I wrote a thing. I don't write.
Lysithea was annoyed.
All she could think about as she stomped through the newly captured Bridge of Myrddin was her former professor. He did it again. Every time she thought he would actually be on time for a war council or training session he just failed to show up! He was never a second late in the academy, so why was he so hopeless now, and why did she have to be the one sent to fetch him?!
She continued her single minded march through the fort, people quickly parting in front of the white haired girl upon sighting her, not wanting to catch a piece of her clear anger directed at them.
Soon her destination was in sight, the room Professor Byleth was using while they occupied the bridge before they marched into empire territory. Once Lysithea reached the room, she immediately barged through the door, not an ounce of hesitation in her movements as she prepared to give the green haired man a piece of her mind.
"Professo-" She began angrily, before halting at the sight before her. Byleth had discarded his armour and shirt, and was currently on his bed, cleaning a deep looking wound in left shoulder blade with a small cloth and some alcohol he had next to him.
A moment of silence past between the two as their eyes met.
As Lysithea looked back at the wound she found all her fury dissipating, replaced with confusion and concern as her clearly injured professor sighed, moving the cloth away from the wound and turning slightly to face her more directly.
"What did you need Lysithia?" He asked the still silent girl, seemingly unperturbed by the large, exposed wound in his shoulder blade.
With any trace of rage now having completely dissipated, she softly answered with a question of her own.
"Why?" She asked him "Why aren't you at the medical bay?" she continues, as the black clad man only continues to stare in response.
"That's not a small wound, if that gets infecte-"
"Lysithia." Byleth cuts her off suddenly.
"Y-Yes?" she stammers out, surprised by the sudden interruption.
"Please forget you saw anything, and don't tell anyone what you saw." He calmly orders her. Lysithea reels in surprise.
"I'm sorry?" she asks.
"I'm asking you to not tell anyone about my injury, and for you to forget about it yourself." Byleth repeats back to her. Her pink eyes lock with his green ones, and they hold each others gaze silently for a moment, studying each other. But while it was only a moment, for Lysithea it felt like an eternity as she recalled a memory from her academy days.
5 years earlier.
Lysithea was shaken
Only hours ago, the Golden Deer were in a dangerous skirmish with a large number of individuals that were seeking the Tomb of Seiros in the holy Mausoleum. It was a difficult battle for the Students as it was many of their first times facing off against trained combatants, and due to this fact, several of her classmates were injured in the battle.
Ignatz hesitated to shoot an opponent, and that moment of hesitation had allowed him to be struck by the glancing blow of an axe. It wasn't life threatening, but he needed a new uniform after the mission from the stains.
Lorenz was struck by a Miasma spell from the side, the darkness eating through his uniform and into his skin. he was fortunate his mount took the worst of the hit, or he would have lost his leg for sure.
Marianne was hit by an arrow right through her right forearm. Lysithea could still hear her pained cries and whispers to the Goddess echoing in her ears as she had to remove the arrow to close the wound with her magic.
But the one that scared her the most was her Professor. She recalled how after he killed the Mage commanding the troops with that strange sword that was in the tomb of Seiros- with her help of course, that knight dressed in jagged black armour with that wicked scythe that made him appear like death itself charged at them.
It felt like the knight closed the gap in an instant, his steed moving at speeds far greater than it should be capable with all its heavy armour, and as it reached them faster than she could react, she felt the world slow down as she watched the black-clad knight swing deaths scythe towards her, But in that moment she felt a powerful wave of magic, followed by time stopping completely, and swore she had a vision of the blade entering her professors flesh as he leapt in front of the blade for her. She stumbled as the vision ended and she felt time continue like it never stopped. She watched as the professors new sword parried the lightning fast descending swing of the blade towards her, redirecting its path just barely away from her, saving her and disproving the vision she saw.
