Reviews:
Cormag: I don't mind them, I mean people who can turn into dragons have been a thing for 25 years and people turned into oversized housecats in Tellius. Like a real Feroxian! Last one, I promise.
Pyro: There is no such thing as a normal family in this story,
Disclaimer: Intelligent Systems owns FireEmblem, not me.
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Blaze pov
"Hey Blaze, sorry to be a bother, but can I borrow-" Geralt said as he walked into my tent, pausing when he saw the mess. Papers were scattered about, detailing my plans for the reconstruction of Roseanne, as well as many of the smaller Valmese countries that Valm had taken control of over the past few years. "What is all of this?"
"Here, this has the basics. I'm honestly glad you came here now, I could use your help." I said as I handed him the paper that I had been working on.
"Interesting." Geralt hummed as he read through the papers "You want to adopt the smaller countries on the continent? That kind of union would have helped stave off Grima's rise, and still could should we fail. The smaller nations didn't get the chance to create a strong army before his rise, and that would be changed with Roseanne's rule."
"It would also help to prevent anything like this from happening again. Walhart's reign came so quickly because of all the smaller nations on this continent giving him the ability to gain power in a swift manner. If we can divide the continent into three countries of similar size, then there will be much less room for any single nation to gain more power than the others." I said as I rubbed the bridge of my nose. I had barely gotten any sleep in the past few weeks while I did this, Ruffles seriously needed to learn to do this stuff himself.
"And I see that you want to place members of the Bloodrose Legion at the head of each nation, and each of your chosen leaders are in the Thirteen Thorns, good." The Thirteen Thorns were the highest ranking members of the legion, being made up of myself, Cherche, and my twelve most trusted generals. Gerome, Geralt, and Ciri had spots waiting for them, but that was only if they chose to remain in our time.
"On that note, could you look over my choices in positions?"
"Sure. Let's see, you have Marius over Cyanus, good choice. He was one of the best swordsmen in Roseanne as well as my instructor. If I remember correctly, Cyanus was also his homeland before he became a mercenary." I nodded "And you have Alex covering Solana, he could help develop a nice dark mage corps there. Let's just hope he can stand the cold there, I've heard it's worse than Ferox." Geralt flipped the paper over "You have Aiden over Cattleya, which I honestly can't say anything about. Cattleya was never had much of an army outside of their own Grimleal purges, they were more of a market nation. Well, we'll see what army Aiden can make out of them, he's certainly good at whipping people into shape." Geralt looked down the rest of the page before freezing at a line "Why are Vincent and Colby over the same country?"
"Well, I was going to give Astera to Vincent, but then I remembered that he sucks at politics. Then I was going to go with Colby, but while he's very charismatic and can gather the people together, he's not as underhanded as Vincent."
"How does being underhanded make Colby ill-suited?"
"Think of it this way: which is better in a fight, going head to head against someone or kicking the guy in the dick to get the advantage? Colby would go brute force while Vincent would work around it through some crazy means. A leader must be calculating and charismatic, and both are lacking in one trait and excelling the other, so I put the two together to make one excellent leader. Normally I wouldn't use such a method, but those two are so close that it would be almost like having one great leader instead of two weaker ones."
"I suppose that does work, as strange as it is. Anyway, when are you showing this to the reconstruction council?"
"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, we have to be at a conference tomorrow at noon."
Geralt pressed his hand to his face "Thank you so much for waiting until now to tell me. I guess I'll just go cancel my plans with Severa." Geralt said bitterly.
"Hopefully she'll understand." I said nervously as I rubbed the back of my head.
"Do you realize who we're talking about here?"
"Good point. Good luck with that, son."
"I told you before, you aren't my Dad. He died several years ago."
"And I told you, I don't care about any of that. Different me or not, you're still my son."
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Soren pov
"Here you go, Soren! I got everything that seemed like it might be useful!" Morgan said cheerily as she set a stack of books on my desk.
I had asked Morgan to help me compile as many books involving studies about ancient dark magic. "Thank you, this should help to find out exactly what Grima is planning. Most people think that he's just out to erase the humans from existence, but I doubt a dragon would attempt such a feat without a purpose." I cycled through the stack of books, seeing if any of them seemed to be particularly useful. I stopped as one title caught my eye, although for a much different reason: 'The Magic of Seduction: The Dark Arts and the Bedroom'.
"Morgan, could you please tell me exactly what this is?"
"A self help book?" Morgan said as she took on the most innocent look that she could manage.
"And what, pray tell, do you think that I would need a book's help with?"
"Oh, I don't know, I thought maybe you and Lucy could use it for some stuff."
"We're not married, so that's a no."
"Oh come on, the two of you have been through so much together! What difference does a ring make at this point?"
"A lot, especially with people in positions as high as Lucina and I." In fact, the idea of the son of a mere strategist marrying the exalt wouldn't even be possible under most circumstances "Besides, we're too young to properly handle any consequences that com as a result."
"You're older than Dad was when he had you." Morgan pointed out.
