Interlude - Sophara


With Iucharba and most of his soldiers dead, we move into Sophara and are greeted with a loud, jubilant chorus of cheers. Sophara had hated the Empire bitterly, though they had tolerated Iucharba because he had been kind. But Sophara had dealt with a tyrant before, the man who killed Dad's family and took over, and had not enjoyed suffering under a second. So, they welcomed us with open arms, a sharp contrast to Iucharba and his soldiers.

Unfortunately, it's not actually all that comforting. Iucharba's words bit deep, and looking at all of the happy civilians, I was even more keenly aware of just how many would suffer if we did fail. That didn't help with the nauseous feeling I had. Not one bit. But I smiled for them. I would never stop smiling for them.


It was strange, being in Sophara. This was Dad's childhood home. It had fallen when he was a child, and he never was able to return, but it had once been his home. His family was buried in the crypts, with the graves of my grandparents decorated with ribbons and flowers (all flowers showing admiration and loyalty, highlighting how well they must've ruled) and the graves of my aunt and uncle having small children's toys (because they had been so young, three and two respectively). There were adults here, still alive, who remembered him as a child, and shared their memories of him with sad smiles and bittersweet laughs. But, perhaps most importantly, there were pictures. There were portraits of him as a child, some of which were actually on the walls, set up after Iucharba's death. And, as his daughter, his eldest, his 'heir', I was allowed to take whatever I wished. Meaning that all the smaller pictures, the ones easily carried, were scattered across my bed, along with the portraits I had of him as an adult. Because I, of course, devoted an afternoon just looking at them.

"Dad's smile was much smaller and sadder as an adult," I whispered, studying a couple, one from when he was a child and one from when he was an adult. His smile as a child had been bright and carefree, like the sun. "Oh, but it's more similar to this one…" I picked up a different portrait, one where he seemed to be teasing Mom. The smile there was more 'boyish', and freer. "Aideen did tell me once that Dad's best smiles were reserved for Mom." She also said that Dad had always had a sad air to him, but it had been smallest when he was near Mom. Like the happiness she'd given him was enough to make the sadness cower. He'd been happiest, though, when he'd was with Mom, Conall, and me. "Oh, wait, is this one with Aunt Ayra?!" I picked up a different picture of Dad's childhood, one where he was playing with a girl with long black hair and grey eyes. "It is! Oh, I have to show this to Larcei and Ulster!" I set it on the nightstand by my bed and continued looking. Or, at least, I did until someone knocked on my door. "Come in!"

"Strangely, I thought you would be too enthralled with the pictures and that Hestia would be the one answering," Oifeye teased as he opened the door, carrying a mug. He looked around curiously, frowning. "Where is she?"

"Hunting, of course. You know that she always joins the hunters to help them out." She only hadn't helped once, and the resulting 'prize' had been far smaller than we would've liked. So now, we made sure she helped. Armies required a lot of food, after all.

"That's right." He set the mug on the nightstand and picked up the picture of Dad and Aunt Ayra as children. "You know; I had always thought so, but Conall and Larcei really did take after them."

"You think so?"

"Yes." He laughed softly at something. I, however, picked up a picture of Dad when he was older, studying it. Was this what Conall looked like? I hoped his smile was warmer, brighter, but… "Funny how Ayra's smile was the same."

"I suppose she smiled a lot, with the army."

"Eventually, yes. It took a while for her to be comfortable with us, considering what Grannvale did to her family and home." He grinned. "She'd always be so annoyed that Lex could spark smiles from her. She felt like she was losing, which irritated her."

"Somehow, I'm not surprised." That fit the stories I'd heard. "Dad's smile is different."

"Well, considering everything that happened…" Oifeye smiled sadly. "The army did eventually learn a bit about his past. How his family had been betrayed and slaughtered and all. I think only Alicia ever learned just how he survived, but considering he had been a child gladiator who bought his freedom and became a mercenary…" Not to mention his epithet of 'Death's Hound'. "No one asked. No one even tried."

"Bit of a shame that it's lost, though. It was an important, if tragic, part of Dad's life." Still, maybe that was a good thing as well. Maybe not having it known let him rest a little more peacefully. "Still, I can't believe there are knights willing to…"

"Swear loyalty to one of the last scions of the line?" He set down the picture and passed me the mug. Warm milk with honey. "I made you this."

"Uh… Oifeye, I'm pretty excited about being here and all." I put on my best smile. "I don't need the comfort."

"Yes, you're excited about being here. However, knights swearing loyalty to you is quite unnerving, isn't it? Particularly when you don't know if it's a sign of how well your grandparents ruled, or a sign of how much they desperately hope for something better, yes?" He smiled smugly and I… I took a sip from the mug in defeat. "You've also been uncomfortable about a few things lately. While some seem to predate the battle…"

"That's just typical teen stuff."

"So, a crush? That's really the only 'typical teen' thing you all dealt with." He frowned and sat on the bed next to me. "Still, it's odd for you to be hesitant in confessing."

"It's a bit different this time." I looked at him curiously. "You know; I've seen a lot of people confess to you over the years. Why have you never dated? You just not into that sort of thing?"

"I'm not aromantic, no. I've had quite a few crushes over the years." He brought his hand up to count them off. "Ethlyn, Alicia, Aideen, Erinys, Sylvia…"

"Not Aunt Ayra?"

"No, but I could admit that she was very beautiful. She just terrified me." He laughed. "But no, I've had crushes. I just… the Belhalla Massacre hurt me deeply, Riona. I am not joking when I say that I would not be here if not for the promises I made."

"Oifeye…" I knew he had been hurting. I never knew he'd considered suicide. "I think Mom would've hurt you."

"All of them would've. But I had once thought it would be worth it, if I could see them again." He brushed the hair out of my face and smiled gently. "But when I considered it, one of you would just… do something that had required my attention. And I'd remember the promises I made. I promised that I would keep you safe, and I couldn't do that if I was gone."

"I'm glad you're still here."

"As am I. Because I got to see all of you grow up into very fine adults, even if I wish I could keep you safe a while longer." His smile became a bit mischievous. "Still, I am here for you, when you need to talk about things that have been bothering you."

"Well, I'll keep quiet on typical teen things, just a little bit longer. Still thinking on them."

"Then perhaps something else? Perhaps the fact that you cast spells for the first time?"

"How…?" I groaned and took a big gulp of the milk, quietly surrendering again. "Why do I bother?"

"Because you prefer giving me heart attacks by climbing far too high."

"You make funny noises." Still, I sighed. "I don't think it was… necessarily, the spell casting." I struggled to find the words. "It was what I did. Fireballs in ambush."

"Enough similarities to the Belhalla Massacre to make you nauseous."

"And that it was something Arvis did." I tightened my grip on the mug. "I… I don't want to be like him. I'm scared of being like him. So..." And logically, I knew the circumstances were completely different. Logically, I knew it had been a viable, even needed, tactic. But…

"I see." Oifeye closed his eyes, considering his words carefully. "I can understand being afraid, Riona. But, at the same time, I'm not sure it would necessarily be a bad thing if you are."

"What?" I nearly dropped my mug, and honestly only didn't because the portraits were still on my bed. "But he…!"

"Oh, yes, he hurt me deeply. And I hate him, will always hate him. He killed my family. He killed the person who took me in when I lost my parents. He destroyed most of my world, and with it, many dreams and hopes I'd had. That all of us had. I will never forgive him for the Belhalla Massacre." He helped me steady my hands and gathered up the portraits to put them safely to the side. Just in case. "But just because I don't agree with someone doesn't mean they're a bad person. I've disagreed with quite a few tactics you all have decided, but I know you're very good people."

"That's different!"

"Is it? At its core, is it?" He waited a bit, but I couldn't answer. Because, I supposed, it was the same? Maybe? At the least, I could see what he got at, and even why. Oifeye wasn't as comfortable with pragmatic tactics as the rest of us; he also didn't like us purposely playing bait. "Alicia adored Arvis. She trusted him completely and always smiled when talking about him. Azel loved him dearly, was always grateful towards him. Lex outright stated that Arvis had been a better 'father' than his own. Sigurd had admired him. I could go on and on, but the fact of the matter is that you can't fool that many people for so long. Particularly Azel, who shared the same living space. So, I do very much believe he was the person they thought he was." He chuckled. "Besides, Azel would often tell me of how similar Arvis and Alicia were. And I know Alicia was a good person."

"How were they similar?"

"Workaholics. Lonely. Terrible at describing people, probably because they were so used to being alone that they stopped paying attention to those 'basics' because no one stayed for long." He rattled the traits off easily. "Kind. Wanted the best for those around them. Believed in 'fairness'. Strong believers in sacrificing the few to save the many, even when it cut them to the core."

"I get it; I get it." I honestly hadn't expected anything besides vague things, and it sounded like he could go on for a while. "But then Arvis killed them all."

"He did. But we did the same to others." He closed his eyes, remembering. "There are families in Agustria that no doubt sneer at Sigurd's name, because he killed their loved ones in the name of 'saving Agustria'. There are those in Silesse who lost their loved ones to our arrows, and then had to listen to us be lauded as heroes." He smiled sadly and opened his eyes again. "It's no different, really. The only difference is that we were on the opposite side. But that doesn't automatically mean that Arvis is the 'villain'. No more than it makes Sigurd or the 'villain'. Much as I wish the world was simple, it's just… not."

"That's…" I winced. That was something we all were troubled by, truthfully. That was why we tried diplomacy, even when it might be a little stupid to do so.

"In a way, you all are already 'like' him. You're trying to do your best by the people of Jugdral. And, based on his early reign and based on how highly everyone thought about him, I'd like to believe the same for him." Again, he brushed the hair out of my face. "And his early years were strict, but peaceful. Prosperous. Measures were taken to let those not born to nobility to still prosper. Proper punishments were given to nobles who abused their privileges. Those in the conquered regions didn't have the best of lives, certainly, but as we can see, things could have been much worse. Arvis allowed people their discontent, until recently."

"So, why do you think he's doing all this?"

"I don't think he's doing anything at all, Riona. And I think that's the problem." He began gesturing, like there was a giant book in front of him that he was reading from. "I think he's stopped ruling, and the Loptyr Priests took over. After all, look at the timing of the Child Hunts and their sudden openness."

"...Okay, that makes too much sense." I'd assumed it was Arvis, willing to believe the worst because if anyone deserved it… but Oifeye was right. Everything went wrong when the Loptyrian Priests stepped out of the shadows and began the Child Hunts openly. "Why would he let them, though?"

"His wife died and his daughter went missing, presumed dead for quite some time. In fact, from his perspective, she's still presumed dead." Oifeye smiled sadly. "And I know that would break me. I only didn't break when Conall was taken because I was 'certain' he would be fine, and I had all of you to think of. But because I know that, it is very easy for me to imagine he broke and stopped caring."

"Oh." I hadn't thought about him like that. I always thought of him as someone who deserved what he got, even if… "I hate him."

"I do too. But you can hate someone and acknowledge their good points. Just as you can be afraid and still keep going. After all, only a fool feels no fear, and you are no fool. Even if you do foolish things sometimes." He stroked my hair, smiling gently. "Besides, you have something Arvis never had."

"An inability to betray the people I love?"

"People who love you, who trust you, and are willing to stand in your way if they think you're taking too dark of a path." He rested his hand on my shoulder. "From what I understand, Arvis never had that. His father died when he was seven and his mother left soon afterwards. He ruled Velthomer, alone, and raised Azel with the help of a single maid, Azel's mother. Alicia, his little sister and one of his only confidants, lived on the other side of the country. He had only one friend, Aida, and she was clearly someone who agreed with him too much. They were too similar, and while that made them good friends, it also meant that when things went too far, no one stopped him. Assuming he thought there was a reason to stop. Being forced alone and to do everything yourself twists your thoughts into thinking you know best."

"...All I can think of is that Larcei would dropkick me if she thought I was going too far." And how often I fretted of being wrong and that I wasn't doing the right thing at all.

"And that is exactly what makes you all succeed. If you all think you're getting too dark, you will pull each other back into the light. If you think you're favoring too many sacrifices, you will pull each other away from such thinking." His smile became proud. "You are a group, and a close one. You stand by each other and scold each other when you think someone is going too far. You talk to each other constantly, sharing your worries. And if you think there is a problem, you speak up, because you know the others will listen."

"I see…" I did have to smile. Because he was right. All of us were together, so...

"That all said, I do think that fear is a good thing, Riona. While it wouldn't be as bad as you are thinking, that fear means that you will consider your options more, and listen to others. What you must not do is let that fear prevent you from doing what you know needs to be done."

"Like not using magic when enemies break through."

"Exactly. You made the right choice there. You spared Lana more worry, and spared the patients the stress of having enemies near while they are helpless."

"...Thank you…" I began tearing up suddenly, and I rubbed roughly at my eyes. "Ah, why…?"

"Crying when overwhelmed is normal." He took the mug from me and pulled me into a hug, letting me cry on his shoulder. "You've been overworking as well, to let Ulster, Larcei, and me process what happened to Lex and Ayra. So you rest a bit and cry. Crying is healthy."

I ended up crying longer than I would've wanted, long enough for the milk to cool. After I warmed it up again, Oifeye began sharing stories about what was going on in the various pictures I had of Dad. All fun stories, because each of the portraits had him smiling. Though some of them were absolutely ridiculous. Apparently, a bored army was a very dangerous thing, almost as dangerous as a bored Hestia. We'd have to be careful about that.


"Ah, so that was the issue," Diarmuid murmured as we walked through the woods with Hestia. Officially, we were herb-hunting for Lana. Unofficially, we were giving Hestia a chance to run about before she got bored and ate important things and to get alone for a private conversation. "When Lana told me you had figured out your feelings for Seliph… congrats, by the way."

"Please tell me that they at least weren't obvious when you and I were dating," I sighed. I felt bad about all of that, really. Even if we went into the relationship with the expectation of it being temporary… "Please."

"They weren't until towards the end, when I became aware enough to notice. I'll admit it played a part in why I wanted to break-up. Though it was mostly that the feelings had faded and there was no point in dragging out the relationship."

"I see." I tried to not grimace and hid how uneasy I felt by crouching down to pick a few more herbs. Hestia was somewhere up ahead, probably chasing a squirrel or something to eat. "I'm sorry."

"For what? Neither of us thought it was going to be forever. We just thought it would be fun. Which it was." He grinned. "You're a very good kisser."

"You're not so bad yourself." I had to grin back and laugh. It really had been fun, dating him. I just felt bad because there was something wrong about dating someone when you loved someone else. Even if you weren't aware-aware of the feelings. "You didn't really date afterwards, though."

"I had crushes, but I was like you. I didn't want to date outside of our group because we'd leave one day." He made a face. "Though I did almost ask Dalvin out. Same with Deimne."

"Oh?" I thought briefly about them and remembered a habit both of them had. "Oh, gods, it was probably after a practice session. In the summer."

"They always practiced shirtless!" Diarmuid groaned and I actually sit down on the ground to laugh, barely making sure to set my basket off to the side so that I didn't knock it over. "Gods above! And they were built!"

"Dalvin was always so confused as to why he'd get an audience!" I fell back, still laughing. It was a funny memory. "Then there was freaking Deimne! And his back…!"

"And worse, he knew how sexy he was!" Diarmuid sighed gustily and pulled me up. I picked up my basket and we started walking again. "What were we talking about? We didn't come out here to have a private conversation about too handsome friends. We could have that with everyone else."

"Seriously. I think most of the group could commiserate!" Not hearing Hestia, I whistled and she popped her head out from the brush for a split-second before returned to whatever had caught her attention. "I hope she doesn't get a snake wrapped around her head again."

"Again?" Diarmuid frowned. "When did it happen the first time?"

"Uh… later. Totally will tell you later."

"You will not."

"Nope." That whole thing was still horribly embarrassing. "Regardless, what were we talking about again?"

"Fine, change the subject." He playfully scowled and I stuck my tongue out childishly before kissing his cheek. "We were talking about your feelings for Seliph. With a focus on the panic you felt at the thought of confessing. Who knows that part?"

"Just you for now." I grimaced. "Between trying to process that, and everything that has been going on…"

"Makes sense, and I now remember my thought before we got very, very distracted." He smiled kindly and stopped under a tree. "And, speaking of distractions, the fruit up there…"

"What about it?" I frowned, studying it for a moment before recognizing it. "Oh, whoa, that's supposed to be super good for medicinal teas, right?"

