Chapter 9 - Infiltration: Questions Without Answers


Beta'd by A.O. Talmidge


Kaden hated barrels.

The rain had stopped as the last afternoon of the Festival of Spring wore on, and Kaden knew that shops owners and festivalgoers would be back outside in earnest. The sky would be clearing, even though the remaining humidity would be making the day muggy, or at least as much as it could be in the cool, early spring air.

At least, he assumed that's what would be happening if he could see it.

Kaden shuffled awkwardly in his cramped space as the wagon jolted from either a bump or a pothole on the cobblestone street. Just enough light seeped through the seams of the barrel that with his keen eyes, he could make out the relatively tiny space. Although he hadn't been in here long, his legs were already aching from his crouched position. The smell of damp oak wood was occasionally usurped by the smell of apples and other raw ingredients in the cart, mixed with the regular smells of a city.

No, he decided. It wasn't really barrels. He hated cramped spaces.

If he wasn't in the midst of infiltration, he would've called up to the wagon driver, one of the members of Spectre – Teresa, if he was remembering correctly – and asked her to drive more carefully. Though, he supposed rushing for a rush delivery was sort of the point.

"Halt." The voice that called out was male and sounded dispassionate; almost certainly a guard.

The rumbling of the cart and the clopping of horseshoes ceased as the cart came to a stop. This should be the checkpoint that ran into the back entrance of the castle, where deliveries of supplies - like the cart he was hidden on - would go through. Kaden shifted to make his profile smaller, ears flattening against his head. Probably unnecessary, but it made him feel better.

"State your business."

"Here with the rush delivery the castle kitchens asked for." Teresa's tone was relatively professional, imitating someone who had been through the motions of a checkpoint many times. Kaden wouldn't really be surprised if she had done it before. Being a thief wasn't a profession people usually turned to readily.

"You have the shipment manifest?"

"Yeah, just gimme a second." There was the sound of rustling as Teresa assumedly reached for the document. "Right here, soldier boy."

"Very well." A pause. "Check the back."

"You really have to do that? You're keeping the nice people inside waiting." Kaden winced at the attempted levity. Did she have to sound so annoyed? They were trying to remain inconspicuous, not draw any unnecessary attention to themselves.

Then again, maybe she was trying to use the rushed and annoyed deliverer angle, to play to her supposed job. Suppliers would probably get a lot of business this way during the festival after all. Being overworked would be common.

"Standard procedure. You should know this."

Kaden caught her mumble, "Doesn't make it any less obnoxious," as the jangle of ring mail signaled the guard coming closer. The shuffling of rope followed by the whoosh of the canvas covering the delivery being taken off signaled the beginning of the inspection.

He felt the wagon dip slightly as one of the guards got on, assumedly to inspect the cargo closer. The first guard started listing off the contents of the shipment while another affirmed that each piece was there.

It went on for a minute or so before they came to "- four barrels full of apples." There was a pause. "Why barrels?"

"Rush orders don't give you much time to pick and choose your containers, soldier boy, especially during busy times of the year like these."

There was a disinterested grunt as he answered, "If you say so," before the clomping sound of boots came to rest right beside Kaden's hiding place.

Kaden tensed reflexively. Even though he'd done something similar before in a different heist, he was in one of those barrels currently. Above him, he heard the lid of the barrel twist. His heart pounded loudly in his ears, making his tail twitch involuntarily. A nearly unnoticeable influx of light entered into his hiding place.

A second or two passed…

Before the lid was unceremoniously placed back down. By the sound of it, the other three barrels were given a similar treatment.

He breathed a quiet sigh of relief, and glanced up at the false bottom of the barrel above him, not daring to move before he heard the rest of the inspection finish and felt the cart begin to move again, sloping gently downward after he heard the sound of a metal gate being cranked open. There really hadn't been much of a reason to worry about getting caught here, yet after last night's disaster, he felt anyone would be justified for being on edge.

