It was unusual for Rhea to vanish without telling him anything like this. He made the knights search every inch of the school in as short a time as he could and when he couldn't find her or Catherine he assumed the two of them must have gone off together. He now stood in the front of an assembled crowd made up of former students and current alike with the burden of choosing what to do falling on his shoulders.
Hands clasped behind his back he paced back and forth, then again Rhea often did things unilaterally. It seemed increasingly possible that he would be the one making a choice without her today. That typically wasn't his way, but the occasion called for it. One of their staff and a man he considered a friend lay dying slowly and would pass without action.
His sister, Rhea, was sick. He knew she hadn't truly been well since their mother was killed and she had resolved herself to various schemes and plans to see their mother restored. Whenever she choose to do anything that was always the first consideration. Seteth wasn't built that way.
"What would you have me do in this situation?" He asked turning his gaze to meet Edelgard's.
"Allow me to act—with support from the Knights and the Church," Edelgard's voice boomed. "The Empire and the Church go very far back, but there is more than just my child to consider here. These people attacked a beloved member of your staff and an attack on the Monastery is an attack on all of Fódlan."
The girl was gifted as an orator. She had, even in her time as a student, been known to give rousing speeches at a moments notice.
"What does allowing you to act look like? Letting the Empire run wreck-shop through the countryside without oversight while they march under Church banners?" Seteth asked.
The crowd behind Edelgard erupted into a fierce of chorus murmurs. Seteth scanned the crowd trying to get a read on what they were thinking. Were they against his inaction or did they find it scandalous that Edelgard would dare suggest that she be given control of Church of Seiros forces? There were outliers within the room, people who's expressions Seteth couldn't make sense of or flat out couldn't read.
Hubert looked almost as he had remembered the boy, stern faced and angry, but that was his face and there was little he could do about it. Mercedes, who could be said to be taken with romanticism of an idea in the classical sense of the word seemed almost too calm. Then there was Dimitri, he looked gaunt and entirely changed from earlier in the day when Seteth had spotted him. Was he ill? His skin was speckled with sweat and his hair was a mess despite his best efforts as smoothing it back.
"It looks like a combined effort. Allow me to work with the Kingdom and Alliance troops who are here. I do not have a full contingent with me and for good reason," Edelgard said.
Hilda Goneril touched Edelgard's shoulder. "The Alliance is at my command currently and we'll meet Edelgard's call to arms. Hanneman was our House Professor—and us axe-sisters have to stick together," Hilda shot Edelgard a glance.
Seteth opened his mouth to speak, but it was as if Hilda throwing herself into this conflict had moved something in Claude. He sauntered forward with a haphazard smile that seemed to cover up a deeper concern.
"It wouldn't be a celebration for the Almyran without kicking someone's ass. The small force we have here would be happy to help—you might not even need to let Edelgard borrow Knights," Claude said.
"For all we know that could be what they want…a distraction that leaves the Monastery more vulnerable," Hubert said.
Seteth felt the corners of his mouth pull into a slight smile. "It's nice to see such cooperation between the surrounding nations, but there's a lot at stake here for the monastery too. We might need to discuss this in a smaller council."
Out of the corner of his eye there was a swift motion, something hard and ancient slammed against the stone floor of the audience chamber. Seteth glanced over to see Dimitri, his hair messily slicked back with sweat and his eyes burning with an intense heat as he banged his the butt of the relic spear, Areadbhar, on the ground as if to silence the chamber. Sometimes it was hard for Seteth to look at the weapons, if the humans had known that they were made of the bones and hearts of his family and friends would they have flaunted them so readily? Would they have coveted them?
"We do not have time for this," Dimitri said. "These people had a hand in taking your sister years ago, they attacked this school and its students on many occasions and now they have returned and stolen…they've tried to take your child." He turned his finger on Seteth and Edelgard in turn, the latter seemed shaken by the accusation.
"You would do well to quell your passion, Dimitri," Edelgard said.
There was a strange tension in the air as the two royals glared at each other across the room, an intensity made more awkward by the small child clinging to Edelgard's neck.
"Do you now seek to sit here in these high towers and discuss the options while those who would have murdered a professor run free to do whatever they may please. To hell with that!" Dimitri's voice seemed to shake the stone walls of the room.
"Edelgard is right, kid. Cooler heads will prevail in these things and if we rush into this without a plan we might find ourselves in a worse situation," Jeralt said.
From somewhere in the room there was a hardy chuckle that dripped with sarcasm. "For once I agree with the boar," Felix said. "A man's life hangs in the balance and if we strike before the iron's had time to cool we will catch them unaware—is it not true that Professor Byleth injured one of these bastards?"
"I'll do more than injure her when I catch up with her, mark my words," Byleth said from somewhere in the crowd.
"You're university staff, you'll make no move unless I or Lady Rhea deem it necessary," Seteth said.
"It's funny that you think you can stop me."
Seteth felt his finger nails bite into the palms of his hands as he tightened them into fists. "We will see what the Ashen Demon fears when we summon her mother in here," Seteth said.
Mercedes grabbed for Byleth's hand and at the same time ran her fingers through her wife's hair, that was enough to stop the whole thing from progressing further.
"Sir Seteth, uh, sir," a tanned skinned maiden with bright pink hair done up in two puffy ponytails at the sides of her head stepped forward with her hand raised as if she were hailing the teacher in a classroom.
"What is it Miss Mae?" Seteth asked.
"What if some of us volunteered? We're not exactly Church affiliated, but it would show cooperation and it wouldn't leave the actual church any less protected than normal," she said.
His hand went to his chin on instinct as he mulled it over. "When you say 'us', you're speaking of the students of course?"
Mae nodded, stepping out of line. "We just take a few people from each house, I heard a rumor that you already asked Elise from the Black Eagles House for help with something. Well, we're all required a monthly mission right?"
Another student spoke up, a tall blonde girl with her uniform pristinely kept and an aura of nobility about her. "This school is our home for a time, for better or worse and it's our duty to see that it is protected from threats as both citizens of Fódlan and students!"
"Real nice trying to steal my thunder there, Clair," said Mae. "Why don't you go flutter those lashes somewhere else!"
"I don't remember needing permission from the rabble to speak."
"Enough, Clair!" Another girl's voice boomed emanating from within the small pack of Blue Lions gathered just behind Clair.
Seteth was frankly shocked that it had taken her this long to speak up. A young woman who was of a slender build broke free of the crowd, her hair was a dark blue and hang long a straight down her back until near the very bottom where it was gathered into a braid with a simple tie. She wore a variation on the uniform with her own little bits of embellishment on it: a black and blue embroidered vest and a cloak depicting the Crest of Naga.
Lucina Elice Lowell was from a noble house with in the Kingdom, but she was probably one of the most respected students currently attending the Officers Academy. She had hardly failed to demonstrate why that privilege was afforded to her.
"There was a truth said earlier, we call this school home and we have a duty to protect it. If you and Professor Ubert—Ashe—would allow it I would like to volunteer to go along with any students who can think they are ready," said Lucina.
Ashe had been off to one side of the chambers this whole time, he hardly voiced his opinion when things like this were going on. "I would leave the choice up to Master Seteth if I'm to be honest."
"Who would oversee this impromptu mission?" Seteth asked.
Mercedes chimed in. "With your permission I would like to step in. My…Professor Byleth will accompany me of course, but I will keep her on a short leash. Surely I have shown myself to be trustworthy."
There was a burst of conversation which Seteth attempted to wait out. He was eventually forced to hold a hand up to quell them.
