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28th of the Harpstring Moon, Year 1180 Month 5

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Edelgard had improved her camping skills in the time between when Aster met her and now. She set up her tent competently, and helped Ferdinand and Hubert with theirs. Of course, a normal teenage girl would maybe tease them for their own inability, but Edelgard chose to dryly explain their problem, and quietly look down upon them as they still struggled to follow her instructions. Petra was fine with sleeping up in a nearby tree, while Bernadetta opted for a simple sleeping sack. Dorothea was, along with Petra and Aster, the only one who was used to sleeping outside, from having toured so often with the Mittelfrank Opera Company. Caspar and Linhardt shared a blanket and laid under the stars with just that. Caspar, uncharacteristically, listened as the bookworm explained a few of the constellations above. The sleepy-head seemed to be the only one that could make the hothead listen. Sylvain just kind of skulked on his own, not even bothering to flirt.

This was the general routine for the three day trek to Zanado. The first two were on horseback, but the last was on foot because of the rougher terrain. Aster had no problem with it, having grown used to tough marches from the over two decades of mercenary experience. Even back when she wasn't a proper mercenary and was just Jeralt's daughter, she was made to walk and travel with the rest of the Blade Breakers. Of course, back then, Jeralt had expected for Aster to become a kind of secretary, or maybe meet a boy in some town and run off with him; one that wasn't meant to see battles.

Did Jeralt initially intend for Aster to become like these children?

Aster didn't blame them for being coddled. She did blame them for their expression of such. Ultimately, all she could do was ignore their whining, as she knew that she couldn't make them stop. Newbloods in the Blade Breakers always had to be broken in the hard way, just like these noble children.

"Say, Professor," Caspar piped up on the march. "Didn't Captain Jeralt say you sang a lot on the road?"

"He did."

"Well, want to belt something out for us? Might make this a little more enjoyable," he offered. Aster stared at him, considering. It seemed to make him uncomfortable, so he turned away. The other students started staring, curious as well. Aster inwardly sighed, annoyed that she was being treated as a side-show attraction. Still, she started singing.

Oh I didn't want to stumble to the road

But I promised my girl I would bring her some gold

Now my back is broke

And my hairs are thin

As I find myself growing old

I can't find my toes past the spirit in my gut

And I can't grab my sword without it smacking on my butt

And my neck it cracks

What a pain in my ass

But at least I don't have a chut ~ "

"Professor!" Edelgard's face went beat red. "Do you have any idea what that word means?!" Aster blinked.

"Yes," she said. "I taught it to the man who needed a rhyme for 'gut' and 'butt.'"

"That's horrible!" Edelgard exclaimed. "That's completely improper for a woman of your standing, o-our standing to-"

"I was a mercenary," Aster interrupted. "It was mostly men, and they joked a lot."

"No harm, then?" Caspar wondered. Aster nodded. She knew that most of the men she commanded were dirty barbarians, but most also tempered their vices with a good woman, either wed or from a tavern when they passed one. Of course, being in a primarily male band caused some joking to be made about the opposite sex. It of course stopped when a woman other than Aster was around; Jeralt wouldn't allow unchivalrous behavior when they had an audience, and Aster had simply grown used to it, proper or not, through the years.

"S-still, if that's what you want to sing, then I'll have to ask you to refrain."

"I have others," Aster offered. "No chuts involved."

"Please," Edelgard put a hand to her face. "Stop using that word."

Aster shrugged, and started singing another song.

If you ever reach a road that splits not two ways but in three

Be sure to take the leftmost path or sorry you will be

This is no kind of warning nor a friendly 'minder, nay

Just tryin' to make you step in all the spices through the day

Oh I love the smell of pepper and of coriander too

Some basil and some bay leaf for my pot of people stew

Oh draw your sword and cut some chives in little bitty pews

And when you're finished, jump into my pot of people stew

Oh Whey-oh-ay-oh, the fetch will come for you

So pray to all the gods in heaven, hope they hear it true

Whey-oh-ay-oh, I think you did it right

But to your left I'm standing there, still pissin' through the night ~ "

Aster paused, looking to Edelgard. Even if she didn't care for their pampered lifestyle, she didn't want to genuinely upset them if there was no benefit in it. While Aster would prefer not to have to dance around topics like what's described in most travel songs; longing for booze, sex, tales of monsters, etc., she also didn't see it as a flaw to find offense in such things. Edelgard sighed.

"That's...better?"

"I must say, professor, your voice is surprisingly pleasant, considering your background," Dorothea purred. "I'm almost tempted to ask you to come perform at the Opera Company with me. What do you say?"

"No."

Dorothea shrugged. "Oh well, worth a shot. So, can you sing that again? I want to learn as many of your barbaric songs as possible before the year is out!"

xxxXXXxxx

The morning of songs had to end at some point.

It was just after midday when they arrived at their destination. The group of students had shed their uniforms in favor of more practical armor, whether traditional metal for those like Ferdinand and Sylvain, to leathers for Bernadetta and Petra. Aster emphasized before they left that what they took should be light enough to maneuver in without tiring, as they wouldn't be able to know how long the battle would be, or even what kind of smirkish they'd be engaging in.

