Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem Three Houses, all rights to the owners.
It's hard keeping everyone's backstories straight, not to mention some of the modifications I'm making.
Rumors can be a great source of information. If there is even a single unprofessional person in an operation, the details are liable to circulate as rumour in the underground and noble circles. Any noble worth their salt pays attention to rumors. You don't have to believe all of them, just pay attention.
That's how Claude heard whispers that Marianne's adopted father, the Margravate of Edmund, gave the church a large "donation" to keep Marianne's personal details hush-hush. Claude is also aware the girl has a crest of some sort, and that it's unknown to anyone else what her crest is, so he has to wonder if that's the reason for the donation.
Crests are rather weak, highly situational, completely unreliable minor boons granted by having a specific bloodline. They're barely useful, but the church and nobility treat them as the end-all of prestige and importance.
That said, Marianne's potential crest doesn't explain all of her oddities. She has a strange… cycle… of sorts. The cycle takes about a week. She'll be fine at the start of the week and over time she'll slowly start to look more weary, more distracted, her gaze will start to wander and she'll stare at the people around her sometimes before realizing what she's doing and vigorously shaking her head to focus herself.
Then, as soon as the new week comes around, she's fine again.
Claude's notes on Marianne are starting to get messy, and he feels like he's just on the cusp of figuring out what the deal is with her. Her state slowly deteriorates over the course of a week, she tends to stare or leer at people near the end of the week, she has an expensive (potentially enchanted?) necklace from her mother that the woman shouldn't have been able to spare money for, and she's vehemently refused to tell anyone what her species is or even give a hint. She also sometimes goes out at night. Claude has spotted her every once in a while, but he's always been doing something else so he's never followed her.
It's rather irritating that Marianne won't tell anyone what she is as well. Claude wants to know out of pure curiosity, so he doesn't begrudge the girl not telling him, but it seems to be causing her grief and from what Claude is aware she hasn't let anyone try to help her because she refuses to reveal what she is or even just what the problem is/what she needs.
Claude is seriously considering either asking Marianne what's going on outright, or stalking her at night to see what she gets up to.
"Both of those sound like terrible ideas." Hilda says bluntly. "Marianne is already shy, you could make it even worse if you confront her."
"What's the alternative? Let her waste away?" Claude frowns.
"Don't give me that." Hilda huffs. "You're considering this because you're curious more than anything, aren't you?"
Claude wishes he could say she's wrong… but she's not. That is the reason he wanted to snoop. "Well yeah, you're right." He admits. "But I also have a point don't I? Marianne doesn't exactly look like she's in a great spot."
Hilda purses her lips, then sighs. "Okay, that's true. Just… don't confront her. Snoop if you have to, but talking to her is going to need a delicate touch that you don't exactly have."
"Hey! I'm good at talking to people."
"You're good at manipulating and prying information out of people." Hilda corrects. "Not comfort or touching on delicate subjects."
Ouch, but true enough. "As if you're not good at manipulating people too."
"Oh I am." She smirks. "I just have more social skills overall."
###
"Ignatz again?" Claude mutters. He scribbles the boy's name down on his list. "He's certainly the most frequent…"
"It seems to be focused around us Deer." Hilda notes. "Ignatz is the most frequent, but sometimes it's Leonie or Lorenz or even Lysithea."
"Never us though." Claude notes. "And Raphael is rare too."
Sometimes it happens outside the Deer. Ashe has been a victim before, as has Sylvain and Ferdinand and even Annette. Linhardt has reported a case before too, but only once.
The 'cases' in question are periods of blank memory. Usually the victim won't remember how they got to bed, or what they did after dinner. These involve people that don't drink or consume drugs of any sort though, so it's not just hangovers or drug-induced blackouts.
Another odd side-effect is that the victim tends to be rather tired in the morning… only to end up feeling much more energetic and generally much more happy over the next few days. Temporary exhaustion leads into an all-around mood boost, which is just plain weird.
"What do all the victims have in common?" Claude muses aloud.
"Who says they need to have anything in common?" Hilda shrugs. "What could do something like this?"
"Memory magic is difficult, but even a sufficiently skilled human can pull it off." Claude mutters. "From what I'm aware at least. The question is more why they would do it. There aren't any negative effects beyond temporary tiredness, and no one has injuries or anything. Heck, overall it's more positive because of the mood boost."
"I know that, but you have some ideas, don't you?"
Hilda knows him too well. "A few. We could be looking at feeding of some sort."
"From what? A vamp?"
