Snowstorm let her body fall inelegantly onto the bed. She was tired. After a few days of non-stop travel, the party finally stopped to rest at castle Ostia. She had to share a room with Priscilla and Rebecca. Her eyelids almost closed her eyes when she heard the battle signal. Reluctant but instantly, she got off her bed and went outside. Morphs were everywhere.

"Snowstorm! Nice timing! We kind of need your help!" shouted Hector from the throne room.

The mage immediately went to the Great Lord. "What kind of help…?"

"See those morphs? That damn Nergal keeps sending them over and over again. We're going to be outnumbered at any time, so…"

"I understand. Just give me the command when the time comes…" said Snowstorm without even letting Hector finished his sentence.

Hector then started gathering his allies who could still fight to help defending the castle along with the knights of Ostia. He ordered Oswin to guard the throne while he led the others to assault the morphs. While they were still organizing themselves, Snowstorm caught something peculiar among the morphs. Not just odd, but, significant. She began to lose her concentration towards the war council and eventually, she got herself 'lost'.

"All of you get it?" asked Hector.

"Yes, Lord Hector!" answered the others.

"I'll repeat it once again. Priscilla shall stay here to aid Oswin in defending the throne along with Rebecca. Eliwood shall lead the attack from the right exit of the throne room while Hector goes to the left side. Lord Pent, Lady Louise and Karel will go and handle the enemies towards the guest room. Rath and I will back Snowstorm up while she's casting her magic," explained Lyn. "Any question?"

Eliwood raised his hand. "I have a question… Who are you backing up?"

"Snowstorm…"

"So… Where is she…?" A pregnant pause followed. They finally decided on proceeding with their plan as they believed that she would show up sooner or later, or so…

Meanwhile, Snowstorm stood on an ice pillar to get a better view. She scanned the morphs to find the peculiarity and when she found it, beads of chilly sweat rolled down her temple. She saw a morph, but it looked quite different from the other morphs Nergal created. While the morph still had ebony hair and golden eyes, it lacked the common look that the other morphs possessed. One thing she noticed throughout her battles with Nergal's morphs is that the 'lower-ranking' ones had the same face. This one bizarre morph, however, was familiar to her. It resembled someone from her past. As if it noticed someone was watching it, the morph turned to look at Snowstorm.

Suddenly, she felt a tremor. She looked down to see a morph warrior swinging its axe in an attempt to break the ice pillar. As she was about to zap it with Infinite Lightning, she noted how recognizable it was and lost her focus. An arrow was aimed to her neck, but Lyn arrived just in time and sliced the arrow in half.

"Snowstorm! What're you doing?! You're in the middle of a battle! Don't space out!" scolded Lyn.

Snowstorm snapped out of her deep thought. She caught the sight of a number of poison arrows coming from Lyn's back. She leapt in the air and turned the ice pillar into icicles to parry the arrows. Landing with her back facing Lyn, she said, "Don't get carried away, Lyn…" She began chanting. As the surrounding started to be covered in frost, the odd morph which piqued her attention before appeared before her. "…You…?!"

"Snowstorm! Ah! Rath! Shoot that morph!" shouted Lyn.

The son of the Silver Wolf pulled his bow when Snowstorm yelled, "Don't! Let me handle this one!" He then released his arrow towards the warrior that tried to break Snowstorm's ice pillar before. Although it hit it, it was still standing. A warrior, after all, was very formidable. Rath proceeded with wiping out the enemies with Lyn and the others, buying some time for the reinforcements to arrive.

"…What a funny twist of fate… I was born in this weather… I was named because of this weather… You taught me casting a magic to cause this weather… You died because of this weather… Now, we meet again while I'm casting the magic you taught me…" said Snowstorm to the morph. "Mother, behold… Snowstorm!" A strong, ice cold wind blew in the palace. Snow started falling heavily indoors.

"…Snow Spear!" The morph, a sage, used its power to lift a lump of snow to form a spear and propelled it to Snowstorm.

"Overheat!" She aimed her left palm towards the spear and it melted. "Infinite Thunder!" She tried to strike the morph in the form of her mother, but it evaded. "Even as a morph, you're still good… But… You're not my mother… You're empty!"

"…... Thousand Arrows… Icicle!" Countless icicles materialized above the morph and shot towards her.

"Infinite Fire: Flare Glare!" She aimed both palms towards the morph and the incoming icicles with the fingers on one hand away from the other hand. A large, flaming eye emerged from her palms and became larger as it was launched towards her opponent. The icicles were destroyed and the huge fire burnt the morph to crisp. However, the few moments of opening gave an opportunity to the morph warrior to attack her from her right side. Due to her blind right eye, she was not aware of the attack until it was too late. The arrow from the warrior already pierced her right shoulder and the sharp end surfaced at her left shoulder. In agony, Snowstorm tried to zap it with Infinite Lighting, but it fired another arrow to her. This time, it thrust her left chest.

