Sleeping Gods

by BlueBlazeCOMET

Chrom didn't find Robin that fateful day. Instead, he found a man with different magic, knowledge, and experience, carrying a dangerous secret unknown even to himself. That man, Fairen, becomes the one tasked to save the future, learn why he swapped with Robin, and uncover the powers of the gods sleeping above and below. (OC Insert)

2. Chapter 1: Between Two Worlds

Fairen and the Shepherds had no problems locating the lingering barbarian crowd in Southtown and giving them the boot. Most were privy to leaving with their lives, but for those who charged at Chrom in rage of their dead leader, they were dealt with by force, much to Chrom's unease and Fairen's indifference. Within an hour of defeating the brigand leader, the small village was free of invaders.

"Did you notice, milord?" Frederick mentioned. The group headed back to the Town Centre to make sure whoever survived was alright. "The brigands spoke with a Plegian accent."

"Plegian?" Fairen asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Plegia is Ylisse's westerly neighbour," Chrom explained, one hand casually on the pommel of his sword as he turned his head slightly to look at Fairen. "They send small bands into our territory, hoping to instigate a war."

Fairen made a face. "Yeesh. A whole war?"

"Yes! And it's the poor townsfolk who suffer! Totally innocent, and totally helpless..." piped in Lissa, who hopped in front of Fairen, her hands balled up in genuine anger.

"They do have us, milady: Shepherds to protect the sheep. Do not be swept up in your anger. It will cloud your judgement." Frederick said.

"I know, I know," Lissa said, looking tired all of the sudden. "Don't worry. I'll get used to all this eventually."

They sure do hang on to that shepherds analogy, Fairen thought discreetly."Has anyone tried to stop them before they cross kingdoms? Maybe set up more strict border patrols?"

"They cross under the thick of night and away from main roads," Fredrick explained, "and we do not have enough soldiers to cover the entirety of the Ylissian-Plegian border."

"Why's that? How big's the border, anyway?"

"It covers more than half the continent. And knights have been deployed," Chrom said, folding his arms but giving a lighthearted smirk. "We Shepherds are part of said deployments, after all."

"Huh?" Fairen stopped to gawk at Chrom. "The three of you is all that the kingdom has?"

The other three paused and turned towards him. "Well, we're not all that the kingdom has," Chrom said, albeit with a grumbling tone.

"I was joking, Chrom."

"Oh," Chrom said, taking a moment to consider Fairen's humour. "There are other patrols, too." he clarified.

"And Shepherds!" Lissa chimed in with a smile. "They're at home base, though. It's just us for this mission."

"Alright. And mission accomplished?" Fairen said.

Lissa and Frederick turned to Chrom expectantly. Fairen couldn't help but smile.

"Mission accomplished," Chrom firmly stated. "We're heading back to Ylisstol as soon as we can."

Fairen watched Lissa breathe a sigh of relief, one that she didn't try to hide. Frederick appeared as stoic as ever. Everyone continued down the road, eventually reaching the Town Centre. Many villagers were safely hidden within the reinforced, armoured rooms, all unharmed after hiding silently within the tall wooden walls of the structure. After Chrom arrived and let everyone know it was safe to come out, a huge celebration was in motion as the villagers cheered for the removed brigands. Some mourned for the loss of lives to the bandit scum, but others congratulated the Shepherds for saving their lives.

The mayor personally asked Chrom to stay the night and honour their victory, to which Frederick declined for the group, much to Lissa's chagrin.

"I'm afraid we haven't gotten much of an opportunity to talk about that magical mishap of yours," Chrom said to Fairen, turning to him after finishing up some details with the mayor, hands on his hips. "Even after going all this way to speak about it."

"Yeah. Kinda forgot about that." Fairen agreed. Suddenly, he realized that Lissa and Frederick's attention were caught, with the former stopping her complaining about the quality food they were dodging.

"Tell me," Chrom said. "What's your next move? Do you plan to stay here in Southtown?"

Fairen looked over his shoulder at the slightly ruined landscape behind him, some buildings torn down from assault, smoke from remaining fires floating against the orange sunset sky. "Umm, I don't know, exactly. I was just gonna lay low for a while until I could get my bearings."

"I have an offer for you, if you don't have any particular place to stay in mind," Chrom said.

"Milord," Frederick cut in, "don't you think it's too hasty to make such an offer to an individual of unknown motive and origin?"

Frederick knows exactly what Chrom is about to offer me only after hearing one sentence, But obviously, this offer's been made many times before, Fairen noted, looking back and forth between the two.

Chrom's gaze onto Fredrick gained a slightly stern angle. "Frederick, Fairen fought to save Ylissean lives. My heart says that's enough."

Fredrick looked like he had something else to say, but ultimately kept his mouth shut as Chrom turned back to Fairen.

"All three of us here have witnessed your skill and bravery today. You threw yourself into the fire without nary a second thought. Because of your help, the entire village was saved."

Fairen peered at an especially interesting piece of the roadwork, scratching the back of his neck. "That's blowing things a little out of proportion, don't you think?"

"No way!" Lissa said. "You were a big help today, Fairen!"

"It would be a shame to lose someone like you. The Shepherds could use every single able-bodied, skilled warrior out there."

Chrom held out a hand toward Fairen, catching Fairen off guard.

"How about it? Will you join us, Fairen?" Chrom asked.

Fairen's eyes wandered to the upper corner for a second, before he focused on Chrom's open, gloved palm, then at Chrom's friendly, grinning expression.

Quite the diplomat, this lord is, Fairen thought. "So, the Shepherds are knights who defend the kingdom, eh?"

"That is the basis of our primary objectives as a militant group, yes."

Fairen closed his eyes, put his hands to his hips, and sighed through pursed lips, rocking back and forth on his toes and shaking his head. Lissa's smile disappeared as her eyebrows became creased with worry, and Chrom's jaw dropped with words he couldn't find at the moment.

Then, Fairen's hand firmly grasped Chrom's, and shook.

"I'm not one-hundred percent sure about the job," Fairen stated, "But I sure do like the company."

Chrom's face reignited, and Lissa gave an excited giggle. Frederick just gave Fairen a sideways look as he turned his steed away towards the path on the road north.

---

Much later, the sun had hidden itself behind the low mountains afar on the northwest, igniting the sky in a beautiful shawl of a deep red that faded to the dark, night sky in a gradient the higher up one looked. A few clouds kept to themselves up in the heavens, but there was no threat of rain to be seen, a warm southern wind lightly breezing by the backs of the four Shepherds as they continued down a slightly worn dirt path. Trees and shrubs lay before them within the landscape surrounding the trail, reflecting an orange shade from the burning atmosphere. Few wildlife could be seen through their trek, save the chirping birds that fluttered across the road on occasion.

Lissa put her hands on her hips and pouted.

"Look, it's gotten even darker already," Lissa said.

Fairen rolled his eyes. She had been at it since the sun touched the horizon. He gauged Chrom's reaction, only to not find any.

"Ech! And the bugs!" Lissa continued, making a face and swatting at something in front of her. "I think they've come out now!" Suddenly, her eyes went wide and she stuck out her tongue, then started to daintily wipe it with the back of her gloved hand. "Won goph in mah mouph! Blech!"

Lissa proceeded to hydrate the nearby tree with her spit, which Fairen did not expect in the slightest.

Finally, Chrom gave a response, loosely tilting his head. "Come on now, Lissa. Hardship builds character. Want to help me gather firewood?"

Lissa was still in the middle of nursing her taste buds, cat-style. "I think I swallowed it. Gross." She proceeded to wipe the slobber-side of her gloves onto the sides of her battle dress. "I'll pass on finding firewood, thanks. I think I've built quite enough character for one day."

"Good job defusing that," Fairen whispered to Chrom, discreetly leaning over.

Suddenly, a loud, gurgling bubbled growl disturbed the group, and they all paused to look at Fairen.

"Sorry," he said, giving an awkward smile and scratching the back of his neck. "Guess hunger caught up to me."

Frederick nodded. "I should think a little hunting and gathering is in order. Now, who wants to clear a campsite?"

---

Chrom held the simple hunting bow with his left hand from behind a dying, orange brush, trying to keep the nocked arrow steady while aligning the sight of his single open eye down the shaft of the arrow. Fairen could see Chrom's pulling hand slightly tremble. After a moment, where the wind blew past in a movement and the trees' branches waved to and fro, Chrom took a breath, held it, then released the bow's string.

The arrow flew past several tree trunks and under leaves only to land wide left of a grown doe's left flank, causing the animal to leap away from its grazing spot.

"Damn it," Chrom said under his breath, tightening the grip on his bow as his arms relaxed. He stared at where the shot landed, replaying the moment in his head to try and find where he went wrong, the quiver of a dozen or so arrows slung over a shoulder and hanging next to his hip.

"You still tired from the battle earlier?" Fairen asked. Chrom turned to address him only to meet a friendly, worried gaze.

"I'll admit, I didn't foresee myself hunting for game after running my sword arm through fifty bandits," Chrom said with a slight smile.

"You were the one who volunteered to look for food," Fairen pointed out. "And the one who talked about hardship building character."

Chrom shook his head, smirking. "I guess you're right."

Fairen stood up, to which Chrom followed. "You want me to give it a try?" Fairen asked.

"Alright," Chrom said, offering the bow. Fairen took it, then Chrom began to sling the quiver off his shoulder. "Do you know how to use it?"

"I have a bit of experience," Fairen said, examining the woodwork of the bow, holding the quiver's leather straps in his other hand. He quickly put on the quiver, held the bow by the grip, and took an arrow and nocked it in the string. The wind started to blow again, and Fairen turned in the direction the air was heading, his long, pointy brown hair flowing with nature's breath.

"Follow me quickly," Fairen said. Before Chrom could really process Fairen's words, Fairen suddenly dashed off west down a slope.

