'Good afternoon Miss Flayn. You are looking cheerful today!' Myles chirruped brightly as Flayn bowled up to him and leaned herself against the wall, a brilliant smile on her face and her dimples popping dangerously.

'Thank you, Myles!' She bobbed her head in agreement. 'I thought you would like to know that Professor Eisner has finally awoken. You do so like to keep abreast of all of the Monastery news after all!'

'Very kind of you.' She could hear Myles grin behind the all-encompassing helmet that he wore. 'I figured out that something was afoot when more than half of the student body started charging around completely unsupervised during lesson hours.'

'Manuela was called to attend on Byleth, so the cat was let out of the bag when she was pulled from her classroom.' Flayn observed. 'Byleth was in good spirits when I saw her, so I imagine that Manuela will find little wrong to concern her.'

'That's great!' Myles's shoulders relaxed a little, Flayn hadn't even noticed that he had been tense in the first place. She put a hand out and placed it gently on his arm.

'When is your shift finished?' She asked quietly. 'I will ensure that you get a chance to see her as soon as possible.

'I have a couple of hours yet.' Myles replied. 'It would be good if you could.'

'Anything for you, Myles…' Flayn couldn't help herself. She fluttered her eyelashes outrageously and squeezed his arm a little tighter. 'Would you perhaps take a bite to eat with me beforehand? I would very much like to thank you properly for the diligent care you took of me while my brother was away…'

'Ah… um… There is certainly no need to thank me, Miss Flayn. It was an honor.' Myles replied with a barely repressed gulp.

'Come now, Myles.' Flayn stepped closer. 'My brother would be ashamed of my poor manners if I were not to acknowledge your kindness and attention.' Flayn's smile had turned wicked.

'Well then, perhaps Seteth would care to join us too?' Myles was clutching at straws.

'No, I don't think so…' Flayn tapped her chin thoughtfully. 'He will be busy along with Jeralt overseeing the flow of wellwishers wanting to get to the Professor. They are both so very protective after all…'

'Right.' Myles heaved a sigh. 'It would be my pleasure to accompany you to dinner, Miss Flayn.' He finally agreed.

'Oh, marvelous!' Flayn bounced, clapping her hands together in glee. 'I will see you later then!' She dropped a little curtsey in his direction.

'I guess so.' Myles replied, sounding like a man condemned.

Flayn started to make her way back towards the infirmary, a small frown creasing her brow. It seemed that Byleth had been correct in her assessment that Myles was fearful of her advances.

While she couldn't deny she was amused by the situation, and she would definitely relish the opportunity to torment him mercilessly now that she knew, there was a tiny hint of sadness at the back of her mind too.

It was obviously fear over Seteth's potential reaction that fuelled Myles's reticence - it couldn't possibly be anything to do with her, and that was just another annoyance to add to her list of frustrations at being mollycoddled and protected so relentlessly.

'Flayn dear...' Flayn had been so caught up in her thoughts that she had failed to notice Manuela beckoning her until the woman was right up next to her.

'Can I help you, Professor Manuela?' Flayn asked politely.

'Could you possibly take this food up to Byleth and ensure that she eats it?' Manuela asked, pushing a covered tray towards her. 'The students seem to have been sent back downstairs, so I am going to try and round them up and herd them back to the classrooms.'

'Of course!' Flayn took the tray. 'Any special instructions with the meal?'

'Get the soup in her first. Fluids will be important for the next few days.' Manuela replied, although her attention was focused on Claude and a group of the Golden Deer who were loitering in the hallway.

'Not a problem.' Flayn promised with a smile. 'You can count on me!'

'Hey!' Claude had spotted them and bounded over enthusiastically. 'What's the deal? How's Teach doing? Seteth wouldn't tell us anything.'

'Well, you shouldn't have deserted class then, Claude.' Manuela replied impatiently. 'I will fill you all in once everyone is back in their seats and not a moment before.'

'Flayn?' Claude wheedled, winking at her. 'Surely you will cut a man a break?'

'I think you have mistaken me for someone who disregards the rules.' Flayn replied sweetly. 'If you will excuse me, I need to get this sustenance to a certain patient who is sitting up and looking really quite well, all things considered.' She winked back at Claude.

