Asleep

Chapter Fifty: Vigilantes


I blinked awake and stared at the ceiling. Dear gods, I've been through a lot in the last ten days.

Well, six months to me. I hate time compression or whatever the hell you want to call it. The ship rocked slightly as another wave knocked it, causing Darkie to curse loudly from above me – he must be steering the ship himself again. I'm glad I managed to find him again, he's a nice bloke.

I'm still not sure if my trip there helped me or hurt me. On the one hand, it gave me more time to heal and train – even if this new fighting style is a pain in the ass, not to mention it'll be completely useless against Risen, it'll still be useful – but on the other hand…I saw myself. Happily married, and off doing happily married things.

Also gradually turning into the twisted lovechild of Havelock Vetinari and Petyr Baelish, if what I saw in the courtyard was any indication, but Anna would reign me in if I went too far. It hurt more than I expected to see her again, thank the gods for my helmet. Grinning, I picked it up and flipped it over in my hands.

I know Deathstroke isn't really synonymous with 'good guy vigilante', but it looks cool as hell and I need to indulge in a little bit of being a total nerd now and again. Besides, it was better than that dumb wolf mask that the armour came with.

I'm probably not getting to sleep again tonight, I should just train. Sighing, I rolled out of bed – apparently there's been some issues with pirates, so we just wore armor to sleep now (we'd have to get used to it anyway) – and grabbed my sword from up against the wall. It's a nice sword, too – some kind of ancestral claymore passed down through that hermit's family. If I had to guess, it'd probably be somewhere in power to a Silver Blade from the older games – wow, almost four years here and I'm still thinking of it in game terms on occasion. That's really weird. Scooping up my hand axe from the bedside cabinet, and making sure the various knives were slotted into the sheathes on my chest and thighs correctly, I headed out the cramped cabin and over to the training ring. To my surprise, Matthew and Fire were already there.

"Hey, boss." Matthew grunted, feet scuffling in the sand as another wave almost caused him to lose his balance. Fire muttered a curse under her breath, narrowing her eyes as she didn't see any openings.

"What're you lot doing up?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. Matthew shrugged, his hands hanging by his side, apparently completely defenseless.

That'd be a stupid mistake to make. His muscles were tensed and his eyes were fixed on Fire, waiting for a move.

"Combination of storm and being this close to Valm meant we couldn't sleep, so I'm walking her through some steps." He said lightly, nodding his head at Fire's right fist, where for the first time I could make out the narrow stiletto. "I figured she should have something other than her bow and her fists to defend herself with, if we're going to be going through with this."

"Smart call, but what happens if she cuts you?"

Matthew snorted, closing his eyes for a second, and Fire lunged, stabbing down at his chest with the knife. He lazily caught her fist in his hand and flipped her over his shoulder, crashing her into the sand. Fire groaned and turned over, wincing slightly.

"Almost got ye tha time…"

"Almost isn't quite good enough." Matthew rolled his eyes. "But we can take a break now. Your dad probably needs to set up the dummies?"

"Nah, I'll just go through the motions." I shrugged, sliding my helmet on. Matthew nodded and stepped to the side, Fire shakily following him before greedily gulping some water from her flask. They must have been at this for a while, then.

"Try not to hit us this time, yeah?" Matthew grumbled. Rolling my eyes behind the helmet, I drew the claymore from its sheath on my back and settled into a stance on the sand, keeping it raised vertically above me. Remembering the motions on the scroll, I started out slowly, giving the pretense of ineptitude.

Then, after the second vertical cut, pick up speed and blur. Dread Fighting isn't so much one set style as it is a concept – at least half of a battle is morale. That's what makes men like Chrom and Walhart so dangerous – the sheer inspiration they inspire in their men makes them fight even harder. The idea behind Dread Fighting isn't to be an amazingly competent fighter, but rather to appear demoralizing. You use up almost all of your energy early on in the battle, in what appears to be a berserk rage, and the damage to enemy morale is normally enough to allow your allies to dispatch them easily.

