Byleth had been up a little too late the night before. It had been a mixture of running sword drills with her father and anxiety stemming from her nightmares. Lots of nightmares. Particularly those pertaining to the war. Her dreams were haunted by the twisted expressions of dead students. The ones she killed. The ones she couldn't save. They each whispered her failures in her ears. While she'd done a good job slowly acclimating to death and her own failings, there was only so much a person could ignore before it started to bother them, and tonight had pushed those boundaries.
The combination of both priorly mentioned factors made it exceptionally difficult to get a proper night's rest. She almost hated how deeply she cared for these idiots. Nights like these rendered sleep an impossibility. Even Sothis seemed out of it, quietly following Byleth with her head drooping downwards. She didn't even have the energy to beg to be carried, she just followed in unnerving silence.
The worst part of it all was perhaps what she had to do today.
Her father had been doing well with the Black Eagles, but at the same time he'd also been struggling with how to control his eight new murder babies. Baby Byleth was a good precursor to the mess that was the Black Eagles, but Byleth didn't think anything could prepare a person for Hubert. Nothing on the face of the planet could prepare a human being for the existence of Hubert.
Not because he was scary. Not because he was actually threatening. Just because he was an emo pain in the ass who obsessed over Edelgard to an unhealthy extent.
Don't get Byleth wrong. She adored Hubert. In certain routes. The one time she sided with Edelgard, he'd been one of her best friends. Especially at the end of the route where things were slowing down for a bit and the members of the Black Eagle Strike Force had been free of the war. Free to explore what it meant to be people. Hubert was startlingly sassy and not all that much of a pain when it wasn't Edelgard this or Edelgard that. Before the end of the Black Eagle's war, it was unfortunately always Edelgard this or Edelgard that.
His obsession with Edelgard was only rivaled, and disturbingly dwarfed, by Leonie's obsession with Byleth's father.
So yeah, Jeralt just didn't know how to deal with Hubert. Slinking around in the background like an offended kitten, hissing and clawing whenever someone tried to get him to behave. And Hubert wasn't even the worst offender in the class. Ferdinand was loud and combative in the presence of Edelgard. A trait that usually caused a particularly shy and meek Bernadetta to clam right up and retract into herself as far as physically possible. Ferdinand's yelling then either created a feedback loop with a very loud Caspar also yelling, or a feedback loop with an infuriated Edelgard yelling at him to be quiet.
If Caspar wasn't accidentally feeding Ferdinand's combative energy, then he was distracted by Linhardt, who was either asleep or trying to find a less than willing test subject for his newest spell. Linhardt had two settings: asleep and overly productive. Sometimes he managed to pull off both at the same time. For example, when he managed to sleep walk his way through an entire battle.
If Byleth was being completely honest with herself, Linhardt frankly frightened her more than Hubert did.
Then came Dorothea and Petra. They were arguably the most normal students in class while simultaneously not being normal whatsoever. Dorothea would take every chance she could get to flirt with strangers and friends alike. Occasionally she ran into an issue. This issue being Petra. Dorothea liked to fluster people with innuendos. Petra was foreign and did not understand innuendos. More often than not this resulted in hour long clashes consisting of Dorothea desperately trying to flirt with Petra, and Petra just understanding none of it. Sometimes Byleth wondered if Dorothea hung around Petra so much because she was amused by Petra's inability to understand. Or maybe she just liked the challenge. Byleth wouldn't put it past a disaster bi as big as Dorothea.
Finally, there was Edelgard. Edelgard who was the only person in class who was able to forever appear calm. Yet knowing Edelgard and all the things she liked to pull, Edelgard was the biggest mess of them all. A lot of their monthly missions were inadvertently or directly caused by Edelgard. Edelgard, who made Byleth get flustered with just a glance. Edelgard, who Byleth had to shove all 8 of the emotions she was legally allowed to express into a tiny box and ignore them before she broke character.
