Genres/Ratings: Friendship, Mystery, History, War, Ideology.

Characters: Raine, Warin, Dimitri, Claude, Flayn.

Summary: It was meant to be an offering of information, not a trade, but Raine had been surprised to learn Claude had a few tricks left up his sleeve when the long-awaited meeting in the closed-off aisles of the library in Garreg Mach had taken place. He had done his own homework, with what little time and resources he had, and now was the time for everything to be laid out flat on the table. There was still much they did not know, much they needed to figure out, but the pieces of the puzzle were falling together bit by bit. Eventually, the truth would be pulled loose from the shadows, and they would have to face it when that day came. For the moment, however, there was only talk and the idea of future action, which was more than enough than sitting idly on their hands and worrying uselessly in the interim.

Blue Sea Moon

Garreg Mach (Library)

Morning

"So, Teach... What do you remember about the siege on the monastery, five years ago?"

Claude's question was met with narrowed eyes from the other two men in the closed-off library, but Raine knew he wasn't bothered by it as he continued poking about the shelves of books with a furrow to his brow. He had been the one to insist that any and all conversations about the information they had for him take place inside of the library and nowhere else, and though she had initially been puzzled by such a demand, Raine had seen no reason not to humour him. He had put everything in terms of politics within the Alliance on hold, too tempted by their offer of secrets to deny them, and while he had also said he would not participate any longer as the leader of the Alliance in the interim, having him and his men amongst their troops was a sorely needed boon.

Their next target was Fort Merceus, the perfect springboard for an invasion into Enbarr, but the fortress was not nicknamed the Stubborn Old General for nothing. It was massive, and its defences were said to be impregnable. Throughout the entirety of the war Fort Merceus had stood tall and resolute, stopping every single incursion into Enbarr by virtue of position alone, and it was a unanimous decision that not a man could be spared in the taking of it. They needed Claude's cooperation if they wished to be able to land Fort Merceus with the least amount of casualties, and though it irked her, Raine was willing to play along with him if it meant securing his bow for the time being.

Still, this abrupt line of questioning as an opener was confusing, and Raine took pause as she watched him flitting from shelf to shelf, clearly not paying attention to anything outside of his search. It made her wonder what he was looking for, but since he hadn't decided to speak of it first, she knew better than to ask. He was as driven by keeping secrets as he was digging them out into the open, and whatever mysteries he had decided to keep about himself were ones he obviously had no intention of sharing. That didn't bother her overly much, considering what she, too, was hiding from him, but his question made her tilt her head to the side thoughtfully as she answered with a question of her own, "Are you asking about the fighting, or about what happened afterwards? That five year gap, when I vanished?"

"Both, but the fighting can come first, since that's the order things went in. May as well proceed chronologically, if we're going to do this properly." Claude responded without looking over his shoulder at her, and he ran a thoughtful, curious finger down the spines of the books on the shelf before shaking his head and moving onto the next. Not much had been moved about or stripped from the library during the invasion of the Imperial troops, at least, nothing that hadn't been fixed during the rebellion's occupation in the monastery, but that only made his search all the harder. He couldn't trust his memory of the place, as it had been five long years since he had last stepped a foot inside of Garreg Mach, but he didn't allow it to hinder his search as he continued on almost errantly, "So, tell me, Teach. What do you remember about the fighting? Every detail you have, starting from when the first wave broke and the attack began in earnest."

Raine's eyes flickered to Dimitri and Warin, noting their displeasure with both the topic and Claude's cavalier attitude as he pressed it, but she knew better to let either of them interrupt and force Claude's attention back to where they believed it belonged. It wasn't a topic they wanted to discuss, especially considering what that fight had cost them both personally, but Raine was well aware that there was no time to allow emotions to cloud their judgement. Claude was flighty, and she didn't trust him as far as she could throw him. She needed to play his games in order to have his cooperation, as well as his full attention, and if this was what he wished to hear... She shrugged her shoulders idly, remarking, "I imagine that you remember it as well as I do. The first wave broke, but our defensive line held out the first few rounds of fighting. Edelgard's little vanguard were only a distraction, and she used herself and her men as bait to lure us as far outside of the monastery's defences as she could manage... A sound strategy, considering the sheer bulk of numbers she had waiting to summon the second things went wrong for her. We were successful in beating off her generals, successful in beating her off, too, but that didn't matter. Once she gave the call for the Empire's men, the battle was lost."

"That's odd. Because I don't recall it going quite like that..." Claude remarked as he paused in his hunt, finding what he was looking for shoved unceremoniously into a shelf three lengths away from where he had originally found it. He pulled the book loose, then the two that stood beside it before he smirked to himself at the hiding place it revealed. He reached into the shelf itself, rummaging about for a moment or to before he pulled a fourth volume free, and he turned about now, thumbing idly though the thin and worn prize he hadn't expected to find still hidden away where he had put it five years beforehand. He opened the book to the page he was searching for, and with a triumphant little smirk, threw the book onto the table between the trio seated about it before he exclaimed smugly, "What I remember is that making an appearance out of utterly nowhere and stemming the tides long enough for the students to escape."

"A dragon?" Warin was the one to speak as all eyes turned to the open pages in curiosity, and he narrowed his eyes before turning to look at Raine and Dimitri in confusion. He had been chased far and away from the monastery shortly after the reinforcements had been summoned, shortly after feeling that heart-wrenching grip of ice in his chest that had told him Raine had fallen in battle, and there was nothing left for him to try to protect but his own neck. Raine was staring down at the picture with an inscrutable expression, her mouth pressed into a thin, stern line, while Dimitri winced, pressing a hand to his head as if he could hear Claude's words, but simply could not dredge up the image he was painting like he had blocked it out and could no longer remember without risking another of his splitting headaches.

