Edelgard reasoned that she knew more than anyone alive about Agartha. She and Hubert had been piecing together scraps of information since the day she was released from the dungeons. They were the remnants of an ancient civilization of immense power who had no obvious commonalities with the nations of Fódlan or elsewhere. She still hadn't been prepared for the immense city stretching out before her. The buildings seemed to rise from the stone itself, with sharp angles and cubelike protrusions. Most unnerving of all were the lights. Instead of the torches or lanterns that would have lit an ordinary city, the buildings themselves seemed to glow, veins of light crisscrossing the surface in the same patterns that marked Agarthan clothing. She thought every bit of superstition had been ground out of her beneath the palace, but this place seemed right out of the sermon on the wrath of the Goddess.
She edged closer to Byleth, and so did Lysithea. Byleth had relieved Edelgard of command for this mission, instead returning her to her old role of bodyguard and second. Edelgard was happy to take it. Being underground in the place of her torturers was easier with Byleth near and she couldn't shirk this last battle when she was so close to fulfilling her silent oath.
They moved gingerly down a flight of stairs deeper into the darkness until it swallowed up even the Agarthan light and Edelgard's sight failed her. Her other senses rose to compensate. She was aware of Lysithea's rapid breathing as she fought to tamp down her terror in a place they dared not use the magical light. Edelgard took Lysithea's hand and was aware of the warmth and pressure when she squeezed it in return. She heard the soft sound of Byleth's boots on the stairs and the faint jostle of Claude's quiver as he walked. Most of all, she was aware of Rhea, less by the sound of her movements than the uncomfortable pressure she forced into Edelgard's chest. She had dreamed night and day of casting Rhea and her false religion down, but here she was fighting at her side. Because as much as they hated each other, they were bound together by Byleth and a duty to end Agartha. For today alone, Edelgard's blade was in service to the Archbishop.
Her hand closed over the hilt of her dagger. Today, those responsible for Dimitri's madness would at last meet their end. She had been a member of House Blaiddyd in only the most technical sense and, even if she could somehow summon Dimitri's ghost and explain the truth of Duscur, he would still demand her head for all the things she had actually done to him. But she was also the last of the family left. I've carved my own path like you wanted, and I promise justice will be done for all of us.
The air grew warmer and drier as they descended and a faint red glow heralded the end of the darkness. At last they reached the bottom of the stairs and found themselves in a large hall. More strange growths protruded from the walls. Their tops were crossed with the same veins of light, but their lower halves glowed with fire. Long tables filled with various tools dominated most of the open space. Hammers, tongs, and knives interspersed with arcane tools whose name and function Edelgard could only guess at. "Is this some kind of forge?"
"It looks like it," Claude said. "But for what?"
Both their gazes went to Rhea, whose eyes hardened in return. "I don't know. I heard of many weapons, but I only saw some when I was very young. This unnatural place is as foreign to me as you."
"Regardless," Claude said, clearly not believing Rhea was telling the whole truth any more than Edelgard did, "I'd love the chance to get my hands on some of their weapons. Spread out, everyone."
Edelgard took the easternmost row of tables, as far from Rhea as she could get. Most of the objects were recognizable as knives of various sizes, their edges sharp as swords. Surgical implements? But no, she knew the instruments by which the Agarthans had violated her and her siblings' flesh. Neither did they look like leatherworking tools.
She found her answer some minutes later at the table in the furthest corner. Human bones had been laid out and carefully polished and treated with a substance whose odor made Edelgard's head swim. She wasn't squeamish about such things, but it was an unpleasant sight. Some of them bore signs of damage, bits and pieces cleaved away by strokes too clean to have occurred in in battle. Others had been...carved into familiar shapes. Here was the Lance of Ruin, there was Areadbhar, here was a perfect copy of Luìn. And, at the very end, the Sword of the Creator. All were missing their Crest Stones. No, not missing. She thought for the first time in months of Aymr. Thales' smiths had been pleased with themselves when they handed her there masterwork. They had taken a Relic of an Elite lost to time, they said, and modified the Crest Stone to accept her Crest of Seiros. It was a short leap from that to carving their own Relics. Only the last step of implanting the Crest Stones remained.
