For some reason Ike couldn't bring himself to relax. Perhaps it was the big dining hall, which was no longer dyed red by the setting sun through the glass, but only by a few flickering candles. Perhaps it were the guards lining the walls in the shadows. Perhaps it was the Protector sitting across of him. Perhaps it was because he was invited, out of the blue, to dine with the royal family. Ike had understood that he was a traveller, an outsider if you wish, and that he was quite distinguishable to the point were he actually started to wish that he had been born with another hair colour, something more natural.

But that was not it. It could've been any of the above mentioned things that contributed to this uneasy feeling, but not the fact that he was dining with royals. He had never cared about titles and had always made that very clear to the ones bearing them, and this time was no difference. It would not have been necessary.

They had, before the dinner started, introduced themselves and the King had immediately stated that he needn't to bother himself with all the 'your highness' and 'your majesties.' The King had stressed it to the point were Ike thought that he would have to go to prison if he did use one of those two terms, instead of the other way around.

The King was a warm and open person of humble birth. According to his own saying, there was not one drop of his blood that was from royalty. Ike wondered if the King was only saying this because of the fact that Ike bore no titles – according to himself anyway –, because it struck Ike as odd that such a thing would be allowed by society. He recalled pretty clearly that in Tellius people – the royals at least – didn't approve in the least of things like this.

The Queen was quite the opposite of her husband. She was of royal birth, that much spoke for itself from her movements, her reserved smile and carefully chosen words. She was polite and cautious in her ways, but Ike could tell quite easily that this was merely how she was supposed to behave, aside from the fact that she was a bit shy, and that she was as warm as a person as her husband, if not more so, once you got to know her.

The Princess, whose name was Anastasia, was very chatty and bright and did not really bother with etiquette or anything alike that. The Protector who was sitting next to her, the same one who was sitting opposite of Ike, tried to get her to behave like she was supposed to, but only reminded her in a respecting manner of what she was supposed to do. Whether he could not punish her for her actions or anything or whether he did not want to was not clear, but the princess didn't listen and continued her happy way of speaking and numerous questions. Ike thought she might be someone he could really get along with.

After the dinner itself, Ike had been given the opportunity to tell about who he was and where he was from. He had told them of his adventures at home. Of the wars he had fought, had decided. Of how Laguz and Beorc could still barely stand the sight of each other, although when he left, he had had the idea that it was slowly getting better. He had told them of the defeat of Ashera and of the Mad King. He also told them of what had happened since he had entered the country. He told them of his stay with Tamiel, but pretended not to know of her bandit like ways, although the looks in the eyes of everybody had actually given away that they knew. He had not spoken of Hemah, like he had been asked and pretended like he only knew Magnus. Magnus was not unknown to the royal family, like Ike had actually thought. It turned out he worked on his studies in the libraries of the castle from time to time.

Although Ike's stories had not always been as cohort as he had wanted them to be and he wasn't able to tell the events in a chronological way, all present seemed to be interested in his stories, even if they did not make sense from time to time. When he finished his last passage, a small tale of how he expected how things were going at home, a silence fell. It was a long one, which unnerved Ike. No one else actually seemed to mind it. The King was looking up at the ceiling, deep in thought. The Queen sipped from her tea and seemed to wait until someone else bothered to break the silence. Anastasia was smiling at Ike when he looked at her. Although she had asked a huge amount of questions during dinner, she did not seem to have bothered with listening intently to Ike's whole story.

"You are good at telling stories."

Ike looked at the Protector across of him. It was the same white-haired one that had been standing on the stairs in front of the gates and the same one that had come to Ike to deliver the invitation to join the royal family for dinner. Although Ike was not sure, he suspected that the Protector had been staring at him intently every free moment.

"I think we all wanted to say that," the King chuckled, "Thank you for putting our thoughts to words, Shin."

"A pleasure as always."

The Protector, who apparently went by the name of Shin, made some sort of movement that was probably a low bow, although it was hard to tell when he was sitting down whether it was or not.