"It's good for you in general, but yes, it's good for medicinal stuff. I didn't know they grew around here." He held out his hand. "You mind…?"

"Here." I passed him my basket and quickly climbed the tree, going to the highest branches for the ripest ones. "I'll do a few trips!"

"I know I'm good at climbing, but there is something very cat-like about how you climb up."

"Better than Seliph's comparison." I picked as many as I could safely carry and climbed a partway down. "Called me a spider once."

"He knows he can get away with it." Diarmuid climbed up the tree and sat on the lower branches to more easily hold up the baskets and so that I wasn't having to work as hard bringing them down. "Regardless, to continue that thought I originally had, when Lana told me about it, I thought that didn't fit the panic you showed. But if you're afraid of confessing…"

"'Afraid' sounds too tame." I swung up to grab a few more of the fruit. Their name was escaping me at the moment, but I definitely recognized them. "I felt like I was about to fall into a panic attack until you jolted me out of it."

"And that's because you're afraid of being wrong and there being a big change in our dynamic. Perfectly reasonable." He shifted the baskets, so that it was less tiring on his arms to hold them. "After all, if you two got together, what would change? You two have always been close. All of us have always been close. The idea that things might not be like that again is…" He struggled for a word before shrugging. "Uncomfortable. To say the least."

"Which is why Larcei and me not talking to each other was so damn awkward for everyone."

"Exactly. By the way, is everything about that argument settled-settled?"

"It is, or I think so." I wouldn't bring up that Larcei had talked to me about her feelings for Shanan. That was her thing to tell, when she was ready. "If it seems like it's not, bring it up, but for now…"

"Good." He sighed. "But yeah, the idea that we might get a situation where things are like that between any of the group again is unnerving. And since this wouldn't be caused by anger…" He shuddered. "Yeah, no, that is definitely a reasonable fear."

"Thank you." I actually felt a lot better just being validated like that. "More coming down."

"Got them!" Diarmuid helped me get the fruit into the baskets. "To continue, that's just our personal stuff. I'm not sure what the army will think or feel if they saw their normally very close leaders being very awkward. Probably assume a relationship spat."

"Uh… while that would technically be true, something tells me there's more to the story." I decided to do one more trip, just because I wanted to surprise Lana. "Something hopefully hilarious?"

"Hmm? Oh, have you not heard the rumors?" He grinned. "There's some soldiers who are convinced that our entire group is together. As in polyamorous relationship."

"Oh, wow, that's…" I had to laugh, unable to help it. It might work for others, there were a few families in Tirnanog like that, but I didn't think that was for me. Or really anyone in our group. Besides… "Not everyone in the group is bisexual or pansexual."

"You, me, and Larcei are the only three, right?"

"Yep!" Though Ulster might be demisexual. He'd never found the need to label himself, not like me, who had found comfort in the label when trying to figure things out about myself. But I didn't want to bring that up. I still wasn't sure if Ulster had told anyone yet. Larcei hadn't yelled my ear off about it yet, though, so maybe he'd forgotten again. "Though I suppose a polyamorous relationship doesn't require everyone being bisexual or pansexual in the group." For one thing, you could have three women in such a grouping. "We are so off-topic."

"We are!" Diarmuid laughed. "Regardless, though, I imagine it would be unsettling to the soldiers. Which just adds another layer to the worry."

"One I didn't even think of." I sighed and brought back the last of the fruit before settling on a branch above him. "Though now I have to wonder if being in a relationship will…"

"Going to point out that our parents did it, and that had absolutely no bearing on what happened to them, in the end." He paused and looked down. "Gods, I still can't believe my father is alive. I was so sure…" He winced. "Worse, I was so sure and was proven wrong. And Larcei…"

"Hey, no, don't feel guilty about it." I nudged his shoulder with my foot, careful to not accidentally kick him in the head. "That's not your fault."

"I know it's not. But I can't help but wish that Ayra or Lex were alive instead, as harsh and messed up as it is to think. Just because…" Because Larcei had clung to that belief for so long, latched onto that hope with everything she had. And it was answered with nothing. "I know it sounds ungrateful. Not to mention…"

"You're afraid he won't want to be your father."

"Exactly. He's never met me. He's been through gods knows what for all this time, apparently raising and protecting Leif." He sighed. "So, what if he just… doesn't care? The stories imply that he wouldn't think that. But Lewyn…"

"Yeah…" By now, Fee's story about how Lewyn just flat-out abandoned his family five years ago had spread. Oifeye had been completely and utterly confused by it; he'd assumed that if Yuria hadn't been raised with Ced, then she had been in a place nearby, with Lewyn watching over her and his family. Or something. "Still, we do have a plan in that worst case scenario. And something tells me Oifeye would give him the tenth degree."

"Something tells me Oifeye is going to give Lewyn the tenth degree when Lewyn returns." He sighed. "Off-topic. Again."

"We haven't talked much about how you felt since we first learned about it, though."

"Processing everything. The shock, the hope, the guilt…"

"Maybe talk to Lester or Lana about it?" Both of them had always felt a small amount of guilt over having a living-parent.

"Probably a good idea." He shook his head. "But, regardless, back to the original topic, because it's why we found an excuse to be out here in the first place."

"Right, right…" I nudged his shoulder again. "But you know that you can vent at me whenever you need it, yes?"

"Of course. That's how we've always been. Part of why our group works so well together." He waved his hand through the air, trying to get back to the original point. "Ah, got it. I'm not sure we should not be in relationships because of what the army thinks. We can talk to Oifeye if it's really bothering, but I think we're allowed our friendships and romances still, even as we lead. We just can't let them take up our entire lives and keep up with our duties."

"That does make sense." I missed the simple days of Tirnanog. But those days were bought with the blood, sweat, and tears of everyone else, so it was only fair that we repaid them for everything. "Was there a continuation to all of that, though? We keep getting distracted."

"There was, actually. It's that it's totally understandable, but I still highly encourage you to confess." Diarmuid grinned up at me. I tried to not accidentally fall from surprise. "Well, maybe wait until we've dealt with Danann. We should have some time afterwards before pushing into Leonster. For one thing, we have to make sure we're adequately prepared for the Yied Desert."

"You think I should…" My voice definitely went squeaky at the thought. "I mean… what if…?"

"I just mentioned how uncomfortable it would be. You really think I'd encourage you if I thought the worst was going to happen?" ...Okay, I had to admit that point. "Besides, I think he might be doing something subtle too. After all, the roses he picked for you were-"

"Does Seliph even know the flower meanings? That's more of Larcei and Lester's thing, with us picking some up because they'd discuss it."

"Who knows? But it is true that he purposely picked red for yours. And everyone and their dead great-great-grandfather knows what a red roses means." He continued grinning. I became tempted to 'accidentally' kick him. "I wonder how many roses there were, though. There's supposed to be meaning to the number, right?"

"I have no idea, but reminder that we were trying to use as many of the roses as possible to clear the damn table." Looking back, I sincerely wondered how Iuchar got so many roses in the first place! "I do wish we had saved a few for Yuria, though." They would've looked so pretty in her hair and since it was long, we could've put a bunch in. "I should take her out to some meadows or something to make up for it."

"She really likes flower crowns. She can't remember why, but she finds it fun." Diarmuid shifted so that he was resting against the trunk of the tree. "I'm a bit worried she tries too hard to be 'helpful' and 'useful'."

"I've been worried about the same." It was like she felt she had to repay us for the shelter, and she didn't have to do that at all. "Still, she does seem to be settling in well."

"She is, and she does well in her lessons. I'm just worried she's going to push herself too much and collapse." Diarmuid glanced up at me. "She's also had a few soldiers flirt with her and she gets terribly confused."

"Well, she is cute." I still felt myself go cold. "So, by flirting…"

"Simple flirting, nothing that seems pushy. She seems confused, but not uncomfortable. That said, with her tendency to be shy…"

"Might need to keep a better eye then." If there was one thing that would not be tolerated, it was harrassment. Period. "Though, I suppose I should also give her some tips for dating and the like. Or should we discourage that because of the whole amnesia thing?"

"I have no idea on that one." Diarmuid held his hands out like they were a set of scales, with the baskets being the 'scales'. "On the one hand, there has to be ten thousand complications that come from dating an amnesiac because of all the things that could happen because of the missing past. On the other hand, it's wrong to deny someone happiness for something out of their control like that. Might as well deny someone happiness for having melancholia or soldier's heart or… uh…"

"I get what you mean." Of course, we had the additional complication of knowing who she was, but not being able to talk much about it because she was traumatized. "Hey, why is it called soldier's heart when you can get it from non-combat things?" Creidne had it, because of…

"I think it's just because it was identified first in soldiers and no one has bothered changing the medical definition. I mean; why do we call anything… anything?"

"Okay, point." I might as well ask why a flower was called a 'flower'. "And…" And now was when I realized that in the conversation, neither of us had been paying attention to Hestia. At all. "Shit."

"What?"

"Hestia."

"...Damn it."

Both of us climbed down quickly and hunted through the trees, well aware that Hestia could be just about anywhere, especially if she hadn't noticed we'd stopped. Thankfully, though, we heard her barking and growling at something, allowing us to find her easily. We assumed that she was just being angry at a squirrel that managed to escape up a tree. Instead, we found her growling at a hissing bobcat. Because of course she was.

"I… uh… didn't know bobcats lived around these parts," Diarmuid whispered, unnerved. Rightfully so. Wild animal and all. However... "Hestia? Hey, girl, come back over here and-"

"Oh my gods, you are so cute!" I gushed, smiling brightly. Diarmuid tried to stop me, but I ducked around him and rushed over to the pretty bobcat, nudging Hestia back before holding out my hand to it. "Hello there…" Slowly and carefully, the bobcat sniffed my hand, learning my scent. Living so close to the castle, it was probably more used to people. "Did my Hestia chase off your dinner? I'm sorry if she did."

"Why is your reaction to potentially dangerous animals always 'KITTY!'?" Aside from pitching that last word high for false excitement, Diarmuid's tone was decidedly exasperated. "That's a full-grown bobcat!"

"And?" I scooted a little closer, and the bobcat let me. "Besides, you just have to be respectful."

"I am. Waaaaaaay back here."

"Well, you can hold Hestia or something and make sure she stays out of the baskets." I moved even closer, fighting off a grin. I didn't want to bare my teeth; that was often a threat display. "Goodness, you are a beauty. That you're out and about means we're probably about three hours out from sunset, though."

"How the hell can you tell that?"

"Bobcats are crepuscular, active during twilight hours." By now, I was close enough to check underneath and get a gender for the bobcat. "She'll be hunting until around midnight, and then will be running about from about dawn to three hours after sunrise."

"Oifeye is going to have a fit."

"He doesn't need to know." I carefully rested my hand on the bobcat's head and she let me scratch her behind the ears. "Oh, I bet that feels good. You can't clean here very well."

"You are petting a wild bobcat."

"Obviously." I continued petting her, making sure to really rub her on the head and behind the ears. "Can we bring her back-"

"No."

"Aw, come on! She's cute!"

"You can't bring every cute animal home!" Diarmuid sounded so done with me. I didn't care, though, because the bobcat was soft and letting me pet her. "She's got a pack or something."

"Like most felines, bobcats are mostly solitary animals." I caught a sound, though, and looked up to see two tiny little bobcats looked at me through the branches of a tree. "Oh my gods, you have kittens!"

"Gods help me and my dumb friend who is going to get eaten by a bear one of these days because she thinks it's cute." Diarmuid sighed. I ignored him to coo at the kittens. "No, you can't take them home either!"

"Kittens!"

"No!"


While I didn't get to bring the bobcat and her kittens back to the castle, we did help her with catching some extra meat for them and I hummed the whole way back. While Diarmuid grumbled and groaned about how I was seriously going to get eaten one of these days. Hestia kept giving him weird looks while she stuck close to me, panting happily as we returned. Sadly, though, the good mood didn't last. Shortly after dropping off the baskets at the infirmary and going our separate ways, I ended up in the middle of a fight.

"The hell are you doing?" I snapped, pushing people as I fought my way through the crowd. It was one of the recreation rooms of the castle, set up for soldiers to play cards together and the like, and unfortunately, that meant I had a lot of people to get through before I reached the troublemakers. "Hestia!" However, a growling wolf made even the angriest of people stumble back and I made it to the fight before too many punches were thrown. I hoped. "Hey!" Unfortunately, though, I ended up getting punched in the face for it, but hell if I cared right then. Mostly because I had to calm down Hestia and hold her back. "Knock it off!"

"M-my lady…" the puncher whispered shakily, looking down. I glowered at the people around and slowly tried to figure out what the hell was going on. It was only then that I realized the puncher's intended victim was Iuchar, who looked startled to see me. "I…"

"If you're only going to feel bad because you hit me, then don't apologize. I'm more annoyed at the punch, not getting hit." I sighed and brushed my hair out of my face, wishing I had it tied back. But no, I wore it down, like I always did when I wasn't going into battle. At least Hestia was calm, if growling. "What happened? I'm assuming that you got offended by Dozel and decided to take it out on allies who happen to have once been associated with them?"

"I…"

"Hush. I don't want to hear from you at the moment." I looked to Iuchar, who smiled wryly. I noticed he actually had a couple bruises on his face. That there were none on the puncher proved Iuchar hadn't fought back. "You're of Neir's blood. You could've at least blocked."

"Well, I wasn't expecting to get punched," Iuchar replied, shrugging. A few of his soldiers glared at the puncher. Others glared back. "I did, however, let them yell at me. I thought that if the yelling helped, I could deal. It's better than what Father used to say. Or Iucharba."

"You don't need to do that. You're not responsible for your father's crimes." Though, consider he'd winced at Iucharba's name, I had to wonder if he went through it as 'penance' for killing his little brother. "But, basically, you and yours were here enjoying a card game?"

"More like enjoying a drink. We tried to keep in the corner."

"Oh, this is ridiculous." I gave the puncher a droll look. "I'd think you'd want to make it harder for Danann to kill us all, not easier. Divisions among us is only going to help him."

"Why should we listen to you?" someone demanded. I couldn't see who they were; they were hidden in the crowd. "Some bastard child born to a bastard child, claiming Isaachian heritage…" All my thoughts clunked to a stop. "Pretty convenient that you preach 'peace' to the side that supports your uncle." Mostly because I never had someone accuse me of this before. "Makes me wonder how else you try to undermine our-"

And then there was the sound of a punch. And some yelling. It took someone screaming, "how dare you insult Lady Riona!" to make me realize that someone had attacked my insulter. Multiple someones. Meaning I had to push my way through a crowd and fight again.

"Enough, enough, enough!" I yelled, wading through. Iuchar helped me, as did Hestia. "Stop this at once!" Iuchar actually had to throw a few people back so that I could reach the center of things, and actually see the my accuser, a rather young person whose face was swollen from the assault. In fact, one eye was swollen shut. Their nose and mouth were bloody. Bruises mottled their neck. "How dare you do this to one of your own?!" It was actually scary. It was scary, to see how wounded they were, just because of an insult to me. I didn't like it. That sort of zealousness… I didn't like it at all. "Unbelievable! Gods above, ignoring everything else, you're giving Lana and Yuria more work!"

"B-But my lady…" someone tried to justify. They slinked back into the crowd when Hestia growled in warning. "They…"

"No. No, there is no justification for this. This is something Danann would tolerate. Not us. Never us." I knelt in front of my accuser, peering at them worriedly. Their not-swollen-shut eye was blackened. A bruise near the ear made me worry that there would be some sort of hearing damage, though I didn't see any bleeding there. "We should get you to a-" And they spit blood in my face. So I had to grab Hestia before she tore his face off. "Gods above… hey, Iuchar, can you get Hestia for-"

"Holy shit, she tries to keep people from dying in fights, and tries to keep very needed soldiers from beating each other up, and people really think she's the bad guy? Really?" Arthur appeared out of nowhere, absently shuffling some cards. He must've been playing with the soldiers. "Gods, what sort of drug do you take for that to make any sense?" he demanded, rolling his eyes. I just focused on getting Hestia away, and Iuchar grabbed her by the fur to drag her out. Soldiers, mostly those from Tirnanog helped block her, recognizing the danger; they'd seen what she can do to a person. "Not to mention 'attacking' her when she's got a giant wolf that can crush your spine. If you want to die so badly, go jump off a roof or something. Don't mess around and make more work for the rest of us.."