Aster pushed aside a thick brush and saw the part of the canyon that the bandits had taken up residence in. They were on a ridge to the south; they had easy access to a platform a bit further ahead that connected directly to where the bandits were located. The problem was the girth of their encampment, or rather empampments. From this vantage point, with the many smaller ridges and piles of debris and boulders, Aster figured that there were more bandits than what she was seeing.

She stepped back, letting the brush fall back into place. "Low to the ground," she advised, dropping into a shuffle. Her students followed, though Linhardt and Dorothea in particular didn't look very happy to do so. They crawled through the brush and looked out over the camp. "How many do you count?"

It took them a few seconds. "Somewhere in the vicinity of a dozen," Ferdinand answered. "Perhaps more further in."

"There's a platform that we can get to for access," Aster pointed. "We climb down to the higher valley between us and it, and then climb up.

"Are we going to charge in, head-first?" Hubert questioned.

"That seems a poor decision with so little information," Edelgard said. "Hubert, you were working some tactical spells, weren't you?"

"Libra will need work, but yes, I do have a Summon Familiar spell to use."

"What form does it take?"

Hubert rolled his eyes. "An eagle, your majesty. At your request."

"I didn't think you'd actually go with that," Edelgard smiled to herself. "What's it's range?"

"Since it's new, thirty meters."

"Then we climb," Aster said. Hubert rolled his eyes again, but moved with his teacher upon a nudge from Edelgard. Thankfully, they were in the shadow of the higher cliff to the west, just inside its shadow, actually. The bandits didn't notice them making their way down the ridgeside and up near their encampments. They found a small outcropping to settle on, just below a spot that was concealed from their prior position, and Hubert held out his hand. "Familiar," he chanted the spell's name as was required, and an eagle formed perched on his palm. It didn't glow a bright blue as Aster had seen other familiars do. This eagle was actually black, with no definition that would have indicated it as an eagle compared to another type of hunting bird; she could only guess it was due to his dark magic as to opposed to normal magic. At least it made it more difficult to spot, and even more difficult to say it's out of place, given it would be hovered quite a bit above the hopefully-not-so-bright bandits' heads.

Hubert let it fly, and his eyes glowed black as he saw through it. "A group of five."

"Weapons? Guards? Lookouts?"

"Details are...difficult," he grunted. "One lookout; west, just behind the ridge. The others seem to be huddled in a group closer to us. Aster nodded, beginning to form a picture in her head. The eagle returned to Hubert and then disappeared. "And how many of our blind spots did you wish to observe?"

"All six," Aster said, already finding handholds to shimmy to their left, further into the encampments. Hubert groaned, but followed.

Nearly an hour later, Aster and Hubert climbed back up to the others, now even more shaded from the sun lowering a bit more. Edelgard, Ferdinand, and Petra sat around a crude map of the inevitable battlefield drawn with a stick in the dirt. The others were lounging around, not doing anything useful, either in maintaining weapons or gathering any last-minute supplies should the fighting go on for long than expected.

Aster grabbed a another stick and started adding to the map what they learned, including patrol patterns and blind spots. "Get the others," she said to Edelgard, earning a brief flicker of annoyance from the princess, though she obeyed just as well.

"Black Eagles," she called. The students sauntered over at their leisure. Once gathered, they all looked between Aster and Edelgard, their two leaders. Aster's eyes focused on the map, as well as assessing the group's capabilities in relation to the bandits. Truthfully, from the slight research she did on this particular band, Aster could pretty easily take them out by herself, but this mission wasn't for her. It was for the students, so she decided that she should hold herself back unless one of them was in grave danger. "Professor," Edelgard got her attention, and Aster saw that they were waiting for her to speak.

She thought back to some of Jeralt's first lessons to her. "When planning for battle, start with what you know," she pointed to the groups of shapes that represented their adversaries. Circles were stationary bandits, circles with an arrow through them were lookouts, and triangles were patrols. Aster quickly relayed these designations. "None of you have killed before," she said it as fact. Edelgard had, and Hubert claimed he had, but for her purposes, Aster would treat this operation as everyone's first. "When in battle, lock away whatever part of you that wants to believe they're human. If they see you, and you hesitate, they will kill you."

At that sobering thought, the students focused in on her. "Is it possible to take them alive?" Ferdinand wondered.

"Rhea said no; they have to die," Aster relayed, pointing to the map, snaking her hand up the drawing. "There's a path to take that intercepts most patrols; if timed right, we can take them out quickly and without drawing the attention of any of the other groups, but we need to be fast. If any of you feel you're incapable of killing, then you'll stay here," she looked around, and no one expressed that kind of sentiment. "Today, I'm in command. As you learn tactics and leadership skills, the position will go to who you agree to lead you," she said. "Me, Sylvain, Ferdinand, and Caspar will form the vanguard; the frontmost part of a formation. We'll be taking up the brunt of the damage; make sure your armor is sturdy and attached properly. Linhardt will be healing us as necessary, and will be directly behind. Behind him will be Dorothea, Hubert, and Bernadetta. Bernadetta will try and shoot over us, while the mages will keep anyone from flanking us. If they do, we're finished. As well, keep any of them from running away; watch for that. Edelgard and Petra will make up the rearguard. If anyone gets past the mages, you need to stop them at all costs. Edelgard, keep a Hand Axe on you, and Petra, have a bow ready. Otherwise, if we need to retreat for any reason, you two will be responsible for covering us. We strike and retreat at my command alone, and unless they launch any grenade-type weaponry at us, we will not break formation. Caspar, don't go off alone, Hubert, you have to cover all of us and not just Edelgard. We'll make our way up to this ridge here," Aster pointed. "From there, the path splits and we'll regroup and split up to route the enemy. Understood?" the students offered murmurs of agreement and understanding. "We set out in ten minutes."

