"My scouts ran into another one of Cornelia's squads." Shamir's face and voice were carefully neutral. "No casualties but they managed to poison the well and the surrounding forest was largely destroyed. Magical fire. It had to be."

Byleth nodded even as a frisson of anxiety passed through her. Jeralt had always handled logistics for the Blade Breakers but even she knew how critical potable water and timber were for sieges. Her gaze turned to Edelgard. She looked like death. A decent woman would have sent her back to Garreg Mach to heal in peace but necessity was the mother of cruelty. "How long will our supplies hold?"

Edelgard leafed through a stack of parchment. "Assuming Claude's soldiers are similarly supplied? A month. More with strict rationing."

It would take three days to march their forces to Fhirdiad. Even in the best case, they would have only a month to break the capital. A simple siege might have been enough if Cornelia were an ordinary ruler, but she would have little compunction in starving the civilians to make sure her army ate. "Then our first priority is finding another well or other source of water and our second is building siege weapons. We must break the walls of Fhirdiad." Thank Sothis that Claude was arriving today with the rest of the army. "Our entire reconnaissance corps is under your command to find water and timber."

"On it." Shamir nodded and turned away. "If you had hurried to the capital we wouldn't be in this mess. Catherine, why did I let you talk me into following these kids?"

Byleth exhaled. Shamir was right. She knew she was right. It would have been faster to cut off the serpent's head and go straight for Fhirdiad. It would have left her flanks exposed, but it would have been faster. And in the end, they had faced no ambushes, only this endless tide of scorched-earth tactics. She cast her eyes to heaven. "Please, tell me I made the right decision."

A warm, gloved hand found hers, as Edelgard threaded their fingers together. Byleth relaxed slightly. The air around them had shifted since Edelgard had returned from Holywell. It wasn't so much that Edelgard had felt remorse as that the sight of her so broken had broken Byleth in turn, Broken her enough to divulge the past she had only ever shared with Claude and then only because she had blurted it out. She had given Edelgard the power to unmask her as a fraud, but Edelgard hadn't. Byleth had been forced again and again to trust her, but the woman who had once ambushed her in the Holy Tomb had been nothing but supportive. Byleth didn't know what to do with that loyalty, but for the moment she could bask in the newfound warmth.

They stayed like that a long while until Byleth pulled her hand back. "Looks like we've had our last baths for a while."

Edelgard laughed a little. "I've endured worse. Claude will be here soon. If anyone can conjure supplies from the air, it's the Master Tactician."

"Maybe he can conjure a way into Fhirdiad while he's at it." Byleth frowned. She had no choice but to believe in miracles, but she wished she could perform them a will like the goddess they thought she was instead of a few parlor tricks with time that could never undo her mistakes when they really mattered. Only once had she felt like the Chosen of the Goddess or Enlightened One or whatever she was supposed to be.

Sothis' voice played across her mind. "I hear the wish of your heart as if it were my own. You wish to return and save the little ones. And now I give you the power to grant the wish of your heart. Use it well. She had cut through the boundaries of space and time as if they were nothing and healed from a fall that should have been fatal. Her wish to remain beside her beloved students had been granted, but it no longer felt like enough. She wanted a way to spare them from this war, to ensure that none of them would be lost. She wanted to kill what remained of the Demon within.

And she wanted Edelgard. The thought was like the shock she got from touching metal. Byleth wanted to hold Edelgard again when her world wasn't falling apart. To walk with her on the monastery grounds and feel her head on her shoulder. She had had those chaste, almost childish romantic fantasies when she had been a professor, but she had buried them in the Holy Tomb when the Flame Emperor's mask came off. But if she could trust Edelgard, then those fantasies need not remain dead.

Edelgard looked at her questioningly. "Byleth, are you all right?"

I must be losing my mind. I don't need this right now. "I'm fine," she squeaked out. They were embarking on what was sure to be a brutal siege and she was woolgathering over an old infatuation. She trusted Edelgard. Good. Byleth had wanted to restore her to the better part of her nature. That didn't mean that Edelgard was interested in romance or that such a thing would be a good idea. And they were in the middle of a bloody war. "I want you there for the strategy meeting. There's probably no one alive who's spent more time contemplating the conquest of Fhirdiad."

