Flames rose from houses and screams were heard all around. Cries of fear at the new found strength of the pirates filled the village.

"heh," one of the rouges spied an older woman on the ground nursing a wound at her ankle, "what have we here? A speck of dust still reaching for life?" The woman retreated in panic at the sight of him raising his axe before a sharp cry erupted from his mouth. A clank resounded as his axe fell to the ground – his right hand had an arrow lodged in it now, "gods! Who the -!" Before he could muster out anymore a second arrow struck him in his heart and downed him.

"For all these pirate's moxie, they sure as don't have any armor protecting 'em!" A sprightly voice called from behind the newly made corpse, "are you okay miss?" It was a pink haired girl – Norne. The woman could only muster a nod before she pointed in a panic behind Norne at the axe that seemed to have materialized right above her head.

"NORNE!" Another voice called before a great crash and yelp came from behind her – it was Draug, it seemed in her checking on the woman she was almost jumped before he intervened with a shield bash. "You need to be more careful!"

"Ah! I'm sorry Draug! Didn't mean to worry you!" After deflecting an axe from the brigand he toppled over, his lance ended the skirmish quickly.

He cast a caring look on her, "please, just be more careful, alright?"

"Heh, well, at least I've got a great shield in the shape of a man right in front of me!" She said with an enigmatic smile before turning to the wounded woman. Draug, on the other hand, scanned around intently for any other signs of life - whether hostile or not.

"Alright," after Norne had finished with her, "it seems like she was the last survivor of this poor town, as she was wounded while looking for any others."

"I suppose after escorting her out of this hellfire, we should return to Lord Marth who's charging towards the castle."


Marth clenched his teeth as he downed another brigand, still not entirely use to the prospect of being another man's undoing, the thought of doing this for Caeda and repaying the kindness of King Talys was what kept him going. Cain, Abel, Frey, Gordin and Jagen on the other hand fought as confidently as ever, Jagen giving directions to the others on certain battle choices. Cain and Abel became a tag team of death, dancing around the battlefield with swords and lances skewering the enemies. Frey and Gordin mostly picked up the scraps that they left behind.

*CLANG* a brigand's axe collided with Marth's sword, "hmm… interestin', you seem quite different from these knights… you a general or something?"

Marth gritted his teeth even more as the axe began to weigh heavy down on him – this one was tougher then some others. He barely swatted away his axe before his sword began to cut into his cheek, slashing the brigands stomach ended the duel. "Are you alright, milord?" Jagen asked, suddenly beside him, "that was a close one, I was on my way as quickly as possible, but…"

"No, no, I'm fine, I was just caught off guard is all…"

"I've asked the other 4 to regroup as we wait for Norne and Draug to catch up."

"Why? Isn't using up more time a bad idea in this circumstance?" Marth inquired.

"Actually, no, this village is not aflame yet over there," he gestured to the second village that seemed perfectly fine, "but it's guarded by quite a few pirates. I don't think Cain and Abel's reckless strategy will work forever, especially since they're prepared for us now."

"Alright, we're here!" Cain said from a slight distance with Abel and Frey following from behind, "Gordin is a little bit behind but should be here shortly."

"Cain…" the red knight grunted, knowing what was coming, " I know you're eager to get back to fighting to avenge those you believe you betrayed with cowardice two years ago, but don't charge head first into the enemy – you're lucky Abel was there to pick up the slack! You made plenty of risky moves!"

"With all due respect, sir Jagen, was that the only reason you called us here?" Cain asked impatiently.

"No, of course not, I believe it will be wise to wait for Norne and Draug to catch up first before continuing," Gordin approached the group silently, as Jagen was speaking, "we originally caught the enemy by surprise, but they're aware of us now." He once more gestured to the village," over there is another village, but it's surrounded by pirates ready to defend against us-"

"Come now, Jagen, you mustn't think we're so soft that we can't handle a couple more thugs!"

"No, it's not that. They don't seem to be destroying that village, there might be something there that's important, so I propose we approach with a bit more tact, there might be more bandits then what we can see. As well, it seems that fighting has died down at the castle, I don't hear anymore noise coming from it at the moment… I hate to say it, but it sounds as if Talys castle is taken –"

"Alright, I'm back," a voice came from the sky as it descended," I can confirm that the fighting has indeed stopped. Unfortunately, I couldn't get too close due to archers…" she looked around, "wait, why have you all stopped?"