Byleth was used to these children. She knew their tricks, their traits, and most of all, she'd learned how to deal with them through the years. How to keep them attentive, how to distract them, how to best teach each and every one of them. Jeralt didn't have years of trial-and-error experience, nor did he have the ability to abuse time to try different tactics. That was something Byleth had done a lot but would never admit to. Especially when Sothis got stronger and the Divine Pulses got to be more plentiful.
She tried not to abuse the Divine Pulse too much since she only got so much 'God Magic' in a given day and she had other abilities that pulled from the same pool of energy. Abilities she might need to save for emergencies. That being said, she was still human and prone to human faults. Such as abusing the god-given ability to control time whenever she mortified herself in front of her students.
Jeralt, who had none of these boons, was left to struggle against the churning chaotic mass that was the Black Eagles. So what was his answer to this problem? Well, to bring in something to normalize the chaos of course! So her father, in his limitless intelligence and glory, thought to himself 'what class acts the most like we do as mercenaries?'. His answer was of course, the Golden Deer. So, after speaking with Hanneman her father had arranged for a couple of sparring matches between the two.
He was very proud of himself, assuming the problem to be solved! Byleth knew better…
His assumption was that the Golden Deer were familiar in personality and would be able to vaguely normalize the Black Eagles. Like a negative and a positive canceling out to zero. Byleth had also been drafted into being part of the sparring practice to make things maybe not as terrible. Her poor, poor father didn't quite understand what kind of mess he'd just brought down on his head.
Byleth knew from personal experience that any situation the Golden Deer were involved in instantly became twice as chaotic, if not more. Often more.
And here Byleth was, dragging her feet and half asleep. Highly fatigued. Suddenly with a random stinging in the middle of her stomach. Wait, what? Byleth very slowly looked down. "Oh," she said as though that was the most logical reaction. There was a sword sticking out of her stomach, the pointed tip drenched red. "How unfortunate."
With so little sleep and no reasonable explanation for why she was suddenly stabbed, she was short circuiting. Utterly lost for a reaction. "How disappointing." The person who'd apparently stabbed her through the stomach said. It was Jeritza's voice; She could at the very least recognize that. "How disappointing indeed. I'd heard so many outstanding things about these reflexes of yours. Well, no matter. Goodnight professor," the man said, pulling the steel from her stomach. The pain was dull, something she just slightly noticed through a grog of confusion.
Jeritza hadn't been present during the mock battle, not to the best of her memory. They had left a lot of the secondary professors behind to monitor things around the monastery in the absence of the main teachers, but she would have thought Jeritza would be there. How strange...
"Stop analyzing random details and turn back time you moron!" Sothis shrieked, the panic clear in her voice. Byleth didn't know why her head suddenly wasn't working. The world felt fuzzy and swimmy. Apparently, Byleth wasn't moving fast enough and Sothis forced the Divine Pulse herself. The pain in her stomach dulled to a bad memory as her consciousness was forcibly flung a couple minutes into the past. Her mind refocused itself, seeing as she was no longer bleeding out and her brain wasn't unexpectedly blood and oxygen deprived.
Ah. Okay. That happened. Very well. Now Byleth was angry.
She forced her sleep addled mind to focus on the present. Very faintly, to the point it was difficult to pick up on, she could hear the approach of footsteps. She tried not to rely on her sense of hearing though. Everyone had a unique presence. A mark they left on the world. Some were faint, some were proud and bold. Few people in Fodlan actually knew how to properly mask their presence the way her childhood teachers could. Jeritza, regrettably for him, was no exception.
Plus she had Sothis, the ultimate second pair of eyes in the back of her head.
While the footsteps were faint, his presence was loud and very real. It was an aura of intimidation and death that clung to him like a disease. A wretched and violent kind of feeling that was jagged and quick. She heard the faint hiss of a sword being drawn when he got within range. Unfortunately, now that she was actually paying attention, Byleth was faster. Before he could strike her, she pulled out her own blade, turning on her heels in a flair of her cloak and pressing the tip of her sword right under his chin. She narrowed her eyes and glared at him as he tilted his head back slightly, looking at her with impressed confusion.
