Korrina and the Black Eagles

Chapter 4: Savior or Psychopath

For the last week or so of what we would call May, Korrina only left the monastery library to eat or teach. Ever since Korrina learned that the "voice in her head" may well be the goddess of her world, Korrina made it her mission to find out as much about the real Sothis as possible to see if the Sothis inside her head remembered any of the stuff these books were saying. The library of Garreg Mach was bigger than any library Korrina had ever visited, but the kindly old librarian Tomas could usually help Korrina find whatever she was looking for. However, Korrina never could shake the feeling that Tomas was watching her every minute she spent in the library. As for the actual books Korrina read, they contained many stories about the various miracles Sothis performed while she actually roamed the planet. The bias every book had towards Sothis was quite evident, but Korrina was able to tell fact from embellishment thanks to the goddess inside her head. For example, Sothis did walk on water and heal the sick effortlessly, but she didn't recall giving any of the commandments listed in the teachings (or really giving humanity any instruction at all besides "don't be stupid and throw your life away"). Sothis recalled being killed by an intimidating man with a sword that expanded and contracted like a whip, but she did not at all think that his name was "Nemesis". Once Korrina was tired of reading about Sothis, there was no longer any mistake: Sothis could very well have been THAT Sothis at one point in time. Korrina still had a bit of time left that day, so she began pouring over old records of the Church of Seiros and the Adestrian Empire to learn more about the types of people she worked for and would be working for. One thing that immediately caught Korrina's eye was the faculty records of Garreg Mach. Apparently, all the records of the Archbishop seemed to imply that Rhea was the only archbishop in the religion's history and occasionally changed names to avoid suspicion from younger generations. Seteth and Flayn also seemed to be potentially immortal beings that changed names every other generation. Korrina began to become suspicious of her current employers, but at the moment, she didn't think it was worth discussing with anyone. The Adestrian Empire seemed free of this immortal cronyism, but she would often see the name "Insurrection of the Seven" come up. This name referred to a recent coup committed by Ferdinand's father to strip Edelgard's father of his power. Although it was difficult to explain why at that moment, Korrina began to feel like Ferdinand's father and the other nobles behind the "Insurrection of the Seven" were power hungry traitors who wanted complete control of the Empire to themselves and began to pity Edelgard. One day, Seteth caught Korrina finishing up a book in the library and brought her to Archbishop Rhea.

When Korrina arrived at Rhea's chambers, the Archbishop was interested to see if Korrina was doing any better after what happened last time they spoke. "Much better. I've been trying to learn all about your goddess since that day." Rhea was mildly disappointed that Korrina didn't say "OUR goddess" and didn't give much of an apology for scaring Korrina like that, but she expressed confidence that one day the girl would fully embrace the teachings of Seiros. (It was obvious that Rhea wanted to say more, but she didn't feel that Korrina was ready to hear it yet). After this exchange, Rhea cut to the chase and explained the assignment for the Black Eagles this month. A minor noble from Faerghus answering to Lonato had declared war on the Church of Seiros, and the Black Eagles were to assist the Knights of Seiros in putting down this rebellion. Lonato had no allies that the Church of Seiros was aware of, so the mission was expected to be an easy one. Also, Rhea was sending her finest champion to lead the charge and even did the courtesy of introducing this mystery knight to Korrina. The mystery warrior leading the attack on Lonato was Catherine: a beautiful woman with slightly darker skin, messy blonde hair that she tied back at all times, and a surprisingly down to earth attitude. Catherine was everything Korrina wanted to be, and she was admittedly somewhat smitten. Unfortunately, this new emotion caused Korrina's heart to malfunction right in front of Catherine and the Archbishop. This caused Catherine to doubt if Korrina was up to the task, but Rhea vouched for Korrina and Catherine decided to trust her for now.

As Korrina left the library to resume her regular teacher activities, she noticed a lot of people talking about Lonato. Some (particularly Ferdinand) were quick to admonish Lonato's actions without even knowing why he was doing it. Others (such as Hubert and Claude) were curious as to how Lonato even expected to win this fight. However, the most interesting opinions came from the faculty and members of the Blue Lion house (most of them hail from Faerghus after all). A lot of these people knew Lonato as a kindhearted and pious man and wondered what happened to make him do such a thing. Then Korrina learned that Lonato had a son in the Blue Lions: a meek but pure boy with silver hair named Ashe. When Korrina arrived at the main chapel, she found Ashe in a catastrophic state. Ashe constantly alternated between praying, crying, and asking questions to no one. It was obvious that Ashe did not want to lose his father but knew it was the only way this could end. When Ashe ran out of energy, Korrina decided to chat with the boy. Ashe seemed to want to distance himself from Lonato but didn't even know what was on his father's mind, let alone what his intentions would be. Korrina didn't like seeing Ashe in such a state, but she also knew she couldn't just prevent Lonato from dying out there. After some extraordinarily deep thought, Korrina decided to hold out her hand and say "Come with us. I can't promise that your dad will be spared, but the least we can do is learn why he's doing this." Fortunately, this response seemed to finally stabilize Ashe for the time being. Also, all this talk of fathers was beginning to make Korrina think of her own father Jeralt. She began to wonder if it was wise to blow off his concerns about Rhea like that. Yes, life at Garreg Mach was paradise compared to the 21 years Korrina spent as a mercenary, but Rhea had also been acting quite creepy after Korrina's return from Zanado. Perhaps some of the girls in Korrina's sisterhood could give her some insight.

