After Edelgard gets the doors open and orders the remaining Imperial soldiers to surrender, I take stock of the situation and send thanks that none of the people from our Garreg Mach class died. Hilda, Lorenz, Ashe, Dedue, and Annette are all battered but alive. Seiros and Dorothea tend to the wounded soldiers while Dimitri watches over Edelgard as she's bound up and we prepare to take her to the dungeons in Garreg Mach. I'm still wondering if keeping her alive is going to be more trouble than it's worth, but if we can use her influence to cut off further resistance or rebellions we have to take that chance.

While everyone is checking on their own troops, Lysithea leads me to where Ignatz and Sylvain are in house arrest and frees them. Ignatz grins when he walks out of his room and sees me, and I see Sylvain's shoulders relax.

"I always believed in you, Claude," Ignatz says. "I'm sorry I couldn't be more help. I'll do what I can to help you build a brighter future for Fódlan."

"Well, technically, I'm not in charge of the Alliance anymore, so I'm not sure how much I can do."

Sylvain snorts. "Cut the act. We all know that when you talk, Seiros and Dimitri listen."

Eh, fair enough.

"And I should be the one apologizing to you, Ignatz," I say, "For leading you into danger on a hopeless mission."

"No need," he says. "We all knew that it was a desperate gambit to try and save the Alliance without putting more of our people into harm's way. We followed you because of our judgment, not yours."

I know he's right and that I should respect his right to choose his path, but something's still nagging at me.

"If Edelgard had been fighting either of you," I say, "I don't think you'd be here right now."

Lysithea frowns. "What makes you say that?"

"She killed Judith at Myrddin, Mercedes at Gronder, and Ferdinand today. All without asking for a surrender. And yet she's the one to live when others like Caspar die trying to keep her fractured Empire together."

"Eh, I don't think it's a huge deal," Sylvain says. "I mean, we all knew that getting unlucky in each fight results in death. Besides, every day I live violates a promise I made."

Wow. I, uh, am not going to ask about that last part right now.

"Did anyone else we know fall?" Ignatz says. "Byleth told me that Leonie died at Gronder. They were furious that she didn't surrender. And Sylvain caught me up about Felix, Petra, and Ingrid."

"Alois and Gilbert from the Knights of Seiros," I say, "And I guess Hubert if you count him. Besides that, just the people who I've mentioned."

"So much bloodshed," Ignatz shakes his head. "That makes half the Black Eagle house from our class dead to this war, doesn't it?"

Petra, Caspar, Hubert, Ferdinand. It's going to take some time for me to comprehend the scale of this loss.

"Tell it to me straight, Claude," Sylvain says. "Are we done fighting?"

"There's one more enemy we need to take out," I say. "Thales is still on the loose. After we kill him, we can work on rebuilding Fódlan."

"Well, here goes nothing," Sylvain says. "Back to war I go."

"If you don't want to-"

"It's fine, Claude. Killing is all I know at this point. Well, that and courting beautiful ladies. Might as well finish up the first so I can move onto the second, right?"

"I'm in as well," Ignatz says. "Thales was the one who sowed these divisions between us to begin with, right? We'll need to take him out if we want our peace to last."

I look back and forth between them. Minutes out of arrest and they're already lending their support.

"Thanks, guys," I say.

#

When I regroup with the others in the main part of the palace, Dimitri says that Hubert left a letter for me specifically in case he and Edelgard lost the day. I rub my temples and accept the scroll from the messenger. Why does everyone involve me in their crazy plans? I open it up and start reading.

Dear Claude,

If you are reading his letter, that means I have perished and Her Majesty has been defeated. It greatly pains me to think of this coming to pass... That said, as the survivors, I must ask you to settle certain affairs in our stead. You must destroy the threat that slithers in the dark. I am sure you must recall Monica and Tomas.

But of course, you are already planning to take on Those Who Slither in the Dark. And if I'm not mistaken, you also understand exactly why Thales is so tricky to pin down. He has the ability to escape to other realities, and I am convinced that you could do the same. Byleth as well, and from what I could glean from them the alternate world you can all visit is the same one. This makes you the only person who can follow Thales wherever he goes.