Chrom ran after Fairen, taken off guard by Fairen's sudden speed. He crashed through bushes and slipped past tree trunks, trying to keep up with the image of Fairen's back as Fairen somehow deftly navigated the forest foliage with ease. Several times Chrom opened his mouth, then closed it as he ducked beneath a bundle of hanging branches or pushed leaves out of his face, acutely aware of the crunching that their heavy footsteps were making.

"Fairen, wait!" Chrom finally managed to get out, bursting forth from behind a particularly large tree, only to almost run into the man as Fairen stood deathly still, the arrow still nocked on the bow. Fairen turned his head to shush Chrom over his shoulder, then returned to his impression of a statue, Chrom trying to copy his frozen state, wondering what in blazes was going on. The breeze returned, showering the two in a brief wave of warmth taken from the welcome weather and the heated season.

Moments passed.

Just then, Fairen knelt down on one knee, swiveled to aim left over his posted knee, and rose the bow, pulling the string, his back straight and chest out. Chrom dropped down just as Fairen did, then looked in the direction Fairen was aiming. His eyes widened as he saw another deer standing off in the distance, barely visible between the trees and foliage.

Fairen let fly the arrow. It soared, whizzing past tree bark, slicing through forest, and reaching towards the neck of the doe.

The arrow narrowly missed, startling it and making it take off in a panic. The arrow got lost in the density of the bushes.

Fairen snapped his fingers, standing up. "Nuts. I was sure I had that."

"How did you know that deer was there?" Chrom asked in amazement.

Suddenly, a loud roar shook the area, causing several birds in the trees to up and leave their roosts all at once in a burst of movement and noise. Fairen and Chrom got low and started searching the area, Chrom putting his hand onto his sword pommel without thinking.

"What was that?" Fairen said.

Then, something rapidly tore apart the bushes several meters away from Fairen and Chrom. The ground shook some more, and Fairen could hear the telltale foley of tree branches smashing under the weight of their tree being knocked down. Fairen and Chrom turned their heads east, the rumbling getting more and more violent.

A giant black bear emerged into the scene, rearing up on its hind legs. It easily towered over the two men before them, reaching two-and-a-half times their height, its claws shining with sharpness, liters of stinking, fish-smelling saliva dripping down from its partially open maw. It let out another roar, and Fairen noticed a peculiar arrow sticking out of the bottom flank of the massive beast.

"Uh oh," said Fairen.

---

"It's been too long since I last had bear meat," Chrom commented after taking a large bite of a slab of meat cooked over the campfire he sat at. He had a bandage over his left arm, which had a slight tinge of red, but Lissa was right beside him, her staff out towards the injury, the blue orb at the top of the staff glowing slightly as Lissa channeled healing.

"I'm really thankful you had your sword with you," Fairen said, holding the bone of his piece of bear meat upright, letting it cool a bit in the mild, calm evening air. The sun had completely gone down half an hour ago, and it was just the last remnants of the sun's rays and the light of the campfire illuminating the four Shepherds surrounding the burning wood as they sad on the bear earth.

Frederick, who was still cooking a piece that hung inches over licking flames, gave a dead-eyed stare at Chrom, and then at Fairen. "I am still alarmed at the fact that you both found a way to stumble into danger despite the lack of bandits. And, our new recruit's lack of weaponry at the time makes one consider where his loyalties truly lie."

Fairen threw his arms up in his defense. "Hey man, I expected finding a large, hostile bear exactly as much as Chrom did. And I really don't feel like lugging that big thing around if I can help it." Fairen indicated to the iron battleaxe resting against the nearby tree with a point of his thumb over his shoulder and a tilt of his head.

"I'm just glad you both got back in one piece," Lissa stated, lowering her staff having finished the last of her healing.

"And we managed to catch dinner too," Chrom said between bites. "Without Fairen's strength, we might not have been able to get the bear back to camp. Not without Daisy, anyway."

The horse, Frederick's steed, who was tied up to a nearby tree and was grazing, raised her head at the mention of her name, and snickered at Chrom.

Fairen gave a shy smile. "It was the least I could do at the moment."

Chrom had notably gone back to his meal, chowing into it like no tomorrow, letting the crackles of the fire take reign over the conversation for a moment.

After swallowing a large chunk of bear, Chrom eyeballed Lissa's side of the fire as she held her food timidly, giving it a look and holding it away from herself. "What's wrong, Lissa? Dig in."

Lissa grimaced. "Gods, couldn't you have at least been attacked by a big bunny rabbit, or deer or something? Something that normal people eat?" Lissa said, emoting with hunched shoulders, wide eyes, and furrowed eyebrows. "I mean, come on! Who in the wide, wide world eats bear? You're just messing with the food chain! Right, Fairen?"

Fairen gave no answer to his prompt.

"Uh," Lissa said, turning to Fairen. "Fairen?"

Lissa only found Fairen eating his bear at a pleasant pace with no complaints and a smile on his face. He blinked twice at Lissa after figuring out she was talking to him. "Hmm? You say something?"

Lissa sighed. "Figures. I guess someone would enjoy eating just about anything after lying unconscious for gods know how long."

Fairen laughed, bear meat juices slathered around his lips. "The meat's rough and chewy, but I'll admit, I've eaten much worse. I'll take bear over bloodsucking-bug egg stew any day."

Chrom, Frederick, and Lissa, all gawked at Fairen, not knowing what to say.

"Ewwww!" Lissa broke the silence and cringed away from Fairen, barely holding onto her meal with just two fingers.

"Sounds like you've lived an interesting life, Fairen," was all Chrom could respond.

"It was during a, uh, expedition in a jungle," Fairen said, rubbing his chin, his eyes searching the night sky. "Can't find normal berries or woodland mammals in a jungle, so we had to adapt. One of the local recipes involved stealing the eggs of these giant, flying bloodsucking bugs called mariyrnen and boiling them in a cauldron. The taste wasn't bad, but oh boy, you do not want to look at what you're eating while you're eating it."

"That sounds awful!" Lissa commented. "Almost like you're eating big mosquito eggs."

Fairen pointed at Lissa with a smile. "Yeah, mariyrnen are kinda like giant mosquitos. Got to meet a few of them. Pretty hostile. Had these long, tube-like mouths to suck the juices out of you."

Fairen didn't seem to notice that Lissa visibly paled. She tossed her bear meat into the campfire with a sigh.

"Now I really don't feel hungry," Lissa said, slouching over and resting her chin on her hands."

"Milady," Frederick said, alarmed. "I must ask that you do not waste food. If you absolutely cannot eat it, give it to Chrom or I."

"Whatever, Frederick," Lissa replied glumly. "It's your fault that we're not back at Southtown eating decent dinner food anyway."

"Every experience makes us stronger, milady," Frederick said with patience. "Even those we don't enjoy."

Fairen frowned at Lissa's childish behaviour.

"Really?" Lissa started, giving a knowing scowl. "Then why don't I see you eating, Frederick?"

"Me? Oh, well..." Frederick's eyes and eyebrows shot up. He peered down at his own piece of untouched, cooked bear flesh, then back at Lissa's accusatory gaze along with Chrom's curious eyeballing. "I'm not hungry. I... I had a large lunch! Yes, quite."

"Yeah, right," Lissa said, rolling her eyes. Fairen had to hide his smile with the back of his hand while he silently laughed.

---

Finally, at some point, the Shepherds bid each other good night and fell asleep around the dying embers of what was left of the campfire. Chrom found it interesting how Fairen asked about scouting shifts, and reassured Fairen that they were mostly safe from nighttime raids by being this far into the boarder and that Frederick had the ears much like a wild wolf and could pick up anyone trying to ambush them easily in his sleep. Fairen turned to Frederick only to get a confident nod from the veteran knight. Accepting his situation, Fairen surrendered himself to slumber, his last thoughts before unconsciousness about how, somehow, none of the Shepherds thought to bring a single sleeping bag with them and they had to sleep on the tough, hard, and bare ground.

Admittedly, Chrom dipped in and out of sleep as the night progressed. Shifting around on his back and trying to get comfortable, he rose his left arm and let his head roll the other way, facing sideways. Trying to get a grasp of the fleeting sandman, Chrom opened his eyes a smidge, preparing them to close them back, when a ruby glow shimmered between his eyelashes covering his vision.

He blinked, then fluttered his eyes open. He found himself staring at Fairen's unmoving form, except Fairen wasn't lying on the ground asleep. Chrom planted his hand on the ground and sat up, letting out a confused note though his lips. Fairen faced away from Chrom, towards the bark of a tree that stayed still in the darkness, and Chrom could spot the glowing red hue that Fairen was emitting bounce off the ridged oak surface.

Chrom began to get to his feet. "Fairen?"

Fairen turned his head enough to look over his shoulder, and Chrom froze, his breath hitched halfway up his throat. Fairen's eyes were a straight crimson hue, illuminating dark red light to wherever his irises were pointing, casting a haunting tone of maroon shadows over his visage. His ruby pendant was glowing with the same shade and intensity as his eyes were.

"A portal," Fairen said, breathless. His voice seemed a bit odd to Chrom.

"Fairen, are you alright?" Chrom asked, standing up fully but keeping his back bent and his head low with arms out.

Suddenly, Fairen got up with enough dexterity that it was as if he was never asleep in the first place, and accelerated to a sprint west into the deep woods.

"Fairen!" Chrom called, trying to will the rest of his body awake as he scrambled to chase after him. Then, he noticed some movement in the corner of his eye. Lissa, lying on her side, woke up and was rubbing the bottom of her eyelid.

"Uhh, Chrom?" she said blearily, still half-asleep.

"Something's wrong with Fairen!" Chrom said before disappearing into the brush, following right behind Fairen.