And once those ten minutes were over, Aster led the way down the ravine. Unfortunately, Linhardt, Dorothea, and even Edelgard slipped a bit on the way down; the latter was particularly egregious because she did her unrefined little yelp that went off when she got startled. Aster craned her neck, and saw that no one heard them. Once they got to the bottom, which was really a raised ridge in the valley, it was right back to climbing again. "Hubert goes first," Aster advised, hoping that he would understand why. The man nodded, and started climbing, with Aster following. There was supposed to be a patrol passing by here soon; at the rate they were going, right when they would reach the top. If so, they needed to know about it.

Once they reached the top, Hubert sent out his familiar. For a tense few seconds, they was no noise. Then, "Fucking bird…" one of the brigands cursed, coming from the left. "Scram! Don't scare the shit out of me!"

Hubert held out 4 fingers; the patrol of four. There was only one in the whole band; one archer and three axe-fighters. Hubert continued climbing, and the others followed.

The way the scenery lined up was uncanny in how convenient it was; right above the raised ridge that they lowered into was a small build-up of rubble from some kind of past civilization. While Aster didn't care about the lost culture, she did care that it made adequate cover for the group of students to get up onto the plateau. Aster peered around and saw the group of brigands approaching. She took a brief glance to make sure the students were paying attention, and then gave a countdown.

Aster leapt out, flanked by Caspar and Ferdinand with Sylvain close behind. Their weapons flashed toward the approaching brigands. Caspar laid into one with a gauntleted fist, blood spurting from the man's mouth. Aster and Ferdinand double-teamed a second, the archer. The third and fourth panicked and quickly fled. Hubert picked one off with a quick spell which made the man's eyes emit black smoke, while Bernadetta loosed an arrow, nailing the man in the leg. Caspar rushed forward, though not far enough to make Aster say anything, and quickly wrenched his axe forward , embedding it into the man's back as he reached for his own weapon. Sylvain then took care of the recovering brigand that Caspar left. With that swift, ten second skirmish, they had one group down.

Aster looked around, noting the already-haunted faces on the children. "Should we...s-should we bury them?" Bernadetta wondered, hugging herself and shaking.

Aster looked past her. "...Later," she said. "We move."

The students, despite their apprehension, got into the formation that Aster ordered them to, and stuck by that. The next group saw them well before their weapons made contact. Due to Dorothea and Hubert, none were able to flee and warn anyone else, and the groups were foolishly out of speaking range to one another so that was thankfully out too.

Aster and Caspar, as those with the two shortest ranges, made up the center of their line of four. Sylvain and Ferdinand flared out, funnelling any enemy into the maximum number of weapons. All of them were handling themselves surprisingly well, even as Aster saw Ferdinand flinch at the feeling of blood spurting onto his face. He wiped it off after the encounter and refused to humor the idea that he was disturbed by the feeling.

The next three groups went even smoother, as the Black Eagles were able to get the drop of them through clever use of terrain. The process continued; engage, funnel, overwhelm.

The sixth group was different. For one, they weren't surrounded by nothing anymore; this group situated itself on that split in the path that Aster had noted before. Within was a patch of growth; a tree, some grass, and several bushes. The ground aside from those items was relatively flat, making a stealthy approach impossible, but more importantly it was relatively narrow; almost as if ordained by a higher power, the path was just about the length of the tree that stood on its edge. The sixth group of bandits had six members, ironically enough; three axe-fighters, two archers, and one mage. Aster didn't know how they roped someone as intelligent as a mage into this, but she didn't have a say at this point. It turned out that that mage would be a problem.

The encounter began as the others did. The axe-fighters lacked the coordination to strike all at once to their outer wings of Sylvain and Ferdinand, so they were easily funnelled. While they were dealing with them, however, the archers quickly lined up shots. Aster saw this. "Bernadetta!" she snapped, and the girl loosed her arrows at that moment, striking one of them right in the forehead. The other shot their own arrow, and Aster was forced to act.

Time slowed down as her crest flared up. She rushed forward, barreling through one of the axe-fighters, and slashed the arrow in mid-air, sending it crumpling harmlessly to the ground. Unfortunately, this allowed one of the axe-fighters to push through into their midst, and thus began a chain of events which caused a disaster.

Caspar turned to strike at the bandit before he hit Dorothea, who was still readying a magic spell; she'd been unsurprisingly indolent, almost reminding Aster of Hilda. This could've caused her death, or the death of her comrades; Aster would address it later. In any case, Caspar defended her, but then Ferdinand needed to break formation to defend him, leaving Hubert exposed to the archer, as he was focused on the mage and not paying attention. Edelgard and Petra, seeing the plan fall apart, rushed around their flank, not noticing that the mage was readying a fire spell toward them. Because of their interference, Hubert couldn't level a spell toward the enemy.

