Dimitri rides at the spearhead of his Honor-guard, his hair and the furs draped over his shoulders covered in a light dusting of snow. His gloves barely ward off the cold, but it's not too much for him to manage. He pushes his old horse hard in an attempt to make for the jagged pass that leads into the Oghma Mountains.

From there it would be a day and a half's ride to Garreg Mach proper, a day if they pushed themselves. And spending their last night in the mountain pass would offer some much needed protection from the cold.

The last few days had been kind. Not much snow had fallen since they passed south through Magdred, though the wind made good use of the loose snow on the ground.

"Slow down, Your Grace," Ingrid said as she steered her Pegasus down closer to the ground to make her words better heard. "I don't know what's got you in this hurry."

"This cold is a bit much, even for the likes of me. I'd like to at least get out of this wind," Dimitri said.

Felix scoffed from atop his coal black horse and the horse, seemingly imitating its master demeanor made a loud fluttering sound as it exhaled. "What kind of boar shies away from the cold?" Felix asked.

Dimitri ignored the question, as he did with most of Felix's jabs, but Annette pulled his ear roughly as a small punishment. She was sitting at his back and had been resting her head between his shoulder blades. He probably though her sleep until she attacked him.

"There's no need for you to be rude like that!" Annette said.

"Ow, use your words," Felix chided her.

Their group was spread out with a compliment of minor lords and knights of the crown moving along in their numbers as protection. Sylvain had hung back just in case there was to be trouble near the middle of their lines. Dedue was with Flayn, his wife, as neither of them could be on horseback on account of their small child and the fact that most horses in the Kingdom didn't have it in them to carry Dedue for any amount of time.

Of their band of former students that was headed to the monastery now it had been Dedue and Flayn who had last visited the place after the baby was born. They had gone when the child was one, when it was old enough for them to travel with safely. Seteth had insisted on seeing his niece in person so the arrangements had to be made.

It was because of that trip that this one was made slightly easier, conditions on the road would change from time to time and whoever had passed through any section of the kingdom most recently was valuable on the trails like this. Even then a lot had changed in the two years since that trip.

Ingrid rose up to a height that would allow her to see clear to the edge of the mountain line. There were forests to either side of them, many of the trees had been cleared back leaving a wide stretch of land, but the woods were so deep once they started that it was impossible to see into them.

"Do you think we'll be first of the old class in the festivities?" Asked Dimitri.

"Doubtful. Mercedes is still living at the Monastery and Claude had almost the same distance to travel and is making it by sky," said Annette.

Dimitri smirked back at her and Felix. "I wouldn't count us out just yet."

"You're awfully competitive suddenly. What's gotten into you?" Felix asked.

"I just thought this was the kind of thing we used to be proud of. The Blue Lions always strove to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat!"

"This not suspicious at all," Ingrid said.

Dimitri thought it better that he cut the small talk now, it wasn't as if he had let them know the true nature of what went on between he and Edelgard and though they had been at this for years he still brimmed with excitement every time that he was on the cusp of seeing her. He wondered if he were too obvious, if the overwhelming joy that he displayed was too much of a sign of his relationship with the Empress of the Adrestian Empire.

He wondered if any of his closest allies suspected Edelgard's daughter, Greta Patricia von Hresvelg was also his daughter?

Perhaps it was too little to expect from them to think that way of him. The notion of it seemed uncouth and completely out of line at times even to him, but when he saw Edelgard, when he felt her skin on his and kissed her lips, when he was alone with her in bed in those precious hours they could steal away from their lives as rulers he knew that fate and the very Goddess had to be drawing them together.

A bright flash spilled out of the forest to their right and then another to the left. Dimitri had still been pushing himself ahead of the others and was out front, but drew up on the reigns of his horse to bring himself back into line. "Whoa, whoa," he said, rubbing the side of the creatures neck.

"Their on both sides!" Ingrid yelled just in time for a large flaming mass to come rocketing over the treetops and hurtling right toward them. "Break! Break!" Ingrid screamed before rushing upward into the sky with her shield raised to protect her shoulders, neck, and head.

The rest of her Pegasus Knights battalion took her command to scatter just before four rocks that crackled with flame rained down from the sky to shatter in the road leaving the main path partially blocked.

