A Better Place

by Waywatcher

I can remember a world where I was safe, where war was a notion meant for more violent countries, and where the internet gave me unlimited entertainment and knowledge with a few keystrokes. That world is not this one, and I miss it dearly. At least I have Morgan to keep me alive and sane, and I can provide some use to this world with my knowledge of Awakening. Self-insert.

16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem Awakening, all rights to the owners.

I'll be honest, going into this I have no idea how I'm going to handle this chapter. I have a few vague benchmarks I want to touch on, but no smooth way to transition to them. I don't want this chapter to be almost all plot like the last one was.

We'll see what happens.

---

Despite having the most comfortable bed I've slept in so far in this world, last night was not a particularly good sleep. I think it might have something to do with not having Morgan around. Part of what I mentioned before about us never spending more than a few hours apart also includes at night. She was always either sleeping in the same bed as me, or else her bedroll was next to mine.

I'm so used to hearing her breathing that it actually made falling asleep rather difficult. Just something else to get used to I suppose.

Dinner last night was also awkward. Me and Morgan didn't banter like we usually would because I was still wary of Robin, and Robin asked a few questions but otherwise wasn't very chatty. Morgan really tried her best to carry the night, but even her immense charisma could only do so much.

Anyhow… I wake up early this morning, and not exactly by choice. A knock at the door to my room wakes me. I'm sleeping in the Shepherds' barracks. Despite being a barracks, there are individual rooms. Small rooms, granted, but individual.

I'm about to complain at Morgan for waking me up, but it's not her voice that comes through the door. "Nathan. My pardon to wake you so early, but I have business to attend to after breakfast that will occupy my entire day, and I wish to speak with you before that."

Robin was not the person I expected to have knocking at my door, but I can't exactly ignore him. I drag myself out of bed, into my clothes, and to the door. "Sure, what is it?"

It's sunup, barely five thirty. That's way too early to be up in my opinion. Still, we sit ourselves down in the mess hall (apparently Robin's office is in the palace, not here, or else we'd talk in there) and Robin brandishes a quill and parchment.

"I've been made aware that you have vague knowledge of future events." He says. "And seeing as many of my meetings in the near future are going to involve planning for the future of Ylisse, I need this information as soon as possible."

Fair enough. I only shared major future details with Chrom and Virion for simplicity's sake, and there's nothing quite like a firsthand source, so I guess I'm re-explaining everything.

I give him the bullet notes version of the Awakening's major events: Valm's attempted invasion of Ferox, getting boats from Plegia and meeting Henry and the Hierophant, meeting Say'ri (I briefly explain the plan involving Virion) and the situation with Yen'fay, the Mila Tree and Tiki, Execellus' role in everything, Basilio fake-dying to Walhart, how the showdown with Walhart goes, how Robin is supposed to lose the Fire Emblem and all the gems to mind-control bullshit and the Validar showdown (judging by how his brow furrows and the nod of recognition he gives when I describe the usual cutscene of him "betraying" Chrom, he did get the premonition before he woke up near Southtown), and then Grima's rise and the sadistic choice in Awakening's ending.

Through this I don't reveal Lucina's identity. I simply mention that Marth helps and joins the Shepherds and reveals that the future children exist. I suppose it's not a major issue if Lucina's identity is revealed at this point, but it feels rude to take away her choice to remain incognito.

I also make sure to mention the extra paralogues. Aversa, Walhart, Gangrel, Priam, Yen'fay, and Emmeyn (though I suppose Emmeyn is still alive so that's redundant).

Robin listens in silence for the most part, taking sharp notes that I can't read because it's a different written language goddamnit. After I run out of major events to mention he finally sets down his quill.

"Always wonderful to know choosing not to die means the world will continuously suffer." Robin grumbles under his breath. "Well thank you for the information. I'll keep it all in mind. Also, incidentally, next time you're making plans with the ruler of a country, maybe consider involving a representative from the country you're currently in especially if it also involves them to a certain extent."

That must be in reference to me planning with Virion. "It's not illegal to make plans with other people, and I said I'd tell someone like you or Chrom about it."

"Yes, but it involves Ylisse." Robin stresses. "You can't negotiate for Ylisse."

"Since when am I doing that? I'm just helping Valentia not fall to pieces, and I only said that I'd try to get Ylisse into action earlier. I never said I spoke for Ylisse, and I didn't guarantee anything." I say. This seems like a very arbitrary thing to argue about. "And it's Virion, Robin, not some random diplomat. He knows I don't speak for Ylisse because I'm from another world, and I didn't give sensitive information regarding Ylisse."

"But you shared sensitive information overall." Robin says tersely. "You can't share vital information like that so easily."

"And why not?" I frown. "Virion's country is in the line of fire, and he's an ally. How is this even an issue? It's not like I'm handing this information to Gangrel or something."

"But Ylisse could have made better use of the information than handing it away for free." Robin insists.

Oh. Oooh… He's one of those people. Okay. Well, one of two kinds of people. I need to figure out which. "And why is that?"

"Because it's impossible to know what Virion is really thinking, or what the other major players of Rosanne will think." Robin says. "It's better if Ylisse can bargain with the information for a concrete advantage rather than leaving it up to Rosanne to try and solve the problem. That's equivalent to rolling the dice, and we don't play dice with people's lives."

I'm still not sure if he's a hardcore Ylissian patriot, or if he just doesn't trust other people to be as good as he is at strategizing. Maybe both? Alternatively, he might have the illogical mindset that anything he doesn't know is something other people can't know. I imagine that wouldn't be a conscious thought process because it's obviously illogical, but it might be a blind spot for him.

No matter what, I don't agree. I understand the fears and ideas associated with those thought processes, but I don't agree. "Robin, handing over information for free is not rolling dice. Virion and Rosanne will know what's coming, which allows them to prepare, which will lead to a better outcome if literally anyone listens to Virion. It's only rolling dice in the sense in that we can't guarantee how much it will help, but it will help. Additionally, bargaining for the information would only be taking resources away from Rosanne, and they need everything they can get to stall Valm's advance."

"But Ylisse could use those resources more efficiently." Robin argues. "Yes, Rosanne needs resources to deal with Valm. I'm not saying we'd demand the majority of their food supplies or something, but anything they can afford to give us would be much better used by Ylisse."

"By that logic you'd want all extraneous resources in Ylisse's hands." I say. I don't bother to hide my disapproval. "And besides, it's just a dick move to demand compensation for information vital to saving the world and stopping a tyrant. Even if you are correct logically speaking and Ylisse could better use resources from Rosanne, that doesn't mean you are correct from a moral standpoint. That's like demanding money from someone to give them medicine to save their life. Even if they can easily afford it, you're still an asshole for demanding it."

"War doesn't care about how much of a dastard either side is. It just cares about who wins and who loses." Robin defends. "If Ylisse can better use the resources, it doesn't matter if it's rude or not. Practicality has to be our primary concern. What if one thousand gold in Ylisse's hands rather than Rosanne's is the way the war is won or lost?"

"By that logic, why doesn't all of Rosanne just subject itself to Ylisse's governance because Ylisse can so clearly do a better job?" I shoot back.

"I- of course not." Robin frowns. "That's completely unrelated."

