"Feeling better?" Manuela asked, watching him as he stood up for the first time in days.

"Stiff, but well enough," Felix said, unable to hide his surprise. "You've outdone yourself, Manuela."

She smiled. "Flattery will get you everywhere, young man, remember that."

"Good to see some people haven't changed," he grumbled. "I'd stay if I could, but I need to go."

Manuela stood. They were the only two people in the one room house, letting her speak plainly. "I'll go north as well, to see Dimitri."

He frowned. "Why? The man's insane."

"I…maybe I can convince him," Manuela said, unsure.

Felix shook his head. "You didn't see him. He's too far gone. I killed Dedue, and there's nothing that can bring him back now. It's my fault, my problem to fix."

"But I can help!" Manuela insisted. "Even if I can't save him, I can keep my former students safe!"

"Didn't you tell me you were riding south to escape the war?" Felix asked. "Did you not say that you'd seen too much of war?"

He could see the ghosts in her eyes; specters of people she'd failed to save. Hell, the ghost of who she used to be was probably among their number. Felix had yet to know a healer who survived war with their humanity intact.

"Stay," he advised. "Go south, to Derdriu. Heal people there, or live your life safe from this war. North will only hold pain for you."

"Are you sure?" she asked quietly.

It was unsettling, seeing the teacher he respected be in such a vulnerable position. Even with his bullheadedness of youth, Manuela was a woman to look up to. She'd done very well for herself, entirely from her own achievements. To have him be the one to give comfort felt wrong.

"If you go north, you'll have to see me kill Dimitri," Felix said, blunt as ever.

"You'll do it, then?" she said, looking down. "You'll really kill him? Your friend?"

"Not a friend anymore," he said, avoiding the question.

She didn't let him. Grabbing his arm, she stared into his eyes. "Felix, if you kill him, do you really think you can reckon with that? He was your friend."

"I have to. If he decides to attack Sylvain instead, then I have no choice." Felix turned away. "I have happiness for the first time since Glenn died. I will not give it up. If I have to put him down, then I will. I…won't be happy about it, but if needs must, then I shall."

"I will allow you to leave under one condition," Manuela said.

Felix smirked. "You think you can stop me?"

She gave him a serious look. "I am a healer. If you can mend, you can break. I can make you unable to walk out of this building."

"Alright," Felix conceded, though he never really meant it. "Go on."

"Come find me once you do it. You should have someone to talk to," she said.

"I have Sylvain," he said.

"Someone impartial," Manuela amended.

"You're not that either."

"No, but you'd never talk to someone you don't know about feelings."

He snorted. "Fine, professor. Guess we have a deal."

Manuela sat back down and gave him a sad smile. "Good luck, Felix. Give the rest my best."

"I will. Goodbye, Manuela."

"Alright, let's give them a moment," Nader said, guiding the others from the tent. "I'm sure you two have people to see as well."

Leonie and Maya followed him, leaving Claude and his mother alone.

"Hello, son," Tiana said with a light smile. "If you had written more, I wouldn't have needed to hunt you down like this."

"I'm kind of at war, mother," he said.

Her smile turned hard, veering into possessive. "I don't care if you're fighting the entire world. You write to your mother, Khalid. When I worry, I take drastic actions."

He grinned. "It's good to see you too, mother."

Tiana's smile went back to kind. She was just as she'd been the last time they'd seen each other—way back when he claimed his place as heir to Riegan. Long brown hair tied in a thick braid, the same as his, straight as an edge. The curls Claude had came from his father.

She wore Fódlani fashion, simple traveling garb that gave no hint that she was the Demon Queen herself. Though anyone could tell from how buff her arms were that she was no ordinary traveler. She'd added new scars to her face as well, small nicks here and there, and one long wound over the top of her nose.

"That one's new," he said, glancing at it. "Another relative?"

