Hello again, people. It's been quite a while.I'm sorry for not being as constant as I should with this story, work has been hard and I was just in a general bad mood. I almost decided to make this chapter a really long one to compensate for the long wait, but in the end I decided to write a normal one and do a long one next time now that I'm getting back on track.Anyway, just enjoy the chapter and stay safe out there.
Chapter 7
A Flicker in the Darkness
I
Annette spent days going to the nursery for her daily check up with Manuela. Her mana sources had almost been depleted in the battle of the tower and they just wanted to know she was going to be fine. That also implied that she couldn't do any magic until further notice.
She remembered waking up with Mercedes at her side, her friend told her everything that happened after she passed out. Apparently Felix had been the one that carried her from the entrance to the nursery, that particular detail made Annette flush, she hoped Mercedes didn't notice.
But after that, Annette didn't see Felix almost at all with the exception of their daily class sessions, they even stopped having their extracurricular activities, even though Annette still sometimes practiced with the sword or the axe.
It was the first week of the Horsebow Moon when Byleth made a special assignment for his students to search for any clue of the disappeared students, Flayn was one of them and the Monastery was put on high alert.
"I hope Flayn is okay, it's been days since we don't know anything about her" Mercedes said with an absent look in her magic book.
They were sitting in the knights hall along with Constance, Bernadetta, Hilda and Marianne, the last one seemed a little uncomfortable to be there, she was brought there by Hilda.
Annette nodded "Seteth had been ballistic, they even brought some mercenaries to enforce security"
"Yeah, I had seen them." Said Constance "That lady with the…extravagant outfit. I think her names is Shamir, Hubert had been stalking her for a few days"
Bernadetta went pale "Stalking her? You don't think he is gonna do something bad to her, right?"
Hilda giggled "Oh I think he is just lovestruck or something"
"You don't know Hubert, Hilda" Constance replied "He is like a hunting hound and every time somebody new comes to the Monastery he investigates if they are a menace to Lady Edelgard"
"I don't know how you did it, but you made it sound way creepier than the stalker situation"
The girls laughed, at least the dark atmosphere had dissipated.
"How about you guys? Maybe you don't have something has extreme as a stalker but I'm sure you have a special boy in mind"
"Oh, as much as I enjoy girl talk, my love life is not quite interesting as I'm sure yours is, Hilda"
"But that actually would work for you, won't it Constance?" Annette said "You want to restore your house, then won't a marriage into a noble family would work wonders for you?"
Mercedes looked at her wide eyed "That's a particularly calculating move Coming from you Annie"
Annette shrugged "I'm just being logical
Constance nodded "And it is a good point, Annette dear. But I have to restore the family name somehow and marrying into a more powerful house will only jeopardize that goal"
"So you will have to marry somebody who is less important than you?"
"A very rough way to put it but that's correct"
Bernadetta hugged her knees to her chest "I wish I have as much confidante as you, Constance. My father is just waiting for the day I graduate to marry me off."
Hilda's eyes almost shone "You are getting married Bernie? You have to tell me who he is, does he go to this school"
"Ehrm- no! I had never met him before, I don't even know his name"
"It's probably Felix Fraldarious" came a soft voice and all the girls turned to Marianne who had raised her eyes from her books. Was she actually listening the entire time?
"Felix? Why would it be him?" Annette asked, feeling a slight discomfort.
Marianne looked at her with her always sleepy expression "His father sent invitations to the fathers of almost all marriageable noble ladies in Fodlan. He even sent one to my father, although I turned it down right away"
Hilda smiled again like a cat "Oh, that's obvious since you only have eyes for a certain blondie from the kingdom"
Merianne's face lit up like a hot piece of charcoal "D-don't say things that can give the wrong idea, Hilda!"
Mercedes rushed to get the blue-haired girl out of trouble "What about you Hilda? Have you received an invitation?"
"Nah, my brother probably intercepted it and didn't tell me about it. To be honest, I don't mind, I'm not really looking for a husband right now"
Could have fooled me with all the flirting. Annette thought.
"So what is the invitation for?" Annette asked.
"Well that's obvious, a marriage interview. Well, more like a negotiation between the fathers, but Felix and the lucky lady would spend the whole day together. Honestly I think it is a bit of a drag, knowing Felix, talking to him must be as exciting as talking to an iron wall."
"I see…" Annette said, her thoughts drifting off. Did her uncle receive one of those invitations? Probably not.