Aster rushed back as fast as she could, but everything fell into place without her. Caspar struck Dorothea's attacker, Ferdinand his, and so on, leaving the mage firing his spell toward the now-unorganized group of students, about to fry whichever one was in the front of their now-broken formation. Shockingly, it was Sylvain who jumped in the way of the fireball. He readied his shield and bashed to the side, completely deflecting the spell.

Under normal circumstances, this would've been grounds for celebration. Unfortunately, the spell then hit the tree, setting it ablaze. The group was scrambling to get back into formation, while the ranged fighters were trying desperately to get a shot on the mage through the chaos, to little avail. Within the confusion, it didn't take long for the fire to spread. The tree started shaking as its base was destabilized, and finally it fell.

Right toward the students.

Aster acted on instinct. "Move!" she yelled, grabbing the nearest hand and diving one way. She got unlucky; only she dove this way, leaving the other students completely blocked off from her after the tree fell. "Professor!" Edelgard could be heard from the other side of the crackling flames. "Are you still there?"

Sylvain, the one she'd grabbed, wrenched his hand away and leapt to his feet, charging forward and skewering the mage on his lance, shoving him off the side of the cliff and into the ravine below. The chaos, however, attracted another group of five. That left little time to converse with her students. "Keep going! We'll circle around!" she called back before breaking into a run toward and then past Sylvain, who was readying his shield. His lance had been lost to the dead mage.

"H-hey, wait up!" the redhead charged after her, standing between her and the archers that were firing, defending her. His armor and some luck prevented him from getting seriously injured, to the point where Aster was tempted to charge the group and take care of them herself and leave him be, as he seemed too stubborn to die even without his crest.

She didn't do that. Instead, both Aster and Sylvain fled the battle, hiding behind a set of pillars around a corner, letting the bandits run past, and letting both of them catch their breath.

xxxXXXxxx

Edelgard was left stunned by how horribly wrong the encounter went. The only certainty she had after the fact was that she was left with eight students who knew only the most rudimentary tactics and were up against grisled bandits, alone, having never killed before in their lives. She took a deep breath and tried to muster up some of the miraculous authority that Professor Byleth had over the Black Eagles. "Alright, everyone. We need to regroup and keep moving; professor's orders."

"S-shouldn't w-we wait f-for her?" Bernadetta stuttered. Edelgard's gaze darted to the girl, who squeaked and cowered into herself. Even this defect was questioning her?

"We can't afford that; if a group attacked the Professor on the other side, then one could attack us as well," Hubert reasoned. Edelgard nodded.

"We only have two more groups on this path. We should finish the job and then meet up with the Professor," Edelgard said. She racked her brain, trying to come up with a plan on how to accomplish that. Charging in without one was tantamount to suicide for at least one of the students. "Just...everyone stay close and don't make too much noise," she advised, and the others obeyed her order, huddling closely around her as they moved further forward.

They eventually came to a small ridge which led to a lower plateau; the drop-off was only about six feet, and there was a sloped path carved into the ridge which led directly down to the lower path. Popping out over the ridge was a lone tree with uncharacteristically thick branches and leaves; it must've been a remnant of some kind of ancient farm from whoever lived here. How it survived was a mystery.

Edelgard halted the group well before they made it to the slope. It was too real a possibility for there to be bandits around that corner, waiting to butcher them. She gestured to Hubert, who sent out his familiar with a quiet chant. Thankfully, he hadn't yet voiced any strain in doing so, though Edelgard knew that every cast of a spell had its costs.

When the bird returned, Hubert started drawing what he'd seen in the dirt. The man was a surprisingly competent cartographer, and the Black Eagles were better for it. Edelgard studied the drawing. Three right past the ridge, with one by the tree and the two others on the other side of the slope leading down, with four more a bit further ahead; the lone group of seven had split up for some reason. Edelgard peeked out, though not so much as to be seen by the bandits. She saw them further ahead; the layout of the terrain made it impossible for them to take out this group without alerting the group of four. That was fine; if they made a proper formation, then four bandits could be dealt with. What worried Edelgard was the unknown; there was still one more group on this side of the path: the leader's group of five.

Edelgard bit her lip. "Would the group of four be able to alert them when they notice us?" she thought, working through her options, of which she had little. Now that the bandits had spread out, dealing with each group in turn was a lot harder to do cleanly. She stepped back to the others, and started forming a plan in her end. The others looked to her, expectant and troubled, as she explained.

"When we strike at this group closest to us, we're likely to draw this group over here. Unfortunately, we don't know where the last group is, so we need to be ready to face them at a moment's notice."

"The Professor's formation was working pretty well," Dorothea noted.

"There's only three here, right?" Caspar grinned. "Let's just take 'em quick and get back into that unit."

Bernadetta piped up. "I-I'd r-rather...have a plan…"

Edelgard regarded the girl with a nod. "Petra, can you get to that tree quietly? From my estimation it's a four foot jump from the edge," The Brigid princess nodded. "Okay, here's the plan..."