"What does a sheltered bitch like her know about our pain?!" the accuser snapped. Blood dripped from their mouth, seeped through their teeth. I hoped it was just a cut and not loosened teeth. But this whole thing was just… "Sheltered and family to our enemies!"

"You mean the family she's never met and is directly responsible for the death of her parents? Because I've been here for only a few days and already know all of that." Arthur's voice was dry enough to spark flame. "And because of that family tie, caused by a happenstance at birth, you think she'll automatically be loyal? Really? Seriously, what sort of drug are you on?"

"I-!"

"Were you in the last battle?" Arthur waited until they nodded. "Oh, good, so I probably saved your life. With my magic." They nodded again. "Then look at this." Arthur pulled off his right glove, revealing a Holy Mark spiraling around the wrist, going partially down the top of his hand, but not his palm. The colors were Thrud-purple and Fjalar-red. "Holy Mark. Thunder. Fire. Pretty obvious what my heritage is, yes? Blood ties to the enemy on both sides of the family, and I saved your sorry ass during the last battle. And I'll continue to do so for each of the battles I fight with this army. Because even though I think you're an idiot and a problem, I am still a soldier in this army and I do my duty."

"That's a pretty good lead-in to what I wanted to say," I murmured, smiling warmly at him. And not just because his interference had helped me get Hestia out of here and made the soldiers stop being so combative. But I couldn't focus on the other reason right now. "And it's this. You don't have to like me. You may even hate me. If throwing barbed comments like that make you feel better, then have at it." I knelt in front of my accuser again and grasped their chin to make them look at me. "But you will respect me. You will respect all of us. You will respect your fellow soldiers. You will follow our rules. If you cannot do these things, then you will leave. We might need every blade we can get, but that doesn't mean we need to tolerate such poison among our ranks. Our jobs are hard enough without someone actively trying to undermine us." I removed my hand from their face and looked up at the surrounding soldiers. "Someone get him to the infirmary. Now." I stood up and faced the others. "Now, which of you punched them? Which of you punched Iuchar? Front and center. I wish to have a discussion with you."

People tried to disperse and give the instigators privacy, but I ordered them to stay and listen to the dressing down, both to make sure everyone heard it and to serve as the punishment for starting all this chaos. The ones who had punched the accuser were also ordered to report to me in the morning, after breakfast, for a reassignment to their duties for the next week. Only then did I let people leave, and when the last person meandered out, I sighed and covered my face with my hands, leaning against a table. I had no idea at all how I managed to get through all of that. I was exhausted. I was nauseous. I was kicking myself for not noticing how big of a problem this was getting. Some leader I was…

"A flower to cheer you, dear lady?" A yellow lily appeared in front of me and it took a couple of blinks to realize Iuchar had dramatically kneeled to hold it out. "I do believe it would suit you," he continued, voice pitched melodramatically. I had to smile at that. "See?"

"Thank you," I murmured, taking the flower. I tucked it behind my ear and sighed. "How are you? I can still see the bruises."

"Nothing bad. I'll be certain to check in with our fair goddesses of the staves once things settle down a little more." He stood up and bowed, smiling apologetically. "I am sorry, though. I truly thought that if they yelled at me, it would bleed off some of the tension."

"This is clearly something that we should've kept a closer eye on." I crossed my arms and winced when I noticed the blood droplets on the floor where the accuser had been. I really didn't like that reaction. I really didn't. I could excuse it in Hestia. She was a wild animal who thought of us as pack. But in people? In soldiers? It made me worry for the days to come. "I'm assuming Hestia didn't bite you since I see no blood."

"Nope, though she did fight me. But thankfully, Lester was passing by and took her from me to get her far away from the room. She was much less inclined to fight him."

"Makes sense." And I owed Lester big time for that. "Have things like this been common?"

"Oh, no, nothing like this. There's been some yelling and glaring contests, but truly, Lady Riona-"

"You don't have to call me by title, you know."

"Riona, there has been nothing like the scene we saw. Most seemed content with us keeping apart and under guard, as we had been."

"I see." Well, that was a bit of a relief. We were definitely going to have discussions about this, though. We needed to ask Oifeye about how the Verdanites were integrated into the army during the Verdane Campaign. Surely there had to be grudges and the like with that, right? "Well, hopefully, that little scolding will make it so that they're less inclined to turn to violence. If not yelling."

"I'm not sure the yelling is bad, so long as we can all work together when it comes to it." Iuchar smiled. "After all, anger is healthy, to a degree."

"Yeah, but if the yelling makes them more inclined to turn to violence…" I sighed. "Oh, whatever. Right now, we just have to wait and hope that they'll at least respect us enough to listen." But now that I was calmed down… "I need to go talk to Arthur, though."

"Because of what he just revealed?"

"Eh… sort of." It was, but it wasn't a bad thing by any means. "You make sure to go to Lana, okay?"

"I will." He bowed again. "I truly am sorry."

"You were doing what you thought would help. It's not your fault that it backfired." I did hope that he would be a little less inclined to let himself be a scapegoat in the future. "I'll see you at dinner! Thanks for the flower!" And I ran out of the room, expecting to have to ask and hunt down Arthur. To my surprise, though, Arthur actually wasn't that far away, just down the hall and leaning against the wall, clearly waiting for someone. And since his eyes immediately settled on me, it seemed that 'someone' had been me.

"So, I wanted to apologize for not mentioning anything sooner about the Holy Mark," he began. His glove was already back on. "I just got really annoyed."

"No, don't worry about it," I reassured, trying to not bounce from excitement. Because now that everything was a little more settled, I… "But I did have a question."

"Yes?"

"Your dad's name is Azel, yes?"

"Uh… yeah, it was?" Arthur frowned, but I had to keep from jumping for joy. "Who is apparently-"

"And your mom's name is Tailtiu?"

"Yes?" Arthur frowned more and I couldn't help but bounce on my toes. Which no doubt confused him further. "Why…?"

"We're cousins!" I grinned at him and his expression blanked. "My Holy Mark in on my chest, so I'd have to strip down to actually show you. But, we're cousins! Your dad is my mom's little brother!"

"Oh." He stared blankly for a moment before looking down quickly. I thought I saw his expression crumple, though. "That's why, then…"

"Hmm?"

"Your smile… it's like Father's. It confused me so much, but made me more willing to talk as well."

"I take after my mom, and I'm told she, Uncle Azel, and Arvis all looked alike." I hugged him, giggling. He stiffened, probably unused to the affection, so I quickly pulled away. "Ah, sorry, I should've asked first." He waved away the apology, not saying anything. "Ah, anyway, do you want to see pictures of them? Your parents? I've got some! Though, maybe you'd rather talk to Oifeye? He's got bunches of stories and I'm sure he'd be excited to tell you!"

"You do? He does? He would?" Arthur's voice became squeakier with each word and I had a feeling that I… well, that I was pushing a little too much. "Uh…"

"Oh, you don't have to! Just, you know, suggestions? Uncle Azel and Aunt Tailtiu were in Sigurd's army, so we've got those sort of things, but if you'd rather not, then please, don't force yourself!" I tried to think of a good excuse to delay and figured out one instantly. "Ah, damn it! I'm late!" I was supposed to supervise some of the classes with Oifeye. "Let me know if you'd like to see any portraits after dinner, okay?"

"I… sure?" His voice was still squeaky. I'd really startled him. "Um… thanks."

"Of course!" I grinned and winked before running down the hall, hoping Oifeye wasn't too annoyed.

I, however, was in the best of moods. Cousin! Family! Family I wouldn't have to kill! This was just the best!


After dinner, Arthur did actually want to look at the portraits. So, after checking to make sure I was done for the day, I brought him over to my room and scattered all the pictures I had of Uncle Azel and Aunt Tailtiu on my bed and showed him. Hestia laid down against the door to gnaw on a bone, effectively blocking the door as well. Hestia weighed a lot, after all.

"Oh, so Mother did have silver hair," Arthur whispered, studying the pictures closely. He smiled nostalgically and sadly at them. "I thought I didn't remember it correctly."

"The hair color is supposed to be very common to Friege," I explained. I pointed to his hair for emphasis. "Like the silver-purple of a thundercloud."

"Is it? Then I wonder if Tine has the hair color. I don't remember if she did or not."

"Maybe. Though she could have the Fjalar-red." I pointed to Uncle Azel for emphasis. "I got Dad's blonde hair, but it's not uncommon for those of the house to have this hair color."

"I wonder why they run so strongly in the families?" Arthur fiddled with a pendant he wore, a simple but beautiful one of silvers and reds. It matched the pendant Uncle Azel and Aunt Tailtiu wore in the pictures, but I didn't ask if they were the same. That was his business. "Holy Blood?"

"Could be." I held up one portrait of Mom and Uncle Azel. "Ah, but this is my mom. See what I mean by the family resemblance?"

"Oh, yeah, you can easily tell they're siblings." Arthur laughed softly. "I feel bad for not recognizing the name. Then again, I barely remember my family's names. I knew my parents had siblings, but…" He glanced at me. "Question, how long have you all suspected my lineage?"

"Basically as long as you've been with us?" I smiled sheepishly. "Larcei noticed our smiles are similar, and it went from there."

"That means…" Arthur looked at the picture again. "My smile is like Father's?"

"Yep!" I giggled and he smiled, pleased by the information. "But yes, we suspected from then. Magic runs strong through both Thrud and Fjalar's lines, particularly Fjalar, and the whole 'restart the heart with thunder magic' thing really helped with the suspicion."

"It did?"

"Yes." I made sure nothing flammable was near and snapped my fingers to spark a bit of flame. "Being able to manipulate the elements without a tome is one of the things that separate those with Holy Blood and typical mages. So, that thing you did with the thunder magic is probably something that only those of Thrud's blood can do. Well, safely, at least."

"Oh. I really just learned because it's good for giving massages." He glanced up at the ceiling in thought, and I tried to think of how and why that would be good for massages. "Is that how you were able to manipulate the campfire?"

"It was." I dismissed the fire and smiled at him. "You can do things like that too."

"I'll have to try it sometime." He looked to me again. "But if you suspected something, why didn't you say anything?"

"People's stories are their business. None of us want to force anything." Particularly when there was trauma involved. "We'd love it if people be comfortable in the army, and in that comfort, open up and heal on their own." Of course, if they were being self-destructive, someone would intervene. Or, I hoped at least. With the army becoming larger, it would be more difficult to gauge that. "That's all."

"What if it's life or death?" His eyes were sharp. "Something in that story..."

"Who determines that? You're the only one who knows, and would know. Assuming you even remember in the moment." I smiled warmly at him. "After all, how many times have we realized something was important afterwards?" Just look at Mom for instance. She had never asked Arvis what Diadora looked like, thinking it unimportant, and it turned out far more important than anyone ever could guess. "You just take your time. Move at your pace with things like that. You're already forced to move at our pace for a lot of things."

"...Ah." Arthur looked down, almost like he was embarrassed, before he picked up another picture. "Who's the other person in this one?"

"Hmm? Oh, that's Uncle Lex. He, Uncle Azel, and Aunt Tailtiu were all childhood friends." I showed him a different picture, one with all three of them. They were all smiling brightly, laughing at something. And all of them were dead now. "Uncle Lex is actually Ulster and Larcei's dad."

"Oh, that explains why he and Ulster look alike then." He picked up another one. "And here?"

"That's Lewyn, Fee's dad." In the picture, he and Aunt Tailtiu were bent over tomes, discussing something with rapt fascination. "I understand that he, Uncle Azel, and Aunt Tailtiu often talked magic together. They handled a lot of the magical stuff for Sigurd. They also taught Aunt Lachesis magic."

"Lachesis?"

"Diarmuid's mom." I found a picture of her teasing Aunt Tailtiu, based on how flustered Aunt Tailtiu looked. "Here. She was a Master Knight."

"The hell is a Master Knight?"

"It's someone who tries way too hard." I grinned. "Masters of swords, axes, lances, bows, fire, wind, thunder, and light. And staves. While mounted, by the way."

"How poor of a social life did she have?"

"Well, her friends taught her, so…" A knock on the door made me look up. That whoever it was tried to open it without waiting for an answer told me it was one of my group. Hestia, of course, growled and shifted back against the door roughly, telling whoever it was to be polite. But I still felt a little grumpy. "I'm supposed to be done for the day."

"Maybe there was another fight?"

"Gods, please, no." I sighed and got off the bed. "Hestia, move away so that I can see what is going on." Hestia sighed gustily and got up to chew on her bone by my dresser. "However, if it's a fight, make Ulster deal with it."

"Be rather hard, because it's me," Ulster answered, opening the door. He nodded a greeting to Arthur before focusing on me. "And no, no fights from what I understand. I want your help with interrogations."

"Interro…?" I began, frowning. Then I remembered that we did actually have some captives, survivors from Iucharba's army, and we were trying to get more recent information out of them. Or at least different. Iuchar mentioned that Danann would often tell the two of them different things, operating on a 'need to know' basis. "And you want my help… why?"

"Oifeye suggested a 'nice person, mean person' sort of thing. He also suggested getting someone charming." He grinned. "So…"

"It's like the freaking gates again." I sighed and he laughed. "Am I the mean one or nice one?"

"Well…" He pointed to Hestia and I burst into laughter as I caught his meaning. I was going to be 'both' apparently, the sweet one who could 'order' the mean wolf to kill. "So?"

"Yes, yes…" I looked back to Arthur and smiled. "You take your time with the portraits, okay? This might take a while."

"Ah, thank you," Arthur murmured. He paused and held up one picture, one with Uncle Azel and Aunt Tailtiu smiling warmly at each other. "Can I borrow this one?"

"Of course!" I agreed immediately. I nudged Hestia up and pulled on some shoes. "Borrow whichever ones you want, though please let me know so that I know Hestia didn't eat any of them."

"...Thank you…" He returned to the pictures, and while I thought about swinging over to kiss his cheek, like I would with any of our group, I held off. He'd been uncomfortable with the hug, so it stood to reason he'd be uncomfortable with that too. Instead, I left the room, shutting the door behind me when Hestia joined me, and skipped down the hall, giddy.

Ulster followed me easily, laughing softly. "Arthur's heritage has already spread through gossip, so I won't ask why you're in such a chipper mood," he teased. I rolled my eyes and slowed down a bit to make it easier on him to keep up. "Sorry to interrupt bonding time."

"It's fine, since I'm a bit worried I was pushing," I replied, petting Hestia. Arthur did seem more inclined to let people know if he was annoyed or something than Yuria. But still… "We were just looking through the pictures I have of Uncle Azel and Aunt Tailtiu, while I shared what little bits I knew."

"That sounds like fun."

"Well, I enjoyed it." Wasn't sure if Arthur did or not. "Ah, regardless, what about you? Are you and Larcei bonding with Iuchar?"

"A bit, sure?" Ulster shrugged. "Neither of us were very interesting in getting to know that side of the family. Honestly didn't expect to ever meet them in a non-combat situation and never really thought about meeting them peacefully. Not like Seliph."

"I see." That made me a bit sad, though it made a lot of sense. I never thought about meeting Julius under 'peaceful' circumstances either. "Then in that case, how are things? Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, mostly. Like I said, it's mainly weird." Ulster snickered. "Then there's his flirting with Larcei."

"Ah, yes, that." I sighed, thinking on what bits I'd overheard. "Has she told him to stop?"

"Not yet. I think she's more confused than anything."

"She's been flirted with before?" And I knew that for a definite fact. "Or is it the flowery language part?"

"The latter. Iuchar can get quite grandiose."

"What was it that he said when we first met him? Eyes of starlight or something?" If someone said anything like that to me, I'd probably send them to Lana to check for a head injury! "Does she need one of us to intervene?"

"I don't think so yet, but I'll remind her that she's got bunches of people willing to jump in to help if need be." Ulster rolled his eyes. "This would be much easier if she admitted to her own crush on Shanan."

"Speaking of which, have you told Larcei about your crush on Lana? Because she hasn't yelled my ear off for it."

"Uh…" Ulster actually stopped walking, trying to remember. "Damn it. Too much happened afterwards." He sighed. "Okay, the two of us just need to have a twin talk soon."

"Let me know if we need to rearrange the chore lists…" I paused and giggled, unable to help it. "Chore lists… why do we still keep calling it that? It should be like… duty roster or something."

"I guess it helps us feel like not everything is different." Ulster moved to Hestia's other side to pet her. "Besides, it's hard to say brushing Hestia is something good for the entire army."

