Chapter Eight – Class Reunion
The last time the Blue Lions were all together was six years ago at the Garreg Mach Monastery for the highly politicized event of the marriage of the Church of Seiros's archbishop to the King of Fódlan: my wedding to Dimitri.
There were hundreds of people there, most of whom I did not know, present only because of their ties to the Kingdom or the previous Alliance. So, when I met Dimitri in the front of that cathedral, it was in the witness of people I had never met. But out there, somewhere in the sea of unfamiliar faces, I could find my friends. My family. The Blue Lions were there for me, so Dimitri and I would not have to be wed alone in the crowd.
I couldn't officiate my own wedding, so Seteth had the honor of seeing us bound in holy matrimony. Rhea should have been the one, I always thought, but she seldom came out of her room those days and did not dare to in front of hundreds of people that particular day. Alois sat in the front row of pews bawling his eyes out beside Gilbert, who had not yet forgiven himself entirely and taken his name back. Flayn kept waving at me whenever I so much as glanced in the direction of the pews.
I never found out where the Blue Lions were sitting, but they all found us after the ceremony but before the reception. Felix would never be completely honest with himself nor with me, but he still managed to tell me, "You look nice," without going completely red in the face. Mercedes, Annette, and Ashe gushed about how special it had all been and how beautiful I looked and how handsome Dimitri was. Sylvain wouldn't say anything, but he was staring at me the whole while. Ingrid eyed him carefully as if waiting for the moment he said something inappropriate.
And Dedue, Dimitri's right-hand man, was on guard more than ever with so many strangers around. He could not break for this special day, yet he assured the both of us that he enjoyed the ceremony all the same and thanked me for making His Majesty so happy.
The reception would not be for another couple of hours, as Dimitri and I were to have our official portrait painted while my hair remained in its elaborate updo. But once in front of the artist, I looked at Dimitri, and he looked at me, and nothing else seemed more fitting in that moment than to have the whole gang with us.
So, what was only supposed to be a short session turned out to be a four-hour long sitting, and we all showed up late to the reception much to the grumbling of the kitchen staff who informed us that the meal was now cold. Still, even in its incomplete form before the artist painted it thoroughly, I never saw artwork so beautiful, and I vowed to hang the portrait of my family above my mantle in my new home with Dimitri once completed.
It summed us up, if nothing else. Dimitri and I stood in the center, prim and proper and poised with our hands together in front of us. Sylvain stood directly behind us, sticking his head between ours with his hands on our shoulders. Felix, pouting as ever, looked relatively miserable beside Dimitri. Mercedes had both her arms wrapped around my left one, smiling so genuinely that you would have thought this was her wedding. Annette stood next to Felix, standing stiffly and a step away from him so that she wouldn't bump him. Ingrid, like the true knight she was, stood tall on the other side of Mercedes with a full smile on her lips. Ashe looked like a little kid compared to her, even though he had been recently knighted, as well.
Though perhaps a bit boring to the others, who complained a few times throughout the process of their cheeks hurting and needing to use the restroom, that remained my fondest memory of my wedding.
It seemed fitting now that our first reunion since would be held at Garreg Mach. I didn't know how it was managed, but everyone was back together again. Annette responded quickly and eagerly to Claude's letter asking for her assistance, and she reached out to Mercedes to see if we could all get together at Garreg Mach. Since so many of the Knights of Seiros had been dispatched, the knights' quarters were now almost empty, so there would be room for all of us to stay (with Seteth's permission, which she assured us would be no problem).
Felix and Sylvain volunteered to join Dimitri, Claude, and I down to Garreg Mach without having been asked. Sylvain told Dimitri that he had to "make up" for failing to protect me properly in Hrym once he found out about my near-death experience during our battle saving that village that I had withheld from him and Felix.
Obviously, anywhere Dimitri went, Dedue and Ingrid followed, especially given the severity of this situation and the likelihood of trouble. Dedue volunteered to be the one to get taken by the Agarthans, but Claude, with an amused grin, told him that unfortunately it just wouldn't work out.
Which left Ashe. No one told me he was coming, so when we arrived at Garreg Mach and I saw him standing in the dining hall, I couldn't help but give him a hug. He looked completely flustered when I let him go and kept bowing to Dimitri, muttering something about how he "never meant to disrespect him or the church."
