Hoo boy.
Throughout the trip I went over…uh, just about every concept I knew with Miriel.
Which isn't saying much since I could explain very little.
It didn't stop her from trying to pry every last piece from my head.
…
Robin actually instituted a 24 hour guard over my tent because Miriel kept trying to sneak in.
It would be suggestive if she didn't have glasses that shone in the dark.
I mean, imagine waking up and there's just a pair of shiny-ass glasses floating over your head accompanied by cackling.
I didn't sleep well this week and I now have an ingrained fear of Miriel.
…
Her drive for knowledge scares me.
…
"I understand full well that you have only concepts to share." Miriel had said yesterday when I asked why she didn't seem to care about the specifics of the concepts. "I believe that the odds of different realms having similar parameters for existence are extremely small, thus, I don't believe the specifics as pertaining to your place of origin would be very useful for us here."
Which is…a pretty reasonable assumption, all things considered.
I wonder what the parameters for this world are.
Gravity is obviously close enough otherwise I'd be superhuman or totally useless at this point.
Hmm…
I wish I paid more attention to high school physics. Oh well. I'll have plenty of time to test it after we stop travelling.
…
Well, when I get resituated in my quarters and I can start writing things down without it raining on my notes, because we have stopped travelling; at Robin's suggestion we double-timed it back to the fortress, since she was worried about Emmeryn being targeted while on the road.
Which is…nice, but a bit unnecessary, since by the time Robin suggested we were close enough to Ylisstol already to see the walls in the distance.
Either way.
We arrived at the castle with…maybe three, four hours until nightfall.
…
The one downside with rushing back to the castle is…the Risen that occupy the road. We ended up having to fight a handful of times against some fresh Risen on the road (which worries me a little, since the Risen we met far from Ylisstol were on the verge of breaking down).
On the plus side I got a lot of practice with my wind shoes, dashing in to stab something before dashing out again. I miss having my rifle operational so I could snipe from the cart, like Virion.
You didn't even bother picking up more nails from the villages you passed by.
That's because we passed by them. I can't just go "Hey guys can you wait for fifteen minutes? I need to get four boxes of nails."
Speaking of villages, most of them seem to be pretty aware that Plegia has declared war, although there doesn't seem to be a lot of willingness to actually grab a weapon and fight.
Just because they're aware of it…
Doesn't mean they're willing to do anything about it, yeah. Especially since Emmeryn hasn't given the orders to raise an army. I'm pretty sure she won't actually raise an army.
Ugh…
I'm too tired.
Brain isn't working.
…
"Hey, Ash. Where are you going?" I hear Robin call behind me as I head into the castle.
"Bed."
"You don't want any dinner?" Lissa sounds surprised.
"I'll make it up tomorrow." Fuck it, sleep comes first, even though I'm starving.
Sure you don't want to maintain your weapons first?
I can't make the spell circles work when I'm this tired.
…
Bed! Glorious…glorious…
"Who are you?" I ask the lady messing with my bed.
She jumps, turns, and bows.
"Oh, you're a new maid?" She's dressed like one. I didn't notice when I just got in.
She nods.
She also has really pretty light pink-ish hair.
"Fine, fine…leave. I need my sleep." I can't stop yawning and the climb up to this place isn't making it any better.
She bows again and leaves in a hurry.
A little rude, aren't we?
…
…
…
Wow, what a hell of a dream…since when did carts transform into Gundams?
You were humming the OP to Build Fighters during the trip. That might be why.
Yeah, and in the end every decided to suddenly break down every table in existence with a stupidly insistent and loud knocking.
The incessant knocking that was…is…still going on…
Uh oh.
Oh shit, don't tell me.
Get up, open the door.
It's the maid from before. I think. It's hard to tell due to lack of adequate lighting. She's giving out the same "cute" aura as before, or maybe I'm just still disoriented…
You are.
She also seems to be trying to say something.
"Is the castle under attack?" I ask her. She looks up in surprise and nods furiously.
Is she mute?
"When did this attack start?" I ask her. Oh wait, that's an open ended question.
"If…if it pleases your—" Oh hell, is that why? She can't remember formality? This is stupid.
"Drop the polite speak. What's going on?" I'm scrambling to put on my very battered leather armor. I need some new ones pretty soon.
"Uh, uh…" Oh for the love of-
I grab her by the shoulders.
"People are dying. What's. Going. On."
"Assassins are in the castle." She says very quickly…and she has a very pretty voice. I also don't think she's used to having people get within her personal bubble.
"How many?"
"I don't know, uh, sir."
"Shit. How long ago was this?"
"Not…not very. I came here as fast as I could." Why did she come only for me?
Focus.
