Hello everyone! I am back from my self-imposed winter break and am ready to write. Hope you all enjoy the chapter!

"Don't just stand there," said the woman with bright purple hair. "Come give your mother a hug."

Yuri smirked and closed the distance between them. His mom wrapped his arms around his shoulders and pulled him down to her level, and even though he had to crouch down for it, he didn't mind. Yuri hugged his mom in return, but winced when he felt just how thin she was. Even her bones felt fragile beneath his grip.

"Don't worry about that," his mom whispered in his ear, and Yuri chuckled. Of course she'd say that, even if Yuri was gonna worry anyway. So Yuri said nothing and let his mom hug him until she finally pulled away. Yuri straightened himself up and let his mom look him over, running her hands over his cloak and taking in the state of his boots. "Looks like you've been busy these days. These look a bit worn."

Yuri laughed. "That is something of an understatement. But really, it's nothing a quick polish and trip to the tailor won't fix."

"Or you let me give them a once over." His mom smiled up at him, and Yuri took in the new wrinkles that had formed around her cheeks. They were small, but after so many years of checking on his mom, Yuri knew to look for small details. Her face wasn't gaunt, which was a good sign, but she looked…

"Oh," his mom exclaimed, "it looks like we have company."

Yuri followed her eyeline to see what she'd spotted. And sure enough, hanging back by the open doors that lead into the grand hall, there was Bernadetta, her hands clasped tightly in front of her. She looked between Yuri and his mom curiously, but if the slight hunch in her shoulders was anything to go by, she was still too shy to say a word.

"I guess I should explain." Yuri looked in a deep breath and looked between the two women. "Bernadetta, this is my mother. Mom, this is Bernadetta."

"Oh, it's wonderful to meet you." His mom walked forward and took Bernadetta's gloved hands in hers. "My name's Lilian. I've heard so much about you!"

Bernadetta blushed, but she didn't pull her hands away. "It's nice to meet you, too," she said in a small voice that wasn't shaking.

Lilian just smiled. "Thank you so much for taking care of my son. I heard from your stewardess that you've been helping him."

Bernadetta's blush deepened. "I think he takes more care of me than I take care of him." She looked over at Lilian, at the grand hall, and suddenly asked, "Have you been standing here this entire time?"

Yuri stepped forward and took another look at his mom. She was standing perfectly fine, but Yuri saw as she shifted her feet ever so slightly. "It's alright," Lilian said. "I've spent the last couple of weeks traveling, so it's good to stretch my legs."

Bernadetta gasped and pulled her hands away. "Oh no," she murmured as she started to pace around the hall. "I'm sure she's tired. Standing for a long time after sitting so much isn't good, even if she were traveling! And I can't have Yuri's mom standing around for so long! That's not how you treat your friend's mom!"

Lilian looked up at Yuri with a raised eyebrow. Yeah, now was not the time to explain to his mom that, yes, Bernadetta really was as anxious as a horse in a thunderstorm. A small, purple, kind of cute, shrieking horse. "Uh, Bernadetta?"

"Aah!" Bernadetta jumped half her height up into the air. Frantic eyes landed on Yuri and Lilian, and Bernadetta was suddenly running up to Lilian. "Oh, I know what to do! I'll have the kitchen bring us some food and tea. What kind of tea do you like?"

"Oh, it's okay," Lilian said, but then Bernadetta bit her lip. "Oh. I mean, any tea will do. I'm not fussy."

Bernadetta nodded once and turned to Yuri. "Yuri! Take her to the sunroom. I'll be right there!" And before Yuri could even respond, Bernadetta was full-on sprinting out of the room.

Yuri sighed. "So, in case you didn't pick up on it, that's Bernadetta von Varley. Be sure to appreciate the moments where she stays still for more than three seconds."

Lilian laughed and smiled at the now-empty hallway. "She seems like a nice girl." She glanced over at Yuri, and Yuri's heart sank at the familiar glint in his mother's eyes.

