Summary of Chapter 16 for anyone who skipped it:

Gray & Henry ride into a Plegian town to gather news and find out that Gangrel is in Castle Dolhr right now. They spend the night at an inn and in the morning, Gray goes to ready their horses in the stables and is attacked by some soldiers. Henry rescues her, ruthlessly slaughtering her attackers, and is so disturbed by what almost happened to Gray that he promises to teach her everything he knows about dark magic so that she can better use the full range of her power.

The most important part is that Henry casts a 'drain spell' that takes away pain (Gray's horse was fatally injured and he uses it to give the horse a painless death). He promises to teach the spell to her someday, although he doesn't have a chance before Castle Dolhr.

And that's it. Mostly it was time for Gray and Henry to bond through trauma and bloodshed.

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17 – THE MAD KING

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The Third Timeline

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"What the hell?" Basilio says as we ride into camp.

"Gray!" Chrom cries, seeing my bloodstained dress. He helps me down from the saddle. "What happened?"

"We were attacked by a few of Gangrel's men, but Henry took care of them," I say.

"Are you alright?" Olivia asks Henry as he pours water onto his hands and washes the blood off his skin.

He gives her a confused look and nods.

"Thank you," Chrom tells Henry.

"My pleasure," he says.

"We learned that Gangrel is still in Castle Dolhr," I say.

"Good," Chrom says. "We'll have the bastard dead by the next sunrise."

Despite the others looking at us, I wrap my arms tightly around Chrom. I can't bring myself to let go, the panic tight in my throat refusing the subside even though the danger passed an hour ago.

He holds me for several minutes, kissing the top of my head and whispering, "What's wrong, love?"

"Nothing," I lie, deciding to keep the truth from him until all this is over. I've seen Chrom angry and I know that right now he needs to keep his head clear and his mind focused. "I'm just… I am glad to be back with you."

"As am I," he says.

"Chrom, Gray, back in the saddle," Basilio says. "We have no time to spare for lovemaking."

I look over Chrom's shoulder and glare at him.

"Come," Chrom says, "ride with me." He holds my hands, leading me over to Stormtreader.

"We need to travel fast," Basilio says. "I won't have her slowing down your horse with extra burden. Ride with Olivia, Gray."

I nod and walk over to Olivia's horse. "Do you mind?" I ask.

"Not at all," she says and reaches down to help me into the saddle. Her mount is a powerful warhorse and it doesn't seem affected in the slightest by the extra rider.

Olivia stirs the horse into a gallop and we ride through the forest, steering a wide berth around the village. I notice the way her tiny body rests easily in the saddle, controlling the stallion with a strong hand on the reins.

I've wondered for some time why a bard was chosen to accompany a group of assassins and warriors, but I guessed it was because there is a power to her none of us aside from Basilio are aware of.

I glance at the packs tied to her saddle and see a katana tucked in a long sheath as well as several small knives. I should stick close to her in our next fight.

We travel through the outlands of Plegia uneventfully. From time to time we encounter a small group of guards or scouts but our archers dispatch them quickly and we continue on our way uncontested.

Unlike the Exalt's palace in Ylisstol, Gangrel's castle is far smaller and more austere. It lies in the midst of a large plain where all the trees have been hacked down to stumps. We dismount before we reach the edge of the treeline and secure our horses in the shelter of the woods. Twilight is growing into a cloudy dark, a stroke of luck for us.

"Have any woodland creatures told you how to breach the castle, boy?" Basilio asks Henry.

He gestures at the wasteland that lies for a mile between us and Castle Dolhr. "I can't exactly talk to field mice, can I?" he asks.

"How the fuck would I know?" Basilio answers.

"Wait," I say, straining my eyes to see through the failing light. "What the hell is that?"

The others follow my gaze and see the hulking shadow of a beast lying to the east side of the castle's walls.

Basilio swears.

"Gods, is that a dragon?" Chrom asks.

Henry says something to Jasper and the crow flutters off into the darkness. After a quarter of an hour, he returns and perches on Lilly's mane, cawing at Henry.

"It's dead," Henry says.

"Are you sure?"

"He's a crow," I say. "He knows dead things."

"Then what died there and how the hell did anyone kill it?" Basilio asks.

"It is a dragon," Henry says. "I'd heard that Grima's bones were brought to rest outside the castle but I thought it was a tall tale meant to scare people off."