"Damn. Alright, go wake the other Shepherds." Quick equipment check: Sword? Check. Hidden Arm gun, check. Twin daggers, check. Wind shoes, check…magical gloves, check. Ok, let's do this.
"What about you?" She asks, looking around the corridor fearfully.
"What do you think?!" I snarl.
…
I knew an assassination was coming. I told Robin to post extra guards on Emmeryn once we got back.
I thought they would at least wait for a day or so before starting chapter six.
Brillant fuckers…and here I hoped I could get a clean shot at the Skinny Dark Elf Guy without the massive confusion of an ambush.
Why didn't they hit us on the road? There were plenty of opportunities.
Turn right, head down the stairs, head toward the door…I hear the sounds of combat.
Or, rather, the sound of people dying.
…
The front courtyard is illuminated by torches, and the guards are…being summarily massacred by the assassins.
I've sparred with some of the guards before. They're at least as good in a melee as I am.
That doesn't bode well for me.
Well, no time to worry.
Eyes reporting in: some cloaked figured have rushed past the melee and are vanishing into the walls left and right.
Focus spell power on the wind shoes…pick my target…and…
"FALCON!" Wind powered charge…
"STAB!" Right in the…
Ooh, right in the throat.
The unfortunate assassin falls dead with a gurgle, and I stopped the melee for a brief moment with my nonsensical yell.
A chill. Assassin at my back.
For the record these are men dressed in assassin garb, so the shoulder knife things, hoods, the whole nine yards.
Raise sword.
He stabs.
Crap, dodge left and spin, slash!
Miss. He jumped over it.
Overhead kick warning.
That jump height is terrifying.
Duck, listen to the leg fly over my head.
Dash forward, sword up.
Got your foot! Push!
The man lands in a heap.
Ok, turn, invert sword, gut stab to finish.
Look around…yeah, the sudden death of one of their own from the neck stab gave us a temporary advantage.
Temporary because oh holy shit that guy is fast and coming right at me
Raise sword to defend.
He knocks it clean out of my hand and now I'm off balance…that upper body strength is insane.
Your sword is lost in the darkness, given by how it flew in a direction away from the castle.
Shit he's still coming.
Draw daggers.
Drawing!
Better idea, wind shoes dodge backwards!
…
Ha ha!
Can't catch me when I'm fifteen feet away all of a sudden, can you?!
Getting a little cocky.
Wind shoes charge!
…
Well, shit. I whiffed.
Told ya.
Man is now to my right.
Turn with dagger stab!
He blocks my arm with a grab and brings his sword to my throat.
Use other dagger to defend.
So to recap: his sword is separate from our throat because the left hand dagger is being held at a truly awkward angle to catch said sword on the hilt, while our right hand dagger is nowhere near his neck because he has better arm strength.
That's…that's about it, yeah.
"Weak. Truly weak. Is this the best Ylisse can do?" The man smirks.
I can't use my arm gun from this position.
Hell, wind shoes again, with the knee to your gut!
He blocks with his thigh, and whoa I'm now on the ground.
"You're certain a cut above the average guard." The man sneers, and does some kind of hand signal.
Shoot him now?
No point. Moving my arm means he sees it and probably will dodge it.
Wind shoes again and kick my legs into his face!
Oh, I actually connected.
You're upside down in a handstand (kind of) with your foot right in the man's cheek.
Draw my legs in into crouch, and…spring right into his face!
Man is now unsteady.
Legs back, reorient…I look like I'm on the starting line of a race, position-wise.
Once more! Wind shoes!
I hear him grunt as I run straight into his torso at whatever speed I was going with my leather-reinforced elbow.
Unforunately I don't have my daggers anymore. Must've dropped them when he threw me to the ground…fine.
Activate fire gloves.
"Damn you!" The man pulls his sword out to stab. Must be getting a bit desperate.
Side step, grab sword arm. Punch elbow in the direction it's not meant to bend in.
…yep, that sounded like it broke something.
Grab his sword, turn, and…slash!
He's now bleeding profusely from his throat, and retreating insanely fast, holy shit.
"I'll remember this." He snarls, fading into the shadow.
…
We've read enough Tvtropes to know what would happen if we let him go, right?
Like hell am I gonna let this bite me in the ass.
Wind shoes pursue!
He's on the…how did he get on the wall? There's like nothing for his hands to hold onto.
Whatever, wind shoes jump!
"What the…?!" Last words I hear coming from him as he turns to see me with fire on my hands and green on my feet flying at his face.
…
…
Shit, I got two, but…the entire courtyard of twenty or so soldiers are dead.
Correction, they were dead by the time the second guy tossed me to the ground. It took…what, the assassins upward of twenty seconds to slaughter the entire courtyard and keep going.
Obviously I'm not their target or I would've been dead already.