Oh, Goddess, he thought. You really aren't giving me a break today, are you?

"It really is good to see him," Lilian said between tea sips. "I feel like he gets taller everytime I see him, and more handsome, too!"

"Mom," Yuri said, but his mother paid him no mind.

"I know the years were difficult for him, but it really meant a lot when he could come visit between missions. He'd always bring the sweetest gifts."

"Really?" Bernadetta asked, having barely touched her own tea. "Oh, so that's why he wanted to learn to preserve those flowers! They were for you!"

"Yes. They were little roses."

"With baby's breath!" The two ladies said at the same time.

"Mom," Yuri tried again, but Lilian was already speaking again.

"And he'd talk about you, of course. You have no idea how glad he was when you and he became friends again during the war. He even wrote about you in all his letters."

A heavy blush colored Bernadetta's pale cheeks. "Really?"

"Of course! I can show you if you want. I believe I brought some of them with me."

"Mom!" Yuri cried, resisting every urge in his body to drag her away from the table before she could blab about every embarrassing thing only his mom would know about.

Lilian laughed into her hand. "Alright, alright. I'll stop teasing you, baby."

"You two seem very close," Bernadetta said, smiling as she looked between the two of them. They were back in the sunroom, and though they'd been there for a while, Lilian was the only one who had made a dent in the tea and foodstuffs Bernadetta had ordered from the kitchen. Yuri had been too busy veering his mother away from even more embarrassing topics, and Bernadetta was too interested in Lilian's stories to remember her now-lukewarm tea.

"I'd hope so." Lilian smiled at Yuri. "Unless my son tells me otherwise."

"Mom, if I told you otherwise, you'd call me a liar and drag me to the nearest church just to prove a point." Yuri kept his tone light, but he knew that there really was very little stopping his mother from doing just that.

"That'd be funny to see," Bernadetta said. "I thought that no one could drag Yuri anywhere!"

"Well, if I do have to drag him somewhere, I promise you'll get a front row seat."

"Ok! And I'll make sure to tell you where all the churches in Vallais are!"

Lilian smiled and finished off what was left of her meat pie. After her trip, Yuri wasn't surprised at how hungry she was, even if his mother rarely ate large quantities of food. A thought crossed her eyes, and she turned her gaze towards Yuri. "Sweetie, what are you doing in Vallais?"

Yuri sighed. "It's a bit of a long story."

"I have time," Lilian said.

So Yuri explained the situation. The disappearing villagers, the beasts, how they'd followed the trail to Vallais, and how they'd captured an assassin who wanted to find information on security around the Varley estate. Bernadetta supplied information when need be, and Lilian took in the information with a serious face.

"They're after the count?" Lilian's eyes went between Yuri and Bernadetta.

Yuri nodded. "That's what it seems like."

"But Yuri said he'll stay and help!" Bernadetta said. She was holding the tea cup in her hands so tightly that Yuri was worried it would break. "He even said he can get his birds to pitch in, but it'll take them a while to get to the estate every day."

Lilian frowned. "If the security threat is so high, then why aren't your birds staying at the estate?" She asked Yuri.

"I've offered!" Berndetta cried. "We have plenty of rooms here, and it wouldn't be a problem at all!"

Yuri sighed and massaged his temple. This was not a discussion he wanted to have again. "We've already booked rooms at a tavern."

"Yeah, but if you're gonna be here a while, it's gonna get expensive for you."

"Sweetie, why don't you accept the count's kind offer?" Lilian gave Yuri a very familiar look. "Isn't it rude to deny a request from your hostess?"

"If you guys are helping, then I can let you stay for free! You'll be like guards, so you'll do work, and that'll balance out the costs."

"An eye for business." Lilian nodded at Bernadetta, who promptly blushed and lowered her gaze to the tablecloth in embarrassment.