Shifting his arm gingerly and cursing the damned sling that Flayn had forced him into due to the slow healing she had chosen to restore the broken bones in his arm, Warin wondered what in the seven hells Claude was trying to say. The volume he had presented was old and tattered, as if it had survived several centuries being shoved away under floorboards and into cracks as if it feared discovery. This made little sense to him, though some part of him did dimly remember that every few years, Seteth was said to regularly purge the library of books he deemed either "too sensitive", or "too inaccurate" for the monastery. It seemed at the least this was one book that had survived numerous such purges, though he admittedly couldn't imagine why. Across the pages was a picture of an ivory or silver-white-coloured dragon, its great wings spread wide and jaws open in a silent, unending roar, but he admitted it looked like nothing more to him than a picture from any of the countless fable books he had read through as a boy. The writing about the picture was smudged and faded with age, making it impossible to discern, and Claude's smug expression only made him all the more confused as he continued with a frown, "You remember a dragon in the fighting? Is this a detail I've never heard of before because no one else remembers it, or was it deemed too nonsensical to be believed as a fact?"

"No, it's a fact. There was indeed a dragon on the battlefield that day, but you weren't there to see it. It makes sense that you wouldn't have heard the retelling. Many of the students by that time were already evacuated, and they didn't see it, either. Those who did either died in the fighting, or never returned to Garreg Mach to tell of it..." Raine replied with a slow, tired shake of her head as she understood Claude's aim now, and she leaned back into a chair as she shook her head slowly and looked to Claude with tired, but narrowed eyes. She turned the book about, facing him and his smug, proud expression, and she tapped her index finger errantly onto the book's image of a large, silver-white dragon that encompassed the pages before asking him sternly, "Is this really the first topic you want to delve into?"

"You tell me, Teach." Claude shrugged his shoulders, but his eyes were alight with both curiosity and deep suspicion now that he heard her confirm what he had seen to be complete fact. It wasn't as if he had had much time then to study the beast that had flown from the monastery and taken to the field like some legendary creature of old stories and wilder legends, but he had burnt that image of it into his eyes to remind himself that it had existed. This book had given him proof of it being something the Church of Seiros had been hiding, and its appearance that fateful day during the taking of the monastery... He couldn't, and wouldn't, discard it as simple coincidence as he challenged her outright, "If you remember it, why haven't you said anything about it all this time?"

"I didn't remember it until very recently. You ask what I remember of the battle, and to be completely blunt with you, I didn't remember very much of the end of it for quite some time after I woke, five years after it had happened." Raine's response was cold and sharp, not appreciating Claude's jab as if she had been intentionally withholding information from both Dimitri and her brother. That had never once been her desire, or her choice, and it had only been after the mess that had been the Battle of Grondor that things had returned to her memory that she had been happier off having forgotten. "Until recently, my memory of the battle ended shortly after the call for reinforcements came. Edelgard was near beaten, and then there were swarms of men making their way up the hills and villages, flanked by Demonic Beasts and slaughtering everything and everyone that got in their way... Then, I was being shaken awake on the river's edge at the foot of the monastery, five years after the fact. Only after Grondor did I remember more, and to be quite frank, I didn't trust what I'd remembered enough to speak of it, nor did I want to linger on those memories. Had you been in my place, I doubt you would have wanted to, either."

"And what memories are those?"

"Careful, Claude..." Dimitri spoke in a low, warning growl as he began to raise to his feet, but Raine lifted a hand to stop him before he could make it fully upright. She had spoken of this to him already, and though he believed her fully of what she had told him, it wasn't a topic she had enjoyed revealing to him. How could it be, when it was so damned frightening and morbid? Of course her own mind had erased it, likely in some desperate, futile attempt to keep her sanity, and only another near brush with death had been the trigger for recalling it. It had shaken her, shaken her and cemented all those damned beliefs she had about her humanity and her right to exist, but those were not secrets that Claude was privy to, simply because of his desire to know everything he could. His pushing, and his implications set fire to his temper, and though Raine had warned him silently not to intercede, he ignored her wholly as he reprimanded Claude sharply, "You're approaching dangerous territory. You being here doesn't mean that you've free reign to trample over everyone else on your quest for information. If she doesn't wish to divulge it, you've no right to go chasing after her for things she'd rather not speak of."

"Why do her feelings matter more than the fact that she remembers seeing this creature, and she knows more about it than she's letting on? If she knows its origins, then she owes it to us to explain it. There are more secrets being held here than the ones about this shadowy group that Edelgard's allied herself with." Claude retorted with a deep, amused snort as he looked from the book on the table and then back to Dimitri without an ounce of fear. He didn't care for something as pithy as the professor's emotional state, especially when the truth was on the line. He had been promised answers and secrets... He would not leave empty-handed, no matter which buttons he had to press, or how fiercely. "You may be allies with the Church of Seiros right now, but do you really think they aren't hiding things from you, too? Don't you want to know exactly what it is they're hiding, and why?"

"Boy, you've no idea how badly we want to know the secrets that are being kept from us. If you'd listened to me when I came looking for you for aid, you'd have known that by now." Warin spoke this time at the mention of the Church of Seiros, and he turned threateningly in Claude's direction despite the fact that he was essentially crippled still from his wounds in Derdriu. His right arm still had an assortment of broken bones that hadn't yet been fully healed, and his left was still suffering from the after-effects of the magical burns that had been inflicted on him. His weapons had been much easier to restore than his body, but he had been promised within the next week or so he would be fit enough to begin training again if he adhered to the strict schedule Flayn had created for him. He had spent more time in the infirmary this last week than he had in his entire year of tenure as a Knight of Seiros, and to say it was grating on his temper was an understatement.

Even further, now Claude was daring to suggest that all three of them there were too blind to see the writing clearly painted on the wall, and he wasn't sure if he was more offended or infuriated by the young man's utter idiocy. They had been fighting amongst their enemies ever since they had been unceremoniously dragged here alongside their father, and if he hadn't made it obvious enough in his very manner when he had been a conscripted knight, he had no idea where Claude found himself to be making such claims, and with such boldness. It made him sharp and heated, and though he didn't have use of his arms he still could kick with all the force of a stallion if he wished to as he rounded on the younger sniper and snapped at him, "I don't trust the Church of Seiros as an institution any more than you do. No one sitting here does. Don't prance your arse in here as if you're the only sane one seeing the wolves amongst the sheep. We're all aware of what's happening, and that our allies of today could very well turn into our enemies tomorrow. Do you not think we've been preparing for that ever since we were dragged here against our will almost six years ago?"

