Chapter 25) God of Wind


Silesse castle is ours. It's a bit beat up, and in need of repairs, but it's successfully liberated. The people within are all safe, including Queen Rahna. Considering how many have died, it's a blessing.

Of course, we still have Daccar to deal with. This war won't end until he's dead. Though I probably shouldn't wish for it, I hope it's soon. His ambitions have caused enough trouble for everyone, and more pain to Lewyn and Erinys than I can ever forgive.


"Here, Shanan, this is a trick Sylvia taught me." It was strangely heartwarming, watching Oifeye teach Shanan how to sew better. Even though I had my duties, I couldn't help but linger in the doorway, just watching. "See?" he murmured. "Better on your hands."

"It is!" Shanan agreed with a laugh. He beamed at Oifeye before returning to his work. "Okay, let's finish the mending!"

"Sounds good!" Oifeye grinned back, but he looked up and happened to catch sight of me. "Oh, Alicia!" He began to stand, but sat back down on the floor when I shook my head. For some reason, the two decided to sew on the floor of some side room, even though this place actually had chairs. "Is anything wrong?"

"No, I simply heard laughter and decided to be nosy," I replied, smiling still. I was ridiculously proud of his improvement. "What are you going to do once you're done with the mending?"

"Make medicines for you and Claude," Shanan answered easily. He was completely focused on his work, his tongue sticking out a little in concentration. "Claude ordered you to take the day off, right?"

"He did." I'd woken up this morning with horrible dizziness, to the point that I'd half-wondered if I was pregnant again. A quick check with Claude said 'no', but that I showed signs of mild anemia. He thought it was from dietary deficiencies, probably due to working too much, so he ordered me to rest while he consulted with the cooks to make sure I ate properly. It was, honestly, more than a little embarrassing. "Are you two doing my chores for me, then?"

"Yep!" Shanan tied off his thread, and hopped to his feet to give me a hug. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine. Trust me; Chulainn wouldn't let me walk around if I wasn't." I ruffled his hair and smiled reassuringly. "It's very mild. Claude just wants it to stay mild."

"He wants you to rest for a couple of days, circumstances depending, right?" Oifeye asked, sewing a button back on a shirt. He double-checked that the thread matched the shirt before continuing. "Just in case?"

"Yes, and you can imagine how everyone is enjoying their fussing," I half-complained. Part of me was truly irritated at the forced rest, but I did recognize the need for it and if this was dietary-caused-anemia, then I really only had myself to blame. "I was just heading to the nursery." Claude had allowed me to check on the children's healths, since I was their most constant healer, and I was far too antsy to not do something.

"I think Lord Sigurd is on babysitting duty." He must've been on break, then. I knew Aideen had scolded him for working too hard too.

"That's wonderful. I get to tease him and feel so much better." All of us shared a laugh and Shanan let go of me to return to his sewing. "Thank you for this."

"Of course." Oifeye grinned at me. "Get better soon! My hands are cramping!"

"I'm sure!" With a smile and a laugh, I left the room and made my way to the nursery. I passed people along the way, all doing various duties. Most ignored me, of course, but my friends did stop me to make sure I was doing all right. Jamke actually walked with me to the nursery, since it was on his way anyway, to make sure I didn't have a dizzy spell. It touched me dearly and we even had a nice talk about how repairs were going.

"Oh, Alicia!" Sigurd greeted me warmly when I stepped inside, even as he tried to dissuade Seliph from yanking his hair. "How are you feeling?" he asked, waving to Jamke. Jamke waved back and continued on his way. "You have anemia?"

"I have mild anemia, and Claude intends to nip it in the bud," I explained, looking around the room. Conall was closest, so I picked him up first to hug. Caitriona crawled over and reached up as well, so I just crouched down to hug both of them. "However, I am allowed to do my normal checks on the children. It's the only bit of work I'm allowed."

"Must be driving you crazy."

"Immensely." Still, it was hard to be irritated when your children were hugging you. "Is there any word on Daccar?"

