The Dawn of Silver Snow.

Story Summary: Byleth, a girl with no heartbeat and Daughter of Jeralt, a mercenary, finds that Sothis has Awakened inside of her; soon, changes begin to occur to Byleth while Sothis, the Spirit who guides Byleth, remembers everything of her Past life. Will the World be Ready for the Goddess to walk with the living once again? Who are the mysterious Argathians? This story is a Rewritten Silver Snow route with a couple of significant twists.

Chapter Summary: Byleth shift cycle is complete, and Seteth sends word to Rhea and Jeralt that Byleth will be arriving in the monastery, but before they do that, they need to clear Zanado of bandits. Once that is over, they will return to Garreg Mach with more than they left.

Chapter 7: Battle for Zanado

Day 26 Harpstring moon

Zanado

It is now the final week of the Harpstring moon, and by this point, Byleth's shift cycle has ended, but although the cycle has ended, it didn't complete without some changes to her physical body. For instance, her teeth were much sharper, and her iris went from blue on the outside and faded to mint green. This also had the effect of improving her eyesight. Her hair was a bit longer, and her ears were a bit more pointed.

A few days ago, Seteth had sent a letter to the monastery by carrier owl for the archbishops' eyes, only he has been steadily updating her on Byleth's progress and now they are done here; there is something they must do. They must clear one of their ancestral homes of these bandits.

Everyone in Zanado was getting ready for the upcoming battle to clear the bandits out of the ancestral home of the Nabateans. Aubin was wearing his usual trickster armour. Noa was wearing a short light pink robe with a red breastplate that had an ivory-coloured outline that protected her breast, neck and shoulders; attached to the shoulder were ivory-coloured wing attachments to allow the wind to fly more efficiently. She was also wearing pink sleaves on both of her arms that were held in place by ivory gauntlets. Underneath her robe were suspenders that held in place her red thigh armoured that protected her legs. Attached to her waist was a red belt, and attached to the belt and suspenders were Ivory plates to protect her hips as she flew on her black Pegasus. In her left hand, she was carrying a pink and red staff called the staff of Noa.

Timotheos was wearing a long robe. Around her neck, there was a yellow metal plate to protect it from injury, and there were also yellow horns attached to both shoulders attached to her knees, which were yellow scaled plates. On her right hand, she had a yellow staff with ahead on the top of it, and this staff was called the staff of the beast. Hidden underneath the robe were yellow gauntlets. She was on top of a horse with green and yellow robs with scaled armour. Chevalier was wearing his usual war monk armour with an axe on his back and brawling gauntlets in his hands. He was ready to fight. Flayn was wearing her priest robes with a segmented staff that was gold in colour and at the end had wings and a purple orb on the top called the Caduceus Staff in her right hand.

Anna was also wearing her trickster armour. Macuil was wearing the armour he came to Zanado in, the armour of a long-forgotten class of warriors called the battlemage. Indech was also wearing the armour he came to Zanado with, the armour of an archer. Seteth was on a wyvern and wearing his wyvern rider armour with a shield that had a head in the middle and eight segments around it. Around the segments were four expandable points to expand the shield when needed; this shield was called the Ochain Shield in one arm. On the other hand, he had his long golden Lance that could either be used as an axe or a lance called the Spear of Assal.

While the others were outside getting prepared for the battle to come, Byleth was inside a partially destroyed house, sitting down in a piece of collapsed rubble. During her time here, Macuil had made her a new set of armour, and that is what she was wearing. The breastplate was scaled, it was ivory in colour in the middle and back, but the outline of the sides and the top were pink. The gauntlets were gloved and went up to her elbows, and they were ivory with pink stripes side by side by side. On her shoulders were pauldrons that pointed outwards and were pink in colour. The armoured skirt was knee length was, segmented and pink and ivory. Connecting her skirt and breastplate was a belt with several storage pockets. At the same time, her armoured boots went to cover her kneecaps and, like the gauntlets, had pink strips. Overall, this armour set offered her better protection than her usual mercenary gear. Macuil also made Byleth a new sword; this sword had her crest on the handle.

