Rhea always wished to see her mother again, It's been over a thousand years since the last time she saw her, since the last time she hugged her or heard her sing her lullaby. She wanted her mother back and after years of thinking a way to bring her back she had come with a plan, a really complicated one but It was the one with the most chance of success. Create a vessel for the soul, her spirit, she only needed a body to contain her heart, her crest. By accident, she stumbled with the perfect one, a human with her blood and the genes to contain her mother's soul, she happily obliged when the mother asked her to use the crestone to save the baby's life, putting it on his heart. Yes, with time this human will bring back her mother, just to be patient a few years and her mother's memories will flow back to this body. Soon she will have her mother back…
And the plan succeeded, she was now in front of her, her long green hair, her pointed ears, her green eyes, everything was the same as she remembered it. What she didn't expect was to see her angry, furious would be the word and neither that she was holding hands (how lewd) with what was supposed to be her vessel or her wearing the monastery's uniform.
"Seiros" said Sothis with a deadpan expression almost as the same expression her vessel used at any time of the day. She swears the professor jumped scared at the tone her mother used at her.
"M-Mother? Is that really you?" asked Rhea running to hug her long lost mother, finally she saw her again in flesh, finally she could go back to those peaceful days. Only to be stopped by her mother's hand.
"Not now Seiros, I missed you too but what you have done to this land, to our land, is unacceptable, seriously, for all that is good in this world, who taught you making a religion out of you and me will be a good idea? and killing people on MY NAME?, Did I raised you to be like that little girl?" asked Sothis, whose stature only match until Rhea's chest, If people saw it from the outside, It will look like a daughter chastising her mother.
"M-Mother, I did this so we could..."
"Nonsense Seiros, seriously, I know my death was wrong but making this whole system only to have me back? Do you know how many lives you have ruined for this? I mean just look at the children here, either they have trauma or an awful incident regarding the crests. And don't make me start with how you change the story behind Nemesis, I'm really disappointed Seiros, I taught you best, you know what really is our responsibility as dragons" interrupted her mother.
Rhea whimpered at her mother's scolding, only to start crying falling to her knees, covering her face with her hands. The vessel started to give her mother head pats which somehow appeared to calm her, her mother muttered a small thank you which he only nodded
"I'm really sorry mother, I just missed you and I couldn't live in a world without you, so I thought this was for the best and I..." she was interrupted by a hand on her hair, her mother face's change, a small smile on her face, she started to clean her tears. "I know Seiros, but you need to learn to let it go, you can't just do this every time someone of our family disappears, remember as I told you If we are not here…"
"May find you in the starts" finished Rhea remembering one night that when she asked her where would she go went she died.
"See? I will never leave dear daughter" she gave her a kiss on her forehead "Well enough of scolding, you young lady are grounded, you are not to leave your room until I said so, in the meantime think about what have you done and how to apologize to everyone in this land " said Sothis while crossing her arms
"But mother..."
"No buts lady to your room right now!" Sothis pointed to the door which caused her daughter to not finish her excuse in fear of more scolding.
"Oh and I know you are here Cichol, please guide your sister to her room and give her 'the talk'" behind the door appeared a flustered Seteth who awkwardly cough at being discovered.
"Yes mother, I would do it gladly" he seemed to hold a book with a purple cover, he motion Rhea to follow him whom at the hard look of her mother she followed without saying a word, most of the people there were either shocked or fainted by the sheer weirdness of the situation, they couldn't believe the archbishop's mother looked so young.
After her two children leave the room, she let out a breath she was holding, looking at the ground in deep thought.
