'Seriously, is there any point in locking my door at all?' Byleth grumped to Sothis as she entered her room and immediately realised that her personal space had been violated once again while she had been out looking for her brother.

'I'm not sure that much of a crime has been committed when things are left for you rather than being stolen.' Sothis mused, hovering above the new items laid out neatly on Byleth's bed, eyeing them curiously. 'Look, there's a letter!' She added helpfully.

'Hmmph.' Byleth grunted, picking up the envelope that sat atop a holstered sword and a sheathed dagger, both looking, on casual inspection to be fine silver examples. She put the letter down on her table while attending to the kettle on the hearth.

'You really are the most incurious creature!' Sothis moaned piteously. 'Why are you making me wait? I need to know who it's from!'

'Really?' Byleth stood from the fireplace and looked in surprise at her companion. 'Obviously, it's from Jeritza. He was rather rude the other night about my copper weapons, and he had a huge assortment of blades clustered on the stand in his room.'

Sothis's mouth made a cute little 'o' as she glided back to look at the sword again. 'Isn't there some relevance to gifting a blade?' She asked, mildly.

Byleth shrugged. 'How the hell would I know?' She asked. 'Mine are usually stripped from the corpses of the dead. I have used silver before, but if we ever came across one in the field, it was always sold after the battle.'

'These do appear to be of excellent quality.' Sothis mused. 'I wish I had actual hands…'

'Oh, here…' Byleth came and picked up the sword, unsheathing it and holding it up so that Sothis could get a good look. 'It is rather nice.' She agreed. 'It's light, and the metal can achieve a better edge and keep it longer than mine would. It is still just a tool, though. The skill is with the wielder and not intrinsic in the blade. My old copper is perfectly adequate at its job.'

'Rather ungrateful…' Sothis chided.

'Merely practical.' Byleth corrected. 'I have not received many gifts before, though… so…' She sheathed it thoughtfully and took an appraising look over the matching dagger.

Once tea was made, Byleth settled herself down and opened the letter that she had abandoned, ineffectually swatting the air where Sothis was peering excitedly over her shoulder.

'Fine.' Sothis sulked, moving away to hover cross-legged over the bed. 'Read it out, though!' She demanded.

Byleth took a sip of her tea and skimmed through the short, untidily scrawled missive. Sothis growled impatiently.

''Professor Eisner,'' Byleth began as Sothis settled back happily.

''I find myself rather aggrieved that my future demise may potentially be dealt by that inelegant monstrosity that YOU call a sword. Such an unseemly ending. Totally unacceptable.

While I would not be at all adverse to your own tiny, bare hands crushing the very breath from my throat… if a weapon MUST be used, I reserve the right to reject being hacked apart by a crappy lump of copper. To avoid such a dire circumstance, please allow me to offer these superior weapons to you in good faith.

I can envisage clearly the warm slide of silver into my chest… My hearts-blood contrasting the shining, brilliance in deep crimson as it pulses from my body. Now THAT would be a satisfying death.

Yes, I have heard your lecture on not becoming attached to any particular weapon and the need to be able to deal lethal force with any implement available. While I agree with you in principle, please allow me the selfish indulgence to satisfy my own desire to witness you wield something that does proper justice to your skill. Merely a 'noble' pretention on my part, perhaps.

Jeritza von Hyrm.

p.s. I accidentally ate the Lemondrop's I owe you, so the weapons will have to suffice as payment of debt for now.

p.p.s. If anything happens to Mercedes on your forthcoming mission, I will cut you into tiny pieces and feed your quivering flesh to Colin. (Talking of your magnificent kitten, I intend to offer my care to him while you are gone. He prefers ME anyway).

p.p.p.s. I will be offended if you die. Don't.''

'He's a little… odd… isn't he.' Sothis murmured after a moment's silence.

'Just a little?' Byleth queried.

~0~

The next day was a flurry of packing for the Blue Lions.

'Annette, you can only take one book. How many times?' Byleth sighed, removing the three extra tomes that the girl had tried to sneak back into her bag.

'We will be away for nearly two weeks!' Annette wailed. 'I will be done with one book within a couple of days!'

'Would you prefer books or food?' Byleth asked. 'No, don't bother answering that.' She added quickly.

'Hmm.' Dedue cleared his throat quietly. 'I was thinking of taking along a book myself Annette. Could you perhaps recommend something that would be useful for our studies?'

Annettes eyes went wide, and then she beamed a smile at the big man. 'I think you might get some insight from this tome Dedue.' She suggested, handing him one of the books that Byleth had liberated from her pack.

'Yes.' Dedue agreed. 'Thank you.' He added as he stored her book in his own pack.

'You know,' Sylvain spoke up with a grin. 'I am a conscientious and enthusiastic student too. I reckon I could use a book for the journey… if you can think of any Annette?' She grinned back at him as he threw her offering into his bag.

'Oh, for goodness sake, just give me that last book.' Felix sighed.

'Thank you, Felix.' Annette tried a curtsey as she handed it to him, but she ended up a crumpled mess on the floor.

'I suppose if it rains and the wood for our fire is too wet to light, the books will at least come in handy to feed the flames…' Byleth grunted.

'Professor!' Annette squealed in horror while accepting Dimitri's hand in helping her rise. 'You surely don't mean you would burn a book!'

Felix snorted in amusement. 'I guarantee you that she does.' He smirked. 'Our Professor is nothing if not practical.'