"For the moment, just that he's preparing something. We'll probably be ambu… ow, Seliph, my ear is attached to my head." He pulled Seliph's hand off of his ear and I had to laugh. "And I'm told the worst is yet to come. The terrible twos?"

"Supposedly, around age two, children learn what 'defiance' is." It was certainly going to be interesting, especially if we were all still together when Caitriona, Conall, Ulster, Larcei, and Lester all turned two. "Still, though, the grabbing is how they learn."

"I think Seliph just likes the funny noises I make." Seliph giggled right then, as if agreeing. "Oh, so you are? What a silly child. Who do you get it from?"

"He gets it from both you and Deirdre, of course. I can attest to that." Slowly, I extracted myself from Caitriona and Conall's hugs and urged them to play. "Well, Seliph is already up and…" I trailed off as a bit of dizziness hit me, waving my hand when Sigurd stepped towards me worriedly. "I'm fine. I just shouldn't have crouched." I smiled reassuringly at him. "It's already passed."

"That 'stood up too fast' thing?" Sigurd nodded, but he did still look worried. "So, Seliph first?"

"Yes, please." I headed over to my normal checkup area and Sigurd set Seliph there. Seliph focused on me, well used to this routine now. "Let's see how we're doing today, yes?" Carefully, I checked over Seliph, frowning a bit when he seemed uncomfortable at a spot on his back. I tugged his shirt off to look and discovered a small bruise. "Aw, sweetie, how did you get yourself hurt?"

"He must've backed into something. Surprised no one caught it." Sigurd ruffled Seliph's hair while I hunted down the spare healing staff I kept in the nursery and used it to heal up the bruise. "My brave little one, dealing with that."

"Don't teach him to hide his pain, Sigurd." I carefully made sure Seliph had no other bruises and tickled him when it became clear that was the only oddity. "That'll just make my job older as he grows up."

"I'm not praising him for hiding it. Simply being… hang on, that sounded better in my head." He sulked and I laughed. I laughed harder when Seliph mirrored his expression almost perfectly. "Whatever." He ruffled Seliph's hair again and his mood darkened when he looked at the Holy Mark on Seliph's back. "I still don't like that they appeared so early." He ran his fingers over the Mark, and I kept silent, not sure how to respond. I was uneasy too."...Is that… silver?" Sigurd pointed to a spot in the middle of the blue, which did look noticeably different. It wasn't a large difference, but it was… well, noticeable. "Surely not. Two colors in a Holy Mark implies two different Holy Bloods, and Deirdre didn't have any."

"It could just be an oddity, I suppose." Part of me wondered if Deirdre did have Holy Blood, but that was… Verdane was famous for not having ties to the Crusaders. It wouldn't make much sense, really. "Arvis has two colors in his Mark."

"He does?"

"Yes. There's a spot on his arm that's a darker red than the rest." I mimed for quiet and winked, hoping the 'cheer' would help lift his mood. His slight smile told me I had half-succeeded. "Don't let him know I told you that, though. He's not fond of that bit of weirdness."

"And no chance he had two Holy Bloods either, huh?"

"I highly doubt it. After spending so long among the nobility, it surely would've come up if Cigyun had Holy Blood." Though, admittedly, my father had kept her more or less locked away. "Regardless, for the record, it seems less 'silver' and more 'silver-blue' to my eye. I think we're fine."

"True." Sigurd straightened with a laugh. "Maybe it's the Mark trying to give Seliph some of Deirdre's coloring after all. Her hair was silver."

"I think I still remember that." I did have to admit, though, that it was becoming a bit harder to remember what she looked like. It was just 'little things' for now, like how I barely remembered that scar on the bottom of her foot or why she wanted to wear the circlet all the time. I dreaded the day where I might forget entirely and hoped I saw her long before it happened. "You know; I should ask around and see if anyone has sketches of her. It'll help Seliph recognize her when we see her again."

"That's… true." Sigurd smiled, a little pained but mostly warm. It was hard, holding onto hope when you had no answers. "When all this settles, we should really get portraits done of everyone. I don't think we've done that."