The Crest Stones themselves lay on a nearby table, glittering like rubies, some emblazoned with sigils and some plain and all emitting a malevolent power that turned her stomach. The shapes were unique to each and somehow familiar as if Edelgard had seen them before. But where? The only time she had been near a Crest Stone other than Aymr's was—
Her hand clapped over her mouth and she staggered backwards. Thales had been insistent that she bring back bones and Crest Stones from the Holy Tomb, despite her protestations that common grave robbing was beneath her dignity. Byleth had defeated her, but Metodey and his thugs had made off with a respectable minority of the spoils. She had always assumed they were the source of her Beast army. To see the truth now, long after she realized the enormity of her mistakes seemed a cruel joke of its own. She had imagined that she could use the Agarthans, but all along they had been using her instead. "No. Oh no. What have I done?"
She was aware of Byleth coming to stand behind her and her warm hands on her shoulders. "What is it?" She looked at the false Relics. "Oh."
The others too had noticed. Claude stared for a long moment before unsheathing Failnaught. He stared at the Relic, then at its doppelgänger and back again. "I guess we know what they're forging in here. And, given the look on Edelgard's face, just what happened to the plunder from the Holy Tomb." He touched the false Failnaught gingerly. "It feels the same." His eyes flew open and Failnaught clattered to the ground. "Bone. All the Relics were carved from bones."
Edelgard turned to look at Byleth. Her emotions always played subtly across her face, but there was no trace of even faint surprise. "You knew." Rhea's eyes, too, shone with anger udiluted by any other emotion. "You both knew."
Rhea heaved a sigh. "Yes. The weapons in your hands, the blood in your veins that the Church—that I—told you that marked you as fit to rule were stolen from the bone and blood of my people over a thousand years ago." She closed her eyes. "The Crests of the Elites are a legacy of the foulest sin against the Goddess, not a blessing from her."
The room went silent, shock writ on their faces. Even Claude had no commentary. Edelgard didn't know how she felt. Shock was part of it. Her faith was a ruin now, but as a child she had said her prayers every night and cherished the hope that her Crest meant Saint Seiros herself was looking out after her. There was a grim pride that she was right that the church was a fraud. And a hysterical mania that would have had her on the floor cackling in mad disbelief if she'd been somewhere safe. Relics were "forged by the hand of man" according to the Hresvelg history. Well, Solon had considered himself the real human and humans beasts.
Lysithea dropped Thyrsus. "They made this? I don't want anything to do with it. I already hate my Crests! How could you teach that they were blessings when you knew that?" She launched herself at Rhea, beating on her like a child and with as much strength. "How could you?"
Rhea let her strike. Either she didn't feel the blows or felt that she deserved them. "To protect the handful of us who were left after a thousand years from meeting similar fates. If the truth were known, people I care for would be savaged for parts. There is a Goddess, and if I had to endure those who massacred the Nabateans being venerated as heroes to keep order, it was a price worth paying."
Edelgard knew what she felt now. Rage, as white-hot as the day she had been released from the dungeons. She drew herself to her full height. "A child being tied to a chair to make her marriageable is not order! A boy being thrown into the streets by his noble father because he doesn't bear a Crest is not order! A woman being raped again and again by her husband in hopes of conceiving a Crest-bearing child is not order!"
"I know." Their gazes locked. "But neither was slaughtering thousands for a fool's crusade."
"We should have this argument later." Claude picked up Thyrsus. "I hear footsteps."
Edelgard readied her axe while the others drew their own weapons or prepared offensive magic. A solitary figure stepped into the light, hands raised in surrender. Edelgard nearly dropped her axe. It was the young mage she had allowed to flee during the siege of Fhirdiad. The expression on her face was one Edelgard knew well: terror and desperation. "Please, surfacers, you have to help me."
"Do you take us for fools?" Rhea's voice held the same snarl as when she'd ordered Edelgard's execution. "The only help your kind require is help finding your way to the eternal flames."