"You're probably right," Edelgard murmured. She inhaled and squared her shoulders, and when she spoke again her voice had a harder edge. The Emperor's voice. "It will be grim, whatever our strategy. Fhirdiad has been starved into submission before, but the walls have never been breached. There was a reason I thought Cornelia's coup was the simpler path. But I'll give you any insight that I can."

It was late afternoon when the first green and gold banners appeared over the horizon. Byleth and Edelgard stood at the edge of camp ready to welcome Claude. Byleth's heart was no more settled. She was sharply aware of Edelgard standing next to her and how she only needed to turn a bit to touch her. It was better than thinking about water or the war. Maybe that was it. She needed a distraction, so her mind had returned to the thing that had distracted her most five years ago.

Claude's smile was as bright as ever, even if it didn't reach his eyes. His grip, too, was firm as he shook her hand. "Long time no see, Teach." His gaze took in Edelgard. "And your adjutant is looking lovely as ever. Hello, Edelgard. I hope you haven't turned into an icicle." He took Edelgard's hand and kissed it, and Byleth fell a stab of something that she preferred not to think about.

Edelgard rolled her eyes. "I see you managed to keep the Alliance armies intact."

They looked back at the mass of humanity. It was true. The army before her seemed roughly the size of the one that had left Garreg Mach. "Not without some complications courtesy of Cornelia, but the Golden Deer are reporting for duty. We can discuss the rest somewhere warmer."

Byleth led them back to her tent and did her best to ignore the odd looks Claude gave her. She unrolled a map of Fhirdiad and the three of them crowded around the table. "I don't suppose you brought water or timber?"

Claude shook his head. "I was going to ask you the same question. Cornelia's troops are doing everything they can to deny us supplies and destroying Faerghus in the process." He gave a brief account of his campaign and the destruction and dark magic that was virtually identical to what Byleth had seen. She told him of the battles that had happened in his absence, doing her best to omit anything Edelgard might find too personal to be shared.

"So rationing and breaking through the walls are our only hope," Byleth said. "You both have more experience with siegecraft than I do. Any advice?"

"Fhirdiad is too large for us to encircle it." Edelgard traced the lines of the city walls on the map before landing on the northwest corner. "The strongest defense will be here at the Gray Tower. Whoever controls it can control the city with only a handful of men. You'll have to destroy the curtain wall before you can assault the main walls." She pointed to a stretch of wall to the south. "This is another possible entry point. It has the advantage of only being surrounded by a drive moat as well as mountainous terrain where we can take cover, but that terrain can just as easily be used against us, and Cornelia will have more troops stationed there because it does seem easier at first glance to take that position."

"Is there any possibility of sneaking someone inside the city, maybe opening the gates for us? Lysithea and Edelgard's teleportation magic has to be good for something."

Edelgard raised an eyebrow. "Yes, we can grab one other person each and magic ourselves inside the city and promptly get ourselves hacked to pieces trying to storm the gatehouse."

"Not a big fan of teleportation sickness, hm?" Claude asked. "As long as you're being so cheery, what sort of Agarthan technology or magic can we expect?"

"On the walls? Little you haven't already seen. Perhaps fire impervious to water. But Cornelia's resistance will not collapse when we make an opening. She commands golems impervious to all but the most powerful magic, and will doubtless use them to block our path to the palace. Within the palace...well, she is a mage of considerable skill, but what you'll need to watch out for are strange devices that can shoot lightning wherever she pleases. I don't know how it works, but Thales was irate when I asked them to install such devices in the palace at Enbarr."

"Well, I'll be thankful that you couldn't hit us with lightning on top of everything else," Claude said with another false smile. "As far as entering the city, we'll divide our forces again and hit both points at once."

Byleth's heart sank. She had become so accustomed to Claude coming up with a brilliant scheme, that she had almost believed that he could make things less bloody. A two-pronged assault would divide Cornelia's forces, but it would divide theirs as well. Two armies that would be feeling the effects of thirst holding two sets of siege weapons. "That's it?"

"Cornelia will think so." The smile reached his eyes. "The Almyrans had been looking for a way to destroy Fódlan's Locket for years and w—they may have found one. It's possible to build a siege tower that can be broken into multiple pieces and moved. If we build one along the south wall and mass our forces there, Cornelia will assume that's our point of attack. But if we moved the siege weapons and half the army under the cover of darkness, we can surprise her and give ourselves a chance."