"That does sound like fun." Actually, it didn't, but I'd certainly suffer through it. He looked rather happy by the thought, so what else could I do but agree? "We should tell the others, so that they can think of what groupings they'd want."

"And, you know, see about getting someone to do them in the first place." He became thoughtful, humming a bit. I recognized the song; it was popular, often played in Jugby during the Harvest Festival. "I think that we have sketches scattered about of Aideen's wedding. Shame we don't have the same for Lachesis's."

"She still has the dress I made up." I grinned at his playfully hurt look. I knew it was playful. We'd actually already talked about the 'elopement'. "Now, now, they are planning on having a 'proper' one once things calm down. That was really for them." Honestly, if they hadn't needed a witness, I was fairly certain I wouldn't have known until after everything either. Though, I had to admit, I was still very pleased they'd asked.

"I know. I just can imagine all the scoldings Eldigan would've given me." The playfulness in the look was quickly devoured by the hurt. Eldigan was still a very, very painful wound. "I miss him."

"I can imagine." I smiled kindly and picked up Seliph, who had been looking around in confusion during the whole conversation. "Yes, I know. We're being far too serious when surrounded by such adorableness." I kissed his cheek and Seliph giggled. "Come now. Let's scold Sigurd, yes?"

"Hey!" Sigurd pouted and stole Seliph from me quickly. "No turning my son against me!"

"Is it 'turning against' when it is simply to help you improve?"

"I… that's…" He hugged Seliph tightly to his chest. Seliph just giggled again, clearly thinking this was a game. To be fair, it really was. "Seliph, don't listen to Aunt Alicia. She's mean."

"Hey!"

The two of us playfully bickered while I checked on the other children, drawing them into the 'argument'. It resulted in a lot of explaining when Lex swung by and found us 'at war with the children', the children who were thoroughly enjoying the game at that. But it was fun, so I didn't think anyone cared.


Daccar had the worst timing. I had just been clear for 'light work' and had gone out to the market with Azel when he decided to go for that ambush we'd half been expecting. Everyone quickly got the civilians safely within the walls of the castle, and Claude, Aideen, and I quickly determined who would do what for this battle, healing wise. Lachesis would tend to the wounded civilians, I'd handle the badly wounded, and Aideen and Claude would be on the field. It was our practice, but this time, there was one… oddity, I supposed. I was working alone for the first time in a long while.

"I hope Shanan and Oifeye are okay with the children," I murmured, smoothing out the blankets on one patient. They were guarding and tending to the children, as typical. None of the mothers were there this time, since Sigurd hoped this would be a shorter battle. "Maybe I should…" I smiled ruefully and shook my head. No, I couldn't leave the infirmary. What if I got another wave? Though, there were few badly injured. I hoped it meant things were going well.

Sighing, I wandered between the patients I had, triple-checking that I had not missed something. I had nothing else to do. Everything was mended, for one thing, and there simply wasn't room on the shelf for more medicine. I'd already replaced what little I had used. Being 'bored' was good for a healer, but in this case, I… I had grown used to being able to talk to someone. I was no longer used to working alone.

"I'm sure someone would find that amusing." In fact, I was so used to talking to people that I had to talk to myself, aloud, to not feel overwhelmed by the silence. "I should write about this to Arvis. It should make him laugh." Of course, that was assuming we'd still be able to send out messenger birds. It would certainly be a while before we could. I hoped he wasn't too worried. He needed to focus on keeping himself safe, as well as Diadora. Then again… "Is Diadora trained to fight? Certainly, she isn't against assassins." Light magic was the weapon of choice for the royal family, so I imagined she'd be taught it.

