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.

17. Chapter 17

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

I dunno. Insert funny joke here. We're still in an awkward part of the story where there's way too much plot and character stuff happening in a short amount of time. Also, the second trigger is going to happen, and while I've somewhat led up to it, it still ended up being sudden and awkwardly integrated.

Also, it seems a number of you forgot that Emmeryn was already revealed to still be alive back in chapter 10. Check the talk with Anna.

---

So, a royal wedding. That sounds cool you might think. Fancy decorations everywhere, a massive ceremony, probably a parade, lots of food and drink, good stuff.

Well you're wrong, it's tedious, boring, and it sucks. I don't know about you, but doing nothing but standing around for hours on end is not what I'd call enjoyable. Because this is a super important royal wedding, it starts the moment the tip of the sun can be seen on the horizon. We can't really skip any of the boring parts either. I mean, we could, but it would be rude.

Those straight black clothes I bought are coming in handy, because they're the closest thing I have to formal clothes. Folding the sleeves of my shirt a bit gives them the impression of being cuffs, and a belt helps me look less monotone.

Stahl, being the nice person he is, apparently realized I didn't have anything else and lent me a spare vest when I came down for breakfast. He actually offered a few more noble-looking things like bulky, puffy shirts and all that (apparently he had to get these when he became a knight as was expected to attend some high-class events) but I took a dark-green vest. Maybe it's not very accurate to the times, but fuck it, I'll take my more Earthly fashion sense thank you very much.

Most of the Ylissian Shepherds have to rush out early after breakfast. They're actually a part of the ceremonies. Robin is also a part of this group, so after recounting the schedule to Morgan and I (we only returned yesterday) he has to leave.

Morgan is lucky by the way, she can wear her coat.

The morning is dedicated to religious stuff for the most part, probably to get it out of the way for the more fun events later (assuming there are any, now that I think about it). There's a two-hour long ceremony (one of many around the city) being held by some bishop about how Naga has blessed the royal family and indeed the entire country and we should all feel blessed about this and bla bla bla, standard religious bullshit. I doubt Naga had anything to do with this. She doesn't have that much power to spare.

Honestly the religious stuff is kind of interesting in a roundabout way. There's a bunch of curious lines the bishop says that grab my attention. He talks about the "purifying power of marriage" which is not something I've ever heard of before. I'm aware of the whole "love redeems" idea, where being loved and loving in return makes you a better person, but the "purifying power" of marriage is an interesting way to phrase it. The bishop also ascribes terms to both Chrom and Maribelle that make me raise an eyebrow. He constantly calls Maribelle "pure" or even "chaste" which is really weird considering she's a Shepherd, and therefore has certainly seen combat and is by no means innocent nor pure, and she's getting married, and that usually involves a certain amount of… uh… unchaste actions in the near future. Chrom is more generic. Strong, brave, noble, pious, all that stuff. Pious is a weird one, that's not usually what I hear ascribed to Chrom. You can also really hear traditional gender roles being pushed in this speech, and he repeats it over and over and over, and praises Naga time and again, and keeps talking about how Naga has ordained this rather than, you know, it being any choice of Chrom or Maribelle's.

Whatever man. Religion is going to do it's thing. There's a reason I usually don't pay attention to it, though maybe I'll look into it more in this world just to see what's up and how it shapes the world around me.

Me and Morgan spend half the speech quietly making fun of the various things the bishop says, and the other half is me explaining to her what little I remember about Earth's religions.

Don't get me wrong, it's still boring. Morgan makes it slightly less boring, but it's still boring overall.

The next part of this whole ordeal happens at noon. There is indeed a parade, and I think it must have been scheduled for noon so the sun could be at its zenith for maximum aesthetic effect.

By virtue of us being… Shepherds? Are we technically Shepherds now? Whatever, we get a viewing spot with the rest of the Shepherds who aren't part of the parade themselves. We get to see the parade right as it starts, which means we also get to leave sooner than everyone else after the parade has past us.

We're still there for a long time. There was no expense spared in making this a huge ordeal. What's interesting is that this is very a military parade, despite Emmeryn being the Exalt. I suppose it is more fitting for Chrom, and I honestly have no idea what else would be done for a royal wedding parade. A military procession just works.

I spot a familiar face when the pegasus corps fly by. All the pegasus knights have gold armor, which if I remember correctly designates all of them as squad leaders of some sort. Among them is Vanna, the leader of the squad we ran into along our way to Ylisstol. She doesn't see us of course, we're two faces among thousands, but it's still cool to notice her.

Notably, Cordelia and Sumia are not in the group of pegasus knights. Phila is leading them, but those two aren't there.

That's because they're close to Chrom and Maribelle. The Shepherds get a prime spot in the parade as Chrom and Maribelle's personal guards. Cordelia and Sumia fly overtop, Stahl and Sully flank the carriage, Frederick is naturally in the back so he can see everything, and Robin is up front. He changed since we last saw him. He's wearing his grandmaster outfit, complete with shining silver armor.

"Father has got to be boiling in that." Morgan whispers. "Armor, cloak, and midday sun?"

"Poor guy." I agree. I'm already feeling hot, and we have a nice shaded spot right outside the castle gate. "Is there a spell to stop heat stroke?"

"I hope so." Morgan murmurs.

"There is." Laurent reassures. "I would expect an enchantment to have been cast over him and most of the procession before this began, fear not."

"Cool. You gotta teach me that some time!"

"If you so wish, I may be able to spare the time."

"Yay!"

While mildly impressive, the parade is also really noisy with all the cheering and I'm glad when the tail end is out of sight and we can leave.

As mostly-irrelevant guests, me and Morgan get breaks as we wait for the next thing to happen. By that I mean we get to eat lunch (at, like, two-thirty in the afternoon) and Morgan regales me with all the overly-flamboyant outfits she noticed on other people in the crowd.

"He had, like, five layers on." Morgan says and pulls on her coat as a sort of visual aid. "And he was in direct sunlight, and he was sweating like a pig! You could actually see the stains growing as the parade went on!"

"Ew. Wait, I thought you said he had five layers. You could see the stains on the outermost layer?"

"Yep!"

"That's disgusting."

"I know!" Morgan says cheerfully. "There was also this woman with this huge dress. I mean, no one could stand within half a meter of her. It was all blue and green and intricate. Actually a nice dress and all, but much better suited for a party or a ball than standing out in the sun. At least she had an equally huge huge hat to block the sun. Oh, and the hat had some massive feathers! They totally had to be fake!"

"Maybe they're roc feathers."

"What's a roc?"

"Maybe rocs don't exist then…"

"Tell me what they are!"

"Giant eagles… I think they're eagles. Some bird of prey that's the size of a manakete." I say. "Big bird. I'm thinking too much of D&D."

"I dunno, maybe those exist." Morgan says. "But it doesn't ring a bell."

"Probably doesn't exist then." I mutter.

"Oh, oh, I also saw this lady with a huge ass!"

Of course she'd notice that. "I believe that's called a bustle Morgan."

"Say what?"

"A bustle. It's to support a dress so it doesn't drag along the ground. Usually you wear it on your lower back." I explain.

"Why do you know this?"

"Like I've said before, I know a lot of very random facts of questionable relevance." I say. "And by that I mean I've looked into older dresses before, and bustles were mentioned, so I investigated that too."

"Ah."

"Oh, and…" I poke her nose, like I usually do. "Lewd girl."

"Yeah yeah, what else is new?"

"Not you, because you're predictable." I tease.

Morgan gives an exaggerated gasp. "Me? Predictable? I'm a tactician! Being predictable means I can be analyzed and defeated! Being called predictable is an insult!"

"Is that how it works now?"

"It is!"

"Well then you better start changing it up." I say.

"Oh I will, and you'll regret it!"

"I look forward to it."

The actual wedding ceremony is something we can barely see from our spot way up in the rafters. It's big and fancy and there's a bunch of important-looking people there that get to sit right up front. It's fucking long. Three hours long in fact.

It's also hard to feel the gravity of the ceremony. I'm sure this is actually a huge deal with Chrom being royalty and Maribelle being nobility, shaking the political landscape and all that, but to me it's just two Shepherds getting married. It's cool I guess, but not earth-shattering.

I'm thankful me and Morgan are tucked away in a corner of the courtyard so we can entertain ourselves without bothering other people. I spend some of my time looking around for Lucina. Even if she's keeping herself hidden, this seems like something she'd want to see. It's her parents' wedding after all.

Of course I can't spot one person in this massive crowd, so I don't see Lucina anywhere. I imagine she's here though.

Just like this morning where we had to listen to boring religious stuff, there's a lot of that here too. More surprising to me is how Emmeryn is the one saying all of this. There's not some bishop or priest doing it. Judging by the murmuring of everyone when Emmeryn steps forward, I have the impression this isn't exactly standard.

When I bring this up to Morgan, it's Laurent who answers again. "Indeed you are correct. Under normal circumstances one would expect high-ranking clergy to oversee such an important ceremony. The Exalt does qualify, but only on technicality of the royal family being seen as favored by Naga and through that holding religious ranks. According to what I know from history books, it is not standard for the royal family to use those ranks in any major capacity, as it would be seen as attempting to expand the power of the crown to areas the church controls. It is not so much of a gaff as Lady Emmeryn was clergy herself in her youth, but Emmeryn is indeed still breaking a social norm and stepping on the toes of the church by doing this."

Interesting. I have to wonder if there's something political behind the decision, or if it was simply a request by Chrom and/or Maribelle. I should have guessed that the highest levels of Ylissian society would be rife with political maneuvering.

You know the drill from then on. Walk down the aisle, stand at alter, vows, cheering, I think Frederick and Lissa are crying. Exactly what you'd expect from a wedding. I do my part and clap when needed. I didn't notice before, but Vaike and Robin are also down there standing behind Chrom along with Frederick, and Maribelle has Lissa (obviously), Sumia, and some older woman I don't recognize.