Ignoring that strange vision, she quickly recollected herself and fired a Miasma spell at the knight's steed, forcing him to retreat or risk losing the mount to the blast of dark magic. Not wasting a second, Byleth rushed forward to capitalise on his retreat swinging that strange glowing sword in a reverse grip vertical slash aiming for the Horses neck, attempting to negate the knights speed and height advantage. but before the blade could strike, the knights armoured gauntlet intercepted the blow, with barely a dent in the armour to show for it.
After the unsuccessful strike on the horse, Lysithea felt time slow and the accompanying wave of magic again, this time noting the purple haze that slightly obscured her vision as time slowed and stopped. She stared, incapable of movement as Byleth and the Knight were the only things that continued to move through her vision. She stared as Byleth went for another strike, this time aiming for the rider. but as the blade closed on the mysterious knights neck the knight caught the blade with one hand, and without hesitation swung the scythe at Byleths neck. Lysithea tried to scream as her professors head left his shoulders, but the frozen time wouldn't allow her to.
As her professors head flew from his shoulders the purple in her vision vanished, and as it disappeared, her professor and the knight re-appeared in the positions they were in as Byleths sword struck the knights gauntlet. But this time instead of going for an attack on the rider, Byleth spun and took a stance to block the scythe swinging for his neck from behind with his new sword, somehow aware the strike was coming. Lysithea watched in shock as instead of bracing for a block or parry, Byleth ducked under the strike as his sword split into segments and wrapped around the scythe, as it impacted the blade. Byleth then used his lower centre of gravity and properly braced stance and pulled, tearing the scythe out of the hands of the overextending knight who expected to remove his opponents head with one powerful strike. As the knights scythe flew from his hands and across the room, Byleth made another attempt to charge the knight but was forced to cancel his attack and evade when the knight raised his hand and fired a beam of electricity towards the the surprised professor.
The recognition of the Thoron spell snapped Lysithea out of her trance as she remembered that she had to help.
"The knight is fast." Lysthiea thought to herself
"So I'll slow him down!" she mentally shouted as she blasted her Swarm spell at the knight, immediately forcing him on the defensive, as the spells insect like projectiles relentlessly hunted him and his horse down. As the Swarm chased after the rider, Lysithea fired more Miasma blasts in an attempt to strike him down while he was distracted. Much to her frustration however the knight seemed to effortlessly evade all her attacks even with the swarm chasing him. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw Byleth prepare to swing his weapon from a large distance much to her confusion. it wasn't until Byleth went through with the strike that she understood. Her professors blade extended out of its sword shape like a whip and leapt towards the mounted knight at high speed. This proved to be too much for the knight, as the shining red whip like sword crashed into the knights stomach while he wasn't braced, forcefully removing him from his steed as the impact pushed him back several metres, landing on his back with a loud crash.
As the two quickly closed in on the knight to finish the job, they heard a laugh echoing from the knights helmet, causing them to pause. "That sword is... I see. What a pleasant surprise." his hollow voice echoed through the room, sounding almost distorted by a magical force. Just as the knight finished speaking, he was immediately consumed by a shining light, disappearing entirely. Right after he vanished, the shining light appeared again, this time consuming the horse and scythe, leaving no trace the knight was ever there to begin with.
"Teach! Lysithea! You ok?" They suddenly hear Claude call out as he rounds the corner. A look of relief spreads across his face.
"Thank whatever God listened. Marianne got hit while we were taking the right side and could really use some help." Claude called as he ran over to them.
Lysithea shook her head, trying to get the memories of her classmates pain out of her head. It did little to help however, as much like the last few times she tried to get rid of them, they just continued to play back through her mind. The part that kept drawing her attention however were those purple tinted 'visions' that she saw. What were they? What caused them? What do they mean? Were they meant for her? Or did she see them when she wasn't supposed too? They made her head spin, but she was not going to write this off. She saw those, they were real. And until she got an answer, she didn't plan to give up on figuring out what they were. her best standing theory was they had something to do with the sword the professor picked up. She didn't start seeing these visions until after he began using it, and now with proper time to observe the weapon, she realised it was a Hero's Relic, and those were powerful tools with all kinds of special abilities according to the many books she had read on the subject. She had to figure out what these visions were, and the first step would be to speak with her professor.