The name Grima sends a shiver through my body, stirring strangely at my magic. "The dragon god?" I ask.

"It can't be," Chrom says.

"Unless it comes to life it's not our problem," Basilio says.

"Can it… Is there any way it could come back to life?" I ask Henry.

"Theoretically unlikely. But that would be one spectacular guard dog," he smiles.

Five days on the road had been plenty of time to discuss our strategy for getting into the castle but for all our planning, I still feel it is still based mostly on luck and hope. And yet, we have had excellent luck so far. I need to pray our fortune does not change tonight.

For the male Gray, Aversa had been the best defense for the mad king. With her dead, he would be more vulnerable this time. All the same, it is not her that I fear, nor Gangrel. It is Validar. I do not relish the idea of encountering him again. I pray he is leading the troops in Ylisse and not at Gangrel's side.

Basilio tosses me a set of Plegian guard armor that we took from the bodies of the soldiers we killed earlier in the day.

Chrom helps me on with it and while the others are busy dressing, he sneaks a kiss and whispers, "After tonight, the worst is over. We can go home."

I hadn't realized how the idea of calling Ylisse home had waned over the past few days until I heard him say the word. I give him a faint smile and nod, feeling uneasy. I tuck a sword into the scabbard at my belt and put my Arcfire tome in my pocket.

"You'd better use this, if you can," Chrom says, handing me a book. "I found it on one of Gangrel's men."

I see the flame engraved on the front and open it. The words Valflame are written inside it, along with the runes and symbols of magic.

"Thank you," I say. "This time I won't fail you in battle."

"You have never failed me," he says.

Dressed in our Plegian armor, we set off towards the castle, gifted with the cover of a thick mist. Chrom is shivering in the cold so I take his hand and warm my palm with a bit of magic.

"Save your energy. We will need it tonight," he says.

Basilio and Chrom have wrapped bloodied bandages across their faces to hide their distinctly not-Plegian features and Henry and I have been appointed to lead our company.

Jasper hops onto my shoulder for a moment and I pet him. "Keep yourself safe tonight," I tell him. He pecks my cheek lightly.

We reach a side door to the stronghold without having to silence more than ten guards. I press my hand to the deadbolt on the gate and channel my magic as hotly through my fingertips as I can until it melts enough for us to pry our way through. The searing metal burns a scar across my hand and I wrap it in a strip of cloth.

Once through, we are met by a handful of guards who Basilio's assassins silence within seconds. We drag their bodies into the shadows and take stock of the courtyard before us. With the Feroxi and Plegian armies waging war in Ylisse, there is only a phantom force left in Gangrel's castle.

We have counted on his confidence in the security of his position and I am relieved to see we were not wrong. We manage to enter the castle quietly, leaving behind a trail of broken locks and corpses.

Our knowledge of the castle is vague, aided only by a single time Chrom accompanied Emmeryn to Castle Dolhr to sign the peace treaty with Gangrel, but we make our way towards the center carefully, room by room, passageway by passageway. As we near the heart of the stronghold, we are forced to make the decision none of us are pleased with.

We have a wager before us – will Gangrel be in his counsel room or in his chamber? If we storm one room and luck is not on our side, we will alert the castle to our presence and risk Gangrel's escape. We'd bickered endlessly on how to split our small group and come to no conclusion that suited us.

As the time to choose comes upon us, it is Basilio's will that prevails. "My men will go to the king's chambers. Their stealth will be needed. Chrom, Gray, Olivia and I will go to the throne room. It will present us with a fight, no doubt, and we will need our strongest fighters among us."

He turns to Henry. "Go with the assassins, boy. Your strange magics will be of use."

With uneasy spirits, we go our separate ways. The four of us sneak through several more stairs and passages until we see the sigils of the king hanging beside a large set of oak doors. "This is it," Basilio murmurs.

Five guards stand beside the doors and I close my eyes for a second, calling on the magic inside me.

"Valflame," I whisper, throwing my hands out. A swift strike of fire knocks the guards against the stone wall and staggers them for a moment.

Chrom, Basilio and Olivia dive out of the shadows. Chrom and Basilio's heavy-handed attacks fell four of the guards and Olivia tackles the remaining one, her katana slicing with blinding speed through the gaps in the soldier's armor, slitting his throat.

She pulls her blade free and raises it in an elegant pose, ready for another attack. We hear a stir of movement within the room and the sound of raised voices.