"It could work. Those on the mountain will sustain heavy casualties." Edelgard bowed her head and closed her eyes. "I volunteer."

"No!" Byleth said loudly enough to make Claude and Edelgard look up. A twinge of embarrassment settled over Byleth, and she took a breath to steady herself. Her feelings for Edelgard were confusing and foolish, but in all these months one thing had never wavered. She wanted Edelgard to live. "I mean, you are my adjutant. You don't need to throw your life away."

"But you're asking your soldiers to throw theirs away. My life is not more valuable. I am your sword to..." A shadow passed across her face as some memory overtook her. "...to cut a bloody path."

"And her combat skills will help us most where the fighting is thickest. That's what the bearers of the Crest of Flames are according to legend, right?" Claude asked. "The ones who take on the worst fights and then win anyway? I'm all for her using those legendary powers to destroy Cornelia in a fit of irony."

They were right. Byleth hated it. "One of these days, I'll be ordering you to go to a party instead of to slaughter."

Claude smiled."A party isn't a terrible idea."

Edelgard raised an eyebrow. "We're rationing water and don't have any wine or ale, and you want to throw a party?"

"The core of a good party is music and people unwinding. You don't need alcohol for that. It'll be good for morale. Especially your morale. You look like you've had to take on the Agarthans all by yourselves. "

Byleth throw up her hands. "Fine. I'll have a party announced alongside the rationing scheme. In the meantime, Edelgard, if you could double check the quartermasters' reports?" If only she could limit those she cared about to mundane paperwork.

She and Claude left and found themselves by some silent consensus, walking past the edge of camp to the vast expanse beyond. They stood at the very edge of Tailtean, forests still visible behind them and Fhirdiad still by the horizon. Claude was drinking in the sight, but he had always been passionate about history. All Byleth could see was how easily the open plain could become another Gronder.

"So," Claude said after a long time, "what really happened between you and Edelgard while I was gone?"

"Pardon?"

"When we left the monastery, you were half-convinced she would turn on you if you let her out of your sight. Now you two are comfortable with each other. The way she leans in when she talks to you, how close you walk together. It's almost as if…" His eyes went comically wide and he put his hand over his heart in mock distress. "You finally kissed the princess, didn't you? Teach, you sly dog!"

Byleth's face and ears burned. "I, no, it's not like that."

"I was teasing." His eyes softened, and he put a hand on her shoulder. "But you with to be like that, don't you? More than you did already?"

Claude's true skill had always been in reading people, and most of the time Byleth was glad to have someone who could explain and smooth out social interaction, but just now she wished that she was still opaque to him. "I trust her, yes. She was stabbed for me. Anything else is not my story to tell." She sighed. "As for the other thing, well, it really doesn't matter. There's a war on and you want me to be Queen of Fódlan. I might as well wish for the moon."

Claude didn't answer out loud but unstrapped Failnaught from his back and handed it to her. The Crest Stone didn't glow, but the Crest of Riegan's half-moon was plain to see. "I'd like you to be happy. You deserve to be, whatever you think of your past. If happy means Edelgard, well I'm the last person who should criticize a politicallyunwise romance." He exhaled and when he spoke again, he seemed suddenly older and more tired, his easy charm gone. "Do you ever wonder why I don't want to rule Fódlan?"

"You would be better at it." Byleth leaned in. Even after all these years, some of what she knew about Claude was pieced together from asides and observations that didn't quite fit. "Because you don't think people will accept a half-Almyran? It seems silly. If I were a peasant, I'd much rather be ruled by Duke Riegan than a mercenary who doesn't know what she's doing."

"I'm not just Almyran. I'm the only son of the King of Almyra. That doesn't mean quite the same thing that it does here, but I have to be considered a likely candidate to succeed my father. He and my mother were absolutely smitten with each other, and it didn't matter what kind of diplomatic incidents it caused or that they were supposed to be enemies. So, here I am, the product of love over logic. The child of two worlds who seems to be the only one who can see how much better the future would be for his people if they had a king who could show them a life beyond raiding." He chuckled. "I've never told anyone about this before. You truly do have a rare gift."