Claude put a restraining hand on her arm. "No, wait, I want to hear this, for the entertainment value if nothing else." He motioned for the mage to continue.
"Thales knows you're here. He's going to call down the ballistic missiles—what you call javelins of light—on the city. The civilian leaders objected, but all he cares about is killing you. He trapped all the civilians on the level below. You have to free them and kill Thales before he kills us all."
Civilians. Strange to think of the Agarthans as having civilians. Logically, there had to be children and craftsmen and people who did all the other things that kept the city functioning, but her mind had populated a race of evil mages who sought the destruction of the world above and delighted in torturing children. Vermin who could be eradicated without a trace of guilt. "This could be a trap. How did she escape when those who objected are supposedly locked away?"
"Because I'm an apprentice Titanus keeper. He wanted them online to kill you or at least buy him time. I can—I can take them offline for you if free them." Her voice cracked. "Please, there are children down there. My son."
"Children," Rhea murmured. "War always hits children the hardest. So many little bodies in Zanado." She hissed in pain. "Do you know what you ask, Agarthan? Who you are asking it of?"
"You are the blood of Fell Star." She shivered and pointed at Byleth. "And that one is—"
"Don't," Rhea said. "If you know even that much, you know I have every reason to want even the memory of your people burned to ashes."
"But we did nothing to you. You would slaughter mothers just as your own mother was slaughtered." She knelt before Edelgard. "And you, you showed mercy once. Please, show mercy again."
Her muscles burned with the desire to cleave the mage's head from her body. It had been Ferdinand's idea to let her live, and Cornelia's thugs had killed him and Caspar. There were children. Children who would grow up to become scholars in fell arts even without Thales tutelage. This was probably a trap to begin with. Edelgard ought to kill her. She ought. It would be the pragmatic thing to do. Just as at Holywell. She had promised herself that she would be better, and it seemed that she meant it even when an insufferable noble busybody wasn't prodding her. "I defer to Byleth."
Similar conflicting emotions churned in Rhea's eyes before she made a frustrated sound in her throat and turned away. "As do I."
"Then we'll help you," Byleth said and raised the mage to her feet.
"Thank you. Thank you so much." There were tears in her eyes. "You're nothing like the legends, Fell Star! I'll go on ahead. Follow the orange light." And with that she melted into the darkness.
Claude whistled low. "You have no idea how many questions I have right now. For starters, why did she call Teach Fell Star and why does Rhea look like she's about to have a paroxysm?" His brows knitted together. "Solon called you that, too, right after you cut open the sky and came back with your hair different."
"She wields the Sword of the Creator." Was that panic in Rhea's voice? "Of course they would be terrified of the weapon that most threatens them."
"You'll pardon me if I take everything you're saying with a huge grain of salt today." Claude didn't raise his voice, but it was the nearest Edelgard to anger that had ever seen him. "And considering they and Edelgard were trying to get their hands on the sword, I really think that it's something about Teach herself. But what?" His voice softened as he turned to Byleth. "You know, don't you? Just like you knew about the Relics. Please, Teach. Whatever secrets you're keeping, I think I speak for everyone here that it won't change how we feel about you." His smile was pasted on. "Unless you're a cannibal. That's a dealbreaker."
"You'll think me mad."
"I'll think that you're brave."
"I think Fell Star is their name for Sothis. They think I'm her." She shuddered and looked at Edelgard, pained. Fearful. "Do you remember when I told you that I knew that the Goddess existed? I know that because she lived inside me. She woke up just before I met you and we were friends for months. She fused with me to save us both from Zaharas, and I wield that power in her stead."
What? What? The Goddess wasn't real. Byleth believed in her, but those who turned their life around believed it all sorts of things to strengthen themselves. And even if the Goddess were real, she didn't take up residence in mercenaries and have chats with them. Byleth must be affected by some disease of the mind. A disease that came with a Crest thought extinct until it had been forced on Edelgard and the ability to wield the Sword of the Creator without its Crest Stone.
