Byleth wished Rhea was less human. She wouldn't know what the blue tint to her fingernails or the slow but steady mottling of her skin meant. Her breathing was labored and uneven like that of so many who had clung to life before succumbing to their wounds. Byleth felt as if she had been scraped raw. Her father, beloved students, and now the nearest thing she had ever had to a mother. There was nothing Thales' corruption couldn't take from her, even after his death. Worst of all was the doubt he had planted in her heart.

Flayn wiped her brow. "It is as I feared. Even if she wakes, she will not live beyond a few more weeks." She sniffed. "Such dreadful cruelty. I thought I had had my fill of losing family."

Tears formed at the corner of Seteth's eyes. He didn't try to stop them. "As have I. There are only four of us left now. Four to keep alive the memory of thousands." He put his hands on her shoulders. "But I swear that as long as I draw breath, you will never be alone again."

They were all like family. Seteth had told her that almost a year ago. And an almost family sounded so much better than being an orphan. "I swear it, too. I will keep you and your secrets safe for as long as I live." She inhaled. Part of her didn't want to be having this conversation in the sickroom or at all, but she had put it off for as long as she possibly could. "Thales and Rhea said some things while we were down there. That Relics are the bones of your kin, and that Rhea is Seiros. Is it true?"

Seteth went white. "You know? We fought a terrible war a thousand years ago. Flayn was nearly killed. She slept as you did during the five years, but for much longer and I stayed with her to keep her safe. What Rhea—Seiros—did during those centuries, I cannot say. But when we returned, she was the Archbishop of a religion that preached that our mother had made the world and would someday return to it. It was close enough to the truth and seemed the best chance of preserving what remained. More than that should be her story to tell if she wakes."

"Do you know what she did to me? Thales called me a corpse."

He shook his head sadly. "I imagine you know more than I. She was always one for secrets. I will say this. All her dreams and hopes are bound up in you. I have only seen her treat one other human that way."

"Who?"

"Don't you know? She was desperately in love with Wilhelm of Adrestia. She was his empress in all but name, and the Crest the Hresvelgs bear was given to save his life." He gritted his teeth, trying to smile but unable to manage it. "It seems history does repeat. More than that is not my place to tell. I will summon you at once if she wakes."

Byleth wandered down the stairs, and the heavy silence of the third floor gave way to the bustle of the second. She had a handful of answers that just led to more questions like what had really happened to Sothis and what was true and false in the Church of Seiros and why had she even set it up? Most of all, what was Byleth?

If she couldn't have answers, she could at least have consolation. Byleth pasted on what she hoped was a sufficiently authoritative expression for passersby and went in search of Edelgard. She found her on a bench in the gazebo, bundled up against the cold and watching a nearby kitten sleep, with a pensive expression on her face. Byleth's chest twisted. They had seen little of each other over the last few days as Byleth sat vigil, but every time she had seen Edelgard, she had seemed worried, even frightened. "May I join you?"

Edelgard gave her a weak smile and made space for her. Byleth took the spot and pressed into her side. She burrowed into the warmth as much as she could. She felt safe here. Here she wasn't the Enlightened One or the queen, but only the worried and frightened ex-mercenary Byleth.

Edelgard's fingers played across the back of her neck and shoulders. "No change?"

"No change. And even if she does wake up, she won't live much longer."

"Oh, Byleth." She pressed a kiss to the top of her head and another to her temple. "I'm afraid I'm no good with condolences, and I don't think I can let go of my hatred, but I know you love her. Take comfort in the fact that Fódlan is united and at peace under your rule, exactly as she wished."

"You're right, that's not very consoling at the moment." Her chest felt tight. She didn't know if she should tell Edelgard everything she had learned. The days when she would have hunted down any Child of the Goddess simply for existing were long past, but Seteth seemed adamant that some secrets were Rhea's alone. But then, Thales had already divulged this one, hadn't he? "She's Seiros. Seteth told me so."