Of course, the thought of light magic just made me think of Deirdre again. If she'd been here, I wondered if she'd be out fighting. Would she have stayed here with me, to help with the children? I could see both easily. I missed her so much. She could always make me laugh. I hoped, wherever she was, she was okay. I hoped she wasn't dead. I hoped that she wasn't being tortured. I hoped…

A quiet 'rattle' made me pause and I turned slowly, wondering just what the sound was. Silesse wasn't prone to earthquakes, not like Thracia, but I did wonder if we had a mild one. My next thought was 'is there an avalanche?' because it wasn't as if I knew anything about avalanches besides 'giant wall of snow that'll bury you alive'. But we were a safe distance away from the mountains. So, I strained to hear the rattle and turned to the windows. They were the source of the rattling. They rattled and rattled, shaking more and more violently with each passing second. Then they shattered, and the wind nearly dragged me out the broken window.

"What in the gods' name…?!" I yelped, slamming against the wall right by the window. My hand fell on the window frame itself, gouging my palm on the glass that remained, but I had no time to think on that. I struggled too much to make sure I didn't have a much-unwanted flying lesson. More shards of glass sliced across my arm as the wind dragged them out, howling in fury.

When the suction finally died enough for me to move, I got on my hands and knees and frantically tried to set up my patients on the ground, because of course, the wind had dragged quite a few out of their beds. I, badly, bandaged up my hand and arm as I tended to the new injuries and pretended everything was perfectly fine for the few who woke up before using Sleep to put them under again.

"Alicia!" Oifeye swung in, looking rather frazzled. "The windows broke here too," he murmured, noticing the glass. I ignored him to keep working. "Are you okay? The children are, but we saw the hallway windows had suddenly shattered."

"I'm glad to hear you are all okay," I murmured. Finished with tending, I went to bandage my arm a little better. Oifeye took the bandages from me to do it himself. "I was just thinking of how nice it was that I was bored."

"Shanan and I were just thinking one of us should see if you needed help. The children are napping, so we were a little bored ourselves." He found some gauze and put it on my palm before finishing up the bandaging. "I think the gods wanted to punish us for not liking our good fortune."

"I suppose." I looked out one of the broken windows, the one that faced east. That was where the battlefield was. "Oifeye, I'm worried about the others. I'll be fine here, providing that doesn't happen again, but if you can check in on Lachesis and Queen Rahna? I can't go myself in case that trick resulted in a lot of badly injured."

"I will." He tied off the bandage and smiled wanly. "I wonder what happened."

"I do as well." I used my not-bandaged arm to hug him, ignoring the pain that spiked through me. I'd gotten some bad bruises; I'd need Lachesis to check on me in a moment to make sure it was just bruises.

He ran off and I checked on my patients again before wandering to the window, noticing the wind was still howling. It was like it had gone mad, and it was strangely charged. It was like magic had been… oh. Oh no.

"This is a Final Strike," I breathed, piecing everything together with horror. This was the Final Strike of someone with Forseti blood and, since I was certain it couldn't be Lewyn, I knew it was Daccar. Daccar… he was trying to take everyone with him! "Everyone…!"

I leaned against the broken frame, careful to avoid glass, and strained to see the shadows in the distance. It was near impossible to see anything, of course. It was just too far. So I wondered if I'd… if I'd just be helpless. I wondered if all my friends, my family, were going to die and I could do nothing but watch and wait for the inevitable. I could do nothing but simply let my absolute worst fear become a reality.

But even as I thought that, the wind suddenly froze. It froze, not moving at all, and then it rushed back, slapping me in the face and sending me crashing to the ground. I coughed, struggling to breathe from the incredible weight of the wind pressing down on me, and it was a trial to crawl over to my patients to make sure they would be okay. When I confirmed they were still fine, somehow, and when the wind lifted, I stumbled back to the window, feeling each and every bruise I picked up. But all pain, and really all thoughts, disappeared at the sight of the… the thing suddenly hovering over that distant battlefield. I had no name for it. The closest comparison I had was Thracia's dragons, but that comparison fell flat. I might as well be comparing those same dragons to a lizard.

From here, its wings looked almost feathered, like a pegasi's, and they flicked in and out of sight, like it was shifting into the air and back again. Its body was a glittering white, like the snow in the sun, and shimmered with a green-blue hue. It was also massive, easily bigger than the palace. The horses and pegasi, tiny dots at this distance, looked like children's toys in comparison. Its head twisted back briefly, surveying everything, and even though I was so far back, I still saw their color clear enough: sky blue, and as timeless as the wind itself.