To be honest, Kaden had half expected to wake up dead this morning, though maybe that was overreacting. After all, he knew next to nothing about Anankos, or how the apparently mad dragon – and it still felt weird to even acknowledge that dragons even existed – operated.

It was unnerving, and kept him alert, but stressed. It was a small solace that he knew the scent of those invisible soldiers. Sure, there hadn't been a whiff of them all morning, but that just put him more on edge.

Then again, they had only really seemed interested in killing Robin, or whatever it was that happened to him and Anna at her supposed safe-house. Maybe he'd slipped under the dragon's view as unimportant? No, that seemed unlikely. More likely, something else was going on, but he really didn't want to know. He shoved the thought down.

Don't think about it. Focus on the now.

The clopping of horseshoes and creaking of the wheels of the wagon began to echo, likely in an enclosed area for a moment before they stopped entirely. The air had shifted, becoming less humid. He felt the wagon dip slightly as he heard Teresa get down.

"You're here with the rush delivery for the kitchens, right?" The voice was female, sounding slightly exasperated.

"Yup. That'd be the case."

"Oh, thank the gods you made it so soon. It's been one disaster after another in the kitchens today. Being short on supplies is the least of our worries, but I'm glad at least that you're here with the shipment on time."

"Happy to help. You can have your crew start unloading the cart now."

Footsteps followed by the wagon dipping again marked the start of it. The fact that castle kitchens just happened to be in need of extra supplies and that they just happened to be out of the ingredients currently being offloaded from the cart?

It wasn't a coincidence.

Kaden shook his head. All of the behind the scenes work being done for this one heist was baffling to him. Then again, the promise of enough coin would be enough for most humans to do anything, so maybe it shouldn't have been all that surprising.

"By the way," Teresa started speaking again, "out of curiosity, these 'disasters' in the kitchens wouldn't be somewhat related to why the checkpoint guards were ridiculously thorough with their inspection today?"

"I couldn't say if that's the case or not, but well, everyone's a little on edge with the Nohrian and Hoshidan royals here." She seemed to hesitate, before going on in a whisper. "I heard some of the people from the Nohrian group tried to assassinate the archduke during his most recent divining ritual."

"You don't say?" It wasn't new information as it somewhat matched some the intel Spectre had gone over earlier in the morning. Despite how it sounded, it could make Nina's job easier. They'd be more focused on watching the royals and the party. With luck and maybe a little 'persuasion' here and there if necessary, things would go smoothly. "Well you be careful then."

"I will, but you shouldn't worry. He may be a bit eccentric, but the archduke has the best interests of Izumo at heart. We'll be fine, I'm sure."

If the conversation continued, the rest was lost on Kaden as his world tipped. He heard the grunting of someone lifting his barrel. It shook as it landed. He braced himself against the interior of the barrel as it was turned on its side – he was very glad he had only had a light meal beforehand – and began to be rolled away.

Though it couldn't have been more than a minute – it felt like much longer when your world was spinning – eventually the wheeling of his barrel had ceased and it was upright again. They must have already carried him into the cellar. A few more minutes and the sounds of people ceased, cut off by the sound of a trapdoor shutting.

Part one of the infiltration done.

The light filtering through now would be too dim for most to make anything out, but he could still make out the edges of his enclosure. With a sigh, he began the hardest part.

Waiting.


It didn't make any sense.

Odin stared down at the parchment lying innocuously on the writing desk in front of him, as though glaring at it hard enough would actually divulge its secrets. The initial shock of seeing it had long since worn off, but the confusion as to why a hand-drawn map of the continents of Archanea, Valm and Jugdral was here in the first place was still rising.

He'd spent more than three years scouring every book that he could get his hands on searching for information about the dragons of this world. At this point, he was sure that he knew more about them than he did about the ones in his own world. Of course, he'd never really ever had the time to study the dragons of his home world in the first place. Spending your life in a war would deprive anyone of time to do that.

