Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem Awakening, all rights to the owners.

This particular subseries has lost all steam it seems. It will take a few more chapters until I can pull everything together and end it (because there are still a number of child characters that need to be utilized), so hopefully I can wrap this up soon because there's clearly no interest but I refuse to leave it unfinished.

At first Lucina thinks it might be a hallucination. A single, small red speck on the horizon. Maybe it's just a trick of the light. A red dot against the yellow sand could easily be explained away.

The thing is, the speck doesn't go away. It's getting closer. That's weird. So, Lucina does the smart thing and calls on Cynthia to go investigate it.

"Fly high." She warns. "Out of arrow range. We don't know who, or what, it is."

"Got it!" The girl salutes. She's clearly happy to have something, anything, to do.

It doesn't take horribly long. Pegasi are fast, not as fast as wyverns, but fast. Five minutes there and five minutes back and Lucina has her report. Cynthia circled around the figure a few times and turns back.

"It's a person." Cynthia says. "They're in full plate armor. Kinda like great knight armor, not armor knight armor. All red, pretty worn. She's got a silver axe too."

"I see…" Lucina frowns. "Was her face familiar?"

"Nope."

"What design was the armor?"

"Uh…" Cynthia blanches. She's not an armor buff. "Not Ylissian I think… it was angular, mostly red, uh…"

"Sharp or curvey?"

"Sharp."

"Blocky chestpiece or sculpted?"

Cynthia clearly doesn't know what that means, and Lucina tries to find another way to explain.

"You know Uncle Frederick's armor?"

"Yes."

"That's sculpted."

"Oh, no, it wasn't like that. It was more like a… pentacube."

"You mean a dodecahedron?"

"Yes, that. I think there was a sigil on the front, but it's worn away."

"Valmese then." Lucina murmurs. "That's bizarre. Why would a valmese soldier be here of all places?"

"Maybe it's just a plegian soldier in Valmese armor?" Cynthia asks uncertainly.

"But then why just one? Unless this is some sort of elaborate deception?" The princess frowns. She's half talking to herself now. "This makes no sense…"

"I guess we just have to wait and ask her." Cynthia shrugs.

Lucina agrees reluctantly. This situation is too unprecedented to just throw around guesses. She'll wait for this girl to come to them, and then just hope she can figure the girl out when that happens.

###

A determined valmese girl who carries herself with conviction and unfailing confidence. The girl in red certainly strikes quite the figure in Lucina's eyes, even in her battered armor, covered with sand, and drenched in sweat.

"Princess Lucina!" The girl calls from the bottom of the fort, surprising the princess in question. The girl salutes her. "It is an honor! I am Elise of Valm! May I ask… have you met someone by the name of Noam? Or perhaps Basis, Maesus, Soner, or Bello?"

"I am afraid not!" Lucina calls back. "If I may ask, what is a valmese soldier doing in Plegia, especially during a war?"

Elise hesitates. It's not incredibly obvious, her composure only falters for a second, but it's enough to make Lucina suspicious. There's something Elise doesn't want to say. "I cannot say, unfortunately. It must remain a secret for now. However, I can guarantee I am no threat to you."

"And you expect me to trust your word, stranger?"

"Yes." Elise says simply. "I know of you, your Highness, and I know you take after your father in regards to trusting others. You will give me the benefit of the doubt, even against your better judgement."

Lucina hates that Elise is right. She does trust her word, even though she probably shouldn't. The fact that Elise knows enough about her to make that claim, if anything, only makes Lucina trust her more.

"Fine, so be it." Lucina sighs. "What do you want of us then? Where are you headed stranger?"

"I am in search of those I mentioned earlier." Elise explains. "If you meet then, I would appreciate you telling them I am searching for them.

"How will I know if they are the right person? Surely their names are not unique to only them."

"If you do interact with them, you'll know." Elise says cryptically. She salutes once more and starts walking around the fort, making her way to Ylisse.

###

This was not what he planned. Mother and the Shepherds were supposed to be here when the assassination plot began, but instead they went off somewhere in Plegia. That's bad; kinda awful actually.

So it's probably a good thing he went around finding some of his companions, because this is going to be a struggle even with them as backup.

Himself, Soner, Aliud, and Maesus is not a sufficient team, but he knows Yarne is going to show up too, and Annabeth showed up around this time in their world so she might lend a hand. Of course Aesir himself can heal and isn't a notorious pacifist like great aunt Emmeryn was, which makes him a million times more useful in his own defence.

Sneaking into the palace is disappointingly easy, and it's not like Maesus is particularly stealthy. He takes after his father that way. The guards really are just incompetent if they can't notice Maesus.

Aliud takes the lead, and understandably so. It's his father who's being targeted for assassination after all. He rushes down the hallways with spear in hand, startling the nighttime servants as he does so. Aliud knows exactly where his father sleeps, so it's only natural he takes charge.

The guards at the entrance to the royal wing of the palace are understandably reluctant to allow four random armed teenagrs to see the Exalt in the middle of the night, especially ones bringing a seemingly unfounded lie about an assassination and outright broke into the palace in the first place.