So that's all well and good, but none of it was particularly interesting to me. Talking to Morgan was more interesting than what was actually happening around us for the most part. That's aside from, of course, this last thing.

The afterparty.

"I wasn't even aware we were going to be able to go." I say when Robin locates us and tells us we're going.

"It's at my discretion." Robin says. "I'm going of course, and I can bring guests. Inviting Morgan was a given, and seeing as all the other Shepherds and future children are going, it would be rude to leave you out."

So basically I'm allowed to go by being associated with Morgan, because let's be real, if I wasn't close with Morgan I wouldn't be coming even if Robin claims it's just because I'm part of the future kid group. I'm only allowed to come because Morgan probably wouldn't if I wasn't (because she's way more attached to me than I deserve).

Or maybe that's my cynicism speaking and it doesn't matter how close I am to Morgan. I do tend to assume everything that's going well for me is because of Morgan. How could I not? I got this far almost purely by relying on her help.

And that's how me and Morgan got thrust into a party with a bunch of very important people with no guidance aside from Robin saying "please don't stab anyone or make them hate you, anything you two do affects my reputation".

Honestly, knowing Morgan and what she's done before, that's probably a necessary warning.

I'd be perfectly content to tuck away in a corner until dinner happens, but Morgan is curious. "I wonder what people talk about at these sorts of parties. We should listen in! This is a great chance to learn and make connections!"

"Why do we need connections?" I ask.

"Why not? Also, we can exploit them."

"You're going to get a load of connections with that attitude." I snort.

"Yep." Morgan says. "I will, because I've got a winning personality and a face so cute they won't mind being exploited!"

"Right…"

"I'm joking." Morgan says, and grabs my arm to pull me around. "Mostly."

"Mmm-hmm."

"I am!"

"If you say so."

"Also, I want to help Father. If I can make a friend, that's a potential ally for Father!"

How very politically-minded of you Morgan. "Nevermind, you're going to fit in here perfectly."

Morgan squints her eyes at me. "Is that an insult?"

"Sort of. I don't think highly of politicians and the like."

"Suppose I can't blame you for that, considering what I know of your world's politics." Morgan says.

She isn't dissuaded about talking to people though. So talk we- well, she mostly- do.

It isn't very difficult finding someone to talk to, because as much as this is technically a party for Chrom and Maribelle people are also here to socialize.

While there are a lot of stuffy old people (who probably have titles) here, Morgan manages to locate people closer to our age. She pulls me over to a lone young man with a wine glass and a cravat. He looks awfully pretentious.

"Hiya!" Morgan chirps without preamble. "I'm Morgan! Soon to be the best tactician ever! Who are you guys?"

His eyebrows instantly rise, and I resist the urge to face-palm. This is a fancy high-class gathering where manners and formality is very important, and Morgan and manners generally don't get along because she's too busy joking around or bragging about how cute she is to learn or care about manners.

The young man decides Morgan is worth talking to, because he politely bows and extends a hand in greeting. "Allard Dracovine, a pleasure." He pronounces it "drah-co-vayin" not "dray-co-vine".

Morgan grabs his one hand with both of hers and shakes vigorously, almost causing him to spill

the drink he's holding in the other. "Hi! What do you do? What's going on? I'm sorta new here. Oh, this is Nathan, he's mine."

Allard is more than happy to talk about himself. He's the middle son of a prominent family of knights and wine-makers. He's set to take over the vineyards as his older brother is aiming to become a general. He speaks proudly of both family and his position in it, as well as their occupations.

"And you?" Allard asks. "What about you?"

"I'm Robin's daughter!" She chirps. I guess we're not hiding that information now, huh? "He's the Shepherds' tactician!"

"Interesting." Allard hums. "By chance, do you or your father have an interest in fine wine?"

"I've never tried wine at all." Morgan says. "I can't speak for my father though, I haven't spoken with him much."

"Oh really?" He says. "And why is that? Was he always too busy?"

That's… hmm… I'm sensing something a bit off about that question. I'm going to reserve judgement for now though. I'm not actually sure what's making me wary.

"Nah, I'm an amnesiac." Morgan says. "So I haven't spoken with him much because I don't remember much!"

"Oh." Allard blinks. "That's quite a problem."

"It's not so bad." Morgan shrugs. "Everything is new and interesting now! I bet you can't say the same thing!"

"That is true." He agrees. "Still, I'm surprised your father allowed such a thing to happen to you."

"It's not really his fault, he wasn't around."

"That is still negligence."

Okay, now I understand what I was sensing. I think Allard here is digging for dirt on Robin. He's trying to find something he can use as leverage. Words straight from Robin's daughter's mouth that he's a bad father would certainly count as leverage, so he's trying to facilitate that with leading questions and conclusions.

"Morgan." I murmur, putting a hand on her shoulder and leaning down to whisper in her ear. "Be cautious. He's looking for leverage on Robin."

Morgan nods, keeping her expression cheerful and happy. She offers no sign that her opinion of Allard has at all changed. Maybe she already knew this? Or is she just a good actor? "Right right, I'll go in a second Nathan."

Oh, nice cover Morgan. Now they're going to think I was just giving her a reminder. Very smooth. I nod back and return to my resting position. Morgan can handle this just fine.

"Father is great." Morgan says. "He's just busy, and I'll admit I'm a bit of a handful! Besides, how could he expect someone to curse me out of the blue?"

"I suppose…" Allard says slowly, clearly thinking. Morgan keep going before he can say more.

"Besides, isn't that normal?" Morgan chirps. "I'll bet a bunch of people's parents are busy! The world is a busy place! There's houses to run, money to make, training to keep up, staff to keep on track, reports to file, a whole bunch of stuff!"

"Even so, my father always has time for me." He says proudly. "Not a day goes by without him checking on my education and ensuring I am prepared to take over the vineyards."

"Is that so?" Morgan says with a smile. I think Allard just wandered into a trap. "Every single day?"

"Indeed."

"How much time are we talking every day?"

"A few hours or so, not including dinner and downtime. More than sufficient!"

"Sufficient indeed. Is he in charge of the vineyards at the moment?"

"Yes."

"And an active knight?"

"Not so, he is getting on in the years. He trains new knights. Plenty respectable."

"Of course, of course." Morgan says. "I imagine training the knights takes quite some time and effort, doesn't it? There's so much to do."

Allard puffs out his chest a bit and straightens his cravat. "Indeed you are correct. My father is nothing if not hard-working!"

"I don't doubt it, he sounds quite impressive." Morgan simpers. "Though I must say, between looking after you, his trainees, and the vineyards, he must have precious little extra time."

"Sadly true." Allard agrees. "It is the price one must pay for a position of power."

"Did you say you had a brother, Sir Dracovine?" Morgan asks. Breaking out the flattery and titles now are we? She's really going hard on this.

"Indeed I do. A younger sister as well."

"Did you say your father had precious little free time?"

"Indeed." He says, a bit less sure this time. I think he's starting to understand something is a bit off.

"Why, then it seems like your poor siblings are being a bit neglected, aren't they?" Morgan asks with a wide, predatory grin. So this was her trap. Allard tried to get dirt on Robin, so she's returning the favor. "It almost seems like your father is choosing favourites, how awful."

"I- well- that's not true at all!" He sputters. "My brother is busy on his own by this point, and he spares my sister some time as well!"

"Clearly not as much as you, seeing as he had hours to spare for helping you but precious little extra time by your own admission." Morgan says. "Your poor, neglected sister."

"That's not it at all! I am going to be taking over a position of power, it is only natural more time is spent on myself!" Allard says with an edge of panic in his voice. He definitely understands the trap by this point and doesn't want his father to figure out he accidentally gave someone possible blackmail on him.

"Ahh, I see." Morgan hums. "It's almost as if your father has to carefully ration his time and prioritize things of utmost importance, and that not sparing much time for his daughter doesn't indicate a lack of love or care."

Allard jumps to grab the out Morgan is dangling in front of him. "That's exactly right!" He says with relief.

"Well then, I suppose my own father can't be accused of negligence either, as he is quite a busy man as well." Morgan says with a triumphant grin. "Do take care about throwing around accusations in the future, Sir Dracovine. Especially if your own family fits the same description."

She loops her arm through mine before he can respond, and says.

"Now, I believe there was somewhere I had to be. Good day to you, sir." I lead her away, trying to hold back my own smile at the rather dumfounded look on some of the boy's faces.

As soon as we're sufficiently far away, I let a smile split my face. "Now Morgan, I do believe your father said not to make enemies. You can't go around traumatizing noble young men like that."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Morgan says innocently, though her own huge grin says otherwise. "I was merely having a conversation with a nice young man and following his lead. I only did as he did."

"I don't know what your father was thinking, putting me in charge of such an impressionable young girl." I sigh dramatically. "Though really, bringing you here is like dropping a wolf in a sheep pen."

"What did you expect with someone of my incredible intelligence and wit?" Morgan asks. "I'm going to have lots of fun here, I can tell."

"Nobles beware." I smile. "Morgan is here."

"You bet!" Morgan says. "Oh, and by the way, nice catch on the attempted blackmail."

"I wasn't sure if you'd caught it or not." I say.

"I had a feeling that's what was going on, but I wasn't sure."

"I wasn't sure either." I admit. "It just reeked of court politics, so I made an assumption."

"Well either way, he was insulting my father." Morgan hums. "So I have no regrets."

"Do you ever have regrets?"

Morgan shrugs. "Not really."

No surprise there. "Well either way, don't scare off too many young men." I tease. "You're a single young woman, I'm sure your father is looking for some nice, and more importantly rich and powerful, young man to marry you off to."

"Oh of course!" Morgan grins. "As a single woman, I need to be searching for a husband, how could I forget? That's my purpose in life."

"Such a shame you couldn't be married off to the prince." I sigh dramatically. "But there should be other candidates of decent value to grab. We need to make sure your marriage is an asset to your family of course."

