Full disclosure: This is going to be a short transitional chapter. A combination of the New Year's festivities (happy 2020 by the way!), chores and beginning a more labor-intensive freelance gig (you can check out what I'm working on at the video game news site GameRant, if you're so inclined!) kept me busier than I anticipated over the last week. So… I'm quickly writing this the night it's going out.
I'll try to manage my time better and get a meatier continuation next week, since all of you fans of Three Houses know what's coming.
But that said; keep in mind that my real life responsibilities are picking up in case I have to change my weekly publishing ambitions going forward. As much as I love you guys, this ain't paying the bills and freelancing means it's all on me to pick my hours.
Okay, enough real life talk. Let's get on with it.
Part 1 — Pegasus Moon
When Solon's Forbidden Spell of Zahras pulled Byleth into the dark abyss, he came across Sothis on her immense throne. Faced with the possibility of being trapped in the void alongside him, the mysterious girl finally remembered her place as the Fódlan's progenitor god. However she lacked her own corporeal form to exert that power. Thus she decided to fuse her spirit with Byleth there and then, giving up her ability to independently interact with the world and leaving its fate in his hands in order to facilitate their escape.
Her final words were a prophetic warning: Sothis was the beginning of time, and it was up to Byleth to decide how to utilize the immense power she passed on.
Upon Solon's defeat, Byleth's return to Garreg Mach was met with much discussion. Many wondered whether his changed appearance was a sign of some deeper alteration; though he assured everyone he was still the same inside. However, there was some truth to the Blue Lions' instructor acting more forlorn and distant — much like when he had first arrived at the Monastery. He seemed to frequently check over his shoulder, as if expecting to see someone.
Archbishop Rhea was more protective of Byleth than anyone during this period, acting as if he had become a close family member overnight. She offered to take him and his students down into the Holy Tomb where Sothis was once buried to receive a divine revelation through a Church ceremony.
Toward the end of the month, Rhea led the Blue Lions' class to a large chamber deep within the Monastery's grand Cathedral. It was barren, as though someone had forgotten to purchase décor. There were not even torches or chandeliers of any kind, leaving everything to be illuminated by a single abstract glass mural on the far wall.
As the Archbishop led Byleth to stand under the mural's warped light, his students either gathered around the center of the room for awkward small talk or investigated one of the four indented grooves running up the left and right walls.
"How strange that this should be the one thing they chose to put around the room," Ashe remarks as he looks into the groove near the back-left corner alongside Annette and Ingrid.
"It reminds me of the mechanical fortifications at Arianrhod that my father showed me once," Annette says as she runs a hand inside the indent. "Full of divots, like a gear track."
At the other side of the room, Felix turns away from the metal-lined groove he was looking over with Sylvain.
"What's the deal with this place, Archbishop?"
People all around the room look surprised at Felix's irreverent tone. Not that it was unusual, but it was unexpected in the face of Rhea herself.
However, the green-haired authority figure brushes it off with a gentle laugh as she and Byleth look around at dozens of eyes with their backs to the far wall.
"Do not worry young ones," she says with a cool ambiance that washes over the room. "You will see as soon as Seteth finishes the preparations."
"My brother has always been slow when it comes to working these mechanisms," Flayn says. Her internal turmoil deciding whether she should hide amongst the crowd of students or join the leaders at the front is readily apparent.
Dedue notices her fidgeting and keeps her under a curious gaze.
"Mechanisms?"
As if right on cue, the floor violently jolts and a whirring arises from underneath.
Bernadetta is the only one to fall over from the sudden motion (though many others come close), and needs to have her fearful whines and sobs consoled by Mercedes.
Once that first jolt passes, the floor begins to rumble at a slow, even rate. Everyone feels a slight falling sensation in their core as the ground begins descending down an unseen chasm and the ceiling moves further out of reach.
"W-What's happening?" Bernadetta manages to coherently utter, though her voice is still shaky from her recent crying.
"It looks like we're going down," Ashe responds. He looks awestruck toward the entrance as it rises further and further away.
"See?" Annette says with a little more excitement as she tugs at Ashe's sleeve and points out the track that continues unraveling as more of the walls are revealed. "We must be riding down on gears!"
The light from the abstract mural passes across the floor and sticks against a section of the chamber they leave behind. But the area is only dark for a short while before another orb of light crests up from the wall behind Rhea and Byleth like a rising sun. When it fully comes into view, it becomes clear they were looking at another mural — this one depicting a blocky visage of Sothis and all of her cascading green hair in the center of an empty frame.
"It appears we're along one of the cliffsides too," Dimitri says while stroking his chin. He receives an eagerly agreeing nod from Dedue at his side. "Where else could there be such a long underground shaft that has this much access to light outside?"
The Archbishop rests a hand on Byleth's shoulder so he would join her in turning around to watch the second mural rising.
"The goddess who created this world was laid to rest, along with her children, in the Holy Tomb beneath us," she says with the gently amazed tone of a teacher who loved to impart her knowledge. "Their history is briefly inscribed through these murals, dear one."
Though their moment was clearly meant to be somewhat private given Rhea's hushed tone, it still drew the curiosity of a few individual parties around the room.
"Dear one?" Marianne questions to the pale-skinned Linhardt beside her. "How strange, I always got an impression the Professor somewhat disliked the Archbishop."
Linhardt's usually low-key, sleepy expression was gone, replaced by a childlike excitement as he fervently observed the moving chamber's history lesson. After the Sothis mural began casting its light against the stationary wall, another round window appeared over the horizon that depicted her alongside a blue-and-green marble.
Yet he was still plenty available to answer his blue-haired companion, despite looking like he had missed everything she said.
"Perhaps he doesn't, but the Archbishop has her own vested interest in things," Linhardt responds with a casual shrug. "She clearly likes intriguing crests — understandably so. Between that Crest of Flames he bears and the whole hair color change, she's probably latched onto him quite a bit."
Marianne looks between her feet and nods.
"I suppose you're right," she mumbles. "It was silly of me not to consider that…"
"Nonsense, you're quite alright Marianne."
He passes along the last bit without looking at her, but turns soon after while rolling his eyes back and pawing at a few strands of his sage green hair.
"Say… You don't think the whole 'green hair' look is becoming too excessive around the Monastery now, do you?"
The ground stops moving with another violent jolt after a fourth mural comes up that depicts Sothis with four other indiscriminate figures — obviously meant to be the Saints. A circle of light cast by that final mural stops in the same place where the first had been, immediately over where Byleth and Rhea stood. As soon as everyone recovered from the motion, the Archbishop gestures toward a new chamber entryway that had appeared on the same part of the wall where they had come in.
"Please watch your step as you exit."
Rhea waves the students off before glancing at Byleth once more.
"Are you surprised, Professor? This is the Holy Tomb."
"Incredible," Dimitri says with a slightly jovial scoff of disbelief. "To think such a vast space has been hidden beneath us all this time. I wonder what powers this giant mechanism that descends beneath the ground…"
Footsteps echo as the group makes their way into Sothis' final resting place.