Macuil eventually came into the building that Byleth was sitting in. Seeing how she was lost in thought, he sat on the same debris but to the left of her. In the few weeks that Macuil has been here, perhaps nobody has grown closer than Macuil and Byleth. Whenever Byleth needed something, it had come to the point where her go-to person was Macuil. And Macuil has grown very fond of Byleth despite only knowing her for a few weeks.

"Byleth, I see you are wearing the armour I made you. Now, let me warn you, it is not as strong as I would like because I don't have all the materials to do that here. but it is more protection than what you had; do you like it?" asked Macuil

"I loved it; it matched my scales, well, at least the scales I saw; they're unique to me, so thank you," answered Byleth.

"Young one, although I very much can't stand Serios, but you didn't inherit much about her. You're desperately trying to be your own person, which is an admirable goal. You have been given a role that not only puts a target on your back but also is a role that nobody so young should have been given, and let's not get started about your dragon sign or how you grew up." consoled Macuil while ruffling Byleth's hair "Remember what I told you the first day I arrived no dragon should grow up without their mother, not only did you grew up without your mother you grew up thinking your human around humans, and thinking you're a demon."

"Thank you, uncle. I am just scared. I don't want to be alone anymore," replied Byleth

"That is why I came in here, to keep you company but also to tell you that you may have fought against these bandits before. I am a bit rusty, so I want you to take command. If it becomes too much for you, I will take over, stated Macuil before leaving.

'My little dragon, you are starting to get along well with others, especially with those of your kind. Remember what I told you a while ago? You are getting stronger with each passing day; right now, we are still not ready to merge. But you are ready to use Divine magic, the strongest of all magic,' said Sothis 'you will need to lead them to banish these bandits from this place.'

'Sothis how?' asked Byleth. 'How do I use this Divine Magic?'

'Let me guide you, and you will see with your own eyes, ' answered Sothis

Garreg Mach Monastery

Now Rhea was in her office and sitting with the door closed with Bernadetta sitting in her office. When a knock came on her office, Rhea opened the door, and Alois carried a letter in his hand.

"Lady Rhea, Sorry to interrupt you, but I have an urgent letter that came by carrier owl addressed to you. It's from advisor Seteth" said Alois handing the letter to Rhea

"Thank you, Alois; now, can you leave us? We have important matters to discuss with each other." So said Rhea, to which Alois left the room and closed the door behind him.

"Auntie, how is Professor Eisner doing? Has she completed her cycle? If so, when will she come to the monastery? also, have you talked to dad yet?" asked Bernadetta

"Please, one question at a time, I don't know for your first two questions, and I feel this letter will tell me; as for your third question, do you remember Zanado?" Replied Rhea

"Yes, I do." said Bernadetta as her eyes opened wide, and with excitement, she recalled, "I remember during the war dad hid me there because in the massacre that killed so many of us, and he went off to fight Nemesis, and I was forced to go into hiding and it was in hiding where I went through the changes that gave me my Dragon form."

"Well, Indech is there helping Byleth, and I sent a letter earlier in the moon that you were in the monastery so." Replied Rhea

"Thank you, auntie," asked Bernadetta

"Bernadetta, before I give you something, I need to ask you how you are feeling?" asked Rhea.

"I have been crying all day, and I should have never run away from my father that day. We just argued, and I needed time to myself, so I went out of his care and ended up being kidnapped by the Varley family," said Bernadetta

"Bernadetta, we can't change the past; however, I am going to tell you a secret if he steps on these grounds, he will be arrested for your kidnapping and abuse. Indech has been crazy looking for you, and I think it time to return you to your father," said Rhea, "but we're also looking to find a way to deal with him from here. He is a dangerous person and needs to be dealt with as soon as possible."

"Thank you, Auntie Serios," said Bernadetta in tears and hugged Rhea.