"Obviously." Morgan says. "I should have worn a proper dress! How can I be expected to grab myself a man without a v-neck at least down to my navel?"

Feeling a bit bold, I poke Morgan in the chest. "Not sure that's going to help you. It's not like you have much to show off."

"How dare you." Morgan huffs, and crosses her arms. "Are you calling me flat?"

"Yes."

"Well you're right, but screw you anyways!" She pouts. "Are you saying I have no charm?"

"I never said that. Fishing for compliments are we?" I tease again.

"You just called me flat! How am I ever going to recover from that blow to my pride without compliments?" Morgan says. "My self-worth lies in ruins! Don't you know one stated fact from a man is a death sentence to any girl!"

"Of course, I forgot just how emotionally fragile the fairer sex is." I chuckle, and pat her on the head. "There there, you have other charms."

"Patronizing me now, are you?" Morgan continues to pout. A smile is tugging at the corner of her mouth though. This is all in good fun. "And I didn't hear any specifics! Could it be that you don't actually think I have any other charms and are just being nice?"

"You're not subtle you know." I say, poking her in the nose. "I see what you're doing. You're still fishing for compliments."

"Maaaybe." Morgan says. She leans against my arm with a shit-eating grin. "And you'll indulge me, won't you?"

"Only because I'm a pushover." I say. "But yes."

"A pushover to me, your girlfriend." Morgan reminds me. "It means you dote on me, and that's not a bad thing to a certain extent. Besides, I'm the same with you whether you know it or not."

I wouldn't have thought so. Morgan strikes me as too stubborn to be nudged into doing something… though I suppose I haven't ever intentionally tried to get her to do something either. "Alright, alright. But what do you expect me to say?"

"A compliment! Something about my appearance, because that's in line with the improv we're doing." Morgan chirps. She wiggles her eyebrows a moment. "Don't be shy. You just called me flat. If I'm not going to get offended by that, you have nothing to worry about. If you want to say you like my butt, now's the time."

Morgan knows me too well, because I absolutely would have gone with something safe if she hadn't said that. I can't believe I'm actually going along with this. I'm also very glad no one is really paying attention to us as we walk to some corner of the room. "Hmm… well I've already said before that you have chicken legs, and now I've said that you're flat…"

Morgan pouts again. "I want compliments Nathan."

"Just making sure I don't contradict myself." I say with a smile. "And as much as you use it as a joke, your cute face is one of those things to compliment. You should see just how smug you can look sometimes."

"Is looking smug a good thing?"

"Yes." I nod. "It feels very… you. You at your best. Smug, confident Morgan."

"That's a very unique compliment." Morgan says. Then, with an impish smile. "So what I'm hearing is that you like it when I take charge, hmm?"

"Uh…"

"Right." She grins. "Filing that away for later."

I don't know what that means, but I'm not that worried. It's Morgan. "So, was that what you were looking for?"

"I should have known you'd be tame." She huffs fondly. "I all but outright told you that you could be lewd!"

"That was more than I was going to do before." I mumble. "I was just going to compliment your hair or something before."

"Still so shy." Morgan smiles. "I'm not complaining though."

"I- I guess I could say-"

"Hey, don't let me push you to anything you're not comfortable with Nathan. I'm just teasing."

"Right." I say, but I'm going to do this anyways. I'm never going to become comfortable with it if I don't push my own boundaries a bit. "But- uh- I'm always trying not to stare at your hips, especially whenever you take off your cloak."

A grin splits her face. "Now that's what I was looking for, and Nathan?"

"Yeah?"

"You do remember this was supposed to be improv, right?" She says, holding back a laugh. "You could have made something up."

I cringe a bit. "Oh."

"Oh come on, that's not a bad thing." Morgan says cheerfully. "I was literally asking you to give me a slightly lewd compliment. I'm not going to complain about honesty!"

Ah, right, I'm worrying over nothing. "Of course, I should have guessed as much. Lewd compliments for a lewd girl."

"Exactly!" She says. "But really, I'll take compliments of any kind."

"I'm well aware."

"I'd return the favor, but…" Morgan pauses, gesturing to me. "I think I'll wait until you get your actual body. It would be weird to compliment you about a body that isn't ever really yours."

"You're assuming you'll find something to compliment."

"Oh I will." Morgan says confidently. "Everyone has something to like."

You know what? That's a good mindset. I need to emulate that. "Well, then I'll look forward to that then."

With our bit over with, Morgan finds a few other poor noblemen to toy with, and after she's had her fun we retreat to a table near the other Shepherds and future kids until dinner.

###

Finally, after the wedding, I manage to push Morgan into spending a day with her father. Robin finally has the free time, what with many people taking a free day after the wedding. Morgan tries to argue against it, but I refuse to listen.

I spend the day practicing my writing, going through sword drills, and more importantly: starting the creation of two more travel chess sets. One is for Morgan, and the other I want to send to Virion. I can't finish them in one day, but that's fine.

Something else I get done is commissioning some iron bolts for my crossbow. My wooden bolts have served me well but I want something with a bit more punch, just in case. It turns out that the design of my crossbow makes this a bit of a hassle. As of currently, the entirety of the bolt rests in the groove in which the bolt is launched (because I haven't managed to get enough power in the crossbow to fire larger bolts, and the groove helps to keep the bolt straight) whereas I'm fairly sure normal crossbows use bolts with bolt heads that would rest just beyond the front of the weapon. This is apparently a bit of a challenge for making bolts, as I can't use wood splitting to hold the bolt head in place. Instead the bolt head needs to squeeze around the top of the shaft.

Basically, because my crossbow design still needs improvement, making effective bolts is a bit of a pain. I have no idea how to improve it at this point though. I think modern crossbows use multiple strings to grant more force or something…? I'll have to do some testing, or ask Miriel, or both.

I'm explaining all of this crossbow stuff to Noire as I work on the chess sets in the yard of the Shepherds' barracks. Noire doesn't have much to do today as Tharja is one of the few people that is actually busy with something (I have no idea what), so she's hanging around with me. She's working on something of her own as well of course. She's practicing a spell, dark magic by the looks of it. I wonder if that's flux.

"I-It might be a matter of the material too." Noire murmurs. "A longbow only uses one string, but it has plenty of power and range."

"That's true, but it's also a lot bigger." I muse. "I can't just turn a longbow sideways and add a flight groove. That's too unwieldy."

"S-Still…"

"Yeah, it might be the materials." I agree. "Do you know what your bow is made of?"

"I think my current one is hickory." Noire says. "I've made so many over the years I tend to forget. They tended to get broken during particularly fierce Risen attacks and I'd have to use my daggers instead."

"You were on the front lines with your bow?" I ask. I presume that's how it kept getting broken. "How'd that keep happening?"

"There's no front line in ambushes." Noire murmurs. "The Risen would be everywhere, and I usually had to protect Brady so I couldn't just run away to create distance for me to shoot."

"Were you Brady's designated protector or something?"

"Not exactly." Noire says. Her hands fidget with the hem of her shirt. "I-I just- we- we're friends."

"Aren't all the future kids friends?" I ask. I genuinely assumed most of the future kids were friends, but I guess it might have been necessary to work with each other. They might have been companions, but not friends.

"W-Well yes." Noire says. Her eyes dart from side to side. "We- erm- we're close."

"Ah, alright." I say. "Good friends."

"Y-Yeah."

"You were friends when you were kids too, right?"

"Yes." She nods. "You know that from the game?"

"Yep." I say. "Honestly, you and Brady were always some of my favourites, so I remember quite a bit about you two."

"R-Really?"

"Yeah. It was mostly because I found you both quite adorable." I admit sheepishly. "Brady was a nice, sensitive guy despite pretending to be tough, and you were cute and shy. Just simple stuff."

"R-R-Right." Noir stammers. She's slightly red in the face now. Oops?

"Sorry?"

"It's fine." She says she says in a high-pitch voice.

"You are still cute."

Noire whines and hides her face in her hands, and I smile in slight embarrassment myself.

"Sorry again."

"You're not!" She says accusingly, though it's muffled by her still hiding her face.

"Okay, yeah, not really." I admit. "But I wanted to give a compliment."

I think that's supposed to be a glare on her face, but there's no anger to it. After a minute or two of me silently working on the chessboards she pulls her hands away from her face, though she's quite pink.

"Brady's a prince, right?" I ask.

"Yeah."

"Does he act… I dunno, prince-like? In the games it doesn't matter if someone is royalty or not, they keep the same personality. Just practical for game development."

"Not really." Noire murmurs. "A-At least, not around me. He was always very casual."

Sounds like Brady from the game then. Good to know.

"Lucina always acted more like nobility." Noire recounts. "B-Brady would always tell me how the queen would complain that he didn't hold his head up properly, or that he didn't seem to care about law lessons. He always had some new complaint from his mother to tell me about."

Yeah, that's about what I would expect from someone living under Maribelle. Poor guy. "In the supports it mentioned that both of you two were always getting sick together."

"Oh Naga…" Noire sighs. I get the feeling she's thinking "why is that part of his game?". "Yes, that did happen. Sometimes I swear we spent more of our childhood time together in infirmary beds than actually doing things. Thankfully that stopped, but it was annoying for the longest time."

"On the bright side, you probably have quite the immune system now." I offer.

"Immune system?"

Ah, uh, okay. Maybe that's not common knowledge here. "The simple explanation is that, when exposed to a virus, your body begins the process of learning to defeat that virus. This "knowledge" so-to-speak doesn't go away when the virus is defeated, which is why it's very rare to suffer through the same virus twice. It's not that you can't get a virus multiple times, just that the second time is going to affect you drastically less, in some cases to the point that you might not even notice you have it."

"Oh." Noire blinks. "That's amazing."

"Isn't it?" I grin. "On Earth we have these things called vaccines that are designed to give your body a small, modified part of the disease to trigger your immune response and have your body learn to fight the disease without you ever needing to suffer through the actual thing."

