Chapter 24

Rocking on the waves, the ships that Plegia had provided the Shepherds were indeed of good quality, and they were most certainly capable of what Robin was planning to do with them.

The myth of his power was still incredible, with rumors flying everywhere about him. Even some of the Valmese refugees that they encountered had asked him personally to be the one to kill

their new enemy, the man that was responsible for this whole thing.

"Don't worry, Walhart will be six feet under by the end of summer next year."

Sailing out at sea, several ships were going through inventory and headcounts, Mirel was going over the numbers that were coming in from flying units, a paper that was given to her from Cynthia had some images doodled onto it, which looked like two people smacking or hugging each other, depending on how you looked at it. The names 'Robin' and 'Lucina' were marked above them, and Mirel just passed it by as something that she would draw to feel control after her crazy life.

"Ah, younger sister want bigger sister and brain man to be together," the unmistakable speech of Gregor came out, looking at the drawing that Mirel was observing.

"Pardon?"

"Both bigger sister and brain man have problem with Grima, no?"

"What of that?"
"Bigger sister see Grima, while brain man has been with follows of Grima, find similar fears in them."

"As if they are sharing something to get over."

"Ah, book lady getting it."

Having the reports in from Mirel, Robin was recalculating some numbers in his mind, and started to plan out redistribution of certain things to certain ships. While in the middle of checking something, there was a knock on the door, and he wasn't expecting anyone for the day.

"It's open."

Opening the door, Robin was surprised to see one of the newer recruits of the Shepherds.

"Hey-o, Robin! Can I ask you to do something for me real quick?"

"Hm, you must be the new dark mage who joined from Carrion Isle, Henry was it? What can I help you with?"

"Everyone says that no magic can seem to damage you, even curses have failed. So instead of killing someone by accident, I want to see how quickly your body rejects a curse," he explained, then tossing an apple to him.

"Go ahead, I promise it's not poisoned."

Looking down to the apple, then shrugging, he took a bite out of the apple.

Maniacal laughter came from the floor, with the dark mage rolling on the floor with laughter.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That was AWSOME!" Henry kept laughing to the point where it looked like he couldn't even breathe. Calming down a little bit, Henry got up, hugged Robin, then ran off, still laughing.

"Another quirk, I guess."

"So how did it go?"

Naturally being a Plegian ship, there were plenty of places where crafting spells could be practiced, someone was waiting for Henry to respond.

"It was great, it works as it should, but he completely rejected it, and some of the effects rebounded onto me," Henry said way too happy for what would be considered a failure.

"Such as?" with a voice traced in venom of annoyance.

"If I don't think of you, it's impossible to breathe. By the way, can you remove it? I want to think of how to kill people more."

He knew he shouldn't have been doing this. He was promised to join them at sea, only so that he knew what the enemy would look like, and then he would be placed with the archers for protection against armored units once on land. But he couldn't help it; grabbing a fire and wind tome, he continued to sneak to where he was going, unknowingly and unfortunately for him, a ship that would be set to burn.

Protecting the new wyvern lord in their ranks from arrows, Kellam was faring rather well in a heavier suit. "Say, after this, have you considered to get spikes in your shoulder plates, it makes you look cuter."

"Wha-, cuter?"

"Yes, then and some stripes of red down it, make it look like blood stains."

"Uh, maybe could you give me your definition of cute once we're done here?"

"Why of course."

With their mother taking care of incoming flying units with their father, Lucina and Cynthia begrudgingly went by themselves, while being shadowed by Robin.

Most people didn't notice he was there, some would assume he was taking lessons from Kellam, but no, his upbringing with multiple skills let him move right through, with a simple knife as his weapon.

Following the two sisters, he set up a magical barricade from them and the general, and climbed on top, magic ready to block arrows and throwing weapons.

"Hmph, would you look at this, no sight of the legendary Yllisean tactician, and two children have been sent to fight me, how very …." The commander didn't finish his sentence, as Lucina had grabbed a javelin from one of the fallen soldiers, and threw it at him, slightly cutting his cheek.

"Pah, that won't even scar, was that really your best?" he muttered, wiping his face with his hand, only to have Cynthia launch a Fire on his balding head.

"I don't know, having you get distracted by it was pretty funny," she snickered.

"ARROGANT PUP! The seas are my home, they shall become your grave!"