'Flayn!' Manuela sighed.

'I'm sure now that Mr von Riegan's concern is somewhat alleviated, he will be only too happy to get back to where he is supposed to be, and persuade his other classmates to join him!' Flayn suggested.

'I need to keep a closer eye on you!' Claude laughed as he bowed elegantly, then went to round up the Deer.

Chuckling to herself, Flayn pushed her way to the stairs and them up, bumping into Edelgard and Hubert, who were on their way down.

'They should have made an exception.' Edelgard was complaining with obvious annoyance. 'The Professor is the mentor for the Black Eagles after all.'

'Quite, Your Highness.' Hubert mumbled consolingly. 'Probably best to let her get her rest now though. Frankly, if Jeritza has to stay tutoring the Eagles much longer, I may have to kill him just to put us all out of our misery.' Hubert caught Flayn's eyes as they passed in the stairwell. He flicked a look at the covered tray in her hands. 'Please pass on Lady Edelgard's kind regards to the Professor if you would.' He requested. 'She hopes she will be able to personally extend her good wishes soon.'

'I will.' Flayn nodded. 'I'm sure Byleth will be back on her feet soon – and long before the need to eviscerate our weaponsmaster becomes critical!'

'Let's hope so!' Hubert muttered.

Seteth and Jeralt were both in the infirmary when Flayn finally reached her destination.

'Ah good. You're back.' Seteth took the tray and brought it over to Byleth, who was sitting up and looked to have regained a bit of color, in just the short time that Flayn had been away.

'Rhea's called us into a meeting.' Jeralt grunted gruffly. 'You okay to stay here until we get free again?'

'I don't need supervision.' Byleth interjected huffily. 'Company would be nice though.' She added to Flayn.

'I'd be happy to stay!' Flayn agreed. 'I will be having dinner with Myles in a couple of hours, and then bringing him up here – but you should be done by then, right?'

'Hope so.' Jeralt grumbled.

'Dinner with Myles?' Seteth's queried.

'Heh, don't worry your head about that Seteth.' Jeralt clapped the man on the shoulder. 'I've had a word with the lad. He'll behave like a gentleman.'

'It's no wonder he's scared of spending time with me.' Flayn complained. 'All three of you have threatened him!'

'Not me!' Byleth had taken the cover off her food, her eyes shining. 'Didn't need too. He isn't stupid.'

'When I end up a crazy old maid with a ton of cats, I'm blaming you all.' Flayn sulked.

'Sounds fine to me.' Jeralt grinned. 'Cat's are great company, so I've heard.'

'Indeed.' Seteth agreed, making towards the door with Jeralt. 'Any problems you know where we are.' He added as they left the room.

'Perhaps you should ask my brother about his intentions towards your daughter, Jeralt!' Flayn called after them as the door closed. She smirked, amused by the sudden expletive that drifted back to her.

'That was mean!' Byleth noted, in between mouthfuls of soup.

'Seteth's a big boy.' Flayn chuckled. 'Serves him right for smothering me!' She made her way over to the bed and perched herself on the end. 'So then. I'm guessing your mysterious illness was caused by using your time magic on your mission.' She stated frankly.

'I thought you might work it out.' Byleth nodded.

'What happened?' Flayn frowned. 'Last time you weren't nearly as bad. Did you have to go back a long way?'

'You didn't feel it this time?' Byleth asked.

'I suspect that the distance between us was too great for the spell to affect me.' Flayn shrugged. 'It's hard to know for sure since I have been completely unable to find out any information on time-shifting at all.'

Byleth had cleaned her bowl. She put her spoon down delicately.

'It wasn't a long period of time. Just minutes, if that.' She said quietly. 'I needed to go back a few times though and each time it became harder and more painful.'

'What? Why did you need to do that?'

'Both Sylvain and Dimitri died. Separate incidents.' Byleth's face was a mask.

'Oh my!' Flayn scooted up the bed and took Byleth's hand. 'That can't have been easy to witness.'