"Wow…"

"Technology is crazy sometimes." I chuckle. "So, anyhow, you've probably got some nice resistances if you went through that many illnesses as a kid." Assuming she doesn't have some sort of immune deficiency of course, but let's not worry her unnecessarily. She's probably fine.

"I haven't gotten sick in a while…" Noire says slowly. "Maybe that's why."

"Possibly!" I agree. "Though, interestingly, there are at least one-hundered and fifty versions of the common cold, so it's hard to be immune to all of them. Er, well, on Earth there are that many."

"That's so many…"

"And that's not even all of them. There are one-hundred and fifty variants of the rhinovirus, which is the most common group of things that cause the symptoms we call "the cold", but there are plenty of other virus groups that also do that. So in reality there's probably well over two hundred viruses that we call "the cold"."

Noire shakes her head. "I would never have known."

"Weird huh?" I say.

Me and Noire spend a pleasant day working on our own little projects, and occasionally having these little talks. It's a nice change of pace from Morgan's constant energy and chatter.

###

It's only halfway through the day after the one I spent with Noire that I think to ask: "Why was there a sermon before the wedding?"

Me and Morgan are conducting my sword training when I ask this. We're in the Shepherds' training grounds on a somewhat cloudy day. We're training just before lunch, when few other people are using the area.

I don't know a lot about weddings, especially royal weddings, but I don't remember ever hearing of a lengthy sermon before a wedding, meaning one that isn't just a part of the normal ceremony. That could just be my unfamiliarity with the whole thing though.

"I dunno." Morgan shrugs. "But we can make a few guesses based on what we've heard before. Laurent said that Emmeryn overseeing the wedding ceremony was a bit of a slap in the face of the church, right? So we can assume there's a bit of a delicate power balance between the crown and the church."

"Right."

"Well, perhaps that lengthy sermon beforehand is the church's way of keeping a handle on what they see as their area of power. Weddings I mean." Morgan says. She taps my foot with her practice blade, correcting my stance. "Like, naturally the royal family would dominate the event, right? So the sermon beforehand serves to remind everyone that the wedding is a religious event which Naga, and more importantly the church, is responsible for."

"That makes a certain amount of sense." I agree. "It's a measure of control over the royal family as well. If the royal family tries to have a wedding, it will be weird if they don't have that sermon if it's tradition to have it, right? So in a way they need the church's cooperation to legitimize their weddings. It's not just a matter of getting one priest to do the ceremony, you need multiple to give the sermons all over the city."

"Exactly what I was thinking." Morgan agrees. "Devious, isn't it? Control via ceremony."

"Indeed."

"Don't drop your stance Nathan."

"Yes mother."

A crooked smile crosses Morgan's face. "So you're into that type of play, hmm?"

Am I going to play along with this? How lewd is this going to get? You know what, sure. I'm going to play along. "You caught me. Oedipus complex all the way."

"Hah!" Morgan barks, her grin grows wider. "I can't help but feel this is an extension of you liking it when I'm in charge, hmm?"

She's going to milk that for all it's worth, isn't she? God I'm lucky to have Morgan. Ridiculously smart, extremely tolerant, and apparently flirty to the utmost degree. Also she's cute, but that's just a bonus. "Guilty as accused. Please, take charge."

"Hmm…" Morgan hums. "Can I be honest?"

"Sure."

"I actually have no idea where to go with this joke."

Well that's rare. "Honestly? I had no idea where this was really going either. The premise was a bit wack."

"I mean, I could think of something in terms of actions." Morgan muses. "Disarm you, then either trip you and step on your chest or maybe go for the flirty instructor angle. Tip your chin up with my sword and all that. It's just a matter of what I'd say and I have no idea what to do with that."

"There's no need to workshop the idea. The only reason I went along with it was to see what you'd do." I admit. "It probably would have been really weird, even by our standards."

"Yeah." Morgan agrees. "So instead… something, something, I flirt, you stammer and blush, let's not and say we did."

She knows the formula I see. "Alright."

"So fix your footwork already!"

"Okay, okay, geeze.."

###

After our… argument? Debate? After our whatever it was, me and Nah haven't spoken much, and I want to make sure she's not angry. I was mildly miffed after that, but I'm fine now. In hindsight I can absolutely understand where Nah was coming from. She comes from a ruined future after all, so mental health is really a secondary concern to surviving. It's redundant to ask if people should let their personal and internal lives fall to shamble for the group because that was probably the only option.

So basically, Nah wasn't being irrational. Far from it, she was stating the obvious, albeit the obvious for a different situation. I suppose with Grima still on the horizon, it makes sense that she'd have that mindset… and she might not exactly be wrong in thinking that way either. I think her reaction was overkill last time, considering we're in downtime there's no need for such drastic sacrifices to personal health in my opinion, but her mindset is understandable.

Finding Nah actually takes a bit of effort. Nowi and Nah don't exactly stick around the barracks all that much, so I have to grab her either in the morning before they leave or in the evening when they come back. I choose the morning for the simple fact that there are less people around.

It's not hard to catch Nah before her mother in the morning. Nowi sleeps in the most out of anyone, so there's a solid hour and a half where Nah is up but Nowi isn't.

And when we talk… it's really short.

"We're fine." Nah says curtly when I bring up our debate/argument thing. "I was tired of Mother being… Mother… and said whatever I had to to defend myself."

"I mean, you weren't totally wrong." I offer. "Wrong for the current situation maybe, but not wrong overall."

"Yeah yeah." Nah says. "But we're not in the future anymore, so I was wrong."

"At the moment. You might very well be right when the Valmese war starts. We won't be able to afford to let small, petty things disturb the group."

"Maybe." Nah says. "But… ugh, I was wrong at the time, alright? Stop rubbing it in."

That's not at all what I was trying to do. I was trying to show that I understood her mindset. Maybe I'm being rude without realizing it? "Uh, right."

"Now go, shoo." Nah says, pushing me out of the room. She's glancing at the kitchen for some reason. "Go… make out with Morgan or whatever the heck you two do when alone."

"That is not what we do."

"Whatever, leave!"

"Okay, okay…"

As I walk away, I can hear someone come out of the kitchen and call to Nah. Is that Laurent? That sounds like Laurent. I wonder what's going on. If I remember our argument, Nah was oddly defensive of Laurent there too. There's some connection between those two, or at least from Nah to Laurent.

Instead of going to Morgan, I instead go back to sleep. Having a safe place to stay has seen the return of my stay up late, wake up late habits.

Not that it matters, because Morgan wakes me up again not half an hour later, insisting that Miriel wants to speak with me. So I haul myself out of bed once more and move to the mess hall.

"Nathan." Miriel says, and jumps right into whatever she has to say without waiting for a response. "I have located a spell that can change your form permanently."

"Oh!" I blink. It only took her a month? I was expecting that to take a lot longer. "Well that's great."

"There is an issue, however." Miriel says. "While I may have located a way to obtain the spell, I do not have it, and obtaining it will be expensive. Not only that, but supposedly the execution of the spell itself will be both time-consuming and expensive in it's own right."

Ah, well that's inconvenient. I wonder if whoever is selling her the spell is jacking up the price. "How much money are we talking to buy the spell?"

"Fifty thousand gold."

Uh, okay. That's a fuck-ton of money. Morgan has a lot of money relatively speaking, but she didn't start with more than two hundred, let alone fifty thousand gold.

"You could buy out multiple baronies with that sort of money!" Morgan says in disbelief. "Why is it so expensive?"

"I do believe it is because the spell allows one to cheat death." Miriel murmurs. "The ability to alter one's body so completely can allow the elderly to become young again, and infinitely extend their lifespan. In addition, the spell is known by precious few people, and so a high buying price allows the spell to stay exclusive."

"They can keep a monopoly on the market." I say. "And ask whatever price they want."

"Precisely." Miriel nods. "Having the spell cast upon oneself is so expensive that even many nobles cannot afford it. Twenty five thousand gold for one cast of the spell. Even for the most wealthy individuals, that is no minor expense. It is truly a spell reserved for the richest individuals on the planet."

Yikes. There's no way we can ever afford that, and there's no way I would ask anyone to use that much money on me. I want my body back, but not for that high of a price. "Well there's no way we're going to gather that much extra money, to buy the spell or just a single cast."

"Indeed." Miriel says. "However, I took the liberty of organizing something else."

"Oh?"

"For the cost of one thousand gold, the seller was willing to allow me to view the spell being cast. They would not explain anything to me, but would allow me to see the process of setting up and casting the spell." Miriel actually smirks and pushes up her glasses. "Little are they aware, I have a photographic memory and am an expert note-taker. I should be able to gather enough information about the spell to finish it myself after one such viewing, though it may take some time to work out variables and fill in parts of the spell matrix."

One thousand gold isn't chump change by any means, but it's a far more reasonable cost. Besides, there are other applications than simply returning me to my own body. That spell could be used to re-create severed limbs, cure illness by simply creating a new body, and countless other medical applications. "One thousand huh?" I look to Morgan. "Do you have an idea how we could manage that?"

"We won't get it through killing bandits, that's for sure." Morgan frowns. "I can't think of a business that could amass such an amount in a short amount of time either…"

"If I may." Miriel interrupts. "I have a solution for this as well."

Miriel can do anything, can't she? "And what's that?"

"This spell has potential medical applications, not to mention extending life-spans beyond what is natural is immensely valuable." Miriel says. "So it is quite possible the crown will be willing to grant us the necessary funding for this endeavor."

Oh, like an investment! That makes sense. Besides, if anyone is going to get use out of the spell, it's going to be the royal family because they have enough money to actually afford having it cast. "Well that's great!"

"Indeed." Miriel agrees. "We are fortunate to know prince Chrom and Lady Emmeryn personally as well. As you can imagine, such a spell as this is not viewed kindly by religious individuals. It is seen as ignoring the natural order. So it is fortunate that the royal family will understand our intent from knowing us personally."