"I don't know. I'd put it up there with brushing and tending to the horses. Same with giving her baths." I shook my head. "Anyway, this interrogation. We're just questioning, yes?"

"Of course, though they all seem to expect us to start torturing after a moment. Danann seems to favor it. Maybe the Empire in general does."

"I don't see how torture works. I mean; how do you know someone doesn't just blurt out a lie or something?"

"I suppose the hope is that they don't have the mental fortitude to come up with a lie while in copious amounts of pain." He shrugged. "That said; some people just freeze and don't say anything. I think they're just sadists who like being in power."

"Right, right." Made me wonder though… after all, if someone was torturing a person, then they had a bias towards what the 'truth' was, right? In that case, would the torture end with the truth? Or would it end when they heard what they wanted to hear? "Ah, this is bad. I'm trying to reason out torture and it's icky. And not working."

"Thankfully, we don't do anything like that. The worst is going to be threatening them with Hestia." Ulster smiled. "So, want to know what exactly has been going on?"

"Please and thank you."


The interrogation went well, from what I could tell, though in the middle of it, Ulster got Diarmuid and had the two of us ask questions. I had a bad feeling this was going to be part of our job now, but Hestia playing 'mean one' certainly was effective in getting people to talk. So was the simple truth of 'we will not torture you, but you will be stuck in this place unless we can get useful information'. Amazing what a little honesty got you.

"Now then, where is Fee?" I murmured, wandering the halls with Hestia. It was late, so she could be asleep, but no one else was really asleep, based on all the noise I heard. It wasn't late-late yet, after all. "I really do want to talk to her." Someone needed to ask her if she'd be willing to be an 'official' leader, but with everything going on, it slipped our minds. I wanted to make sure I didn't forget again. "Hestia, you sure she's this way?" Hestia barked and sniffed around before continuing on. "Okay then, sweetie."

We continued on, and I made sure to smile at people as we passed, just to be polite. A couple stopped me to ask questions about certain duties and lessons, which I answered to the best of my abilities. A few more wanted to talk about the fights from earlier, since of course, that had traveled through the gossip vines, with all the exaggerations. I did my best to explain what actually happened and emphasized certain key and practical things, like how Danann's army was easily three times our size even with the extra allies. And how detrimental the in-fighting could be, pointing out how we now had to replace the medicines Lana and Yuria used to tend to the injuries, reducing our stock and chances of 'having enough' when another battle came. Thankfully, most seemed to understand. Some didn't, but I could only hope they'd have enough respect to follow the rules. Otherwise, we were going to get more problems far too quickly.

Regardless, though, all the talking certainly slowed the hunt down, but eventually, Hestia and I did find Fee. And I had to hold Hestia back because she and Yuria were talking. And it looked to be a serious discussion, based on how sad and shy Yuria was, so I didn't want to interrupt.

"Uh… you've apologized twice now, but I have no idea what you're apologizing about," Fee noted, frowning thoughtfully. She glanced up at the ceiling, tilting her head and pressing a finger against her cheek. "Nothing is broken, from what I know. My Annand is fine. My food was good. I didn't run into any pranks…" She hummed a bit, an incredibly beautiful sound really, and then shrugged. "Nope. Can't think of anything. So?"

"I… well…" Yuria whispered. She looked down, actually pulling her hair by her face to try and hide more. "I… Lewyn..."

"What's Father… oh!" Fee clapped, emphasizing her gasp. Or maybe she gasped, emphasizing her clap. "Oh, wait, are you apologizing because he's been raising you these past few years?"

"...Yes…" Yuria's voice was very small. "I'm-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Don't apologize for him!" Fee cupped Yuria's face between her hands and brought her head up. "There's no reason to be mad at you. He's the one who left. If anything, I'm just madder at him over it."

"But…"

"But nothing! I'm super mad that he left, and I'm even more annoyed that he raised you in such isolation! I mean; come on! Ignoring how being alone sucks super much, why didn't he bring you back to Thove? It's not like he and Mother didn't raise other orphans there. There's Misha, Karin. Hermina, Hawk… and I could go on and on, really. The castle was practically an orphanage with how many he and Mother took care of." Fee smiled sweetly, bending down slightly to make sure she was looking Yuria in the eye. Yuria kept looking down. "Mother would've loved you to bits. There is no reason why he couldn't have brought you to Thove. That he chose to do so is just another reason to be mad at him."

"But…"

"Again, his decisions are neither your fault or responsibility." Fee giggled. "If anything, I'd rather you think of me like a sister, if you don't mind. After all, we were raised by the same person, even if he's a jerk who thought raising you alone was a good idea."

"I…" Yuria finally looked up and smiled back. "I would like that."

"Then I have something to finally thank him for. Letting me get another wonderful sister~" Fee laughed, the joyful sound bouncing up and down the hall. "Say, how old are you? Do you know?"

"Mm… no, not really." Yuria smiled sheepishly. "Lewyn guessed that I was around thirteen when he found me, so we just say that I'm seventeen." Considering what I knew, those ages were accurate, which made sense. There was no way Lewyn didn't put the pieces together about who she really was. "But…"

"Ah, if that's the case, I'll think of you as my big sister! I'm sixteen, after all." Fee continued laughing. "So, no more apologizing. I'd rather spend time with you."

"That does sound nice." Yuria giggled, looking relieved. "Though, I do have my lessons with Diarmuid."

"This late? Wow, everyone works so hard!" Fee stepped back and brought up her fists, looking determined. "I've got to keep up!"

"That's my problem too." Yuria giggled again. "Everyone works so hard. I feel like I'm falling behind or, worse, holding them back."

"I'm sure you're doing better than you think. I mean; healing is hard work! Mother knew some healing staves and medicines." Fee snapped her fingers. "Oh, right! I was looking for one of the group! I wanted to offer to help make medicines. My parents taught Ced and me."

"They'll probably have you do it with supervision, just to make sure, but I'm sure they'd love it." Yuria sighed. "I need to memorize the herbs more quickly so that I can help too. They need more time to rest."

"Well, we'll work hard and keep at it!" Fee grinned. "Anyway, though, I'm keeping you from lessons, aren't I?"

"Ah, right!" Yuria turned and ran down the hall. "Let's have breakfast together in the morning!"

"Sounds good!" Fee waved until Yuria was out of sight and giggled. "Ah, that was fun~!" She then turned and squeaked, finding Hestia and me right there. Totally not hiding at all. "Uh…"

"That was so cute~!" I teased, laughing. She sulked a bit, puffing out her cheeks like a chipmunk, before relaxing. "She's right, though. While we'd love more medicine makers, Lana will want to watch you work a few times, just to be absolutely certain. Medicine making…"

"Is one of the few things in life that requires absolute perfection," Fee finished, swinging her arms behind her back and clasping them. "Father said that Alicia and Sylvia practically hit him over the head with that."

"Oh?" That… actually, that made sense. Oifeye told me that Mom had been the one to teach him medicine making, and that Sylvia had been the best medicine maker in the army. Aideen said that Shanan and Oifeye were the second-best ones. "Then I'm sure it'll be fine. Lana will just want to be certain, though."

"Of course!"

"And I know I mentioned it jokingly before, but if you want someone to slap Lewyn for leaving, I will volunteer. Or we can coordinate some pranks." I reached down to pet Hestia, for a bit of emphasis. Her tailed wagged at the idea of 'prank'. "Our group has a list of things we've got planned for someone else in a worst case scenario, but I'm sure no one would mind using them on him."

"Tempting, but I'll at least wait until I see him before making a decision." Fee glanced around and let her hands fall to her side. "Besides, there's something a bit more to Yuria than what meets the eye, isn't there?"

"That's a keen intuition." I crossed my arms and looked around as well, before gesturing for her to follow Hestia and me. "What makes you say that?"

"It's the wind, mainly." Fee followed me closely, talking quietly. We found a door outside and stepped out, walking through the grounds. Hestia rushed about, determined to get a late night snack. "As someone of Forseti's blood, I'm able to 'hear' the wind to a degree. It's helpful for when you're lost or for predicting the weather. I can also control it to a small degree as well, but I tend to avoid it since unexpected gusts can mess up Annand's flying."

"That makes sense." Forseti was one of the 'magic' Holy Bloods, after all. "Is it the wind or the sylphs?"

"Since I'm not really trained in magic-magic, I just say 'the wind', but it's probably the sylphs. Ced is way better at talking to them than me."

"I see." I looked around again, confirming that we were alone. Which made sense, considering we were outside in the cold at night. If anyone asked, we could blame Hestia, since she was hunting something. "Well, you're right. There is something more to her, but even she doesn't know because of the amnesia and the resulting panic attack when she does try to remember." I hesitated in continuing, but decided to go ahead and do so. After all, we planned on asking her to be a leader in the army. That meant showing her a high degree of trust. "She's actually Julia."

"Julia, huh? That name is familiar…" Fee frowned, thinking, and then she gasped. "Oh, wait…! Ah, that makes so much sense!" She nodded, crossing her arms. "I wonder if that's why then. I mean; based on what I heard, she would've been in so much danger." She frowned again. "Then again, Thove is literally the northmost city in all of Jugdral and between the snows and various forests, it's super hard to get to if you don't have a flier. Not to mention how gossip very rarely filters all the way from there to… well, anywhere. That's why we hid there, or so I was told."

"Told?"

"I was born in Thove. I've never actually been in Silesse Castle. Mother was pregnant with me when it fell. It's part of why Grandmother made sure to stay behind, while Father and Mother got everyone evacuated and safe. She died distracting the Grannvelian soldiers." Fee pulled back her sleeve, showing me a beautiful silver and diamond bracelet. "This was hers. She gave Mother some of her jewelry, to sell if need be. Thankfully, we didn't need to, so Ced and I got to wear them."

"Oh, that's a bit like my earring!" I tapped the ruby-gold one dangling from my ear. "Dad bought it for Conall and me when we were little. It matches a ring he bought Mom."

"Conall? Oh, right! Your twin! Mother told me about him." She peered at my earring. "Does he have the other one?"

"I hope so." We had each grabbed one along with our stuffed dogs that day. Then we had hidden in a building to get away from the soldiers and the roof… "I hope so."

"I'm sure he does. And I'm sure he's fine, just like Ced." She giggled and I smiled back, touched that she'd try to cheer me up. "You know; it's kind of funny. When I heard about you all, I somehow assumed you'd all be more like… say… Arthur. Crabby, bit caustic, like a skittish cat that had been abused and is slowly learning that the world isn't so bad."

"That… sounds a little too accurate." Though, Arthur saved the worst of his bite for people who genuinely annoyed him. "Gods, can you imagine him with cat ears?"

"So easily! I should figure out a way to make him some or something."

"A headband maybe?"

"Oh, that'll be fun!" Fee laughed, and I joined in. "See? Like that. But you all lived pretty happily, didn't you? Like me. Sure, things were tough in Thove, but I was surrounded with wonderful people. Of course, you also get the obligations. You lived such a nice life..."

"But you know others paid the price for that." I thought of the injuries Dalvin and Deimne got. I thought of Creidne. I thought of Muirne working herself to the bone to help with the healing. I thought of Shanan always leaving to save more people, never done. "The people who also look to you as…"

"As their hope." Fee nodded, completely understanding. "Ced got it worse than me. He's the Forseti Major, the heir, and he's just powerful. Like wow…" Her eyes sparkled, hinting she had a tiny bit of hero worship. Or, at the least, looked up to him highly. "One time, there was an avalanche and he used the wind to divert it completely from a village."

"Forseti isn't known for magical strength, right?"

"Nope. Forseti is speed. But magic itself has always run strongly in the line, even before the Holy Blood." She shrugged. "However, our way is a peaceful path, so many forget that even before receiving the Blessings of the Wind God, our Crusader-King created sandstorms with his magic to buy the army time to rest. The Miracle occurred during those sandstorms."

"That's amazing!"

"Isn't it?" She giggled, bouncing a bit. "But Ced's not just powerful. He's super nice, humble, patient, and he's the best musician. Plays a flute like our father. He's the best period, actually."

"I see." I, however, worried a bit. Even if you were naturally gifted, you had to work hard in order to excel at something. And if you spent so much being the 'perfect prince', then what else did you have? I felt like I was being crushed by expectations as it was. I worried that he felt the same. "Ah, goodness, I got completely distracted. I was actually looking for you to talk about something."

"You were?" And just like that, Fee was serious again. "What is it?"

"It's a question that we keep forgetting to ask." I smiled warmly at her. "Do you mind if we have you as an 'official' leader? You're our only flier, and that gives you a perspective none of us have."

"Oh!" Her eyes lit up and she smiled back, touched and proud. "I would be honored! Does it really change anything, though?"

"You probably have to actually do paperwork, but otherwise, I think your duties are more or less the same." I breathed a sigh of relief. I'd been worried she'd refuse. "It essentially is giving you more 'official' authority. You might need to order people, for instance, to help support you in a fight because of unexpected archers or whatnot."

"I see." She playfully saluted and winked, though I did see the seriousness in her expression. Even if she was excited, she was well aware of how heavy this duty was. She was a princess, after all. "We'll discuss details over the next few days to figure out specifics."

"Yep. This is a great big learning experience for all of us." I knew the proper thing to say would be something like 'I look forward to working with you' or something equally formal, but that was when I noticed Hestia had found some interesting prey. An owl with an injured wing. A fledgling owl, to be specific. "Ah! Hestia! Leave that one alone! Poor thing!"

"Oh no! Its wing!" Fee gasped. Hestia looked up at us with a 'why are you always stealing my snacks?' look. Gods, she didn't even like birds typically! "Quickly, quickly!"

Lana nearly laughed herself to tears when Fee and I rushed into the infirmary with the injured bird carefully tucked against my chest, a sulking Hestia following us. She tended to the owl with ease and all three of us headed outside to help the poor thing back up into the trees. Leaving Hestia with Yuria in the infirmary, of course. We also did a hunt to make sure there were no other injured birds on the ground. Because how could you save the continent if you didn't take the time to care for an animal? Or something.


"Oh, so Fee agreed, then?" Seliph asked, frowning over a report. Though it was horribly late, he was still working, reading through all the reports and the like, so I'd gone ahead and told him that I'd asked Fee. And that I'd told her about Yuria. Thankfully, he agreed that we should tell her, as a sign of trust. And because, knowing our group, it would come up in an 'official' setting. We'd have to consider letting Arthur and Iuchar know for a similar reason. If Iuchar hadn't already guessed. "Good, I'm glad. I'm thinking that she and Ulster can work together as our scout and spy leaders. She really does have a unique way of looking at a battlefield."

"Both literal and how she visualizes," I agreed, petting Hestia while I read through a couple of the reports. Seliph wasn't sure if he'd read them correctly, and I couldn't blame him. "I think we need some sort of standard for reports. This one rambles a bit too much." It was a scouting report and mentioned cute bunny rabbits. Which I totally understood, but it wasn't something Seliph needed to read and made it harder to pick out the important bits. "But yeah, she will visualize the battlefield from a top-down perspective, allowing her to note things we'd miss from our 'ground-up' way of viewing things."

"Also helps her with identifying places on a map." He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose before holding up the paper he'd been trying to read. "You mind…?"

"Now, is this another rambling one or a sign that you should get some sleep?" I took the paper from him and frowned. "Uh… huh." It was neither. It was just really messy writing. "Must be one of our newly taught."

"We're going to have to have it where someone proofreads or something. I mean no disrespect to the scout, but I honestly cannot make heads or tails of their report and that just means their work is wasted."

"It's fine." I snagged a pen from his desk and returned to the one I had been reading, underlining the important bits. "Here. This might help with this one."

"Thank you." He smiled warmly and sighed in relief. "Oh gods, that really does help. I can see why Oifeye said I'd just read summaries once we get the scout stuff finalized."

"Aha! So that's why you focused on that!" I winked, smiling teasingly. "I see through you!"

"I didn't think I was being subtle." Seliph leaned back in his chair and Hestia abandoned my side to head to his, nosing his hand. "Aw, thank you, Hestia. I do think some wolf hair would help with some of these." She licked his hand and rested her paws on the arm of the chair to reach his face. "Okay, okay, okay!"

"She's fretting because you've been in this study all freaking day." I frowned over the unreadable report. "Think we might need a bit more light if I'm to have a chance of getting through this one."

"Done." He snapped his fingers and four bright globes of light spun out from his fingertips to join the two hovering in the air over his desk. Seliph's Naga Blood certainly helped us save a little money on candles. Particularly if he was going to pull long nights like this on a regular basis. "I'll be glad once we get things properly organized. We really should've planned this better."