"Seteth has already proven his loyalty to Rhea is paramount. I don't doubt for a moment where his priorities lie, and he's made it clear that it isn't to us or our rebellion. He wishes for Rhea to be freed from Enbarr. Anything else that happens during or afterwards is just good fortune to him." Raine took up where her brother left off, and her eyes flashed warningly on Claude as she reached instinctively for the blade on her hip in answer to his challenge. How dare he suggest they hadn't been thinking of these things on their own before his arrival? Did he truly think himself so superior for mistrusting the Church of Seiros? It was almost like dealing with Edelgard all over again, and that made her just as angry as Warin was when she reminded him icily, "And you forget exactly what brought us here in the first place, and that it most certainly wasn't by our choice. Our father is dead because Rhea dragged him back into the Church's net. You want to know things because they are forbidden to you, and you don't care about boundaries or laws or tradition, because you're drunk on the idea of knowledge you should not be permitted to have. We aren't like you. We want to know because it's our damned right to know why our parents are dead, and why we're being made puppets of a religion we don't follow. Don't compare our reasons and think yourself somehow more righteous or clear-eyed than we are. You're blinder than Edelgard if you think it's that simple."

"Fine, fine..." Claude raised his hands in supplication as he realized he was coming dangerously close to facing a beating, but he didn't mind the insults. They were true enough, that he wanted the forbidden knowledge because it was forbidden to him, but he refused to believe that it made him any lesser than they for it. They wanted vengeance, it was plain as day that their hatred for Rhea was burning bright despite their positions and their allies, and that wasn't a path that would lead them anywhere clean. He knew it as well as they did, but he was glad to see their fires hadn't been put out by their positions of forced cooperation or leadership. That was the only positive he saw out of all of this, yet it still left him with questions he needed answering, and he turned back to Raine as he pointed that out bluntly, "But you still haven't answered my question, Teach."

"I died, so I apologize if that is somehow of inconvenience to you."

The words echoed in the room like a peal of thunder, and Warin's teeth gritted down audibly as Dimitri turned his head roughly to the side with a lowly muttered oath. Claude's eyes narrowed, and for a moment he debated calling her bluff before locking eyes with the woman in question to see that there wasn't a hint of dishonesty in her eyes. She was glaring at him, anger alight in every facet of her seafoam-coloured irises, but there was no lie there. She was speaking the complete truth, and it made him shake his head, disbelief saturating both his expression and tone as he replied, "Sorry, Teach, but you... died? You're standing here as living and breathing as I am, aren't you? You might have the power of the Goddess, or her blessing, or whatever it is they say it is that saved you in the Sealed Forest, but... You're starting to sound as if you're buying into their stories now."

"You asked what I remember of the siege. And what I remember more than anything else now is dying in the bottom of the canyon after being knocked from the cliff by Thales. If you think me a liar, go ahead and say the words, but be well aware they'll likely be your last. If I don't kill you, Dimitri or my brother most likely will in my stead." Raine answered him bitterly, and her body shuddered instinctively at the memory that haunted her dreams now that it had come back to her after taking that damned girl's dagger in Grondor. Once was enough, but the second brush had unlocked all of the memories she had either willed away or simply locked in darkness to keep her sanity. She couldn't count how many times now she had woken up in a cold sweat, panting and clutching at her still heart inside of her chest in a desperate attempt to remember she was somehow still alive, even if she was not human.

Laying in the encroaching darkness, her body broken, her breathing marred by the taste of copper on her tongue... They were memories that would haunt her for the rest of her life, whether she was asleep, or awake. Then that emptiness that had followed, the dark and the nothing, before she was being yanked unceremoniously back into daylight, five long years after her eyes had closed for what to her had been only a heartbeat. Her memories had gone with the darkness, erasing everything else in a last-ditch attempt to keep her sane, keep her capable, but her wound in Grondor had brought it all back. Rhea, in comparison to the memory of death, had been little more than a footnote. It was wrong, it was selfish of her, but it remained fact. She hadn't given much of a damn about her memories of the battle, not when every other ounce of her was far too focussed, far too horrified, with the realization that death had taken her, and she had nothing awaiting her afterwards once it came for her for the final time.

She fought to keep her voice, and the hand that was still tightly clenching the hilt of her blade steady. Curses upon curses. That's all that her gifts truly were, and she would never again allow for anyone else to say otherwise. She was inhuman, she was bound for purgatory, and her body was some strange macabre imitation of a real one without a heartbeat to keep her standing. Her connection with Sothis, with Rhea, was the root of it all, but it didn't make her hate herself any less when she spat out with a curl to her lip for Claude, "Whatever "blessing" was bestowed on me didn't come without a cost, nor did it come naturally. This sword wasn't meant for my hand. The Crest I bear didn't come to me by virtue of my bloodline, either. And I can lay each and every one of these oddities at Rhea's feet. I'm not keeping her secrets because I wish to. I kept them because I didn't even remember that I knew of them. And at the time I recalled everything, a certain few details took precedence over others. I apologize for the inconvenience my death caused you."

"Enough. That's enough." Dimitri stood sharply, the chair he had been uneasily perched on skittering backwards with a loud thumping noise as he turned on Claude with a spark of rage igniting in his cerulean eye. He spoke coldly, factually as he laid his hands flat on the table, but the gesture was anything but a sign of calm or reconciliation. His fingers were trembling, and his body had stiffened to the point where it looked as if he would pounce at any given moment without warning. He growled out his next words, forcing himself not to resort to his baser instincts that demanded he haul his former classmate from the room and throw him from the nearest window, and instead looked sharply to him as he hissed, "I will not warn you again to tread lightly, Claude... Continue with this, and I will gut you where you stand, with no compunctions. You've pried enough, and gotten your answers. Dig deeper, and you will force my hand."