"I see that the other teachers weren't lying when they said your reflexes were sharper than most," he said, taking a step back. He sheathed his sword and his body language shifted from battle ready to relaxed. She took the hint and sheathed her own blade, allowing the tension in her shoulders to dissipate. Her leg muscles were still tensed up, and she refused to close the distance between the two of them.
Jeritza took note of this and laughed. "You are quite the mercenary aren't you? You'd have to be to still be alive though, wouldn't you? The students appeared to be quite impressed with your skills if their little tea party the other day was any indication. They seemed to be enthusiastically talking about you!"
Byleth hadn't actually stumbled across the Golden Deer tea party, but Locke had told her about it a little later in the day. He'd noticed it when he was on break and had assumed they were talking about Byleth. Then when she came to do her daily check-in with him he'd told her nothing to report, before switching topics to the kittens when he saw Hilda and Claude peeking around the corner. She didn't need to see his expression to know they were there, but it was rather funny to see how quickly he noticed the duo.
Truly, he was sharper than others gave him credit for.
"Yes, I noticed when two of the little fawns started following me around," she said, a sarcastic drawl giving her voice a slight edge. "Tell me, Jeritza, aside from a test of my reflexes, is there any reason we're talking right now?" She didn't mean for her voice to come off as combative but her mood was quickly dropping and she wasn't much of a fan of Jeritza. Sure, she felt bad for him. Especially considering he was Mercedes little brother. At the same time though, Jeritza was the Death Knight and Byleth didn't much favor him for what he'd done to Flayn and her other students in past resets.
The number of Divine Pulses she'd spent on Sylvain alone during a single battle with the Death Knight was frankly a little disgusting. Byleth had actually cried upon realizing Lysithea could learn Dark Spikes and completely decimate the fool. Where was Lysithea when Byleth needed her?
"Actually, yes. The two of us are going to be working together today. Your father and Hanneman have invited me to the joint training session. You're strong. I look forward to finally getting the chance to fight you," he said. There was an eeriness in the way he smiled that set Byleth on edge.
"What does he mean by finally?" Sothis asked. Byleth was vaguely aware of Sothis wrapping her hand around Byleth's as Jeritza walked past her and in the direction of the training grounds where the joint class would be taking place. His very presence left a chill in the air and the reek of death long after he was gone.
Byleth shook her head. "Does he remember something?" She asked quietly. Sothis' grip got a little tighter. It would explain why he felt the need to kill her all of five minutes and Divine Pulse ago. That was one of the few reasonable explanations she could come up with. That, or she'd changed too much already which resulted in Those Who Slither - as well as Edelgard - getting really aggressive really fast. Or maybe it was just Those Who Slither. Edelgard had been particularly calm and confined to the monastery.
According to Locke, who she'd given special orders to monitor the comings and goings of Edelgard, the heiress hadn't left the monastery grounds. There was always warp magic, but Byleth would have been able to sense that. So far she hadn't picked up on anything out of the ordinary and she was fairly certain Fodlan's magic system wasn't advanced enough yet to have masking spells. If illusion magic had been a big deal to Hubert the first time she introduced him to it, then she doubted Those Who Slither were any better regarding hiding their use of magic. Not only that, but while there were spells that could hide the presence of other spells being cast, it was still difficult to hide the residue unless you knew exactly what you were doing. Some magic would have clung to Edelgard afterwards.
Yet it seemed like there was nothing. So the Flame Emperor must have been extremely inactive the last couple of weeks. Which was also new. Edelgard tended to be fairly proactive, doing this and that in the early stages. Byleth was a little amazed no one ever seemed to notice. Things had certainly made a turn for the different.
Well, the adrenaline of the encounter was starting to wear off, but at the very least it had helped to pull Byleth from her fatigue induced daze. She still wished she'd gotten a couple more hours of sleep, but hopefully she wouldn't be doing anything else stupid. Like getting stabbed by Jeritza again.
