Chapter 4: In which our hero picks up Dark Magic-

-for the Daft, by a familiar author

I slumped down in my chair, face pale and mind utterly exhausted.

Chrom laughed and handed me a goblet filled with wine. "Cheer up, Hoopa. You did well."

I grabbed the offered goblet and said, "Oh shut up, Chrom."

Court had been... an ordeal. I wouldn't want to bore anyone with the details, but to sum things up, it consisted of a long procession of me smiling and making small talk with people who pretended to care but didn't really give a damn, all while in a large ballroom where the nobles mingled with each other.

I really wished I had just stuck with a story of being a traveling mercenary or something. Hanging out with Robin or any of the other Shepherds would have been preferable over the stuffy and up stuck nobles.

Emmeryn laughed and said, "I would agree with my brother, Hoopa. You carried yourself quite well amongst the nobility. Many a man would have, and have, quailed before them."

I took a sip from my goblet and said, "Bah, why should I care what they think." I raised the goblet and gestured around the room. "You two are the only ones that matter here, anyway."

When the nobles had decided they made enough of an impression on the 'foreign emissary' a.k.a. me, they went home, leaving me with Emmeryn and Chrom in the room. With the formalities out of the way, Emmeryn suggested we retire to a small room for a light meal before the day was over, which is where we were now.

"If not, then there'd be other people here, right?"

"My," Emmeryn said. "You're quite fearless, aren't you, Hoopa? And to think you were found fleeing in terror from the Risen."

I blinked. Did Emmeryn just make fun of me?

"A braver man than I am, that's for sure," Chrom said. "Risen, I can deal with. But those 'ladies'..." Chrom shook his head. "You're going to have to teach me how you stay so calm, Hoopa."

Emmeryn hid a smile while she ate some of her food.

Speaking of food, it was about as you would expect from a medieval-esque setting. In other words, mainly bread, roasted meat, some cheese, soup, and some vegetables.

As for Emmeryn's smile, that would have something to do with the fact that Chrom had been practically mobbed by fan girls the moment court began. And, by association as his guest, as well as Emmeryn's, I'd been given similar treatment a few moments into the session.

I took another sip from my goblet, much longer this time, and tried my best to block out the rest of that time. Despite my efforts, I still ended up grumbling about "Stupid girls and their stupid fake attitudes."

I would blame the alcohol, but considering the fact that it seemed to be more juice than liquor...

"In any case," Emmeryn began. "Have you given thought on what it is you wish to do from here on out, Hoopa? We will do our best to accommodate you, but..." She trailed off and gave me a troubled look.

"Ah, you don't need to worry. I don't want to trouble you guys too much, so I'll probably only be here for a week. You're already doing a lot for me as it is."

Giving me a place to sleep, eat, and basically provide the basic benefits was more than enough in my books. Not only did they do that, but they gave me a (somewhat) high status as well, so I wouldn't have to worry about being looked down on by the nobles! ...Well, all those that mattered, anyway.

"As for my plans... well, if there's a library I could get access to, I'd be glad. The magic here is a lot different from what I was taught, so I'd like to learn more about it before I make my way home."

That, and figure out how to exploit the crap out of it so I don't end up dying when shit hits the fan within the next few weeks.

"A library, eh?" Chrom said. "You did say you were a wizard-in-training, so I suppose... Still you don't look like you'd be much good in a fight, so joining the Shepherds wouldn't be a good idea. Hm..."

...I was somewhat concerned that Chrom completely ignored my request and thought about fitting me in with the Shepherds for a bit. Did that guy only think about pulling people into his ragtag army?

Then again, that ragtag army did eventually get through two wars and most of the way against a dragon/god.

Emmeryn seemed to notice my contemplation and said, "You need not worry, Hoopa. We would not expect you to fight for our country, especially after you have been so abruptly taken from your home by our plight. As for a library, there is the royal library that you may peruse. Perhaps you might find something of use in there? Sofia could show you the way tomorrow morning, if you would like."

"That would be great."

The rest of the meal went by in relative tranquility. Emmeryn mostly made small talk, while Chrom chimed in whenever he felt like it.

...I was actually pretty surprised by how relaxed the two acted around me, considering how suspicious my backstory was, but ended up attributing it to their caring personalities.

In any case, the meal ended without anything eventful occurring, and I was shown back to my room by Sofia again, who would be the one taking care of anything I needed during my stay.

Thus ended my first night in Ylisse.

I woke up in an unfamiliar room. Stone walls, a wooden window, bed draperies. The first rays of sunlight were just starting to filter in.

Confusion settled in, but then I gained my bearings and remembered where I was.

That's right. I'm now apparently trapped in Fire Emblem Awakening... and got pulled into being a foreign emissary at that.

I sighed and sat up in my bed.

What do I want to do?

I knew the story. I knew what would happen, and could change things. With Robin here as well, I could just give him the info about the plot and let things play out, with myself far and away from any ripples that may play out.

