Saw the reveal trailer for Kazuya. I don't play Tekken but he looks sick.
Rhea hadn't been having trouble sleeping lately, really. Most nights, she slept perfectly well. Except this one, because she had woken up in the middle of the night with a splitting headache.
By now the guards allowed her a bit more freedom of movement. After all, where would she go? So when she requested to go to the kitchen for some tea, the man guarding her door—Dorian, he was the one on shift—had simply escorted her there.
Turns out Dimitri was already there. And for some reason he had boiled water and was drinking it like tea.
"You couldn't sleep either?" he asked.
"This is just hot water. Why are you drinking it like this?" Dorian asked.
Dimitri shrugged. "I can't taste anything. Why bother making a proper hot drink when I can't tell the difference?"
Dorian sighed and made a proper cup of tea for Rhea. He then asked Dimitri, "Do you mind looking after her for a bit? I ate something that disagreed with me earlier."
"It's not a problem," Dimitri said, and the guard left.
Rhea sipped her tea. "Nightmares?"
Dimitri nodded. "Yes."
"I have been there," Rhea said. "It is worse in the night."
Dimitri said nothing, instead just taking a sip of his hot water.
"I never really did, you know." Upon seeing his questioning look, she elaborated. "Heal, I mean. Thales was responsible for killing my family, but he was not the most responsible. I did avenge them, but even then I did not know how to move on." She looked at her cup despondently. "I never really stopped being the scared girl surrounded by the bodies of my kin."
"If you want, we could talk about it," Dimitri offered, feeling sympathetic.
And so he listened as Rhea told her story. He listened as she told him about her true identity, and about the horrific Agarthan War. He listened as she told him about how Nemesis and his "Elites" slaughtered her people. How she had been forced to lie, and claim the murderers had once been heroes, simply to protect what little was left of her family. How Wilhelm von Hresvelg, who had stood by her even in her darkest moments, had been murdered by an Agarthan assassin. How Professor Byleth, the father of her unborn child, the man who would have been her husband, had been sent over a cliff by Thales as he tried to protect her.
Dimitri wasn't the best at emotional support. But he knew he had to say something. "I am sorry. I cannot imagine something like a war capable of destroying the entire world, or having to venerate my people's killers as heroes...but I understand losing a parent all too well."
"For a thousand years I did not allow myself to move on," Rhea said. "I thought if I did, if I ever let the pain fade, then I would truly lose her." That statement was truer than Dimitri knew. "I was a fool."
"Do you ever think, 'out of everyone who could have survived, why me?'" Dimitri asked hesitantly.
"All too often," Rhea told him. "I cannot count the number of times I thought things might be better if Mother had survived instead of me." She idly stroked her baby bump. "It was only recently that I decided it does not matter why I survived. I am alive now. I should not waste it."
Dimitri remained silent for some time. "I still see them, you know. The dead. My father, Glenn, the Duscuri children I couldn't save. They..."
"Do they say things your father and Glenn never would have said? That you shouldn't have survived?"
"Yes."
"Those are not truly the spirits of the dead, Dimitri."
Dimitri fell silent again. Then he thought of something. "That guard. Where is he?"
A jolt of panic went through both of them, and they rushed to the bathroom. When they opened the door, they saw Dorian fast asleep. Both of them sighed in relief.
"I suppose I will cover the rest of his shift," Dimitri said. He then escorted Rhea back to her room.
Short one this time. Next chapter (which was originally planned to be this chapter before I realized I wanted this interaction to take place first) will have Edelgard, Rhea, Dimitri, Hubert, and Dedue discuss plans, both for the war, and for post-war reforms. Keep in mind that their plans will not be final, but are just to give them all an idea of where they stand. With that said, what should they discuss?