It's not balanced for the player to win this time.
Double shit. I need to get back to Emmeryn right now.
…
The castle sounds like it's finally waking up. I can hear a lot of noises, but they're too indistinct for me to make out exactly what's going on…just a lot of shouting.
…Well.
…Lying on the side of the corridor is a dead maid.
It looks like the assassins at least slit her throat simply.
Are they not discriminating anymore? We're all kinds of fucked if that's the case.
Damn. Sorry, servant folk, but Emmeryn is more important.
God does that sentence leave a bad taste in my mouth.
…
…
Turn around the corner here and…torches.
Ylissean soldiers, plus one Ylissean noble.
"There he is! Get him!" Uh.
That can't be good for me.
"Hold it! I'm a Shepherd." I say while skidding to a stop.
"Like I'll believe that, assassin." The captain of the men sneered. "Kill him!"
Well, shit.
Time for more jet boots! Run forward…
And…
Now!
The men can only watch as you sail clear over their head with a single jump and land on the other side.
And I think I botched the landing. Ow ow ow ow.
Continue jet booting away, from the well-intentioned but misguided noble who's trying to protect the castle.
If he's misguided and trying to kill everyone he sees…
Then there's a chance that the castle's own guards are split in factions, yeah.
It's just one issue after another, isn't it?
Pass the next corner, almost hit the wall, and…
Bodies. Soldier body parts. Severed gauntlets, helmets, broken spears.
Looks like they were cut to pieces, but…not a lot of blood. It looks more like a pile of wax body parts than, y'know, actual body parts in this dim lighting.
And yet the only thing we feel is relief that there isn't blood on the ground.
I'm an asshole, let's move on.
…
"Ash!" Stahl bursts through a corridor with some guards.
"Stahl! Are you ok?" I skid to a stop.
"I'm alright." Stahl says. He seems to be in pain. "Where are you headed to?"
"Emmeryn. They have to be targeting her." I don't actually know why beyond prior knowledge.
Well, we have an idea.
Yeah, yeah. Emmeryn dies, Ylisse crumbles at the seams because Chrom's not very respected as an actual leader, so on, so forth. 100 percent all natural speculation and conspiracy theories.
"We'll go with you." Stahl says with a nod.
"Right. Do you have extra torches?"
…
Ah, precious, precious light.
The men were told to light every scone they saw and illuminate the whole castle while Stahl and I went ahead.
Considering that we effectively told them to "stay safe" while we run headlong into guys that can kill all of us the soldiers didn't seem to mind our orders one bit.
"Ash, why do you think they're after the Exalt?" Stahl asks while we run.
"I can't imagine them hitting anyone else." Nobody else in the Shepherds is important enough to assassinate, Chrom can handle himself, and if they wanted to kill Lissa they would've done it already.
"No, I mean…why do you think they want her life?"
Uh…
"I can't imagine. If she dies Ylisse goes nuts and burn Plegia to the ground. It doesn't make sense." I don't want to mislead Stahl but I don't need to worry about political bullshit in the middle of an assassination.
"I see." Stahl readies his sword as we clear the last set of stairs to Emmeryn's room.
I see…the door to the room open, and light flickering from within…no torchlight on the outside, either. So either no guards made it here or…
The assassins outpaced all of you.
Let's…not think about that possibility.
"Cover me." I mutter and ready my sword. I don't hear anything from inside the room…I don't think she'll be dead at this point, but by god do I not want to do this.
…
You're going to have to bite the bullet here.
Dammit.
Ok…
One…two…
Three!
I charge into the slightly open door and blow it wide open, and come…
Very, very close to impaling myself on Falchion.
Er…
"Hi, Marth." I sigh because FUCK YEAH she made it here first.
"Hello, Ash." LucinaMARTH pulls her Falchion away from my face. I see Emmeryn sitting serenely next to the bed behind her, dressed…
I should probably stop looking, although to be fair it's nothing flamboyant.
Pity it doesn't have the laces you like so much.
Oh god dammit now I want to double check.
"Ah, Ash. Thank you for coming." Emmeryn says calmly and once again I feel the surge of power.
"Whoa." I hear Stahl mutter behind me.
"I'm glad to see you safe, Exalt." I bow to Emmeryn and turn to Marth. "Are you the first one here?"
"Panne got here before you did." Marth said quickly, "But she went to assist in the castle halls."
I nod. "Right. Keep doing what you're doing, then."
"Like I need you to tell me that." Marth says, and then suddenly throws her Falchion to the corner of the room.
An assassin drops to the ground and pulls out his sword, but not before Marth ran up and punches him in the face...
And then knees him in the stomach…
And finally runs him through with the Falchion.
Violent Lucina is violent.
