Corrin was awoken to the feeling of needles in his feet. It began as a small prickling sensation, like dry grass, unpleasant, but not worth moving over. Then, suddenly, it felt as if something was thrust deep into the sole of his foot, jerking him alert. Instinctively, Corrin tried to pull his foot back, but the moment he moved, a hand clamped over his ankle and another pushed him back down. His eyes were fogged over but he could just make out the triangular roof of the inside of a tent as his head fell back. Small flickers of sunlight seeped between the seems of the cloth, betraying the morning.
"Careful, sweetie. I know it hurts but you have to let Elise do her work."
Blinking rapidly, Corrin dug the heels of his hands into his eyes in an attempt to clear his vision. When the film of blurriness began to clear, he craned his neck up and was greeted by a curtain of lilac.
"It's a relief to see that you're awake, you were a sorry sight slumped over Leo's horse."
"Camilla," Corrin said, cringing at the rasping of his own voice. He attempted to clear his throat but it was far too dry. Camilla must have caught onto the problem as she quickly reached for her belt and retrieved a small water sack, unplugging it and holding it up to Corrin's mouth. A few gulps later he was already beginning to feel better, his tongue no longer begging for moisture, and his head no longer filled with cotton. Letting out a sigh of relief, Corrin propped his elbows up behind himself and slowly sat up.
"Are you okay? Can I continue?"
Elise's small form was hunched over Corrin's legs, in her hands was a healer's staff and her forehead was creased in concentration.
"It's good to see you, Elise," Corrin stammered, his voice trembling with relief, "I thought...I thought..."
He trialed off, unwilling to voice his fears. Instead, he simply nodded, indicating that he was all right to continue with the treatment. However, when Elise's staff began to once again glow, the pain returned to his feet. Corrin's fingers tightened over the grass beneath him, tearing out a few strands. The pain didn't last long, but it was sudden and extreme when it came. He urged himself to remain as still as possible, but his muscle jumped unconsciously at the pricks. One such movement jerked his knee upwards, nearly knocking Elise's staff out of her hands.
"Sorry," Corirn mumbled, feeling his face begin to burn a little.
"No, no, I'm sorry," Elise sat back onto her heels, her hands immediately going for one of her pigtails, pulling and worrying the blonde strands. "We'll take a break, I'll try to be more careful but feet aren't an area that I've had much practice on."
Corrin took the opportunity to draw his legs in, taking a look at what she had been working on. Sure enough, on the bottoms of his feet were numerous red and angry gouges. There were some pink smears over his skin, telltale marks of scrapes Elise had already healed, but others were still open and weeping thin streams of blood. It was a wonder how Corrin had not felt the wounds until now.
"You're injuries weren't very big, thank goodness, I've cleaned up all the little cuts you had on your arms and face," Elise said, as she pulled Corrin's legs out straight again and raised up her staff. "But the ones on your feet are really deep and I have to seal them all the way up, that's why it's hurting so much. Just tell me when you think you're readying for another round."
Grimacing, Corrin took a slow breath and took a silent assessment of his body. His arms and legs ached like they did the day after a particularly grueling training session, but it did not feel even half as bad as they had felt while he had been desperately fleeing the night before. He wondered if Elise had done something to ease his soreness as well or if a few hours of sleep was what his body had really needed. Now that the pain was fading, he was reluctant to re add to it. He wanted to give the go ahead to Elise, who was sitting with an encouraging expectant smile on her face, but his body begged him otherwise.
"It's either this or stitches, and stitches will hurt for a lot longer."
Corrin jumped, looking around wildly until he located the source of the voice. Leo, sitting in a far corner of the tent, lowered his magic tome from his face and snapped it shut. He stood up, ducking slightly to avoid hitting his head on the top of his tent, and walked over to Corrin's side, opposite of Camilla. Sitting down cross legged, he placed an armored hand on Corrin's knee.