The Queen put her, now empty cup down and concluded the evening: "I think it is time for all of us to head to bed. It is already later than intended."

Her quite voice was hard to distinguish words from. Or it was because Ike, who was still tired from everything and had gotten a tad drowsy because of the good and warm meal, had not enough energy left to try and concentrate on the sound.

The King approved of the Queen's idea and stood up. He led his wife by the hand, out of the room, to bed. The Protector, who for once paid no attention to Ike, guided the princess away. The princess herself found it necessary to look over her shoulder and wave at Ike, supposedly meant as a good night.

Ike sat for a few moments at the table and didn't even have time to realise that he had no idea of where he was supposed to sleep, before someone walked up to him.

"Heya. Remember me?"

It was a female guard, who had now removed her helmet. Although she seemed a likable person, Ike could not recall meeting her. She laughed and continued before Ike could say anything.

"I suppose not, eh? Earlier today I was stationed at one of the gates. I was there when they took your sword away."

"O," was all Ike could manage to say. He had figured that he wouldn't get his sword – any sword for that matter – back, even when he had told the King that it was taken away from him, the King had only shook his head and apologized that he would not be able to give it back to him.

"Ah well, shit happens, right?" She talked really casually to Ike, but it was something he liked. It felt like a break from all the people who, somehow, were acting distant from him or the people who were keeping secrets. Even Hemah, the most outgoing person Ike had met in years, appeared to be hiding dark things somewhere behind that cheerfulness.

She led Ike through a whole labyrinth of stairs and corridors. She made a few remarks about how all of the ornate decorations and stained glass – all looked traditional and meaningful - made the castle feel a lot more chaotic than it actually was. Ike replied that he would get lost in the castle with or without the decorations. She laughed and they made a few jokes about getting lost in the castle. She left Ike alone when he was standing in front of the door leading to his room.

The room was not as extravagant as the corridors had made him expect, but still more luxurious than made him feel at ease. Luxury was just not something that suited him.

A large canopy bed dominated the room and the rest of the space was filled by a wardrobe and a table with some comfortable looking chairs, which stood around an unlit fireplace. A large, hole like structure led to a balcony and Ike discovered that he was placed in a room in a lower part of a tower. The only way to cover the hole was with a few curtains. Not that it needed to be closed, the air from outside wasn't cold at all. All things were coloured dark red and the wood was dark brown, exactly like one could've guessed.

Ike did not pay anything any attention and only bothered to remove a few pieces of armour and other pieces of clothing he felt uncomfortable sleeping him, dropped them on the stone floor and went to sleep.

Ike shot up. He could feel the cold sweat on his face. It had seemed so real. For as long as it had lasted he had not once doubted it to be dream. And even now he still had trouble to believe it. It was so… so real, too real for just a dream.

He tried to steady his breathing a bit. He could not recall the last time he had woken up in such distress.

He remembered strange sand coloured walls and high ceilings. He couldn't recall whether the walls had been smooth or decorated, but the floors had been covered with piles of old rusty treasure and broken armour. In corners he had seen heaps of things that looked like corpses, human, monster of something else, he was not sure.

But he couldn't form a clear picture in his head.

He put his head in his hands and sighed. This was not really what he had wanted when he went to travel. He knew it would be difficult. He knew he was travelling into the unknown. He knew to expect everything and nothing at the same time. He knew he would be alone. He knew he was leaving everything behind. He knew that there was a large risk that he never would be able to return. And he knew that all of this was nothing of what he had expected.

But in this country, it felt like he couldn't breathe. He felt so limited here. He knew as good as nothing about this country or it's people. He didn't even have a sword with him or had any chance of getting one. He was not only a complete outsider. He was powerless in every way.

He let himself fall back onto the mattress. It was getting a bit lighter outside. The sun was starting to rise and would soon be above the horizon. Although morning had already arrived it would be wise to catch a bit more sleep, since there was no way of knowing what the day would bring.

Just before he fell asleep again, Ike remembered. When the sun would set tonight there would be dancing. Tonight they would have to dance again, in order to redeem themselves. But tonight, there would be blood.