Chapter 15: Reminiscing and Rumors

Hello everyone! With this chapter, we're back to shifting the focus on Sylvain and Bernadetta. I hope you all liked the brief shift to Dorothea, Edelgard, and Hubert in the last chapter. Also, if you managed to find the Marcel Proust reference in the previous chapter, then good on you! You're certainly a well-read individual. Anyway, let's get to the chapter!

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Sylvain tried his best to not let the wooden pew he was sitting on make a noise as he shifted his weight to a more comfortable seating position. Alas, his attempts at trying to be stealthy just ended up drawing more than a few glances towards him, as while Sylvain tried to move slowly and carefully, the wooden seat let out a rather loud groaning noise in response to the movement. At that sound, Sylvian just decided to bite the bullet and adjust his seating normally, and hopefully cap off an awkward position early.

Internally, Sylvain groaned. He understood that the cathedral of Garreg Mach was around for what probably was a few hundred years by now, and was painstakingly maintained so that it looked the same as it did back when many generations of the Gautier family made their pilgrimage to the monastery, whether it be for piety or politics. Yes, history was important and deserved to be preserved. But that didn't mean the church couldn't afford to replace the damn seats every once in a while.

At his side, Sylvain noticed Prince Dmitri give him a silent "hush" gesture, before nodding his head back towards the front of the cathedral. Situated up towards the front of the cathedral was Seteth, who was reading a passage from the Church of Seiros' holy book. Even though Seteth himself was a rather tall man, he was still dwarfed by the massive marble altar present at the head of the building behind him. If anything, it represented to Sylvain just how distant he was from paying any kind of attention. Sitting in the cathedral and listening to the Archbishop's right-hand man read without end from the book didn't do much to inspire attention. All Sylvain knew was that he was reciting a passage about one of Saint Seiros' divine revelations from the Goddess. If someone asked him what was going on, he could at least give that generic answer.

Instead of paying attention to Seteth's rather dull service, Sylvain busied himself by reading the room instead. Actual living people were far more interesting than the dead ones being talked about in a book he'd read nearly a dozen times as a part of his education at the Officers' Academy. Surrounding his pew were plenty of other students, mainly from the Blue Lions, but also some other assorted ones attending the service either out of religious devotion, or for the extra credit it gave.

From the looks of things, Dmitri, Mercedes, and Annette were legitimately paying attention to the words being spoken by Seteth. Ingrid seemed to move in and out of paying complete attention alongside Ashe, perking up whenever something relevant-sounding was said but otherwise mentally glossing over all the verbal fluff between the important points. As for Felix and Dedue, it was hard to get a read on either of them. Between Felix's near-constant level of disdain and disinterest and Dedue's natural stoicism, their faces were hard to read and get any idea of what they were thinking about the sermon. Although, given that Dedue was of Duscur and probably venerated his ancient ancestral gods, he probably wasn't taking too much stock in what Seteth was reading. He was most likely there just for Prince Dmitri's sake.

All in all, they weren't rather interesting reads on people. Granted, that was most likely because he had been friends with most of them for so long, he had a good idea of what their thoughts were on the matter anyway. There wasn't anything to be really gained from guessing their motives, as if that really mattered in the first place anyway. There was simply no sport to it.

With that brand of entertainment denied to him, Sylvain allowed his mind to wander as Seteth droned on, reciting the story in the holy text exactly as it was written, with no commentary or additional insight given. A thought occurred to Sylvain that Bernadetta probably could've spiced up that part of the text well. She certainly did have a near-magical way of describing things within her stories. With words that ranged from sounding rich and lush, to others being blunt and gritty, the Varley girl had a real talent for narrative writing. She would probably say that the divine Saint Seiros had an aura of radiant energy, as radiant as the dawn itself when she received a revelation from the holy Goddess above. Something along those lines. Although, that was assuming that Bernadetta had actually read the scriptures before and knew just where and how to tweak the entries.

Was Bernie religious? The thought hadn't occurred to Sylvain up until then. His initial thought was that she probably was, although he'd never personally seen her openly practicing her faith before. She didn't bring it up much in conversation either. But at the same time, Sylvain felt that at least she would acknowledge the existence and divinity of the goddess Sothis. After all, the presence of the Crests in their blood proved that they were the heirs of lineages blessed by holy gifts, despite the fact that the Crests hardly ever felt like a gift to him. So maybe she just was one of those kinds of people that acknowledged the obvious existence of the divine, but just accepted it and never took it to certain levels of zeal others did. It was a nice balance of beliefs, at least. Sylvain honestly felt that way a lot of the time himself. Although if he ever had the chance, he would certainly give Sothis a piece of his mind about the Crest he was born with.

Well, that was a conversation for a different time. At the very least it provided some temporary relief from the utterly lifeless reading that Seteth was doing for the student assembled in the church pews. That small respite was a good, if only transient, distraction from it all. Although now Sylvain would have to occupy his mind with something else for the moment. Perhaps thinking about the latest chapter of Bernie's story would be an even better story than the one currently being told of Seiros.

Sylvain shifted in his seat again as memories of his reading of the latest draft took up space in his active consciousness. From what he last read, the story was heading towards its climax. In it, the hero, Lord Null, was searching for an ancient gold seal that could reveal the true secret of the empire invading the land. It was a bit of an unexpected development, but it was certainly a change of pace, at least. It put a more adventurous spin on things, raiding ancient ruins for secret knowledge. It also certainly left Sylvain wondering what exactly the secret was of the invaders. As much as he wanted to ask Bernadetta what it was the next time they met up, he knew that would just ruin the fun of reading it himself. So, he just resolved himself on waiting until Bernie put it down on paper.