"Do not defile the wind with your magic, ruined and pathetic child of the wind." The voice echoed through my skull, so loud that I instinctively covered my ears. But it did nothing to quiet the sound. "Your ambitions are unworthy of the blood in your veins." The worst part was how calm the voice was. No, it wasn't 'calm'. It was indifferent, like the wind that blew through everything, no matter what was going on. "You have brought conflict to a peaceful land. You have let yourself be taken by the dark and allowed it to spread. So, I remove the blessings from you. I remove the protections. And you will be taken, by my knights, to the darkest of hells. That is my judgment."

A single chime rung through the air then, like a single bell, strangely loud and heavy for a simple sound. But the being, whatever it was, dispersed into light… or perhaps snow. But they didn't remain that way for long. Instead, they began to combine and morph into other beings. These ones were humanoid, with beautiful wings, just like a pegasi. Their clothing was uniform, light armor as near as I could tell, though there was no color to them. If there were features, I couldn't see them. To me, they were faceless warriors with weapons at their side.

As soon as the last one formed, they dove. They dove and, somehow, I knew they were going after Daccar. I heard his faint scream of horror as he fell, his last attack negated and his last moment spent in terror. But the winged beings didn't care. They seized everything he was, destroyed it, and scattered into the wind, though a couple of the lights lingered for some reason, dancing about figures I couldn't see.

One came to me and gently bounced against my cheek. "Thank you for giving my message." The words echoed through my head again, but it wasn't that old and calm voice. It was… it was Annand's. "Please, take care of them for me. I'm counting on all of you for that."

The light disappeared then and I collapsed, sobbing. I had no idea why. Was it relief? Terror? Sorrow? I had no idea. But, bruised, bleeding, and wondering what exactly just happened… I broke down in my own infirmary, feeling very, very small. I didn't have the energy to do anything else.


Lachesis had come running, just after I'd finished crying. She'd panicked, thinking I was crying from pain, but I shook my head and told her I'd just been overwhelmed. She'd given me basic treatment, enough to make sure I wasn't going to die, before I ushered her out to check on the others. A few more injured showed up then, one conscious enough to inform me that the battle was won and the rest would be returning soon. I tended to them all to the best of my abilities, and when the rest arrived, I worked with Aideen to heal them up. Claude didn't help us. Claude had Lewyn in another room entirely, working solely on him, and once the injured were stabilized, I went to join them, leaving Aideen in charge of the infirmary.

"I saw the Final Strike and panicked," Lewyn explained, while Claude and I checked him over. He'd been babbling what happened repeatedly, as if saying it multiple times would somehow make it all make sense. "I knew there was no way we'd be able to get out of the way in time, so I tried to just seize the wind from him. Stupid. I was desperate. But I have more command over the wind than him… had more command… shit…"

"Have some water," Claude instructed, passing him a mug. Lewyn's hands shook so much that he nearly dropped it, but I caught it and helped him with it. Some water spilled down his chin, but none of us bothered acknowledging it. "So, after you tried to turn a Final Strike against its user…"

"I was suddenly the wind. I was just… a channel. A larger version of before. There was that presence, but it was everywhere. And I heard so much…!" Lewyn began trembling again, and I wrapped an arm around his shoulders, silently conveying to Claude that the physical assessment checked out. Claude nodded and focused solely on checking Lewyn's mind and spirit. "I could hear people cheering in Leonster. I could hear people dying in Thracia. I could hear prayers in Verdane. I could hear sobs in Agustria. I could hear how the Issachians refused to give up. I could hear how the Grannvalians prepared for the coming wedding. Then there were the whispers..." Lewyn's voice cracked. "Dark whispers, twisting out from the desert, twisting out from all over. Too quiet to hear. The wind hated them. It wanted to suffocate them, but couldn't. I…"

"Easy." Claude set his staff down, apparently not finding anything either. He and I shared a worried look over Lewyn's head, but when Lewyn looked up at us, we both had our healer's masks firmly in place. "You must remember to breathe, Lewyn."