"Unlikely, they tend to use suggestion magic. False memories rather than erasing them." Claude mutters. "Not that it's impossible, but if you already have a tool that works why use a different one?"
"For situations like this, where we dismiss the possibility." Hilda suggests.
Claude nods. Hilda isn't wrong, that's a totally viable reason to use something other than their natural abilities. "There is also the matter of them leaving bite marks though."
"Maybe they're a healer…?"
"Again, I won't dismiss the possibility, but it seems unlikely." Claude murmurs. "We could be looking at an undead of some sort. There are some that feed on emotion, or small bits of your soul or energy."
"Your soul?"
"It's not nearly as bad as it sounds." Claude shrugs. "According to what I've learned, your soul regenerates small parts of itself if they go missing. Kinda like how your body heals small wounds with no long-term effects."
"So a feeding is harmless?"
"Well, if they're not trying to harm you then sure. If they are… you're probably dead."
"Ah."
"Alternatively, it may not be a feeding at all." Claude mutters. "But with memory wiping it could be almost anything and we'd have no idea what's going on."
"I wonder if the church knows and if they're already looking into it." Hilda muses.
"Possible." Claude nods. "I feel like we're missing just one peice of the puzzle…"
###
High elves aren't native to Fodlan proper. They're actually the dominant species of Dagda, which makes it all the more interesting that House Galatea of Faerghus is comprised of high elves. It's not unusual for nobility to not be human despite humanity being the dominant species of Fodlan by a staggering amount. That's not to say the general populous is always happy about that, in fact from what Claude is aware the populous generally distrusts nobles for being not human (and for a dozen other reasons granted), but so long as their highest leaders (the Emperor of Adrestia, the King of Faerghus, and the Alliance Leader) are human they tend to not be too on edge, thinking those leaders will keep their non-human nobles in line.
It's a weird conspiracy in Claude's eyes. From what he's aware, it's actually rather rare that nobles care about species all that much. Being minorities and growing up around species other than themselves, they don't tend to discriminate by species. By wealth or prestige absolutely, but not species.
Anyhow, Galatea… so, a small side-effect of House Galatea being high elven is that people are constantly suspicious that they're in cahoots with Dagda. It's one of the few times where other nobles do care about species (along with occasions like Tieflings, who have a whole slew of negative stigmas around them, or angels, who tend to have massively positive stigma, and things like that). They have difficulty getting trade routes because no one trusts them (and other reasons), bla bla bla, long story short Ingrid is sort of a pawn in the political marriage game because her house desperately needs allies, or just anyone willing to work with them.
Claude supposes it's not too unusual. Most nobility have to deal with the marriage game, even he does, but it's especially pressing for Ingrid. It's also clear that Ingrid really doesn't want to deal with that shit.
Sometimes her suitors are audacious enough to drop by Garreg Mach. Oh sure, it's always under the guise of checking on a sibling or a child of their (some of her suitors are kind old… ugh), but it's obvious to everyone they're here for Ingrid.
When that happens, Ingrid hides. Not in her room, that's too obvious. She actually hides in Sylvain's. Claude found that out entirely by accident when he saw the redhead rush into the training pit and drag the girl off, whispering a warning that "it's another one!" with a grimace on his face.
For all of his jack-assery, Sylvain does care about his friends it seems. He even goes out of his way to make excuses and mislead suitors that go around asking for Ingrid.
"Do you want me to get him? I'll leave him in a ditch or something, make it look like he was drunk. He'll know something's up though, that might scare him off."
"That would be more trouble than it's worth I think."
"I'm used to trouble." Sylvain shrugs. "I'll do it."
"No." Ingrid sighs. "Besides, he cannot waste much more time trying to find me."
"Hmm… we could get a potion from Annette that will make-"
"No." Ingrid interrupts. "I don't know what you're going to suggest, but no."
"Tch…"
Claude is listening in on this conversation from the table just behind the two. Ingrid is only out of Sylvain's room because the suitor in question went out to the town for a restaurant dinner, so she has a few precious hours of freedom. She's spent nearly two days hiding from this one.
"I could do it easy…" Sylvain says in a quiet voice. Claude is suddenly very thankful for his acute hearing. "Come on."
"No Sylvain."
"I won't leave him in a ditch then. How about I just, ah, 'take him out for dinner'?"
"No." Ingrid mumbles again. "Besides, you said fat and unhealthy, right? You hate that sort of food."
"Aww, thinking of me Ingrid? I'm touched." Sylvain teases. "I can make an exception this time though."
"No."
"It would even save you the troub-"
"No."
"Fine, killjoy."
