Byleth returns alone and only Claude is there to greet her.
He doesn't look particularly surprised to see that Edelgard isn't there with her or when she delivers the Adrestian Emperor's message to him. A nod of his head and he scratches idly at the scruff along his jaw in thought while she reports how the encounter with the Empire's forces had gone. She looks to their shelter and back to him without actually asking the question. It's easy enough to understand that Claude also returned alone when she can see no second set of fresh footprints leading into the structure.
"He's with Sylvain, Mercedes, Ingrid, and Felix." He tells her in hopes it will bring her comfort. "We reunited with them and several of the Golden Deer in Alliance territory, they're safe. For the moment."
Her eyes turn to the north and back to him.
Claude's expression softens. "Hey, it's going to be alright, Teach. Everyone says hello, by the way, and were over the moon to hear you were back among the living."
She looks exhausted and like the slightest wind is going to knock her over. It's been a long, rough last couple of days for her and now with the uncertainty of Edelgard's actions threatening what fragile peace they'd just managed to agree on? He doesn't blame her for not having any words to say in response. She does look a little happier at the fact her students remember her and that they're happy to hear of her return.
He's going to have to be the bearer of more bad news too. "Sorry, Teach, they're not going to make it back to Garreg Mach in time either. They're going to talk to Lord Rodrigue, Felix's father, and likely weather the rest of the winter there. He and the rest of House Fraldarius have been the main source of resistance against Imperial forces in the Kingdom." For whatever good thatis going to do for Dimitri in the long run. I told Annette and Mercedes to keep me updated, if need be I'll get there myself if they need help.
She nods. Somehow, she expected this with the information she'd gotten between the three of them the last two nights. If she's right, Dimitri is going to be occupied with matters relating to the Kingdom. "You?"
And here we go. "I'm really sorry." He is too. He was looking forward to goofing off a little with old friends and seeing if there was any credibility to the bet that he can turn some of Seteth's hair white. Not to mention he has a date to keep with his dear Professor that keeps getting interrupted.
"I have some things to take care of in Alliance territory with the rest of them. Preparations to make, schemes to put into play, you know how it is." He sets his hand against her shoulder and squeezes as her expression shifts from surprise to… hurt. Sort of. It's some hybrid of hurt and acceptance he's not sure he has a name for.
There isn't a lot he can tell her safely. Not here. Definitely not now. Edelgard's words are both an indicator of her plan as well as a warning. Whether or not Dimitri is going to catch on to it is another story entirely, but that's a risk they're going to have to take. The stakes are too high for anything else at this point and their Teacher… the Professor, is just going to have to trust that they're going to bring an end to all of this war their way before the real thing begins.
You two owe me for being the harbinger of ill tidings. He thinks at Dimitri and Edelgard. And believe me, I willcollect even if it means doing some pretty nasty things in order to make sure you two live long enough to pay that debt.
"I know this is a lot to ask, but have faith, Teach. In me, in us."
"By the way, Teach, I have a message from Dimitri."
Byleth turned back. Her eyes narrowed suspiciously at the glint in Claude's eyes. "A message."
"Yep." His voice was a little too cheerful for her not to be wary of whatever it was he'd been plotting. "A message. It's a little awkward, so I've taken the liberty of translating. If, by some chance, you just so happen to see Edelgard again before this whole battlefield thing? Give her the same, would you?"
Byleth's fingers linger against her lips long after Claude and Halide are out of sight. Twice, though the second message was definitely more from him than Dimitri.He's grown up to be a responsible leader. She recalls the snow dumped on him. Mostly, anyway. The thought both makes her smile and saddens her greatly. She's missed so much of their lives as a result of the last battle and now the possibility of another looms overhead.
Edelgard's pointed look, eyes conveying a message Byleth doesn't fully understand.
Claude's aversion to telling her exactly what was going on but begging her to believe in them.
Dimitri's refusal to head back to Garreg Mach for reasons and the message he told Claude to give her and Edelgard yet unknown.
Have faith, Teach. Claude had urged her. And be ready.
Faith was something more than the religious specialized in. While Byleth is not exactly devout or a believer in the Goddess of Fodlan herself, ironic to the extreme given that Sothis' soul has dwelled within her body since birth, she does understand the idea of 'leaving' matters up to something one cannot see or grasp with their own two hands. It feels a little like hope with more to it and the only thing the former mercenary can do now is prepare as best she can with the Knights of Seiros.
And have faith that her wayward students will return home, alive, so that they can hold an informal graduation ceremony at long last.
She shoulders her bags once more and walks up the broken steps to the monastery entrance, as she has so many times before. Gatekeeper is there and greets her casually, and then does a double-take when he realizes it's her. She actually smiles at him as a result and finds it to be a good sign of things to come. After a brief conversation and update, she leaves him to head to her quarters with a murmured invitation for 'later'- if he isn't otherwise on duty or occupied.
It isn't their first rendezvous and she highly doubts it will be their last in the coming weeks; she gets tired of having an empty bed especially in the cold season and that certainly has not changed in the year since she arrived at Garreg Mach. Though she's attracted the attention of many there within the monastery, for good or ill as it may be, Gatekeeper is respectful, noble in his own right, and he's discreet.
He's also not, at present and in the past, interested in committing to anyone unless he's "certain". Whatever that means. She is the furthest thing from certain and they both know it, so they keep it casual, keep it light, and they take comfort from one another's full acceptance of one another without any pressure or expectations.
Five years has given him a leaner edge than she remembers, but it has done nothing to sharpen his temper or curb his inherently sweet and thoughtful personality.
If she were going to be honest with herself, giving him the invitation also stems from the fact she's so very tired of being alone. Five years of forced sleep and isolation. Losing both her father and Sothis within a month of one another and then launching directly into a war that split everything she had come to care about into four broken pieces has had more of a toll than she wants to admit. More than she's ready to admit, really, and after delivering her things to her room, Byleth slips away to lay flowers on Jeralt's grave.
Whoever has been there, thankfully, hasn't ruined the graveyard or disturbed their occupants over the five long years. Someone's even been there recently to keep the moss off the grave itself and her fingers trace the outline of Jeralt's name. Her mother's has long since faded and he never did tell her what her mother's name was. It feels odd calling her 'Mother' when she doesn't even know what the woman looked like. She doesn't say anything at Jeralt's grave or on the way to the Cathedral.
She has business there.
The throne deep within the Holy Tomb is untouched, even if the graves have once again been ransacked of their Crest Stones, and the eerie light that fills the area is nothing short of haunting. As before, and minus an audience this time, Byleth takes a seat upon the throne Sothis used to sit upon and rests there. Listening. Trying to see if she can feel and reach her in a moment where she could use the former goddess' presence the most. The silence is heavy there and the air a dusty melancholy that does nothing to lift her spirits, fill her with any kind of hope, or do anything more than drive home that Sothis is truly well and gone.
As is her father.
She tucks her legs beneath her and rests her chin against her forearm, draped awkwardly across the throne as she is, and closes her eyes. If she focuses hard enough, if she really pushes all of her senses to their extremes, maybe she can feel just the slightest hint of Sothis' presence and take comfort in that.
You really are such a child. What amI going to do with you?