Students at the Academy watched our reunion curiously, staring at us all as we exchanged hugs and commented on how long it had been. Mercedes touched my hair, and Annette kept tugging on my arm, just like Katrina or Alexi would do. Ashe and Dedue immediately got into a conversation about different vegetables they had been growing in their respective gardens, and Dimitri observed with a smile the interactions between his old friends.
After a minute, Annette looked up and met Felix's gaze, and she went red as a tomato. "F-Felix!" she shouted, nearly blasting me away. "It's n-nice to see you!"
Mercedes leaned into me and giggled. "She's been pining for him for the last six years. She mentions him every time she writes to me," she whispered, and I bit my lip to keep myself from conspicuously smiling.
"Write any more songs lately?" Felix asked. "About beasties or more exploding libraries?"
Did he just smile? Genuinely?
"Shh, don't talk about that!" Annette pleaded.
I stepped away from Mercedes and stepped into Dimitri's side. "We have to do something about this," I muttered under my breath, and his brow furrows.
"About what?"
"You don't see it?" I asked.
"See what?"
I sighed. Useless husband. But it explained a lot about why he never made a move on me sooner than he did. Dimitri might have been a pretty smooth talker, but he wasn't exactly… an outgoing romantic.
"Annette apparently has feelings for Felix, and did you see Felix smile just now? I think he might feel something for her, too." Dimitri looked now, but there was no change in his expression of confusion. This still went far over his head. "Has he ever said anything to you?"
"Why would he say anything to me?"
He sounded a bit sad. I wondered what it was that had happened again between them—the same thing that made Felix suddenly refer to him as a boar again, surely. Boys… it was always something so trivial and petty.
In any case, they were both grown men who could deal with it themselves. In the meantime, I could always get my information from Sylvain.
I sidled up to Sylvain and elbowed him to tear his attention away from the scene. He noticed. He had to have.
"What's the situation here?" I asked.
It wasn't much like me to get so wrapped up in the love lives of my students. I'd been known to chastise them for focusing more on that over their studies. But seeing as we were all getting older, and out of my former Blue Lions students, only Dimitri and Ashe, to a young woman from his territory, had gotten wed, it wouldn't hurt to give some of the more awkward ones a little push in the right direction.
Ingrid preferred her solace, and I respected that. Mercedes, too, had chosen to remain single in pursuit of her goals in the church. Even Sylvain, whose endless conquests in love ended in heartbreak every time, probably wouldn't get married—at least not now, not when the situation with the Crests was still so fragile. But I knew that Annette wanted to get married someday. And Felix? Well, he was oblivious and a bit asocial, but he had also never indicated that he didn't want to get married like the others.
Sylvain, though, looked like his birthday had come early. He grinned at me and leaned down to whisper in my ear. "Sometimes I hear him humming."
I stood up straighter and narrowed my eyes at the redhead. "What?"
He gestured for me to come closer again, so I leaned back into him. "Annette's songs. Sometimes I hear him humming these really bizarre tunes, and it turns out that they're Annette's songs."
Aha! Struck gold here.
"Want to let me in on the secrets?"
Sylvain and I separated, and Claude stepped in between us. I felt badly that I almost forgot about him amongst the chaos of the Blue Lion reunion. He didn't look too out of place, though. After all, he spent the same year of school here like the rest of the students, and we all got along well enough.
"Any way to set Annette and Felix up, oh, Master Tactician?" Sylvain asked.
"I'll get right on it," he agreed, and the two men shook hands.
I had this sinking feeling in my gut that I might have started something bad.
"Teach, should we…" Claude jabbed a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the counter where we picked up our food. That probably wasn't what he meant. "If we want to be out of here before the kiddies go to bed, we need to start the strategy meeting."
"Okay."
We gathered up our friends and moved up to the second floor. The sound of loud, casual chatter behind me was like music to my ears after all this time. I could hear them as they were—my students—for the first time in years. Goddess, how I missed them.
But it wasn't the happiest of reasons to reunite. It reminded me too much of the war. We sat in the same seats in the Cardinals' meeting room, had the same solemn expressions once we recalled why we gathered here. We weren't here for a simple class reunion. Some of us could die.
Dimitri stood and looked around at our friends at the table. The moment he rose, all cordial chatter ceased. The gazes resting on him were those of loyal subjects idolizing and preparing to die for their king. I was the only one who did not look at him, but instead glanced around at those who did. It said a lot about him to see their adoration so plainly on their faces.
