Corrin goes for a late night stroll. Leo delivers the mail. Sakura endures an unexpected guest.

Corrin dismounted the stairs and then moved out into the muted night. Her mind, still muddled from sleep, made predators out of the shadows cast beneath the moon. She crept through the night on silent feet. When she had escaped from the shadow of her treehouse, a phantom beckoning bid her to turn.

Perched on the steps of the treehouse Corrin had left behind, Orochi sat veiled in smoke and fluttering leaves, halfway between the ground and branches. She brought her hands to her mouth and then, when she'd drawn them back into her lap, a whorl of writhing smoke snaked from between her parted lips. The whorl slunk out into the hazy night, thinning into oblivion.

"It does no good to dwell," Orochi had said. "You can't bring Lilith back."

And Corrin knew she was right, but she couldn't stop the guilt from leaking out into her unconscious mind while she slept. Nearly every night, she'd dreamt of Lilith and was reminded of how her weakness had killed the little dragon.

None of the others were concerned that Lilith was dead. It was only mentioned in passing as feeble condolences, but most didn't mention it. Her death was a mystery, but the wards were still up and that was all that really mattered. Nobody asked how Corrin felt about it but maybe that was for the best. After all, she couldn't come right out and say, "I think I was supposed to die and I think Lilith took my place."

Corrin couldn't remember being dead. She remembered sweat covering every inch of her body, the fear that had held her heart as the sky began to fade, and then the antiseptic cold of waking up in her bedroom and the bewilderment of seeing her family and her friends sprawled across the floor, but nothing between. If anything, death had been an unwanted, unanticipated, and utterly dreamless power nap. It had had little impact on her, but had had great impact on everyone else. They looked at her like she might shatter.

It didn't help that her leg was dead weight beneath her. Sakura had said the leg, which was a mess of scar tissue and wrenching pain, would heal soon enough if Corrin kept off it, but keeping off of it wasn't a possibility. Though running set her teeth on edge and sparring induced tunnel vision of dangerous proportions, Corrin kept at both. There was work to be done around camp, an army to train, unknown territory to be scouted, a god to be killed, and, with Ryoma and Xander present, she couldn't afford to flinch in her training lest she been seen as weak in comparison. They'd both already made efforts to usurp her leadership, but she kept them at bay if only through the assertion that while the troops may listen to them, they answered to her.

If we weren't trapped here, Corrin thought. It might not be so awful.

But they were trapped. And it was awful.

Corrin continued on her midnight pilgrimage, passing by the slumbering barracks. She moved past it with roving reproach, hating it for the congregations of arrogant, foul-mouthed soldiers it housed. When there was a fight, more times than not, it was in the barracks.

And it's almost always over a woman that would rather they leave her alone, she thought with a grimace. Soon, the barracks lay behind her and the tavern came into view before her.

No music or laughter trailed from the tavern, but candlelight shone from the windows. As she passed, the flames went out one by one. She heard the door open. Soft voices bid each other goodnight. Then, "Corrin?"

She paused in her stride. Silas walked up to her and then asked, "What're you doing up so late?"

I wish I knew, she thought, but said, "I could ask the same of you."

"That's fair!" he chuckled. "I usually hang around the tavern after closing to help with the cleanup. You wouldn't believe the mess in there! It's like nobody knows how to pick up after themselves!"

"That's awfully kind of you," she said. And she meant it. Silas was awfully kind.

In the bright moonlight, she could see the blush spread across his face.

"Oh, I dunno about that, but that's my story. What's yours?"

Oh, I just can't stop dreaming about Lilith, she thought but said instead, "I couldn't sleep. I thought I'd go for a walk—"

And though she'd anticipated a solitary trek, she thought, I really don't want to be alone right now.

"Care to join me?"

He smiled and then offered his arm to her as he said, "I'd be honored."

Their trek to the lake was quick, but was made quicker by Silas' energetic chattering as he recounted the events of the night. Corrin listened only for the pauses between his stories so that she could respond with a hum so that he wouldn't know her mind was leagues away, buried beneath a churning wave of dismay.

"There's something I need to tell you. Something I should have already."

It had been three days since she'd spoken with Azura and she'd done a pretty decent job of blocking out the conversation, but now, walking alongside Silas beneath the hollow moon, Azura's words crept from the black to tighten around her heart.

"I never told you how my father died."