Indeed. "Thanks again for all the effort you're putting in Miriel."

"But of course." Miriel says with a smile. "This spell is beyond a simple personal request. Obtaining it is in the interests of science!"

I suppose it is, and how convenient for me. Though when Naga told me to talk to Miriel about this I didn't expect such a difficult process. I assumed Miriel already had a spell for it. I guess simply polymorph isn't permanent enough, but still…

Fifty thousand. Geeze.

###

I find myself not exactly sure what to do. Of course I still have things I'm working on. I'm still practicing swords and writing, and now I'm also trying to improve my crossbow yet again with some help from Noire, but those are just side-projects. Right now there is the question of if we should be trying to get to the south west of Plegia as quickly as possible, or if we want to wait for the political chaos to settle down.

The south west of Plegia is where Severa, Yarne, and potentially Gangrel are. Plegia however, having just lost a war and their king, is understandably a shitshow right how. We can't guarantee it's safe to go there even if we had the full might of the Shepherds (which we won't probably, because they have other stuff to do).

Even with the powerhouse that is Nah, there's a very real chance we'll run into something we can't deal with. Land or sea, we'll have to deal with brigands and/or pirates, finding safe places to stay and restock, and the military deserters turned bandits (far more dangerous than normal bandits) running around the country. Not to mention the fact that Plegia is probably going to be teeming with grimleal what with Validar trying to take charge.

There's also the small, tiny fact that all the future kids are still enjoying time with their parents and I don't want to pull them away from that. I say that's a small fact because they absolutely would come along to help Yarne and Severa regardless of how much they want to stay here.

"So I suppose the question is how much we need to get Severa and Yarne." I explain to Morgan, because she's a lot smarter than me. "Can we afford to wait for the situation in Plegia to calm down, or should we be going ASAP now that the wedding is over with?"

"Hmm, that is a tough question." Morgan muses. "We also have to take into account that we are an Ylisse-associated group going into Plegia after they just suffered a loss in a war against us."

"True." I hadn't considered that. "But at the same time we can't just leave Severa and Yarne to survive on their own."

"Yeah." Morgan agrees. "A pickle, isn't it? We have to take political concerns into account, so I think we should be talking with Father, or Emmeryn honestly."

"Sure, let's just casually walk into the palace to chat with the Exalt. Easy." I snort.

As it turns out, it… well it's not that easy, but it's not exactly difficult. I think us being Shepherds (kinda? It's still not clear if we're technically Shepherds or not) has something to do with it, because with a bit of needling from Morgan we get a clerk to send a request directly to Emmeryn (rather than him dealing with it, which would be standard) and that message is returned within a few hours inviting us to tea.

I can't help but feel like this is an abuse of our position. We get the attention of the most important person in Ylisse for our (mostly) personal wants just on virtue of us being Shepherds. Morgan has no such worries.

"It's not like Chrom or Maribelle are around to ask." She points out. "They're off doing honeymoon things, and by her own admission Lissa doesn't pay attention to politics all that much. Unless we want to talk to someone we don't know, Emmeryn is our go-to for advice here. We can argue our case better face-to-face. We were going to have to run this by her anyway if we want to leave what with Plegia's border being shut down and all."

It still leaves an uncomfortable feeling in my stomach. Also, I don't like tea.

A servant leads us to Emmeryn's quarters, and Morgan confidently strides inside with me nervously padding after her.

Emmeryn greets us politely. She already has a table set out and tea and some various little pastries ready, and I feel even worse about her going out of her way for us. It doesn't help that I still find her intimidating.

"Morgan, Nathan, thank you for accepting my invitation." Emmeryn murmurs, and inclines her head to us.

Me and Morgan answer in exact opposite ways. Morgan says "no problem!" and I say "no, thank you for being willing to speak with us."

We all sit down around the table, and Emmeryn starts the conversation. She asks how we've been settling in, and if our rooms at the barracks are comfortable, and all the usual pleasantries.

"Your warnings have caused a bit of a stir among the council." Emmeryn says after the pleasantries are out of the way. "However, I'm afraid they are slow to make decisions, though I do believe my brother has plans of his own to aid in the matter."

"Good, we don't want Walhart getting more of a grip on Valentia than he has to." Morgan says.

"Rosanne and Chon'sin should put up a bit more resistance this time with Virion being aware of what's going to happen, as well as a message I sent ahead with him to give to Say'ri and Yen'fay." I add. "And with Tiki hopefully being brought into things, that could swing things even more in our favor."

"Indeed…" Emmeryn murmurs. "Though from the way you speak, you clearly expect Ylisse to get involved."

"I hadn't considered that Ylisse wouldn't." I admit. "Though I suppose Ylisse wouldn't necessarily want to get involved in another war so soon, would they?"

"Precisely." Emmeryn says. "Though of course, we cannot afford to ignore such an issue either, and I do believe my brother would find a way to get involved regardless of Ylisse's forign policy."

That's reassuring to hear at least.

"Though I believe you had something else on your mind when wishing to speak with me, yes?" Emmeryn says. "So please, speak."

"We want to get into Plegia, specifically the southwestern part of it." Morgan says. "Some of the other future kids are there, and we'd rather make sure they're safe sooner than later."

"In addition…" I say, then hesitate. "Erm, pardon, this may seem like an odd question, but did Gangrel survive the war?"

"From what I am aware, Chrom did not wait to see him die. He was left bleeding on the sands." Emmeryn says with a grimace on her face. "Why so?"

"Well, there's a chapter in the game where Gangrel is recruitable, which is also in the southwestern part of Plegia." I say slowly. "And that may be of interest to us as well, though chapters such as his are only questionably reliable for being bonus content and not part of the main game per say."

"Interesting indeed." Emmeryn frowns. "Though I must say, considering what you have told us before regarding Grimleal manipulation, perhaps it is best that Ylisse continues to think Gangrel dead. Gangrel has already paid a heavy price. I would not take away the chance for him to rebuild himself away from the grimleal."

"Yeah… except the situation he's in really isn't conducive to that." I explain. "He gets recruited into a pirate gang, and as the lowest ranking member no less. He doesn't rebuild himself at all. He doesn't have the chance."

"Most unfortunate." Emmeryn says. "Though, I do not think such a thing is high on our list of priorities."

"Fair enough." I say. "Uh, but Severa and Yarne are mildly relevant."

"Of course." Emmeryn agrees. "And they are functionally Ylissian citizens trapped in Plegia at the moment, and therefore Ylisse's responsibility."

I wasn't thinking of it in that way, but yeah, I guess they technically are. That seems like it might have some troublesome political concerns, so I'm surprised Emmeryn is willing to take responsibility for them without question considering the caution she just showed about antagonizing Valm. Maybe it's because war probably isn't on the line with Yarne and Severa considering Plegia is in no position to fight Ylisse.

"Why are you willing to protect Yarne and Severa? Isn't that a political hazard?" Morgan asks, apparently reading my mind. "You weren't willing to step in to stop Valm immediately."

"War is very different from protecting your own citizens. Morally, and politically." Emmeryn explains calmly. "And these two are Ylissian citizens. From a different world, perhaps, but Ylissian nonetheless. Politically wise decision or not, Ylisse has an obligation to aid them. What is the value of a country that does not protect its citizens?"

Honestly, that's not what I was expecting. I'm happy, don't get me wrong, but I wasn't expecting that. I was worried Ylissian policy was going to get in the way of helping Severa and Yarne, not bypass other concerns to make it happen.

"However such an endeavor as rescuing your companions is not to be taken lightly." Emmeryn murmurs. "We cannot be callous in such an operation. It may take some time, if we have time to spare. Is that the case?"

"Well, those paralogues only open up after the Valm war starts. Two years past Gangrel's defeat." I say. "So ostensibly there is time, though we cannot take the game as gospel. You were supposed to die in the game, or at the very least suffer brain damage, and yet here you are."

"Indeed." Emmeryn says. "As such, I can ensure a response in a moderate amount of time. It may not be swift, but it will be professional and efficient."

Morgan's brow furrows and her eyes narrow. "Does moderate mean months, or a year?"

"I do not know." Emmeryn says. "However, I would imagine less than a year. After all, this does seem a mission fit for the Shepherds, yes? The trouble will come in sorting out political concerns and planning how to ensure our rescues are minimally intrusive. We will still be treading on ground that is not ours, regardless of Plegia's political state, and so the less effect we have in Plegia the better. We do not need accusations attempting to convert locals or occupy territory leveled at us, among other concerns."

Right, of course. This is a delicate operation. We're lucky in a way that this is medieval times where such an operation can be carried out without being shared all across the world and causing a political incident and can perhaps even go unnoticed.

This would probably be really sketchy by modern political standards. Probably, maybe. I don't know politics all that well. I'll leave politics to Emmeryn. I'm just thankful we're getting help to do this rather than needing to work with just the future kids.

With all of that out of the way, conversation settles down to more mundane things.

"I usually make a point of knowing all the Shepherds." Emmeryn says. "But with how busy Ylisse has been, I have not been able to do so. This seemed like a good opportunity to get to know yourselves."

"We're Shepherds?" I ask.

"Of course."

I blink in surprise. Morgan doesn't seem shocked. "Didn't you know?" She says.

"No. I thought we were just being allowed to stay in the barracks." I admit.

"Well yeah, that's where Shepherds stay."

"I thought we were guests."

"They could have just put us up in an inn or something Nathan."

"Well yeah, but I don't really fight, I can't be a Shepherd."

"The Shepherds are not so rigidly defined." Emmeryn says with a smile. "Support capabilities are much appreciated."

Augh, I don't want to drag Emmeryn into my insecurities. I can think this over later. "Of course."