"Do you think I did it right?" asked to the blue-haired man next to her
"It was for the best Sothis, you know Rhea, I mean Seiros, she needed that, what she did is wrong and is now our job to fix this" said Byleth with a deadpan look or what appeared a deadpan look but for Sothis, she saw a worried expression on his face
"Yeah I know, I just hoped I didn't go too far, she always been the most fragile of all" she felt a hand brush her hair
"It's ok, you are an excellent mother, besides I think she is happier than angry at you, It's been what? over a thousand years since she saw you? " asked Byleth with a small smile on his face
"Almost" she chuckled "The only good thing about this mess It's I could meet you By, I know our souls are linked but I feel we were meant to be like this was meant to be" she met his smile only to feel a kiss on her forehead
"Even if I'm least that a child" he smirked
"Especially since you are less than a child, I adore the way you are my childish demon" she chuckled
"You promised you wouldn't call me that again" he made what could be close to a pout
"Oh come on, It's adorable and you are adorable" she quickly gave him a kiss on his cheek "Come, we need to fix the mess our daughter caused, and then beat the shit out of those edgy boys with the long name"
"Language Sothis, seriously I need to stop my father teaching you swears" he rolled his eyes
"Oh but your dad is fun to talk to, I love when he shares your silly childhood stories when I was still sleeping" she whined
"So you could use it as weapons against me?" he crossed his arms
"Exactly" she chirped
"You are impossible" he shook his head "Do you think Seiros will accept us?" asked her while walking away from the room "I mean our family tree It's kind of confusing"
"I told you don't worry about that, there are even weirder family trees on other lands, besides she will have to, no way I giving up on you By, we have been together since always I want to maintain that"
"Yeah just I hope this time you can talk with me always, It's no fun If I don't have someone to scold me by the minute" he joked
"I am not that bad" she punched him lightly on his sides which caused him to chuckle again, they joked at each other until they reached their destination.
"How long have you known this Seteth?" asked Rhea now sitting on her bed with a confused look on her face
"About a month ago" he said while serving tea to her "They approached me and told me the truth. Of course, I didn't believe it at first, but after mother telling me my embarrassing secrets to my ears I believed them, they made me promise to not tell anyone about this"
"How did I not notice?" asked Rhea to herself while looking at her recently served tea
"To put it bluntly you never come out of the second floor or your room, and you were so obsessed with the idea of bringing mother back that you didn't notice her in front of you" he took a sip of his tea, It was cold, according to Rhea's preferences.
"Oh..." she couldn't argue with the true "Did you notice they were holding hands (how indecent) while they were talking to me? Do you think?"
"They are soon to be married Rhea" immediately Rhea spilled her tea in Seteth's face
"WHAT?" asked Rhea dumbfounded
"Yeah, I did the same thing when they told me the first time…" He remembered blacking out as soon as he saw them holding hands (how lewd), he coughed "It looks like they been in a relationship for years and they are sure they want to marry" he took another sip of his tea with drops of tea falling from his face.
"But he was supposed to be HER, he was just a vessel, he was supposed to disappear, not marrying her" she again spilled her tea on Seteth's face who continue to drink his tea as nothing was happening.
"The thing with the vessels is they never do what they were supposed to be, you will be amazed how many times these things happen" he started to eat a pastry
"What do you mean Cichol?" asked Rhea scared
"Mother told to give you this book, I helped me to understand their situation"
She took the book Seteth's was holding for her and read the cover "A family member felt in love with the vessel of a dragon god by Dr. Robin Grima? now with time travel? how did you get this" the book had a really specific title, and how did a doctor know about this?
"Mother gave to me, she said It was given from a friend of hers, I just took it, you know how confusing is when mother use her space and time magic just for giggles" he finished his pastry and took another sip of his tea "Please avoid to read the first chapter"
"My daughter of the future fell in love with my best friend?" too late, Seteth could feel the headache coming, Seiros was devouring the pages now, great, he was hoping to avoid that chapter especially for the chapter 12, It only made him hate how time travel and alternative realities come to life when someone messed with time travel.
"Does this mean I have to call him father? Is he fucking mother?" asked Rhea finishing the first chapter, scared at the thought of her tool being her new dad.
"I don't know but I hope you could bond with him, he's a nice guy and a great fisherman, yesterday he caught a huge fish and cooked it for Cethlean and me with mother, It was delicious" he smiled at her "They are planning to talk with Macuil and Indech, probably we will have to open more rooms soon. All the family will be together again" still tea dropping from his face
"But he is the son of one of my dolls, and her father has my blood, does that make me his grandmother too?" oh gods what she had done? she was starting to feel the headache coming, and started to regret bringing her mother back.
This time It was Seteth's turn to spill his tea over Rhea "You what?"
