2nd of Blue Sea Moon

"Daughter." Rhea whispered out. The word rolled strangely off her tongue. She tried again. "Daughter. I brought my daughter into the world." The words still felt foreign. The last surviving statue of Saint Seiros she stood before offered no response.

She had said the words aloud. People had heard it. Jeralt and Aelfric would not look at her the same way again. Rhea was not her mother. She could not take back words once uttered.

"My daughter…she died in my arms." Would anyone else hear her? This section of Abyss was covered in dust. She doubted Seteth could find it after a week of searching. But old stones often echoed louder than they had any right to. Porous walls weak with age could carry hushed voices for miles.

"And then I brought my granddaughter into the world." Calling Byleth 'granddaughter' after her revelations felt like a cruel joke. Who was Rhea to call Byleth young when the woman had seen millennia pass before her eyes?

Rhea closed her eyes and listened. The world around her was silent. Not even the patter of rats or sounds of insects scuffling was heard.

"And now…my granddaughter has returned to me." Seiros' face was stone. It could not speak. But it was the last surviving accurate depiction of Saint Seiros. She had kept it here, hidden in the endless catacombs of Garreg Mach for some reason, hadn't she? Rhea couldn't remember why. But she knew she had kept it for good reason. It had to be. She had stood stock still and politely told the nobles that the relics were gifts of the goddess all while her tongue burned from the poison she let drip out of her mouth for the sake of peace. But here stood a statue that could unravel her identity if they could just find it through the maze of shadows and endless corridors. So why hadn't she destroyed it?

"I have a granddaughter now." Rhea paused, swallowing. A memory forced its way to the surface. Sitri had forced herself to remain alive as Rhea placed the Crest Stone into Byleth. She had looked so happy as Byleth's eyes fluttered open. Sitri had turned to Rhea then, trying to speak, pleading with her eyes. Please, she had choked out. Don't make her-

And then Rhea's daughter died in her arms. Byleth had not made a sound as she watched her mother's life fade away.

Rhea tried again to remember why she had let the statue stand. It had been when her first had died, she recalled. The time had come to make Seiros' face disappear. But she had still wanted a reminder. A firm, unchanging memory of the hardest years of her long life. Fighting a decades long war against butchers who paraded across the continent in her kin's bones. Sacrifice after sacrifice, until she had finally destroyed Nemesis. Surely, returning Sothis to her rightful place could not be so arduous. And so she had placed a statue in a place no one would ever find, but easily accessible to herself. A reminder that no matter what, her worst trials had passed. All that remained was one final effort. To restore her mother to life, using a body born from her own blood and magic.

But Byleth had changed that. She had seen her life pass by countless times. She had all the power Rhea's mother had possessed. She had every opportunity to come to Rhea, to tell her anything. And Byleth, with all of her lifetimes, with all her demonstrable power, with all her knowledge, was not Sothis. She showed no sign of being the mother Rhea had worked for a thousand years to resurrect.

More than that, Rhea had cursed the child with a terrible fate. Byleth might protest and say that she had done the unthinkable and destroyed Sothis' Crest stone, but the cause of Byleth's torment was clear. The Crest of Flames granted power over time. Something terribly wrong had happened. And now, because Rhea had saved her granddaughter's life, Byleth was doomed to repeat it, forever.

"My daughter has been reduced to nothingness. My granddaughter is cursed." Rhea clenched her fists. "M-my…" She gasped, and her voice hiccupped. "My mother…" Her throat clenched one final time.

"My mother isn't coming back."

Rhea found herself collapsed in front of the statue some hours later. Her eyes stung. She wiped a wetness off her cheeks.

She hadn't been crying. It could not be. Rhea had run out of tears centuries ago, lost to eons of pain and heartache.

Rhea looked up at the statue. An expression she once saw as firm and unyielding was now wrathful and full of a terrible scorn.

For the first time, Rhea felt the desire to destroy the effigy. She reached forward to break the statue with her bare hands. As her fingers touched the stone, Rhea's eye darted to an etching at its base. It was the picture of a small crown. A tear shape made up the crown's center, with what Rhea recalled was supposed to be a small ruby to contrast with the real circlet's gold coloring. Small antlers extended outwards- no. They were supposed to be wings, Rhea recalled. Several small points dangled on the wing line, pointing downwards.

Now all I need are feathers, and I'll be able to fly free over the walls and past the hills, A long forgotten voice echoed in Rhea's mind. Just like you, Mama.

Visions of a child with green hair flashed before her eyes. A sickly girl who was forced to sleep for days at a time. She had spent her waking hours learning the arts so she might last longer than her tombstone. A signature put on all of her works, in place of a name that was doomed to be forgotten by the world.