The rest of tea time is spent with more generic conversation. Emmeryn is quite interested in the medical advances of Earth in particular, though everything holds her interest to a certain extent. She's equally attentive to Morgan's cheerful recount of our travels getting to Ylisse.

Beyond the stressful stuff involving Yarne and Severa, it's actually a rather nice way to spend the afternoon. I leave feeling a lot less intimidated by Emmeryn than I was before.

###

Now that I have a basic grasp of the Ylissian writing system, I need to start writing things down. There are three main reasons for this. One: my memory is fallible, and will become more unreliable over time. Putting what I know now to paper will ensure I don't forget information. Two: writing information down allows it to be replicable, potentially allowing other people to take this formation with them without the need for me to be there. Three: if anything were to happen to me, I can leave what I know in Morgan's capable hands.

I have a number of things I want to write down, but Awakening stuff comes first for obvious reasons. I don't know exactly how to start, so I just go with trying to put to paper what I remember of the game scene-for-scene. It's messy and garbled, but at least the information will be there.

This becomes my main project after I finish the chess sets (Morgan loves hers, and getting the other sent to Virion is simple. Both of them are higher-quality than the original). I devote hours a day to scribbling on parchment and this necessitates me not spending almost every waking hour with Morgan, which is sad, but it has to happen.

This also means Morgan has to find a way to spend her extra time, and she does this by getting a hobby (as you might expect). Unlike what the games would suggest, she doesn't devote every waking moment to studying military tactics. Instead, she studies game tactics.

Yes, her hobby is studying board games. She's starting with barrels, and mapping out potential opening moves and what needs to be considered to make optimal moves.

"I can totally get some money through bets if I learn to play well!" She chirps when explaining to me her rationelle. "And I'm still studying tactics of some sort at the same time! Win-win!"

She also just likes games, but that's less funny to say. She expresses interest in getting into Multirealm when she has the time, but that's something she's going to leave for later. Morgan also has other things she does in her free time like spending time with her father or going to town or something. My activities are much less varied than hers.

The amount of time I spend on writing steadily increases as the days go on. The Shepherds slowly return to doing their job of protecting Ylisse when Chrom and Maribelle return from their honeymoon, and the future kids are eager to join in, especially when it comes to eliminating Risen. So there are times when it's just me at the barracks and no one else (because, of course, Morgan goes with them as well). I don't ask to come long because I'm completely unnecessary and there needs to be someone with future knowledge remaining in Ylisse to answer questions for Emmeryn and the council.

I start with an hour of writing a day, and within a week that becomes two, and by the end of the month my writing time increases to six hours a day minimum.

I finish writing everything I can think of about Awakening within a few weeks, and after that I start on two more writing projects. I start writing down as much random knowledge as I can remember, starting with medical and scientific information. My other side-project is fulfilling a promise I made earlier to myself, which was to write down all the board games I can remember and their rules and boards and just everything about them. This is for my sake and for Morgan, as Morgan expressed interest in a number of games from Earth.

The Shepherds are gone for long periods of time dealing with major Risen infestations, so I fall into a haze of waking up, eating, writing, doing my exercises, and then going back to sleep. Without Morgan or Noire around I don't have anything fun to do, so the days start to blend together. My sleep schedule slowly starts to change as well. I go to sleep later and later, and wake up later and later until I'm waking up at noon and going to sleep in the early hours of the morning.

The only breaks to my schedule are the odd meeting at the castle where my game knowledge is needed. It was nerve-wracking the first time, but I quickly realized that I was of little overall interest to the council due to how basic my knowledge was, even if it was future knowledge. Knowing that no one really cared about me, paradoxically, helped me feel more calm. I also helped that Emmeryn never requested I stay for very long. I was brought in when questions needed to be answered, and allowed to leave after. I needed not stay for entire meetings.

Other things that broke up my routine were messages. I received a few from Miriel, the first of which mentioning that she would be viewing the body-altering spellcast very soon, and that she had obtained funding just before she left and forgot to mention it to me. The others detailed what progress she was making, and she mentioned that she hoped to be able to safely use the spell on a person within a few months, perhaps even less time.

I'm never going to underestimate Miriel again. That's an incredibly quick development time.

I also, of course, got messages from Morgan, and she recounted all the various goings-on around the camp and all the gossip she heard, as well as any new games she played. Because of the relative mundanity of my own life, I usually responded with only a few lines about myself, and dedicated the rest of my letters to making crosswords, sudoku puzzles, and other little paper games for her to entertain herself with.

In one of her letters Morgan reported that the first Sudoku I sent her took an entire afternoon to complete, which surprised me because I thought it would be very simple for her. Her clear speed did increase rapidly after that though. I also made a habit of including a few sheets dedicated to paper puzzles in each letter for her, rather than just filling in the leftover parchment I hadn't written on with one or two.

The most interesting message has to be the one from Virion, however. Actually, it's three letters all delivered at once. One is from Virion, the other from Say'ri, and yet another from Tiki. To say I feel profoundly unworthy of getting letters from these important individuals is an understatement.

I open Say'ri's first, because out of all three of those I have the least idea of what to expect from her. Her penmanship is so heavily cursive and stylized that I can barely read it, though it is very pretty.

The long and short of it is that she's grateful for the warning, and informs me that Tiki did indeed confirm my status as outworlder. Other than that her message seems very… political? Or maybe it's just generic pleasantries. She says she hopes to be able to work with Ylisse at some point and thanks me for facilitating cooperation between Rosanne and Chon'sin and she hopes that we can one day meet and actually it's rather generic now that I think of it. This is either just a polite message, or she has no idea what to say. Maybe both. I don't imagine it's often she writes a formal message to someone who is essentially a peasant.

Maybe. I don't know. I can't read minds. Maybe she mistook me for a diplomat and this is a very standard letter?

Tiki's message is interesting. It's very short for one, as by Tiki's own admittance she has very little to say but took it as her duty to make contact with me and ensure my wellbeing.

"My mother has brought you here and so it is her responsibility, and therefore mine as her daughter, to ensure you are well." The letter reads. "I do hope we shall meet someday; I am curious as to what you may know of times past."

Well, I don't know a whole lot about Marth, but I know a little bit. When that time comes, hopefully I won't disappoint. Also, saying that I'm her responsibility seems a tad overkill in my opinion. Even if Naga brought me here, she also gave me a second chance at life, so that more than evens it out I think.

Virion's message is what I look at last, and it's easily the longest (thrice as long as Say'ri's in fact). There's a lot to it, from updating me on the situation with Valm and Chon'sin (the alliance has been successful, and Say'ri protected, though he cannot say how on the chance the message is intercepted) to informing me about the future kids I asked him to find (he has yet to hear back from most of his men but they have indeed been dispatched, including Cherche) to thanking me for the chess set I sent him and complimenting me on learning to write so quickly (as I did include instructions on how to play, written by my own hand. It's probably quite shoddy because I wrote that only a few weeks into learning, but if he's complimenting me I assume it was at least legible). He also makes the suggestion that I could turn making chess into a business if I can refine my crafting a bit further, as he can see many nobles enjoying it.

Virion's message is nice to get honestly. It almost feels like talking to a friend, even if we're far closer to business acquaintances than actual friends.

It doesn't really change my overall actions though. I still spend most of my time in my room, writing. I know I've mentioned it before, but without Morgan or Noire I really have nothing I care to do aside from writing. There's no point in going shopping because there's nothing I care to get. I've never been much for plays or horse races or any other form of medieval entertainment. Getting a job wouldn't exactly make my life any better so that's pointless when I already have income from technically being a Shepherd.

Once again I'm worried I'm getting something I don't deserve in that respect. What is it, exactly, I'm being paid for? What am I doing that warrants me being called a Shepherd? Is it my future knowledge? Is it keeping Morgan entertained with puzzles and games? Is it what I set up with Virion?

Okay, that last thing makes a certain amount of sense. Maybe that's what I'm being paid for, in addition to providing information at meetings. I don't know that as a fact though.

I need to do something. I was doing something when I was writing down everything I knew about Awakening, but I need to do something else that's actively helpful. Writing down random tidbits of knowledge might be helpful in the long run, but on a moment-to-moment basis it's less useful.

That leads me to the question of how one replicates written works in this world. Does the printing press exist, or do written works need to be replicated by scribes? What am I hoping to replicate anyways? The paper games? Is that something I should be charging for, since they're new? Or would that be covered under what I'm being paid for as a Shepherd? Would anyone even care about the paper games beyond Morgan?

Should I even be considering business ventures at all? I have no idea what to do. How do you do this whole "adulting" thing? I never learned how.

That's all too much of a mess for me to sort out on my own. I don't know how to start a business, and I'd much rather have Morgan's help if I was going to anyways. So instead of potentially inventing the printing press, I start to create more simple board games with easy-to-create pieces: checkers, abalone, snakes and ladders, yahtzee, all that good stuff. Hopefully by the time Morgan is back I'll have a small library of games for us to play.

This is on top of me writing, of course. It's not like I do anything else, so it's easy to let the game creation overtake the rest of the free time I wasn't using anyways.

In the back of my mind I acknowledge that I'm allowing a work obsession to overtake my life to cope with being lonely (because Morgan isn't here), but I can't really bring myself to care. This world has little to entertain me beyond the Shepherds and future children anyways. I'm a child of the internet age, and for a situation such as mine that is very much a negative thing because there aren't many non-electronic things that can hold my interest.

At the peak of my work-focused lifestyle, about three months after they left, the Shepherds return.

###

The Shepherds return in the morning, and because of my new sleep schedule that means I'm asleep when Morgan rushes into my room. It's not exactly unpleasant to wake up seeing Morgan's face after a month and a half of not seeing her though.

"Oh." I say groggily when Morgan pokes me awake. "Hi."

"Hi? That's it?" She pouts.

"I'm sleepy."

"It's almost noon Nathan."

"Yeah, that's wake-up time. Not eleven." I mumble. I sleepily pull her into a hug. "Good to see you again."