Corrin let Silas lead her through the forest, arm held tight in his, and soon she was drifting through the fog of memory.

The first war meeting since the Bottomless Canyon had just ended. The new additions were hesitant to believe the truth of the matter. Ryoma thought she was confused. Xander thought she'd lost her mind. It had been frustrating.

She had every intention of returning to her room and screaming into a pillow until she'd collected her thoughts into a constructive plan of action, but that dream withered as she caught sight of Azura sitting on the stairs. The songstress stared up into the night sky, lost in thought. Against the backdrop of the ascending steps, she seemed very small and very alone.

As Corrin walked nearer, Azura did not draw her attention but watched her with eyes wreathed in darkness. When Corrin arrived at the base of the stairs, Azura stood. At first, Azura said nothing. Corrin saw the wrinkle on her brow and the severity in her eyes and then knew that Azura did not bring happy tidings.

"Can we go inside?" Azura asked. "It's cold."

No, it's not, Corrin thought but nodded and then dismissed her retainers. Jakob looked Azura up and down with a scowl, but he left, trailing behind Kaze and Felicia as they discussed the best method for collecting tea leaves.

Corrin led the way up the stairs. It was slow going but Azura didn't complain. It wasn't until they'd entered her room and Corrin had clambered on top of her desk that Azura spoke.

"There's something I need to tell you. Something I should have already."

The rest of the conversation crested as the trees thinned overhead and Corrin could see the glistening surface of the lake lake, but it came in broken fragments and disjointed pieces mimicking the shuddering dread she'd felt as she'd heard it.

"My father had nightmares. Prophetic ones. He became soft, acting and speaking out of character. He sought out Anankos without the aid of the priests. Anankos laid waste to Valla soon after. My mother was certain that Anankos was in his head. That Anankos lulled my father to his death. I want to be safe. I don't want to lose you too."

The result had been Azura demanding that Orochi be permitted to monitor her slumber to divine the nature of her dreams and Corrin capitulating because Azura had terrified her. Even in sleep, Corrin was not alone, but, so far, Orochi had nothing to report.

"But that doesn't mean anything," the diviner said. "In some cases of minor possession or bridged minds, and that's what I'd call this as you aren't being pushed to do anything beyond your own free will, the epicenter can be hard to root out because its concealed well within the mind. Or they one responsible is aware that someone's snooping after them, but let's hope it's not that."

"Why?" Corrin asked. Orochi's face soured.

"If that's the case, then there'd be nothing I could do beyond reading your burial rites."

Corrin had thought of broaching the topic with Leo, but things were weird. They rarely saw each other but, when they did, their encounters were marred by awkward silences and embarrassing misunderstandings.

But at least Leo tries to talk to me. That's more than I could say for—

"Aren't you going to sit down?" Silas asked her. He sat in the grass with his legs crossed in front of him, staring up at her. Long tufts of drooping lavender shuddered in the wind around him. In silence, she sank into the weeds and wildflowers beside him. He smiled.

The moon was barely a sliver overhead, but the stars were thousands in number. There was not a cloud in sight. Crickets chirped between blades of whispering grass. A warm breeze coasted through the peace, but there was no great wind that followed to stir the night.

Reclining in the cool grass, Corrin searched the sky. More than once, she'd caught sight of a falling star streaking across the vast black night. When she was a child, she had spent nights staring out into the bleak sky beyond her window, hoping to glimpse the shimmer of a shooting star. They were said to grant wishes so she had wished on hundreds. Her wish had never come true. Now, she watched for shooting stars out of habit. If she saw one, her only wish was that she saw another.

The back of her neck prickled. She turned to Silas and found him staring at her. Beneath the stars, his dark eyes seemed limitless. She shivered, but she wasn't cold.

"The constellations are gone," Silas said, looking from her up into the sky. "The ones that you could see in Nohr, I mean."

"They're different here."

Her voice was soft. She didn't will it to be, but it was anyway. The fear that had gripped her had earlier ebbed and thoughts of nightmares, mind invaders, and uncooperative Nohrians went with it. A ticklish jittering had taken its place within her chest. She began to bite her lip. The nerves remained.

When was the last time I felt like this?

There had been awkward flirtations and chaste kisses exchanged with servant boys and passing squires in the Northern Fortress, but she'd never been invested in any of them. They had liked her and she had liked them, but the relationship was always superficial and fleeting. They were always just enough to sate her rebellious streak and leave her to wonder about what love would really be like.

