True to her word, Kagero left with Kaze the next morning, and the pair returned several hours later with a cartful of Hoshidan-style armor. They hauled the forged iron up to the biggest room the innkeeper'd had to let to the Key Dragons, and bundled the different sets into neat little piles of boots, bracers, and gods knew what else.
All eleven of them crowded into the tiny space. "Have at it," Kagero said unceremoniously. "Kaze and I can help with the clasps."
For some, the switch to Hoshidan armor was a simple and clean break from their usual. Despite the bell-like fur kilt and wide sleeves, the archer's armor was as natural to Niles as anything else he could have worn, and quite simply, and Camilla felt far more at ease in the short dress and tall boots of the Hoshidan Kinshi knight than she would have as an armorless oni savage—or worse, in the tatami armor of a samurai.
Said samurai armor felt strangely weightless on Corrin's shoulders as she suited up, the sandals and coattails awkwardly exposing. Xander felt that the shield-like chestplate on his master-of-arms armor was uncomfortably open, but Kagero assured him—twice, in fact—that all was sitting properly. Also that this was about the thickest and most protective armor she could find.
Peri hummed her approval at the open kilt and shield-like chest plate of the spear fighter. "I think I like this."
"As you say, Peri dear," Laslow said. He and Selena were keeping their gambesons, mostly since the quilted, padded armor was, although very Nohrian, not likely to draw attention due to its inherent unremarkable-ness.
"It just feels freeing," the cavalier said. "It's fun to be in disguise!"
Both Laslow and Selena winced, and glanced to one another in a look decipherable only by Odin, had he been paying attention.
Instead, Odin was running his fingers across a set of samurai armor, feeling the tatami and the molding of the chestplate with a strange sort of hollow aching in his chest. Though it had been years since he'd donned armor of any sort, given his newfound love of the tome and scroll, he still felt drawn to this Hoshidan armor that looked so very much like what he had once worn, in another world.
"Strange, isn't it?" Xander said conversationally as Kagero checked the ties and clasps of his armor for the third time.
"It does seem utterly weightless, compared to a paladin's armor," Odin agreed cautiously.
"Is there something wrong with your diviners' robes, Odin?" Kagero asked briskly as she moved over to help Beruka, who was struggling into the thin, white-and-red combat dress of a sky knight.
"No, no, they're fine," Odin said quickly, "I just…"
"You can't possibly tell us you feel exposed in them," Camilla said, fitting the halo-like headpiece of a Kinshi Knight onto her shoulders. "Your usual robes are far worse." She winced as she turned her head and slammed her ear into one of the headpiece's metal spokes. "This will take some getting used to," she muttered, mostly to herself.
"You just what?" Xander asked, not unkindly.
Odin released the samurai armor, letting it fall back to the bed. "Nothing worthy of the ears of royalty."
Behind him, Laslow was wearing a rueful smile, and Selena had folded her arms over her chest and looked to be in a bleaker mood than usual.
At once, Xander understood. "I see," he said quietly. "If you feel more comfortable wearing armor, Odin, by all means." He gestured aimlessly to the remaining piles of armor.
"With all due respect, Xander," Odin said, gathering up the red robes and beak-like headpiece of a Hoshidan diviner, "have you ever seen a myrmidon casting spells?"
Xander blinked. "A what?"
Shit, was Odin's immediate thought. It was followed by, Have I said too much?
But Xander understood. "I know that look. I receive it frequently from Laslow. I'll not press you."
Odin breathed a visible sigh of relief. "Thank you."
"Just know," Camilla said, the lightness in her voice at odds with the gravity in her words, "that you may not always have the luxury of remaining silent about such things, Odin."
A shadow fell across the blond man's face. "We know, Camilla. We know."
-)
Two days after that, the Key Dragons—plus Kagero—set out for the plains of Hoshido. The rolling flatlands were nothing like the snow-capped mountains and winding rivers of Nohr, but privately, most of the Nohrians could admit to their beauty. The lush greenery was nothing like the twisted, black trees of the Nohrian steppes, and setting camp at night was as easy as picking a grassy knoll.
"Four days we've been out here," Xander said to Camilla later that week, "and we've yet to see a single living soul."
"It is a tad disconcerting," Camilla agreed, her eyes once again sweeping the plains for movement. Their party was continuing to press forward, groups of twos and threes broken off into conversations. Kaze and Kagero in particular were thrilled to be chatting with one another in Hoshidan, it sounded like. "Perhaps Kagero's fears were unfounded?"
"I doubt that," Xander said.
"She did seem too unnerved to be making something up."
Camilla studied the kunoichi for a moment. Kagero seemed as devoted to Lord Ryoma as Selena and Beruka were to her, and from all Corrin had said of her "other" older brother, he was nothing if not honorable.
There were stories, of course, of Hoshidan samurai that had reached even the walls of Castle Krakenburg. When Leo had been little, he had loved to hear stories of the noble knights of either country. When their father had discovered him listening Hoshidan tales, he'd soundly boxed Leo's ears and sent him to bed without supper for a month, to say nothing of what befell Leo's poor tutor. Camilla could still hear Garon's fury ringing in her ears:
"No child of mine will listen to such filth!"
