Author's notes: To the review, I actually am writing this in real time, believe it or not. I have the synopsis drafted, but it only has the large plot points, and I usually put more details into it a few days before writing each chapter, and then inspiration clicks and a lot of details just flow on their own without being particularly planned. And by all means, I love to hear theories on figuring everything out!
Owain reeled as Grima's fist slammed into his gut.
Nah scrambled for her dragonstone.
"You fiend!" Kjelle thrusted her lance.
Grima dodged and backed away with Morgan at his side, neither drawing their weapons. Kjelle placed herself between Owain and Grima. Long shadows covered most of the courtyard around them. Half the sun peeked over the horizon, lazily starting the day.
"Punishment for your trickery," said Grima simply. His scarlet eyes found the myrmidon behind Kjelle. "Normally, I'd remove your entrails with my bare hands. I'll leave it there for now. Can't have you crippled while being deployed."
Owain laughed weakly. His stomach seared with pain. "No changing the fact that it worked."
"Father." Morgan prodded his cheek. "Play nice."
Grima scoffed. That Owain had to take particular care with his words around the fell dragon next time went known without the need to voice it. "Kjelle, remain in the capital."
"I'm here to see them off," she said in a low voice. "Because of precisely that."
"Suit yourself." Grima brushed past them. "The prince and the pegasi are waiting just outside the castle grounds. Come, you two."
"Almost forgot who you were for a second," said Owain. He recovered from the blow and walked at the fell dragon's side.
"And you would've dodged otherwise?" noted Grima. "Don't put yourself in a position where we need to test that."
Nah walked beside Morgan and said, "You fixed your armour?"
"Sure did!" Morgan puffed out her chest and knocked on the breastplate. "Feels weird carrying my locket anywhere but around my neck." To keep it out of the way, her secret dragonstone moved to being tied to her belt opposite her sword. "Is that satchel all you use for holding your dragonstone?"
"I'm not exactly going into a fight without it in my hand already," said Nah.
"But what if you get ambushed? What if enemies break into camp to abduct all of us sweet and adorable charming young girls?"
Nah dropped her dragonstone into her satchel and closed it. She took it back out in a second. "Getting it's not that slow."
"You needed time to grab it! Watch, all I gotta do is—" Morgan barely moved her hand to flick aside her coat and rest a hand on her locket. She leaned over and whispered in Nah's ear, "If we had to draw at the same time, you'd totally lose. Father got you by surprise just now too."
"Why are you telling me this?" she whispered back.
"I need a reason?" Morgan beamed at her. "Just trying to get along!"
Nah frowned. Morgan wasn't exactly lying when she said that, and Nah had to admit that the tension of spending day after day so guarded in the presence of the fell dragon and his daughter was fraying her. "How do you two live like this?"
Morgan squeezed Grima's arm. "Father, say the thing!"
"You get used to it," he said. "Good morning, Chrom."
"Morning, Robin." Chrom greeted his Shepherds with a smile as they met just outside the castle gates. "And company."
"Hey guys!" Morgan waved excitedly at Chrom as much as she did at the small retinue of pegasus knights with them. Those were the fliers she picked out!
"It's a good day for flying," said Sumia. "The skies are clear."
Grima's eyes flitted to Cordelia. He said, "We're all here? …Then let's not waste time. Mount!"
Kjelle watched them spread wings and fly away until they were only a collection of tiny specks on the horizon. The base of her lance tapped her anger into the ground. She had to take this time to train. Every day spent in Grima's presence was another bucket of cold water shocking her back to reality—she needed far more strength. Her regimen wasn't enough.
Sunlight streamed into the arms storage as she opened it and strode in. Hauteclere rested propped up against the wall amidst the other axes. Owain would likely go into hysterics at the sight of a legendary weapon tossed into storage to gather dust, seeing as none of the Shepherds seemed capable of using it properly.
But it was the heaviest and strongest axe they had. She exited the storage building with a spare set of armour and numerous lances and swords precariously balanced in her arms. Hauteclere gleamed on her back. Kjelle set them all down on the training grounds and spent the next several hours training. Lance and sword alike flew easily in her hands. She struck and moved nimbly whether in heavy armour or not. Hauteclere bit halfway through a wooden dummy with one rough chop.
"Tch." Kjelle pressed her foot on the wood and pried Hauteclere free with a massive heave. As far as she knew, her form was correct, but the legendary axe didn't feel right.
"Hey," called a rough voice. "You got a second?"
Kjelle turned her head and her eyes went massive.
Hauteclere slammed down on the dirt beside the dummy.
Sully frowned. "What? I got something on my face?"
"N-no," said Kjelle. She shook off her shock. "You just… remind me of someone." She pried Hauteclere out of the ground and swapped it for her lance. "Forgive me. I have no time to talk."
"You've been at it for hours," said Sully. "I wanna see what our new Shepherd's made of for myself. Take a minute off and let's spar, how about?"
Kjelle couldn't refuse it. "Yes—" She narrowly held back on calling her ma'am. "…Yes."
"Kjelle, aren't ya? The name's Sully." Sully picked up one of the bronze swords and went at a nearby dummy to warm up. "You came with Robin yesterday, huh? Last time he pulled anyone in was Morgan. I always figured it was Chrom's job to chat up new recruits. That's Hauteclere, isn't it? Heard a bit from Frederick about it last night."
Kjelle nodded.
"Mind passing it here for a sec?" Sully's fingers wrapped around the handle. "The hell?" she grunted. "This thing's damn heavy…!" But she managed to lift it up with a little more effort than Kjelle and bring it down to cleave open the wooden dummy's head down to its chest. She looked at Kjelle and said, "You're packing some serious heat under that armour."
"Little more than yours," said Kjelle.