"Mother taught me how to handle money."

Yuri sighed and leaned back in his chair. It was hard enough to ignore Bernadetta's consistent offers, and now with his mom in the mix, there was no way he was gonna get out of this one. Not unless he wanted his mom to drag him to the nearest church and make him read out ever Seiros scripture in existence. "Alright, alright. I'll organize with the others."

"Yay!" Bernadetta bounced in her seat and turned to Lilian. "Oh, you can stay here, too! I don't wanna let Yuri's mom stay just anywhere, and we have a special guest room that I'm sure you'll be comfortable in!"

"You don't have to do that," Lilian said.

"But I want to!" Bernadetta cried back. And of course she was doing the puppy dog eyes.

"Thank you very much," Lilian said with a bow of her head. "I'd be honored."

Bernadetta let out a long breath in relief before turning to Yuri. "Does this mean you'll stay, too?"

"You mean you weren't staying here before?" Lilian said before Yuri could, once again, decline the request. "Even when there are dangerous people roaming about her city? Even when someone as charming as Lady Bernadetta has offered?"

"Oh, you don't have to call me 'Lady'!" Bernadetta said. "Bernadetta's ok. Or Bernie! That's what my mother used to call me sometimes."

"You really are as sweet as my son said you were." Lilian smiled at her before giving Yuri yet another look. "So, will you accept Bernie's offer?"

Yuri looked at his mother. At Bernadetta. Back at his mother, and back at Bernadetta. After a minute of them staring at him, Yuri sighed. "I suppose so," he drawled. "Between the two of you, it doesn't seem like I've got a choice."

"Great!" Bernadetta said, accidentally shaking the tea table with her excitement. "It'll be easier for us to talk about those Slithering guys, and you won't have to go through security all the time!"

Bernadetta gasped suddenly. "Oh my gosh! I almost forgot! I need to go write that letter!" She pushed herself up and gave Lilian a small smile. "Thank you so much for staying for tea."

"I should be thanking you," Lilian said in return.

"Oh, Jeanne!" Bernadetta ran to the sunroom's entrance, and sure enough, there was Jeanne. What impressed Yuri the most is that he hadn't even heard her come in. "When they're done, can you show them to the guest rooms on the third floor? Oh! And Yuri's group are also staying, but they'll be working, too, so you can order them to do anything you need them to do!"

"Understood, my lady." Jeanne inclined her head. "Your messenger is also ready. She's waiting for you in the courtyard."

"Ack!" Bernadetta squeaked. "I—I'll be there soon!" She said, and promptly ran down the hallway.

Jeanne watched her go with a kind smile before turning to Yuri and his mom. "Is there anything either of you require?" She asked.

"Only a hat to cover my son's face," Lilian said, and Yuri pushed down the urge to cover it himself. "I think he might need it."

"As you wish." Jeanne inclined her head and exited the sunroom, leaving Yuri and his mom alone.

Lilian picked up her tea cup and raised an eyebrow at Yuri. "Bernadetta seems like a lovely young lady."

"And I think I know where you're going with this." Yuri shook his head and draped an arm across the back of his chair. "You've always been nosy regarding my personal relationships."

"Only because I want to know about your life." Lilian smiled. "I can see why you liked her."

"Mom, really? Now?"

Lilian laughed, and Yuri laughed with her. It'd been a while since he'd laughed alongside his mother.

"I've rarely seen her so calm with a stranger," Yuri said. "Really, she's usually terrified of anyone she doesn't know. She goes screaming and crying that everyone's out to kill her." Lilian's eyes widened, and Yuri looked away. "She was always like that. Even before I told her about… what I almost did."

"What matters is now. Not the past." Lilian's hand reached out to take Yuri's, and Yuri let her. "You seem to have a lot of work ahead of you, but you'll take care of that girl, right?"

"Heh. You're not the first person to tell me that." Yuri raised his head and smiled at his mother. "I will, Mom. Promise."