Maddened screams were coming from the forest on both sides, echoing down the slope and into their group trapped on three sides by an unknown force. Dimitri snapped out of thoughts of Edelgard and his child. Their enemy was too well equipped to be ordinary bandits and this was far too close to the Church's territory for it to be safe for them.

He didn't have long to ponder on it before they emerged from the trees charging toward the relatively small regiment of Kingdom soldiers. The standards they carried bore distinct banners depicting a silver Crest of Seiros laid over a blood red field: The Western Church.

"Protect your King!" A voice boomed from somewhere in the back of the lines.

"To arms!"

People rushed back and forth, trying to sure up the defenses around the road where they could. Archers lined up along the road to nock their arrows, taking aim at the rush of soldiers. But the Western church fired first and though their shooting was done on the move, it was effective at striking true.

Several knights around Dimitri fell from their horses, archers along their front lines plummeted to the ground. It was only because of his shield that Dimitri wasn't hit. Her heard the shouts of men, felt the beat of hooves and the crunch of armor against the hard dirt.

Felix toppled down off of his horse and the creature sunk to the ground to one side. Annette was forced to dive to the ground to avoid because crushed and she made her way to her husband's side.

The arrow was jutting out of his lower abdomen and another in his shoulder, he wouldn't die immediately but they had to get him off this road and out of the line of fire. Ingrid and her sky knights took this opportunity to crash down upon the army from above, lashing out at them with pole axes and spears. She whirled around in a spiral like a marble riding along the inside of an overturned barrel, her bodied poised to strike the moment any enemy came into reach.

Dimitri would cover the side of the road that she hadn't gone to, he rode down into the ditch, hefting the ancient spear, Areadbhar, up into his hands. In the past the Western Church had exchanged stern words with the Central Church, but in the last five years they had lashed out militarily starting with the attack on a sacred site at the Rhodos Coast and even going as far as to attack the Archbishop herself.

Even then, targeting the Kingdom was an entirely different thing considering that they were the segment of the church mostly tied to the West.

"Let's make them work for it," Dimitri said beckoning some of his knights to follow. "I won't join the ranks of the dead today!"


Annette held close to Felix, her fingers pressed in around the arrow to keep as much pressure on the wound as she could. Their horse was pressed up against them and had already expired from its wounds. The massive body laying there was doing its part by keeping them from being trampled to death.

Felix groaned, trying to move to sit up. The movement was enough to make the arrow move inside of his skin, he almost let out a cry, but managed to subdue it.

"You have to stay still," Annette said, pressing her hand to his chest to steady him.

"If I stay still, you'll stay here. I have to move…for both our sakes," Felix said.

As the Western Church soldiers raced across the field, closing in on either side of them, the Knights of Fhirdiad encircled Dimitri's immediate area which included Annette and Felix.

Hooves and boots thundered around them and it was hard to see where anyone was. The knights were so close and tightly packed that it was impossible to make out the field anymore. Then the clang of metal on metal, there were screams and grunts. Another round of huge rocks sailed overhead, crashing into the ground so close to their position that the whole world seemed to shake.

Annette touched Felix's face, her fingers trailing down the side of his cheek until they were under his chin. She lifted his face, just slightly enough to kiss him. A smile worked its way across her pink lips.

"Keep pressure on this," she said, acknowledging the wound.

"Don't go," Felix said as he pulled back from her.

"I can help hold them off. Maybe we can think of something, maybe…" Annette went to stand up, but he had hold of her arm. She yanked away from Felix causing him to drop onto his back

Just then one of the white clad Western Church Myrmidon's broke through the line, battering one of the Kingdom's knights down in a flurry of maddened strikes. Through the space made where he tore through the knights lines Annette could see some the West Church heretics carrying torches. They were lighting living people on fire.

The Myrmidon glanced up at Annette, the knights that still held the line were too preoccupied with the targets in front of them. They had to know one of their own went down, but everything was happening too fast. But his face, she noticed it only in the blip of time that she had to process everything, there was something wrong with the Myrmidon's face.

On instinct she lifted her hands up, her hands making the motions without her having to think back or remember them. Even without her wand it wouldn't be much of a feat for her to cast the first spell she had learned—wind. A high speed disk of air cut into the enemy soldier and sent him flying onto his back.