"Can I ask you something?"

Silas still stared up into the stars, but his hands had knotted in his lap.

"Yeah."

Her imagination ran rampant with scenarios of what he could possibly ask her from, "How do you feel about courtship?" to "Do you think Camilla likes me?" Both tightened her teeth's grip on her lip.

"That day, in the Port Town of Dia, did you really not remember me?"

Her anticipation dissolved across her shoulders. She slouched and then admitted, "I really didn't."

Silas turned to look at her. He smiled.

"That's okay," he said. "It gave me the chance to get to know you all over again."

A breeze jostled loose strands of hair into her face. She brushed them away.

"I spent years looking for you and I was so worried that when I found you, you'd be completely different than I remembered but you aren't."

She laughed.

"Are you saying I'm the same as I was as at ten?"

"No! No, not at all! You've definitely changed!"

A retort was on the tip of her tongue, but it dissipated when he said, "You're a lot… prettier."

In a flush of mingled embarrassment and excitement, Corrin thrashed for a response and spit out, "Are you only noticing this now?"

"No… it was the first thing that stuck me upon our reunion."

"You've never mentioned—"

"How could I? How could I tell you it was love at first sight?"

He loves… me?

It didn't seem possible and certainly too sudden. He had only been back in her life for a total of five months and, though she greatly appreciated his company, she didn't always feel like she knew him very well.

But it was nice to hear that I'm loved, Corrin thought, but no contemplation or rationalization followed. She could feel the flush of nervousness hot on her neck.

"Look, I know you're out of my league. I hope we can at least stay friends," he said. His eyes were fixed on a tendril of thistle between them.

"Silas, I…"

I like you too and even though I'm not quite where you're at and you've kind of freaked me out a little, I want to see where this thing between us will lead, she thought as the words melded and then melted apart on her tongue.

He stared at her, expectantly, hopefully.

Nobody ever said this would be so hard, she thought and then admitted, "I don't know what to say."

"That's okay, I'm sorry I made it awkward," Silas said but his shoulders hunched.

"No!" she shouted. Then, she grabbed for his hand. He stared at her fingers, wrapped tight around his.

"No?"

Corrin tried to recall all the professions of pining from the smutty books she kept hidden at the bottom of her desk drawers that had made all her blood warm and thick, but she couldn't. Her mind raced too fast. In a rush of endorphins, she blurted out, "Could you just kiss me?"

"Kiss you?"

"Yes, it seems like the appropriate thing, right?"

"Does that mean you—?"

His fingers shifted through hers. His hand was warm.

"Yes."

Then, he kissed her and his kiss was a balm on the jagged thoughts that dwelled in her subconscious. It didn't last long, a few moments of tentative emotion before he drew away.

"Kiss me again," she said. Her voice was little more than a whisper.

And he did.

They spent the rest of the evening talking and kissing beneath the expanse of stars.

Leo lounged in an armchair and contemplated the virtue of patience. As the minutes passed and the unchanging landscape beyond the window lost all interest, he found it to be incredibly overrated.

"She's late," he announced when it seemed the only thing possible of breaking the monotony of waiting. He thrummed his fingers against the armrest in beats of three.

Perhaps my dedication to meter will hasten her arrival, Leo thought and then began to hammer out a brisker rhythm. The notes were subdued by the quiet hush settled over the room.

"She's always late," Xander said. He sat in an identical armchair beside Leo and crossed his legs in such a way that Leo could not cross his own, lest their feet touch. Leo did not dare call attention to his brother's posture, knowing that Xander would shift immediately if he did so. He didn't like having to acknowledge his brother's graciousness. It made him dreadfully aware of his own shortcomings and the debt he'd never be able to repay.

I'll just have to ensure that he ends up in a situation where he's as good as dead unless I intervene, Leo surmised, and when I do, he'll need to be completely reliant upon me even though my life is forfeit if I am discovered helping him.

His brother's proximity was just one of several nuisances that had cropped up in their sister's absence, and each pulsated in his mind as the minutes dragged on. Across from him, Elise read from the pages of a weathered book that he didn't recognize but assumed detailed utter drivel like undying love and eternal friendship. Every so often, as she turned a page or shifted in her chair, she would hum low and soft, seemingly unaware that she was even doing so. Each little hum grated at his resolve.