"Hmph," she grunted, face contorting with displeasure. Some would call the scars a blight on her beauty, and maybe they'd be right. Javad certainly didn't care, always ready to tell people stories of his wife's exploits. Claude realized after coming to Fódlan that his parents were, quite frankly, crazy. Tiana didn't earn the name Demon Queen by sitting on a throne. She earned it, axe in hand, in the thick of battle. "One of your uncles wasn't very pleased with sending Nader to Fódlan. I challenged him to a duel over it. Long story short, you have one less uncle." Royal duels were commonplace in Almyra. Strength was the path to victory, a quality all Almyrans respected.

There was no secret Tiana wasn't fond of much of Javad's family. They were a great source of scorn to her. Doubly so for Claude. "And he gave you that scar?"

"I got cocky," Tiana shrugged. "Paid for it. Good reminder, I guess." Her emerald eyes flashed, predator mother bear again. "I'm not here to regale you with stories, Khalid. You will tell me how you have been. When we didn't get a letter from you in the past year, Javad and I were worried."

"Ah, well I've been rather busy," Claude said, blushing and looking away.

Tiana slung an arm around her son's shoulders in the way that Raphael might. "Then you better tell me all about it, or I won't deign to tell you about your new sister."

"I'm not entirely sure—I'm sorry, sister?" Claude froze, turning to his mother.

She grinned. "Better speak up, Khalid. You're not getting any details about baby Judith until you tell me what's been going on with you this side of the Locket. Hell, where's Judith anyway? I need to give her a piece of my mind as well."

His heart turned to ice and Tiana noticed immediately. "Something I said?"

"Mother, Judith is…" Claude choked on the words.

All the swagger Tiana put on sputtered out, her arm dropping from around Claude's shoulders. "Judith? You jest, son. Please."

"We had a funeral on the banks of Myrddin," Claude murmured. The silence that followed was deafening, a tsunami of cacophony in its own right.

"Fuck!" roared Tiana, a rage of flame in a blink. "Judith, you bitch. First you stop writing, then you have the gall to die before I see you? Damn…damn you." She burned out as quick as she ignited, still the spitfire as ever.

Claude put an arm around his mother. "She loved you, mother. Don't doubt that for a second."

"Did she really? She didn't hate me?" Tiana murmured.

He closed his eyes. "Mother, Judith loved you. She struggled with how to say it."

"Oh," was all Tiana could muster.

"I have her journal," Claude said. "Lorenz and I decided you should be the one to decide what to do with it. I read the last few pages for funeral requests. It might help you understand what she felt."

"Show me," his mother commanded. And as the Demon Queen ordered, so would she receive.

"Ferdinand!" Mercedes cried. "Goddess, I have missed you."

He laughed, returning her embrace. The battle had transitioned to cleaning up remaining imperials and Lorenz had given him leave to return to all their friends in camp.

"Mercedes!" he said, unable to control his grin. "It's been far too long. Last time we saw each other, was it at the wedding?"

"Yes, and we didn't have much time to chat," Mercedes said. "We absolutely must have tea soon and chat."

"No time now?" he asked.

"Oh, too many to heal to properly sit down, I'm afraid," Mercedes said. "I actually hunted you down on business. Dorothea and I went to Hrym, and we raided your father's estate there."

"Ah," he said, losing some of his fire. "I assume you found something?"

Mercedes reached into the satchel she carried at her side. A thin, leather-bound tome was produced. "His journal. One of many, perhaps. Regardless, it was written by his hand."

"Did you read it?" he asked, unbothered, as he accepted it. Ferdinand's hand brushed over the cover hesitantly.

"I did, in case there was pressing information," Mercedes said. "There are some horrible things in there, notes about experiments. I might caution you away from reading it normally, were there not something of importance in there."

"What is it?" Ferdinand asked, alarmed.

"Nothing bad!" Mercedes said. "But you should find out in his words, not mine. It might be better that way. Come find me if you need to talk about it though."

"I'll admit, my curiosity is piqued," Ferdinand said. He hesitated. "You said you went to Hrym, right? Your brother is of Hrym's line, is he not?"

