Chapter 9: Freedom
The next day, I was taken from the cell, roughly washed, and heavily escorted to see the Queen.
According to Jake, the guards were above my capabilities to take down. They were well trained in naginata, and some of them were katana wielding samurai too. They refused to speak to me, though I didn't mind so much. They were reluctant to leave me alone in the throne room with Queen Mikoto, so they silently bound my hands in shackles, and chained my legs together so I could not pull them far enough apart to run.
And when Mikoto looked down at me from her serene place on that high golden chair, I truly wanted to run. Her face was impassive, giving nothing away, her eyes blazing with something unrecognisable as she scrutinised me.
"You didn't fully tell us what you knew, before," she said at length.
It was then I realised that this was going to be a very difficult question. Neither of us could speak too plainly.
"I didn't show my hand, but I have many more cards," I said, trying to sound cool. I'd practiced that line in the dungeons.
Her lip twitched. Perhaps it didn't sound cool in my voice...
"All good ones, I hope," she said, then stood and came to stand before me. I watched, silent, as she descended the stairs from her throne, so it was she that spoke first.
"I would see the rest of your cards too. Here and now."
I nodded, and began, "I came to this world from another, that's true. Two others, in fact."
"Two?"
"One which you know. But I was a stranger to that world too. I... Where I come from, you and both worlds you know were just a story."
Her frown deepened, but after she said nothing, I realised she wanted me to elaborate.
"I was... I was born on a world called Earth, in a country called England," I began. "People there never developed magical talents, but that didn't mean there were no stories about magic.
One of these stories was about a Prince named Marth, who fought to reclaim his lost kingdom from an evil sorcerer. The story was called "Fire Emblem"," the Queen's face did not change. "The story was popular enough, so the crea- the author wrote another story, then another, and another.
I think it was the fourteenth story which made reference to countries called Nohr and Hoshido." Still no reaction. Either Mikoto had an incredible poker face or I was terrible at picking up on minor cues. "This ga- story was about a Princess named Corrin, who was destined to reclaim her true birthright, fend off a conquest and reveal the true hidden enemy."
I let her parse these words before she spoke.
"I wish we did not need to speak of the true enemy in such a roundabout way, " she confessed, seeming to drop her frown. "Still, if you know, and your information thus far has been accurate, does the story tell how to prevail?"
I paused. Fire Emblem Fates had three storylines, but only one of these truly confronted Anankos.
"The story showed... One possible way of defeating... I mean... One way to save the world. But there are factors that changed the outcome in some versions of the story." She didn't seem to fully grasp that, so I addressed the other elephant in the room, "The main problem is that I shouldn't be here. I wasn't a character in the story I know.
The only things I've changed so far are, hopefully, all things that should have happened anyway. Perhaps something was about to happen to convince you to send scouts into Nohr, but... I sped that up. My presence here could have any number of outcomes... And I do want to make some changes."
Mikoto approached me, "If everything has happened as it should, what happens next in your story?"
I hesitated, "Kaze and Rinkah were captured by King Garon. He will sentence them to death, but give the duty to Princess Corrin. She will refuse, and be given a new task to prove her loyalty. She will travel to the Bottomless Canyon to check on an abandoned fort, on the Hoshidan side."
I frowned, "Omozu."
Mikoto seemed puzzled by my sudden mention of a random name, so I clarified.
"There's a Hoshidan force at that supposedly abandoned fortress, led by a man named Omozu."
Mikoto pondered this, "I shall have to check with Yukimura. Still, please continue."
"After being forced to kill Omozu, Corrin and her friends are ambushed and pushed into the Bottomless Canyon, only to be saved at the last moment. Rinkah then captures Corrin and brings her to you."
Mikoto's eyes closed, and she remained like that for several minutes before opening them and looking at me. She wordlessly wanted me to continue.
"King Garon gave Princess Corrin a cursed sword and the sword... It... Uh..."
At long last, Mikoto smiled, but it's a sad one. "I believe you. Still, let us make the most of your information. Perhaps we can make some of your "changes"?"
