Expanded summary:Stuck on an endless train, separated from everyone and everything they know, the royal heirs of Fodlan and their professor are forced to confront their deepest fears and insecurities.
Claude must face has his trust issues, Edelgard her past, Dimitri his demons, and Byleth...everything
There will be some shipping in this. Mainly Claude/Byleth and Edelgard/Dimitri. But it's extremely minor and towards the end.
Very nervous about this. I literally just finished my FE3H playthough and then Infinity Train book 4 was announced at the same time!
This is the first time I am writing these characters. I have finished the Azure moon route, and only started Verdant Wind. i am writing Edelgard and Claude based off watching cutscenes. I have taken copious notes for their characters.
Golden Ending: The most beneficial and satisfying (and hardest to achieve) ending in a game.
Someone gently nudged her shoulder.
Byleth stirred, but didn't open her eyes.
"Hey Teach. Wake up." A friendly voice said.
"Are you going to wake up?" Another, far more indignant, voice said.
Byleth frowned.
Both of them were familiar to her.
Someone sighed, then two strong hands gripped her shoulders and started to shake her.
Byleth reacted.
She shot up, shoving the person away, and reached for her sword.
It was gone.
"Woah, Teach." The friendly voice said. "It's just me."
She looked to her right.
Claude smiled back at her, rubbing his shoulder.
Byleth relaxed.
"Sorry for hitting you."
"It's all right. We've sorta got bigger problems to deal with anyways. Just look around."
Byleth followed his gaze, feeling her heart leap slightly when she saw where they were.
A forest. But not just any forest.
It was made of textiles: the grass beneath her feet was soft silk; the trees were made of knitted, dark brown, wool, with fine paper for leaves; the sky was long strips of light blue cloth; and the sun was a large ball of red, orange, and yellow yarn, surrounded by cotton clouds.
Claude waited patiently for her to digest everything, before speaking.
"Now look at your hand- your right one."
Byleth did so.
It was glowing green. Or rather, there was a glowing green number on it:
[1]
"I have one too." Claude showed her his right hand.
[155]
"I guess I'm more special than you Teach." He joked.
Byleth dipped her head.
"Heh. Well, why don't we look around? I'm sure we can find some answers- "
He was cut off by a large flare of green light.
The air before them opened up and a grey ball appeared, hovering complacently.
Byleth tried to touch it, but her hand went right through it. She recoiled. It was an illusion.
The ball cleared its throat, or rather, made a throat clearing sound.
"Hello!" It said brightly, waving a stubby little hand at them.
"Welcome aboard, new passengers! - I'm your conductor, One-"
"One." A different voice said. It was far deeper and more morose than the first one.
"You both probably have a lot of questions. Like- "Lighter voice returned.
"Why am I here? And-" Deeper butted in.
"Where am I?"
Byleth blinked. The ball had two personalities.
"Well, this is a pre-recorded message. So, there's no need to waste your breath."
It looked forlornly at the ground.
"I don't even have breath to waste. Because I'm a robot." Deeper voice said.
"*ahem*" Brighter voice paused.
"This is a train where you sort out your problems. Now, I know someone of you don't even know what a train is. But don't worry! You'll get over the shock pretty quickly!"
"I bet they're also confused about the glowing green number on their hand. They must be shaking with fear."
Byleth exchanged a look with Claude. They weren't afraid. Just bewildered.
"The numbers are made by the train. They're a reflection of how bad your problems are. Everyone has one."
It chuckled. Lighter voice was back.
"If you want to leave, all you have to do is get it to zero. To do that, all you have to do is sort out your problems! The best thing is, this train is inhabited by helpful, lovely, Denizens!"
The ball vanished and a dog wearing a crown appeared. It wagged its tail.
Several other creatures appeared in rapid succession.
A large smiling blob. Some chirruping paper birds. A green woman with a rose for a head.
The ball reappeared.
"They want to help you!" Lighter voice said.
"They'll help you get your number down-"
"So don't frown-"
"What if they want to frown-"
"All right. Even if you love frowning, don't be afraid to reach out and ask for help!"
Byleth saw Claude stiffen slightly. He obviously didn't trust the talking ball.
"Is there anything else we need to say?" Deeper voice demurred.