"Not so. You're saying Ylisse can do a better job with resources than Rosanne, so wouldn't it make sense that if Ylisse had all of Rosanne under its control it could do a better job at dealing with the war because it has access to all of Rosanne's resources? And there's no excuse of not making them give up vital resources either, because it's all for Ylisse to manage now and Ylisse should know what's vital and what's not." I say.

"That's… no." Robin says. "That's not right either."

"What makes it not right? You said Ylisse can make better use of resources than Rosanne, and Rosanne letting Ylisse take control of it makes all extra resources available to it."

"But that could be done without Ylisse taking control."

"Could it? How do you know Rosanne isn't wasting something?" I prod. I'm well aware that's a stupid question. Of course something is being wasted in Rosanne, and so is it in Ylisse. The trick is to see if Robin will point that out or assume Ylisse is mostly perfect. "Ylisse must be more aware of how to efficiently spend it's resources, or else you wouldn't argue for "bargaining" to get some from Rosanne." And yes, I do put the word "bargaining" in air quotes with my fingers for Robin to see. I'm not exactly trying to hide that I think Robin is suggesting something closer to extortion than actual bargaining.

"It has more to do with Ylissian weapon and troop quality than things like food." Robin finally clarifies. "It is unlikely Ylisse could not run Rosanne better than the Rosannites themselves. Too much cultural dissonance would ensue for it to be effective for quite a while, not to mention the people would resent it. No, I am saying that Ylisse could use gold or metal more effectively because it can make better weapons than Rosanne with the same resources, and spend gold on recruiting and training better troops than Rosanne could with the same amount. In that capacity, Ylisse could do better, hence why I argue for bargaining for resources. It is in Rosanne's interests as well for Ylisse to make best use their metal and gold."

Interesting argument, and honestly not the worst point to make. That also makes a lot more sense than just "Ylisse can do better because it's Ylisse". There was some logic behind Robin's suggestions, and the fact that it puts more power in his capable hands is a bonus most likely.

"I still disagree." I say. "You could tell Rosanne how to make better weapons, and teach their own military personnel how to train better troops. But you make a more coherent point now at least."

"We can't give away Ylissian technology and techniques to Rosanne for free. Ylisse has to consider its own interests. It might be a solid short-term solution to Walhart, but in the long term Ylisse would have lost potent bargaining tools and possibly created a new military threat to themselves down the road. Perhaps not in this generation with Virion in charge, but there is no guarantee new rulers will be so amiable."

"Same could be said of Ylisse towards every other country. Need I remind you of Chrom's father? Is Rosanne not just as entitled to be able to defend itself against Ylisse and other threats as Ylisse itself?" I argue.

"I- well yes-" Robin frowns. "But Ylisse shouldn't abandon something unique to itself for free."

"True." I murmur. As much as I'm for acting morally and with good will, it doesn't make sense to just give away knowledge of military value for no cost without an extremely good reason. Acts of charity are nice, but that generally doesn't apply to giving away free guns. Sharing the cure to a deadly disease for free? That's just moral. Free guns? Eh… not unless you have to. That's begging for trouble, even if you're handing them to allies. "Well, uh, anyhow. That was a rousing philosophic or political debate. I don't know which one that counts as."

"Indeed. You've given something to think about later. " Robin says. He's still frowning, though it doesn't look like he's angry so much as contemplative. His voice suddenly drops to a whisper. "Anyhow, I have one last question."

"Shoot."

"Pardon?"

"Uh, go ahead." I've done that before, haven't I? Was it with Morgan, Noire, or Kjelle? How time flies.

"What do I do about Morgan?" He asks quietly. Suddenly I'm reminded that he's not just a genius tactician war hero, he's a nervous new parent. Right. I have to wonder how much effort it took for him to act calm and confident yesterday. How well is he actually handling suddenly having an adult daughter? How much panic and uncertainty is he hiding? That goes for all the new parents actually. "What does she like? What does she hate? What am I supposed to do about her constant jokes? Am I going to seem overbearing if I keep trying to teach her how to act given her new status? I have no idea what I'm doing. I didn't have time to prepare for this."

Okay, yeah, he's freaking out just a little bit. "She likes playing board games, literally any board game so far. You can try to teach her about her status, but don't expect her to be super on board with anything she thinks is stuffy or arbitrary or pointless. If you have a sense of humor, regardless of what it is, give it a shot. So far Morgan has been totally okay with just about any sort of humor under the sun. Doesn't matter how dark or random it is." I try to think of something more useful to say. Everything I've said so far is pretty generic. "Uh… don't be afraid to be honest, and even blunt if you need to. It doesn't matter what it's about, even if it's about her in some fashion. Morgan isn't nearly as illogical as she might seem, she just doesn't usually act serious if she doesn't have to."

I hope that's good advice. I'm usually terrible at giving advice. Robin seems satisfied with it though, so I'm going to assume I said something useful.

"I'll keep that in mind." Robin says. "Thank you."

"No problem. Really don't sweat it. Unless you majorly screw up, Morgan probably won't care. She already thinks highly of you." I soothe.

"That's exactly what makes me worried." Robin sighs. He pockets the paper and quill and stands up from his seat. "Please keep Morgan out of trouble today."

"I'll try." I say. "Morgan is… well…"

"Willful?"

"Yeah."

"Just… try."

"I will." I smile. "I'll make sure she doesn't shank someone at least."

"Please do." Robin mutters.

###

"I forgot to give this to you yesterday." Is how I preface handing over the magic heating rock to Morgan. It's not even something I can activate myself, because it requires the barest shred of magic to do so and I don't have that. "Found it at the market, seemed like something you'd like. Not quite sure how useful it actually is."

I suppose I never described what the heating rock actually looks like. It's about the length of a pop can (or soda can for those of you that call it that), and looks like one of those smooth, ovular stones you can find on some beaches. It's light grey, with Tte only sign that it's in any way magic being a darker grey pattern on one side in the vague shape of a flame.

"Ooh!" Morgan grabs it out of my hand. "I presume it's a bit more than a rock?"

"Yeah, draw a circle on it with your finger and push."

Morgan does so, waits, and then her eyes light up. "It's warm! Woah…"

"Cool huh?"

"Yeah! This would have been really useful up in Ferox during the winter." Morgan says. "Coulda stuck this in my coat or bedroll to keep me warm. If we ever have to go back there I'll have to bring this!"

Yeah, it was ridiculous of me to be worried. This is Morgan. As much as we joke about it Morgan really doesn't have high standards, and I don't mean that as an insult. She can find interest or joy in just about anything, and I envy that.

"I guess this counts as my first birthday present ever, huh?" Morgan muses as she rolls the rock around in her hands. "A magic item as my first gift… you're setting the standard way too high Nathan."

Morgan, that's probably the cheapest magic item in the world. If anything, that's setting the bar low. Also, holy shit, that's right, her birthday is soon and I got her a fucking rock. Great job Nathan. At least she likes it, again, because she has low standards.

"You totally paid something like ten silver for this and got ripped off, didn't you?" Morgan says.

"Originally it was priced at five silver. I brought it down to two, and that's probably still more than the stone is worth." I say honestly. "But no. Not ten silver. Only two."

"Still overcharged. But that's better. You're not going to let me repay you for this are you?"

"It's a gift. If you effectively pay for it, that ruins the entire point." I huff.