"Ingrid will probably be one of the lucky ladies"
"I don't know. She received a letter from her father the other day. She didn't look happy at all"
Well, to be honest Annette wouldn't be happy either if her uncle tried to pressure her into marriage every week.
The girls turned to the other side of the hall when they saw Professor Byleth coming their way.
"Pardon me for the interruption, have any of you seen Sylvain?"
"We haven't seen him since the last class, Professor" Mercedes said.
Byleth crossed his arms "That kid, he is supposed to help Felix with the search of Flayn"
"He is probably chasing a poor girl in town"
"He is gonna be chasing horses tomorrow with a shuffle for their feces when I'm done with him" he said with a mild specter of anger.
Annette stood up "If you want, Professor. I can help Felix"
"Would you do that Annette?"
"Sure. Just make sure to make Sylvain do my rounds next time"
"Deal."
It was a short walk to the stables, Felix was leaning to the wall.
"Hey, the Professor asked me to replace Sylvain."
Felix sighted "I guess finding Flayn can't compete with a pretty face and a nice body"
Annette shrugged, smiling "Would you expect something else at this point?"
"Whatever. Let 's go."
"Did you find anything?"
"Probably. I need to ask for some information."
"Just lead the way"
They walked around the Monastery asking around. Apparently, Professor Jeritza has not been seen lately. The sword students like Felix were informed that he has been sick but not much else.
"Do you think Professor Jeritza can be involved in Flayn's disappearance?" Annette asked.
"I don't know. But I'm sure as hell don't like all this secrecy, the Professor thinks the same. Something is going on inside the Monastery that they are not telling us"
"That's a scary thought. Like a secret war, only we don't know who our enemies are"
"And we don't know which side are we on"
Annette bit her lips feeling a cold touch on her chest "Is that why you'd been avoiding me?"
Felix stopped and looked at her "What? Why would you think that?"
"Well, I wouldn't be surprised if you're paranoid about this whole thing so it would only be normal for you to keep distance from a girl you had only known for a few months"
"Is that what you-Annette, you had got it all wrong"
She noticed her voice trembling a little "It's fine, I just-"
"Annette. I'm not distrusting you, or any of our classmates. Well, maybe the Ashen Wolves and Hubert. But not you"
Annette snapped her eyes open looking at him "But then why had you been so distant?"
Felix looked away for a moment, but then he held her gaze, that dark yet sharp glance of him that was like golden cold fire. "To be honest, I was mad at you."
"But why?"
"Because of what happened at the tower. Because you rushed to at almost certain death to save that fool Gilbert"
"He is my father. What did you expect me to do?"
"And you think he is worth throwing your life away for a selfish dastard like him. If he is your father, he should be protecting you, you got it all backwards."
"Well, you might be right. But love is not about duty, he is my father and I would protect him when he needs me"
"Your life is worth ten thousand of him. If you can't realize that, then you're just a fool"
Annette didn't know what came to her, she felt a boiling anger that erupted like a volcano in a sudden explosion. Annette slapped him with enough force to make him turn.
She quickly snapped back, seeing the red on Felix's cheek, she had never felt that before, that kind of fury.
He turned again towards her, for a moment she thought he would cut her down right there and then. But then he started laughing. It wasn't something dramatic, just a small sound that surprised Annette all the same.
"I-I'm sorry" she said stuttering.
"Why? I think you made your point clear and you were completely ready to defend it, even if it was with violence."
Annette was dumbfounded for a moment. "I'm sorry, but you made me mad, and I wasn't going to stand it"
"And you shouldn't." He said "You can still be a fool all you want. And I still think you are following a stupid path by just trying to get your sorry excuse of a father back. But I can't do anything about it if you refuse to listen. And that's why I didn't want to listen more clases with you, but-"
Felix stopped talking suddenly and his sharp eyes followed something behind Annette. She turned and saw Professor Jeritza entering his room.
"Annette, go get the Professor"
She raised an eyebrow "Why? It's just-"
"Shh" he said, taking her by the arm and pulling her close to a wall so Jeritza couldn't see them. Felix pointed at something that Jeritza was dragging, her heart almost stopped when she saw Manuela. For a moment she feared that the nurse was dead because of her dress stained in blood, but she was moving. She was alive, barely.
The professor looked in multiple directions and then he entered the room.
Felix put a hand on her shoulders "Annette, go. I will make sure he doesn't escape"
"Right. But please, don't face him alone"
"Not without you…and the others"
She ran towards the knights all and gathered the Black Eagles.