Her vision blurred with tears. She couldn't afford to cry in front of Rhea, but her body didn't seem to care. She had prayed again and again for the Goddess or Saint Seiros to deliver her from the dungeons. They hadn't, just as they hadn't delivered any of the thousands who had suffered because of Crests. Them being a mere legend created to prop up a corrupt nobility was preferable to believing they existed but just didn't care. But here was Byleth, either the Goddess or close enough as made no difference. And she cared. She cared so much that she had stood up to Rhea and transformed the nobility. She loved her. The Goddess loved and protected all that was beautiful in the world. The Hresvelg chaplain had told her that countless times. The Goddess had revealed herself long after Edelgard had become a twisted mass of scars and rage at an unjust world.
"Why?" she whispered. She didn't trust herself to speak louder. "Why now and not before they killed everyone?"
"I don't know." Byleth didn't look like a goddess. She looked vulnerable and afraid. "I'm still the same person you've always known."
"Well, I guess that explains why Teach can wield the Sword of the Creator. Though I've got to say, you don't sound much like the Goddess that the church teaches about. A little less omnipotent figure coming down from the sky and a little more really powerful mage who's good with a sword. Did you know about this, Rhea?"
Rhea had gone very pale. "She merged with you and left? Sothis doesn't speak to you anymore?"
"Not since I woke up. Except those things in Fhirdiad that I told you about."
"Why like this? Why just give you that power and leave? She must know how needed she was and how broken the world is in her absence."
"Stop it." Claude's voice was firm, as if he were the cleric lecturing on faith instead of the other way around. "You're not giving humanity enough credit. Sure the world is broken, but we have the power to fix it. We don't need some figure up in the sky." He put an arm around Byleth. "You're right. You're the same person you always were and you're enough. Though I do have a million questions when we make it out of here."
The orange light appeared, ending further discussion for the moment. Edelgard did her best to focus on navigating the treacherous stairways and keeping an eye out for ambushes while ignoring higher matters. It didn't work. She had been right and wrong about so much. Crests were a sign of atrocity. Divine power acted in the world. She wondered if knowing would have changed anything. Claude was right. Byleth didn't live in the stars. She wasn't the Goddess Edelgard had been taught to pray to. The church had propped up the old corrupt system. But knowing that she hadn't been abandoned, that the church and the world might hate her, but the closest thing to the actual goddess loved her? That might have given her enough hope not to fall completely under Thales's sway. Or not.
They reached a hallway wide enough for two to walk abreast with niches in the wall at regular intervals as if they had once held statuary or other art. Art didn't seem like it suited the Agarthans any more than the children they were rescuing. Edelgard took up the rear guard and Byleth joined her. An awkward silence hung between them Edelgard wished she knew how to talk about everything that had been thrown at her over the last few minutes. It shouldn't matter. Byleth had had this power long before they had become friends, let alone lovers. It shouldn't matter. But of course it did.
"El," Byleth whispered. "Please, say something. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I really am just me. I don't want to be worshiped. I just want to be a good queen and spend whatever time I can with y—"
Edelgard grabbed her and dragged her into the nearest recess. She didn't want words. She wanted confirmation that Byleth was solid flesh and not a pious story. She kissed her. Not a gentle, storybook kiss but hard enough to bruise. Her nails dug into Byleth's shoulders. Byleth gasped in her mouth, then made a little whimper that sent electric shocks to the base of Edelgard's spine. Gods and saints didn't make such noises. Only humans. She let her go and Byleth looked at her with a dazed, pleased expression. "Well, I guess that settles that."
"I suppose it does."
They hurried to catch up to the others.
The light stopped before a door that seemed to take up the whole wall. It was pale green, slightly recessed, with a purple orb where the door handle would normally be. The mage stood in front, seeming very small before such a great bulk. "You came."
"We could not leave innocents to perish, even Agarthans," Rhea said. "They are behind that door? I'm not familiar with the mechanism."
"It was built as a shelter in case of civil insurgence or invasion when we first came below ground. It's keyed to blood. Normally, either the exarch or high priest can seal or open it, but Thales had the exarch killed when he objected to sacrificing our entire race to kill you."
"So how do we get it open?"
"I was hoping you'd use those weapons of yours to blow the door apart."