Rushing forward at the two, Cynthia passed her sister the fire tome, which Robin took note of, and took off into the air, getting her lance out. Running back, Lucina used the tome, and smelted the leggings of the commander's armor together, causing him to be unable to fight a more mobile Cynthia. Getting hit in the back by the pegaus's foot, the man flew across the deck, and into the barrier that Robin had set up, breaking his neck.

"You never told me that you could use magic." Robin's voice came from above them, as he was still sitting on his own barrier, twirling a Levin Sword, the one he took from Gangrel. Where he kept it, no one knew, but he still had it.

"Robin! What are you doing up there?!" Both Cynthia and Lucina were amazed at the fact that he was seemingly floating up there.

"Try walking under me," he said, and waited.

Taking it up, Lucina tried to do so, but her foot hit something before she did, and a ripple like effect came across a small area.

"Tada."

"A magical barrier?" Cynthia asked.

"Where did you learn such a skill?" Lucina asked, still amazed at him for having the ability to create one thick enough where he could sit on it.

Freezing at the question, Robin looked at the ocean for a bit, then pointed to where Plegia was. Since the two of them didn't know that, they just looked back questioningly, before he just shook it off.

"You don't want to know, even if I can get over it," he responded after a while, slowly bringing the barrier down, then picked up the general.

"Hear me, Navy of Valm! Your Admiral is dead, and your bodies shall soon join him!" and tossed him over the railing.

Launching a certain pattern of fire and thunder spells into the air, the rest of the ships under the Shepherds' banner were set to sail and blaze.

Having been asleep the whole time, Ricken was woken up by blistering heat. Suddenly realizing that he was on one of the ships that were meant to be set on fire, panic over took him, and casted a wind spell to dispel the flames.

Instead, they increased the power of the inferno, and some of the decks above him were starting to fall. Seeing little other options, he started to run, unable to find stairs that led up to the main deck.

As a new form of panic took him, he blasted a wind spell into the hull of the ship after he reached it, hoping to breach it and possibly jump out of the ship. He was lucky, he was directly above the water, and jumped. But the inability to use one of his arms proved to be his end, as the ship capsized from his breach, and fell on top of him.

Feeling the pang of pain in his head, Robin suddenly leaned onto the deck railing, causing those near him to panic. It got even worse when he couldn't even lean on the rails, and fell to the floor, struggling to get back up.

"Hey! Blue! Get over here! Bubbles is down!"

"What you mean?"

"Like he can't get up, bad. Something is causing him a massive headache, …. and he's passed out."

Immediately rushing to him, Chrom and Fredrick picked him up, and moved him to the sick bay, with Lissa not too far behind.

"What happened to Robin?" the redheaded Dark Flyer asked, as most people were starting to settle down, and heading back to Plegia, where they would return to Ferox and leave at the start of spring.

"Something caused him to have a massive headache of some sort, exactly what it was is unknown, but we can agree that our near legendary tactician is just as vulnerable to some things than we are," Fredrick responded, standing at attention as always.

"Headache huh? I wish there would be something to help me with my heartache," Cordelia muttered, as Fredrick was standing a little closer than normal.

"Well, milady, can I propose to you an offer?"

"Yes?"

"I'm well aware of your heart having been flung at milord, and it falling to the ground, but if I may say so, you can continue to speak to me about some of your problems," Fredrick started, while Cordelia just listened.

"You've been letting your frustrations out with alcohol during our celebrations, and you've always done so tome, and not with anyone else," he started, which caused her to face him.

"Oh gods, did I really do that?"

"Too drunk to remember, huh. There was a time later that you went drinking by yourself, by the time you came back, Robin would've been scarred for life at the time if Sumia hadn't guided you to a separate direction away from him."

Flushing red at the final comment, Cordelia uneasily covered her chest plate, thinking about what could've happened, aside from her own instability about some features.

"It got that bad, huh."

"I will be willing to deal with such things though," Fredrick continued, as he tossed her a small box, one that everyone knew what it was once they saw what it was.

Opening the box, a small string tugged at Fredrick's other arm, and a hand closed around an object.

Turning his hand over, there lay one of the few things he never considered getting in his life, but did so any way.

A band of gold with two gems, a blue sapphire and a red ruby.

AN: Well, that wasn't forced at all, was it.

At this rate that I'm going, I have no idea how long it will take for me to finish this story, including the seventy-something chapters that I already have planned out.

And Ricken is dead now, but don't worry, (puts Terminator sunglasses on,) he'll be back.