I hadn't understood it in concept until I put it to myself in game terms – it's as if every attack you made caused -1 Skill to all enemies within range. Sort of, anyway – the braver ones would be unaffected. So, it was fairly situational, but the style this subset of Dread Fighting was based on made one-on-one combat viable at least. I'm not going to be winning any duels any time soon, but that's not what I'm setting back to do anyway. Keep moving, that's the most important part – you can't let anyone see you're faltering, or the illusion of being a demon in flesh will fail. However, it probably isn't a good idea to impale Cynthia-OH GODS!

"Dammit, Cynthia!" I gasped, yanking the sword to the side. "Don't come in here while I'm training!"

Honestly, first Chrom and now her. Wonderful, that's what it is. I'd make a joke about how it's genetic, but it wouldn't work.

Because she's not descended from him.

Because I accidentally casanova'd Chrom/Cordelia into be a thing

…yeah.

"Sorry." Cynthia pouted. "I just saw Fire and Matthew leaving, thought you might want someone to practice against?"

There's that tone of hope again. "Cynthia, I'm not teaching you how to be a Dread Fighter; you're so far from the right physique for it to work." I sighed, taking off my helmet. Gods, my forehead's all sweaty already. I'm going to need to work on my stamina – or just lug a bunch of vulenaries around, I guess.

"What do you mean the wrong physique?" Cynthia puffed out her cheeks, rolling her spear in her hands. "Lucina's not built to be a swordswoman, and she could still kick ass."

"Yeah, but the physique is actually part of the style." I sighed. "You need to be big and imposing, not short and cute."

Cynthia dropped the spear, cheeks turning red. Well, crud.

"…from an entirely objective standpoint, of course." I said hastily. Cynthia nodded dumbly, still blushing. "…so…practice?"

"Please." She manages to squeak out. Yeah, I guess that sequence of events would fluster anyone. Rolling my eyes, I settled back down into my stance. Fluster gone, Cynthia knelt down and raised her lance in front of her, keeping the tip level with her eyes.

Well, I guess I'm going to have to make the first move. I brought my sword around from the slide, slapping her lance away with the flat. Starting, she slipped it out from under the blade and slashed at me with the tip, keeping most of the lance up ready to block. The tip whipped by my face, almost an inch away, as I brought the claymore back around in a thrust.

Smiling, she rolled to the side to dodge and jabbed out with the spear mid-roll, almost catching my leg. "You seem a bit slow!"

"I'm still adjusting." I grumbled, feeling my arm twitch. God, I miss my shield. You'd think a couple of months practicing without it would help, but nooooo, turns out having it deeply ingrained in your muscle memory really sucks when you're trying to unlearn it. Huh, that's pretty close to my head-

Thwack!

"Are you okay?!" Cynthia gasps as I blink from my position on the floor, rubbing my temple.

"…yeah, I'm fine." I manage after a second, still blinking. "Don't worry."

Cynthia let out a sigh of relief before grinning.

"What is it, Cynthia."

"I won."

Uh-oh

"I won I won I won!" With that, she streaked out the room, yelling about it at the top of her voice – and now everyone on the crew would know I got my ass kicked by a relatively little girl.

Wait, how old is she again? Something like…seventeen? Eighteen? Oh my god, she's only like three or four years younger than me.

That's upsetting. Still, there's no point in running around after her like a headless chicken. Time to face my demise with dignity, I suppose.

"So…" Captain Darkie said, his beard – I love that beard, honestly, it's amazing – bristling as he grinned. "…I heard you got beaten by the hero-in-training?"

Glancing over at the deck, where Cynthia was already regaling the tale of her victory to an amused Fire and a bored Matthew, I honestly didn't care that much.

"Yeah, I did. I'm learning, though."

"Good man." Darkie grinned. "If it'll make you feel better, I had money on you. Guess I'll have to change that in the future."

"Thanks, Darkie." I rolled my eyes. "You're a real pal."

I smiled slightly as I watched Fire trying to hide a laugh behind her hands while Matthew shook his head mournfully, trying not to smile himself. Cynthia'd descended into a rendition of some earlier battle, posing dramatically. The sea winds picked up, buffeting the ship and also making Cynthia's twintails flap into her face, blinding her and causing her to drop to the floor with a squeak. Matthew doubled over laughing, while Fire – still giggling – helped pick her up.