"I will allow this plan to go forward, but you haven't got the luxury of time to prepare as you say—"
Seteth was cut off by Jeralt. "Permission to accompany the students-"
"—Permission denied. We need our Knight Captain here," Seteth said. "Miss Mercedes, you're in command. Any students who would like to lend their assistance listen to Mercedes for instruction."
Mercedes clasped her hands against her chest. "Oh! Okay then. Everyone who is interested should meet at the courtyard outside of the House Chambers before first light tomorrow."
There was a moment of confusion where people shuffled back and forth in the chamber. Slowly the crowd began to drain through the door and filter down the stairs toward the first floor.
Some stragglers hung behind. Dimitri paced side to side across the back of the room, spear clenched between his hands. Hilda and Claude spoke in whispers near the back of the room. Edelgard walked up to Seteth and glanced around to see if anyone was within earshot who shouldn't hear what she had to say.
"Do you think it's wise to let a school physician lead such a large operation?" Edelgard said as she jerked her head away from Greta's attempts to grab her hair.
"There was a group of pirates terrorizing costal towns within the Kingdom. This was three years back, before Ashe signed on to the position when Mercedes was filling the position, albeit temporarily. She and part of her class were on the way back from another mission, though they weren't traveling with a full contingent. With nine students and no knight support she flattened the bandits with very few resources or serious any serious injuries," Seteth said.
He sighed. "It should also stand to reason that anyone who can wrangle Byleth Eisner is probably capable of anything," he added.
Edelgard shook her head, sighing. "My apologies, I trust your judgement. Still, I should go prepare…"
"If the first part of your statement is indeed true I would ask that you stay behind, Empress Edelgard," said Seteth. "It isn't a matter of you being the Empress." His traced lines around the room with his eyes, trying to make sure that his words wouldn't be heard. "I would just hate to see another child lose her mother to this senselessness. It reminds me of too much of what happened to Flayn…and I."
Edelgard nodded. "A legitimate concern. And I am sure that the knights here could use an extra pair of hands."
They were let back in with the solemn chime of the monastery bells. It took whispers from several guards before they were believed which was far more scrutiny than there seemed to have been in the proceeding days. When they had first arrived days ago it had been Sylvain who commented on the ease at which people were permitted entry to Garreg Mach, now they seemed to be taking his warnings into consideration.
Shadows covered most of the campus now with the late day sun unable to make it over most of the walls. Ingrid wandered the grounds for a few minutes by herself after Flayn, Petra, Annette peeled off to head back to their quarters and prepare the banquet that was to be held every night.
Perhaps something had changed? The pilgrims attending the Millennium Celebration had been emptied out of the main campus into the fields between the town and the school where their camps laid, but on the previous night they had been allowed to come and go freely. Guards waited on either side of the door to the dormitories, guards pacing every walkway. With each step it put her more and more on edge. What had happened here during the short hours that they had been in the town?
She climbed to the rooftop area of the new dormitories, the ones where they had been staying and looked out over the wall. Cooking fires from the pilgrim camps were blazing in the field and illuminating nearby objects. Ingrid could see kids dashing, chasing each other, weaving around the fire in wide breadths so as to avoid accidents.
It must have looked like this, she thought, when the ancient knights stood on the ramparts and stared down at the besieging armies. This was the kind of sight that the Knight Varduant must have seen standing atop his master's keep, what Greta must have seen at Arianrhod.
"Oh, hey. The beautiful knight has returned." A woman said from somewhere nearby, her voice broke a little at the end and she chuckled, though it seemed to be more out of nervous necessity than humor.
Ingrid turned to find a woman dressed in a servant's clothes sitting on the other end of the patio. A servant had almost unparalleled access to the campus, but they usually didn't venture into the dormitories. As her eyes were still adjusting to the waining light, it took her a moment to realize there was something familiar about her.
"My apologies, if I know you I can't place your face."
"Oh? I'll admit to be rather bland and hard to notice. I'm Felicia, Flayn's lady-in-waiting." That triggered a series of memories to pass through her mind of her seeing Felicia in the background of the rare moments where she saw Dedue and Flayn. Though they were in the service of the crown the knights were rarely in the same place at the same time. Dedue spent most of his time in the castle, Ingrid and Sylvain spent much of their time in the Gautier territory while Felix and Annette were typically on the road together.
"I guess you would have no way of knowing this, but in my head I've always thought of you as the beautiful knight—that's probably a bit awkward to tell a stranger, forget I said anything," Felicia added.
Ingrid's mood softened and she felt a heat in her face. "That's really sweet of you. Though these days there's far less knighting to do. Thankfully we live in peaceful times."
The servant laughed another nervous laugh. "I would have said the same thing a day ago, but then that Professor might die and I heard they're looking for the people who did it…"
"What professor?" Ingrid said.
There were a lot of professors and she knew them all, some of them far more closely than others. Mercedes and Ashe had been her classmates and though Byleth wasn't her instructor, the woman seemed to be loved by the whole school.
"Hanneman. Someone stole a baby or tried to and he got stabbed in the fight. I was in that room a while ago cleaning and he didn't look as bad as he had earlier, but the I overheard Professor Dorothea talking to his wife. It seems like they're just staving off the inevitable at this point."
"Have you seen my husband?" Asked Ingrid.
"Not since the other day."
Someone had to know what was going on and how to make sense of this. She stood up from the table. "I'm really sorry to run out so impolitely like this, but it sounds like I need to see what's been going on here," Ingrid said.
"It was nice getting to actually speak to you for once," Ingrid added.
The servant woman pulled at one of her long fuchsia twin-tails "Y-you too…"
Ingrid made her way down into the upper floor of the dormitories in a hurry, taking the steps two at a time until she reached the large wooden door that led to the interior. Hubert, the minister of the Adrestian Imperial Household was headed up the hall, his back was to her, but she could tell it was him by the gait and the choice in fashion.
Though Hubert had never been rude to her personally, he had a sinister reputation and they rarely had a reason to interact. She took a few steps and the floor creaked beneath her boots as she was about to call out to him. Hubert glanced over his shoulder. There was something guarded and deliberate about his stance.
"Lady Galatea," Hubert rotated around and gave a truncated bow.
"Hubert…" Most people called her Lady Gautier now, though she hadn't taken her husbands last name. Maybe Hubert had forgotten, but it was more likely that he kept up with these sort of things.
"I just returned from town and I've been told that there was an attack on Professor Hanneman today?" Ingrid said.
Hubert's tone didn't change. "It was most unfortunate. This morning Emperor Edelgard's child was stolen and in the fight to get Princess Greta safely the kidnapper stabbed Hanneman."
Ingrid shivered, it was as if her veins ran cold. "Hanneman is—will he be okay?"
"It's hard to say, the weapon used in the attack was carried off by the attacker, but it seems to be a blade whose properties cause a type of atrophy," Hubert said. "Have you spoken to Sir Gautier today? I extended an invitation to some members of their Kingdom entourage, a sort of meeting of the the minds so that the Kingdom and Empire can clear some of the rather unfortunate eventualities of our pasts away."
"Oh?" Ingrid said.
"Given the foe we now face and the implications of what they are it is more important than ever," Hubert said. He started away, headed to where ever he had been going previously.
"Who was the foe? Who would attack Edelgard and the Church?" Asked Ingrid.
Hubert stopped. "A former student by the name of Monica," he said. "At least, that is the official report on the matter."
With all of the construction on campus in the past five years some of the old shortcuts didn't work anymore. Hilda and Claude weaved through countless pilgrims and students in an effort to make it back to the dormitories that had been set up for them. As Claude fumbled with the key to his door, Hilda stepped in between him and the passageway, pressing her back into the wall and looking up at him.
"Do you think we have time before dinner?" Hilda asked.