'Felix… did you just smile?' Sylvain teased.

'The image of the Professor fighting off Annette as she tries to save her tomes from the fire is just too delicious.' Felix admitted. 'Although my money is on Annette in this one. Sorry Prof.' He punched Byleth on the arm.

'So's mine!' Mercedes agreed with a giggle. 'You don't threaten books around Annie!'

'No, you don't!' Annette agreed bunching up her fists menacingly and waving them at Byleth.

'Look at me, trembling in my boots.' Byleth dead-panned, which caused another snort from Felix.

'I'm sure my Pegasus could carry more weight than we have currently been allocated.' Ingrid suggested helpfully. She had recently received her promotion to Pegasus Knight and was to be scouting from the air for the group.

'Seteth advised that we keep you light on your first few missions.' Byleth explained. 'Let you get a feel for each other outside of the Academy maneuvers.'

Ingrid nodded. 'Still, I feel we could lighten the load on the rest of you a little bit.' She replied seriously.

'Are you two ready?' Byleth turned her attention to Ashe and Ignatz, who were silently stood together but apart from the main group.

'I think so, Professor.' Ignatz nodded. 'Claude helped in determining how many arrows we stocked and has given us some instruction in bow maintenance on the road. I think we require more odds and ends to keep the equipment in shape than most weapons.'

Byleth nodded. 'He would know better than me.' She agreed.

When lessons ended for the day, Byleth once again took dinner alongside the Eagles, with Bernadetta, in particular, clinging to her side morosely. It took quite the effort to manage to get away in time for her to be able to ensure she caught Myles before he disappeared after his shift.

'I'm sorry about yesterday.' Myles told her when they settled together in her room with tea and cakes. 'If I'd known you wanted to see me, I wouldn't have rushed off.'

'I didn't know when we would be leaving for our mission until then, to be honest.' Byleth replied, looking at him covertly as he played with his cup. 'You going to tell me about your girl-problems then?' She asked, grinning.

Myles grimaced. 'It's been hell, sis!' He groaned. 'Why did you have to go and tell Seteth that Flayn had been flirting with me. I have been 'spoken' to in no uncertain terms about my expected conduct and had several walk-by checks since then!'

'Believe me, Myles, it is far better that Seteth was eased into the possibility of Flayn's attention towards you than if he had noticed it under his own steam.' Byleth replied sagely. 'Flayn isn't particularly covert in her affections, so it was only a matter of time…'

'You're telling me!' Myles wailed. 'It's not like I can run away when I'm on duty. She has started to get a little bit handsy too!'

'Poor thing.' Byleth commiserated.

'When Seteth has me castrated, you'll be sorry.'

Byleth laughed. 'I think you may be over-reacting.' She pointed out.

'Alright, maybe. It is damned uncomfortable, though. Flayn looks so cute and innocent, but you wouldn't believe some of the innuendo that comes out of her mouth!'

'I totally believe it.' Byleth admitted. 'It's good for her to have some fun. You're a big boy Myles, you can take it!'

'So how about you and Seteth then?' Myles asked, in a brave attempt to change the subject. 'I noticed that fancy-arsed sword you have leaning up against the wall there. Did he give it to you?' He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

'Oh. No. Jeritza gave me that.' Byleth responded honestly.

'Jeritza?' Myles look turned from teasing to astounded. 'You're jesting, right?'

'No jest. I won a bet.'

'Ah, okay.' Myles sounded relieved. 'For a second there, I thought you and he were…' He shuddered at the thought.

'Hmm. No.' Byleth was distracted by the memory of Jeritza and Mercedes's reunion and their eventual warm embrace. 'Myles… You are my brother… Have you ever considered… giving me a hug or something?' She hated how needy her voice suddenly sounded.

Myles blinked at her in surprise. 'Well, sure I have.' He admitted. 'It's just I can't see Jeralt as the hugging type and figured that you might be uncomfortable with it too.'

Byleth flew across the space between them and wrapped her arms tightly around her brother.

'Need to breathe By…' Myles choked out. She loosened her arms a bit as he drew her into his own arms. 'Guess I was wrong huh!' He beamed.

'Probably not.' Byleth conceded. 'I have only just realised that I like hugs.'

It's kinda awkward too, being as we didn't grow up together. I guess contact would be more natural if we had.'

'You have a heartbeat.' Byleth murmured, laying her ear against his chest. 'I wondered if you would.'

Myles nodded. 'Dad said that you didn't. Must be weird.'

'Maybe that is something to do with why Rhea decided to split us up.' Byleth mused as she sat back from him. She kept a hold on his hand, though.

'Who knows.' Myles shrugged. 'I had a pretty good time of it with my foster family, but I do regret not getting to be with you and Jeralt. I'll admit that I am even a bit jealous that you are off to meet up with dad on this mission.'

'You have a job to do too!' Byleth objected. 'I need you to keep an eye on my students, especially Claude – and I expect you to protect Flayn while I'm gone.'

'Protect Flayn? Whatever from?' Myles asked.

'I'm not actually sure, but Seteth's fears for her go way beyond the norm. He had dad specifically look out for her when he accompanied me on our last mission.' Byleth looked perplexed. 'You know, I never used to go looking for trouble.' She sighed. 'I don't know what changed.'

'Pretty obvious, all things considered.' Myles smirked pulling her back into a hug. 'You are a glutton for punishment. Just like me!'