"I see. I knew that the church was run by nonhumans, but for her to be alive all this time…" Edelgard closed her eyes and her voice became smaller, rougher, younger. "I was very devout when I was a child. I thanked Saint Seiros every day for bestowing her blessings on me. When I was held captive, I prayed for rescue and then for death. And Saint Seiros was right there. She made herself next thing to a god and took our prayers, but she didn't lift a finger for us when we needed her. What good is that kind of saint?"

"I don't know." Just like she didn't know why Sothis had awoken in her or what she really was. "I don't think we're very good gods."

"And I'm thankful for that."

Byleth shrugged. "I just wish I knew what I was. Why Thales called me a corpse."

"Because he was a sadist who delighted in the suffering of others." She pressed two of Byleth's fingers to the inside of her other wrist. Byleth's pulse thudded erratically. "You are alive, you are human, and I love you very much."

"Thank you, El," Byleth said and kissed her.

"Professor!"

Byleth and Edelgard sprang apart just in time to see Lorenz and Hilda beelining towards of them were pale and sweaty and Hilda looked as if she had been crying. "Professor, you have to help me. My brother, he..."

"Breathe. You're no good to Lord Holst if you can't be coherent."'

Byleth didn't know how the day could get worse, but she had the unshakable conviction that it was about to. "What's going on?"

"An army attacked Goneril territory and decimated the defenders. Lord Holst was seriously wounded."

"Someone defeated Holst?" And had come out of nowhere to do it. The Dukedom had been crushed and would have attacked closer, softer targets even if they weren't, and the Agarthan forces had been destroyed along with their base. "What do we know about this army? Bandits?"

"No bandit could beat up Holst like that." Hilda sniffed and wiped her eyes. "Some of the soldiers who escaped told me about them, but it almost sounds too creepy to be real. The soldiers were all in black and really pale. They didn't talk or demand surrender. They just burned everything in their path. And they marched under a Crest of Flames banner, just like ours, except the field was black."

Byleth looked at Edelgard, who shrugged. "Take me to these soldiers. And someone find Claude. It's all hands on deck until we figure out what's going on."

The next few days were a whirlwind of activity and bad news. Messengers were dispatched to the former Kingdom and Empire lands seeking troops while Shamir and the other scouts were sent on reconnaissance missions. Byleth heard so many tales of a mysterious "army of the dead" that her head spun. There were only two constants to the wild tales: the generals wielded dark versions of the Heroes' Relics and their path of destruction was heading south toward Enbarr.

"They're single-minded, I'll give them that," Claude said. He looked exhausted. So did Edelgard. Byleth didn't remember the last time any of them had slept. Her world had narrowed to the cardinals' chamber, now a war room covered in maps and burned down candles. "Cutting an almost straight-line towards towards the city, no matter the terrain. And leveling that terrain to boot. I've never seen anything like it."

Neither had Byleth. Not even Cornelia's pillaging of her own people compared to the level of destruction now facing them. Villages and farms had not only been burned, but even the ruins of them had been destroyed. Hundreds had been confirmed dead and thousands were missing and the local troops were helpless to stop the advance. "Ingrid's safe, but that's the only mercy. If you want to head back to Almyra, I wouldn't blame you. If we managed to survive this, I don't want a diplomatic incident on my hands. There's nothing here for you after all."

Claude was silent for a moment. "There was a time I probably would have taken you up on that. Cut my losses and saved my own hide. But these days I have something beyond my own ambitions worth fighting for. So, if it's all the same to you I'd rather get one last victory for the Golden Deer before I go home."

Byleth squeezed his hand. "Thanks."

"As touching as this is, we do have to come up with a strategy." Edelgard raked her hands through her hair. "At this rate, they'll be at Enbarr within a week."

A week before this plague threatened the greatest city on the continent. With Fort Merceus still in ruins, they stood no chance of even delaying the enemy by more than a day. "If we take only our fastest soldiers, we can reach the city before they do. If the numbers are accurate, we should be able to defeat them."