"Time for what?" Claude said.
She tugged at a tendril of her long pink hair, running her fists down the length of it as if she were attempting to straighten it. "You to help me work through something? Don't look at me like that, it's not dirty."
Claude managed to get the door unlocked; the moment that Hilda heard the distinct click she reached back and turned the knob with her hand. They stumbled into the room together, Hilda catching him around the waist to steady herself. The door was shut with a quick push, almost an after thought.
"H-Hilda, you're grabbing my butt pretty hard," Claude said.
"Sorry."
"You've got to tell me what set you off in that meeting with Seteth?" Claude asked.
Hilda dropped to sit on Claude's bed. There were some books set in a stack on the night table, she picked them up and rummaged through them as she spoke. "If I tell you and it's too far out there then you're going to think I'm crazy."
"Come on, Hilda. The anticipation is killing me." Claude crawled up onto the bed next to her.
"It's just something you said about Dimitri," Hilda said. "It's got me thinking."
"And?" Claude asked.
"So few months back there was an outbreak of this plague in the Kingdom, we sent medicine and the merchants of the Alliance ate the costs and helped move things. Ignatz actually was one of the ones tasked with organizing things—"
Claude cut her off. "Ignatz! How's that guy doing?"
"He tried to court Marianne, I told her to have higher standards. Anyway, don't interrupt me."
"Sorry."
"I mean you tell me to spill this big all encompassing theory and then you talk over me."
"You chastising is taking longer than my interruption at this point."
Hilda fiddled with her hands in her lap. "It's just that once I say this it will be out there between us. At best I'm just crazy, at worst I could be stripped of titles for even insinuating this."
Claude wrapped his arms around her waist. "You think I would do that to you?"
"I don't know. I spent five years without you, Claude and I only knew you for a year when that happened," Hilda said.
He was kissing the side of her face, his nose and his lips brushing against her skin so lightly that at first he questioned if they had been there. He took the bottom of her earlobe between his lips and gave it a little tug. The soreness of their time together last night was just beginning to set in and it just reminded her of what she wanted of him.
"And in five years I have never felt like I do around you," Claude said. "It's all you, Hilda," he whispered.
The pieces of the whole thing were still coming into focus in her head. Everything that had happened five years ago at the school and everything happening now, she replayed old memories trying to be sure of her thesis.
"Let me put your mind at ease," Claude said. He slid off of the bed onto his knees and positioned himself between Hilda's legs. "Is this okay?"
Hilda looked down at him and he kissed her thigh, his fingers tracing lights along the sensitive skin along her inner leg. She nodded enthusiastically. Maybe there wasn't time, she didn't know, but she couldn't turn him down.
Claude went to it, plunging his head under her skirt and reaching around to grab her ass and pull her deeper into his mouth. Hilda tried to talk, tried to sort through the thoughts she was mulling over until she finally stammered out the first thing she could.
"Maybe we should get ready for dinner?"
Claude raised his head up enough to speak, but was still under Hilda's skirt and muffled by the fabric. "If it's okay with you, I'd like to have my desert first."
Hilda had done her duty as a responsible party, if they were late or caught she couldn't be blamed for what happened. She edged toward the side of the bed, her hips rocking up and down, undulating, trying to entice Claude into lowering his head back between her legs. As he suckled and licked tension mounted inside of her like a great elastic band was being stretched. She moaned and kicked her legs against Claude.
He would pause to ask questions or comment on how good she tasted. Hilda could only manage to respond in short sounds. She was incapable of speech that made use of multiple syllables and vowels.
The tension finally snapped and it was as if whatever had given out inside of her held a tidal wave of sensation. She grabbed at Claude's head, raking her fingers through his dark hair as her moans became little more than stammered declarations of pleasure. When she was full aware of herself again he was on the bed next to her, stroking her hair and offering her a drink from a canteen.
"It's water," he said.
"What was that?" Hilda asked before gulping the water down.
"What?"
"I don't really know what to say, but maybe we really do need to talk about what's going on between us?" Hilda stopped herself short of saying that she was certain he loved her. It made her uneasy in a way she wasn't sure how to explain.
Claude sat up beside her. "We can, but you seemed pretty sure of something a few minutes ago."
"Oh, yeah," Hilda said. "The plague in the Kingdom—when Ignatz came back I remember him writing my brother about it. He said the King was absent and that the King's men had requested the aid."
"You mean Dimitri?" Asked Claude.
"Yeah. I remember there being more to it than that because there was supposedly some kind of new trade agreement being looked at by Edelgard and Dimitri, which isn't that out of the ordinary, but the timing is the thing that seems peculiar to me now," said Hilda.
"The timing?" Claude asked.
"How old would you say Princess Greta is?"
Claude shrugged. "How am I supposed to know that, cut her open and count her rings?"
Hilda's shoulder slumped a little. "I know you think I'm all post-coital happiness now, but there's only so much of your bullshit I can take, Claude."
"Sorry, just don't slam your things against my ears again. I'm sure it would deafen me this time."
"That baby is Dimitri's." Hilda said. "He was there to sign a peace agreement when it was born. You don't think a woman as smart as Edelgard would plan around that kind of thing?"
"Maybe it slipped her mind?" Claude said.
"How? She was carrying a tiny, gross human in her belly while it kicked and moved."
"It might have been out of necessity. Didn't you drag us down to Fódlan's threat to repel an invasion even though you said you were menstruating; you did that out of necessity," Claude said.
"Yeah, and because I fight better when I'm angry. A period is much different than a baby. Edelgard would have planned for it. And okay, what about the name?"
"Greta?"
"Greta of House Blaiddyd is one of those stories they tell young girls about how to be honorable knights or whatever. She was left to oversee what was considered women's work in Arianrhod by her older brother and the heir apparent to the throne. When the city was attacked she overcame all of the naysayers and kept there from being any loss of life and gave the order to rescue soldiers trapped outside of the walls," said Hilda.
Claude shrugged. "You think that Edelgard named her daughter after this hero from the Kingdom because she secretly had Dimitri's child."
"I mean, you saw how mad he just got and you have to wonder why. Our old professor got stabbed and we're not banging on the floors and yelling at Seteth. Also, you told me that you saw them sneaking off from dinner the other night," said Hilda.
"We sneaked off from dinner the other night…" Claude said.
"Never mind."
"I'm not trying to make fun of your idea, but the implication here is that Edelgard and Dimitri have been carrying on a secret relationship for who knows how long and, yeah, he does have a thing for her, but she doesn't seem to share the sentiment," Claude said.
"People could say the same about us from the outside," said Hilda.
"Your eyes soften when you look at me, it's not the same thing. Besides, I'm pretty sure that Edelgard is gay."
"She's got a baby."
"Maybe she had Hubert put it in there or maybe it was splash-back during a wild Imperial Orgy. I don't know how to respond to this kind of thing," Claude said.
Something must have occurred to Claude in the middle of the last sentence that caused his expression to change. Hilda pushed herself up onto her elbow. "What is it?" She asked.
"They found the kidnapper in Hanneman's office where that Crest Viewer is. What if they were trying to see which Crest the baby had?" Claude said.
"Because there would be a good chance that the Crest would belong to the father. How would you feel about helping me to corner Dimitri at dinner away from the crowds and asking him pointblank about this?" Hilda asked.
"I think I don't want to get stabbed in the face by a glowing spear," said Claude.
"I'll be doing the questioning."
Claude shrugged. "I know this could turn out badly, like really badly, but I've never been one to turn down a good scheme."
Dorothea made her way up to the top floor of the main school building where Rhea's private quarters were. The area was usually heavily guarded, more out of a sense of giving the Archbishop her privacy than actually trying to keep her safe. Still, students were unlikely to be allowed up there and that's why she knew she would find Seteth out on the roof overlooking the campus grounds.