Fairen led the trail as he entered deep into the woods, shining eyes highlighting the fauna around him as he passed by obstacles with ease. Chrom fought to keep up in the pitch black, raising a hand over his head to try to block branches from poking at his face, attempting to stay right behind Fairen and keep up with his movements, huffing as he struggled to match Fairen's raw, unnatural speed. The sounds of heavy, pushing footsteps and rustling foliage filled Chrom's ears as his heartbeat started to pound against the sides of his head.

Chrom found himself emerging from thick foliage to arrive at a clearing overlooking the rest of the forest from a fifty-foot high cliff. Fairen had stopped right near the edge, feet spread apart, balance square. Chrom leaned to his right, squinting, trying to see if Fairen's eyes were still glowing. A cold chill suddenly ran down Chrom's spine, and something buzzed along the side of his skull. He got the distinct feeling something was wrong. Then, he realized that the world was deathly quiet: the comforting and light southern wind disappeared, the trees stood like statues, and no wildlife dared to reveal themselves, even behind the safety of tall grass and bushes.

Air got caught halfway through Chrom's next breath as he looked up. The sky was starless.

Just then, the ground began to violently rumble, forcing Chrom to bend and brace himself.

"Gods, what-" Chrom began, wincing, before he took a look at Fairen.

Fairen was flailing next to the cliff's edge, trying to regain balance as he teetered next to a wide-open death-drop. After a few nail-biting seconds, Chrom saw Fairen drop backwards, leaving him sitting as he posted himself on two hands.

Chrom felt the ground shift beneath him as the quake continued, forcing himself even lower on the ground to stay his stance. He felt the earth beneath his feet loosen.

"Fairen!" He shouted at Fairen. "We have to go! Now!"

After a brief moment, Fairen seemed to respond, getting up off his rear and tumbling into a spring towards Chrom. Chrom noted that Fairen no longer had glowing eyes or a shining pendant, and instead had a panicked and deeply confused expression. As Fairen approached, Chrom reversed and went back into the woods, leading the way, hoping Fairen would follow. A heartbeat after the two vacated, the ledge crumbled and fell down to the ground below.

Land uneven beneath his boots, Chrom struggled to stay on his feet as he bypassed elm and bush alike. The sheer darkness of the night made it difficult to navigate until the horizon on the corner of Chrom's vision lit with fire. In the distance, fissures half a mile long formed between cracked dirt and spilled boiling magma that shot up to the open air by tens of meters, the cascading lava sending the scene orange light with its pure heat. Multiple balls of flame flew out with the lava from the top, showering down and scattering throughout every inch of the woods.

Maples and willows burst into flame from lava and fireballs alike, lending the once dark woods illumination and deadly warmth. Chrom watched as trees off in the distance caught heat, then was sent to the side as a flaming boulder rammed into an tree meters away from him, creating a small explosion. Chrom stumbled, tiny smouldering embers pelting his back and cape, but he managed to stay on his feet with a grunt. He heard Fairen squeal in terror behind him, a relieving indicator that his fellow Shepherd was at least still following suit.

Chrom took a step over a small gap leading into a dried-out stream, which violently began to rise without warning. Fairen's stepping leg buckled at the sudden pressure, and he fell on his stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Fairen gasped as he strained to get up on his feet from the upward pressure of the land rising. His vision was slowly filled with the upper bodies of trees, then the tips of their peaks, and finally the open air. Frantic, Fairen forced his muscles to move as he managed to get a foothold and run the last few meters to leap over the cliff. He found himself soaring through the air and heading straight for the ground through the trees. Making his way past the leaves, he away from the tree trunks and pulled himself into a rough roll upon landing. Then, he tumbled twice and a half before he forced himself to complete the third with a push of momentum, his teeth rattling from pain within his ankles. Then, he forced himself to press on, pursuing Chrom. A geyser of liquid flame burst from the fissure in the ground behind him moments after he got moving.

Chrom looked around wildly as he fled, searching for his sister and Frederick, not exactly sure where they were during the turnaround he had from the chaos. He reached another patch where no trees nor bush stood, the ground beneath him muddy, dried grass and cattail stalks lining what looked to be an old, currently useless, pond. Chrom drove himself to a halt and turned around, trying to catch his breath. Behind him, up the hill, he witnessed the carnage that the rivers of flame and destruction were causing. The whole forest was on fire.

Fairen finally caught up to Chrom with a huff, having to lean on his knees and catch his breath once there. After a few seconds, Fairen lifted his head to see what Chrom was so intensely staring at. His eyes widened.

"Holy smokes," Fairen said slowly, his words sounding normal. Chrom looked at Fairen, his mind racing. Just then, Fairen froze and his eyes turned red along with his necklace, shocking Chrom. Chrom leaned forward to grab Fairen's shoulder before he could run off again, when a loud hum pierced the bombardment of sounds in the air.

There was a sharp pulse of a high note, like a bell hit with a hammer of light, and the sky was cut in twain. The resulting hole had mysterious, unreadable letters surrounding it in a rotating ring, and the gap in space was outlined in strange cyan crystals, giving the hole the appearance of an otherworldly eye with a glowing blue pool for the iris and pupils.

"I... I must... The portal..." Fairen said, slowly approaching the eye. His voice gave an odd quality again, as if he was speaking through three different stone tunnels that were all of different lengths and sizes. Chrom began to jog up to him when a burst of air was let out around Fairen, whipping around his hair and the bottoms of his overcoat.

He closed his eyes, light still shining from where it could beneath his eyelids. A circle of scarlet runes drew itself beneath Fairen's figure, wrapping around in a two-foot radius. Then, a second one appeared, twisting around the first in a slightly curved formation. Then a third. Fairen was lifted up in the air impossibly, the gale around him gathering strength. Chrom threw up a hand and winced, trying to watch what Fairen was doing.

Fairen's legs stuck out behind him along with his head, and his neck craned back while his spine arched almost unnaturally. He thrust his chest out and his hands to the side gathering what looked to be a red, magical energy. His lengthy, brown hair danced in a crazed loop as he rose higher above the mud of the pond.

Chrom's attention was suddenly brought to the eye in the sky. Grey, human-like creatures began to ooze from the surface of the eye, moaning as they were ejected in an erect posture before curving to the planet's gravity and falling to the ground, landing with a thump. Only a few moments passed and the figures rose up to their feet in a lumbering fashion, A shot of fright chilled Chrom's back from the top down, fright that pumped new adrenaline into his system as he observed the figures standing below the sky's eye.

They wore old remnants of armour, with key pieces missing, displaying grey, rotting flesh to those who bear witness. The colour of their garb that signified their army and nation was stained an old copper red, as if it were painted in dry blood. Their mouths hung open and half empty, teeth missing, and rattled moans made it out of their lips as their glowing red eyes seemed to lock onto Chrom and Fairen. They wavered as they stood, as if they didn't have a sense of balance, and every one had a weapon drawn with its end dragged back and forth in the dirt.

Four, five, six, seven, and many more, fell out of the eye and into the burning forest. Chrom noted that most fell off in the distance, meaning that the eye was much, much larger than he thought it actually was. The shambling figures of the warriors nearby abruptly ran and the two Shepherds, arms behind them with their rusting weapons in hand. Chrom grasped the handle of his longsword and drew it from its sheath, alarmed at the speed in which the creatures could display despite their apparent lack of dexterity.

Fairen floated on the spot, a dotting light appearing on the edges of his palms and growing in size.

"Fairen!" Chrom called as the creatures charged at Fairen, raising their swords and lances as they got closer. "Fairen, you've got to move!"

Fairen made no response. The enemy approached, and Fairen brought his hands to his chest and bent over, his feet over each other, toes out, and the magic he held combined into one large orb.

Chrom was almost deafened by the sounds of his heart beating against his temples, his senses alight. Making an executive decision, Chrom lowered his sword, ran at Fairen from an angle and dived at his flank, slamming him and bringing him to the ground, breaking the runes beneath his form and cutting the wind diving around the rim of the dried pond.

The duo laid on their sides, Fairen coughing up the dirt that was kicked up from their landing. The red in his eyes flickered as the light from his pendant died. Chrom, still sensing danger, immediately got to his feet and dashed forward to engage with the enemy. Fairen blinked a few times, then winced, sucking in a breath through clenched teeth as he held his head with the one hand that wasn't posted and lifting him off the ground.

A grey soldier wielding an axe sprinted at Chrom with wild abandon. Chrom met it halfway and struck true, sliding to a stop on two posted feet, legs bent and arms outstretched, his blade pointing out and to the side. There was a beat, and Chrom gasped after not hearing the distinct fall of his opponent at death's door. The creature turned its own head around, several vertebrae cracking as its neck unnaturally rotated further than it should possibly have. Chrom barely had half a second to bring his sword around to his back and block a strike meant for the soft flesh between his hip and ribs, the axe's blade inches away from his torso.

His arm muscles in overdrive, Chrom fought for position beneath the grey warrior's strange strength. Chrom's whole figure shook under the weight and pressure of his opponent, unable to shift his feet away from his awkward stance lest he lose what little advantage he had on his push.

With a great deal of effort, Chrom swung his sword arm around and flicked his wrist, deflecting the neck of the axe away from him. He followed up with an elbow to the creature's sternum, sending it tumbling back before it lost its footing and fell to the ground stomach down, dropping its weapon in the process.

Chrom took advantage of the opening and leapt into the air in a dive aiming for his opponent's back. Flipping his sword to face down, he landed on top of the creature and drove his blade straight into the middle of where its spine would be. Just then, his blade lit up with a slight shine that traveled into the wound of the humanoid. Chrom's eyebrows shot up, and the creature arched its neck up and shook in pain before it flopped to the ground, moving no more.

Chrom kneeled in place, trying to regain stamina. He had sweat running down his forehead and cheeks, drops partially fueled by the forest fire heating the wind.