"You've completely destroyed your sleep schedule, haven't you?" Morgan asks, but eagerly reciprocates. "What have you been doing so late that you wake up at noon?"

"Working."

"On what?"

"Games." I mumble. "Or writing."

"Why so late?"

"Habit. Can't focus during the day." I say, and that's the truth. "There's just something about the late hours of the night that makes it easier to focus."

"If you say so!" Morgan says. "Now come on, come on, there's something you need to…" She catches herself before she reveals anything. "Just come!"

"Okay…" I yawn.

I take a moment to get dressed as Morgan bounces near the door, and as soon as I'm ready she drags me out of my room to the mess hall. Miriel is waiting there with an uncharacteristically eager smile on her face.

"Nathan! Good news!" Miriel says without preamble. "The spell is ready!"

"What?" I blink. "Already?"

"Yes!" Miriel says. "Though, there are some additional factors that came up during testing that you need to be made aware of."

Testing? She tested this? On who? "Okay."

"Perhaps we should sit." Miriel says, and we do just that. She brandishes one of her many notebooks and opens it somewhere in the middle. There's no bookmark, but she opened to that page on her first try. That's not because of her photographic memory, that's just her flexing on us. "Firstly, the spell is expensive to cast. It requires a large amount of mana, likely necessitating several mana gems, and it also requires a mana generator. The gems, minus the generator, are consumed upon casting."

Okay, but… "Why a mana generator?"

"The spell is not instant." Miriel says. "In fact… I theorize it will take quite some time. It seems to scale in time spent with the size of the body being created, and it scales exponentially. I have not figured the exact ratio of mass to time needed, but the process will likely take somewhere close to a year."

"A year!?" I shout. "I- but- how!? Why!?"

"The spell must first deconstruct your body, minus the brain, and then it uses much of that same mass to reconstruct it in your desired form." Miriel explains, pointing to her notebook. I don't understand half of the jargon and calculations there. "Such a delicate process takes much time, as you might expect. The spell functions by putting you into a coma for that duration, and only when your new body is fully constructed will it allow you to be woken."

I suppose it makes sense such complicated magic would take time, but a year is a long time. A year is longer than I've been in this world!

"From what I could gather, despite the person I paid trying not to give me information…" Miriel says. "It is normal for people wishing the spell to be cast on themselves to fake their deaths before the spell is cast on them, and then be reborn, so to speak, in a new identity. Often they pass themselves off as a long lost grand-nephew of their old identity, and set up a key item or key phrase that designates them as heir to their companies or land."

So if there's any doubt this spell is normally used for super sketchy reasons, it's gone now. I wonder how long some of the richest people in the world have actually lived with the benefit of this spell. This feels like black-market stuff.

"Cool huh?" Morgan chirps. She's smiling, but the smile looks tense, nervous.

"Yeah…" I say. "Cool."

"I have taken the liberty of purchasing the needed materials," Miriel says, and draws the gems from her pockets in a flourish. She looks very eager. "As soon as you can put your affairs in order, we can initiate the spell. It will require a simple mind-link to ensure your physical appearance is recreated as you wish it to be, as the spell is entirely in the hands of the caster."

"Right." I say. This doesn't feel real. This seems entirely too convenient. Miriel is superhuman. She saw a spell once, then managed to effectively recreate it within a month. "That's… that's fantastic. You're incredible Miriel."

"Many thanks." Miriel says proudly. She gathers up her books and gems and nods to us. "When you are prepared, speak with me. As I am aware, the Shepherds will be remaining here for a week."

A week to complete anything that needs completing. That's not a lot of time, but to be fair, there's not a lot of stuff I need to do. "I understand. Again, thank you Miriel."

"It is my pleasure." The mage smiles. "And many thanks to you for being the first human subject. That is no small ask."

Morgan grips my arm tightly. "Nathan."

"Yeah?"

"Can we go back to your room?"

"Sure." Is something wrong? "See you later Miriel."

Morgan pulls me back to my room. I sit on my bed while Morgan paces the floor.

"Okay, so, what's wrong?" I ask.

"Not… ugh." Morgan wrings her hands. "So you're going to go ahead with the spell, right?"

"Well yeah."

"I- we-" Morgan scowls. "I don't want to sound needy."

What? Why? How? "I don't understand."

"You're going to be gone for a year." She says. "Right?"

"Yeah."

"A year is longer than my memory." Morgan says. "A year is a long time to me! It's not that I don't want you to do it, but… I also want you around."

Ah. Of course. I've gone downhill with a month and a bit without Morgan, but that's nothing compared to a year. Of course, Morgan is less emotionally fragile than me, but one year is hardly an insignificant amount of time. "I- yeah, that that does suck."

"Understatement of the century!" Morgan says, throwing up her arms. "Nathan, I don't know if you realize this, but you're the person I'm closest to. Not my father, not one of the other kids, you. I've known my father for all of a month, and I'm not particularly close with the other kids. I… I actually don't know what I'll be doing without you."

"Hey, you just spent multiple months away from me." I soothe. 'If you can manage that about ten times over, you're fine."

"It's not the same!" Morgan protests. "I could write to you all the time! You wrote back! You gave me games! You listened and gave me something to talk about! I- I spent half my time with the Shepherds thinking about things to write to you about, or making plans for when I saw you again, or practicing chess! My life revolves around you!"

Oh. Oh. Ohh… "I… well I could say the same. I've sort of fallen apart without you around the last month and a bit. Got nothing else to do but write and craft."

"Surely you went out on the town or-"

I interrupt quietly. "Some days I literally didn't leave the barracks, and when I did, it was because Emmeryn called me for a meeting, or because I needed groceries."

"Then you know what it's going to be like!" Morgan says. She's almost shouting. "But I don't want to stop you from doing this, I just… I'm going to be lonely…"

"Yeah." I say quietly. "I get it."

Morgan's shoulders slump. "I don't want to be needy."

"You aren't." I say. "You really, absolutely, aren't. I'm the needy one."

"That's not true!"

"Agree to disagree then." I say. I also get Morgan to stop pacing by grabbing her arm and pulling her into a hug. "You'll be fine Morgan. There's so much more to the world than me."

"I know." Morgan mumbles. She squeezes me back. "But I like this part of the world."

"I like you too, and I'll be back." I hum. "But who knows, maybe in a year's time you'll have changed. You'll have nearly thrice as much life experience after all."

"You make it sound like I'm going to be looking for a new boyfriend."

"Maybe you will, you already have a go-ahead from me to explore other options."

"I thought you were joking about that."

"I wasn't." I say honestly. "You don't have to of course, I'm merely saying that I won't complain. You didn't know much about the world or other people before choosing me after all."

Morgan frowns. "I don't think I'll find someone else."

"That's fine." I say. "I'm just giving you the option."

"I could have done that without your permission."

"Of course, but you would have been worried about my reaction, wouldn't you?"

"Well… yeah."

"And there's my point. I'm not trying to be patronizing here, I'm just saying I wouldn't be offended. You don't have to worry about me. Take care of yourself first, Morgan."

"That's your job though." Morgan grumbles. "You take care of me, I take care of you."

I pat her on the back. "And we can return to that when I come back. In the meantime, let your father take care of you, and take care of him."

"It's not the same…" She mumbles. "I can't roleplay with my father. I can't sleep next to him. He's not you."

"And thank God for that." I tease gently. "Maybe he can instill some manners into you, young lady."

"First you say I have chicken legs, then you call me flat, and now you call me rude." Morgan says. "You're awful."

"Well I am a terrible person, who's manipulating you for my own benefit." I joke. "Oh beloved prize of my collection."

"What happened to all the compliments though?" She pouts. "I liked the compliments more!"

"Maybe there isn't much to compliment." I say with a smile. We both know this is a joke. "Alas, you simply look too young for my mature and refined tastes."

Morgan rolls her eyes to the sky. "Oh sure, because it's not like your 'collection' includes me and a prepubescent dragon girl."

"Shh, we don't talk about that." I say, grinning widely. "Besides, that collection also includes Noire."

"You're going to wake up after a year, and I'm going to look totally different, then you won't be able to insult me." Morgan huffs.

"With that growth spurt you always claim is totally going to happen?" I say. "Suuure Morgan. And I thought we'd already established that you like being insulted."

"I do, but compliments are better." Morgan says.

"If you say so bitch."

Morgan snorts and laughs, and I pat her on the back again. "I'm going to miss this…"

"I know."

"Dad isn't the same."

"He's not so bad though." I murmur.

"I know…"

"And you're sort of friends with Noire and Nah, right?"

"Kinda?"

"Well, you've always been good at talking to people." I say. I squish her face between my hands, and she pouts at me because of it. It's a very cute picture. "You can make friends if you try Morgan. You don't have to be lonely."

"I knooow." She grumbles. "But you better come back on time. Who else is going to snuggle me, feed my ego, and call me a whore?"

I think the fact that those words are a compliment is a testament to how weird our relationship is. "That's out of my control, but I'll try my best."

"No excuses!"

###

Setting my affairs in order mostly takes the shape of replicating key information. I get Morgan's help to make a few copies of my notes about Severa and Yarne to give to Emmeryn, Chrom, Robin, and a copy for Morgan herself.

I also have Morgan look over all the notes I've written on Awakening to see if there's anything that needs clarifying, and make a few edits in the margins of the parchment. She's shocked that I managed to write all of this in a few weeks.

"Like I said, I was writing for six hours a day after a bit." I say. "I got a lot done."

"Did you at least remember to eat?"

"I was busy, Morgan, not oblivious." I say. "Though in hindsight, I think I would have preferred to come along if the alternative is sitting in the barracks doing nothing."

"You would have gotten chores." She warns.

"Better than sitting in the barracks all day." I sigh. "I would have had you around, and Noire, and I might have actually been able to be useful."

"You say that like you did nothing for three months."