She gathered her skirt in her hands to keep it from dragging the ground as she turned to head out to where he stood. The sky was a dark gray blue color now, the sun had dipped well behind the walls and the mountains leaving a silver glow on the horizon.
"Dinner is soon. Are you going to be coming?" Dorothea asked.
Seteth exhaled. "It looks like I will be hosting tonight's meal, so I will be along soon enough," he said.
"Rhea never returned?" Dorothea asked.
"She always does this. Being the Archbishop means that you lose the luxury of galavanting around the countryside, especially during the Millennium festival. I just don't," Seteth cut himself off as Dorothea pressed against his back. She wrapped her arms around him, hugging him close.
"We can't really know what she's going through. I know it's pretty unfair that she isn't here, but try to understand that the weight of the world is on her shoulders," said Dorothea.
"A weight that she has deposited firmly in my lap," Seteth said.
He threaded his fingers through hers, grasping her hand and bringing it up to kiss the back of it. "I am sorry. There has been a number of things on my mind. I fear that with all of the planning and preparation we haven't had much time together."
Dorothea sighed. "We're both adults. We have careers. I know you're busy."
"You have been taking on extra work to assist me here, especially in looking after Hanneman and Manuela."
"They're my colleagues too and the people here are kind of like family. We have to do what we can," she said. Mentioning family made her think of Seteth's only family, his little sister. The two of them had been distance since she had left the Monastery. "Did you get a chance to see your niece, yet?"
"I fear that Flayn might be more upset with me than she would like to admit," Seteth said.
Dorothea sighed. "It can be difficult to sort things out. She's young and in love and…well, you know how intelligent she is. She comes off as naïve, but Flayn is extremely perceptive."
Seteth sighed, squeezing Dorothea's hand and massaging her palm with his thumb. "There is a complicated history between my sister and I and our family. It is not my place to talk about it fully, Flayn values her privacy and I have come to respect that."
He was a good brother, Dorothea could tell. Seteth had cared for Flayn for so long without the help of their parents and it was easy to see that there was something beneath the surface with them. She had never really pushed the subject; it wasn't her place.
When he was ready to speak Dorothea would listen and if the chance were to arise she would be the best sister-in-law to Flayn too. Other than Flayn's stint on the Black Eagles in school the two of them had really never spent time together. She had always found Flayn to be pleasant though.
Seteth turned, taking Dorothea's wrists in-between his thumbs and fingers and holding them down at her sides. He searched her eyes in a way that, despite everything at stake at the moment made her bite her lip to hide a smile.
"I'm sorry, Dorothea," he said.
"For what?"
"I have done little but complain about the hand which life has dealt me, but I doubt you made your way out here to listen to me bang on about things you're going through too," said Seteth.
Dorothea kissed him on the side of his mouth. "Nonsense. You're my companion. What more are we here for if we're not going to support one another through rough times as well as revel in the good?"
He brushed her thick, dark hair away from her face, his hand surprisingly soft, but there was a firm confidence to his movement. "I must admit that it is awkward sharing myself with another person it has been quite some time since I've engaged in an emotional intimacy that surpasses that of friends."
Seteth was always so chaste with her, always the gentlemen, though there were times when she found his old fashioned sensibilities to be a bit of an obstacle. Dorothea would give him the time that he needed to feel comfortable enough to connect the dots for her. He lifted her hand to his face; his lips felt warm as they touched her knuckles. It was hard not to smile.
There was a noise behind them in the hallway, it was Seteth whose movement made her perk up and listen and then she turned to see Shamir walking to stand in the doorway that led back inside. Her arms were folded and her dark blue hair was hanging down, partially obscuring one side of her face.
"We've got a bit of a problem," Shamir said.
"What's the matter Professor Nevrand?" Asked Seteth, stepping around to Dorothea's side, her hand still in his.
Shamir crossed the small catwalk out to the open area where Seteth and Dorothea waited, she was constantly looking off to her sides, checking the rooftops around them for a sign of danger.
"I know that there's always a concern about security with these events, but there are more people here than usual and I think that there's a good chance that we might have enemies inside the keep impersonating guards. They would have had to sneak in using the pilgrimage as cover," said Shamir.
"What prompted this suspicion?" Asked Seteth.
"Some bodies were discovered that belong to guards. They were found within the keep itself, so it's safe to assume who ever killed them is still inside," Shamir said.
Seteth took a step to get around Dorothea, his hands trailing through hers as they separated. "Perhaps you should lead with that information the next time you have something like this to deliver. We need to increase the patrols and—"
Shamir cut him off. "We're at maximum security as it is. There's almost nothing more that we could do at this point. The worrying thing is that if these people can change forms or imitate others. That is a thing we've seen in the past."
"Then we have to be vigilant," Dorothea said. "We need to keep an eye out for any hard changes in mood or behavior and need tp ask others to do the same."
There was a silence between them for a moment. "Limit the contact of any guards that are not as well known to Rhea and sensitive areas of the monastery so that we can better discern whether or not they have changed," Seteth said. "Since we do not understand the means by which they disguise themselves we will have to be extra careful around anyone," he said.
Dorothea felt a wave of discomfort radiate out of Seteth's words. A look passed between herself, him, and Shamir.
Shamir cradled her chin in one hand. "There's something else: the original Monica von Ochs possessed a minor Crest of Macuil, but after she returned from being taken she seemed to be unable to use it, perhaps that is the thing that this method cannot copy: a crest," Shamir said.
"Then we should use that to our advantage," said Dorothea.
The Monastery beds had always been different, Dedue hadn't expected that to change. He had grown up sleeping on woolen beds bolstered by draw straw. It had been firm enough to apply ample support, but just right for a good night's sleep. He didn't understand the nobility of Fódlan and their obsession with the feathered beds that they called 'fine'.
He lay with his arms folded under him, clutching a small pillow to his bare chest to provide him enough room to look down at the book that he had borrowed from the library. The air was filled with the fragrance of an exotic soap, he could hear Flayn in the bathroom finishing up and was almost able to predict to the second when she would step out, clutching the towel to her chest.
She was radiant, the water had been hot enough that steam rose from her pale skin. For a moment she was frozen in the doorway of their small, private bathroom. An easy smile took over her features and she plodded a little closer to him. Dedue peeked over at her, but it was hard to be used to just leering. Somehow it still seemed rude.
He often caught himself staring anyway. Though Flayn downplayed it the difference between her when they were at the school and her now was tremendous. People who hadn't seen her since their time at the academy often didn't recognize her. She was slightly taller, her hair longer with the curls more thick and dramatic. She had the hips of a woman who had been with child and they both had the kind of chronic fatigue that came from raising one.
Dedue heard the crumple of fabric and glanced toward Flayn to see the towel falling into a pile around her feet.
"How was your shower?" He asked.
"Simply delightful, thank you for asking."
Flayn crawled onto the bed on her hands and knees and then up Dedue's back, resting her head between his shoulder blades so that her green hair hung down into his face. Above his waist, where there was no sheet there were skin-to-skin, the way a man and wife should be.
"It has been a while since I have seen you like…this," Dedue said as she wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned around to kiss the side of his face.
Flayn let out a small, melodic laugh. "Am I usually not this…fun?" She asked, obviously trying to feign sadness.
"No, that's not it. It's—" Dedue was cut off but Flayn shifting so that her cheek was pressed into the back of his neck. Her skin was still warm and damp from the bath, though he felt as if each tiny rise of the goose pimples on her naked body were vividly apparent to him. "It's just with what happened with the baby earlier and all…"
She slid off his back, falling into the bed next to him hard enough that the sheets sprung up around her to engulf her petite form. "Eithle is right over there, sleeping safe and sound—why did you move her out of Felicia's room—she arrived here earlier specifically to care for her."