Lilian squeezed his hand, but it was weak. Much weaker than before.

"It's getting worse, isn't it?" Yuri asked.

Lilian shrugged. "I'm still alive."

"What about the money I sent for you to pay the healers?"

"The treatments… aren't effective as they were before. I saved up that money to buy passage to here."

"How did you even know I was here?"

"A boy from your company sent me a letter alongside the monthly supplies you send over."

Yuri opened his mouth to ask who it was, but after remembering Armand and his big mouth, he settled for just shaking his head and staring at his mom's hand. It was thinner, he realized. His mom was strong enough to make the long journey all the way from western Faerghus, but that didn't mean that strength could last forever. Yuri knew that all too well.

"You could've called for me," he said.

"I know." Lilian squeezed his hand again. "But you go to such lengths for me, I figured it's my turn to do the same for you."

"You've always done that for me." Yuri looked up at her and smiled. "I've missed you, Mom."

"And I've missed you." Lilian gave Yuri's hand one last squeeze before slowly pushing herself out of her chair. "Now come. It's rude to keep company waiting."

Yuri followed her gaze, and sure enough, there was Jeanne, having silently appeared at the sunroom's entrance. She lifted something in her hands and presented it to Yuri. "Your hat," she said.

Yuri looked over at the thing Jeanne dared to call a hat. It was one of those pompous ones with a wide rim and half a dozen tulle strands woven into the top. It was gaudy in the tackiest of ways, but Lilian was watching, so instead of rolling his eyes, Yuri merely took the hat and placed in on the tea table behind him.

"It's lovely to meet you. Jeanne, right? My name's Lilian." Yuri's mom extended her hand, which Jeanne took.

"A true pleasure," Jeanne said warmly as she began leading them down the Varley halls. "Anyone who can make that boy go as red as a Noa fruit has earned my respect."

"Oh, it's really not that difficult." Lilian said. "He likes to act tough, but he's honestly a sweetheart. I still remember how he was when he was a tiny baby. By the Goddess, he was the cutest thing you'd ever seen!"

"Hey—Mom!" Yuri cried.

"Hush," Jeanne chided as she slowed her pace to match Lilian's shorter strides. "Tell me more."

Yuri sighed. Goddess, I'd ask you for strength, but now I'm thinking that maybe you're the one putting me through all this.

And when Lilian started telling the story of when Yuri tried to escape church mid-ceremony, Yuri was pretty sure that the Goddess was straight up laughing at him.

The next day brought something completely unexpected for Yuri. It wasn't that Armand had finally cornered Balthus and Hilda, nor that the Slithering idiots had made a frontal attack on all of Vallais. If anything, this was something even more bizarre.

Bernadetta wasn't in her room.

At first, Yuri thought that maybe she was busy. For nobles, there were always new laws to draft, letters to write, and even local decrees to issue. But when Yuri pushed the door open (without having to use his lockpicks, by the way), all he saw was a fully made bed and an empty desk. He checked under the bed, in the closet, and even behind the floor-length purple curtains that framed the windows on either side of Bernadetta's bed. But there was no bundle of purple anxiety hiding anywhere.

That didn't make Yuri nervous, though. Not at all. But this was the count, a count who was likely under threat by a very shady group, so Yuri figured it was his moral duty to look around the estate.

Some of the servants gave him looks as he marched around the estate with slightly too quick steps, but he paid them no mind. Not even as he checked the sunroom, the library, and even the kitchens. And his pace definitely didn't get faster the more he walked around without seeing Bernadetta.

It definitely didn't.

And when he decided to check the inner Varley gardens, he definitely didn't see his mom's purple hair and assume it was Berandetta. No, what he did was see that the hair was too light a shade of purple to be Bernadetta's, and so, he calmly walked up to her.

