"You have a strange aura about you," the girl with the white hair said eariler, and perhaps she was right. Byleth's lack of a heartbeat and the claims of the girl in her dreams could very well point to her being connected to something demonic. Perhaps Edelgard was able to sense that. But that was just it, how did Byleth know her name? How did she know that the tall man with the blonde hair was Dimitri, that the man with the tanned skin was called Claude, and that the girl with piercing lavender eyes and snow-white hair was Edelgard? They never said their names, and no one had told them to Byleth, but the instant that she laid her eyes upon one of the newcomers, her mind would instantly say 'oh, that's Edelgard.'

Byleth shook her head, the battlefield is no place for idle thoughts. She had bandits to rout. She ran towards the nearest enemy and swung her sword. It was blocked by their sword, but Byleth used that to combo into another swing meant to put the opponent into an unfavourable stance and, there! Byleth thrust her sword into the bandit's unguarded torso, piercing a lung, and pulled her sword out to move on to the next opponent.

Untrained bandits were easy, they always made the same sorts of mistakes, all Byleth had to do was bait such a mistake and capitalise on it. A broken stance here, an over-extension there, it was simple.

Parry the blade, stab their face, move on.

Luckily, the nobles she was protecting didn't have much trouble either. Dimitri, or at least she assumed his name was Dimitri, used long, sweeping strikes that easily overwhelmed any guard any of the bandits had, using his lance more like a halberd to great effect.

Break their guard, stagger them, and gut them.

The noble who was maybe Claude stuck to the bushes and picked off the targets that attempted to flank any of the melee fighters. He chose his targets well, and sometimes Byleth had heard grunts from an unexpected direction, only to see an arrow in the bandit's throat.

Dodge to the side, strike their hand, go in for the kill.

Over the sounds of clashing blades and dying men, Byleth heard one of the Bandits saying, "aren't you Jeralt, the Blade Breaker?!" Ah, someone recognised her father. Byleth estimated that the enemy may decide to retreat soon. Still, she did not let up her offence, and neither had the nobles.

Bait the swing, take advantage of their overextension, leave them lying on the ground.

Edelgard in particular wielded her axe in a way Byleth had never seen before. She swung it through the air as if it were a conductor's baton instead of a top-heavy iron weapon. It was impressive, and Edelgard's attacks were devastating to be sure, but Byleth could not help but feel that the style was overall impractical.

Duck the haymaker, cut open their chest, find the next bandit.

Case in point, Edelgard's latest attack was so powerful it not only broke through the bandit's guard but also embedded her weapon in the ground. Luckily, there weren't any nearby bandits standing, she would be fine to retrieve her weapon and continue fighting.

Overpower the nervous one's guard, chop off their hands, they won't be a problem.

Only that wasn't what happened. One of the downed bandits, didn't father get him, had kipped up and started charging towards Edelgard, who only had a dagger available to defend herself.

No! Save her! Don't let her die!

Byleth's normal battle composure had disappeared, something unbidden in her soul took over, she had to save Edelgard! She ran and then pushed her out of the way.

The bandit screamed, "you'll die!"

Byleth was not in a position to stop the attack, her back was to the enemy. She should have known better. It was too late. The bandit's axe swung through the air and straight towards her non-beating chest and she closed her eyes to the inevitable. Something lurched inside of Byleth's chest, there was a massive crashing sound, like a thousand glass windows had been smashed all at once, and the wind had come to a complete standstill. All was silent.

Byleth did not feel pain. She did not feel much different at all, to be honest. So, when she opened her eyes, she was surprised to find herself in an all too familiar dark room.

"Byleth," a young-sounding voice yelled, and Byleth turned to see Sothis flying from her throne towards her. "Are you okay?" But before Byleth could respond, Sothis continued. "I wasn't sure if I would be able to figure it out on time, and I was worried that I might have been too late." Sothis flittered around Byleth, inspecting her up and down. "You didn't feel the axe hit you, did you?"

Byleth was fairly certain that she had just died. Byleth knows that death can come quickly, especially in battle, but she didn't expect to die before she realised that she had been hit. She had also never really thought about what happens after death, but it made sense that if she had some kind of connection with Sothis, who she was pretty sure was a demon, her soul would belong to Sothis now. 'Sell your soul to the devil,' was a common phrase she heard often enough among the other mercs. Maybe Sothis took her soul before she would feel the pain of actually dying? Or she could just be having some sort of near-death dream, and this was all just her hallucinating before her eventual demise.

