...This is humiliating. I expected her to smack me around a bit, then run off.

I didn't expect her to tie me against a tree on the riverbank.

Yet that's where I am. And no matter how much I kick, scream and cuss, she won't let me go. The knot isn't even getting any looser, I'm just giving myself rope-burn at this point.

And the add a cherry on top of this crappy sundae, Camus finally shows his ugly mug. He landed once I got dragged out of the trees, but didn't try to do anything to save me. Right now he's chowing down on those apples I bought at the village, Natalia dumped them all out in front of him and he's just plucking'em off the ground with his mouth.

Gods, why does everyone I meet turn out to be utterly incompetent.

I can feel myself getting angry all over again.

"You won't get out." My captor chimes, sitting back on her perch and munching away at one of my apples. "I've used that knot to tie down Walhart's Great Knights. Trust me, they were a lot bigger than you."

Unfortunately for the both of us, that only gets me to try even harder. Up until I jerk the wrong way and feel my arm muscles twist in a way they really shouldn't twist. After that I give in, sinking against the tree trunk as I try to ride the pain wave until it's over.

This is the first trial. This is supposed to be the easy one, I know that. The fact that I even got caught is probably going to make my life a living hell for the rest of this week, and that's assuming I even get out of this stupid situation I'm in.

How did she even notice me!? I might not look it, but I'm one of the sneakiest people I know! Hell, I used to poach rations off of Arthur, his crazy son and his crazier wife! You know how hard it is to keep quiet when the family made up of a delusional 'superhero', a convicted serial murderer and their kid's pet wyvern are all snoozing in the next room?!

Ugh, the things Peri would've done to me if I wasn't careful. Pretty sure they wouldn't have even found all my limbs.

Natalia scoffs, throwing the core of the apple over her shoulder. "Still can't figure it out?"

"Figure what out?" I snap at her.

"I didn't hear you, she did." The Knight informs me, pointing over towards her snow white steed. "Pegasus, especially falicorns, are more in tune with their surroundings than their riders."

My eyes roll. "And she told you… how?"

"I've been with Pyra for almost ten years. Through two major wars and everything in between." She further explains, before pointing Camus' way. "Meanwhile, you and him are so freshly bonded I can practically smell it."

"Oh, so you're a pegasus whisperer now?"

"Yes, all Falcon Knights are expected to be 'Pegasus Whisperers.'" She affirms, standing up and pacing her way towards my tree trunk-y abode. "Something someone who is attempting to become one should be able to do."

"I can do plenty of things." I hiss back at her. "Like toss you into this river once I get free."

Natalia scoffs again, coming to a stop right in front of me. "Why are you even here?"

"Well, I was on my own two feet. But then this really uptight pain in my arse decided to tie me up like she's a courtesan out of Ylisse's Red Lantern district."

Natalia squats down in front of me, keeping her head level with mine. She then pulls out a burlap sack drenched in red and smelling like a roundhouse punch straight to my nose. My mind instantly clocks it as bait, probably saturated fat drenched in deer blood.

"Call me a whore again, and I will leave this in your lap and fly off." Natalia threatens, letting the sack drop down in the grass between us both. "After that, the bears come. Whether they decide to maul you is up to them."

Now, I'm pretty sure she was expecting me to shut up. Maybe squeal and squirm, and possibly give an apology. Most people in this position would do that, tied to a tree trunk and staring down someone who's probably filled entire graveyards of soldiers on her own.

I laugh in her face.

"You're bluffing." I tell her smirking as she snarls at me. "Look, I know my cousin. And if there's one thing I can't stand about Cordelia, it's how she surrounds herself with people just as morally insufferable as she is. You wouldn't be friends with her or in the Order if you were willing to do this to a prisoner. So drop the tough girl act and stop trying to impress me."

Natalia's snarl grows at the idea that she's doing this to impress me, and I can tell that she's thinking about following through on her threat out of spite. But, I read her right. She takes the sack and stuffs it back into the pouch on her hip, the smell disappearing as if it was never there. I start kicking dirt over where it landed just to be sure, not really interested in becoming bear chow.