"It's nothing," Dedue said.
"You're not telling me something." Her green eyes narrowed slightly, her brow furrowed in concern. She wrapped her hand around the side of his face, trailing her palm across his stubble so that it tugged at the roots under his skin.
"It might be nothing," he added.
"Hmm, you seem more interested in that dusty old book than me, husband," Flayn said.
Dedue looked at her and it made him pause for a moment. The Flayn he had gone to school with was inches shorter than this. In five years time she looked more like her aunt than she did like the woman that had introduced herself as Seteth's sister.
"I could never stand to ignore you for some book, my saint."
Flayn brought her hand up, her fingers raking across her nipple as her face took on a more serious expression. Her eyes were fixed on his now. "Say my name please. Say the name that only you can use."
"Cethleann." He let his body sink toward hers, his lips brushing her shoulder.
"Yes."
"We can't tonight," Dedue said. "As much as I would like to."
"There was a time when even with Eithle in the room that you would have pulled me up astride your lap and—I dare not say more because I can already feel myself growing restless."
He had wanted to not concern her because he knew how she fixated on these things. "Cethleann, there was an incident earlier on the school grounds. Someone stole the Emperor's child and had to be chased down by Professor Byleth. It was by good fortune and the honed skills of those involved that the baby was not taken. I remember what you told me of after the War of Heroes and how people hunted you and your mother for your special…heritage and the woman who stole the baby today was the same one who reportedly had a hand in what happened when you were taken."
He watched her eyes swell with tears as he spoke. "Why would you say these things? Surely this is—this cannot be." She rolled over on her side, attempting to bury her face in the pillows.
"Flayn," Dedue said wrapping his arms around her and pulling her to him.
"Do not call me that!"
"I am sorry."
"This existence is a curse and because of actions I had no choice in a thousand years ago I am damned; my child is damned. Will she wander the world for centuries afraid to use her real name? Afraid to trust anyone?"
Dedue tried embracing her to fight the onset of this fit. He tried to kiss her, but when his face was close to his he heard her whisper.
"What have we done bringing her into this world?"
"Our daughter is safe. There's been no implication that there's a threat to her, I was just being cautious," said Dedue.
Flayn lay on her side, unresponsive.
"Dinner time is almost here and it is important that we be there. It's important that we be there. Tomorrow troops are being dispatched to take care of the would be kidnappers and it might be discussed more."
"You're not going to leave me here with Eithle, are you?" Flayn asked in a small voice.
"No." On instinct he wrapped his arms around clutching her at the stomach and she, as if it were part of some elaborately choreographed assembly process, tucked her face into the space under his chin and against his neck.
"It seems like things will be handled by the school in this matter and my place is here with you and Eithle," Dedue said.
The tables at dinner were scant, as if the pilgrims who had attended were left over meat from what had been picked from a bone. With Rhea absent and Manuela choosing to stay by her husband's side much of the staff seemed to have been in disarray. There was no opening prayer and the wait staff chose to let people come up to a bar lined with food to be served instead of present the meals to them.
It wasn't until Sister Seiros Rhiannon Eisner shuffled her way to the front of the room to speak that any kind of order fell over things. There was a timelessness about her, a sort of sparkle that even her mother, Rhea seemed to lack. Her easy smile seemed a bit more genuine, her gait a little more personable, her eyes didn't betray any underlying emotion that she was trying to keep hidden.
"Some of you may know who I am, others may not. My name is Seiros Rhiannon Eisner, I'm a Sister here at the Church of Seiros and it seems I have some big shoes to fill for my namesake as well as for my mother tonight. You see, I am the daughter of the Archbishop and though she wanted to be here with you tonight a pressing matter has kept her from her duty," she said.
"Though this duty isn't one that she takes lightly. Her life's mission is the people of Fódlan and the covenant of the Sothis. In that way everything that she has done has been service of seeing to the future peace of this land and it made her very happy to see you all here to share in this celebration of the Church's first thousand years. The first of many, we hope."
"I would like to ask that you all remember to be thankful for each other and this food and as we eat keep a prayer in your hearts for Hanneman von Essar. He is a Professor here who was gravely wounded. If you see soldiers around campus, if you think things seem a little on edge there is good reason. Remain calm and remember that Sothis is always watching over us."
Mercedes let out a small squeal of joy from her spot near the front. "That was a beautiful speech, Mom."
There was an eruption of laughter from the staff table around Mercedes, much to her noticeable confusion. That laughter spread throughout the room until her cheeks burned red with embarrassment.
Dimitri looked considerably calmer than he had earlier. Hilda watched as he interacted with one of the kitchen servants and picked out the different types of meat that he wanted on his plate. He even smiled at them, though it looked to be forced.
"What's the next move, Fearless Leader," Claude asked nudging Hilda in the side of her breast.
"You hit me right in the tit," Hilda said, slamming her fist into his own chest.
Claude doubled over. "Kay, you got me. Sorry."
"I don't know, we go over there and just kind of play it by ear," Hilda said.
"In this room full of people?" Asked Claude.
"It's a risk, I'll admit, but think about it…"
"If we're in a room full of people there's less chance he can lash out. If we're right he'll want to keep this quiet."
Hilda plucked a chilled shrimp off of the line and skillfully ripped the meaty part of it out of the shell of its tail. "The moment that I ask him we'll know what the truth is. There's no way that he can keep himself on balance—not with what I have planned. Stay close."
Hilda pushed her way through the line, getting as close to Dimitri as she could, his guard was nowhere nearby in this instance and there wasn't much reason for them to be as most non nobles had been left out of this dinner and those who hadn't were to eat last. Hilda though that it seemed a little less than fair. Everyone was equally hungry, but she didn't make the rules.
"Dimitri, your kingliness," Hilda said with a dainty pat on Dimitri's shoulder. "Would you mind if I had a word with you?"
"Oh, it's you. Lady Goneril," Dimitri said.
Hilda reached up, her perfectly manicured finger catching the bottom of a tendril of Dimitri's hair and following it down until she was touched his chin. "That's impersonal. We were classmates and, once upon a time, would have been countrymen."
She hoped Claude was watching Edelgard, if she saw this her reaction would be another piece of the puzzle. It would be substantially harder to read Edelgard, Hilda knew. Any emotional outburst by Edelgard, regardless of how justified, would be viewed as a strike against her by the mostly male leadership of the world around them. Part of being Empress had to be complete control over emotions in most instances.
"I apologize," Dimitri said. "It has been a…day."
"I saw what happened back there and all I can say is that I understand," Hilda said.
"You do?"
Hilda swayed on her feet, stomping hard to catch herself.
"Are you okay?" Asked Dimitri.
Hilda fluttered her eyes. "I may be lightheaded, can you walk me back to my seat?" She asked sidling in close to him and throwing an arm around his shoulders.
"Certainly, milady," Dimitri said.
He left his plate alone on the edge of the table and escorted her to a nearby chair where he gingerly helped to situate her in her seat. Then, while he was beat over in front of her she struck.
"King Dimitri, how is it you haven't taken a wife?" Hilda asked.
He froze and looked into her eyes. "I haven't found the right woman yet."
"There must be no shortage of women tripping over themselves to become the next Queen of Faerghus."
"It's more complicated than that."
"Or maybe you already have found someone?" Hilda asked.
"Are you asking me to court you Hilda?"
