We got ourselves some food to eat and treated our remaining injuries. I washed my face clean from all the blood splatters, while Yuri and the others met with Lady Rhea to get permission to exchange the Chalice for Aelfric. Aelfric had a high position in the church, so Yuri suspected we'd get the approval.

I decided to wait near the Abyss entrance for their return. I leaned against the stone pillar and pulled one of the smaller textbooks out to read. I still had a few chapters left that were going to be on the Tuesday quiz.

One person was brushing past me when their hand slid into my vision. They grabbed my book and sprinted for the nearest tunnel.

"Hey!" I ran after. Stealing a textbook? What kind of thief was that?

They stumbled over a rock, allowing me to shorten the distance between us. Then they turned around a corner. I grabbed one of my daggers and pursued.

I rounded the bend to find several people waiting for me. Thugs, by the looks of it. And they were armed. I threw my dagger at the closest one and drew out my sword. There were footsteps behind me.

I glanced behind. More thugs were racing towards me. While I was watching, someone swung at me. I spun back and blocked their attack. I was surrounded. Great. Stupid textbook. I should have let the thief take it.

"Drop your weapon!" someone yelled from behind me. "We don't want to hurt you. We were just told to capture you."

Great. So they'd go easy on me then. I knocked the other person back and stabbed another person nearby. Someone was running up from behind. I tried to turn in time, but I wasn't fast enough. They tackled me to the ground. The fall knocked the air out of my lungs.

Oof.

The others were on top of me right away, trying to pin my arms and legs down. I forced myself up. My grip on my sword tightened and I swung. The other person was also winded and caught off guard. He tumbled off of me to dodge my strike.

"Get off me!" I yelled. "Get away!" There were others on my legs, trying to tie my feet together. I kicked at them. I slashed someone's arm with my sword.

"Stop resisting," someone said. I was still trying to catch my breath. Someone tried to push my shoulders down. I turned my head and bit their arm. They withdrew with a shriek for a minute.

Then, someone slammed their boot against my chest, knocking me back down. Ouch. I was swinging my sword again, clawing at the foot with my other hand, when something hard hit my right wrist. The sharp pain caused me to drop my sword. I screamed, as loud as I could.

The weight on my chest became heavier. My lungs were being crushed. The person kneeled down. No, no, no.

They grabbed my hair and smacked my head back into the ground.

Ow… For a second, my vision filled with dark spots. The metallic taste of blood filled my mouth. They took the opportunity to turn me around and pin my arms around my back. No. Goddess. No. I could feel the thick rope tightening around my wrists.

"Someone knock her out," someone said. Oh, Goddess, save me.

There was a cloth being pressed against my face, and a chemical smell filled my nostrils. Who were these people? What did they want from me? Or did they just kidnap random strangers who stood around reading books?

My mind was becoming foggy.

Yuri, please don't worry.

My head was pounding. My arms and legs felt numb. The ground was hard and jagged. I cracked my eyes open. I was lying in some cell. Through the bars, I could see another cell across from me. And someone familiar was pressed up against the bars.

I sat up. "Rose?" I tried to say, but my mouth was gagged, and it just sounded like mmphm.

Rose's eyes lit up once she saw me. She was in a similar state. Tied up. There were several other people behind her. Barold? Most of our crew mates. So, this was why Yuri said not to approach Rose's home. Whoever was behind this… When I got my hands on them, I was going to kill them. Being tied up like this for multiple days? Were they getting any food? This couldn't be good for Rose's health.

No, no. I took a few deep breaths to slow the boiling anger. Whoever was behind this was probably targeting Yuri. Otherwise, why kidnap us?

I shifted myself until I could rest my back against the dirt wall. Rose did the same, shuffling to the side of their cell. I took inventory. My sword was gone. So was the dagger I kept on my back. But, if they hadn't checked me too thoroughly, then I still had two small knives in my shoes and one on the inside of my pant's waistband.

Could I reach it? Even with my hands tied up? I wiggled my fingers into my pants until my thumb and index finger found the handle of the tiny knife that Yuri had given me. Perfect. I could cut myself loose, but it'd take some time.

But when? There were so many of them, and I wasn't sure if I could take them all with my small blades. And if they tried to use Rose or our crew as hostages… I sighed and tried to relax, though it felt like the circulation in my hands was getting cut off.

I leaned my head back against the wall and closed my eyes. My head still hurt. It was a dull, aching pain in the back of my head that would sometimes sharpen terribly. I waited there like that for several minutes, until I became aware of my bladder. And a need to pee.

Oh Goddess. I doubt they'd let me do that.

Then, there were footsteps. Two thugs appeared before us, and one of them pointed at me. "He said to bring her."