"Fiiine." Morgan huffs. "Hey… didn't your birthday already pass by?"

"I mean, we hadn't even determined where my birthday would be until a little while ago." I say. "So that's sort of a moot point."

"Nope! Not gonna forget that! You can't make me!"

"Morgan…" I sigh fondly.

She pouts at me. "Whaaat? Don't you want a gift?"

"I really don't need one. We're close to your birthday, not mine." I say. I then poke her in the nose. "Besides, I have you. You're gift enough."

"Ooh…" A grin crosses her face. "So what would you say about unwrapping your-"

I clamp a hand over her mouth before she can finish that sentence, and her eyes twinkle with laughter at my probably flushed face. "Lewd. Fucking. Girl."

Morgan promptly sticks out her tongue and licks the inside of my hand, causing me to wrench it away in surprise. Her grin is wide enough to almost break her face. She flicks her tongue at me. "Cutie."

"Screw you." I mumble without any real anger.

"Exactly! That was the joke!" Morgan says. "And then you so rudely cut me off."

"Yeah yeah…"

"I hope you know you're adorable when you're embarrassed." Morgan teases. "And it only makes me want to do this more."

"I know." I say quietly. "I trust you to be reasonable."

"Of course!" Morgan says. "That goes without saying. I wouldn't want to scare off my own boyfriend, now would I?"

Scare me off? Yeah, fair enough. I've shown myself to be easily made nervous.

Morgan reaches forwards and squishes my cheeks. "Sooo cute."

"Morgaaan." I whine.

"Nathaaan." She parrots back my whine. "Deal with it! You always compliment me, so I get to compliment you for once!"

"But-"

"And for the last time, I'm not being sarcastic! It's called personal opinion Nathan!"

"Fine…" I mumble, and allow her to run her fingers through my hair. It feels unnatural to get compliments. Unnatural enough that I tend to think any compliment I do get is sarcastic, or actually intended as an insult. That's part of why I'm so nervous right now. Even if I know Morgan is being honest, the compliments still feel like something abnormal.

Hopefully I'll get used to it.

###

Despite all the things we could be doing, me and Morgan bum around for half the day. We do some training, play some chess and barrels, and I listen to Morgan chatter about Robin and how awesome he is and all the stuff you'd expect of someone who just found their father.

For the other half of the day we actually do some more notable things. For one, we shop, and I finally get some clothes that aren't brigand-like, and we both now have more than one set of clothes.

Because Morgan doesn't mind spending a bit of money (and she pointedly reminds me that she won't let me try to pay her back) we find a tailor that can use magic to dye clothes whatever color we want, so I get my hands on two sets of black clothes and change into one immediately. Black is my favourite colour, and I don't care how completely out-of-place it makes me look to have a straight black shirt and pants. New, dark leather boots and a belt help the look. What look this is I don't quite know, but it's a look.

I'm going to have to replace all these clothes when I get my old body back, but whatever. I feel so much more comfortable, not just because the clothes are of better quality than my furs but also because these clothes feel like something I'd wear back on Earth: simple, grey or black clothes with no fancy designs and some comfortable boots. The material is different, and so outwardly my clothes don't quite match Earth-like clothes just because of the texture difference, but it's close enough for me.

Morgan also gets something simple, but she goes with a muted grey-purple shirt with darker purple on the collar and cuffs and dark brown pants. She also went with short-sleeve shirts, whereas I went with long sleeves. Morgan's style is also much more appropriate for this world insofar as her pants are slightly baggy and her shirt has actual noticeable segments to it (the area around her chest is slightly baggy and noticeable lighter in color, with a hemline distinguishing that area from the tighter area under it that is much more generic and slightly darker, though still light overall) whereas the uniform pure black of my clothes obliterates any noticeable details unless you squint and look close.

After some thought, I also get some dark green clothes that will make me stand out less (like Gregor's clothes, not the armor, but mostly dark green) and Morgan also gets a generic beige dress in case she needs to blend in. I also grab some travelling clothes, because otherwise I'd be wearing my furs again and I'd rather not do that. Morgan doesn't need those. She likes her cloak just fine.

After buying all that, we go back to the barracks and finally start on trying to teach me to write Ylissian. The first thing we do in that vein is map each Ylissian letter to a sound, which has some interesting results.

"What do you mean it's two letters in your language?" Morgan frowns as she looks onto my page. "Wasn't that letter a "tuh" sound and that one a "hah" sound? So wouldn't combining those be "Tah" and not "thh"?"

"You'd think so, but no." Apparently we used to have a letter for the TH sound, it was called a thorn and looked like a b and p combined. One line with a small circle on one side of the middle. "That's just how our alphabet works."

"That seems really inconvenient. What if you actually need a "tah" sound?"

"Then spell i and not T H. Easy."

"It's still stupid."

"Just a little bit." I agree.

In the end we manage to hash out a translation page. Ylissian has two different letters for what we would cover in one vowel. So for what Earth covers under just the letter A, they have two letters for the "ah" and "ae" sounds respectively. They also don't have all the weird crossover sounds that English has between things like C and S where they can both have the hissing "sss" sound but C can also have the "cuh" sound (which K can also have for some reason, meaning C randomly crosses over with two otherwise unique letters and has no sound of it's own for basically no reason).

Language is weird, but the English alphabet is especially so.

Morgan looks utterly baffled when I explain how TION is pronounced "shun" and not "tee-on" and other odd nuances like that.

"How the heck do you remember all this?!" Morgan groans as she stares at the mess of exceptions and special cases I've written out. "Why is it so complicated?"

"You get used to it." I say with a smile. "I grew up with it, so it's nothing special to me. And it's complicated because it's a pretty old language that has changed a lot and spread over a wide and diverse geographic area, and the amalgamation of words and spellings borrowed from different cultures means that there are a bunch of arbitrary nuances built into the language both in terms of how things are pronounced and how they are spelt."

"Why does your language need four different ways to make the "cuh" sound!?"

"That's just how it is." Incidentally, she's referring to K, C, X (like in Box), and QU (like in queue).

"Are people in your world masochists? Is that it? Is that why your language makes no sense!?"

"There are also silent letters."

Morgan throws up her hands in exasperation. "Of course there are! Why wouldn't there be?! Thank Naga you're learning Ylissian and I'm not learning English!"

"Oh, by the way, try and pronounce this." I write down bologna on the paper.

"Bol-og-nah?"

"Bowl-oh-nee."

"What."

"Yep."

"Where does the E come from!?"

"I don't know."

"WHY!?"

"I don't know."

"Oh and…" I write down rough, though, cough, and through. "See how they all end in the same four letters?"

"Yeah."

"None of those rhyme."

Morgan buries her face in her hands and moans. "What the fuck is wrong with your langauge Nathan?"

"Oh, and "mie-noot" and and "min-ut" are spelt the same way."

"Stooop!"

It's a fun afternoon as I continue to regale Morgan with all the screwy things in English spelling.

###

Over the next few days we get a sense for what the Shepherds are going to be doing, and what that means for us.

The majority of the Shepherds are leaving for their homes for a few weeks, though they'll be back for Chrom and Maribelle's wedding. Kjelle wants to go with her mother, and Noire with hers. Nowi isn't going anywhere, so Nah is still around.