Byleth stared. Claude was a prince. It shouldn't shock her as much as it did. Being the son of an enemy king wasn't much different from being the son of an enemy soldier. But it was another puzzle piece. "You're going to be king?"

"Please don't be weird about this. I'm the same Claude. Honest." He shifted, embarrassed. "But my point is that, if you trust Edelgard even knowing what you know, don't let fear hold you back."

"You don't mind?"

"It's another thread that can bind her to us." His face changed and suddenly the man who had a joke for every occasion was looking at her with such softness that a lump settled over Byleth's still heart. "I meant what I said that you deserve to be happy. And if she hurts you, I'll poison her."

"Thank you." She was still terribly afraid, and it was still a foolish idea for many reasons, but it was nice to be supported. "I'll need your help setting up this party."

Two days later, music rang through the camp. It wasn't good music, if looks on Ferdinand and Lorenz's faces were any guide, but men and women from Leicester, Faerghus, and Adrestia laughed and clapped along. Byleth sat among them in her mercenary leathers and with her hood up to both to keep out the cold out and hide the hair that marked her as touched by Sothis. The Blade Breakers had loved their carousing, but Byleth had never felt the need to join in. She still didn't understand why what she was fairly certain were dirty jokes were funny, but it was nice to just sit here and be one of the men.

Claude slid into the space beside her. "All these people from every corner of Fódlan not just working together but being friendly." He smiled as a Bergliez man at arms slapped a Daphnel archer on the back. "Even the people who just fought a war! I've dreamed of a day like this for years, and even I almost don't believe it. It's all thanks to you, my friend."

Byleth demurred. "I'm just a figurehead. It's the people who have to do the hard work of forgiving in getting to know each other."

"There you go again with your modesty. We've got to get you thinking like an emperor. What are you going to do when the war's over? What's your dream for Fódlan?"

"The first thing I'm going to do is sleep for a week." She bowed her head. When the war was over, she would be Emperor or Queen or whatever title it was over a united Fódlan. Wanting anything at all beyond the necessities of life was still a novelty, but a ruler should have a vision. "I want what you do: the walls torn down and for people like Cyril and Dedue to not be accused of kidnapping because of where they come from." But it was more than that. She had seen Count Galatea's letters to Ingrid reminding her that her duty was to marry so she could save the family and heard how Ashe was saved from poverty by sheer dumb luck. "I want a world where people can thrive no matter who their parents are or whether they have a Crest or not. An Officer's Academy that's open to everyone regardless of whether they can pay. Maybe one that teaches things besides military arts. I want the people who are in charge to actually care about the people and know what they're doing as hypocritical as that is."

She glanced to where Leonie was explaining something to Seteth and Flayn, miming reeling in a fishing rod as she did.. "I want to keep all of you safe, and make sure another war like this never happens again."

"I think we all want that," said Edelgard softly.

Byleth turned. Edelgard stood a little away, hugging herself against the cold. She looked sad and tired as she watched the revelry. Byleth squeezed closer to Claude and patted the newly open space. "Join us."

Edelgard's eyes widened. "I didn't mean for you to hear that. Enjoy your revelry, Your Majest.y Duke Riegan."

"But we did hear it," Claude said with a grin. "And you worked as hard as anyone, if those dark circles under your eyes are any indication."

She looked down. "I don't have think that's a good idea."

Byleth winced. Edelgard deserved better than pain and isolation. "Then may I join you?"

She disentangled herself from Claude and walked to Edelgard, who looked at her oddly. Still, she let Byleth lead her to another log, beyond the main crush of people, as Claude walked behind. Soldiers stared as they passed, and some of the Kingdom men looked as if they wanted to sink a dagger into Edelgard's chest. Byleth didn't look at them. Let the world stare. She sat down at one end, but Claude took the other with a smile, forcing Edelgard to sit between them and press her softness into Byleth's side.

Byleth was going to strangle him once the war was over.

"This is nice," he said as if ge didn't notice how much Byleth was blushing. "I feel like we should stick some Duscur Bear on a skewer, roast it over a fire, and maybe tell ghost stories."

"I always preferred talking about the living over the dead. Ghosts plague us enough as it is. I couldn't help but overhear your conversation. Your plans for the future sound worthy, and a little more detailed than the last we spoke of such matters."

