Chapter 36

The return march to the northern part of Valm was a quiet one.

After Robin had explained the situation of the duel between Say'ri and her brother, there was much more determination in the army to go out and defeat the enemy. It didn't matter if Walhart was aware of the cruel tactics that were enforced or the blackmailing; he still kept him as his own tactician.

However, with the Resistance army at large, and Walhart's main forces location unknown, there was little Robin could do, and he had the army make haste to a valley that most people stayed away from.

During camp one of the nights marching, Henry came giggling into Tharja's tent, a grin spanning the length of his head.

"Hey, I've almost finished what you asked me to do! All I need now is some of your blood, hair, and a pillow you've slept on! Nyeheheheheheheheheh!"

Really? A pillow?

"….."

"Can I have the stuff I listed? It's kind of hard to find this guy without the tools to do so."

"Right, wait a moment."

A few minutes later, after everything was created, and the magic brewed, Henry gave Tharja a vile of something, a grin on his face the entire time.

"Alright, here we go, you just need to put this on your hands, and you need to cast your spell!"

Looking at the liquid inside, Tharja had a little double take. The liquid itself looked like it was moving around, and it was struggling to escape its glass container.

"Are you sure you didn't create a monster of some kind?"

"Yep! This is what you asked for, but the requirements were rather strange for a spell like this, so it looks funny."

"So are you sure this works?"

"Nope! True, similar spells have existed, but with this much power, I wouldn't be surprised if this accidently killed you."

"Please don't have such a grin on your face when you talk like that."

"Oh come on! Who knows what would happen, maybe your arms fall off, or maybe you organs come flying out of your mouth, or OH! OH! What if …!"

"I'll just use it now, and make you shut up."

Taking the vile, Tharja opened the cap, and let some of the liquid on her hands, before rubbing them together. Looking at Henry, who looked a little disappointed that something didn't happen, she cast her most powerful infatuation spell, and waited for a minute.

After a few more minutes of silence, and nothing really seemed to happen.

Turning around, Tharja felt a rather odd attraction to the white hair on Henry's head, as it reminded her of Robin's ….. Wait.

"Ha! Look at that! Whoever was blocking you from getting Robin got wise on us, and gave you some kind of new hex! That's awesome!"

The grin he was giving, it looked, she dare say, cute, maybe even as cute as….. What kind of hex is this?!

"Hm, from what I can tell, he simply modified it so that you feel infatuated for me, the nearest male in your physical sight, and there's something else! Oh, and you die in forty hours if you don't marry me!"

Tharja only looked in disbelief at what Henry had said. Die in forty hours if she doesn't marry this Robin look alike?

"Look at it this way! I couldn't have you working with me, but if there is some kind of bond beyond maker and user, we may be able to bypass this."

"Fine, if this is for me to reunite with my proper love, I'll deal with you as my husband."

"Yay! Someone who I can work magic with! This is going to be awesome!"

'I see that you fulfilled your end of the deal. Feel free to be as violent as you want for the rest of the war, unless there's a certain person I request you don't kill.'

Working their way through Valm, the Yllisean army made its way to their halfway point, a valley, where they would stay until Robin had made a plan of sorts. Like he did with the battle with Yen'fay, he planned to stay out of this battle, but it would have to be life or death here, Walhart was in command after all, and the war had to end.

"Say Robin, I know it's not too far away from here, but can I go off to find a separate valley? It's nearby, and I'll be able to return by sundown." Cherche had asked, looking at the man who had five barrels balanced on his head, and ten more strapped to his back.

"Yeah, sure, just don't go alone. Find someone else that's not Kellam to go with you."

"Why's that?"

"Cause I have things I need to discuss with him over the next battle. Don't worry, you'll still have him for yourself at night," he smirked, causing a small flush to cross Viron's vassal, looking away from Robin.

"Fine, I'll take the lady you seem to be spending more time with, then. Surely, you can't stop me from doing that. You can still hold her later," she retorted quietly, but loud enough for a passing Chrom to hear.

The look on Robin's face when he realized what Cherche had done to him was priceless.

"Didn't we have an agreement?" a quiet voice came up behind the tactician.

Before Robin could respond, Sumia shoved her husband out of the way, and seemed more into maybe some kind of story that Robin would tell her. Very naughty stories.

He didn't know what was worse: having to tell Chrom that he kept his vow, or to tell the queen that, who would hide her books from him, and he could never find them. He didn't know why he couldn't find them, maybe it had something to do with her aura or something.

Walking away from the scene, Cherche looked for the princess that Robin held great value to, and found her rather quickly. As she expected, Lucina was at the stables with her sister, but what she wasn't expecting was that they both looked prepared to leave.

"So are you sure he's going to be there?" Cynthia asked, as she packed something into her bag, looking around to see if anyone else would join.

"Yes, he should be there, I hugged Robin from behind to get the information out of him."

"Hey, look at you, being …"

"I would finish there if you valued his life, cause if I tell the things you wished he would as a reality to father, he's dead by the next morning."

Cynthia sighed in defeat, and her sister got on as well, before they took off, heading in the direction Cherche planned she was going.

Upon arriving, Cherche was surprised with the number of bandits in the area, and some villagers there that seemed to have been caught in the conflict. Cynthia was ferrying them off as fast as she could, while her older sister was instructing the others on what to do. She came at a bad time, she knew that much, but then she saw someone seemingly standing there, unmoving by the presence of bandits attacking the helpless. And almost unseen. Like someone else.

"Now, exactly what are you doing here?" she asked, directly behind the man.

If he was surprised, he didn't show it, but his face turned to a look of internal sorrow and outward indifference.

"Everyone's going to die at some point, why stop it? I've seen enough of it already," he responded, and that was enough for her to know who he was.

"Well, if this behavior is reflective of cowards, I certainly didn't raise my son in that manner," she sighed, and took off, flying to the direct of Lucina, to provide with more help to fight off the other incoming bandits.

There was a nudge besides the man, and he looked at the wyvern who seemed practically overjoyed at the presence of someone it had long lost.

"Fine, I'll do it for you this time."

Pestering the masked rider the entire way back, Cynthia was having fun teasing and harassing the masked wyvern rider, who seemed to want to hide in a hole and disappear.

Cherche could only look in disbelief, and only smiled.

"See that, Minerva? Someday, a Gerome of this world will be riding you when I'm too old to do so."

AN: Hi