"And if they aren't?" Edelgard let out a slow breath. "I recommend that we give the city up for lost and meet them on more advantageous terrain with our full forces. Send letters to Almyra and promise Nader the fight of his life."

"You would just let them have Enbarr?" Byleth went stiff and cold. A half million souls were depending on her for protection. She was Queen of Fòdlan, but her first and most precious style would always be Emperor of Adrestia. "It's your home."

"Better my home that everyone's."

They looked at each other. Edelgard's eyes were hard and her lips thin, just as they had been when she had been emperor. Her ruthlessness was not gone, only tempered. But what if she were wrong? What if they did have enough troops to stop the invaders but they didn't? She would be complicit in a massacre far worse than anything the Ashen Demon had done before. "Claude?"

"I don't know, Teach. It's a brutal thing she's suggesting, but we might only get one chance to stop them." He gripped the edge of the table. "What I wouldn't give for Rhea to wake up so I can ask questions!"

Byleth wiped her brow. "Well, we won't get answers here."

She opened the door to find herself face-to-face with an agitated Seteth. "It's Rhea. She's awake and lucid, though agitated."

"Agitated?"

"She asked me where Shamir of all people was practically the moment she woke up and demanded I send for her immediately, even when I tried to tell her about the attacks and that Shamir had only just returned to the monastery. Then she threw me out."

"That is strange. Catherine was always the Knight she was closest to. Just another thing we need answers about." She looked from Claude to Edelgard. When they had stumbled out of the woods all those years ago, she had no idea that she was meeting the first people she would ever love and the only ones she could imagine trusting with her fears. "Come with me?"

Rhea sat on the balcony as she had so many times before. She said nothing as Byleth approached her. She had gone from weak to skeletal, even more emaciated than when they had rescued her from Enbarr. She held an elaborately carved ivory box in her lap and didn't seem to notice her visitors at all. Part of Byleth screamed that she couldn't be Seiros. Rhea had secrets, but semidivine figures weren't supposed to be so...mortal.

"Rhea?" Byleth tried. "May I speak to you?"

At last she turned to them. "Child. And Claude and Edelgard. You have come with questions. Come, join me out here. The air is sweet and I don't have much time left to enjoy it."

Edelgard remained just inside the room while Byleth and Claude joined Rhea. He knelt beside her. "I'm sorry for disturbing you, but there are questions we need answers to."

"I did promise you answers. And it seems I no longer have any reason to hold anything back." Despite her words, her body was rigid. "Seteth said you face a mysterious army bearing Relics and the Crest of Flames."

"We do. But first: Thales was right, wasn't he? You're Seiros and the Immaculate One?"

"I took those names for a time. I don't think I've really been myself since Zanado. But perhaps I should start at the beginning." Her voice was faint, but it still had the music of a storyteller. "Long ago, the progenitor god, Sothis, came to this world. She worked with the humans to build a civilization that has never seen an equal before or since. She created children from her blood. I was the last and least. For a time, we were all very happy. But then the humans began to war among themselves over territory and other foolish things. The world was nearly destroyed by technology that made javelins of light seem crude. A few who survived fled underground and became Agartha. Mother spent over a hundred years repairing the damage. And then she retired to the Holy Tomb to sleep and restore her strength."

"That's why I always dreamed of her on a throne."

"Indeed. Those of us who remained built a life at Zanado, and we were content. Until Nemesis murdered my mother and stole her blood and bone for the Sword of the Creator. He and his Elites massacred my brothers and sisters and their families until I was the only survivor." Her gaze sought Edelgard. "I too would have died if not for Wilhelm von Hresvelg. Together we sought vengeance on Nemesis and his army. We decided that the world could not afford to fall into such chaos again. So we created the Empire and the Church of Seiros. To protect the handful of my kin who remained, we spread the doctrine that Crests were blessings from the Goddess."

"You made yourself a god and told us to pray to a dead woman!" Edelgard's face was white and she trembled. "You made it all up. Do you know how many children have died, how many people have suffered for the system you put in place? How hard those same people prayed when no one was ever listening?"