Those reminiscences carried Sylvain's mind well through the entire dull affair being headed by Seteth. Next time though, Sylvain would have to turn down his prince's invitation to go attend a service with him. Although he was good friends with Dmitri, Sylvain preferred to not have to sit through another one again, especially a completely optional one.

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At the same time Sylvain was trying not to be bored out of his skull over at the monastery's cathedral by thinking of Bernadetta's story, the very girl herself was going over some of the pages she had already written for the latest chapter in the library. Thankfully, it was fairly empty due to the ongoing church service, so she felt fairly comfortable working on her story outside of the confines of her room. It was rare when that happened, so Bernie didn't hesitate to capitalize on the experience. The less people, the better.

There was something more special to writing in the library than just writing in her room. Bernadetta wasn't entirely sure what the difference was, but she knew that she could feel it in her. Perhaps it was the idea of being surrounded by all the great literary works from different authors from all around Fódlan that invigorated her. Like, maybe some of their special creative energies were working their own kinds of magic on average, mundane Bernie. The tomes of those who had long past helped to elevate her own work, far beyond the level of quality she normally felt it to be.

But maybe that wasn't the only reason that Bernadetta was enjoying writing in the library. She remembered how she accidentally left behind a draft of her story in the library a few months ago, an incident that eventually spiraled into Sylvain becoming her regular editor and literary muse. Even if the initial experience was absolutely mortifying, Bernie couldn't help but appreciate that it did lead the man of the Gautier family to enter her life. Sometimes, meeting someone in an unconventional way wasn't a bad thing. The library sure did remind her of how it was to get to know Sylvain. It was… nice.

Yes, Sylvain was a very nice person. He did very nice things for Bernie, both for her story and for her as a person. Never in her life did she think that she would meet someone who was like the exact opposite of her father, but Sylvain's existence removed Bernie's old doubts about that. Sylvain was constantly kind, helping her out wherever and whenever she needed it, and made sure that she always felt safe. And because of that, Bernadetta felt the least she could do was continue to indulge him by writing more of her story.

"But you want to do more than that."

That thought echoed in the back of Bernie's mind. Even if she hadn't outright admitted that, Bernie didn't think the story was enough to repay Sylvain for his kindness. There had to be something more she could do for him other than just show him some written-on pieces of paper. He was being strong for her, but Bernadetta knew that he probably could stand to lean on her more too. He'd never brought up what happened at Conand Tower, if just because she'd allowed her stupid emotions to overflow and make Sylvain take care of her. That wasn't fair, he probably needed help with his own emotions too. Bernie wanted to be the person he could trust to do that with. It absolutely hurt to see him come back so vulnerable and hollow, and for both of their sakes Bernie hoped that it would never have to happen again.

"That's not the only way you want to help him."

Bernadetta immediately tried her best to block out that implication and focus on her writing. She most certainly didn't need to dwell on some rather intrusive thoughts that filled her imagination whenever she did the Bad Thing as of late. Besides, Sylvain most likely didn't see her that way anyway, so being his emotional support foremost was probably for the best.

"Yeah, it's super creepy," a feminine voice in the library suddenly said.

At that sound, Bernie let out a small squeaking noise as propped up a nearby book and ducked her head beneath it. Her isolated sanctuary at the library had been broken, now there was someone else there. That wasn't the way the idea of sanctuary was supposed to work!

"Where'd you hear that from, anyway?" another girl's voice asked.

"Well, I've heard some of the traders down at the marketplace talk about the rumors going around the village."

"Do you think he's taken people down there too?"

"I dunno. Probably, I mean how hard is it to miss seeing a dark knight wielding a scythe?"

"Yeah, true. It would be like seeing death itself, I bet."

"I hope whatever he is, that Death Knight doesn't come here to the Academy…"

"I bet the Knights of Seiros could take him, so at least we're safe here."

"And that one professor who has the Sword of the Creator. I bet that knight is no match for him!"

One of the girls nervously laughed. "Y-yeah, probably not…"

Bernie shrunk in on herself at what the overheard conversation was telling her. Some kind of dark knight wielding a scythe, one who was targeting people? That wasn't good. That wasn't good at all. It wasn't safe outside after all. Damn it, she never should've left her room! It was safer in there!

Her instincts took over her body and quickly shoved her unfinished manuscript inside of her leather carrying case, before snatching it up and scurrying out of the library. And to think, Bernie allowed herself to feel safe outside of her room for once. Her sanctuary in the library was no sanctuary at all, but rather a death trap. There was no telling if that very knight was watching her from the shadows, waiting to spring a trap to kill her. There was no way she was going to allow that to happen!

The pitter-patter of Bernie's footsteps as they ran towards the lower dormitories was the only company that the Varley girl had as she fled. There really was no such thing as a sanctuary after all.

XXX

And there you have it, a more laid-back chapter this time. I felt that after all the recent plot stuff, it would be nice to have a bit of a transitory chapter. That, and some more character-centered writing certainly doesn't hurt either. Hopefully you all don't mind too much about the lessened dramatic momentum in this chapter.

This has been The Draigg, and I'm signing off for now!