The squad fell into position. Petra in her treetop perch, Bernadetta with an arrow aimed down the slope, Caspar defending her. The others were standing by to get into formation. Edelgard gave a countdown, and when it reached zero, Petra pounced.

She deftly slit the bandit's throat as she landed on top of him. "What the hell?!" the heavy footsteps of the other bandits sounded. As soon as the first came into view, Bernadetta loosed her arrow. It lodged right into the man's neck, causing blood to pool out of the wound on both sides. He fell to the ground gurgling, and causing the Varley girl to cry out in horror at her own kill. The third came around the corner, axe ready. He swung down onto Bernadetta in a move that every Black Eagle had seen. His battle cry was already attracting the next group.

Caspar easily parried the blow, pounding the axe into the rock beside them, before Ferdinand rushed forward and impaled the man on his sword, killing him.

"Into formation!" Edelgard called, rushing down the slope and onto even ground. The group of four was only seconds away, but her allies got to her before they did. Edelgard, Caspar, and Ferdinand in front, with Hubert, Bernadetta, Linhardt, and Petra in the rear. The scramble of getting into position didn't allow enough time for their ranged fighters to get any shots off, so the vanguard was forced to clash weapons. Edelgard saw behind them that the last group of five was also coming; they'd need to finish this quickly.

She snarled, pushing back the burly man and swinging upward, cleaving the shaft of his spear in two. Caspar lunged forward, gauntlet stabbing the man in the gut and then the shoulder before he was finally kicked to the ground to bleed out.

Ferdinand performed a rather wide sweep with his sword to ward off both other axe-fighters, allowing Bernadetta to kill one of them.

"Hey, back up!" the last two bandits stepped away, just as Hubert and Dorothea released their spells. Both were deflected with the extra range, though admittedly both spells were weakened as the mages didn't want to spread the spell effect to hit their allies. Edelgard heard Hubert click his tongue, annoyed at how little of his power he could use.

The group of five joined the final two, though only one stepped forward to fight at first. Confused, the Black Eagles hesitated in actually fighting him, which would prove a near-fatal mistake, as the man started glowing black. He raised his axe high.

"Smash!" the man yelled. Edelgard was going to try and take it, but was knocked out of the way as Hubert dove into her, making her drop her axe. The others similarly scattered. The mages and Bernadetta backed up, while Petra quickly rushed forward to try and get the drop on the bandit leader who'd performed the Combat Art, who was now standing in a small crater of his own making. Thankfully, no one had been hit by the attack.

Edelgard fumbled on the ground for a precious few seconds as a spear-fighter approached her and Hubert. The Vestra heir turned onto his back, still on top of Edelgard, held out his hand, and glowed black as he readied his spell. "Mire!" he called, a green slimy orbs coalesced on the bandit, seeming to make his skin becoming brittle like shards of glass. Thankfully, Ferdinand then came to take advantage of the spell's effect, Plunging his sword more than easily into the man's chest and wrenching it sideways to immediately deflect a blow. Such a maneuver would normally be impossible, as there would be so many bones to have to cut through to get out from the side, but the spell made the foe's body very susceptible to physical damage.

Edelgard stood and tried to take stock of the battle. The Black Eagles were scattered. Petra and Dorothea were on their own, Petra struggling to make headway in a fight with the leader, while Dorothea was dealing with a spear-fighter who wouldn't get hit by her spells. Caspar was desperately trying to defend Bernadetta and Linhardt, who was only barely healing Caspar fast enough for him to deal with two bandits at once, and Ferdinand was dealing with two more. Edelgard rushed to his side, snatching the spear from the man that Ferdinand had killed; it was a nicer spear than the one she'd cleaved in two earlier. This one was made almost entirely of metal, so it was likely to stand up to more. "Hubert, help Dorothea, tell Petra to fall back to Caspar!" she ordered as she and the Aegir heir fell into stances and rushed the bandits.

The older men didn't seem to expect the ferocity, but the students hit fast and they hit hard, quickly breaking through the bandits' defenses and laying into them. Ferdinand rent one of their cheeks open with a knife he'd picked off of one of their fallen foes, while Edelgard was stabbing and twirling with her spear, now that she was all-too familiar with its weight. Within a few seconds, the bandits both dropped dead. "The Professor's training is paying dividends!" Ferdinand exclaimed, and Edelgard herself was shocked at how easy that had been when she'd only ever fought with an axe and sword before.

"No time to dawdle, Ferdinand!" Edelgard said,urging him toward Caspar. He was still warding off two enemies alone. Hubert and Dorothea finally dropped the spear-fighter that had been plaguing the woman, and were moving toward Caspar, along with Ferdinand now. Edelgard charged toward the leader and clashed her spear against his axe. He seemed surprised at the new challenger, but quickly got his bearings, shoving her away.

"Petra, go get healed!" she ordered of the Brigid princess, who was bleeding pretty heavily from her side and leg where she'd been struck. Honestly, the girl was luckily to have not lost that leg.

Edelgard tried to use her range to its advantage, but the axe was simply too powerful of a weapon for her to ward it off for long. The man's swings were slow, but not nearly slow enough for Edelgard to take advantage of with her lancemanship.