"Gray," Basilio hisses and I lunge forward, blasting down the door.

We charge into the throne room and are met immediately with a fight. Basilio knocks aside several soldiers with his huge axe, hacking his way through towards the center of the room, where the king sits upon the throne.

Our luck has held.

The onslaught of guards overwhelms me and for what seems an agonizingly long space of time, we fight them off. Chrom and I fight with synergy, soldiers knocked back by my flames falling prey to his sword. Olivia weaves back and forth alongside us, her katana sweeping gracefully through air, blood and flesh.

One of the soldiers escapes our fight and runs for reinforcements. "We need to finish this," I say to Chrom.

Four soldiers remain and we manage to tear through them, unable to catch sight of Basilio through the battle. As Olivia and Chrom take down the last man, I run towards the throne in time to see a storm of violet fire spinning through the air like a tornado. I hear a roar from the storm of flames and then a scream.

My heart jumps into my throat and I watch the flames sweep upwards towards the ceiling, leaving behind the body of the West-Khan lying charred and broken on the floor. Olivia screams and runs to him.

Chrom bolts to my side and we approach the throne. A man gets to his feet and turns to us, fire and lightning in his hands.

Validar. My mind goes blank for a moment, red light searing through my vision. In an instant, I see myself plunging the Levin sword into Chrom's chest. I see the male Gray falling to his knees in front of Validar, body held in an inexorable grip of magic. I stand rooted to the spot as Chrom yells and charges Validar.

My body is pulsing with panic, my magic rearing wildly within me. It as if every Gray of every past life is screaming in my head, telling me to run. We were wrong. Gangrel isn't here.

Chrom leaps in range of Validar, bringing Falchion crashing towards his body. A blast of violet light throws him backwards but he pulls himself to his feet and manages to dodge the next burst of flame.

"Gray!" he yells.

I raise a shaking hand and fire my Valflame at Validar. It hits him in the shoulder and he turns to look at me with a smile that makes my body shiver in revolt.

Validar sends a barrage of spells flying towards Chrom and he only barely manages to throw himself out of the way.

"Aren't you going to help him, dear?" Validar says and I realize he is speaking to me.

As above, so below. I feel the dragon magic roar to life, burning through my veins and erupting through my mouth in a feral scream. A great wave of blue flame consumes Validar.

Chrom takes a flying leap and strikes his sword into the pillar of flame, but it rebounds off the throne and sends him staggering back. Validar has vanished.

"Son of a bitch!" Chrom cries. "Go!" he says to me. He runs to Olivia who is weeping over Basilio's body.

"No!" she screams and Chrom pulls her to her feet.

"He's gone. Olivia! He's gone."

He carries her towards the back door and I try to follow him but a piercing pain seizes my head, causing me to fall to the ground. My body spasms and I choke, red light blinding my eyes. My magic explodes within me, trying to pull me up but all I can feel is agony and a deafening ring in my ears.

"Gray!" I hear Chrom yelling as if from far away.

I drag myself to my feet and stumble towards the door. The red light clears for an instant but by the time I am through the door it has returned, knocking me back to my knees.

"Go!" I choke, throwing my hand out towards Chrom. "Get… get the king."

"I'm not leaving you!" he says. His arms are around me, dragging me down the passageway.

"Go!" I snarl. "Leave me!"

He hesitates and my hands raise of their own accord, firing a spell at him. He cries out and leaps out of the way. "Gray!"

"Go," I say again, gripping my head in my hands, willing the agony to release my body from its chokehold.

Over and over again in my mind, I'm seeing the dark magic crackling through the Levin sword as it pierces Chrom's body. Laughter cuts through the nightmare and I bolt up, looking for its source. But there is only Chrom, Olivia and the sound of shouts in the distance behind us.

"What's wrong with her?" Olivia cries.

"I don't know!" Chrom answers.

She reaches down and pulls me to my feet. "Go!" she says to Chrom. "You have to find the king. You can't let Basilio die for nothing. I'll help Gray."

Olivia hugs me tightly and I can hear her voice singing in my ear, calling through the haze of violence in my mind. For a moment the dark magic fades and my own magic surges forth in its wake, purging my mind of the nightmare visions with fire.

I scramble to my feet and take her hand, following after Chrom as he runs down the hall. A flash of ebony feathers strikes across my face and Jasper caws desperately. I reach out and catch him, holding his trembling body in my hands. He is making frantic, word-like noises.