II
This might have been the most dangerous mission they had faced.
The underground was a maze of stone walls and iron gates, not only that, the had split the group in two. One squad went with the Professor and Felix as the front line. While the other followed Hubert and Yuri to dispatch the reinforcements and deactivate the traps in the dungeon.
Annette had gone with the majority of the mages to the second squad so this time Felix couldn't keep an eye on her.
"Look sharp, Felix!" Byleth yelled and the boy had to back down when a spearman tried to perform a cut on his neck. He managed to dodge and cut down the soldier.
They were going through the center of the dungeon right where they just opened an iron door, no doubt thanks to the other squad.
Caspar went through a few more soldiers but received an ugly injury in his arm, he had to go back and receive some healing from Marianne, along with Lysithea she was the only mage in the squad.
"Open up a little, we have to gain a little more ground" Byleth instructed Felix and Ferdinand to attack from both sides, Ferdinand managed to advance a little more thanks to his horse, he had just been promoted to a rider and he was cutting the enemy down like nobody's business.
Felix was fast in dispatching his enemies but his mobility was limited so he kept his position until he while the others.
But then came the real problem.
A flash of dark energy rushed through and destroyed the stone doors in the center. Byleth and Felix jumped to each side, the Professor managed to rise fast enough to dodge a dark scythe almost decapitating him.
It was him, the Death Knight. His black horse galloped in the stone floor and Felix could swear the land was trembling with each step.
"Ah, finally, a real challenge" he said with his deep voice, like a demon in ecstasy.
Byleth didn't answer, he looked at Felix and waved his sword a bit to tell him to go around the Death Knight. Ferdinand was standing next to the Professor, it was a plan Byleth had made after their encounter with the monster in the tower.
It consisted in two strong decoys to keep a strong enemy occupied while someone made a sneak attack.
So this time Byleth was the first to attack, but the knight just waited and promoted his horse to back down just before swinging his scythe with extra force.
The Professor stopped suddenly slamming his foot just before the blade slashed his head.
Felix raised the arm just like Annette had taught him and fired a Thoron spell against the knight who barely gave a reaction and turned towards Felix, her red eyes shining with rage.
Oh shit.
The Death Knight raised his weapon a ray of light shot towards Felix, he barely dodged the attack that made an impact on a nearby pillar destroying a portion of the room.
Ferdinand attacked from one side and Byleth the other, this time the Professor extended the Sword of The Creator.
The Death Knight barely saw the quick attack and had to block it tangling his sword with Byleth's. Ferdinand used this opportunity to attack.
But their enemy was too fast, too experienced, with an expert move he managed to dodge the spear and with a single blow of his fist broke the wooden part.
Felix finally saw the opportunity and jumped spinning in the air, the Death Knight was wide open with his horse unable to move. He aimed at the head but the rough movement of the enemy made him miss his mark, the sword made a hollow impact in a shoulder guard.
Felix jumped back to make some distance, the Death Knight pulled his scythe with force and threw Byleth against Ferdinand, knocking them both off the horse.
The knight turned once again towards Felix. "You are dangerous, boy. I can't enjoy it. A true battle if you keep interrupting."
The others were still fighting other warriors a little behind and Byleth and Ferdinand were still trying to get up.
Felix tried to steady his breath. He was filling the true thrill of battle, the sensation when his senses sharpened the most, in that moment the chances of winning against a stronger foe were fifty-fifty.
The boy took a stand right when the Death Knight charged. The time seemed to stop, each sound of the horse's steps echoing in his head along with the fast beating of his heart.
Felix took two steps with the speed of a lightning, he ducked filling how the dark blade of the scythe grazed his hair. He then spine in his own feet, his ankle was practically screaming because of the pressure but he managed to make a deep cut into the knight's leg just before the horse pulled him further.
The Death Knight screamed in pain and blinded by rage he tried to swing his weapon once again.
Felix tried to move but his ankle sent a sharp pain that made him flich and almost fall. But the small moment of hesitation was enough to seal his fate.
The young man could almost feel the cold steel of the scythe cutting him in half but just before that form the ground came giant black spikes with a very darkish aura.
The spikes pierced through the horse who died almost in an instant, the Death Knight jumped off the horse stumbling to the ground.
Felix looked wide eyed to Lysithea who had her arm raised, she had cast a spell probably in a hurry, she was breathing heavily.
"How you like that you big bully."she said with a challenging gaze.