This is the first time we've all been together, conscious, and sane in months and I'd like nothing more than to be rid of them, he thought as a yawn pulled his mouth long. Then, he laid his head against the back of the chair and, as his eyes closed, thought, I could probably fall asleep right now and get a full night's rest before Camilla bothered to show up.

Leaves rustled outside the window in the starry night. The air around him was warm and heavy on his skin. The scent of languid smoke lulled his thoughts into static.

"Next time tell Camilla to be here an hour early and she might actually be on time," Elise suggested just as he was on the precipice of blissful slumber.

"I'll try that," Xander drawled as Leo jerked upright. Elise snickered, holding her book up to her mouth so that her wide eyes peered out overtop of its edge. Leo glared at her. She dropped the book from her face and then she stuck her tongue out at him.

"You've become such a heathen," he told her, regarding her with frigid disdain. She looked him up and down and then shouted, "At least I'm not ugly!"

She grinned with unearned triumph. Leo's scowl quivered and then he whispered an incantation. Her book rose into the air. She snatched at it, but its ascension was too fast. It bumped against the ceiling overhead and then she leapt to her feet. She began to jump at it. When that failed, she climbed atop her chair and stretched her hand up towards it. It was just beyond her reach.

"Give it back!" she shouted, crossing her arms and stamping her foot against the chair's cushion.

"Apologize."

"Fine! I'm sorry…"

Leo leaned towards her, gesturing for her to continue. The book shifted over her head. She scrunched up her lip and then yelled, "I'm sorry you can't accept you're ugly!"

He sighed and then snapped his fingers. The book slammed against the ceiling. Dust and bits of concrete fell onto Elise's pristine pigtails. When she gasped in surprise, he snapped again and again until her blonde hair was tinted gray.

"Xander!" Elise cried, throwing her arms over top of her head. "Make him stop!"

"Stop tormenting her," Xander said. Though his tone was commanding, there was humor beneath it.

Leo glanced at his brother and then snapped his fingers again. Elise shrieked.

"Leo."

"Oh fine, fine. I'm never allowed to have any fun," Leo sighed. The book fell to the ground with a thump. Elise jumped from her perch to retrieve it. She picked it up and then moaned, "The cover's all ruined!"

Leo shrugged.

"And what do you want me to do about it?"

Elise's mouth began to tremble. She held the book out for him to see.

Shit, Leo thought. The cover was abysmal. The binding had been shorn off by the uneven ceiling. The title was practically illegible. The stitched floral images looked more like wilted jellyfish than perky roses.

"Corrin gave this to me!" Elise wailed, bringing the book tight against her chest.

Xander fixed Leo with a disapproving glare.

"What do you want me to do?" Leo asked him. "Elise is the one with a dedication to restoration."

"I can't heal a book, Leo!" she sniffled. "You're such a jerk!"

The door flew open with a bang. Camilla strutted into the room and then flopped down onto a chase lounge with a sigh. Before a word of welcome could be given, Elise zipped to their sister's side. She flung the book into Camilla's lap, shouting, "Look what Leo did!"

Camilla looked at the book. She ran her manicured fingers over the disfigured flowers. Leo winced, preparing himself for a lambasting.

This is going to be just like when I cut off Corrin's ponytail, he thought as he curled his fingers. His nails dug through the soft fabric of his pants and into his legs. Camilla looked up from the book. Her eyes leveled on his, then she turned to Elise.

"I think it gives it character," Camilla announced, handing the book back to Elise. Leo's heart sank back into his ribcage. Elise stared at it for a moment and then said, "I'll have to think about it."

She returned to her seat, shot a glare at him, and then announced, "I'm not mad at you anymore, but you're still on thin ice."

Leo rolled his eyes, but he thought, It's comforting that she hasn't changed.

"Leo?"

Leo turned to his brother without comprehending the motivation behind his brother's invocation of his name. Xander stared at him with a blank expression. He intoned, "The letters?"

"Ah, yes."

Leo stood and then moved to the desk in the corner. After removing his dagger from its scabbard, he pricked his finger. The wound stung and then welled with dark, viscous blood. He sheathed the blade. He drew his bleeding finger across the wood in a broken circle. Then, he began to fill in the other necessary pieces like the words of power and safety. Behind him, Elise moaned, "I hate that you have to do that. Blood-letting for magic goes against everything I stand for as a healer."

