Korrina and the Black Eagles
Chapter 5: The Worst Grave Robbers
Back at Garreg Mach, Rhea was quick to praise Korrina for her skill displayed against Lonato. Although Korrina agreed that she worked hard to bring him down, she admitted that she probably wouldn't have even reached Lonato without Catherine and the Black Eagles backing her up. Unfortunately, Rhea was the type of person who interpreted hesitancy to fight armed civilians as a sign of weakness and repeated her jargon about how those who rebel against the church must pay the ultimate price. Korrina wasn't happy with this interpretation but was just happy to know that Lonato really wasn't trying to make a martyr of himself after all. (she even told Rhea as much) Seteth then interjected and directed everyone's attention back to the letter that was sent with Catherine's report. The Goddess's Rite of Rebirth was a month from then (their equivalent of July) and even though the Knights of Seiros were strong, there wouldn't be enough of them to adequately defend EVERY part of Garreg Mach. Korrina was originally surprised and disappointed to hear this as the Knights of Seiros were made out to be large in number and unstoppable in combat, but then she remembered how big Garreg Mach was and fell back in line. Korrina's mission for the next month: to help the knights in guarding Garreg Mach from their mysterious foe.
When Korrina relayed this information to the Black Eagles, not a ton of them really believed that Rhea was their mysterious enemy's "real target". Korrina initially did not believe them. First of all, nothing had come up that would suggest that their mysterious enemy would be after anything other than Rhea's life. Second, why go to all the trouble of staging this wild goose chase if the endgame was anything other than killing the archbishop and the Church of Seiros with her? In response to these "unexpected" doubts, Edelgard brought up how sloppily hidden that letter was. In her own words, it was almost as if their enemy deliberately wanted them to find it. Although Korrina still doubted that the enemy would be after something other than killing Rhea, the possibility of the initial threat being planted there as a red herring was rising too quickly to ignore. Thus, Korrina decided to humor her students and see if there was anything else that the enemy could be after. As the class for that day wrapped up, a relatively striking but stern woman with purple hair and eyes walked into a room with a dark-skinned boy named Cyril who everyone had seen around the monastery. The lady introduced herself as Shamir, an unparalleled sniper and mercenary hired to assist the Knights of Seiros in their time of need. Shamir anticipated that she would be working with each of the 3 houses at some point in time and felt the need to introduce herself to everyone so they aren't as surprised to see her. She was also teaching Cyril how to fight so he could fulfill his dream of protecting Rhea. As the two left, Silvain ran after them with the obvious goal of trying to get with Shamir. For his efforts, Silvain got an arrow to the chest and a full week in the infirmary.
The moment Korrina got some free time, she tracked down Seteth. When she found the man, he was coming back from a long shopping trip with Flayn. Korrina was immensely pleased to see Seteth being a good brother, but she immediately remembered what she came for and asked if she could talk with Seteth. Seteth wasn't focused on Korrina at the moment but told her that she can come to his office later. Thankfully, Seteth was able to keep his appointment with her, and Korrina laid out her concerns. "Many of my students believe that the threat on Rhea's life was a smokescreen and our enemy's real target is elsewhere in the monastery. I personally don't believe that anything here would be more valuable than Rhea's life, but if they are right and the enemy accomplishes their goal while we are all distracted, it would be my fault for ignoring the red flags. What to do, what to do…" Korrina explained. Seteth nodded in understanding and said, "I actually had considered that possibility myself. That letter in Catherine's report seemed too convenient to be true, and there are a lot of other valuables in this monastery." "Exactly", Korrina said, "If there's anyone here who knows about Garreg Mach, it's you. Is there anything here valuable enough to warrant such an elaborate scheme to acquire?" Seteth thought for a moment before giving his answer, carefully going through and ruling out any and all potential areas. Finally, Seteth answered "In the main chapel, there is a mausoleum where the bones of Seiros herself are buried. It is only open to the public during the Goddess's Rite of Rebirth, which also makes it the only day any would be thieves would be able to even try to steal them. If our enemy's target really is something other than the archbishop, it would likely be the inside of Seiros's coffin." "Thanks for the info", Korrina said as she headed out, "I had my doubts initially but now there is no mistaking our enemy's true objective." Seteth was grateful that he could be of help, but he was confused as to why Korrina went to him instead of the Archbishop. Apparently, it was because Korrina didn't want Rhea to let her guard down in this time of suspicion.
With such an important mission coming up, everyone's training began to double. As soon as Silvain got out of the infirmary, he was put right on the saddle and kept on there until he eventually mastered the art of riding a horse. With Petra's speed, she was taught how to pick locks and steal the enemy's weapon before they could even draw it. Thus, Petra became an officially registered thief before the end of the month. Caspar had slowly mastered the art of the axe and was now learning to fight with his bare hands too. Edelgard and Linhardt learned more about their respective fields of magic and became a mage and priest respectively. Dorothea, Ferdinand, and Bernadetta seemed to have a bit more trouble getting into their respective fields since there were specific weapon proficiencies that they were lacking at the moment. Korrina also spent more time conducting mock battles with the Knights of Seiros to toughen up the Black Eagles for threats worse than Lonato. Thankfully, Silvain got much better at taking hits since the Shamir incident and both Hubert and Dorothea found themselves able to cast more magic than before during their time in these mock battles. When this mysterious enemy came to the mausoleum, the Black Eagles would be waiting.