Byleth couldn't know for sure, so she gathered that the best course of action, either way, was to continue gaining a rapport with Sothis. "I did not feel anything," she told her. But then again, she might be making some wrong assumptions, and Sothis was an unpredictable sort. "What happened?" Maybe she could guide the panicked-looking demon into an explanation that made sense.

Sothis resituated herself in front of Byleth and clapped her hands. "Okay, so good news, you're not dead," she said with a smile. "I stopped time just before Kostas would have hit you."

Byleth blinked. Stopped time? What on earth?

Sothis' smile dropped. "Did," she said hesitatingly, "did something I say confuse you?"

"You can stop time," Byleth asked.

"Yes," said Sothis excitedly. "I also have the power to reverse time, but that takes a lot more energy, so I can't do it too much. I can stop time indefinitely though. Which is especially useful since I can spend as much stopped time as I need telling you everything."

Sothis could apparently use magic to stop and even reverse time. Did that mean that she was not going to die and that Sothis could turn back time to make sure Byleth's mistake never happened? If that's true, then Sothis had just saved her life. "You stopped time to save me," she asked Sothis.

Sothis scratched her cheek. "Uh, yeah." She cleared her throat. "Yes, I did."

Well, there was only one thing you can say when someone saves your life. "Thank you," Byleth said with a bow.

"Oh," Sothis blushed. "Um. You're welcome. Though there's really no need to thank me. I had to do it since if you die, I die as well." Sothis' eyes widened. "And I just now realised that I almost died. Huh."

Normally when Byleth was dealing with a mercenary faced with their own mortality, she went and got her father to help them out. The next day after her father having a conversation with them, they would either resign or apply themselves to their work with a firmer resolve. But her father wasn't there at the moment, so she had to make do. "Is there anything I can do to help," Byleth asked.

"Um," Sothis looked down and wrung her hands. "Can I have a hug?"

Without much thought, Byleth nodded.

In the next moment, Sothis wrapped her arms around Byleth. One arm over her shoulder and the other under her arm. Byleth idly noticed that Sothis was still hovering about a foot in the air. She then had the sudden realisation that she did not have much experience with hugs. In fact, the only recent time she thinks anyone hugged her was when a villager had embraced her for saving their life. She remembers feeling awkward at the time, and much the same feeling was occurring as Byleth mechanically put her arms around Sothis.

The girl wrapped around her hummed. "You haven't hugged that often, have you?"

"No," Byleth admitted.

"That's okay." Sothis let go and hovered back slightly. "I'll make a professional hugger out of you, mark my words." She put her hands together and pointed them at Byleth. "But before that, I need to dump a massive load of exposition into your skull."

Byleth wondered if she would ever get used to Sothis' eclectic manner of speech.

"Now, well." Sothis spun in place and faced the throne. "This will take a while, so maybe I can," Sothis stopped and crossed her arms. "Hm, don't know how to do that yet, or if I can. I guess we could, yeah." She turned back to Byleth. "So, uh. We only have one chair, but I imagine it should be big enough for the both of us. Would it be okay if we shared?"

Byleth thinks she has enough common sense to understand that sitting on a throne that isn't hers is a big social faux pas. "I can stand."

"Are you sure? This might take a few hours to go over everything."

Byleth shrugged. "It's your throne."

"Which means I get to do what I want with it. Also, it's not just mine anymore, it's yours as well." Sothis grabbed Byleth's hand and pulled her in the direction of the throne. "C'mon, Byleth."

Bemusedly, Byleth let herself be pulled along toward the throne. When they got closer, she noticed that the darkness of the room had hidden a set of stairs. As they climbed up, Byleth looked at Sothis floating alongside her. For a demon, Sothis seemed really kind. She seemed to really care for Byleth in a way she had rarely seen before. Only her father had fussed over her in any similar way after she got potentially injured, and even nowadays, her father trusted Byleth to take care of herself. It brought up a rather pertinent question in Byleth's mind. "Why me," she asked as they reached the landing.

Sothis turned to her with a questioning hum. "In what regard?"

Byleth furrowed her brow. "Why are you helping me? I'm just a mercenary."

"Well, I just said earlier, didn't I." Sothis squeezed her hand. "We're connected, so to keep myself safe, I have to keep you safe. Even then, it was the right thing to do, yeah?"

That answer did not feel satisfactory to Byleth, so she continued. "Why are you connected to me in the first place?"

Sothis considered Byleth's words for a moment. "Are you asking about why my heart is in your chest?"

Oh, yeah. Sothis did say that earlier. That a sword orb was the reason she wasn't stillborn. But still, why did she have the orb in the first place? Byleth nodded.

