They take their places at the 'table' in complete silence.
Edelgard and Dimitri sit across from one another, just as they had before the intermission, and Claude sits with his back to Byleth. He chose the position both to be something of a shield, just in case things got ugly, and also to make sure he focuses on these two idiots. A quick glance to each of them reveals some telling information; Edelgard's eyes are red and puffy, she's been crying and would deny it to her dying day, and Dimitri's visible eye isn't much better off and the furrows in his brow are deeper than before.
Both of them look as though he's just called them to their own execution and, as far as any of them know, he has.
"Before we begin, are there any unanswered questions any of us have for each other?" He asks, his own voice strained. "Could be our last chance, might as well get it out in the open now."
"I have two." Dimitri speaks up, his voice rougher than it has been during their time together. He pauses for a moment. "Possibly three."
"Go for it." He'll hold back until he hears what Dimitri has to say.
As he predicted, the lone blue eye lands on Edelgard. There's the barest hint of a flinch but she steels herself and holds eye contact with him. "Do you swear by what is most sacred to you, on the spirits and graves of your family, that you genuinely had no knowledge of nor hand in the Tragedy of Duscur?"
She does not look away, but she does flinch at the gravity of what he demands her to swear on. "With everything I hold sacred to me, on the graves and lives of the Hresvelg line, Dimitri, I had nothing to do with the Tragedy of Duscur." She seems at a loss for what to say and, with the knowledge it could be one of their last conversations, speaks once more.
"I know who is responsible and the Professor, as well as you, Claude, and others have killed some of them. The rest are slated to-" she stops herself. "...will be slated to die, should I survive this."
It's not the answer he wants out of her and they all know it. Even the knowledge that she knows those responsible isn't enough to give whatever he's looking for. His jaw tightens, he inclines his head just the barest amount to acknowledge her answer, and he pushes forward to ask his next question.
"Did you order Sir Jeralt's assassination?"
"No." Her answer is instantaneous and venomous enough even Dimitri's eye widens in response. "I would never have ordered him assassinated. If anything I…"
Edelgard trails off. Her eyes close and she shakes her head. "I would have… if anyone aside from the Professor, I may have been willing to speak with him after some time had passed. He didn't trust the Archbishop and wasn't fond of the Church of Seiros."
Her eyes open again, her expression furious. "I am glad of Kronya and Solon's deaths. I wish only that I would have been there to witness, if not put them to the blade myself."
She looks to Dimitri again and studies his face. She can't read him, not anymore, and she wishes she could. "You… had a third question? Or was that everything?"
"Why did you order our assassinations?"
"It was the quickest way I could think of to eliminate any possibility of resistance to my plan; you would have died defending other students from harm and become heroes, well-loved and fondly remembered, and your deaths would have…"
"They would have been used to sow distrust in the Church and add more sympathy to your cause, especially if you were the sole survivor. You could have recruited from the Alliance and the Kingdom to help you avenge the deaths of your classmates." Claude finishes for her. "Something like that, right?"
She nods. It sounds so… childish now that he says it aloud. It had been a wonderful idea, brilliant even when she'd first thought of it. There were too many holes in that plan now that she was older and looked at it again. "Perhaps the Professor was right, we were merely children with a child's perspective."
"Not exactly, it might have gone over a lot better than you think if you'd managed to pull it off." He replies with a wince as he calculates the responses the Alliance and his home country would have had in response. Mourning, the potential demand for answers, some celebrating on the side of the families he really didn't care for, and then retaliation.
"How do you figure, Claude?" Dimitri asks. He's still absorbing the last answer she'd given him and trying to work through how he felt about it.
"Normally I like my secrets where they are, but the situation we're in doesn't leave me a lot of secrets I can afford to keep." He doesn't look pleased by the admission and like he would rather not confess whatever he's about to. "You know I'm the grandson of old man Riegan, why I'm the leader of the Alliance as a result, all that history."
They both nod, Edelgard interested and Dimitri trying to figure out what the revelation could possibly be.
"Well, that's on my mother's side of the family. Which, hey, you both should have gotten fostered with her. That would have been a life-changer." It's a poor attempt at a joke and, for the first time, gives the other two leaders a glimpse into a side of Claude they don't know. "There's no easy way of saying this, so we'll just get it out there; my father is the King of Almyra."
