Hilda stayed still as death. Fear of even breathing too hard kept her pink hair mushed into the pillowy mattress. The thick magenta blanket was tangled around her waist and through Claude's legs, binding them together. Any movement would be unmistakeable, she was sure of it. If they laid perfectly motionless, if they pretended they weren't there the banging on the door would stop and their early morning visitor would just resign themself to a breakfast without her.
"Hilda." The voice was a non-threatening boom; the voice of a brother who knew his sister was a heavy sleeper. "If you don't come round I'm not having the kitchen save you anything."
Another set of knocks rattled the door.
"This is incredibly rude to our hosts, baby sister. And…well, you're missing out on bacon," he added.
Claude went to move, but she clamped her thighs down around his leg hard enough that she was sure she heard something pop. She almost slapped the top of his head, but that might have made a sound. Hilda settled for tugging at his messy dark hair.
He swatted her hand away as he mouthed the word 'ouch' at her. "I want that bacon," he whispered so quietly that she wasn't sure she had heard him actually whisper anything.
Hilda pressed a stern finger to her lips, silencing him. She ran through the gambit of lies that she used to get out of unsavory situations and found most of them to be inapplicable. There was no chance of her even slipping out there to distract Holst. Claude's smell had to be all over her. In her mind she could picture Holst sniffing it out of her hair or skin like a bloodhound and everyone knowing what had happened.
Goddess, she could still taste Claude in her mouth. What if her brother tried to kiss her?
"The Archbishop will be very cross if you don't at least make an appearance—it's the first day of the festivities. There won't be a chance like this for another thousand years…"
"Dearest brother, Holst," she spoke slowly and with as many words as possible without even knowing where her sentence would end up. "I'm having a maiden's issue—nothing to fret over, but clumsy me. I neglected to bring supplies. would you fetch the professor for me?"
Silence. The air grew thick with a palpable tension. "I'll notify her and also send a servant up with those little mint chocolates you like," Holst said, leaning closer to the large wooden door. "I do hope you feel better soon."
Hilda waited until his footsteps had ceased to echo down the hall, when it was clear that he made his full retreat. "Holst isn't grossed out by girlie parts or anything as typically tiresome as that; he just hates blood. That's why he forgoes Goneril's weapon in favor of a hammer," Hilda said with a shrug as she struggled free of Claude and the covers.
"Why would you bring Teach into this?" Claude said.
"She and I have a special understanding—even though we weren't in her class," said Hilda.
"Uh-huh. As I recall she called you a damned demon at the Battle of the Eagle and the Lion and yelled that you were only pretending to be lazy so you could ruin her life," Claude mused.
"She was really mad I wouldn't give up that hill, not that it stopped her class from winning," Hilda said right before she balled up her fist and socked Claude in the arm. "Hope you're happy, by the way—I can't use that period excuse again for at least a month."
"Maybe we shouldn't lie about this. Maybe we need to talk about what happened here like rational adults," Claude said as he sat up from her bed, his shirt was open the covers fell away from his lap as he adjusted his arm. Hilda turned away before she saw too much more of him.
"What's there to discuss? You walked me to my room under false pretenses and…and used your weird Almyran charms on me. I've never had to deal with that before, I'm perfectly adept at batting down requests from all sorts of groddie nobles from around here. That must be it, Hilda," she said to herself as she kicked her away through the small piles of clothes on the floor looking for something suitable.
Claude stumbled out of the bed behind her and stretched. "I didn't use any kind of trick, Hilda…maybe we just felt something."
"Ugh, so corny," Hilda said.
She turned and almost shrieked when she saw that Claude was naked from the waist down. More than that little Claude was at full attention for some reason.
"Awh, why is he so excited?" Hilda pointed an accusatory finger toward his crotch. "It's too early for that!" She lifted the nearest piece of clothing between her toes and kicked-flung it toward Claude. It fell perfectly draped over Claude's member like a sheet hanging over a pole.
"This happens in the morning sometimes…"
Hilda slipped into a lacy black night gown she had made as it was the nearest suitable thing. "Well, put some ice on it. I don't like how it's looking at me." Sweeping both her hands back past her neck, she pulled her long pink hair out of the back of the gown and dropped it to fall over her shoulders.
Claude pressed his hand to his forehead, raking it back through his hair, before turning to face away from her. "Sorry, guess I'll aim it somewhere else."
Hilda kept her forearm wrapped across her breasts to cover them, not that Claude hadn't gotten a look at everything.
"Look, I'm sorry. This is weird to me. We were close, but things have happened…you're not really here anymore and I'm just—I don't know," Hilda said as she sat on the edge of the bed. "I didn't know if you would even bother to come back here…"
"Why would I not come back? Because I'm in Almyra?" Claude asked.
"Yes. You didn't care enough to stay before. You could have been the leader of the Alliance and you chose to go back home. I can't blame you—that was your life for so long, but…never mind."
"I went back because they needed me, Hilda. The Alliance has your brother and it's got you. I knew it was in good hands," he said.
"I missed my best friend. Then he comes back and he's got more muscles and this sexy little chin strap beard—why did you really come here, Claude?" Hilda asked.
Claude sighed and reached up behind her neck and began to rub her back between her shoulder blades. "We all made a promise after the Grand Ball to come back here. We said we'd be here when the Church celebrated its first thousand years. Plus I was really curious about Edelgard's baby."
"It's just a baby. Don't they have babies in Almyra?" Hilda asked.
With a slight grimace overtaking his features, Claude glared at her. For so many of his interactions he was sure to never let the smile leave his face, even when joking. How long had he been willing to show her more? "It's more about the idea of Edelgard having a baby; is it just like this super serious, stoic baby?" Claude asked. "I hope she brought it."
"Of course she did—that baby is probably going to rule the Empire someday. What better way to make her heir known than this? Not like the baby has a choice. I wish I had a choice, Holst dragged me here," Hilda said.
Claude ran his thumb over her lips. "Aren't you glad he did?" His smile was perfectly rehearsed, but she loved it.
"Never change, Claude," Hilda said with her cheek pressed to his shoulder.
"Oh, I already have. Being around you is dragging all of this out of me." He caressed Hilda's chin. "It feels good though. Hell, it's nice to be back in Fódlan," Claude kissed her on the forehead, but Hilda sat up catching his lips with hers as he pulled away.
"You're just saying that because of what I did to you last night…" the corner of Hilda's mouth curled up into a smirk.
"What? You don't think we have blow jobs in Almyra?" Claude said with a chuckle. "Oh we have blow jobs."
Hilda pounded her fist into his chest playfully. "I ought to kick your naked ass out into that hall!"
