Chapter 13: Ceremony

Still no red dots.

The statue in the centre of the city was surrounded by crowds of Hoshidans. Everyone looked rather confused, but cheers broke out when the royal family made their way through the only paths. Soldiers skirted the crowd's edges.

From where I sat on the roof of an inn, overlooking the statue, I couldn't see any signs of suspicious behaviour. Jake displayed the entire crowd as a huge mass of green dots, meaning that I couldn't view anybody below as an enemy.

A blue dot moved next to my own spot on the map, and Reina landed her kinshi beside me again, "Aerial support is active," she said. "If anything is seen, we will hear their screams."

"Thanks," I responded, watching Mikoto step forward to the crowd below. A hush fell over the onlookers.

"My beloved people of Hoshido," she began. "Several years ago, we as a nation stood together in a shared grief. Our great ruler, and my loving husband, was killed in a cowardly betrayal. On that day, I experienced something no wife nor mother should. My child, my darling daughter, was taken from me."

There were still no enemies on my map. Below, the crowd was watching and listening to the queen's speech in a sombre unity.

I caught a glimpse of Reina adjusting her saddle before she took off again. She had been briefed to scout the cities for any signs of suspicious behaviour. Thankfully, she, and the rest of Hoshido's knights, seemed to be taking the possibility of a threat to their queen very seriously.

Yukimura caught my eye from his position beside Mikoto, and I nodded to him. No problems yet.

As Mikoto called for Corrin to come forward, I stared at the map furiously. Precautions had been taken, but still, this was the moment in the game where everything went wrong.

The crowd cheered, and I looked up just enough to see Mikoto embrace her reunited daughter.

... Wait...

I scrambled for the scroll at my side. It took my shaking fingers a few times to undo the clasp, but I finally managed to grasp the scroll to activate its magic. A flare shot up from it, burning through my arm. I hadn't moved it out of the way in time.

The crowd turned for the source of the noise – the sizzle and my yell of pain – some making surprised noises.

"Derek!" Yukimura yelled desperately, "Report!"

"The castle!" I yelled back.

Castle Shirasagi was on fire. And on my map, red dots were approaching.

A huge, angry swarm of red dots.

Subaki touched his pegasus down beside the royal family. He quickly rushed out some words to the Queen, then ran over to his lady Sakura and fellow retainer Hana.

The citizens were truly beginning to panic, having seen the plume of smoke and the fires over the castle. In the midst of all the panic, the commands of Yukimura were almost drowned out. Fortunately, the Hoshidan siblings seemed able to understand him.

Azura, Sakura and her retainers moved to calm the crowds. Subaki took back to the skies to guide them from above, ensuring everybody made it out of the square.

Meanwhile, the other princes and princesses were making a perimeter around the queen.

I checked Jake again. With the strength of the assembled royals, retainers and allied knights, Hoshido was still facing a force over four times as large. If the enemy had already dealt with the castle guards, and the city guards around the city borders couldn't make it in time...

The enemies were within sight now, having come through the castle gates at a steady march. Perhaps sight wasn't the best word. The entire army seemed to flicker in and out of view, their shapes uncertain purple ripples in the air. Their leader, however, was fully visible, though that was primarily due to their huge cloak. Despite the cheap ghost costume, they seemed to radiate an aura of dark energy.

The robed figure lifted a hand, and the invaders stopped. The Hoshidans tensed, and then...

A volley of arrows flew through the air. Takumi yelled out a warning a fraction of a second too late, and Queen Mikoto fell to the floor.

Takumi and Hinoka dropped to their knees almost immediately, cradling their mother and screaming at her.

Ryoma though, let out an immense roar of anguish, and charged, his katana blinding with electricity. The soldiers and retainers ran after him, filling the Shirasagi streets with their war cries.

But Takumi and Hinoka suddenly turned, to see Corrin bent over in pain.

"Shit..." I ran to the edge of the building and jumped off.

The landing came hard, too hard, as my legs crumpled beneath me. I let out a yell of pain, and reached to feel at them. Touching my shins yielded only pain, but that didn't matter. I had to move. I'd heal, just as I seemed able to rapidly heal from any wound in this world. The burn on my arm from the flare had already receded to a dull red rash, that only mildly stung when my sleeves brushed it.

Still, despite the new pain slicing through my legs, I had to move. Standing was tricky. A sick sensation roiled from my throat, and I pressed my back against the wall for support. Focus on something else. Anything else.

I lifted Jake to examine the map of the city. The blue dot that was Azura seemed to have gone to the burning castle to help with evacuations or something. Sakura had been left behind at the city gates. Good.