This statue was the last bit of proof that her first had ever existed. A gift from a girl damned by Rhea's inexperience at creating life. A child stumbling in her mother's footsteps.

In the end, all Rhea could do was drag herself back to her chambers and collapse into her bed. When Rhea awoke from a dreamless sleep, her pillows were damp.


4th of Blue Sea Moon

"…The congregation sends their well wishes to you, and prays for a speedy recovery." Seteth droned at her side. Rhea took another sip from the broth he had brought with him.

"Hmm."

Seteth grumbled under his breath. "Rhea, please try and stay focused. Need I remind you that not only is the Rite of Rebirth fast approaching, but there is also a plot against your life. You could at least pretend to pay attention."

"Those come up from time to time. The knights are quite competent."

"Rhea, please." Seteth did not bother to hide his exasperation. "All it takes is one stray arrow. A single drop of poison. A second's lapse."

Rhea hummed. "As I said. The knights are perfectly capable of protecting me. This isn't the first assassination attempt in this decade."

"One would normally see the knight's experience with the subject as a sign of a much deeper problem."

"Their current frequency is fairly unusual. There was a spell of them after Loog's rebellion, but usually they only happen every fifty years or so."

Rhea heard a soft whump. Seteth's face was buried in his hands while his thumbs slowly ran over his temples. "…I can't help but think you've learned the wrong…everything." Seteth stood up to leave. "I give up. You're acting worse than Flayn."

"Seteth, wait." He had already made it to the door, and did not turn to face Rhea, though he paused.

"Do you ever…think you're being too harsh on Flayn?"

Seteth turned, eyebrow twitching. "Given your apparent habit of attracting assassinations, no."

"Seteth, please. I apologize for my callousness. I need…" Rhea felt her lips thin. "I need your ear."

Seteth stared at Rhea for a moment, before sighing, and returning to his seat. "The things I do for you…" he muttered. "What is it?"

"I've been talking to Flayn recently-"

"Really? You were serious about that?"

"Seteth…"

He grumbled, but remained seated.

"And I just thought…it would be good for her to stretch her legs. To see the world, and how it's changed."

Setet's brow furrowed. "An odd request. You quite rightfully told her that Garreg Mach would be the safest place for her to live, especially given the current political turmoil in the kingdom and empire. Though given your rather blasé attitude towards an assassination threat…"

"I know that. And it is safe. But she isn't the small helpless child from our memories. She has grown, and it would be good to let her stretch her legs. I-" Rhea bit her lip. "We should not keep her locked away forever."

Seteth sighed. "She's put you up to this now, has she? I would ask you to tell Flayn and remind yourself that just because it is peaceful inside these walls does not mean that the outside world is without strife or quiet little acts of brutality." He leaned forward, staring down Rhea. "It even threatens to slip through these walls. Need I remind you of the assassination for the fourth time in as many minutes?"

"Students and merchants alike come and go through Garreg Mach."

"And none of them are blood to the second in command of the Church of Seiros. The very same Church of Seiros with an archbishop that has an assassin's writ against her." Seteth sighed. "Not to mention, someone tried to kill the three most important students several moons ago. Really, it's for her own protection. She isn't ready to face the world, no matter what she says. You should know this Rhea."

Mama, when will you show me the ocean?

"All too well."

Seteth gave her a questioning look. "Then why bother asking?"

Rhea looked at Seteth. She recalled promising to not leave him out of anything a few months ago. And with his own experience with Flayn, he might have some small measure of sympathy for her. But more than anything, the burden of carrying her guilt had grown too much to stand in the past months. Seteth was the only one who could understand her. Both were parents. Both had roamed the earth for well over one thousand years. And both had felt the pain of losing a child. Seteth's long faded by time and Flayn's recovery, and Rhea's only recently discovered.

"Ever since Byleth entered Garreg Mach, I've been trying to remember something." Rhea forced out.

Seteth shifted. "What?"

"The answer came to me two days ago." Rhea paused, summoning her courage. This was the last chance to back out. To change the subject.

"This is related to your collapse." Seteth looked pensive.

Rhea could not allow herself to hide. "I realized that night was the first time I had ever called Sitri my daughter."

Seteth's silence seemed to stretch out and muffle any other sounds that usually drifted into her room in the hot midday. He studied her as he did Flayn's health. Rhea held his eyes, refusing to let herself look away.

"Sitri." Seteth finally grounded out, testing his own words as they past his tongue. "Byleth's mother."

"Yes."