Claude shrugged. "Normally I prefer a more subtle approach, but in the afternoons of a better option..." He handed Thyrsus to Lysithea. "Ready everyone? On my mark."
But Lysithea refused to take the staff. "No. It's enough that my body is laced with their foul magic. I don't need more of it. That's someone's corpse, right there!"
Claude put a hand on her shoulder. "I know it isn't pleasant, but sometimes we have to do dishonorable things to save lives."
She jerked away. "Easy for you to say. All Failnaught ever meant for you was that you were secretly heir to a dukedom."
"Then hear it from me," Rhea said. "Those are the bones of the greatest healer known to the Nabateans, far beyond my capabilities. He dedicated his life to healing any who needed it. The Relics were collected after the War of Heroes so that those killed would be remembered. I can say with certainty that he would be honored that he's still saving lives a thousand years later."
Lysithea shuddered, but her hands closed around Thyrsus. She, Byleth, and Claude stepped back while Edelgard and Rhea took positions at the outer edges. "One, two, three!"
They struck. Blasts of purple magic, the whip of the Sword of the Creator that was like lava, blue sparks from the Sword of Seiros, less impressive ones from Edelgard's axe, red arrows from Failnaught. Again and again, they battered the door until Edelgard's muscles burned. And bit by bit, the door gave way. Small cracks at first, then larger ones, then fissures like at Fhirdiad. And then, with a last shuddering groan, the engineering of Agartha gave way and Edelgard saw her people.
There couldn't have been more than two hundred of them. Young and old, with hair of every color that stood out sharply against their pale skin, and eye colors she had never seen in Fódlan. They huddled on the floor in groups of three or four, children clutching to their parents and hiding their faces in terror. One dared to turn his face and look at them with terrified, disbelieving eyes. Children, just children, trapped underground as she and her brothers and sisters had been.
"What have you done, Adria?" said one of the elders. "Bringing the Fell Star down on us?"
"Trying to save your lives." She stepped into the chamber. "Agrippa! Where are you? We're getting out of here."
The little boy who had stared at Edelgard took a hesitant step forward. Byleth sheathed her sword and knelt. "It's okay. I won't hurt you." But the boy stayed where he was. "Hey, do you want to see something fun?" She reached into her cloak and pulled out a top and set it on the ground. "My dad carved at this for me when I was your age." She set it on the ground in front of her. "I bet I can make it move without magic."
Thales and a horde of soldiers could be on them at any moment. Better to drag the civilians out if they wouldn't come. "This is no time for childish games."
But the top began to spin and the little boy forgot his fear and toddled towards it and his mother. The other Agarthans looked at each other and filed out one by one, evidently deciding that a Goddess who wanted vengeance wouldn't have bothered with toys. Edelgard let out a breath she hadn't realized that she had been holding.
Claude ushered them out. "We'll cover your retreat. Make for the entrance and ask for Ashe Ubert. He'll make sure no harm comes to you."
"Can we survive on the surface?"
"We can if we put our minds to it," Adria said. "Some of Thales' cabal lived there for years." She inclined her head towards Byleth. "Thank you, Fell Star. I kept my word. Thales will find the Titani no better than inert steel." She took Agrippa in her arms and the train of refugees began their long exodus to the surface.
Rhea wobbled and grabbed Byleth's arm for support. "I'm afraid that show of force took more out of me that I intended. We must find Thales and stop the launch of the javelins quickly or your heroism will be for nothing and I will be nothing more than a hindrance to you." She forced herself to stand up straight. "I should make for the surface alone."
"No," Byleth said. "I don't leave people behind unless I have no choice. Especially you."
"Heh, you sound so much like her. Lead on, child."
They walked for what seemed like ages. Now and again, Edelgard thought she heard the clang of weapons somewhere in the distance and hoped the civilians weren't repaying their detour by getting themselves killed. Without any lights to follow, they were reduced to heading up as often as the paths allowed and hoping it would eventually lead them to the entrance. This part of the complex had been given over entirely to military pursuits. Titani, still as promised, loomed over them. The energized columns Thales and Cornelia had been so smugly pleased to show her crackled. And between those columns was another door, more unassuming than the one they destroyed.