Lilian looked up from the camelia bush she was admiring and smiled up at Yuri. She'd only been at the Varley estate for a single day, and already some of her stress wrinkles had begun to fade from her face. "Hey, baby. Didn't expect to see you here."

"Hey, Mom," Yuri said in return. "I don't suppose you've seen Berandetta by any chance." The garden used to be one of her old haunts, but times had changed, and Yuri didn't know if she still liked to come here at all.

Lilian looked puzzled. "I don't know where she is exactly, but that's because I don't know where her meetings are held."

Now it was Yuri's turn to look puzzled. "She went to a meeting? Outside her room?"

Lilian nodded. "I saw noble-looking folk go into the meeting chamber, and then I ran into Bernie here. I figured she lost track of time and didn't know that the meeting was starting. I just let her know."

"And how exactly did you word it?" Yuri asked.

"I was just pleased that a count was taking so much interest in the people." Lilian huffed lightly. "You and I both know that there are rarely nobles who do that."

Yuri nodded. "Yeah. Thanks, Mom."

And so he went out of the garden and back into the main estate's many twisting hallways. But instead of going deeper into the estate, he walked down and out towards the rooms closer to the entrance. Rooms that were typically used for official business and to entertain guests who weren't trusted enough to enter the deeper realms of House Varley. Rooms that just so happened to be the main place the previous Count Varley held most of his meetings.

As Yuri walked through the estate, he noticed that the servants and guards around him were whispering more than usual.

"The Bear actually left her cave!" Whispered a young maid to a guard as he patrolled the corridor. She pointed to a room halfway down the hallway. "She's in there with the other ministers."

"Oh, man," stage-whispered the guard amid a repressed set of laughs. "How am I gonna tell my boss he missed seeing the Bear herself? She's probably making a fool of herself right now!"

Now knowing exactly where he needed to go, Yuri picked up the pace, giving the guard a good accidental shove along the way. Once he reached the door, another guard with an absurdly rigid posture looked him over. "Lady Varley in there?" Yuri asked.

"Yuri LeClerc?" The guard, no older than twenty, asked.

"The one and only. Once the meeting is done, tell Lady—"

"Lady Varley has told me that you are allowed in any meeting." The guard said in a loud and crisp voice. "If you want, you can go in."

Yuri raised his eyebrows. "If you stop talking so loud that Lady Varley can likely hear you through solid oak doors, then yes, I will go in."

"Yes, sir," the guard responded in a lower tone, for which Yuri was grateful. The guard opened the door, and Yuri strode in.

Yuri had to admit, he had expected his sudden entrance to turn some heads, because honestly, there weren't many nobles who approved of commoners strolling into their meetings. But it turns out that none of them spared a glance for him.

Instead, they were all staring at Bernadetta.

"It would be better to divert funds to the city," one man, whom Yuri assumed with a local minister, said. "With the influx of students at the Academy, wouldn't it be better to support the infrastructure here?"

"W—We already have a lot of i—infrastructure," Bernadetta said in a softer voice. She was sitting at the end of a long oak table, hunched over in a tall seat that demarcated her status as the count. Around the rest of the table were men and women wearing formal robes that were up to date on Vallais fashions, with many of them wearing the layered robes that lawyers and judges often wore when walking through the city. "I—"

A roaring wave of shouts, arguments, counter arguments, and nonsensical speech sprouted out of the ministers' mouths. They all talked over one another, and Bernadetta's quieter voice was lost in the swarm of opinions and declarations from half a dozen ministers that wanted to do nothing except prove their point.

"The count is trying to speak," Yuri said in a heavy voice he hadn't used since the end of the war. The conversation faded as every minister turned to Yuri, all of them with varying levels of confusion. The only one who didn't look confused was Bernadetta, who stared at him with wide gray eyes. "And none of you seem to want to listen. I thought you nobles were courteous enough to give your count that right."

"And who's this mongrel?" Said a minister with a large mustache that caught the droplets of spit that came out of his mouth.