So the question is how to track him. The arrow included in this letter is attuned to the crest of Riegan. If you hit Thales with it, you'll be able to sense where he is. I don't know if it works between realities, but if you know which one he's on you can travel to the correct world and regain the sense. As for where to find him, you'll have to determine that on your own. I'm assuming you've pieced together that it's in southeast Alliance territory, but I wasn't able to glean any further information.

I believe that Her Majesty will be victorious... Even still, I must plan for her defeat as well. If you wish to lead this world, I challenge you to rise to the occasion and surpass my estimation of you. Such is your obligation as the victors... and the only fitting tribute to all that Lady Edelgard sacrificed.

-Hubert

After I finish reading, the messenger hands me an arrow. It has the carving of the crest of Riegan on the arrowhead, so I won't get it confused with the other ones. I shouldn't be surprised that Hubert figured out my worldhopping, especially with Byleth around to grill for information. Though I'm glad he did. I'm hoping that Thales doesn't keep hopping between worlds to escape, but I have to be prepared.

I share the gist of the message with my allies, minus the dimension travel. Since Thales can also teleport away, it's easy enough to leave that part out.

Time to get to work, then. Let's root out the shadow Fódlan's been casting for over a millennium.

#

When I return to Garreg Mach, I get a message saying that Linhardt wants to meet with me. I didn't even know he journeyed here from Derdriu, and the fact that he did means it must be serious. I search around the monastery for him and find him in the greenhouse, examining some exotic plant species from Morfis.

"Ah, Claude." His voice is uncharacteristically tense. "Thank you for agreeing to meet with me."

"Yeah, what's up? Have you heard the news?"

"It travelled quickly enough. Congratulations on your victory. Of course, it's a shame that Hubert and Ferdinand met their ends as a result of all this bloodshed. What's the point of killing each other? To put the person from your homeland on the throne instead of someone from the enemy homeland? It doesn't make sense."

"The people concerned about the lives of others generally aren't the ones to start wars," I say.

"Oh, right. You hate Edelgard. Well, that's not what I'm here to question you about today."

He pulls out a scroll of paper and hands it to me. I open it up and see a map of southeast Fódlan with contour lines like it's an elevation map. But I know there's no mountain where the circles grow smaller.

"This is confidence intervals for where you think the javelins of light were fired from?" I say.

"Exactly. Dealing with Thales always seemed like your thing, so I figured I'd hand this over to you. Normally I'd say make of it what you will, but we need to discover their stronghold quickly before they can cause any more destruction."

I offer a nod in reply. It's good to see him actually caring about something other than the pure tones of his research for once.

"And I have one more question for you," Linhardt says. "When you do find Shambhala, will you take me with you?"

Shambhala must be the name of Thales' base. But that's not the most surprising revelation in Linhardt's statement.

"I thought you couldn't stand battles," I say.

"That's correct. But I owe it to him."

It takes me a few seconds to figure out who he means. Caspar. His best friend who died in a nuclear explosion in a desperate attempt to get civilians to safety.

"Of course," I say. "Any help is welcome, and we have a sore need for healers."

Linhardt nods. "Just give me the word when you're moving out. I'll do what I can to make sure he can smile in the Eternal Flames."

#

When I bring the news to Dimitri, he sends out squads immediately to check. It takes him a few minutes to understand what Linhardt's different confidence intervals mean, but at the end of the day it's not super hard to grasp the concept of starting in the center point of where he thinks the Slithers are and circling out if they can't find the area. It's a fairly large region in Leicester where they could be, with the broader 90% confidence intervals extending to northern Empire territory. I'm not sure how he got all of his parameters to get the precise estimates he gave me, but I doubt he'd explain them if I wanted to know so I'll trust in his genius for now.

During this time, I check up on everyone in the monastery to gauge their feelings for going out to another battle. Ashe, Annette, and Dedue are dedicated to protecting Dimitri, so since he's planning on leading the charge to Shambhala it's a no brainer for them. Sylvain also decides to come along.

"Are you sure?" I ask him. "I don't blame you if what happened on the Tailtean Plains scarred you."

"Huh, you do care about me when I'm not trying to court all the beautiful ladies who deserve more love and attention," Sylvain says. "Yeah, fighting Lysithea was brutal. Are you sure she's on our side now?"

