Author's note: Oh dang! 100 followers! Thank you so much guys. It means a lot. I can't remember if I mentioned this in the Xander chapter, so I wanted to say it here just in case. Also it seems to be fefemslash week, or something like that. Nice job to all of you who've been writing, I've seen a ton of great content so far. I don't have any idea of what to write so I'm not doing anything for that but... I did publish a little story on Robin's birth (completely unrelated to and not in the canon of this story), if you want to check that out. I wrote a second chapter, but am not really satisfied with it so it's just sitting in my google docs for now. I haven't finished the next chapter of this as of yet so I'm not sure when that wil be out, but happy September, and enjoy.


"So, where do you want to go next, guys?" Corrin asked, now safely back in her castle, which she had dubbed 'Fort Corrin' until she came up with something better.

"I think Izumo would be a good place to start. They've always held a neutral stance in the middle of the continent's wars, so we should find peace there." Azura answered. The group of seven was sitting in the mess hall, an assortment of food that Jakob had prepared laid out before them.

"What do you plan to do while there?" Robin said, unsure of why they would need to relocate if they could safely hide in the astral plane. Trekking over to the neutral land would require passing through possibly hostile territory, and if the group could get the same peace by remaining where they were the tactician saw no reason to do so. Then again, making the trek and fighting the inevitable enemies along the way would provide a good chance for the group to gain experience in preparation for the battles they would later have, but that was beside the point.

"Well… I'm not sure. Izumo is located on the edge of the continent and is bordered by Mokushu, another nation that will likely stay out of the war, so we aren't likely to be attacked while there. Lilith mentioned that this realm is on a very close plane to the land of the invisible soldiers, and there's a chance they might attack us while we rest. In Izumo, no such threat will present itself."

Azura looked uncomfortable while giving her explanation, but Robin could find no fault in it. She was a better planner than she gave herself credit for. Corrin sat at her side, absorbing the information the best she could. After a few conversations with the girl, Robin learned that she knew just about as much as he did about Canta, which made him feel slightly better about his lack of knowledge. Apparently she had been kept in a fortress for as long as she could remember, and was hardly ever permitted to learn about the outside world. She mentioned that most of what she learned had come from a few books that her brother Leo had snuck her. That was a nice piece of information, not only because it explained her cluelessness at some points, but also who this mystery Leo person that the princesses had discussed a few days before was.

"Mmm. Good idea. In addition to your point, here we risk the chance of exiting the realm only to find that troops have decided to take up camp where we entered, putting us in a dangerous position. In Izumo there are neither invisible troops to attack our residence nor pop up opaque troops to surprise attack us if we decide to move. So, does everyone agree with Azura's notion?"

"Of course!" Corrin chimed.

"If big sister says yes, then I do too," Sakura added.

"Whatever Milady decides, I fully support her," Jakob followed, Gunter and Kaze then repeating with similar phrases.

'Their loyalty is good, but also kind of worrying. I swear, if Corrin said she wanted to jump off a bridge they would all follow. Wait, didn't Azura already do that? And they did jump off the bridge. Well at least they originally objected and didn't die…?'

"Then we should set out for Izumo as soon as possible. We had a big battle today, so I say we rest up a bit, but in about 8 hours let's get going. The sun set an hour ago, so this way we'll be setting out when it's still dark. Most armies start their marches at daybreak, so we shouldn't run into anyone else and will be ahead of any Hoshidans approching from Jinya. I'll wake you then, so don't worry about sleeping in too late. Is that fine?" Robin then received six affirmations, and went on to finish his dinner. A short time later, everyone had finished their meals, all the dishes were washed thanks to a Jakob-Robin team effort, and everyone headed to bed.

Robin had gotten a small clock from Corrin earlier that day, and set it on his bedside table. It was rigged to sound an alarm in six hours. The technology of Hoshido impressed the tactician, with the mechanical beast that Yukimura rode, and the other small mechanisms that Robin has seen during his short time in Archaea.

Three hours later, Robin woke up from his attempts at sleep, and found himself unable to return to the realm of unconsciousness. He had already started spouting nonsense about good and evil the day before, and that was with one additional day of rest, so he had no idea what dumb things he'd go on about when the rest of the group got up, but sleep just didn't seem to be his thing lately. Maybe it was something about the astral plane his party found themselves in. It had such a powerful aura just constantly filling the air, and it was hard to ignore. It was almost as if Robin was trying to sleep in a 100 degree room, which was almost if not downright impossible the few times he had tried it. Fighting in a volcano was definitely one of the more unpleasant things he had done, but sleeping on the way there when you got all the heat but none of the fire wasn't much better.

Robin still had a book or two to read from his trip to the bookstore on his second day in Canta, as well as some he had bargained off the traveling company (as they had a few merchants with them) and set off on reading those. The first book was a more in depth description of the land's geography, and once he finished it his second was on the history of the Hoshidan region of the continent. Reading multiple books on the same event could be advantageous, as some inevitably left things out and others had slight differences in depictions, so additional accounts allowed for the most accurate information. It was interesting that the 'Hoshidan region' of the continent referred to the entire eastern half of the continent, as you wouldn't think the other countries would be okay with that. Then again, Valm was the name of the country and the continent, even though several other countries such as Rosanne existed upon it. At least, before Walhart.