"And that turned out just wonderfully, didn't it?" I retorted sharply.
"Hey, that's no fair! Dad was possessed at the time! On that note, most of the shepherds were younger than you are now when they had kids. Hell, Kira wasn't much older than you are now when he basically adopted you."
"Fair point, but what do you think Dad would have to say about something like that?"
"He'd probably just give you a lecture about using the proper wards before telling you to go for it."
"No he'd- um,actually, you're probably right. What do you think Mom would say?"
"Now you're just reaching, she wouldn't even bother giving you a lecture."
"Good point." I said as I pressed my hand against my face "But no means no." I walked over and placed the book in a small chest and locked it. I wasn't going to get rid of something my Sister gave me and I certainly wasn't going to put it anywhere Lucina might see it. "Anyway, would you like to help me with my research?"
"Sure!" Morgan said cheerfully as she pulled a book out of the pile "Oooh, this one looks like it may be a good start: 'Resire and Nosferatu: The Arms Race Between the Divine and Earth Dragons'."
The first few chapters were rather simple topics covering things like the evolution of light and dark magic as a result of Naga and the Earth Dragons' attempts to thwart each other, the creation of nations and religions based around the dragons, and ways in which dragons were able to interfere with human affairs such as the methods of possession used by Loptyr, Naga, and Forseti. While these were quite interesting, they did not hold much to aid our cause. However, we knew that we had chosen the right book when we found the chapter "Draconic Traits and Holy Blood."
"There are many heroes regarded for the might granted upon them by
dragons,such as the great Sigurd, the Hero King Marth, and even the
horrific Julius; however, what exactly creates such augmentations in
the capabilities of a human? This power is caused by a contract
involving a dragon's powers being bestowed upon a human. In
most cases, the human is given only slightly enhanced abilities
in their normal state, but the warrior's power increases dramatically
when they are wielding his or her holy weapon. This is due to the fact
that in most of these contracts, the power is granted to a weapon rather
than the person himself, and as such these humans only receive natural
augmentations as a result of indirect exposure to the dragon's power.
This is done as a precaution meant to safeguard the human contracted
by the dragon, as power being added directly to a human would change
him or her into a different being entirely: a being between a human and a
dragon, not unlike a manakete. Over the generations, the descendants
of the contracted human would adapt to this change until they form a new
subspecies of humans, after which a second surge of power from the same dragon could theoretically bridge the gap and allow the hybrid to lose what little humanity is left, allowing a hybrid to become a full blooded dragon."
"Brother, do you think this is actually possible?" Morgan asked in a scared tone.
"Well… humans and dragons have proven to be quite similar on multiple occasions. In fact, those descended from Eliwood of Pharae can also trace their heritage back to an ice dragon who fell in love with a human, so hybrids are certainly possible. The idea of a human becoming a dragon sound implausible, but it may very well be a possibility, as horrifying as it may be."
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Geralt pov
The debates were already wearing on me. The Ylissean and Chon'sin reps all tried to distract themselves as the arguments went on, feeling like complete outsiders and practically left out of discussions. Soren hadn't even bothered to show up yet. Dear Naga, this conference was going horribly.
"You want us to give our nation over to some Roseanne union? I do believe my teutonic knights are just fine without your help, thank you very much." The portly, black haired duke of Cyanus said gruffly as he crossed his arms and let out a loud huff. As usual, the dukes over the smaller Valmese countries were being stubborn idiots. Compared to these guys, even Virion looked like a good leader.
"Yes, your wonderful knights who failed horribly when Walhart came , aside from Chon'sin, we were the only ones who put up a half decent fight against them." Blaze said bitterly as he placed his feet on his desk and glared at the council, giving an intimidating air. "And if you thought Walhart was bad, wait until you see Grima. From what I hear, your troops have been struggling to fend off even the smallest of risen hordes. What do you expect to do when you have legions of them coming at you?"
"In addition." I added "Valm would have lasted much longer if-"
"Stop!" The duke of Astera yelled with his gruff, thickly accented voice. His thick, orange beard waved from the force of the air leaving his lungs. "I will not hear the complaints of a duke who will not see beyond the bridge of his nose and I do not care for the words of Roseanneans who are vying to increase their own power!" the duke was pretty much the only voice of reason out of the nobles. Unlike the other dukedoms, where aside from Solana's harsh cold everything was typically peaceful, Astera was a land ravaged by war, so the duke knew how to properly take care of a nation during reconstruction.
"Well, I'm neither of those. Can I give you my piece of advice?"Soren asked on a confident manner as he strode into the conference room. The tactician kept a smug look on his face, although the bags under his eyes betrayed him.
"I will not listen to the word of some street rat from another nation!" The duke of Cyanus yelled angrily. I sincerely hoped that Marius would whip that man into shape.
"Let him speak." Astera's duke said "He knows more about our situation than any of us dukes, and he can provide us with some neutral ground."