She had a feeling he was going to try.
When she arrived at the training grounds, the two teachers and the two classes were already there, talking animatedly among themselves while still mostly keeping separate from one another. Jeritza was lurking in a corner near her father, which upset Byleth but there were other things she had to deal with right now.
Not all of her little ones were too terribly excited about the coming battles. She noticed the distinct presence of anxiety permeating around the room. There were two very distinct auras of anxiety present in the training room. Marianne, however, was being distracted and doted upon by a very dedicated Hilda, who was holding up one of the dogs that often enjoyed napping in the training grounds and watching people fight. The perfect distraction for the likes of Marianne. Byleth wouldn't have to worry about her.
Bernadetta, on the other hand, was entirely unattended and possessed a very silent, all-encompassing anxiety that was noticeable to Byleth.
"She looks like she's going to explode..." Sothis said. "I'll go keep an ear to Hanneman and Jeralt and make sure you don't miss anything important. You go tend the little one."
The thing about the Black Eagles was that they tended to take care of one another. They were a strong and loyal group under the right circumstances. Even Edelgard very obviously cared, having protected her classmates with all her strength. They all cared. But few people understood just how to deal with Bernadetta when she was in a state of panic. Do you touch? Do you not touch? How loudly does one speak to her? The answers varied depending on who was asking.
For Hubert, it was better just to not engage, considering his disposition terrified the much meeker student. Smiling was a horrible idea. Dorothea was a bit different, she could coo gently and smile and Bernadetta would be fine. But Dorothea, for all her empathy and social grace, had trouble understanding the exact problem at times, meaning Dorothea could only soothe Bernie so much.
Byleth was good at knowing the answer to those questions. Which was why she was the Black Eagle go to when it came to calming down the shy archer.
Bernadetta was currently pressed against the wall, as close to a corner as she could be without completely separating from the rest of the Black Eagles who were all chatting and boasting, almost overly eager to spar with the Deers. She was silent, the bow in her hands shaking as she kept her gaze firmly downward. Byleth approached slowly, passing the rest of the Eagles without a second glance and nearing Bernadetta. When she got close enough for Bernadetta to hear her, she started to quietly hum an old nursery rhyme that her father used to sing for her.
"P-professor?" Bernadetta asked, head shooting upwards. Byleth didn't answer, instead placing herself against the wall. Right between Bernadetta and the rest of the Black Eagles. She continued to hum the melody of the song, watching as small bits of the tension slowly seeped from Bernadetta's shoulders. Bernadetta lowered her gaze once more, inching slightly closer to Byleth.
Edelgard and Hubert took note of Byleth, but everyone else seemed too distracted with their own conversations. Finally, she stopped humming and turned back to Bernadetta. "Would you like to tell me what's wrong?" She asked.
Bernadetta didn't respond, but she also didn't immediately fling herself away from Byleth so that was a good sign. "I'm scared," she whispered so quietly that Byleth had to strain to properly hear her. Even though she'd come to a complete stop, Byleth waited. She wasn't done talking and if Byleth stayed quiet, then eventually she'd continue. "I don't want to be a disappointment. I'm so weak, and definitely not good enough. I'll just lose and then everyone's gonna be disappointed because the class is going to lose and then it'll be all my fault and Edelgard will be mad and Jeralt will be disappointed. Ah, stupid Bernie, you're rambling."
Bernadetta whimpered, pulling further into herself. Very, very slowly, Byleth raised her hand and pressed it into Bernadetta's back. She began to rub small circles, going back to humming the nursery rhyme which seemed to be doing Bernadetta some good. Byleth stopped for a minute, using her free hand to reach into her pocket. "Here," she said, holding out a pair of earplugs. Bernadetta blinked owlishly at them for a moment before taking them. "It's a little loud in here, why don't you put them on for a minute and calm down. We'll talk when you're ready. Don't worry, they're new, promise."