But their lines weren't holding. She could hear Dimitri barking orders.

Annette scrambled over the ground, keeping her head low until she got back to Felix. He reached one blood soaked hand up to grab hers. "It's okay," Felix said.

"No."

"Go," Felix said. "Just go, idiot!"

Annette spun around, her fingers spread wide as she loosed a series of shining bolts of light from hands, a Sagittae spell. They tore through some approaching soldiers, there were more coming. Faster than she could cast.

She tired to cover Felix as he begged her to leave. They were too far from the tightening formation the Knights kept and if she had gone to drag him the Wester Church would be upon her in an instant.

A heavy shield pounded into the ground in front of her and Felix, blocking an oncoming Western Church axe user. Annette glanced up to see the bronze colored plate armor worn by Dedue, he glanced back over his shoulder at her as she raked his heavy axe down into a man and punched another.

"You're safe now, Lady Annette."

Flayn had slipped in behind Annette, which was even more surprising when you considered that she was carrying a three year old around. She got down over Felix, and closed her eyes briefly.

"It'll all be fine," Flayn assured Annette as she pressed her hands against the sides of Felix's neck.

Annette could feel the air tingle with magic as Flayn's crest and her magic worked in tandem to heal her husband and push the arrows out of his body as useless sticks.

Felix sucked in a sharp gasp, clutching at his chest as if he had been deprived vital air for too long. He was on his feet in a flash, drawing his sword. "Thank you, Flayn," he said.

He caught a Western Church soldier in the thigh with a deft strike and then stabbed the man through the chest. "I've got to make myself useful."

"We all fall back," Dedue said. "You cover my sides."

"I don't take orders from the Boar's piglet," Felix said despite the fact that he fell into position next to Dedue as Annette watched the other side and Flayn retreated for safety with the child.


Dimitri was unmounted, spear clutched between his hands with his back pressed against that of the men at his sides. He had learned to ride from and early age and excelled at it. He understood, through various different teachers's lessons that horseback offered vast advantages over combat on foot. Still, this was the way he saw himself. Horses hadn't always been so common in the Kingdom and when he thought of himself, the basest thing parts of what he was it was a man of the Northern Territory, draped in furs with a spear in hand.

They were surrounded, cut off from another group of knights, but Dimitri and the few men that he had left were some of his best. When the enemy made a move they poked out from the safety of formation. When arrows were fired they dropped behind the large silver shields that they carried, Dimitri had the men on either side to shield for him.

Strike. Dimitri and his group plunged their spears forward into an approaching group.

The only problem was endurance. One man would eventually slip or get tired and then that part of the formation would fall and they'd have to close the gap. It had not happened yet, but it was the end result of a stalemate like this against greater numbers.

Shields raised. Thud Arrows pounded against the shields as they went up to block the onslaught.

A rebel force this large was almost unheard of. The contingent of troops that Dimitri had brought with him for the trip had been small. Larger forces tended to slow things and need more resources and he hadn't seen the point of traveling with a full compliment. No one had been attacked on this scale for years.

"Above us! Above us!" Shouted one of the men.

Dimitri glanced upward to see mounted fliers. Pegasus and Falcon Knights along with Wyvern Riders.

"Hold!" Dimitri said. He swore he could see the smile on the lead riders face and when the rider got closer and Dimitri saw who it was, saw the unmistakeable shape of the bow Failnaught he couldn't help but smile that his suspicions had been confirmed.

Claude von Riegan loosed a volley of arrows into various soldiers that were charging toward Dimitri. He swooped down overhead with the other riders and in that group were faces that Dimitri recognized, though he hadn't seen some of them in years. The professor was close behind Claude, mounted on what had to be a borrowed Pegasus. He even spotted Hubert von Vestra riding in back of Bernadetta.

They hovered overhead with a small group while others circled around in the air to pick off stragglers and search for the Kingdom's separated survivors.

Dimitri heard Hubert laugh manically as he sent purple, gel like orbs of magic crashing into groups of Western Church soldiers.

"Umm, honey," Bernadette started. "Your scary laughing is kind of distracting," she said before loosing another arrow.