...
I found myself wondering about home, again. I may not have liked it at my mother's boyfriend's house, but I miss my mother. I missed being able to retreat into video games to take my mind off my situation and help me get to sleep.
Still, as I woke and wiped unshed tears from my eyes, I was still resolved to sort this world out, at least a little, before I tried to return to my world. The face of the dying human half of Anankos swam to my mind as I began to wonder why I wanted to help, but... There was another, more pragmatic reason.
I had determined that the best chance I had of finding my way back home would require me to be stronger.
Fire Emblem Awakening was the game released prior to Fates, and one of the morning locations in that game had been the Outrealm Gate. This had been the place players had to go in order to buy and access downloadable content, but these DLCs were given an in-universe explanation.
Outrealms were like alternate worlds, where the other Fire Emblem games took place, or where alternative timelines could be explored.
With potentially infinite timelines, and my knowledge of multiverse theory, it stood to reason that my world would be accessible through the Outrealm Gate too. Or at least through the Dragon's Gate, the equivalent in the world of Fates.
Unfortunately, the Dragon's Gate was on the other side of the Bottomless Canyon in Nohr. Perhaps I could have made it across and to the Gate, but Nohr was more violent than Hoshido, and food sources more scarce. So I'd have a better chance of getting to the Gate safely if I could fend for myself.
It didn't hurt matters that Queen Mikoto, who radiated a peaceful aura, reminded me of my own mother.
After my second meeting with the Queen, I'd been placed in a room down the hall from hers, though Yukimura insisted on placing guards down the hall's length. I didn't fault his wariness, or his doubling of the patrols – even the Queen made sure to stay a respectable distance away from me. They had all seen the unnatural way my body healed.
An armed escort always followed me, wherever I went. I forgot their names, but the pink haired mage and the short ginger with an axe refused to remind me. They did not speak to me, though I had heard them laughing and joking together while off duty.
My time in this part of the palace was rather nice, all things considered. I had full access to the library, and though I couldn't leave the central palace, where the Queen's family lived, I at least didn't have to cook or clean after myself.
There were challenges, of course, like at dinner, the night after I was released from prison.
Queen Mikoto had needed to explain my situation, or at least part of it, to her family.
"Derek will stay here because he is something else. He has capabilities which make him an ideal weapon – yes, a weapon," she held a hand against her children's objections. "He has promised to help, since he has knowledge of the enemy."
Unsurprisingly, Takumi was the most displeased, "He knows Nohr? I knew he couldn't be trusted!"
Hinoka was in agreement, "Mother, we'd heard this man had been arrested. Now you're willing to believe in a criminal."
"Please, Takumi, Hinoka. Trust my wisdom on this. Derek is... No ordinary person."
"Mother..." Ryoma spoke, his voice quiet, but tone so displeased that his siblings looked at him in surprise. It was not like Ryoma to question Queen Mikoto's judgement. "It displeases me too, to have a Nohrian and a criminal sitting here at our table, but I do trust you on those matters. Still... You called him a weapon."
Mikoto did not shift, her face calm and impassive, "I did. I have no intention of beginning any wars, but King Garon may not hold his troops back for much longer. With each day that passes, his most experienced mages are sure to be furthering their studies. It will only be a matter of time before they find some way to breach my barrier."
Sakura exchanged a worried look with Takumi at that.
"Derek is going to be trained at a border fort. I am sending Lady Reina to escort him. We are also expecting intelligence to arrive from two scouts we sent into Nohr, following a lead from Derek here."
The princes and princesses were not pleased, but were at least relieved I wouldn't be around Castle Shirasagi for much longer.
...
Kinshi were beautiful beasts – massive birds with almost glittery golden feathers, but I'd decided I did not much enjoy riding them.
When I met Reina, she was the first person not to treat me as a monster. Rather than reacting with fear or disgust upon a demonstration of my unnatural healing and resistance to pain, she instead seemed fascinated.
When Queen Mikoto informed Reina that she was to take me to the border, the blue haired woman had smiled at me.