"You've made a habit of giving blood to cardinals. Extending their life. Calling them your children. Watching over orphans torn from their families by war and illness."

"All that is true."

"But you didn't call her daughter. Someone who you created to house…" Seteth let the sentence drip out.

Rhea did not flinch. "Yes."

"…Because she was a means to an end?"

Rhea cringed. "No. I didn't-" an exasperated sigh escaped her. "It all started with my fifth."

"…Ah. Yes. You mentioned Sitri was your twelfth."

"It's not like-" Rhea felt her voice catch. "I tried, the first four, to treat them like any other child. But my fifth- He was-I didn't mean- I-" Rhea's mouth was dry. Seteth had not changed his expression, carefully schooled into a neutral façade. His eyes felt like boulders perched mere inches away from a jagged cliff. "I didn't- it wasn't my-"

There was the barest of shifts in Seteth's face. Trying to back down now would bring the avalanche down. Rhea took a breath. "He was as sweet as all the others. But the power I gave him spoiled the boy. He grew cruel. Wicked. After his passing, I resolved to treat any future vesse-" Rhea bit her tongue. "Any future…children…as if they were any other orphan, so that would never happen again, for the good of everyone."

Seteth stared, unblinking.

Rhea tried to communicate with her kin. "For their own protection, as you might say."

Seteth flinched at that.

"…I remember coming here three and a half centuries ago. There was a cardinal. Black hair. Pale skin. Gold eyes. Utterly emotionless. She was another one of these…?"

Rhea nodded. "Yes. My seventh."

"I spoke with her a few times. In our talks, she only ever referred to herself as an 'it'."

Rhea's eyes widened. "That wasn't- she- it- my seventh was made differently. They were genderless. It wasn't anything harmful. It was an experiment to see if that might better it's chance of becoming-" Rhea noticed the hard edge that had entered Seteth's face. "I-I-" Rhea's eyes fell. "I never meant…"

"…'It' was also bursting at the seams with magic. So much so that they might come apart at any moment. I could also see the melancholy simmering underneath whenever you two were in the same room. I don't recall you ever so much as addressing the poor child."

"I never repeated those mistakes aga-" Rhea's eyes widened at her own admission.

Seteth resumed what might have been a minute or an hour later. "Do you still believe that any of that was for those children's good?"

She wanted to. She had to. She needed to. But she couldn't.

"I also notice that you never referred to either child by name." Seteth let his accusation hang in the air like the gallows. Rhea did not look up.

"Have you forgotten their names? Or did you never bother to learn them?"

Rhea's eyes shot up. Seteth's face still had not moved. "No!" Rhea shouted, pleaded, begged. "No! I didn't!" Seteth's face finally changed. "I didn't. I…" It wasn't any movement on his part. He had simply begun to blur. "I didn't…"

It was a mistake to tell Seteth. She should have let this die a forgotten death. It was just like Macuil all over again. Seteth would leave her now. Rhea could sense it. A thousand years and all the tribulations he had stood by her like the very ground beneath her feet. All gone, to satisfy some guilt-ridden fantasy that he would forgive her.

Sitri was gone forever. Jeralt hated her. Seteth would take Flayn. She was alone. Again, after eleven hundred years. And it was all her fault.

Hours had passed. Rhea knew this because the next time she looked up, Twilight was cast on Seteth's face. He still had not shifted from his seat.

"…Why…" Rhea choked out. "…Why are you still here?"

Seteth sighed. His face lost its stony look, and grew weary. "Someone has to look after you."

She felt herself come apart all over again. "What have I done to deserve you, Cichol?" She managed.

He sighed again. "You are fool beyond imagination, Seiros."

Night fell. He studied her for a time. Finally making a face that hinted a small piece of satisfaction, he stood. "I have a meeting to attend with someone who might take the threat to your life seriously. Until next time, Lady Rhea." She couldn't tell if that was sarcastic.

Rhea's lips thinned. She still needed something. No. Someone. "Are you going to see Byleth?"

"Yes. Her knowledge has been invaluable. She will be connecting the attempt on the three heirs to the latest on your own."

Rhea rose, wobbling on her feet. "I would like to come with you." She managed. "I have…things I must tell her."

"Yes." Seteth mused. "I suppose you do."

"Seteth?"

"Yes?"

"I still think…you should take Flayn northwest. To the sea."

Seteth looked down. "I'll consider it."


They waited in Seteth's office. Rhea sat quietly in a corner. Seteth busied himself with paperwork. The moon was high when Byleth finally opened the door. Rhea stood up jerkily. Both Byleth and Seteth turned to her.