"Oh, Goddess no. I was talking about your secret relationship and subsequent secret baby with Edelgard. That would make the whole finding a Queen thing pretty difficult." She watched Claude, who had moved into a position on the other side of Dimitri where he could keep an eye on Edelgard.
"How did—no. There's no way you could think that—"
Hilda cut him off. "Don't try to lie your way out of this. You're this brilliant tactician and warrior, you're probably a good leader too, but you're not a liar."
"Who told you this dubious information?"
"You did. You were acting so rash back at that meeting with Seteth that it was the only logical conclusion, plus the timing of a visit to the Empire along with your reaction here. I mean, you even named the baby Greta…after the hero of Arianrhod," Hilda said.
Dimitri paused for a moment, his eyes darted side to side as if he searched their surroundings for an answer. "To think that we would have the time to engage in this charade is laughable."
"Then why don't we go get Edelgard and baby Greta and take a walk over to the Crest Viewer in the main building. I'm sure it will absolve all my doubts—if you're telling the truth," Hilda said.
A wildness flared in Dimitri's eyes. "What do you plan to do with this information?"
"Nothing. Well, make Claude pamper me. He doubted me," Hilda said. "Oh, Claude knows too. But it's just as game we play—if there's a secret then we like to know it…or we did back at the Academy."
Dimitri's head sunk. "The story of what we are is only half mine to decide to reveal. We were cautious because, well, because we had to be," Dimitri said.
"So you planned to just carry this on as long as you could?" Hilda covertly checked Claude's facial expression before turning her attention back to Dimitri.
"There was actually a plan discuss all of this in town with certain select members of the three countries," Dimitri said. "The plan was not my own, but I think it was in the early stages. Perhaps things need to progress faster?"
"You might want to cautious with who you tell, not everyone is going to accept this whole thing," Hilda said.
He nodded and then Claude came to her side, touching her back. Hilda looked up to see Edelgard standing over where Dimitri had left his food, her eyes searching the medium distance all around them, but making sure to keep returning to the three of them huddled together. Hilda rose with Claude and made her way back to the buffet table and the moment they were a little ways away Edelgard moved in.
"Of course you didn't hear all of that. But I told you so."
"I could tell just by his expression when you were talking," Claude said.
"How long was Edelgard watching us?"
"Hard to tell, she kept moving around the room greeting people and just making small talk, but she was always nearby."
Hilda smiled. "Oh you owe me. Big time."
"What?"
"I'm not sure yet, but I'll think of something."
Petra had mastered the art of not sticking out too much in a room full of foreigners, she was often the only woman from her homeland in any given place that she went within the Empire and Fódlan. Sometimes she was the only foreigner.
A part of her that she was determined not to alter though was her style of dress. She had been made to wear the uniform of the Officers Academy before, but tonight she wore a gown made of tan nubuck leather. Decorative beads of a multitude of colors adorned the neckline and her hair was up in a knot with beads dangling from it too. The dress was floor length, which was not a common thing in her homeland, but she was willing to make some compromises.
She seemed to glide through the room, moving from place to place and just taking in the conversations where she went. It felt daunting to speak to people some of the time. They talked so fast and despite her proficiency with the language she had to listen a little harder than the average person.
Native speakers didn't really take that into consideration.
It wasn't their fault or even intentional. It was just the way things were. Petra sampled bits of food on her plate, but she wasn't too interested in eating. Her day drinking in town had done something to her stomach and she feared putting too much foreign food in it might sow the seeds of a disaster.
"Petra. It's so lovely to see you again. It's been too long."
Dorothea was off to her side when she turned, arms opened and waiting for a hug. Petra was forced to use one hand while keeping the other on her plate to return the favor.
"It has been too long," Petra said. "I had heard you are working here?"
Dorothea nodded. "It felt like the natural choice. How are things in Brigid?'
"Well. There is some difficulty, but I knew I needed to return here for the festival," Petra said. "We made a promise."
"Right?" Dorothea laughed. "I just didn't think that so many of us would actually be able to keep it, the future seemed decidedly darker back then. I'm glad the tensions have eased to some degree."
"We all worked hard at not letting differences between us divide us. I think it shows. In the last several months have I have been taking on more of an active role in ruling."
"Is your grandfather…" Dorothea started, but Petra cut her off.
"He is fine."
"Oh. Well, that being said you have gotten to see so much of Fódlan, I would love a chance to come to Brigid and visit. I'll have to write you about my plans," Dorothea said.
Seteth wrapped an arm around Dorothea's waist, clutching her tight. Petra wasn't sure if it had been said or mentioned at any point, but it was obvious now that they were together.
"Lady McNairy, how have you been doing?" He asked as he stepped in next to Dorothea.
"Fine," Petra replied.
"Dorothea, there's a matter I need you to look into regarding one of your students," he said.
"I'll speak to you later, Petra. It's been a pleasure as always."
As Petra watched them make their way through the crowd she spotted Flayn clutching her child to her chest and swaying back and forth in time to the light music. She wondered if Flayn had been watching her brother or if it were just a coincidence. They had bonded some during the day, so she saw no reason not to speak to her.
"Flayn, is this your Eithle?"
"This is her," Flayn said in an airy tone.
Eithle turned to look at Petra, her little brow furrowing with confusion.
"May I hold her?" Petra asked reaching out.
Without even an answer, Eithle crawled her way into Petra's arms. Her eyes kept wandering down to the spiritual mark beneath Petra's eye.
Petra laughed. "You are curious about this?" She pointed to her eye.
"Yes," Eithle said.
"It is a prayer to the forest spirits of my homeland," Petra looked to Flayn for confirmation that this explanation wasn't too far. "It is a prayer for—to be keeping me safe."
"Safe from what?" Eithle asked.
"Whatever may come. You are really smart, aren't you? How old are you?" Asked Petra.
Eithle held up three stubby fingers near Petra's face.
"That's amazing. Being three is a…huge deal," Petra said. "She looks so much like you." Petra glanced over to Flayn.
Eithle hugged Petra's neck tight as Petra imitated the swaying and rocking motion she had seen Flayn doing.
"Are you okay?" Asked Petra.
"I'm just tired is all. Maybe going out like that earlier wasn't the brightest idea," Flayn said.
"I don't know. I had tremendous fun. It is not often I am included in the things like that," Petra said.
"It was nice to have you there. I am kind of sorry that, despite me joining the Black Eagles class for a time, we didn't get to converse much," Flayn said.
"It was a busy time for us all; I'm sure you had a lot on your head…mind, sorry," Petra said.
Flayn smiled. "It's fine, I understood you."
"Your brother. Are you having a nice time seeing him again?"
"I have gotten to talk to him very little," Flayn's expression quickly darkened. "Things have been awkward for a while."
"My grandfather is the closest family I have, not like a brother, but more like a father?"
"Seteth has basically been my parent since mother passed. I think I have come to see him as such too."
The beads of her earrings on one side began to swing roughly, Petra realized to that Eithle was batting at it. She moved to support the little girl's weight with one arm. "You like my beads?"
Eithle nodded.
"Would you like some?" Asked Petra.
She nodded again.
Petra reached into her hair and unfastened a tendril to release a dangly leather cord filled with orange and apple-green beads. Eithle grabbed the beads away and clutched them to her chest.
"What do we say?" Asked Flayn.
"Thank you," Eithle said. She leaned back, turning to reach for her mother. Flayn reached up, taking her daughter under the arms to lift her back into her arms. Flayn was still smaller than Petra, but it was clear that she had grown a lot since their time at the Academy. Petra couldn't remember if she had ever known how old Flayn was, but she felt both younger and older than her all at the same time.
"You are welcome," Petra said. She caught a glimpse of Seteth across the room, still discussing something with Dorothea, but constantly glancing up at the two of them.