"Right…" Lewyn took a shuddering breath and coughed a bit. "Claude, have you heard of anything…?"

"Unfortunately, no, not to this extent." Claude frowned heavily, resting a hand against his chin as he tried to think. "The closest would be the Book of Naga, which is said to invoke the image of the Goddess Naga to destroy foes. But that seemed a little more to invoking." He sighed, letting his mask slip briefly before gathering up his calm again. I stepped a little behind Lewyn so that he couldn't see my own mask slipping. "The Gods shouldn't be interacting with the world. They left it to we humans, to shape it. That was why they blessed the Crusaders, instead of finding the dreaded Loptyr themselves."

"So, something has caught their eye and made them turn their attention back here," I suggested hesitantly. I ran my hand through Lewyn's hair in an attempt to soothe him. He leaned into me and closed his eyes, trying to take comfort from the gesture. "Lewyn, when was the last time Forseti was used?"

"It hasn't been used since the Holy War," Lewyn mumbled. "At least, in combat. It's been used to dispel conflict through its song, but that's the extent. Any actual fighting was done with more normal tomes, like Tornado." He sounded just so drained. I could barely hear him. "So, maybe that's it. They sensed it being used and wondered 'what the hell' and then got mad when they saw why."

"And that might've caught the God of Wind's attention because Forseti hasn't been used in so long, unless Mjolnir and Valflame, which have seen conflict," Claude mused. He still frowned, though, and his eyes flicked over to where the Valkyrie Staff rested in a corner. Again, I wondered what it meant for it to be unsealed, but I didn't ask. I wasn't sure I wanted to know the answer. "It could also be that you accidentally tapped into a different ability. We can check the stories."

"And make sure I never do it again because that was very terrifying. I thought I was dead, and someone else was moving my body." He shuddered and I hugged him, still doing what I could. Really, I wanted to get him to someone who could at least distract him, but… "They do say that Forseti was the god most reluctant to leave us to our own devices, though."

"Yes, I remember. The God of Wind wanted desperately to stay, to help the humans, but was persuaded to leave. So, it could also be that." Claude rested his hand on Lewyn's back. "Well, we can sit here and theorize all day, but that won't answer anything. You're perfectly fine, physically. In fact, you're in better condition than Alicia." He smiled pointedly at me, and I smiled innocently back. "You are going to be under observation, though. You're getting a check up every morning and evening for the time being, just in case something new develops."

"Got it." He sighed and pulled away from me. Claude peered at his face, and headed over to the medicine shelf for something. "Ugh…"

"It's also the healer's recommendation to thoroughly distract yourself, perhaps with a lovely date with your lover," I gently teased. I managed to get a shadow of a smile from him. "Though, if I might ask one thing?"

"Of course," Lewyn replied immediately. He looked at me, complexion pale but eyes curious. "What is it?"

"Did… did you hear Annand too?"

"Ah." His expression crumpled and he nodded. "I did. Just her. Most of those little lights went around the pegasus knights. Around Erinys." His voice caught and he coughed to clear it. "I think… I think they were the ones that fell. The ones that died. They were all sobbing. The ones that survived, I mean. Quite a few collapsed..."

"Erinys told me of how particularly skilled pegasus knights would become the knights of the Wind Gods." I wasn't sure how to react. I had kind of hoped I'd just been hallucinating. "It seems like it's at least a little true."

"Valkyries, we call them. Did she not say that?"

"She was… a bit distracted." I smiled ruefully. "I'd just given her Annand's circlet."

"Oh. Yeah." He returned my smile and it was very bitter. "That would do it."

Claude rejoined us then, giving Lewyn a sleeping medicine to use for the night and seconding my recommendation to just enjoy himself. We both kept up the calm smiles and reassuring presence until he was out of the room, at which point we shared a silent, and frankly terrified, look. Neither of us knew if Lewyn was going to be okay. Neither of us had any idea if he'd accidentally condemned himself.