"Hmm. A door guarded by golems and traps. I'm sure there's nothing interesting in their at all."
Edelgard had a sudden, clear vision of the javelins of light coming down on their heads while Claude poked about. "Could you stop being so curious for one moment?"
"No. Lysithea, give me a hand here would you?" He eyed the columns. "If I can get one of those things to fire at me, do you think you could direct the energy towards the lock?"
"Claude!" Edelgard, Rhea, and Byleth said nearly in unison.
He glared at them. "This is our one chance to understand Agartha. I'm tired of legends and lies. And, if we can find a way to stop these javelins or protect ourselves, isn't it worth it?"
Byleth growled. "One chance."
Claude strode calmly towards the door. When he was within five steps, the nearest column hummed and a bolt of lightning arced toward him. Lysithea muttered under her breath and red tendrils of energy sprouted from Thyrsus. They wrapped around the lightning and it curled away from Claude and towards the door. There was a hiss and a pop, and the door slid away.
It was some sort of command post. The ceiling, unlike those in the rest of the facility, was domed in a feat that had to be a mixture of engineering and magic. Strange windows lined the walls. Instead of showing what on the other side of the wall, there were images from other parts of the facility and the woods and plains of Goneril. One window showed the civilians climbing up very close to the entrance where Ashe and the others waited. Another window showed what seemed to be a map of the compound. They were indeed very close to returning to the surface. And one wall had been given over to images of a woman who looked so like Rhea that they could have been twins. Her garb was flowing, and she carried the Sword and Shield of Seiros and wore a winged diadem on her head. She had been rendered in many different styles from painterly to caricature, the one constant a cruel expression that the church would have condemned as blasphemous. Many depicted her bleeding, pierced by Agarthan weapons as they grinned in triumph.
Rhea went a little paler. "It has been a thousand years. Is there no end to your obsession with me?"
With her?
"The end is when your corpse lies broken upon the ground," Thales said. "Turn and face me, greatest of our enemies. I will enjoy destroying you before Shambhala sees its end."
Edelgard rounded furiously. There he was, the thing who had murdered her uncle and siblings and driven her mother to murder and Dimitri to madness. Who had destroyed her father as surely as if he had killed him. And this time, she no longer had any reason to bow and scrape for his favor. "I'm afraid you're the one who's going to be destroyed."
"Begone with you, insect! You couldn't even keep the crown I gave you. I have no need of you here."
The Sword of the Creator glowed in Byleth's hands. Her eyes shone with barely-controlled fury. "Surrender, or I let my friends take their richly-earned vengeance."
His laugh turned Edelgard's' stomach. "You have not changed, Fell Star. Speaking of mercy while wreaking destruction. Even the corpse that you possessed cannot save you."
"I've been called a lot of things, but never a corpse."
More laughter that rang through the room and Edelgard clenched her teeth. "Do you not know what you are? The stench of death clings to you like a shroud. The skin you cloak yourself in died long ago, sustained by your Crest Stone."
"Don't listen to him." Rhea drew her sword. "He is a liar whose every word is poison."
"You would know something about that. So desperate to see your precious mother that you would animate a corpse. I should congratulate you for proving my ancestors were right about you...Seiros."
Edelgard froze. What? She had believed that the Children of the Goddess had controlled humanity for a thousand years, but this was ridiculous. Rhea had to be a descendent of the original Seiros. For a single individual to hold the post of Archbishop for a millennium didn't so much strain credulity as snap it in half.
They all looked at Rhea, whose face had gone blank. She gripped her sword so tightly that her knuckles went white. She cast a desperate glance at Byleth, who stood as if rooted to the spot. "We are nothing alike. Child, I will explain everything to you, but we must kill him and escape this place."
"You will never escape." Purple lashes spewed from Thales' staff. And still Byleth stood there as one made straight for her head. Edelgard tackled her to the ground. The magic slammed into one of the windows and rained down sparks and debris that singed Edelgard's cape and hair. She hissed in pain. That seemed to bring Byleth back to herself. Her eyes focused once more and she shoved Edelgard off her to drag herself to her feet.
