Fire Emblem Three Houses: Five Years War

I don't own Fire Emblem Three Houses, or any of its characters. This will be a series of one-shots concerning the five years timeskip that occurs right as the war starts. It will contain spoilers for the Azure Moon storyline, and the supports of some characters.

I will treat everyone from the Black Eagles as being recruited by either the Golden Deer or the Blue Lion house, except Hubert who's impossible to recruit. I will attempt to put the shipping to the side as much as possible, but here's what you can expect: Dimitri/F!Byleth, Claude/Hilda, Ferdinand/Dorothea, Petra/Linhardt, Caspar/Bernadetta, Felix/Annette, Dedue/Flayn, Lorenz/Leonie, Sylvain/Ingrid, Lysithea/Cyril, Catherine/Seteth. It will also contain the Ashen Wolves, who will get a dedicated chapter.

I might operate some minor design changes for some of the characters who don't have any post timeskip designs (Catherine, Shamir, Seteth and Flayn for example).

That said, I hope you enjoy your read.

Chapter 13: Ashe "The Hunt" Around the Harpstring Moon (May) of year 1184.

How long had it been since the beginning of this tracking?

Two years?

When they had gone across them, Ferdinand and Dorothea said that despite their best efforts, they found no clues on the prince's whereabouts. Ashe remembered he had trouble believing it at first, even though Ferdinand had shown his loyalty towards Dimitri two years before that, during the siege of Garreg Mach, but it seemed ridiculous. Though if Gilbert had thought the same as he did, he did not show it, as he pointed Ferdinand and Dorothea towards the direction of the Fraldarius estate.

He recalled what Gilbert had said then "It does not strike as odd to me that his majesty would hide, he's a wanted man, after all." Ashe supposed it was sound logic. Cornelia didn't want her position in Fhirdiad to be overthrown, so the faster she could find Dimitri the better she would be. After a year and a half, after looking in every county of Faerghus, Gilbert had decided to tell Ashe they would head for the Empire now, which he believed to be the only place where Dimitri could have gone to. Ashe felt that such thing was risky, indeed, they were only two, so they wouldn't draw too much suspicion, but someone might still recognize them despite their travellers' looks.

But Ashe still remembered the furious insanity behind Dimitri's eyes, when they had learned about the emperor's treason. He guessed it was fair to assume he was heading towards the imperial capital as of right now, to, as he said back at the Holy Tomb four years ago, "hang Edelgard's head from the gates of Enbarr". As of now, Gilbert and Ashe were strolling through the Arundel domain, both on their horses. The sun was setting after a long day of riding through a forest, though Ashe noticed how there were only a few trees remaining, the rest cut down, for resource purposes it seemed.

The days were certainly silent, Gilbert being a stern kind of man, when Ashe had been used to the loud company of his friends four years earlier, maintaining his bonds with them over the two first years of this war, but then, he had the bright idea to ask Gilbert if he could accompany him. Though, he couldn't quit now, since he couldn't let the old knight take the tedious task by himself. They headed towards a small village, one of the few that weren't fortified around the border along the Dukedom of Fhirdiad. Ashe preferred to refer to the rebels as the nation of Faerghus rather than this treacherous snake's side.

They went to look for an inn to sleep in, it was always better than sleeping under the night sky, free for some bandits to steal their belongings if both Gilbert and Ashe rested, and Ashe usually felt guilty to let Gilbert stand on his guard for a whole night. They both climbed down their horses as Gilbert went to pick a purse from the travelling bags hanged on his horses, then Ashe and Gilbert headed inside. The inn was rather humble, the walls made of stone, with wooden pillars to support the first floor.

There weren't a lot of people sitting inside, so the two travellers went to sit at a table. The barman greeted them "What may I serve you?" Gilbert looked up. "Do you serve some beef stew?" "Yup." "Two of them, then, please." The bartender nodded "Sure thing" "Thank you. Before you go, how much for a night?" The barman scratched his bald head "50 gold coins a room." Gilbert nodded "Thank you."

"Ashe, shall we look where we head towards next?" The young man nodded, picked a map from his pocket, and unfolded it on the table. It showed the north-western part of the adrestrian empire, from the Brionnac plateau to the Varley county. Meanwhile, Gilbert pulled out a piece of paper along with a bottle of ink and a feather, most likely to write on it, though Ashe didn't know what the old knight was writing. A letter to someone, perhaps? But that was none of his business, so he took his attention back on the map. It seemed they would have to go to the south next, heading towards the Hevring territory.

The barman came back with their dishes, and as both Ashe and Gilbert thanked him, he asked "Are you travellers?" Gilbert nodded "Indeed, we are… Why would you ask?" he asked neutrally, Ashe seeing the knight put his right hand in his bag, surely to grab the dagger hidden in it. The bartender scratched his head "Well, y'see, we've been raided by brigands..." Ashe saw Gilbert put his right hand back on the table "... and they have stopped raiding us since two months." Gilbert grunted "You think they are up to something?" The bartender nodded "Indeed, they stopped coming when… something, I don't know how to describe this monster, came at the inn to sleep. I was too afraid to make him pay for his room, but I begged him to leave with his gang. He didn't answer and left the day after… I have no idea what they're up to, and everyone's too afraid to check what they're doing."