"A friend!" Bernadetta said. Every minister turned to her, and even though her cheeks had gone bright red, Bernadetta bunched her hands into fists and announced, "A—And if you call him a mongrel again, I—I'll have you thrown out of the estate!"

The minister with the ridiculous mustache shared glances with the woman next to him, but said nothing. Yuri chose that moment to walk over to the side of the room, but not before sending Bernadetta an appreciative wink.

Somehow, Bernadetta's face got even redder.

"So, where were we?" Asked another minister and Yuri leaned against the wall of the spacious meeting room.

"We were talking about infrastructure," Bernadetta supplied, and getting back on topic seemed to make the blush in her cheeks go down. "Vallais has enough infrastructure, but the outer areas don't. Spending more money in the city would be a waste."

"And what is the benefit of giving outer areas money we could use here?" The minister with the mustache pressed.

"Lots!"

Yuri and all the ministers raised their eyebrows at Bernadetta's fierce declaration. Bernadetta looked uncomfortable at all the eyes on her, twisting and turning in her chair. So when she looked over at Yuri, Yuri smiled and nodded at her to go on.

Bernadetta, after a deep breath, continued.

"If we give outer areas more resources, they could make new buildings. New schools. More people who can read and write, so we can expand the academies! Then not everyone has to come to Vallais. If we give money for proper healers and traders, then the people will have a better quality of life. Less people would get sick if they have proper medicine and food, so less money needs to go to controlling plagues. Instead of having to control a lot of sicknesses, we can build a huge hospital and keep people healthy!

"It'll be a bit more expensive in the short term… but it'll save a lot of money in the long run!" Bernadetta twisted her fingers together. "The more people who are healthy, can read, can write, can do all the things people in Vallais can do, the more they can help Varley! They can take care of their own villages. They'll need less help from the capital. And we might even get something more amazing! Something we can't even do in Vallais!"

The mustachioed minister dropped a hand onto the table. "And what is that 'thing'?" he asked.

"I—I don't know!" Bernadetta stammered. "It's s—something we don't k—know about y—et."

The minister huffed. "So why—"

"It's my decision!" Bernadetta yelled, and Yuri had to do a double-take to make sure he heard right.

"T—Thank you f—for your c—comments…" Bernadetta said. "B—But I'm the count, and this is w—what I've decided."

"That… makes sense to me," said a minister with the crest of the Vallias legal academy on her epaulets. "I'll be sure to inform the treasurer at once, Lady Varley."

"T—Thank you." Bernadetta nodded at the minister. "Y—You're dismissed!"

With differing levels of respect, the ministers filed out of the meeting room after bowing to Bernadetta. Once they had all left, Bernadetta pressed her face to the oak table and deflated faster than Constance did when she was forced out into the sunlight.

"Uuuuuuugh," she groaned.

"Gotta say, Bernadetta," Yuri said as he pushed himself off of the wall. "That was quite a show. Never seen you put your foot down like that, even if your voice was shaking more than a flag in the Oghma mountains."

"Yuriiii. No lying!" Berndetta yelled into the wood.

"You kidding? If you weren't the count, I may as well scoop you up and give you a big ol' kiss."

A small 'squeak' burst out of Bernadetta. She raised her head, and Yuri saw a fresh blush color her entire face red.

"Just a little joke," Yuri said quickly. "You did well, Bernadetta. Not a lot of nobles would have done what you did; think of the people."

"That's what your mom said." Bernadetta slouched into her chair and looked up at Yuri. "You think I made the right decision?"

Yuri shrugged. "Doesn't matter what I think. But in case it does… Yes, I do."

Bernadetta's smile lit up the whole room.

"And this is where group three would be stationed." Bernadetta pointed at a set of model houses near the local market. "The Slithering guys like going into houses, so keeping guards around residential areas might make them reconsider hiding there."