"Perhaps you should approach your brother," Petra said suddenly. "I think he is liking to see you."
Flayn glanced over her shoulder. "Did he say something to you before?"
"No. It's just—he keeps looking this way," Petra said.
Leaning in close to Petra, Flayn whispered. "I think that he has a problem with me being like this. In all these years I was his little sister and now I'm a wife, a mother." The words shook Petra to her core because they were the one thing that she never thought she would hear in this place. They were spoken in her native tongue. She had no idea that Flayn could speak the Brigid language.
"You don't think he likes your husband?" Petra asked, speaking in her native language in return. The words flowed from her much easier. There was no need for translation them before a thought left her mouth.
"I don't think he hates him, I just think he pictured things a different way and he worries about my safety. He requested was that Dedue and I move here," she said in Petra's language with Eithle clinging to her side while balanced on her hip.
"More to the Monastery," Petra said, switching back to the Fódlan tongue. "Dedue serves the Kingdom, he could not do such a thing while living here."
Flayn sighed. "Exactly," she said still in the Brigid language. Then she switched to her own native tongue. "It's just very selfish and he treats me like a small infant or some kind of…little fragile glass statue."
"It's that he wants you here," Petra said.
Someone swept past Petra, pulling a wave of air along with them. She glanced up to see Dimitri making his way over toward the head table, where most of the highest ranking nobles were sitting. He stopped next to Edelgard and whispered something to her before leaving.
"I had better get back to Dedue," said Flayn.
Edelgard said something to a person she had been talking to, someone that Petra couldn't place. Petra had not really spoken to Edelgard yet, but she was sure that there was something serious going on judging by the way that Edelgard marched up to Hubert and handed her daughter off before whispering something to him and leaving.
The old woods were near enough that they could be reached from this newer part of campus with relative ease. They were still inside of the walls, but they were also not a in an area that had developed in all these years. In fact there were ancient buildings that were collapsed in and overgrown with vines. It was so dark that there was a risk that she might trip over the roots of some gnarled tree.
Edelgard carried a lantern up at shoulder height, trying to cast the largest circle of light out around her and avoid any pitfalls. She didn't want to yell as she had no idea what or who might be out here.
"Dimitri," she said, her voice a raspy whisper.
There was no answer, somewhere off through the woods she could hear the sound of sticks snapping.
"Dimitri. What was going on back there?"
The lights of campus faded behind her as she moved deeper into the forest. It was a long while before her lantern found Dimitri standing in a clearing near a small building made of misshapen stones that was half sunken in under a fallen tree. Even inside of the dinning hall the light had been dull, but she could see he was dressed in a simple black button down shirt with blue and gold trim. It was a stark contrast to the kind of finery that he would have usually worn to a function like a dinner.
As he looked at her she could see the weight in his eyes where tears threatening to break free. She placed the lantern on a splintered tree stump and made her way over to him, removing her gloves as she walked.
"How could those monsters have returned," Dimitri asked. "They attacked us here five years ago and then…then they come back to steal your child…our child." He whispered the last part.
It was rare for them to even admit it to themselves at times. Greta was the thing that Edelgard was most proud of, yet there was a true risk to her parentage being known. If she and Dimitri were caught having sex it could be written off as carnal pleasure, though there might be some questions about manipulation and loyalty. If they were found to have a child together there might be a question of the whole line of succession to the throne in two countries. It would have been a challenging detail to work out, or it was before she came up with something of a solution.
"This attack is not without merit. I think they want to" Edelgard trailed off, speaking words that only she could hear and that made no sense to her. "I think this is as good a time as any. Those who tried to steal Greta do so in the hopes they can get back at me."
"Get back at you? You mean because you were the one who stopped them from stealing Flayn years ago?"
Edelgard averted her eyes.
"What are you not telling me?" Dimitri asked.
"In a sense I was the one who helped save Flayn, though I was not at that battle below the school—at least not the me you see here," Edelgard said.
Dimitri stalked toward her, his figure suddenly seemed larger, the fur atop his cloak and around his collar standing up like a beast's when its threatened. "What do you mean, El?"
"The girl you fell in love with, the one who taught you to dance and that you gave this dagger to," she raised her skirt to reveal the dagger at her thigh, where it had been since she had been crowned, "was a child, Dimitri. We were groomed to rule, but we were children planning for a future that we couldn't possibly shape without compromise."
"You keep the dagger close?"
"Do you remember the last thing you said to me before I left Fhirdiad?" She asked. He didn't answer, watching her as if he were waiting for her to say it.
"You've got to cut a path to the future you wish for," Edelgard said. "That is what I was determined to do all through the academy. I turned those around me into allies or I prepared to cast them as enemies all to see the world freed from this oppressive lie and when the moment to really strike came a boy came to me and asked me to give him five years to show me who he was and that naïve little girl in me, the one who took that dagger said yes. That's why Greta is in danger."
"What lie were you trying to undo? What path were you planning to cut before you and I," Dimitri started, but was cut off by her.
"I am the Flame Emperor," she said. "I stepped in to distract them before they could harm Flayn or the Professor. I never wanted what they pulled in Remire. Sure there was some awful things I did, but I tried to mitigate it and without my course correction their plans were far more devastating."
"What?"
"After you last saw me I was brought back to the Empire and they did stuff to me, experiments with my blood. The same people who gave Lysithea two crests did that to me, though they hadn't perfected it. They tried it on my siblings and killed every one of them. You had to notice that the Imperial family suffered losses, you had to realize that my skin was without pallor and my hair had turned white like snow…" Edelgard said stumbling back to the half sunken building where she had left the lantern to lean on the broken wall.
"You were—how is this possible?"
"The Flame Emperor was a figure head for something worse and I was determined to use that position to hunt them down from the inside all while seeing my own goals realized. I thought of going to you first, but then you avoided me or were outright in competition with me. I got wrapped up in that and you never once asked why I looked so different. I thought it hadn't mattered, that you had grown out of whatever it was you felt, but then I remembered the words you said. I was going to cut my own path."
"There was some indication that there was foul play in Duscur, that it was more than just a simple civilian uprising. I found that your uncle, our uncle, had cut ties with the Church around the same time that the attack happened, right after he took you away. Was I right to believe that he had some hand in my father and step mother's deaths?"
Edelgard nodded. "I don't know the whole thing, the people in charge of the organization are like Tomas, they can change their appearance. I doubt they're even human."
"And they could be anyone?" Asked Dimitri.
"Almost, they can't imitate crests from what Hubert and I have observed and they have to know the person's life they're imitating well enough to fake being them," Edelgard said.
"How could you let this happen?" He asked, his voice breaking. "They did all this and stole our child! You have the strongest army on the continent, why did you do nothing to them?"
"They have a weapon. I have never seen it with my own eyes, but old books write about it raining massive javelins of light from the sky. They can decimate a whole city, so I fear forcing them to use it," said Edelgard.
"I see."
"I am not an idiot, this much you know to be true. And if I felt they would have resurfaced like this, if I felt that you or Greta were in danger I would have told you. I had planned to take them down and discover the rest quietly and when the time was right I would deliver the heads of those responsible for Duscur to you, impaled on the tip of a spear."
Dimitri pressed his body against hers, bracing his hands on either side of her head. When he kissed her it was rough and sloppy, he nearly missed her mouth. His teeth found her lip, nipping her before he grabbed her under the chin and steadied her against him.
She pulled back, batting his hand away. "What are you—?"
"I can feel the validity of your words in your kiss. At least, I think."