"Thank you all for joining us. We recognize that many of you had to rearrange duties or work, and your contribution and commitment to being here does not go unnoticed," he told them. "As you have been informed, Hrym was targeted in an attack recently that decimated the region. The perpetrators have revealed themselves to Byleth and indicated that they have some sort of plan that involves her. And perhaps until this plan is fulfilled, these attacks could continue to occur."
"We don't know how many of these so-called 'javelins of light' they have, but we know that regardless, they are skilled mages and assassins. During our time at the Academy, I heard of your tribulations with Solon and Kronya before the war—expect more of the same in terms of abilities," Claude added. Dimitri nodded beside him.
"Seteth, do you have any updates for us?" I asked.
Given how strained his facial features were, I assumed that nothing had come of his efforts. The only time I had seen him look more stressed was when Flayn went missing.
"Reports from the Knights indicate there have been no additional attacks or suspicious activity in the surrounding areas. Efforts to locate the Agarthans have proven fruitless. Whatever has kept them hidden for the past thousand years has continued to be successful for them." Seteth rubbed the bridge of his nose and then looked back up at me. "We have elected to spread the troops thin in order to protect them from another attack like in Hrym, and they circulate amongst locations to ensure that no troop can be attacked without another noticing. But the Agarthans have been quiet."
"We have to bait them," Sylvain suggested. "They're going to come for the Professor on their own terms unless we give them a reason to come for us first."
"I had the same thought," Claude agreed. He stood up and walked over to the chalkboard that had been wheeled into the room for us. He drew an oval meant to represent Fódlan and slashed a small X in the middle. "The Agarthans have an issue with the Church. And yet here we are, safe and sound, at Garreg Mach Monastery, the largest symbol aside from Teach of the Church. There must be a reason they haven't gone after this place. So, for us to bait them, we have to look outside of Garreg Mach—but not too far. It has to look like a planned assault by the Fódlan army in concert with the Knights of Seiros."
"What are you suggesting?" Seteth asked.
Claude pointed to the X on his drawing and tapped it with the chalk. Little white flecks flew off and dropped to the floor. "We play dumb. Outside of the monastery, set up a troop led by Dimitri with the majority of the Knights of Seiros. Have it look like we're guarding the monastery. It puts all of our bait in one location: the person Teach cares most about and the knights who follow her."
"And if they try to blow them up again?" Felix asked.
"They won't. They need something to hold over Teach's head. This is where Annette comes in."
Annette folded her hands together on the tabletop and stared at them. "I want to help, but a tracking spell like that is some pretty dark magic. Even if I could cast it, if I don't make it strong enough to be untraceable, they'll recognize it, and they'll kill Dimitri in a heartbeat. I'm just saying that it's risky."
"Then we shouldn't—" I began, but Dimitri cut me off before I could finish.
"Do you think you can?" he asked Annette.
She twisted her hands together some more but finally looked up from them. "Well, Lysithea did share some of her books with me back at school, so I understand the concepts pretty well. But we're not allowed to study dark magic at the Royal School of Sorcery, so I haven't exactly cracked them open recently."
"Dimitri, this is too dangerous," I told him, but he just smiled at me.
"We'll practice."
I hated how unconcerned he was. I knew it was a farce. He liked to act brave in front of me. Especially in situations like this that he thought would cause me anxiety, he pretended to know exactly what he was talking about like he had a clue. He didn't. And it was his optimism, false and protective, that reminded me how fragile he was. He was easily manipulated when it came to the ones he cared about.
"Let's ask this one more time." Claude turned to Annette and looked at her as if he could see right through her. "Can you do this?"
Annette's face went red. She glanced around the table, eyes tracing over every soul in the room, and lingered on Felix's for an extra second. She licked her lips and then turned her attention back to Claude and sighed. "Yes," she said. There was no ounce of hesitation in her voice anymore. "I can do it."
Claude clapped his hands together and grinned. "Excellent. So, Annette, Dimitri, and Felix will work on mastering the necessary spell. You have a week to get it right while Seteth recalls the Knights of Seiros to the monastery. At that point, Dimitri will lead his army to the village outside Garreg Mach and begin an occupation. And then we wait and hope that those slippery bastards bite."
There was so much uncertainty, but then again, that was how Claude played the game. He liked the gamble. He would risk this entire operation on the hope that everything would play out how he envisioned, and his foresight usually made it so. Still, given that the Agarthans evaded notice for the past millennium, I could not help but feel undecided about this plan's merit.
"Why am I being roped into the practice?" Felix asked.
