Xander

I was resting on my own, in a bed in the warmth of a small building. I'm a light sleeper, and I soon heard a voice in the night. It was quiet, but it almost sounded alarmed. I got up, pulling my boots on, and stepped out into the cold. Under the moonlight and above the glistening snow stood a man, stumbling in a dazed fashion, muttering and making sound. At first I believed he was drunken, but he soon started to scream, and I ran to the figure, realizing it was prince Takumi. I covered his mouth, as to not wake anyone, and I shook his shoulder.

"Prince Takumi!" I addressed him, keeping him still. He fought against me, saying something intelligible, when I realized that he was in a nightmare. I shook him again, and he blinked, his eyes slowly showing consciousness. He looked up as I pulled my hand from his mouth. He was white as a sheet, trembling slightly, and yet he was hot as coals. "Prince Takumi, you are still quite ill, aren't you?"

"No, and who told you I was ill in the first place?" He aggressively asked, trying to push me away, to no avail. He was much too frail to move my body.

"Elise did, and I'll be taking you to them for treatment." I started to lead him to the infirmary.

"Why do you care?"

That question stopped me in my tracks. I looked away from Takumi, who weakly looked at me. "My brother already lost one person close to him, I doubt he'd want to lose someone else. Now stop quarreling with me so you can get treated."

He fell silent and allowed me to bring him to the infirmary, where Hayato was woken up to treat him. Kaden and Keaton were also there, but I was told it was because there was no room in any of the other buildings. It didn't look like they minded, though, as they rested comfortably on mats on the floor. I sat beside Takumi, who laid down after being given the salve.

He was still awake, clearly shaken from whatever he dreamed of. I sat for a moment before looking at him. "You can tell me what you dreamt of, if it'll ease your mind."

"No." He bluntly responds, turning away from me. "I don't need your help."

I was silent, feeling familiarity with how he responded. "That's exactly what my brother used to say."

He turned back to me. "What?"

"My brother refused and refuses to tell me what bothers him when I catch him suffering from nightmares." I rested my hands down on the mat I was seated on, and continued, "So if I can help you, at least I may be able to get him to speak to me, too."

He didn't respond to me, and rested his head against the mat. I closed my eyes, thinking once again.

"I can't even put what I experienced into words." Takumi responds, "I can't." I opened my eyes to look at him.

"Just think about it for a while and if you do remember it, you can tell me."

He released a sigh, and tilts his head in my direction. "I would rather suffer than tell you."

I sighed at that point, knowing that it would be hard to get the Hoshidan royals to trust me, let alone tell their discomforts to me. I stood up. "Well, just consider my offer in the future, I don't want to keep odds between us." I exited the room to get rest yet again.


I was awakened to the door opening, as Ryoma stepped in.

"Takumi's in the infirmary again?"

I sat up and nodded to him, and he slowly sighed. "Damn it, at this rate it'll be weeks before we can head out again."

"We'll just have to defend ourselves, then." I respond, "while Nohr is ruthless in combat, they know when an area is lost. That's the reason they never attempted to liberate the Evalon Desert."

"So we have no worry about getting ambushed?" He asked, looking directly at me.

"For the most part, but we can't just get relaxed."

"Of course." It was then Ryoma realized that he had woken me up. "Oh- I apologize, I didn't realize you were still sleeping."

"I was the one who found your brother out in the cold last night."

"I beg your pardon?"

"I found Takumi sleepwalking. He was suffering from a vivid nightmare, though he refused to tell me about it."

"I see, I was hoping he was finally getting those nightmares away from himself. He hadn't had one in a while."

"I assume illness brings it on." I got up, and I looked at Ryoma, who stepped out at that moment to allow me to dress. As I exited he was still there, waiting for me.

"Can you join us for a discussion?" He asked me, not looking at me at first. "We're going to discuss more about travel plans, for once people have recovered."

"Of course, I'll give my insight." I followed him to the building that Takumi and Leo were once resting in. As we got in, a number of us were there, with Niles seated beside Leo.

"May I have your attention?" Ryoma spoke up, and everyone turned to us. Even Jakob was there, in the background, arms crossed as he listened. "I believe that now is a better time than any to discuss our course from here on out."

Camilla stood beside Hinoka, and Elise sat beside Sakura, and they looked at one another.

Ryoma looked at me, and prompted me to speak up. "Now, I understand that we aren't in suitable condition to travel, with prince Takumi as sick as he is, and Leo being bedridden with a deep wound, and," I paused, "the death of a retainer," as I said this a number of people looked at each other, each with a solemn look. I sighed, "may he rest assured that this senseless war will end."

Ryoma took over, continuing, "We can still make a plan for the future, once we're all ready to go."

Leo looked up in our direction, and his eyes met mine. It seemed he wanted to say something, but he looked away.

"Leo?" I asked, looking at him. "Do you want to say something?"

He reluctantly shook his head. "No, it's not important."

"Go on," Ryoma encourages, looking over as well. Leo did eventually start again, at first trying to stand, but he was encouraged back down by Niles.

"Iago has something important to the culture of the Ice Tribe, Bïfrost. If we want to possibly bring," he stopped, looking down, "Owa- er, Odin back, we'll need to get that back from Iago before we can go after Father."