Oh the explaining she had to do
All the students were reunited near the greenhouse, just below the stairs near the fishing pond, for some reason they were called there, Edelgard, Dimitri and Claude were next to each other as the professor's instruction. Uneasiness could be felt around, this only happened when something serious was occurring in the monastery
"Hello my little ones, how are you today?" at the top of the stairs shouted Sothis who was known as Zofia by the students, they immediately move their heads to see her, Sothis was known to be an excellent teacher for magic in any form and somehow for singing and dancing too. She could always be found helping the chorus or sharing tea with one of the students (same as Byleth). At the beginning they couldn't believe she were older than them, even funny when she called them little ones, no one really took her seriously, except when she was with Byleth. It was after seeing her burning three bandits with just a simple fire spell that she gained their respect and fear, It only increased when she shared her wisdom when a student approached her with their problems, the mature aura she emanates when giving an advise wasn't something one could reproduce. With time they grew to like her as they liked Byleth.
"I know you are worried about why we called you here" while she was speaking Byleth appeared at her side with the same expression as always, there were rumors of both new teachers having a secret relationship together due to the closeness they had (always being together on their free time) but nothing was confirmed "Don't worry Caspar you didn't do anything wrong this time" a loud 'yeah!' could be heard from the crown 'And no Annette no one knows you were the one who burned the water yesterday… ops, sorry" a groan could be heard from the crowd "You are here to know the truth, a truth that was being hidden for so long and most of you had suffered from that" she paused looking sad at the ground, she felt a hand on her shoulder, she knew these students well, as well as him, It pained her to see them suffer again and again, loop after loop " The truth is that I'm not Zofia, the truth is…" she started to float a white light illuminate her body, her clothes immediately changed to her older ones, the ones with Byleth first met her "I'm Sothis, the supposed goddess of this land, also known as 'The beginning', the story you had known about this land has been a lie"
Some people of the crowd were either froze by the shock or fainted (only Ignatz really, he was easy to impress). The shock only increased after listening the true story of the land, how Nemesis was not a hero but a tool used by the Agarthans to kill her and her tribe, how the relics where parts of dead members of her tribe, how Rhea (Seiros) lied to ensure peace in Fodlan while she thought in way to bring Sothis back, how the true villains behind all this were people who could take the face of dead people. Edelgard was judging all the new information, Dimitri was in disgust by the truth and Claude, Claude was wondering what will he have for dinner today…
"So in conclusion, we will remove the current crest system, try to unified Fodlan in one country and educate our people to be more open with everyone" a hand was raised from the crowd " and before you ask, no we will not start a war for that, the only war we will start is going to be against the edgy boys who started all this mess, and yes, Rhea is not a full monster as some of you think, looking at you Edelgard!" the hand soon was down only for an awkward cough to follow "And Hubert I confiscated your secret cloth for vengeance so don't think about it" another awkward cough was heard from the crowd followed by another awkward silence "So the goddess herself has been teaching her for months?" asked Lindhardt
"Yes, that's why I knew a lot about the crest" She had helped Lysithea with her 'secret' as soon she gained her trust, being a goddess had a lot of perks, one of them was she could manipulate crest at will. Another hand was raised from the crowd
"Yes Sylvain?" asked Sothis
"Are you free today?" It was followed by a smack on his head by Ingrid
"Oh I forgot it" she immediately took Byleth by the shoulders to face her (she was still floating) and kissed him passionately, leaving the inexpressive Byleth dumbfounded "Does that answer your question?" only to meet a lot of groans and happy cries from the students.
"I knew it" said Claude "come everyone pay up, you know the rules" all the students slowly gave their money to Claude who started to share it with some others. The students seemed to care more about If she and her boyfriend were dating than the dark truth of this land.
"So that means Professor Byleth is dating THE goddess? " asked Caspar
"Not only that she is the archbishop mother as well" noted Lindhart
"Not only dating, but we are also soon to be married" said Sothis showing a ring on her finger, a lot of females groans could be heard from the ground 'stay away from my man' thought Sothis.
"Please teach me master, I will do anything" immediately Sylvain and Lorenz appear in front of them, no one noticed when they arrived, they were on their knees pleading Byleth to teach them how did he make the goddess fall in love of him, only to be interrupted by Felix, Ingrid and Leonie who dragged them again into the crowd.
Both Byleth and Sothis took their time to clear any doubts about their story, leaving the students at ease, after two hours she dismissed all students except for the house leaders.