" You insolent which, I will have your head! "
On that moment a dark flash appeared and a figure emerged from the shadows, masked man with a blood red helmet and tunic.
" Halt. You're having a bit too much fun." the masked man said.
"You are getting in the way of my game"
The masked man looked at the students "Hmph. You will have more opportunities to play soon. Your work here is done."
The knight took a moment to answer "Understood, I will go…"
And with that the Death Knight disappeared in a similar dark flash.
The man in red this time addressed Byleth "We will cross paths once again. I am the Flame Emperor, the one who shall change this world"
The masked man then disappeared too.
A few minutes later, Flayn and Manuela were safely taken to the infirmary, luckily both of them weren't in too bad shape. The others didn't have any serious injury, in fact, Felix was the only one laying on a bed with his foot wrapped in a cold clean piece of cloth.
The muscles on his leg had strained violently and he would not be able to practice swordsmanship for a week, now that's what you call a punishment.
Edelgard had called Hubert and Yuri to the infirmary following the professor's orders.
Byleth was the last one to arrive, luckily both Manuela and Flayn were sleeping, he closed the door behind him making sure that they were alone.
"Thank you all for coming" he started "I don't want to make this too long so I will be brief"
"Before, I thought that we have a traitor among the staff members or the alumni. But now I'm convinced. If you think about it's not quite possible for Jeritza to sneak in the Death Knight alone with an entire squad of soldiers into the Monastery"
Edelgard nodded "Not only that, but he managed to kidnapped Flayn and Manuela right under our noses." She looked at the Professor with a serious expression "I assume you think that there are mores spies inside Garreg Mach"
"That's right. That's why starting from today I want the four of you to help me with the seminars from now on. I want to prepare the students for a possible future encounter with this dark enemy. They are growing more bold each time and there is only a matter of time before they make some serious damage"
"Then it is a special training program, I suppose" Yuri said "We can also use the resources of The Abyss to find out if the Death Knight and his goons had been lurking around"
"There is no better time for this then" Hubert pointed out "The Battle of Eagle and Lion will take place soon. We can say that our extracurricular activities are part of our training regime."
Felix didn't usually like the fact to do things in secret, but the idea to sharpen his skills were always welcome "And who knows, maybe if our enemy becomes impatient they might end up coming to us instead of us to them"
"Let's hope we are prepared before that time comes. For now we won't mention this to anybody, to the other students we would only be doing extracurricular training."
Everyone agreed and they decided to go out of the room leaving Felix to rest, but when the Professor opened the door Annette was standing right there, she had a tray with food in her hands.
"Oh, hello Professor" she hesitate a little bit and even more when she saw the others, her face turned red "I didn't know all of you were here"
Byleth turned to Felix and again to Annette. He smiled slightly and patted the girl on the head. "Don't stay too long, Felix needs to rest. Good work on today's battle"
The Professor walked down the hallway along with the other students.
Annette walked towards the bed and put the tray on the table next to it. It had some soup and egg rolls. "I brought you some food."
"Thanks. Did you make it?"
"No, I would have take much longer so I just took what they were serving"
Felix took a sip of the soup "It's good"
"They told me you fought the Death Knight."
"More like got pounded to the ground. If it wasn't for Lysithea you guys would be buring me right now"
Annette opened her eyes wide "Was it that close? And you tell me to be careful"
"I'm making it sound much worse than it really was" It really was as bad as he described it.
It was downing on him right now, he still had a lot to learn, a lot to train. The Death Knight was a formidable foe and even the Professor was having trouble fighting him off, and he probably was just the Flame Emperor's lapdog. They were facing a much more dangerous enemy than they thought.
"You think we can resume our training in two weeks?" Felix asked.
"Well, we can start as soon as you recover actually"
"No, I'm going on a trip the next two weeks with my father."
Annette raised an eyebrow "I didn't take you for the quality time with your father type of guy."
"Believe me, I am not thrilled in the slightest. But I have to meet with a few potential brides, so yeah, it is as miserable as you think"
Annette was quiet for a second and Felix looked at her, she seemed distracted somehow.
"I see" she said with a dry tone. "So I guess I will be writing down all your assignments. Don't want to be left behind, right?"
"You don't have to do that"
"Of course I have, I won't allow you to neglect your extracurricular activities because of all those piled up assignments, and besides, we have the mock battle next month. And we will be facing Mercie and the others, you know how tough they are"
Felix couldn't help but smile in the corner of his mouth, the side she couldn't see. She was talking like a warrior for a moment.