The First Dragons. Precious little information that wasn't immersed in heavy religious undertones and tribal lore was difficult to come by. Even then, when it wasn't the Dawn and Dusk Dragons, the information he had available was slim to none. Especially when it came to Anankos, the only one that he really needed information on.

The only really solid lead he came up with was the cult, - aptly named 'Silence' - a fanatical religious group that at one point revered the Silent Dragon before seeming to blip out of existence. He had an inkling of why, yet even then, its existence was only in passing mentions. Of the few scholars and historians that mentioned it, most seemed content to simply agree that it had existed.

On Valla, however, there was nothing. Not even an offhand reference. His current running theory was that all of the information on it was cursed somehow, just like its name. He had no proof, sure, but it was all he had at the moment.

And, of course, he was still unsure of what the endgame of Anankos was in the first place. He originally assumed that it was similar to Grima, that he just wanted to facilitate the destruction of the world. However, there had been a decidedly large lack of world destruction by the designs of a mad dragon occurring since he'd arrived.

He glanced down again at the map, noting the hasty lines. Whoever had sketched it was definitely not an artist; saying it was a rough sketch was an understatement. Nevertheless, the shape and of course the labels on it were instantly recognizable to him.

Why had a map of his home suddenly showed up out of the blue? Information on the Silent Dragon was hard to find, sure, but as he had proved, not impossible. However, this map should be impossible. Only three people should have knowledge of his world in the first place. Laslow, Selena and himself.

Odin frowned. And Anankos, considering it was he who had brought them here in the first place. But then, how did Anankos find out about Archanea in the first place? How had the artist of the map? Was the artist from his world? But then, if that was the case, how did they get here? It hardly seemed like Anankos would've done it. Why were they attacked? Were they attacked?

He tapped his finger lightly under a note, scribbled in a messy scrawl on the corner of the map. The only insight into the mind of its creator.

No geographical overlapping when comparing this to local continental maps. A different, unknown continent or something else?

Ugh! Everything was so frustratingly vague.

He banged his head on the desk in frustration. This was going nowhere.

"If you're done, we need to have a chat, Odin."

Odin heart jumped, and he reflexively stood, falling back into a Feroxi sword stance towards the speaker. Niles simply leaned nonchalantly against the wall adjacent the door, arms crossed, smirking.

"Haven't you ever heard of knocking?" Odin asked, straightening. His voice betrayed some of the frustration he felt.

"No."

Odin forced himself to relax, physically at least, and set the chair he'd knocked over back up. How long had Niles been standing there? Drat. He'd expected him to ask questions, what with how he'd panicked on seeing the map, but he'd hoped he would've at least waited longer.

He bit back a retort. "I assume you're here to heap questions onto me again?"

Niles' smirk turned predatory. "You know me so well. Are you going to try to be evasive like you normally are, or will you consider talking straight with me again?"

"What do you mean?"

"Can you really hide behind fancy words and vague misleading statements after how open you were yesterday, before we were so rudely interrupted?"

"Interrupted? That's putting it mildly." Maybe being dismissive would help. He'd talked too much the other day. Odin gestured to the parchment on the writing desk. "It's just a badly drawn map, Niles. I don't think it's even one of a real place."

The last part was a lie of course. He, Selena and Laslow had agreed never to speak of their homeland shortly after arriving in Nohr. Doing so would just lead to unanswerable questions. Not for the first time, he blamed that stupid curse.

Niles sidled up to him, eye flicking over it. "So you say. But if that was the case, why even try to hide it in the first place, only to freely show it to me now?"

"Wouldn't you just have nicked it while I wasn't looking anyways?" Niles made no response, simply staring pointedly at him. It was slightly unnerving. "I thought it looked familiar, that's all. No need to make such a big deal out of it."