The barman put a bag full of coins on the table. "That's what the villagers could provide for you to go look around the forest. If we have a proof the bandits are still around, then the imperial army will finally do something about it." The old knight sighed "Very well, we will go look for them tomorrow." After a quick thanks, the barman left both Ashe and Gilbert to eat their meals. "Er, Gilbert, what are you writing?" Ashe asked timidly. The knight didn't raise his eyes from the paper he was writing on "Just a letter, nothing really important" The young squire nodded "Very well..." He checked out the map one last time before getting to eat his stew, as he traced I his mind the path they would take to go towards the Hevring territory. They would go along the small set of hills that wasn't far from the main road, which wasn't sure enough to travel on, since bandits usually waited there to steal some unfortunate traveller's purse, if not worst.

Gilbert finished his meal first, rose up from the bench he was sitting on, picking up the letter he had been writing at the same time, and put back the ink bottle along with the feather back in his bag. "Good night." He said, stern as ever, as he put a key on the table, right in front of Ashe. It read 'Room 2-04', seeing as the inn had two floors, then Gilbert went to his room, leaving Ashe to review one final time their path along the small hills of the adrestrian empire, before going to sleep in his small and comfy room.

…

The two travellers were once again on their horses at dawn, the sun outlining their silhouettes on the small hill they were coming across. They traversed a small river, the water bringing the ambient temperature a bit lower, before heading to a forest where the barman had pointed them towards. As far as bandits went, Ashe had not seen one since their departure from the inn, which was quite a bit suspicious.

The forest was completely silent, ruling out the possibility of a bandit's camp settled around here. There weren't even signs of any fires being set for settlement, yet, some sort of stench came to Ashe's nose, causing him to cover his nose. It smelled like something rotten! Gilbert looked wary, as they approached a small cave, covering his face too as the stench intensified. He looked quickly at the cave, and stopped Ashe from lighting a torch to go investigate inside. "It might be dangerous to light up some fire when there might be some gas." They both entered the cave, stumbling across bits of imperial armour, as well as some rudimentary bandit armour.

The stench became nigh-unbearable as Ashe stumbled on something. He looked closer and jumped in terror as he saw the rests of a rotting imperial soldier, its features barely noticeable due to the lack of lighting. Sitting against it was the corpse of a thief, its skull pierced to let out its grey matter on the floor. Ashe felt very sick all of a sudden and ran outside of the cave to throw up his breakfast. Gilbert came shortly after, looking a little pale, but still contained himself. Ashe coughed "What happened in here?" Gilbert answered sternly "Someone must have drawn an imperial troop inside this cave, while the bandits were resting… no, it's impossible for this to be the feat of a single man..."

"Then they faced savages, who couldn't be bothered to give proper burial or cremation to the bodies" Ashe grimaced. "What kind of monster could have done that..."

…

Red Wolf Moon (November) of Imperial year of 1185

They started following this trail for a year or so. Stories of a blonde monster too intimidating for people around it approach, wiping out imperial troops sent to deal with this beast. None had been successful for the time being, while Gilbert and Ashe followed the indications around the Oghma mountains, sometimes going south to Hrym but staying around the domain of the monastery most of the year. Every time Ashe thought they had caught this beast he feared was his house's leader, everytime, he slipped past their sight.

Ashe and Gilbert were both riding their horses, once again heading towards the summit of the Oghma mountains, when Ashe's mind wondered back to his school days, as the snow fell on his grey hair. It had been six years since the battle of the Eagle and Lion. It had ended in the Blue Lions overwhelming victory, but now, with the kingdom on the verge of destruction, Ashe scoffed at the idea of them winning, totally out of grasp with the state of Faerghus. Well, the celebrations coming after it were certainly nice. The White Heron Cup had seen Dorothea's victory, without much surprise, but the banquet coming the next month had been just perfect. He remembered he went to dance with Mercedes, helping him with his clumsy steps...

If only things could as simple as back then, when the prince still had his mind on making promises such as…

"Gilbert?" The old knight turned to face Ashe, unperturbed by the snow falling on his face. "Yes, Ashe?" Ashe looked at him back with a new found hope. "We need to send a letter to the Fraldarius estate."

You know who did the little massacre.

Well, I think the holidays kinda rolled over my schedule. It's also a short chapter compared to the one that came before. I'm sorry to impose this on you, dear readers, but this time, I will know not to give you false hope. I will try to release the next chapter as soon as possible. I would appreciate it if you reviewed any given chapters or the story in its whole.

Talking about the actual chapter, I always found it weird that Gilbert enters chapter 13 with Ashe, so I wanted to link it up with Ashe helping Gilbert on his research for the prince. Also, don't worry about the date of the final portion, I still have a few chapters to depict the timeskip and its effect on characters.

Romeoraiden: Indeed, I thought TWSITD were sadly underutilised in Azure Moon, when they could have been integrated to the plot in a relatively natural manner with Cornelia. We could still have conserved the climax with Edelgard, but after TWSITD were destroyed along with Shambhala, even though Edelgard would be even more stubborn that in the original version, if we want her to fight Dimitri at the end.

Guest: Nowadays, it's a relatively commonly accepted thing within the FE fandom that Crimson Flower could have been better (a polite way to say it's complete shit, as it has terrible dialogue, a terrible protagonist, a terrible lord, wasted potential, completely black-and-white morality despite preaching you about it, no efforts put into it, the list goes on…). I think the hate towards Rhea stems from the fact that most people played CF first, and can't see her as anything other than a bloodthirsty monster. We have the same equivalent with people playing AM first seeing Edelgard as nothing more than a sociopathic monster. I, for one, did Silver Snow first, and I see the qualities and flaws of both character. Both are good persons at heart, who can be pushed to do horrible things when put under pressure.

Next Chapter: Ashen Homeland