"We're just waiting for Draug and Norne to reach us," Marth saw two figures in the distance one larger than the other," which seems won't be too long a wait." He pointed towards the two. "Caeda…" She perked up at the sound of her name, "I believe we could use all the help we can get when we charge… I hate to put you in any danger, but could you help us take on the men around this next village?"

"Yes of course!" She said immediately, happy to prove useful to Marth's cause, "I will fight to the best of my ability!"

"You don't have any quarrels with killing? If need be?" He added.

"With these men? No, I think not. They've been terrorizing my people for far too long, I'm sure they wouldn't even think twice about killing me!" She said with clenched fists unbefitting of a princess," besides, they threatened my family, I can't ignore that either."

Marth stood speechless, "heh."

"W-what's funny?" Caeda asked warily.

"Nothing… It's just that you're so much stronger than me…" he looked at her with a smile that made her look away blushing. The other knights listened in, understanding his self-depreciating meaning, but saying nothing.

"Sorry we took so long to catch up! Is everything alright?"

"Yes," Jagen lead on, "we were simply waiting for you both. Now that we're all here, I'd actually already been thinking of a couple plans of approach for that village over there…"


Along with themselves, Draug and Norne actually had brought a hefty sum of gold rounded up by the surviving villagers who wished to help the knights, as well as some information. The pirates, who were lead by a man named Gazzak, sought to give Talys to Dohlr since they feared them – therefore, it was safe to say that the king and queen were hopefully unharmed or at least alive. "Alright, are they in position?" Jagen asked quickly. Cain was asked as he was running towards the entrance to the fort they had discovered.

"Yeah, they're both ready to let death fly at a moments notice."

"Alright, then…" the grizzly man poked his head out of the entrance after beckoning Cain to prepping his sword and hiding. A shrill whistle from Jagen followed by several arrows aimed straight for the pirates below caused the brigands to take cover in the fort – the same one the Altean knights were in. A small nod from Jagen had Draug ready to meet each one at the entrance, while Cain, Abel, and Frey all went out the side of the fort on their horses to flank them. Surprised by the sudden emergence of enemies, the bandits fell quickly to each of their weapons. Not all of them were tricked however, two brigands and an archer were still hanging back, the archer desperately returning fire to Gordin and Norne above.

"HA!" He failed to notice the archers in the fort cease fire as a Pegasus knight, with lightning speed, skewered him right through before returning to the sky – the display put the other two brigands into panic. The rest of the Knights managed to close the distance between them, causing one of the two to haphazardly attack Marth, who dodged carefully before slashing at his head. The other was, once again, taken by the lighting fast warrior in the sky.

"Excellent work everyone!" Jagen praised them all, "especially you, Princess Caeda, I could've sworn you were as a true knight."

The girl blushed at the compliment as she descended, "well, I have been practicing a long while."

"No need to be so modest, Caeda, your display was breathtaking – it was as if you were lightning striking!" Marth said, which made her blush even more. "I think now, however, we should get to checking out this village…" I wonder why they didn't destroy it…"


The answer wasn't what they expected. The town was abandoned, the people here must've noticed something was up and gone into hiding, so, while every house had been violated, there seemed to have been no need of a fire to flush out any people. "Ooh…"

Marth heard a slight groan from inside another door, "ah! Are you alright?" It was an old man lying on the floor with several young kids around him, "Jagen, get me a vulnerary!" The youth called back before checking on the man.

"I have a vulnerary, milord, but what's –" he understood when he saw the man.

"Here, drink this, it won't magically heal you, but it will ease the pain and get your systems working faster." He gave the old man the medicine and propped him up on the wall. "What happened here?" Marth asked to the congregation of kids.

"W-well…" one boy came forward, "bad men attacked us and hurt poor Mr. Wrys… this here's an orphanage, so we didn't have anything here of value, but they didn't know that till after hurting him…" he was on the verge of tears after relaying the events.

Marth embraced him quickly, "it's okay now," he shushed him gently, "the bad men are gone. You're safe now." At this, the other kids came forward to huddle around this new individual who had a kind heart that had a brightness to it that warranted them to be closer to its warmth.

The old man began to move as the other Knights crowded outside the room, aside from Caeda, who also chipped in with calming down the kids, also being well liked with them. Jagen came to his side, "can you move at all?"

"Yes… I've always been told I'm rather tough for my age…" he chuckled softly as he slowly got up with Jagen's help. "Who do you serve, sir knight? King Talys?"

"No… ahh...," He struggled to decide what to say next.

"Prince Marth of Altea." the youth now stood up, leaving the mass of children still scared.

"Altea, you say?" The man was understandably shocked, "but I thought that Altea was destroyed – and Hope along with it."