"You kidding me?" The legendary axe crunched free and Sully let it slam back down to earth. "I saw you swing this thing like a real axe, not that clumsy crap I just did. Barely know my way around an axe, never mind this one."
"So you say." Kjelle looked at the dummy she sank the blade halfway into earlier. "But the evidence shows I'm not suited to use it."
"It's an axe!" laughed Sully. "It cuts or it don't. Not much in between… unless this is one of those magic weapons like Chrom's sword."
It wasn't magic, but Kjelle didn't know what was wrong with it. With a weapon like Hauteclere, she should've been able to tear the dummy in two with one stroke.
"It's no sweat off our backs." Sully picked up a lance and did a few drills with it. "You're a lance user too, yeah? Same as me. Gimme a bit to warm up and then we'll see if you can give me a run for my money!"
"Yes. But before we begin…" Kjelle paused and looked for how to word it. Lucina hadn't revealed herself, had she? Did the Shepherds know anything about the future she came from? "I have to find my parents," she said carefully. "I was isolated in Regna Ferox until recently."
"Aw, hell." Sully lowered her weapon. "Your parents are missing? That's rough, kid. Any idea where they might have gone?"
"I have a ring my father gave my mother, but precious little else to go on." Kjelle always carried it with her.
"Mind if I take a look?"
"No, of course not."
Sully carefully took the ring from Kjelle's hands and observed it closely. She said, "Doesn't look familiar."
The sharp tang of sea air filled Lucina's lungs. High noon arrived. After so many ambushes in the dark, she wanted the light on her side for this. Falchion's familiar handle comforted her hand as she stared at the assassin on the other ship. No mask interfered with her vision—only that bizarre bag. The sight of the assassin made her body ache, even though the injuries had since faded.
Lucina was thoroughly sick of this Grimleal demon haunting her.
"I'm ready," she said. "Turn."
Their ship angled until it was moving upwind. Its sails curved back, fighting the air currents. The waves it made in the water diminished as it sliced through slower and slower. Gerome and Cynthia took to the air, circling overhead. Yarne remained at the wheel, planning to stay until the critical moment. With Severa at her side, Lucina moved to the rear of the ship as it slowed.
This was a challenge that couldn't be ignored. Lucina watched the other ship as it angled back and forth, gradually zigzagging its way upwind without stopping as theirs did. When it got close enough, it pulled up parallel to them. Lucina and Severa followed it, descending to follow the railing at the side of their own ship. The assassin's vessel rushed past theirs.
The assassin rocketed from its position on the bowsprit to scale the mast and leap to the future children's ship. As they jumped the gap, Gerome swept by in a dive and Minerva's wing paid with a gash for his missed swing. The assassin landed on their mast. Cynthia's pegasus tucked its wings in and dived a distance away, swooping down and then up with her lance rising to strike the enemy.
The assassin was gone from atop the mast in an emerald blur of motion, darting down straight past Cynthia without touching her. Their eyes were on their one target, furiously prioritized over all others.
Sol flared along Lucina's blade as it rushed up to meet the enemy descending upon her. At the moment the assassin struck, their body distorted and swung five times at once. Lucina would endure Mercurius' five-pronged assault head-on, sneak Falchion through, use Aether to slake herself on the trade, and finish them with Luna—
Against Lucina's desires, their blades collided. Four more slashes ripped at Lucina, but they were softened by that mid-course correction to deny her the trade and the lack of ground for support. The assassin slammed Lucina several steps aside. Luna went wide as she stumbled while the same shove sent the assassin in the other direction to land on their ship. Before she could recover, the bag-headed killer found the deck under their feet and took off at her.
Severa blocked the first hit and received a cut down her forearm for it. Yarne's transformed body dominated the deck next, occupying the space between them. The assassin greeted Yarne's slash with thin air to meet his claws and Mercurius to meet his hide. They rushed to one side in the blink of an eye and found Severa back in the way before they could flank Yarne to get at Lucina.
Their swords only met for the briefest moment, and then pain lanced across Severa's cheek as she leaned her head to avoid the stab that would've pierced her skull. Yarne struck again with his claws and Mercurius swung to intercept him. The taguel's exceptional speed allowed him the ability to clash with the blade against his claws where it sought to sever his hands, but the assassin drew blood with a cut to the arm as they rushed to the side Severa wasn't covering.
Cynthia's pegasus slammed down on the deck as her lance followed. The assassin batted away the stab and sliced a red line across the front of her pegasus as they drew back. Severa's blade sought the enemy next, and then Yarne again, and then Cynthia again. Every exchange saw the future children step away with another injury and none on their enemy, but the assassin was physically enclosed between the three of them against the rail of the ship.
The sailors' ship sliced through the water and passed their vessel. After the assassin's shove, Lucina just finished recovering. She readied Falchion. From her first clash with the assassin, barely a few seconds had passed.
Gerome's shadow fell over the assassin as they stood their ground against three future children at once with his axe screaming down to finish them—
Mercurius lashed out in a massive horizontal arc to force the grounded three to think twice about their next move. The assassin let Mercurius swing all the way behind itself and grate against the numerous ropes that made up the ship's rigging—but not cut them. The jagged blade ran delicately, flawlessly along them despite its speed, tasting the tension in each rope. Their hand closed around the one pulled most taut, and only then did Mercurius bite down. It all happened in less than a second. The assassin launched up with the speed of the snapping rope, and the grounded three's weapons found only the air.
Gerome's steel axe was nearly thrown from his hand as the assassin batted his blade out of their way. They released the rope, flipping and spinning through the air until their feet found the bottom of the lowest mast. The wind pushed the sails concave, keeping them out of the way as the upside-down assassin used its position to slam right back down where Lucina was standing.