I noticed Sylvain wink at me out of the corner of my eye.
"To monitor their work and make sure Annette doesn't end up accidentally banishing His Majesty to another dimension, of course," Claude told Felix, as if this had been obvious. Felix seemed annoyed, but he didn't make any objections.
Annette hiccupped. "Is that a risk?"
"How about we all get settled into our rooms, and we can all meet up for dinner in an hour?" I offered. We made as much progress as we were going to make today.
There was a murmur of agreement, and we all dispersed. Most of our group would be staying in the knights' quarters, but seeing as Claude wanted the Knights to return, I wasn't sure how long that would last.
Dimitri and I would be back in my old room, this time without Felix and Sylvain on my floor. It had been a long while since we spent the night together there—so many memories returned to me in this place. I wouldn't deny I resented the church quite a bit for everything, but it had also been responsible for some of my best memories, too.
"G-good evening, Your Majesty!" one boy shouted in our direction as we walked across campus, opposite our friends, towards my room. "And Your Grace!"
Dimitri stopped and looked at the boy. He was probably seventeen or so, Dimitri's age when he had entered the Academy. He appeared a little scared to see Dimitri looking at him—which, given my husband's appearance, wasn't that shocking. It was the eyepatch. He took it off at night to sleep, but otherwise, he kept it on all the time.
When Dimitri bowed to the boy, I thought the poor kid might pass out. Dedue tried to tell Dimitri once that he shouldn't bow to commoners now that he was king, but Dimitri thought the idea was nonsense. That pretty much summed up what he was like as king.
"We'll have to talk to some of them soon," he told me as we continued our stroll to my room. "I want to hear their thoughts about what school is like these days."
I shrugged. "Can't be much different than it was when you were here."
But Dimitri nudged me and smiled. "They probably don't have a professor like you. One who brought us all together the way you did."
"Cyril's teaching, did you hear?"
He nodded. "Not as easy on the eyes as you, though."
I glared at him. "Shut it."
"I speak only the truth, my beloved."
I rolled my eyes but smiled. Cyril was cute, though. I wondered how many girls went to his office after hours to talk to him. Cyril seemed like the oblivious type and would have no idea what nefarious ideas those girls had.
When we reached my old room and unlocked the door, Dimitri quietly shut it behind us and put his hands on my hips. I barely had a second to think about it before his lips were on mine, and he pushed me back onto my bed without a moment's hesitation. He stopped only when I turned my head away, though only temporarily before moving to my neck.
"What are you doing?" I demanded.
"This room," he said in between kisses, "brings back memories."
"I have no memories of this," I accused as he went to lift my shirt.
"It is more like memories of what I wanted to do to you back then," he breathed, pulling my shirt up over my head. I certainly held no objections to any of this, but I still wanted an explanation.
"And here I thought you were a polite prince who just wanted to sleep," I quipped, and he kissed me on the lips again to shut me up.
Maybe I should have asked for more time before dinner.
But we were barely starting when I noticed a scroll on my desk out of the corner of my eye as Dimitri worked his way down my torso. I might've let it go had it been any other visit. In fact, as Dimitri kissed me, I kept thinking, "Just ignore it. Just ignore it."
And yet I couldn't put it out of my mind.
"Stop," I told Dimitri, putting my hands on his shoulders and pushing him up off my chest.
"What's wrong, By?" he asked, sitting up and moving to the side of the bed so that he sat next to me now.
I stood up and grabbed the scroll, waving it at Dimitri. "I didn't think Seteth let anyone in here. The door was locked."
"Maybe Felix or Sylvain left it behind last time," he suggested.
I pulled the ribbon off the rolled parchment and unwrapped it. After spending time with Felix and Sylvain, I could recognize their handwriting in a heartbeat. Felix's was messy, nothing more than chicken-scratch. Sylvain's handwriting was nicer, befitting for a flirt who liked to break up with girls through letter.
But this belonged to neither. And it certainly wasn't Seteth's handwriting either.
"No… it can't be true…" I muttered, scanning the words again and again.
Dimitri stood up now and hurried to my side. "What?"
"Look."
I held the parchment out to him, and we each held a hand on it as he read.
You are a brave one, or perhaps simply foolish. Do you recall how Solon and Kronya appeared to you at Garreg Mach? You have an enemy hidden amongst your friends. Tread carefully.
Author's Note: Wow, talk about a buzzkill. Sorry, Dimitri, maybe another time.