It didn't take very long for Edelgard to give up the reach advantage. She held the spear in front of her as the man laid in a heavy swing. She was blasted off her feet and sent flying into an old toppled pillar, her spear flying out of her hands. Her vision spiralled, but cleared fast enough to see the man coming, and yet her body ached…

"Damn it all!" she scream in her head to get up. The man's form glowed black once again, as he raised his axe to lay down the finishing blow. "Must I use it so soon…?" she asked herself, and was given the answer in a millisecond. Her body surged with power, her crest flaring to life, as the man lowered his axe.

xxxXXXxxx

The group that had pursued Aster and Sylvain were circling back around. Aster dragged Sylvain into some nearby cover. "Whoa, hey!" he protested, but was silenced by oncoming footsteps.

"Find them!" one of the men ordered to his compatriots. "They've got to be around here somewhere!"

Aster peeked out, counting that same group of five that had chased them. She took a breath to calm herself. "Wait here," she ordered. Now separated from her students, Aster knew she couldn't hold back. She needed to get back to them as fast as possible.

"W-wait, I hear-"

Aster dashed out, surprising the nearest bandit and quickly cleaving his arm off at the shoulder. Aster danced around the thrust of a spear and grabbed its shaft between its wielder's hands. She wrenched him forward, let go, and brought her elbow up to his face, making him drop the spear. She whirled around to face the other tree, heel digging in her downed opponent's throat. They hesitated, allowing Aster to hear all too clearly as Sylvain was ambushed by the second—and final—group on this side.

He was blasted out—having taken a hit on his shield—but the surprise made it fling from his hands. He rolled with the momentum of the attack, skidding to a stop near Aster. The last group had five as well , and quickly added to the remaining three of the prior group in surrounding Aster and Sylvain. "Suddenly, I regret coming," Sylvain muttered, picking up the spear at his feet from Aster's downed enemy. They stood with their backs to each other. "Four each?"

"Can you handle that many?"

"Can I?" Sylvain smirked. Aster eyed him over her shoulder; it seemed he too had some of that competitive edge that Felix had. Maybe the two were friends after all?

"I take five, you take three," Aster said finally, not waiting for an acknowledgement. Sylvain rushed forward at the same time, cleaving past the axe-fighter's paltry defense and running him through. Aster similarly impaled a spear-fighter, having woven around his stabs. She quickly deflected two approaching attackers and set to strike at one of them, her crest flaring up and easily allowing her to get past him and slash his throat.

"Professor!" her attention shifted to Sylvain, whose spear had been shattered by a strike from an axe. It was just as well, as the one Aster kicked his way was of better quality anyway. He hefted it with the same ease, rolling under an axe swipe and cutting into his remaining two opponents' legs. After that, it was easy pickings to finish them off.

Aster had just carved through her third opponent, with the last two charging her simultaneously. Her body pulsed with a red aura as she reared her blade back. "Wrath Strike," she said the words as calmly as if she were reading from a textbook, and yet the sheer ferocity of the slash immediately cleaved through her two attackers, killing them both simultaneously.

"Well done, Professor," Sylvain said, winking. Aster could tell it was forced, but now wasn't the time to speak about his problems.

She started moving, with her student following. "I'm normally faster," she said. "Couldn't be, worrying about you."

"Well, you have nothing to worry about. I'd have been just fine on my own."

"You didn't have a weapon."

"But I do now," he hefted the lance onto his shoulder. Aster ignored the stupid statement of fact, and continued walking. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you didn't notice," Aster stopped to looked at him briefly. "No wounds," he said, gesturing to himself.

"You crest heals you."

"And there it is; thank you for assuming that that's the reason."

"If you want to gloat, save it for when the others are safe," she continued walking.

"And if I want to gloat now?" Sylvain wondered, following closely behind her so his fragile ego could be clearly heard in every word he uttered. "Alright, come on, be serious; how much do you want to bet that the others will assume the same thing you did?"

"It's the logical answer," she said, refraining from mentioning how much he'd been slacking off of late. "Your point?"

"My point is proven, Professor. You immediately assumed my crest was the reason for my lack of blood, when in reality it was my own skill. You don't care about me, just my crest and my status. Just like everyone else, like my father, my so-called friends, and all of the skirts that I've chased in my day."

Aster stomped her foot as she turned, startling Sylvain. A glare rested on her face, no longer able to hide her frustration at his pity party. Her chastisement was halted, however, when she saw movement behind him.

Without even thinking, Aster rushed forward, shoved past Sylvain, and held her arm out in front of him. The pain of a knife plunging into her bicep was an acute one even with adrenaline, but nothing Byleth the Ashen Demon couldn't handle.

The man she'd stepped on earlier had come for revenge, but it was short-lived as Aster immediately cleaved his head off with her still-working sword arm. "Professor!" Sylvain rushed to her side as she knelt down to mentally deal with the pain now that the initial bit of adrenaline had passed. Aster bit her lip, barely noticing his worry as she ripped out the knife. That, of course, only made it bleed worse, so she quickly ripped off the cleanest part of the dead bandit's shirt and tied it tightly on her arm to stop the blood flow. It still throbbed, but at least Aster could focus on something else now.