Claude almost turned on him in reply, about to demand if he really would start another war, right inside of Garreg Mach for little more than a woman's feelings, but the moment he locked eyes with the future king of Faerghus, he was abruptly aware that he would. He would start a war, fight a war, and win the war for the professor, and he would not hesitate if he was pushed further. The only reason he hadn't done anything yet was because Raine was fencing well enough on her own, and Warin was physically incapable of subduing him. But Dimitri's patience had clearly run thin, and Claude was suddenly very aware that he had overplayed his hand in his eagerness.

He was a lone deer amidst a pride of lions, and he had harassed the matriarch enough to spur her mate into action. And though he had not seen it for himself, Claude was well aware that was what their relationship had become. Dimitri had always been protective of his professor, and anyone with eyes could see that he had been clearly besotted by her in their schooldays. While he had changed, and changed violently in the past five years, that schoolboy affection had not waned. Instead, like the rest of him, it had grown. Claude only had to see the way he looked at her to know they were involved, but he had never considered the fact that Dimitri was more than willing, more than eager, to put an end to anyone and everyone who so much as looked at her wrong. And for her credit, while she had reigned him in and tamed him from the wild beast he had been in his exile... Raine seemed as if she wouldn't be overly bothered if he ran rampant, even if she didn't seem to be asking for it, herself.

Still, after a long, tense, and uncomfortable silence... Raine let out a breath, and waved her hand from the chair she still had not risen from. She wasn't looking at Claude any longer, but rather at her brother and Dimitri, and she spoke quietly but firmly to them as the tension filled the air until it could have easily been carved with a knife, "That's enough out of everyone here. Believe me, I'm not as happy with this turn of conversation as either of you are, but resorting to violence won't get us anywhere. We can deal with any negative feelings we have on the battlefield before we stoop to infighting. Sit, breathe, and we'll continue this discussion as civilly as we can manage. There's still more Claude needs to know, and I don't know about you two, but I'll feel much better if we get this all out of the way now so we don't have to risk a repeat of this fiasco as it already is. Can we all at least agree to that much, if nothing else?"

One snort and a long, irritated sigh were her only answers, and Raine rolled her eyes with exasperation before she turned back to the book Claude had put down in front of her. She turned it about to look at it more closely, and her eyes narrowed as she took in the features that were much too close to her memory for comfort. This book hiding amongst the monastery's literature was clearly something that should have been removed considering the truth it revealed, and she could well understand why Claude had chosen to hide it from wherever he had unearthed it. Her fingers idly traced the shape of the wingspan that spread far along the aged parchment, and she mused quietly, mostly to herself, "It's not exact, but it's close enough... The form she took that day was... older, perhaps? I don't know what words to use to describe it, as I was only there for a few minutes, and the memory still is hazy at times... It wasn't nearly as beautiful as this illustration would suggest, at the very least. There was nothing beautiful about it... but power... There was plenty of that. She destroyed an entire garrison of men with just a burst of flame, and it took half a dozen Demonic Beasts just to stymie her movement. If this is her "true form", then Edelgard is right to be fearful and wary of her... and our foes moved knowing full well what she was and what she was capable of, and still won out the day. That speaks to preparation beyond our ken. Whoever Thales truly is, his war with the Church of Seiros began long before our lifetime, and only now did he have the confidence in his power to be willing to act in the open."

"His grudge isn't only with the church. Solon made quite the point of calling us all vermin in Remire. This goes far beyond a squabble over religion." Warin pointed out with a shake of his head, and he glanced only once to the book before discarding it completely. He'd read enough legends and fairytales that the concept of a human turning into a dragon wasn't anything he could not rationalize and accept without much difficulty. There were whole sagas of legendary countries where such creatures were commonplace in their society, though their powers and lifespans always put them at odds with the humans of their worlds. Human beings turning into dragons wasn't anything he was about to fret over, especially when the very real threat of death by magic or human-made weapons was far closer to him in his daily life. Still... He looked to Raine, and he spoke slowly, thoughtfully, "Fell Star... They call you Fell Star, and they fear and hate you for your power. Not for the blade, that seemed more like a trifle to them than anything else, it's your abilities that they loathe. But how do they know what abilities you have, if you've never demonstrated it to them before they even began calling you that?"

"Good question... I'd wager that it's because they, like Rhea, know exactly who, and what I am. Why else would they have tried so desperately to kill me at every opportunity? Whoever they are, they've made enemies of the Church of Seiros before, so they likely know just as much as Rhea does." Raine mused in return, and she ran her fingers errantly over the hilt of her blade as she wondered what Sothis would think of all this speculation, had she been there to hear it. It made her chest ache with memory and longing, but that she held in tightly and didn't allow to show on her face. Her connection to Sothis was a secret she intended to keep for awhile longer, especially considering who was now in the room with her and what it all meant in the grand scheme of things that she still could not see. Yet, she smiled bitterly, shaking her head as she remarked with a tired sigh, "Small wonder it was so easy to turn the Empire to their bidding, after placing Edelgard on the throne... Fill her head with lies and fear-mongering over the Church of Seiros, about the Crest system, about Rhea's true identity, and they've their perfect puppet in place to start a war. Allow the vermin to sort themselves out in the ensuing bloodshed, and once we've been weakened sufficiently, sweep over the continent and purge whoever remains. Not exactly a bad plan, I will say that much... Considering it almost worked."

"So, if I'm to sum all of this up correctly... This shadowy group of ours has been existing in a silent, and generations-long campaign not only against the Church of Seiros, but the entirety of Fódlan, to boot. They used the Empire as their launching point to start a continent-wide war, and have been using Edelgard this entire time in order to cover their existence? Is that about the gist of it?" Claude questioned rhetorically, and as he looked from face to face about the room, he could see the answers clearly on their expressions. Dimitri was looking away, his expression pinched and pained, while Warin closed his eyes and shrugged his shoulders, unamused and proving he didn't give much of a damn of the details when the reality of the situation remained the same with or without the background information that gave nuance to it. Raine was the only one who met his gaze, and her face was calm and collected, without an ounce of worry or thought that she could be wrong, and her confidence made him muse despite himself, "All right, now saying that everything you know, or what you believe you know, is actually the truth... What's the next step?"