Little did she know how close that decision would get her to her professor.
The Bridge of Myrddin.
Of course at the time she uncovered nothing, made no breakthroughs in her attempt to figure out these visions. But after the Professor returned from Solon blasting him with that 'Forbidden spell' with his hair and eyes changing, that new power flowing off of him in waves, she became certain that the Sword of the Creator had nothing to do with her visions, That it was her Professor who caused her to see these things.
Coming back to the moment, Lysithea continued to look Byleth directly in the eye and gave her answer.
"No." Lysithea declared.
"I'm sorry?" he replies, surprised that she refused so bluntly. "You should be." She responds immediately.
"I'm not going to just stand back and let you destroy yourself in some childish attempt to raise moral." She finished, her earlier anger returning.
"How did-" Byleth began, before immediately being interrupted by Lysithea.
"Because this childish nonsense is exactly something you would do! It's just like how back in the academy days you would always pretend you were in control of every situation at all times, even though you definitely weren't!" She shouted, clearly frustrated.
"I wasn't pretendi-" Byleth began before being cut off again.
"Don't even try to lie to me." Lysithea hissed at him.
"I'm not stupid Professor, you were certainly not in control when the Death Knight took your head clean off in The Holy Mausoleum!" She ranted at him, angered even further by his attempt at lying.
Byleth suddenly looked confused.
"...Don't you mean almost took my head off?" Byleth questioned her. Lysithea froze, realising now what she had just said. She felt her mind split in two, arguing if she should tell the truth or play it off as a mistake. One look at her conflicted and stunned face was all Byleth needed to make the choice for her.
"Shut the door." Byleth ordered. Lysithea felt her face light on fire at the sudden demand as her gaze snapped to the floor.
"P-Professor- wh- what?" She stammered out.
"You know more than you should. This conversation is for our ears only." Byleth spoke in response.
"Oh. Right." Lysithea thought to herself.
"Of course he wasn't... Ugh. Idiot." Hiding her burning face by turning around and doing as he ordered. As she turned around after shutting the door, she kept her gaze trained on her feet, rather embarrassed by the assumption she made. She was snapped out of her staring at the floor by Byleth.
"Sit." He calmly spoke. Lysithea turned her vision up to see her Professor patting the space adjacent to him on his bed. Her vision snapped back at the ground as her blush came back in full force from her professor asking her to sit on his bed. Lysithea quickly collected herself to the best of her ability, and then moved to sit down next to her professor.
There was silence for a moment between the two as they both tried to figure out how to start the conversation.
"...At least let me heal your wound if i'm going to be next to it." Lysithea decided to begin with.
"...Very well." Byleth conceded, allowing her access to the wound as her hands begun to glow with white magic. As she started healing his wound, Byleth asked the question.
"What have you seen?" he asked.
"Honestly? Not a lot. I saw you get struck twice in the Holy Mausoleum, but that was the last time i witnessed the... visions." She replied truthfully. She continued.
"I Spent a lot of time trying to figure out what it was i saw, my first guess was the Sword of the Creator, but after what happened in the sealed forest i changed my mind, and decided it must have been you."
Byleth turned to look at the wall.
"You were close. It wasn't technically me however, it was Sothis." Lysithea raised an eyebrow.
"Like... The Goddess?" Lysithea asked. Byleth nodded.
"She has lived in my head since i was born. She granted me the ability to revert time in short increments a limited number of times." Byleth finished. Lysithea went silent, thinking about this revelation. it was almost certainly the truth, Her Professor clearly had some sort of connection to the Goddess after all the events that took place during her year at Garreg Mach. In addition it did line up with what she saw in the Mausoleum, with her professor being killed, rewinding time and then changing the events that took place with his foreknowledge. Lysithea focused on the wound she was healing
"If you can rewind time, why didn't you fix this when it happened?" She asked, confused as to why he wouldn't just go back to before the incident took place.