I mean, with just that small premonition in the beginning, he managed to completely foil Validar's plans and even stop Grima, right?

Right. So I should probably just up and leave. Maybe head towards the Outrealm gate and see if I can find my way home.

Even if I could change things, that didn't mean I should. Robin could carry the entire team by himself. It's their story, after all, and not mine. Besides, he was plenty capable.

...Ignoring the fact that the average player wouldn't complete a play through without letting at least one person die. Especially on Lunatic mode, which, knowing my luck, will be exactly what the difficulty will have been locked on.

I sighed again. "...I'll think about that later. First, I need to learn some magic."

I got out of bed and started heading towards the bathroom to wash up when there was a knock at my door. "Hoopa? Are you awake?" It took me a second to recognize the voice, but then I remembered it was Chrom's.

"Yeah, I'm awake."

With my response, the door opened, and the blue-haired prince walked inside. He took a look at my disheveled appearance and frowned. "Sorry for waking you-"

"No, it's fine. I was already awake, just haven't gotten around to washing up yet."

Chrom nodded. "Well, I just wanted to check to make sure you were alright. That and to tell you that we'll be heading out to Regna Ferox soon..."

I froze. We? But I haven't even learned magic yet! And I'm a foreign emissary now, right? What kind of place sends an emissary out to fight for- Ah. Right. Fire Emblem logic. Still...

"...and if you need anything, just ask one of the servants. I'm sorry to leave you alone in an unfamiliar land, but with the Risen problem, the duty falls to me to ask for Regna Ferox's cooperation."

Oh. 'We' as in the Shepherds, not 'we' including me. Good.

"That's fine, Chrom. Ylisse's security is more important than any discomfort I'm feeling."

He frowned. "Are you sure? I don't want you to think that we're just ignoring you, especially since you were dragged into all of this by our troubles..."

I felt a stab of guilt, realizing exactly why they were being so accommodating. Right. What with zombies falling from the sky, the fact that I got teleported from my home could easily be pinned on that.

"...I'm sure. You've done more than enough. I'm just an average person after all. There's no need for you, the prince of Ylisse, or the Exalt to go out of their way to accommodate me. I mean, I'm grateful for everything, especially giving me that emissary title and all, but really, that's enough."

Aaand I'm rambling. Great.

Chrom smiled. "Good. Then I will see you again in a few days. Again, if you need anything-"

"-Ask a servant. I've got it, Chrom."

He nodded and then headed off, no doubt to inform the Shepherds of their impromptu departure... which reminded me that I didn't have much time left to act. It wouldn't be long after that until Maribelle's captured, Ylisstol is invaded by Plegia, and I'll find myself in mortal peril at every turn.

"I really need to go take a look at that library."

After washing up, Sofia appeared at the door and led me to the library. I felt kind of weird being attended to like that, especially when she just popped out of nowhere the moment I had finished getting ready for the day, but I shrugged it off after a bit.

Being on a time limit with death, or worse, as the consequence tends to put your priorities in order.

In any case, she left me outside a pair of double doors, grand and ostentatious, with a small statement of having other duties to attend to.

I hesitated to open them for a second, since the room seemed far too important for someone like me to just idly walk in, but then I realized that I would look even weirder for me to be standing outside and hesitating after having been recognized by Emmeryn and Chrom as someone important.

With boldness abound as well as a healthy dose of willful abandon, I threw open the double doors and walked inside as if I owned the place.

"Aaand there's no one here. Should have expected that," I muttered.

Despite the seeming importance of the library, what with the grand double doors and all, it was surprisingly barren of people. And books.

Maybe it was just my bias from seeing entire buildings devoted to housing books, but I had been expecting more out of something called the 'Royal Library'.

Instead, what greeted me was a room only about as large as my bedroom here in Ylisse, and with shelves filling only half that space. In the other half was a stack of parchments, a few quills, and an ink bottle, all placed on a table that would fit only four people, and a single chair.

"Right. Semi-medieval setting. Only the nobles would ever need to read, so there wouldn't be much in the first place."

I sighed and started looking through the limited selection of shelves for anything that might be useful.

Ylissean law books, court rulings, history books... those were what I found as I scanned the shelves. Thankfully, they were all in English, something I had forgotten to worry about in my eagerness (and anxiety) to learn magic, but knowing Ylisse's past wouldn't help me live past the week if things kept their course.

"A single book about magic. Is that too much to ask?"

Just as I was about to give up and head out to ask someone to grab me a fire tome or something, I noticed a book lying on the ground in front of me.

It looked like it had fallen off of the top shelf on one of the book cases and had been left forgotten. A small pile of dust had gathered on top of it, obscuring the title.

A book lying forgotten in a room where nobody's visited in a while. Now that's not suspicious at all.

Despite the obvious signs of danger, curiosity got the better of me and I reached over to pick it up. It's not like I have anything to lose at this point, right?