"The Captain is my mentor, not my friend." She corrects, which makes me like her even less. The last thing this world needs is even more people idolizing my mother. She has enough fangirls that it makes my stomach turn over at the thought.

Am I being hypocritical? Yes. Do I care? No.

"You Second Founding brats just love your 'oh so benevolent' leader." I taunt, which finally gets her to leave me alone and go back to the pegasus at the riverfront.

A little history lesson, for those of you reading this at home or school or… I dunno, is this really going to have a target audience?

During the second Plegian War, Ylisse only had two units of real soldiers. You had the Royal Knighthood, people like Stahl, Frederick and Sully. Then you had the Pegasus Knights, people like my mother and Aunt Sumia. Everyone else was just part-time militia, handed bad gear and given worse training.

Don't think it comes as a surprise that we got demolished for most of the war. If it wasn't for Uncle Chrom and the rest of the Shepherds, we would've lost for sure. Even then, when the war was over, we'd lost a lot of people. Frederick's little had lost about half its membership, and the Pegasus Knights…

My Mother and Sumia were the only survivors.

It was one of the big changes between my timeline and this one. In my world, the war lasted for longer but more of the Knights survived. In this one, the war didn't even last the year and less people died overall, but the Knights took the brunt of the death. Here's an example; When I was growing up, Phila was still alive to train me and Lucina. Now, she died before new-me was even born.

Which brings us to the Second Founding.

After Chrom and Sumia got married, they poured a lot of money into making sure the Army wasn't a smoking wreck. That meant rebuilding the Pegasus Knights, and they chose none other than my oh so perfect Mother to take on that monumental task.

And the annoying part? She didn't just pull it off, she knocked it out of the park.

In two years, just in time for Walhart's invasion, she managed to rebuild the entire Order basically on her own. By the time Ylisse landed on Valm's shores, there were almost a thousand new fliers. A thousand. In two years. And every single one of them looks at my Mother like she's Naga's gift to mankind.

Ugh. Even as an adult I'm still ticked off. Near the end, Morgan and I wouldn't see her for weeks at a time. Always some new crisis she had to fix, nevermind the fact that she had two daughters at home scared witless that one day she wouldn't come back.

Until she didn't.

...Somehow I always manage to make it all about my terrible childhood, don't I? Remind me to book an extra session with the shrink.

Anyway, I still need to find a way out of this mess. I'm not losing on the first trial, that's for damn sure.

'Come on, we've gotten out of this before.' Mirror Me echoes in my head. 'Remember how we snuck out of that Grimleal camp?'

My mind flashes back to the event she's referencing. Way back in the future, Inigo and I had gotten captured by a bunch of cultists when we were on a scouting mission. Well, more he got caught and then I got caught trying to bust him out. But the point is that both of us were tied to a tent-pole, back to back, while those weirdos were planning to… I dunno skin us alive? Sacrifice our hearts to Grima?

I got out by using Ignis to burn the rope. Set the entire tent on fire too, plus I burned the sleeves of Inigo's tunic off, but we got away.

'Look at it this way.' The voice rationalizes. 'If the tree catches, you can use it as a distraction to get us out of here.'

Oh my Gods, she's actually useless. But it's not like I have any other options. I check to make sure my warden's not looking my way, seeing that she's mounting her pegasus' saddle.

I take a breath and focus my mind, channeling my energy down to my hands. Even if I can't see it, I can feel the cold flames spark up and wrap around my fingers like a second set of gloves. The tips nip at my wrists, traveling up past my elbows. Right around where the layers of twine have been trapped.

Within seconds, the rope gets burnt to ash. Somehow my luck clears and I don't light the bark ablaze either.

But I'm not lucky enough to have my party trick go unnoticed. The smell of smoke's distinct enough for Natalia to turn her head my way. Right as I get up to my feet, she spins around and starts riding full tilt towards me.

My body moves faster than my brain, hands shooting up to grab a low-hanging branch. Again, my hands ignite and singe through the wood, and I catch it as it falls off the tree. Both my mitts wrap around it about half way, holding it like a really crappy club.

