade instead of a war.
"It's always like this" Commander Hastings explained gesturing to the nervous energy that was infecting everyone "I'd imagine every soldier experiences this."
"Does it get better over time" one girl asked "It's been five days already."
Commander Hastings shook his head "No, it doesn't get better but you do find ways to cope with it. For example…" He reached into his cloak and extracted a ball of yarn and some knitting needles "I sew to keep calm."
"Art and crafts sounds like a good idea" the girl admitted "I think I saw some paper in the storage closet."
Soon the common room was filled with paintings, origami, doilies, and planes. It worked like a charm, the quiet rustle of paper and clack of knitting needles drowned out the all consuming silence that had set them on edge. Crafting a fortune teller of her own Judy idly flipped through the fortunes she had scribbled. They were fairly mundane stuff like getting married or being happy in life. She needed colors for the outside of it so she excused herself to see if they had any dyed ink in the storage closet. The night guard was roving about hallway with grim looks plastered on their faces. Each time she passed one they would stoically nod in her direction, she admired their courage. The storage closet was past the courtyard which was filled with soldiers. From the sidelines Judy watched as the knight commander pushed his men through their paces in their full armor.
"C'mon you lot, push yourselves" he yelled at them as they did pushups "After this rep I want you to run twenty laps around the perimeter." He caught Judy watching them from the doorway "Unless you want to join us miss I suggest you go back to your chambers." Mumbling a quick apology Judy ducked inside the storage closet and ran straight into someone's back.
"Argh! Golly, ma'am I sure am sorry 'bout that" The accent was pretty unmistakable, it was Donnel in the flesh.
The farmer's son picked up the pot that had fallen to the ground when they collided and placed it back on his head. "I'm more jumpy than a chicken coop with a fox in it" he moaned mostly to himself "All this exercisin' ain't helpin a lick neither."
"Hang in there" Judy said aimlessly as she passed him to get the vials of ink on the shelves behind him.
"A-anyhoom um…my name's Donnel" he said "Do ya got a sec?"
Since she hadn't talked to any of the Shepherds yet Judy was curious enough to acquiesce "Sure, have anything specific in mind" she asked placing the ink vials in her pouch.
"Eh, not really. Just wanted to shoot the breeze to help calm these goshdang shivers. " He fished for a topic of conversation "So, yer a mage?"
"Yep, I'm in the 4th Mage's Division under Commander Hastings."
He gave a gander at her outfit "Yer clothin sure is…bright."
She grunted "I hate it too."
"Whelp, if yer ever in the area round Southtown my ma can fix ya up with some dyed in wool cotton fabric. Ain't even close to that silken stuff from Chon'sin but damn if it ain't durable and a hell of a lot less…uh."
"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind." Judy remarked before changing the subject "So Donnel, are you a squire or something."
"Not even that" he groaned "I'm a trainee. Lowest of the low I tell ya. Until my commander decides which class I'll be I'm tinkerin' with all sorts of spears and swords and doodads. Once somethin' catches ma fancy then I'll become a proper soldier but until then I'm a water boy.
"That sucks" Judy said empathizing with him "Do you at least have an idea what you want to be?"
"I ain't gotta clue" he moaned "Hoowee, I thought tilling the fields was the hardest thing a man could do. All the other guys tell me is not to be a damn myrmidon."
"A wise piece of advice" Judy agreed.
"Actually, now that you're here can I ask you a question? Yer a mage so ya know magic and the commander said I might have some magical skills. Do ya think you could teach me a spell?"
She hesitated and he jumped "Please! Swear to Naga I ain't askin' fer fireballs or nothing. Just the tiniest little magic mumbo jumbo that even a farm hand like me can use without needin' all that book learning."
"I'm sorry Donnel. I wish I could help you but I'm basically a trainee myself. I've only been doing magic for half a year. If you want I could introduce you to Commander Hastings, he'd be much better suited for that sorta thing."
Donnel looked a bit put off by her refusal but he gradually perked back up "Alright, much appreciate it. Speaking of appreciation it is right dandy for yer Khans to be lending us a helping hand during these trying times."
It took her a second to clue in "Oh, uh…yeah. There's no reason why our two countries can't help each other out. Especially against Plegia."
"Damn straight" Donnel cheered "We'll give those heretics a what for once and fer all! I'll show them they can't go round burning down villages and rapin the womenfolk. Do ya think I be able to earn myself a medal?" His face was positively beaming by this point "Damn, what I wouldn't do fer a medal. I'd go home and give it to my ma. I betcha Prince Chrom would even present it to little ole me personally! I met him once."
"Who?"
"The Prince, dummy. He's a right dandy fellow, all dashin' and brave. He saved my village last year."
"Really" Judy remarked her mind turning, was he talking about Paralogue 1?
"Yeah, those Plegian bastards attacked my village, burnt down all the crops, and were about to sell all us into slavery when I managed to break free and go git help. Naga must've been smiling on me that day cause I found the Shepherds not ten stones' throw away from ma village. They killed em all and rescued my ma. I wanted to go with em but Chrom said I do better in the army than in the Shepherds." His face fell at this point; clearly he wanted to be on the same team as his hero.
"Well, the Shepherds are the cream of the crop. The legendary Miriel is a Shepherd so there no way a couple of newbies like us are going to be able to join them."
Donnel sighed "We can dream can't we? By the way who is the legendary Miriel?"
Judy was about to explain when someone crashed into the storage shed. "Where the hell are you boy" the man yelled as he looked around. It was the night commander who had been running the knights ragged with training exercises. He was pissed.
"Son, we are in a war! Do you hear me? A Naga damned war! This ain't the time for women!" He grabbed Donnel by the collar and dragged him outside "I want forty suicides followed by seventy crunches on the double. Ya ain't going to bed til they're done."
He booted the farm boy into the courtyard then rounded on Judy "And as fer you, little Miss hot-to-trot, you can save the bedroom eyes fer when the Plegians ain't bearing down on our position and ya got a ring on that finger of yours. Now get outta here!" The pressure to run was greater than the need to defend her innocence so Judy dashed past him back into the hallway chased by the chuckles of the knights who had witnessed the spectacle. She calmed down before she reentered the common room, no need for any probing questions from her comrades in arms. She easily painted the dots on her paper fortune teller then, on a whim, rewrote the fortunes with more interesting prophecies. By that time the yawning began and one by one people got up to go to bed. By the time Judy was done with her paper fortune teller she and Commander Hastings were the only ones up.
"Going to bed soon, sir?"
Commander Hastings looked up from his knitting needles "Not quite, perhaps in a little bit."
"Thanks for this evening" Judy said with a small smile "It really helped. My fingernails thank you too."
He chuckled "I'm glad you enjoyed. It's moments like these that help us weather the storm. After lunch tomorrow I want you to work on your Elfire tome more. You'll get a breakthrough at some point if you keep practicing." Judy nodded and headed for bed.