"Right, so." Sothis pulled Byleth towards the throne. "Let's sit down first."

When Byleth stood in front of the very important appearing throne, she hesitated. It seemed wrong for a humble mercenary like her to be anywhere near such a thing.

Sothis floated over the armrest, sat down, scooted to the side, and pat her hand on the empty space. "It's not cursed, Byleth, you can sit down."

Subject to Sothis' continued insistence, Byleth acquiesced and sat next to the magic ghost demon. It was surprisingly comfortable despite being made of stone. Maybe it used some sort of magic to make the stone feel less hard on the body?

Sothis looked at their still joined hands and pressed her tiny body into Byleth's side. She looked up at Byleth with a slight blush on her face. "Is this okay?"

Byleth wondered if she would be able to learn how to cast the same magic cast on the throne on other chairs, or perhaps even on a saddle, it would make long horse rides far more bearable. "The throne is very comfy."

Sothis appeared somewhat taken aback. "I," she tried to say, only to let out a laugh. "Yes, Byleth. It is a comfy chair." She swallowed. "But I was more referring to the two of us being uh, snuggled up like this."

Byleth tilted her head. Byleth usually had issues when the company had to squash together for whatever reason but being this close to Sothis wasn't all that bad. Maybe it was because it was just the one person, who was also smaller than her, that the situation didn't ring any alarm bells in her mind. "I am not adverse to it."

"Okay, that's good," said Sothis. "Now, exposition. So, Byleth, I'm going to be talking for a while. If there's anything that confuses you, let me know and I'll do my best to clarify, okay?"

Byleth waited for Sothis to continue speaking but realised after a moment of silence that she was waiting for Byleth to respond. "Okay."

"Alright." Sothis took a deep breath. "To start off, you asked me why my heart is inside you. That's because, well, it's because of your mother."

Byleth turned fully to face Sothis. Her mother? What did she have to do with any of this?

Sothis continued. "Though I was still asleep at the time, Sitri Eisner was my previous vessel."

What?

"When you came out stillborn, she gave her life and her heart, which was the orb that was my heart, and gave it to you so you would live."

That. That was a lot. First off, Byleth had only now come to the conclusion that she never knew her mother's name. Her father never talked about her, and Byleth had never thought to ask before. "My mother's name was Sitri?"

Sothis gave Byleth a smile. "Yes, her name was Sitri. You were born in Garreg Mach Monastery, the same place all those noble children go to school."

Byleth collapsed against the back of the throne. "What was she like."

Sothis grimaced. "I must confess that I don't actually know," she said disappointedly. "I know I said she was my previous vessel, but I was never awake at the time. The only reason I know about her in the first place is because, well. You know I can stop and rewind time, yeah?"

Byleth wondered where Sothis was going with this but nodded anyway.

"I," Sothis adjusted herself in her seat. "How do I best explain this? Okay, by all technicalities, I'm an amnesiac. I have no memories from before I woke up, was it yesterday or this morning?"

No memories, but that didn't make sense. Sothis obviously had an idea as to how she and Byleth came together. How could she possibly know that if she has no memories?

"Either way, before I woke up, I saw visions of the future. Multiple futures. Perhaps hundreds of possible timelines, from the most likely to some of the most insane."

Sothis, once again, continued to say things that went against expectations. "You saw the future?" If Sothis has a lot to say, Byleth should really learn how to get used to it, and soon.

Sothis shook her head. "Not the future, futures. Plural. From the most likely to the most insane."

"But how would seeing the future tell you about the past?"

"People talk about the past all the time," Sothis said with a shrug. "I just saw a lot of that."

Byleth was a mercenary first and foremost, and information is paramount on the battlefield. If Sothis claims to have seen the future, Byleth needed to capitalise on that. "Is there anything dangerous, I need to know about?"

Sothis frowned. "Yeah, there's a lot."

Another important skill on the battlefield is prioritisation. To focus on what's important. "What's the most immediately dangerous?"

"Within the year, if we're not careful, your father will be murdered and all of Fódlan will be ravaged by war."

Okay, that was bad. Byleth didn't know what she would do if her father were to die, and for all of Fódlan to go to war? If Byleth had to run the company alone during that, she doesn't think they would last, and then Byleth would either have to enlist as a soldier or starve to death. A merc has the option to choose where and when to fight, a soldier doesn't, and being forced to fight in a losing battle is one of the last things she wants to do. "Tell me everything."

"Of course." Then Sothis got that odd smirk on her face again. "Let me tell you the tale of the Fire Emblem and the Three Houses."