Someone knocked at the door, slow and steady and only twice. Hilda and Claude froze. The very air in the room had the warmth sucked out of it. Suddenly it became very apparent how under dressed they were.
"Who's there?" Hilda asked.
"Open the door." The Professor.
Hilda climbed out of the bed and padded across the floor toward the large door. The moment that she unlatched it and gave it a little crack Byleth shoved her way through the door. The Professor had grown her forest green hair out so that it was almost to her butt. It was in a mess of tangles as she had clearly woken up only a moments ago. She smelled like stale alcohol intermingled with two dueling perfumes.
As Byleth scanned the room and spotted Claude and the mess Hilda had made overnight with piles of clothes strewn about the floor and the bed fully unmade none of it seemed to surprise her.
"Let me guess, you woke me up for a cover story?" Byleth asked her gaze darling between Hilda and Claude.
"It's not all my fault," Hilda said. "Some maniac burst in here and put Claude's penis in their mouth." She paused and bit her lip, glancing over to Claude. "Okay, so it was me…I was the maniac."
Byleth pressed further through the room, rooting through the piles of clothes on the floor until she found a bottle of wine. She scooped it up and walked over to the small dresser to push Hilda's things aside and sat atop the dark wooden surface. With a bit of struggle she worked the cork free and took a big swig.
"Shocked it took you two this long," Byleth said. "I know he was tempting me at one point," she joked.
"Really?" Claude and Hilda asked before staring at each other.
Byleth chuckled and took another drink. "Don't flatter yourself," she said, just a small burp escaped. "You've seen my wife."
Hilda had, though they were in different houses at the Officer's Academy, Hilda had a few interactions with the pious Blue Lions girl, Mercedes. She was one of the older students at the school and had a bit of a mother-hen-complex, thus she had always been easy to guilt into doing you work. The part that made it less fun is that Mercedes always seemed smart enough to know what was happening to her, but she did it anyway.
With the whole bottle polished off, Byleth sat it aside and scanned the room for another.
"Isn't it a bit early in the morning for that much drinking?" Hilda asked.
"I drink on my day off, classes aren't happening for this week, so no it's not too early for drinking. I had planned to spend my whole day fishing and helping my wife bake, but it looks like I've got to quell this shit-laced maelstrom you spun up and talk two consenting adults through their feelings…" Byleth dug into Hilda's bag and pulled out a fresh bottle of liquor to examine the label.
"You're grumpy because it's early, Teach, but in my defense I didn't think we needed to hide this, I think it would have been just fine to let the chips fall where they may."
Byleth shook her head. "Trust your better half on this one, this isn't the week you want to try and overshadow the event going on with tales about your feelings. My Gran is very invested in celebrating this whole thing. You would think she personally knew Sothis, it's just a very deeply spiritual thing with her. I'm not sure even I could pull her attention away from it."
"Lady Rhea has probably been looking forward to this as long as she's been Archbishop, right? I can see why it's important to her. Besides that, we don't need everyone in our business and knowing what we're up to," Hilda said eyeing Claude.
"Ah, so you're embarrassed of me?" Claude said crossing his arms behind his head, his smile growing so large you could practically hear the twinkle. "You hear that, Teach? Hilda doesn't want to be seen with me."
Byleth stumbled through the room, an exaggerated groan coming from her before she flopped back into the bed to kick her legs like she was having a temper tantrum. It was all an act of course, but it was one Hilda and Claude were meant to see as a serious plea to be left out of this.
"I wouldn't lay in that bed if I were you, Teach. There might be a bit of…love brine left on it."
"I've gotten worse things on me, plus I haven't showered yet. Or had coffee. Or got to speak to Mercedes—plus I'm about an hour from dozens of current Officers Academy students flocking to my room looking for extra reading assignments, practice sessions, or whatever else."
"How are your new students?" Hilda asked, crossing the room to sit down next to her old Professor.
"Well you never forget your first group," Byleth said turning on the bed so she was looking up at Hilda. "The stakes always felt high with you guys, all three classes had this sort of rivalry that I haven't seen before or sense, Mom says the whole thing felt like it was a delicate powder keg. Like it could have gone a different way."
"I didn't really get a chance to speak to Sister Seiros last night, how is she?" Hilda asked.
"Practically perfect," Byleth laughed. "Helping Seteth more now since he seems super upset over not having his sister around and then just being Mom."
"I'll never forget your Mom coming around to tend to us when the stress from Promotion Exams was getting to us. Every House. She didn't rest until we felt a little more at ease," Hilda smiled.
"Yeah, she's an amazing woman," Claude said.
"I am not my mom though," Byleth said. "Like I don't think I ever could be. I get how you think I am some wise teacher person who you can come to," she took a drink. "But I don't really feel like I set the best example. Other than Mercedes I can't think of something else I've done right by."
"You're an accomplished duelist, you have mastered riding the three quintessential 'beasts of war', and you're a respected member of the staff at a prestigious military academy," Claude said.
Byleth held a hand up as she counted off her counterpoints. "A mere effect of fighting nearly constantly alongside of the Knights and my father, an effect of being forced to keep up with the whims of students, and the affect of blind nepotism…" There was a realization in Byleth's eyes about something, maybe she figured she had gone too far, but whatever it was she switched topics very quickly.
"You two should just eat breakfast. Wash up first, Claude you walk out with me in case someone does see, they won't get the right idea. Hilda, tell you brother about what's going on. I doubt he will care that much and he likes Claude. I'd keep this under wraps other than that, rumors have a tendency to get really out of hand around here," she added.
"I seem to remember that much," Claude said.
Hilda nodded.
"It's good to see you both, maybe I miss those days more than I'd like to admit," Byleth said as she pushed off of the bed and headed for the door. "I'm going to go wash my hair, maybe I'll cut it off—I think I felt a wet spot. Keeping this, by the way," she said thrusting her arm up into the air with the bottle grasped tight.
Claude scrambled to get as much of his clothing right as possible and followed her out the door.
Felix jerked his head side to side over aggressively to dodging the attempts by the young Eithle to grab his hair. She laughed louder the more he moved, which seemed to only spurn on his discomfort. "You've got your father's wily reflexes," Felix grumbled. "And grace from somewhere, it certainly wasn't your mother," he added.
Eithle squealed. "Uncle Felith! Uncle, stop!"
Part of the new dormitory area constructed for the Millennium festival was a rooftop deck with tables and a small bar area where drinks could be made if there was someone to make them. The perimeter of the area had planted bushes and shrubs in beds and a wrought iron fence to keep anyone from falling out past that.