Sylvain knelt beside her, eyes tinged with worry, hand going to her shoulder and trying to comfort her. That only made Aster angrier; he did care, but was too much of a coward to show it. All of Aster's irritation with the boy flared up at once. "Would one of your other skirts do that?" she demanded, pushing herself to her feet and storming away.

Stunned, it took a moment for Sylvain to follow. When he did, he was silent.

They came to a cliff that overlooked where the leader's group would have been, only to see a battle taking place below. Her students were fighting a much larger force than they should have been, but were thankfully dealing with it quite well. Well, except for one student, anyway.

She saw Edelgard get blasted away by a particularly powerful hit, her weapon flying from her hands. Aster pointed. "Hit him," she ordered.

"W-what?" Sylvain said, still dazed. Aster grabbed him and shoved him toward the edge—the closest he could be to his target without falling off—which woke him up.

"Make the shot," she ordered, pointing.

"B-but-"

"Make the shot!"

Normally it would've been extremely difficult to make such a precise throw from this distance, but if the demonstration Sylvain had given her before and his story of the javelin-throwing contest were any indication, he was the man to do it. He nodded and reared his spear back. Thankfully, this one was shaped more like a traditional javelin than that practice staff had been. He held his other arm out, thumb up to aim. It took him only the briefest of moments to line everything up; the boy was almost supernaturally gifted at this.

His body lit up orange as he roared, sending the lance flying faster than Aster thought possible. It shot through the air like an arrow, bent downwards, and then landed right into the man's back as he glowed black.

"Strange…" the voice mused. "Did the girl glow white at the same time, or was that my imagination?"

xxxXXXxxx

Aster dragged Sylvain down and then up to the others on the next plateau over. The battle ended immediately after Sylvain had killed the leader, and the students cheered up at him. That cheer continued when they reached the top, as every student rushed up to him to present their approval and excitement save for Bernadetta, who was too shy to do so though she mewed her encouragement from afar while smiling, and Petra, who still hadn't uttered a word since Aster got to the Academy. It made Aster wonder what the girl was hiding, to be so stoic for so long, but of course, that could've been Aster projecting.

Edelgard stepped forward, a proud grin on her face. "I must admit, I was perturbed by your induction into the Black Eagles at first, and your attitude through the month was questionable at best, but I can't argue with results," she placed a hand on her chest and bowed. The Adrestian heir bowed with respect. "You have my sincerest thanks, Sylvain. I'm glad to have had you along."

Sylvain blushed, obviously not used to such genuine affection. "I...t-thank you, Your Majesty!" he grinned like a schoolboy as Caspar clapped him on the back, and the others continued heaping praise at him for his shot, deflecting the fire spell, and other things. Edelgard joined Aster, who was properly patching up the wound in her arm.

"You were injured?" Edelgard sounded more surprised than worried.

"Protecting that one," Aster gestured to Sylvain. Edelgard nodded, and then addressed Petra and Bernadetta.

"Can you two scour their encampment, maybe find some digging tools and rations?" she asked, and the two girls sauntered off to perform the task. Her attention returned to her professor. "That's an...interesting binding method," she noted.

"The best I can do with one hand," Aster said blankly. Edelgard scoffed and knelt down, taking the cloth in her hands.

"You may as well have someone help you, then," the princess said, deftly tying up the wound and successfully suppressing the blood flow. Linhardt had done what he could, having spent most of his magical reserves already on both the battles and in healing Petra's nastier wounds. The Brigid girl would be sore for the next few days, and would be put into a wagon to rest her leg as fast as possible after they finished here, but would otherwise be fine.

"Thanks," Aster said, standing and inspecting what was once the battlefield. "Black Eagles!" she called, and the students shuffled over to her in a line. Aster met each of their eyes. The students held equal parts pride and horror in them now that the Sylvain party was over; the common reaction to first blood.

"...Do we bury them?" Aster asked, gesturing to the bodies. When she fought battles as a mercenary, they'd never taken the time to give their fallen foes a burial; sellswords were more interested in gold and glory than proper ritual. The student's weary smiles faded.

Edelgard spoke up with a, "We should. Petra and Bernadetta should be back shortly with tools to do so."

"Then we bury them," the two girls returned with five shovels and rations for everyone. "Rest. In twenty minutes we dig. Those injured are exempt," she said, referring to herself and Petra. It was a miracle that no one else was seriously hurt, given how many battles and how little experience the students had. Again, their raw talent gave Aster hope for their futures.

It took the rest of the day to perform the task of digging a grave, one big enough for all of the bandits, and to gather all of the bodies to bury. The students prayed for their souls to be judged fairly or some such and marched back up out of the Red Canyon at sunset. "Finally!" Linhardt stretched as he reached the top of the cliff that they'd initially planned out of. Ferdinand knelt down and helped Aster up onto solid ground, and then did the same for Edelgard.

The professor stood waiting for the others to climb up, and stared out to the Red Canyon. It was only now at sunset did the location actually look red. But it was that color that gave it a certain air of...melancholy?