Rhea clasped her hands together, fidgeting like a schoolchild. Her throat was suddenly dry, and her lips were chapping. Byleth met her gaze, unblinking and without emotion like her sixth like her seventh like her-

Rhea forced herself to focus. She had been avoiding this for too long. Drawing her lips into a thin line Rhea forced herself forward. "Granddaughter."

The word felt light on her lips. It came so easily Rhea wondered why she hadn't ever called Byleth by it before.

Byleth nodded back. "Grandmother."

Rhea felt a strange giddiness at her pronunciation. "I hope your father is well, after…"

"He's getting drunk with Aelfric in Abyss."

Rhea shifted. "I suppose that is to be expected." She took in a breath. "Byleth…Granddaughter…" the word's foreignness on her tongue still brought a strange spark of joy. "I must know. Is Sothis…truly dead?" Those words sill tasted like dust and ash.

Seteth leaned forward. Byleth shifted on her feet, before looking Rhea in the eye. "Yes."

The words struck Rhea like Nemesis once did. She collapsed into her chair. Faintly, she was aware of Seteth leaning back into his. Distantly, she felt a hand touch her shoulder. Byleth was looking down at her, faintly glowing green eyes tinged with concern.

"Granddaughter, I…There are no words for what I have done to you." Rhea whispered out.

"It isn't your fault-"

"Mother's heart is the only thing that could have done this! I was the one who put it into you, who cursed you with your torment, I-" Rhea froze as Byleth embraced her.

"I know." Byleth said quietly, with a rainbow of emotion buried deep within the syllables. Faintly, Rhea felt herself return her grandchild's embrace and she closed her stinging eyes. How long had it been since she had held blood this way?

Ah, that was right. When Sitri died in her arms.

Grandmother and granddaughter slowly released their embrace. Rhea still felt phantom arms wrapped around her shoulders. It reminded her of Sothis, so very long ago. It was a good, terrible feeling that lingered long after her granddaughter pulled away. Rhea looked down at Byleth. Something more painful than happiness tugged at her heart. Her eyes drifted to Seteth, who was staring at his wall, with a far off glassy look in his eyes. Rhea coughed.

"I…thank you. But I realize that you had originally planned on talking over this plot against my life."

Seteth's eye's snapped back, and he cleared his throat. "Yes, well. We can delay if you need to-"

Rhea shook her head. "No, it's fine Seteth. I have more to say, but for now, I think it best to focus on something inside our control."

Byleth hummed. "I suppose so."

"Indeed. Last time we spoke, you mentioned the same person behind the attempted murder of the three heirs also had dealings with the Western Church, and was preparing to use them to strike." Seteth said. "You said they were called…the Flame Emperor?"

"Yes, that's correct."

"I see. Then what is their motive? Disgracing the church? Killing our three most important students and then striking against us on one of our holy days?"

"Well yes…" Byleth tilted her head. "But not just that. They are an extension of the Agarthans, who wish to take revenge-"

The shouts that came out of Rhea and Seteth nearly shook the room apart.


Just outside Seteth's door, cloaked by an invisibility spell, it took all of Solon's willpower not to join his two hated foes' in their chorus of sputtering.


First, thanks to Dox for beta reading!

I would say I've been playing the FFVII remake, but I don't have a PS4, so

I've been re-reading The Fifth Act, Terrorism and Anarchy and N7 SOLDIER.

Brave choices, I know. And yes, I would recommend 1984 and Brave New World. For fractionally more cool points (you know, like one or maybe two), I'd suggest Top Guide (In This Town), Angels Still Have Faces, and The Vivisectionists over on Ao3.

Long time readers may recall that before the DLC dropped, I was using Lilith as a name for Byleth's mother. And fun fact, if you take away the three remakes, their have been exactly twelve mainline Fire Emblem games before Three Houses release. Also, just for my peace of mind, does anyone have any suggestions for who from SOV might fit as one of Rhea's experiments? This really won't affect the story in any way, and they probably won't even be mentioned. I'm just wondering if anyone has any better ideas then me. Also Radiant Dawn. Rajaion is the 'best' fit I could come up with for PoR.

Also, apparently Limstellia is considered genderless according to reference books. The more you know.

Julius is fifth to reflect the generation gap and because Thracia doesn't really have anyone who could fit the role. And he does cameo in the game, so that counts for something.

Next chapter is going to be the hardest chapter of them all. The one where I, the author, has to sell you, an audience who has played the game, the idea that Solon, a villain with all the credibility and even less stage presence then Hans Moleman as any sort of threat instead of what he actually is, a walking punchline. Stay tuned, it'll be fun.

And yes, that was a hint.