"In retrospect, yes." But what else could we have done, really? "Can you have one of the globes move a little closer to me?" Seliph gestured and one of the globes gently 'bumped' my cheek before hovering over my shoulder. "Cute."

"I thought so." He grinned and I rolled my eyes. "Say, do you think Arthur might be willing to be a leader?"

"I'm not so certain on him quite yet." With the additional light, making it through the report was a little easier. That said, I had to steal some pen and paper to make notes. "He's more here for Fee's sake, and at the moment, his ultimate goal is to get to Alster."

"Meaning that when we reach there…" Seliph frowned. "Where is Alster again?"

"Uh… way south?" I stopped what I was doing and found a map in the room. Because of course there was one. "Why is there a map?"

"Ask Oifeye. He's the one who put it there." Seliph stood up and cleared a space for me to set up the map. "Ah, so it's actually south of Leonster."

"It is." I found Conote fairly quickly from there. Both Alster and Conote were places Iuchar thought Conall might be, if he wasn't in Belhalla. So, when we went to Leonster, would I finally get to see him? "If he decides to stay with us after we've made it there, then I think we should ask. But until then…"

"Best to assume that he'll leave to stay with his sister." Seliph laughed softly. "Bit of a shame. I mean; he's your cousin."

"He is, but we can bond while he's here, and that relation won't change even if he does leave." I rolled up the map again, set it to the side, and went back to reading the report. "I think we should have him in the war meetings still, though. He's our only magey-mage. Sure, Yuria uses magic, but..."

"Yuria primarily helps Lana in the infirmary, and I think will want to continue doing so." Seliph sat down again to read. Hestia put her head on his knee, silently demanding pets. Which, of course, she got. "She might change her mind if we get more healers, but honestly, I'm not sure you can have 'too much' help there."

"Maybe if there's a shortage of space." That reminded me of something. "Oh, hey, did Lana tell you that she was wondering if we needed a larger space for the field infirmary?"

"She did. I'll talk to her in the morning about it." He smiled. "I love the reports from the infirmary. Lana's so precise."

"Well, she's not only been trained in this, but she's had her 'role' from the start. Same as you, really." Lana, for very obvious reasons, was our Chief Healer. Seliph led everything. "Diarmuid is officially in charge of our inventory and budget, right?"

"Yep. He got annoyed by my attempts at it. You know how grouchy he can get when you use a less efficient way to do math."

"Grouchy and hovering." He did try not to, bless him, but it just grated his nerves so damn much. "Iuchar?"

"Helping Lester manage our cavalry units, due to the majority being actually his soldiers. But…" Seliph sighed and leaned back in his chair. "I think that fight you had to deal with shows how… ill-advised it would be to make Iuchar a 'leader' outright."

"I'm not really sure if I 'dealt' with it. But I agree." It was clearly too much to ask of our Isaachian soldiers to have them listen and be under the command of Iuchar. No matter how kind Iuchar actually was. "What's Oifeye's official job?"

"Advisor, teacher to the new soldiers, making us seem far more competent than we actually are…" He smiled when I laughed. "I swear he works too hard. And I am saying that even though I know I'm probably working too hard."

"Not even probably." I made it through the report and passed my notes to him. "Bit of a shame their writing is still poor. Their report is actually very detailed, but to the point. Whoever it is…"

"Is a damn good scout apparently." His eyes narrowed and he jotted down a note. "Only report I've gotten so far that mentions the possibility of Dozel soldiers being on the road."

"That's troubling." While we did have a defense force in Ganeishire, the majority of our army was here in Sophara. Still, it wasn't entirely unexpected either. "Have Fee check it in the morning."

"Just what I was thinking." He smiled at me and glanced through my notes again before handing it back to me. "There should be name on the top right corner of the original report. Can you copy it down? I think we'll see about getting them extra classes for the writing."

"Sure." Whoever wrote the name had been a different person, so it was easy to copy that down. "Ha… pretty funny that Larcei and I are the only ones without any set roles."

"That's because you're both too good at too many things." Seliph grinned and I rolled my eyes. "Still, you were able to deal with that argument well. Better than I would've, at least."

"Again, I don't think I really 'dealt' with it." I brushed my hair behind my ear, and Hestia returned to my side for pets. "I really don't like how they bloodied that person for insulting me, though."

"Neither do I." He closed his eyes briefly before shaking his head and going back to his reading. "Still, you're better at faking a smile than the rest of us, so the soldiers find you infinitely more approachable. Or so I've overheard."

"Really now?"

"Yep. You and Diarmuid." Seliph brought up his hand to count off people. "Lana is the healer and no one wants to bother her with not-health-related questions. Yuria's in the same situation, with the addition of her being very shy. Larcei's untactful, to put it mildly. Ulster's stoicism intimidates people. Oifeye is gives an air of 'weary veteran' and so, no one wants to bother him during his few bits of free time. People assume that I'm too busy. Lester is also always running around."

"That's just because Lester is a bit of a scatterbrain, always forgets things, and rushes to get them done."

"Yes we know that, but they think it's because he's super busy too." Seliph rolled his eyes and I had to laugh. "And Diarmuid is often dealing with the supplies and the like and can't fake a smile as well as you. Meanwhile, according to the soldier gossip-"

"Which you've heard because…?"

"Because I hide during my breaks and people just walk on by. You eavesdrop quite a bit."

"Where do you hide? You're not a good enough climber to get to the roof, and the trees don't have enough leaves to hide you."

"Alcoves, mainly." He shrugged. "Anyway, you always make sure to smile for them, so not only do they not feel intimidated, but they actually feel encouraged to ask you."

"That explains why I got so many people asking for clarification about why the fight was such a disturbance." I sighed, but smiled for him. "Well, if it helps keep the peace, I certainly don't mind. Do we have a person specifically in charge of our infantry? If not, we can throw that to Larcei."

"Ulster was, but he's honestly better as a scout-spy master." He laughed. "Larcei's going to kill me in the morning."

"Drop it on her and run to my room."

"Don't think I won't." He smiled at me, but then took my hand. "But have you been okay? You've been a bit shaken, and it does seem like it's more than just 'how do you even run a freaking army?' and 'why are people swearing loyalty?'."

"You know me well." Of course, I couldn't tell him about what part of that was. Not yet. There was too much going on. "The fight between Iuchar and Iucharba did make me worry far more about Conall." And that was when I realized something. "Oh, damn, I never told you all that I asked about him, did I?"

"You did?" Seliph's eyes lit up. "What did you learn? I'm assuming confirmation that he's okay?"

"Yep, as far as Iuchar knows. Though, really, it's not much." I couldn't help but feel sad as I thought about it. Those differences… "He's apparently known as the Reaper's Wolf and is very skilled in combat, wielding fire and light magic." Fire and light… Arvis and Diadora… while it made sense, it did make me a little nauseous.

"Really?" Seliph gawked a little. Hestia leaned into my leg, sensing how uneasy I felt. "Huh. He was always so quiet and cautious with us."

"I know." Quiet to my loud… cautious to my reckless… still to my energy… we had balanced each other out as children. The 'stereotypical polar opposites', but it had worked for us. Until that day. I should've listened to him. He had wanted to simply leave and tell Shanan and Oifeye what was left. But I had insisted on getting them ourselves, too prideful and reckless. And it cost me him. It cost me thirteen years with my twin, and a pain I felt even now. "That's what worries me."

"...Well, he's not the only one who has changed a lot." Seliph stood again and cupped my cheek, smiling gently. "All of us grew up quite a bit. Little-Riona would've punched out the person who insulted her, for instance, not use it as a base to better explain our vision and hope for the future."

"Ha… that is true." I had, in fact, done so a few times. I was much more violent as a child, though Aideen had been quick to nip that before it became too much of a problem. "Still, there are so many things that are the same…"

"Of course. But there's nothing that says he's not still the same in so many ways." Seliph grinned. "Besides, isn't it fun to imagine his bluntness in Belhalla?"

"I… well…" I did have to giggle. Conall might have been quiet, cautious, and still, but he had also been the one person in the group with less tact than Larcei. "That's a good point." I could hope, at least. I just worried. "What about you? Have you been okay?" I studied him closely, frowning. "I know you haven't slept well."

"Ah, no, I haven't." He sighed and actually leaned down to rest his head on my shoulder. I ran one hand through his hair while resting the other one on his back. Hestia laid down on our feet, ready to be a comfort pillow if need be. "Iucharba's words haunt me. I keep hearing them as I try to sleep. The parts of killing people with hope..."

"And then seeing so many people choosing to die instead of believing in us." It was unnerving and didn't exactly make me hopeful. But the fact did remain that no one was surviving with things as they were. Perhaps our sheltered life let us still believe things could be saved, but it was still… "If it gets too much, you'll need to see Lana for sleeping medicines."

"I know. I don't think I'm that bad off yet." He sighed and straightened. I let one hand fall to my side, but kept the other on his back. "It just… it reminds me of how I will never be as strong as I ought to be. And how I can only pray that I can still be strong enough."

"Don't think that you alone have to be strong enough to bear all of their weight." I cupped his face between my hands and rested my forehead against his. "Of course you wouldn't be 'strong enough' for that. Our group has always worked together. That is how we push through things. By pooling our strength, we become more than strong enough." I smiled teasingly, and he smiled back faintly, accepting the rebuke. "Even Sigurd had an army of friends to help him through everything."

"I worry that I'm leading everyone to the same end. That I am simply being played, and leading everyone into a trap."

"We keep our eyes and ears open, and we remember that all things are possible. Our parents made mistakes, but we can learn from them."

"That… is true." He laughed softly. "Ah, I'm fretting too much, aren't I?"

"Not necessarily a bad thing. It means that you're aware of the possibilities, and if we acknowledge the worst stuff, then we can hopefully plan for them." I made to pull away, but he reached up to hold my hand against his face. "Hmm?"

"Nothing. Just…" He half-shrugged and closed his eyes, still holding my hand against his cheek. "I'd like to stay like this just a little longer."

"Of course." I smiled warmly at him, even if he couldn't see. "But be careful. Hestia's going to get jealous~!"

"I'll get her a treat in the morning." Hestia's ears twitched at the magic word of 'treat'. "Hey, Riona?"

"Yes?"

"I…" He sighed and shook his head, letting go of my hand and opening his eyes. "No, never mind."

"Are you sure?" I leaned forward to study him a bit better. "I'm always here to listen."

"I know. I'm just not sure what I want to say, or how." He smiled sheepishly, and I smiled reassuringly in return. "That's…" A knock on the door chased the half-conversation away and both of us became serious in an instance. "Come in."

"I… think I need help opening the door, actually?" Yuria's sheepish voice filtered through, and I went over to open the door, seeing that she also smiled sheepishly. And carried a tray with tea and food and what looked to be raw meat on a plate for Hestia. "I noticed the light and realized you were both still working," she murmured, walking in carefully. Seliph quickly cleared a spot on the desk for her. "So, I thought I would make you something."

"And you got something for Hestia too!" I laughed, taking the plate and setting it down for Hestia. Hestia, of course, rapidly chomped it down. She always ate fast. "That's so sweet!"

"Oh, no, it's nothing!" She set out the plate of food and the two teacups. "The tea is an herbal thing that's supposed to help with exhaustion, but not to the point of keeping you up. Mostly to make sure that your vision doesn't blur." She looked up at the light globes in fascination, poking one. "Pretty…"

"A useful little trick thank to my Holy Blood," Seliph explained, portioning out the food. I noticed that they were fluffy cheese buns, perfect for a late night snack, and that he was dividing it in 'three'. "Means I don't have to hunt for candles."

"They're beautiful…" Yuria breathed. She even giggled. "They're like stars!"

"I suppose so, huh?" Seliph frowned a bit, only just now noticing there were only two teacups. And being terribly confused. "I like them too. I used to be very afraid of the dark."

"You were?" She laughed. "That's adorable!"

"He used to get so scared that he had to sleep beside Oifeye to feel safe," I teased, grinning. Seliph scowled. "What? You did! It was cute!"

"Just wait until there's a thunderstorm," Seliph grumbled. His eyes danced, though, telling me he wasn't really mad. "She's afraid of the thunder."

"Lightning! It's the lightning!" I did look away in embarrassment, though. While I didn't mind the rain, I hated thunderstorms. Severely. I always had to hide with Aideen or Oifeye when I was little and even nowadays, I tended to try and hide during a bad storm. "B-besides, you know why!" It actually stemmed from two things. One was the fact that a particularly bad thunderstorm hit very soon after Conall had been captured, which only highlighted the fear and pain of losing my twin. The other reason was more conventional; I'd seen someone die from being struck by lightning. First time I'd seen someone die to something other than a weapon or magic. Kind of stood out.

"Yes, I know. But if you're going to share things like that…" He shrugged before snapping his fingers. And accidentally created another light globe, though he pretended he meant to do that, sending it floating around Yuria to her utter delight. "That reminds me. Have you been okay with Fee's thunder sword?"

"Hmm? Oh, yes, I've been fine. It's the storm, not… you know." I gestured vaguely. "Thunder magic goes 'magic-thunder-kill' in my head. Lightning goes 'storm-thunder-kill'. The association is different in my head. I hadn't even thought about it."

"Oh, good. I've been worried." He smiled warmly, and I vaguely noticed that Yuria looked between us, looking surprisingly happy about something. She even bounced a bit on her toes, for some reason. "Anyway, though, Yuria, why didn't you bring three teacups? Were you not planning on staying?"

"Ah, Yuria, you need a break too!" I got behind her and nudged her to the desk. "And I'm sure Hestia actually needs to head out-" I didn't even say the full word before Hestia was out the door, leaving a licked-clean-plate. "See? So, I'll go take care of that. You two take a proper break!" And Seliph got to spend time with his little sister! It was perfect!

Yuria's little frustrated frown, though, told me I had missed something, and it wasn't until much later that I realized Larcei might've told her about Seliph and me along with all the 'dynamic summary' stuff. Which… might have meant that Yuria had been trying to get the two of us to take a break together, especially given how giddy she had looked at Seliph and me bantering. Which I'd accidentally messed up because my mind went 'oh! Perfect excuse for Seliph and Yuria to bond!' and Hestia really did need to be let out.

I'd… uh… have to apologize for that obliviousness. And sincerely ask the others if this was something that happened a lot. I was morbidly curious by this point.


By the time Hestia was done frolicking outside, I decided to try and get some sleep. Unfortunately though, I'd been a little too awake to just pass out, so I decided to curl up on my bed to read a couple more chapters of The Assassin's Bride, since I hadn't really had time to read more than a couple of pages since we started officially forming the army. Big mistake. Not the army, but choosing to read. When I'd started, I was about a third of the way through and I only stopped because I… uh… finished the book. And it was a long book.

"That was so good!" I gushed, flailing about with the book clutched to my chest. Hestia, who sprawled out on the bed with me at some point during my reading even though she knew she wasn't supposed to, yawned and attempted to go back to sleep. "I was so worried that they wouldn't make it out, but they did, Hestia! They did!" I sighed happily and flipped back to the ending to reread the last few lines. "'And though we might have met in the darkest of circumstances, you have always been my light…'" I hid my face in the book, giggling. "So good~! No wonder Lana loved it!" I gasped as a thought occurred to me. "Oh, I need to reread it and find all the foreshadowing!" I rolled onto my stomach and opened the book to the first page. Hestia tried to bite the book. "No! Mine!" I poked her nose to keep her away. "Who needs sleep anyway, right?"

The answer to who needed sleep was, of course, me. It was very, very, very late. I had morning duties. I had morning training. I couldn't really sleep in, and I was sure that 'stayed up late reading a really good book' was not on the list for acceptable excuses for why a leader overslept. But the story was just too good! So, I began reading again, starting from the very beginning, squealing in delight when I instantly noticed some bits of foreshadowing in the first few pages. Tiny hints about the big bad villain, when he was still masquerading as the helpful and faithful knight of the realm who 'only wished to protect the people'. And there was even a hint about how he died! Broken, alone, and at the hands on those he wronged. A fitting, if pitiable, death.

