The inside of the tower was pitch black, but Byleth did not hesitate to enter. Her students followed, suddenly the door swung closed, plunging them into darkness. It was as if the tower knew that no one was immediately before it. Others might come in time, but for now, all who were immediately outside were now inside.
Fear crawled up Byleth's spine. Not for her own sake but for her students. How could she bring them into the unknown? It was so dark! She didn't even have a torch with her!
Deduce struck a match, but before he could light the torch he brought, the tower reacted to the light, and suddenly, they stood in a field of flowers in the middle of the day!
"This is Fearghus," Dimitri exclaimed, "I remember this field. It lies between Fhirdiad and Dukedom of Fraldarius. We had a picnic here once… Gustava!"
Byleth followed Dimitri's gaze to see Gilbert with white hair, far more lines on his face wearing the armour of the Kingdom trudging in their direct, "I am getting too old for this," he said with a sigh.
His words did not seem to be directed towards them. Indeed, he didn't seem to see them and walked past them as if they weren't even there.
"Well, well, so it's your prince who stole our princess?" came a voice from somewhere above them.
Byleth looked up and spotted Wyvern Lord flying above them. The man looked Almyran, "Nader!" exclaimed Claude, stunned.
"The undefeated general of Almyra?" asked Lorenz, "What is he doing here? Where is here? That's Gilbert, right? He's a knight of Seiros, isn't he? Why is he wearing Kingdom armour? Wait, do they know each other?"
They did indeed seem to know each other because Nader landed next to Gilbert, "So, where is your highness?" he asked while dismounting.
"I have not the faintest clue," Gilbert told him, "Yesterday morning, I walked into the prince's room to rouse him for his morning lesson. I found no prince and only a note declaring his intention to go an adventure with that lion of his," he explained exasperated, "By the way, have I told you how much I wish lice in your beard for that lion?"
Nader laughed, "Do not blame me! I simply rescued a cub whose pride was decimated by poachers. It's not my fault my little princess decided a lion cub was the perfect birthday present for your prince of lions."
Gilbert sighed, "He does love that beast," he sighed again, "What are you doing here?"
"I am tracking a stolen wyvern and an equally stolen princess!"
"The princess stole a wyvern?"
"Your tricks won't work on me, Knight of Fodlan! I know it was your rotten Prince who stole my beautiful princess and my best wyvern!" the man Claude called Nader declared. It would sound threatening if his eyes were filled with laughter.
"What? Unless his highness developed the ability to warp from Fhirdiad to Almyra, he has nothing to do with this."
"We were in Deidre," replied Nader, "So he wouldn't have to warp all the way to Almyra."
"His highness cannot warp! Also, we are not missing any mounts," Gilbert explained, "If anything, your princess probably flew the stolen Wyvern to Fhirdiad to take my prince! That's probably why he's been so hard to track."
"How did you get this far?" Nedar asked, "I have been following the sighting of a Wyvern. It's white, so it's pretty unique. People noticed."
"My granddaughter," Gilbert explained, "She's been weeping non-stop since the prince went missing. He apparently refused to take her with him. Eventually, she calmed down enough to explain that his highness wants to explore a cave not too far from here.
"Why?"
"I do not know. Neither did my granddaughter. But it must be dangerous if his highness opted to leave her behind," Gilbert commented.
"Well, he better not get our princess hurt or worse!" this time, Nedar's anger was genuine.
"I…" there was a loud growl, "What was…" suddenly, a large lion came running into the field. It seemed crazed and dazed, running about as if in pain.
Nedar did not waste any time mounting his wyvern and taking to the air, leaving Gilbert on the ground. The old knight braced, but the lion was ignoring him, running around aimlessly.
"Loog!" came the voice of a young boy, but before the boy could come into view, the scene was over, and they were back in the dark.
"What the fuck was…" Felix spun on his heel and blocked something with his sword.
Deduce lit the torch, as did Ingrid. The two torches provided just enough light to reveal the identity of what, or rather who, Felix had blocked.
It was a little girl with long brown hair. She was holding her palm, which was bleeding from a cut. No doubt, she had touched the edge of Felix's sword.
"I should have guessed you would react that fast," the girl said as she looked up, glaring at Felix with her bright violet eyes.
"El?" came Dimitri's showed, confused voice.
Edelgard whipped towards Dimitri. Byleth was too far away to see Edelgard's expression. But shock must be part of her feeling because the girl before them did look like a dead-ringer for Edelgard if Edelgard was ten and had brown hair.
The girl scowled more, "Now that just puts me in a bad mode," she must have cast some sort of healing spell on herself because the cut on her palm closed up, "No matter. I'll demonstrate to his majesty that I am no Imperial trash!"
There was a bright blinding light and a loud disorienting bang. Byleth was blind, and her ears were ringing. She recovered just in time to see the girl hand inches away from Edelgard's face. She was unarmed, unarmoured and completely unencumbered. Edelgard was in her heavy armour and thought she was reacting. She was not as fast as Felix and could not stop the girl from touching her face.
Nothing happened, but before their eyes was a bizarre scene of a younger-looking Edelgard touching the teenage Edelgard with white hair. Then, the teenage Edelgard's screamed in pain and staggered back as the young girl pushed against Edelgard's body to move away from her.
Edelgard staggered back and fell on her knees, vomiting blood. "So, it was true. You had a double crest. But unfortunately for you, that just means you are doubly susceptible to me!" the girl taunted.
"Who are you?" Claude demanded.
"What did you do?" Dimitri demanded, pointing his lance towards the girl.
The girl ignored Claude. But she regarded Dimitri with confusion and curiosity. Then she walked towards him, "Your highness," called Dedue and Ingrid, who moved in front of Dimitri. But the girl ignored them too and came to a stop, about a lance length from Dimitri.
"If you want my life, your majesty, it's yours!" she said, throwing back her arms and presenting her unprotected torso.
Dimitri stared at her, dumbfounded. Suddenly, she grinned, "Just kidding," there was another flash and another disorienting bang.
Byleth recovered in time to hear Ingrid scream and watch her crumble to the ground as the girl touched her ungloved hands.
"Everybody fallback!" she ordered, "She's using out crests against her."
"Then, that command does not apply to me," commented Dedue before he lunged towards the girl. She dodged him using her impressive speed. But Claude started to shoot towards her. He did not seem to want to hit her but just distract and overwhelm her enough so that Dedue was able to grab the girl and move to hurl her hard against the floor.
"Iris-chan! Abi, no!" suddenly, a fluffy green dragon with a goat-like horn smashed into Dedue's side!
The dragon was the size of a large mountain dog. It had enough force to make Dedue stagger sideways, losing his footing and being forced to let go of the girl. The dragon stood protectively between Dedue and the girl and declared in an indignant voice, "That was no very nice, Abi!"
"Umm, my Duscar is not what it should be," Claude chimed in, "But doesn't Abi mean father in Duscar?"