Edelgard grabbed him by the shirt, sweeping him off balance with one foot before taking him fully to the ground under her full weight. The impact surprised him, but he seemed to think back to something she had said earlier. There was a lot for him to sort through.
"You're like Lysithea? You have two crests?"
"Yes, though I have had to keep one of them hidden," Edelgard said. Her legs were straddling him at the chest now and she held his arms pinned to the ground. Orange light from the lantern sitting on the stump flickered across them. She moved her hand to run her fingers through his hair as she gazed down into his eyes.
It was as if he realized how close he was to her, he kept glancing up between her legs into the darkness of her skirt. She let go of his wrist and he was running it up and down her thigh, his fingers finding the dagger holster just below her butt and then roaming back down.
"I know you're angry with me and I know I lied to you, but I need you to channel that anger into," she stopped as Dimitri's fingers found their way into her mouth. She tasted traces of dinner from earlier mixed with a hint of sweat and when he pulled his fingers from her mouth, when he was sure that she would remain quiet, he reached up between her legs, just where they met.
She felt him fumble against her opening, only a thin layer of fabric keeping them apart.
"Dimitri," she said, her heart doing a small flip as just the minor brushes of her sex against his knuckles rippled through her.
The sound of fabric tearing seemed akin to a tree falling, she spread her legs wider and he delved inside with one finger and with the other hand he held her at the waist, rocking her in time against his chest. Edelgard grasped the neckline of her dress, tugging it away so that her breasts were fully exposed.
"You're so beautiful," Dimitri whispered.
She leaned forward and stuffed her breast into his mouth, causing him to have to reach further to finger her.
After several seconds of rocking together, her beasts taking turns in his mouth she asked. "Are you hard?"
"Yes."
"Okay. I want you inside of me."
The two of them fumbled together, with her reaching back to liberate his cock from the confines of his trousers. Even before that she could feel it nosing at the pants, pushing to break free.
She planted one knee at his side, rocking her body from side to side as she tried to position herself. She could feel the head of his cock dragging along her butt and leg, her fingers grasping the shaft as she tried to guide it into herself without seeing. He finally slipped inside of her, filling a space that she hadn't been able to tell was empty only seconds before.
Their bodies ground together, drenched with sweat and dirt from rolling on the ground. The night air chilled them and the whole forest was still. She couldn't tell how long they were together like this and he lost track of the number of times he slammed into her after she came the first time.
He held her hair tight to one side, pulling at her as he arched his back and thrust up into her. She was craned over to the side, cooing and begging him to keep going. Dimitri was incoherent, lost in her as he grunted and growled. It was exactly what she wanted of him, unburdened by a worry of being too rough and perhaps even fueled by passionate anger, he freely gave her the kind of thing she had dreamed about before.
Their breathing was synchronized for a time and their bodies seemed to be as one. She felt Dimitri tighten up, his grip on her waist and hair reaching a boiling point as his heart quickened and his long, defined strokes turned into short shoves.
"Let go. Let go." She whispered over and over and over. Edelgard wanted that slow, warm heat inside of her. She wanted to melt into him.
He stuttered and she felt it, the jolt of energy from his body as he released himself. She could still feel his heart beating inside of her and in that kind of vivid post coital sensory overload she could smell him and feel the dirt under her knees almost to the point that she felt it would be possible to count them grain by grain.
"El," he muttered, touching her forehead. His hand wicking the sweat up into her white hair.
Edelgard had learned to rely on a kind of sixth sense. She felt at her thigh, unsheathing the dagger and holding it at the ready. The wind changed around them and there was something else, something was coming.
"El, what's wrong?" Dimitri asked, his hand falling away from her tangled hair.
Tucking to the side and roll, Edelgard moved to the side and flung the dagger out in between two trees. The dagger found its mark in the chest of a black clad man with his face covered. He was almost invisible in the darkness of the the forest.
Still short of breath from what had just happened and, frankly, surprised by the current would be assassin, Edelgard managed to rush to the man and pull her dagger free just in time for an arrow to whiz past. It missed her ear narrowly and she dropped the dagger, kicking it sliding back toward Dimitri before grabbing up the axe to swing it into an oncoming attacker's legs.
Dimitri scurried onto his knees, fixing his pants in the process. He took the dagger up just in time to block a spear blow with it by bracing his palm against the flat of the blade. He kneed his would be assailant in the stomach and snatched the spear away. In one swift motion he slashed the man across the face with it.
"Who are they?" Dimitri asked, sliding the dagger into his belt.
"The men who killed your father and our mother, the same men who experimented on me and my siblings." Edelgard said as a brawler rushed her, knocking her back into a tree.
He punched her in shoulder, the claws of the gauntlet cutting into her. Before he could finish her and drive them into her head, she ducked out of the way. The crest flaring to life inside her body granting enough strength to send him flying with a deft punch.
It was unclear how many there were, the woods writhed with motion. The darkness seemed to flit from place to place. There were foot steps followed by the low, hollow pop of a bowstring. Edelgard dropped against a tree for cover, she could feel the impact of the arrows into the bark nearby.
In a flash of movement she spun out from behind the tree and swung the axe through the neck of another attacker, she felt the blade catch and rip roughly though the flesh and heard the spray of blood as she jerked the weapon free.
Dimitri blocked a series of blows from another pair of the masked me, the shaft of his spear clanging against the metal of their swords. Bracing the spear against his right arm, he pulled the dagger up with his left jabbed it into the unguarded neck of one of the men. He twirled aside, grabbing the other swordsman around the shoulders and using him as a human shield to block a volley of arrows.
"I saw that coming!" He said shoving the corpse aside.
With the end of his spear, he hooked the handle on the lantern that Edelgard had been carrying and lifted it up into the air to fling it off into the trunk of one of the trees past where Edelgard was battling another person with an axe. The lantern burst and rained fire down onto the underbrush, causing it to ignite.
The sudden light in the woods painted a clearer picture of what they were facing. There weren't many more and they had approached from deeper into the woods. A gate had existed on this side of campus at one point, but it had been removed due to how much effort it would have taken to man a second smaller keep this from from the center of Garreg Mach. Still, these people were coming from there and they must have entered the grounds somehow. They must have gone unnoticed even after the campus had been cleared out of most of the pilgrims.
A fire ball spiraled out of the hands of a mage who was dressed in a hook beaked mask and black cloak with a steepled hat. Edelgard blocked the brunt of the attack with her axe, letting her resistances eat the rest. It was clear that these men hadn't planned on having a hard fight on their hands. They had expected to take the King and Empress without much contest. They thought themselves to be the heroes of who ever they served.
It was a fool's endeavor as they by now knew.
"Betrayer, we'll never stop hunting you!" The mage yelled.
A man with a hammer charged Edelgard from her side, before she could react a glistening spear sailed through the air and split his chest open, nailing him to the base of a tree with a hard thud.
"You won't be hunting anything, anymore," Edelgard brought the axe back swung through the side of his chest. He went limp, his body still dangling from her axe. His face mask fell away to reveal his face, frozen in horror. Edelgard stepped on it, crushing it under foot.
The fire that Dimitri had caused coupled with the number of them that they had killed kept the others from advancing on them, they backed out of the light as if frightened by being revealed. She moved in after them, walking right through the area where the fire still burned.
"Did you get what you wanted?" Edelgard asked them. "Your destroyer. Your puppet. Your Flame Emperor."
The remaining enemy forces weren't moving, seemingly frozen in fear.
"They saw us and they know who you are," Dimitri said. "They can't be allowed to live."
Edelgard glanced back at him, the world around him seemed to glow and she could see the light of the fire reflected in his eyes. "You're right," she said.
Dimitri marched forward, brandishing his spear. "Besides, the dead must have their tribute."