As the Goddess's Rite of Rebirth drew near, Korrina held one last strategy meeting with the other 3 houses and the Garreg Mach Women's Association. Although the enemy's target would be the mausoleum, there would still be a need for the other 2 houses to cover the remaining locations. Rhea and Seteth would specifically be confined to the Tower of the Goddess while this was all going on, so Ingrid would take a squadron of pegasi and cover the upper regions from snipers while the rest of the Blue Lions protected the base of the tower. The Golden Deer would cover the second floor in case there was anything special in the library or Hanneman's room that the enemy could also be after. Flayn was forced to stay with Seteth as the likely battle was far too dangerous for her to be anywhere other than by his side. With everyone's roles secure (and a few jokes made about the Black Eagles patrolling a mere coffin), Korrina moved out. As Korrina was preparing to go to the mausoleum, she saw a towering dark skin man looking somewhat depressed. Korrina recognized the man as Dedue, a bodyguard of Dimitri's. When she asked Dedue what was wrong, he explained how the knights wouldn't let him participate because "his kind" couldn't be trusted. Although Dedue seemed to understand, Korrina did not appreciate or tolerate this treatment of another student. Although it was too late to fight for him this month, Korrina still decided to hug the big man and say, "I would trust you." Korrina also wanted to check in on Ashe since his station was right on the way to the mausoleum. Ashe was found praying that his father Lonato's soul could finally know peace. Korrina felt a small sense of guilt and told the boy, "Nothing can change the fact that I took your dad from you. I won't waste your time asking for forgiveness, but I do hope you'll eventually understand why I did it." Ashe tried to deny it and say that he was actually grateful that Korrina was able to stop Lonato, but Korrina knew that Ashe wasn't that simple. Before their conversation could continue, Hubert warped to their location and said, "I'm sorry to interrupt this touching conversation, but the enemy has already gotten inside the mausoleum." "How is that possible!?", Korrina shouted, "We were guarding the only entrance to that place!" Hubert then took Korrina and warped back inside the mausoleum.
Sure enough, the enemy had teleported their way inside the mausoleum. Silvain had recognized the enemy's clothing as belonging to the Western Church, but that wasn't important to Korrina. What was important to Korrina was the enemy commander. The name and gender of the leader was unknown, but it dressed like the Grim Reaper and was far more powerful than anything Korrina had faced in her life. One of the dark mages in the back identified the commander as The Death Knight and tried to goad him into attacking the Black Eagles, but The Death Knight neither wanted to fight nor take orders from weaklings. Korrina earnestly began to laugh at this display of unorganized incompetence, unable to believe that anyone could take these jokers seriously. This gesture enraged the dark mage in the back, who then ordered his Western Church friends to kill the Black Eagles while he broke the seal on Seiros's coffin. Korrina then said "If the Death Knight won't engage us, we won't engage it. Go around it and make your way to the coffin in the back before that thief can break the seal." The shape of the mausoleum made this battle a tricky one, as the Western Church was able to use the narrow corridors to establish chokepoints and bottleneck the Black Eagles. Fortunately, the Western Church was just as bad at fighting as they were at planning a robbery, and the Black Eagles were able to press onward to the coffin.
Unfortunately, Korrina arrived a tad late as the dark mage had already picked the lock on Seiros's coffin and was browsing the insides. However, the only thing inside that coffin was an abnormally shaped sword. The mage tried to wield this sword against Korrina, but it soon became apparent that this mage never picked up a sword in his life. Korrina easily slipped through the mage's defenses, knocking the sword (and quite a bit of blood) from his hand. Korrina then picked up the sword and felt a strange power beginning to surge. This weapon glowed much like Catherine's Thunderbrand did when she grasped it, and it only took a second for Korrina to recognize this and start using this strange new power. As Korrina swung her new sword, it stretched out like a whip and cut the mage diagonally, slicing the mage in half in the process. The Death Knight took notice of this and teleported away, intrigued by the turn of events.
As the sword returned to its original shape and the Black Eagles stood by in awe of Korrina's new power, Ashe, Catherine and a ton of reinforcements arrived. Apparently, Ashe left his post to tell Catherine where the enemy was located, and she converged most of their resources into this location. The reinforcements easily apprehended the remaining enemies while Korrina gave her report directly. She said "The enemy had somehow teleported inside and broke the seal on Seiros's coffin. Fortunately, the Black Eagles and I were able to defeat them easily. When the sword they were trying to steal fell into my hands, though…" Korrina then clutched the sword once more to show Catherine that it responds to her. Catherine was both shocked and amazed at what had just happened as she started to realize what Korrina truly was. Korrina then told Catherine, "Tell Rhea. Tell Seteth. Tell Hanneman. If they don't believe you, bring them to me so they can see it too. I don't yet know what this means but I know this is way too significant to be ignored." As Catherine left to tell everyone, Korrina held the Sword of the Creator and waited to see what fate had in store for her next.