'I wonder how reparations are going. Will it be like what happened with Plegia? I hope Arit's done with wars for a while. I don't know if the world economy and national treasuries can take any more without the collapse of a continent or something.'

Three hours after that, Robin's alarm went off. Sighing, Robin shut it down and walked to the mass hall, bookbag at his side. He prepared a small meal and read as he ate it. This morning it wasn't Jakob, but Sakura who wandered in first. Robin wasn't planning on waking her for another half hour at least, so he hadn't expected to be alone with her and didn't know what to say.

"O-oh! I… I didn't expect to see you down here Mister… uhm. Mister…." Sakura trailed off, blushing.

Robin blinked, wondering what was up before he realized he had forgotten a key detail in their first encounter. "Ah! I never introduced myself to you, did I? You arrived only a few seconds after I told Saizo my name, so I guess I just assumed you heard. Anyway, my name's Robin. It's nice to see you, Sakura. I hope you don't mind me foregoing the title? Regardless, if you didn't know my name, why didn't you ask last night? I would have gladly told you." It was a lot to say at once, but Sakura was smart enough to keep track of it all.

"Well… I wasn't really sure what you were like. I was worried you would be mad at m-me. But… Corrin trusts you so you have to be a good person. And don't worry, just Sakura is fine, R-Robin…" voice trembling, it was obvious that the girl was extremely nervous around the tactician, despite her claims that she believed him a good person. "What are you doing up so early? You have an important job as our main strategist, so you need sleep. I mean… I don't mean you have to sleep, I just…"

"No, no, I understand, Sakura. I simply woke early and decided that I would take advantage of the peace. What about you? A growing girl surely needs her rest more than I."

"Well... I know this sounds silly, but…I… I really miss Hoshido, even though we're technically still in it." The girl took a deep breath, and then continued, faster than before. "It took me a long time to fall asleep because I was all alone and in a new place and I don't really know anyone so I was feeling really lonely and scared and afraid that maybe you would all leave me behind or I wouldn't go back to Hoshido to see Yukimura because maybe-" Sakura's words gushed out and she wrung her hands, twisting side to side.

"Trust me, Sakura. It's not silly. Here, sit down and I'll make you something warm to drink. Do you want coffee, or tea? And if you're so worried about being alone, I'm sure Corrin would be happy to sleep with you. She's so worried about her Hoshidan family hating her, I'm sure it would be reassuring for the both of you." The tactician stood and went behind the counter, setting water to boil.

"Tea please. And… I think that sounds like a good idea. I-I'm going to ask her tonight. Hinoka and I used to sleep together all the time. Now we can be even more like real sisters!" the girl had a bright smile on her face, one which spread over to Robin who chuckled.

Jakob and Kaze also entered the mess hall before Robin could wake them, and Gunter was training in the field as Robin passed. The former two were servant and personal ninja so their early awakening wasn't surprising. As for Gunter, the knight was pretty old, and old people didn't sleep that well, so that wasn't an odd sight either.

What did cause Robin to raise his eyebrows was the sight of Azura sitting on one of the castle walls, staring off into the distance while humming a pleasant tune. There was a sort of fog to all sides making anything and everything hard to discern. Azura didn't seem to mind it however, and had a serene look on her face. She did that a lot, looking out at nothing, perhaps reminiscing.

Leaving the blue haired princess to it, Robin went to wake Corrin. Lilith stayed in her temple and away from Robin, so he left her alone. It kind of irked Robin, as he couldn't remember doing anything to hurt the dragon, but it wasn't his problem.

"Corrin? Are you awake?" Robin knocked on the girl's door after climbing up the ladder to her tree house residence (which was really weird, by the way. Why was it a tree house? It was pretty inconvenient, especially when one was tired from fighting all day and then had to climb all the way up in armor just to go to bed) to get to her. Hearing no response, Robin slowly opened the door, finding Corrin sound asleep. Chuckling, he went up to the girl and gently shook her. A few moments passed, and suddenly Corrin shot up.

"Gwaaahhh! I'm awake I'm awake don't ice meeeee!" the girl cried, head swinging from side to side in a panic.

"Okay, I know my hands are kind of cold, but they're not that cold. Why would I pour a bucket of ice on you, or do… whatever it was you were suggesting?" Robin replied, mock offended.

"Oh! Robin. Good morning! I'm sorry about that. I'm used to being woken by my old maids, Felicia and Flora, who loved to use ice magic on me if I stayed in bed too long. They only ever shook me awake if I really wasn't getting up, and then I was so groggy that I would get blasted with snowflakes as soon as I opened my eyes. Typically that only happened when I needed to rush, and what better motivation to hurry than freezing cold icicles at your ear, y'know?"