"No, I escaped and have been here for the last 2 years… running… but, no longer, I had hidden my identity, but I believe it's time to shed such things."

The man wasn't quite convinced, it was possible they could be bandits posing as royalty. "I… how can I know you're not lying to me…?" He didn't say it rudely, but with some concern.

"Unfortunately, I don't have any way to prove it to you… but as far as my word can take me, I do promise I'm telling the truth." The man still doubted till he looked at the youth's eyes, they weren't the eyes of a brigand waiting to pounce on his prey – they were the eyes of a boy who was hurt and needed support. The eyes of a boy who was kind and genuine. "Well, I suppose we need to be on our way to Talys castle to help the king." He was about to leave when Wrys stopped him.

"Hold, please, milord." Jagen, Marth, and Caeda who was beginning to get up, stopped, "please, allow me to help you in this endeavor. I'm a humble curate, yes, but I'm sure healing is something that could prove quite useful in this fight you're fighting."

"A-are you sure? What about these kids?"

"I have an assistant for that!" Wrys said confidently.

"Will it be just for this… or will you join us for more?" Marth asked cautiously.

"I…" He thought heavily on it, "I will aid you as best I can. I can see that this journey you embark on… it would be wiser for me to accompany you."

Marth instantly brightened, "thank you so much, Wrys! I'm sure you'll be an invaluable asset to the group!" After sorting everything out with the tiny orphanage, the four came outside to Draug and Gordin sharing a nice chat between friends while the rest looked at the old man with questioning glances.


"They've got the castle barred down… perhaps if we had a few more men we could make it inside, but –"

"Yes, I know, we're a little thin on recruits due to the surprise attack…" the grizzly swordsman, Ogma, cut off one of the men under him.

"Hmm… I don't suppose…"

"You have an idea?" Ogma asked quickly.

"I… no I guess not," the man put his head down in shame, unsure of what to do.

A knock at the door sparked them all into readying their weapons. When the knocking continued and no one moved, the atmosphere of the room became even more tense. "Hey! Ogma! Come on, are you in here? It's me: Caeda!" All the men breathed a sigh of relief and opened the door. Caeda, Marth, and all the Knights cycled in.

"Kid? What are you doing here?"

"Well… I owe a debt to King Talys, so Caeda guided my knights and I here to help with retaking the castle!"

"W-wait…" Ogma relaying the sentence in his head, "YOUR knights?"

"Err…" Marth realizing that explaining this will be tough, "we-"

"Marth is the prince of Altea. My father, king Talys, and our family have let him be in hiding for the past two years in the eastern fortress." Caeda quickly butted in with a very seemingly rehearsed line.

Ogma was speechless for a moment. "Y-you can't be serious."

"Ogma," Caeda didn't back down, "as princess of Talys, I completely vouch for the truth of Marth's words and implore you to allow him and his knights to help."

"Well…" Ogma looked deep in her eyes, the eyes of the girl that protected her years ago from abuse at the hands of a torturer. She wore the same look now, a look of determination and empathy. "Alright, then, ki – er, Prince Marth, will you and your knights help us?"


"hold on! You're about to enter the castle, so who are you?" A man acting as the guard to the castle stopped the party in their tracks. The plan was to disguise themselves as pirates from the fallen brigands belongings to sneak their way in.

"relax, I'm with Gazzak, just like you." Ogma said, sounding very believable as a pirate. "we actually managed to capture the princess, so we were gonna take her to him." He gestured toward Caeda being "restrained" by Jagen.

"Ah, okay, head on in. Be careful, though. I heard Gazzak was mighty angry when he heard she had escaped." Ogma curtly nodded before leading the little group of soldiers in disguise into the castle. They trudged through hall after hall till reaching the throne. Along the way, Norne and Gordin broke off from the group and headed to the upper level to see if they could get a good sniper spot.

"Hmm? What do we have here?" It was Gazzak. A large man as one would expect being a pirate leader, it looked like a single fist of his could snap a small village maiden in two. "I don't want any disturbances if it's not important." The guard had been right, he was very unpleased.

"We captured Princess Caeda." Ogma pulled her by the arm and shoved her forward, quietly apologizing to her in his head.