"Don't you have a castle to patrol?" She says lightly, wiping Falchion on the dead guy's cloak.
…
"When did you meet Marth?" Stahl asks. "And who's Panne?"
"We met during the arena match in Ferox." The worst part about not having a map camera is not knowing where anyone is. As far as my eyes and feet can tell the map we're dealing with is nothing like the chapter six map, and that worries me.
If only because I'm worried about someone besides Emmeryn dying.
"Stahl, can you wait here with" I almost called her Lucina "Marth?"
"Uh…I don't think it's a good idea to go off on your own." Stahl says hesitantly.
He's right, but I'm trying to be in two places at once.
"I know, but…Emmeryn's more important. Besides," I wiggle my foot. "I can run from a fight, you can't."
Stahl frowns, but nods.
"Thanks." I activate my wind boots and head down the…
Mental coin flip. Heads.
Right side.
…
Christ, the path is practically lined with dead guards and nobles.
All pushed to the sides of the hallways, leaving the main path bloody but otherwise clear.
Hmm…
…
Looks like this is the path to the throne room…if the blood flowing out of the room is any indication. I kind of wish it wasn't so brightly lit.
Welp. Here goes nothing.
…
Procrastination won't make someone less dead.
…
Now!
…
O…kay, that is a lot of corpses. A lot of servant corpses, some assassin corpses, and a few soldier corpses, and…
You feel a savage happiness seeing the dead assassins on the ground, even if it's only a handful of them.
We feel a savage happiness. Standing in the center of the throne room is…
A tall, dark, problematically thin dude staring at the burning throne with no small amounts of glee.
"Ah…a new visitor. Welcome, how do you like the…decorations I've brought to this dusty old place?" His voice is a bit deeper than it is in the game. I'm not sure why that of all things caught my attention.
"Yo, Validar."
"I see my exploits have reached even your ears, servant." Validar grins. "Do you have any idea how difficult it was to break into this room? Very hard, you know. So many bodies, so little…time." He squishes a ball of magical power in his hands for emphasis.
"I can only imagine. You do know court isn't in session at this hour, right?" I can feel sweat going down my back. This is bad. I hoped to snipe him from a really fucking far away, not at melee range.
"Ha! Of course…but I do enjoy doing things right." He pacing in front of the burning chair, casually kicking away the corpses on the ground with every step, and that grin doesn't fall from his face all the while.
"Then perhaps you can come back in the morning?" I growl. Have to keep him talking, have to buy time.
For what?
"Oh, I will, after I bring in a new throne." Validar idly thumbs through his spell book. "Can't let a man of my stature stand throughout the day, now can I?"
"I don't think your twig-like legs could stand under your weight." I mutter. I think that counts as a thin joke and a fat joke in one sentence.
Are thin jokes even a thing?
"I keep myself fit on a diet of Ylisseans and idiots, and you sound absolutely delectable." He rubs his fingers together. Would that count as emphasis?
Also that is the most homoerotic thing I've heard so far. "If you ate yourself you would have infinite energy."
He openly laughs. "I like you, boy! The first man to have met me and decided to talk instead of..." He waves his hand, as if to conjure up the right words. "…trying to kill me. It's certainly a very refreshing feeling! Now then, let me see if your death screams are as interesting as your words." Validar shows a ball of dark energy on his hand.
Too bad for you I have initiative.
…
[3rd person camera]
…
Validar then twitched in shock as Ash suddenly streaked forward to plunge a sword into his body.
"No mere servant, I see." Validar snarls as Ash bounces back from some unforeseen force.
Shit, is that a barrier? Ash wonders, and then goes "eep!" as a Flux spell grabs for him.
…
[1st person camera]
…
Shit shit shit shit I'm weak to dark fuck fuck fuck
Pay no attention to all the body parts and blood your wind shoes are blowing around the room.
I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THE SOUND OF FLUX SHREDDING THE ROOM APART
…
[3rd person camera]
…
"Run! Run! Little mouse!" Validar laughs as he fires Flux after Flux after Ash as he dashes around the room with the help of his wind shoes.
"Fuck you too, Validar!" Ash roars, and raises his left arm.
Validar feels some force impact his chest, and looks down to see two nails pinning his cloak to his body. "What trickery is this!?"
Ash then redirects himself and jump towards Validar, and then he swings down with all his might.
"Bah!" Validar blows him away with a burst of raw magical power. "Petty tricks. The Grimleal can do better, child." He then gathers an immense amount of magic onto his hands.
Ash, in response, unclips one holster of nails. "Yeah?" With practiced speed, he loads the hidden arm gun without faltering in his aim of Validar, and fires.
Validar's gathered magical power falters as he feels nails impact his body.