"Take Fort Merceus, and ready ourselves for an invasion of Enbarr... Then, take Enbarr, and save it from being burnt to the ground in the process, before dealing with Edelgard and freeing Rhea. With that, we'll have access to the information we'll sorely need to continue this campaign and root out the real enemy hiding behind the curtains." Raine answered with an idle shrug of her shoulders, though some distant part of her was aware that her words, and her dismissive tone on speaking had to make her sound quite mad. As if it was simply as easy as saying it, and not marching, over and over again, into battle after battle after battle. The army they had amassed were men and women, flesh and blood, not machines who had no concerns over wounds or sickness or infection. Still, Raine was well aware that keeping things in simpler terms, in easy-to-view goals, made things much less terrifying to imagine. The less she played up the difficulty of the road ahead, the more she could see herself trekking across it, and she knew that was the same for the soldiers she was fighting alongside.

Claude blinked, surprised by the blasé tone and moreover by how firmly Raine seemed to believe in how easy the path ahead of her looked. If he hadn't been witness to half of her victories already, he would have called her foolish, but he knew better. The woman in front of him had been pulling miracle after miracle out of her cloak at every turn, and it didn't seem as if she had lost an ounce of steam yet. She was ready to keep forging on ahead, even if it meant leaving everyone else far behind, but he wasn't quite sure if that was arrogance, or actual confidence. It unnerved him all the same, however, considering what still lay ahead, and he warned her with a cautious shake of his hand, "You're talking as if you've already put the Emperor in the ground. You're underestimating her if you think she'll go down that easily, Teach."

"She's a foot in the grave as it is, and that isn't arrogance speaking, it's pure fact." Raine countered coldly, and though she knew her words were spears to Dimitri, she did not make any attempt whatsoever to lighten her tone, or hold back the acid in her voice. She understood his desires to see things through, and yet not spill more blood if he could manage such a feat, but she, and he, knew that life would not be so kind to them. The enemy they were facing was arrogant, arrogant, proud, and blind, and already more than half-beaten. Any tactician worth their salt would know it, and Raine continued flatly, "Think mathematics. What is the only thing keeping the forces of the Alliance and the Kingdom at bay at current? It's Fort Merceus, and Fort Merceus will not be able to withstand a combined attack of our full might once we unleash it. We will be taking the fortress, there's no doubt about it, and that leaves our path to Enbarr wide open. She's boxed into a corner, and if she had a lick of sense, she'd request a parley, and surrender rather than waste lives defending the capital, and fighting to the death. But we both know she won't think sensibly. She's incapable of it. So, instead, she'll fight. She will fight, and she will die. Do you really think I'm wrong?"

"All I'm saying is that she won't go down easily, Teach. She's outnumbered, and most certainly weaker, but she's not about to give up... You're looking at another Battle of the Eagle and Lion." Claude pointed out, and from the flicker in Raine's eyes, he was aware that she knew this just as well as he did. They had all seen how Edelgard reacted when defeat was imminent, and it had never been a pretty sight. She lashed out wildly and without reserve, ready to bring down everything and anyone with her if that was how things were to be, but now they were fighting with lives on the line. It would be much different than their academy days. "You put any creature in a box, and they'll fight harder than they've ever fought in their lives for a chance at survival... She'll be at her most dangerous in Enbarr."

Warin's loud, derisive snort stopped Raine from replying, and all eyes turned to him with both surprise and confusion as he leaned back against the nearest bookshelf and looked at Claude with amusement. An honest smile was playing at his lips despite the cold humour glinting in his dark, navy gaze, and he shook his head with slow, exasperated mirth before he corrected Claude with another chuckle, "You're very wrong there, Claude... Just because you prioritize survival over everything else doesn't mean that the world is full of like-minded cowards. Edelgard will be at her most dangerous, yes, but it won't be because she wants to live. It will be because she wants us all to lose. That's what this war is about. It's not about her surviving to rule over some half-arsed utopia based upon self-righteous dogma and ridiculous idealisms that would never work in the real world. It's about proving her demented delusions to be fact, and tearing down anyone and everyone who would disagree with her until they either fall in line, or get stomped out by her idea of how the world actually functions. She's not afraid to die. She's likely more prepared than anyone in this room is to enter her grave. Why she'll go down fighting is to prove, to the very last, that she's right, and that we are wrong."

"She's not that blinded by her ideals. She's smarter than that."

"No, she's truly not. You and her are rather alike in that. Thinking that your way is the right way, and no other could possibly be correct, or even have a shred of merit to it." Warin disagreed with another laugh, though this one was bitter and dark, and no longer showed even a hint of amusement to it. He had seen and heard enough to know now, what exactly had tied these two rulers together in a way that made Dimitri stand so far apart as an outlier, and he was disgusted with them and their selfish way of viewing things. They had no idea of the ramifications of their dreams, and worse, of the consequences of seeing those dreams to fruition. At the very least, Dimitri was only meeting violence with violence because it had been forced upon him. He wasn't seeking to change the world, or conquer it, in recompense. He merely wanted things to return to the way the were, and improve upon the things that had led to such a massive erosion of the world as he had known it once that power was in his hands.

"Change, change, change... You two both ramble on and on about how this world must evolve, without ever considering what you wish for is impossible to accomplish in your lifetimes. You can't force growth. All you can do is burn down the world about you and hope that what you plant in the ashes comes out to your liking when it matures. You'd slaughter hundreds, knock down walls and disrupt the status quo in some twisted hope of making the world out to be a better place... and never once do you acknowledge that the walls were built for a reason, and the laws we live by are upheld by the majority because they, at least, are at peace with the world they live in." Warin pointed out coldly, echoing his sister's ferocious tirade unthinkingly in Derdriu as he locked eyes with Claude both threateningly, and with a fair amount of a challenge to be told he was speaking nonsense. He had heard enough from Edelgard personally to have realized how far gone she was, but it had genuinely disappointed him to learn that two out of three of the future heirs of the continent were so completely blind. "You disrupt that world, you knock down those walls, you kill wholesale in the name of some great dream, and all you have at the end of the road is a bloodstained landscape, countless dead, even more mourners, and angry and uncertain victims that you now must either put under your boot, or convince that all they lost was for their own good, even if they never asked for it. You want change that will actually be welcomed, and will become a new mainstay in the world? Then you must accept two things; the first is that you cannot force it upon another, and the second is that you will never live to see it come to fruition."