The Garreg Mach Women's Association had somewhat grown in size since it was established next month. Dorothea brought her friend Ingrid (a somewhat serious lady with long blonde hair) and Ingrid loved the meeting enough to tell her friends in the Blue Lions about it. Now a young beauty with carefully braided blonde hair and a personality pure as snow named Mercedes and a small but optimistic redhead named Annette were beginning to attend almost every meeting. The sisterhood was even able to start having Flayn under the condition that Seteth also attend the first few meetings to see what she was getting into. As Mercedes passed around her homemade sweets, Korrina began to discuss her problems with Jeralt hoping that some of the girls could give her some advice. Unfortunately, this talk of fathers seemed to scare away Bernadetta (a topic that Dorothea quickly said was a major no no when speaking to Bernadetta). Dorothea didn't have much experience with fathers but imagined that one probably would want the best for their child. Mercedes was not as sure, as her own adoptive father used her and her crest for leverage countless times. Ingrid seemed to understand where Mercedes was coming from since her own father had tried to marry her off ever since she turned 14 but did not agree that it came from selfishness. Petra and Annette didn't have much to add since the former lost her father in a war and the latter was still looking for her father at the time, but they wanted to believe that their fathers were good people. It seemed at the time that Edelgard was the only one with a 100% great relationship with her father, as she often spent her own opportunities to talk going on about how her father Ionius IX was there for her in the darkest of times. Hearing this made Korrina realize that maybe she had been a little hard on Jeralt since moving to Garreg Mach. Flayn suggested that Korrina apologize for the outburst and most of everyone (including Mercedes) agreed, though Petra was more for letting bygones be bygones and moving forward. This seemed to cheer up Korrina, and the sisterhood was dismissed for the week.

Later that week, Korrina went looking for Jeralt. When they finally crossed paths, it appeared that Jeralt too had been doing a bit of self-reflecting since their fight. Jeralt went first and said "I really put my foot in my mouth last time. I'm sorry kid. For a long time, I thought that becoming a mercenary was the right way to take care of you. I still don't trust Rhea, but hearing you talk yesterday made me feel like I probably chose the wrong path. If you think I ruined your life, I understand." "Not at all", Korrina replied. "You were the only good thing about being a mercenary. I couldn't have made it this far without you, and I'm sorry that I forgot that and pushed you away. Besides, Rhea's beginning to creep me out too." Jeralt cracked a warm smile at the realization that Rhea had failed to take his daughter away. Korrina was still going to stay at Garreg Mach since it was a good place for them right now, but Korrina at least promised her dad that she would not hesitate to get out if Rhea starts crossing lines again.

Now that the issue with Jeralt had been resolved, Korrina's thoughts again turned to Lonato. It was clear that Lonato didn't stand a chance, so what could he hope to gain from all this? Eventually Korrina concluded that perhaps Lonato means to lose on purpose. Maybe Lonato wants to make a martyr of himself and inspire more people to revolt against the Church of Seiros. Korrina then went to Rhea with these concerns thinking that this kind of hypothesis could be disastrous if proven correct. Unfortunately, Rhea was not interested in entertaining morally gray scenarios such as martyrdom. All Rhea saw was the Church of Seiros and anyone who defied it, and the latter she felt was deserving of death. In Rhea's own words, raising a sword against the church was akin to raising a sword at the goddess herself. At this point, Korrina realized that diplomacy would never be possible with Rhea at the helm and said "I didn't mean to question orders, Rhea. I just wanted to make you aware of this possibility" before leaving.

As Korrina prepared her students to move out, Catherine approached her. Catherine had figured out Korrina's feelings for her and wanted to make it clear that a romance was not in the cards right now. Besides, Catherine was about 10 years older than Korrina anyway. Korrina was disheartened by the response, but there was no time to mope. Lonato's forces needed to be dealt with. As they started to head toward Lonato's forces, Catherine entertained the Black Eagles with tales of her mighty weapon Thunderbrand (one of 10 weapons supposedly bestowed upon by the Goddess herself) and why Lonato rebelled. Apparently, one of Lonato's sons was accused of successfully conspiring to murder Dimitri's father and was executed by the Church of Seiros. Before Catherine could finish the story, however, a thick fog appeared out of nowhere and clouded the field of view. Catherine had fought enough times to know that one of Lonato's men had created it as cover for an ambush, and prepared for battle. The rest of the Black Eagles followed suit.