"I did the best that I could. It was never supposed to be a lie. I wanted nothing more than to resurrect my mother and make it all true. Fódlan would be at peace once more." Her gaze hardened. "Do not judge me when you too have worked with monsters and lied for the greater good."

"Don't, either of you. None of us have the moral high ground." Claude rubbed his temples. "Do you know what this army is?"

"I...I think it's Nemesis back from the dead."

"Didn't Sei—er, you—kill him?"

"The blood of a literal god ran in his veins. They are difficult to kill. Perhaps only the true Sword of the Creator can destroy him for good." She touched Byleth's hand. "If so, you truly are Fódlan's only hope."

A semidivine being in front of her who had created a religion. Bandits back from the dead. It seemed almost too incredible to be true. "But why me? What am I, really?" When Rhea didn't answer, Byleth seized her shoulder and looked her in the eye. "You promised."

"I wish I hadn't. I suppose it doesn't matter anymore." She took Byleth's free hand in both of hers. "When I killed Nemesis, I recovered my mother's Crest Stone. If that Crest Stone were implanted in a flash vessel without a soul, it would be possible to resurrect her. I did it to bring peace and because I wanted nothing more than to see her again. But I failed. Twelve times over a thousand years. The last vessel was stronger than most and developed something of a personality, so I raised her as a daughter. She fell in love with the captain of the Knights of Seiros. Jeralt."

Byleth felt like she had been punched in the chest. "Mom."

"She became pregnant, but something went wrong. To this day, I don't know if it was because of her nature or one of those cruelties of the world. The child…was stillborn and my daughter was dying. She begged me to take her heart and give it to her daughter so that she would at least have the facsimile of a life. I thought that a vessel born from someone who carried my Crest and my mother's heart might succeed where all other attempts had failed. I did as she asked. I believed the vessel had died in a fire until the very day you walked through the monastery gates."

Byleth staggered backwards. A corpse. She really was just a corpse. Her pulse and her breath were nothing more than a trick. "I'm dead? That's why I don't have a heartbeat."

Footsteps sounded as Edelgard rushed to put her arms around Byleth from behind. "No my darling. You're alive. As alive as I am, no matter what that woman did to you." Byleth felt rather than saw her glare at Rhea. "Did you ever care for her or was she only a pawn in your mad scheme?"

Byleth forced herself to look at Rhea. Rhea didn't look at her. "I tried to, when I knew my plans had failed. Mother, why couldn't you just have come back?"

Byleth convulsed. All those tender strokes of her hair, the words of encouragement, the afternoons taking tea, they were a lie. She had loved Rhea and tore through the Empire to rescue her, but to Rhea she had always been nothing more than a sack of flesh. Maybe that was all she was.

Edelgard spat. "You disgust me. I should have killed you when I had the chance."

"And once again you are a hypocrite! I did what I did for the good of the world. But you, you manipulated Byleth for over half a year." Acid crept into her voice. "I admire you for turning your defeat to your advantage. Even one Crest Stone is a powerful weapon indeed."

Byleth blinked away her stupor and looked at Edlgard. She had lost all color and looked as if she were about to be sick. "It can't be," she whispered. "She can't be the one who found it."

"El?"

"Shamir recovered this from her room in our absence." Rhea opened the box in her lap. Inside was a small Crest Stone, perfectly round and seeming to pulse with life. "These were held in trust by House Blaiddyd. No doubt she took it during the siege."

Edelgard held herself very still and very straight. "I took it because I didn't know what the Agarthans would bring to bear against us. We might have needed the Hegemon."

The room seemed to waver around Byleth. "You promised. You promised me that you would never use that power."

"I'll use any power to keep you and Fódlan safe."

"You lied to me. I trusted you and you lied to me." Just like Rhea. She had made herself vulnerable and allowed herself to love and this was her reward. How they must have laughed at her, the soulless shell aping feelings like a trained parrot. Tears threatened at the corner of her eyes, but she couldn't cry when she had learned how unsafe she was. "I'm going."