"Ah." In addition to tomes that didn't break and weird fan scroll things that summoned energy in the form of animal spirits, this land had ice magic? Arit only had dark, fire, wind, and lightning. The tactician had read stories describing a sort of light magic that was dark's opposite, though he'd never seen it himself, but never had he heard of ice magic. How would that fit into the magic triangle? Or would it be magic square, then. Rectangle? Rhombus? Trapezoid?

"Er… do you mind leaving the room so I can change? I'll meet you down in the mess hall as soon as I'm ready."

"Of course." Robin took his leave after his response, and walked out the door. Judging the distance he would have to fall if he jumped off Corrin's balcony, the tactician decided it was worth the risk and that his vulnerary would hopefully heal the damages sustained when his feet hit the floor if it was that hard a landing. If not, Sakura was nice enough that she probably wouldn't tell the others about his little incident. But if it came to that Robin wasn't sure her even be able to make it to her. Injured legs made moving a real challenge after all.

Robin hit the ground and rolled to try to lessen the blow, hopping to his feet when he was in position to do so. Surprisingly, not only was his jump really fun, but he wasn't injured either.

'Maybe I should try that again sometime…'


An hour later the group was out of the Astral Plane and back outside of Fort Jinya, ready to set off for Izumo. They managed to catch a ride with another traveling company, and got halfway to their destination before they were forced to set off on foot again. Which wasn't all that bad. Corrin was an excellent fighter, but evidently she hadn't spent her time in the fort running laps up on the roof as she started panting after an hour or two. They were going at a brisk pace up an incline, but that was kind of sad. At one point Gunter offered Corrin a ride on his mount, but she politely declined. The girl at least realized how out of shape she was, and marched on, determined to improve her stamina. Sakura was having much the same problem, and the rest were fine. Though Azura was sweating… quite a lot. How much water did the girl drink to be that sweaty? She was wearing white, which reflected heat. Corrin at least was wearing dark cloth and silver armor, which was likely cooking her, but Azura on the other hand…

"Watch out!" Kaze suddenly leapt in front of Corrin, shoving her out of the way of a large limb which had almost slammed into the back of her head.

"What in the blazes-?!" Gunter called out, his horse reeling back and kicking the air. In front of the group were six Faceless, their bodies obscured by the mist that had slowly seeped into the air. Something was off about the situation - something that reeked of magic. From what the others had told him, the faceless themselves were magical constructs. The air of power didn't just match that explanation though.

"Everyone, pair up and take down one each! Go for the ones in front of us!" While three of the six were ahead of the group, the other three had managed to sneak behind them. Jakob paired with Corrin, Gunter with Azura, and Kaze with Sakura as they defeated the ones in front. Robin focused on fending off the others, avoiding actually killing them so the others wouldn't get suspicious of his strength. After all, he had already fought in two wars, and not only knew his way around the battlefield, but had quite a bit more strength, speed, and other useful attributes than the others. But his story was that he was some random amnesiac, and he didn't want to have to make up lies to excuse his strength. The Faceless, though still weak, were doing particularly well against his magic, which surprised Robin. Typically Faceless had low resistance from what he had read and the others had told him, but these particular ones were almost shrugging off the pathetic blows aimed at them.

"Wait a minute… What's going on!?" Corrin shouted, gasping as her eyes widened.

"Hmm?" Robin hummed as he turned around, his opponents having been defeated by Gunter and himself moments before.

On the ground were not the corpses of three Faceless, but the motionless bodies of three humans, dressed in attire similar to Orochi's. Sakura screamed, whimpering as Kaze held her back. Tears streamed down her face, and everyone froze.

"What have we done…?" Azura had a similar expression of horror on her face, and knelt down to check for the pulse of the man closest to her.

A quick check behind him revealed to Robin three more not-Faceless, which he had shocked over and over with his lightning tome (which was required, given how weak the tome was despite its relatively quick refresh time). That at least explained why his attacks had done less than anticipated. If the matching outfits were any indication, these people were diviners like Orochi, and as magic users would have higher resistance than the Nohrian crafts they had appeared to be.

"Jakob, Sakura! Please heal them if you can!" Corrin shouted, frantically turning her head back and forth.

The two set out to do her task, Jakob heading toward Robin's side and Sakura towards Corrin's. Robin tossed a vulnerary to Kaze and nodded toward the bodies, indicating the ninja should apply the salve. The green haired man understood and set to it, crouching down at the shoulders of the man in front of him.

Roughly two minutes later, the faint light of a staff and festal faded from the air, and the group all stood, surveying the situation. Five of the men had survived, and one had not. One of the five had been terribly wounded however, and even the combined effort of Sakura and Jakob had not proved enough to completely fix him. The injured man would likely never be able to walk unassisted again, if the state of his leg was any indication. The bone had been shattered, and the flesh of the thigh cut so deeply that it hardly remained connected to the rest of his body. Muscle was hard to repair with a healing rod, and given how much was sliced by the group's attack, it was impossible to completely fix. Thus, the man had a huge scar, a misshapen leg, and enough blood pooled around him to dye a set of white bedsheets red.

Sakura was hiccuping as she choked back sobs, and Azura and Corrin both had looks of extreme guilt on their faces. Gunter showed no expression, Jakob with a similar appearance except with slightly more disappointment. Kaze on the other hand looked worried.