Almost as soon as I had that thought, the book started emitting an eerie black light. Yes, black light, as impossible as that was. Something that casted illumination, yet tinged everything in darkness.

My heart raced, and not out of excitement.

Oh crap. Crap, crap, crap.

I couldn't move my hand away. Instead, my body was moving on its own, grasping the book and idly brushing off the dust on its cover.

-Terrifying. It was like sleep paralysis but worse. At least then you could take comfort in the fact that it was just your mind being too active for your body to catch up. This was something else entirely, the body being manipulated by forces external to its own. And the worst part of it all was that you could do nothing. I could do nothing.

I could not breathe. I could not look away. I could not move or control a single aspect of my body while I grabbed that book, all processes being done automatically and without my volition.

And then I regained control, as if all of that was a nightmare. The book had even stopped giving off that weird light.

But I knew better.

"...This is a death flag, isn't it? I've just tripped the bad end, haven't I?"

There was no way in hell that ominous event was anything but bad news.

I sighed and took a look at the book, deciding to see what cursed tome I had managed to pick up. What is it? HP Lovecraft's Grimoire? Grima's Truth? Ershkigal?

I expected some great dark tome and what I got was-

"Dark magic for the Daft? You have got to be kidding me. A dark magic tome for dummies. That's what I picked up?"

It was a bright yellow, with a stick figure on the front cover. Question marks hovered above said figure, and the figure's head was tilted as if in deep thought.

I scowled and shoved the book into the nearest shelf I could and started walking away from it, only to find myself holding onto that same book tucked under my left arm after a few steps.

I would be scared out of my mind, that or excited, if the book had been anything else. But with what it was, I felt like the universe was mocking me.

I stopped and sighed. "Well, if they're going out of their way to give it to me, I might as well take a look, right?"

I headed over to the table and I saw when walking in and sat down. After that, I placed the book before me and opened to the first page, which was a stark contrast from the cover.

To the reader: If you're reading this, you have obviously learned not to judge a book by its cover. That or you are someone like me whose curiosity got the better of them and stumbled upon the 'Darke Artes'.

This book shall aid you along that path. My life's study, the consequences and benefits of every spell, every principle, I have recorded within.

Know that this road does not come without sacrifice. Knowledge may be power, and yet it is also a curse that can damn us all to a fate worse than death... one I have suffered myself.

Do not fall prey to my own destiny, reader. Follow these principles closely, but not blindly. Ensure that the sacrifices you make are willful, and that you are prepared to pay the price for the corresponding power.

Done wisely... and you may become the master of death itself.

May your luck be better than mine.

-H.P.

"H.P? As in Harry Potter?"

I didn't want to believe it, but there was that line about being the master of death in there... Whatever. It's not like it matters, does it?

I had a cheat sheet. Something that could help me live in this world soon to be filled with war and death. Something that could give me the power to fight, maybe even save people.

Eager to start, I flipped to the first page, titled 'Sacrifice'.

Some would say that the basis of dark magic is knowledge and sacrifice.

Dark magic is structured with knowledge and fueled with sacrifice. With enough of both, even a miracle such as reviving the dead may be done.

But that is the belief of ignorant wizards that know nothing better.

Though they are not completely incorrect, as you can indeed craft miracles with enough knowledge and sacrifice, or compensate for one with the other when casting a spell, they are wrong in believing that it is the sole basis of the 'Darke Artes' as they so call it.

Dark magic's operating principle is not 'sacrifice' or 'knowledge', though both are important facets of it, but rather equivalent exchange.

To perform a spell, know enough about its underlying workings and it can be performed with nothing more than willpower. The effort required to obtain that knowledge has given you the right to enact the mystery.

Barring that, sacrificing something will give you something of equivalent value. A simple example is sacrificing mana to perform a spell, such as 'Flux', to compensate for an incomplete understanding behind its principles.

Then again, who in this world could be expected to understand Einstein's theory of relativity?

Now you might be asking what can be sacrificed, and what you can gain from it. The answer to that, I've found is... anything that you can claim. Your time, your will, your possessions, your memories. So long as it is 'yours', it is 'yours' to give up. As for what you can gain in exchange, so long as you sincerely believe the equivalence, it will be done.

Let's start with something simple, like a few seconds of your time for understanding a useful spell...

A/N: So Fire Emblem Fates came out. Beat Conquest and Revelations the other day. To borrow an Undertale saying... playing through the games and hearing Azura's song fills me with determination, enough to finish this in one go.

I have a vague plotline in store for this story now, though it's still semi-fluid. Half making it up as I go along and half following an outline is my MO it seems.

Some hints at what went on in the future past have already been dropped actually, though it might require some squinting. Law of conservation of detail and all that jazz.

And so with this chapter I finally gain a 'cheat' like every other transported hero story/self-insert! Yay! Though the source seems kinda dubious...

Hope it was an enjoyable read, and leave a review if you want, or have anything to say about it. Thanks again, and until the next!