"Put a sword in this girl's hand, Dedue, and put me in front of her, we'll make a proper duelist of her," Felix tightened his arms around her in an attempt to stop her wiggling, it only seemed to partially work. At the same time he just let her play with the flyaway tendrils of hair that hung on either side of his face.
"I think Flayn wants to keep this one as far from combat as possible," Dedue said. "Though I would like for her to be able to defend herself."
"Yeah," Sylvain said blowing over the surface of his cup of tea. "The world is a dangerous place, she should at least know a thing or two eventually. I don't think Lady Flayn would disagree with that."
"It's been so long since we've just been gathered like this," Dedue said. "Even at court it's like we're always passing each other, hardly able to sit down and have time alone."
Felix shrugged, seemingly settling into his new fate as a practice dummy for a tiny green haired maiden. "Don't think it too special. The womenfolk tricked us into taking care of this one while they galavant around at the market."
"You don't sound like a man too eager to put a bun in his wife's oven," Sylvain laughed.
Felix scoffed. "There's something to be said about having Annette all to myself. Being able to come and go as we please. I wouldn't mind things continuing like this for at least a while longer."
"Does she feel the same way," asked Dedue.
"These walls are as thing as old parchment, I heard her singing to him this morning. I think she's already got her baby," Sylvain joked.
Felix lunged forward a bit, grabbing Eithle so that she didn't fall. "Maybe you'd like to come find me at the old sparring grounds later and speak that kind of nonsense!"
Eithle repeated the word 'sparring' over and over in a small voice.
"Calm down, both of you." Dimitri was sitting at the far end of their small table, he looked like he had been up most of the night, but somehow he seemed excited and on edge too.
"So the elephant in the room speaks or should I say the Boar," Felix said. "Why are you grinning like that?" He asked as Dedue picked Eithle up and sat her down. She ran off to play in a nearby flowerbed.
"Grinning like what?" Dimitri asked.
"I don't know. I don't like my beasts smiling. They can't be trusted," Felix said.
"Can we not do this right now?" Sylvain asked.
"I'm curious though," Felix said drinking from his glass. "If the might of House Blaiddyd is to survive into this new millennium of Fódlan Areadbhar is going to need a master, yet our King is still the only bachelor among us." He pointed to Sylvain. "Even this buffoon managed to trick poor Ingrid into putting up with him, no doubt with a dowry of food…"
Dimitri held his hand up to quell the impending bickering. "I may have news on the subject soon—there's been some developments with a young woman I'm courting."
Dedue looked up shocked, but said nothing.
"Does she write you letters from Morfis?" Felix asked.
"She is of Fódlan blood and a good family," Dimitri said, seemingly choosing his words carefully. "I can't describe the way that she makes me feel or the person that the look in her eyes makes me want to become."
"Well, just remember that if you're kingdom is to continue we need you to produce some boar cubs…"
For a brief moment something flashed across Dimitri's expression, a hint of the animal underneath. Though Felix couldn't guess at why this was what set him off.
"Pretty sure boar babies are called piglets, Felix," Sylvain said.
"Well I'm not running a goddamn menagerie now, am I?" Felix said partially muffled by his tea.
"I'm sure that the King would love to let you meet this lady, when the time is appropriate, but perhaps it's best not bore them with the details of your coupling. It's unbecoming," Dedue warned.
Sylvain laughed. "I'd believe all of this talk of decency," he started. "If I hadn't caught you with your head up Lady Flayn's dress that time I wandered into the kitchen…"
Dudue clamped his hands down over his daughter's head to cover her ears.
"I don't think I've heard this one," Felix said.
"I was kind of worried that she was going to pop his head with her thighs, then popped out from under the ruffles of her skirt like a newborn and told me that she had dropped the shortening…as if that was somehow an explanation," Sylvain said.
"You seem really critical of the affections of others, though I can't recall seeing you and Ingrid being very affection toward one another," Dedue spat.
"Because we have to keep our hands off each other or things will get crazy. If you knew the things we were up to," Sylvain said waving his hands out in front of him as if to cast a spell. "I couldn't draw a diagram to appropriately explain it."
Dimitri's face had reddened. "All of this seems hardly appropriate to begin with."
"Once the candles in the keep are out and that bedroom door closes it's like the Battle of the Eagle and Lion…" Sylvain said.
"The mock battle from five years ago?" Asked Felix.
"No, the real one between the Kingdom and the Empire. There's crashing sounds, skin slapping against skin, she's yelling what's gotten in my eyes and I'm like 'I don't know' ahhh!"
"You gentlemen seem to be enjoying the morning air well enough, I couldn't help but overhear that someone reminiscing about the crash of combat and finding yourself splattered with mysterious liquids in the head of the moment."
Sylvain and Felix both jumped, turning to see Hubert standing off to the side of their table with his hands folded behind his back quaintly.
"Holy Hell man, how did you sneak up on us like that? Are you a vampire?" Asked Sylvain.
"This is the first time I think I've seen him in direct sunlight," Felix added.
"My skin burns easily," Hubert said. "Do you mind if I sit, King Dimitri?" He asked giving a little bow.
"Not at all, a friend of one crown is a friend of another," Dimitri said, his words slightly wobbly. "But we weren't discussing actual combat it was a bit of a…"
"Metaphor for sex. I'm aware. It find it hard to discuss such things seriously back in Enbarr. It seems inappropriate to share them with Lady Edelgard and many of the other lords have this awful idea of me being too dark for pleasant discourse simply because I killed care of my father."
Sylvain stiffened up, but Felix was sure not to make a face. "I had heard rumors, but I wasn't sure it was the truth."
"He talked of a treasonous undertaking when Lady Edelgard was pregnant saying that woman out of wedlock should be removed from her position of power unless the father of the child comes forward. I slipped a dagger into his chest myself during his morning smoke," Hubert said.
"A single mother can do whatever she wants. Women are just as good as men, am I right?" Sylvain chuckled nervously before downing the rest of his tea.
"You're married to Bernadetta of House Varley, correct?" Asked Dedue.
Hubert nodded. "You've had occasion to meet my wife extensively, when you traveled to the Empire on occasion," Hubert said, his smile growing.
"True, I was speaking for those who might not know. You wife is a lovely woman, though very private," Dedue said.
"Yes, she's quite the lady. I am lucky to have found someone who sees my eccentricities as charming," Hubert said.
Felix hadn't moved from the position that he had flinched into upon first hearing Hubert reveal himself. "Are you expecting us to believe that you found your way over here to discuss the finer details of your married life with the rest of us?"
"Of course not, I found my way over to you to extend an invitation of sorts," said Hubert.
"To what?" Dimitri asked.