"Get off me!" Fairen cried, and Chrom's attention was brought to the other party member in the vicinity. Fairen shoved a grey swordsman away from him, putting up his fists with a scowl after. He had to duck under his attacker's horizontal swing, then side jump its vertical, throwing one punch to the stomach that forced the creature to bend then another to the head, the force of the impact creating a shattering crack and sending the creature's head back a bit.

Fairen waited a moment, then watched in shock as the creature's head returned to a normal position. The creature lifted its sword once more, only for Chrom to drive his sword through its back from behind, causing it to fall dead after another lightshow from the length of Chrom's blade.

"What in the infinite realms is going on?" Fairen shouted, standing side-by-side with Chrom, fists raised as Chrom took his own battle stance, the two facing the oncoming hoard of enemies.

"You tell me!" Chrom responded, sweat rolling down his neck as he fixed his wielding grasp on his sword's handle. "You're the one who started to glow and went running off into the night without warning!"

"I did what!?" Fairen said, exasperated, until suddenly he gasped and had to duck under the jab of a lance. Fairen grabbed the lance's length and pulled forward, bringing the grey warrior closer as Fairen delivered a haymaker to its nose. Chrom followed up with a swift strike that beheaded the creature, leaving it to crumple helplessly on the ground, dark red blood pooling from the stump on its neck.

Fairen huffed and put up his dukes again. "We gotta find the others!" He punched and kicked away an assaulting humanoid. "Do you have any idea where they are?"

"No clue!" Chrom responded, promptly dueling with an opponent and then disengaging just as quickly.

"Shit," Fairen spat, before he took the blunt end of an axe to the face. Quickly recovering, he bore clenched teeth, and with an angry growl, let loose a fierce punch to the chest of the one attacking him, denting its armour and sending it back towards three more creatures, leaving it on the ground with a dent in its chestplate. Slowly, it got back up, no worse for wear, and restarted its approach. A chain of red static jumped up and down Fairen's body. Fairen blew out hot air with pursed lips as he waved his open punching hand in the air, fingers out, hopping in place from foot to foot.

Chrom and Fairen backed up, heels almost touching, until they were stopped by a large tree behind them. Five different grey creatures enclosed their position in a semi-circle.

"There's too many of them!" Fairen shouted. Chrom shifted his grip closer to the pommel of his sword, silently agreeing. His mind raced, trying to think of a way out.

Then, something caught Chrom's vision. He tilted his head upward, a shimmer coming from the sky's eye. The shadow of another human figure could be seen beyond the light blue barrier that made up the hole. As the figure grew in size, Chrom could make out that it was different than the other creatures, but struggled to take in exact details. As it emerged into the real world, the only things he could tell were of the blue half-mask it wore, the longsword on its hip, and how it seemed to desperately reach out for its escape for one reason or another.

The newcomer met open air, red cape fluttering, and drew its sword and landed without a hint of trouble or pain. They cut down on one of the creatures that surrounded Fairen and Chrom, slicing its back in half almost all the way through. Then, they struck sideways, catching the next creature in the hip, and forcing it to turn its attention away from Chrom and Fairen. Chrom noticed the new opening caused by the seemingly allied individual, and charged in himself, sword held high, taking the next two creatures on the left and leaving Fairen with just the last one.

Fairen, suddenly finding the fight to weight more to their favour, rushed low against his opponent, who held an aged axe in a two-handed grip across its chest. Before it could even rear the axe head up, Fairen grabbed the axe's handle, held on tight, and booted the creature in the stomach. The creature was only pushed back, holding firm to its weapon, so Fairen threw another kick with the same foot, extending his leg out completely, balancing on one heel, his head low to the ground until he could stand up properly.

"This is mine, now!" Fairen said, wielding the axe with a feral grin. His victim trudged forward and reached out with both hands in an attempt to re-attain its weapon, only for Fairen to jump back and smash the blade into the creature's collarbone, barely cutting through. The creature reached up to grab the handle while the blade was still embedded in its flesh, only for Fairen to lift it back up and strike again at the same spot. Fairen attacked over and over again, pushing the creature back until it landed on the ground, and still Fairen kept up the offensive, digging into its putrid skin with each strike, sending fermented blood everywhere, including across Fairen's outfit, face, and hands. He just kept smashing until the creature stopped moving.

Fairen was heaving by the end of it, bending over with his hands on his knees. He wiped his lips with a clean part of his wrist and examined the axe he was holding, flipping it towards him.

This weapon's shit, Fairen mused, breathing hard. His thumb idly went over the curved edge of the axe's head. The blade's so dull it might as well be a blunt weapon.

With that, he threw the weapon to the side in a hint of revulsion and craned his head up just to spot Chrom finishing off his second enemy with a quick swipe across his opponent's stomach.

Chrom turned toward him after noticing that there were no more threats in the vicinity. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah," Fairen said, wiping some sweat off his head as he stood back up. "Tough bastards to kill, aren't they?"

Fairen's attention was brought to his left, where he found the swordsman who fell from the sky standing still, their two enemies dead behind them, sword in sheathe. They stared at Fairen, pointed mask covering their eyes while leaving the bottom half of the face to reveal a thin nose and pursed lips. Their hair was as blue as the deep ocean, medium length with a tuff hanging over the middle of their forehead and a golden tiara sitting on top. They wore an odd-looking knight's coat, coloured with the same palette as their hair, belt around their waist carrying their sword, a red cloak without arms attached to the collar of the coat with a red pin in the shape of a shield. Thin pants gave way to elongated, navy blue boots that almost reached up to their knees. All in all, Fairen noted them to be a skinny individual, and one that seemed to gawk at him with confused interest, any other emotions invisible behind the mask that concealed them.

"Chrom! Fairen!"

Chrom and Fairen looked behind them, spotting Frederick and Lissa approaching them quickly on Daisy's back, with two newcomers right behind them. Fairen examined the red-armoured cavalier on the second horse, her hair short and a light tone of burgundy. She appeared to be disgruntled, but focused, as the man placed behind her dropped off from the steed, shaking the saddle slightly. He had the appearance of an upper noble, with a clean but loose long-sleeve shirt worn beneath an armoured teal vest, hair parted in two neatly at the top of his head, high brown archer boots matching the quiver hanging behind him.

"Milord, are you hurt?" Frederick asked with concern, approaching Chrom.

"I'm fine, Frederick," Chrom responded. "And I apologize for seemingly running off on my own, but Fairen here was under some kind of spell and went sprinting off into the night while the rest of us were asleep."

Fairen tsked to the side, scowling. "I don't really know what happened. I swore I fell asleep, and next thing I know I'm standing at a cliff with the ground shaking and Chrom screaming for me to get back."

Frederick boldly approached Fairen, Lissa behind him looking on with worry. "Such wanton claims for someone who got themselves into so much trouble. Tell me, Fairen, are you this reckless with your usual comrades back from where you're from?"

"Aw, quit it with the suspicion, already," Fairen complained. "This isn't the time to be arguing about party politics. The whole damn forest's on fire!"

Frederick harrumphed, which his steed seemed to mirror. "Well, I'm certainly glad that milord is at least unharmed."

"Right," Chrom said. "We would have been toast if it wasn't for the fellow warrior here—"

Chrom twisted around to gesture to where the blue swordsman was, only to find himself pointing at a tree."

"Huh? Where did he go?" Chrom said.

"Gone," was all Fairen could answer, looking at the same empty spot Chrom was looking at.

The red cavalier next stepped up. "Captain Chrom, I'm reporting for duty, and glad to see you safe."

Chrom gave a smile and put his hands on his hips. "Sully. Good to see you, despite our circumstances. How did you get here?"

"I was camped south of Ylisstol in a patrol when all hell broke loose. I ran down the road to Southtown as fast as I could."

"And might I make myself present to this pleasing company?" the noble archer said behind Sully, to which everyone turned their attention to.

Sully groaned and rolled her eyes. "And this is Ruffles. I met him along the way here, except he wouldn't let me go without him. So, it was either let him burn in the forest fire, or keep him along."

"Ah, err," Ruffles stuttered, fiddling with his next response. "The fine lady grants me a title as such, but I am much better identified as Virion. And I assure you, the events described weren't as nearly as, ah, virtue-less as it may seem." Virion gave a flourished bow. "Regardless, my bow is at your service."

Chrom didn't seem to know what to think. "Well, good to have you here, Virion. The more we have, the better our odds."

Fairen shook his head with a laugh, frustrated. "Back up is good and all, but I think we might need a little more than a squad of half a dozen to handle this. How many undead fell out of the sky? Twenty? Thirty?"

"It seems to have stopped for now," Frederick said, craning his head up towards the sky. "We should seek to put these 'undead', as you say, to the blade."

Fairen gawked at Frederick, arms hanging down loose. "Are you kidding me, Fred?" he said, incredulous. "We should be looking to get the fuck out of here and get more help! Not run in and engage the enemy!"

"There are two matters I'd like to address about your statement," Frederick started. "First, is that to never, ever call me 'Fred'. The second, is my concern about the possibility of these risen soldiers to make their way to points of civilization."

"Southtown is only a couple kilometers down the road," Lissa pointed out, worry in her tone. Fairen nervously bit his bottom lip.

Chrom nodded, sheathing is sword. "Right. We should mop up the problem before it gets worse. If things get overwhelming, we can retreat to Ylisstol and send the rest of the Shepherds in."

"Good thinkin'," Sully said, smirking. Fairen opened his mouth to say something, but shut it silently.

"Milord, I suggest we start by heading northeast. There is an abandoned fort not too far away that would be beneficial to secure before truly engaging with large masses of 'risen'." Frederick said.

"Let's get going then," Chrom finalized.

The group of six turned their heads to where Frederick was indicating. As they made their way out of the dried pond, Fairen jogged up to Frederick's side.