Moving my legs, thankfully, seemed no more painful than simply leaving them still, so I managed to make progress. It was an easy enough task to follow the smaller streets parallel to the main avenue, where the battle was exclusively taking place. Now and then, I could see flashes of the battle through the gaps between the building. Invaders fell to the floor, then almost fizzing out of sight altogether as they died. A dragon charged through a row of ethereal spearmen, stopping only to tear one who'd avoided her fury in half. The soldier vanished as soon as his head left his torso, so the dragon turned to other enemies. A further row of archers seemed to be nocking their bows to take more shots. Though where they were aiming, I did not know.

Diviners had already arrived to quell the flames when I arrived safely to the castle, and several priests were caring for bodies, some living, and others not so lucky.

"Derek!" Eldegai called out. He swatted away a fussy priest to run over to me. "Th-the castle was attacked! There were... these shapes in the air and..." his frantic explanation paused as he noticed my legs. "Your legs!"

I held up a hand, weakly, "I know. I- Where's Azura?"

"Princess Azura? I haven't seen her." Eldegai looked at the castle. "Wasn't she at the ceremony?"

I checked Jake again, and Eldegai frowned at me. Azura was...

I looked up. The diviners were still struggling to extinguish the flames of the northern castle wing.

Eldegai nodded at where I was looking, "They attacked the royal quarters. But the only people there were... the staff."

He grimaced at the staff who had either been brought out or had managed to escape. Of the twenty or so being treated, only a handful seemed to have survived.

I checked Jake again. There was no mistake. Azura seemed to have gone to the dungeons.

"The dungeons," I told Eldegai. "I need to get to the dungeons."

Eldegai shook his head, "They'll have doubled security over the entrance. They don't let anyone in, in the event of an attack."

"Azura is in there!" I insisted. "I- We need her!"

Eldegai paused, then nodded, "I... There's a hidden entrance. A trap door in Lord Yukimura's room. Sopheap told me about it once. While drunk."

I breathed out a "Thank you" as I immediately started hobbling towards the burning castle wing. Part of the wall collapsed, as though to emphasise the danger of my plan.

Eldegai grabbed me. "What are you doing?" he panicked, "You can't go in there!"

"Have to," I said, teeth clenched. "And... This too."

I pushed Eldegai's hand off me before he could question me, then charged forward. He swore loudly, and some of the diviners tackling the fire turned to watch curiously.

I fell into a burning ring of fire.

...

Jakob sniffed haughtily, "You will not permit your own daughter to bring a tool of self-defence with her?"

Yukimura smirked down at him from the steps leading to the throne, "Surely if you're a butler worth his salt in being any way useful to Princess Corrin, she should need no other defence than you?"

"When what I must protect my lady from is the incompetence of her own family, I'd say it's reasonable for me to have doubts."

"Jakob, please!" Corrin protested, giving her retainer a light scowl.

He looked at her, and managed to appear as though he at least felt somewhat abashed, "I apologise of course. However, I'm sure you can understand my unease. Indeed, the primary reason for this ceremony at all is due to the ill feelings between our two nations."

"Indeed," replied Yukimura. "And bearing such a weapon of so obviously foreign design would likely only further add to the image of Lady Corrin as a Nohrian influence."

Corrin held out Ganglari before herself, as though only just realising that it did not resemble the katanas of Hoshido.

"On top of that, there is the very obvious magical aura surrounding the weapon. Since I am quite certain it is not a Divine Weapon, I can only conclude there is some form of enchantment upon the blade."

"'Divine Weapon?'" Corrin tilted her head. "Do you mean like Siegfried?"

"Ah, the sword wielded by Nohr's Crown Prince Xander, correct?" Yukimura asked. "Yes, that is an example of a Divine Weapon."

Corrin nodded her understanding, but Jakob frowned.

"Hold a moment," he demanded of the blue haired strategist. "Are you implying that King Garon placed a curse upon my lady's weapon?"

He looked absolutely scandalised, as though the thought repulsed him. At first, I thought his disgust was levelled towards Yukimura, but I caught him glancing at the blade instead.

"I'm afraid it's a possibility that cannot be ruled out," Mikoto murmured, a sad smile on her lips. "It would not be the first time King Garon has resorted to underhanded methods of attacking our family."

"I understand," Corrin nodded. "I shall leave Ganglari here, with Jakob."

"Excuse me?!" Jakob turned on his lady. "You expect me to leave you alone in a foreign land? I refuse!"

"Jakob, I'll be safe," Corrin grabbed her butler's hands emphatically, looking into his eyes. "My family will be with me. But it's your safety I'm worried about. And if not for yourself, then... For Ganglari. Cursed or not, it's one of my final connections to my family in Nohr."

Jakob looked downtrodden. He opened his mouth to protest, but he could not disobey his lady's direct wishes. His mouth closed, and he slowly nodded.

Mikoto looked at me, her face still sad. She still didn't believe I could change her fate.

...

A/N: I'm not sorry for that line.