A big problem for Bernadetta had always been overstimulation. Something that happened fast and hard when she was surrounded by too many people. Especially 'new' ones she felt uncomfortable with. Byleth had made it a habit to always carry around a set of earplugs just in case. Slowly over time in other resets, Bernadetta had needed them less and less and by the time the war started she'd gotten confident enough not to need them at all.
Bernadette popped in the earplugs and her posture visibly loosened after she closed her eyes and tried not to focus on where she was.
Edelgard came a little closer, looking between Byleth and Bernadetta. "Is she okay?" Edelgard asked. Hubert didn't approach in the same manner as Edelgard, but he did hover a little closer and kept himself within hearing range of Edelgard.
Byleth nodded, going back to rubbing small circles into the space between Bernadetta's shoulder blades. "She just got a little worked up and started worrying herself over nothing. Don't worry though. I've got her. She'll be fine." Byleth said as she watched Bernadetta slowly become calmer and calmer.
Edelgard frowned deeply, watching her mousy classmate. "I'm sure Jeralt wouldn't be opposed if she needs to sit this one out," she offered.
Byleth shook her head. "I don't think that's going to do her any good. There's a difference between taking things at her own pace and just not facing her fears at all. I think that facing one of the Golden Deer is a good, safe match that might be healthy for her. Better than facing some bandit as her first real fight. If she really needs to, I'll take her outside with one of the Deer and work with her individually. We'll see what she thinks."
Bernadetta to her credit slowly removed the earplugs and looked up. She looked a little more determined until she caught sight of Edelgard and yelped. "I'm sorry!" She said on reflex. Byleth leaned a little closer, hovering over the shorter girl in a manner that was protective.
"No one's going to be upset with you if you lose. It's just a training match. You're fine. You're safe. I'm not going to let anything happen to you. No one is going to hurt you and no one is going to judge you, be it a win or a loss. I'll make sure of it. So do you think you can maybe try to spar with one of the other students? For me?" Byleth allowed her arm to shift in its position, wrapping it around Bernadetta's shoulder to pull her into something of a side hug. Bernadetta squeaked, letting out a series of whimpered words that Byleth couldn't understand.
She finally released a high-pitched, discontented whine before she said, "Okay, I'll try it." She looked terrified, but she wasn't petrified anymore. She was still shaking bodily, knees quivering and eyes flickering, but at least her hands were steady now as she turned her attention to the front of the room where Jeralt was trying to get the attention of both classes.
"Alright everyone, settle down already. We're getting started now. The first match is going to be between…" He looked at his notes and then looked back up. "Bernadetta and Claude."
"It's just Claude," Byleth whispered when she felt a shiver go through Bernie. "Claude is very sweet. He might make jokes, but he's not going to hurt you or make fun of you. Not to mention he's a good archer, so win or lose no one's going to judge you. Just try your best and maybe try to have fun."
Bernadetta let out a noise somewhere between a groan and a whine, a sound miraculously similar to that of a dying animal, before making her way towards the center of the room. To her credit, she was too focused on Claude to get worked up over all the people watching her. Claude smiled at her in a relaxed kind of manner, keeping his posture as unthreatening as possible.
"Alright, archer versus archer. Let's do our best Bernadetta. Of course, I'm still gonna win," he said with a wink.
Bernadetta made a sound that Byleth thought was supposed to be a response but sounded more like she was trying to get something out of her throat. Jeralt shook his head. He wasn't expecting much from Bernadetta. At the very least she'd gotten up there in front of her peers, and was somehow managing not to pass out. "Three, two, one, fight!"
Claude drew his own bow to attack Bernadetta. However, the speed at which Bernadetta drew her bow, notched an arrow, and managed to smack Claude right in the throat took just about everyone off guard. Claude made a strangled noise as the padded arrow collided with his windpipe. The only reason it didn't do any damage was because of the padded end, but the speed was still enough to evoke some shock on Claude's part. Byleth could already feel a smirk starting to cross her features. "Atta girl!" She called out.