That leaves me, Morgan, and Nah still around to get Laurent… except it's not just us because some Shepherds are still here and don't mind coming along. Nowi for one, which means we have a second dragon, as well as Gregor and Gaius and Anna. Interestingly, Olivia is also staying here. Ylisstol is quite a ways away from Ferox, whereas Tharja's home isn't too far from the Ylissian border, so if Olivia were to leave for her home she wouldn't be back in time. The same goes for Lon'qu. All of them, despite being tired of fighting, are still willing to lend us a hand in fetching Laurent.

That gives us quite a squad: myself, Morgan, Nah, Nowi, Gregor, Gaius, Anna, Olivia, and Lon'qu. This also means we finally have a healer in Anna. We can also travel by cart rather than foot, which is faster because horses have much more stamina than we do even if they're not actually moving that much faster. They don't have to rest as often. It's only thanks to the cart that we can do this excursion in a decent time frame and be back for the wedding.

However, before we leave, a few things happen. First, Emmeryn calls for me and the future children. I might have explained everything to Chrom, but as the ruling Exalt of Ylisse I can see why Emmeryn would want to hear the story for herself rather than second-hand.

I've explained this multiple times to multiple people, and barring the fact that I'm explaining to Emmeryn it's the same tale as usual. The future kids give their version of things, and explain what the ruined future is like, and that's about it for the conversation.

Emmeryn is a lot more intimidating than I thought she'd be, though I think that might be because I know she's the Exalt. Maybe it's her status that's intimidating more than her personality, because even I can realize there isn't much that can be said to be scary about Emmeryn's personality.

The second major thing that happens is that we (me and the future kids) also need to explain everything to Emmeryn's council. That means Phila and some other military generals, representatives from the dukes, and other people I don't bother to keep track of because I honestly don't care. Thankfully Morgan carries most of the explanation because she's good at talking with people. She's heard my story enough times that she can explain most of it herself, with me filling in small details. We give the council a simplified version rather than shoving in all possible details like we did with Emmeryn.

I can see the poorly-hidden scoffs and disbelief on the faces of most of the councillors, and I'm not surprised. I don't have any information about them I can leverage to gain their trust. To them, even if they knew about my knowledge of the Shepherds, it could easily be dismissed as me having overheard secrets from one of the Shepherds or stolen some secret document rather than future-like game knowledge. There are other, simpler explanations for how I know what I know, and so they have no real reason to think I actually know the future.

The Shepherds can buy my explanation because my knowledge is far too varied in that it covers a lot of details that some of the Shepherds haven't even revealed yet, but the council probably isn't going to care about that distinction.

Oh, and I should also mention that I get Morgan to write the letter for Virion. That's sort of important.

After the nerve-wracking and mostly pointless endeavor of talking to the council, we finally leave to go get Laurent.

Our travel for the first day is rather quiet. The Shepherds are still recovering from their travel to a certain extent, so they're mostly quiet. Most people rest in one of the two carts we have (one is Anna's personal cart with all her wares) and don't talk all that much. The only exception is Nowi, who seems to have boundless energy and won't stop talking.

Nah is clearly tired of her mother already, though she has much more patience than their in-game supports would suggest and hasn't said anything rude yet. Or, at least, she hasn't said anything that the rest of us can hear. I suppose it would make sense for supports to mostly happen in private, or just not out in front of everyone.

But really nothing happens for most of the day. The only thing of note is a small argument between Morgan and Gregor about when we should stop, and Morgan wins out by asserting that she is in charge and having Me and Nah back her up.

That gets a few raised eyebrows from Gregor and Lon'qu, but they don't push the issue further. They're here to help us after all. I wonder if this would be different if it were a mission of the Shepherds rather than an informal mission they decided to help with. Would Gregor have tried to insist that Morgan wasn't in charge?

Either way, thankfully it's a non-issue this time around.

###

The Risen are relentless. They're not all that threatening, but they're relentless. I also finally have enough people around me that I really don't have to participate anymore. Having two manaketes also helps.

I still pull out my crossbow and take pot-shots of course. I'm still expected to help, and so I will, but I can feel safe that I don't have to be anywhere near our opponents anymore.

Interesting to note is that Morgan and Nah already seem to be on par with the Shepherds. Nah and Nowi's kill counts are about the same, and Morgan- there's no mage to compare against her admittedly- gets her fair share of kills as well.

Oh, and Olivia. I should talk about Olivia. So, in the game dancers work by giving other units another turn, right? It doesn't work like that here. Being a dancer here is something much more dangerous, but much more impressive.

Olivia fights. She doesn't stay in the back with the long-range fighters like you'd expect. She's right in the middle of battle along with Lon'qu and Gregor. The difference is that she's not fighting in a way that maximizes how much damage she does, she's fighting to impress. Twists, twirls, flips, and elegantly choreographed series of attacks are common.

Olivia is a proper battle dancer. She inspires others with feats of skill and the art of battle, not normal dancing like the game would suggest.

If anything, the way Olivia fights is most like what you see in the game. Gregor and Lon'qu are practical in how they fight, but Olivia shows off like she's in a play (which, considering she's a dancer, makes sense).

Olivia can also do normal dances though, and at an eager request from Morgan she demonstrates a few after we've set up camp for the night. Those dances are… erm… well they're very sensual, and that's only accentuated by Olivia's outfit.

Morgan watches raptly, not even making cheeky comments to me like she usually would. I guess she's too focused on her mother to bother with that.

I'll admit that while I enjoy Olivia's dances, I don't really know enough about dance to be able to appreciate what Olivia is doing on an artistic level. Her dances are enjoyable on the level of "attractive lady in skimpy clothing showing off her body" of course, but I feel disappointed in myself to only be able to appreciate the dances on that level… even if I realize the dances are (probably) intentionally designed to evoke that response and I'm no different than most people viewing the dance and not really doing anything wrong.

It's not a surprise when Morgan gushes about her mother that night. "Did you see that backflip!? She went right over that Risen's head! And then she did this cool twisting stabby thing, and her normal dances are great too! Her outfit is just perfect for those, not to mention her body is just mmm!"

"Morgan, this is your mother you're talking about."

"And?" She says defensively. "My mom is hot! Even I can recognize that!"

Those are words I never thought I'd hear.

"Are you saying you don't think my mom is hot Nathan?" Morgan teases.

"No comment."

"Don't think I didn't see you appreciating those hips too!"

"Ookay, and we're changing the subject…" I cough.

"Not until you admit my mom is hot!"

"Fine, she's hot." I groan. "Everyone is hot for some reason though! All the Shepherds, all the future kids, it's unnatural! I don't know what sort of magic this world has to make everyone ridiculously attractive, but I both appreciate and despise it!"

"Hard not to ogle some butts?"

I don't bother with my usual "lewd girl" comment and go straight to poking her in the nose. "No. I mean, yes, but screw you for getting me to admit that."

"Hey, no judgement here." Morgan chirps. "Not like I don't appreciate the uh… what's the term…?"

"Eye candy?"

"Yeah! I appreciate the eye-candy of being surrounded by some delicious young men and women." Morgan says with a wide, shameless grin. "Including my mother."

You're awful in the best way Morgan, and at this point I expect no less. "It really is unnatural, isn't it?"