Byleth's flush deepened. To be praised by someone who knew what she was doing and gave praise so sparingly warmed her heart. "Thank you. Something good should come from all this bloodshed." She fumbled for her next words. "If you don't mind my asking, what would you have done if you won? Besides dismantle the church in the nobility, I mean?"

Edelgard started, and for a moment Byleth thought she wasn't going to answer. "That itself would have been the work of almost a lifetime. But I would have destroyed Agartha root and branch as soon as I was able. Broken up the old estates and created a civil service dependent on examination. I would have freed Brigid of its vassal status. If any time remained to me and I hadn't found a worthy successor, I would have turned my gaze abroad. Other nations aren't so beholden to backward ideals. We should at least try to be friends with them."

Byleth looked at Claude, who was staring slack-jawed at Edelgard. Then he smiled. "Our ideals really aren't so different after all.."

"No, I suppose they aren't. Perhaps we would have made fine allies if...well if wishes were pegasuses.,

"We should have gotten married. Though on second thought, could you imagine how devious our kids would be? They'd be learning how to poison people before they could walk." Edelgard glared at him and he threw up his hands in mock contrition. "All right, all right. No political union for us. But imagine marrying Teach. The former and current emperor united in affairs of state as well as affairs of the heart. Every romantic from here to Enbarr would love it."

If Byleth could have disappeared into the ground, she would have. Strangling was far, far too good for Claude. Edelgard went stiff beside her, her face a brilliant scarlet. Byleth's mind turned traitor and imagined a world where her feelings were returned, they survived the war, and she could stand beside Edelgard openly and without fear. Her fantasies conjured romantic outings pulled from novels in the library. Silly things like standing by the pond and watching the sunset as Edelgard rested her head on her shoulder. She imagined her lips, soft and slightly cold, pressing against Byleth's own. Byleth had never kissed anyone before, had never wanted to. But she would be willing to learn how. They could be...partners. Not the ruler and her formal consort but still united, making policy before retiring to a private world.

She was too old for such foolishness. But I've never been foolish before.

The sight of Shamir making her way towards the was enough to spare Byleth further embarrassment. "Byleth, Claude, Edelgard. My scouts and I found a forest with the timber you need, but there's a problem. Demonic Beasts, two of them that I saw. They looked like they had been there a while. Maybe feral or escapees. Hardly the biggest I've ever seen, but they need to be cleared out before you start cutting down trees."

Byleth nodded. It probably said something about her that monster hunting seemed almost quaint these days. "We'll get right on it. How do you two feel about some adventure in the morning?"

As it turned out, they weren't the only ones up for said adventure. The next morning Lysithea, Flayn, and Seteth stood beside them in the cold. Seteth walked between Edelgard and Flayn and kept glancing back as if he expected the Flame Emperor to steal his daughter back to the underground chamber. For her part, Edelgard did her best not to look at them at all. Byleth couldn't fault them for distrust—as remorseful as Edelgard had been, she had abetted the kidnapping that gave Flayn nightmares to this day—but she wished she could break down the walls all the same.

A soft snap made her go still. The others heard it too and dropped into defensive stances and readied bows and magic. It was the only warning they received before the first Demonic Beast charged into the clearing. Its gray armorlike skin and slavering jaws reminded Byleth of the one that had tried to trap her in Zanado so long ago. An identical one was on its heels. Byleth drew steel. "Edelgard, Seteth, with me! Flayn, Lysithea, get those barriers down! Claude, suppressing fire!"

The three of them charged into the fray. The first beast roared and opened its maw to spew forth a purple filth that sailed harmlessly over Byleth's head before burning the bark from a pine. She circled around to the left as the beast eyed her hungrily. Its body shimmered with magical power and a slightly cracked Crest Stone glowed in its forehead. Byleth summoned the power of the Crest of Flames and nodded to Seteth and Edelgard at the Beasts rear. They seemed to glow with the power of their own Crests as they brought their weapons to bear. Byleth dashed forward and slashed at the Beast's face. The barrier flickered. Edelgard leapt into the air and plunged her silver axe toward the thing's back. The barrier flickered once more and Edelgard pushed past it, drawing black blood before the magic sent her reeling backwards. Seteth used the distraction to strike once, twice, with the ancient spear they had recovered from the shrine to Saint Chichol. It glowed white with holy power and Byleth had barely enough time to wonder why it seemed so different from the cursed Relics before the Beast roared a final time and fell.