"When they wake, we'll have a lot of explaining to do," the ninja said. "These people are members of the wind tribe, a land which we must cross in order to arrive in Izumo. I doubt their leader will allow us peaceful passage if he hears we injured his people, to the point of ending one's life."

"But we thought they were Faceless! They looked like them and we didn't know what to do!" Corrin justified.

Jakob shook his head in response.

"Milady, it doesn't quite work like that. While they certainly appeared to be Faceless in front of us, in the end they are not mindless creatures, and I doubt they appeared as such to each other. In all likelihood, we were the Faceless in their eyes, so our excuse won't work. When they return to their tribe, they'll inform their leader that Nohrian spies attacked them with Faceless, the Nohrians claiming innocence and damages instead of owning up to their crimes. After all, only half of us appear to be Hoshidan, and that's only if Azura can be counted as such, so that won't be hard to presume.

"Furthermore, it could easily be assumed that we kidnapped Sakura, and that Lady Azura was a traitor the whole time. Kaze's assistance could simply be because he is trying to protect his princess the best he can. Thus, us being a group of Nohrians, traitors, and kidnapees would be an inaccurate, yet perfectly sensible explanation for our presence and our actions. Though Robin is much too… amply dressed…. to be a Nohrian dark mage, these people have probably not been to Nohr themselves and would mistake him as such. Given dark mages are the ones to summon Faceless… everything is stacked against us. I suggest we take a new route, though I know it may take a considerable amount more time to reach Izumo doing such."

"Are you scoundrels planning to invade Izumo too?!" A new voice suddenly entered the air at the end of Jakob's words, and Corrin's army turned to the owner. It appeared that four of the diviners had woken up, and had caught some part of the butler's speech. While the one who had spoken was glaring at them, one was sitting still with a blank expression, one of the others was attempting to wake the man with the messed up leg, and a fourth was desperately shaking his dead companion, though he surely knew of the man's status. "You… villains! First you kill the queen of Hoshido, and now this? Though the wind tribe claims its independence, that does not mean that we condone the violence you have brought onto our region! How dare you!"

The shouting man jumped to his feet with a grimace at the pain from his injuries and reached for his fan. Thankfully, Kaze had the insight to remove the tribalists' weapons while they were unconscious, and so the man was unable to attack them. His last sleeping, but living companion then stirred at the man's rising voice, and looked around in a daze. The one with the severe injuries frowned for a moment before realizing the state of his leg and grabbing it, crying out as the adrenaline and drowsiness worn off and the pain set in, the man who had been shaking him frantically trying to help.

"Listen, you don't understand!" Corrin was already starting to draw her weapon however, lessening the weight of her words.

"Don't understand? What is there to understand! First you cross into our territory without permission, then you attack our people, and now you are suddenly the good guys? What sort of understanding am I not reaching!?"

He limped toward the group, ignoring the pain he must have felt from the blows dealt upon him. He was unarmed, but by the look on his eyes was wholly prepared to punch one of them in the face, or to do something to that effect. He was furious, with one of his fellow tribalists dead, and raised a fist before it was grabbed from the air by the diviner who had previously been sitting with a blank expression. His face still lacked most emotion, but Robin could still see a small plea in his eyes. He was obviously frightened of Corrin's crew, which made the girl and her company both sad at the outcome and angry what the situation had come to.

Whispering into each other's ears, the men held a quick conversation about 'going back to warn Fuga and the others' and nodded to each other, before jogging over to the top of the mountain not too far away, right before the descent on the other side.

It was kind of funny, almost, but mostly sad watching the one who had stood first hop off angrily as his fellow dividers carried the one with the ruined limb. He would skip and then flinch, and just about topple over before straightening up and setting back on his way.

"Should we follow them?" Kaze asked, unsure of what to do. Though Jakob suggested they find a new route, the ninja knew the speed of the Hoshidan army and doubted he and his new friends would be able to reach Izumo fast enough if they had to change routes.

"Do we have much choice? They must be going back to warn the other members of their tribe, which only spells bad news for us," Azura grimly answered, the pained look that had made its way onto her face at her realization of the true identity of their enemies just as deep as before.

"And Fuga," Robin and Corrin voiced simultaneously, blinking and looking to the other at their sudden unison.

"Fuga!?" Kaze yelled, concerned. No one else had any sort of response, so Robin turned to the ninja, ignoring the others.

"Yes. Didn't you hear the tribalists whispering?"

The green haired man shook his head. The wind tribe had settled in the area likely due to their compatibility with the surroundings, which meant that wind whipped around constantly. It was windy even down in the desert they had settled in, and it was just the same up on the mountain, so some words were lost to the air. But the ninja stood by his words, and when he asked the others if they had heard what Robin and Corrin had, they shook their heads too.

"Maybe those strange ears of yours finally proved good for something, lady Corrin," Gunter joked, causing those very ears to turn red while Corrin's face quickly competed with Sakura's hair for most vibrant color in the area. They were around the same shade, too!