"I know! I hope it never stops! I'm more than content if half the people we come across are some degree of ridiculously attractive." Morgan says cheerfully.

"It's also uncanny how close everyone is to their in-game portraits." I say. "I've recognized every Shepherd and future kid on sight so far, though there are some differences."

"Like what?"

"Well… not that this is going to mean much to you, but you look closer to your Heroes portrait than your Awakening one. Your outfit is the same as your Awakening one, but in terms of physical appearance you're closer to your Heroes portrait." That feels like an insufficient explanation. She has no idea of what either of those portraits look like beyond what they reference. "Not that the portraits are all that different in physical appearance, but your Heroes look has slightly softer features and less muted colours."

"So what I'm hearing is that I'm way more cute in my Heroes portrait."

"Yep. That portrait also tints your hair and eyes purple though."

"But my hair and eyes are purple." Morgan says.

I pause. "They are?"

"Yeah."

"They both look dark brown or grey to me."

"It's hard to see." Morgan says. "Here, look close. Really close."

And so I do. Morgan holds up the lantern so I can see and I lean in until our noses bump. I squint, trying to see the purple hidden in the grey (definitely grey and not brown) and after a minute of trying, I think I can see what she means. It's hard to notice in her eyes normally, but when the light hits them just the right way and doesn't bounce off, you can in fact see a very faint trace of purple. Her eyes are an extremely muted shade of purple. Grey-purple you might say, with a heavy emphasis on grey.

"Okay." I say quietly. "I see it. That is hard to see."

"Isn't it? I wish it was a bit more noticeable." Morgan says. "Nice purple hair. Or maybe dark purple, so dark it usually looks black, but when you shine a light on it my true colour would be revealed!"

"Very dramatic."

"Yeah! It would be awesome!" Morgan chirps. "Oh, oh, what outfit was I wearing in my Heroes portrait? You said the outfit was different, right?"

"Yeah, it's more like a dark flier outfit."

"Cool! What does that look like?"

Right. We haven't seen one of those yet. "Well, at least in your case you still had something like your cloak except it was much tighter all around, probably to reduce wind drag by being less baggy, and indeed at your upper thighs. It also had an area around the chest that looked a bit more like your shirt than your cloak. Uh… you have these cage-like arm-guards, dangling shields on your hips, same boots, and what I assume are thick stockings that come up just past your knees but don't meet the bottom of your coat/dress thing."

"You remember this in surprising detail." Morgan says with an amused grin. "Was I your faaavourite?"

"No." I say honestly. "But I liked the look. Purple and black has always been a nice color scheme, and your coat has always been cool."

"I'm your girlfriend Nathan! You're supposed to say I was your favourite!" She pouts.

"Oh really now?" I say, and raise an eyebrow. "Does that make me a bad boyfriend?"

"Yes! Terrible, awful, deal-breakingly bad!" Morgan announces. "I wasn't your favorite in some random game before you ever met me and that's without consideration for what I did in that game as well. How could I not be offended?"

"I have no idea. What a massive oversight on my part." I say flatly. "Pardon my inexcusable lack of future vision and instinctive desire to lie in order to keep you satisfied."

"You are not pardoned. I'm furious. Really, truly." Morgan says with no hint of anger in her voice whatsoever. "Because I'm the best, and you're required to think I'm the best at everything, in everything, all the time, regardless of any other so-called 'legitimate' reasons otherwise."

"Of course, of course." I say, and pat her on the head. "I'll strive to be the most servile, pandering person on the planet to feed your ever-inflating ego."

"Damn straight!" Morgan says with a smile. "It's not like you feed my ego enough already."

"Not nearly enough." I smile back. "I've been too busy stopping you from rolling into fires."

Morgan's entire body slumps like a balloon that just got a hole poked in it. "I thought we were past that joke."

"What joke? I was mostly serious about that." I say. "I didn't keep putting logs and rocks between you and campfires for no reason."

"Rub it in why don't you?" Morgan pouts.

I plant my hand on her forehead and rub circles into it. "Done."

"Nathaaan." She whines.

"Morgaaan."

"Stooop."

"Nooo." I grin. "Make me."

So quickly that she had to have been waiting for those exact words, Morgan tackles me and knocks me onto my back, and then triumphantly sits on my chest. "There. I made you."

"No, you're just sitting on me."

"Oh?" A mischievous glint enters her eye. "Do I need to do more?"

"Uhh…" Where do I go from here? Is this still part of the joke? I suddenly feel out of my depth. "No?"

Morgan pauses, then tilts her head. "Nervous?"

"Yes?" I say. My voice cracks with that one, so I repeat it, and with more certainty this time. "Yes."

"Do you want me to get off?" She asks outright. Her voice is calm, and I have to wonder if that's intentionally so.

Do I? No, not really. "No."

"Cool." Morgan says. Her hands creep over my chest and shoulders and press against me in what feels like a massage. I'm struck by the feeling that I should be doing something, but I have no idea what that would be. "Because I like this."

"Ah."

"You have that expression on your face that says you're thinking too hard about something."

"I feel like I should be doing something." I admit.

"Don't worry about it." Morgan says. "Relax…"

I try, I really do, but it's hard not to be acutely aware of the girl sitting on top of me. Morgan continues to explore me with her hands, running them over my arms and chest and shoulders before eventually moving on to my neck, for which she greatly softens her touch.

Do you know the reason people are ticklish in certain areas? It's an evolutionary self-defence mechanism. The areas in which we are ticklish are the areas in which we are extremely vulnerable, and being ticklish teaches us to defend those areas.

I bring this up because Morgan feeling my neck is actually quite uncomfortable. I can't help but be twitchy because I'm ticklish, and so Morgan quickly moves on.

"You're going to be different, eventually." Morgan murmurs as her hands explore my face. "When you get your body back, I'm going to have to learn you all over again."

Learn me? That's an interesting way to phrase it. Also, I never really considered how strange it's going to be for Morgan to see me change. It's not like I'm just going to be growing, I'm just going to change, drastically. My eyes will no longer be brown and will be blue, my hair will become brown rather than black, I'll be caucasian rather than vaguely asian. Everything will change. It will be a return to normal for me, but for Morgan what she sees now is normal.

"I'm not sure I can handle it if you get even more cute." Morgan teases gently as she runs her fingers through my hair.

"You're setting your expectations way too high." I mumble.

"I'm mostly joking." Morgan reassures. "I don't care if you end up being ugly Nathan. That's not why I like you. Your cute face certainly is a bonus, but it's hardly essential."

That's reassuring to hear, even if I knew it was never really in question.

The night ends on that note. Morgan spends a few more minutes running her hands over me, but she eventually stops and we call it a night.

I wonder how much intimacy Morgan is actually comfortable with, because she was totally fine with whatever that was. How much does she hold back? Am I being a bad partner due to my nervousness?

That… no. That sounds like something Morgan would mention. Morgan seems happy, and there's no need to worry unnecessarily.

###

You know, considering all manaketes in Awakening are of the divine dragon tribe, it makes sense that Manaketes would be revered in Ylisse. This goes especially considering Tiki is a manakete and she's an important religious figurehead.

That's why it's a big shock to me to find out most villagers are pretty freaked out by our two little dragon girls. I was expecting awe, not terror.