However, I only made it about ten or so pages before I was yawning, my jaw actually popping from it. I rubbed my eyes to try and get the sleep from them so that I could continue, but it didn't really work. Instead, I swore I saw blue sparkles swirling about me and sighed, accepting defeat. It had been a long day, after all. I doubted I'd actually pick up much of anything anyway. So I petted Hestia and tried to nudge her off the bed because she really shouldn't have been on the bed with me. However, my limbs were so heavy. I felt like I had bunches of weights tied to every bit of my skin. This wasn't really normal. I never got this sleepy, especially so quickly. Then again, maybe I'd been overdoing it. No, I had been. Oifeye had told me that. So maybe this was my body saying 'see? This is what happens when you abuse me.' or something.

Then Hestia started whimpering, nosing and licking my face, and I knew there was something just plain wrong. The frantic knocking on the door confirmed that.

"R-Riona?" Yuria's shaking voice barely filtered through. "Riona, are you awake?" she asked, voice a little high from worry. More than a little. "Riona? Oh gods..."

"Barley," I called, making myself get up and stumble over to the bathroom. I bumped into the nightstand and the wall, but I managed it. Though I dropped the book somewhere. "Er… barely. I'm barely awake. Door's open."

"Oh, thank goodness…" Yuria rushed inside and I got some cold water to splash on my face. Normally, it woke me right on up. This time… not so much. "Riona?"

"Trying to get coherent. You hug Hestia or something." It took a few more splashes and a couple of light slaps to the face before I felt awake again. Or at least coherent. "Is everything okay?"

"Everyone's asleep!" Yuria looked so frantic when I stepped out of the bathroom that I chose against pointing out that the late hour meant that was normal. "I was in the infirmary with Lana and she just dropped!" That, however, wasn't normal. And further confirmed that something was very, very wrong. Even as I wondered why the two of them were up at this hour in the first place. "I thought she had fainted, but I couldn't find anyone who was awake! Even the people in the halls!"

"That's… uh…" It took a moment for my groggy mind to come up with some sort of answer. Sleep Staff. According to Oifeye's stories, Mom had used the staff a few times to put large groups of people asleep. The staff wasn't meant to be used that way, mind, but with enough power, it could. "Not good…" Sleep staves meant enemies, though. And to put everyone to sleep would mean…! "Seliph!" No one would be awake for an assault. Or an assassination. And it only took one assassin to kill a leader. "Hestia! Go!" Hestia barked and was out of the room in an instance. "Sword… sword… damn it, where did I put…? Yuria, you armed?"

"N-no…" She flinched. "I was in the infirmary, and I panicked, and-"

"It's fine. Just narrows down which sword I'm looking for." My fire sword also happened to be the first one I found, by sheer coincidence. I wasn't too comfortable with the idea of using magic still, but if I needed long-range… "Okay. He should be in his room at this hour. And if he's not, I'm going to scold him as soon as we confirm his safety."

"You're awake, though?"

"I made poor decisions." I shook my head as sleep took me and I did something else that was stupid. I hit myself on the thigh really freaking hard, hard enough that I swore I'd have a bruise in the morning. The pain helped my thoughts focus, though, and that took priority. "Why were you and Lana awake?"

"One of the night patrol people slipped and cracked their head on the corner of a wall, so we were tending to it. And we'd just finished when…" Yuria winced and clung to my sleeve. "Oh, I hope no one is injured…"

"Right now, we need to make sure we don't have people sneaking in. We can tend to injuries once we know that much." The grogginess was slowly receding. Thank everything. "Okay, stay close to me."

Yuria and I headed down the hall, moving slower than I liked, but between my less-but-still-freaking-there grogginess and Yuria's lack of athletic ability, it was really just safer for both of us. On the way, we checked in on the others. Larcei was fast asleep on her bed, half-dressed like she'd passed out while changing. Ulster was half on his bed and half off, completely out. Diarmuid had various papers scattered around his sleeping form, like he'd been working still. Lester was probably the only one 'properly' asleep of the Tirnanog group, but he also had the earliest mornings due to organizing the hunters. Seliph, however, wasn't in his room. But that was because Seliph had either noticed something wrong, or Hestia had woken him up, because he was actually heading our way, silver sword in hand, with Hestia following him closely.

"Riona! Yuria!" Seliph called, running the last bit to hug us both. Hestia nuzzled my hand and let me pet her before pressing into Yuria's leg, providing comfort. "Oifeye is out. How is…?"

"All of our group is fast asleep, including Lana in the infirmary," I explained, yawning halfway through. Seliph, like Yuria, was perfectly awake. "Damn you and your high resistance to magic, by the way."

"So you think it's a Sleep Staff too." Seliph sighed and ruffled Yuria's hair to help calm her. She smiled gratefully in return. "Hestia woke me. Sort of."

"Were you dozing?"

"Yeah, and then I felt like something was trying to press against my skull. I thought it was just the beginnings of a headache and went to Oifeye's room for a remedy, but..." He glanced down the hall. "We should see if anyone else is awake. I'm not entirely hopeful, but…"

"If this is an assault, I'm not hopeful of two wide awake people, one half-awake at best, and a wolf protecting everything, so we should definitely check." If it was 'just' assassins, then maybe we had a chance. If it was an army, we were dead. "Hestia? You smell or hear anything?" Hestia sniffed the air and walked a bit ahead before barking, having caught something odd, at least. "Looks like that's a 'yes'."

"Seems so." Seliph nodded and looked at Yuria. "If you need to hold onto someone, do you mind holding onto Hestia? Unfortunately, Riona and I might need our arms." Yuria nodded, smiling to reassure us. "Then let's see what she's caught."

All of us kept very close together, twitching at every tiny noise. Most of the time, it was a sleeping soldier, who we dragged off to the side to clear the hallway. Much as I would've loved carrying them to safer places, we didn't have the time or energy to do so. Particularly when every second just made us more and more paranoid. By now I expected something. Enemy soldiers. Assassins. Blood. Something. But there was nothing. Just a silence that pressed down on us, watching like a predator deciding if we were weak enough to take. It was almost a relief when Hestia growled at two figures coming down a different hallway. It became a 'true' relief when we saw the figures were Arthur and Fee.

"Told you the wind said friendlies," Fee yawned, rubbing at her eyes. She carried her slim lance and leaned against the wall. "You should've just believe me."

"Like I know the wind," Arthur grumbled. His sleepy-eyes took all heat out of the words, as did the fact that he nearly dropped his fire tome. That said, he certainly seemed more awake than Fee and me. He walked straight, at least. "Ugh… I'm too tired for all of this."

"Told you should have been asleep."

"If I'd been asleep, you wouldn't have known there was anything wrong."

"I'm pleased to see you're well," Seliph diplomatically interrupted, smiling gently. I silently noted that the one thing we all have in common is that we all had magic Holy Blood, though only Seliph and Yuria had Holy Blood associated with any resistance to magic. I wondered if the elemental spirits blunted it for Arthur, Fee, and me. Would explain why Arthur was better off of our trio; he had two magic Holy Bloods. "Have you checked on Iuchar?"

"He sleep talks," Arthur informed us dryly. Fee began giggling and went over to Yuria to lean on her instead of the wall. "All that poetic dri… stuff? He apparently composes it in his sleep."

"So, he's fine."

"Yep." Arthur sighed. "If this is an assault, they're doing a damn poor job. Providing the wind isn't messing with Fee, and she's hearing correctly when she's too tired to walk straight, then there was an army, but now there isn't."

"...There was one, but not now?" Seliph frowned and looked at the rest of us. "Really?"

"See, Fee? It makes no sense."

"But that's what the wind says!" Fee complained, a little whiny and a little defensive. She leaned and cuddled with Yuria, to Yuria's confusion. I found it adorable. "It's not worried at all right now anyway, so even if there are some left, they're no threat. I mean; we should probably look into it anyway, but..." She hummed, giggling. "You're so warm, Yuria…"

"I'm glad?" Yuria replied squeakily. Arthur facepalmed, while Seliph laughed softly. Much as I thought it cute too, though, I noticed something. "Um…"

"Hestia?" I called, because Hestia was far ahead. Her ears twitched and she looked back, but she continued on. "...She smells others."

"Th-then we should follow." Yuria hesitantly looked to Arthur. "Do you have a wind tome I can borrow? I…" She smiled when Arthur pulled out his wind tome from his holster. He actually had the thunder tome already there, highlighting further how he was far more awake than Fee and me. "Thank you!" She looked worriedly at Fee. "Um…"

I had to go catch Hestia while the others convinced Fee to let go of Yuria, and we then decided to divert to Fee's room so that she and I could splash our faces again to try and wake up more, just in case. After all, you had to prepare for the worst case scenario you could think of. That way you were at least mildly ready when things became even worse.


We wandered the halls slowly, mostly following Hestia, but also going out of our way to check on whether someone had fallen asleep in a bad spot. Like the stairs. Or when they'd been leaning out over something. Thankfully, though, the late hour proved helpful for preventing things like that, or at the least, we didn't find anyone bruised and bloody. We still did our best to get the sleepers to more comfortable places, but for the most part, we followed Hestia. It took a moment to realize we were heading to the main entrance room-area and we barely caught Hestia as we heard voices drift out of that room, providing there were, indeed, others here. And not people in our army.

"I thought sharing my magic meant that you wouldn't get injured." A woman's voice, kind and soft. And worried. "Was I wrong?"

"You sharing your magic with me meant that I didn't pass out from using the staff as I did. It's really not designed to be used to put so many asleep." A man's voice, laughing and gentle. And strangely familiar. "That doesn't mean the feedback isn't there. The staff is broken and needs to be repaired, and my hand hates me."

"Here, use my handkerchief to bind that up."

"Thank you." There was the sound of movement and then something falling. "Oh, gods damn it."

"I can hold one of the staves, you know." There was a bit of a pause. Our group looked at each other and ducked into a nearby alcove, with Yuria and Arthur being the furthest back. We were a little squished, but we also wouldn't be seen immediately. It would hopefully be enough, if things came to a fight. "Still, I'm surprised you went with this sort of tactics. Not like you to play a long game."

"Long games are too complicated and rarely go as you expect. Even if you plan for everything, the gods will find a way to make you pay for it." The man's voice was dry and scoffing. It sounded like the woman giggled in response, though it was hard to tell. "Besides, this wasn't that long of a 'game' and you've been itching to see him dead ever since he proudly showed us that labor camp."

"I'm not complaining, though I'm sure the locals are going to freak out at seeing a bunch of electrocuted Dozel soldiers on their doorstep. And a finely cooked general."

"I'll turn them to ash on the way out. We specifically went with them here because we overheard them bragging of the number of people they'd assaulted recently. I don't care about leaving no body for them."

"Harsh, but fair. I suppose they'll just be written off as more deceased by the rebels hands." That definitely proved these two, whoever they were, were with the Empire. And I wasn't sure I liked us being used as a scapegoat, though it did sound like these would be people we would've killed anyway… "Why did you bring the fortify staff again?"

"Because I have no idea if someone's bleeding because they dropped at an inconvenient point or if any healers had been in the middle of tending to someone and I'd like to minimize things if I can. I'm hoping the late hour is also helping with that, but you never know." Yuria smiled a bit at that, though she quickly frowned in confusion, like she was trying to figure something out. "So… hmm? Hekate?" A quiet little growl echoed down the hall and Hestia's hackles rose. All of us bit back groans or facepalmed as we realized what Hestia had been following: the scent of a fellow animal. An interloping animal, in 'her' territory. "Do you smell someone, sweetie?"

"Surely no one is awake!"

"Magical resistance does let one resist, Ishtar. It's part of the name."

"Hestia, no…!" I hissed, trying to grab her. However, thanks to how we were all squished together, I couldn't get a good a good grip on her fur and so she darted down the hall. After the animal. "Hestia…" I sighed and, once again, decided to do something stupid. "Yuria, make sure they don't do what I'm about to do." And I pushed past everyone and chased after Hestia to try and catch her before she made it to the room.

Sadly, I failed, and ended up stumbling into the room myself. With the two strangers, and the very large black wolf with them who was in a staring contest with Hestia. The woman, carrying a badly cracked Sleep Staff, looked at me and Hestia curiously. The man, carrying a Fortify,, focused entirely on Hestia, though, and only looked up when the woman nudged him. I, however, froze because… because…!

"Ah, so someone was… awake…" the man trailed off, staring at me. Staring at me with eyes of two different colors: red left eye, blue right eye. "You…" He wore his Fjalar-red hair long, tied back in a simple ponytail with a few strands framing his face. He wore a long, black coat with gold embroidery halfway up the lower arm. He wore a simple white shirt and black pants tucked into black leather boots. "You can't be…" A sword hung from his belt, finely made. A ruby stud glinted in his left ear. A gold-ruby earring dangled from his right. An earring that matched… that matched the one I wore in my left… "Riona?"

"C-Conall…?" I whispered, choking on the name, on my hope. Tears filled my eyes at his slight, unbelieving smile. It was… it was really…! "Conall!" And I dropped my sword and lunged forward to hug my twin brother for the first time in thirteen years. "You're okay! You're… you're…!"

"You're alive!" Conall dropped the staff to cling to me tightly. His breath caught and I felt tears hit my shoulder. "You're alive! You're okay!"

"Yep, I'm just fine!" I thought about pulling back to study him, but I couldn't make myself do it. He was here. He was really here. I couldn't believe it. "You look good."

"Being back in Isaach has been good for me, it seems." He pulled away first, and cupped my face. "Bit thinner than my memory. But it's you. It's really you."

"It is!" I grinned at him. I was crying. He was crying. "Ha… you look like Dad!"

"Do I? I've seen pictures, but..."

"Yep! You looked like him as a little kid too. Got pictures to prove that!" Though what he said confused me. "But Arvis has pictures of Dad?"

"Mom did. They were with her things. So, I saw the ones she kept. They kept everything of hers. That Sleep staff..." His eyes widened and he dropped his right hand to his side. It had a handkerchief tied around it. "Ah, did I get blood on you?"

"You think I haven't gotten blood on me over these last few years? Please. You're fine." I rolled my eyes, but I kept on smiling. I couldn't stop. Conall was here. He was really here. "Though, why put everyone to sleep?"

"So that Ishtar and I could kill some rapists who got away with their crimes for too long without bothering people." He paused and then looked at the woman standing by us, who was smiling in amusement. "Er… so, Ishtar, this is Riona. Caitriona."

"I go by Riona. I couldn't stand not hearing it after you were captured, so I made everyone call me it, so that I could… oh, whatever." Still, this was now a bit awkward. "But… uh… hi?"

"Hello!" Ishtar greeted, surprisingly cheerful. She had a lovely smile as well, warm and bright and fun. "Nice to not-meet you. Because we totally didn't see you. Right, Conall?"

"Yes, thank you," Conall replied, smiling warmly at her. I frowned in confusion. "I imagine you don't want Imperial Troops to know your exact location and send priests to kidnap you, Riona. I promise; it's very not fun."

"That said, I have to ask…" Ishtar pointed to Hestia, who sniffed the black wolf curiously now. The black wolf did the same, nosing her. "You have a wolf too? Because Hekate is Conall's."

"Well, yes?" I replied, frowning a bit. "Hestia is mine, as much as any wolf can be?" Then it clicked. "Oh, wait, what?" I rounded on him, laughing. "How did you get her?"

"I found her injured in the woods while walking with Ishtar and healed her up!" Conall laughed. This was… this was too amusing. "You?"

"Found her malnourished in the woods." I looked at Hekate again and reached out to pet her. She immediately began licking my hand and wagging her tail, maybe smelling (somehow) that I was Conall's twin. "She looks like your stuffed-dog. Do you still…?"

"I do. Managed to hold onto it and the earring. Barely." He tapped it for emphasis and I grinned, glad. "I'm guessing you still have yours? Especially since Hestia looks like yours."

"Of course I do." I pointed to my earring as well, and he laughed. "Aw, she's so cute, though~! I bet she uses that to get out of trouble."

"I'd say you don't know the half of it, but I'm guessing your Hestia is simi-ACK!" And Hestia jumped up to brace her paws on Conall's shoulders and lick his face. "Well, aren't you affectionate?"

"She's very used to people." I giggled, cheerful still, but that cheer to fade when I thought about something. Our meeting was a coincidence. He hadn't known I was here. "Conall?"

"A moment! I'm being licked to death!" Still, he laughed and managed to get Hestia to get back down on all fours. She immediately went to lick Ishtar's hand. "She's super social."

"She knows that if she's cute, she gets extra treats and pets from people." I watched Ishtar coo over Hestia for a bit and petted Hekate before smiling wryly at him. "You're not staying here, are you?"