Niles stepped forward, eye narrowing. "Don't lie to me, Odin. No one reacts like you did to a map unless it was important somehow. What does it mean to you?" He paused, thoughtful. "Unless, no. Could it be that it's where you're from?"

He wanted to deny it. There was no point, no good reason for Odin to tell him the truth, but that look Niles was giving him made him squirm internally. But his hesitation probably gave him away.

Niles chuckled, pressing onward. "I'm right aren't I? But it does make me wonder, why is it you refuse to tell anyone where you come from? Do you hate your homeland?"

No, it was more like he didn't want to tell anyone that the way he came to this world was through the fragment of a mad dragon. Said fragment then proceeded to give him and his two companions his blood ostensibly to give them greater power to help them fight off invisible soldiers. Then after a losing battle, headed by that blue and red haired young woman, transported them from said place – that had floating islands – that you couldn't talk about outside of it because of a curse, to the middle of nowhere in Nohr.

Even just thinking about it sounded ridiculous, even when he didn't account for the curse.

He turned to face Niles. "Why are you bringing this up again now, Niles? I thought you'd accepted that I don't want to talk about it years ago."

"Because something funny is going on, something that feels like it could harm Lord Leo. It's an instinct. The way Izana looked at you, the way he said the things he did, it the same as that look in your eyes right now, the same way you often speak, like both of you are holding back something critical."

Izana. Of course. Why had Izana drawn attention to him like that? Or maybe, he should be asking why he couldn't have kept his curious mouth shut in the first place.

Odin sighed. "And if you knew this supposedly critical information, would that satisfy you?"

"Nothing would ever satisfy me."

He pointedly ignored the double entendre. "Some things," he turned away and put on what he hoped was his best brooding face, "are best left buried in the past. Let it go Niles."

A misdirection. Something he had become adept at ever since arriving here. It was rare that anyone looked past the quirky dark mage persona. Instead, let Niles think it was some sort of troubled past he didn't want to speak of. Throw him off track from the truth, the one that could kill him.

There was a contemplative look in Niles' eye, before he, amazingly, backed off. "Very well. You've made your point."

Odin blinked, surprised, before Niles' look turned sour. "But if any of this," he gestured to the map, "ever comes back to harm Lord Leo, I will personally make you regret ever setting foot in his presence."

The vehemence in his voice almost made Odin shudder. Almost. He still swallowed nervously. "I-I uh, wouldn't have it any other way."

Niles straightened, his normal, predatory smile easing back onto his face. "Good. So long as we're clear." He turned, walking back to the door, before he paused. "Believe it or not, I didn't come here just to antagonize you."

"Oh, really?" Could've fooled him.

"The meeting with our illustrious host will be starting up soon. Best that you don't miss out on it, Odin." The door shut behind him softly.

Odin breathed a sigh of relief at Niles' departure, but it quickly turned back into anticipation. Why did the archduke want to meet with them? From the way he had spoken before, it didn't seem like it would be a simple call for trade between Nohr and Izumo, as Lord Leo had surmised on their trip here.

So what then? He sighed, standing. If the interaction from yesterday were anything to go by, at least it wouldn't be dull. But would it be good? Or had the archduke somehow stumbled upon something? Only one way to find out for sure.


Kaden was about to hoist himself out of the barrel, when the door to the cellar's trapdoor creaked slightly before it opened, lights and smells from the kitchens above spilling into the chilly room. He quickly replaced the lid, but didn't twist it, and crouched back down into that infernal barrel among the apples, collapsible false bottom digging into his leg.

He breathed in. It wasn't the distinctive scent of Anankos' soldiers. A small relief.

The footsteps came closer, before stopping beside his barrel. His heart pumped loudly in his ears as he tensed, prepared to knock the person out. Hopefully it wouldn't draw attention. He didn't want to do that just yet. The lid popped off.

"Well, lookee what we have here."

Nina's grinning face met his as Kaden blinked, his muscles relaxing slightly. "Nina?" What was she doing here? Wasn't she supposed to be somewhere else at the moment?