"Hey, so, uh." Fairen started, poking his index fingers together. "I'm sorry about the whole 'Fred' thing. But, did you happen to grab my battleaxe before you left the—"

Fairen was cut short as he caught the handle of his battleaxe with two hands, stumbling back after Frederick quickly reached to the side of Daisy, pulled out the battleaxe, and tossed it to Fairen."

"Ah," Fairen said, staring at the axe, then at Frederick. "Thanks."

Frederick only gave him a low-brow stare over his shoulder before urging his steed forward with a tap of his heels on the horse's torso. Lissa gave a silent "Sorry!" with her eyes from behind Frederick's back.

Wonder if I'll ever get a break from the guy, Fairen thought to himself in a huff, wearing a fake smile.

As the others faded into the trees, Fairen paused and peered over his shoulder, first to look at the bodies of the rotting and unmoving undead that they were leaving behind, then to capture the spot where he last saw the masked swordsman staring at him. Lastly, he peered up at the sky for a couple of seconds.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Fairen muttered to himself. With furrowed eyebrows and a slouch, he finally left to follow the others beyond the tree line.

Up above, the sky's eye witnessed all.

---

The party made their way through the forest, trail-less, passing around trees and through bushes that stood untouched by wildfire. Trees still burned in the distance, the party staying away from any hot patches filled with flaming oak and spruce. The night summer wind had returned, tickling the branches of all the fauna and kicking up dust and dry dirt from the ground in clearings that the group came across. Fairen would wince and put up his arm in front of his face whenever he was assaulted by a cloud of dust, not enjoying himself. On occasion, an undead soldier would pop up from the darkness and Chrom and the others would quickly dispose of them with ease due to numbers advantage. Fairen was relieved that they hadn't come across a squad of undead yet, and held his axe in fear for the moment when they would.

Chrom sheathed his blade in a smooth, efficient motion after having slain the third soldier they had come across. As they all continued down the path Frederick indicated, Chrom made his way beside Fairen and turned to him.

"So, have you had any experience with these risen warriors, Fairen?" Chrom asked casually.

"Yeah, a bit," said Fairen. He put one hand on his chin, rubbing it. "Undead, Risen, whatever you call them, they're a nuisance. Really hard to kill, as you've seen. But usually, you'd find them in a crypt or graveyard, not falling from the sky from a magical hole."

"Do you have any idea how to stop them?"

The other Shepherds leaned in to the conversation with interest.

"Normally, you'd have to disable or kill the person or thing that's summoning all the undead," Fairen explained, "which is normally a lich or necromancer of some sort. In that case, I'm glad that the undead are falling from the sky, because, ugh." Fairen shuddered. "We do not want to mess with a lich."

"Why not?" Lissa asked, still perched up on Daisy with Frederick.

"Those things are crazy strong. Never heard of them, eh?" He gestured to Chrom, who shook his head, then to Sully and Virion, who gave him confused looks. "They're basically master-level necromancers that put their soul back in their body once they've died. They defy death, and after their body rots and ages, but never goes kaput. They've got massive magical power, and are extremely hard to kill."

"But you're saying that a lich probably didn't make the hole in the sky," Chrom clarified.

"I don't think so," Fairen said. "I've never heard of a lich who specialized in portal magic. Summoning magic, yes, but usually those summons come from beneath the ground, not up in the air."

"Hmm," Chrom said, deep in thought. "Maybe we should seek out a leader anyway. See if they have one."

"It's worth a try," Fairen said, crossing his arms and nodding.

As the group approached another clearing, Lissa gasped and leaned forward, pointing over Frederick's shoulders. "Look!"

Everyone halted and stared in shock at Lissa's observation. Across a field and up a hill was the fort Frederick had been speaking of, cobblestone walls standing tall from four sturdy towers, a wooden drawbridge visible over an empty moat. However, a large amount of sizzling lava poured over the western wall, flowing over it and into the fort compound from a tiny volcano that had erupted from the ground next to the fort. A clear and steady fire, almost as large as the fort itself, was alive inside the premise of the fort, the top of the flames licking up at the black skyline of the night.

"No!" Fairen shouted, falling to his knees.

"There goes that plan," Chrom said to no one in particular, eyebrows furrowed.

"Thought you didn't want to go to the fort," Sully said, looking over Fairen's decidedly devastated stance from her mount. "Why are you upset?"

Fairen turned to face her and shot an angry look. "Just because I'm against an idea doesn't mean I don't want it to succeed!"

"Well, now what?" Lissa said.

"Are there any other forts in this forest that we could secure, Frederick?" Chrom asked.

"Unfortunately not, as far as I can recall, milord,"

"Damn," Chrom swore. "Well, if we can't find a place of respite, we can still bring the fight to the Risen."

"Damn straight," Sully said with a grin.

"I almost could not say it better myself," Virion added, standing beside Sully.

Several low moans broke the group out of their brainstorming. Chrom, Fairen, and the others, all turned to the tree line at the western end of the field. Approaching from the shadows under the leaves were several Risen, all shambling towards them with various axes, swords, and lances, all armoured, and all staring straight at the Shepherds with their glowing crimson eyes.

"Looks like they brought the fight to us," Fairen said, watching even more grey soldiers emerge from the foliage.

"Look alive, everyone!" Chrom said, drawing his sword with everyone else doing the same for their weapons. "Charge!"

Fairen suddenly grinned, and gripping his battleaxe tight, he sprung forth from his kneeling position on the ground, gaining speed and managing to run along Chrom as the six of them leapt into battle.

---

As the group progressed further into the forest, having forgotten their 'secure fort' plan, Fairen found members of their foe to fall quickly. With the combined effort of Chrom, Frederick, Lissa, Sully, Virion, and himself, along with their combat and weapon skills, the Risen were efficiently and systematically taken out. There was strength in numbers, Fairen thought, much more strength than he initially figured when the group first took down the large hoard near the burning fort.

Furthermore, as the team fought more and more Risen, they understood more how the Risen worked, and how to take them down. Chrom had gone far beyond the initial run-in where he struggled to matched the strength of just one axe-wielding Risen. Now, he did not underestimate them and their seemingly slow, sluggish, and off-kilter movements. He and Fairen had equal amounts of advice to give to the others early on, empowering the group's tactics when dealing with the grey soldiers.

"Aim for their heads, and cut at their necks!" Fairen suggested in one fight while he himself was engaged with the enemy. "And if not, strike at their spines! Otherwise, you'll have to gut them like a fish!"

The minutes of the night slowly wore into an hour, then into a few hours, the rage of the forest fire still shouldering in the distance of the night. The skyline was practically alight with pyrotechnics, a mass of low oranges and bright reds licking up at the sky's eye from the peaks of the trees they fed off of. Smoke rolled away in waves at the guidance of the soft breeze rolling in in intervals, noxious gasses floating harmlessly up into the atmosphere and dispersing. Lasting embers would crunch under the Shepherds' feet as they continued straight west, hoping to find more Risen to hunt to the eventual conclusion where there would be none left to threaten the countryside.

At some point before twilight, Chrom's attention was caught by something along the foliage in the distance. He rose his head to the sounds of grunts and clashing metal. After urging everyone in the direction of the ambiance, he spotted two figures dancing in combat under the firelight between oaks. On one side was the masked swordsman from before, face set in a gritted expression of intense focus as she dueled with her opponent, who was a very broad and tall Risen, one of immense size and strength for a humanoid creature, with biceps, triceps, and pectorals all buldging out of the thin, purple skin that kept the rest of its blood and msucles in. It too held a sword in hand, except it was a broadsword worthy of its hosts' size, with steel that seemed to shine in the darkness even despite its age and rust. The Risen had flowing, thin strands of hair that seemed permanently blood-soaked and wore a tattered mask that fit to its face where its beady eyes looked from, red glow and all. The most terrifying thing of all, however, was the fact that the Risen was holding and swinging the two-handed weapon as if it was one-handed, and made it look easy.

The masked swordsman and the giant Risen were fighting in a grand show of choreography, the swordsman's feet hopping back and forth as the flow of battle commanded it, light in touch on the ground while the Risen's bootless feet stomped with abandon, almost shaking the ground itself with each giant step. Steel clashed between swords and sparks rang out like little lanterns in the otherwise relatively lightless area. The masked swordsman clearly and obviously had a strength disadvantage, but worked well defending themselves by deflecting the Risen's blows off to the side with their own sword, along with dodging swipes and a boatload of trained and perfected footwork. It was the classic matchup of strength versus dexterity, one which Chrom did not know the outcome of. Fairen, running behind Chrom, noted the beads of sweat forming on the swordsman's chin and neck.

Further beyond the Shepherds and the dualists, in the trees, more Risen appeared, some with axes and lances, and even some with bows. The undead archers, wielding rotting bows with strings stained yellow with time, drew nasty, gnarled arrows from quivers they wore and took aim at the masked swordsman fighting below.

"Come on! We have to help him!" Chrom called out to the others, drawing his weapon, and with a wave, he rushed forward to engage the threat of risen on the mysterious warrior who helped them earlier. Virion had already knocked an arrow on his bow and let loose at one of the archers aiming at the masked swordsman, his aim true, hitting his target in the chest where its leather armour had withered away and left an exposed right breast.

Lissa, having been dismounted for a while now, jogged as best as she could forward, but the others left her behind with ease. She almost ran into Fairen, who refused to budge, staying as still as a statue with bent legs and a battle stance. He looked back at her over his shoulder with a smirk.

"I hate leaving you behind we engage," he told her, battleaxe clutched hard in his fingers. "I feel like something's going to strike at you and we won't be in a position to do anything about it."

Lissa just stared at him with a surprised expression. The blue crystal orb connected to the top of her staff was cracked after having healed many of the Shepherds throughout the night. Just then, an undead solider holding a hand axe leapt out of the brush, soaring through the air at a high speed, both arms up and ready to strike as it let out a moaning battle cry.