"He's what?" Edelgard is floored, and not a touch unshaken by the reveal. "That would have-"
"Caused an international incident? Oh yeah. That would have been a war they'd have gladly gone to. Especially if your little scheme had gone according to plan."
"Who… who all knows of this?" She's floored. Absolutely, completely floored. Had she known of this earlier, she might not have even tried to assassinate him. She would have tried to negotiate, see if she could get the Almyran and Alliances forces on her side and that would have bolstered her numbers well beyond what the Kingdom and Church combined could have thrown at her.
A glance to Dimitri reveals he's in just as much shock as she is- and he's also contemplating the numbers had he reached out to the Alliance, to Claude, as well. It could have easily turned the tides against her.
Claude offered them both a wry look. "My grandfather, my father's family, and my mother. Some of the others in House Riegan, I think. But it wasn't something the Fodlan side has been particularly proud of, you understand. And now you two."
"This is hardly responsible behavior, given your position as leader of the Alliance and the heir to the Almyran throne, Claude." Dimitri admonishes him. "Knowing full well that your death, even at the Professor's hand, may very well spark an international war and yet…"
"And yet half of me is still from Fodlan." Claude responds firmly. "Believe me, I've had that speech beaten into my head at least a half dozen times. That's why my life, as much as it pains me to say this, is quite literally in your hands right now."
He grins. "Now that my big secret is out and what's at stake on my end is on the table, any other questions?"
Edelgard inclines her head. "I have one. Well, two, potentially. Depending on the answer to the first."
Claude nods. "Let's hear 'em, and then I have two for you both."
In spite of the floor being offered to her, Edelgard is silent. She has the questions. She knows how to word them, how to ask them, but it's the asking of the questions themselves that she finds herself terrified to do. The answers will hurt, she knows this and is fully prepared to accept whatever comes her way, especially with Claude holding what's a likely pair of verbal blades ready for the kill. But it's… it's the unknown. It's the fear of hope that has started to kindle itself. That this may turn out well in the long run, and that her path no longer has to be walked alone with Hubert slaughtering her enemies from the shadows and urging her forward in hopes she will find her way.
It's the fear that it won't turn out well and that her death will arrive the moment Byleth wakes up and she will have caused more havoc than she intended to and spark an entirely different war as a result.
"If…" she begins and falters. This is hard for her. "If the war ends… what. What should I do to prove myself as… as a willing participant in this… whatever this is to become?"
Neither of them were expecting the question and stare at her, uncomprehending. She pushes forward in a rush before she loses her nerve. "I ordered your assassinations, which failed due to the Professor, I used you all in some degree or another to further my plans, I attacked the Academy and I-"
Dimitri holds his hand to cut her off. She falls silent and braces for the damning words she deserves and doesn't want to hear. "We know what you have done, not all of it, but enough."
"I could take full advantage of that question, just so you're aware, but I won't. This time. You might not get off so easily if you end up in the hot seat again, Miss Emperor." Claude replies. "I can't speak for every House in the Alliance, even if that's technically my role, but for me, personally?"
Edelgard watches him intently, waiting.
He frowns and scratches the back of his head. "Honestly, reparations are a start and will be in high demand, so we can sort that out later. That's what I can think of as a leader, but if you're asking about me, Claude von Riegan?"
He lets himself look at her, really look at her. The fear, the hope, the feeling of waiting for the other shoe to drop at any given moment. She really is just as terrified as the rest of them, how hadn't they seen that before? Why hadn't he seen it? "An apology is a good start, I'll accept that when you're ready to give it- but I want action too. I want you to talk to me, really talk to me, to us if Dimitri's interested, and I know Teach will be."
"That's… it?"
"Hey, talk isn't cheap, and you have a lot of secrets I want to know all about." Claude points out. "And some of those are not going to be ones you want to give up, so consider the hours of future discomfort and intensely personal questions your punishment on my part."
She can scarcely breathe. This isn't going the way she anticipated. They should have shut her down, demanded her life as penance for her crimes and what she's done. Claude's demand for unfiltered information, state secrets in all likelihood and things that would grant the Alliance and Almyra an advantage over the Empire was a costly price, but not as much as he could demand from her. He could have her throne. They should demand her throne and that she be exiled in disgrace.
It takes everything in her to look at Dimitri and await what his answer will be.