Here's a fun fact for you. If you smash a horse, pegasus or donkey right in the mouth, it's guaranteed to buck whoever's riding it straight off it's back.

That's exactly what happens when I swung for the fences, bark splintering as I bashed the oncoming falicorn right in the teeth as they charged for me. WIth a surprised cry, I see the my former prison guard go flying backwards and slamming back down to earth with a deafening 'THUNK'. After which the pegasus recoiled back, then spun around and took off in the exact opposite direction of where it had been running before.

I managed to snatch the flag before it sprinted off, though. Barely dodged the wild thing's hooves, but I did it. Once the dust settles, and the flying tornado's completely out of my sight, I jump up and do a little victory dance.

That's right, who's awesome? I am! I'm the freaking best! I just took down a falcon knight with my bare hands! Who's laughing now, all those jerks who said I'd never make it? That's right, ME!

Pretty sure I'm like this for a good little while before Camus decides to make his way over. He's holding an apple core in his mouth, tilting his head as he's clearly asking for more. But then his gaze focuses behind me, and my celebration's distracted for a split second…

...So that I'm reminded that Natalia's still laying there. She's got a nasty cut on her head, but even from here I can tell she's breathing.

Instinct makes me reach for the stave in Camus' saddle. But then, an evil idea worms it's way into my head.

Cutting it a bit close, but Camus and I land back in the starting field within the time limit. Mother and the other knights are exactly where we left them, though Mom's the only one who seems to still be awake to see me return.

She approaches us as I land, and I wave the flag with the smuggest smile I think I've ever given. One Mother shares in this short bit of privacy, her defenses dropping as she lets herself feel proud of me. But then she turns about, letting loose a loud whistle. The others rouse themselves up pretty quick, which lets me begin to enact the aforementioned evil idea.

As the rest of my audience comes close, I jump off the saddle and reveal none other than Natalia tied up and resting on Camus' back. Her head's all bandaged up now, and her wound's been treated by yours truly. When they come to grab her, I lift a hand to stop them and make a shush sound.

Then, I pull her off myself and lay her down on the grass. Cut her bindings free with my dagger, and stand back up to pull a little baggie out and rest it in my palm. The others gather around, peering inside and instantly recognizing the smell.

Which is when I bend over and waft it above Nat's nose.

My parcel then bolts up immediately, screaming about bears as she goes to her feet and takes up an unarmed fighting stance. It's not until she calms down and looks around that she realizes where she is, who she's with and what exactly is going on. By then, it's too late, and her peers are rolling on the grass laughing themselves into a coma.

Mother and I are watching from the sidelines as Natalia buries her face in her hands, then begins cursing the two of them out and chasing them around.

"That was terrible of you." Mother scolds me, despite the fact that she's failing miserably at holding back her laughter herself.

"What can I say? Morgan's not the only prankster in the family." I answer back, which is enough to let her join in the laughter. It's a relaxing sound, something I haven't heard nearly as often as I'd like.

"So, I pass, right?" I ask her.

"With flying colors. As I expected." She assures me, stifling her fit of giggles. "I can't believe you captured her."

Feeling pretty good about myself, I do a dramatic hair flip. "I'm awesome, duh? Why do I have to keep telling people this?"

Mother giggles once again, beaming with pride as her compatriots are distracted by the less than their less than enthused colleague. "Well, you certainly exceeded expectations. Though there was never any doubt you'd pass this first phase."

I nod along, omitting the fact that I almost flunked it like a rookie. She doesn't need to know that I got caught and tied up. Either way, it ended with me on top. That's all that matters, right?

"She got me good. I almost lost." I finally admit, shrugging my shoulders. "Easy to tell why she's a Falcon Knight."

"Natalia is gifted, though quite arrogant." Mother admits, her amusement growing as the three seem to calm down after their bickering. "Those three girls have been under my command since… before we found you and Morgan. Could you believe they all used to hate each other?"

"You think I always liked Noire and Inigo?" I say, answering her question with a question.

"Point." She admits. "Hardship does bring strange bedfellows together. Though the bonds forged in fire rarely break."