"And only her?" The other one was fiddling the key into the lock. The first one nodded. I glanced down.

The door unlocked with a clang and swung open.

"No funny business, you hear me?" The first one said, holding an axe. The second one stepped inside and hoisted me over his shoulder.

Why did they want me?

I met Rose's eyes as I passed by. I tried to nod at her but my chin just dug into the thug's back. But she got the message and nodded back.

It was a bumpy walk through some Abyss tunnels and extremely uncomfortable for my bladder. I wondered if peeing on the thug would be enough to escape. No, no, probably not worth it.

I tried to figure out where we were going, but the tunnels of Abyss all looked pretty similar. Dirt, rocks, and dark, snaking turns. At least, I assumed we were still in Abyss. Eventually, I spotted light from above. We stepped into a lit cavern, and the guy carrying me dumped me on the ground.

"Oof." The air was knocked out of me again, and my head stung like crazy. I squeezed my eyes shut.

"Didn't I tell you to be gentle?" A familiar voice said. I opened my eyes to see Aelfric standing not too far away from me. He looked at me, and his face softened. "I'm sorry about that, Byleth."

Wait. What?

"Byleth?" It was Yuri. I twisted my head towards his voice. Yuri was standing not too far right from me. The other Ashen Wolves were tied up and scattered into four points of a rectangle. Yuri pulled his sword out. "Taking my mother and friends hostage wasn't enough, Aelfric? You had to take Byleth too?" He spoke quickly and harshly. And for a moment, a flicker of anger appeared on his face: he narrowed his eyes, gritted his teeth, and glared at Aelfric.

"I don't want to hurt Byleth either," Aelfric said. "She's just extra insurance. Now put that sword away."

So Aelfric was behind this? But, he'd seemed so nice. I watched as Yuri struggled to appear calm while sheathing his sword. He met my gaze then looked away.

I turned back to glare at Aelfric and tried to say, "Take this cloth off me, you piece of garbage, and let me beat you up." Of course, it all came out as garbled sounds. Aelfric looked at me, then back at someone nearby.

"Take that off of her. It's unsightly," Aelfric said.

"Yes, sir." Someone reached over and took the gag out of my mouth. I coughed and sat up.

"Aelfric, what are you doing?" I said.

"I'm reviving your mother," Aelfric said with a smile. He gestured at a tomb behind him. The golden chalice was on top of it.

"What?"

"Your mother, Sitri." He turned his back to me as he stepped towards the casket. The lid was askew, but I couldn't see whoever was inside from where I sat. "The loveliest woman I've ever met."

That didn't make me want to kill him any less.

"He's using the Chalice and our blood," Yuri said.

His blood… Yuri's Crest… The other three Ashen Wolves. It clicked in my brain. The other three all had the lost Apostles' Crests? What were the chances? I glanced at Yuri. I needed him to signal when I should cut myself free. Aelfric had people standing guard all over the place. How were we going to get ourselves out of this mess?

Aelfric wasn't watching me. His eyes were glued to the Chalice. All the other guards were in front of me and looking forward. Maybe now was the time. I pulled out the small knife and began sawing at the rope. I gritted my teeth. My wrists hurt. Most of my body hurt.

I could feel the ropes loosening. I kept sawing at them, the knife sliding up and down and up and down.

Then, Byleth appeared, across the wide room from me. Him and the other students. I rolled onto my back, to hide the knife from view, as Aelfric spun around. Aelfric's mouth fell open, while Yuri smirked.

"The Knights will have found where you're keeping my mother by now," Yuri said. At the same time, other three Ashen Wolves had wrangled themselves free of the ropes around their wrists.

At least they still had their magic or weapons. I did learn some elementary light magic, but the only spell I could cast was Nosferateu. If I could steal a weapon from any of these thugs… we could get ourselves free.

"That's why I needed Byleth." Aelfric's voice echoed throughout the vast chamber as he stepped towards me. Oh no. Byleth, across the room, looked at us. "The sister, Byleth. As insurance. You wouldn't risk your sister's life, now would you?"

Byleth froze, just staring at Aelfric. I tried to nod at Byleth, to tell him that it was okay, to just please save the others, but he wasn't looking my way. I kept hacking at the ropes. They were getting looser. My wrists had more room to move around in. If I rolled down the steps near me, maybe Yuri could reach me before the guards did.

Byleth moved forward. He directed everyone into two groups.

"I'm warning you, Professor," Aelfric said, raising his voice. "Stop moving."

Byleth looked at me this time. I was almost there. The ropes were about to slip right off my arms. I nodded at him, and he nodded back.