"The old don't plant trees so that they themselves will pick the fruit. That fruit is for their children, and their children's children. You're demanding the tree grow outside of the laws of nature, and are watering the soil with blood in some deluded attempt to hasten its natural cycle. That isn't how the world works." Raine agreed with a slow, solemn shake of her head, and she was pleased, darkly so, by the look of complete shock in Claude's eyes as he listened to their words. He had no choice but to listen, to absorb it, because he was there at their mercy, and the world he wished for was nothing but ashes in the wind of his dreams. They all knew it, but Raine cared little for how much it had to hurt him to be so thoroughly drowned in his failure. He would have gone the same way as Edelgard had, if he had had the tools to do so. She knew it, because she had seen those hungry eyes on her blade, and the simmering anger and resentment in his expression when he had seen it in her hands. "All the power in the world won't change the fact that you alone are incapable of making it spin faster simply because you command it. I'll be the first to agree that this world needs to be changed, though perhaps not as violently as you two believe... but if that change is to come at all, it must come organically, and not through force. Otherwise, all you seek to accomplish will be undone within a generation or two, because you could not swing the majority to see things through with you in peaceful agreement. The unity of Fódlan will never happen in our lifetime. Nor should it."

"Edelgard came pretty damn close before you came along, Teach."

"It never would have lasted. She killed too many people, made too many enemies, and moreover, her ideal little world doesn't account for the fact that she's a puppet, and those holding her strings would never have allowed for her to actually win." Warin continued firmly, and he chuckled at the very thought that she would have had the power or the ability to take on the foes she was leaning on so heavily in order to make her victory possible in the first place. It made no sense that it would work in her favour, when she had been built, from the ground-up, to serve for their purposes. "She, and you, are underestimating the foes we're facing if you truly think she has a whit of hope in somehow putting these bastards in their coffins before they'd put a knife in her ribs. Do you not think they've planned for every eventuality, including her betrayal? Wouldn't they have considered it from the very day they made her into what she is? Even if we hadn't come to stop it, even if we fail, there is no outcome where she not only wins, but survives. We may not know their reasons for why they do what they do, but we do know what they want. A world without us. A world where they rule. A puppet doesn't get to live in such a world after they've expended their use, especially one who isn't capable of keeping herself in check. Had she played a more conservative hand, hell, if she had opened her damned mouth, all of this could have been avoided from the very start. But that's her sin to bear. We're just the ones here cleaning up her mess."

Raine sighed, stretching out her tense muscles as she felt the weight of the conversation filling the entirety of the library. Dimitri hadn't spoken a word, but she understood well why he wouldn't. He still was hoping to wring out some semblance of a conscience, of sheer common sense from his step-sister, even if he knew it was futile. She and Warin were already looking beyond her corpse, and the vast dichotomy between their views and actions were hard to swallow, and chilling. Yet, they had come to terms with it. Pragmatism was the way of their world now, as leaders and mercenaries, and reality was cruel. It was all well and good to hope, but Raine would not put faith in anything that hadn't already proven to be reliable.

She looked now to Claude, who looked as if he had been taken about the stables for a harsh beating despite the fact that no one had laid a hand upon him. He didn't like what they had to say, and from that stubborn shine in his eyes, he proved that he would deny them being right to his very last breath. That was his choice, but it only made her immediately decide she would not trust him with an ounce more information that was necessary if that was to be the case. He, too, could not be relied upon. He could be used, just as he would use them, but she was fine with that. Their relationship didn't require trust, or even mutual respect, and she showed her hand fully as she leaned in her chair and remarked, "So, with all this out of the way... What's your stance now, Claude? Do you know enough to be satisfied, or are you in it for the long haul? And if so, what do you want out of it?"

"I want what I've always wanted. The truth. The full, honest, naked, truth. I want to know who, or what, Rhea really is, what she and the Church have been hiding, and moreover, I want to know why Fódlan's future was put squarely into your hands." Claude's reply came quick and blunt, though his eyes were cold as he studied the woman in front of him. He didn't understand why she of all people, someone of no standing, no noble birth, nothing but a fair hand at swordplay, had become the one to be entrusted with the future of the continent. He already knew it was Rhea's will, but that wasn't enough for him. He wouldn't be satisfied until he knew everything. "Once I find out all of that... I'll do what I intended to do in Derdriu, and put this mess of a continent behind me. My dreams are in ruins here. I'll find a way to make them happen elsewhere."

"Fair enough... but be warned, whatever information Rhea has about me isn't going to be shared with you just because you demand it. That's my decision to make, not yours. If I choose to keep my secrets, then you'll have to live with that. And if you can't... Well, you aren't so useful that I'll make an exception for you being here if you start getting too annoying." Raine admitted with an errant flick of her hand, but her eyes flashed with a dare to be challenged nonetheless. She was aware he would not stop until he was satisfied. That had been a gamble she had played... However, she was laying out the rules now, not later, so he would be fully aware of the consequences of sticking his nose where it wasn't wanted. "This is a relationship built on trade, not trust, and whatever information Rhea has concerning my family doesn't need to be whispered in your ears. Unless you feel like telling us exactly all those little secrets you've been sitting on since we first met in Remire all those years ago. Commerce for commerce, Claude. Secret for secret."

"Why do you want to know anything about me? I'll be nothing but a bad dream in a few moons. There's no point in you digging up all of my dirty laundry now." Claude pointed out shrewdly, though he was aware that his words were hypocritical. Raine had put him directly in front of a target, with his own mouth as the awaiting arrow, and she knew it just as well as he did. It only served as a painful reminder that all of his tactics and schemes and lies were nothing in comparison to her lifetime of experience, and her willingness to play just as dirty as her opponent would if she had to. She was still a mercenary, underneath all of her titles and gifts and exploits, and in that cold, calculating glare of her eyes, he knew she had already buried him, just as she had already buried Edelgard. "I'm just a soldier to you now, so there's no point in getting cosy and sharing secrets and family history. I'll agree to that much. But everything else, I still want to be privy to, and I won't back down on that."