"Expecting someone else?" she asked quietly, extending her hand.

Kaden looked at it a moment before shaking his head, accepting her help to heave him out of the barrel. "What are you doing here?" he hissed. "I was ready to knock you out." He stretched his back, earning satisfying little popping noises. "Couldn't you have at least said something, or, I dunno, knocked on the side of the barrel?"

"Probably, but this was way more fun."

He paused mid-stretch. Fun? Normally, she wasn't so brazen on their heists. Whatever. That was beside the point. "Weren't you supposed to be in position around the archduke's study?"

"I think being in that barrel knocked your sense of time out of whack. You were taking too long. "

"The barrel was your idea," he pointed out.

"You would've been too conspicuous sneaking in otherwise." She started heading back up the wooden stairs, and he followed after she turned back, cocking an eyebrow, clearly expecting him to follow.

He sighed, and started following her quietly up the stairs. "And you're not?"

"I'm the master thief here." He supposed that her confidence wasn't entirely unjustified. She would've long since been jailed or killed otherwise. "Regardless, I've already scoped out the outside of the study, so I've still got time to spare to help you into position."

Was she being condescending or was she trying to be helpful? "Until the feast starts, right?"

Nina nodded, silently closing the trapdoor behind them. "Yup. The majority of their attention is going to be focused there. Perfect time to strike, get the goods and be on our merry way before they even think to think they've been robbed. You remember your role, right?"

"Yeah, yeah. Play the lookout, warn you with this," he briefly pulled out a small stone, one that was paired with a duplicate one Nina had, waggling it a bit for emphasis before pocketing it, "of anyone approaching, and cause of a distraction in case we need one to help you escape. Why do you feel the need to go over this again?"

She set a hand on her hip, flipping one of her braids with the other hand. "Oh, so you were paying attention? You were moping so hard while we went over the details earlier, you'll forgive me if I thought you weren't paying attention."

Don't think about it.

"I could hear just fine." His right ear flicked in annoyance. "I'm not deaf."

"No, you wouldn't be. But you are…" She stopped, gave a signal and they both ducked behind a couple of crates. One of the cooks, or maybe a servant, went by their impromptu hiding spot towards the cellar they just came from, muttering irritably about something. Once he opened the trapdoor and was down the stairs, both of them quickly moved on, cutting through a corridor adjacent to the kitchens.

"You're… irritated? No, more jumpy than usual. Something to do with whatever made you crash through that library window last night?"

"How'd you hear about that?"

"Well, if you believe some of the rumors, Spectre is the ones who did it. But c'mon, the whole city knows about it, Kaden. What you did wasn't exactly discreet. Not to mention Specs was there and saw the whole thing."

Kaden frowned. "Specs? Isn't his name-"

She cut him off. "No, his name is definitely Specs."

Kaden rolled his eyes, deciding it wasn't a point worth arguing. "Alright, sure have it your way. Sorry if it caused you any trouble."

"Phpt. If Spectre couldn't handle a little slander we wouldn't have lasted a week. Besides, you're dodging the issue."

Kaden stayed silent. He couldn't tell her, not the real reason. There was no point.

Nina paused, ear to the door that lead outside, before cracking it open. "Hear anything?" She whispered.

Kaden's ears flicked forward, listening, before he shook his head. The door led outside to where the kitchens dumped their waste, and both of them carefully slipped out past the containers piled with compost in different stages of rotting in the relative darkness of the castle grounds. He swatted at a fly that buzzed too close to one of his ears. Nasty little creatures.

They continued through the cool night air, slowly working their way around the patrols on the castle grounds. Though it had stopped raining, the sky was still overcast, blocking out the moon's light. Eventually they stopped underneath a stone balcony, a rope hanging tied to it above.

