5
"Hey, didn't you hear me? I said i'm on your side, the Shepherds…" Morgan gestures, not getting a response she forces a smile "The Feroxi?..."
Morgan adjusts her footing, getting ready to attempt a quick escape if things turn south… well more south. With the battle seemingly over, she has the time to fully evaluate the other girl. Well, she's a swo-
"What are you doing here…" the stranger utters slowly, head tilt downward. Morgan is unable to see her eyes through her bangs but seeing her hands tighten around the grip of her sword gives her all the information she needs.
"I...do I know you?...Listen I think you have the wro-"
"Silence… I don't know how you're here or what your plan is but I'm putting a stop to it now" she exclaims quite confidently, her voice not hitching at all despite it look like she's on the verge of tears.
Before Morgan can even beg for an explanation the girl comes charging, her speed quite amazing, the young tactician can't help being impressed that she's closed the distance in the time it took for her to pull a tome out from her cloak.
"This is the end for you!" the stranger shouts, sword held high overhead as things seem to slow down for Morgan. Her eyes widen slowly as she knows she's already been beat, her only chance is to delay and hope a favorable opportunity arises...
"Not… yet…" she cries, clutching her book tightly as she forsakes its pages and magic and instead thrust the tome upwards onto the oncoming sword. With a heavy 'thunk' the sword slices itself halfway into the thing halting the sword arc just a foot from her face.
She almost wanted to smile but she's not out of danger yet and unsure if the girl will fall for that again she begins to pour her magic and faith into the book, attempting to cast a spell despite the pages sheared almost in half.
"El Wind! Please!" she cries, eyes shut as she braces herself for the sword if nothing happens. What comes next isn't entirely unexpected as the closed book is barely hanging together from the spine. The magical energy has nowhere to flow out from and instead tries seeping through the pages until finally, it all seems to combust in on itself. The tome explodes and at its center a powerful vacuum is created before quickly blowing the book apart, releasing a powerful gale. At first, it's just the two girl's hairs that are blown back but slowly they find themselves being pushed apart slightly as the wind continues to pick up.
"What...did...you do…" the angry blue hair girl demands answers as the wind forces her down onto a knee, taking the opportunity to digs a hand into the ground. Morgan not having as much luck gets pushed over by the turbulent wind and rolled backwards, at the very least away from her.
Finally making it a good hundred feet from her opponent Morgan sits up from her prone position, her hair a mess, trying to blink the sand from her eyes. With a quick examination she notices the rain… the clouds all gone… did the tome do that? It's a good thing she doesn't use fire magic or that could have ended poorly… Still, she's created the opening she needed she just needs to-
"Going somewhere?..." the woman is already on top of her…
-0-
Robin and Maribelle crest what seems to be the last hill, the wet soil of the valley turning back to dry dusty sand that makes up the dunes. Robin's almost happy to see it and is happier sand doesn't retain water as well as soil, though a brief glance of the other Shepherds in the area tells a different story. After a brief glance around it seems like everyone is here… except Morgan. The niggling warnings of Frederick come to mind, but he's soon distracted by some yelling.
"Robin! Maribelle!" Lissa blurts out, turning her attention away from Chrom and Frederick as soon as the pair enter the corner of her eye. In a second she's by them, arms wrapped around Maribelle and she's forced to let go of Robin, finally giving him some respite from the unending awkward and embarrassing walk. Still limping a bit, he begins shuffling over towards Chrom since it's only a matter of time before Lissa notices what Maribelle hasn't.
"I was so worried when you-...wait Maribelle your blouse! It's soaked through" Lissa nearly shrieks
"Oh, Lissa it's only a s-"
"It's completely see through!"
Robin feels a chill go down his spine, a cold sweat beginning as he hears Lissa yell that out, plenty of people turning to look, hopefully they don't notice him tiptoeing away.
"Huh?... ROBIN!" Maribelle's voice pierces through him, anxiety building as he looks over at Chrom for some help, but alas he looks away as if pretending not to notice him.
"Ah...Frederick there was uh… something I needed to discuss with you…" the prince scratches his cheek, forcefully turning the knight away from Robin.