"Xander is out with a scouting party," Leo said, looking Corrin steadily in the eye. "Some of our soldiers have spotted Hoshidan forces a couple of miles east and it looks like they're marching our way. We may have to fight."
"We won't ask you fight with us if you're not feeling up to it," Camilla reassured, though she too leaned forward a little. "But we need you in decent shape to retreat back to the capital."
"No."
A cold panic suddenly swarmed into Corrin's chest, he shook his head, looking around desperately. "Don't make me retreat, not yet. There's something you have to know, all of you, I can't leave until Xander gets here."
A few eyebrows raised at Corrin's frantic tone.
"Well, then you may have to fight if you want to stay here until Xander arrives," Leo said matter of factly, his hand clamped down on Corrin's knee. "Either way, we'll need to heal those feet. So hold Camilla's hand, and take a deep breath."
Corrin nodded, swallowing down any apprehension and looked to Elise. Almost immediately, the pain returned to his feet. Once, among the numerous random books stashed within the corners of the Northern Fortress, Corrin had found a book on traveling circuses. There were records of amazing feats of strength, performers who could juggle flaming knives, dancers who could heal fatigue. There had also been a diagram of something called a needle bed, a wooden board stuck through with hundreds of sharp metal points. The description had spoken of how performers could lie on the bed holding heavy rocks or even allowing someone from the crowd to stand upon them without the points piercing their skin. Corrin didn't know how it was possible, but right now, it felt as though the needle bed was being driven through his feet.
"Almost there, just one more minute," Elise said, her face lit up in the pale blue green glow of the staff. "A little more...okay, done. Just wait until the red goes down and you can try standing up."
Letting out a breath of relief, Corrin pulled his knees to his chest, allowing the soles of his feet to cool down against the grass.
"Now that wasn't so bad, was it?" Camilla asked as she ran a hand through his hair, combing down a few stray strands with her fingers. "You couldn't imagine our panic when you seemed to vanish into thin air. When we saw the hole in the bridge, we could only assume the worst, but there's no way we could have just turned home. We looked for hours around the forest and ravines."
"Thank you, I don't know what I would have done if you weren't still near the Bottomless Canyon," Corrin shuddered at the thought. He may have wandered around lost for days.
He meant to say more but was cut off by a loud thud followed by a soldier's call.
Crown Prince Xander had arrived at the camp.
"One moment, I'll bring him over," Leo said, swiftly exiting the tent. Just a few moments later, he returned with Xander following behind, looming like a dark shadow in the shade of the tent.
"Corrin," a small smile instantly softened Xander's face, "it's good to see you with us once more."
"Xander, I have to tell you something," Corrin spoke instantly, cutting off any further greeting. He pushed himself up so that he was resting on his knees, ignoring the protests of his still irritated feet. Noting the urgency in his voice, Xander only spared a quick look around before ordering for the guards outside to move away. Once the five of them were alone, he gestured for Corrin to continue.
"I did fall through the bridge into the Bottomless Canyon," Corrin paused for half a heartbeat, suddenly remembering the land Lilith had brought him to after his plunge into the canyon. He had nearly forgotten it entirely in the mess that had followed afterwards. But now was far from an appropriate time, Corrin decided, and waved the thought away. "Gunter fell first. We were retreating after you guys had arrived to back us up and Hans..."
Corrin's hands reflexively tightened into fists, his nails digging into his palms, "Hans was there waiting for us. He knocked Gunter through the bridge, and afterwards he tried to push me down as well."
"Yes, that was what you had told me when I found you in the forest," Leo said, the sole steady voice among the chorus of surprise, though his eyes were narrowed in anger.
"We'll deal with him once we get back to the capital," Xander said. "I promise you that. Now continue, what happened after you fell into the canyon?"
"I woke up in a cabin, I guess it was near the edge of the Hoshidan border. There were two people there who said they were going to escort me to the Hoshidan capital," Corrin looked to Leo. "They were the two prisoners that I couldn't kill back in Castle Krakenburg."