"How are you getting past my barrier, you mongrel?!" Validar snarls, discharging his dark magic in a blast around him.
Oh shit. Ash thought as he fired a second barrage of nails at Validar.
…
[1st person camera]
…
Ok…that wave…didn't hurt at all.
Not in the sense that I can't feel it. I can feel that magical power permeating through my entire body…it just doesn't feel like it hurt.
"Is that it, Validar?" I can't help but be just a tad snarky as I shoot him again.
"Stop that!" Validar snarls. I think I'm irritating him.
It doesn't bode well if our skull-piercing weapon can only annoy the early game version of the boss.
He gathers more dark magic in his hands.
I'm worried that he just set me up to be a bomb, so…grab one of the spears from the dead guards.
Wind boots, charge!
…
He sidesteps me with a sneer.
…
And I can't stop because wind boots have like zero friction.
So…
Hello, wall.
"How heroic." Validar is so sarcastic he almost looped back around to sincere. "My turn!"
Dodge it!
Like hell I can, I can't even see straight!
"Ash!" I hear a girl's yell behind me, and then an explosion.
"Bah, more nuisances." Validar grumbles, and I get my bearing enough to turn and see…Nino. Hi Nino.
"Are you ok?" Nino asks, not taking her eyes off of the tall skinny evil guy.
That makes him sound utterly ridiculous.
"Yeah." I sound just a bit dizzy.
"How nice, to have a lady of the castle" my god is his voice is dripping with contempt "protect you and only you." If contempt was actually a liquid this castle would be flooded. Sheesh.
Nino just shoots fire spells into Validar, forcing him to block with this…weird slimy looking shield thing. Can dark magic actually do that?
Either way, it blows Nino's fireballs around into the walls around the room, and one right at my head. Ow.
That is not how a shield works. That better not be how a shield works.
If we're looking down at the room like a 2D map, we are at the top of the room, Validar is on the right, and Nino's at the bottom.
Nino doesn't say anything, but she stopped shooting in a big hurry.
"Big mistake." Validar fires something huge and evil-looking at Nino.
Nino dives and rolls into the room, and Validar's spell tear the throne room gate to pieces.
Ok, I'm ready again. The spear I borrowed is totally destroyed though; the shaft is in pieces and the head is embedded in the wall…no wonder I couldn't stop in time, if I was putting that much power behind the charge.
Fire glove time?
Fire glove time.
"Yo, skins and bones." I'm being a little hypocritical with this comment, but it catches Validar's attention anyways.
Long enough for him to see me fly into his face with a fire punch.
Remember how he dodged the previous one.
That might explain why my fist didn't connect with his smugly smirking face.
Ok, reverse wind on feet, stop dead next to him…barely loose balance…
INFINITY FIRE BARRAGE PUNCHES TO FACE YEEEEEAH
It's more like twenty punches or so.
FINISH!
Fine, twenty one.
Validar is staggering. I knew my punches couldn't possibly sink deep if I go that fast.
"Agh, you…you belittle the essence of a mage!" Validar snarls with blood running down his face.
Also, I have no idea what the hell that is or why he would possibly care.
"Cry me a river." I snarl back and pick up a sword drenched in blood on the ground.
Validar opens his mouth but immediately shuts it as Nino drops some thunder on his head, forcing him to defend.
Which gives me an opening to…
Shit. I can't move.
"Bah…to think that I can't even execute my well laid plans. You have my attention." Validar suddenly dodges to his right and releases another burst of magic from his hand, knocking Nino back.
He then snaps his fingers.
…
[3rd person camera]
…
Ash's body suddenly behaves as if a bomb had exploded inside of it, spraying blood everywhere.
"Hm, I suppose that is unusual." Validar says, surprised, as Ash collapses to the ground.
Whatever remark he was going to make was drowned out by Nino's scream of rage as she pelted him incessantly with thunder spells.
Validar blocked the first few bolts, and then rapidly felt his shield weaken.
"Looks like you're quite the interesting specimen as well, child." Validar laughs, suddenly lunging to his right and firing a Flux at Nino.
Nino doesn't even flinch as she bats away the Flux ball with a thunder spell wrapped around her hand.
"Very, interesting, specimen." Validar licks his lips.
Nino's response is to shoot more fireballs into his face, forcing Validar to run around the room, but not before hitting Nino with the same spell he hit Ash with.
"Now then, let me see how you taste." Validar ducks beneath a wave of fireballs and snaps his fingers.
Nino felt the life drain out of her, then stumbled and fell on her rear.
"So why does it affect him so badly?" Validar muses, looking at Ash's unconscious form on the ground. "Maybe he's just that sensitive to evil." He chuckles.