It was the same tired argument she'd been making since he'd first begun dabbling in blood magic two years prior. It was a lost arcane art and offered limitless possibilities in manipulating the material world. It was also the primary form of magic their ancestors had utilized to escape oppression and captivity in the years before the Dusk Dragon. Besides, all magic required sacrifice of some sort, usually in the form of physical or mental strength. Blood magic was just more overt in showcasing what was being sacrificed.

Leo had told her all of this, of course, but she refused to see his point. To her, every drop of spilled blood was a failure on her part.

If she were truly against it, then she shouldn't have asked me to send a message for her, Leo thought with a grimace as he finished the glyph. Then, he laid his blooded hand flat across it. The lines and runes began to squirm. The wood beneath his hand began to hiss and smolder. He glanced at his siblings, but only Elise's eyes were on him. Camilla fussed over her nails and Xander stared out the window, both wholly unimpressed with his display.

Wow Leo, it's so cool that you've mastered the distortion of time and space to the point that you can transmit solid objects through both using only a minute glyph.

He imagined this exaltation in both Camilla's husky rasp and Xander's low murmur. They continued to entertain themselves with idle fixations as smoke began to fill the room.

"Mail call," Leo drawled, lifting his hand and drawing a white box adorned with runes from the glyph which burned away without his touch. Before he could even loosen his grip on the box, Camilla lurched forward, knocking him aside. Within a matter of seconds, she had undone the clasps and removed the stack of letters. She flipped through them quickly and set all that were for her atop the desk. When she'd finished, which was rather soon as Leo counted only six letters in total, she sat down in the desk chair and then began to open the two letters addressed to her.

Of the remaining letters, two were for Elise, three were for Xander, and none were for him. It came as little surprise.

The only people who would bother to write me are all in this room, Leo thought. He watched with a twinge of jealousy as his siblings tore into their letters. Elise read hers quickly, giggling at the first and nodding in contemplation at the second. Xander read his with a guarded expression. Judging from the tension in his face, Leo knew they were from the war front.

Leo knew only what his brother told him about the civil war in Nohr. He knew they'd beaten his father's army out of Hoshido, that all but three of the old Nohrian houses had pledged their support for the cause, and that being sequestered to a foreign realm with no way to return home had put a serious damper on his brother's plans. His army still fought and he still commanded them through orders sent via Leo's magical mail service, but he couldn't see to the maneuvers personally and that made all the difference.

It must be straining him greatly to be here while they fight his war, Leo thought.

"Ha! I knew it!" Camilla shouted, disrupting the calm. Then, when Leo and their siblings ignored her, she coughed obnoxiously into a closed fist until Elise questioned, "Knew what, sister?"

"Corrin's pet knight has a pedigree that is positively abysmal! She simply must stop fraternizing with him!"

Leo knew his sister was slightly mad. It was a fact of life. The sky was blue. The sun rose in the east and set in the west. Camilla had obsessive tendencies. There was nothing to be done about it.

But this is excessive, even for her, Leo noted. She caught sight of his sour stare and then shouted, "He's been sniffing around Corrin far too much for my liking! And now I know why! His family doesn't even hold a title, let alone land!"

"Oh Camilla, you're being silly!" Elise said. "Leave Silas be! He makes Corrin so happy!"

Leo snatched the letter from Camilla. The cramped, nauseating handwriting recounted an entire family history for the past three hundred years. It was incredibly detailed and well researched with references lifted directly from various official genealogies housed in the royal library. All in all, it was very thorough and accurate. It just wasn't Silas'.

"Camilla, this is for Cyrus of Windmire, not Silas of Windmire."

She snatched it back from him and then held it up in front of her face, squinting at the tiny print.

"Princess Camilla, attached is the complete genealogy for Cyrus of Windmire. Hugs and kisses, Margorie," she mumbled, reading verbatim from the letter. Then, she crumpled it viciously.

"Well, I'll simply have to send off for the correct one," she announced. Then, she turned and left.

Xander cursed under his breath and then he followed in Camilla's wake, crumpling his own letter as he left.

"You're welcome," Leo muttered after them. Then, he sighed and ran his hand through his hair.

"They appreciate you, Leo," Elise said. She had refolded her letters and placed them on the armrest beside her book. The sight of the ruined cover made his stomach roll.

"Camilla told me the other day that she didn't know what we'd do without you," Elise continued. "She said that you help us feel normal and not like we're locked in this antiquated, hellish place."