I could get used to this. Cynthia tucked her hair back behind her ear and grinned up at me, satisfied for now.

"What's next on the menu?" Darkie asked, yanking on the steering wheel to compensate for the wind. My mind went back to the three clunky hardcover books I'd picked up at the port for far too much money.

"Teambuilding exercise for them." I said lightly. Darkie shrugged, interest lost.

"Tell me when there's another fight."

"Oh, I will…" I grinned. I'd need to prove he was wrong to bet against me in the future, after all.


A paladin.

Of fucking course Cynthia would be playing a paladin.

"Alright, guys." I sighed, lowering my head into my hands. "This was meant to be a team building exercise."

There was an awkward silence. Fire stared at her character sheet, slightly crestfallen. Maugan looked bored, and Matthew just looked kind of pissed.

Cynthia had a huge grin on her face.

"Cynthia, can you please explain why you thought it would be a good idea for your character to initiate a purge of the entire rest of the party?"

Cynthia pouted slightly. "Well, Maugan-"

"Yeah, I know, Maugan's warlock was wandering around crucifying civilians to fuel his dark powers, so you were obligated to stop that." I sighed. "What was your justification for killing Matthew's thief?"

Matthew coughed slightly. "Apparently asking for payment for the protection job was 'extortion'."

"It was! Heroes should protect those who ask without payment!" Cynthia protested. "It's even in the paladin's code, look at page forty-three-"

"Alright, alright! But seriously, what in the name of whatever you choose to worship made you kill the party's other paladin?!"

"…Religious differences?" Cynthia shrugged.

"You were having too much fun, weren't you?" I sighed. Well, that was a blunt reminder of how much DMing could suck sometimes. Of all the people in the group to be That Guy, though, I really wasn't expecting Cynthia. "Still, I guess I should count myself lucky. At least none of you decided to Old Man Henderson it-"

Fire's crestfallen look became slightly embarrassed.

"…yeah, we're never trying this again." I sighed, shutting the book. "By which I mean, lunch break. Give me five minutes to come up with new material."

They want to be the group from hell?

They get the DM from hell.

Now, how did Tomb of Horrors go again?


Ah, that's better.

Cynthia stared ahead in mute horror. Fire blinked in surprise, still trying to figure out what on earth happened (I forgot that 'pure nothingness' isn't a concept introduced to medieval times yet), Maugan was trying to set his dice on fire and Matthew was howling with laughter from the floor.

"The sphere of annihilation was in the statue's MOUTH?!" He managed to get out, still rolling on the floor.

"Yes. Now that you've been exposed to a tamer version of tomb of horrors-"

"THAT WAS THE TAME VERSION?!"

"-shut up, Maugan, I think we've proved that we need to work on our teamwork."

They nodded in agreement, Matthew still giggling on occasion.

"We're going to be in enemy territory, surrounded by people who'll hate us, low on supplies and generally having a sucky time." I sighed. "If we can't learn how to work together without even talking, we're screwed."

"Also, we dinnae have any magical punch." Fire supplied, not so helpfully. "Which might be a problem, when none o' us can heal-"

"I can heal a little." Cynthia admitted. "I'd just started Falcon Knight training before…well, Grima. I'm rusty, but I'm sure I can handle it with practice."

"Alright, so we've got healing." I sighed, rubbing my forehead. "Still, no magical punch could come to bite us in the ass."

"I know somebody that could help with that." Maugan nodded. "Goes by the name of Norrin, claims he's a 'Hero for Hire'. Never did like him, but he's just the sort that'd jump onto a suicide mission like this."

"That man sounds amazing." Cynthia said, eyes widening. Well, wonderful, now I'll need to make sure they're not rutting like rabbits at any point. I've got enough distractions as it is.

"Alright, so that's solved too." I sighed. "That brings us up to…six members. Against the entirety of the Valmese army and probably assorted rebel groups as well, since we're just trying to stop war crimes."

Well. Nobody ever said I had to pick easy jobs. How do I get myself into these messes?