Mercedes retreated within herself. "Yes, Emile…no, Jeritza is a Hrym. I learned something of him there, yes."

"Your reticence tells me it was not pleasant. Don't let me press you on it," Ferdinand said, understanding.

"No, I think perhaps you might be someone to talk to about it," Mercedes murmured. "My father was…a bad man."

Ferdinand nodded, listening to her words.

"I have a Crest," Mercedes said. "An uncommon one, admittedly. My father, once learning that I had it, plotted to take me as his wife to have more…offspring."

"You need not continue," Ferdinand said, embracing her and fighting the impulse show how horrified he was. This was about her, not him.

"Emile killed him," Mercedes pressed on. "When he learned about it. He saved me from my father, and I never knew. And…and he also killed Annette at Garreg Mach."

Ferdinand waited for her to continue, if she would.

"I am at a loss as to how to view him. I thought, perhaps, you might know more. Your father had Hrym occupied, perhaps he knew Jeritza? Or something that could give me an idea of how to judge him?"

"I'm afraid my father always kept Hrym at a distance from me," Ferdinand apologized. "But, if you would like my opinion, you may have it."

She nodded. He continued, "People change. Your father was killed when you and Jeritza were both young. Emile might have killed him before becoming Jeritza, if that makes sense."

"It does, I think," Mercedes said, drawing away from Ferdinand. "I'll seek you out later, Ferdie. Forgive me for running, but I've dawdled too long."

"Have you talked to Dorothea about this?" he asked.

"Not enough," she admitted.

"Don't bother with my opinions, then," Ferdinand said with a kind smile. "As your betrothed, she knows you best, she might have the best understanding of the situation."

Mercedes smiled, wide. "Thank you, Ferdinand. I'll still find you later, though. I meant it, it's been too long."

Ferdinand laughed. "Then I shall look forward to it."

"If it isn't the best sister in the world!" Raphael shouted gleefully, picking Maya up in a bone-crushing hug in the middle of camp.

"Hey!" she squawked, squirming against his arms. "Put me down, Raph!"

"Nuh-uh," he said with a teasing smirk. "Can't let you be running off to Almyra again. That trade route can manage itself while you spend time with your big brother."

"Raph!" she shouted, laughing. "C'mon, I can barely breathe!"

He finally set her down, laughing all the way. "Hey, can you blame me? It's been months since we've seen each other."

"Yeah, and here you've gone and torn up half the countryside," she joked, elbowing him. They were nearly the same height, Raphael just an inch taller. Whereas Raphael was brawn over brains, Maya was the opposite. Though he was pleased to see her come into muscles of her own. It almost brought a tear to his eye, his little sister all grown up. She almost looked like their mother, wearing her blond hair in a bun just like she did.

"I can just tell you're thinking too hard, Raph," she said. "C'mon, spill it."

"Your muscles!" he blurted, flexing. "They're getting like mine!"

Maya shrugged, far less enthusiastic. "I'm not a big fan of muscles. But the Almyrans respect strength a lot, so guess I've learned a thing or two."

He didn't pursue the topic, noticing her lack of excitement. Instead, he asked, "So what do they have you doing out there now? Heck, why are you out here?"

"To see you, silly," Maya said, punching his arm playfully.

"You know what I mean." He pouted.

"I got promoted," she said, proudly. "Instead of just managing trade at our outpost there, I am now the," Maya cleared her throat, mimicking a posh voice that sounded like Lorenz, "Chief Financial Liason to Almyra."

Raphael stared blankly.

Maya giggled, folding her arms under her breasts and grinning. "That means I meet directly with the King and Queen of Almyra about matters of trade between our countries."

"Oh shit," Raphael gasped. "That sounds super important."

She blushed, a bit sheepish. "Yeah, I suppose it is. I came out here because when Queen Tiana was snea—I mean, when Queen Tiana decided to travel here, she knew my brother was here. So she offered to take me with. I'll travel back with her when she returns."

"Look at my little sis go!" Raphael cried, turning to the soldiers around them. "My sis is friends with a queen!"