"How do you feel my little ones?" asked Sothis with a worried expression, of all the students she was worried more for the little future rulers of this land
"It's a lot to take Ms. Zofia, I mean lady Sothis" said Dimitri
"Just Sothis, we have known each other for months Dima" said Sothis with a smile which Dimitri smiled at it too
"Uh I'm sorry for the prank I pulled you last week Sothis" said Claude with a wink
"Oh don't worry Claude, I know you didn't mean any harm but don't be scared If a 'divine punishment' falls in you for sticking glue on my hair" said with a blank smile which only caused the deer leader to gulp. Finally, there was Edelgard who still looked troubled about this situation
"Are you fine El?" asked Byleth, as Sothis he was more worried about Edelgard out of the three lords, after all, she was the catalyst for the war to happen.
"Guys could you give us some time alone, I need to discuss something with Edelgard, I will talk with each of you personally with Byleth later" said Sothis both boys gave a pad on the shoulder to Edelgard and gave their goodnight to their professors
"It's okay El come now" said Sothis extending her arms to the future emperor who immediately hugged the goddess and Byleth, no, her teachers. Both gained her trust during this months, they soothed her when she had nightmares, they listened to their past, they were happy at her achievement at the academy, they knew everything about her, It could a secondary effect of the crest but she felt as they were family to her, a family she thought she had lost a long time ago, especially Sothis, who was like the mother she never had, always pampering her when she could.
"Do you promise me you would put an end to this?" asked Edelgard whimpering a little
"El you don't have to walk that lonesome path anymore, we promise, leave it to us, no one has to suffer for this anymore" said Byleth hugging the Edelgard
"Can I have free time? Can I enjoy my hobbies without the weight of responsibility? Will the nightmare leave alone forever?" she could feel a soft hand brushing her hair
"They will, and If they come back we will there for you. You can be a young girl again my little one, you've earned it, those idiots will pay for messing with any my students" said Sothis puffing her chest, flickering a little flame between her fingers.
"I can't thank you enough Sothis, Byleth, I, this months have been so different and I don't want it to end" she was really at peace for once, knowing she was no longer alone, no longer had to kept the weight of the world on her shoulders.
"Don't worry dear, this will never end, we promised" she rubbed her thumb on Edelgard face, the future emperor caught the hand to feel it closer while smiling.
"Come on El, you have to go to bed, you have classes tomorrow" said Byleth squishing her shoulder "I don't want to see you sleeping in class like Lindhart"
"And remember to brush your teeth young lady" said Sothis "morning breath is horrible, boys and girls won't like you for that" scolded the girl
"Yes mother, yes father" she rolled her eyes only to froze at her words "I mean yes Sothis, Byleth, I mean... " she started to blush like a tomato and started to run to her room screaming "I'm sorry" for a moment she looked like Bernadetta.
The couple was dumbfounded by the event only to start laughing loudly
"Well we certainly act like their parents, It's not rare for them to think of us as it" said Sothis wiping the tear from her eyes.
"Yeah, It's incredible how fond of you they are, It's always been me, so is relaxing sharing the responsibility with someone else" said Byleth with a smile
"Oh shush you, you like it anyways, remember all the balls where there was literally a line of students to dance with you?"
"Well with that little stunt of yours I hope I don't have to dance a lot this time" he said with a smirk
"Oh I was marking MY territory, I wished to do that since the first time, you know how those students basically eat you with their eyes? besides handsome man, you will dance only with me all night, goddess orders" she while poking his nose
"You know I was also a goddess right? you can't pull that card against me" he poked her nose too
"You are no fun By, at least you are handsome so I won't punish you" said the goddess while crossing her arms. For his part, he hugged her not before kissing her on the cheek. "Do you think we are doing the right thing?" he asked
"You know we have tried everything By, no matter our decision someone dies, now that we found a way for me to have a physical body we can change this, we have to at least try, they deserve better, you know that" said Sothis while playing with his hair.
"I know, It's just tiring seeing them die, again and again, I hope this time we can make it" he broke apart the hug
"Oh come on, you can't be pessimistic now, remember all of this is for our golden route, our happy end, we will achieve it together dear, whatever it takes"
"Yeah" he said still lost in thoughts
"Love, please smile for me, I don't like when you look down. That reminds me, did you know Seteth change our bed? now we can sleep together without me disappearing on your mind?"
"Yeah so?"
"I was wondering what could happen If Rhea had another sister" said Sothis smiling slyly to him
"She would freak out but why… oh OH" he immediately caught what she meant
"Come, dear, we still have all the night for us" she went flying to their room
"I fucking love this route" he said while running to their room
The next morning Rhea visited her mother's room only to be traumatized for her long life. Her worst fears came to life that day.