"My ears aren't strange! And besides, Robin heard them, not just me! You guys just need to clean your ears out." Corrin's flush grew, and Robin took a step to the side in case the girl sent too much blood to her cheeks and ended up passing out. Olivia had actually done that a few times, and though no one but Robin and Lissa (and maybe Olivia, since they had a history) knew, so had Lon'qu on one occasion.

"Ah, see old man? Even Corrin admits that your failing ears are so full of earwax that they're practically unusable. It's a disservice to Mildly to be so impaired and useless!" Jakob jabbed, drawing a frown, but nothing more, from the only man there older than himself.

As Corrin flailed around in embarrassment and Jakob tried to edge Gunter on, Robin felt more at home than ever. Yes, the comparisons weren't perfect, but they reminded him of the Shepherds. His cover, if he slipped, would be that he had these memories of a past that he couldn't explain, and so were likely a dream, but that didn't mean he would accept it. The mark alone proved something was wrong. And this world had astral planes that they traveled through, so why couldn't he have traveled through a farther one? Maybe that was why Lilith was so uncomfortable around him. She realized his foreign origin and was trying to figure out how he got there.

The tactician then turned to the direction the group had just come from, hearing the flapping of wings and the faint sounds of human voices. They sounded almost like they were arguing.

"What's up, Robin?" Corrin asked, turning his direction. The rest of the group followed suit, and Sakura let out a small gasp when she saw the riders of the approaching winged beast.

"Subaki! Hana!" she exclaimed, bringing a hand to her mouth.

On a pegasus, flying at a surprising speed for being on a single mount, were two people, one brown haired, one red. The red haired one reminded Robin a lot of Cordelia, if he was being perfectly honest.

"Laaaa-dyyyy Saaaa-kuuuu-raaaa!" the brown haired girl shouted at the top of her lungs, launching herself off the pegasus which was still pretty high up and rolling to land in front of the pink princess' feet. "You weren't really thinking of leaving us behind were you!?"

The girl looked young, and was covered in rocks and dirt that caught on her hair and clothing as she tumbled toward her destination.

"Hana! What were you thinking! That was dangerous. What would you do if you had been hurt and frightened Lady Sakura? Or worse, if you had missed and rolled right off the cliff's edge!" her partner chided, gracefully landing and hopping off his pegasus. Or rather, gliding off his pegasus. No one should be able to move in such a perfectly fluid way without looking creepy. Was he in the presence of another Kellam level oddity, but just in a Cordelia sort of way…?

Hana pouted and started yelling at Subaki until Sakura finally got her to stop. The cherry blossom girl explained that the two newcomers were her retainers, and that she would like for them to come with the group if that was at all possible. Corrin of course welcomed them before Robin could get a word in, but it didn't really matter as he was planning to let them join anyway.

"This will make the encounter in the Wind Tribe Village a bit easier. Not only do we have more Hoshidans with us, but we'll better be able to fend off the tribalists attacks in the case that they do retaliate for our earlier actions." Azura closed her eyes as she said this. She obviously wasn't happy with the situation, but was bearing it the best she could.

Subaki and Hana hadn't been there for the incident, but the group couldn't waste any more time, and so Robin decided to fill them in on their way to the village.

Hana let out little gasps and squeals throughout the retelling, which was clearly annoying both Jakob and Gunter, but Sakura looked relieved to have her there, which certainly was a plus. The young princess obviously wasn't ready for war. Though having her friends there would help some, she clearly was in for an experience that she would be deeply changed by unless she was either very strong willed, or just ignorant and not paying attention.

Upon their arrival, Corrin's forces could see diviners and other troops stationed at every entrance and throughout the town. However, none of them moved an inch, and the group was able to make it reasonably far into town before they met a guide who led them to a tall shirtless man with darker skin than any of the town's other inhabitants. He was standing in front of some sort of castle, the winds which had been strong around them for their entire walk up even more powerful than before.

"I take it you're Fuga, right?" Robin decided getting straight to the point would be the easiest way to reach a quick understanding with the least violence possible. Earlier the tribalists had mentioned going back to warn Fuga and the other members of the tribe, and so he assumed that this Fuga person was the head of their tribe, or at least military. It made sense that the one they led Corrin's band to would be the man himself.

The man in front of him reminded Robin of the Khans due to his darker coloration and obvious muscular form. Though he seemed much calmer than the Khans, Fuga also was quite clearly in good shape, and had likely seen many battles in his days of his lack of tension and scars, clearly visible by his sparse clothing, were any indication.

"That I am. Are you the leader of this band which has attacked my men unprovoked? I've heard that Corrin has denounced both Hoshido and Nohr and retracted her connections to them, wishing to eliminate them both. Yet you are the one at the point. Tell me, what do you gain by destroying the Wind Tribe? Are we simply the first step on your path of utter destruction?"

Being the one directly addressed, Robin knew he should be the one to respond, but waited for Corrin to answer instead. It was her army after all. He would just stand to the side and keep her from saying anything damaging, as he had done with Chrom. Though if Chrom's first meeting with the East Khan was any indication of what was to come…

"Our path of utter destruction? What are you saying!? We're not trying to destroy you, or Hoshido, or Nohr, or anyone. We're not even the ones you need to be fighting! The real danger is the - mwph!" Corrin was then dragged back by Azura, who was clamping a hand over her mouth.