"I don't think so. Oh- some of the Denizens are dangerous."
"They don't really know better."
"So, please, pretty please, don't attack them. Just run away-"
"-as fast as you can- "
"- and they'll leave you alone."
"Well, most of them will." Deeper voice finished. "And don't leave the train. There are monsters out there. They're really scary. They're way worse than the Denizens."
"Soooo, I hope you enjoy your journey!" Lighter voice cheered. "Oh, and if you brought weapons on to the train…no worries! You'll get them back at the end!"
"By watching this recording, you've agreed to release the train of any liabilities" Both voices said.
The green light vanished.
Miles away, Edelgard and Dimitri had just finished watching the same recording.
In fact, it had woken them up.
Dimitri was still tired, trying to supress a yawn, while Edelgard was more alert, glaring softly at the spot where the ball had appeared.
They were on a rocky beach. An endless grey sea before them. Gulls were crying overhead.
Edelgard sighed and look at her right hand:
[559]
She felt it was taunting her.
"Show me your right hand." She asked Dimitri.
"Huh?" He muttered, but didn't fight her as she took his marked hand and studied his number.
[357]
She harrumphed.
"Is there any sense to this? To any of this?"
She released his hand.
Dimitri rubbed it and then leaned back.
"I'm as stumped as you are. The last thing I remember was…" He scrunched up his face. "Claude and his professor had just rescued Flayn and that other girl- "
"-Monica- "Edelgard supplied.
"Yes." Dimtiri bit his lip, embarrassed at having forgotten her name. "It was a few days later. For some reason, the four of us- we went into the forest next to the monastery."
"It was Saturday. Claude's professor had wandered off. He was worried about her. He asked us to help find her." Edelgard said slowly.
"He didn't want to make a fuss of it. That's why he didn't tell Seteth or Jeralt or anyone else."
"So, he bothered us instead. He said it wouldn't take long. Well, somehow we've been kidnapped…only to end up on a train. Whatever that is."
"Wait- does that mean that Claude and his Professor are somewhere around here as well?" Dimitri said.
"It wouldn't surprise me." Edelgard furrowed her brow. "I'd understand someone wanting to kidnap the three of us, we're royalty. But why kidnap a mercenary sans professor? It doesn't make any sense."
"Maybe they didn't mean to take her? If she was with us, they probably just took her because it was convenient."
"Probably."
Dimitri looked down, thinking deeply, then smiled and stood up.
"Whatever that strange message was all about, we're not going to get anything done if we just sit around. We should survey our surroundings."
Sensing that he was about to offer her his hand, Edelgard hurriedly got up and nodded.
"What if we run into any of those denizens? We don't have any weapons."
"Good point…let's just take things as they come. We won't let our guard down. But if they don't attack us, we won't attack them."
Edelgard sighed, worrying about what was happening back at Garreg Mach.
"All right. Lead the way."
They started walking along the beach.
After a few minutes, they came to a stone jetty, jutting out right into the sea.
A hulking stone man was sitting at the end of it, fishing and humming a tune.
Edelgard resisted the urge to cover her ears. It sounded like two rocks being grinded together.
"Pardon me?" Dimitri called out.
The stone man didn't turn around. He was too absorbed with his fishing. There was a basket next to him. It was full of little silver fish.
Suddenly, he laughed wildly and started reeling in his rod.
A fish appeared at the end of his line.
He took a closer look at it, then grumbled something about it being too small and threw back into the ocean.
Edelgard bristled with annoyance.
"Hey!" She yelled angrily.
The stone man flinched and turned around.
He had a large gravelly beard and bright, beady black, eyes.
"My oh my! New passengers. I can't remember the last time I saw a passenger."
"So, it wasn't lying?" Dimitri muttered.
Edelgard glared softly at him.
"The conductor isn't an "it"- he's a he." The stone man corrected. His eyes widened. "You must be from one of those worlds."
"Those worlds?" Dimitri questioned.
"No wonder you're so confused. Even more so than the usual passengers." The stone man slowly stumbled to his feet. He tucked his fishing rod under one arm and grabbed his basket. "Please come with me. I'll lead you to the door. It's in the village. Oh- are you hungry?"
