Brigid is a country. It is not part of Adestria. Just because your country is big and powerful does not mean you can claim any nearby island nation that you want as your own.

Edelgard returned to Enbarr feeling as if a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

She and Rhea had agreed that the two of them weren't in the best frame of mind for discussing plans in detail. Privately, Edelgard wasn't entirely sure what her plans going forward would be.

Obviously, she needed closer allies. Ladislava was loyal, and House von Bergliez, barring Caspar, were her strongest supporters. Bringing them into her inner circle would be possible. Maybe she could even get them to speak to Caspar and the Eagles at some point. But they wouldn't be enough. Solely Imperial support would do little to foster peace in Fódlan.

She hoped to get Dimitri on her side. Hopefully he wasn't too far gone. But if she wanted to do so, she needed to give him Arundel, and she still couldn't do so unless she found Shambhala. His second-in-command, Myson, would simply take over Those Who Slither In The Dark, and cut her out of their plans. The Agarthans would slip away and continue their schemes elsewhere. That would not do.

"You look happy."

Speak of the devil. Or a demon, at least. "Corvis."

"Yes, your eyes tell the story," Corvis said. "They say the eyes are the window to the soul. You know it must be true, because Thales's eyes show he doesn't have one." Despite herself, Edelgard chuckled at that.

"In every person's life, they must make a choice that defines them for the rest of their lives," Corvis went on. "To choose who they are. I could have chosen to be a pawn in a king's game. But I did not. I chose to be my own king, and accepted everything that went with it. You, your two identities, the two people you had chosen to be, were totally irreconcilable, and you reached a point where you had to decide between them once and for all. So, the only question left to ask is, am I speaking to Edelgard von Hresvelg, or the Flame Emperor?"

Edelgard held herself high. "I am Edelgard von Hresvelg."

Corvis gave a surprisingly genuine-seeming smile and nod. "Very good." He then turned to leave. "I won't tell you the location of Shambhala yet. I have arrangements to make, and I think you do as well. But when you see me again, it will be time. Tell Hubert I enjoyed playing chess with him." With that, he vanished.

Edelgard frowned. "What's his angle?" Ultimately, it mattered more that he continued to back her over Thales, but she still would like to figure him out.

Meeting with Lord Arundel was the worst part. But Edelgard knew it was necessary. Fortunately, the meeting was going to end soon, even if Arundel didn't realize it.

"And, regarding the Kingdom, my agent has done an admirable job of destabilizing the border region, despite Lord Fraldarius's efforts to hold it together. I believe the lords on the Adestria-Faerghus border should be easy enough for you to sway to your cause."

"Good," Edelgard said noncommittally. "This agent of yours. Would they happen to be the same one you used to arrange the Tragedy of Duscur?"

"Why do you want to know?" Arundel asked. "If this is a way of trying to probe my influence in Faerghus, it is not subtle in the slightest."

"Actually, I just wanted you not to deny it," Edelgard told him, at which point Dimitri and Dedue entered the Throne Room from the hidden room behind the throne.

"Arundel. All this time, I had the wrong Hresvelg! You were the one who murdered my father!" Dimitri shouted, leveling Areadbhar toward the Imperial Chancellor. "I will enjoy the sound of your screams!"

"You want to avenge your father? How about I send you to meet him instead?" Arundel drew his own sword and parried Dimitri's first blow.

Arundel parried another blow from Dimitri, then dodged Dedue's followup. He kept fighting for a brief time, but while he himself was able to keep up, his sword was not, and it snapped in half after a particularly powerful strike from Dimitri.

"Any last words?" Dimitri asked.

"Foolish boy. You think this is over?" Arundel asked, before dropping his disguise and taking his true form as Thales. "It does not matter if you see me in my true form, because you will not leave this room alive."

"Talk is cheap," Dedue told Thales, swinging his axe at the Agarthan leader's head. Thales dodged the swing, then used a spell to inflict agonizing pain on the Duscur boy. While Dedue was in too much pain to react, Thales threw him out the window.

"Dedue!" Dimitri shouted. He viciously attacked Thales, who simply shielded his attacks and used the same pain-inducing spell on Dimitri. After several applications, Thales saw an opening and slid the half-sword between his ribs. Dimitri then fell to the ground, seemingly dead.

Thales looked at Edelgard. "Insistent on having me clean up your messes?"

"I could have dealt with them," Edelgard replied nonchalantly. "But why bother when I can have you do it?"

Thales didn't bother responding, instead returning to his disguised form and reaching down to pick up Areadbhar. However, when he touched the lance, it burned his hand. "What?" He attempted wrapping a cloth around his hand, but the result was the same.

"Interesting," Edelgard mused. She picked up the lance. It didn't seem to affect her. "I think it might be better if I held on to this."

"You keep it then," Arundel spat. "It is of no consequence to me if it transforms you into a monstrous beast, Hegemon. You will serve your purpose either way."

After he left, Dedue poked his head over the window ledge. A close examination would show that his fingers were gripping it. "Did it work?"

Dimitri opened his eyes. "It did. It hurts, but I'll live."

"You'd better. Applying a shielding spell to your vital organs and major arteries while excluding the muscle and soft tissue was no easy task," Hubert said as he removed the sword and used a weak healing spell on Dimitri (albeit slightly stronger than it would have been a short time ago). "I would hate for my effort to be wasted."

"Just sear the wound shut," Dimitri demanded.

"I am trying to repair as much of the internal damage as possible," Hubert tersely replied. When he was satisfied that his heal spell had repaired the worst of the damage, he granted Dimitri's wish. Dimitri grimaced, but did not scream.

"So that was Thales. If I had not seen it, I would not have believed it," Dedue said.

"So what now?" Dimitri asked.

"You need to disappear again for now," Edelgard told him. "If you return to Faerghus before we are ready, you will certainly be assassinated. When the time is right, you will reappear to rally Faerghus to our aid. And then we shall march on the Agarthan's hidden base and crush Thales like the worm he is."

"I promised to tell you who was responsible for Duscur. The ones responsible are an ancient conspiracy bent on overthrowing the Church and taking over the continent, which Solon and Kronya were part of. Lord Arundel is actually their leader, Thales."

"Arundel," Dimitri smirked. "So he's the one I have to kill."

"Not yet," Edelgard insisted. "If we kill him now, his second-in-command will simply take over, and keep the conspiracy going. Trust me, I want nothing more than to kill the man who murdered my siblings and my real uncle. But not yet."

"How can I just wait when my vengeance is so close?" Dimitri demanded.

"The same way that I have," Edelgard told him. "Thales took everything from us. Killing him would be letting him off easy. He deserves to have everything he ever cared about, everything he worked for, taken from him. And to know that we were the ones who did it. Then, and only then, will we let him die."

Dimitri seemed to struggle with the idea. But slowly, he began to smile sadistically. "I can work with that."

Nabateans' ages in Nabatean years:

Macuil: 30

Rhea: 27

Seteth: 26

Indech: 23

Flayn: 17