Claude feels like he's overheard something very telling, but the language used makes it hard to tell what they actually mean. 'Take him out to dinner' clearly isn't meant in a literal sense, but Ingrid was talking about fat and greasy food.
Unfortunately for Claude, the two don't continue the conversation, and he groans internally at the loss of information he was this close to hearing.
###
The Blue Lions are being sent on a mission to confront Lord Lonato, which Claude thinks is a bit of a sick joke. Sending Ashe to go kill his father? Rhea has a twisted sense of humor… or she's just an idiot. Or maybe it's to send a message…
Either way, Edelgard's words about the church being brutal against insurgents ring in Claude's mind. In a roundabout way, giving the Blue Lions that mission could be seen as a very personal warning about the dangers of going against the church.
The Eagles are getting a mission, fittingly enough, in the Empire. They're helping deal with a bandit lord that has been rising in Varley territory. It's not said outright, but it's implied the reason that the bandit gang grew so powerful is because Count Varley really just can't be bothered to deal with them because he's too busy using his troops to "keep the peace" in his large cities (see: extort additional money from the richer part of the population), as well as bother merchants travelling along the two main riverways coming down from Garreg Mach.
The Count clearly couldn't care less about protecting the civilians in his county because they already give him a lot of money through taxes, and in his mind apparently using his troops to get more money is much more important than keeping people safe, so the church is sending the Eagles to help the villages crying for help.
The Deer are going to hunt some demonic beasts that's been bothering the border of Garreg Mach and the Alliance under the supervision of the Knights of Seiros. It's no less dangerous than the other missions, but it certainly feels like busywork compared to them.
The night before all the classes are due to leave for their individual missions, someone (Claude heard it was Sylvain, Hilda heard it was Dorothea, but Claude also heard Ferdinand, Lorenz, and even himself) organized an impromptu party to calm everyone's nerves.
The party seems to be centered around Ashe. Not that the boy is the life of the party, but that people seem to be making a concentrated effort to keep the boy distracted. Sometimes it's Mercedes and Annette offering his sweets, Lorenz and Ferdinand attempt to discuss noble ideals and tea with the boy (to limited success), and Petra of course who alternatingly badgers him with questions, explains something about Brigid, or drags him into some activity that's going on.
Perta is also not-so-subtly leaning into the boy at any given opportunity, which a few people who are watching (Claude himself, Hilda, Sylvain, Mercedes and Annette) find highly entertaining because Ashe is clearly flustered by it.
As much as Claude disapproves of Sylvain's constant teasing of Ashe, he can sort of see why the older boy does it. Ashe is ridiculously, adorably nervous when it comes to Petra in any fashion. Claude wouldn't be surprised if Petra is intentionally provoking his nervousness just because it's cute. Petra is far from oblivious, so she's probably noticed the effect she has on him.
Ashe may be the center of the party, but there are certainly other things happening. There's an arm wrestling competition happening that Claude is fairly sure Raphael is going to win (if only because Hilda isn't participating), as well as some truth or dare game being lead by Sylvain (somehow he's dragged Ingrid, Felix, Ferdinand and Lorenz, and Leonie into it), and a number of small conversations happening off to the side.
"Are you going to join in something, or just creepily watch everyone from the corner?" Hilda asks.
"Hey, you're here too."
"Yeah, but I'm lazy. What's your excuse?"
"I'm hanging out with my friend, is that so wrong?" Claude replies cheekily.
"When you're using it as an excuse to spy on everyone it is."
"I'm not spying… I'm supervising."
Hilda snorts and shakes her head at his obvious bullshit.
###
Lysithea is itching to fight, it's obvious. However… it doesn't seem to be bloodlust. The girl seems physically uncomfortable, and her hands are constantly twitching and summoning little flares of miasma.
Claude isn't sure how conscious the flares are. Lysithea is aware of them of course, but she seems irritated at them, as in they're not expressions of her irritation but the cause of her irritation.
That has some implications of control issues for Lysithea, which is the last thing Claude expected from her.
Marianne is hanging at the back of the group. Claude knows today is near the end of her 'cycle', where she starts to stare at people and is clearly weary and not feeling well. Her hands grip the gem on her necklace as she tries to force herself to look down rather than looking at other people.
Everyone else seems nervous about the mission, more so than the bandits. Demonic beasts are no easy feat to take down, and they hit hard. The only person who seems enthusiastic is Leonie, who is clearly excited at the chance to prove herself against such a difficult foe. Ignatz is obviously worried, Raphael is calmer than most but still anxious, Hilda… looks bored, Lorenz is blustering about his power to hide his nerves, and the Professor looks like he couldn't care less as always.