"I'll…I'll get you. I swear it!" Nino shouts as she struggles to get her feet underneath her; the spell felt like it drained the power from her, and her minute constitution meant she wasn't getting on her feet as fast as she wanted to.
"Oh really? I really love to see you try, my dear girl." Validar sneers, his voice once again carrying that tone of derision he had before.
"Kid! Back off!" Nino heard from behind her.
Chrom bursts into the throne room with a mighty roar, his Falchion held aloft. Robin and Fredrick follow close behind, along with an entourage of guardsmen.
"What in the hells…Ash!" Robin sees Ash's crumpled form on the ground and immediately says something to one of the guards, who salutes, turns, and runs out of the throne room.
Chrom, meanwhile, charges at the obviously evil-looking Validar, who seems to be stunned by the sudden reinforcements.
That momentary lapse of concentration caused Validar to suddenly feel the bite of the Falchion in his torso.
"Chrom!" Chrom doesn't turn to look at the sound, but pulls his sword sideways out of the body with one swift move as Robin jumps in with an overhead slash of her own, barely missing Validar's head.
"How…how dare you!" Validar snarls as he taps the end of his spell book.
Instantly, the room flashes bright.
…
Once Chrom's vision (and everyone else's) cleared up, they noticed that Validar was missing, and there was a trail of blood leading out of the throne room via one of the side exits.
"Guards! After him!" Chrom yells and charges after the blood trail, with Robin and the soldiers in tow.
"Are you alright, milady?" Fredrick asks Nino, who had finally gotten to her feet after shaking all the stars out of her eyes.
"I'm…I'm fine, look after Ash!" Nino sprints out of the room after the blood trail.
…
…
…
[1st person camera]
…
…
…
Ok…I feel like shit.
Like…wow, do I feel like shit.
Uh…what do I remember last…
AH
OK
OW
FUCK
OW
"Don't sit up so quickly, you idiot." Maribelle says.
Open my eyes…ok that burns kinda fierce.
Maribelle is sitting next to…what I'm assuming is my hospital bed, given the size of the room. I'm the only one here in this room of six beds.
Given the light source I guess it's pretty much daytime.
Wonderful deduction.
"How long…" I sound very hoarse. I must've been out for a while.
Maribelle gives me a jug of water. Best tasting water ever.
"You were unconscious for almost two weeks now." Maribelle says as I gulp down the water.
Two weeks?!
"Seriously?" I rasp as I stop to take a breath.
"Very serious. That girl…Nino, was it? Said you were hit by some kind of dark magic attack." Maribelle scowls. "This weakness of yours is dangerous…honestly, I'm amazed you haven't died because of it yet."
I shrug.
She sighs. "Never listens to a junior, do you?"
"I don't consider you a junior." I almost impulsively say, finally having drunk enough. "Well, not by age, anyways."
"So what other factors do you consider?" Maribelle huffs.
"Uh…" change topic, fast. "What happened after I nearly died?" I'm in the hospital, it's been two weeks.
Put two and two together.
"Apparently the mysterious assailant was defeated by Chrom's entourage of guards." Maribelle takes the now empty jug.
"Did they kill him?" That's all I want to know.
Maribelle nods. "I believe so, but we didn't find the corpse."
Shit, that means he's still alive.
We can write off plan A as a failure then.
"Wonderful. What happened during the two weeks? Where are we now?" After regaining my glasses I realized that the walls were made of wood.
"Robin decided that we needed to leave the castle for the time being, so we're currently in a village near Ylisstol." Maribelle sighed. "We've been here for the past two weeks or so. Getting you to stay alive while travelling on a wagon is difficult, you know."
"I can only imagine." I sigh. "Thanks, Maribelle."
She only 'hmphs' in response. I'm getting that response a lot, I feel. "You're almost more trouble than you're worth."
"Who is?" Robin says, stopping at the entrance to the room.
"This guy." Maribelle taps me lightly on the head.
Robin smiles in relief. "Ash, you're not dead yet." And then she growls. "You're also really expensive."
What…ok, yeah, I guess I'm eating heal charges, but…
"Ylisse has the best healers. Did I ever tell you that?" I grin, and see Maribelle blush a little.
D'aww.
"So I see." Robin's smile darkens a little. "Do you know what's going on?" She sits on the edge of my bed.
"A little. Fill me in on the details." I sit up as Maribelle leaves to do something else.
"Ok. Number one, the castle suffered catastrophic civilian losses."
…Ok, this isn't like the game, even factoring in conservation of detail.
"It seems like these assassins didn't have a target in mind." Robin continued. "According to our mysterious swordsman Marth, they made only a token effort to get near Emmeryn, who I thought was their original target."
"Same here." I mutter.