Gazzak's head popped up at this, before it curled into an ugly smile. "Well, the princess returns…" he paused before looking at the group. "You can leave now." However, they didn't comply. Ogma let out a shrill whistle which, once again, heralded the launching of arrows. Gazzak was nailed in his left arm but narrowly avoided the second one. "BOYS, GET IN HERE!" Immediately, the entire throne room filled with bandits. "Heh, so, you were all knights in disguise… I had my suspicions, since I don't remember having such a big guy under me," he gestured to Draug, who cursed himself quietly. The group let down their disguises and armed themselves quickly before taking on the assault of foes head on. Abel swatted away an axe aimed for his neck with his sword before stabbing his opponent through the heart. Cain slashed one of the pirates heads off while dodging another's axe. Draug, while not taking much damage in the fight because of his armor, was having a bit of a hard time making glancing blows on his enemies with his lance, which Gordin seemed to realize and gave support from his perch above to Draug as well as the rest.

Norne was busy keeping any pirates away from Gordin with her bow and a knife she kept with her. "Huh? You have a knife?" Gordin asked through shots.

"Yup, I'm good with it too! Got it from a good friend of mine once upon a time!" She said before noticing a pirate creeping up and taking him out by dodging a strike from him and slashing his neck. Wrys was doing an able job avoiding combat and healing any comrades with his staff, Jagen and Frey made it their main duty to stick close to him so he didn't go down. As well, Ogma and his few allies did their own fair share of work.

Caeda was unarmed and currently fleeing from an approaching Gazzak, "come 'ere, you, you've caused quite a bit of trouble!"

Marth stepped in front of her, since all the other knights seemed to be preoccupied. "Not a step a closer!" He was determined to win this day and protect Caeda and save Talys.

"So, the tiny knight thinks he can stand up against me?" He brought up his axe and smashed it against Marth's quickly raised sword, who barely deflected it. The two had a duel to see who could gain the upper hand before another arrow from a Gordin between clashes gave Marth a chance to end him. "Guh… n-no way…" and with those last words, the fighting ceased soon enough when the pirates found their leader had fallen.


After the rest were detained and the royal family was found and patched up, King Talys requested an audience with all the knights who fought that day. "So… I take it you plan to leave us now?" Marth nodded. "I see…" the king paused. "As you know, King Cornelius and I were quite good friends, and it has made me happy to at least prepare for you a roof above your head and food to eat for the past two years… I will not allow you to leave without me giving you at least a bit more help." He paused once more, "Ogma."

"…yes, your majesty?" Ogma said apprehensively.

"You and some of your trusted warriors are to go with Marth to accompany him."

"Heh, in just a few days, I went from being a teacher to being a subject of the kid…" Ogma said to himself, slightly amused, as well as taken aback a bit.

"Marth… a word of advice. People have been living without hope for two whole years, in that time, people have been forced to submit or face the sword. The sign of Altea will give them hope – the sign of the bloodline of the great hero Anri, the warrior who defeated Medeus a century ago with the Falchion. These people, who were forced to submit, may just rally to your cause, enemy by happenstance or not. This war you will wage will pit you against many, with very few allies in tow, so remember this."

"Thank you, King Talys, you serve my father's memory proud." Marth bowed courteously, before starting to make his way out of the throne room.

"Hold on!" It was Caeda. "I…" she paused for a second, collecting her thoughts, "I want to join Lord Marth's cause and fight alongside him!" The room fell silent.

"Caeda!" King and Queen Talys said in unison,"I can't possibly allow you to risk your life as such! You're my daughter, I can't stomach-"

"No, I'm sorry, but this is something I must do," she cut off her father,"… yes, I understand it's dangerous, but… " she struggled to find the words, "I must go with him. He needs all the help he can get, and if I don't offer my support, why… I'm no better than a craven who fears for their own life over the good of the world!"

Both the king and Queen were completely speechless, unable to give an answer that will suffice her. "Your highness, " Ogma speaks up, "I promise that I will do everything in my power to keep her safe – even risking my own life if need be. It is my duty as her personal body guard after all."

"Ogma…" the king says slowly," I…"

"You know how she is like this, she won't ever change her mind. Please, I promise you can trust me."

… the king brooded for several minutes before sighing, "I suppose you're right, that is her stubborn face… we do well to trust in you Ogma, don't let us down." Ogma bows and the group cycles out of the room with all the knights of Talys as well as the king and Queen pray for the safety of the whole party. Soliciting a ship, the group headed towards Galder, a close harbor on the mainland of Archanea...

Hey, guys, sorry this chapter took quite a deal longer to finish than my last three (and I'm not sure if that'll be a common occurrence). However, I was actually on a week long vacation, so I got to work on it a tad late.

As always, if you have any opinions on this, feel free to write a review or something. Have a great rest of your day and God bless.