But from all her (granted, limited) interactions with Hoshidans, "filth" was not the word she'd use to describe them. Kaze was the perfect gentleman, and if she were in Kagero's place, she might have pressed for information in much the same manner. After all, though there were no similarly horrifying rumors coming out of Castle Shirasagi.
"Agreed," Xander said to his little sister. "Beyond her own unease, Kagero idolizes her liege too much to do something so obvious to shame him."
Meanwhile, at the head of the pack, Corrin was deep in conversation with Odin and Laslow.
"I'm simply saying, milady," Odin began, "that your spellcasting lacks a certain… dramatic flair." He gestured theatrically in the same way he shot fire from the ends of his fingers.
Corrin laughed, covering her mouth with her hand like a proper noble-born lady. "I think I'll leave the dramatic version to you, Odin," she said. "I simply haven't the grace for it."
"Come now, my lady," Laslow coaxed. "Surely you can humor him? He'll never shut up, otherwise."
"Hey!" Odin said as Corrin began to laugh harder.
"It's true!" Selena called up from where she had been speaking with Beruka, who was looking very pale in the early afternoon sunlight and shifted uncomfortably in her sky knight's armor (such as it was).
"You were not asked!" Odin called back.
Selena stuck her tongue out at him, then turned back to Beruka.
"Will you help me, or not?" Beruka asked, her voice hushed.
As Odin, Laslow, and Corrin continued their conversation up ahead, Selena's demeanor softened, just a hair. "Of course," she said quietly. "When we get back to the astral plane, I'll take you into town. We'll look for a cradle, and baby clothes, and anything else you might need."
Selena wouldn't have deemed it possible a moment ago, but Beruka seemed to turn even paler than she had previously. Selena followed the woman's line of sight to where Niles was pacing at the edge of the group, alone.
"I know feelings aren't really your thing," Selena began, "but here's a question for you—do you think you're ready? Either of you?"
"No," said Beruka. "But we don't have the luxury of failure."
Up ahead, something caught Corrin's eye. "Laslow, Odin," she said hurriedly, "attend."
Instantly, their demeanor shifted. One of Laslow's hands went to his blade, the movement fluid and instantaneous. Odin drew his grimoire from within the confines of his (much less flamboyant) cloak, expression turning grim. A half second later, Xander and Camilla were at the head of the formation. The former already had Siegfried at the ready, although the latter was slightly more levelheaded and her steel axe remained at her side.
"What is it?" Xander asked sharply. "What's happened?"
Corrin nodded forward, soundlessly drawing her Yato.
Xander followed her line of sight up the road, up to a shadowy figure about a hundred yards off. He squinted, hoping to catch a better glimpse of whatever it was, but his sight grew no clearer.
"Are we certain this is, in fact, dangerous?" Niles drawled from somewhere to their collective right.
"Excellent point," Xander said, although it sounded as though it had been dragged out of him with a rusty lance. He gingerly sheathed Siegfried back at his side. "There's no sense in jumping at ghosts."
There was some grumbling as everyone else put away their weapons, particularly from Peri. It had been a while since the group had run into any real action, and the strain of being battle-ready but stilling their blades was beginning to wear on everyone.
As the group hiked further up the path, the shadowy figure revealed itself to be a withered old man, lumbering down the path with a small boy—likely a grandson—buzzing about him. Xander huffed a sigh of relief for—of all people—Niles' wisdom.
"Nice day, eh?" the old man asked as the group passed him. "This summer has been sweltering!"
"Yes, there is a lovely breeze," Corrin agreed with a small laugh. Camilla and Xander both eyed the old man warily.
"Grandfather," the little boy said, tugging at the old man's sleeve, "can we stop by the confectionary on the way home?"
The old man chuckled. "I don't see why not. Just don't tell your mother."
"I won't!" the little boy promised, taking off ahead again.
"Will he be all right?" Corrin asked the old man, brow furrowing.
"Oh, he does this all the time," the old man said dismissively. "He'll be back in a moment." Sure enough, the little boy ran back down the hill, giggling and nearly bowling over his grandfather. "He just can't stand still, the little rascal."
"So where are you heading?" Camilla asked politely.
"Oh, we're headed back to Yahaba," the old man said.
"That's a far journey for one so advanced in years," Kagero put forward lightly, having appeared with practically no warning, as usual.
"Oh, I'm young yet," the old man protested, pounding his breast a few times. He coughed a moment later.
Xander's eyes narrowed. Something isn't right. It was in the air, maybe, or in the wholesomeness of the old man and his grandson. Xander's stomach coiled with anxiety, and he glanced over to Camilla. The elder princess, however, was not looking at him, and instead was engaged in polite conversation. Damn her manners!
"Where are you headed, then?" the old man asked.
"Tawadaka," Kaze said, with such airy conviction Xander almost believed him. "The nobles there have hired us on."
"Oh, a mercenary group," the grandfather said. "Juro, did you hear that?"
"Yes, grandfather." The little boy's eyes grew wide.
"What have I told you of mercenary groups?"
The little boy smiled in such a way that small children should not. "They make the funnest targets!"
"To arms!" Xander shouted, just as the rest of the Crescent Butchers descended from the trees.