Bernadetta almost apologized to Claude for the attack before realizing this was still a battle. She drew another arrow and aimed at Claude's head, only missing by a very slim margin as a confused and mildly terrified Claude dropped to the floor, pulling his arrow and finally taking aim at Bernadetta.
Bernadetta didn't dodge, she stood there frozen until she realized that there was an arrow coming right at her face. She yelped and swatted her practice bow at the thing. Against all odds, the practice bow knocked Claude's arrow away from her and nearly hit Jeralt as its course forcibly changed. Bernadetta pulled out another of her arrows, taking aim and managing to shoot a very shook Claude right in the forehead.
"Claude! You're out!" Jeralt called.
Claude finally got the chance to stand back up, rubbing a red spot on his forehead as he looked at Bernadetta in an amazed daze. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she repeated a couple times, holding her bow tightly to her chest and bowing her head.
He turned to Edelgard. "Hey, yeah, what the fuck? Where did you get this girl and what have you been teaching her? More importantly, where do I get one?"
Edelgard seemed to be at just as much of a loss as Claude. "I didn't know she could do that," Edelgard said, trying to defend herself as Claude continued to rub at the sore spot on his forehead which would no doubt bruise if not tended to.
Jeralt sighed, shaking his head. "You obviously aren't up to another round right now so why don't you go sit back down Bernadetta?" Her father's words were barely out of his mouth before Bernie was bolting back to her position against the wall, pushing the ear plugs back into her ears. "Byleth, you wanna play nurse?"
"Do I have a choice?" She walked around the training area to where her father was calling out another set of names. Edelgard and Hilda. That was going to be a fun match. Byleth's attention, unfortunately, was eaten up by Claude, who was leaning against the wall and grinning at her. Which was a shame since Edelgard looked hot when she was kicking someone's ass.
Claude, despite his smarmy grin, did not make Byleth's heart skip a beat in the same manner as the heiress. His only accomplishment was managing to annoy her. "Hold still," she said. He was lucky the arrows were padded. Both his forehead and his throat had bruises on them. "Marianne, why don't you come over here. You're studying healing magic, right? I'll teach you some of the spells I know."
If Byleth didn't get to gawk, Marianne didn't either. Marianne very slowly pulled her gaze away from the fight (Hilda) in a dazed fashion, wandering over to Claude. Byleth gently pressed her fingers against the two marks on Claude's forehead and throat, explaining what spells she was using and how. The marks on Claude almost instantly disappeared under her touch. "There. Now you won't even have a bruise."
"That's kind of amazing. It doesn't even hurt anymore. Where'd you learn that?" Claude's question was obviously intended to probe. Unfortunately for Claude, Byleth was good at avoiding questions.
"Just picked it up on my travels. Healers are valuable. They tend to be rare in a mercenary company as opposed to an army or a school. You make do with what you have, and just about everyone knows basic healing magic for the sake of their buddies. It's not an alternative though, especially not for the big injuries. Nothing beats actual medicine and rest, but it'll help you in a pinch if you're good enough at it." Which was mostly true. Most magic wasn't any kind of replacement for time and medicine. Even Byleth could only do so much for a grievous injury, but in her case magic was more of an additive than a replacement. It kept people alive until they were stable enough to survive proper medical procedures. Her spells were intended to keep someone from bleeding out before you could get a doctor if you were so wonderfully blessed with a spear in your gut.
Byleth also had the comparatively rare ability to use healing magic on herself, which actually helped her more easily use healing magic on others. One of the best ways to learn a skill like magic was to have it used on you. To be able to feel exactly what it does. It makes it much easier to learn if you can be your own test subject.
Just as she was finishing up healing Claude, a fairly loud thump caught her attention. Turning around, she saw Hilda lying on her back groaning. Hanneman had his head in his hands while her father was smiling proudly over at Edelgard. Well, that match went about as expected. Claude sighed heavily as Hilda picked herself up and half dragged, half stumbled towards where Byleth was standing.