"Hmm? Ah…" Conall winced and Ishtar looked away. She even brought her hands halfway up, like she wanted to cover her ears, though both Hestia and Hekate nudged her until she started petting them again. "No, I promised…"

"...Well, promises are important…" I made sure to smile for him. I couldn't deny it hurt. I wanted him to stay. I wanted him to be here with me. I wanted to catch up on so many things. I wanted… but what I wanted didn't fully matter here. It was also what he wanted. And I had known he would've had a life in Belhalla. That we hadn't immediately started fighting… that was enough. That was enough for my worries. "Nothing says that I won't see you again, and no matter what, you are my adorable little brother~!"

"Twin. Twin." He sulked. "I'm not that much younger."

"You're still younger!" I giggled. "And I'm your twin sister. That's not changing. Neither will the fact that I love you and want you to be happy."

"Riona…" He smiled warmly for me. "Yes, that's right. No matter what, I love you and I'm praying for your happiness too. Yours and all of our family's. Things are just… complicated. More complicated than I can explain right now, I think."

"I'm also groggy, believe it or not, so I'm not sure I'd process most of it!" I did notice Ishtar looked relieved and that she smiled so softly. She.. must've been afraid that he'd stay here with me, instead of leaving with her. "But hey. Question." I moved to whisper in his ear. "Are you two dating or something?"

"What? No!" Conall kept his voice quiet too. "N-no, we're not. We're close, certainly, but…" Normally, I'd start smiling and teasing, but I saw very real panic in his eyes, so I bit my tongue. "She's dating Julius."

"Oh, okay." That panic… why had it been there? I hadn't seen him in thirteen years, but I knew that look. I'd seen it so many times when we were children. The 'fear for your life' panic. Why would he feel that, based on such a simple question? "Sorry."

"No, no, it's fine." Slowly, that panic faded and he smiled awkwardly. "Just uh…"

"What are you two talking about?" Ishtar asked, looking a little grumpy, even as she pet both Hekate and Hestia. Her eyes were narrowed and everything. "It's about me, isn't it? That's why you're so quiet."

"I'm telling Conall how hot you are," I instantly retorted, going for the first thing I could think of. It was worth her yelp. "She makes funny noises when she's startled. It must be fun teasing her." Conall nodded in agreement. "Hmm… I wonder how else…?"

"Yeah, you two are definitely twins." Ishtar sighed. "You're as blunt as Conall too."

"Depends on the person and the situation."

"Okay, so not as bad as Conall."

"I'm not that bad," Conall replied lightly. His grin showed he was lying through his teeth and knew it. "Really, I'm not."

"You told King Travant, to his face, that he's known as a villain for the Yied Massacre, and that your first memory is of someone named Aideen who broke down sobbing at the news," Ishtar retorted. My expression blanked, wondering why Conall had thought that had been a good idea. "And you called Mother a bitch to her face when you first met her."

"Hey, I didn't curse. I just implied one. I don't hide how much I hate Hilda, Ishtar." Conall shrugged and Ishtar sighed. "Look, sorry, but some of her comments around…"

"I know; I know. I can't say she's my favorite person either. But she is my mother."

"Yeah, and Diadora and Mom were more of actual mothers to you, but that's an argument where we agree to disagree. Probably because I didn't get to spend time with Mom." Conall grinned, and Ishtar facepalmed. Something told me comments like that were very common, and that made me a little happy. It made me happy that he kept his bluntness and didn't let them forget what had happened, even as he grew to like them. "Besides, I'm surprised you didn't mention that my first words to Arvis were something along the lines of 'is this where you drop meteors on me?'."

"I forgot hearing about that." She sighed heavily again. I choked on a laugh, wishing I'd seen that. "Oh, whatever. Hey, you take your time. I'll wait outside, make sure we got them all, and handle the burning. I do have a fire tome for a backup, after all."

"Thanks, Ishtar." He pulled her into a hug and she grinned at him. "I doubt I'll be long."

"Like I said, take your time." She smiled warmly at me. "I'm glad you're alive. Conall's been dreadfully worried. Like walking into windows worried."

"I didn't walk into a window!" Conall blushed though, so I guessed it was an 'almost'. "Oh, go on with your stories."

"Yes, yes!" She continued down the hall, her laughter trailing after her almost like a scarf. She really did seem like a happy sort of person.

"Being away from Belhalla has been good for her." Conall's voice was soft, and he smiled fondly. "Most I've heard her laugh in a while." He shook his head and returned his attention to me. "It is good to see you, though. Did you all run here after I was captured?"

"No, we were actually way further north," I explained, now curious. Her smiles had seemed so natural and fun. It seemed strange to me that she hadn't been like that 'in a while'. "So…" Hekate began growling at the hallway, though Hestia wagged her tail, and I sighed. "Oh, damn it. I'd hoped her guilting would keep people back."

"I'm much faster and I was the furthest away, so I could more easily ignore." Seliph stepped into the room and smiled innocently when I facepalmed. "She's keeping Arthur and Fee back still, of course," he continued, walking to my side. To my amusement, Conall looked completely exasperated, even as he pet Hekate to soothe her. Hestia nosed her as if to say 'no, no, Seliph is my pack, so it is okay'. "So, you're alive. I can't wait to let everyone know we were right."

"I'm glad you had the sense to wait a bit before stepping out, even though you clearly don't have the sense to continue hiding when there's literally bounties on your head," Conall deadpanned. Seliph just continued to smile. "You… grew out your hair?"

"Like Shanan."

"...Same reason as me." Conall sighed and smiled and Seliph reached out to hug him. Conall returned it easily. "Gods, I missed you. How are the others?"

"Asleep and they're going to be so mad!" Seliph grinned. "Well, Oifeye might be sad."

"Well, that's a horrible thing to inflict on me. But, to be fair, I had no idea you all were here. I thought you all would still be in Ganeishire or something." His smile turned sad, and a little bitter. "Though, I've certainly heard the rumors. You've raised the rebellion flag or however they're worded it."

"We got tired of running, Conall." Seliph winced. "Are you okay?"

"Mm… I won't deny I'm conflicted. I'd rather you all be safe. And not fighting." He sighed. "But I can't blame you for wanting to kill Danann. I've been back in Isaach for two days and I've almost burned him alive twenty times. And have had to call off Hekate fifty times. Ishtar has been a little better, only at ten, but her temper has been fraying."

"Why not attack him?"

"I think the Isaachians deserve it more than me. I hate him for what he's done. They hate him for what they've suffered. And, like I said, I've only been here two days, so not enough time to determine if you all need that bit of help." Conall smiled softly. "Isaach is still beautiful, though. I've missed it."

"Have you been out besides here and Rivough?"

"I've visited the villages to heal a bit. I'm no healer like Mom, but I know staves and medicines." His eyes narrowed. "By the way, there's a labor camp near Isaach Castle that you might want to secure before Danann decides to 'hide the evidence'."

"I'll keep that in mind." Seliph bit his lip, already thinking of the logistics. "Conall, are there reinforcements coming? From Belhalla?"

"No, but Danann thinks Ishtar and me are them." Conall rolled his eyes, but I wondered just how skilled both of them were, to be considered reinforcements on their own. I knew what Iuchar had said, of course, but... "In reality, we're just here to retrieve Helswath, gather information, and return so that we can destroy the Warp Circle connecting Rivough to Belhalla. Danann is being cut off."

"So, we just have to deal with him and the soldiers he currently has?"

"Yep. Ishtar and I certainly aren't helping him. And the only 'help' Hekate will give him is a helpful nudge off an edge."

"I see." Seliph breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good to hear. The people simply can't take him anymore, but…"

"You've got the time to plan carefully." Conall grinned. "And I might do some misdirection for you. Just little things."

"Will that put you in danger?"

"Danann is no danger to me." But Conall's eyes went dark, implying that doing so wasn't entirely 'safe' either. "I've still got my rank, and family ties. I can take advantage of them to get out of things." But I heard the 'for now', and I wondered just what in hell was going on. First there was Yuria and now...

A thought occurred to me then, and I hesitated, worrying. But it was Conall, and...

"Seliph…" I whispered, nudging his leg. We shared a glance and he nodded. He thought it safe too. And maybe this was foolish, but… "Hey, Conall, this needs to stay secret-secret."

"Like meeting you all?" Conall asked, smiling wryly. Hekate nosed his hand, like she sensed something more behind the words. Hestia returned to my side and licked my arm. "Well, I'm good at keeping secrets. What is it?"

"It's…" I hesitated and stepped a bit closer. "We have Julia."

"You… what?" His eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "She's here? She's safe?"

"Well, she's with us." So I had no idea how 'safe' that actually was. "But she lost her memories."

"I can imagine, especially given how Diadora…" Conall winced and looked nauseous for a split second. "N-never mind that. She's alive. She's with you and alive and doing well."

"Yeah." I gestured across my torso. "She's got a scar right here…"

"I healed that. Not surprised it scarred, since it was just me healing it."

"I know." I smiled. "She remembers very vague things. Including a boy with two colored eyes who meant 'safety'."

"Be it assassins or icky bugs, I tended to be the one keeping her safe. Same with Julius." He winced again. I wondered why. He'd said 'complicated', but… "But yeah, keep her away from the Empire. It's… Belhalla is not safe for any of you, but it's really not safe for her." He snapped his fingers, sparking a tiny bit of flame on accident, and reached behind his belt, under his coat. It took a moment to see that he had three tomes in a holster behind the sword, two gold and one red. "She should have…" His hand hovered over one of the gold tomes, but he hesitated and then pulled out the other. "No, this one will be more useful for her, and it'll be less showy than Aura." He handed it to me. "This is a Nosferatu tome. Light magic and powerful. It'll leech the life from its targets to heal the caster, so it's perfect for those fighting more defensively."

"We'll make sure it gets to her." I tucked it against my chest and smiled. "She's sweet, even without her memories."

"She's always been sweet. I'm glad to hear she's still alive." He smiled sadly, like he was holding back tears, but it was very genuine and warm. "Is it all right if I tell Ishtar I heard a rumor? I won't tell her exactly where Julia is, but…"

"I don't see a problem with that, if you trust her." I glanced at Seliph to be sure and he nodded. He trusted Conall's judgement too. "I mean; you can tell her outright if you want?"

"Loptyr priests are in Belhalla and they would throw everything they had at you if they knew you had Julia. And while Ishtar would never tell them, I'd like to minimize the amount of lying she'd have to do. Things have been… exhausting recently. It's much harder to lie when you're tired." Again, there was that wince. I shoved the tome at Seliph to hug him. "...Your hugs are the same." He rested his head on my shoulder. "Both of your hugs are the same. I'm glad. I'm glad so much stayed the same." He hugged me back and then pulled away, gesturing to Hekate. "That said, I should probably get going…"

"Um… one more question…" Seliph whispered. He looked down and I took his hand, wondering if he was… "My mother. Why did she…?" 'Why did she betray everyone?' "I don't know if you know, Conall, but-"

"Amnesia," Conall answered, bluntly and honestly. He smiled bitterly. "She lost her memory prior to being found in Velthomer. Could be trauma. Could be dark magic. Hell if I actually know. But that's what it was. That's why her name was different. That's why she stood to the side. She didn't remember Sigurd. She never remembered him as anything but one of the conspirators to her father's murder."

"So she…" Seliph struggled to find the words. "It wasn't intentional. She didn't intentionally…"

"The only thing she purposely did was trust the people around her. And misinterpret a few things, based on what she heard and because she was naturally trusting." Conall hesitated and looked down to pet Hekate. Like he wasn't sure what to say, really. "But no, she didn't remember anything. Right up to the end."

"I see." Seliph managed a smile, but it shook. "Thank you. I've…"

"Yeah, that never did spread, even after she died and the story of her past gained momentum in the gossips." Conall looked up again and smiled gently. "But that's the truth of it all. I'm not sure if it's better or worse, though."

"...But I have an answer and, better, I have an answer to give Oifeye and Aideen. And Shanan when we seen him again. He's… somewhere in the desert."

"He's what." Conall facepalmed. "Why the hell is he in the Yied? There's dark mages all over the damn place there."

"He wanted Balmung, because he still feels guilty over what happened to my mother, and you."

"He…" Conall's eyes widened and he looked down. "Idiot. It was my fault. I ran the wrong way." He gave me a look when I protested. "No, not your fault. I was the dummy who ran the completely wrong way because I panicked." He focused on Seliph again. "You may inform Shanan of all of that, by the way. Especially the idiot part."

"We'll be sure to do so." Seliph's smile warmed. "Regardless, I think I'll reassure the other three that things are fine while Riona sees you off. Though, I thought I heard something about a Fortify staff?"

"...Oh, damn, right. I'd wanted…" Conall sighed and looked to where the fortify staff was on the ground, actually not far away from my fire sword. "Okay, can we do a couple of stops on the way for me to use the staff, Riona? I really do want to lessen the chances of someone dying."

What ended up happening was me giving Conall a little bit of a tour, nothing extensive, but enough for both of us to become giddy again, with Hekate and Hestia playing as we all walked. This was Dad's childhood home, and this was where we had met again. Dad had to have intervened somehow in that. It was simply too perfect. And, truthfully, I wanted to ask again if he really did have to leave, but that wouldn't have been fair. He had his life and his choices, and he wasn't badgering me into coming with him.

So, I walked him outside and, with Hestia sitting beside me, I waved goodbye and he and Hekate left with Ishtar. He smiled and waved back, waving until he was out of sight. A proper… a proper 'see you later'. I refused to believe this would be the only time I saw him. I refused to believe I would never see him again. I did fear that when I next saw him, we would be on opposite sides of the battle, but I knew that even though so much had changed, so much had also stayed the same. He wouldn't fight us. So long as that held true, then the day would come where the two of us could sit down and catch up.

I'd waited thirteen years for that day. Now that I'd seen him, I didn't mind waiting a little longer. It hurt, certainly. And was annoying. But at the same time, I didn't mind. Because he was alive, and he was okay. I was content, knowing that.


"I can't believe Conall was here and I was freaking asleep!" Larcei shrieked-complained, growling as she paced around my room. Everyone else in our little group just made sure we weren't in her way, so that she didn't trip and fall flat on her face. Again. "He looked good? He was okay?"

"He was very handsome, yes," Seliph replied, shifting so that he was a little more comfortable on Hestia, next to me. Larcei rolled her eyes. "I know; I just had to tease. He seemed tired, but I imagine dealing with Danann would make anyone tired."

"Argh! Why didn't he stay? At least until we woke up!"

"Because he promised someone?"

"Ugh!" She sighed, but then began giggling and hugged me. "But we knew it! He's just fine! Told you that he was!"

I didn't bother replying, simply smiling. All those affected by the Sleep Staff had slept until well past dawn, and while there had been an initial panic, Seliph managed to calm it by lying and stating there had been an assassin, but dealt with before there was too much trouble. Our group (plus Iuchar) was told the truth, of course, and we'd checked outside to find a large pile of ash slowly being blown away, all that remained of the soldiers Conall and Ishtar had killed. Afterwards, we made sure to tell our Tirnanog about how Deirdre had lost all her memories, which was why she had done the things she had. A bit of a bitter feeling, and Oifeye actually took the day off to write Aideen and to process it. Not that there was a lot getting done today anyway. The oversleeping knocked everyone off their schedules, so it was decided that today would be an 'easy' day. Which, for our group, meant clustering in my room, with Seliph and me resting against Hestia because we were exhausted unlike the others, chatting happily over the news that Conall was, in fact, okay. Because Seliph didn't want to talk about Deirdre just yet.

"I wish I had told Yuria that I had a Restore staff in the infirmary," Lana sighed, sipping her warm milk with honey. She'd insisted on making some for all of us, but she'd fussed over us so much that she was the only one not done with hers. "Then maybe we could've seen him too. It's only got so many charges, of course, but…"

"He's fine, and hopefully, we can all see him again and not fight," Lester pointed out, resting his head on her shoulder. He had his legs stretched out over Diarmuid's, not that Diarmuid minded. He was using Seliph's leg as a pillow, after all. "That things didn't immediately dissolve into a fight now, and he said that he missed us, makes it really probable."

"That's true!" Lana giggled. "Plus there's the information he gave us."

"Providing that nothing changes, then we can take our time to secure things and to train a bit more," Ulster murmured, smiling in relief. Larcei let go of me to lay down in his lap, since he was right next to me, and he ran his hand through her hair. And petted Hestia because Hestia's head was close to him. "That labor camp worries me, though. We should try to get that as soon as we can."