He scowled at the description and then Elise said, "Her words. Not mine."

"I figured as much," Leo mumbled. He directed his gaze out the window, uncomfortable with the stark emotion on his sister's face. On the other side of the courtyard, light bloomed from Corrin's treehouse, but no shadows adorned the leaves.

"And Xander doesn't say much about it but I know he's grateful too!"

Spindly columns of smoke rose above the leaves. They were iridescent in the thin starlight. Exhaustion etched itself into Leo's spine.

"And well, I'm really grateful too. Without you, I wouldn't know that Cassita and my friends are safe! I would be so icky with worry!"

Without warning, she wrapped her thin arms around his torso and then squeezed the air from his lungs.

Camilla would be proud, he thought as a blush darkened his face. He patted her on the top of her head, unsure of what else to do.

"Don't you have things to do?" he muttered. She squeezed him tight once more and then backed off with a giggle of "Love you too!"

Then, she was gone and Leo was left with only a sleepy malaise to occupy his thoughts.

Sakura sat at her desk, staring at the cover of her journal. It was the first time she had looked at it in several months. It wasn't that she didn't have the time. Sometimes, she felt like she had an abundance of time and nothing to do with it. She didn't train with her bow anymore because she could never find Takumi to help and Ryoma didn't make her practice like he used to. She spent a lot of her time in the infirmary, but even that dragged on. There were few patients and several healers so if somebody did come in, she usually let one of the others take them because they needed more practice than she did. Sometimes, Elise would come find her and they'd hang out together, braiding each other's hair and chatting about their respective lives or, rather, Elise talked about her life and Sakura pretended to, until one of them had another duty to attend to. Before, Sakura and Elise had spent an abundance of time together and, for a little bit towards the end, Sakura had even begun to enjoy it, but ever since their siblings had joined them, Sakura saw the other girl less and less.

But that's okay, Sakura thought. Things have been weird.

Because they had been. Sakura could no longer truly enjoy her time with Elise. There was always a hanging tension like an executioner's blade poised to pierce the heart of their friendship. Elise didn't seem aware of it. She giggled and gossiped like nothing had happened.

Like she didn't leave me alone with Corrin's corpse.

Sakura opened her journal and stared at the last entry from the night her brother had stolen her for a walk. She read the opening refrain and then hastily closed the book.

Too much has happened for me to try and catch up now, Sakura thought. She stood and then returned the journal into the desk's drawer. The gold calligraphy of her name flashed in the dim candlelight as she slammed the door shut. She didn't want to write. Writing made everything real.

A knock sounded at the door followed by a shout of, "Sakura? You in there?"

Sakura opened the door quickly, knowing full well that there would be a lot of banging on the door if she didn't. Her sister leaned against the doorframe. Her fist was raised mid-knock.

"Oh great!" Hinoka cheered and then she lowered her fist. Her cheeks glowed with gentle humor and her teeth were on full display, flashing bright white between her faded pink lips. The air around her stunk of spirits.

"I was down at the tavern—"

That goes without saying, Sakura thought as her sister burst through the doorframe and then made a beeline for Sakura's bed.

"With some of the other pegasus knights and somebody, maybe it was Subaki…"

Sakura closed the door. Behind her, the mattress groaned as Hinoka flung herself onto the bed. Sakura scowled but, when she turned around, she'd scrubbed her face of any ill will.

"Anyway, somebody brought up that Corrin's looking really good… Wait, no it wasn't Subaki—"

Sakura sat down at her desk. She stared at her sister. Hinoka's hair stuck out at wild angles. Sakura saw blood streaked on her knuckles.

"Subaki's not a creep. You know that! But don't worry, I decked the guy that did say it but anyway… They said Corrin looks good for someone who was dead not too long ago and that got me wondering if you'd made any headway in figuring out how the hell she's alive again?"

Sakura hadn't. In fact, she tried not to think about it, let alone investigate it. Corrin's resurrection went far beyond the scope of her abilities as a priestess. She'd merely chalked it up as a gift from the Dawn Dragon and made an effort to honor the deity in her daily routines even more than before.

Leo's looking into it, Sakura thought. Elise had told her as much earlier that day at lunch, but Sakura knew better than to suggest Hinoka talk to the Nohrian prince. Her sister wasn't openly hostile towards the Nohrians like Takumi, but they still were a very prickly subject for her.