"Snowstorm!" Hector yelled from afar. "Lyn! Snowstorm's in danger!"

The Sacaen was occupied with a number of morphs. "Ah! Snowstorm!" She tried to sneak away, but there was no chance. Even Rath had his hands full.

The morph warrior was a few steps away from Snowstorm with its axe in its hand. As it lifted its hand, the thick snow suddenly burst as an extremely fast-moving person struck the warrior. The axe fell onto the floor as the morph looked at the part of its arm where its hand used to be at.

"Looking for your hand…?" asked Karel mockingly.

It looked down to see its severed hand firmly gripping the axe, so it took the axe by its own hand and tried to hit Karel with it.

Karel merely moved his upper body slightly, but the tip of the axe grazed his left cheek slightly. "Hmph… You have a longer reach, I suppose…" He glanced at Snowstorm who was behind the warrior. "You're in the way…"

With struggle, she warped herself to the throne room. "…F-F-Forgive… me… I… have to… r-r-re…treat…" She passed out.

As soon as Snowstorm fainted, the effect of her magic wore out. The snowstorm stopped and the morphs were able to move as usual compared to how limited their movements before. After all, the storm was advantageous for defence.

Although the warrior Karel faced was far larger than him, he was quicker and more skilful. Moreover, his mastery of the sword was enough for him to defeat the axe-wielder. He was just done from delivering the finishing blow to the warrior when Denning shot his sword arm. He hissed and turned to see the one-liner morph.

"Karel! Are you alright?!" cried Lyn.

"Pfah!"

Instantaneously, Lyn shot a silver arrow at Denning. Rath showed up from his back and stabbed him. He did not pull the sword out, instead, he violently pulled it upwards, ripping its right chest and limb off. Eliwood then hurled a javelin to Denning and killed it successfully. Not too long after that, reinforcements arrived and the castle was successfully defended.

"Remember, everyone! Just this one hour to get everything we need!" commanded Hector.

Everyone went out to buy supplies. Bartre was visibly pleased and excited to see an arena, so he immediately headed there. As he arrived there, he saw a familiar figure. Black hair, white robe, a sword on the right side of her waist and an almost expressionless face. He recalled the fateful encounter on the Western Isles. His battle blood boiled as he went to the woman.

"You! Wench!"

The woman looked puzzled. "Hm…?"

"Meeting me here will be your doom! I must erase the shame I met on the Western Isles! Come! We duel!" exclaimed Bartre as he drew out his axe.

"…Oh, I remember you. You're the guy who came out of nowhere and challenged me… The one I knocked out with my first sword stroke…"

"The Bartre before you is not the same one you faced then! I will have my revenge here in Ostia! Now, dig up some courage, and do your worst!"

She sighed. "Hmmm… I did not come here looking for a fight, but how can I refuse you your revenge? Let us begin…" She unsheathed her sword and they exchanged blows for a few seconds. "Oh… It seems you've improved some…"

"Quiet! We've only just started. Continue!"

She sheathed her sword. "So tell me, where have you been training?"

"I serve Lord Eliwood now. I'm working as a guard for him! Tough opponents every day, but we just tear 'em up and cast 'em aside!"

She smiled. "Ha… That's interesting. If that's the case, I think I'll join you…"

"What?"

"My brother gravitates toward strong warriors… This journey of yours sounds like a dangerous one. Joining you might help me find him sooner."

Bartre looked frustrated. "I don't know what you mean! What about our duel?!"

"We'll put it on hold. Don't worry. I don't run away. I like you. It would be a waste to kill you here. Someday, I'll finish you in an appropriate fashion!"

He grinned. "OK! Agreed! You're now my sworn enemy, wench!"

The swordswoman then went to Eliwood, Hector and Lyn. She introduced herself as Karla, a sword fighter in search for her brother. Eliwood and Hector did not trust her at first, but when Lyn noted that Karla was a Sacaen and Sacaens were not liars, they accepted her in their ranks. According to Hector, they had a few swordsmen from Sacae which piqued Karla's interest. She went to see the people in the army, but the only Sacaen sword fighter she saw were Lyn, Guy and Rath who was still practising his swordplay. There was no sight of her brother. She thought that he was not there… until she saw a cleric coming out of a room. Karla immediately went into that room to see a woman lying on her bed, unconscious. Apparently, she was terribly injured.

Seeing her brother nowhere, she exited the room. A few moments later, Karel came out of the bathroom and sat on a bed next to Snowstorm. As he glanced at her, he saw a strand of black hair on her blanket. He took it. It was not hers as it was longer than her hair, but it was not his either since his hair was longer than that. Whose hair was that…?