"Yeah. They killed almost everyone they can get their hands on. We got lucky since Chrom rallied us, and it backfired since he woke up the entire castle…and we didn't see you when we went to wake up you, but a maid told us you went to…do something." Robin shook her head. "Seriously though? Stop running off on your own."
"I'll keep that in mind."
"In any case, Castle Ylisstol is gutted and we've abandoned it for the time being, against Emmeryn's wishes. We've also left Ylisstol since Fredrick's worried that there would be additional assassins in the castle town." Robin buried her face in her hands. "Those bastards, those conniving bastards." She snarls into her hands.
"Why do you think they hit…hell, everyone?"
"I was hoping you could tell me." Robin looks…really tired. Must've been a rough two weeks for her.
"This is not what I expected, so I only have guesses." I raise my hand and start ticking off fingers. "One, they wanted to show us that nowhere is safe to damage morale. Two, they wanted to get Emmeryn to a less guarded position before finishing her off for greater effect."
…
"What, no three?" Robin asks after a brief pause.
"I had a three but I don't remember what it is." Whatever that reasoning was it existed for a glorious fifteen seconds.
"Well, if they tried to break morale then they failed, badly." Robin looks determined. "The Ylissean citizenry are of the belief that a nation who willingly and gleefuly attacks civilians are worthy of their rage; the towns are levying troops and the ranks have filled amazingly fast. All we need now is an attack order from Emmeryn and they'll probably drive all the way to Plegia castle."
…
That might be why.
"Are you feeling ok?" Robin asks when she sees my face pale. (It feels like it paled)
Shit, this boulder just went off the slippery slope in a big hurry.
"Yeah, I'm…fine. What else happened?"
"Nothing much, interestingly enough." Robin stretches. "Plegia doesn't seem to want to invade Ylisse. Their logistical situation must be worse than I thought. Apart from some sporadic engagements between their Wyverns and our Pegasus Knights there hasn't been a whole lot of fighting…for the past two weeks there hasn't been any major movement from Plegia at all."
Oh shit it might actually be why.
Oh shit oh shit oh shit
Stop panicking. It's not doing you any good.
Right. Right. Deep breaths, Deep breaths.
"Are you okay?" Robin asks, and before I can give an answer…
I hear someone running into the OH JESUS CHRIST
"Hi Nino." I'm sputtering! My ribs! Nino!
Warning. Warning. Oxygen deprivation occurring. Too much force being applied by fourteen year old girl.
"Thank the gods you're ok." Nino chokes. Was she crying?
About us? Not likely.
"Yeah…uh…please let me breathe." I feel the crushing hold loosen just a tiny, tiny bit.
"See? Nothing to worry about." Robin says cheerily, patting Nino's head.
Nino mumbles something in reply.
I pat her on the head because death choke aside she's adorable.
…
…
So it's another day before I can (read: allowed to) walk around the makeshift camp.
I say makeshift because honestly the Shepherds just took residence in a complex of buildings.
"This isn't just some random hideout you found, is it?" I had asked Chrom.
"No, this is an abandoned barracks the Shepherds used to use as a base." Chrom had explained, which made me think he used to use it as a hidey spot as a little kid.
Either way, it's barely large enough to house the Shepherds, not exactly comfortably (compared to our lodgings in the castle) but reasonably enough. Once I move out of the hospital I'll be bedding in the…communal bedroom. At least until chapter eight happens.
I also found out other bits of information about the horribly off-script chapter six.
Number one: A lot of servants died, enough to cripple the castle in terms of manpower.
This also sours the castle as a residence in general, at least until it's properly cleaned out.
Number one point five: A lot of nobles died as well, namely the ones ballsy enough to organize a defense.
Which means Ylisse is currently being run by the less active Nobles (and the ones not as aligned with Emmeryn). I can't possibly foresee how that can go wrong for us.
Number two: Chrom has reason to believe that all the assassins were caught and killed (except one).
By the virtue of Having Played the Game I know Validar is still alive.
Number three: Gaius, the only assassin (technically a thief, but who's counting) to survive had told us that the attack was aimed specifically at killing everything moving within the castle, and the servants just happen to be the easiest kills.
This is all in line with what Robin said earlier, more or less.
Number four: The Grimleal is suspected to be involved, but that's a bit of a freebie.
Emmeryn also issued a statement very fast that the worshippers of Naga are NOT (in size 32 Bold Arial, no less) going to exact unnecessary retribution on the peaceful worshippers of Grima. The results were…mixed.
Five: In a rather brilliant public relations move, Robin had spread the information (read: rumor) that Marth, the great king of The First Game, was responsible for protecting the Exalt, who was the target of the attack (read: reasonable reasoning before Gaius came along), and that the assassins only targeted the helpless women and guards IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT because they were afraid of the High King.