"Raph, stop it," she said, embarrassed.

"Fine," he conceded. "But only because there's someone I want you to meet."

"Oh? Friend of yours?" Maya asked, interested.

"Yeah, their name is Yuri."

"So you're Yuri?"

He blinked, confused by the blonde who Raphael had brought to him before scampering off elsewhere. "Yes, I am. But forgive me, who are you?"

She rolled her eyes. "That Raph. I'm Maya, Raphael's sister. He told me I should meet you."

"Oh," Yuri said, feeling small. "Let's, um, go for a walk."

Maya looked at him, confused. "Sure? You planning to wine and dine me or something?"

"No!" they gasped. "I just—I have some questions."

"Alright, then," she said with a shrug. "Lead the way."

They made their way to the edge of camp, far out of reach from prying eyes and ears. Stopping beneath a tree, Yuri fumbled for words. "Raphael told me that you're like me."

"Like you?" Maya asked, confused.

"Yuri isn't…the name I was born with," they said, struggling to find the right way to say it.

"Ah, I see," Maya said, relaxing immediately. She sat on the ground. "Here, sit. We'll be here a while."

Yuri did as he was told. "Sorry for bringing it up—"

Maya waved them off. "I trust Raph. If he told you, it's because you need help. He knows I'm okay with that." She paused, struggling with words of her own. "Do you know who you are yet?"

"I don't really feel like anything," Yuri admitted. "I'm just Yuri."

"Nice to meet you, Yuri," she smiled. "I don't meet many people like us, so I always try to be friends with those I do meet."

"I have so many questions," he admitted. "I've never had anyone to ask about it."

She smiled. "That's okay. It's what I'm here to help with. Ask me anything."

And he did.

As dusk fell, Lorenz finally made it back to his tent. The day was theirs, and the battle for Bergliez had resolved. Like with Varley, Byleth and Catherine were mopping up what was left of the resistance. But when the Almyran army arrived, most of the fighters lost the will to fight.

Thank the Goddess that Claude was locked in meetings with Seteth, Yuri, and every other person from the Coalition to explain what was happening. Lorenz didn't have the energy for that.

Not that he wouldn't have helped, had he been asked. But Claude took it on himself without complaint. It was his dream, after all, the joining of their nations. This was the closest he'd ever been to realizing that dream. The crazy fool was probably enjoying the tense meetings, Lorenz thought fondly.

So Lorenz, after a long day of fighting, nearly dying, and the emotional whiplash of being rescued, decided that perhaps he'd earned some rest without work.

Inside his tent, Ferdinand waited.

"Ferdinand," Lorenz said, a faint note of surprise in his voice. He didn't have much energy for more. "Welcome, I didn't expect you." Though he didn't altogether mind.

"Hello, Lorenz," he returned, completely absent of his usual verve.

"Is something wrong?" Lorenz asked, already walking over and guiding Ferdinand to his bed. He sat him down and went about preparing tea for the two of them, just like they always did. Neither had to even ask about it, they knew each other that well.

"I'm not sure?" Ferdinand said, fidgeting. "There's—I've gotten some news that I'm not sure how to reckon with."

Lorenz held the teapot aloft and, with his other hand, conjured a ball of fire beneath it. The power of his Crest tinged the flames with blue, burning hotter. The water reached a boil within a fraction of the time.

"Go on," Lorenz prompted, pouring the water into cups. Not his usual ones with flair, unfortunately. Those were far too breakable for war.

Ferdinand drummed his fingers on a small book that Lorenz hadn't noticed before. "My father had some secrets," he began, then stopped. "Did you ever find out anything from your father than he kept from you?"

"No," Lorenz said. "After he disowned me, he was murdered quickly after. Before I knew it, I was at the front of the war." He sat down next to Ferdinand, handing him a cup. "I'm not bothered by that, but I haven't had time to sort out affairs with him." Lorenz paused. "If that's even my prerogative, with Lysithea being his heir."