"Henry," I say and he leaps out of my hands, soaring down the hallway in front of us.

We follow the crow through the maze of passageways, Olivia and Chrom knocking back the guards who try to stop us.

I hear the cacophony of battle coming from a room ahead of us, followed by a thunder crack. We make it to the king's chambers and trip across the dozens of bodies strewn across the floor. The room is littered with corpses in various stages of mutilation. It is impossible to tell which are our assassins and which are Gangrel's men.

The king's chamber is as large as the throne room and Gangrel is pinned against the back wall, held in the grip of a spell, watching helplessly as the last of his guards try to defend him.

Henry stands in the center of the room, drenched in blood. If it weren't for the magic streaming from his outstretched hands I would hardly have been able to recognize him.

A pulse of dark magic tears one of the guards apart as if from the inside out. Henry screams and drops down to his hands and knees. I can feel his dying energy, blazing dimly in rage and terror. He throws one hand up and knocks the nearest guard back weakly then collapses on the floor. Chrom leaps forward across his body and blocks a soldier's blade from cutting off Henry's head.

I run to his side and send searing flame through one of the others. Olivia dives under a soldier's sword and skids across the blood-soaked floor to Henry's side, pulling his limp body away from the fight. Chrom and I manage to fell two more guards and then there is only one left.

Gangrel is shouting at the man in a crazed fury, released from Henry's paralysis spell. As the man falls beneath my flames, the king draws a sword and throws himself at Chrom. His attack is like the thrashing of a cornered tiger and it sends Chrom staggering back a step.

I can't fire a spell at him without hitting Chrom, so I draw from the last of my dark magic and will it to obey me as I reach it out towards the king. Gangrel pauses as the tendrils of blue flame strike his body and I twist my hands back towards myself, gripping tightly to the magic as if my hands were clutching an invisible sphere.

'Your strength is drained; your energy is mine, soul, blood, body and mind.' I focus my intention on the words Henry taught me and hear Gangrel cry out in pain.

As I hold back the king with the spell, Chrom strikes his sword deeply into his chest. Gangrel yells out a string of unintelligible words and Chrom pulls Falchion from the king's body. He raises the weapon and hesitates for one breath, then he sweeps the blade down in a powerful strike and beheads Gangrel. My spell breaks and the body of the mad king crumples to the ground.

Jasper lands on my shoulder and pecks at my cheek urgently.

"We need to get out of here," I say to Chrom.

Jasper flutters over to the window and I follow his lead, leaning out to survey the way down. The crow pulls aside some moss and vines with his beak and I catch a glimpse of a hidden ladder, leading down to a narrow landing and a door to a passageway.

"There's a way out through the window," I say, pushing Chrom towards it. "Get going. You too, Olivia. I'm going to get Henry on his feet and follow you."

I take Henry's unconscious body from Olivia's arms and put my hand on his forehead, feeling the energy inside him grown cold and depleted. I have no idea if this will work on a human, or if it will have disastrous consequences, but there is no way in hell I'm leaving him behind.

"Mind, body, blood and soul, your pain is mine; your energy is whole," I say, reversing the spell as best I can. I press my fingertips against his skin, but instead of pushing my magic outwards, I try to drag it back towards my core. Nothing happens and my heart starts pounding in my ears.

The image of Henry cradling the horse's head in his hands as it died comes to my mind and I realize that it is not the words of a spell or the movement of magic that creates its power.

I wrap my arms around him and hold him close to my chest, whispering, "I have not known you long, but you are my friend and I will die beside you today as you would die beside me."

I feel my energy connect with his and I focus on the spell again. Exhaustion and pain flood my senses and I feel the core of magic within me flowing out through my body into his.

For a second, the pain is physical then I lean my head against his and pull more at the magic. A new kind of pain seizes me, the pain of the mind and heart – a great wave of fear and longing and anger coursing through my spirit like a windstorm.

Henry's magic flares to life inside him and he gasps, regaining consciousness. I let go of him and look into his eyes.

"Can you move?" I ask.

He nods and gets up. I try to follow but my body is still aching and trembling. Henry reaches down and pulls me to my feet.

"We need to go out the window," I tell him. "There's a way to climb down. Quick, before more soldiers come."

He helps me up onto the windowsill and holds onto one of my hands as I climb shakily down the ladder into Chrom's waiting arms. Then Henry follows us down to the landing and together the four of us make our way out of the castle and into the mist.