To be fair to the villagers, they were scrambling away from a Risen pack at the time, and their introduction to Nowi and Nah was the two of them flying directly overhead, roaring loudly, and spitting dragonfire. I can't blame them for being a bit shook.

"Johnny, come here!" The short-haired woman hisses, desperately beckoning for the small boy who wandered too close to our group. "Johnny!"

The little boy stops his waddling and turns to his mother, and then waddles back towards her outstretched arms. The woman shoots us a glare, specifically Nah, before yanking her child inside their house.

There was no thanks for saving this town. No gratitude from anyone, even though everyone here would have absolutely been slaughtered without us, and especially without Nah and Nowi.

I guess this had to happen at some point. The chance of us running into only grateful people all the time is statistically improbable.

"I don't think anyone is going to want to play with me." Nowi notes. Wherever she turns her eyes, people look away and shrink back into or behind buildings and trees and whatnot.

"Gregor will be playing with Nowi." Gregor says. He sounds almost offended that he's been forgotten about. "Is always having time for little dragon friend!"

"I wasn't talking about you silly." Nowi sighs. "I mean no one from the village is going to want to play. I'm not going to have any new friends to play with."

"Oh, Nowi talking about scared mean villagers." Gregor says. "Is unfortunate. Gregor is used to this. Some people only see sword, and does not matter to them where sword is pointed. They do not see Gregor at all. Same with Nowi. Villagers see dragon, not girl, not Nowi."

"Yeah…" Nowi sighs. "Do we have to stay here? Can we leave?"

"We'd have to camp Mother." Nah points out. "And we'd be eating from our supplies rather than fresh food."

"I know." Nowi says with a frown. "But I don't want to stay here."

"Don't be selfish, Mother." Nah scolds.

"No, I agree with Nowi." I say. "We shouldn't stay here."

"Stay out Nathan." Nah says sharply.

"You made this a group matter when you started deciding whether all of us were staying or going, and I'm a part of the group." I shoot back. I raise my voice to involve everyone else. "Opinions?"

"We leave." Lon'qu agrees.

"Gregor is seeing no problem with this."

"I-I guess we can." Olivia murmurs.

"I'd rather stay, I want to sell some wares." Anna says. "But it's no huge loss if we don't."

"No opinion." Gaius says. "Don't see any candy."

"I say we leave." Morgan chirps. "And I think the vote is soundly in favor of leaving, so let's get what we need and get out."

Nah's expression darkens a bit, and she stays quiet as we go about purchasing supplies from nervous store-owners and leave before we've spent more than an hour and a half in the village. I figure that's mostly the end of the issue, so when Nah approaches me after dinner when Morgan has stepped away to bathe I'm more than a little surprised.

"You." Nah says.

I look up from the new crossbow bolt I'm making. Virion taught me how to improvise stone heads for arrows, and rather than the wooden ones I've been using so far I want to try those so I'm trying to apply those lessons to my bolts. So far, no luck. I think I'm going to have to just custom order iron bolts when we get back to Ylisstol. "I have a name, or have you forgotten? I can call you "dragon loli" from now if you really don't want to use names."

Nah's eyes narrow. "I don't want to know what that means, and that sounded like a threat."

"Sorta was." I say calmly. "So, are we using names or not?"

"Fine, Nathan." Nah says in irritation.

"Nah." I nod. "So, what's up?"

"Don't encourage my mother's behaviour." Nah says bluntly. "The reason we're sitting out here in a forest is because you made it a group debate and implied we should leave because Mother wanted to."

Strictly speaking Nowi made it a group matter, and I just brought it to everyone's attention, but that's neither here nor there at the moment. "And? How is that a problem?"

Nah points a finger accusingly. "Because the whole group folded to my Mother being petty because you enabled her!"

"I'm fairly sure that was going to happen either way." I say, trying to keep my calm. Nah seems unreasonably upset about this. "I'm fairly sure Gregor was going to agree that we leave one way or another, I simply said it before him."

"You don't know that, and it doesn't remove the fact that you started it." Nah insists.

"That's true." I agree. "But this is really a moot point. The only thing I 'enabled' was getting Nowi and you out of a situation where you would have been uncomfortable."

"I didn't ask you to do that." Nah snaps. "I didn't ask to be saved."

That's not exactly what I intended but in hindsight, yeah, I suppose "saving" them was sort of what I was trying to do. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing like Nah is implying it is though. "Perhaps not, but Nowi wanted out, so we left. It would have been the same if Gregor didn't want to be around there, or Morgan. Unless there's a good reason for us to stay among rude people, why would we?"

"Because that's a petty reason to leave!" Nah insists.

"Really now?" I say, and cross my arms. "Nah, who would you consider your friend?"

"What does that have to do with this?"

"I'm trying to make a point through example." I say honestly. "So, who would you consider a friend?"

"Laurent."

Not what I was expecting, but okay. I thought it would be Gerome or Lucina to be honest, just because they're overly-serious like Nah. I can work with this though. It doesn't really matter who she chose. "Okay, so, let's say you're in a bar."

"I don't drink."

Neither do I. Yay sober crew. "That's fine, but you're in a bar."

"Okay…?"

"You're sitting at a table with Laurent."

"R-Right."

Why does she look nervous about this? It's just an example. "So you're both sitting there, and then you notice someone, some asshole, is glaring at you from across the room."

Nah nods.

"Not just once, continuously."

She nods again.

"And when you mention you're uncomfortable, Laurent tells you to suck it up."

Nah instantly protests with an anger that, again, seems strangely out of place. "He wouldn't do that!"

"But you would."

"No I wouldn't!"

"You just did not an hour ago."

"I did not!"

"Nah, your mother was uncomfortable with people glaring at her, and your response was to tell her that she was being selfish." I say, still trying to keep my voice calm. "So, again, that's exactly what you were doing."

"It's different!"

"Why? Because it's your mother?" I ask.

"No, because it involves the group." Nah stresses. "And we can't drag down the whole group for the sake of one member."

"And why not?" I counter. "Our mission isn't that time sensitive, it's only a minor inconvenience, and none of us really liked the villagers anyways."

"That doesn't matter. Personal issues shouldn't affect the group." Nah insists.

"Yes, they should." I argue back. "At least, when the group can afford them to. If we desperately needed rest in decent beds from ages spent camping, sure, I'd agree that we should have pushed past Nowi's discomfort for the group's benefit. However, if we ignore personal issues even when we can easily afford to help with them, what we're establishing is that our individual members don't matter, and I don't think any of us agree with that."

"I never said individuals didn't matter!"

"But their problems don't?"

"No!" Nah stops her foot. "It- but- it shouldn't get in the way of more pressing matters, and it shouldn't be made into the group's problem!"

"I agree, to an extent. It absolutely shouldn't get in the way of more pressing matters, no question asked. We wouldn't prioritize Nowi's discomfort over saving someone's life, obviously. And as for it being made into the group's problem… well that depends on the size of the group I think, as well as if the members of the group want it to be their problem."

"What in Naga's name are you talking about?" Nah frowns.

"If we were a whole battalion, a few hundred people, then yeah, we couldn't really afford to move everyone just because of Nowi's discomfort." I say. "But, imagine it was just two people. You and your mother. Would you really force her to stay there just because you want to stay?"