Especially since she tried to attack all of them, Sakura thought.

"Maybe it has something to do with her mysterious bloodline," Hinoka mused after a few moments of silence. She swung her legs, sweeping the tips of her boots across the floor. Then, she stopped swinging, adding, "You know, Ryoma was never able to figure out where the hell Mikoto came from."

"I know," Sakura said. Then, she meekly added, "Maybe we should tell Corrin."

"Tell Corrin what?"

"That she's not our full sister."

Hinoka cocked her head. She stared right at Sakura. Sakura averted her eyes to the contours between her fingers.

"She knows she's not."

Sakura shook her head without looking up from her hands.

"I don't think so."

Hinoka was silent for a moment. When Sakura chanced a glance, she saw that her sister's face was scrunched in thought. Slowly, Hinoka admitted, "It devastated her when she was younger."

This was news to Sakura. She had only ever heard of Corrin's childhood days in Hoshido as joyful and peaceful. The revelation of Corrin's misery clashed with the idyllic paradise Sakura had been led to believe.

"Well, I don't think… I don't think she remembers."

"Hmm, somebody should tell Ryoma," Hinoka said. Then, she flopped down on the bed. The sheets were atrociously rumpled beneath her.

"You know, Ryoma's been such a bore since he finally worked up the nerve to tell Kagero how he feels. He never wants to spar anymore. Just wants to play snuggle-bunny with her."

If Kagero makes him happy, I don't think it's a bad thing that he spends so much time with her. He never takes time for himself, Sakura thought, but she didn't say anything.

"And I haven't even seen Takumi since the day that… Well, you know the day."

The mention of their brother set Sakura on edge. The seconds ticked as Sakura grappled with the source of her concern. Hinoka's breathing elongated.

"H-hey, Hinoka?"

"What's up?" Hinoka asked. Her voice was thick.

"Have you talked to Takumi recently?"

"No, why?"

"I just haven't seen him around much," Sakura said lamely. The last time she had seen him had been when he'd come into the infirmary on one of her late shifts with a broken thumb.

"How did this happen?" she asked as she set it in a splint. He had refused a restoration.

"I couldn't sleep so I went to the arena and did some weightlifting and I dropped a weight on it," he said. He wouldn't look at her.

This just happened? she wanted to ask, but she didn't. She didn't say anything else besides a meek goodnight and then she didn't slept at all that night.

"Aw, you worry too much Sakura," Hinoka yawned. "I'm sure he's fine. You know how he gets in his little moods sometimes."

It doesn't seem like a mood. It seems like something's really wrong, but he won't talk to me, Sakura thought and then she wondered how to articulate her concerns aloud. By the time she had figured it out, it was too late. Hinoka snored softly. Sakura sighed.

She stood from her chair and then moved to the bedside. She pulled a blanket out from beneath Hinoka's legs without disturbing her slumbering sister. She wrapped the blanket around her shoulders and then blew out the candle on her desk. Maneuvering in the dark, she found the armchair in the corner of her room and then collapsed into it.

It's going to be a long night, she thought. In the dark, she listened intently to her sister's heavy breaths, willing them to lull her to sleep.

A/N: To those of you who have read the previous version and are now going WTF after reading this chapter, trust me. I know what I'm doing with this. I think changing the dynamics of Corrin's relationship with Silas allows for a greater payoff in the end and is honestly pretty realistic given her experiences and her relationship with him. It also sets up an interesting comparison between characters and the relationships between them, and I don't even mean just the strictly romantic relationships that are poised to develop, which is really at the heart of this piece. I'm also just really stoked for some of the following chapters so :)))))))))))
So I've always kind of felt that Hinoka was another one of those lovely flat Fates characters that deserved a lot more than she got in canon. I understand that saying that after a chapter in which its hinted that she might abuse alcohol is kind of shitty, but I've tried to do a lot more than just make that suggestion in writing her. She's always struck me as the most protective of the bunch, even more so than Camilla because Camilla's actions/words stem from a much more traumatic and insincere place than Hinoka's, and as one of the bros if that makes sense. She's an interesting character and I hate that I can't really give her more space to develop and flourish in this story.
Finally, next week's update will most likely be a few days behind because I'm not going to have definite access to the internet for the next week or so! I'm aiming to get it posted around Thursday so keep an eye out for it then!