I hated all of this. I wished this war had never happened. What was wrong with us just being happy?


Claude and I worked in the infirmary, letting Aideen go check on the children and assist Ayra with feeding them. Both of us wanted reassurance that, yes, there were still some people we could help. There were still some things we could heal. There were still some things we knew. During that, though, the injuries on my arm bled through my bandages, and Claude instructed me to step out of the infirmary and let myself be treated. It was still a bit of a mess thanks to the broken windows, and cold even with the windows covered by blankets.

Lachesis found me as soon as I stepped out and seized my not-bandaged hand to drag me off for healing. We ran into Tailtiu on the way and she insisted on helping. We actually ended up going to her room for it, since we knew it would be empty. I just let myself be dragged along. I was tired, and I ached.

"You got this injured because of the wind thing, right?" Tailtiu asked, tending to my hand. She had to dig it to pick out a couple of glass shards Lachesis and I had missed. "Wow, that sucks. Lachesis, how were you?"

"All the civilians were in the basement, so there weren't any windows," Lachesis explained. She shifted behind me, carefully treating my bruises. Part of me wondered if we should've sat on the bed for this, for potentially more comfortable seating, but the floor did allow Lachesis a little more room to maneuver, so here we were, in the middle of Tailtiu's floor. "I didn't have a clue that anything weird had happened until the voice sent me to my knees."

"Not sure if that's luck or not. Though it's good that you didn't get hurt. Might've hurt the baby." Tailtiu picked out the last glass shard and picked up her staff to heal my hand up. She stopped when I shook my head. "Huh? Why not, Aly?"

"If you just heal it up like this, I could get some severe scarring on my hand," I explained. I could already hear Chulainn's fussing, but it made me smile. "I use my hands too much to risk that."

"So, just bandages and medicine for now, got it," Tailtiu murmured. She set the staff down and pulled the bandages and medicine Lachesis had brought closer to her. "Anyway, outside, we all got knocked flat. Well, after trying to run for our lives. Azel recognized what it was first and yelled for all of us to get as far away as we could."

"Final Strikes are particularly dangerous from those of Vala's blood, so Azel has much more training in recognizing when he's in danger of loosing one."

"Yeah, he explained that on the way back to the ones who didn't know." She stuck her tongue out at me, and I smiled, recognizing that I had, in fact, just told her something she would've known better than me. "The eeriest thing was the pegasus knights, though. We were all basically punched to the ground, but they were gently, but firmly, guided down. Of course, if they'd been punched down, they would've died, but still..."

"It is eerie that it differentiated like that," Lachesis murmured. She moved to my side and helped me get my shirt back on. She was done with tending the bruises, then. "Tailtiu, let go of her hand for a moment?"

"Sure," Tailtiu agreed. She helped Lachesis too, and I winced at how stiff I was. I'd have to rest for a few days, darn it. "But wow, blech, this is all talk, talk, talk about boring and creepy stuff. Let's talk about more exciting things!"

"Like what?"

"Uh…"

"Well, I do have a question while you both think," I began, amused. With my shirt back on, I gave Tailtiu my hand again for her to continue bandaging. "Why do you call me 'Aly'?"

"Huh? Oh!" Tailtiu laughed, smiling sheepish. "Well, when Azel told me about you, he mentioned it was super secret," she explained. She bandaged my hand a little loosely, but Lachesis reached over to fix it. "So, I came up with 'Aly' as a means of… I don't know, hiding? It made sense to us at the time. And now I just… you know…"

"I see." I laughed as well, even more amused now. "You don't need to be apologetic. I was simply curious." She was the only one, really, who called me by a nickname, unless one counted the terms of endearment Chullain would use.

"Oh, good."

"I thought of something!" Lachesis noted excitedly. She tied off the bandage for Tailtiu and leaned forward eagerly. "So, this is super secret, and just something I happened to overhear, but Lewyn actually proposed to Erinys."