Lissa jumped back with a scream as Fairen lunched forward to meet with the threat head on. "I knew it!" Fairen said as he blocked the Risen's strike with the neck of his battleaxe. The Risen was pushed back and forced to the ground, and after a beat, pushed off its square stance and struck again. Fairen repelled the attack, and rammed the Risen with the length of his weapon, shoving it back in a stumble. He tried to take advantage of the opening with a revolving swipe to the head, but missed as the Risen ducked under. Fairen was left with the head of his axe against the ground and his back turned from his opponent. The Risen rose its arm to strike, but Fairen quickly moved his attention behind and struck at his opponent's weapon arm with his heel in an amazing high kick.

The Risen flinched back once more, having their weapon pushed back by the force of the kick and gravity. Making sure Lissa wasn't in the way, Fairen used his whole body to lift the axe head and continued circling clockwise, bringing him to face the Risen one more and driving the sharpened metal edge into the Risen's torso. The Risen paused at the strike, brown blood leaking onto the weapon's head. Before a counter could be deployed by his opponent, Fairen reared up and booted the Risen in the stomach, pushing it off the axe and leaving it to flop helplessly on the ground. With some gathered momentum, Fairen reared the bladed end of the axe behind him, leapt high up, and brought the axe down over him.

He was aiming for the neck, but instead got the head, cleaving the skull in two and ending the Risen's unlife.

With one last huff, Fairen turned away from the scene and faced Lissa, who was behind him a safe distance away holding her staff with two hands and looking at the dead Risen on the ground. Her eyes flicked to his and she gave a friendly and thankful smile that Fairen returned with a nod. Fairen brought his attention around to where Chrom and the others had engaged the giant Risen. He spotted Chrom civilly speaking to the swordsman with both of their weapons away, with Frederick, Sully, Virion slowly approach them, no Risen in sight.

Lissa's smile widened at the scene, and she began to approach her brother before she saw a shimmer from the corner of her eye. She looked and for a moment saw Fairen's luminous, scarlet eyes and pendant before he threw his weapon to the side and sprinted south into the forest at full tilt.

"C-Chrom!" She shouted at the top of her lungs, waving to grab his attention. Everyone turned towards her with concerned looks. She pointed to where Fairen was fleeing, his figure barely visible as his dirtied cargo pants and large, blocky boots disappeared from view behind a bush.

"Gods, not again," Chrom said with a sigh before accelerating to a run, following where Fairen went, with Frederick and Sully doing the same behind him.

The chase was on once more, with Chrom swiftly moving into the wave of trees exiting the field. He began to move more efficiently in the woods after having spent the whole night navigating between bark-laden trunks and brushes of wild plant leaves. He couldn't see exactly where Fairen was, but he could hear his heavy footsteps kick against the ground ahead. Frederick and Sully slowly approached Chrom from behind, both riding low and avoiding the branches hanging down from above, and eventually reached and outran Chrom in pure speed. The horses had some trouble safely moving around the trees at high velocity, but they still overtook Chrom with their strides and long legs.

"Don't let him get away!" Chrom called after Frederick and Sully, to which Frederick briefly looked behind and nodded to. Frederick and Sully soon ran out of sight, and the sounds of hoofs hitting the ground mixed in with the sounds of the surroundings, and Chrom wasn't sure where Fairen was anymore.

Eventually, with enough tenacity, Chrom burst through a thick blockade of plant life to a burnt ruin of dead trees, all from the aftermath of the fire after it had burned down a section of the forest and moved on once its fuel was turned to ash. Down bodies of elms, oaks, and spruces lay everywhere, burned black and ravaged. The ground was made of grey soot and lingering embers, charcoals scattered around the zone emitting light from heat. The air was hot, hotter than the normal summer nighttime would allow, and the ashes soot had an almost sand-like consistency beneath Chrom's feet. It was more slippery than dirt would allow.

"Milord," Frederick called from afar, standing beside Sully's mount, both steeds facing towards Fairen who stood even farther beyond them. Chrom rushed to their sides, sliding to a stop once he reached them, and stared at Fairen.

He was once again floating in the air with several circles and undecipherablerunes outlined in the ashes beneath his feet. His legs were crossed at his ankles, and his hands were out at his sides, elbows bent. He could not see Fairen's face, but Chrom figured that Fairen still had the odd, glowing pendant and eyes.

"That pendant of his looks to be magical," Chrom said to the party he had at hand. "If we can remove it, maybe he'll turn back to normal."

Frederick started forward with a hardened expression. Chrom put out his hand to stop Daisy for a moment. "Let's do this softly. We don't want to hurt or alarm him."

"I'll defer to your guidance, milord," Frederick said.

"Yeah, lead the way, Chrom," Sully agreed.

After taking a brief glance at his partners behind him, Chrom steadily approached Fairen, getting low, with one arm out in caution towards Fairen's figure.

"Fairen?" Chrom said calmly. "Is everything alright?"

"The... portal... I must... close... the portal..." Fairen muttered. His voice had the strange, multi-layer quality to it again, and he had started to gather ruby energy in his outstretched hands.

"What?" Chrom rose an eyebrow and stood up straight.

"Chrom! Up in the sky!" Sully said. Chrom heard her draw her weapon behind him.

Several undead were falling like tears from the sky's eye, grouping en mass and falling out of the hole in quick succession. They all fell onto the burnt battlefield just ahead of Fairen, and were normal-sized, but all still bore drawn weapons, none the less. Chrom counted, seven, eight, nine, ten, twelve, thirteen. How many more are there? Chrom thought to himself.

"Hey!" Chrom heard a voice call from behind. He turned his attention toward the back tree line and spotted Lissa and Virion catch up to them.

Lissa was completely winded by the time she reached Frederick. Virion looked up to the newly spawned Risen force in complete shock.

"My word!" Virion said. "Perhaps this is too much, even for us!"

Yeah, there's more than the force that we fought at the fort, Chrom said to himself glumly, gritting his teeth. The undead began to get up off the ground and move towards the Shepherds in a jog.

"What are we going to do?" Lissa cried, eyes wide and fearful at the oncoming onslaught of foes.

"Get on, milady," Frederick said, reaching his hand out to Lissa. Lissa quickly grabbed on and got on the spot behind Frederick.

"Milord," Frederick began, facing Chrom. "You must make a choice. Fight, or Flee?"

Chrom anxiously looked on at Fairen and the wave of undead approaching them. He still had no idea what was wrong with Fairen.

Just then, Fairen's eyes flashed. His stance changed; he shifted sideways and brought his hands to his ribs. With a frown, he threw his hands out, fingers spread, and lances of blue and white chain lightning jumped from his fingertips. The electricity poured out and rammed into three of the advancing grey soldiers, striking them with such ferocity that two burnt to a crisp and the third collapsed to the ground, mortally wounded.

"Well, that makes things a bit easier," Chrom said, drawing his weapon. Then, he tilted his head towards his comrades without taking his eyes of the Risen swarm. "Shepherds! Let us meet the enemy head on! Keep the undead away from Fairen until we figure out what to do with him!"

"Oo-rah!" Sully cried out, accelerating forward with an iron sword high into the air as she charged into battle, the others quickly following suit.

Once engaged, the Shepherds took one-on-one spats where they could, kiting where they could not finish off their opponent in time to catch another. Frederick at some point had three on him at once, and he gracefully led the herd in a circle, then proceeded to skillfully behead each and every one with his powerful, shining silver lance. Virion stood far in the back, pelting the enemy with arrows as fast and as accuratly as he could. Chrom opted to stand in front of Fairen and block any undead that came straight at him. Because of this, he would take damage from erring on the side of blocking his foes' progression instead of properly defending himself, but Lissa would occasionally come along on Frederick's back, quickly heal any minor wounds, and jump back on Daisy. Fairen kept casting his stellar lightning, red static jumping up and down his arms with each attack, smoke emitting from his figure as he panted and sweat with effort. The spells were a god send for the group, and without it, Chrom thought that repelling the enemy would have been impossible.

At some point, the wave of undead got extra thick, and Chrom was beginning to have a hard time keeping the opposing force back. Suddenly, there were three of them all at once, and Chrom couldn't deal with all of them efficiently without getting nicks and cuts on his arms. But, just as he found himself in trouble, he found his stress somewhat lifted when someone came and dexterously beheaded one of the grey soldiers. Chrom saw the masked swordsman enter the fray, and he could not help but shout in newfound energy as hope and a second wind passed through him.

At some point, Fairen stopped firing lightning bolts. Coincidentally, it was when the hoard thinned a significant amount. Risen was still falling from the sky, but only in sparse, languid drops of acid rain. For a moment, in his battle stance, Chrom shifted his eyes to peer behind him, and saw Fairen was once again charging red energy between his palms, his attention towards the eye in the sky.

An earth-shattering roar pierced the heavens, causing everyone except Fairen to flinch and cover their ears. All fighting ceased, including the few undead left, if for the only reason that the sheer shockwaves of the cry paralyzed their limbs. It seemed as if the air itself shook in fear at the low, deep wail. The tone was akin to a thousand men and women dying all at once under the crushing blow of some towering creature. Crouching and protecting his hearing, Chrom found the courage deep within himself to look back up at the sky, eyes wide. He could not keep his hands from shaking.

Deep within the sky's eye was a monstrous creature, one only foretold in nightmarish legends of deep yore. The perspective seemed almost wrong due to the angle of the sky's eye, but the creature was as large as a mountain with the presence thrice that, its body covering all angles of the eye's circle. Six massive black wings flapped separate of each other, all seeming to beat with such power to create tornados. Two jutting horns stuck out straight from the beast's cranium, sticking straight out and in front of its maw, ready to gore any opponent, mortal or god, it came across. The edges of its lips had rows upon rows of stained, golden teeth poking out, all as sharp as the finest blade, except worn by a demon. Six piercing eyes glowed through the hole in the sky, seeing all. Chrom had the terrible feeling that it was looking straight at him.