My eyes roll, having heard this lecture a million times. "Yeah, yeah. Invisible ties that bond, relationships are eternal, killing gods with the power of friendship. Already heard it all from Dad."

"He did seem to harp a bit too much on that particular message." Mother hums in agreement, both of his sharing a look before laughing between ourselves. Dad was such a nerd in this timeline.

After sharing that little moment, Mom and I step forwards to catch the tail end of the trio's little back and forth.

"Got tied up by a rookie. The others ain't gonna believe this." The tall, darker one from before kept teasing. She was enjoying this even more than I did, and I enjoyed it a lot.

The white clad knight face-palmed, visibly at the end of her rope after being under fire for so long. "Charlotte, I swear on Palla's tomb, if you even mention a word to my platoon…"

"Oooh, threatening a superior now?" Charlotte says with a sadistic undertone. "Remind me again, who's the Sergeant Major?"

Natalia grumbles, arms over her chest. "...You."

"And who's the Lieutenant?" Charlotte follows up.

"Alexis. To my eternal confusion." She begrudgingly admits.

The tall one busts out laughing again, while the one knight I haven't heard once keeps this bemused smile on her face. Out of the rest of us, she's the odd one out. She's wearing Dark Flier gear for one, similar to Morgan. A tome of each element's hanging from her hip. Her demeanor is a strange middle ground between the two. Between Natalia's traditional grace, and Charlotte's grounded presence.

"You're all equals in my eyes." Mother finally interjects, pulling their full attention towards her. Each one salutes her, casual relaxation getting supplanted by military discipline in the blink of an eye. Soon as she returns it, Natalia bows at the hip.

"Lady Cordelia, I apologize for the shame I've brought to the Regiment. Being detained by a mercenary is an unacceptable failure." She rambles away, any trace of her previous arrogance or pompousness seeming like it was never there to begin with. If anything she sounds like a kid apologizing to their schoolmaster. "...I clearly lack the skills to hold my position, and understand if you wish to seek a replacement."

The others start to laugh all over again, and mother waves a dismissive hand. "Your only mistake was underestimating Selena. Which I'm certain the others will not also do, right girls?"

Sensing the steel behind her words, the hyenas shut up.

"Yes, milady." Charlotte confirms.

"Absolutely!" Alexis chirps.

"Good. As usual, discussing a trial outside of those involved is forbidden." Mother reminds everyone, before looking at me from the corner of her eye. "Everyone involved."

Great, so that means I can't talk to Subaki or Caeldori about this. That sucks, a lot. Was hoping they could watch the next test, but I guess that's not gonna happen.

Still, I lock eyes with Natalia cock a brow. "I won't tell if you won't?"

"Deal." She agrees immediately, something that draws the attention of Mother. Though she doesn't question it.

"Good. We're dismissed for the day. Tomorrow, same time and place." Mother commands, the three of them spinning around as Natalia hankers them both to give her a lift back to the city.

...Which now begs the question, what am I going to do for the rest of the day?

"OK, now squeeze." Percy says, jotting down a bunch of readings on his quill.

Once again, I'm in this damn infirmary. After flying back to the field and having nothing better to do, I decided to let Percy run a few of his weirdo tests. He was pretty surprised that I came in, both willingly and this soon, but I did make a promise and I'm curious to see what he can find out.

He gave me a warning that he hadn't gathered everything just yet, so the tests wouldn't be complete. But honestly, with what he's put me through as is, I don't even want to know what his definition of 'complete' testing is. Over the past few hours he's stuck me with needles, injected me with concoctions, made me drink potions that tasted like a griffon's spoiled egg yolk, punch a weird cushion with my burned arm, lift weights with it, and a bunch of other random crap that is honestly starting to make me think he's using me as a guinea pig.

Seriously, I feel worse than when my arm actually got burned.

But he promised me that this was going to be the final test. Squeezing this strange air cushion with my scarred hand. The whole time he's been glaring at the brand, both with interest and blatant fear. And as the tests keep going and going and going, his eyes keep drifting towards it.

Once I'm finally done, he leaves me alone in the room for at least half an hour. Then he comes back, rolling a display board through the door with a bunch of different papers and diagrams tacked onto it.