So Maesus uses a few waves of his sleep staff and they continue on. There isn't time to argue, and they can apologize later… in a few years, when this whole "the future in danger" thing is over with.

Surprisingly (and somewhat disappointingly) no other guards interrupt them, and Aliud leads them right to the Exalt's door, and knocks on it thrice. Despite the fact that he was probably asleep, the Exalt responds within a minute, clad in a purple robe. "Yes…? Who is it?"

"Aesir, sir, I am Marth." The boy in the mask introduces himself. That's not his actual name of course, it's Sami, but that's not relevant at the moment. "I am the man in the mask that aided your siblings a while back."

"Really now?" Aesir says. Glassy eyes stare curiously in their direction. "And what brings you here at this time of night? It is nighttime, right?"

"Yes, it is." Sami affirms. "We are here with a warning, and assistance. You are currently in danger."

"Really now?" Aesir's voice sounds amused and somewhat sarcastic. "Ylisse is at war and I might be in danger? What news!"

"I mean in danger at this moment." Sami clarifies. "Assassins, now."

"Ah, well that's a different case then." The exalt says. He walks across the room to grab his staff, which reveals that he was holding a hand behind his back that was clutching an arcthunder tome the entire time. He returns to them a moment later. "Do you have a particular plan?"

"I was honestly expecting the assassins to have attacked already." Sami admits. "Given this opportunity, however, I think we should move you to somewhere more defensible."

"Lead on then."

"You seem quite alright with being led around by people who you have never met." Soner notes with a frown on his face. "As convenient as it is at the moment, I must suggest you refrain from such things in the future."

"Unfortunately, being blind makes that rather difficult. I am in need of others for the most part, so if I cannot eliminate all my attackers I may as well go along with them, as I am quite likely to injure myself if I try to run."

"I suppose." Soner says reluctantly. "You should really look into other options though."

Aesir smiles despite the situation. "Noted."

###

Is he in the right place? He hopes he's in the right place. Is this the right time? He thinks so. He followed the supposed assassins here. Maybe he's just paranoid.

Well, Yarne knows he's paranoid, he's just more paranoid in this case.

Getting inside the palace was way easier than he expected. He thought there would be guards or something, but apparently not. No wonder they need his help, the guards can't even do their jobs!

So Yarne does his usual thing and turns into a giant rabbit monster (a giant hare actually), and starts running down hallways trying to find the Exalt. It also occurs to him at this point that it would be really nice if he had any idea how the palace was laid out, or where the Exalt's room is, or how the assassins planned to get in, or anything vaguely helpful, oh Naga what is he doing? This is a bad idea!

Yarne doesn't have time to second-guess himself anymore, because a group of scruffy men dressed in thieves clothes round the corner with an armful of assorted jewelry. Apparently these assassins are not very disciplined.

As much as Yarne's instincts are telling him to run, he barrels into the robbers instead. It sends the jewelry flying everywhere and knocks most of his foes to the ground. A few wild slashes and bites gets rid of them easily. They're unarmored and off guard, and therefore easy eliminations.

This encounter, at least, confirms he has the right date.

Using his large ears and acute sense of smell, Yarne tries to get some clue of where the Exalt is. He can hear whispers echoing down hallways, some loud shouts, and can smell blood in the air. Yarne doesn't know what the Exalt smells like though, he might be smelling him right now and not know it.

Fine then, if he can't find the Exalt at the very least he can track and kill the assassins. It's easy to tell who they are at least: they almost all have Plegian accents.

Hares are not predators. Taguel, however, absolutely are. It makes for a strange conflict in his instincts. Taguel have instincts from their source animal, but also have instincts unique to taguel. Yarne has always felt more comfortable with the hide-and-flee instincts of the hare over his warrior, taguel side, but he's forced to use those instincts he would otherwise ignore in this case. He has to be the hunter.

And Naga above, Yarne hates being the hunter. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately for him, he's also quite good at being the hunter.

The corpses of dead guards makes an easy trail for Yarne to follow. There are a lot of thieves to eliminate along the way, but Yarne also encounters cavaliers, brigands, dark mages, and some proper assassins. Sometimes there are too many for Yarne to safely fight and he has to avoid them, which leaves a seed of worry in his stomach each time he has to do it. He's allowing some of his foes to run free, even if just because it's a fight he can't win on his own.

Then he runs into the Exalt completely on accident. Actually, the only reason he knows the exalt is the exalt is because he can tell he's blind.

Yes, the only thing Yarne really knew about the exalt was that he's blind.

The exalt is being escorted by four people. Young adults by the look of it. What catches Yarne's attention most is that one of them is a taguel. He's not transformed, is holding a spear, and his ears are hidden in long hair behind his head, but he has the distinct smell of a taguel and fur tufts around his wrists (disguised as being insulation for gloves) that easily mark him as one for those who know the signs.

"Sir Yarne!" One of the other people, a boy in a mask, call out to him. "We are in need of your help! We are escorting the Exalt out of the palace, please guard us!"

"O-Okay!" Yarne agrees. He can talk to this other taguel later. For now, he has a duty.

I think Yarne's segment is significantly better than the others in this chapter.

B1ackAshes: Thanks. It was experimental, so I'm glad it worked out well enough to be enjoyable.