"She had the chance to wipe us all in Enbarr. The time for her to stand against us has passed."

"Glad to have her on our side, then. The bottom line is that while I do freeze up thinking about magic raining down on my soldiers, I need to stand with Dimitri. I couldn't forgive myself if my friends died and I weren't there to save them."

I nod. A part of me wants to sequester him away somewhere safe, but my own motivations are the same. One more fight and it's all over. The more I keep telling myself that, the less I believe it.

After Sylvain's on board, I talk to the other Alliance officers from back at school. Hilda says she wants to sit this fight out, which I'm happy to let her do. We should have the military advantage against Thales this time, and she's more than pulled her weight already. Lorenz wants to hang back in the Leicester territories and work on propping up a strong regional government. It's a perfectly logical goal and I'm happy to let him do it, but I do wish I could keep an eye on him. I expect him to do what he thinks is best for the people of Leicester, but I'm worried he'll try to quash their voices.

Ignatz, on the other hand, wants to stand with me and fight.

"If you do," I say. "You have to promise me that you're not going to pull any stunts like how you tried to explode that whole fort with yourself in it at Gronder."

"I'm… sorry about that," he says. "I thought it was the only way."

It would have worked, too, if Byleth didn't have Divine Pulse. We were all so desperate in that fight.

"I am grateful to Byleth for sparing me," he says. "Do you think we'll find them if we head to Shambhala?"

"I don't know for sure, but their story is intertwined with the Slithers. Let's keep our eyes open."

Is it cruel of me to hope that Byleth is dead? If they're alive, they could sow chaos in Fódlan and tear down everything we've built in order to prop up Edelgard. Or the Slithers have them under tight control, and I'll have to keep my promise to Byleth from six years ago to kill them if they turn into a monster.

After I'm done talking to Ignatz, Lysithea approaches me. Her gaze is directed towards the ground.

"Claude, I know I don't have any right to ask this of you, but will you allow me to join you when we attack Shambhala?"

"Of course, Lysithea. Your help will allow us to turn the tide. If I'm being frank, I was counting on your support in order to win the day."

She looks up at me. "But I… betrayed you. Caused so much unnecessary strife. Dorothea asked me to run away with her, you know. I should have agreed. Because I continued to fight with Edelgard, thousands died who might still be alive otherwise. I have no excuses."

"I can't blame you for picking a side and fighting for it," I say. "At the end of the day, you helped us win the war when it mattered. Besides, it's not like I've never clung to desperate plans beyond the point of reason before."

Gronder Field. Leonie. Why did I ever think that was a good idea? My only solace is that teaming up with the Kingdom forces might have prevented some casualties on their end.

"What does it take to make you hate me, Claude? So much vitriol for Edelgard and nothing but understanding for me. I can't wrap my head around it."

Lysithea lost all of her siblings, leaving her alone in the world with nobody who really understood the pain she suffered. And then she stumbled upon someone who did. Someone who welcomed her in with open arms as a sister. Someone who ended up dragging her into a war where her magical skills were exploited and pushed to the edge. I wonder what I would have done if Earth Dimitri had tried to pull me into a conflict of the same scale. The one person who I connected with, demanding that I fight for them until the day I drop.

Is it any wonder that Lysithea swallowed her reservations and followed the one person who was willing to call her a sister?

"Claude?" Lysithea says.

So lonely… and it's not like I'm a stranger to that feeling, either. I worked myself to exhaustion to forget how alone I was, and I wonder if Lysithea did the same. I look into her eyes and see the same pain I recognize from the mirror.

And before I know it, I'm moving in to hug Lysithea. She steps back and I hesitate.

"You shouldn't… have feelings for me, Claude. People close to me get hurt."

"I don't have romantic feelings for you." Or anyone. "I see a friend who looks like she needs comfort. And I want to be here for her."

Lysithea looks around, and after seeing nobody she lets out a sigh. She walks in and gingerly embraces me. It's an awkward hug from someone I can tell isn't used to giving them, and I do my best to make up for it by holding her steady. Not tight enough to squeeze, but enough to convey that I'm not holding back.

"We can be your family, Lysithea," I say. "That's something I had to learn. There are people who will care about you if you let them in."

"Does it matter? I only have a few years left in me."

"That makes it all the more important, no? Not much time left to find the people you want to spend your life with."