"Have you ever flown upon a kinshi?" she had asked me.
"No..."
"Seating wise, it's not too different from riding a horse. Have you ridden a horse before?"
"No..."
Reina's smile had only seemed to grow wider at that, "Oh my! Well, not to worry," she had assured me. "I'll be sure to fly gently for you."
Perhaps Reina simply didn't know the meaning of the word "gentle" – the flight was anything but.
"Hmm, I think we could have gone faster. Let's just call that a record to beat, shall we?"
Reina was talking to her kinshi more than me, though I couldn't hear her much. I was much too busy trying to stop the world from spinning.
We had flown at what must have been incredible speeds, but Reina had also insisted on trying to make my first flight as memorable as possible. As soon as we'd left the city of Shirasagi, we entered a forest. The densely packed branches had slapped against us as we whipped this way then that, only to break through the canopy and rise so high that the kinshi's wings began to falter.
We fell back down, and when we'd righted ourselves, Reina had given a great whoop of exhilaration. We flew from village to village, and Reina demonstrated just how agile her kinshi could be by flying straight at almost every tall building we passed, then only swerving around when the wall was close enough to touch.
Once I regained my balance, I got a chance to examine our surroundings.
The Bottomless Canyon... When I'd left here after parting ways with Owain, Inigo and Severa – or rather, Odin, Laslow and Selena – I hadn't paid much mind to this place, but it certainly was odd. The canyon had been wide enough there that I couldn't see the other side, but here, it was like looking across a road. Four cars could probably have passed side by side here, were it not for the gaping black rift.
A wooden plank bridge spanned the canyon, and that bridge almost seemed the only thing to indicate that both sides of the canyon were part of the same world. Where I stood on the Hoshidan side, the ground was green and lush with grass. Trees grew tall, proud and leafy, but their counterparts on the Nohrian side were short and shrivelled. Gnarled black roots had crawled their way out of coarse dark dirt.
The sky was striking. An invisible line seemed to split light and dark directly over the canyon. Over Hoshido, clouds appeared white, and the sky glistened a calm blue, but over Nohr, the dark clouds seemed to threaten danger, and the sky was a dull, lifeless grey.
"It is beautiful, isn't it?" Reina asked, joining me in daytime stargazing. "How is your arm?"
On one of the flight's mad swerves around a tower, Reina had reached behind herself to grab my left arm with her own, and thrust it out. My arm had hit the side of a church tower and crunched the bones, making my arm flop uselessly to my side. My right hand held extra tightly onto the bindings holding me in place after that, for fear she might try to grab that one too.
Now though, she marvelled at my wounded arm, watching as I struggled to regain control of it. It had healed enough for me to weakly flex my fingers, but moving the arm was impossible. When I reached to touch it, it sent spikes of pain shooting into my chest.
"Amazing! You've healed even that much," Reina grinned. "I do apologise for injuring you though. I must confess it was a request from Yukimura that we at least attempt to injure you... Just in case you should still be planning to betray Hoshido."
I frowned at her, which only seemed to amuse the middle-aged woman. Still, she guided me to the nearby fort, where we found a group of Hoshidans among them.
"Lady Reina," greeted a soldier, "Our scouts saw you land. Master Omozu will be with you shortly."
Reina offered her thanks, and the soldier took over by leading us inside and up a staircase to a meeting room. The walls throughout the castle were plain, old stone, but despite its age, it was clear that the stone was good quality. The table, a fine varnished wood, was chipped but still sturdy, and the cushion seats were fraying, but still brightly patterned. The entire fort here was old and rarely used, but it was still made from fine, Hoshidan materials.
A woman was already seated at the table, holding a steaming mug of green tea in her tanned hands. Her upper body was almost bare, barely covered by wrappings that looked so much like bandages I felt indecent being in the same room as her. Around her neck she wore a chain of beads, and in her white hair she wore some sort of mask or crown, which seemed to be connected to a short mane of red behind her head.