"Yuri, won't you tell the professor to stop?" Aelfric said. Byleth paused again. "Your fiancee is in danger."

Fiancee? Oh, right. Yuri had made up that lie before. Byleth glanced at Yuri, but Yuri just drew out his sword. A sign to continue. So Byleth's two groups advanced towards the guards.

Aelfric sighed and gave me a sad look. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to do this."

He held his hand out. The ropes were off my arms. I threw myself down the stairs, rolling away from him. Footsteps scrambled behind me. Then, the room shook. Or, it felt like the room shook. Really, it was more like I was being rattled from the inside. My head spun, and I found myself breathing heavily. What was going on?

I pushed myself into a sitting position, grabbed one of the larger knives from my shoe, and hacked at the ropes around my legs. Yuri was fighting the three nearby guards, who were all mages.

Aelfric cast another magic spell on me.

"Byleth!" Yuri yelled. I failed to dodge in time. I found myself coughing blood.

Aelfric turned back to the chalice. There was a dark red portal below me. It was the same as the ones that the Ashen Wolves had been standing on.

Ah… so Aelfric was draining my blood too. This was what Yuri was feeling, like my energy was being sapped away. My body was growing heavier and slower.

I finished slicing my legs free. I slipped the little blade away and pulled the other larger dagger from my shoe. Byleth's two groups were fighting their way towards us. Constance and Hapi hadn't moved yet, knowing that if they did, the nearby guards would attack them.

Balthus was fighting another two guards in between him and Yuri.

I ran for one of the mages. She turned before I could sink my dagger into her. She blasted me with Nosferateu, but it was weak. I stabbed her. She staggered backwards but remained standing.

She was about to attack me again, when a blue bolt of lightning struck her from the sky. I glanced over to see Constance's hand out and a smile on her face.

"Thanks!" I said. I turned to fight the other mage. I lunged and struck him with my dagger. Yuri had defeated the other mage too and finished this one off with a swipe of his sword. The third mage dropped to the floor.

He ran towards me, arms wrapping around mine. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I said.

"Let me heal you." He was already healing me. I could feel the warm energy flowing through me, and my head was clearing up.

"We should help Balthus," I said. "Do you have an extra weapon?"

"Why is your head bleeding?" Yuri touched my hair on the side of my head. I reached a hand over too. The hair on the back of my head was matted with dried blood.

"Smacked my head against the ground."

Yuri gave me a spare sword he had. It was an old one, probably wouldn't survive this fight. My body was getting lighter. Balthus had defeated the axe thug and regrouped with us. I healed him up a bit, while he healed Yuri. Byleth's groups were approximately halfway through the room.

"Should we go get the others?" Balthus asked, gesturing towards where Constance and Hapi were waiting.

"Wait," Yuri said. "Let's wait."

So, we did. The first group reached Constance and Hapi soon enough. Dimitri and Byleth situated themselves on top of the red portals to block the ritual. We moved to meet up with Edelgard, Hilda, and Claude, helping battle the enemies between us. Edelgard and Hilda stepped on Yuri and Balthus's portal, while Claude stepped on mine.

And just like that the magic was stopped. The draining, heavy feeling stopped.

"You okay?" Claude asked me, as our group was moving to meet up with Byleth's in the middle.

I nodded. "Yeah."

Claude smirked at me. "You should have seen Yuri's face when we couldn't find you."

I didn't have to. Or want to. I'd probably seen it before. The pain in Yuri's lavender eyes, the way his eyebrows knitted together in worry, the way he'd bite his nail when he thought no one was looking.

"But that explains a lot," Claude was still saying with his hands clasped together behind his neck. I glanced at him. Byleth was shifting us around to face off against Aelfric. "You two are engaged, huh?"

Oh, right. I'd forgotten about that.

"Claude, Ashe!" Byleth called for them to take long range shots at Aelfric first, before Byleth and Edelgard attacked. Before long, Aelfric was defeated. Or so we'd thought.

After a quick chat with Lady Rhea, and a bathroom break for me, we found ourselves in the cathedral, facing the largest monster I'd ever seen before. And clones of Aelfric - lots of them.

"Even though they're just clones, I don't know if I can fight him," Constance was saying, looking pale even though we were all healed up.

Byleth had given me a better sword and a few bottles of vulnerary ahead of the battle. Again, Byleth organized our attack. The monster had strong armor that was difficult to penetrate.

There were lots of gambits. Lots of magic. And lots of arrows. Byleth had Edelgard, Dimitri, Balthus, Yuri and I fighting the monster head-on. We were the only ones who could withstand the counterattack, a heavy blow of sharp claws and armored skin.