"Well no…"

"And there's my point. We're at a small enough group size that we can afford to do these sorts of things." I say. "Also, in case you haven't noticed, most people are some degree of friends here, and so far they've generally seemed happy to take on other people's problems, so even if you wanted to argue our group is too large to take into account individual problems it's still a moot point."

Nah crosses her arms. "That doesn't mean Mother should have tried to make her problem into the group's problem."

I raise an eyebrow. "I thought I was the one who made it a group problem. Also, she didn't. She just said she wanted to leave, and the rest of us agreed. Would you rather people say nothing when they're uncomfortable or having trouble?"

"Yes."

I… uh… how am I supposed to respond to that? That was supposed to be a rhetorical question. Okay then. Let's try this. "So if I'm bleeding out, I should say nothing?"

"Don't be absurd. I mean personal problems. Injury and death are group issues." Nah scoffs.

Yeah, fair point. That was a stupid suggestion. Think Nathan. You know how to dissect arguments. You can find something wrong with her idea. That was basically the goal of all your philosophy assignments for four years: finding the problems with arguments. This should be easy. "How about, even if I'm being harassed at every turn, if it would bring down the group I should stay silent?"

"Yes."

Okay then. "What reason do I have to stay a part of the group then?"

"...what?"

"If the group won't support me when I need it, why should I be a part of the group?"

"Because the group has a bigger purpose than individual issues."

"And?"

"What do you mean, "and?"?"

"If the group is big enough that I don't matter, then it's big enough that me leaving for the sake of my own health doesn't matter." I say. "Even the loss of a dragon is a lot less relevant when they're only equivalent to a hundred soldiers in a group of ten-thousand."

"If that's the case then the greater goal must not matter to you very much." Nah retorts.

"Not so. It's just that I can't very well be expected to deal with bigger issues when my personal issues are too great for me to deal with."

"That's called a lack of conviction, not incapability." she scoffs.

"So what?" I ask in frustration. "You'd have people allow their personal and internal lives to fall to shambles just so they can contribute a statistically insignificant amount to some greater cause?"

"Yes!" Nah says in exasperation.

"What sort of callous disregard for people's health do you have?" I ask in obvious disgust.

"What sort of death wish do you have?" Nah counters. "The end of the world is coming, and you're worried about mental health and individual lives? Everyone is going to die if we aren't prepared!"

Both of us glare at each other for a solid ten seconds. This conversation has also been going on long enough that Morgan returns, and since she's not blind she can see the tension in the air between us and speaks up. "What happened?"

"He's being ridiculous." Nah huffs.

"She's being callous." I say quietly.

"Right…" Morgan says slowly. "So let's start from the top, shall we?"

We quickly run through our argument again. I think Nah is going along with this because she expects Morgan to agree with her, though the same could be said of me. We're effectively letting Morgan decide a winner here… though I have to say that if Morgan agrees with Nah and really does have so little consideration for the lives of others, I'm going to… I… we'll have to talk.

"Okay." Morgan frowns. "So, let me get this straight. You both decided that personal issues are occasionally relevant provided a group is small enough, or that the group as a whole makes a personal problem all of their problems."

"Yes." Me and Nah both say, though Nah with more reluctance. I don't think she's happy about me winning that point.

"And now the argument is about whether someone has a right to mention their personal problems to the group at all."

"Yes." I say.

"No." Nah says.

Me and Nah stare at each other again, and I gesture with a hand. "By all means, explain. We're apparently not on the same page."

"We were arguing over trying to make personal problems a group issue." Nah says.

"But you said if I was constantly being harassed that I shouldn't bring it up."

"Yeah, don't try and push your problems onto the group."

"So I shouldn't mention my problems at all."

"No, that's not it."

I massage my forehead. "I don't get it. What's the distinction here?"

"It's fine to bring it up, but don't try and make it a group issue. It's your problem, not the group's. If they make it their issue, fine, but it's not your place to choose." Nah asserts.

Oh. Okay. So it's not a matter of literally never mentioning that you have problems, it's a matter of not forcing other people to deal with them for you. "That's… fairly reasonable." I say. I could add on side notes that personal health is still important, and that you should be able to expect a certain amount of support from your companions, but for the sake of not hashing out every little detail of our debate I think I'll keep my mouth shut about it. "I can more-or-less agree with that."

"So we're good?" Morgan asks.

"I guess." Nah grumbles.

"Cool." Morgan grabs me by the arm. "Because I'm taking him back now."

"Take him. I don't want him." Nah says. She walks away without another word.

"Well." Morgan says after a moment. "Are you alright?"

"I'm annoyed." I say honestly. "I'll be fine in a bit."

"So what I'm hearing is that you need a hug."

Thank you, Morgan, for your endless affection. "I certainly won't argue with one."

###

In every town we cross, we ask if anyone has seen Laurent (specifically we ask if they've seen a studious mage with glasses pass though). Most of the time, that's a no. However we know he's heading towards the Ylissian desert, so it should only be a matter of time before we find him because there's only so many places around the desert he could be.

Of course, we do technically have a time limit. We have to be back in time for Chrom's wedding (you know, now that I think of it, one month to set up a royal wedding seems like a very short amount of time). But we know Laurent really isn't going anywhere and isn't in any pressing danger.

I think part of the reason we don't have any leads about Laurent is because most people we talk to are assholes. It's unusual, actually. For some reason this part of the country has a high concentration of utter douchebags. That whole ordeal with the villagers not liking Nowi or Nah? That's pretty common now. Heck, most of us are getting scornful looks, not just the manaketes.

I ask Morgan about it and she can only shrug. She has no idea what's going on. It's Anna who I get my answer from after yet another instance of scorn from random villagers we just helped out. I grumble about the problem, and Anna speaks up.

"That's normal for deep Ylisse." Anna says. "You'd be hard pressed to find any group of people more certain that Ylisse is the best and every other country sucks than deep Ylissians… maybe because they're never personally interacted with any other culture. It's not like Ylisse has an easter neighbour, and immigrants tend to end up in northern Ylisse, so deep Ylisse, which is the south-eastern part of Ylisse past Ylisstol, is about as homogenous as you can get. Some people would include all of eastern Ylisse in that categorization because the Bay of Silver tends to funnel all Feroxi immigrants or travellers to the west, but it's the most pronounced down here."

"Oh." I blink. "How do you know all this?"

"I'm a merchant." Anna says simply. "I travel, I talk, I listen. You learn a lot that way. It's vital I know the culture of the place in which I'm setting up shop, and I've been here before. So anyhow. Everyone in our group is rather obviously a foreigner or not even human, and that's probably why no one wants to deal with us."

"Let me guess." I say. "This part of the country is also very traditionalist, aren't they?"

"Yep."

So this part of the country is stereotyped as xenophobic conservatives? What a lovely picture Anna paints. Unfortunately, on this trip I've seen nothing to indicate that stereotype isn't true.

Though I suppose Donnel is from deep Ylisse (if I remember his paralogue placement correctly) and he's perfectly nice. I expect what Anna says is mostly true, but only mostly. Trends and patterns and cultures exist, and I won't pretend they don't, but that's no reason not to give new people a chance, even if I'm expecting disappointment.