The added air support was enough for Ingrid's forces to regroup and fall into formation with the reinforcement. It still wasn't enough to drive the Western Church to retreat fully, but there wasn't much left of them. Their numbers were greater, but their skill was much less and they had exhausted their advantage in the initial push to break the lines.

Claude did a roll in the air, firing arrows through the whole maneuver and hitting his one target with each shot. He unseated a large armored man who was galloping toward Dimitri and the others. As he came to a stop near them, Dimitri could feel the beat of his Wyvern's wings.

"I'm glad you didn't run off this time, Claude," Dimitri said.

"Nah," Claude said. He tossed an arrow up in front of himself for it to spin once before he caught it; he did this flawlessly as if he had practiced it. "I knew if I let you die all those poor maidens in the Kingdom would be sad and I hate to see a lady cry."

Dimitri would have actually laughed at this, had they not been standing surrounded by the bodies of his countrymen. He wasn't sure that Claude wanted him to laugh or that it was meant exactly as a joke. There was something in the way the Almyran archer held his gaze and the look in his eyes that betrayed his wide smile.

It had been years since Dimitri had stood within miles of Claude, possibly even in the same country as him but it seemed his understanding of him had changed very little.


It had taken the better part of the afternoon for them to sure up the rest of their forces make arrangements for the dead. Mercedes, who had come in with the rescue operation had been the one to bless the dead, she said few words over them and worked quickly with a kind of respect that very few twice her age who had been with the church for a time equal to her life span could even muster.

Though it pained Dimitri to think it, no one close to him had passed. Some of the men he had stood shoulder to shoulder with were life long knights, pledged to him by his banner men and his banner men's banner men, but they were not his friends.

When he watched Annette and Felix stride up between Dedue and Flayn and when he saw Sylvain arguing with Ingrid a part of him couldn't help but sigh in relief. I don't need anymore dead loved ones haunting me.

They made camp at the mouth of the mountain pass. There was a little area there where a merchant selling wares from the distance East had set up a small shop. It seemed like an easily fortified place for them to camp. When drenched the landscape in shadow and the fires they lit painted the sides of the mountains dull orange, Dimitri sulked off into the darkness to drink in a small hole at the base of the rocks.

He hardly noticed that someone had stolen up on him until he heard Hubert speak.

"What are your plans?" Asked the mage, in the darkness it was hard to see his face or even know that his lips were moving. Hubert had cut an imposing figure once upon a time and he did in a way, still, but these last few years working more closely with him had shed some light on his character.

"Normally one would try to make for Ashner's Keep. It's small and fortified. There's enough there to keep bandits at bay and hide cooking fires from the outside world, but I'd like to press hard tomorrow and make for the monastery," Dimitri said.

Hubert nodded, bringing his hands together in front of him. "I thought you might say such."

"How did you know where we were and that there would be an attack?" Dimitri asked.

"We didn't. Not exactly. There was some discussion about where the visitors to the monastery would come from and we had intel of Western Church spies in the woods. As luck would have it we spotted the attack, not that they were being very muted in their approach."

Dimitri took a big drink. "I didn't think you believed in luck."

"I don't believe in relying on it, but luck has been the deciding factor in many conflicts. One cannot afford to overlook it," said Hubert.

"True. True." Dimitri nodded.

Hubert was quiet for a moment, glancing to his sides and then back to where Dimitri sat. He stepped forward and his face came into a sliver of flickering fire light. "I feel that there is something more pressing that you're waiting to ask me. Don't feign interest in my pursuits for the sake of politeness, go on, ask."

"How is she?" Dimitri said. "How are they?"

"Lady Edelgard is exactly as you would expect her to be and little Greta is well," Hubert said.

Dimitri got quiet, searching his perception for signs of anyone else in the area that might hear even though he knew Hubert would have immediately warned him. "I have longed to see them both. I cannot…I do not know how to even express how intense the desire is within me to hold Greta in my arms."

Hubert folded his arms behind his back, grabbing his wrist with the other hand. "Young Lady Greta has also said her first word. It was: 'kitty'."

Footsteps nearby. Both Dimitri and Hubert went still, trying to listen for the direction of their approach.