"Corrin! Careful!"

"O-oh yeah…" Corrin cleared her throat. "Um, I can't really explain right now, but please believe me when I say that we aren't your true enemies! We have to band together, or else things may begin to fall apart faster than even a war between Hoshido and Nohr could cause…" she trailed off, and Azura picked up for her.

"What we mean is that there is a force belonging to not Hoshido, nor Nohr, nor any other domain that you are familiar with that is seeking to attack us all. One that no one knows yet, but will soon cause unparalleled destruction of we don't manage to stop it. Its aim is to get us all to turn against each other, so that it may come in and attack the remains."

Fuga paused for a second, and the wind picked up even more than it had been before. Tribalists that had been standing still began to angle themselves towards the foreigners, and the group moved in on itself. Fuga then raised a hand, and his men stopped, though still in what seemed to be combat ready positions.

"Do you truly take me for such a fool? For someone so gullible? What you are saying is preposterous, and I will not lose any more men to your actions. My fellow members of the wind tribe, eliminate these wretched beasts before us!"

With that Fuga lowered his hand, and the winds grew strong enough to blow back Subaki and his pegasus, who was clearly having trouble with the air attempting to lift it off the ground.

Robin reached for his sword, as did Corrin and the others, and they got in combat positions to match those of their enemies. Then, a new voice broke out, causing everyone to pause.

"Chief Fuga, wait! Don't attack just yet!" the voice exclaimed, as its owner ran toward them. Dressed in loose pants, bandages, an upturned mask, and tribal paint was yet another dark skinned person, this time a female. "I don't know what you've heard yet, but I promise that it is not the truth!"

The wind tribe leader then brought his hand back up and to the side, making his followers pause yet again. This time, though, they moved into regular, albeit stiff, positions. It seemed that whoever this new woman was, she was important and earned the respect of the powerful man they found as their opponent.

"So, now even the daughter of the Flame Tribe's chief has turned traitor? What is it that these people are bribing you with to convince you to abandon us all like this? Has the Flame Tribe gone mad? What is it about this dangerous group that you find so important as to risk the life of not only yourself, but your tribe?" Fuga said.

"They have not bribed me in the slightest. Its just that… I believe Corrin is a good person. When I went to Nohr a short time ago, I was captured and sentenced to death by the king. Corrin, however, chose to spare me, believing violence was not the answer. That is why I cannot accept these rumours marking her as a madwoman hellbent on destroying both Hoshido and Nohr. No one insane enough to do that could be so kind...

"And, because of that, I owe her a debt that I haven't managed to repay yet. But look at you, ordering her death before you've even given her the chance to defend yourself. You may be a member of the wind tribe, while I'm a member of the flame, but we work in the same basic ways, don't we!? I know my father would give her a chance, so what is it that keeps you from giving her one!?" the new girl growled, tightening her fists.

"Rinkah…" Corrin breathed, honored to see her friend standing up for her.

"Fine then. If that is how you wish to run things, then so be it. Fight me with your full strength, without the use of any illusions or other tricks, and prove your determination!" Fuga bellowed, a fierce grin on his face.

He turned to his men and barked some orders at them, turning back to mention one last thing before setting up wherever he would stay for their battle.

"Just to let you know, I will be using all the available troops in the castle to defeat you. My men numbered only five when they attacked you, while you had nine, so I see it only fair that we reverse the situation. Good luck, and may the strongest man win!"

The Wind Tribe leader then sped off away from where Corrin's army came. As did… 28… other… tribalists…

"W-wait a minute!" Hana stuttered, looking around. "If there really were nine of us versus their five, then we had less than double what they did. They have more than triple!"

"Actually, Hana, since you and Subaki didn't arrive until after the attack, it was technically six versus five. And that's counting Sakura in the battle, who neither attacked nor healed until after the fight was over. So really it was five versus five, and the have over five times the amount of troops we did then" Kaze said, correcting the girl. "But I suppose it doesn't matter. War isn't always fair."

Hana, flustered, starting blabbing about how she couldn't have realistically known that and how it wasn't fair anyway, as Subaki stood on, a confused look on his face. Though he had been given an explanation, it was such a rushed one that he likely didn't quite understand what was going on.

"So, your name is Rinkah, right? You mentioned being from the flame tribe, so do you use magic in addition to your… club?" Robin asked the woman with the mask. She didn't look too much like someone who would, as most mages he knew were rather dainty (even dark knights weren't that well built. The armor made them look a lot bulkier than many of them really were), but he could be wrong.

The Wind Tribe was full of mages with what were probably the equivalent of wind elemental scrolls, after all. Though Fuga didn't have a tome on him and he was clan head. He also had a club (or rather mace, from the looks of it) plus a katana at his side. Rinkah only appeared to be holding a club, and though her pants were pretty baggy, Robin doubted she was stowing away any scrolls in there.

