Chapter 4: Still Horizon
Garreg Mach Monastery, The Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, Fódlan
Imperial Year 1187
Dawn broke over the horizon. The sunrise painted the sky with orange and pink as the day's first light illuminated the sprawling fields below the monastery. A new day was upon them.
A new day, but Byleth and the Knights of Seiros had nothing to show for it. No disturbances during the night, no traces of where Ingrid's attacker had gone, no hints of dark magic working to revive the dead.
How annoying.
Byleth wanted to scowl. He tried, but the most he could do was slightly scrunch his eyebrows and narrow his eyes at the skyline. The muscles in his face refused to portray anything more.
It frustrated him to no end. His time as a professor had helped him start to truly feel—joy, sadness, anger, the whole gambit—but his body always seemed to resist emoting anything meaningful. Perhaps the price of wielding the power of a goddess was looking like an emotionless statue for eternity.
"Archbishop?"
Alois jogged over to him and bowed his head. Byleth's mouth twitched at the use of his new title—it still sounded so unnatural to him. "Yes, Captain?"
"The scouts have reported a group of—"
The Sword of the Creator was in his hand in an instant, pulsing with red energy. Alois jumped back at the sudden movement and held up his hands. "Easy, easy! There's no danger. It's Princess Petra and her guard, they've just arrived from Brigid."
Byleth placed the weapon back on his hip. "Good. Where are they now?"
"The western gate. Petra was looking for a place to land her wyvern when I came to get you."
"The courtyard, then." It was the only place near the western gate with enough room for a group of wyverns, after all.
Without another moment wasted he descended the stairs to the ground floor of the monastery, Alois following close behind. They passed by dozens of soldiers, scarfing down a well-deserved breakfast after a long night of scouring the mountains and fields. Byleth's stomach grumbled as the smell of freshly baked bread hit his nose, but he pushed forward. There were more important matters at hand.
"How are our supplies?" he asked.
"Well, our gold reserves are low, and we didn't have enough weapons to equip all the new recruits for the search last night."
It was that bad? Perhaps they would have to reallocate some of their reconstruction funds…
"Thankfully, a merchant in the market was willing to give us a nice discount on some new lances and swords." A grin grew on Alois's face. "It was a steel."
Byleth stared at him.
"You know, like the metal steel, and…" Alois trailed off, his playful expression beginning to droop. "Never mind—"
"That's funny."
Alois's eyes bulged, mouth gaping at him in disbelief. "Wait, really?"
"Yes," Byleth lied. He had never found Alois's jokes funny, but the man's earnest nature was sorely needed. No one could deny that his spirit helped improve the soldiers' morale, even if the jokes were…pretty terrible.
Alois let out a boisterous laugh. "If you liked that one, you're going to love this one…"
Byleth tuned the man out.
Two soldiers standing guard at the entrance hall saluted them as they passed by. He returned the gesture, though he couldn't help but feel a little disappointed in their formality. Byleth had grown so used to the old gatekeeper's upbeat and casual attitude that these greetings seemed rather dull in comparison. He often wondered where the man had gone—back home to his family, he hoped—but he never focused on it for too long. No use dwelling on what couldn't be changed.
As they stepped into the courtyard, Byleth wanted to grimace. Swathes of overgrown weeds littered the area, swallowing up the benches and flora that had once made the courtyard a beautiful place to relax. To get through the gateway, they had to wade through patches of grass that reached up to his knees.
He made a mental note to move "clean up the courtyard" higher up on the priority list.
Petra stood in the center of it all, petting her wyvern, unbothered by the mess. Her long hair had been styled into a thick braid that was reminiscent of how she had worn it as a student. Probably makes flying easier, he thought.
"Ah, Professor! Alois!" She gave her mount's head one last pat and smiled at them. "It is good to be seeing you again."
"Likewise."
The wyvern curled into itself, resting its head against the ground to sleep as its master left its side to join them.
"Please take my apologies for arriving early," Petra said, flipping her braid over her shoulder. "The winds were kind on this trip, so our traveling was faster."
Alois shook his head. "There's no need for that, your timing is perfect, actually. Yesterday, there was an attack in the Gaspard region—"
"Gaspard?" Petra's eyes filled with concern. "That is Ashe's homeland!"
"Ashe and the rest of Gaspard are fine now, you don't have to worry." Alois explained the events of the past few hours, from Kana's transformation to the invisible soldiers to Ingrid's injuries, with Petra nodding along, listening intently.
"So, everyone has found safety, but you are still searching for the soldiers who did the attacking?"
"That's right," Alois said, "but we were hoping you might have seen something during your travels here."