"Let's just go and get some fresh air, we've been down here for five hours." I sighed. The group nodded, wandering up the steps while I massaged my temples gently. Running Tomb of Horrors from memory – with three years gone by – was hard. I'm pretty sure I got most of the traps wrong, except the sphere of annihilation. That's the sort of thing you just don't forget. I still remember Alex's face when I dropped it on him, hah.

My thoughts were suddenly, and rudely, interrupted by a loud, high-pitched "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE".

Cynthia. What has she seen now? Sighing, I walked up to the deck and blinked as I saw a ship – heading in the other direction, no less – suddenly dive-bombed by Cynthia.

"Pirates?" I raised an eyebrow. Fire shook her head.

"Nah. Lucina."

Interesting

"Huh. Hey, Darkie, pull us next to them would you? I've got a couple of things to say."

Like 'thank you' for a start. Seriously, I'd be paraplegic if it wasn't for her. Darkie rolled his eyes and moved the ship in, waving some flag. The other ship seemed to understand, dropping boarding ramps peacefully. It was a fair bit larger than us, so they still had a height advantage while we were walking up. The two of us – Matthew and Maugan had decided to stay behind – wandered over to join Cynthia and the three people she was babbling over. Wait, three? Lucina, some other guy and…wait, Morgan?

DAMMIT MY SHIP SANK. DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL GODS, CAN YOU NOT GIVE ME THIS ONE THING?!

"Watashi waaaa, Cynthia!"

"For the last time, Noel, that doesn't mean what you think it means!" The other man snapped.

Okay, good, not Morgan. Crisis over, carry on, ship is still possibly sailing.

"Care to explain?" I turned to Fire, raising an eyebrow. Fire stared numbly at the man, face paling. Wait…no. Not paling. Blushing?

Oh no

Oh, no no no.

Wait, it's okay, she's from a different universe, and I don't need to deal with an awkward 'hey dad meet the boyfriend/ex' situation. Thank god.

"But onii-saaaan…"

That voice sounds familiar…okay; they must be Jaclyn's kids. Oh dear lord, please no, don't let Jaclyn have a preteen daughter that is also a massive weeaboo. I don't think I can handle that. Please no.

"I'm so glad you're here!" Cynthia bobbed up and down excitedly, her Pegasus nodding its head next to her. Lucina smiled and petted the animal, relaxing a little.

"For a second, I thought you were boarding us." She admitted, before turning to me and freezing. "I…Lord Yriel!"

Lord fake name I adopted?!

"Uh, if I'm meant to be a lord, that didn't happen." I said awkwardly. Lucina let out a small sigh of relief.

"No, that's not it. I'm just…surprised to see you here. I thought you would be in the city, with your wife."

"Anna died before we were married." I said flatly. The words still stung, but not as much as they used to. Lucina's eyes widened with shock.

"No…oh, gods, I'm sorry…" She trailed off, blinking away tears. "I was…I was just trying to fix things, not make them worse…"

"It wasn't your fault." The man said, resting a hand on her shoulder. No, back off, you! THE SHIP WILL SAIL AND NOTHING YOU CAN DO OR SAY WILL MAKE ME WANT OTHERWISE.

I WILL CUT SOMEONE

LET ME HAVE THIS, LIFE. LET ME HAVE THIS ONE THING.

"I'm going to assume…" He frowned, glancing at me. "…Lucien?"

"Basically." I grumbled. "Add that onto the long list of reasons to kill the fucker slowly."

"I'll tell Mal." He nodded. Lucina's head whipped towards him, eyes narrowing. "Oh, Lucina, he's met Cynthia, do you really think he wouldn't have found out about Malcolm and Fi-"

Finally, he recognized Fire. Oh, right, she's meant to be brainwashed and evil in this universe.

"-TRAITOR!"

Oh, dear, this won't end well. The man's hand flew to the handle of a sword on his waist, while Lucina drew Falchion in a half-second. Cynthia held out her hands, trying to get them to stop, while Fire closed her eyes and sighed.

"She's a different one! She's not from here! She fought herself!"

Lucina narrowed her eyes even further – they're basically slits now - and slowly slid Falchion back into its sheath. "You are sure she isn't toying with you?"