"OK, so let's start from the beginning. Your arm shouldn't be able to move." Percy opens up.

"Yeah, yeah. Catastrophic nerve damage. You told me this." I remind him.

"Catastrophic is being nice. But yes." He reaffirms, taking out a pointing stick and tapping a human diagram of… I think nerve pathways? He draws a circle around my right arm, pulling more attention to it.

"See these clusters? These are all destroyed. Basically a husk under what's left of your skin." He explains, before flipping the page of the cart to reveal the same human but now showing what I think are muscles. "Same with all your tendons. So not only is the message pathway from your brain to your arm disconnected, it doesn't even have anywhere to really go."

"We're gonna get to the part where you explain why I can still move it any time soon?"

"We'll get there when we get there!" He assures, very much enjoying himself despite my boredom. Come to think of it, this is probably the most fun I've seen him have since we met. Doing science to my body.

He then flips the last chart, revealing yet another human diagram… but this one's strange. It's got small blue circles, each one placed in a particular part of the body. One in each palm, one in each shoulder. A medium sized one at the base of the neck, a large one in the gut, two more small ones at the knees and two in the soles of it's feet.

Seeing my probably visible confusion, he taps the center mass. "This diagram is an aura chart. It shows the different aura reservoirs in a human body."

"Uh… what?" I ask, getting even more confused.

Percy takes pause, probably thinking how to best explain this. "You know what an aura is, right?"

I nod.

"Do you know what aura is exactly?"

I shake my head.

"Right, OK. So, magic theory time." He starts to explain, before tapping the large circle in the diagram's stomach. "Aura is the innate magic in every person. Some people have more of it than others, but every human on the planet has an aura. It's pooled in these reservoirs, see?"

I nod again, and he continues to explain.

"The way humans perform spells is that we use items to channel our aura." He goes on to explain. "Healing staves for healing magic, tomes to cast fireball, a Lleven sword to shoot lightning at things, and so on."

"OK. Great." I say, getting the gist. "But uh, who cares?"

Percy giggles with glee, then taps the center mass once again. "Your aura is massive. Easily the largest I've ever seen, and you've got a particularly big one, right…"

He then moves his pointer to the side, tapping where my burned hand would be. Which is also where my brand is. "-Here. It's the same size as the one at the base of your neck."

I blink a few times, recalling that's also the place where Morgan has her brand. And I'm not one to believe in coincidences.

"Anyway." He continues. "The reason why I'm explaining this. When I was monitoring your aura as you moved your hand, I noticed a big surge in flow along your arm. Like, massive. The same I'd see if you were casting a spell."

"Casting a…" I start, before realizing what he's implying. "Are you saying I'm moving my arm with magic?"

"It's crazy, right!?" He exclaims, jumping up before shuffling over to the other side of the board and pointing at a bunch of sheets I can't make heads or tails of. "I can't say for sure yet, we still have to go through another set of tests. Then we need to repeat the process to validate the results. Then after that I need to publish this to the medical journal-"

"You're going to what!?" I cut off, panic filling my throat.

"Think about it, Miss Severa. This is a medical miracle!" He says, practically bouncing off the walls at this point as he pulls out another stack of notes from the table behind the board. "Imagine what we could do if we could replicate this on a wide scale! Sure, it can't fix lost limbs. But there's plenty of people with lame legs and arms out there! If we could repeat this, it'd be the biggest jump in medicine in decades!"

Oh Gods, no. No, no no. He can't go public with this. The whole damn planet knowing about my brand would be the second worst thing that could happen to me. The first would be finding out I'm from the freaking future, but this is a really close second!

"...Do you even know if you can replicate it?" I ask him, tenuous. He shakes his head.

"No, but I'm gonna find out." He assures me, before taking a quick pause. "...Just so you know, I've kept your name out of my records. Far as the dossier knows, you're just 'Patient Eighteen.'"

"I thought all the people who come in and out of here have to be logged."

"Only if they willingly give a name. Did you want to do that?" He clarifies, smirking as I shake my head again. I sigh in relief. This kid really is more clever than I give him credit for. Everyone around me is, honestly.