Ferdinand nodded. "I am sorry for how things ended between the two of you. I know your father was important to you, in a way."

"Thank you," Lorenz said. "But I deserved better than his expectations. Maybe a clean break was the best that could happen."

"I'll admit, I'm a bit jealous," Ferdinand admitted. "Good or bad, you seem to know where you stood with him."

"And I take it that was less clear with Ambrose?" Lorenz asked. They never talked about Ferdinand's father. For all the man was an open book, his father was one topic he did not broach willingly.

"I hadn't thought so, but I suspect so now." He gestured to the book. "My father is responsible for the experiments that were done on Edelgard, responsible for making her this way. My father is the reason we're here."

Lorenz rested a hand on his shoulder and said nothing, letting him continue.

"But if that weren't bad enough," Ferdinand choked up, "he also is responsible for Lysithea too."

"Lysithea?" Lorenz broke his silence with his surprise.

"Yes. I don't know if you've spoken to Leonie yet, but we managed to get her to turn coat at Derdriu."

"What?" Lorenz gasped. "You're certain?"

"Leonie persuaded her herself," Ferdinand said. "But…I cannot help but understand why she'd side with Edelgard after what my father did to her. The power structure we live within, it betrayed her as it did Edelgard. While I cannot condone the methods, I understand them. That anger, I've felt it too. Learning about what Hubert did to Linhardt."

Lorenz squeezed his shoulder with his hand.

"I never thought my father was a paragon of goodness," he continued, "but I did not think him so evil. It is…a lot to grapple with, especially in this journal. He…well, not everything he did was so cruel."

"How do you mean?" Lorenz asked, softly.

"Lorenz, I have a sister." Ferdinand finally broke down, crying.

He wrapped his arm around Ferdinand. "Ferdinand, what do you mean?"

"A half-sister, I guess," he said, wiping tears away. "He had a bastard daughter; a sibling I never knew about. He recorded payments he made to keep people quiet."

He leaned into Lorenz, as if losing the strength to stay upright. "My father had a relationship with a another woman. I loved my mother, though she passed away. The dates…my sister was born before she passed away."

"Oh, Ferdinand," Lorenz murmured.

"Pardon me," he apologized. "This is just all…a lot."

"How old is she?" Lorenz asked, not knowing what else to say.

"Seventeen, the same age as I was when I entered the academy. She's in Aegir, in an orphanage. Though who knows anymore, with the war going on. Ambrose was killed years ago, my sister could have ended up anywhere by now." Ferdinand shuddered. "I don't even know her name. Bastard didn't even know it himself."

"Hapi and Constance are going to Aegir soon to investigate—" He stopped himself. "That's what this is about, isn't it?"

Ferdinand nodded. "I heard from our friends that Aegir has gone quiet. No one has been able to find out what's happening there. And, after hearing about Hrym, I just—I can't—"

He crumbled into tears and Lorenz brought him into a proper hug, holding him. "Shh," he whispered. "You need not worry about plans and strategies for this. I will ensure you are able to go with Hapi and Constance, should you wish it."

A mumbled 'thank you' was all he got in response, but it was enough.

"We'll find her," Lorenz promised. "I vow to you that I will do everything in my power to help. Ask me, and I'll come with you."

"Lorenz, you're needed here," he said, voice muffled against his shoulder. "But thank you. That means a lot."

"Your father wasn't a good man," Lorenz said, "but that does not impact you. You can be infinitely better—you are better. Your sister will see that too."

"I hope so," Ferdinand mumbled.

They sat there, quiet, for a time. The world passed by them while they enjoyed the quiet company of each other.

"Thank you," Ferdinand said again.

"Of course." Lorenz smiled.

Author Notes: Ferdinand's sister is actually inspired from unused game content. There's a character who isn't used in the game data that shares Ferdinand's exact stats, though as a Commoner. Probably nothing to actually do with him, but all it takes is a spark to set an idea ablaze for me.

Editing Notes:
2/15/2022: Minor grammatical adjustments.