The Lady and the Thief
by Cyberchao X
Chapter 6: The Ruins of Hope
The war-torn state of Fódlan was toughest on the commoners, Ashe lamented. He ran into the very same man he'd tried to help all those years ago, and he recognized Ashe, and was grateful, but he still seemed to be struggling. Meanwhile, he'd managed to parlay his good fortune to have been rescued by a man branded traitor into…well, not exactly a life of luxury, but he didn't want for much, relatively speaking. He could even afford to buy expensive books for…certain people that he cared for. He wondered if he was being too forward, getting Ingrid a gift so soon after they reunited, but he was…happy. Being back with his old friends, under the Professor's command…for the first time in five years, he really felt like he was home.
Annette was overwhelmed by it all. There he was, alive and well and looking exactly as he did five years ago. And he wasn't just the professor now; he was the leader of the Knights of…Faerghus, she supposed. Because that was her father's allegiance now, the Kingdom of Faerghus, and her father had basically become Byleth's second-in-command. She tried to distract herself with whatever work she could find, but of course, she overdid it. And who should find her fretting over what to do on her day off but Byleth himself. He invited her to tea, just like old times, but it was something different. Relaxing, or at least, it was supposed to be. Annette was having trouble relaxing. Her heart kept beating so loudly…she wished she could go on like this forever.
Bernadetta was struggling internally, too. She was happy to be back at the monastery with all of her friends, but she knew that her closest friend would now be her greatest rival. Because over the past five years, she and Annette had grown close—closer than they had in the year that they'd been in adjacent rooms at the Academy. But now…the man they'd both fallen in love with was alive.
It seemed strange to Byleth, the situation he now found himself in. To his mind, the battle against Edelgard at Garreg Mach was just a few days earlier, and indeed, aside from the lack of Lady Rhea hanging over him, as well as a couple of other notable absences, everything felt as it always did. The students…no, they weren't students anymore, but they were still his students. The students still called him "Professor", even though they were so much older. Well, except Flayn. She and Seteth didn't appear to have aged a day, of course, seeing as how they were likely immortal just like Rhea…and like himself, perhaps? Shamir thought it was strange, given that he was now strictly a military commander, but Byleth liked it. It felt like normalcy.
Dimitri seemed excited by the prospect of the Imperial Army marching on Garreg Mach yet again, even though it was obvious that Edelgard wouldn't be with them and it was clear that his bloodlust wouldn't be satisfied until she was dead. Byleth was honestly concerned about sending him into the coming battle, and yet, he couldn't hold the prince back. For a brief moment, he'd thought he'd had nothing to fear when he heard Dimitri give the order to capture the enemy general alive. He was dead wrong. It turned out Dimitri gave that order because he felt that a swift death was too merciful; he wanted General Randolph to suffer. Byleth saw in the general only an honorable man, and so even though he'd hoped to minimize casualties on both sides, he decided that killing him was the best option.
Gilbert asked Dimitri what his next move was. He wished to march on Enbarr and take Edelgard out right away. Ingrid and Annette disagreed with this, feeling it was better for the future king to retake Fhirdiad first, let his people know he was fighting for them. Ashe and Mercedes, on the other hand, agreed with Dimitri, though for different reasons—Ashe because he agreed that taking out Edelgard would be the swiftest way to end the war, and Mercedes because she felt that Enbarr was the more likely location for completing their other goal of locating Lady Rhea. Seteth then told Byleth to make the decision, which was no easy task. Despite the danger of feeding Dimitri's bloodlust, Ashe was correct about the quickest way to end the war being to take Edelgard out quickly. But on the other hand, he was in no rush to find Lady Rhea…right?
Dimitri was an issue. Dimitri was not, in this state, his future ruler. Why would he want to help him retake his kingdom? It wasn't even his desire at the moment, either. And Byleth had allies from all over Fódlan, not just Faerghus. Ending the war was the priority. Enbarr it was.
CCX: I know that I write best when I have no idea where the story is going until it gets there, which is why I'm kind of glad that I ended up doing this on what's still sort of a blind run (having yet to complete Azure Moon)…but this is quickly becoming something other than what it was initially intended to be. At this rate I may end up having to rename the damn thing unless I can seriously extend it past the end of the game proper (though that was always the plan). Also, the fact that my own sympathies are clearly with Edelgard, both because Rhea is kind of a dick and because Dimitri is kind of a monster.
Still, let the decision to go after Enbarr be a signal that this isn't decided just yet.
Rodrigue wished for a meeting in Ailell, the Valley of Torment, to deliver the reinforcements the Church asked for. A place where humans rarely ventured, on the border between the Kingdom and the Alliance. All seemed to agree that this was likely a good place to meet them.
Meanwhile, Byleth learned from Gilbert that things in his own former territory were not so simple. Though Gilbert had revealed his true identity, his brother remained Baron Dominic, the role he'd taken when Gilbert first disappeared—and he was pressured by Cornelia into maintaining a pro-Empire stance. He learned this not because Gilbert had had any plans of doing anything about this, but rather because Annette had wished to retrieve the family's Hero's Relic. Gilbert tried to discourage her from going, but she stubbornly insisted. Gilbert reluctantly went after her, but not before asking Byleth to bring an army as backup—but not to charge in, only to rescue the two of them if they were captured. (CCX: Side note: Given the story set-up of that map, it's kind of silly that you can still assign adjutants to Gilbert and Annette in that battle.) Sure enough, Baron Dominic refused to give up Crusher without a fight.