"But we can prioritize that, and figuring out how to get people safely here, while keeping an eye on things in case things do change," Diarmuid pointed out. He smiled brightly, and I had a feeling it was because he was now not the only one with good news about missing family. He was still the only one with good news about his father, but now… "And we can figure out how to best set up the infirmary for them."

"That's very true." Ulster frowned. "Wait, damn, do we have enough medicine for…?"

"Oh, for crying out loud, we're supposed to be celebrating and relaxing!" Larcei groaned, poking Ulster's chin. He batted her hand away, but she switched to poking his stomach. "I mean; I know we're all becoming workaholics, but still. Relaxing. Having fun. That's why we're all here in the first place!"

"She is right," I pointed out, moving to sit up. Hestia twisted to rest her head on my shoulder, stopping me for the moment. "We've been running around trying to get things settled. I'm surprised Oifeye hasn't imposed a rest day on us sooner."

"Exactly!" Larcei drapped her legs over my lap and giggled. "Hey, we haven't done a group reading thing in a while. Should we do that today? I know there's that book Riona's been reading."

"I just finished that one, actually."

"You did?" Lana gleefully asked, eyes sparkling. She set her empty mug down and immediately crawled over to me, with Lester almost falling in the process. "What did you think about the ending? Where he carried her across the fields?"

"It was so cute!" I gushed, giggling. The others either rolled their eyes or smiled fondly at us. "I loved the last lines, though. They just…"

"Summed up everything perfectly…" Lana sighed happily. "The whole thing was just amazing. I'm so glad Muirne recommended it to me."

"So, should we do a group-read of it?" Lester asked, a touch sulkily. He'd been abandoned for book talk, after all. "So that the rest of us get to see what it is?"

"It's a smut novel, so we can, but that'll have to be kept in mind," Seliph cheerfully pointed out. He kindly moved off of Hestia, so that Lana could lay on her next to me instead. "Of course, it wouldn't have been the first time we've done that, but…"

"Mmm… might be more fun to go with something a little less 'must whisper-read this in the dark so that Mother does not overhear us'." Lester began thinking. "Oh, wait, there's this book that I've heard about. Older, but I think there's a copy in the library. A dramatization of the Crusaders?"

"That could be interesting."

"Might hit a little too close for the moment, though," Diarmuid pointed out. Since Seliph had moved, Diarmuid went to using Lana's leg as a pillow instead. Seliph took Lana's old spot and let Lester rest against him. "Considering all the child hunts and stuff."

"That's true, but that does remind me…" Ulster began, with a slight, teasing smirk. This was going to be good. "I actually found a story you might be interested in."

"Really?" Diarmuid frowned, knowing that Ulster only dragged things out to tease. "What is it?"

"It was in a book of folk-stories from various parts of Jugdral. A tale of a Leonster Hero named 'Diarmuid'." Ulster paused and all of us burst into laughter, and laughed even harder when Diarmuid began blushing. "That sounds like it would be fun to read, yes? Aideen did tell us you were named for-"

"M-maybe something-"

"No way, let's read that one!" I insisted, pushing myself up. I wobbled a bit, but managed to keep standing. I was still exhausted by everything, but I also wanted to move. "I mean; we can read all the stories, but let's start with that one! I'll go get it!" And I was out the door before anyone could stop me. Not that I thought any of them really would. Well, maybe if they were worried I should rest more… ah, whatever.

Point was, I escaped and ran towards the library, hunting through the shelves to find the book Ulster mentioned. The library wasn't exactly organized the best, but it did have a lot of books. It surprised me, but I half-wondered if it had been something Iucharba did. I wondered if he'd read these books, or had gotten them for his soldiers to read. Sadly, I'd probably never learn the answer to that. Save for the handful we had captured, all of Iucharba's soldiers had died alongside Iucharba. And Iuchar probably didn't know Iucharba enough.

"Oh, Riona!" However, while I was looking, I passed by Yuria, who sat at one of the tables, reading through a botany guide or something, based on the cover. "I thought you all were in your room?" she asked, looking around curiously. "What brings you here?"

"Looking for a book of folktales," I explained. However, I paused my search to crouch by her and study her face. "You look rested."

"I… um… slept in." She blushed and marked her page in her book. "But what book was it?"

"I forgot to get the title, but Ulster saw it."

"Um… Oh, maybe this one, then." She stood up and went to the shelves, pulling out one that had been shelved haphazardly. "I study here a lot, so I saw him with this one."

"Oh?" I flipped through it, and found the story Ulster had talked about almost immediately. It was bookmarked, proving he'd set up that bit of teasing for a while. "Yep, this is the one. Thanks."

"O-of course!" She smiled brightly, proud of herself, though she quickly became hesitant again, frowning. "Um… Riona?"

"Yes?"

"...No, never mind." She shook her head. "I think I want to think on it a while longer."

"You sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure." She smiled again, and there didn't seem to be anything hidden in it. "I want to get my thoughts organized, so that I'm not rambling."

"If you've ever heard any of our serious talks, they jump all over the place." Still, I wouldn't press. She would tell me when she wanted. "Hey, if you're just studying, why don't you come to the room with me?"

"Huh?" She stared for a second before blushing and shaking her head. "Oh, no, I don't want to intrude!"

"Is it intruding if I invite you? Besides, it's probably rather lonely when we just group up as we do, yes?" I smiled apologetically, and she looked away sheepishly. "We're bad at reaching out, but we really do want you to be comfortable with us, Yuria. Our goal for this army is that everyone can be comfortable and work together. So, please, don't stay away because you feel like an outsider. Tell us so that we can make the necessary changes." I offered her my hand and she took it shyly. "Come on. You can bring your book. We can even help you study."

"O-okay…" She smiled sweetly, but then became hesitant again. "Um… Iuchar is out on patrol, but I think Arthur and Fee are outside…"

"Then let's go invite them!" I tugged her out of the library, pausing only long enough for Yuria to grab the botany book. "Where did you see them?"

Yuria had actually seen them flying, so we had to walk outside and hunt around for them. Eventually, we found them in one of the gardens, with Fee tended to Annand while Arthur sat on a nearby bench and flipped through one of his tomes. He was actually the first one to notice us, and greeted us with a nod. Fee took a little longer, but that was because she was focused on cleaning Annand's hooves. Apparently, despite flying, pegasi still needed their hooves cleaned.

"Enjoying the sunshine too?" Fee asked with a laugh when she was done. She set the pick in a small basket, and pulled out a body-brush to continue tending to Annand. "Or is there business?"

"Barring a complete emergency, everyone has the day off," I reassured, laughing. I passed my book over to Yuria and tiptoed closer, careful to keep my distance from Annand's hooves. Just in case she got touchy over people being close. "How do you tend to the wings?"

"I did that earlier, but basically, I have to run my hands through to check that all the feathers are aligned correctly and, during a moult, pick out the sheathes around the pin feathers. After than, I have to go through with a special pick to dislodge any dirt and parasites that got into the feathers. After that, I have to brush a certain kind of oil to help keep the feathers all flexible and lubricated." Fee ducked under one of the wings to brush there. "Basically, what birds do when they preen, but since pegasi lack beaks, we handle it. The non-fantastical theory about why the pegasi let themselves be tamed is that humans, with our thumbs and all, could help with keeping the wings healthy."

"That's incredibly fascinating." The mention of 'special oil' worried me, though. We were in Isaach, after all, and getting things from Silesse would be… difficult. "Do you have enough?"

"Of the oil? Yeah, I've got enough for a year, easy. It spreads super easily, so a little goes a long way." She grinned at me before going back to brushing. "Truthfully, I brought more than a year's worth, just in case I lost some. I'll warn when I'm about halfway through, so that we have plenty of time to get more."

"Good, good." I wondered if we could time it with Hestia's weekly brushing. I wasn't sure how Annand would like Hestia being near, but it might be fun to pair it up so that Fee could have help if need be. Assuming she wanted it, of course. I'd bring it up later. "Ah, I almost forgot. Yuria and I were actually looking for you two."

"Really?" Fee hopped to her feet again, and looked over at Yuria, who smiled shyly. Arthur continued reading, ignoring us. "What's up?"

"Basically, we Tirnanog kids did our normal thing of 'grouping up and forgetting to actually remind people that they're more than welcome', so I'm rectifying that." I smiled sheepishly, a little annoyed at myself for not making sure to do this sooner. "We're all in my room, just relaxing, and we're going to be reading aloud from a book and likely help Yuria with her studying. Would you like to join?"

"That sounds like fun!" Fee grinned, but looked over at Arthur. "What about you, grumpy?"

"...You know; I think I'll join as well," Arthur replied after a moment. Fee's expression blanked, showing she hadn't expected that. "Though, is there food? I'm starving."

"We can pick some up on the way, since I'm sure one of us is going to complain about food before long," I reassured, grinning. And trying to not bounce, because I was really excited now. "I'm sure I can whip up something quickly."

"You cook?"

"Yep. Pretty good at it too, if you don't mind the boast."

"Let me just finish brushing Annand and get her to the stables," Fee said, laughing. Though her eyes shone with excitement, she did take her time, not risking making a mistake. "I can meet you at the kitchens?"

"Would you like some help, Fee?" Yuria offered with a hesitant smile. She set the books on the bench by Arthur. "I don't know much, but…"

"You can hand me stuff!" Fee grinned. "I'd love the help!"

"In that case, I think we'll head to the kitchens and gather stuff," Arthur noted, shutting his tome and standing. "Wherever it is, at least."

"Follow me!" I laughed, already heading inside. This was going to be fun. "Any requests for food?"

"Nah, I'm not picky. Couldn't be, really." Arthur glanced back at Fee and Yuria, both laughing, and smiled slightly, but warmly. "You know; I wasn't so sure about the army. There's too many people. I'm not used to it. But I think it's actually a pretty good decision, for both of us. She's been lonely, and I suppose I do need to learn how to interact with people again, if I'm not to hurt my little sister's feelings."

"I hope that feeling continues." I paused as I thought about what that sentence even meant, because it just felt weird in my mouth. "With thinking it was a good idea, I mean."

"I figured." Arthur smirked and I rolled my eyes. "Oh, but that remind me. First, Fee, Yuria, and I overheard a lot of the conversation last night."

"Er… right." I coughed, embarrassed now. "Well, here's hoping it's good fortune for your own reunion."

"I'll admit. It did make me a itsy-bitsy more hopeful." His eyes became serious, though. "But I know the name 'Ishtar'. The Goddess of Thunder, and the Thrud Major of our generation."

"Oh?" I paused and facepalmed. "Oh, damn it! I could've asked about your sister." I could've asked even if it had just been Conall.

"Did I even tell you her name?"

"Tine, yes? You mentioned it once." I sighed gustily. "I'm so sorry. I should've thought about that."

"Yeah, you totally should've thought about anything besides the twin you haven't seen or heard anything about in thirteen years." Arthur's voice was very, very dry. "Though, if you see him again before we find her, I wouldn't mind if you ask."

"Of course." I made a mental note to be certain of that. "Ah, though that means I had a very lovely talk with your cousin. Or are you like Ulster and Larcei and not quite caring over such things?"

"Honestly? I'm learning to care. About practically everything." He smiled bitterly. "It's a slow process. But that's another reason why I think joining here was good. It's making me care about things again, and…"

"That is important. Apathy might seem like a good defensive mechanism, but if you're apathetic, you can't feel the good things either."

"Yeah. I'm learning that." Now his smile became a little hesitant. "Regardless, she did seem nice. Maybe I'll care more in a few months."

"You take your time." I almost took his hand, but checked the urge. It was probably best to wait for him to reach out first. "Regardless, let's get some food. Or make some. Probably make."

"I'm not all that great at cooking."

"Then I'll teach you."

Arthur hadn't been joking when he said he wasn't good at cooking, but he proved to be a most excellent helper, and he had been absolutely fascinated by how I utilized fire magic with the cooking. Fee and Yuria appeared at the kitchen just in time to be taste-testers, and then all of us carried everything back to my room, where the others greeted us with delight and cheers. It took a bit to settle in with everyone, both for room and to make sure everyone was comfortable, and then we all had to shift again when Iuchar swung by with bunches of flowers for all of us. Just because he thought they were pretty and that 'such wonders of strength should have some color to match their spirits' or something.

It was a total mess. But it was fun, and we loved every moment of it. Certainly a good way to spend what was probably going to be our last 'day off' for a very, very long time.


Author's notes: And Conall makes his gen2 debut, alongside a super early cameo for Ishtar (she's not even mentioned in game until Game-Chapter 7, in a village conversation). The 'magic' Holy Bloods don't confer any sort of resistance to offensive staves in game (unless one counts Naga, Bragi, and Loptyr, which all boost Res), but I thought it would be fun to play with, highlighting how the Blood changes those it has blessed. Fee has a 15% resistance growth if Lewyn is her father, but I am also treating her typically-decent res (she averages about 8 res on recruitment) as being partly her pegasus's, so her 'natural' res is lower.

And yes, in-game, you get a free light tome. Which one you get depends on whether you conquer Isaach or Sophara first. If you conquer Isaach first, you get Nosferatu. If you conquer Sophara, you get Aura. Most go with Nosferatu because Julia will actually double with the tome and because of the health-leech effect. And, for those who kept messaging me (and apparently assume I've never played the game based on how patronizing some of them were), the choice between Iuchar and Iucharba has nothing to do with the tome choice. While it is true that one castle will become allied based on who you recruit (Sophara if Iucharba, and Isaach if Iuchar), there is no significant difference in difficulty for obtaining Nosferatu because the axe knights Danann sends after the recruitment will prioritize retaking Isaach (if Iuchar is the one recruited). Meaning that by the time you actually make it to Isaach castle, it has been reclaimed by the enemy, letting you conquer it as normal. (I suppose you might be able to get to it prior if you blitz through and Seliph inherited a leg ring or something, but honestly, I've done both multiple times and never found any real difference.)

Regardless, in-game, you get a free light tome for Yuria. Enter Conall as an explanation for the light tome, since in-game, it was apparently just sitting there. While both tomes are the same rank (A) in FE4, Nosferatu actually appears in FE5 as a B ranked tome (and Aura makes no FE5 appearance at all). So, while Aura isn't necessarily treated as a 'special' weapon in the game, I'm treating it as a rarer magic, one most wouldn't have access to (because only Deirdre and Julia are capable of using it in FE4 due to how weapon ranks work). Granted, in Fe5, Nosferatu is technically meant for Linoan, who is not only a noble but randomly has Minor Naga Blood, but it can still be used by anyone who gets a B rank in light magic.

In FE4, the fortify staff has a fixed range of 1-10 spaces, but given how damned huge the maps are, that actually encompasses a VERY long range (something that is also hinted at in FE5, where all ranged staves have unlimited range). Now, in game, you only get one copy (either the one Claude came with or via a drop in Game-Chapter 9 if the staff wasn't inherited), but I've already established there are multiples of said staff, and considering Conall is a) high ranked and b) connected to the Empire, I figured he could get his hands on one fairly easily (particularly when he planned on doing something like this). The Sleep Staff has the same range, hence Conall's very wide 'net' when using it (and breaking it).

The scene where the soldiers are fighting is based a bit off of something from the Oosawa Manga and it's there because we're getting people in the army who only know the group by of their reputations. And it gives a good lead-in to Arthur revealing his heritage in-story. Yes, he's Tailtiu's son, Minor Thrud and Minor Fjalar in this story due to also being Azel's son. According to the game, Friege troops kidnapped Tailtiu and Tine when Arthur was small. There is no mention of what happened to his father, but I chose it where he was killed while trying to escape with Arthur.

Misha and Karin are two playable chars from FE5 (with Karin noted to be close enough to Fee that Fee felt comfortable crying around her despite putting up a strong front for the public). Hermina and Hawk are actually the sub chars for Fee and Ced. I'm not sure the game ever quite goes into how Queen Rahna died, though Lewyn's words imply that she died when Grannvale conquered Silesse in Gran 762. I decided to expand a little bit on the how.

Other than that, more heart-to-hearts. Riona's actually social and talks about her problems, so these actually might be a norm in her chapters. Whoops? Also, standard warning to not do what Riona does if you encounter a wild animal in the woods and don't have any sort of wild-animal handling experience. You are liable to get hurt. Or killed. Hence Diarmuid's exasperation. 'Melancholia' is an older term for clinical depression; soldier's heart is a historic war-diagnosis that has become synonymous with PTSD.

Next Chapter - Ghosts