Petra scratched her head and gave an apologetic look. "No, I saw nothing like you described. Fódlan looked the same from the sky."
Disappointing, but not unexpected given the results of their own search. How were these things so evasive? His students had called them "invisible" but described them as being more translucent, like purple apparitions, and only for a few seconds at a time. They couldn't be hiding in plain sight.
Alois grinned and smacked his stomach. "You must be hungry after all that flying. Why don't we discuss this over breakfast?"
"I would be liking that." Petra smoothed out the end of her braid, glancing to the side. "Will…the others be joining too?"
The real question she was asking was clear as day. "We can get Ashe on the way to the dining hall."
A blush graced Petra's cheek. "Thank you, Professor. You are always knowing me well."
Byleth wasn't expecting to see Ashe sleeping on the ground when they reached the dormitory.
"Ashe!" Petra ran to his side and shook him. "Why are you taking your sleep here? Are you hurt?"
Ashe's eyes snapped open. He grabbed his bow and sprung to his feet, looking frantically from side to side. "What is it? Are they back? Are the kids—"
He cut himself off. Then, after processing Byleth and Petra's presence, his face turned bright red.
"P-Petra! Professor! I mean, um...good morning, to both of you…"
Petra laughed, eyes warm and bright. Ashe smiled back at her, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Why were you sleeping on the floor?" Byleth asked. There were plenty of free rooms available. Even if they had been locked, Ashe could have picked them open without much effort.
"I was just…I wanted someone to be here for Kana and Sophie during the night. Just in case."
Of course. Byleth should have suspected that—putting others first was in his nature.
"The professor has been telling me about your home and your friends," Petra said, voice soft. "I am sorry for you. I wish I could have given you help."
"You don't have to apologize for anything, you being here now is more than enough." Most of the color on Ashe's face had returned to normal, besides a slight tinge of pink set under his freckles. "A-anyway, is there something you need? Have the Knights found anything?"
"Not yet," Byleth said. Ashe deflated, slumping against the wall.
"We will be eating breakfast soon, and will be having a discussion for strategy." Petra grasped Ashe's hands. "It is important that you are there with us."
He took a step closer to her. "Thanks, Petra, I—"
Something in the air shifted. The light around Byleth shimmered and pulsed, striking him with severe vertigo. He planted his feet, trying to keep himself from swaying, but the ground seemed to spin beneath him. His vision turned a hazy purple, a loud ringing blasted his ears, pain seared through his skull—
Then, as quickly as it started, it stopped.
He stumbled forward, pressing a hand to his throbbing forehead. After a few blinks, his vision returned to normal. What was that? Between the distortion of space and the splitting headache, it had almost felt like…
The power of a Divine Pulse.
But that couldn't be possible. He hadn't used Sothis's gift; even if he had, the pulses were never that intense.
"Professor?" Ashe and Petra were staring at him, standing in the same spot as before—time hadn't rewound itself. "Are you okay?"
"I—"
A crashing noise and a pained cry came from inside the bedroom. Ashe was the first to react, shoving the door open and running inside.
Kana was sprawled out on the ground, rubbing his head, with Sophie kneeling next to him.
"What happened?" Ashe asked.
"I-I don't know," Kana said, slowly rising with Sophie's support. The boy began itching at his arm. "I just got dizzy for a second, then hit my head when I lost my balance."
A seed of concern took root within Byleth. "You felt that too?"
"Felt what?" Sophie glanced between him and her brother. "Were we supposed to feel something?"
"Everything became wobbly and purple for a second." Kana shuffled his feet. "I thought it was just me being weird again. It happened yesterday, too."
"When, exactly?"
"When we were waiting for the knights to arrive." Kana wiped a few beads of sweat from his forehead. "Before…the bad people appeared…"
The seed blossomed into tendrils of dread, wrapping around his chest like a vise. Before the bad people appeared.
Ashe seemed to have come to the same conclusion. He turned to Byleth with wide, panicked eyes. "Professor, do you think—"
Byleth dashed out of the room before he could finish. He was down the stairs and out of the dormitory in seconds, running for the nearest watchtower when he saw it.
Large cracks marring the morning sky.
Several soldiers and monastery staff were frozen in place around him, gaping at the fracturing heavens. He pushed past them, sprinting to the tower and up its steep staircase. A strong breeze ruffled Byleth's hair as he reached the top. He darted to the edge, leaning over the parapet to search the horizon.
The dread he felt before now gripped his entire body.
Thousands of flickering soldiers occupied the fields surrounding the monastery, standing before a swirling mist of pink and purple lights. Familiar armor palettes glimmered under the morning sun: the red and black of the Adrestian Empire, the blue and silver of Faerghus, the gold and brown of the Alliance. A stream of additional soldiers poured out from the mist, ranging from infantrymen to cavaliers to…
Byleth gripped the stone railing until his knuckles turned white. At least two dozen Demonic Beasts were scattered among their ranks, glowing and flickering with the same purple energy as the "human" soldiers.