I noticed Selena and Laslow look at one another for a moment, before looking back at us. "That'll be a priority," I assured him, "but first we need to figure out how we're getting to Krackenburg in the first place."

"We can travel through Fort Dragonfall," Camilla spoke up. "Fort Dragonfall is usually left unguarded, as it's essentially in a barren area far away from the fighting. We can use it as an outpost."

"How far is that from here?" Hinoka rested a map against the table, and pointed toward the southwest region of the map. "Ah, it's likely much safer than going straight for Krackenburg, isn't it?" Ryoma asked.

"Yes, they're expecting us to march straight for the castle."

"Oh! I have someplace we can go after!" Elise called out. She went over to the map and pointed to Windmire.

"Windmire?" I asked, looking at her. "Why there?"

"Well, there's someplace we can go, that's safe." Elise responded, "I can only show you when we get there, it's kind of secret."

"I trust your judgement, Elise." I nodded to her, and looked at the group again. "Are there any other propositions or objections?"

I was responded to with silence. "Very well then, we will all meet up closer to the time of departure." I looked at Ryoma for confirmation, where he responded with a nod, and he dismissed everyone. With that I exited, choosing to take the opportunity to patrol the outskirts of the tribe.


Leo

After the brief discussion, most of everyone left, except Niles, Selena and Laslow. Niles looked at me, before standing up. "Well, I should leave you to rest for a bit, shouldn't I? You'd probably be quite uncomfortable trying to sleep with me seated at the end of the bed."

"I would. Thank you for considering that, Niles." Niles was being much less cynical since Odin's death, I noticed. He walked toward the door and looked back at me, looking as if he wanted to say something, but he shook his head and closed the door.

I then noticed Selena and Laslow quietly talking between one another, Selena getting frustrated.

"Selena? Laslow? Is there something you wanted to speak to me about?" I asked, sitting myself back up.

The two of them remained quiet for some time before moving closer to me. Laslow spoke first. "During the briefing, when you were speaking of Bïfrost, you stopped yourself, what were you about to say?"

I looked at my covers, pulling my hands out of the covers. "When Odin saved me from the blow of Jakob's dagger, his final words were, 'My name, it's Owain, not Odin.' I was thinking of those words, and almost used the name he told me. I, I didn't want to say the name, since he kept it secret for so long."

Laslow nodded, and the two of them started to whisper to one another again. Unfortunately I was close enough to hear.

"So he trusted him enough to disclose his name." I heard Laslow whisper. Selena rubbed her eyes and muttered, "He's such a dolt, why'd he trust so much?"

"I believe there's much they went through that we don't know about, Selena." He was silent for a moment. "Shall we disclose ours to him as well?"

"What?! No! We barely know him!"

"Well since Owain already told him, it's only a matter of time before he wonders-"

"I'm already wondering about you two." I interrupted, "As I could hear everything you were discussing."

Selena's eyes widened and Laslow chuckled slightly. "Whoops." He looked at her. "Looks like we don't have a choice."

She grumbled to herself, "Fine, you go first."

He looked at me, and bowed slightly. "My true name is Inigo, I am the son of Olivia, a dancer from the halidom of Ylisse, on the continent of Ylisstol, once known as Archanea." He looked over at Selena.

"I'm actually called Severa, daughter of Cordelia, one of the pegasus knights of the Exalt Chrom's guard. I'm from the halidom of Ylisse as well."

"Ylisse? Ylisstol?" I blinked, looking at them.

Inigo sighed, "We should probably explain more to him, shouldn't we?"

"Probably."

"Ylisse is on a continent that's ravaged by conflict to the west, against the kingdom is known as Plegia. Plegia worshipped a god that was a harbinger of death and destruction, a monster known as Grima. Our parents fought against the threat of Grima, and succeeded in sealing him away for a thousand years. After that, the kingdoms fell into a time of peace." Inigo looked at Severa. "Many years after that, Ylisse and the bordering kingdoms grew stable enough that the Exalt decided to allow us to set off for discovery. Severa, Owain and I set off to the east, unsure of what we would see."

Severa rubbed her arm. "When we docked in Nohr to the west, we were immediately taken captive and interrogated, where we decided to create our aliases. They believed us, but we were marked as prisoners of war, where we were forced soldiers for Nohr. After some time of all of this, Lady Camilla selected me to be her royal retainer, and I think Xander selected you?" She looked at Inigo who nodded. "And then obviously King Garon selected Owain to guard you."

"I see, so you three were adventurers?"

She nods. "Owain was once a myrmidon, a sword fighter who relied on agility in combat. He decided to dabble in the dark arts while we were prisoners, saying that it intrigued him." She rubbed her eyes again. "That eccentric idiot." She looked down again, but Inigo put his hand against her shoulder.

"Do you miss your home?" I asked.

"Well, yes." Inigo responded, "Though we've constructed a life here, and it's as if this place is becoming a second home. Not exactly a stable one, but a home nonetheless."

I nodded, and I felt exhaustion wash over me. The lethargy I had from my healing injury was frustrating, but there wasn't much I could do about it. I let out a yawn, and the two of them stood.

"We'll leave you to rest now, lord Leo." Inigo told me, he looked at Severa. "Ah, that was good to get off our chests, wasn't it?"

"I guess," She responded, "Let's just get out of here." They walked out, leaving me with my heavy eyes, when I soon succumbed to slumber.