Obviously we know that the Grimleal were just trying to kill everything that moved, but that makes less sense than the publicly issued reason.
Five point One: This had the profound effect of causing Ylissean (and Feroxi) morale to skyrocket and was almost singlehandedly responsible for the massive influx of soldiers that Emmeryn didn't know what to do with. Granted, she hasn't issued a general call to arms so it's less of an army and more several groups of militias.
Based on what Sumia told us militias are ignoring Emmeryn entirely and taking the fight to Plegia, with rather poor results. Plegian troops aren't as good as properly trained soldiers, but they're certainly better than rabble.
Number Six: Cordelia has joined. This worries me since she's about half a chapter too early, but she was pulled off the border patrol per request from the…wow I really can't remember her name. Pegasus Knight Commander Lady. Well, the Commander pulled two knights from the border patrol and inserted them into the Shepherds: Cordelia, and Ash's Favorite Pegasus Knight.
This assumes we're skipping chapter seven entirely, since Emmeryn doesn't seem to enjoy running away from a problem very much. This also means the mole in Ylisse is still hidden, but considering the political climate that's a non-issue. This also ALSO means that the Ylisse air force is still very much intact, which is always a good thing.
Six point Five: The Knight's name is actually Amelia! I asked her a little and it seems like she's a far, far, FAR descendants of the Amelia in Sacred Stones.
More specifically, Awakening!Amelia said that "she received her name from a distant ancestor, who was a great hero of her era.". It doesn't really explain how her bloodline could've made it across an ocean that doesn't get a whole lot of traffic. I suppose it's a situation similar to Nino here.
Which makes me think that the cataclysm that happened in Awaken's backstory is the same one that trashed Sacred Stones in the epilogue.
It wasn't world ending in Sacred Stones.
It isn't world ending in Awakening.
Point.
Anyways, I got a lot of ribbing for "finally being united with my one true love" which I'm still getting taunts for and will probably continue to get teased about for the foreseeable future.
Amelia doesn't seem to care all that much. She's…very professional.
For the record, imagine Amelia's portrait in Sacred Stones, give her long, bronze-ish colored hair, and age her up until she's 18, and you have our Amelia.
I never paid much attention to Amelia in the Spotpass things so I don't even know if she's in there, let alone what her art looks like.
ANYWAYS
Nino and Amelia now have some kind of odd rivalry, which is weird since Nino is four years younger than she is.
And Cordelia in real life would win like every beauty pageant ever, it's…actually a little off-putting.
Her hair is still the most awesomely beautiful thing ever.
It shines like my cat's fur.
What?
My cat has really sleek and shiny fur; he looks utterly beautiful during the time span of "one day after bath."
Well, yeah, but still, what?
…
I think I need to talk to someone that's not my own mind for a little.
Will that make you stop blaming yourself for something we have zero control over?
Probably not.
I also need to watch out for a small green haired girl who seems to be stalking me all of a sudden.
But maybe that's just more paranoia talking.
You also need to maintain your equipment.
And…most importantly, I need a way to fight Validar and Gangrel.
Are you going to fight Gangrel at all? Since we have, y'know, a gun?
Given the odds of finding Exactly Validar during the entire assassination I think we're going to end up fighting Gangrel during chapter 11.
So…what do you plan to do?
Well…Validar kinda sorta kicked our ass in a melee, and Gangrel is better than he is at melee. Ergo, Gangrel will kill us.
We have charging speed thanks to the shoes, but that's not the same as agility. I can rocket around a battlefield all I want, but I will have to get in physical range at some point, and when I do…I lose.
Maybe you can just practice harder?
I'm pretty sure I won't be able to beat Gangrel's lifetime of experience with just a few weeks of intense training. So…plan B.
I need a melee weapon that'll break Gangrel down with one hit, because odds are I'll only get a single hit.
…
You know what we need to make, right?
Yes, oh so much yes.
"You okay over there?" Vaike's staring at me because I have a stupid grin on my face.
"Yeah, I'm fine." I'm just going off into la la land, don't worry about me.
…
Although, unlike the rifle which is just built out of scrap metal, I'm going to need to build the components of the melee weapon entirely from scratch.
Welp.
"Hey, Ricken."
"Yeah?"
"Can you point me to some ink?" I wish I had a ball point pen.
.
.
.
{ === + === }
Assassination comes and leaves, and we practically skip Chapters Seven, Eight, Nine, and Ten because of it.
I'm not entirely happy with this variation of the assassination, but it made more sense for the assassins to just devastate the castle due to a lack of conservation of detail and drive Emmeryn out of its walls.
And besides, I feel like listening to someone go "Well I wanted to kill the President (or whoever runs your country, dear reader) but your friend was just an easier target" hits closer to home.