Edelgard put a hand on her arm. "My dar—"

"Leave me alone!" Byleth yanked her arm away and ran from the room. Her vision was a haze of red as she ran through the halls. People called out to her, but she didn't hear them. All she could hear was the voice in her head. Fool. Corpse. Demon.

Demon, yes. She had been the soulless Ashen Demon before, killing all before her without a trace of guilt or heartbreak. That was what the world wanted from her now, to kill the ultimate evil risen from the grave. She could do that. Byleth wiped her eyes. Tears, love, redemption. Those were things that belonged to the human world that she could never be part of. The past few months had been a lovely dream, but now it was time to wake up.

"Teach, you okay?"

Byleth stopped long enough to give Claude a single curt nod. "Saddle up and tell the others we'll be marching double-time. It's time for the vessel to fulfill her purpose."

Edelgard buried her face in her hands. Once, she had thought her defeat would be her lowest point, and then it was watching Caspar and Ferdinand go to their deaths. But it was this. The figure she had held up as an icon of rebellion against corruption was nothing more than a murderer resurrected by dark magic. Rhea of all people had discovered her theft. Then she had revealed that Byleth was also a resurrected corpse. She had driven Byleth mad. No, they had. In all the times she and Byleth had faced each other on the battlefield, Edelgard had never seen such hatred or pain in her eyes. Because of a deception made for the best of reasons.

She swallowed the burning lump in her throat. There would be time enough to nurse her broken heart later. For now, Nemesis had to be defeated. With any luck, she could find Claude and they could talk to to Byleth together and reassure her that none of this mattered. Edelgard would make whatever apologies she needed to, they would defeat Nemesis, and then they would figure out how to move forward together.

The sound of hoofbeats and flapping wings interrupted her train of thought. Edelgard rushed to the window overlooking the courtyard. The soldiers were on the march. That shouldn't even be possible. Byleth must have mustered them in a great hurry. Edelgard's heart dropped. Byleth had left without her. Worse, soldiers deployed so hastily would be underprepared against such a dangerous foe. They were going to be slaughtered. Because Byleth believed she was only a vessel and not a beloved teacher and friend. Or Edelgard's beloved.

What had she done?

There was a sharp knock on her door. "Edelgard?" Seteth asked.

Edelgard scowled but opened the door. He wasn't the type to give up in the face of the silent treatment, and the sooner she got the inevitable lecture over with, the sooner she could figure out how to fix this. "What do you want?"

"Rhea wants to see you." He frowned, and there was a softness in his expression, almost fatherly, that shouldn't have suited him but somehow did. "I assume it has something to do with why Byleth charged through demanding every available soldier make ready to depart immediately. I've never seen such a wildness in her."

"The Archbishop accusing me of more atrocities will not help. I'd rather not spend precious time being lectured by a hypocrite and a liar."

"So you know the truth of the Church." He sighed. "I suppose we will have to answer someday for our part in such deception, even if it was for a good reason. But Rhea is distraught. She said that she must make things right and that you were the key."

"You'll excuse me if I don't believe a woman who had my room broken into for the sole purpose of turning the woman I love against me."

"Please, she does not have much time." There was a slight but clear note of pleading in his voice. "Are there not things that you wish that you could undo? She said that you were the only one who could save Byleth."

Edelgard thought of Holywell, of Hubert, Dorothea, and Bernadetta and all the others whose blood was on her hands. "I'll give her five minutes. No longer."

"Thank you." He led her up the stairs, but not to Rhea's bedroom, but the rooftop garden. Rhea had had her chair moved to the center, and somehow she managed to look even feebler than she had an previously. She still carried that accursed Crest Stone.

She turned and her eyes brightened a bit when she saw Edelgard. "Good. I still have a chance to undo my mistake. Seteth, leave us, and see that we aren't disturbed for any reason. Any reason."

"Rhea?"