Rhea then opened a cabinet from her office desk and searched for something until she found a letter. She then got up and handed the letter to Bernadetta and said, "this is for you. I never read it because it wasn't addressed to me; I only opened it a bit to see that it was from Indech, so if you want to read it here, by all means."

Dear Demeter

I am glad that you are safe and alive after these past years. These past five years with you missing have been terrible. I have never stopped looking for you. I feel like it was my fault for not protecting you enough that you have gone through what you went through. I should have listened to you and given you that chance to fly. I will go to the monastery with your professor so you can finish your schooling that way; it is the least suspicious but let me tell you this. that Argarthian will pay for all that he has done. I failed you when you went through the things you have gone through, and I failed the promise that I made your mother. I will not do it again.

Love you, your father, Indech.

Bernadetta read the letter repeatedly with tears in her eyes each time until she was fully crying. She kept repeating the words "dad, and I should have listened to you" over and over again. After that, she repeated those words the tenth time; Rhea stood up and walked over to Bernadetta and embraced her in a hug, to which Bernadetta returned.

Zanado

Meanwhile, in Zanado, everyone was in a battle formation that resembled a checkerboard formation and had blocked the entrance to the city, so there was no escape for the bandits. It had three rows in the first row, and there was Chevalier, Aubin, Byleth, and Seteth; in the second row, there were Anna, Indech, Timotheos, and Macuil. Finally, in the last row were Flayn and Noa. Visible with the naked eye, there were at least three dozen bandits. Judging by the layout of the area, Byleth knew the best pain was to use the chokepoint of the bridge and take them down as they ran across the bridge.

"Aubin, here is my plan: let them attack us and use you and me to prevent them from passing through the bridge; Macuil and Indech, you two will go behind me and use your ranged attacks to take them down from afar. Uncle Cichol and Noa from the air, you are going to attack and retreat as they get clogged on the bridge. Everyone else, wait until we are on the next phase." yelled Byleth

As they got into the positions that Byleth indicated and just waited until the bandits charged the bridge. Soon the bandits took the bait, and two bandits charged the bridge, one armed with an axe and the other armed with a lance. Aubin meets the guy with a lance head-on. The bandit swung his Lance at Aubin; he dodged and pierced this sword into his belly, killing the bandit. Byleth, on the other hand, took the offensive and sliced the arm off of the bandit with an axe.

Two more Bandits came running through the bridge, but one was hit by a sagittae fired by Noa from her Pegasus. Meanwhile, Cichol flew directly into the bandit range and pierced the bandit right in the neck with his Lance. Both fliers then retreated to the safety of Indechs bow and Macuil magic range. The Bandits continued to attack in pairs of two, and the Nabateans continued to defend in the same matter until the bandits stopped making suicidal charges on the bridge.

"Byleth, there are two bridges down there. So, I recommend we split up and attack their rear from two columns," said Macuil.

"Macuil, thank you for the information." said Byleth." Everyone, let's advance forward, cross the bridge, and block any bandits from crossing this bridge when we advance."

When everyone crossed the bridge Aubin and Byleth was in the forward position. Chevalier was positioned left and behind Aubin; to the right of Chevalier and behind Aubin was Indech. To the right of Indech and behind Byleth was Macuil. Left of Macuil was Anna. To the Rear were Flayn and Timotheos, who were on the bridge. And Flying overhead was Noa and Seteth.

"The knights of Serios chased us all the way here?!" said the bandit leader once he saw the Nabateans

"Chief, let us get out of here! There is no way we can win against them!" yelled a thief to his leader

"Shut your dumb mouth! Where would we go at this point? You cannot be a thief if you fear death!" replied the bandit leader.

"Unfortunately, we are not letting them escape here with their lives intact!" Yelled Indech

"They plundered and defiled our ancestral home, the resting place of many of our kind; we will kill them for this!" yelled Macuil

Byleth then took a moment to analyze the situation they were currently facing. She quickly deduced that they were outnumbered about ten to one in this section. Therefore, she needed a plan very quickly, or their numbers would kill them. Luckily, she was no stranger to being outnumbered and had experience from her mercenary days with her father, but her father was not here, and he was the one who usually came up with the plans.