Byleth ran her fingers over whatever bruises Hilda pointed out to her, grinning at her companions the entire time. She was lucky that healing simple scuffs didn't need the same pool of magic as the Divine Pulse drew from. After she was done with Hilda, she once again weaved around the sides of the training area to get to the other half and check on the winners.
"Any bruises you need taken care of?" She asked Edelgard, trying to keep her voice carefully measured.
"No, no-" Edelgard started before abruptly pausing. "Actually, if you could check my side right here. I think Hilda might have gotten me as it's a little sore." Dorothea and Hubert both gave Edelgard a look that Byleth couldn't decipher the meaning of. Ferdinand was smirking for some odd reason. Byleth decided to ignore her children in favor of checking over Edelgard. She gently pressed her fingers into Edelgard's side. The girl flinched, features turning cherry for a moment.
"She must have gotten you good," Byleth tsked, pressing her magic into the injury and any others Edelgard helpfully pointed out. "You shouldn't push yourself too hard," Byleth chided.
Edelgard nodded enthusiastically. "Of course, my teacher, I'll endeavor to do better in the future." Maybe she was being a bit too enthusiastic...
Byleth was about to check on Bernadetta to make sure she was still doing okay when a sudden chill went down her spine. "Byleth!" She heard Sothis call from the other side of the room. The practice matches had come to a lull and she could see her father talking with Jeritza. Okay. Byleth made her way towards the two with no hesitation, arriving just as her father was turning away from Jeritza.
"Perfect timing. You and Jeritza here are going to spar as a demonstration. Treat it like a real battle," he said. He was acting like he had the utmost confidence in Byleth given the way he was looking at her. Byleth, however, didn't have the utmost confidence in Byleth because Byleth was functioning on a couple hours worth of sleep and gay. Something would go wrong. Again.
"Good thing we have a lot of Divine Pulses," Sothis said, glaring at the man who was studying Byleth with an eerie kind of grin.
"Finally," he said in a way that totally wasn't terrifying.
Byleth nodded mutely and moved to the center of the room. "Weapon?"
"Swords. Live steel," Jeritza answered without a hint of hesitation. She could hear several mutters and whispers from her children who were looking between the two curiously. She pulled out her blade as Jeritza drew his own.
"Three, two, one, fight!" the moment the word fight left Jeralt's lips Jeritza lunged at Byleth like a spring that was wound too tight. Byleth responded in turn, flinging her body out of range before lunging at Jeritza herself. Their blades crossed between them, each one struggling to push against the other just enough to get in a hit.
Byleth told herself she should hold back, but it was hard to. Jeritza was fighting like he really wanted to kill her, which made it hard for her not to respond with a similar ferocity. Her father said to treat it like a real fight.
Including playing dirty, apparently.
Another attack and her side step was just a little too slow. The blade glanced off her shoulder, drawing a small amount of blood. Then Jeritza smirked. She felt an ache shoot through her skin where the blade pierced. Not the normal kind of ache either. The 'oh god did he just poison me' kind of lancing pain. She winced. Would he really try to kill her right now? In front of so many witnesses? No. His goal wasn't even to kill her. It felt more like he was trying to win and make a point of some kind. What that point could be, she didn't know.
But it kind of pissed her off.
The poison wasn't lethal; at least, she hoped it wasn't. If it was lethal, hopefully it was the slow lethal. Sothis could slowly purge that from her system using their divine power. In all likelihood, he wouldn't make the attempt in front of so many other people for no foreseeable reason. The more likely option was him making some kind of point. Either way though, poison was poison, and it put her at a major disadvantage. Not to mention she was now on a clock.
She jumped at Jeritza, throwing the idea of holding back out the window in favor of a maelstrom of slashes aimed at his midsection. Jeritza deftly parried most of them until Byleth feinted to the right and landed a hit right across his stomach. It was shallow, but it was enough to cause Jeritza to fall backwards in an attempt to avoid further damage. He landed right on the ground, and for the second time that day she pushed the tip of her blade under his chin and glared. Her vision was getting blurry.