The idea of Annette wielding that giant axe was worrying to Gilbert and Byleth alike. She meant well, but she was overexcitable and could be a bit clumsy at times. Equally worrying were the reports of the Death Knight being spotted near the monastery. Mercedes's reaction to this news was…rather odd. It almost sounded as though she had deduced his true identity…and it was someone close to her. Her brother—half-brother, rather. Based on his actions at the end of the battle, it seemed her suspicions were correct. He stubbornly remained an enemy, but he did give Mercedes their House's Hero's Relic. A rather curious item, not at all suited for a back-line fighter like Mercedes. Byleth gave it to Sylvain.
Unfortunately, there were spies among them, members of Faerghus's House Rowe, which had turned traitor against the Kingdom and now served the Empire. Their forces were led by an old knight called Gwendal, who entered the battle perfectly willing to die—in fact, it seemed he desired it. Byleth's plan called primarily for highly mobile units, both flying and ground-bound. That was soon going to become an overarching theme, with so many units training for top-tier classes, so he also felt it prudent to give Flayn the Boots of the Wind to help her keep up.
Rodrigue again suggested that the army retake Fhirdiad first, saying that it was better to "prioritize the living over the dead". Byleth couldn't help but agree, and yet the march on Enbarr continued on in Dimitri's blind rage, now empowered by his acquisition of the Hero's Relic Areadbhar. The new target was to cross the Great Bridge of Myrddin, in Alliance territory, to get past the Oghma Mountains. A risky proposition…and so Rodrigue suggested contacting the pro-Kingdom segment of the Alliance, led by Claude of House Riegan. This was a strategy Byleth could get behind.
It was shortly after this that Byleth met with Rodrigue late at night and learned his story. It was a very important story, tied to so many of his students. Felix and Ingrid the most closely, as Glenn was the former's brother and the latter's fiancé, but the Tragedy of Duscur affected so many others, too. Ashe, Dimitri…Dedue.
…And Edelgard, too. Dimitri was too blinded by his rage to see anything but enemies before him, but Byleth believed that the offer Edelgard had made him all those years ago was genuine. To turn on her allies, whom she considered to be her true enemies every bit as much as the Church. And those were Byleth's true enemies, too; the people responsible for Jeralt's death. If only there were some way to convince Dimitri that his anger was misplaced…that by targeting Edelgard, he was playing directly into the true enemy's hand.
From the soldiers around the monastery, Byleth learned that the Imperial territory just over the bridge belonged to Count Bergliez. The Minister of Military Affairs…and one of the few Imperial nobles from the old regime that Edelgard had left around. If he was anything like his son, he'd be a fearsome foe. Preparations would need to be made. And it was a different scion of Imperial nobility that provided a lead on some potential assistance. According to Linhardt, there was a holy weapon hidden in Lake Teutates that could be used even by a commoner. He didn't tell the whole story but it had something to do with Saint Indech. When they arrived, the lake was covered with fog, and a magic beast addressed them, saying they needed to pass its trial. Given that Rhea herself turned out to be the Immaculate One, it seemed likely that this "Immovable One" was Saint Indech himself, something that its reaction to Flayn seemed to confirm, and hers to it, as did Lindhart's reaction afterwards. Flayn had all but confided her true identity to Byleth not long afterwards—not directly stating that she was Saint Cethleann, but saying that they were in very similar situations regarding their blood.
Ingrid was facing an inner turmoil of her own. The trip to the Valley of Torment, so near to her own territory, had reminded her how much her family was struggling. Her father had sacrificed everything for her, and so she couldn't help but feel a duty to marry for the prestige of the family as he desired, even if it got in the way of her becoming a knight. He had allowed her to fight for her country, but she felt that by becoming a knight, she'd be shunning her duty as a noble. She didn't mention that she was worried as much for a friend as for herself; at her last tea with Mercedes, she'd learned that she was in a similar situation, except replacing "become a knight" with "work for the church".
Byleth didn't understand all that. He asked her why she couldn't do both, meaning it as an honest question to increase his own knowledge, but that was really all it took for her to realize that she could do both, or try to. Not what he'd expected, but he was glad to help one of his students.
Dimitri continued to charge forward, not questioning his path. He tried to convince Byleth that he was no different, the way he'd charged after Kronya 5 years ago. But the difference was that Byleth had seen Kronya murder Jeralt with his own eyes, while Dimitri was single-mindedly locked on getting "revenge" on a fellow victim of the Tragedy of Duscur. Felix advised giving up on trying to reason with the "boar prince", and Byleth was honestly glad to hear that he figured most of the army was there either out of hatred for the Empire or loyalty to the Church, not due to loyalty to Dimitri.
Claude agreed to help distract Count Gloucester's soldiers to help them, but it didn't help, sadly. An Imperial battalion led by General Ladislava was waiting for them, and they'd barely started their assault when the Alliance Lord Acheron led troops right into their midst. They appeared so suddenly that it could only be the work of mages teleporting them in, but the way Ladislava was speaking, it almost seemed as though they'd messed up the timing and arrived too quickly. Acheron's forces were quickly wiped out, with the help of a most unexpected arrival: Dedue, thought to be dead, had somehow survived! Upon Acheron's departure, however, more Gloucester troops came in, led by none other than Count Gloucester's son, Lorenz. He seemed none too happy about it, however, and Byleth was able to convince him to defect to their side.
After the battle, for the first time since Byleth had woken from his slumber, he saw doubt in Dimitri's eyes. Learning that Dedue had been saved by his fellow men of Duscur stirred something. Byleth felt relief. Even before, it seemed as though Dedue had been Dimitri's conscience. Perhaps now he'd finally start to return to the man Byleth had once known.
CCX: Did it! Got another chapter out by the end of the month, for whatever little it's worth. Well, it was a tradition at one point that I'd put out a new fic on my birthday, so this will have to do. Though it still feels short, even if the word count says it's a decent length compared to previous chapters.