"No…" The man mused, eyes narrowing. "She's right. This one looks…different. No scars on the chest."

Fire squeaked and pulled the top of her shirt up, cheeks flaming red. "YE LOOKED DOWN MY SHIRT, MARK?!"

"Onii-chan is a hentai…" Noel smirked, while the man – Mark, I guess – flushed and glanced away.

"I am not, Noel, I was just checking that Cynthia was telling the truth!"

"Hentaaaai"

"NOEL!"

The young girl took off across the ship at a run, giggling, while her brother cursed and chased after her. With a sigh, I continued up the ramp and shook my head.

"Does that happen a lot?"

"Twice a day, at least." Lucina admitted, still upset. "I…Lord Yriel-"

"Lucina, please call me Cameron. You saved my legs, apparently, you've earned that much."

"-Cameron, then." She said stiffly. "I'm-"

"That was a very roundabout way of saying thank you, but seriously, thank you."

"-yes, you're welcome." She said, eye twitching. Well, someone doesn't like being interrupted. Oh, dear lord, Julian is going to have so much fun with her. That'll be interesting to watch. "But I have to ask…what are you doing?"

"Oh, this?" I glanced around at Fire and Cynthia, Matthew and Maugan having retreated back into the ship. "Vigilantism."

There was a brief pause as Lucina tried to process this. "I…what?!"

"Vigilantism, the act of going outside the law in order to remove evil from society." I said, smirking slightly. "Cynthia and Fire are helping me establish a vigilante company to stop war crimes in Valm until you lot show up."

Lucina blinked rapidly. "I…that's not supposed to happen."

"Eh." I shrugged. "I'm also supposed to be disabled but happily married, Emmeryn is meant to be dead, and Gangrel is supposed to have a chance of still being alive. Screw destiny."

"Wait, what was that last part-"

"Screw. Destiny." I cut her off in her confusion.

"No, I mean before that – never mind." Lucina sighed, resting her head in her hands. "I suppose…Cynthia, are you sure you want to do this?"

Cynthia nodded cheerily. "Yeah!"

"And you're absolutely certain this isn't because of that thing you had while you were five?"

Cynthia dropped the cheery look and instead glared icily at her. "If you ever speak of that to anyone I will tell Severa about your childhood crush on Robin."

IT'S TIME TO BRING THIS SHIP INTO THE SHORE

AND THROW AWAY THE OARS

FOREEEVERRR

BECAUSE I CAN'T FIGHT THIS FEELING ANYMOOOO-wait, shit, I got so caught up in Robin/Lucina hints that I think I missed something important. Thing when she was five what now?

"You wouldn't dare." Lucina's eyes narrowed, before backing down. "Alright, fine. Still though, you're certain it's the right thing to do?"

Suddenly and disturbingly Cynthia was back to her normal cheerful self. "Yeah! I mean, my parents are going to be fine, and we can help more this way! We might even find some of the others!"

"Good luck." Lucina sighed. "I've been looking for six months now, and hardly found any clues. Still…if you're certain, then I wish the best upon you. I have to return to Ylisse, and ensure my father is safe."

"Alright." Cynthia nodded, before grinning. "Oh, yeah! By the way, we already ran into some of the others!"

Lucina blinked. "Oh? Who?"

"Laurent, Mal, Gerome, Inigo, Noire, Brady and Severa." Cynthia's grin grew wider. "Oh, and this is the best part! Mal and Severa are a thing now!"

Lucina's jaw dropped, and everything suddenly became very quiet.

"Yeah, I was surprised too! But I came to yell at Mal for blaming Cameron instead of, you know, fate or Lucien or whatever and they were making out so I just left normally and-"

A broken whimper managed to escape Lucina's mouth. Well, I didn't expect that either, but her reaction is MUCH stronger than mine.

"…I'm…I'm going to kill him." She managed to say eventually. "I'm…sorry, Lord Yriel, but…I'm going to…"

She slowly walked away, muttering to herself and shaking her head. Oookay, I guess my son and the other princess do not get along. Fun.