She tried to block the falling blow. The flat of Falchion slammed against her shoulder, followed by Mercurius gashing her side. The assassin landed crouching with their blade low to the ground, but wasted no time bringing the legendary sword around to sever her legs.
Gerome's axe sank an inch into the deck and wedged in place. Mercurius rang as it crashed to a stop against it. Minerva glared at the assassin as her rider blocked the blow.
Lucina before the assassin, in the midst of bringing down Falchion. Gerome beside them. The other three behind the assassin, having already turned as it flipped overhead and now ready to strike.
Their blades found thin air or the blocking Mercurius. The assassin slithered away in moments, unable to retaliate on the exchange as they focused entirely on escaping with minimal damage. The tips of Lucina and Cynthia's weapons struck the deck. The assassin spun to a stop halfway to the front of the ship from them, scarf whipping through the air as it came to a stop.
They only had time to pry their weapons from the ground and turn before the assassin rushed for one side of the ship and threw itself overboard.
"Gerome, Cynthia!" yelled Lucina. Blooms of red spread over her clothes. Severa and Yarne formed up at her back, covering every angle.
The fliers didn't need more orders. They lifted into the air, wary of peeking over the sides until after they were out of slashing range.
Out of sight, the assassin had already sheathed their sword and switched to their daggers. They traversed the hull, diving from one perch to the next using fingers and blades as necessary. By the time Gerome looked over the side they had jumped, the Grimleal assassin reached the back and was climbing the stern of the ship.
Obscured by the network of rigging they scaled while the future children focused on an enemy they assumed would emerge from below eye level, the assassin reached the back mast. The target, Lucina, stood just past the middle mast. Cautious of noise and of their own shadow, the bag-headed assassin crossed to it and dropped down.
Lucina was wary enough after the first two tries to keep glancing up, but the assassin struck at the back she assumed her allies protected. Yarne's sharpened senses and heightened reflexes allowed him to detect the assassin—yet kicking Lucina away was all he could do in the brief moment he had. Mercurius bit deep into his hindquarter, and the assassin was on him.
The assassin was on him!
One hand seized a fistful of the taguel's fur. Blood splattered the sails above as the assassin took the opportunity that came all too easily. Mercurius tore free in an arc of red and immediately slashed down again as Yarne yelled and bucked and tried to throw the enemy on his back.
"Yarne!" Severa whirled, sword ready but unable to find a safe angle as her ally flailed.
Lucina got up, shock and horror all over her face.
The assassin drove their blade down to the hilt. Only the taguel's wild struggling spared him a stab that would've cut through his lower spine. Mercurius struck the deck through his body and immediately left it alongside Yarne's fierce scream.
Cynthia and Gerome rushed back to them.
Yarne put his weight on his front legs and swung his lower half against the mast to crush the assassin on it. They were gone with one final gouge, leaving Yarne to paint the mast with his blood alone.
The assassin swept back across deck as Cynthia and then Gerome slammed down before the enemy to guard their allies.
"You're mine!" Lucina rushed past them both, Falchion howling to meet Mercurius. Righteous fury fueled her to push through the whirlwind of metal that was the assassin's blade, keeping them busy with Cynthia and Gerome at her side.
Severa kept her eyes on the fight as Yarne reverted behind her, still at the middle mast as their allies distracted the assassin at the front of the ship. "You didn't see that coming? Are you blind?!"
"Not now!" There was no comfortable way to lower his body. Pain exploded through Yarne as he crumpled at the base of the mast and scrambled to dig out his concoction.
Mercurius struck Falchion, its wide slash arrested. Her sword bounced and jumped in Lucina's hands as the assassin's jagged blade scraped along it and gashed the side of her sword arm. She didn't let it slow her down as she thrusted from the position with a furious yell. The assassin rushed to the same side as its blade and broke off the lock. A swift duck brought it under Cynthia's extended lance as she swooped by overhead. They drew their dagger and flung it forward, sailing over the grounded Minerva's wing and past Gerome. They weren't aiming at him.
Yarne jerked back and the concoction shattered in his hands. Shards of glass and the dagger that sought his neck clattered across the deck. Severa swore and dragged Yarne behind the mast as Gerome and Lucina struck back. The assassin didn't have a window to throw the second dagger.
"It's too early to go extinct!" cried Yarne.
Severa shoved her own potion into his hands. "Shut up and drink, idiot!" She twirled her steel sword and glared at the assassin, unsure whether to guard Yarne or aid the battle against the assassin.
The assassin made the decision for her. The future children were careful to use the limited space on the ship to keep their enemy from simply breezing past. They didn't expect it to suddenly leap back, Mercurius grating against the ship's rigging, and then grab a rope to launch off by cutting it. Grounded to prevent the enemy from running past, Cynthia and Gerome couldn't take to the air in time.
"It's still after him!" Lucina whirled and rushed across deck, knowing she wasn't about to outpace the enemy. The two fliers lifted off to gain speed, knowing they weren't about to catch up to the assassin.
The assassin's arm looped around the end of the lowest front mast. They swung themselves up and onto it and rushed up the spar, slicing every rope they passed.
A thunderous crack rang out from the base. Without the standing rigging to support the mast, the wind in its sails broke it. The assassin scaled and calmly perched on the very summit as the spar tipped back towards the rest of the ship. Severa and Yarne were still at the base of the mast that the assassin's broken spar was about to crash down on.
Lucina had to stop in her tracks. Severa jumped aboard Cynthia's pegasus as the latter flew by and then rushed upwards. Minerva grabbed Yarne by the scruff of the neck and jumped back with him in tow.
Cynthia swept up with her lance to strike the assassin from below. They leapt to the next mast and then kicked off again. One mast struck the other, and the cacophony of thick wood splintering and shattering hammered their ears. The huge sails were torn down and ripped apart. The entire ship shuddered beneath the tumultuous cascade.