Edelgard scrambled to join her. "You aren't a corpse," she whispered.
Byleth nodded and whipped the Sword of the Creator towards him. He flicked his wrist and summoned the shield of purple energy that wavered but did not break as the Relic struck. "You fool. We created that sword. Do you imagine that your carved bones hold any power against the might of Agartha?"
"The might of Agartha is nothing but a husk of a fortress and some fancy toys. All your scheming and you only managed to give humanity the tools we needed to defeat you."
"Arrogant, like all your kind. You have no idea how to use the power of Relics or Crests that we gifted you."
"That you forced on me," Lysithea said. "But I forced myself to learn how to use it. Just so I could make sure no one else suffered like I did."
"Ah, the prototype. Join the dead as you should have long ago."
He readied another blast. Lysithea closed her eyes and raised Thrysus. Purple whips met red tendrils, lacing together as the dark magics fought for dominance. The Crest of Gloucester shimmered on Lysithea's skin and the red inched forward. Not enough. Runes hovered around Thales as he forced Lysithea's magic back. The greatest mage of humanity and of Agartha, locked in a stalemate worthy of a grand opera. And then the javelins of light would fall and the war would be over.
Edelgard never had been much for operas. She dropped her axe and drew her dagger, ducking under the magical beams to stand at Thales side. "For my family," she whispered and jabbed at his neck.
He flicked his free hand and the shield drove the blade harmlessly to the side. "I thought I taught you better than that," he said and backhanded her. Edelgard went to her knees. She tasted blood in her mouth as she smiled. Too late, Thales recognized his mistake. The momentary distraction had allowed Lysithea to gain on him and the shield meant he was just shy of the energy he needed to force Lysithea back. His eyes widened as the magic hit him full in the chest and he went flying backwards. Edelgard put a hand over her mouth. It wasn't what Dimitri would have done, but he was avenged. They all were.
Thales slammed back first into one of the screens, his arms flying outward. He caught her gaze and smiled as the life faded from his eyes. "You will never get to enjoy your victory." His laugh was a death rattle. "In the name of all Agarthans, let there be light!"
Purple light flooded the chamber, bright enough that Edelgard had to turn her face away. There was a high pitched metallic whine like nothing she had ever heard before. But Rhea apparently had. "It can't be. Get down, all of you."
Someone forced Edelgard to the ground as a chunk of the ceiling plummeted toward where she had been standing a moment before. She threw up her arms to shelter against the chaos above and around her. Her throat burned with the dust from the rubble. A small, calm part of her mind told her that this wasn't enough and she was forestalling her death by only moments unless she found a way to escape, but she didn't know what to do against such unparalleled destruction.
"Another one of those things is headed right for the civilians!" Claude shouted over the din.
Edelgard dared a glance at one of the surviving windows. The civilians were running for the entrance as fast as their legs would carry them. The image was encircled by a red target that contracted closer and closer to the middle of the window. Edelgard coughed out a laugh. They had wasted so much time saving those people and it was all for nothing and was going to get them killed besides.
"Am I to die for those people, Mother?" Rhea whispered. "As you wish."
She leapt toward the hole in the ceiling and for a moment Edelgard thought the explosion had damaged her sight. Rhea leapt from ledge to ledge with grace and strength like she had never seen before sailing into the air. Green light enveloped Rhea and when it faded, she had vanished to be replaced by a dragon. Its pristine white scales seemed to give off a light of their own. Rhea opened her mouth and spewed forth a stream of fire that consumed one javelin. It exploded in a ball of fire. She flew around in a wide circle as another javelin headed straight for her. It met the same fate as the first.
But there was no escaping the third and final javelin. Rhea hit it head on and was engulfed in another ball of flame that sent her tumbling down like a meteor and sprinkled streaks of blood on the stone below. Heedless of the danger, Byleth dashed out of shelter and into the light. Green light shimmered one final time as Rhea, bruised and bloodied, fell into her arms.