But every so often, the monster would warp us all to different places. It'd take us a minute to recompose ourselves, figure out where we were and where everyone else was. The cathedral was big. Sometimes, if people were far enough away, they'd just spend the few minutes drinking healing potions before being rescrambled around again.

Balthus and I were both out of healing magic.

"Drink concoctions when you can," Byleth told us. It was awfully convenient that the Aelfric clones were carrying concoctions.

"Are we almost done yet?" Hilda asked, out of breath. I was leaning against my sword, while Edelgard blocked the monster's attack with her giant shield.

"Halfway there," Byleth said. I wondered how he could tell.

The monster roared and warped us all around again. When I regained my balance, I glanced around. Yuri was closest to the monster. Byleth was all the way at the end of the room. Not great.

I moved towards Yuri, who was preparing to gambit the monster. Byleth was sending Claude and Dimitri towards us, since they were riding a wyvern and a horse, respectively. The next closest person to us was Hapi.

The gambit had broken the monster's armor. I attacked with my sword and managed to dodge the counter attack. The monster then targeted Yuri.

"Yuri, I'll swap places with you after this!" I said.

"I'm out of gambits," he said.

"I've got one more," I said. "So leave it to me."

Yuri turned to Byleth, who nodded in agreement to my plan. Yuri stepped behind me, so I could lead a gambit attack on the monster. This attracted the monster's attention. Yuri and Claude, who'd flown into range, both attacked.

Then, the monster roared. It was a deafening, bone shakening loud roar. This was it. I planted my feet into the floor, while the monster swung its claws at me. I tried to dodge but wasn't fast enough. The blow sent me flying.

"Byleth!"

But then the room was spinning, and we were warped around. I landed on my hands and feet. I grabbed a concoction - my last one - and chugged it down. The clear liquid was bitter and tasted of medicinal herbs.

This time, Hilda and Dimitri were closer to the monster. I helped the others take out the clones. Lindhardt healed Yuri, then Dimitri. Again, the world shifted, and I found myself in a different part of the cathedral. It was making me feel dizzy.

"We're almost there!" Byleth said. He was in front of me, fighting the monster. "Come on, Byleth."

I gritted my teeth, gripped my sword, and ran closer. I tried to hit the monster as hard I could, then managed to dodge the counterattack.

"Nice," Byleth said, flashing a smile at me. The monster stomped its feet and turned away from both of us. What? I followed the monster's gaze and saw Ashe not too far from my right.

"Ashe!" I dashed towards Ashe, hoping to block the attack for him. The monster roared. Ashe was running backwards. My hand found Ashe's shoulder, and I pushed him further out of the way, while the monster's claws sliced through the air.

Then, Ashe's shoulder disappeared. I vaguely caught a glimpse of purple hair, before the hit sent my flying through the air. My back slammed against a nearby pillar. I coughed as I slid down to the floor.

"Byleth!"
It was Yuri. Yuri? Oh. He must have warped Ashe and taken his position. Yuri wrapped my hand around a bottle. A concoction most likely. My vision was spotted and my heart thundering in my chest. I focused on breathing. I could hear Byleth attacking the monster once more. And through my unfocused vision, I could see the monster dissolving.

It was over.

"Byleth, drink the vulnerary," Yuri was saying. My vision was clearing. Yuri was kneeling over me, eyebrows furrowed in that worried look of his. Footsteps approached us. Byleth reached a hand towards me, but Yuri caught it. "Don't." Yuri's voice was low. Byleth withdrew his hand. "Sorry, instinct," Yuri said a moment later.

I uncorked the bottle and drank. The other students were gathering around us. In front, where the monster had been, I could see the limp bodies of Aelfric and Sitri. But the only thing I could see of my mother was her hair, the same shade of blue as mine.

"It's over?" Hapi said. Byleth nodded.

Yuri stood up and held a hand out towards me. I took it, and he pulled me onto my feet. Byleth went to retrieve the chalice.

"Come on," Yuri said, still holding my hand. "Let's report back to Lady Rhea."

We shuffled out of the cathedral. Lindhardt went around healing everyone as we walked to Rhea's audience room.

"Yuri, I'm fine," I said, when Yuri still hadn't released my hand. He squeezed my hand in response.

Rhea took the chalice from Byleth and dispatched the knights to clean up the cathedral. Then, she declared that the Ashen Wolves were now free to leave Abyss.

"That's great, Yuri!" I said, turning with a smile to him. He didn't mirror my happiness, though.

"But, Lady Rhea, how will I atone for my sins?" Yuri asked.

Rhea shook her head and gave Yuri a small smile. "That is up for you to decide."

Thanks for reading!