Edelgard wanted to decline, even if she was rather famished, but before she could, Dimitri smiled and accepted the offer.
"Excellent! You'll meet the wife. And my kids." The stone man rambled proudly. "This way."
He led them further inland, humming his grinding song.
"What's your name?" Dimitri called out as they walked.
"M' name's Shale."
Presently enough, they arrived at cluster of domes huddled around a large stone wall.
There was a large red door embedded in the rock. It had a strange golden symbol on it.
"That's the door to the next car." Shale explained. "But first of all, we need to check in with my family."
They passed by other stone people as they went through the village.
Everyone gawked at them, making Edelgard slightly uncomfortable.
"Edelgard?" Dimitri said softly, noticing her discomfort.
She shook her head and pressed on.
They arrived at Shale's dome- or rather, house.
A stone woman was busying sweeping the patio. Two stone children, a boy and a girl, were playing with marbles next to her.
"Dear! We have guests- passengers!" Shale exclaimed.
The woman stopped working and grinned at them, while the two children screamed and tackled their father.
"Hold off. Don't spill my catch. Go inside." Shale scolded them.
The children complained, but summarily scuttled away.
The woman leaned her broom against the dome and approached them.
"This is Terra. The wife." Shale introduced her with a goofy grin.
"It's a pleasure to meet you." Dimitri shook her hand. "I'm Dimitri." He didn't use his full title.
His first smart move. Edelgard thought.
"Edelgard." She said stiffly, also shaking Terra's hand.
"Aww. It's such a pleasure to meet new passengers." Terra cooed.
"They umm...they don't know what a train is. I need to show them." Shale said.
Terra gave them a worried look. "You'd better show them the outside."
"I would very much like to get some answers about our situation." Edelgard opined.
"Same here." Dimitri said quickly.
"Oh, you poor dears. So far from home…sometimes I don't understand the conductor. I really do." Terra muttered, twisting her hands.
"Now Terra, you know he only wants to help people." Shale stated.
"I know. I know. Now, go off and do your thing. I'll get dinner ready." Terra went over to her husband and took the basket of fish and fishing rod from him, before going inside.
"You'd better brace yourselves. This is going to be a shock." Shale said as he took them back to the door.
"Just a moment. Have you seen any other people around- humans?" Dimitri clarified. "Or heard of any other passengers?"
"No. Why?" Shale said, looking perplexed.
"When we…arrived here, we were with two other people; a boy our age with brown hair and golden eyes, and a slightly older woman with black hair and black eyes." Edelgard said.
"Hmm. I'm sorry., but I don't know anything. They must be somewhere else on the train."
"We'll track them down." Dimitri said.
"That'll be difficult…"
"Open the door up. I don't want to wait any longer." Edelgard huffed.
"Okay. Just take a deep breath." Shale went ahead and flipped the golden symbol. The red door immediately burst open.
The first thing that hit Edelgard was the high screeching noise. It was louder than anything else she'd ever heard in her entire life.
In comparison, Shale's humming was like opera.
Next was the sudden wind, an updraft that made her shiver as her cloak and hair whipped around.
She took a deep breath and stepped forward, before realising that Dimitri wasn't following her.
He was very pale, blue eyes wide with shock.
"Dimitri?" She said, her voice softening slightly. "Come on, we need to see this."
"R-right." He stuttered.
They left the rocky beach together.
Edelgard gasped, unable to stop herself.
It was like stepping out into another world.
They were on a revolving, constantly moving, row of carriages- a train, she realised dizzily.
The world outside was a red, sun-baked desert. She could see a huge green tornado in the distance.
A long bridge led on to the next carriage.
She glanced back at the open door behind them; the rocky beach beckoned to her, unperturbed by the chaos around them.
Each carriage is its own little world…
"Edelgard…this is…" Dimitri whispered.
"I know." Edelgard said. She turned to Shale. "Is every carriage the same size?"
"No. Some are tiny-as big as a single room, while others are far larger, containing whole mountains and forests and cities. I can't describe it adequately. You'll need to see it for yourself."
"How about the next carriage?" She pressed.
"It's a puzzle. I would love to tell you how to solve it. But it changes every time someone new enters the car."
"Puzzle?"