Hubert stared at him for a moment and then continued. "King Dimitri, you and yours are invited to a small tavern down in the town. Lady Edelgard has seen to it that the place will be reserved simply for you and your closest companions. Some of those from the Alliance and Claude will be joining too, it's simply time that we clear the air about some things."
"What is Edelgard playing at?" Dimitri asked.
"This is exactly what is needed, it's only a day early and everything else can proceed as intended," Hubert said.
"What do you mean? What's he talking about?" Asked Sylvain.
"It's nothing." Dimitri said.
"No, you need to get to squealing now, You've been acting far too weird for too long and I've learned to tell when swine is pretending…"
Dimitri held a hand up to silence him. "Your King said leave it. When the time comes you will know all. Now, I think it's best that I leave. I've got to do some thinking about something."
Dimitri rose from the table, throwing his napkin down into the chair.
Edelgard felt his weight pushing down into her, their bodies slicked together with sweat and wetness. It was like he sought to burrow deeper into her with each thrust. They slapped against each other, ground themselves together. His hand is at the back of her head and he's got a tight hold on her hair.
A calloused hand snakes around under her thigh, his exploratory fingers finding their way inside of her and he works sliding against her and hooking his fingers in a haphazard come-here motion until her soft breathing and intermittent moans turned into a full body shudder.
She cried out and winced in shock as he pulled her hair until her belly was pressed down into the bed and she was forced to look up from the darkened bed. The room had s red glow to it, but there was very little light. Her eyes took a second to adjust and it was made harder with him driving down into her. It was then that she realized something: this was the Dimitri in her dreams. It was the way he always was when she cooked up some little fantasy.
But the smell of him had too much weight to it. That distinct smell of them together wafted around them, being pushed up beneath their bodies as they slammed into each other. The friction, heat, and being stuck to one another. There was an ever so slight resistance as their skin pulled away from with one another's with each repetitious thrust. It was too real.
Then she saw them. Figures standing off to the side of the bed watching them intently. As her eyes became more adjusted she could make them out: Solon, the man who had posed as Tomas for she didn't know how long. Pittacus and Myson—members of the group that she had seen from time to time, but didn't have any real interaction with.
And Thales was there, his ghost white skin seemed to give off light in the darkness and he walked closer to the bed, staring down at her from over his ruffled collar with a disappointment that would have stung if she could forget what he had done to her. He had probably killed her uncle, torn her from her home, killed her siblings and done awful things to her in the pursuit of his goal.
Thales had chained Edelgard to his destiny.
The specter that was dream Dimitri was still behind her, pressing into her, but she could feel anger ebbing in, mixing with the other sensations. Edelgard knew that her old conspirators had more than likely retreated into the darkness. She couldn't afford to believe they were gone or that they would allow the current order to stand.
Another figure stepped close to the bed and a familiar feeling flooded over Edelgard. She glanced over to see her mother standing over her, a slight smile on her face.
Her mother had been on her mind a lot more in the past several months since there were rumors of her escaping in Duscur or that she had somehow instigated the whole thing. Had her mother been in league with the same group? Had her mother always been in league with them? Had she only produced children to give those monsters fodder?
"Mother…" she muttered. "Mother no!"
Suddenly Edelgard became very aware of her nudity, of Dimitri moving in and out of her and the thunderous pounding sound of their bodies together. It wasn't her real mother, but she couldn't take her staring at them like this.
The pounding grew louder and louder until she could feel it vibrating through her blood and shaking the whole room.
The sound became more pronounced and directional. Edelgard lifted her head only to be blinded by the blaring light that blared down through the windows.
Someone was shouting out in the hallway, there was the sound of boots and slamming doors. Edelgard pulled her pillow up over her head to shroud herself in darkness.
A heavy glassy object was still nearby her body, she could feel the mask of the Flame Emperor near her shoulder. With the dreams she wondered had gotten any actual sleep or if she had just fallen into a funk where time seemed to pass her by like a statue.
"Empress Edelgard!" Someone slammed into her door, causing the room the rattle, but she didn't move right away. It took her a moment to clear enough of the darkness from her mind for her to be compelled to answer.
"What?"
"There's been an emergency," it was the voice of Seteth. "It's urgent that you be here."
"L-l-lady Edelgard something r-really bad happened. I messed up," Bernadetta said through the door. "Like really messed up."
Edelgard slipped the mask under her pillow and stepped off of the bed. Her feet ached as they touched the floor.
"What is it?" She said opening the door.
"Greta was just…just gone…" Bernadetta was crying, her hands ringing at the front of her dress. "When Hubert left this morning she had been there. Then someone came in and…I just woke up on the floor. She couldn't have gotten out on her own."
The impact of her words had a slow effect on Edelgard, it was as if the waves were sweeping over her and rolling back out to sea taking the ground beneath her feet away. The room rocked side to side seeming like it was about to spin. She stuck her hands out as if to steady herself.
"Gone. What do you mean? She can hardly walk. Surely she couldn't open doors or pass through walls like a ghost," Edelgard said.
"I fear that the only explanation is that she was taken, though we don't know for what purpose or where to. The school has been quietly locked down. No one in or out," Seteth said. "This leaves a bad taste in my mouth—it reminds me too much of what happened with Flayn."
Edelgard nodded silently, her hand gripping the edge of the door.
This couldn't be a matter of happenstance, first there had been the appearance of her mask and then the disappearance of Greta. It felt like penance for the thing she had done five years ago, something that she had never apologized for.
"There's no way she could have gotten far on her own and there's not much chance that the guards would have let her out of the school," Edelgard said, trying to keep her voice level.
Seteth nodded. "We spoke to Jeralt and he organized a small group of knights."
"How many people know what's happened? Edelgard asked.
Bernadetta peeked out at Edelgard between her fingers. "Huh?"
"Just those within ear shot right now, a few of the knights, including Captain Jeralt and Lady Rhea," Seteth said.
"Then let's keep it that way," Edelgard said.
She desperately wished that Rhea and Seteth hadn't been brought into this. She shook off any thoughts she had that there might be time to question how Bernadetta managed to go to outsiders before her own countrymen.
Edelgard walked back into the room and pulled a cloak over her shoulders. There wasn't time for her to dress properly, but she did grab the dagger that Dimitri had gifted her once upon a time. "Ladislava, you're with me. Lieutenant Bergliez, I'll need you to start the search preparations, enlist the help of anyone you can without directly telling them what's going on."
"Yes, Empress," said Randolph von Bergliez.
"Bernadetta, go see Mercedes in the infirmary. Tell her nothing of what has happened, but come back here after she clears you to wait for Hubert."
"Y-yes Empress."