For once, I can agree that I actually did something useful. Those Awakening notes were important, and writing down my general knowledge is also useful. "More useful then."

"Fair enough."

Emmeryn has no problem with me being unavailable for a year, what with my notes to answer questions. She smiles serenely and wishes me well, and reassures me that Yarne and Severa will be rescued. The mission is scheduled for next month in fact. The council has finally nailed down all the details to make it work, and my knowledge is mostly unneeded at this point.

The next thing I do is explain all the games I made to Morgan. I have instructions written down, but that's no substitute for a demonstration. She doesn't seem to like yahtzee very much. Maybe it's the luck involved. Checkers and abalone get resounding approval from her though. Abalone seems to be the one game I'm able to consistently beat her at after, even after a dozen rounds when she would have usually pulled ahead.

The last thing I do is spend time with Morgan. Now that's a given, but it's important nonetheless. If I'm going to be gone for a year, I've got to make this week count. I go all-out with making jokes, roleplaying, snuggling, and anything I can think of to make her happy.

I also create a stockpile of paper games for Morgan in whatever free time I have. It won't be nearly enough to last a year, it probably won't even last a month, but at least this way she has something from me she can do when she wants. I get a few dozen paper games prepared before the end of the week, though it doesn't feel like nearly enough. I should have been stockpiling these from the moment Miriel told me she might have the spell done soon.

I'm less worried about the spell than you might expect. By Miriel's account it should be painless because I won't even be awake for the process, and I have absolute trust in Miriel's abilities. I'm more worried about the fact that I'm casually leaving Morgan for a year. That's almost twice as long as she can remember.

This is going to be a blink-and-it's-over situation for me, but Morgan is actually going to have to live through the year.

I'm out of time by the end of the week. A few people cram into a secure room in the castle where my body will be kept for the year. The spell will wrap me in a transparent, solid, pill-shaped container of magic as it does its work to prevent anything from getting in and interfering. That also helps with Miriel being able to monitor the process, just to make sure everything is going as expected.

"The spell is very slow." Miriel reassures. "If something does go wrong, I will have plenty of time to interfere and fix it. I am also capable of reversing the spell midway if needed, and returning you to your current body."

And she figured this spell out in a few months somehow. No one else really seems surprised by this. I have a feeling Miriel pulling off something impressive like this is a relatively common occurrence.

The people that have come to see me off so to speak, are the future kids (Laurent is here mostly to help Miriel, rather than any connection to me) Robin, and oddly enough Chrom.

"You are a Shepherd." Chrom says. "I would be a terrible boss if I didn't make sure you were alright going into something like this."

I can see why Chrom is a leader. He's a nice guy. That's a woefully insufficient reason to call him a leader, but I can see why that would help.

Morgan is almost panicking, which is not something I've ever seen from her.

"Your heart is going to be destroyed." She whispers. "Your heart!"

"I know." I say. "It's fine. That's what all the mana gems are for. They'll keep my brain alive. I'll get another heart after a bit. It's the last thing that's destroyed and the first thing that's recreated."

"How can you be so calm about this?!"

"It's basically a major medical operation." I shrug. "A bit intimidating, but nothing to worry too much about. Besides, Naga herself told me to ask Miriel, and Miriel wouldn't be going ahead with this if she wasn't sure it would work, or at least that it was safe to reverse."

I guess I take it for granted how familiar the idea of major medical operations are to me. Someone has to get a lung taken out? Sucks, but okay. Removing a tumor in the brain? Delicate work, but yeah, that can probably be done. For Morgan though? That's probably an alien concept.

"But still…"

"I'll be fine Morgan." I say, and ruffle her hair. "I'll see you in a year. I expect to hear of all your amazing accomplishments. Morgan: Risen slayer, hero of Ylisse, heartbreaker! Star of the court and beloved by all she meets!"

"Don't change the subject!" She whines.

"How is this not dark magic?" Noire frets as she watches Miriel prepare. "A-Are those going to have enough power?"

"If they are not, I will simply purchase more." Miriel says. "The spell is not as delicate to maintain as it might seem. It will sustain Nathan through the mana generator alone. The mana gems are there to induce progress. There is no fear of him dying from a lack of mana gems."

Noire looks at me. "A-Are you sure this is fine? You're going to be alright?"

"Yes Noire." I say, and remove a hand from Morgan's grip to pat the other girl on the shoulder. "It's perfectly alright."

How odd that I am the one comforting them and not the other way around.

Kjelle seems uncomfortable with the whole situation. She doesn't speak, so I don't know exactly what she's worried about, and I don't ask because I'm busy calming Morgan down.

"You're all worrying too much." Nah says. "If Naga said to go to Miriel, then it's fine. She wouldn't lie."

Despite that, I can still see Nah's white-knuckled grip on her crossed arms.

"How cruel of you to leave me to manage Morgan on my own." Robin says with a wry smile. I think he's trying to break the tension, because he too seems very nervous judging by his stiff posture. "I barely survived three months of her, and now I have to manage a year?"

"Don't let her roll into any fires." I smile "Play games, take her for walks, and treat her every one in awhile."

"I'm not a dog Nathan!"

"Oh, and don't forget to water her and give her plenty of sunlight." I say. Morgan tries to put a hand over my mouth, but I'm taller than her and simply tilt my head up. "And remove bugs from her."

"Nathaaan!"

Robin raises an eyebrow, recognizing that I'm making a joke but probably not understanding it, and then he nods and says nothing.

"The preparations are complete." Miriel says. She has a bunch of mana gems laid out in a circle around a thin brass arch with the mana generating gem embedded in the top. The arch (basically just a thin pole) is where I'm going to need to stand. She also has dozens of sigils and drawn around the arch in consecutive circles. "Whenever you are prepared, please strip and enter the designated area, and I will initiate the mind link and subsequently begin casting."

Because of the whole "tear your body apart and remake it" thing, you can't be clothed during the spell, and I mean… fair enough. Embarrassing, but fair enough.

"Alright everyone, out." Robin instructs, and herds most of the future kids out of the room. Kjelle gives me a clap on the shoulder, Nah (who really doesn't know me all that much) gives me a single nod, and Noire hastily hugs me before fleeing out the door. Robin and Chrom exit after them, leaving me with just Miriel, Laurent, and Morgan.

Morgan crushes me into a hug that very possibly bruises my ribs in the process, and I rub her back in reassurance. I can feel her breathing, and it's quite rapid. "It's okay Morgan, I'll be fine. Deep breaths…"

Morgan does her best to listen, and after a minute her breathing is calmer and she reluctantly pushes away from me. She opens her mouth as if to say something, manages a small "be well" then closes it and backs away, watching nervously.

The three of them then turn their back as I strip and take my place under the arch (and politely shield myself with my hands). "Alright, let's get this over with."

Miriel and Laurent are too focused to be awkward when they turn back around, and Morgan is too worried. That makes the situation a lot more manageable for me. Miriel twists her hands to cast a quick spell and says. "Now, visualize your desired form. You may wish to include another object or a setting in your mental image as reference so your height can be accurate."

I do so. The mind-link feels weird. It's not a total mind-link, I can only feel Miriel's surface thoughts. Calculations and observations mostly as she runs over what she needs to do in her mind. I close my eyes to help with the focus, and visualize my old body. Long brown hair, blue eyes, skinny, all that stuff. I imagine looking into a full-length mirror, and imagine the brass arch is over my head. I also bring up my hand to about where I think the head-height of my old body would be, then open my eyes.

"Is that image what you are going to use?" Miriel asks. "I will be using this image to feed the spell. Your subconscious will fill in the rest of the minor details, but you must be sure the major strokes are accurate."

"I'm sure." I say. It's as close as I'll get anyways. It's been half a year since I saw my old body in a mirror. "I'm ready Miriel."

"Alright then." Miriel murmurs. "I will begin casting. "Laurent, be prepared to lend power to the spell if my own reserves are not sufficient."

"Of course."

Morgan rapidly clasps and unclasps her hands as the spellcast starts. I have to keep the image of my desired form in mind, so I can't reassure her like I want to.

The translucent shell shimmers into existence around my body, and a moment later I can feel myself being levitated off the ground and suspended within it.

"You need no longer focus." Miriel says, still twisting her hands to cast the spell with no less than half a dozen glowing orange circles in front of her hands. Our mind-link abruptly fizzles away. Miriel isn't looking at me anymore, she's focused on the spell circles. I can see sweat on her forehead. "The spell… Laurent."

"The spell has already processed your mental image." Laurent provides. I guess Miriel can't focus on speaking and casting at the same time anymore. Laurent's voice is muffled, like he's speaking through a blanket. "You should begin to feel lethargic within a minute or two."

Finally, with that out of the way, I can look Morgan in the eye. Her hands are balled into fists so tightly that I worry her fingernails are going to make her palms bleed. I smile and stick my tongue out at her, just to try and reassure her. I'm in no pain, there's nothing to worry about.

I can see her sniff and rub her eyes. Apparently she was holding it in before, because now she is absolutely crying and I'm in no position to help.

"It's fine." I mouth, keeping a smile on my face. I bring up one hand and wave. "See you in a year!"

Morgan waves back, still sniffling.

Lethargy shoots through me all at once. I yawn and try to keep my eyes open for as long as possible so I can keep looking at Morgan, but I only last another minute. Eventually my eyes are forced closed, and sleep overtakes my mind.

---

So, uh, yeah. If you were expecting a spell to just poof Nathan's body back to how it was, you're wrong. This serves a two-fold purpose. One: it allows for a rapid timeskip for us to get to the Valm arc more quickly. Two: it allows me to establish the new norm of Morgan being a main POV character because spoilers: you're getting a Morgan chapter next.

There's so many little details I want to touch on and so many things I want to include, but I can't shove them all into these chapters. I want to touch more on Nah, Laurent, some of the Shepherds, but I can't drag down the pace of the story too much either. Ah well. Such are the trials of a writer.