"Hm? No, of course not! It's the tradition in the Hoshidan tribes for the clan leaders to wield clubs, not tomes! The wind tribe sub-specializes in katana, while the flame does in naginata, but the tribe leaders don't concern themselves with scrolls. We pride ourselves in our physical strength. Magic comes second." She declared, hand on her hips.

That sounded really backward. Their tribes were made up of mages and named after elements, but they all looked up to figures who almost scorned the practice. Though he supposed that if they all used whatever type of magic that was included in the scrolls they got their hands on, rather than just wind things…

The Wind Tribe village was located in the middle of a desert, on the other side of a mountain. That's what was likely causing the extreme winds, more so than just a few mages trying to put on a show or scare a few outsiders could do. Deserts were really hot in the day, but also freezing at night, and were subject to the rules of "hot air rises, cool air falls." Basically, the frequent temperature changes made the air move frequently too, creating wind of various intensities across the region.

So maybe they just moved there, realized it was really windy, and then made that the name of their tribe. Some of them might have picked up magic, while others didn't, and made their fighting force that way. Were there any wind scrolls? From what he had seen, scrolls summoned animals, not elements. So maybe they didn't have the option without using Nohrian resources. Though he still wasn't fully familiar with Cantan tradition, there was enough animosity between the two, and they had different weapon types, so it made sense.

"Ah, I see. Does the fire tribe live by a volcano or something similar, by chance?" Robin asked Rinkah. If the wind tribe lived in a windy place, the the fire one probably lived in a fiery place, right?

Looking him up and down, Rinkah spoke: "What does that have to do with anything? Shouldn't we get to fighting Fuga and his men? C'mon, I know where the entrance to the battle maze is!" She then ran off, and one by one Corrin's army followed her.

"Oh come on! That was a reasonable question!" Robin groaned, running to meet up with his companions.

'The battle maze, huh? What does that mean?'

Rinkah then stopped abruptly, and the rest of the group looked to where she had fixed her gaze.

"So this is the famous Reppu Castle entrance maze…" Kaze said. He was frowning, and had his arms crossed as he always did when he wasn't fighting.

"What do you mean by maze, Kaze?" Corrin voiced the question that had been bothering Robin, much to his relief. He felt silly having to ask about something that was supposedly famous, but since Corrin didn't know about it either, then that made it a little better. "I do see the sort of winding pathway, but it doesn't seem too maze like to me. I mean, you can see all the paths and where they lead, so it shouldn't be too hard to get from one end to the other. If you don't count the battles, at least."

Corrin was right. There were a few places where the stone pathways split in two, but they were generally straightforward. Some led off past a cliff that jutted out of the nearby mountainside, but a few just ended in drops. There were a few chests that were slightly out of the way, but those would be no problem to get, just a minor detour.

What was it with places and open chests anyway? Those things get easily stolen! Hell, back in Ylisstol when the Shepherds were all worried about Emmeryn getting assassinated, Gaius managed to sneak into her chamber, take the chest, and get out without the exalt ever doing anything. And that was before she knew he had joined her brother's forces! Why was there a chest there in the first place, too? It was such a random spot for it. And the same principle applied here. At least in Ylisstol the chest was inside, so it could be considered as stored away in a safe place. Here, they were out in the open, where anyone could open them if the guard was low or changing, and they had quick fingers and feet. Robin was familiar with the "draw your enemy into a trap with bait" strategy, but that still didn't completely make sense. Even if there were pegasus knights hiding out somewhere, the chests themselves didn't have a huge guard around them, and could be taken without too much effort. It would be sort of annoying getting Kaze to them all before the battle ended (because Robin doubted Fuga would let them take the chests' contents after the battle, though he probably wouldn't protest too much if they were spoils of battle), but still possible.

"Don't you feel it?" Hana whispered, eyes wide.

"Feel what?" This time it was Jakob that spoke.

"The wind. Look!"

Hana pointed out her finger to the right, where Robin realized the wind was blowing so hard he could see it.

"It's all around us. Check the left too." Kaze nodded in that direction, and Robin realized that the ninja was right.

"How are we supposed to get through that!?" Corrin cried out, motioning with her arms in a grand fashion toward one of the closest wind tunnels. Or… whatever those things were called.

"The wind dies down for short periods of time, during which we should be able to get in an attack and get back out. Some of us may get blown around though. See the wind to the right? It has a sort of green tinge to it, doesn't it?" At Kaze's explanation, various members of the group nodded in confirmation. "That wind will blow you forward if you're standing in its path as it gets to its strongest point. The wind just to our left has a brown tinge, or maybe just sand, but that will blow you back. It's powerful enough to blow you from one platform to the next, so be very careful." He had a thoughtful look on his face, and turned to Corrin to see what she has to say. Instead, it was Joker who spoke next.

"And how exactly did you come across this information, hmm? Aren't you a Hoshidan retainer or something? So shouldn't you have been spending your time in Hoshido, not over here?" Jakob was once again suspicious of someone (how long was it going to take to break out of that, anyway? They were a team, they needed to bond of they were to be at all successful) and was squinting at the green haired man.