They made their way out of the room and into the hallway, walking down the plush carpets of the hallway. Edelgard waved some of the other Imperial guards that tried to follow away and they looked stunned, but froze in place. Seteth fell in behind them, walking at double speed for a moment to catch up.
"Is this level of secrecy wise?" Seteth asked, he waited a moment as if he expected her to answer and she heard him, but in her effort to begin the search she couldn't bring herself to respond. "Would it not be better to spread the word and enlist the help of as many people as possible?" He kept his voice low as someone could pass by or hear from inside of their room.
"It might be if there were some way a child that young could have knocked Bernadetta out of her chair and opened a door with a knob too high up for her to reach," said Ladislava.
"There are sentries posted outside of the building exits. Anyone who entered or left would have been seen, especially with a small child," Seteth said.
"Not if they left through the window," Edelgard said. The window of her room had been open when she returned to her room last night. She had kept that and the fact that she'd found the mask from Ladislava as they hadn't been alone yet.
Ladislava had been part of the closely guarded plans with the Flame Emperor, but she had also known why it ended. There were those who sat things in motion from the shadows, they had to be behind this. They had to be waiting for a chance to strike back at Edelgard or force her back into the fold.
As they moved through the hall of the new dormitories and headed down the stairs she could hear a familiar loud voice arguing with someone. Edelgard picked up her pace to make it down to the entrance where two of the door sentries were hassling Caspar.
"Hands off of me, you glorified doorman," Caspar yelled, his fist was drawn back and he was making like he meant to hit one of the men.
"Caspar? Enough!" Edelgard commanded.
"Edie! I saw you the other day but I couldn't quite get over to you," Caspar said dropping his aggressive posture and folding his arms behind his head. "Hey Seteth, we're looking kind of cute there, Ladislava."
"We don't have time for this," Ladislava said.
"Caspar, if you'll excuse us…" Edelgard said.
He was bigger than she remembered, his body form was more filled out and muscular. Five years had put him at a full head taller than her. She had to look up at him now.
"Oh? I was hoping to get to spend some time with you. I know you're super busy and all. But I wanted to meet the baby. Uncle Caspar got her a gift," said Caspar.
"Please move," Edelgard said, her voice breaking.
"What's the matter?" He asked.
It was Ladislava that moved on him, pushing him up against the railing just outside the door. The sudden movement must have startled Seteth, because he stumbled back.
"She said we don't have time!" Ladislava shouted, her hand on the hilt of her short sword.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," he said holding his hands up near the side of his head. "What did I do?"
Edelgard closed the gap, leaning in close to Caspar. She hadn't interacted with him much since graduation, but she supposed he had never been the kind of be on the wrong side of a thing. He was loyal to the Empire and had a sense of right and wrong. He'd certainly never hurt a child.
"Greta is missing," Edelgard said in a low voice. She had feared speaking the words as if just saying them out loud would be the breaking point for her. Edelgard couldn't let herself cry, not near the door of the dorm.
"She was with Bernadetta and someone seemingly attacked Bernie and made off with my daughter."
Caspar's expression tightened. "What do you need me to do?" He asked, moving closer to her as if the gravity of the situation was towing them closer to one another.
"We're not sure where to start in this endeavor ourselves," Seteth said. "Unless Lady Edelgard has some idea that I haven't thought of…"
"The last time that this happened we found a secret passage beneath the school. Maybe they're in the same place?" Caspar suggested.
The final part of his sentence hadn't left his mouth and Edelgard was brushing past Caspar. She scrambled over the railing into the flower box and bounded off down the path. She could hear them yelling her name, see the people staring at her as she moved. Seteth's voice was of such a quality that she could hear him the clearest, but soon even his voice had succumbed to the wind rushing past her ears and the thundering of her heart.
A unique thing about having a Crest was that in times of desperation and great need it was like a well of energy that one could draw upon. Edelgard felt her dual crests now flaring to life, her blood charging with a kind of electricity. Edelgard wove her way through the crowds of people to stop at the courtyard area where they had found the secret passage before.
Edelgard cared little for the damage she might cause now, she slammed her shoulder into the door knocking it inward to reveal a room as she remembered it back then. Clouds of dust rolled and stirred around her in the darkness.
A sliver of light cutting through the open door behind her and between her legs shone on the spot where Manuela had been laying. There was still a darkened stain where the blood had pooled.
Getting Manuela out of there had probably saved the woman's life, but what her classmates didn't know about that was that it had also allowed Edelgard to come back as the Flame Emperor and stop things from getting too out of hand. It not for that Flayn might have been hurt too.
She felt the sweat grow cold on her skin; people were staring now. Countless eyes looking at her. There was no way that they had come through here. Nothing had been disturbed inside and there was too much of a chance of witnesses.
Seteth and Caspar reached her first.
"Shortly after you graduated we had this place sealed off. There's no way into that passage anymore," Seteth explained. "This room has gone unused since then."
"So there's no way…"
"No," Seteth said. "But I will do everything in my power to make sure you find your little girl," he got closer to her. Closer than Seteth ever had in the past. He took her by the hand, lifting her chin with the other until she was looking up at him. "I've seen the way you dote on that little girl and it reminds me of myself and Flayn—though she is by my sister, it's…I mean. We'll find her. I owe you that much."
Her eyes felt heavy. She tried to fight the tear by blinking. If it worked it was just barely.
"Thank you, Seteth. I'm sure we'll find her."
Ladislava jogged up, her armor clinking and crashing together as she moved. "It was a novel idea, but it seems almost too perfect. There's nothing here, is there?"
"Nothing," Caspar said throwing his hands up. He turned away from them, his anger seeming to bubble up in him until his arms shook at his sides and then he whirled around and punched the door. "Dammit! I'm racking my brain trying to think of anything that happened. I was coming back late from drinks with that Monica girl, I saw Dimitri in the hallway on my way to my room."
"You saw King Dimitri moving about in the night? Around what time?" Seteth asked. "I would hate to propose the possibility, but there could be something foul at play here…"
"Monica?" Edelgard said. Caspar said it as if it were something that she should remember. She thought back and it was only because she had referred to Monica by her other name, her true name, that she didn't know her. "Kronya," Edelgard's voice was hopefully too low and the word too muttered for them to thing it anything other than a curse. In her worrying over Greta she had said too much.
"What?" Seteth said.
"That girl, the one that Caspar is talking about was the one that vanished the year before our class arrived here and the same one that was found with Flayn," Edelgard said.
"I recall that she never finished the year," Seteth said.
"Because I made her leave. She wasn't who she claimed; having her around was dangerous," Edelgard said. The story should be sufficient, they had no reason to suspect anything else was at work here.