"Gods, no," the masked swordsman said, breathless, their weapon clattering on the ground, legs giving out as they slumped over, stuck staring helplessly upward.

Fairen, unflinching, gave a defiant shout and threw his hands forward, wrists together, palms out, and an enlarged orb of scarlet magic scorched through the open air up into the sky. The Shepherds stared as the ball flew higher, higher, and higher, until it rapidly approached the center of the sky's eye and made contact.

A string of red lightning attached between the eye and Fairen. The wind picked up around Fairen's figure fourfold, and Fairen was pushed back by an invisible force as he grit his teeth and struggled to contain the power he was fighting against. He remained floating in the air, but was lower, and leaned against the electricity that struck him. The lance of pure energy flicked back and forth in an intimate dance, a low hum in the air along with crackles that filled everyone's hearing. Sully and Frederick re-engaged the few remaining Risen, while Chrom, Virion, and Lissa were stuck in awe at the transgressing event.

In utter disbelief, Chrom watched as the sky's eye slowly closed shut, waves of magic floating off the wormhole. The light circle around the eye, as well as its runes, began to fade away.

"Fairen!" Lissa screamed with all her might. Chrom turned his head towards Lissa's desperate cry to find a large hand axe soaring through the air sideways at Fairen. Before he could even take a breath, the axe head met the right end of Fairen's torso, and Fairen winced and was pushed back as the weapon flew right through him, cutting his stomach by a third, leaving a splatter of blood on the ground behind him.

Chrom felt a shock to his system massive enough to leave his face feeling needle pinrpicks. Fairen's spell channeling faltered, and he had to bare his teeth and close one eye to fight through the agony. Chrom looked back towards the battlefield to see one particularly large Risen get completely run through by Frederick's lance in an odd display of complete rage from the paladin. Lissa had gotten off Daisy at some point and was dashing across the burnt field towards Fairen as fast as her legs could carry her.

The eye continued to shut as Fairen put more and more magic into his spell. The beast on the other side was approaching the opening at a frightening speed, but it seemed that there was no stopping the eye's closure. The beast opened its jaw and let out one last deafening roar in utter scorn and frustration before the portal closed before everyone's eyes and the lightning connection between it and Fairen disappeared.

At the shutting of the portal, an immense ripple of force cast through the air, hitting everything on the ground almost all at once. It ripped through trees, tearing them of their branches and tilting those who were already weak from the forest fire. It kicked up the air, pushing up soot and ash in big clouds. Chrom was violently flung to his feet, and he grunted and covered his head to try and minimize damage. He could hear the cries of everyone else being affected the same, with Daisy's squawking whinny echoing through the night as the great warhorse was pushed to its side.

Fairen shot back at ten miles an hour, having no longer been in power of his magic, and he rolled along the ground without control, leaving a trail of blood in his wake with every bounce of his pliant, malleable body on the hard earth.

Finally, he skid to a painful stop on his back, unmoving. Chrom got to his feet and froze at the sight of Fairen. Then, Fairen sat up, and Chrom let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. That breath quickly choked when Chrom took three steps forward, properly focused his eyesight on Fairen's form, and found the pink, shining flesh of Fairen's intestines pouring out of the wound on the side of his stomach, all still attached to the insides of his body.

"Shit, shit, shit," Fairen said, eyes wide and no longer glowing. He leaned on one elbow and used his other hand to try and paw at his guts, bringing them in towards his body. Shock and panic overruled the excruciating pain he was feeling. He could feel warmth leave his body below him as a small pool of blood formed under his soaking jacket. "Shit, shit, shit," he continued in whispered, quickly heaved breaths, trying to wrap his fingers around the rope-like flesh of his digestive system, only for his fingers to not have enough strength. Instead his intestines just slipped through every time.

Chrom heard Lissa scream Fairen's name again, and looked over his shoulder as Lissa approached Chrom. Fairen looked up at Lissa and Chrom, dread and horror painted all over his visage, sweat dripping down his forehead.

"Lissa! Stay back!" Fairen shouted in a mangled tone, reaching his bloodied hand out. Lissa ignored him, and kept running. "Stay away from me! Chrom!" He looked Chrom in the eye. "Keep her away!" Chrom stared dumbly, not understanding what Fairen was asking. "For the love of everything, keep her away!"

At the very last possible second, Chrom's arm shot out and grabbed Lissa by the shoulder, almost flinging her off her feet as Chrom grabbed a hold of her and pulled back.

"Agk!" Lissa said in pain. She struggled under Chrom's grasp, and Chrom had to latch under her armpits with both his forearms. "Erg, Chrom! Let me go!"

"Oh, by the Moon, by the Moon," Fairen muttered, giving up with his intestines and roughly falling back prone to once again face the stars. His breathing quickened. He could feel the roar of adrenaline that his rapidly beating heart was outputting. An emptiness consumed his being, something beyond material and blood, something that he was familiar with, and something that was one of his worst fears. He shuddered as his whole body tensed up as best as it could. "Oh, here it comes, here it comes..."

It started with Fairen letting out a quiet moan that quickly accelerated to a hair-raising wail as blue static erupted from Fairen's body like a fountain, growing quickly large in size, spreading light around the area. Fairen's back was lifted off the ground, but his intestines were long enough to stay put as he shook and convulsed, his face stuck in an expression of indescribable pain, where the pit of agony had no visible bottom, and continued long, long into the darkness. His eyes were wide open, pupils shrunk, and as he was forced to witness every second of torture dealt upon him, the torment made him utterly blind. Fairen ran out of breath again, and again, and when he breathed in his screaming started anew as the electricity refused to stop. A strange fog formed around Fairen's body, slightly obscuring the environment surrounding Fairen.

Finally, Chrom realized, after almost thirty straight seconds, it was over. It had ended like it started: as a slow deacceleration with the static petering out, and Fairen's body returning to normal. He laid still, completely unmoving, his arms splayed out.

"No," Lissa said quietly. Chrom finally let go of her, arms falling weakly to his sides. "NO!" she screamed.

Lissa ran at Fairen until she dropped to knees and slid to a stop behind him. Chrom jogged after her, with Frederick, Sully, and Virion following behind, no living undead remaining. The masked swordsman watched from afar, having picked themselves and their weapon up off the ground, and they stared open-mouthed, unable to move.

"Gods, oh gods," Lissa mumbled, staff in her right hand as she looked over Fairen with her knees partially submerged in his puddle of blood. He was deathly pale, with open eyes that looked up at the sky but saw nothing.

Lissa's hands were shaking, her pupils shrunken as she seemingly forgot how to breathe properly. Chrom, noticing her distress, put a hand on her shoulder. "Do... do you think you can help?" Chrom asked her.

Lissa looked over her shoulder for a moment at her brother, then went back to Fairen. She let out one last shudder, closing her eyes and letting out a calming sigh, then her shaking significantly reduced. When she opened them, she locked on to Fairen.

"Remember your training," Lissa muttered to herself. Lissa tapped Fairen's shoulder. "Fairen? Fairen, can you hear me?"

He turned his head towards her voice, but his gaze did not focus on her.

"Everything's going to be alright," she said, although no one was sure if that was to herself or to Fairen. "Everything's going to be alright," she repeated, and pointed her staff down at Fairen's intestines. She focused, and the staff's orb glowed bright for a moment. Fairen's out innards suddenly became clean, free of any soot, dirt, or dust, along with the rest of the bloody, bleeding wound. She put her staff down to the side and grabbed his intestines with both her hands.

"This is going to hurt for a bit, so just... prepare yourself," Lissa told Fairen. Then, she started to manually feed his intestines back into his torso, taking slow and immaculate care to put them back in where she was taught. She was up to her right forearm in his body, leaning forward and placing his stuffing back in. Her outfit was slowly covering in blood. Fairen let out a groan as she let go of the intestines in her left hand and used it to spread the open cut without ripping the tissue any further, pushing hard from the inside of his skin with her other hand, his stomach uncannily distorting. Sweat rolled down her face.

Chrom stayed steady behind her, unsure whether to kneel down or stay standing, whether to try and give words of encouragement or stay silent, whether to look at Lissa's work or to stare at Fairen's expressionless face. Frederick and Sully stood behind Chrom on their mounts, faces grim. Virion had already looked away a long time ago, after having initially saw Fairen's condition for a brief second.

"A blade," Lissa said, pausing for a moment. "I need a clean blade. Chrom!" she shouted from stress, looking behind her. "I need you to use Falchion on Fairen. His wound needs to be wider so I can properly put his intestines back."

Wordlessly, Chrom stepped forward and drew his sword, his expression paralyzed in emotionless duty. Lissa pulled her hand out of Fairen and lifted up his shirt and shimmied his pants down slightly to give her a better view of the wound. She was caught stunned by the number of bruises that dotted up and down Fairen's chest and stomach, with some of his ribs clearly cracked and broken based on how his ribcage looked. He hadn't said a single thing, Lissa thought, and shook herself back to the bigger problem.

"Isn't Chrom's sword dirty with those undead freaks' blood?" Sully managed to ask.

"Falchion's properties as a holy blade cleans itself, from evil impurities to blood," Frederick informed her.

Holy blade? Fairen thought to himself incredulously, his inner voice only a weak echo within his mind. The thought was lost to forgotten darkness only seconds later.

Lissa gave stout instruction to Chrom as he cut into the skin of Fairen's stomach slowly and with great consideration. Fairen barely made a face at the fact. The cut was clean and straight, and stopped just before his central stomach muscles. Lissa was able to get better access to Fairen's insides, and properly fed the rest of his intestines back into his body. She worked speedily; she knew she was working against time.