"Go to Flayn and see that she is safe. It will be your responsibilities to carry on the legacy of our people when I am gone. But now I must protect living things that are precious to me and I must do so privately."

"As you wish…my dear sister."

He left and for a moment Edelgard could only stand silent. It occurred to her, briefly, that she could stab Rhea and no one would be able to stop her. But what would be the point now, except venting her hatred and grief when Byleth's life hung in the balance? "What do you want?"

"The same thing you do, to save the life of our dear queen. You know that she isn't in her right mind. She'll only get herself killed as she is and this world will be plunged into a darkness from which there is no hope of deliverance. And it's all my fault."

"We agree on all that. But what do you want me to do?"

"You are Wilhelm's last scion. You have his pride and his courage. He saved me from Nemesis, and we fought a war together. He almost died, and it was in that moment that I realized I loved him. So I turned the very abomination the Elites had perpetrated into an act of love and so saved his life." She raised a hand towards Edelgard. "I know enough to know that your Crest of Flames could only have been forced on you buy the most vile torture. But the Crest you were born with was evil transformed into good by love. I wish for you to do the same."

She held out the Crest Stone in the palm of her hand. "I also know what someone with two Crests can become with a Stone. A Beast of terrible power, power enough to turn the tide of battle and end this thousand-year war for good.

Edelgard quailed. She had always told herself that she would do whatever was necessary, but this…no there had to be some other way. It was only the form of monstrosity, but after all these months it felt like throwing away the very humanity she had fought for. "It would probably kill me, and even if it didn't, I doubt I could change back."

"I know. But it is the last weapon I can think of to defeat Nemesis. Cichol and Cethleann cannot and Macuil and Indech will not. Only you."

It was very cold, suddenly. Her death had stalked her from the moment the Agarthans had dragged her into the dungeons. Every hour since Byleth had spared her, she had expected destiny to end her life and correct the oversight. Even more so once she understood how much she deserved death. But instead, she had lived while friends had died. She had fallen in love and dreamed of a life for herself. Now, she was being asked to undergo the same kind of transformation she had forced on others. To die painfully and be remembered as something less than human.

To save the woman who had saved her.

A chuckle escaped her body despite itself. "So this was my punishment all along. Fitting." She unclasped her cloak from her shoulders. They were such fine clothes she wore, some of them should survive in one piece. A bit of silver gleamed. The cloak fastener. She had thought it was an eagle but closer inspection revealed a falcon. A silver falcon.

"To save him from death, the knight was transformed into a silver falcon."

"The king was still a bad king and the knight resolved to end his tyranny."

"What's the point if he dies anyway?"

Edelgard closed her eyes. "I understand. Give it here before I change my mind."

The stone was warm in her hand. Edelgard spoke the incantation she had been taught in a quiet, clear voice. Warmth became heat and then burning flame. Black ooze traveled up her arm covered her body. Pain like she had never known, even during the experiments, filled her. She fell to her knees. And still she did not cry out. She was going to die, but it would be in a manner worthy of an emperor. The darkness swallowed her. She couldn't breath. Her bones lengthened and contracted, and there was a sharp pain in her back as something sprouted. Even her teeth became longer and sharper.

And then it was over. Edelgard flexed her fingers. Her claws. Black, leathery patches covered deathly pale hands. She stretched out her arms and skeletal wings unfurled. She must seem like a monster out of a storybook, a disgusting creature fit only to be a cautionary tale. "You must be pleased at the irony of me becoming a beast." Even her voice no longer sounded human.

"I would have been, once, but now I only want you to save them all." She looked down. "I'm sorry for not doing anything to save you. You really are Wilhelm's scion. If I have known—well, I suppose it doesn't matter now."

"I suppose not." She swallowed. "And I suppose I should apologize for my part in what you suffered. I don't remember if I ever did."

"You didn't." Rhea coughed. "Now go, last of the Hresvelgs, and save the world."

Edelgard walked to the edge of the garden and leapt onto the railing. The wind carried her up and towards the sun and her last battle.