What's the saying? Hope for the best, expect the worst? Something like that. I wonder what other stereotypes exist in this world. Are they similar to the ones from Earth? The xenophobic conservative culture is certainly a familiar stereotype. I'm not interested in taking any stereotypes to heart obviously, I'm just curious about which ones exist.

"Of course, you also get people like Donnel." Anna adds, almost as if reading my earlier thoughts. "Where their separation from the rest of the world just makes them enthusiastic to see it when they get the chance. There's been towns down here where I've been welcomed and badgered non-stop about every little thing the locals find interesting. It's exhausting."

"But it's easy to sell stuff to those folks, isn't it?"

"You bet it is!" Anna says cheerfully. "As long as it's a foreign curiosity, they're all over it! I managed to sell a small pouch of Chon'sinese beans for three silver. Three silver for just a few beans! Can you imagine that?"

"What a complete rip off."

"Not so!" Anna says. "He offered three silver before I even gave a price, so of course I took it! I was only going to charge fifty copper, maybe a silver at most, but I wasn't going to pass up a chance to triple my expected gain!"

"If you say so."

"I do!"

###

Finding Laurent doesn't have some big event surrounding it. We don't find him in an abandoned temple, or have to wait for a month while he completes some obligations, or save him from slavers or grimleal. No. Instead we run into him halfway between towns. We turn a corner around a large, sandy rock, and bam: there he is. Simple as that.

We're just a few hours past the true start of the desert. There's been a bit more sand and a bit less foliage for a few days now, but we only got into proper sand-dunes and cactuses this morning.

Nah is the first to speak. "Laurent!"

"Nah." The boy replies, and nods to her. He seems relatively calm, whereas most of our group is rather surprised. "What brings you here?"

"Looking for you!" Nah says. "What are you doing out here Laurent?"

Hey now, he probably got dropped here not that long ago and has had to make his way across the country by foot.

"I am searching for the Goddess Staff, and have been for a while now." Laurent says, completely disproving what I was just thinking. "So far, I have had little success."

"Why were you wasting time on that?" Nah asks in frustration. "Why weren't you heading to Ylisstol or trying to find us?"

"With the Plegian war coming to a close, I figured I had much time before the Valmese war, and so I decided to make myself useful and attempt to locate the Goddess Staff. It would be an invaluable aid against Grima, and there is enough evidence to suggest that it does indeed exist that I considered locating it a valid endeavor." Laurent explains.

"More important than finding the rest of us?" Nah huffs.

"I did not consider it possible to locate you considering I was unaware of your locations and the fact that there was such a large area to cover." Laurent admits. "Pray tell, how did you know where to find me? Is there some methodology or information of which I am unaware?"

"That would be because of me." I say, and extend a hand. "Nathan. Nice to meet you."

Laurent mimics the action and shakes. "Laurent, likewise. Now what is it that you have done that could locate me?"

"I have outside knowledge." I say. "I know roughly where all you future children are."

"So you are aware of our situation? Did Nah inform you of it?"

"No. Again, I have outside information." I then give him the short version of my situation. Laurent takes it rather well all things considered. He's not nearly as outwardly surprised or distrustful as the others were, he seems more curious than anything.

"Fascinating…" Laurent murmurs. "You must tell me more of this at a later time."

"Sure."

Morgan cuts into our conversation. "Chrom's wedding is in a few weeks, and we came here to get you, so you'll come back with us right?"

"It would be rude of me to refuse after you have come all this way, and my investigation has thus far not born fruit, so yes, I shall." Laurent agrees.

"If the game is accurate, then the Goddess Staff is indeed something you can find." I offer. "Though it's very particular, and I'm not sure how well the game information translates to an actual location."

"Interesting…" Laurent murmurs. "Perhaps I shall continue my investigation at a later date then, if it is not as fruitless as it seems. Incidentally, am I the second of us time-travellers you have located besides Nah?"

"Nope. You're the fifth." I say. "We've got Noire, Nah, Kjelle, Morgan here, and then you. Not in that order. Morgan was first."

"Morgan?" Laurent frowns. "That name is not familiar."

"Hi! I'm Morgan!" Morgan says cheerful. "I'm objectively the best person ever!"

"I do not think you know what the word "objectively" means…"

"No I do."

"She's a special case. An amnesiac, and different dimension than the rest of you." I explain. "Well, probably. The game makes it uncertain."

"How curious. So many mysteries to unpack." Laurent muses. "Greetings to you Morgan, I hope for your cooperation in the future."

"I should be saying that to you. I'm in charge!" Morgan says cheerfully. "Because I'm a tactician, and a leader, and a genius."

"Not to mention humble." I add.

"Humble as they come! I'm also super cute, and charismatic, and-"

"Perhaps we can move on?" Lon'qu interrupts, unamused by Morgan's self-complimenting. "I do not wish to stay in the desert longer than I must. It is far too hot here."

He must have hated Plegia then. Also yeah, let's bail. I have no desire to sweat like a pig, and I don't have a nice wide-brimmed hat to shade me like Laurent does.

###

Laurent asks a lot of questions. How did the game work? How did the developers choose what to put in? How did they know about this world? What discrepancies have I noticed so far? How did the 3DS work? What does the subtitle "Awakening" mean? Why does the game start at Southtown with Robin? Why is the game vague with certain information? Why does it have minor variance in outcomes? What outcomes can be trusted?

All of those questions and dozens more are what I try to answer on our way back to Ylisstol. Every day Laurent has a whole new slew of inquiries regarding something about the game or my knowledge of this world. Unfortunately, I don't think my answers are very good. Most of the time I'm giving some variety of "I don't know, but this is my guess" which is… subpar. Laurent seems fine with it, but I still feel like I'm giving insufficient information.

I worry for when Laurent will start to ask about my world in general. He's going to have an infinite amount of questions.

Morgan handles Laurent's questions much more gracefully than I do, or maybe she just enjoys the sound of her own voice. Probably both. Laurent also has a lot fewer questions for Morgan.

Laurent is surprisingly social with the rest of the group beyond the little corner of future children and me. He converses with Nowi about the power of dragons, Olivia about the applications of and skills involved in dance, Lon'qu about swordsmanship, and so on. He's also always inquiring about our health (I think I remember in some of his supports that he made it his business to make sure everyone in the Shepherds was taken care of).

Laurent is also a bit of a tactician himself, and so he provides a much more significant challenge for Morgan when we teach him chess than I ever could. It's sad on my part how quickly Laurent surpasses me. I suppose I just don't have any skill for the game… or Laurent just happens to have a knack for it.

Either way, Morgan has someone else to play with. Maybe I should consider making Morgan her own copy of chess.

Nah is also very interested in Laurent… I think. It's unclear. She talks to him frequently enough, but their conversations swing wildly between Nah teasing him, being annoyed at something, Laurent asking about dragon things or what she's noticed about the world so far, or them having actual normal conversations. Nah's attitude is all over the place, but Laurent is always calm.

Weird. Something tells me they have history.

Now we have all the kids from Ferox and Ylisse. All the kids from the relatively safe places. The rest are in Valentia or the west end of Plegia. Virion will hopefully handle the Valentian kids, so now it's just a matter of getting the ones from Plegia… somehow.

---

This chapter… it did what it had to. I guess I'll have to be satisfied with that. I feel like there's a lack of Morgan, even though there's probably just as much Morgan here as there usually is.