I feel her shiver in my arms, and I hold her tighter. So delicate for someone who I'm half convinced could vaporize me with a snap of her fingers.

"I… will try, then," she says. "Thank you, Claude."

"Of course. I'm here for whatever you need."

#

After Lysithea and I finish hugging it out, I finish talking to the rest of the officers we're planning on bringing to Shambhala. Seiros is dedicated to stopping Thales once and for all, which means that Catherine and Shamir are going with her. A pleasant surprise is that Seteth and Flayn are also planning to join us.

"These are the people who kidnapped me and attempted to extract my blood, yes?" Flayn says. "I would enjoy nothing more than to stop them before they can unleash more machinations on Fódlan."

"And since we only promised to stay out of the war against Edelgard," Seteth says, "We can provide assistance here against Those Who Slither in the Dark. You have no idea how long we've been searching for these people. To think of a world where Flayn may be safe to reveal who she is… I'm willing to do anything to make that a reality."

Right, Seteth and Flayn are Nabateans, which means that the Slithers are dedicated to hunting them down. And Flayn's blood… could be used to implant people with new crests. That's why they were so dedicated to trying to capture her. I wonder how much of this Edelgard knew when she was helping them do so under the guise of the Flame Emperor.

And speaking of Edelgard, after chatting with Seteth and Flayn I visit her classmates. Linhardt already told me he wants to come along, but Dorothea and Bernadetta say that they want to sit this one out. I don't push it, especially since Dorothea still looks like she's mourning the loss of Ferdinand. I wonder if she feels guilty that she was focused on others and didn't heal him in time when Edelgard brought him to his knees. Bernadetta mourns alongside her and still seems shaken from nearly getting Lysithea killed, so after offering my support I leave them to attend to their own matters.

Which leaves one last person to talk to. Honestly, I'm not sure what it will accomplish, but it's going to eat at me if I don't.

I go into the dungeons of Garreg Mach to go visit Edelgard.

I find her in one of the cells, guarded by several church soldiers. When I open the door to her cell block, she looks up at me and squints in the light of the lantern I hold.

"For a moment," Edelgard says, "I let myself hope that you were them. You walk the same way they do."

I've… never thought about the way I walk before. Edelgard offers me a weak smile and sits up crisscrossed like a child. She's wearing a cloak that looks old but clean, and I can see that she has a real mattress in the back. As far as medieval dungeons go, this could be a lot worse for her.

"And when I realized you weren't them, my gut reaction was to think you were…" she shakes her heard. "I haven't felt that terror in a long time."

"I didn't know you could be terrified of anything."

"Claude. I expected you to see through my façade." She hugs her arms. "I have bad experiences with dungeons. Visitors usually mean that one of the Slithers had another experiment ready. When they walked by our block, every time I prayed to the goddess that it wasn't me that they were going to take. And then when they yanked one of my siblings out, I felt guilty. When the goddess left me as the only one alive, I hated her for it. My siblings prayed too, you know. Did their wishes mean less than mine? Who gave the goddess the right to judge? That was when I stopped believing."

When did I reject my own religious teachings? It's hard to say, since my mom's an adamant atheist and my dad's devout. I was pulled between them for as long as I can remember, and I wasn't sure what to believe. In a way, I'm still not.

"Though I shouldn't be wasting your time with this," Edelgard says. "I'm sure you think I'm using this as an excuse to get placed in comfortable house arrest where I'm more likely to escape."

"I think you're being genuine," I say, "And I also think that you'll try to escape if we put you under house arrest."

"You're a smart ma-" she cuts herself off. "Smart person."

Right, Edelgard knows I'm nonbinary. Feels weird to be treated as the person I am while I'm here, but I'm not complaining.

"So what did you come here to discuss with me?" she says.

Good question.

"We're close to finding Thales," I say. "Linhardt is coming with us since he feels bad about not being there for Caspar. I… thought you should know."

Edelgard cocks her head at me. "You're not asking me to join, are you?"

"No, I'm not."

"I see. Well, thank you for the update."

Silence hangs between us.

"If I see Byleth, I'll bring them back to you," I say. "I won't let either of you run Fódlan to the ground, but I owe them that much."