No...no, it was something else, something much more potent and yet more distant. Sorrow was perhaps the more apt word to describe the feeling, but Aster couldn't yet fathom why. "So, you feel it too?" the voice wondered. "This sadness has been at the forefront of my mind since we arrived."

"But why…?" Aster mumbled her response.

"I do not know. Admittedly, my memory is rather hazy; I don't even have a full head of space to keep it, after all; I'm forced to share one with you," she felt the voice snicker, which was an odd feeling in her head. Aster blinked. "This place seems familiar, however. That much I know for certain. Have you been here before? Maybe I'm feeling a remnant of one of your memories?"

Aster thought back, but couldn't remember a time when she'd come here. She'd heard quite a bit about the area in her travels, but this was the first time she'd come to the Red Canyon in Zanado.

"How peculiar…" the voice mused. "Well, thinking on it doesn't seem to be helping anything. I feel it's only inevitable for all of our answers to fall into our lap. Give it time."

Well, that might have been true, not that Aster wanted to bet on it. Still, there was at least one question she'd been wanting to ask for a while. "What should I call you, if not my conscience?"

"Hm? Do you not know? You've heard my name many times since you came to Garreg Mach Monastery," it said, to which Aster blinked again, confused. "Very well. While I do not know if we are one and the same quite yet, I seem to share a name with that goddess that everyone worships. You may call me Sothis."

xxxXXXxxx

31st of the Harpstring Moon, Year 1180 Month 5

xxxXXXxxx

Aster had asked her students to compile a report of the battle and their experiences with being sent out on the field for the first time for her to read over. She'd required they do this the day they got back, so that the experience was still fresh in their minds.

Most were standard; what Aster would expect for cubs drawing first blood. They were disgusted at themselves for thinking so little of the humanity within the bandits. Well...Aster would rather them regret it after the fact than hesitate in the moment, so she supposed it was fine. They would build callouses.

Edelgard's report expressed dissatisfaction with her leadership and tactical abilities, saying that she was unable to come up with a fool-proof plan within their time window, and nearly got the group killed once she attracted three groups of bandits at once by not leading them properly.

All of the reports barring one had one thing in common; none of them liked the impromptu plan that Edelgard came up with, calling it 'rudimentary,' 'half-baked,' among other things.

Aster heard footsteps approach as she read, only looking up briefly to see that it was Sylvain. "H-hey, professor," he greeted, smile strangely bashful rather than flirtatious. "How's your arm?" She eyed him and held it up, revealing only light bandaging once Manuela got to work on it. "Ah, that's good."

"Do you need something?"

Sylvain hesitated at the question. "I, uh...I talked to Lady Rhea, and told her...that I don't want to switch back to the Blue Lions, but she said that given the circumstances, that it would be up to you...whether I'm allowed to stay."

Aster stopped scribbling notes on the report. She put the pen down and levelled her eyes toward him. His form held that same noble confidence as before, yet now it seemed tempered by some small amount of humility. It was true that he had proven himself valuable on the battlefield during their mission, but…

Aster rested her arms on her desk as she leaned forward. "There are two kinds of people in the world: people who adapt and overcome, and those who become dead weight to be cut off. Not everyone can be useful or skilled, but I'd be lying if I said that not every student here has that ability."

"I…" Sylvain didn't know how to respond. Aster stood.

"That's all they have; the ability to adapt, but it's their choice to do it," she worked her way around her desk to stand directly in front of her student, who had to look down at her. "It's much easier to be dragged under the hoof and trampled by those more driven than you. It's much easier to give up and aspire to nothing, and so every student here asks themselves the same question every day," she leaned toward him, face very close to his, eyes daring him to argue. "Do you want to waste away your time as pathetic nobles and commoners with no idea about life or the real world? Or do you want to learn and make yourself better for no other reason than to be better? The others have already made their decision. What's yours?"

"I…" he swallowed, her piercing gaze breaking right through him. "I want to be better. I'll work at it, and I want to learn as much as I can from you and the others," he concluded. Aster studied him from that close distance for a moment, before backing off and leaning on her desk.

"Then I'll see you tomorrow in class," Aster said, grabbing a report and continuing to read it, or pretending to. She saw from the corner of her eye that Sylvain was practically glowing with excitement, and he waltzed out like he'd just been set free. "And Sylvain," he turned back. Aster looked up at him. "A word of advice; pick the right girl to flirt with, and you might actually get somewhere. Ingrid, for example?"

Sylvain laughed. "Yeah, I've tried before when I first met her. She tried to kill me right there and then," he grinned, fondly remembering the encounter. "But, uh, I guess I'll take it into consideration."

With that, Sylvain left his professor. Both felt more content than they had in a long while.


Author's Note:

Yay, we made it to the end of the first arc!

While reading this chapter back, I was pleasantly surprised at how detailed and consistent the mission itself was. I never had trouble visualizing or keeping track of enemies and students' positions, and it was just overall a pleasant reading experience.

So, as I explain in the Discord, I will upload every day until I finish an arc, then wait a week to let it gestate a bit, and then continue on from there. That means that chapter 13 will go up on Monday the 22nd, so look forward to that.

But enough about logistics, I'm really curious what you guys thought. Leave a review, Discord in my profile for questions and suggestions, and I'll see you guys in a week! Happy first arc completion!