Gerome set down Yarne at the very front of the ship to finish his concoction. Gerome snarled, "They're insane!"
Cables and ropes snapped and lashed every which way as all of their tension broke in an instant. Cynthia broke away from the escaping assassin and pulled higher as flying cables filled the air around her. Lucina reeled as one rope drew a vicious gash across the side of her face. The front mast demolished the middle and the middle demolished the rear in a catastrophic chain reaction. The rear mast pitched backwards off the ship, a broken tangle of mast and sail still attached by the remains of its rigging. It dragged with the ship, pressed against it as it inched backwards through the water.
The chaos settled. Lucina found her footing, her breath searing her lungs as she scanned the mountain of carnage that was the entire deck past the broken front mast. "Where are they?"
"Lucina!" said Cynthia as she touched down. Severa hopped off. "The other ship's coming back around!"
Lucina looked over her shoulder. After depositing the assassin, the sailors' ship took a vast circle and was returning.
"Did they plan this?" she breathed.
Severa wiped an irritable thumb across the cut on her cheek. "Swear to gods," she said. "That freak better be mashed meat under that mess."
Yarne threw his empty bottle overboard. He needed treatment bad, but it could at least wait a short while longer. It was a good thing the injuries shrunk with the rest of his body after reverting.
"Hey!" yelled Cynthia to the missing enemy. "This isn't your ship! Who do you think you are?!"
Barely audible over the waves striking the hull, the faintest patter of hands scaling the ship and a whoosh of displaced air told Yarne that Mercurius was coming for his back. The fully transformed taguel burst from the spot in a flash of light. The assassin's blade drew a long gouge down his side, unable to fully escape. The bag-headed assassin was there, crouched on their ship's bow. Blood covered their front, but none of it was their own.
Pain exploded through Yarne as he leapt away while his allies moved in. With the masts taken down, there was no more rigging for free escapes, and the assassin wasn't going to slip away along the side of the ship so easily with the future children right on top of them.
The assassin didn't need to. They took one step forward to meet the weapons falling upon them. Emerald afterimages flickered in their wake.
One became five, Mercurius flying from behind the assassin and around to reach the injured Lucina from every angle as she herself walked right into their midst—
Severa took one slash across her front, her sword ringing as it weakened another blow that only drew shallow blood from Lucina's shoulder. A low slash meant for Lucina's side struck Minerva while the high slash above it found Gerome's arm. The incredible speed of Astra compromised power per individual blow in exchange, and that power was further diffused between many targets.
Lucina caught the fifth strike with the hole in Falchion's base. The tip of Mercurius hovered inches from her face. She could already hear Grima laughing.
The assassin withdrew their blade before she had a chance to attempt disarming like he did. Mercurius flashed again.
A steel lance blocked the hit. Cynthia hovered over all their heads. Severa stabbed forward, and the assassin stepped back with a parry. Lucina received an identical result for her effort. Gerome and Minerva growled with equal intensity, blockading the enemy's way out as they struck in sync.
For an instant, the back of the assassin's feet hovered at the precipice of the ship's front. The long thin bowsprit was gone—destroyed as the rigging snapped. Their feet became a blur of motion, constantly seeking better placement in what little space they had to properly power each block and parry.
They blocked Severa's strike. They dodged Cynthia's stab while scratching her pegasus. Lucina slashed for the thigh and felt flesh resist her blade.
Lucina injured them.
Cynthia whooped. Instantly, the assassin shifted and concealed the wound under their clothing as they continued the battle. It had little opportunity to hit back in return with the tiny space available, and the future children kept it from moving off what little real estate it had left. Lucina knew there had to be sweat forming under that bag on their head.
Cynthia's lance sliced across the enemy's collar, swiftly hidden by their scarf. Her morale bolstered, Cynthia lifted up higher to maneuver over the assassin and get at their back—
Lucina went for a stab. To her left and right, Severa and Gerome slashed in from outside. Cynthia's pegasus rose. An opportunity opened and the assassin took it.
They launched from the bow of the ship, right over Lucina's head and through the space the pegasus occupied a moment ago. Mercurius sliced over Lucina's left shoulder on the way by. With Lucina guarded by her three allies, the assassin rushed to kill the one that had fled.
Fatigue and pain weighed her down as she turned to follow her opponent. She yelled, "Yarne!"
At some point, Yarne ran all the way to the farthest corner of the deck, huddling with the elevated helm in a small patch of miraculously untouched deck with splintered mangled wood on all sides.
The assassin stormed across the carnage littering the ship. They moved for one of the symmetrical sets of stairs on either side leading to the rear deck—
A glass bottle beat the assassin to it.
The bottle shattered as it struck the edge of an upturned beam. Liquid sprayed about the base of the stairs. It didn't get time to soak in before the flaming cloth tied around the neck of the bottle ignited it. Flame violently burst to life and ravenously consumed the toppled sails and dry wood. The assassin got halfway to the other flight of stairs before another bottle found that one. It made to simply jump atop—
The ship rocked violently. The assassin stumbled where everyone else fell. The flames rose higher and grew in seconds, stirred all the more as its fuel shifted. Yarne shrieked as several parts of the deck gave way, weakened by the demasting—and more fell apart as the flames spread further and further. The entire ship angled away from the position they had first put it in, shoved by an equal mass.
Flames howled at the assassin's as they whirled to face the other future children. Wild cheers met Lucina's ears as she got up.
"Drinking ain't the only thing these are good for!"
"Nice toss!"
"Keep the ship, we don't want her anymore!"
"Do us all a favour and go down with her!"