-0-
Morgan sits there, petrified as she stares up at the woman. How did she remain so balanced? Was she a demon? Not sure if she has another trick up her sleeve she leans back, finding herself backed up against some rocks… swell…
The woman seems done with talking, instead just raising her sword to finish the job, Morgan can only stare as she's about to bring the sword down on her...only to be halted… huh?
The two girls are shocked as an arm seemingly from nowhere stops the attacker before she can finish the job… Morgan is quickly relieved to find it wasn't a pile of rocks she backed herself up against… but a knight! Who was this again?...
"K-kellam?" the girl seemingly answers the question for her, a bit startled by his appearance.
"I don't know what this is about… but you two both saved the Exalt and i'd be remiss if I were to let either one of you die while I could help it" the man states quite elegantly as Morgan nearly faints after being so close to death.
The girl though seems startled, a slight twitch and she begins to lower her sword. Her face spells confusion as she glances down at Morgan and back to Kellam.
"I'll… retreat for now…" is all she can say in a steady voice as she begins to head off with a quick pace.
Morgan sighs out as she begins to stand up, glad she doesn't have to throw this knight to his death to guarantee her escape, father wouldn't approve of that "Thanks for s-...where'd you go?"
"I'm in front of you…"
-0-
Robin sighs as he's graciously been given some space to sit in a caravan… He had to listen to Maribelle go off on him for what felt like twenty minutes, on how he was a lecherous lowborn craven who used his tactical knowhow to plan the whole thing just to get a peek. Lissa knowing that wasn't true clearly found it too hilarious to interrupt and instead just stood behind her flashing him teasing looks the whole time, all the while he could feel every woman in the Shepherds opinions on him lower… except Sumia who seemed to think this was all Maribelle's way of showing affection… or something.
"I want to die…" Robin grumbles, slowly wiping mud off of Maribelle's boots. He apparently got off easy in her words, only having to clean them… and attend etiquette lessons by her for the next six months once everyone returns to Ylisse.
Lissa who's been working on tending to Robin's ankle shrugs "You shouldn't have peeked" she giggles, happy that her two friends were 'getting along so well'.
"Buuutt… despite everything you do seemed to have perked up again" she flashes him a smile, hoping to get a reaction. Maribelle had seemed to have helped him, one way or another.
Setting the boots to the side he rubs his face not wanting to give Lissa anything "Yeah… sure… still I have to have a talk with Morgan…"
"About her outfit, right?" Lissa arches an eyebrow wanting to drop some sizzling gossip on what the other girls have been thinking about what Morgan and Tharja wear.
"No… Lissa, no." Not wanting to get into that he scratches his chin wondering if he should tell her. "She made some… questionable decisions that put a few people in danger…"
"Well… i'm sure it wasn't on purpose, I mean… if not for her we might not have saved Emm…" Lissa admits, the thought even dampening her cheery disposition.
"Right… she did do that…" Robin leans back finally giving some thought back to the events in the courtyard.
-0-
"H-haha… oops" Morgan stammers, a smile on her face as she tries to hide the small pine box behind her back.
"Morgan… what did you do…" Robin pleaded for an answer as the amount of Risen in the area has doubled. Was she really a spy waiting for the chance to double cross them?
"Well… you went on so much about fighting them…"
It feels like his stomach is in knots until he hears Chrom shout in confusion "What the… Robin the risen are fighting amongst themselves"
Snapping back to reality Robin looks around at the mass chaos of skeleton and half rotting corpses shuffling against each other's, seeming to ignore both the Shepherds and the enemy Plegians alike.
"What… I… C-continue the plan, Phila get the Exalt away from here!" he shouts as Morgan unknowingly slips away from behind him.
-0-
"I need to confront her about that too" he sighs out, wondering if real children are as much work as unconfirmed ones like this.
Blinking, Robin turns to where Lissa was sitting… only to find Maribelle there instead.
"Is there a reason you've stopped?" she demands, head tilted upwards as if to just look down on him even more.
"I want to die…" Robin can only bemoan wishing he stayed face down in the dirt.
(Revising grammar)
Another totally inconsistent chapter
After asking google, it seems like a sturdy book could do pretty well against the average sword, Falchion is probably three times your average sword but this isn't an anime so it still shouldn't cleave it in a single swing, I mean, that's a lot of wood pulp. That's the defense for myself at least.