He pulls up a stool, sitting up next to my bed and smiling at me as he flips through the notes. I can see him spot my brand out of the corner of his eye, but then he looks at me full-on once more.

"Listen, Miss Severa. I'm not sure what that mark is, and it really freaks me out. But it obviously freaks you out too." He observes. "So we're just gonna keep this between us, and take things one step at a time. OK?"

I huff, taken aback by his empathy. Don't know why, he's always been pretty soft. But it still catches me off guard. "You sounded really grown up there for a minute."

"I'm technically a doctor, so that's good!" He gushes with pride. "My teachers told me I needed to work on my bedside manner anyway. And besides, publishing this without your say so would be extremely illegal."

"So you're doing this so you don't get punished." I drone sardonically. "I'm taking back what I said about sounding grown up."

He grumbles, but then dives back into his notes. But I'm not done with him just yet, gotta show him my gratitude somehow.

"So. About your date with Caeldori." I remind him, making him flinch at the recollection.

"Um…"

"She likes books and snacks. Take her to the bookstore in the market district that sells pastries." I advise, beginning to wrap my hand back up with a new roll of bandages. "Don't push too much on the first go. She likes you, or else she wouldn't have said yes. Just be yourself and don't screw this up."

"...Thanks." He tells me. "Should I take her to lunch too, or…"

"Are you kidding me? The girl's stomach is a black hole, of course you should." I tell him, rolling my eyes. "Like mother, like daughter I guess."

"You knew Caeldori's Mom?" He asks me, and I freeze up as I catch my gaffe. Damnation, I'm getting way too comfortable around these people. I can't get careless and give away who Caeldori is. If I could avoid people finding out who my mom is, then this should be a piece of cake.

"Before she died, yeah." I lie. "...She's my husband's cousin. We've looked after her since it happened."

"Wow. That's… I didn't know." He laments, giving the floor a pensive look. "...Lot of people my age lost their parents. Sometimes it feels like I'm the odd one out, seeing how both of mine are still around."

I scoff, finishing up the wrapping. "Having parents is always a good thing. Don't feel ashamed for being fortunate."

"I don't. But I still feel bad that they aren't."

"Congratulations, you're not a piece of wyvern dung." I say, standing back up and giving him a strong pat on the shoulder. "Now, I'm gonna go take a walk before you stab me with a dozen needles again. When are we doing this again?"

"Um…" He starts, before going back over to his table and flipping through yet ANOTHER set of papers. "...The weekend should work. It's the only open time I've got."

"You're busy?"

He nods his head. "Now that the fight's over, I'm back working here at the castle again. Which means I've got to catch up on all my patients. So that's about fifty appointments."

Ah, the life of a city doctor. I don't envy him in the slightest, that kind of work makes soldiering seem like a walk in the park. With all the talking, and the papers and the charts and the…

...Wait, that's what I've had to do for the past few months. I've gone from world trotting hero to paper pushing military officer.

Gods, I've gotten old.

A/N: OK, so still not as quick of an update as I would have liked. But we're here, and within a months time too! That's what we in the business like to call 'progress'.

Last update in this burst should be out by mid-April. But before that, time to bring back none other than the review responses!... Yeesh I haven't done these in ages.

Branded_King: Sev's never not going to be a narcissist. Her ego won't allow it. But she's toning it down, sorta... maybe.

WildfireDreams: Happy to update. Glad you're enjoying it.

Re-Furtive: I might take you up on that purchase offer. But seriously, thank you. This story is pretty out there, with all of the OCs and the fact that it's post-canon. Knowing that I'm doing the characters and the plot justice lets me know I should keep going.

Ani-Me Fanboy 123: We've got Caeldori with Fell blood, Soliel with Silent Manakete blood, and Ophelia with Divine blood. Yeah, things are gonna get wild.

SchattenSoldat08: Again, thank you. Sometimes I worry that I make Cordelia to be a bit too 'old, wise and all knowing'. But she's in her 30s, now. And she's seen a lot. So passing wisdom is sort of her thing with people, especially her granddaughter.

Until next time, everyone!

o/