"Fine. Then we've an agreement. You can take your turn questioning Rhea once we free her from Enbarr. For now, make yourself useful about the monastery as every other soldier would, and we can talk again at the next war council." Raine dismissed him summarily, and she was glad when he didn't argue, but merely nodded his head stiffly and made his way out of the library. His body language was tense and coiled, proof of deeply buried anger and annoyance, but she didn't view it, or him, as something to be concerned about. He'd been bested already, and he was outnumbered. He knew it as well as she did, which was why he had left without argument. Though the moment the door shut behind him, sealing her inside of the library with Dimitri and her brother... She let out a groan and a curse. "Gods, I hate that brat... And before you start gloating; yes, yes, you were right, Warin. I hope this was worth it."

Warin snorted, but he shook his head... In no remote world was this situation worth being right, and from Raine's exhausted and annoyed expression, he knew she felt the exact same way. Dealing with Claude was not something either of them had wanted to do, but it wasn't as if he had left them with any choice after his actions in Derdriu. Luring him into Garreg Mach with the promises of secrets so he would abandon his political games was the only avenue they had left to them if they wanted to use his strength. While they all clearly believed putting up with him wasn't worth the effort, they all still knew it was for the sake of the Alliance. They'd grit their teeth and make do, because they had no other choice, but it didn't mean they would enjoy it. "You make it sound like I enjoy being right. Believe me... I don't. But that's beyond the point, and beyond our issue with the brat. What is our next move?"

"I don't know yet... Finalize our plans for the invasion at the fortress, I suppose." Raine replied with a small shrug, and she leaned herself as far back in her chair as she could manage, tilting her head back and squeezing the bridge of her nose to fight off the coming headache this conversation had left her with. She wouldn't be sleeping well tonight, she knew she wouldn't, but she shelved that for another matter as she continued with a sigh, "I hesitate to reach out to Judith or to that general, Nader, for counsel or advice. Not until the lords have settled things amongst themselves about their future leader. Which, in an of itself, is quite an annoyance... Having a batch of soldiers from Almyra could be quite a boon in taking the Imperial forces by surprise, but considering they've all proven to be loyal to Claude and Claude only, that's not a route I see being open to us. Claude thinks we should take the Old General by way of stealth. Also not an option."

"We'd expend far too many resources, and far too much time trying such a route. Brute force is our only option when it comes to Fort Merceus. It will be well-fortified, and well guarded, but if we wish to force Edelgard into a full retreat into Enbarr, we cannot afford to waste a moment trying a way inside by subterfuge." Dimitri agreed with a calm, quiet nod, and his one cerulean eye burned as he thought of the last standing barrier between their army and the Imperial capital. He had heard the stories, he had studied the history and the taller tales, and with Ferdinand's inner knowledge, he now felt sufficiently prepared and informed enough to believe in their current course of action as he continued, "We'll be served far better by knocking it flat to the ground by throwing our entire might against it... Regardless of how we enter, the battle inside will be a bloodbath. The sheer number of soldiers that Fort Merceus can sustain will ensure that. There's no point in trying to outsmart an enemy that will skewer you by the dozens the moment that you show yourself."

"I'll agree to that... but unfortunately, I don't have much time left to keep discussing the finer details. Flayn will be after my hide if I don't return to the infirmary. We can pick this up again in the next war council. For the moment, I guess the only rules we can follow is keeping our tempers, and keeping Claude happy until we can put him on a boat and send him over the sea." Warin rolled his shoulders back before he looked down to his arm, and he sighed at the idea of once again abandoning his usual training regime for an hour locked away in the stale air of the infirmary. Still, as he glanced over to Raine and Dimitri and took in their tired and worn faces, he couldn't quite help himself as he suggested, "I'd also advise the two of you to take an early day. Delegate the rest of your work, and sneak off of the grounds and into town for a night or two. Unwind a little. You're no use to any of us the way you are now."

"Intriguing advice, coming from the man who can't sign a piece of paper..." Raine mused without opening an eye to look at her brother, but she didn't need to see his face to know he was smiling at her. Unfortunately, this was one of the rare times where she was in full agreement with him. She was exhausted... and she didn't want to think of the nightmares that would be keeping her awake all night, and chasing away any semblance of comfort or productivity for the next handful of days. Getting herself out, even if it meant hiding off of the bounds of Garreg Mach for a day or two to recuperate, and remind herself of the world outside her responsibilities, would be good for her. It would be good for all of them. "I'll do that. I'll find Rodrigue and hand over whatever remaining paperwork I have left on my desk... I need a break, and maybe a good pint to wash this conversation down with..."

"Don't go overboard. Flayn asks me about your health every time she sees me, and if she knows you're drinking again, she is going to report it to Mercedes." Warin warned her idly as he took for the door, not bothering to look to see the scathing glare he knew his sister had to be shooting him for daring to bring up her enforced sobriety despite the fact that they both knew she was completely cleared by her healers to fully resume a normal day-to-day life for a mercenary and a commander. He chuckled to himself as he slid out of the library, leaving both Raine and Dimitri alone as he began his trek back to the infirmary for his second check-in for the day.

Twice a day he was expected to appear in the infirmary for both an examination and a treatment, and for the past week, he had been obeying the schedule without a word of complaint. Marianne had done the best that she could for his burnt arm, and even Flayn had deemed it more than acceptable and had thanked her profusely for the work, but the shattered bones in his other had posed a more difficult problem. Flayn's solution had been slow, steady magic transfusions to ensure a proper healing, as well as making sure to preserve the strength in his arm. He hadn't argued, as he knew his limited knowledge left her to be the expert he had to obey, though he did admit it was a painful process to put his training on hold, as otherwise he was left feeling relatively useless.

Still, as he turned the corner of the hall, he had to remind himself that it could have been much worse. He still had function of both of his arms, and was not in danger of being crippled despite his injuries. While Shamir had been less than pleased with him, she had eased off of the anger when she had seen he had done enough of a job beating himself up for both his failure and his physical state. She took no pity on him, expecting him to act as he could and within his limits, and he was glad for it. So long as she was acting as everything was normal, it made it easier for him to do the same. He only hoped that since he was banned from training, that she wouldn't pick up on the extra books he was taking from the library to supplement his plethora of free time in their quarters.