The result of Nina's earlier 'scoping' no doubt. She was originally going to simply leave it here for him. Their dark clothing would make it difficult to spot either of them, especially with the guards huddling close to their lanterns, destroying their night vision. The night and the large trees surrounding would hide them from the rest of the casual observers.

Nina tested the rope a moment, before turning to him. "Did it have something to do with those new friends of yours? The library window, I mean. It was one of those red-haired merchant sisters and the guy with the stupid looking cloak, right?"

Don't think about it. Acknowledging it will make it harder to forget.

But… he supposed it would be better for Nina to hear it straight from the source than a rumor mill. Just keep it vague. "Yeah, they were in trouble, so I helped them out."

"Against whoever killed that librarian?"

"Yeah."

"And you weren't the one who killed him, right?"

"No." His answer came out forcefully, and a little louder than he intended. He glanced around, but no one came running.

Nina studied his face intently, a frown growing, eyes narrowed. His tail twitched under the cloak involuntarily at the scrutiny. A long silence passed between them, before finally she backed off, shaking her head. The corners of her mouth quirked up.

"Sheesh, you're so uptight about this. Relax, I can tell you're not the kind of person who would off someone just for the fun of it. Still, busting through a window like that?" She let out a soft chuckle. "You attract way too much attention to be a real thief."

"Good thing I'm the distraction, and not the 'master thief' then, yeah?"

"Flattery will get you nowhere, you know." Nina jumped and began shimmying up the rope. A minute or so later after she clambered up to the top, he followed, pulling up the rope and coiling it out of sight, as a precaution.

The room adjacent to the balcony was vacant, of course – Spectre had scoped it out earlier – and from the look of the windows near it, the hallways were as well. Even so, he crept across the lush, extravagant rug to Nina, who had her ear to the door, listening, and stopped a bit behind her.

Something about this heist was bugging him. Spectre told him none of the details of what they were stealing, just what his role in it was, which in and of itself was odd. Sure, he was basically just a long term hired hand – assuming you counted repaying a favor as currency – so maybe it wasn't his place to ask. But, it still didn't tell him why Nina was so set on this.

"Why are you so intent on doing this, anyways?"

"Huh?" She turned to him, confused. "What do you mean?"

Kaden gestured around to the room. "Why raid a castle? From the archduke even? I mean, there has to be dozens of easier marks, even just in the capital alone."

"Hmm." She tapped her finger to her lips, as if contemplating the answer. "How do I put it?" She grinned. "I just really wanted the challenge."

"…That's it?"

The grin slipped off her face and she waved her hand in a dismissive manner. "Not everything needs to be complicated, Kaden." She jerked her head to the side, indicating the door. "Hallway clear to your ears too?"

He listened a long moment before nodding. Nina carefully eased the door open anyways, double-checking. They made their way out into the dark, unlit hallway. This part was currently unused: no sense wasting lanterns on it if no one was there. Quickly but quietly, they darted down the corridor, stopping at the end where light shone around the corner.

Nina took a quick peek around the corner, before ducking back, raising two fingers. Two guards. Kaden raised a questioning eyebrow, and she replied with a thumbs up, before pointing to him and then gesturing to his spot. Kaden nodded, which she returned, disappearing down the corridor they just came.

He let out a breath, and carefully snuck a quick look at the two soldiers with spears guarding the door to the study. One of them let out a yawn, stifling it with his hand.

Was she lying about her reasoning for stealing from the archduke? If so, why?

Should he care?

He shook his head. No.

Don't think about it.


The archduke was late.

The small meeting room was furnished sparsely, a stark contrast to the rest of the opulence and frivolity of the castle Niles had seen. There were only three low Izumite styled tables, two of which were arrayed in a 'v' shape, each with three cushions to sit on. The other table in front of them had only one for the archduke, whenever he deigned to show up.

He had little to occupy the time, so he took to people watching.

He was seated – if you could call kneeling sitting - at the table on the right, to the left of Lord Leo, who was as poised as one could be kneeling as such, but betrayed annoyance. Likely at the tardiness of Izana.