No matter how fragile, or easy-going, or soft she looked, she actually was a great fighter. He knew that and yet he was always looking after her on the battlefield.
Felix's smile faded and then he looked her straight in the eyes.
"I'm sorry" he said, the girl just could sit there wide eyed "I'm sorry if I underestimated you, Annette."
"You? But when.."
"Always, I underestimate you on the battlefield and as a person. It's not my place to tell you how to deal with your personal problems" It was already humiliating to say all of this, but Felix was a man of courage, and he never backed down to a challenge. Even if it was something as trivial as apologizing to a girl.
Annette then smiled and put a hand over his, Felix felt a bolt of lightning running through his body.
"Thank you Felix. That truly means a lot."
It was a few seconds that felt like an eternity, the sensation he was feeling was like if the whole room catches on fire but they didn't care at all.
She then finally removed her hand and asked him to rest, but Felix couldn't sleep. He just saw the night sky through the open window, feeling that the weather was actually getting warmer instead of colder due to the coming winter.
III
Professor Byleth looked like the perfect warrior, he had speed, strength and he was proficient with almost any weapon you gave him. But turned out, as Marianne noticed, he was struggling to master the magic arts and had almost no skill at horse riding.
He fell for the sixth time that morning.
"Son of a-"
"Language Professor" Edelgard said.
"Sorry" Byleth stood up dusting himself off. The stallion he just tried to ride just turned around showing it's butt to the Professor. "I can't believe how hard this is"
"There is a great deal of difference between riding a horse and actually charging into battle on it" Edelgard as matter of fact.
Byleth was charging against a line of wooden dummies set up just outside the Monastery, Marianne had offered her assistance by soothing the horse down, but to no avail. The animal just refused to listen to the Professor as soon as it started galloping, always resulting in being unceremoniously thrown off the saddle.
"Thank you for your precious insight, Edelgard" Byleth said with sarcasm "That's why I always fight on foot, animals, they are the worst.
The horse neighed at him as if it was making fun of him.
Marianne approached the animal and caressed its neck and whispered to it.
"It's not a matter of authority over the horse" she said "In the battlefield the horse is supposed to be an extension of yourself, every swing of your blade has tome timed and measured according to the horse's speed and strength. It's almost like-"
"Like a symbiotic relationship"
Marianne saw that the comment came from Dimitri who was now standing next to Edelgard. The girl had to look away a little bit. She felt uncomfortable standing next to pretty much anyone, but Dimitri had been persistent the last few months. He was always trying to talk to her about the way she behaved in battle.
The prince came closer and bowed slightly "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt the lesson. I just wanted to provide some insight, if I may"
"Of course" Byleth said.
"Well, just like Marianne said. Don't just order the horse, you have to create a bond with him, during the heat of battle he is the closest ally you have."
"Well that's not very specific"
"Come on, try one more time Professor"
Byleth approached the horse, the animal a little nervous but Dimitri and Marianne helped it calm down.
They waited for a few second on then Byleth aimed towards the dummies.
"Hya!" He ordered and the animal started running.
For a moment, Marianne thought the Professor would be thrown off again, but he tightened his grip and he duck a little bit, putting his head near the horse's. It was almost like the Professor was whispering to the animal.
The animal managed to run on a straight line and then making a turned allowing Byleth to slash through various dummies at once.
"You are so good with horses" said Dimitri before turning to her "Yet I never see you ride into battle on one"
"As you said, the horse is supposed to be your ally in battle. I have no allies in battle, people are safer without me around."
"Hilda and the others would be sad to heard that"
"They will forget me when I eventually fall in battle"
"So sure about the future. Are you some kind of medium?"
"If you're just going to make fun of me I will take my leave"
"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make it sound like that." the prince sturered "I'm just worried about you"
"Well, my well being is none of your concern."
For a moment Marianne was sorry for what she said, Dimitri looked truly offended.
"I see, then, since the Professor seems to be getting the hang of it, I will take my leave" but before he left he turned towards her one more time "But that doesn't mean I won't keep helping you in battle. I won't let you die. I won't let anyone die."
The prince took his leave leaving Marianne to her thoughts.
From the distance, Edelgard observed the little exchange after seeing that the Professor had managed to finally dominate the horse.
Dimitri had changed a lot since she left the kingdom when she was a kid. He looked sad behind that mask of chivalry and good manners, she would know, she was the only one who knew what was behind that mask.
But she shouldn't have worried about that, she already had a heavy mask to wear.