"I'd say you owe them more, after all they've done for you," Edelgard says. "But now I'm a mere prisoner. I can already see my words bouncing off you."

I want to argue against Edelgard, but I can't deny that Byleth offered me more mercy than I showed towards Edelgard and some of the other Imperials. Byleth spared me twice and let me live out my life back in Earth, while also promising not to harm the people tied to Earth even though I had no leverage over them. And on the other side, I…

I tried to kill Bernadetta, at Gronder and at Fhirdiad. And then I did kill Hubert. I was desperate, and I don't regret aiming that shot at Hubert. But I can't claim to be better than Byleth.

"Do you resent them for allowing me to live?" I say.

"I can't." Edelgard's gaze wanders. "I would have killed you in their place, of course, as you would have killed me. But their kindness is the largest reason I fell in love with them. I can't hate that part of them when it's inconvenient for me."

Her voice is tender when she talks about Byleth. She looks up to meet my gaze, and it's hard for me not to see Lysithea in her expression. Someone left all alone by unspeakable atrocities, who finally found someone who was willing to reach for her hand.

"You actually feel for me," Edelgard says. "Now, when it doesn't matter, I've earned your sympathy."

She lets out a wry laugh.

"It's because you aren't trying to take everything away from me," I say, "That I can let myself see who you are. Your actions outweigh the face you put on, but right now you're not capable of anything. So I'm only able to see Edelgard the person."

"So all this time, you hated me because it was necessary." She looks away. "I wish we could have come to this understanding before, but that wasn't possible, was it?"

"It wasn't."

"If we start again from the beginning, this war plays out the exact same way."

"It does."

Edelgard shifts her body and leans back against the side wall, rolling her head on the stone to look over at me.

"So in the end, neither of us escaped being pawns of fate," she says. "Our choices mean nothing because there was no other choice for us. That's our curse, Claude. The burden of being a leader, to fill the role we've been given."

"We're not the victims here," I say. "All those people who were ripped away from their families and loved ones to die a hundred leagues away from home are the ones we should be thinking about."

"I can tell you that they're on my mind constantly," Edelgard says. "Will that change anything?"

"No. Action is what matters now."

"Right. Which is why I wanted you to kill me. Without my ability to change Fódlan, I am nothing. Besides, it's best not to relive certain parts of my life if I can help it."

Right, the dungeon. This must be traumatizing for her and I wish I could help, but even she admitted that allowing her more comfortable quarters that she can escape from more easily is a foolish idea.

"You still mean something to Byleth," I say. "I can tell."

"Is that so." She looks at the ground and smiles. "Maybe that's enough to keep me going. To have my actions mean something to the one person that matters most."

The one person that matters most… that's something I should keep in mind as well. No matter how alone I feel here in Fódlan, Dimitri is cheering for me from the sidelines back on Earth.

"You're a busy person, so I won't waste more of your time," she says. "Take care of this world, Claude von Riegan. And… it's not so bad, hearing from you like this."

"Same."

In a different world, we could have been friends. Dimitri, especially Earth Dimitri, is the better part of me, but Edelgard sees me for who I am. And earlier than I did, she recognized the threads that bound us together. If it weren't for Thales pressuring her from every turn, I bet she wouldn't have started this war. We could have worked together, Empire and Alliance side by side, to dismantle the nobility system through political maneuvering. With Hubert's assistance and both of us reaching out to Dimitri, we could have banded together to quell the noble uprisings that followed. We could have left the Church of Seiros toothless.

That reality is so close that I can picture it in my mind. The sun rising over a Fódlan that cares for its people rather than crest power, where commoners like Leonie can get educations and artists like Ignatz can flourish.

I turn around and walk away from Edelgard. When she can't see me, I close my eyes and let a tear run down my cheek. It's not a tear of sorrow, or of joy. It runs down my face and forms a droplet on the side of my chin. I let it fall off and land on the ground.

It's time to move forward.

Hey, everyone. Sorry about the lack of updates. Lab work's been hitting me hard the past couple of weeks. I do still have a backlog of chapters to update and I'll try to push several of them out today.

As you've noticed, this is a bit of a buildup chapter. We still have a ways to go, actually, because in my brilliance I decided to set up way too much stuff that I now need to resolve. Hope you enjoy it! :)