Caspar grimaced. "Wait, who was she then?"
"It's a long story. Where did you see her last?" Edelgard asked, trying to keep the panic from spilling over into her voice as her suspicions were confirmed.
"I mean, I figured she's not from a noble family—but I saw her wandering toward the dorms when I last left," Caspar said with a shrug. "She might be in the other housing…"
Seteth stepped in, his face overtaken with confusion. "What do you think happened? Who is she?"
The fact that the nature of the imposter Tomas was known to the Church. Bodies being able to change radically wasn't a big stretch for Seteth to make the connection between the student who they found missing after a year not being who they thought she was.
"We have to hurry, I'm sure if we find her we find Greta," Edelgard said. "Ladislava, alert the rest of the guard."
"I would hate to leave you alone, Empress, I…" Ladislava started.
"I am perfectly fine to take care of myself. You know this. We have to cover as much ground as we can, plus I have Seteth and Caspar with me."
Ladislava nodded curtly and made her way back to the rest of the guard.
Edelgard led the three of them back across the school grounds, leaving the shattered door to the abandoned room behind as they rushed off toward the old dormitories to search.
Despite the festivities associated with the Millennium celebration, Mercedes was glad that there was some level of normalcy in her life. For the past several months, over a year now, she and Byleth had taken breakfast in the office attached to her infirmary every chance that they got. The whole thing didn't last that long during the week, with them having duties to see to and classes to oversee, but on a holiday like this where things were still being set up they could just space out for a bit and relax.
She would sit on Manuela's old desk, the only piece of furniture that had been left behind when she redecorated, and Byleth would sit in a chair between her legs and rest her head on Mercedes's lap. They would talk or rather Mercedes would as often Byleth would fall asleep.
Mercedes curled Byleth's thick, green hair around her fingers. Letting it unravel and pulling her hand through it like a slow, unbalanced comb. Byleth had her arms wrapped around, hugging up in Mercedes's butt. Sometimes she would flinch in an odd way and Mercedes would giggle and slap at her arm.
"Calm down," Mercedes said, fighting to stop from laughing.
"I'm just hugging you," said Byleth absently.
"You're trying to touch my bum and I'll have none of it. What if Elise walked in here?" Mercedes said.
"I'm pretty sure that girl doesn't even see me. She's obsessed with being the next Mercedes. She asked me to help do her hair like yours for the Heron Cup, did I tell you that?" Byleth said as she wiggled her head, settling into a spot against Mercedes's leg.
"You've told me that story about three times now, not including that." Mercedes patted the side of Byleth's head dismissively. "You can't act like you haven't had a student obsessed with you."
Byleth sat up. "Maybe. Dearest, I've got a confession to make," she said pulling a serious face. Her dark green eyes trembled and it sent a small panic through Mercedes's heart.
"What?"
"There was this one student who was absolutely obsessed with me and the worst part is I sort of fucked her. Thinking about doing it again in face, but it's fine because we're married."
Mercedes's mouth went wide and she slapped a hand over her face. "Goddess! Stop," she said slapping at Byleth playfully. "You're the worst."
Byleth grappled Mercedes's hands down and pinned her against the desk to crawl over her body and kiss her on the neck.
"Byleth, you know how I am!"
"Once you get started it's hard to stop. I was counting on it," Byleth said.
"We're in my office!"
"You know who this desk belonged to, this won't be the first action it's seen," Byleth said.
"Mer-Mercedes…" There was a shout from the hallway and Mercedes raised up to see Bernadetta standing in the doorway. She seemingly hadn't seen them fully yet as she was crying, her hands plastered to her face.
Byleth bounded up off of Mercedes and was at the door. "Bernadetta? What happened?" She asked.
Bernadetta stumbled deeper into the infirmary. "Professor? Oh, I didn't expect you to be here," she said rubbing her sleeves across her eyes. She was still dressed in her sleep clothes, which was not something that Mercedes had ever known her to do.
"What's going on?" Asked Mercedes.
"It's nothing really, I just fell, Lady Edelgard said I should come get checked. I was sleeping and I woke up in the floor with no recollection of falling," Bernadetta explained as she played with her fingers.
Byleth stepped closer to Bernadetta and glanced back at Mercedes. "Then why are you crying? Why are you still dressed for sleep?" She asked.
"I-I don't know."
"It may have been five years, but you're still a terrible liar," said Byleth with her hands on her hips.
"Ah, it's a secret! I can't tell you. I just need to get checked and go back to my room, okay?"
Mercedes moved in closer to Bernadetta, pulling out her magnifying glass to look at Bernadetta's eyes more closely. "Follow my finger with your eyes," she asked.
Bernadetta did this.
"The fall happened this morning? Is there any head pain? Is your vision blurred?"
"N-no."
"You say you don't remember falling? Do you fell sore anywhere?" Asked Mercedes.
"My arm a little."
Byleth watched all of this intently. She did love seeing her wife work.
Mercedes leaned in and sniffed the air around Bernadetta. She let out a sigh. "Albinea Winter Root. It's a burned in a ritual spell to sedate patients. I doubt that you had surgery recently since I would have been the one to do it here at the Monastery and the smell would only last a few hours. It's faint, but I think someone used it on you. Would Hubert have seen if…"
"He's out. I don't know where," Bernadetta said.
There was a commotion in the hall, Byleth must have heard it first because she was already headed to the door when Mercedes noticed. Mercedes's father-in-law stepped into the room, his form filling the doorway. There were six Knights of Seiros at his back, crowding into the area outside the door.
Mercedes knew enough about him to sense something was very wrong. "What is it?"
Jeralt rubbed the back of his head. "I hate to ruin your morning like this," he started.
"Out with it, Dad."
Bernadetta moved off to the side, her body trembling more now.
Jeralt glanced to Bernadetta and then back at Byleth and Mercedes. "A child has gone missing on the school grounds. We're trying to keep there from being a panic, but I wanted to make sure no one came by here acting suspicious," Jeralt said.
Mercedes shrugged. "I don't see many children up here, but there was one this morning. She was the most darling thing, I think I saw them headed down there."
"They? Who was with them?" Asked Bernadetta.
"A younger redhead. She looked vaguely familiar," Mercedes said.
Jeralt eyed his daughter. "You have your sword?" He asked.
Byleth shrugged. "I don't," she said stepping up and grabbing her father's side arm short sword. "I could probably handle this with my bare hands. What are we doing?"
Mercedes went to the wall as if she were going to get one of her bows, but then thought the better of it. Jeralt led them out into the hallway, but she chided Bernadetta to make her stay behind. The guards followed with them as they began the search of the hallway.