"It's for the door- the next door. Some doors have special mechanisms you need to solve to unlock them; it could be a puzzle, helping the inhabitants of the car, or in some cases, something incredibly weird. It depends on the nature of the car."
"So, that means we just need to keep going forward? Until our number gets to zero?" Dimitri said shakily.
"Yes." Shale said. "I think it's about "character development"? I heard that from a giant blob."
"What about the people we left behind? Our responsibilities? Our lives?" Edelgard snapped, getting angry.
"Hey now! No need to get upset at me. The conductor decides who gets on." Shale countered.
Edelgard sighed and glared at the floor.
"I apologise for the outburst. It was unbecoming of me."
"I understand." Shale said. "Just…the sooner you get through your issues, the sooner you'll get off."
"I don't have any issues." Edelgard said primly.
Well, she did. But she wasn't about to tell a random stranger about her past.
"Neither do I." Dimitri insisted.
"Well, you're on the train for a reason." Shale pointed out, then shrugged. "But heh, I'm not going to lecture you. C'mon, Terra should've finished dinner by now. You'll both feel better with a full stomach."
He paused.
"You can set out right after. Unless…you want to stay the night? I don't mind."
"Thanks, but no. I'd rather get a head start." Edelgard said.
"Same." Dimitri backed her up.
Shale clapped his hands together.
"All right! Now, let's get back. I'm hungry."
"By the way Teach, why did you go wandering off earlier today?" Claude asked her.
Byleth stopped in her tracks.
They were walking through the textile forest, trying to find a way out.
"I don't know. When I try thinking about it, my head feels fuzzy." She answered honestly, immediately thinking about Sothis.
She hadn't heard from her in a while…
"I'm awake. Just keeping quiet. Trying to process this bizarre world we're in."
Well, at least she had one less thing to worry about.
"You looked really out of it. I tried to stop you, but you just stared at me and muttered that you "had to go to the forest." You didn't say anything else. I immediately went and got Edelgard and Dimitri- I didn't want to alert Jeralt. I wanted to spend some quality time with my classmates" Claude chuckled, smoothing his hair back.
Byleth knew he was lying, but didn't call him out. There was no point.
"If Edelgard and Dimitri went with you…then they're probably here as well."
"I gathered as much. I wonder if their together like us." Claude mused.
"I hope they're getting along." Byleth said.
She resumed walking.
Claude hurried up to her and matched her pace.
"Dimitri is easy to get along with. Edelgard is a tough nut to crack. She's way more reserved than anyone else at the academy. Even you."
"I see her talking to her classmates a lot. Especially that girl we rescued. Monica."
"Yeah. But I think Monica is just making up for lost time. She's very clingy. At least with Edelgard."
"Do you think Edelgard finds her annoying?" Byleth questioned.
"I think so. When I saw Edelgard this morning, she had just escaped her. She almost didn't come with me. Not until I mentioned that you'd left the monastery and that I wanted to follow you." Claude said.
"It must've been a relief."
They came across a stream of shifting blue silk, winding through the trees.
Byleth leaned down and felt it.
She raised her hand, trailing a few strands of cloth. It wasn't wet.
"Amazing." Claude said, kneeling down next to her.
Byleth shook off the strands and looked up.
She spotted something large in the distance. Something red.
"Claude, I think it's a door."
"Nice find!" Claude jumped to his feet. "Let's check it out!"
They continued on.
The door was in a glade, wedged into a large tree.
Claude stopped, frowning at it. Then he stared at his glowing hand.
Byleth raised an eyebrow.
"It's nothing." Claude said. "I'm just curious about why your number is so low."
Byleth looked at her own mark.
"Answers are probably ahead." Claude said brightly, walking up the door.
He studied the weird circular symbol for a few moments, and then reached up and flipped it.
The door opened.
Claude stumbled back, completely blown away.
Byleth closed her hand and stared at him.
She'd never seen him lose his composure before.
Then she looked outside, taking in the red sky, the endless desert, the green storm, and the moving carriages.
For some reason, she wasn't surprised, or even afraid.
"I- have we seen this before?" Sothis uttered.
"Yes, we have." Byleth replied, wracking her brains.
She remembered.
"Claude, I think I dreamed about this. Last night."