She didn't need to look to know the sailors had returned. They brought their ship in at a sharp angle, grazing the bows as they came to a stop. None of them, neither the assassin nor the future children predicted it. The assassin assumed the humans would simply flee the first chance they got. Lucina thought the same, if they weren't menaced into working with the assassin themselves.
"Gerome!" barked Lucina.
Minerva spread her wings and took flight to rescue Yarne before the fire consumed him too.
The assassin darted straight at Lucina. She, Cynthia, and Severa couldn't let it board. Lucina forced her body to lift her blade.
Falchion and Mercurius crossed. The assassin twisted it aside and twisted her arm with it. Mercurius' rough edge grated against the Falchion she refused to drop, pinning her as her enemy drew their dagger.
It drew a thin cut across her side before Severa took up its attention with a rising slash from the same side they carried Mercurius on—their right side, not free to move. The assassin reached over their own body and caught her sword against the guard of their dagger. They had no more hands for Cynthia's lance thrusting at their head.
The assassin moved to the left, away from Severa, and took both feet off the ground in a brief fast pirouette with their body parallel to the ground. Reaching all the way down from atop her pegasus, the lance found a shallow gash to the enemy's shoulder near the base of the neck. That same spin unwound the assassin's arms, Mercurius drawing a cut across Lucina's face with the revolution.
One hard flap of the wings sent Cynthia back to land on the ground beside Lucina in preemptive denial of the assassin slipping away. The assassin landed on both feet, adjusted their scarf with a hard jerk of the head, and focused on Lucina once more.
Lucina's team was slowing down with a combination of pain and exhaustion. Through it all, Lucina was dimly aware of the fact that the assassin was slowing down too.
They weren't invincible. They weren't invincible!
Gerome snatched up Yarne. Heat seared Minerva's belly as she flew over the burning wreckage to the sailors' ship and set the taguel down. Gerome said, "Move the ship. Before our enemy boards."
The sails tilted to better catch the wind. Both ships shifted.
"They're moving!" said Severa.
"We can't disengage!" panted Lucina between blows. "Wait for Gerome!"
A stab forced Lucina to sidestep. The assassin rushed through with its attack and turned away from the retreating ship to slash at Lucina with its dagger. She backed away, only for Mercurius to find her thigh and then her allies intervened to relieve the pressure. The sailors' ship was at the assassin's back now—killing the target was more important.
"Over here!" Attacking from behind, Gerome's axe slammed down on the deck of the ship. Where they would've blinked aside in an instant before, the assassin now rolled aside and came up crouching. By then, Lucina was already being carried away on Cynthia's steed. For the briefest instant, Lucina knew she felt the assassin lock eyes with her under their bag. The legendary sword that had drawn her blood so many times glistened at the assassin's side.
The assassin turned and rushed to the flaming wreckage, throwing aside rubble in search of something.
Severa and Gerome didn't ask questions. Gerome pulled his axe free. Severa threw herself into the saddle behind him. Minerva spread her wings and lifted herself into the air.
The assassin yanked a long stretch of rope from the rubble and dashed after them, Mercurius sheathed and their hands a storm of motion.
Minerva swept away from the ship.
The assassin stopped at the very edge and converted all of their speed into flinging their new snare after them.
Severa turned back just in time to see the long rope coming after her. She moved her eyes up and saw the noose about to fall around her head and snap her neck.
She barely managed to throw her arm up into it instead.
"AGH!"
The bones in her arm broke and her shoulder dislocated as the rope pulled taut. Severa herself was nearly thrown right out of the saddle. Gerome grunted as her other arm around him suddenly tried to yank him back too. Not yet at full speed, Minerva jerked in the air as a new weight joined her two riders.
Lucina looked back and saw their assassin hanging from a long rope that ended at Severa's broken arm. "Cynthia!" she yelled. "Turn around!"
Cynthia did so. "What—whoa whoa whoa!"
The sea rushed by just under the assassin, so close that the end of the rope hopped and skipped over its surface. They raised one hand over the other and clamped down on a higher section, scaling it one arm's length at a time.
"Cut it!" said Gerome.
Severa overcame the torment to scream, "Do I look like I have three arms to you?!"
The two vessels were about one ship's length apart. They couldn't approach the sailors' ship like this. Caught in between them both, Minerva flew higher into the air between the two vessels. The assassin kept climbing all the while, using Severa as an anchor to get closer and closer. Every inch they gained was an explosion of agony through her arm. Minerva was only barely out of their blade's reach.
Cynthia rushed at the assassin, steel lance raised to gut them—
Lucina's blood chilled as their enemy moved their head. They switched from looking at Severa to looking at her.
The assassin let go of the rope. Mercurius flew from its sheath as emerald afterimages formed in their wake. No matter where Cynthia tried to twist and dodge, Astra would find its target.
Without the command of its rider, the pegasus flapped its wings and reared up on its own.
The assassin closed the distance in the blink of an eye. One strike was wasted deflecting Cynthia's lance. The other four tore open her steed, ending with Mercurius ramming deep into its gut. The blows intended to cut down both humans only found the pegasus. The assassin drew their dagger and stabbed it into the horse's side, using its two combined blades to remain wedged in place. Blood showered through the air, soaking the assassin under the pegasus as it wailed its torment and struggled to use its wings.
Cynthia's heart stopped beating for an instant. Ice replaced the blood in her veins. "NO!"
Lucina readied Falchion behind her sister, but there was no angle on the assassin's arm around the pegasus' side and wing.
Minerva flew in below them with a furious shriek as Cynthia's lance screamed down on their dagger hand. The assassin tore free and kicked away from the pegasus. Mercurius rang as it collided with Gerome's axe, and the assassin was thrown through the air with a new gash down to the bone of their arm courtesy of Cynthia.