Finally finished, Lissa leaned and shuffled back, grabbing her staff. She needed a breather, but didn't allow herself one, as she leaned the whole of the staff over Fairen's body, grabbed it with both her hands, and poured as much effort as she could into the healing staff. The area around Fairen's body was illuminated with a glorious, calming cyan light from the orb, so bright that everyone had to squint. Virion turned back to the scene, shielding his eyes as he watched the healing process begin.

A high-pitched note ran out as the cut that ran from the front of Fairen's stomach to his back mended into itself, with new flesh growing where it was missing, Fairen's body bringing itself together to reattach naturally. The bruises and black marks on Fairen's torso, along with his disjointed ribs, also patched themselves up slowly over time. Colour quickly returned to the skin of Fairen's belly, which after a moment flowed up and heated up a part of his neck and face too. The dried blood around his skin and outfit, however, stayed.

"Chrom, cut his shirt vertically from bottom to top, and help me remove his clothes," Lissa said. Chrom leaned over and started doing just that. "We need to check for any more injuries on his arms and neck."

"You're quite the thorough one, aren't you?" Fairen said with a groan. Everyone stopped and looked at him, wide-eyed. He was staring at Lissa with a cocky smile, one-eye wincing, but he did not move his body otherwise.

"Idiot," Lissa said, and ripped up the rest of his shirt by hand herself. Chrom pulled his sword away from Fairen, put it away, and him and Lissa grabbed Fairen's shirt and coat and got it off him, with Fairen helping a little by lifting his head off the ground and shifting his arms around.

"I can't believe you're not unconscious right now," Lissa said, examining the bruises all over his arms. There was a nasty cut on his left elbow that bled terribly, but otherwise his wounds weren't as nearly as bad as the one on his stomach. She took her staff and slowly began healing what she could, the light from the staff not as nearly as bright as before. The crack on the staff's orb had almost reached end-to-end. "Normally, people are supposed to pass out from the pain or blood loss."

"I'm a special kind of guy, is all. Real tough," Fairen stated simply, chuckling. He looked up to Chrom's stern face, and Fairen's expression softened. "I'm sorry I caused you all worry."

"You're forgiven, Fairen," Chrom said without consulting anyone else on the matter. "I think we have a lot of questions for you, though."

"I understand," Fairen said. Then, he coughed, and as the last of Fairen's wounds on his arms healed, the crack on Lissa's orb completely ran through the crystal, and the light emitting from it died out. Lissa looked up at it in a slight moment of confusion that turned to understanding, and she held the top end of the staff away from herself. Everyone watched as the orb harmlessly shattered a few seconds later, creating fluttering crystalline sparkles that twinkles in the air before the wind passed through and carried them off to fields unknown.

"Well, there goes the last of it," Lissa said in finality, putting her bloodied fists onto her hips and re-examining Fairen's shirtless figure. There was already a scar where Fairen's stomach wound was. "We should still check out your legs though, but I don't have any conventional medic supplies with me. I didn't expect to have to heal so much!"

Fairen leaned up on his elbows. "I think I'll be fine. My legs are a one-out-of-ten in pain compared to my stomach."

Lissa frowned. "Normally, I would say that you aren't supposed to move. But we don't have a medical carriage, and somebody's going to have to carry you out of here."

Fairen, with a curious expression, looked over his feet as he swung them side to side, his heels still on the ground. "They don't feel broken or maimed."

Fairen began to get up, but as he did Lissa put out her broken staff and blocked his way. He let out a questioning tone and peered at Lissa, who couldn't meet his eyes until a moment later.

"I just have one little question. What in Naga's blood was that?" Lissa asked Fairen. Chrom took a step back in shock at her suddenly swearing so brazenly. Frederick's eyes widened. Sully gawked, not believing Lissa had it in her in the first place.

"What do you—" Fairen began, one eyebrow raised.

"The blue static-thunder-stuff. What was that blue thunder that erupted from your body? How did you know it was going to happen? Why did you want me to stay back?"

"Lissa, I—"

"You could have died, Fairen," Lissa continued, volume growing. "You could have died, and yet you tried to keep me away, and then you were electrocuted, and you still almost died! I can't believe you're not dead already!"

Lissa shouted her last words, breathing heavily, glaring at Fairen. Silence reigned for a beat, the wind whistling tricky melodies into everyone's ears.

"I'm sorry, Lissa," Fairen said, looking down to his bare stomach, eyeballing his newly minted scar. "But I don't know where to begin. You know my magic's different from yours. It was just magical —"

"Do not give me 'magical exhaustion' again," Lissa said, interrupting. "Fairen, my job on the Shepherds is to help and heal people. If you are hurt, and you tell me that 'magical exhaustion' is afflicting you, something that I have no understanding of, how in the name of Naga am I supposed to help you?"

There were tears in Lissa's eyes that steadily burst forth as she pleaded at Fairen, her clenched fists pressing against her chest. Fairen blinked, and struggled with his next words. She sobbed, and Chrom rubbed her shoulder. Fairen closed his eyes, snorted, and shook his head.

"Ok, I get it," Fairen said. He sighed before he started again. "Magical exhaustion is an affliction of the kind of magic I perform." Suddenly, Fairen had everyone's attention as they all leaned in to his next words. Lissa's tears slowed. "When we call upon powers of standard wandless – or I guess in your case, staffless – magic, it costs mana, something that's supposed to be in every caster. The mana interacts with something called magicka in the air and your spell is the result."

Fairen turned his head towards Lissa, meeting her eyes. "So, spells always have a mana cost. People who are capable of wandless spellcasting are always creating mana. But, it's very slow, so after enough spells you'll run low, or completely out, of mana." He held up two fingers. "Two things happen when you try to cast manaless magic. First is that the spell fails. The second is if the spellcaster is really crafty and skilled they can force the spell out of their body with pure and utter willpower. The problem with that, is, well, ehh..."

Fairen tilted his head side to side, making a face. "What happens?" Lissa asked.

"Well, due to the laws of magic as we know it, or as I know it, the spell takes its cost in mana regardless, even if you don't have enough. The only other energy source that your body supplies that can support spellcasting, is, well, your soul."

Lissa gasped, and Chrom's eyebrows shot up. "If you spellcast without enough mana, and you force it..." Fairen leaded on.

"It takes a part of your soul?" Lissa finished loudly. Fairen nodded with thin, straight lips. "Ugh, you reckless idiot!" Lissa complained, eyes closed and shaking in anger.

"I've never heard of such a thing, 'soul-powered magic'," Chrom said, a hand on his forehead. He felt blood leave his face at Fairen's admission.

"Ninety-nine times out of a hundred it kills the spellcaster," Fairen said, nodding. "But, on rare occasion, when the spellcaster is especially smart and careful..."

"And is tough and special like you are," Lissa said mockingly, hands on her hips.

Fairen just gave an innocent smile and a shrug. "Then they can get away with it. But," Fairen lifted up his right hand and examined it, turning it over to watch the life lines on his palm. "I think I'm at my absolute limit. No more magic from me for a long, long time."

"Can it be reversed?" Chrom asked, stepping forward. "Or are you stuck like this, partially soulless, for the rest of your life?"

"Oh, it can be healed," Fairen said cheerfully. "Your soul is constantly repairing itself if it gets damaged and as long as its inside its original host. I'll get my magic back, eventually. I mean I could try casting some now, but it would be a really, really bad idea."

"Yeah, especially after all the work I did to heal you," Lissa said, folding her arms in a harrumph. "That was my favourite healing orb, too! You owe me one healing orb, mister!"

Fairen chuckled. "Alright. As soon as I can make up the money, I'll buy you a new one."

Lissa gave him one last look, shook her head, and got up. Her battle regalia was doused in Fairen's blood.

"You're crazy, you know that, right?" Sully said, trotting up to him with a wild grin on her face.

"So I've been told," said with a wavering voice as he tried to get his feet, but was struggling. Chrom immediately grabbed his arm, hoisted him up, and put his head beneath Fairen's shoulder.

Fairen looked around the fire-ruined field, and counted six people, including him. He could have sworn there was a seventh. Then, he looked up at the sky. "Could someone tell me what happened to the portal?"

On the horizon, the sun finally came to light. Dawn was arriving.

---

Lucina watched the Shepherds from afar, under the shade of trees, one hand on the oak trunk she was behind. She stood still, her hair swaying slightly in the wind as her eyes tracked the group's musings, unable to actually make out what they were saying. She was primarily focused on the strange man with ruined clothes that stood underneath the support of her father. The man listened intently on what the party was telling him. Lucina's lips were pursed in thought. His clothes were in such a bad condition that he would not fit out of place in her timeline.

She glanced up at the sky for a breath, then her attention went back to the strange man as he laughed jovially at something that someone told him. Auntie Lissa took a step towards him and gave him a lecture with a stern expression. Lucina shook her head, then turned and left. The scene of that man closing the portal she used, the portal that went across time, shut, played over and over in her head. It was almost the only thing she could think about.

Everything was wrong. She didn't know what exactly to expect. All she had was a name and a description: "Robin", who had white hair and used swords and tomes. But this man had brown hair and a battleaxe. Who was that man? Did Laurent give her the wrong information? She didn't catch his name, and had the horrible feeling that something was terribly, terribly wrong. But she'd have to go out and search for clues herself before anything else.

And if that man wasn't it... then where was Robin?

---

LEVEL UP!

Fairen

Class: Explorer

Level: 2 + 1 = 3

HP: 19 + 1 = 20

STR: 5 + 1 = 6

MAG: 7 + 1 = 8

SKL: 6 + 1 = 7

SPD: 7 + 1 = 8

LCK: 1

DEF: 5 + 1 = 6

RES: 7

MOV: 5

Level-up Quote: "I'm just one lucky son of a bitch, am I right?"

WEAP. LVL: Sword = E, Axe = E, Lance = E

Skills Equipped:

- Scrapper: Can use any melee weapon, but gains no weap. exp.