"What's going on over here?" Claude shuffled through the darkness toward the pair of them with his fingers laced behind his head. As he got close enough to see who he was addressing he whistled. "This is quite the pair out here. Hubert, when you went missing I figured you'd gone off to find some confined, coffin like space to sleep in or is it that you hang upside down?"

"I don't know to what you're referring…" Hubert said.

"Was there some reason that you struck out this far from camp to find?" Asked Dimitri.

"There was a missing monarch and a very anxious girl with purple hair," Claude said glancing to Hubert. "I think your wife is looking for you…and just so you know that vampire bit got a lot of laughs back there…"

Hubert sighed. "Perhaps it is time that I head back. We can discuss the finer details of things once we're at the monastery or perhaps you can see them for yourself," Hubert shot a curt nod at Dimitri, the kind of nod that clearly said more than he could out loud presently, and then headed back toward the fires.


With the sun having retreated behind the horizon the cold had it's way with the world and the air along the mountain pass began to hint at the cold that they would face tomorrow at the hight elevations. Byleth knew it was a terrible idea to wander off alone into the night, but she had to confirm the thing for herself. She walked until the scant light available to her was more than enough.

The darkened spaces that marked the edges of the gravel on the path and the jagged edge of each peak seemed to hold a kind of strange relevance under the cover of night.

Honestly she hadn't gone far and she had moved at such a sluggish pace that she felt that she could still hear the voices of her party further back. Something would flash on occasion and she just knew that was the flicker of the fires from camp.

Or maybe she had imagined it.

The path took a sharper turn, one that didn't have the natural slant or curve that most on the pass did and as it passed through the shadow of a rock face the way ahead vanished only to appear again yards away.

An electricity filled the air. It tingled and popped at Byleth's skin until she knew that it was more than just some trick of superstition. Her hand went to the relic weapon at her waist, the Sword of the Prophet. Drawing the jagged weapon from its scabbard she paused, peering into void in front of her.

"I knew you were were here, just like I felt you on the battlefield earlier," Byleth said. "Show yourself, old friend."

For a moment there was nothing and then something moved within the darkness, turning until two ember like eyes glowed high above the ground. A horse and rider emerged from the blackened air, the horse blowing out steam as it stalked forward. It had been some time since Byleth had last seen the Death Knight, but she remembered the feeling that she had been overtaken with before each time that they crossed weapons.

"Ashen Demon," though she couldn't see his face, Byleth felt that the tone of the Death Knight's voice almost sounded like a smile. "You have a peculiar idea of friendship," he added.

Byleth shrugged. "I consider us friends," she said. "It's a shame too since after I kill you who am I going to fight like this?"

She wasted no time, opening with a swipe of her off-hand to throw a fireball spell. It missed, as she knew it would, the Death Knight's horse leapt aside deftly. But the fireball also lit up part of the path behind him showing her that there was no trick.

Byleth had never been the kind to depend on offensive magic, she launched herself forward with the sword at the ready. Her legs pounded behind her, slipping on the loose gravel, but she had anticipated this in herself and her opponent. The Death Knight was off of his footing, sliding from his dodge.

She stopped short of him, letting him go to move out of her path. But it took a second for horse's feet to catch. Byleth stooped down low, using the sword stabilize herself by jabbing it into the ground when she needed to change directions.

The Death Knight pulled back, causing his horse to rear up just as Byleth struck. She jammed her sword into the ground just to make a change in direction again and pushed in for the attack only to have him parry.

They battled back and forth, their weapons ringing as they collided together, flashes of sparks between them ignited the air every so often. The Death Knight rounded on her, taking a heavy swing at her head that caused her to drop into a duck and roll out of the way before the horse stomped down on her.

The air whooshed as the Death Knight began to twirl his scythe and before long it was a howl. He swung at her, but stumbled back and deflected the blow so that the blade of the weapon was buried in the rock face above her head. Byleth bounded back on to her feet, sword poised out in front of her and crackling with energy.

"If Mercedes finds out that I ripped another piece of clothing," Byleth muttered. "You won't have to kill me."

"Mer..ce…des…" the Death Knight said in a breathy tone.