To Lord Leo's right sat Odin. Out of all of them, he looked the most worried. Had he really been that shaken up by their earlier conversation? Perhaps he should have waited until after this, but he couldn't resist.

However, for now he would stop asking questions directly, as the straight up intimidation tactic approach failed to get all of those juicy secrets out. He would simply take a quieter approach to it. It wouldn't do for Odin to be distracted when a moment came to protect Lord Leo.

Even so, his forceful prodding had revealed something interesting. He'd taken a shot in the dark, guessing that the map was of Odin's unknown homeland. He hadn't actually expected it to be true. But of course, at the moment, there were more pressing matters to worry about than prying into Odin's secrets.

To his left, closest to him, the blue-haired woman, Oboro, glared. Such a delightfully sinister looking glare. Normally he would have to actually do something to get a glare like that coming his way. Niles kept his mouth shut, but sent a simple smirk her way, and the glare intensified before she pointedly looked away. It was just too easy, and the victory felt hollow because of it.

The brown-haired retainer, Hinata, seemed anxious about being in the room with them, and kept glancing their way, finger tapping quickly on the table. His posture was slumped as if he was bored, but Niles could tell it was an act, at least partially.

Kneeling between his retainers, the Hoshidan Prince looked surprisingly calm, eyes currently closed. The hostility from earlier wasn't gone, if his tense stance and clenched fists were anything to go by. Of course, it was possible that he simply wanted this to be over with as much as he did.

All of them wanted answers, and they were all willing to suffer the presence of a rival nation to get them.

The door finally slid open, and the archduke stepped through.

He was smiling, but there were subtle tells on his face showing how exhausted he was if you looked closely enough. "I'd apologize for being late, but it couldn't start without me anyways. So in a way, that means I'm right on time!"

No one in the said anything in response as Izana whispered something to one of the guards before he dismissed them. Interesting.

So, the archduke intended to keep this meeting confidential and felt he didn't need guards. Sure, their weapons were being held in a secure place, but it seemed arrogant. Regardless, Niles didn't trust him, even if he had exonerated Lord Leo from Zola's attempted coup, there was something about him that set his instincts off.

The archduke plopped down, kneeling onto to the cushion at the head of the table in front. "Now, unfortunately, our time will be fairly short. However, let me start by answering a question I'm sure that's been bugging you: why did I invite all of you here?"

Takumi spoke up. "What I don't understand is why you left out that a royal from Nohr was invited as well."

The archduke smiled. A knowing smile. Was he being condescending? "Would you have come, knowing your self-proclaimed greatest enemies were due to arrive at the same time?"

"Hold on," Lord Leo interjected, "they arrived four days later than-"

"We were delayed," Takumi cut him off. "One of the villages we stayed at on our way here was attacked by Faceless." He looked pointedly at Lord Leo, eyes narrowed.

"I had nothing to with it personally."

"Let's not devolve into bickering so soon, yes? Though I suppose it does lead in nicely to the reason I invited you here." There was a subtle shift in the archduke's posture, and the tone of his voice. "The issue at hand is greater than that of century spanning border squabbles."

Is that what he thought of an age long war? No, Niles didn't really care, but that seemed calloused even to him.

Izana raised a hand for silence as Lord Leo was about to object. "Have any of you ever wondered why Hoshido and Nohr have always been so divided? That no matter what actions are taken, even when peace seems close, war rears its ugly head again?"

Niles almost snorted. The answer to that was simple: humans were horrible creatures that never learned from their mistakes, and the nobles in power had egos the size of continents.

"What if I told you something was pulling the strings?"

Takumi scoffed. "You expect us to just believe that?"

"We would need proof," Lord Leo stated simply.

"Well then," Izana leaned in, almost conspiratorially. "What do you know about Dragons?"


A/N: The first chapter without Robin or Anna in it. The world moves on without the lead characters? *le gasp*