Jeralt and Byleth took the forward position, pressing their backs into the walls at the sides of the doors and glancing around into the room to make sure that no one was lying in wait. They made their way toward the library and then doubled back, but before they could reach the door where Mercedes was she could hear crying.
"Now, now, it's just a bit of light and a poof of magic," came the familiar voice of Hanneman. He gave a gruff chuckle as Mercedes looked around into his office to see the redhead holding a baby over the Crest Analyzer that Hanneman used in his identification work, some time ago she had stood at the very machine. It didn't make sense that they would be looking for this child and seemingly someone was just getting its crest checked. It was a fairly normal practice testing a child's crest.
Something about the way the redhead was holding the baby made her take pause. It looked like she had never handled a small child before and the baby looked very awkward and uncomfortable with her.
"Hanneman, what's going on here?" Mercedes asked.
The redhead turned, her face scrunching up into a forced smile. "Oh, I think I remember you. We were students here together. How have you been?"
Mercedes froze. This girl definitely looked familiar, but she couldn't place it. And there was something wrong with how she moved, how she smiled. It was like she was trying too hard to be human.
Purple light erupted from the floor under the Crest Analyzer displaying a jumbled mass of what looked like shapes, triangles pointing out from a central point, something that looked vaguely like vines on a candle. Hanneman edged forward, wiping his glasses against his sleeve and then placing them on. "Could it be? A new crest! Wait? No."
She could hear Jeralt and Byleth filing in behind her and she stepped forward. "Excuse me, miss, the guards had some questions for you…" Mercedes was abruptly cut off when the red head shouted, slinging an arm in Mercedes's direction.
A large fireball erupted from the redhead's hand and sliced through the air headed right for Mercedes. On instinct she brought her arms up and blocked, her natural resistance eating most of it though it did singe her clothes and send her stumbling back until Byleth caught her around the waist.
Jeralt wasted no time, stepping past them and grasping the hilt of his sword to ready it for the draw.
"What's the meaning of all this! There's a baby and all of this delicate equipment in here!" Hanneman reached out like he meant to move for the redhead or the baby, and in a flash something silvery and dark flashed the redhead's side. Mercedes could barely see the blade jab into the crestologist's stomach before it was pulled back out. Hanneman sank to his knees, blood blossoming out of the wound.
"Hanneman!" Byleth shouted.
"Professor Hanneman!" Mercedes went to rush in and help him, but the redhead's attention turned to her causing her to freeze.
"Whoopsie," the assailant said before she burst into cackling laugh. "I suppose this ruse has run its course—this weak form has served its purpose."She said grabbing at her hair and pulling the buns free of until the tangles fell down around her cheeks.
The kind looking girl with her hair up in buns was replaced by a mauve-skinned woman with orange hair. Her modest clothes changed into a bodysuit that left little to the imagination and either had three scorpion like tails attached to it or it was made to fit someone who did. She brought one of her tails down and held the baby up for the prehensile tail to wrap around it and lift it away to free up her hand.
Jeralt edged forward, his scabbard made a small snap as he popped the sword free, just letting his thumb rest on the back of the hilt.
"If you want a whole world of trouble harm that baby, her mother has the might to make your existence a living hell," Jeralt said.
Mercedes had seen so many babies around the school in the last several weeks and months, their parents bought them for all manner of blessings as this was the thousand year anniversary of their religion. This one was mostly hidden from sight and the tail kept readjusting and moving while holding it probably to keep it from being easy to predict where the child might be, but also to lull the child's fears by rocking it.
Byleth dropped into a squat as if she were stretching her legs, the borrowed short sword drawn back until it was up next to her head, poised to swing. "Monica? That's who you…pretended to be. I hardly recognized you not eating or whispering in the back of my lectures—it's no matter, I'll cut you to ribbons. Dad, get the baby."
In a flash of motion she lunged past Mercedes, her boots pounding the wooden floor. She charged in, running low right for faux-Monica. At the last moment she broke to the side, flipping up into the air to perch on the desk causing a stack of neatly arranged books to topple over.
One of the three tails slammed to the floor where Byleth would have been, smashing through into the floor and shattering the board.
Mercedes, remembering herself as the fog of the initial shock of things cleared, cast Physic to stabilize Hanneman. The surge of magic energy seemed to work its way out from her center and leave through her fingertips. She could see it rain down around Hanneman, but he didn't move.
"Monica? The name disgusts me," she brought the tail back up into a resting position. "My true name is Kronya. It'll be of no consequence when you're all corpses!"
Byleth stared at the tail that had designated her as its target and then looked to the one holding the baby and the free one. "How are you controlling those things? Where did you even keep them? Were they in your butt?"
Jeralt drew his blade, swinging in a wide overhead arc that Kronya blocked with her weapon. "Damn hot headed kid, what are you doing?"
"They don't come from my butt!" Kronya snarled, striking out with one tail despite the fact that Byleth was clearly out of range.
"Baiting her out!" Byleth wrapped her arm the tail, pinning it down with her elbow and then twirling so that she coiled it around her body once. She yanked hard, drawing Kronya off balance and causing her to stumble forward into a headbutt.
The baby was screaming from all of the movement now.
Kronya slashed out with her blade, Byleth deflected it, stepping out of range of a tail swipe only to swing right for Kronya's neck. It wasn't a feint this time, it was meant to be a kill strike. After years Mercedes knew the difference. When Kronya ducked out of the way, her body dropping lower left one of their prehensile tails erect. Byleth cut clean through it, severing it so that it fell to the floor.
Swinging her arms wildly, Kronya backed up, her screams echoed down the hall. It wouldn't be long now before more people streamed into the room. The more people there were, the less her chance of escape, but that posed a different threat.
"Are you crazy!" Jeralt screamed.
"No. I guarantee she won't drop that baby. Why else would she bring it to the Crest Analyzer? She knew something about its bloodline," Byleth said.
"Do you know whose baby that is?" Jeralt asked.
Byleth kept her eyes trained on Kronya, looking for an opening in the blind swipes and parries at nothing. "My apologies, Dad. Let me just consult my big Encyclopedia of babies…"
The child was so far away and moving constantly that Mercedes was having difficulty seeing it very well. It was also screaming and not dressed in anything that would be a dead giveaway. The fact that Hanneman was laying nearby bleeding out was a definite distraction. Her healing had slowed the effects of his wound, but he would still expire shortly if nothing were done. There was too much going on in the small room for her to study any one thing and her wife did as she often had and focused on only the things she could do with brute force in these situations.