She reached out one hand and stroked Byleth's cheek. "Go, child. Leave me here and remember me like this."
"I'm not leaving you. If you can't leave on your own, I'll carry you."
She did. They ran towards the entrance, always a half-step of the debris falling around them. Edelgard's lungs burned from exertion and dust, but at last they stumbled into the sunlight once more along with the rest of the army that had been tasked with securing other parts of the facility. Seteth was at the head, barking orders with one arm around Flayn. He broke off midsentence at the sight of Rhea and was beside her in a flash.
"No. What happened? Please, wake up S—Rhea!"
Flayn darted around to the other side. Her hands glowed with healing magic. "Her wounds are serious indeed. We must return to the monastery as soon as possible."
Byleth nodded. She wasn't crying, but there was pain in her eyes. Edelgard looked from her to the ruins of the Agarthan compound to Rhea's crumpled, wounded form. Her two greatest enemies broken, if not completely destroyed, on the same day. The dream of justice had kept her going when nothing else had. But now that she had done everything that she had wanted and everything she had once thought she wanted, victory brought no consolation.
One of the soldiers approached. "Begging your pardon, Your Majesty, but what do we do with them?" He jerked his hand toward the Agarthan civilians who were blinking in the sunlight and doing their best to hide their faces.
"Yes, what will you do with us, surfacers?" Adria stood before them. "Shambhala was more a prison than a home. We dreamed of one day reclaiming our place in the sun. But I never thought it would be like this."
Agrippa tugged at her sleeve. "Mama, I'm hot! And hungry!"
Claude knelt in front of him. "Well, you're welcome to some of our spare rations if you want." He smiled at Adria. "And I'm sure Her Majesty would be happy to help you find a place to settle down. Maybe someday we might even be allies."
"Claude, have you lost your mind?" Seteth's eyes widened. "These are the same people who kidnapped Flayn."
"No, Brother," Flayn said, sounding much older than her years." The people responsible for my nightmares are dead. So are the people who killed Mother. Do not punish the innocent for their crimes."
He made a frustrated noise." You're right, of course. Your Majesty, once Rhea is seen to, I will go with the Alliance soldiers and find the Agarthans somewhere they can settle. There are many places where they will not be disturbed until they wish to be."
"And perhaps someday we will wish it. It's strange to think about, living among the humans."
"I hope you do," Claude said. "Contact with different peoples enriches us all, even if we want to think that some nation is purely evil. We're all the same deep down."
The march back to Garreg Mach was melancholy despite their victory. Byleth barely spoke and kept stealing glances back at the cart where Rhea lay unconscious. Edelgard let her be. It had been very brave what Rhea or Seiros or whoever she was had done and for a people she despised, but Edelgard couldn't pretend to share Byleth's fear. Nor did she share Claude's optimism that relations with the Agarthan remnant would go as he hoped. But he had won and she had lost and that meant acquiescing to parts of his worldview that made her anxious. The war was over. She mustn't forget that.
And there was another bright spot to this day, even if she was the only one who would ever know. The war had come and gone without her needing to transform into the Hegemon. She would destroy the Crest Stone as she had promised Ferdinand and Caspar and go on to a happy life serving Arianrhod and stealing time with Byleth.
They entered the courtyard. Byleth dismounted and took a step towards the cart before she remembered herself. She shot an apologetic look at Edelgard. "I'm sorry. I just—"
Edelgard squeezed her fingers. "Go to her." She watched Byleth, Seteth, and Flayn disappear towards the third floor before setting off on her own mission.
She realized something was wrong the moment she entered the dormitory. It was subtle. Sheets ever so slightly askew, folded clothing an inch away from where she had left them, a tiny smudge on the corner of her mirror. Someone who knew what they were doing had searched her room while she was away. Her hands trembled. If they were looking for papers or other evidence of a conspiracy against Byleth, they wouldn't find it. She only had one thing that would damn her in the world's eyes.She pulled out the drawers and twisted the hidden knob on her dresser. The stuffed bear, the Flame Emperor's garb, it was all as she had left it. Except for one thing.
The Crest Stone was gone.