"…at least the others are safe, but…he…I…" Lucina's jaw finally closed and her eyes took on a determined look. "Clearly, he must have tainted my sister somehow. She has significantly better sense than that."

Uhm.

"Cynthia, I truly did enjoy meeting you again." She said firmly, as Noel ran past, screaming loudly as Mark threw what looked like a hardcover at her (and missing). "But this is clearly a situation that I must resolve as quickly as possible. Good day, and good luck in your mission."

Buh.

"Helmsman! Cast off! We have somewhere to be!" She shouted, turning back. Cynthia shrugged and headed back down the plank, her Pegasus following her. Fire shifted to the side, her cheeks still flaming red, and followed her.

"Lucina, please try not to maim my son too badly before I get a chance to make up with him." I sighed, rubbing my nose. Lucina nodded, distracted, and the ship broke off from us. Noel ran up to the side and waved, yelling something in badly broken Japanese that made Cynthia wave goodbye.

How did she even learn that…? Whatever. Darkie chuckled, motioning to his sailors to roll the sails down again.

"Well, that happened."

Yes, that's just about as good a description of those events as you could expect at this point. Thank you, Darkie. Fire sighed and rested against the side of the ship, still blushing.

"Fire?"

"Yes, da?"

"Do we need to have the boy talk?"

Fire paled. "Uh...yince was enough, thanks, da."

"Alright, good. Just...just checking. And please wear your chestplate next time."

She grumbled something about how it was too hot to wear armor out and how she didn't know how I could stand being out in black/grey metal all day, before leaving. Hopefully to get the chestplate.


"Land ho!"

Oh, thank the gods and their confusing multiversal glory. After a few moments of hastily gathering gear, my team and I – oh, if I get the chance, I am SO going to make A-Team jokes – shook Darkie's hand (except for Cynthia and Fire, who got the same bear hugs Jaclyn did all that time ago) and we left, rowing our small fishing boat and leaving Darkie to make his own progress at the port further down the coast.

"First things first, we should find a lead on Norrin." Matthew said, after he finished hiding the boat between some rocks with a tarpaulin. Or what passes for a tarpaulin, anyway. "Maugan, he's your contact. Any ideas?"

He just grunted. "Find some robbers, and wait for their hideout to be on fire."

Well, this guy sounds more and more like Harry Dresden with every passing story. "Well, I guess we find shelter for now." I sighed. Matthew nodded in agreement.

"There's a sage hamlet to the north of here." Maugan rolled his shoulders. "I used to raid it with my teacher, Gecko. He's not that smart, and he's getting on in years, too, so I doubt he's survived."

I stared at him for a second. "…you really need to shave off that goatee, you look evil as hell."

"Is that relevant in any way?"

"Nope." I shrugged. "Alright, sage hamlet. Let's get moving."

Turns out, it was only about an hour away. Not much of a trip, and the sages themselves seemed nice enough. One of them, a kindly old man accompanied by his daughter, invited us into his home when we learned there were no inns nearby.

"It's been a long time since Una and I have ever had company." He chuckled. "Not since her mother left, anyway."

"Your mother?" I raised an eyebrow. Something about Una seemed familiar, despite most of her body being hidden by green robes and what looked like shoulder pads with…claw marks in them?

"I'm part Anna." She smiled. Ah, that explains the hair. "My mother was stricken with wanderlust in my teens. It was a sad parting, but one we understood."

Fire blinked in surprise. "…huh. I didnae think I'd ever meet a cousin."

"There's like two hundred Anna's." Cynthia grumbled, exaggerating slightly. There's fifteen at most, I've met or heard about most of them. "You really shouldn't be."

Una and Fire ended up retreating to a corner of the house, talking animatedly and generally getting to know each other. I guess I'm glad that I'm not her only family – I should probably be joining in on the discussion, but it would just feel…awkward. Especially given how close I am age-wise to Una. Apparently Fire's mother was the baby of the family, up until her younger sisters at any rate. Their grandmother must have started having children at a really young age – maybe nineteen? I don't know, I lost track.

Maybe Anna's (Anna's? Anna-i?) just don't work on the same physical laws as regular human beings such as myself.