"What?" Leo's eyes widened, an unusual expression on his features. "Maybe I should have just killed them. Did they try to take revenge on you?"
"No, not at all," Corrin said, confused himself. "They were really courteous, considering the situation. They took me to the Hoshidan capital and brought me to meet the queen and the crown prince. They said-"
Corrin paused, the words catching in his throat. Even now, what Mikoto and Ryoma had said disturbed his entire being, his stomach turning and chills digging into his bones.
"What did they say?"
"They said that-" Corrin's nails dug harder into his hands. "They said that the queen, Mikoto, was my mother."
The tent fell silent, the sounds of soldiers outside walking by or moving equipment suddenly becoming deafening. It was as if, within the the perimeter of the little pavilion, time had frozen.
"No way!" Elise shouted, breaking the trance. She walked over to Corrin on her knees and propelled herself against his chest, nearly knocking him flat onto his back. "Why would they say something like that to you? That's so cruel."
"I don't know," Corrin admitted, shifting so that Elise could sit more comfortably against his arm. "I told them that it wasn't true, I said it over and over again, but they insisted. They said that they wanted me to give them a chance to prove it."
Xander, Camilla, and Leo exchanged a glance, their expressions cryptic.
"How strange," Leo finally said, slowly.
"Right afterwards, a soldier came in and said that a village was being overrun and needed urgent assistance. Ryoma, the crown prince, asked me to come along, saying that it would help me understand what was happening. I didn't dare refuse him so I followed. When we got to the village there were these things," Corrin reflexively grimaced at the memory of unstable green flesh and the smell of decay. "They called them Faceless, these giant bloated monsters with metal masks and chains. They said that the Nohrian mages summoned them."
"I had heard that Father had commissioned a new weapon for the army, though he refused to tell me the specifics. If such a weapon were only deployed at the very edge of Nohr and sent towards Hoshido, perhaps that would explain why I have yet to see it in action." Xander mused.
How terrifying, Corrin thought, if Father would keep such a secret even from Xander. He decided against describing the Faceless further, it was yet another detail that could wait for later.
"In the village, I met the other two Hoshidan royal children, both princesses. One was a girl about Elise's age, and the other was a knight on a winged horse named Hinoka." Corrin continued. "They said that the Nohrians were pure evil, that they didn't care about anyone's lives when they were setting the Faceless loose. They said that we were all monsters. I knew I had to run, they'd never taken their eyes off of me if I let them take me back. So, I found an opportunity when we were cleaning up the village's debris, and I bolted. I tried to follow the trees and eventually, I found my way back."
His tale at an end, Corrin looked around to his siblings who were in varying levels of thought. As he took a moment to catch his breath, Corrin suddenly started.
"My sword!" he exclaimed. "Did I have my sword when you found me?"
"Don't worry, it's right there," Camilla pointed to a blue bundle at the edge of the tent. It took a moment for Corrin to realize that it was his cape wrapped around Ganglari, it's handle peeking out of one end. He felt himself sink in relief, he didn't know if he could face Father if he had lost the gift so quickly.
The folds of the tent parted, a beam of blinding sunlight streaming into the confines. Corrin flinched away, a hand raising to protect his eyes.
"I'm sorry my lords, my ladies," the soldier knelt down on one knee. "Hoshidan forces are closing in from the east. They are a little less than a mile away and moving fast."
"What do their forces number?" Xander asked, immediately snapping into an official tone, his posture straight and powerful.
"Not many more than our own, my lord, less than a hundred."
"Very well, have my messengers returned yet?"
"No, but they should not be far off."
Xander nodded, allowing the soldier to leave. He turned to Corrin, "There is a minor lord whose castle is nearby, I've requested reinforcements from his garrison. They won't be fielding much of an army, but if the Hoshidan force is truly so small, then it will be more than enough to tip things to our advantage. Come along, we'll have a little chat with these Hoshidans."