Minerva slammed down firmly on the sailors' ship. Cynthia's pegasus crashed down to the floor on its side, throwing its riders. The assassin flipped upright just in time to land on the burning ship on their feet, skidding to a halt across the deck.
"How dare you?!" Cynthia knelt down beside her steed's head. "Let's make 'em pay for that! Get up and we'll show that punk what for!"
She tried to feed it her concoction. It wouldn't drink. Blood stained the deck.
"Okay, that's enough joking now. We've got so much hero-ing to do! Good always triumphs!"
Nursing her shoulder and broken arm, Severa looked at the sailors gathering around them. "Well? Get your damn healer on deck!"
They didn't have one. They were just sailors.
"What are you looking at?" Gerome growled at them as he passed through with Minerva at his heel. The wyvern nudged the pegasus with her head.
"You've gotta see the journey through with me!" Cynthia told her pegasus. "You… Mother gave you to me… I can't let you go! There's still a chance! There's something I can do!" She looked around at her allies. "B-bandages. C'mon, you don't have to stand there. Help me with the—"
Lucina's hand found her shoulder, and Cynthia instantly quieted as their eyes met with no mask between them. Her sister wouldn't say it out loud. Her pained gaze told Cynthia that Sumia's last gift was already no more by the time they landed.
"Hahaha… that's not… g-guys, don't look at me like that…" The bottle rolled away. Another quiet laugh left Cynthia as she stroked her loyal steed's mane. "W-wow… there's so much dirt here. Since when did you wind up dirty as a farm hog? Did I never—where's my b-brush?" Shaking hands opened the bag still strapped to the winged horse's side. "You can't go around looking like that. What sorta h-hero goes into battle covered in dirt?"
Cynthia slipped away from Lucina's hand to crawl closer and brush her pegasus, still smiling and muttering reassurances as freshly spilled blood covered her greaves. "We haven't done the victory pose yet," said Cynthia. "I'll have you all c-clean in no time at all…!""
"Lucina." Gerome's voice in the princess' ear was the softest, quietest whisper he could manage. "The enemy."
Lucina turned.
The assassin stood on the very tip of the burning ship's bow, watching them. Thick smoke rose from the flames in a colossal black plume. Purple smog billowed through the new gash in the bag they wore over their head. As the sailors turned their ship, Lucina glimpsed a red eye glowing through the purple haze.
Almost irritably, Porcus ripped off its bag and tossed it into the fire behind itself. Purple miasma leaked from its wounds. Its mask was cracked and partially broken near the edge on one side with a deep gash in its flesh underneath—Gerome's parting gift. Lucina looked at Falchion. No longer in the heat of battle, she recognized the dark stains as undead essence and not blood.
They knew it was undead.
They knew stranding it out on the open blue wouldn't kill it.
They knew to be ready the next time it found them.
Porcus wanted to avoid that. It took great pains to avoid being injured so they would assume it was human and underestimate it in the process. The silver lining was that it took their pegasus. That kept them from fleeing too quickly. It could track them down again once it swam to shore.
Porcus brandished Mercurius, spraying their blood on the deck behind it. Those red dead eyes never left Lucina. The flames crept ever closer as it wiped the blade clean in the crook of its elbow and then sheathed it.
Porcus dived into the ocean and vanished below the surface.
Severa managed to peel her eyes off Cynthia and spotted Yarne being helped below deck to be treated. The hot pain stabbing into her arm told her to follow him.
Their ship picked up speed—even Porcus couldn't possibly swim faster than it. Lucina let out a breath and returned to her sister's side. "Cynthia—"
"Yeah." Cynthia didn't look at any of them as she dropped the brush. Her hands closed around her steel lance. "We gotta keep fighting. That's how it goes, right? After… after losing someone—" She sniffled. "T-there's no way I could l-lose right now. It's what a hero does."
Lucina's gentle but firm hands prevented her sister from getting up.
"It's okay," murmured Lucina as she knelt down beside her. "You don't have to hide it."
Cynthia's eyes welled up. "L-Lucina…!" She wasn't able to deny it anymore. The spirited pegasus knight threw herself into her sister's arms and broke down.
Stroking her back as Cynthia cried openly without holding back any of her grief, Lucina set her resolute gaze on the distant horizon where sea met sky.
An instant of an instant, a tiny misstep, and Lucina may have been the one crying for Yarne and Cynthia. The cold robes of Death brushed the back of her neck, phasing through to stoke her heart.
Lucina went soft in this world she lost, seeing the parents she lost. This was the tiniest reminder of the despair and the ruin that was the fell dragon. She only needed it to descend upon Cynthia to understand again the true impact of every decision she made. It was so easy to speak her ideals. Lucina couldn't ever possibly conceive her sister's pain multiplied a hundred times, a thousand times, a million times for all his victims.
Grima was the root of this suffering. Grima had to die.
To spare the ones Lucina loved, perhaps she needed to send Morgan after him.
Grima slammed the mage down face-first, the hand on the back of his head mashing the poor enemy's face back and forth through the searing sand. "Suffer! Struggle for me! Hahahahaha!"
A hostile pegasus knight swooped down on him to draw his blood. Her shadow fell in his peripheral, and the lightning of Mjölnir pierced the clear skies to strike her down with a deafening, blinding bang.
Morgan deftly leapt away from the barbarian she was fighting, her footsteps light and quick over the sand as her jagged blade found the downed pegasus knight's neck. Admiration for her father filled her as she used her Levin Sword to drop Elthunder on the barbarian—piddling compared to the divine hammer. The movement spell kept her feet rushing across the sand without sinking so her blade could gut the bandit.
Maniacal laughter filled the air as Grima sliced his mage's tome hand off and hauled him to his feet. The friendly fire of another brigand's hand axe finished the job for the fell dragon. Grima used the body to block one more axe while he incanted and then smote the enemy. The deranged grin on his face fully displayed the pleasure he found in trampling over these lowly worms.