"So, what's with all the bird of prey icons?" I gestured around the house. It was fairly small, maybe two or three rooms at the most, and a lot of it had talons and stuff. The sage puffed up with pride.

"Una has a rare trait – she is a Shaman."

"Shaman?" I raised an eyebrow. The dark mage class? That's…interesting.

"Yes." He nodded. "We are merely Sages of Urboros – the circle of life. Shamans have a connection to particular elements of nature. Una was born with an affinity for birds of prey – it is a great honor to be an anointed Shaman, and greater still to have such a strong affinity. Why, there are only ever three or four Shamans alive at any point in time. The Seekers of Urboros go to find them – I heard rumors that there was a Shaman in Plegia, without any training or awareness of his heritage, who chased off the Seeker. A shame, really. According to the tales, he had reached the pinnacle of his powers as a young boy. A true prodigy…what was he called again? Harold? Harry?"

Oh there is no fucking way. "…Henry?"

"Yes, that's it. You met him, then?"

"Uh, I've heard of him in passing." Oh dear lord Henry is a religious figure. That won't end well.

Henry is a religious figure with superpowers. Sweet mother of GOD.

"So, your daughter…" I need to forget that idea as soon as possible.

"Can basically talk to falcons and hawks." The sage shrugged. "Really, the only downside is the number of dead animals they leave on our doorstep as offerings to their 'mother'."

Oh dear lord, and I thought my cat was bad. "That must be…uhm, interesting."

"Interesting is when she had to eat one of them. I didn't understand why, apparently she was proving herself to an alpha or something like that." The sage sighed. "We spend all our lives studying Urboros in peace, and yet we know nothing about the world a Shaman lives in. We don't even get the peace anymore, ever since Walhart led the Skorne invasion of Valm."

Oh yeah, that was something I went over on the trip here. Walhart belonged to a country that was basically Super-Sparta called Skorne, which he took over through a combination of brute force and cunning, and from THAT he took over the rest of the continent. Really, the game missed so much stuff when it came to developing Valm, it was so disappointing.

"Well, that's what we're here for." I shrug as fresh peals of laughter come from Una and Fire's corner, Cynthia having joined in. Maugan and Matthew were asleep in large, feathered chairs. "Not to end the war, but…at least make it safer for people to live."

The sage smiled. "Ah, yes. My last gaze into the Circle told me such."

Whabuh.

"Excuse me?"

"Ah, I'm sorry, I keep forgetting the ways of the Urboros are unknown across the ocean." The sage smiled kindly. "We can gain glimpses of what is to come by fasting and meditating, a method known as 'gazing the circle of life'. I saw glimpses of seven figures wandering Valm, helping people."

Seven?

"Sir, there's only five of us right now. I mean, we're planning on finding a sixth, but a seventh…?"

"Ah, yes." He chuckled. "That is why we do not normally speak of our visions to outsiders. Forgive me, my last gaze was particularly fruitful."

He stood up and walked to the wall, detaching a battered old sword from it and showing it to me. "I found this in the aftermath. Originally, I was going to use it to slice fruit, but I believe my gaze instructed me to give it to your seventh soldier."

I stared at the sword – or more accurately, the inscription.

Missiletainn

I glanced to Cynthia, and back to the sword, then back to Cynthia, and then the sword again.

Whirr click click click

Cuuckoo.

Oh, great. It's this hamlet. Am I just fated to eternally accidentally stumble onto paralogues or something? First Donnel/Anna, then Cynthia, and now this. Wait a second...Cynthia and Owain... in the same group...

Oh, gods, I have to deal with both of them at the same time for six months at least?!

This team may not have been the best idea.


A/N: This chapter brought to you by three hours of hype due to Scarlet Witch being in Avengers 2 and yes, she is using straight-up magic.

Next chapter will also be a Cameron one – featuring Owain – and then we're done with the timeskip and can actually perform a timeskip.

Also Tsuna 4 Cn4s did an interview with me for a super cool interview-fanfic-author-thingy on tumblr that you should check out at tsuna4cn4s dot tumblr dot com, removing the spaces and putting '.' instead of 'dot' because is weird with the website things.