The one thing she was reliably certain of was that the child had white hair and then it dawned on her. Mercedes and Byleth had been unable to speak to most of their old friends. In some cases they hadn't seen them since they graduated. This was especially true of the Class of 1180. They hadn't even gotten to meet the Imperial Princess, Edelgard's daughter.
Mercedes couldn't escape the notion that this baby was very much like Edelgard in some ways, even through the motion it made swaying back and forth above Kronya's head the pale skin and white blue eyes were somehow still clear.
"It's Edelgard's," Mercedes muttered.
"What?" Byleth turned to look at her, shock written all over her face and time seemed to crawl to a snail's pace.
Kronya moved in, her pain or anger now manageable enough that she could fight through them. She poised her tail up, rearing it back to strike Byleth right in the face when screams broke the air.
"Put her down you-you monster!" Bernadetta stomped into the room, her bare feet losing traction as she raced into the room. She dropped to one knee, her nightdress fluttering up around her and drew back the heavy string of a bow. Mercedes recognized it as one from the wall of her office. There had been a quiver and arrows nearby, though she wondered how a barely used bow might fair here and she hoped that it wasn't brittle with age.
One. Two. Three. Four.
Arrows slammed into Kronya, pinning one of her two remaining tails to the wall while one arrow hit her leg and the other two her abdomen. She shrieked, grabbing at the arrow buried in her stomach. The pain caused her to unfurl her final tail and drop the baby.
Jeralt let his sword fall to the floor and dove under the baby so that it fell into his hands. He landed hard on his stomach with his arms stretched out in front of him to protect the child.
Mercedes held her hands up at chest level, her body centered on Kronya and released a volley for fireballs that ripped through the air, heating the room before they went out in a flash of light. Kronya was blown flying backward through the air and sailed out of stained glass window destroying the little pattern of colorful circles.
Hanneman was Mercedes's top priority now, she rushed to his side to feel for a pulse. Jeralt extended his arms up to hand the baby to Bernadetta so that he could more easily get up.
"Is he going to be okay?" Jeralt asked.
'I don't know, his pulse is faint—I just…" Mercedes trailed off as she fought with the clothes that covered Hanneman's wound. She needed to see where it was, how deep it had gone, and if there was any discoloration that might indicate magic or something more sinister.
"Bitch dropped her dagger," Byleth said scooping the weapon up. "Be a shame if someone didn't return it to her."
She peered out the window after Kronya. "She's trying to get away," Byleth bounded onto the roof outside of Hanneman's room. "Get back here!"
Jeralt retrieved his weapons and went for the door, there was a crowd outside, plus the knights he had with him. "Someone has to find Manuela and quick," he jogged off around the corner.
Something magical had definitely happened to the wound, there were dark veins extending out from the slit in his skin which would have been a sure sign of poison if it hadn't been only a few minutes. At best she could staunch the bleeding, but she didn't know what this magic was designed to do or how even it could work so fast from just contact.
"Crests…" Hanneman managed. At first Mercedes wondered what he was saying. "The child's crests…"
Mercedes looked up at Bernadetta holding the baby tight and now that she was back in the arms of someone she presumably knew she was as happy as could be, like the last several minutes hadn't happened.
Byleth's boots shattered some of the roofing tiles as she raced along the narrow passage formed by the building between the wall of Hanneman's room and the West Wing corridor. She gained significant ground on the wounded Kronya easily enough because Kronya spent a bit of her time struggling to tug the arrows from her body and the injuries sustained in the fight back there.
Another ceramic tile exploded underfoot, Gran was going to have her head…not really, but she would be very not pleased with her being up here after being told all the time as a child not to run on the roof.
"Hey, we didn't mean for you to go," Byleth said. "You forgot this." She brought the dagger up, tossing it over so that she held it by the blade. It was still wet with Hanneman's blood. When there was no reply Byleth flung the knife at her, it ripped through the air finding it's mark in Kronya's shoulder.
Kronya crumpled to the roof, rollover so that she was face down with the dagger still in her back.
Byleth caught up to her. "A thank you would be nice," she said before taking the tip of her boot and pushing against side of the hilt of the dagger, causing it to rock against the inside of Kronya's body.
Kronya cried out, her body jerking and spasming in pain.
"I know. We're supposed to show mercy, but you tried to kill my friend, shot my wife with a fireball and stole another friend's baby. Maybe mercy is wasted on you?" Byleth hauled her up only to punch her in the face. Kronya tumbled to the woof, barely managing to get up onto her hands and knees.
"You want me…to beg for your forgiveness?" Kronya laughed. "Child of the Fell Star—the Ashen Demon, you're the worst of them. You stand by why that wretched Rhea benefits with what she took from us. How do you think you got here," Kronya burst out laughing.
"Okay, I'm kicking your ass off this roof," Byleth said.
In a brilliant flash of purple light a man appeared at Kronya's side. He had skin the color of fresh ash and eyes that were little more than just a white abyss. In the split second that he was there Byleth caught a glimpse of his ornate armor with plumes of red crowning the breastplate. He looked at Byleth, grimaced and then vanished into thin air taking Kronya with him.
"Lord Thales, it is an honor, truly."
"Every second that I am not playing my part at in the festivities, every second that I fail to make preparations for what must come, every second that I waste cleaning up your mistakes is another second we do not have to correct the hinderance that our plans have fallen under," Thales's hadn't spoken to Kryona directly often, though she had been around him all her life.
"It seems like you wasted several just trying to make your point there," Kronya snapped. Though he was revered it wasn't in her to let his verbosity off of the hook. The Seven were a bit too proud of their legacy, especially considering that their people were forced into the sewers of their formerly glorious home to mostly cower in a world of darkness and artificial light.
"Do not mistake your mission for importance, I only didn't leave you because you have valuable information and because leaving them a body to pick over would no doubt alert that insufferable Rhea who she is actually dealing with. We've done well to leave her toiling with endless rebellions and heretics…"
"You haven't even heard the information that I've gathered. It cost me dearly," Kronya said, reaching back to touch the stub where one of her tails used to be.
"Fine, girl, what did you find?" He asked.
"That baby is everything we've ever needed and more, you were wrong about her Crest though," said Kronya.
"She didn't inherit the her mother's second crest?" Thales asked.
"She did."
"Finally, a more perfect specimen could not be asked for. We can steal the girl away and raise her for the sole purpose of decimating that damnable Seiros Church and culling the land for our reawakening."
"You didn't let me finish, the child has a third crest," Kronya said.
"Third?"
Kronya nodded. "Presumably from the father, and here's the most interesting part, I only saw it briefly before those disgusting simpletons ganged up on me, but it was unmistakeable as the Crest of House Blaiddyd."