Byleth got to her feet. "You okay? You need a moment?" Byleth asked. "We can't continue to play if you're going to do…whatever that was at the mention of other women…"

A kind of guttural growl erupted from the Death Knight as he moved on her again, but this time with a magic attack. She was too close to dodge this and her balance was off. It wouldn't be the end of her, but it might be significant blow even with the aid of a relic to block part of it. Byleth brought her sword down as fast as she could, but before the wave of white energy could overtake her someone stepped in at her side catch the spell with their hands.

She smelled the subtle hint of Mercedes's hair and the soap she had used to wash it all of these years before she knew that her wife was there. Then as if to confirm the truth that Byleth knew, she grunted at the weight of the spell as it dissipated against her counter work.

"You!" The Death Knight snarled.

"What are you doing out here alone?" Asked Mercedes looking to her side. Her hands were still up, anticipating another attack and twitching from taking that first one. There were better mages that had come out of Garreg Mach, but there was no one else that Byleth had seen in all of her years that could eat some of the worst spells out there without so much as a scratch.

"Needed to clear my head," Byleth said.

The Death Knight made to ride back up the path into the darkness, but stopped and aimed the scythe out at them. "The next time—no—the moment is not right yet." He rode off, driving his horse as hard as he could.

"You said that last time!" Byleth yelled after him.

"How does he keep finding you?" Mercedes asked.

Byleth shrugged, staring blankly at her wife for a moment. "I think—I think I can feel him. I knew he was at that battle earlier and then just now."

"It just doesn't make sense. He kidnaps Flayn, attacks on Remire Village, and then he just appears in random places from time to time. Almost like he was out to fulfill some grand goal and then just…" Mercedes trailed off. "There's more to him than just being a monster. It's like he's playing a part. A person like that can't know any other life. They can't…"

Byleth caressed the underside of her wife's chin and ran her thumb over Mercede's lips. They stared at each other for several seconds before Byleth leaned in and kissed her. Mercedes eyes closed on instinct and she had leaned in to receive the kiss.

"What was that for?" Asked Mercedes as their lips parted.

"Can't I kiss you?"

Mercedes smiled, her cheeks reddening enough that it was apparent even in the low light present in the pass. "I'd venture to say you can do a fair bit more than that," she said pressing herself against Byleth so that her cheek touched the side of Byleth's temple.

"Let's save it for when we're safely back home," Byleth said wrapping an arm around her waist to lead her back up the path.


She had never been the kind of person who could sneak around with any kind of proficiency. In the years at the Monastery it was just luck that her father had been just the perfect combination of busy and trusting that allowed her a degree of freedom that, looking back on, she was kind of surprised of especially after the kidnapping. Those threats seemed to die off or at least fade from plain view.

Back at the school when she needed to be alone she would sneak out and take a stroll around the campus. The whole place was relatively safe, even with all that eventually did happen there. She never felt so unsafe as to be unable to take a walk.

When she married and left the protection of Garreg Mach her need for alone time turned into a need for time with her husband. She longed for any moments that they could steal away from Dedue's duties as a knight and hers as one of the most celebrated healers in the kingdom. That time was their own, but it passed relatively quick as most time did after centuries of life. When she gave birth to their daughter, Eithle, a lot of their time became dedicated to raising her and caring for her.

It was rare that she struck out on her own. Maybe being this close to the monastery had ignited something within her, but she had to make the effort to sneak out even if she just went as far as the edge of the camp to gaze off over the tops of the mountains into the night sky.

Being outside of the city again had reminded her off how many stars there were in the sky. It wasn't a fact she forgot, but one that she never had to consider anymore. The light at the Monastery and then when she moved to Fhirdiad had caused the sheer number of twinkling orbs in the sky to become an afterthought.

When she was outside of her tent for a few minutes and spotted no one but the men on watch she dared herself to move a little further from the center of camp. Dedue was still with Eithle and there were hundreds of people around in total. They just happened to mostly be asleep. She pressed her body against the stone wall that blocked one side of the path they were camping in, the dying embers of the cook fires the only source of light this far from the torches that the guards carried.

The darkness didn't matter much to Flayn or others of her kind. They could see well enough in low light. Flayn was some years into her life when she realized humans couldn't see in the dark.

Footsteps very nearby, no. It was the sound of something scrapping, someone moving to stand from the ground. Flayn hadn't seen him there, but Claude was a few feet down the rock face sitting on the ground. By the time she had spotted him he was halfway to a standing position.