Everyone initially stood on guard, only moving slowly as they didn't know what was out there. Eventually, an armed militia began to slip through the fog and attack. Catherine gave these soldiers a messy end as Thunderbrand cleaved through their bodies while overstimulating them with thousands of volts worth of electricity. Because of this display of raw power, the Black Eagles started to stay within closer proximity to Catherine as nobody truly knew what was out there or even where Lonato was. Eventually, the Black Eagles found a suspicious dark mage hiding in the thicket, continuously casting some sort of spell. Korrina and Catherine began to suspect that this mage could be creating the fog, and ordered the mage taken out. Said dark mage proved surprisingly elusive due to the thicket he was hiding in, but Edelgard was able to lure the dark mage out into the open and burn him with fire magic. As the dark mage's life faded, the fog began to dissipate and the Black Eagles could finally get a clear view of the enemy. The bad news was that Lonato had managed to rally far more men than Korrina had anticipated for a minor noble.

Before long, the Black Eagles began to hear an old but powerful voice boom through the forest. Said voice clearly belonged to Lord Lonato. Lonato personally called out Catherine, accusing her of killing his son and challenging her to one final battle. Now that the martyr idea was out the window, Korrina, Edelgard, Ashe and the others made a beeline towards where Lonato's voice seemed to be coming from while Caspar and Petra kept the reinforcements from the north at bay and Catherine engaged the reinforcements from the west. None of Lonato's men had any real strength or powerful weapons, but their determination was beyond anything the Black Eagles or even Korrina had faced before. They all believed that Lonato was genuinely in the right, and their resolve seemed to shake the Black Eagles far more than their actual weapons. Nevertheless, Korrina, Ashe and the others continued to press forward. As they got closer to Lonato, he began to call Rhea a witch that had deceived them all. As far as Lonato was concerned, the goddess was on his side. Ashe tried to reason with Lonato, but he was too far gone. Lonato was going to fight to the death, and since Catherine was also busy mowing down reinforcements, Korrina had to accept the challenge on her behalf. Lonato's spear wasn't the strongest in the world, but he wielded it with an intensity comparable to Dimitri. Korrina had to start on the defensive, dodge the first barrage of stabs and wait for an opening. Once Lonato raised his spear for a decisive blow, Korrina used the second of opportunity to cut Lonato's horse. This act frightened the horse and temporarily caused Lonato to lose his balance. Korrina then lunged in and stabbed Lonato in the side, then as Lonato winced in pain, she went in for the killing blow and sliced him in the neck. "I'm sorry you never got that fight with Catherine", Korrina said as Lonato struggled then stopped breathing.

As the dust settled, all Ashe could do was kneel at his father's corpse and ask Lonato why he threw his life away like that despite already knowing the answer. Korrina knew there was nothing she could do to comfort the lad, so she waited for Ashe to get back up before proceeding. Because most of Lonato's men were just armed civilians, a lot of the Black Eagles were somewhat distraught by the end of it. Some like Caspar even questioned if there was a point to this conflict at all. Korrina knew that saying that this was the reality of war would not be a satisfactory answer, but she gave this opinion anyway because it would never do to have soldiers that hesitate to fight all the time. Ferdinand seemed to still view Lonato as a monster for bringing civilians into this despite now knowing his motivation. At the time, Korrina agreed. Lonato's cries of being blessed and Rhea being the heretic still ringed in Korrina's ears even if the mouth that said those things was now silenced. At the time, it seemed as though Lonato was nothing more than a delusional fanatic who somehow swayed a bunch of people to his "lost" cause. Edelgard was more split on the matter, but agreed with the notion that Lonato had to be taken out. Then Edelgard said something…peculiar. She said that one must never lose sight of their goal even if one's enemy is God itself. Korrina was taken a bit aback at this and wasn't sure if Edelgard was just making a point or suggesting a more successful version of Lonato's rebellion. It seemed like Edelgard was leaning more towards the latter, but before Korrina could press for more information, Catherine arrived with bad news. Ashe had found an anonymous letter on his father's corpse. In it, Lonato was given instructions to rebel against the church of Seiros. If it failed, the sender would assassinate Rhea at the Goddess's Rite of Rebirth. Although it didn't surprise Korrina that Lonato would be involved in something like this, she couldn't help but wonder how deep this conspiracy went. Catherine, meanwhile, was more concerned with getting this letter to Rhea at once.