'Sothis are you there?' asked Byleth

'Yes, my little dragon,' replied Sothis

'Any Ideas from a tactical standpoint, we are good, but we will be slaughtered if they all come at us all at once. There are way too many of them.' said Byleth

'Bait them, and then, once close enough, use Divine Magic. Do I have to tell you everything? Of course, I do but be warned, and you should not use a lot of it because you are not ready and do not really have the knowledge,' replied Sothis, who paused before continuing, 'If you use too much divine magic, you can kill yourself although I will stop you well before that ever happens.'

'So even though I can use divine magic, using it can also kill me,' replied Byleth

'Remember divine blood runs in your veins; you have what humans call the crest of flames; in actuality, it is the sign of the divine dragon; you can use divine magic just don't use too much too quickly, and do not go overboard' replied Sothis

'I will try my best without using divine magic and only use it as a last resort,' stated Byleth.

"Alright, everyone here is the plan bait them towards us. The more we lure towards us, the better. Uncle Cichol, Noa, and Timotheos, that will be your job. Macuil and Indech, your job will be to take anyone who comes this way and eliminate the target. Anna and Chevalier, your job is to protect Macuil and Indech and to protect our flanks. Flayn, your job is to heal any of our injured. Aubin, you are with me and going to kill anyone who gets past Indech and Macuil. Does everyone understand their job?! yelled Byleth

"Yes," replied everyone.

At this time, Timotheos rode her horse and used her miasma magic attacks, but she was intentionally missing her episodes and only using her magic to draw them towards her. Seteth was throwing spears near the enemies to draw them near the others, while Noa was also flying around and firing her fireball magic attacks to draw the enemies. The ploy worked, and everyone on the platform charged toward Byleth and the others.

"We stole this treasure! It is all ours! There is no way we are going to give it up to some knights!" yelled a Bandit as a large group ran over towards the bridge entrance.

Now an intense battle began around the entrance. The Nabateans were fighting with all they had Indech was firing arrows in quick succession; Macuil was using as much offensive magic as fast as possible. Aubin, Anna, Byleth, and Chevalier were fighting tooth and nail to kill as many Bandits as possible that came after them. This Brutal fighting continued until Byleth realized that Indech was running out of arrows, and the others were becoming exhausted. While the bandits had reserved, they did not, although the bandits were ill-trained and trained warriors that mattered little when you were tired.

Byleth knew she had to follow through on what Sothis told her. Byleth sheathed her sword and closed her eyes. Soon after, a sigil appeared, and an ivory and pink light began to surround Byleth. The light soon got brighter and brighter until it was blinding. Then a beam shot up into the sky, separating the very clouds. Once the beam reached the clouds, it split into many different beams and was redirected to many of the bandit's chests; for others, it aimed for their necks, killing a vast majority of bandits; when the light cleared, there were few bandits, and Byleth collapsed on the ground.

"What kind of magic was that I got to learn it" yelled Noa

"I never felt such raw magical energy," exclaimed Timotheos

"W-where did she learn that!" cried Seteth

"Cethlean, heal her. She used way too much magic so quickly; Aubin, you are to protect Cethlean." Yelled Macuil

"I have not seen someone use magic like that since the progenitor goddess walked on this planet," said Indech

"Everyone, stop talking and let us finish the job. I will explain later!" yelled Macuil " If we all die here, Byleth will have used all that magic for nothing."

Macuil then surveyed the area. He noticed a lot of dead bodies but noticed they were very few bandits remaining. They were all around the leader. Including the bandit leader, there were about five bandits left.

"Okay, Timotheos, Noa, Anna, and Chevalier, you are going north. I, Cichol, and Indech are going west; we are going to trap them from two sides."

When Macuil, Cichol, and Indech went west and faced no opposition, they heard the Bandit leader yell, "Damn, they're coming from the west too! I can't stand these brats!"