Edelgard nodded once. "Thank you."

Seteth made a noncommittal noise. "That was both daring and foolhardy of you. I hope the abomination finds peace now."

"Not to interrupt the touching moment," Claude called over the din, "but the rest of us are trying to deal with its angry brother."

The second Beast was covered in black blood, half-dead but all the more enraged for that. It snapped at Lysithea waving its head wildly and ruining any chance Claude had to line up a shot. Time, they just needed time. Byleth let out a cry of her own and leapt to stab the beast in the neck. The magical barrier blunted what should have been a fatal blow into a gash, but it was enough as the Beast rounded on her and turned its back on the three ranged fighters. Magical energy that shone like moonlight engulfed Lysithea's hands before shooting outward. For a moment, the creature was covered in silver and then there was nothing at all.

They took a few moments to catch their breath. None of them had been injured, Byleth noted with relief, though Lysithea seemed a bit winded. Black goo oozed where the Beasts had been. Their husks withered away until only corpses and Crest Stones remained. The victims were young, about Lysithea's age if Byleth had to guess, slightly thinner than healthy and otherwise utterly unremarkable. Flayn knelt over one. "Rest well, now. Oh, I should never grow accustomed to such horror. Brother, might we at least bury these poor souls?"

Seteth opened his mouth to answer, but Edelgard spoke first. "We don't have time. Anything could be lurking in the forest."

Flayn's eyes darkened, and she seemed suddenly far older than her years. "You wanted to defile the bones of my ancestors, and you stole Crest Stones to create these monsters. You are the last person I should listen to regarding respect for the dead."

Edelgard hunched her shoulders, but said nothing. "Grab some stones and build a cairn," Byleth said. "Edelgard and I will keep watch."

The rest of them and Seteth's magic magic made short work of the burial rites, and Byleth contented herself with watching Edelgard, who never spoke and whose face was devoid of emotion, even as her shoulders remained hunched. Byleth patted her shoulder. Edelgard didn't look at her. "She's right," she said in the same flat voice. "I never saw much point in honoring the dead.I have no power to retrieve the Crest Stones I took or to restore the condemned I ordered implanted with them."

"No, I suppose you don't. She was suddenly very conscious of the weight of the Sword of the Creator at her side. For a moment, she thought of forgetting her promise to Rhea and telling Edelgard that all of Fódlan was built on the bones of the dead, and all she could do was make the sacrifice matter. "All the more reason for us to do a good job standing guard now, eh?"

The sound of wings filled the air and a horrible shriek made Byleth's blood run cold. A...thing rose over the line of the trees. It was larger than any Beast she had seen before, its great skeletal wings almost blotting out the sun. Its flesh was corpse pale, with dark patches on the face as if it were rotting away. Red eyes glowed as it flailed vaguely human limbs. The color drained from Edelgard's face. "No, oh no." She pushed Byleth to the ground. "Get down!"

Byleth lay pressed in the dirt as purple energy arced overhead. She heard the crack of tree limbs and the breaking of stone. "What is that thing?" she whispered.

"Something that will take all of us with your Relics to defeat." Edelgard said. "We need to lead it back to the others."

She could do that. Byleth drew the Sword of the Creator as she rose. It glowed with power. Bone stretched and swirled as she whipped it toward one of the Beast's forelegs. It shrieked again but didn't slow as it dove toward her. Byleth rolled out of the way and used the time it to the Beast to turn to make off through the undergrowth. Edelgard panted behind her. Branches and thorns tore at their cloaks, but she didn't dare move to more open ground while they were alone.

They stumbled into the clearing. "Your Relics! Now!" Byleth shouted to the others as they stared.

Mercifully, they didn't ask questions because they had only enough time to ready their weapons before the Beast appeared. One look at Seteth and Flayn told her that they didn't know what the thing was either.

Claude struck first, with a shot aimed at the eye. Magical power engulfed the arrow. Byleth had seen Failnaught kill a man from half a battlefield away, but the creature wreathed itself in purple flame, and the arrow fell harmlessly away. But the purple flame didn't vanish. Instead it moved along the Beast's limbs. The forelegs pulsed and eddied as if they were made of liquid. Another shriek. It almost sounded like fear.