"That reminds me, I need to take out that third volume of Dagdan, if it's still there... Should have taken it while I was in the library..." Warin muttered to himself as he slid through the wide-open doors of the infirmary to see it clear except for the one waiting healer he had expected to already be there, always ahead of schedule in a desperate attempt to appear more professional than she looked. That, in and of itself, had never bothered him. Young as she looked and acted, there was little doubt she was also an authority in healing amongst her peers. It was only circumstance that had left her sidelined in recent moons, as healers needed healers when they exhausted themselves, and Flayn knew better than most how to work with the exhausted and frail of overwork and overstressed.

Now, however, as he sidled into the infirmary, he noticed immediately that she was not as she usually looked. Her posture was tense, her hands continuously clenching and unclenching about the ruffles of her skirt, and her eyes were skittering nervously about the room in an attempt to look at anything but her approaching patient. It was a reaction he was used to from strangers, he simply did not know how to make himself look approachable when he was wounded and in pain, but usually she was much more composed. He didn't acknowledge it as he sat himself down in the chair nearest her, instead choosing to greet her idly, "Flayn."

"Sir Warin. Your arm, if you please." Flayn's voice was steady as she made her usual demand, and Warin obeyed her without complaint or delay. He was careful in slipping his arm free of the sling, extending it for her inspection, and she took a soft, gentle hold of his forearm with as much strength as the whisper of a butterfly's wings. Her fingers were careful as they squeezed and rubbed along the lines of the breaks, testing the returning density of his bones and the repairs of his muscle and tissue... but Warin noticed the way her eyes continued to flicker, and that even if her hands were still and steady, her body was almost thrumming with nervous energy, akin to rabbits he had hunted in his youth at the moment before their throats were slit.

Her professionalism was impeccable, even in the throes of anxiety. Her hands never once applied too much pressure or even so much as trembled as she continued with her careful probing. He doubted that many of the other healers in the monastery would have had the same control, and he wondered at it. So many things at odds in her manner and speech and behaviour, and yet this made him worry if perhaps she was the one pushing herself too far this time. Twice a day, every day, for almost a week and a half couldn't be good for her, even if she had been the one to insist upon it... but he wasn't a healer. He knew next to nothing about magic, and it made him choose his words carefully when he finally spoke up after a few tense, silent minutes, "You don't look quite well. Should we perhaps wait a moment or two before beginning?"

"You should know better than to remark upon a lady's appearance, Sir Warin." Flayn's response was quick and curt, showing a flare of her usual spirit, but her eyes were still skittering, and her body was still tense. She refused to look up at him in any sort of fashion, and her hands had quit their probing as she simply held onto his arm in thoughtless stillness instead. He could see past the curls of her braids to notice her complexion was paler than normal, and there was the slightest hint of pink ringing about the corners of her eyes. She was upset, regardless of her attitude or words, and Warin understood immediately what it was that had happened.

After all, he had been wounded, but he wasn't blind. It was in his nature to watch, to be aware, and to learn the patterns of those about him until it became second nature of him to know. He had seen the changes in her patterns. Her appearance in places where she had no right to be, where she usually avoided, and now her upset after weeks of skulking about in the shadows in a genuine but poor attempt to put her nose where it obviously did not belong, and hear things her ears were never meant to hear. Flayn was a superb healer, a great student, and a staunch supporter of her professor and the rebellion... but she was also Seteth's hidden daughter, a pious young woman of the church, and close enough to call Rhea family.

What she had overheard in those meetings she was usually kept so far away from had begun to sink their claws into her veneer of friendly kindness, and professional calm. It made sense. After all, as much as she butted heads with her father, she still remained his daughter, and she loved him fiercely. Warin carefully pulled his arm free of her grasp, and when she finally raised her eyes to his face in response, he held her gaze with calm. If that was the way she wished to behave now, it was better to address it at once, rather than give it more time to fester. So he leaned forwards, elbows perched on his knees and eyes piercing and cool as he responded evenly, "And I would say a lady should know better than to be sneaking and skulking about to eavesdrop on conversations they clearly are not a party to. Is there something you wish to confess to me, Flayn?"

AN:

I think this might be the first time in a long time that I've ended a chapter on an actual cliffhanger, but... Well, I can say I enjoyed doing it. I've received questions of Flayn, and during this gigantic "rewriting" phase of Azure Moon, there have been several glaring plotholes that have been shoved into my hands and I am working desperately to fix them without seemingly pulling too much out of my own arse... Flayn and her involvement (or lack of involvement) with Raine in Grondor is something I did intend to address, but, of course, it couldn't only be spoken of in a vacuum, and I've been waiting for my chance to get to write about it in between all of the rest of things I'm working on. I've been sick (I am already self-isolating due to my lifestyle, so no worries about contracting anything!), so writing has fluctuated here and there, but I am still committed to finishing this fic, even if it's proving to be a problem child. X'D

I'm once again breaking my sleep schedule, but I blame the quarantine for that. I've been so completely bored and stir-crazy that I'm either sleeping too long, or not sleeping at all. I can't wait until things get back to normal, and I'm doing what little I can to help in the interim. It just really sucks, having a committed LDR that I simply can't see because of border closures and things that are unfortunately just right out of my control. I miss my fiance, and it's eating me up inside knowing I'm going to miss our anniversary because of a damn virus. Still, our health is paramount, and I won't be selfish or stupid... and I can't make my way over there anyway, so there's nothing to do but figure out how to make things work, y'know?

Quarantine sucks for everyone, of course, and I know there are people in much worse positions than I, so I shouldn't be complaining. So, I'll do what I can, and write to help provide a little entertainment to the boredom. With that in mind, thank you very much for reading this far, and I hope to see you again in my next chapter. Stay safe and healthy, and have a good one until we see each other again!

Mood: Insomniac.

Listening To: "Let it Out" Fukuhara Miho (Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood ED)

~ Sky