"Lady- uh... Miss... Um... Rinkah!" the soldier didn't seem sure what to call her, but Rinkah at least saved the soldier any further embarrassments.
"Yes," she snapped, "There's no need to announce it. I can already see Reina's here."
The soldier sniffed, as though in rage or sadness, then bowed low and fled the room.
Reina took a cushion opposite Rinkah. I followed suit.
"Rinkah, it's good to see you in one piece," Reina told her. "But, I know your ways. Straight to business. Are you delivering the report?"
Rinkah glared at her, then seemed to change her mind and glare at me instead, "I wasn't supposed to be, but..."
I flinched, and not just from the angry look. I'd instructed two people be sent on this mission...
"Well, Kaze and I arrived in Nohr just fine, about a month back. We even found that fortress in the north we were looking for, but we got caught. We were in their dungeons only a few days before they gave us back our weapons and told us to fight for our lives. And the damned Dusk lickers themselves were watching!"
"... And?" prompted Reina, when it seemed Rinkah was more willing to fume over her memories than reveal them.
"Hah!" Rinkah snorted. "Well, we found her. Princess Corrin. The King told her to beat us black and blue, so she did. He told her to kill us and... She refused. She helped us escape, so the King was furious. If he ever lets her leave her ivory tower again, I'll join the Ice Tribe."
"Still, you found her! That's wonderful!" Reina gushed, "When Queen Mi-"
"Where's Kaze?" I interrupted, fearing the answer.
"Infirmary, I think," Rinkah shrugged carelessly. "Since we got here, he decided he'd help restock the medicines, so he's been gathering herbs and making himself useful."
"But no medicine tonight, I fear," a voice informed us. A handsome man with green hair appeared, emerging from the shadows. He was clad in dark cloth, with blades attached to his wrists. I let out a breath I hadn't known I'd been holding.
"Lady Reina," Kaze bowed to her in greeting. "And you must be Derek. My name is Kaze... I assume you will have met my brother."
I nodded, just relieved that nobody had died or been injured on my orders. Kaze's twin brother, Saizo, already hated me enough as it was.
"Rinkah was just telling us about your escape," Reina told the more genial twin.
"That's right," Kaze nodded. "Once we left Krakenburg, we came straight here and gave our intelligence to Captain Omozu. We have every Hoshidan fort along the Canyon on high alert, and we made certain our spies in Nohr were given a mission brief..." Kaze paused, staring at me. "We did receive word that you would be taking charge from here?"
I cleared my throat, and began, "Well, all we can do is wait, unfortunately, but... Um... Princess Corrin should be escorted by two of her retainers, and a guy who... the king released from prison to keep an eye on her."
"Two retainers... Men named Jakob and Gunter, yes?"
Rinkah grunted in annoyance at Kaze's words.
"Yes... I recommend keeping an eye on the other man though. Perhaps capture him, if possible?"
"I see..." Kaze nodded, closing his eyes. "We will trust your judgement on this. Yukimura sent us a letter saying you had some precognitive abilities. I'm usually quite sceptical of soothsaying, but given that the Queen herself has expressed trust in you, I shall do likewise."
Reina laughed, "Didn't you once make a similar statement to Orochi?"
"Perhaps I did, though I'm also well aware of her penchant for pranks and troublemaking."
"She is a minx at that!" Reina smiled. "What about you, Rinkah?"
"What about me?" Rinkah shrugged. "I'll follow the Queen's orders until I get new ones from the Flame Chieftain."
...
Omozu was friendly, once you proved yourself useful. For me, I once again found myself in a kitchen, and there was a surprise waiting for me.
"Prince Ryoma's retainer, Saizo, had been asking around while you were in prison! He found out that we were your friends when you first arrived, and he kept asking us what you were like!" Araksi told me, hardly pausing to breathe, "We said so many nice things about you, you should have heard us!"
"Sorry we started avoiding you after your dinner with the Queen," Eldegai shrugged, "Most of the other staff were jealous, and, well... We didn't wanna be ignored too."
"It's fine," I assured them, hesitating before patting Araksi's head when I saw her teary eyes. "But how are you here?"