"Like i said, its usage is limited. I will not waste it on minor wounds like this when I might need them for my students." Byleth adamantly stated. The white haired girl looked at him in concern.
"Professor... If this wound was any closer to your shoulder, your arm would have likely suffered permanent damage. That is not a minor wound."
"I would happily throw my whole arm away if it meant you all come out of each battle unscathed." The former Professor spoke with conviction.
Lysitheas eyes widened as he said that, before they settled into a sadness as she realized the true meaning behind his words.
"How many times?" She asked him solemnly
"More than i could ever count. I've seen the people i love slaughtered in more ways than i could ever imagine." Byleth forced out, clearly troubled more than his expression let on.
"I see..." Lysithea whispered out. "Then... Jeralt?" She asked.
"I ran out." Was all he said in response. Lysithea froze.
"I-Im sorry professor, i shouldn't have asked that, it was insensitive of me." Lysithea quickly rushed out when it caught up with her exactly what she had just asked him.
"No. Its fine." He replied.
"If i'm being honest, it feels... comforting... knowing that someone else knows about her power." Byleth added. Lysithea nodded.
"I understand professor. I'll take on and share the burden of your experiences, like you did for me." Lysithea stated with conviction, staring into his eyes.
Lysithea quickly found herself lost in the green orbs that were his eyes. His eyes were the one true place you could be certain of his emotions. Where his body failed to express, his eyes more than made up for it. and right now they showed nothing but gratitude and... another emotion she cant recall seeing in his eyes before? As she continued to try and figure out this new emotion Byleth opened his mouth to speak.
"Uh, Lysithea? I think my wound is healed." Byelth said... awkwardly? Lysithea snapped out of her trance and glanced down to his shoulder blade, seeing his wound was indeed fully healed, with little more than a scar to tell it was there in the first place.
"Oh! I... Uh... Sorry? Lysithea apologised uncertainly. Byleth let out a rare smile in response.
"No, Thank you. I'm sorry i didn't come for help with it, its just... you all have enough on your shoulders as is with this war, and i don't want to put anymore burdens on you than i already have."
Lysithea was stunned.
"THAT'S why you haven't come to us for healing, or asked to do things with us like in the monastery?" Lysithea asked in surprise.
"Yes? I-I didn't want to bother any of you..." He half mumbled in reply. Lysithea laughed in response, a loud honest laugh the reverberated throughout the room.
"Goddess you're an idiot.." She said with a smile on her face before she suddenly found herself thrusting her lips forwards to meet his. Byleths eyes widened in shock as Lysithea kissed him. He just froze on the spot, uncertain of how to deal with this new... situation. Lysithea meanwhile, screamed at herself internally
"WHAT AM I DOING!? HE'S MY PROFESSOR!" one half of her screeched at her, while the other half argued
"Not anymore, you're both full adults capable of making you own decisions and OH MY GODDESS WE'RE KISSING HIM WHAT DO WE DO?!" Before she could freak out any further, they heard the sound of the door clicking open.
"Hey Teach, you coming or not? I sent Lysithea to get you... but..." Claude trailed off at the sight before him. Byleth shirtless, Lysithea with him, on his bed, kissing him. Lysithea jumped away from Byleth as Claude's voice cut through the kiss.
"Well what have I interrupted here?" Claude questioned as a large smile broke out across his face. Lysithea let loose a lethal glare in his direction.
"Claude Von Riegan, if you don't shut up and walk away right now, no one will find the body." The Almyran mans grin only widened in response. "
No problem, I'll just go let everyone know why you two are so late." He teased as he walked away from the door.
Whispers circled the army for days afterwards about a mysterious banshee like screech followed by several loud explosions, and what appeared to be Duke Riegan laughing uncontrollably as he sprinted as fast as he could.
Fin.
I wrote the thing. I just wrote words. I don't know if it makes sense or not.