"Technically I am not a Hoshidan retainer, as I serve no Lord in particular. I do help the Hoshidan crown, however, and have assisted the wind tribe in a few skirmishes before. The wind tribe used to be very close to someone in Hoshido's elite, apparently, so when there are disagreements within her region that the wind tribe is involved in, we usually side with them. Just in minor ways though. Typically to work to lessen tensions. My assistance was more… guarding a random Hoshidan diplomat outside the royal family as they tried to talk down whatever anger was gathering. Once or twice we were unsuccessful though, and I got to witness the castle defenses in action. That's where I gained my information. Is that satisfactory, Jakob?"

Jakob looked uncomfortable, and grunted out a "Fine," before turning away.

"I'm kind of surprised you noticed the wind shoots so quickly, Hana. Have you ever thought about moving here or something?" Robin joked, wondering what sort of reaction that would get.

"Only before I met Lady Sakura! I'd never leave her now! But I almost did, when I was real little, and I think my mom took me here a few times," the girl chattered on.

"Wait, seriously?"

"Mhm! My dad used to be a member of King Sumeragi's personal guard back when they were… still alive…" she paused, and looked down before pursing her lips and tightening her shoulders, balling her fists up near her face. "But! My mom was originally from the wind tribe, so it's in my blood, y'know? The wind tribe wasn't actually designated as its own domain until King Sumeragi took the throne. Until then, it was just a pretty disconnected part of Hoshido that most people kind of ignored it.

"Like Kaze said, sometimes we Hoshidans will help the wind tribe out, and we did it even more often back when Sumeragi was still King, and the wind tribe was working out its independence. Since negotiations for the conditions of the split and how much territory would be given to the tribe were complicated, the king had to visit a lot, and took his guard with him. My mom was a priestess in the castle, and so she was one of the ones who would entertain my dad and his fellow guards when they were barred from being inside the meeting room. Only two retainers could go in, you see, and King Sumeragi would switch who it was each time. Anyway, during those meetings they got to talking, and eventually decided to get hitched! So, though my dad was Hoshidan born true, my mom was a member of the wind tribe! That's part of how I got my name actually. What about you, Kaze? I know you're a ninja guy and where your brother got his name, but you've never really talked about your family," she babbled, looking back at him.

"... My parents liked it. Nothing less, nothing more. They weren't planning on having a second son, so they chose the first thing that came to mind."

"What do you mean by that?" Robin decided that it was his turn to speak up for once, curious as to the connection between Kaze and Hana's names.

"Kaze's name is short for Suzukaze, and Hana's for Kazahana. Kaze also happens to mean wind, hence the connection to the wind tribe," Azura said.

"Waaaaait. When did I tell you my full name? And since when were you and Kaze such good friends that he told you? I only found his full name out 'cause Queen Mikoto told me me and Kaze were nickname buddies! That's unfair!" Hana pouted, as Sakura began to giggle, and Subaki let out the most unnerving, perfectly even laugh. Something was definitely weird about that guy.

"But didn't Azura just say kaze was for wind? Not kaza?" Jakob asked her.

"W-well... Mom didn't want it to be too obvious, so she made it Kazahana instead of Kazehana. Plus, then it's a string of uninterupted 'a's which is also cool! But it's close enough isn't it!" Hana puffed.

...That didn't really make sense. Didn't Hoshido use a character system? Maybe the kaze sound meant wind, and not a specific character attached to the sound. But, Robin didn't know their written language and wasn't going to argue with Hana since she seemed really stubborn, so he let it slide.

"Pardon the interruption, but shouldn't we get to the fighting now? I don't think Fuga will wait forever. If we don't act, he very well may send out his men to fight while we are still conversing," Gunter pointed out.

"Mm. Well then, let's get going, everyone!" Corrin punched the air, and everyone got into position for the upcoming battle.


Author's Note: And I'm splitting the chapter here. Pre-revision, it's at about 8,300 words at this point. The next chapter will likely be significantly shorter, maybe around the 4,000 word mark, but I don't want this one to be any longer than it already is. So, next time will include the battle, and the talk afterward. Plus some other things. I don't have a written outline for this story, just a few ideas and the plot of Revelation. I know of a few things I want to happen here and there, and at least what a portion of the ending will include, but that's about it. Also, about Hana's name. I wrote the end of this chapter convinced her name was Kazehana. I didn't realize it was actually Kazahana, with an "a" so... I fixed it sort of, but that's why it's sort of weird. Thank you for reading this chapter, and I'll see you next time. Originally completed September 1, 2016.

EDIT: September 18, 2016. Well, I just went back and fixed a bunch of grammar errors, and added 100 or 200 words. Little things mostly, like adding in the character things to Hana's name that I meant to include originally but forgot about and... whatever else. I don't remember. It's almost midnight. Oh yeah! I realized when writing the next chapter that I had accidentally based Fuga's weapons and thus Rinkah's comment on naginata vs. katana use on what Fuga wields in Birthright, not Revelation, so that's a small mistake on my part. It's very minor though, and there's no real reason for Fuga to have those exact, specific weapons, so I didn't change anything. That's all for now.

Eruran out.