"Do you always slip out like this late at night?" He asked.

"I had a habit of going for late night strolls, but the mood takes me less frequently now," Flayn said.

"That is uncanny," Claude said as he shambled toward her.

"What ever do you mean?"

"Your voice coming out of…when I spotted you during the fight I had no idea who you were. It wasn't until someone called you by name that I realized," Claude said.

"It's been five years, we all changed," she said.

Claude chuckled. "If you say so. It's kind of a weird thing to admit, but you look a fair bit like a smaller Rhea now…"

"If there's any relation to the Archbishop and I it must be generations back. It's nothing that I know of," she said, clearly stopping to consider all of her words.

"That's the same," Claude started. "You're a shit liar."

Flayn let out a small, disgruntled noise. There were things Father never discussed and that she didn't know how to ask Rhea—things about how her body worked and when she would look as old as she felt. It had apparently been tied to having Eithle, at least in her case.

"Not sure how you can tell how anything looks without a torch. Why are you sulking about in the dark?" Asked Flayn.

Claude pointed to his eyes. "Old hunter's trick. If you avoid light long enough then your eyes become attuned to the dark. You can't see as well as you would in daylight, but you can more than make do."

"Until you come in contact with something bright and you're blinded," Flayn said.

Claude sighed. "I guess that's the risk you run dealing with darkness," he said. "So, uh, you and Dedue—how did that happen?"

"During his time at the school he used to help me with my cooking and he would frequently be working in the greenhouse. We became acquainted and after graduation he and I kept in touch. Father and I traveled to the capital almost a year later and I found that I felt strongly and apparently he did too."

The guards were so far away from them camp that the only sound left between them was their breathing. Flayn gave Claude the broad strokes of what went on between her and Dedue. She had never revealed the awkward moments immediately after their first kiss in the greenhouse at the school to anyone. She never would speak about the first time that she made love to Dedue in the library at the castle in Fhirdiad.

"It's strange," Claude said, "Being back here; being this close to that place."

"Garreg Mach was home for so many years," Flayn wondered if she had let something slip with the way that she said it had been so many years. Claude had been one of the students more suspicious about her past. Though he never directly asked, there was an insinuation that he knew more than others.

"You grew up at the Monastery or…" Claude started.

"No, I only came to be there a short time before you and the others. Before that I had been living in a village where my brother and I were born," Flayn said.

"Living in a village? Without Seteth?"

Flayn threaded her fingers through one another, clasping her hands against her stomach and taking a deep breath. Zanado had shielded her from the dangers of the real world for so long. No one ever set food in that region of the Oghma Mountains and the Church made sure to declare it off limits unless there was official business to be had. "It was peaceful," she said.

Total Isolation.

"But yes it also grew lonely," Flayn added.

Claude nodded. "You were the only one in this village? It sounds like you were hiding from someone or something…"

"My father made a lot of enemies," Flayn said before she had remembered herself. That was the risk in speaking to Claude, there was a kind of security in him that made you want to place your trust in him. "My brother and I are paying for the transgressions of our family."

"Ugh, I can assure you that I know a thing or two about what it's like to be blamed for something your family's past. In my case it's the two sides of my family," Claude said. "It's tiring."

"Is that why you came back to Fódlan—to escape that?"

"All three houses promised to come back for the Millennium Celebration, plus I've got a special lady I'm looking forward to seeing." Claude folded his arms behind his head and leaned back to rest against the wall.

The same way that she didn't want Claude pushing the issues of her past and questioning her lineage too much, she didn't expect to be able to ask all of his secrets. She had some guesses as to who the woman was, but with the level of secrecy that Claude maintained about a lot of his activities she was prepared for there to be some surprise if it was revealed.

Flayn moved over nearer to Claude to sit down against the wall with him, resting her hands in her own lap as she dropped into position. Maybe this was enough, just having a companion to sit and ponder with in silence. She had left the tent to go out alone, but the truth was at the monastery, in Fhirdiad…she had always been with others in the sense that the buildings around her were full of people. It still wouldn't be safe for her to be truly alone and maybe she didn't want to be alone in the sense that she was isolated.

It was like things had become so loud since she rejoined society. She just needed quiet, she decided.