"No!" Tailtiu gasped, clapping her hands with delight. I smiled, also delighted, but also worried. The recent events might've delayed… well, there was no point in worrying about it. That was their business. "Who knows? What did she say?"

"She said yes, of course. But I don't know who knows, so that's why it's super secret."

"Got it, got it!" Tailtiu giggled, bouncing in her seat. "Ah, weddings! Parties!" She paused and both her and Lachesis focused on me. "Hey, when are you getting married?"

"Seeing as I don't see a need for the fuss, it won't be until we're back in Grannvale," I answered firmly. I genuinely didn't see a need for it. "It'll be mostly for our friends anyway."

"Aw, that's going to be a while," Lachesis sighed, sulking. "At least not until after winter. Queen Rahna asked us to maintain a presence in Zaxon, worried about the Jungby Knights showing up, and… well..." She shrugged, but smiled bitterly. "Silesse's army was devastated. We're probably the only military presence in the whole country. Meaning that bandits and snow rescues…"

"It is still near the beginning of winter, isn't it?" Though it could also be 'mid' winter by this point. We'd have to look at a calendar. Days blended together too much. "I wonder…" Someone knocked on the door then, so all three of us turned towards it. "Come in."

"Hello!" Azel stepped in, and he immediately came over to give me a hug. I returned it as best as I could. "I'm sorry if I interrupted girl time or whatever," he began, crouching next to me. "But we're having a little party to try and distract Lewyn from whatever the hell the weird thing was, and I was instructed to get you guys and see if you wanted." He poked my cheek. "Also, Claude says you're banned from working in the infirmary for a couple of days due to your injuries."

"Of course he did," I sighed. Knowing my friends, they wouldn't let me even try. "But I think we're done here, so let's go have some much deserved fun, shall we?"

I hoped this civil war was the last war we went through. It probably wouldn't be, but I still hoped. We were all very tired of fighting.


Notes on Brigid:

The 23-three-old heir of Jungby, Aideen's elder twin, who disappeared during a pirate attack when she was five years old. Has a strong sense of justice and a desire to keep people safe, despite being a former pirate.

Her Holy Mark covers the entire left side of her back.

She's arguably our biggest hitter among the physical weapon users, thanks to Yewfelle, and Yewfelle's regenerative abilities allows her to heal what damage she receives. Since she's Ullur Major, she can practically weaponize her luck.

She does her best to adapt, but it's clear that all the recent revelations, and all the recent troubles, are weirding her out. She was probably a lot happier as a pirate.


Author's Notes: And thus ends Game-Chapter 4. Just a bit more… foreshadowing to future events. Daccar has a force of mercenaries (pretty sure they're mercenaries) that guard the road to Zaxon and they can be tricky, but once they're dealt with, it's more or less a straight shot to Daccar, though he does have a Blizzard tome iirc. 'Final Strikes' were mentioned in the early chapters, a last ditch effort for mages of Holy Blood, where they kill themselves for a… well… final strike at their foes, to take as many enemies with them as possible.

And, amusingly, we've actually hit the last of the character bios for this generation. Brigid is the last person you recruit in Gen1. (I'll have to think of what to make notes on for the next Game Chapter, huh?) As a reminder, the ages in all their bios reflect the age they are upon recruitment. This is why Brigid's age is listed as different than Aideen's in her bio.

Brigid joins as a prepromoted sniper (though prepromotes aren't that 'bad' in Fe4, since promotion only gives a bonus to stats; all units had a level cap of 30), with strong bases and not all that great of growths (she only has two growths above 50%, HP and Luck, which are boosted by her Holy Blood). That said, thanks to Yewfelle, she has an attack of like… 60, right from the get-go. So, most units she does hit are going to die in a couple of hits. (Why, yes, all the Holy Weapons are a tiny bit broken.) She, like Claude and Aideen, has no personal skills, only her class skill (Pursuit), so her children are reliant on their father for any skills.

Next Chapter - Interlude, New Year (time skip again; so we're around ~10 chapters from the end of Gen1. More or less.)