'No, it wasn't.' Byleth looked away. 'It's strange because I have seen so much death over the years. Members of the mercenary team, allies – on one job, I lost the person that I was supposed to be protecting to a stray arrow. It's never nice, but it's also never before hit me as hard as seeing those two…' Her words dried up and she swallowed heavily.

'You care for them.' Flayn said gently.

'Yes.' Byleth agreed. 'Over my time here, I believe that I have come to view people differently than I have in the past.' She paused, consideringly. 'Honestly, when I first met the house leaders, being attacked by the bandits and I rewound time to save Edelgard, I'd felt something… a panic at the thought of her being hurt that I had never experienced before, but that was nothing compared to the sheer horror of seeing those lads lying dead in front of me.' She shivered involuntarily.

'You saved them though Byleth. They are no longer dead.' Flayn's tone was compassionate.

'I did.' Byleth agreed stoically. 'The image of them though, I can't seem to shift it. Since I have awoken, I have replayed it more times than I like to admit. Is it possible to grieve for someone that isn't actually dead? It sounds so stupid!'

'It's not a situation that anyone else could really empathise with, I guess.' Flayn said thoughtfully.

'Well, it would be far worse if it had truly been the end and nothing could have been done.' Byleth shook herself. 'It's just something I will have to learn to deal with.'

'You don't have to manage alone though.' Flayn smiled at her. 'At least - you can speak to me about it.'

'That's true.' Byleth agreed. 'Anyone else would likely think me mad!'

'Of course, the other issue that we have here is how using the skill affects you.' Flayn was suddenly serious. 'If you keep on passing out and spending days unconscious, then questions are going to come up. Ones that you will be unable to answer.'

'I know.' Byleth chewed on her lip anxiously. 'I am very wary of anyone finding out about this ability.' She admitted. 'It is something that would assuredly be abused if it became known, even amongst friends. The temptation to be able to go back and fix a problem before it happened would always be there, the pressure to perform would be overwhelming.'

'I agree.' Flayn shook her head. 'You would have no peace at all. You must be very careful.'

'The pain and fatigue is a very good deterrent to prevent me from abusing the power for myself.' Byleth added sincerely.

'It may very well be that the symptoms that you experience will become less the more that you use it.' Flayn warned.

'Really?' Byleth looked startled.

'Mmm. Magical ability is not dissimilar to a muscle; the more it is used the stronger it becomes. Your base of power to draw upon becomes increased which means you can withstand using more energy.' Flayn grimaced. 'The closest magic I have managed to find a reference to is portaling. Moving oneself and others from one place to another. In essence, it is kind of like transporting through time.'

'People can do that?'

'It's not something that has been used in a very long time, for the same reason that your magic is unheard of.' Flayn shook her head. 'It takes an insane amount of energy to achieve that kind of shift, and the human body can only expend a certain amount before it's in trouble. I did read that magical objects were created to allow mages to portal without the use of their own power, although the whereabouts of them is unknown - if they even existed in the first place.'

'I am just going to have to be extremely careful with it.' Byleth decided. 'While going back to prevent death is definitely a positive use of the skill, the other times I used it… maybe I needn't have. It's a learning curve, I suppose.'

'You know, my brother would be useful to have on board in this.' Flayn suggested. 'He has access to the forbidden books that have been removed from the library due to the nature of their content among other things.'

Byleth squirmed uncomfortably. 'I know Flayn.' She said unhappily. 'It's just… it's not even something I have spoken to my dad about and I don't know that I should given his own protectiveness and paranoia. You found out independently… It wasn't a choice…'

'I understand.' Flayn smiled. 'Think about it though. I promise that Seteth has your best interest at heart.'

'I will.' Byleth agreed. 'I was actually hoping to ask you both to give me some information about the church itself.' She added. 'Rhea had mentioned that she would be doing so, and I have taken a little instruction from Mercedes – but I am very interested in learning more about the Goddess. I have started learning some faith magic, and I'm sure that it would help.'

'Oh! Of course! We can give you all sorts of insight into Sothis, Serios and the four Saints!' Flayn beamed happily. 'We can start now if you like.'

Byleth poked at Sothis in her mind. The girl ignored her and continued sleeping.

'Perhaps later.' Byleth requested. 'I like to be fully alert when I take my lessons.'