But at the same time, Timotheos, Noa, Anna, and Chevalier took the north route, and once they were surrounded, the trap was complete. However, the Bandits refused to surrender and had to be killed one by one they were killed. Seteth was the one who killed the last bandit, the bandit leader.

" I should have never listened to that idiot... What a mistake..." were the Bandit leader's last words.

Sothis Throne Room

Inside Byleth's Heart

"...I remember this being a peaceful place..." said Byleth

"Yes, you remember that because this was once my home, which means it is your ancestral home. Now, what a fool you are! I am not going to stop chastising you for being such a FOOL!" yelled Sothis. "What did I tell you not to use too much divine magic, and the first thing you did was exactly what I told you not to do."

"I am sorry if I didn't use it, we would all be dead," said Byleth

"Yes, that is true, BUT you didn't have to use of it! if I were not there and stopped it by putting you in a regenerative sleep, you would have killed yourself!" yelled Sothis "you need to think before you act rashly."

"Yes, Sothis," said Byleth

"Can you promise me you will act more smartly from now on when you use that power?" Asked Sothis

"Yes," replied Byleth.

"Remember, even though you are getting stronger every single day, that does not mean your body can handle that much divine magic; you need to be careful from now on," said Sothis

"I do," said Byleth

Garreg Mach Monastery

Rhea's Office

While In Zanado, the others were dealing with Byleths collapse as at this point, the battle was very much over; back in Garreg Mach, Jeralt was entering Rhea's office after being called to her office.

"Hello, Jeralt; take a seat and close the door behind you. I have received a letter from Seteth regarding Byleth today," said Rhea as he entered the room and when the door was closed, and he took a seat.

"How is Byleth?" asked Jeralt, holding back his tears. It has been almost an entire moon, and he still has not seen his daughter and misses her.

"So Seteth sent a letter by carrier owl today saying that Byleth will be back sometime this week. They are going to clear some bandits from Zanado first, then make their way over here. According to the letter which I am going to let you read. She is done with her first shift cycle; however, as we explained, she is not done with shift cycles entirely. She has one or two to go but is the letter so you can read it because I know you still don't trust me yet." said Rhea as she handed the letter to Jeralt

Jeralt then took the letter and read it aloud, knowing that rhea's office was fully soundproof.

Dear Serios and Jeralt

Byleth is here and has now fully back to her human form. Unfortunately, she did not transform entirely into her dragon form, so there is a high likelihood that we will have to go back one or more times. However, she is advancing further along than Cethlean was all those years ago. Byleth does get along great with Anna and her children. Therefore, I am going to offer Anna's children to join Byleths Class along with Cethlean. Not only will that even the classes out, but it will also allow Byleth to interact with other Nabateans. Considering how much Byleth has opened up by being around other Nabateans, it will be good for her. Have I told you in our past letters, we have met Indech and Macuil, and Byleth gets along very well with both of them. However, I can tell that Indech is still suffering from the loss of Demeter. After that, we will be going back to the monastery, but we will clear the bandits currently occupying the Zanado city Entrance before we do. When we are done with that, we will return to Garreg Mach, and I estimate that we will be there by the end of this week.

Signed Your Brother/ Uncle in Law Cichol

P.S. Jeralt, I do hope you can trust my sister in the future, and although trust is something that has to be earned, I want to achieve that trust with you.

"Rhea, I will admit that I have trust issues, but I do know that you genuinely care for my daughter and for that, I am grateful. I am glad you are allowing me back into your family," said Jeralt

"Thank you, Jeralt, that means a lot to me," replied Rhea

Zanado

The Nabateans were now surrounding Byleth, who was in a regenerative sleep. Flayn is using her healing magic to heal Byleth, but she is careful not to use all of her energy.

"She is in a regenerative sleep. I am trying my best to heal her, but she used way too much magic there, and her body needs to sleep. Give her a day at most it should be quicker if we constantly use our magic to heal her," said Flayn

"Okay, now Macuil, you need to explain. I have not seen someone use magic like that since the Goddess Sothis walked on this planet!" yelled Indech

"Macuil, I know you sense a unique ability to smell other Nabateans' dragon signs. What dragon sign did you smell on Byleth?" questioned Seteth.

