Byleth awoke again to complete darkness. She waited for Solon's voice to emerge, but after waiting for several minutes, nothing happened. The chains seemed looser than before, but not loose enough to escape. She slumped in further onto the ground, and a painful cough fit began. A trail of something wet fell down her chin dripping on the ground.

Byleth looked down, her head being caught by the neck bonds. It was a red drop, sitting on the cold, stone floor. Sothis awakened and saw the droplet. "Oh. That certainly isn't good…" Byleth looked over and gave her a blank look that said, "You think?"

"Don't give me that look. I'd help if I could, but I really can't without killing you in the process. Your hard-headed students will come, especially that Claude. He seems quite protective of you." Sothis said, a thoughtful look coming over her face.

The young professor thought for a moment, and painfully said, "We can hope…"

"Don't speak. It takes energy and work to talk, and you need to save that energy to survive." Sothis warned.

"She cares in her own way, I guess…" Byleth thought and gave her a weak smile, trying to express the little appreciation she could feel.

"Mmhm. You're welcome." She said, noticing the attempted smile. "Now sit tight. I'll try what I can. Perhaps get a message out to someone…?" Sothis commanded quietly.

Byleth nodded, but another coughing fit broke out from her, burning her throat and leaving the taste of iron in her mouth. Sothis felt a dull pain in her chest, only a small fraction of what Byleth felt.

"Don't worry. I'll do what I can." Sothis disappeared hurriedly. Byleth nodded, seeing the black on the border of her vision. She lay her fevered head against the cold stone wall and gave into the darkness.


Sothis travelled outside of the building Byleth was being kept in and was surprised by what she saw. They were hidden somewhere near the base of the monastery but hidden well. The good thing, it was within her reaches. She couldn't be too far away from Byleth, so this was especially good placement.

She floated up towards a higher part of the monastery where she knew the archbishop, "Rhea," Sothis remembered, would likely be. But Sothis interrupted herself when she saw lots of motion within the Golden Deer classroom, where Byleth taught the class. She walked through the air over to it and peered inside.

"Ah, looks like they're plotting something in there." Sothis grew closer to the classroom and listened in.


"So. We know who took Teach, right?" Claude said, and everyone nodded. He could swear he felt someone watching him, but when he turned around, nobody was there.

"Claude, are you ok?" Lysithea asked.

"Yeah… Thought I felt something." He shook his head. "Anyway, we need to have a plan to find her. She could be anywhere. For all we know she," he choked up, "could be d-dead. But we have to keep up hope. We'll find her, no matter if we have to search the entirety of Fodlan. Even Almayra. But we won't stop. Got it?" He said, determined

They all nodded, seeing how important this was to him, and, to be honest, it was very important to them too. The professor had become a big part of their life and most felt like they were missing a part of themselves by her being missing.

"She'll make it!" said Lysithea. "I know she won't give up." The class smiled, but out of nowhere, Sylvain gasped.

"What is it now?" asked Lysithea.

"Erm, turn around." They did and were surprised at what they saw. Someone, or something, was writing on the board behind them in neat, yet frantic handwriting. Lysithea backed up.

"G-ghost!" She squealed.

The writing stopped, and the thing went further down from what it was writing, and wrote "Ghost? More like Goddess. But that's not important."

"Goddess?" asked Claude. "So she is real…" He thought.

"Hm, yes. But look above this, you ignorant-" The writing stopped, and the writing tool dropped to the floor.

"The goddess left," stated Ignatz.

"Yeah, but she left us a note," Claude said, reading the note as he spoke.

"It says… 'I know where Byleth is. After all, I've been stuck with the dumb child since her birth. Well, I've got to do this quickly. Making a part of me slightly physical takes a lot of energy, and Byleth needs as much she can get. Well, delightful. I have to go now. I'll come back later when she's built up a bit more.' Huh?" Asked Sylvain, confused beyond words.

"Wow… So Teach is connected to the Goddess…? And she didn't say anything?" muttered Claude.

"Well, that makes sense," said Jeralt, nonchalantly. "There's a lot of odd things surrounding Byleth."

"What do you mean?" asked Hilda, and the rest of the class looked curious, with the exception of Claude.

"Hm, I would've expected her to have told this class by now. She seems to trust you guys a lot. Byleth happens to have been born without a beating heart." The majority of the room looked confused. "Oddly enough," he continued, "she has a pulse. And, to be honest, you all have helped her more than I have. As a child, and till a few moons ago, she seemed to be completely emotionless. But now she feels emotions and feelings, as small as they may be, she still feels them."

Claude nodded, already knowing most, if not all of that.

"Clearly, your house leader already knew," he gestured to Claude, "But I doubt anyone else did. Suspicions were probably thought up by some of you, but you all helped nonetheless, without even knowing. Likely because most of you are around her age or older, and she didn't get many chances to hang around with people her age. Anyway, I think that's a thorough explanation."

Most people were silent, while others were staring at Claude or Jeralt.

"So," somebody spoke up, "that all might have been because of her connection to the goddess?" Everyone looked around, and they spotted Dimitri standing in the doorway to the classroom, accompanied by some others from his class, including, but not limited to, Dedue, Ingrid, and Felix.

"How long have you been there?" asked Claude, a joking, yet pleased tone in his voice.

"Long enough." He replied. "And we want in."


A/N: Welcome to another short chapter. This one is sure to be a bit confusing, but I promise that most, if not all, will be explained later. In other news, don't be surprised if I don't post next week. I've hit a bit of a block in reviewing a part of Chapter 5, and need to rewrite a lot of it. Also, as mentioned last chapter in the author's note, I really need help with the poll on my profile. I have a single vote (Thanks to that person!), but I'd really like it if more of you put your opinion in. To refresh if some people forgot, it's for future fanfictions for Persona 5. I need help deciding between the name Ren Amamiya and Akira Kurusu, as I really like both of them. You can put a review on here for that, but I'd prefer if you used the poll! Thanks for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and following. Stay safe!