"It was Eldegai's idea! Completely brilliant!" Araksi explained. "He went before Yukimura himself and told him that we really wanted to apologise to you in person, so he asked him if he wanted to help defend Hoshido too. And when he said yes, he had both of us sent here!"
"I thought he was punishing us at first. We left a couple of weeks ago, and only arrived yesterday. It wasn't until then that we learned you were actually coming here too."
"And guess what?" Araksi squealed, "We're going to be receiving training from the soldiers here too!"
"Not sure what weapons we should really use though," Eldegai shrugged. "They all just feel so foreign to hold."
"Oh!" I suddenly had an idea, pulling Jake from my pocket to scan them.
"Araksi Berberian. Born Shirasagi, 1989 FC.
Class: Apothecary, Level: One.
HP: 19/19
Strength: 5
Magic: 1
Skill: 5
Speed: 3
Luck: 5
Defence: 7
Resistance: 1
Movement: 5
Weapon Ranks: Bows-E, Yumi-E"
So Araksi was apparently best suited to use bows, or rather their Hoshidan equivalent – Yumi. I scanned Eldegai next.
"Eldegai Baihingor. Born Shirasagi, 1988 FC.
Class: Oni Savage, Level: One.
HP: 17/17
Strength: 7
Magic: 0
Skill: 4
Speed: 7
Luck: 3
Defence: 5
Resistance: 2
Movement: 5
Weapon Ranks: Axes-E, Clubs-E"
And Eldegai was categorised as an Oni Savage... That meant that, like me, he could use axes or clubs. Being Hoshidan, he'd probably prefer to use clubs though.
They weren't paying attention to me anymore, instead having decided to get back to work. I joined them shortly.
We chatted as we worked, or rather, the two Hoshidans would chatter away while I piped in to ask questions or answer them.
"Springtime Memories."
"No, that was the dark and scary one."
"It wasn't really scary, but Gontran was definitely in Springtime Memories."
"Okay, but it wasn't that one. It was the one where he played the guard who turned evil."
"Yeah, Springtime Memories."
"No, it had that line about knives in it."
"'A man afraid wields hidden blade.'"
"Yes! That was it," Araksi nodded. "Was that really Springtime Memories?"
"Yes," Eldegai said, rolling his eyes at me. "They were performing it for free outside Miss Nazli's."
Araksi smiled, "That's just the sort of thing Gontran would do! He's ever so nice!"
"It wasn't Gontran. It was just a tribute act by some fans who'd memorised all of the lines."
"Oh," Araksi said, disappointed. "Was it any good?"
"Almost as good as the real thing, apparently," Eldegai laughed. "Anyway, that's who Gontran Douaron is."
I nodded, stirring mushrooms and onions in a pan.
...
A week passed in much the same way each day.
Each morning, at the crack of what passed for dawn at the Bottomless Canyon outpost, we'd get up and check on the night staff, then shower, prepare the fort's breakfast and eat with the rest of the day staff.
On the first day of training, I had asked a red haired archer to watch Araksi, and he had eventually agreed to train her. I had intended to do something similar with Eldegai, but there were no soldiers trained with axes or clubs in the fort. Instead, I decided to partner up with him instead.
We took turns swinging at each other and blocking, trying to pull off ridiculous moves and copy the other fighters' techniques. Clubs of course, are blunt tools that cannot cut like swords or stab like lances, but that didn't stop our fun.
Fun was perhaps not something we should have been considering when training for an imminent war, but Jake did confirm we were getting stronger. The device converted things we could feel, like our continued abilities to work out for longer, or run slightly faster, into easily measurable numbers and stats.
And then, the week was over, and midway into the next one...
"Positions! They're here!"
...
A/N: Decided to overhaul a lot of what I'd written and planned ahead so I can actually get to the good bits? Cos, come on. Chapter 10 and Corrin hasn't even gotten to Hoshido yet? What is this? Charles Dickens?
No. Charles Dickens spends an entire two pages describing a single damn door, but stuff still happens.