"Father!" A javelin landed in the sand as Morgan hopped back and reached for her Elwind. "Having fun?"
"Plenty," he purred. Mjölnir snapped shut in his off hand as he eyed the nearing pegasus knight. "Go ahead and take your kill, Morgan."
The opponent's maneuvers didn't save them from having a wing shredded by Morgan's spell. The rider landed roughly, got up, and clashed weapons with Morgan once. Grima was there in the same instant, his steel sword spinning away above them as he seized the rider's arm, slid his leg behind hers, and tripped her to the sand in one fluid motion. Morgan stabbed through the rider's stomach and then freed her sword while tearing the enemy open with a vicious slash to the side. Grima released the rider's arm and threw aside her lance. He let his daughter finish the job while he retrieved his sword from where it landed a few steps away.
"Father, behind you!" Morgan placed herself between his exposed back and an arrow whistling towards it—a position where she didn't need to worry about it flying in any direction but right at her. Razor blades of Elwind sliced up the arrow just before it struck her. Morgan winced as the diverted and slowed arrowhead sliced across her cheek, though it failed to pierce the coat of her father behind her.
"Morgan?!" Rage flared in Grima's scarlet eyes as he whirled and deflected the hand axe that followed the arrow for her. The air above the nearest dune shimmered like a heat haze as a warrior and several fighters emerged from seemingly thin air.
"There they are." She grinned and readied her Levin Sword. "Too predictable!"
"Don't block so aggressively," said Grima. "That's my role." He barked, "Nah!"
Hovering over Owain and Cordelia as they fought a distance away, Nah spat a cyan fireball at Grima's enemies before returning her attention to her actual allies.
The warrior dived down the dune as the explosive blast took out one of his five bandits and scattered the rest. Mjölnir crashed down before he could get up, followed by a dodged Elthunder, and then Grima and Morgan were on top of him. Grima's sword locked up with the axe to keep it from falling properly, leaving him wide open for Morgan to remove his arm. They each took a leg and left him on the floor as Grima drew Mjölnir and incanted wildly.
He and his daughter turned their attention to the band of fighters and relished in the killing spree, ignoring the cuts and scratches they picked up in the process. After Morgan dispatched the last fighter, the fell dragon returned to the downed warrior and impaled his sword through the enemy's last limb.
Grima stowed his tome and dropped on the warrior with a brutal fist to the face. "That was your arrow?!"
Daughter kept lookout as father took his sweet time beating the enemy to death with mad laughter flying from his lips.
Mirages of wavering heat danced in the air. A circle around a dune could reveal a tree where there was nothing if observed from the other side. Running through a curtain-like wall of shimmering space could reveal that the dunes behind it were completely different from what was seen before it. A trail of blood, corpses, and blast marks dotted the sands as father and daughter ran about butchering whatever presented itself before them.
"Looks like Robin's enjoying himself." Chrom aimed his shot from behind Sumia, only for the mage to dodge his javelin.
Sumia's javelin found the mage's leg. "Is he really the best role model for Morgan…?"
Chrom watched as Grima sliced a mage's arm to remove his tome, followed by Morgan slashing the unfortunate bandit's front open and then tackling him to the ground so she could start pulling out his insides.
"Father!" she said as she stabbed at some stuff in the dying man and then ripped out a large dark organ. Blood drenched her gloves, stained her hair, and streaked her breastplate. "What's this thing?"
"A liver." Grima snatched it out of her hands and threw it to intercept an Elfire intended for her. Mjölnir punished the mage that launched it.
"Noooo! My new liver!"
"I'll get you another one. Come, and don't dally in the presence of enemies."
Morgan stuck her tongue out at him. Splotches of fresh red drew a stark contrast to the beaming face they covered as she got up and followed her father back into the fray. Their swords and spells flew in sync, covering the other's approaches and exploiting every opening they made as one.
Chrom pursed his lips. "I don't think we're in any position to intervene right now," he said to Sumia. His eye moved across the desert to spot Owain. That style of fighting was heavily altered but unmistakable. He had to ask later.
They returned to picking off mages. Chrom dropped to cut them down and then returned to flying with Sumia as needed. Nah and Morgan worked as the anti-pegasus units of their groups while their partners handled ground forces. The Shepherds made their way deeper through the sands.
They regrouped at one of the key landmarks Cordelia advised Grima about—a lush oasis in the midst of the sweltering desert, masked on all sides by an illusion of merely more dunes.
"Thanks," panted Nah as Owain handed her a flask of water.
"Gods, this place is hot." Owain leaned against the tree he used for shade and downed half his flask at once. "It's like somebody Warped a slice of Plegia to the other side of Ylisse."
Nah saw the other Shepherds gather around Grima. Morgan held open a map, covered in blood yet watching him with bright sparkling eyes as he rifled through Miriel's notes brought back by Cordelia about navigating the dunes. Muttering the words out loud, Grima read the book in one hand as his other slowly traced and marked locations on the map. Where everyone else was pouring sweat, father and daughter seemed unfazed by the heat.
"This oasis was defended," said Morgan, "but not that much. There's a lot of vegetation, so the water's probably drinkable if we boil it. It's super important to have access to good water, so there's a few ways to look at this. The bandits don't frequent this place enough to have it mapped out, or the forces we saw are the most they can use to defend an important resource, or they have a base elsewhere."
"They rarely find the villages," said Cordelia. "Laurent claimed he was here for three years and only heard of two villages being discovered."
"They likely made one of them into their base," mused Grima. "We can assume they took one of the more easily discovered ones." His eyes remained on Miriel's notebook. "These instructions make no sense. Forward twenty paces, back twenty paces, left ten, right ten, repeat the last two, circle a dune clockwise, and then circle in reverse?"