And they were all marching towards the monastery.
Byleth forced his legs to move. He flew back down the steps, nearly barreling into Alois at the bottom of the staircase.
"Archbishop, what's—"
"Invasion," he said quickly. It was the most panicked he had ever heard his own voice. "The invisible soldiers are here, along with several Demonic Beasts. Too many to count."
"What? How? Someone should have seen an army of that size approaching—"
"I don't know." Byleth mentally counted the number of troops and battalions they had available to deploy. He cursed—not enough to match their enemy's numbers. "We need to confront them before they reach our walls."
"Do we have a plan?"
"Gather everyone who can fight. Our infantry will form a defensive line to intercept the soldiers, the cavalry will wait in the wings to close in on them with a pincer attack." Byleth gripped his sword's hilt. "I'll go in first. I should be able to clear out a significant number of them before they get to any of our troops."
The captain's eyebrows shot up. "You're going to fight them alone?"
"I can't use the full strength of the Sword of the Creator if there are allies nearby."
Alois sputtered. "But you'll be vulnerable out there. I promised Captain Jeralt—"
"Our job is to defend the monastery. This is how we do it."
He opened his mouth to argue, then snapped it shut.
"We need to line the gates with archers and mages to stop any soldiers or beasts that manage to break through the defense. We'll keep some battalions behind the walls in case we need reinforcements, or if the enemy manages to get inside."
"As you command, Archbishop," Alois said with a salute, though the concern in his face hadn't disappeared. "Anything else?"
Byleth looked up. The cracks now spanned across the entire sky and consumed the dawn, as if reality itself was breaking. He could only hope that routing these invaders would restore it.
"Call on our friends in Abyss. Hapi's ability to summon beasts might give us a slight edge."
Alois ran off to carry out the orders. Byleth rounded up as many soldiers he could, relaying the strategy and getting them into formation. They lined up, armor rattling as they staggered into position.
"Where do you want us, Professor?" Sylvain's voice called from behind him.
Byleth turned to see his students gathered together, weapons ready and faces set with determination.
"Join the other soldiers on the defensive line. I'll engage them on my own first, you focus on keeping the ones that get past me away from the monastery."
Felix scowled. "That's a waste of our skills. We should be fighting alongside you."
"No. Protecting the monastery is our priority. I need my most capable fighters at the ready to defend it." He also wanted to keep them as far away as possible from the enemy—at least until he could gauge how much of a threat they were—but he kept that part to himself.
The swordsman grunted but didn't push the subject.
"Ashe, take Kana and Sophie to the cathedral. Keep them away from the fighting, and if any of the invaders are able to breach the walls"—Byleth locked eyes with him—"take them and run. You can use the gate just below the cathedral to escape."
"But—"
"Bring Lysithea and a battalion with you as backup. If all goes well in the field, none of you will see any fighting."
Ashe pressed his lips together and glanced down. Byleth didn't understand his hesitation. The kids needed someone competent and familiar by their side, along with someone powerful who could make quick work of any enemy that tried to approach them. Ashe and Lysithea were the obvious choices.
"You can count on us," Lysithea said, placing a hand on Ashe's shoulder. "Let's go."
Ashe clenched his fists. He raised his head to meet Byleth's gaze once more, eyes burning with a firm resolve.
"We won't let you down, Professor."
Byleth nodded and looked between all his former students. Pride swelled in his chest; they had grown up to be so strong and brave. The bright future of Fódlan itself.
They turned together to face the broken sky.
"Everyone, to your positions. Let's show them what the Blue Lions are capable of."
Character Bios:
Alois: Warrior
-Captain of the Knights of Seiros and former instructor of the Officer's Academy. An energetic man who loves to tell jokes and to dote on his wife and daughter. He squired for Jeralt, the previous captain, at a young age before eventually becoming a formidable warrior and charismatic leader in his own right.
-Relations: Father and husband to a beautiful family. Former squire of Jeralt (deceased).
Petra: Wyvern Lord
-Princess of Brigid. Former student of the Officer's Academy and Black Eagles House. An intelligent and determined woman who fought alongside King Dimitri during Edelgard's conquest of Fódlan to reclaim her country's freedom from the empire. Her grasp on Fódlan's language isn't perfect, but her speech patterns are a part of her charm.
-Relations: Granddaughter of the King of Brigid.
Next chapter: The Blue Lions and the Knights of Seiros defend Garreg Mach.