Yuri nodded, admiring both her plan as well as the large-scale model of the entire city of Vallais. Yuri knew that Bernadetta's mother had a hobby of making handicrafts, but he never thought that she'd be dedicated enough to make a model of the whole entire city. And an accurate one, at that! "You've always been good at reconnaissance."

"I don't do—"

"You don't do well with sneak attacks. I know, I know." Yuri looked over the small models of Vallais guards that he and Bernadetta had placed around the makeshift city. Each one had been carefully painted, and a single model guard representing three real-life Vallais soldiers. They were all spread out through the sprawling city, and for the most part, they were spread evenly. Yuri pointed out two clusters, both of them near local courthouses, to Bernadetta. "The battalions here and here look a bit understaffed."

"That's because they are." Bernadetta wrapped her arms around herself and sighed. They were back in one of the estate's private rooms, and it showed in the way Bernadetta let her shoulder droop. "I wanna keep the entire area covered, but that means I had to split up some battalions. I figured the security around the courthouses could supplement the missing guards. It'd be better if I could spread things evenly, but I wanna keep the newer troops together. I know what it's like when people expect you to know everything when you don't, and I don't wanna send them to groups that they're not trained to work with yet."

"Speaking from experience?" Yuri asked, and Bernadetta stuck her tongue out at him. "Well, good news is that you don't need to spread them out."

"I don't?"

"You don't."

"Why?"

"Why not?"

"Yuri!"

"Come on, don't tell me you already forgot." Yuri raised an eyebrow. "My birds are working for Varley now. All you have to do is tell them to join the groups that are short on members. You're not missing many, so you'll even have a few of them left over for Jeanne to order around."

"Oh yeah!" Bernadetta ran over to a shelf and grabbed two more models of Vallais guards. She placed them down next to the clusters that were missing more manpower and smiled proudly at her work. "That could work! And they have experience with you, so all they need to learn about is Vallais and the guard rotations!"

"Correct." Yuri leaned back and stretched his arms over his head. "I'll fill you in on the details of my little group. Lissy's a good soldier, so I suggest you keep her in the outer city districts. She also knows who Balthus is, so if the big guy gets himself into a betting game before he and Hilda find us, she can drag him out before he's lost too much gold."

''Huh? Why don't you assign them?" Bernadetta asked.

"Don't really feel like it. This one's all on you, Bernadetta."

"W—Why me?" Bernadetta stammered and gripped the edges of the table holding her mother's massive model of Vallais. "Why not anyone else? Why not Jeanne? She's way better at getting people to do stuff!"

"As much as I hate to admit it, Jeanne can even give me a run for my money sometimes." Yuri softened his voice. "But she's not you. My birds only take orders from men and people I've given my express command to. And I'm giving my express command to you, Bernadetta."

"But why me?" Bernadetta asked in a very small voice.

"Because I know you're smart enough to know where to put them." Yuri gestured to the model, at all the little soldier neatly lined up in a way that would provide coverage of all of Vallais. "And because the soldiers need to see their commander."

Bernadetta hung her head. "I'm not a commander anymore."

"Not in a war. But you're still a commander." Yuri smirked. "Like I said, I can't sit back and take all the glory. If I go out there and give out your plan, that's what'll happen. Now, you don't want me breaking my own promise, do you?"

"No!" Bernadetta raised her head, and Yuri laughed.

After a moment, Bernadetta let go of the table and straightened her back. "You really think I can do it?" She asked Yuri.

Yuri took her in. He took in the slight shake of her shoulders, her straight posture, her taut legs, and the serious look she had in her eyes. There was fear in there, of course, but also determination. Determination to care for her people and a mind smart enough to come up with strategies to do so.

So Yuri nodded and said, "I do."

Bernadetta looked away from him. She bit her lip and looked over the model before her. A moment passed.

"Ok," she said. "I'll do it."

Yuri smiled. He smiled, and he thought, Now let's see what they think of the Bear of Varley.