"It's not stable," Edelgard said. "We have only to force it to expend energy, and it will destroy itself. Cornelia, you fool."

Claude readied another arrow. "Just so you know, I expect some answers in exchange for being bait."

"Not now, Claude!"

Lysithea sent forth another blast of silver light, this time aided by Thyrsus. The purple flame swallowed the magic, but the creature's face blurred into an indistinct mass before righting themselves. Again and again it absorbed attacks that had felled the strongest foes and each time the body seemed to lose more of its form. Just what was this strange Beast and how did Edelgard know so much?

The Beast was little more than an indistinct blob when it shot its last volley of purple light toward Seteth, He dodged but not quite quickly enough and the magic grazed against his leg. He grunted in pain and fell to one knee. The Beast or what was left of it sensed blood and lumbered toward him.

Edelgard stepped in front of it, silver but mundane axe at the ready. "The power you hold it wasn't meant for you. I'm sorry." She threw the axe. The creature engulfed it without even the need for a barrier. A useless blow.

Almost. Byleth circled around behind while it was busy with its prey and let fly the Sword of the Creator. The purple flame arced and died as the blob creature became nothing but a pile of white liquid and screams before evaporating into nothing.

Byleth's breath came in ragged pants. None of them could speak. She had thought she had seen every horror the Agarthans had to offer, but clearly they still had a few tricks. She stumbled toward Seteth and Edelgard, but Flayn reached them first and knelt beside her father with a sob.

He ruffled her hair weakly. "It's all right, Flayn."

"It is not all right! First Mother and then Rhea and now..." She summoned healing magic and put a hand over the dark, oozing gash. "You can't leave me alone. You can't."

"I won't. I only need a moment to rest."

Edelgard stiffened. "So very human, " she muttered.

"We'll be happy to give you a few minutes." Claude's voice seemed as superficially light as ever, but Byleth had known him long enough to know when steel lay beneath the silk. "It'll probably take a bit for Edelgard to explain what that thing was."

Edelgard stared at the remains of the Beast and at the cairn. "Thales name for it was the Hegemon. A Beast almost impossible to kill and who retained its mind and ability to speak. It could command both humans and Beasts, hence the name."

Claude whistled. "That would be really useful, if you didn't mind becoming hideous. And if Thales wasn't lying through his teeth. That thing couldn't speak, and it practically blew itself up." He furrowed his brow. "Wait. You said the power wasn't meant for it. Who was it meant for?"

A heavy silence descended over them, and the hairs of Byleth's neck stood on end. She knew the answer. She wished she didn't. "It was meant for the Hegemon of Fódlan. For you."

Edelgard met her gaze. It was the Emperor who stood before her now. "Does it shock you? I was always willing to do what must be done. If I spared myself, how could I look the families of the dead in the eye? Your church already thought me a monster. I saw no reason not to take the form of one."

"Because you could have killed yourself!" Her heart was as still as ever but Byleth's pulse thrummed erratically. "Are you so anxious to commit suicide that you would discard your humanity?"

Her eyes were hard and her voice was ice. "I thought I was supposed to be the one whose views were too narrow. Or does every person with the misfortune of deformity discard their humanity as well? I would not have been what we fought." Her gaze landed on the Crest Stone. "My twin Crests would allow me to maintain control instead of becoming a Beast in truth. It still could."

"That thing was repulsive." Lysithea shivered. "But if the situation ever became truly dire and a twin Crest could truly control the transformation, perhaps it would be worth it. I don't have very long anyway."

"No!" Byleth and Edelgard said at the same time.

Byleth moved so she could look at both of them. Her precious student, her once and current infatuation, both of them had suffered so much and lost so much that they imagined the only way they could redeem it was to throw their lives away. "Neither of you will be transforming into anything. That's an order. Swear it to me."

"I promise," Lysithea whispered.

Edelgard's gaze was blank. "I will do likewise."

"It's for the best. Your lives matter far too much."

They stared at her with guilty looks, not believing her but trying to pretend they did. Byleth frowned, If I am a goddess, let me give them a desire to live.

There was no answer.