Morgan repeated the movements under her breath, her eyes moving about as she visualized it. "That doesn't put you anywhere."
"Exactly. Did she write this in a fever?" Grima closed the book with a sigh and set it back in the bags of Cordelia's pegasus. "One way or another, their village isn't far from here. The noise of battle should've attracted most bandits in the area, but assume more remain lost or in hiding to ambush us."
He met Nah's gaze and gestured for her and Owain to get closer for briefing. Using the map, Grima pointed out the various angles of attack that the mirages could be used for by both sides with Morgan periodically chipping in or providing more detail. After laying out their plan and next destination, the Shepherds took the opportunity to rest for a brief period.
"Morgan?" said Owain.
Morgan looked at him with a lively blood-covered smile, wrapped around her father's arm as he talked with Chrom.
"Mind chatting for a bit?"
She turned to her father. Grima nodded and she removed herself from him. Owain didn't miss the fell dragon's single step to the side to keep them in his view. Mjölnir nonchalantly slipped into Grima's hand as he continued bantering with the prince.
Owain, Morgan, and Nah strolled a short distance away along the edge of the water. Morgan hummed a tune to herself with an easy smile as she looked around. Something about the oasis made her think of the sanctuary in the Border Pass. Then again, a lot of things made her think of that place. Then again, she just thought about that time her father really opened up a lot. Morgan missed story time.
"What's up?" chirped Morgan. "Oh, I know what this is about! Nah is totally smitten with Father and you want to get him a present. Don't worry, I've got tons of ideas to—"
"I'd rather be strung up on those spikes of yours," said Nah.
"Food time?" Morgan asked Owain. "It must be ready! How'd you get the dish all the way out here?"
"My culinary masterpiece has yet to manifest in this realm," he said. "I sought you for the answer to this. Wherefore does your crimson madness emerge?"
Both manaketes blinked at him.
"…You killed people really hard," he deadpanned. "Guts and gore and stuff? I thought you don't like killing."
"Oh, that!" Morgan thought hard about it, one gloved hand on her chin. She noticed the dried blood crusting her gloves and washed them clean in the water. "…I dunno! It's not like I know them or anything. They're all bad people anyway." She shrugged, her expression bright and cheery. "Feeling bad about killing hasn't really been working out for me. Hey, did you know human livers are actually massive? Seriously, the one I pulled out had to be this big!"
Owain's mouth hung slightly ajar as she held her palms apart to denote the size.
"Sure, it must hurt a lot. I've been stabbed a few times and it was terrible. I just don't feel a thing about doing it to others—in fact, I'd be a pretty bad soldier if I did!"
Nah drew back. "You don't feel a thing about what you just said? I killed a bunch of them today and—" The world tilted, and she staggered.
"Nah!" said Owain.
She grabbed the tree for support. Her sweat suddenly felt freezing. "Oh gods," she whispered. "I didn't even think about it. It felt like Risen in the moment, but they didn't disappear. They just sat there—they're still sitting there!"
Owain's face fell. He knew this. He experienced it himself.
"Claws?" asked Morgan. Hers was an expression of far more curiosity than concern. "Fangs? Fire?"
"Fire," muttered Nah. "All I did was breathe flame, just like fighting Risen. I don't know if they screamed. They'd scream, wouldn't they?"
The answer was yes. Burning alive was a slow, agonizing death. Owain knew better than to tell her that. It was better she didn't remember.
Her eyes were wide and staring at nothing. "Would it have felt just like a Risen if I used my claws? Would it have tasted like one? I'm supposed to be protecting humans! What did I—what am I doing?!"
Nah's heart raced in her chest. Shaky hands grasped at the tree, struggling to keep her on trembling legs as her actions slammed into her all at once. She didn't just kill one person. She didn't just kill several times. She didn't notice until after the fact, and the implications of that rocked her to the core. Her stomach tried to eject all the water she just drank and she could only barely keep it down.
"Those were people," said Nah. Her breathing got faster and faster. "Someone had to make them. They had a whole life leading up to the moment I ended it. It's not like watching someone die—I did that to them. How could I—"
"You're alive. Be silent."
Nah's feet left the ground as Grima swept her up into his arms. The surprise jolted some clarity back into her. They didn't notice when he joined them.
"Your options were kill or be killed," he continued. Grima didn't look at her as he carried her. "You killed and remain alive. You end the lives of others to protect your own. They do the same. There's nothing else to it. There's no morality and no justice and no point in looking for either." His lip curled. "These atrocious concepts only make you a liability."
"Wait." Owain followed the fell dragon, one hand outstretched without thinking. "What are you doing?"
Grima set her firmly in the saddle of Cordelia's pegasus. "Adjusting for an unexpected event," he said. Irritation ran deep into his voice and stood written all over his face. "You're incapable of fighting until you get over this. We're down a unit now. This oasis is hidden, not safe. We're navigating to the village. Sit there and don't lose your mind until we arrive."
Nah blinked rapidly. She nodded.
"…Morgan," muttered Owain. "You've never felt anything about hurting a human?"
"Not really," said Morgan. She didn't feel much about this situation either—just mild irritation like her father, with the added worry of whether interacting with Nah in this state would dent her own plans. She wasn't going to outright fake concern, but she knew it was also better to try and avoid saying things they'd take as callous.
Owain's lips formed a dry smile. "I don't know whether that's a blessing or a curse."
He rejoined the rest of the Shepherds as they prepared to move out. Morgan had time to ponder that on her own.
Grima found Morgan's dark eyes on him. His annoyance melted into the expression of her father. He motioned for her to join them, and only then did she return to life and move.
"Father! Why does she get to be carried like that? I wanna be carried like that!"