"Go get Manuela," she all but ordered before pulling the blade away from his throat.
Jeritza smiled at her, almost looking satisfied, before standing up and leaving the room. He didn't waste time at least.
She sat down on the floor right where she'd been standing to the confused glances of the students, pulling out one of the vials of antidote she tended to keep in her cloak. She usually wrapped the things in cotton so they didn't get smashed during a fight. She wasn't sure what kind of poison he'd used or if this would actually help, but it didn't need to. Sothis was already at her side, pressing fingers into her shoulder and working on dissolving the poison with their own divine magic.
"Alright, class dismissed, everyone out. Immediately," Jeralt said, getting the picture loud and clear the moment he noticed the vial. Most of the students cleared out of the room. A little confused, but not too terribly worried. Most didn't think too hard on why class was ending.
The ones who lingered were Edelgard and Claude, though Hubert probably wasn't far.
"What happened?" Edelgard asked hesitantly. "My teacher?" She asked as Byleth's breathing turned a little sharper. It absolutely wasn't lethal because she knew what kind of poison this was by the way her entire body started to burn. It was a poison made with the specific intent to inflict as much pain on the target as possible. Not lethal. Absolutely annoying.
"I'm going to rematch that man," she declared instead of answering, a glare forming on her features. That got more of a sigh of relief out of Jeralt than anything else Byleth could have said. No pathetically pieced together statement of being fine would ever hold a candle to her being ready to kick a man's ass.
"Nothing, nothing's wrong," Jeralt answered on behalf of Byleth. When Edelgard and Claude didn't seem very moved by the answer, Jeralt shook his head ruefully. "Jeritza just used a low level poison. This was supposed to be a demonstration of a real battle, I'd told him he could play whatever cards he had as long as he didn't try to actually kill Byleth, so I suppose this is my fault."
"Isn't poison an attempt to kill her?" Claude asked, as though he hadn't threatened to poison the other two classes at least four times prior to the mock battle.
She could probably say the name and he'd know exactly what type of poison it was.
"You know well enough that there are non-lethal poisons, little fawn. I'll be fine; it isn't anything I haven't handled before. That's why I keep these antidotes on me," she held up the emptied vial. She hadn't actually started carrying these until she became a teacher and realized she had children she needed to keep alive, at which point she never left her room without antidotes and healing potions on the off chance she ran out of both normal and divine magic to heal and use Divine Pulse with. "Run along little fawn. Go check on your class. I'll be fine," she reassured him once again.
Claude eventually was convinced to leave, but Edelgard almost seemed rooted in place. Jeralt looked at her, shook his head, and turned towards the door. "If you're not going to leave, would you watch Byleth for a moment while I go make sure that someone's actually getting Manuela?" Jeralt asked. Edelgard nodded mutely as Byleth's father left.
Traitor.
Sothis giggled, letting her magic fall away along with her fingers. "You'll live. I'm going to go track down Jeritza and see what he's doing. Super stalker Sothis on the case of the lunatic Death Knight. He might be a problem if he actually remembers, so I'll go see if there's anything important I can glean." While the evil little Goddess beat a hasty retreat, she had the audacity to wink at Byleth.
Double traitor!
Edelgard leaned down, looking at Byleth hesitantly. She almost seemed afraid to touch the older woman. "Are you sure you'll be fine?"
"Yes, Edelgard, I'll be fine. Just... Keep talking. It's getting hard to focus. And speak." Her tongue felt swollen in her mouth. Sothis said she'd live, which was probably true, but talk about an unpleasant feeling. She might have started to feel a little better when Edelgard hesitantly started to rub a small circle into the small of Byleth's back and nervously ramble about anything she could think of.
Like a total straight girl. Keep telling yourself that, Byleth.