Hilda has apparently decided it's too much effort to pretend that she has a hard time carrying her mordenkrad, so she's carrying it normally this time. She's still whining and complaining about the long march, but, amusingly, she's probably going to be the least tired of everyone just due to the inherent physical traits of her species.
"Hildaaaa." Claude whines with an obvious smirk on his face. "I'm tiiiired, carry me?"
Hilda glares at his obvious mockery of her usual attitude. "Weren't you the one telling me not to ask for that?"
"But you're strong, and I'm just a delicate little flower." Claude says, mimicking her usual pleading voice. "I can barely carry my ridiculously heavy weapon despite throwing it across a field last battle!"
"Fuck you Claude."
"Hilda! There are people around!" Claude gasps sarcastically. "And dinner first, please!"
"One of these days I'm going to actually take you up on one of your joke suggestions and make a fool out of you." She threatens.
"I'll believe it when I see it." Claude teases. "I think you'll be too lazy to bother."
Hilda narrows her eyes. "You'll regret taunting me. I'll get you."
"Suuure." Claude says as he throws his arms behind his head and grins at her. "If you say so Hilda."
###
"Hilda! Stop doing all the work!" Byleth shouts and the girl brings her mordenkrad down on the head of another demonic beast and splits it open like a dark, gross watermelon. "Other people are supposed to fight too!"
"I can't believe someone actually said that." Claude chuckles. "Hilda, stop working? That's her dream come true."
Demonic beasts are strong, but Hilda is easily stronger. It's only taken a few hits from her hammer to kill each of them so far, and with half of them gone now the rest of the class won't even get the chance to kill one themselves if Hilda keeps up her pace.
"Geeze!" Hilda huffs in annoyance. She swings her hammer up onto her shoulder, ignoring the gore dripping off the head or how her outfit is splattered with black blood from her squishing heads like fruit. "You're always telling me to do more and the one time I do you tell me to stop? Make up your mind Professor!"
Claude makes himself look away from Hilda to focus on the beast the rest of them are fighting. The lizard-like demonic beast is deceptively agile for it's huge size. It's head snakes out to bite at them before retracting in like a huge, ugly turtle. Raphael is up close and personal with it, but even he seems to be having trouble dealing any real damage. In fact, only a select few of the Deer have managed any significant damage.
One of those people is Lysithea, who seems eager to have a target. She slams down spell after spell on the monster at a rate greater than what she usually manages. The power of her spells also seems to be increased, which is weird but not something Claude is going to argue with at the moment. He does wonder what brought this on though. He remembers how she kept conjuring small miasma flashes earlier, and wonders if it's possible she was leaking magic. Is that a thing mages do?
Lorenz might not be able to hurt the beast, but he has something to contribute despite that. He stands just behind Raphael and occasionally turns his natural light powers on full-force to blind the monster.
It takes a few full minutes for Lysithea to blast down the fiend. Everyone cheers when she lands the final blow… only to remember there's still four more.
"So, I know they're supposed to get practical experience and everything, but do I really have to wait for them to finish?" Hilda huffs from off to the side. She's done as she was asked and hasn't killed another demonic beast, but she is holding one by the neck and forcing its face into the ground with one hand while restraining one of its paws with her other hand. The creature's other front claw futilly tries to reach over its body to swipe at Hilda, but it doesn't have that range of motion. "Look, if you want the others to kill them, sure, but can I at least hold them down or something to make it faster?"
"No." The professor says bluntly. He seems unfazed by Hilda's casual show of strength, while everyone else in the class is staring wide-eyed at Hilda casually restraining a beast with her bare hands. "They need to know how to fight demonic beasts without an overwhelming advantage."
"Boo." Hilda huffs. She looks at the rest of them. "Hurry up then! It's too hot out here, I want to get back!"
She releases the beast and forcefully shoves it back so it won't swipe at her. The creature is sent reeling backwards from the force of the shove and falls on its side for a second before it can roll up to its feet again.
It takes about half an hour to deal with all the demonic beasts. Hilda is very vocal about how bored she is the entire time, and when they're having trouble killing the last beast because they're exhausted Hilda walks in and calmly breaks it's legs with her hammer to make the process quicker.
She gets a light scolding for that, but all the other Deer are appreciative.
Okay, there should be enough hints now for people to make educated guesses at Marianne's species now (especially if you're familiar with my other Fire Emblem stories and recognize the signs). You might be able to guess Sylvain too.