"Well, if we fail to stop Grima and you remain separated, your nations will not last very long." Soren looked towards the duke of Cyanus "For example, the knights of Cyanus fell in a mere four months in our time. On the other hand." Soren pointed towards Blaze and I "Roseanne lasted for at least five years, and that's only as far as we know. While the nation was drastically weakened when our Rossanean members came to us, I'd estimate that they survived at least a year or two afterwards, a length which only Chon'sin and Ylisse outlasted." None of these nations were entirely decimated, but these were the times it took for governmental collapse to occur.
"I believe that is all I needed to hear." The duke of Astera said calmly " I accept." The duke then looked at Blaze "Then I'll be taking the Mad Tactician and the Silver Shark as my new generals."
"Yes, that's right." Blaze said before looking up "I honestly kind of expected Vincent to come falling from the roof, of crashing through the the ceiling, or popping up through the floorboards, or something like that. Vincent is quite unpredictable." He rubbed the back of his head.
"I suppose I'll swallow my pride and join." The duke of Cyanus said sadly "The knights could use a skilled swordsman to train them and we will not last long without your aid. I submit."
Seeing the duke surrender to the terms of the treaty immediately sparked a change in the conference's atmosphere. One by one, each of the remaining dukes decided to sign the treaty, the weight of Soren's words now hitting them harder than an angry wyvern. Soon, the Rossannean Union was formed, and the conference was adjourned.
After the dukes left, I began to walk towards the exit, only for Soren to place his hand on my shoulder and stop me. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I need all representatives who are in the shepherds to stay here. I'll need every bit of strategic aid I can possibly get." Soren's eyes held a wild look, filled with determination, weariness, and a hint of fear. This mixed with the bags under his eyes made it all too evident that he had spent all night doing some form of research, a task which I had seen Soren do all to often on our journeys together.
"S-sure Soren." I stuttered, flinching under his piercing gaze "What do you need help with?"
"Well first off, I need you two." Soren pointed directly at Blaze and Kira "It's no secret that you are different from the others here, and I need your knowledge."
"You could have just said they were from a distant outrealm." Chrom said calmly "We all know that at this point. Not all of the shepherds do but Kira spends way too much time near us for it to have stayed secret forever."
"That and Emm told them." Kira added.
"Anyway, I need you to tell me if this is possible." Soren pulled out a book, flipped the pages, and handed it to Kira and Blaze.
"Well, humans and dragons aren't all that different, so that's one thing. Now let's see…" Kira began after several minutes of reading the passage over.
"Wait, what do you mean humans and dragon are similar?" Chrom sputtered, caught off guard by Kira's statement.
"Well, I've talked about this subject before with Blaze and a few others, but we've seen manakete, human-dragon hybrids, bear children." Kira said.
"And hybrids between two species are incapable of having children, which means that humans and dragons must be the same species." Blaze said as he rubbed the back of his head.
"Now this lead to one question: do dragons have a separate set of alleles for their genes that can't be found inside humans or do their bodies simply interpret their genes differently? If the dragons have different alleles entirely, then turning a human into a dragon would be absolutely impossible. However, if the dragons simply determine genes differently, then it would be possible to do so if the dragon could find a way to alter your body's gene interpretation. This could be done by using some form of magic to alter it to match his own. You would still be very different from him,as you would still have our own genes, just different interpretations, but anatomically speaking you would be a dragon. Of course, in our world there was never a case where such a diverse species existed, nor dragons outside of our own imaginations for that matter, so this is mostly conjecture. However, given that Grima's contract was done directly to your ancestor's body, this hypothesis holds a little water."
"So, do you think that it would be possible for Grima's contract to make a human more dragon-like?" Khrow asked, trying to wrap his mind around what he just heard. It flew over my head as well, and I'm sure that Blaze was the only one who understood any of that, given that they were from the same strange world.
"Soren's already proven that much. From what you told me about your battle against the Valmese fleet, Soren was able to use an earthstone. This wouldn't be possible if he was fully human." Blaze said as he clasped his hands around each other.
"In other words, while what's in that book isn't guaranteed to be true, it's possible, and you should keep that in mind." Kira said frankly.
"I swear I can hear Darwin rolling in his grave from here." Blaze commented.
"Who's-" Robin began, only to be cut off.
"Anyway, we should probably begin thinking of possible plans Grima could use this for. I have a few ideas myself, but I'd like to run them by you guys before I say anything for certain. Does anyone have paper to write this all down on?"
"Yes, actually." Robin said as she fished a notebook out of her robes "Chrom has a habit of falling asleep during important meetings, so I usually take notes for him.
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And an extra plot-heavy chapter coming right up! Kinda finished Awkwardly, though. I've been waiting to introduce this for a while now. Dragons in Fire Emblem really break the idea of regular genetics, which led me to wonder whether a human could become a dragon, that combined with my idea that the reason the MU almost dies after defeating Grima is because his entire body is a holy weapon spawned this idea.
I wonder if anyone can figure out how this ties into Grima's plans.
Be sure to leave a review, next time we'll be heading into the grimleal arc.