"CAN EVERYONE STOP TALKING! and let me speak!" yelled Macuil before taking a deep breath and, in his usual calm voice, saying, "Byleth has the sign of the progenitor god; she is a reincarnation of Sothis, but she has not awakened to her full power yet, and she told me there will be a time when she and Sothis will become one. However, they are still two vastly different beings and will always be two vastly different beings. So, we need to protect Byleth as our life depends on it, especially if the Argarthians find out. I don't even want to imagine what they will do to her."

"I suspected there was something special about her from the moment we stepped foot on Zanado," said Aubin

"Well, that explains a lot, Macuil. I am going to travel to Garreg Mach with them. after all, According to the letter I received from Serios last week, not only has Demeter been found, but she is in Garreg Mach In Byleth's class. I did send a reply; however, she did warn me in that letter that Demeter has been through a lot of trauma and is not the same girl I once knew," stated Indech.

"Very well, I will take periodic trips to the Garreg Mach to check on her," said Macuil

"I already talked to Cichol about this. I am returning to the monastery as a merchant while my kids will be joining her class. Cethlean will also join her class. This will even out the classes and allow Byleth to interact with other Nabateans." said Anna

When Flayn heard that, she smiled with joy. She has always wanted to join the officer's academy. and now she had her chance

Garreg Mach Monastery

Day 30 Harpstring Moon

It is now the 30th of the Harpstring, and she is two days after waking up from her regenerative slumber. Jeralt, inside the monastery's inner gate, is waiting anxiously for the arrival of his daughter; he is waiting with Rhea. While Byleth, Seteth, Flayn, Indech, Anna, Aubin, Chevalier, Noa, and Timotheos walk into the Monastery grounds. They have agreed Indech will go by Matthew, Aubin will go by Yuri, Noa will go by Constance, Timotheos will go by Hapi, and Chevalier will go by Balthis. The group now passed the first gate and continued walking, where they paused to at the inner gate and waited for it to open.

When the door Byleth ran over to Jeralt and wrapped her arms around him. Jeralt has taken a bit aback by this but had no choice but to hug his Byleth back while ruffling her hair; at the same time, tears were slowly coming down Byleth's eyes as a wave of emotions was setting in.

"I missed you, dad," Byleth cried while whispering in his ears.

"I missed you too, kid," replied Jeralt before whispering very softly, "if only Sitri could see you now."

After Byleth let go of Jeralt, she wiped the tears from her eyes and, taking a few steps back, and she felt Indech putting his hand on her right shoulder and looking over to Indech and nodding at him before waving her hand in greeting at Rhea. She then walked back to Jeralt, where Jeralt looked at her and noticed a few things.

"So kid, you changed a kid, haven't you? Your hair is a bit longer, and your armour is different; anything else?" asked Jeralt. "How are you feeling."

"Uncle made me the new armour and sword. I like them; I like them a lot. I feel a lot better. I also feel much stronger now," replied Byleth

"That's good to hear," replied Jeralt "also, who are these people that came with you? Seteth and Flayn, I know, but the others, I don't."

"So, the guy with the bow on his back is Uncle Seteth's brother Matthew, the lady with a sword is called Anna, and these four," she said while pointing at the four others, "are her kids, Yuri, Hapi, Balthus, and Constance, everyone meet my dad."

"So, you're the one that Sitri fell in love with." Sated Matthew in a matter-of-fact tone, "After seeing how Byleth reacts around you, I can see why it is unfortunate that we didn't meet sooner."

"Um, thanks," replied Jeralt.

To Be continued

A/N Rewrite for chapter 7 Complete just 2 more to go.

A/N #2: join the fanfiction treehouse none of the rewriting and my writing style improvements would have been able to be completed without the resources here. If you want to talk to other authors, talk about other fics, just hangout, or use the resources there, your free to join it is a relatively fun and active discord. Discord. gg/9XG3U7a