Chapter 15: Sudden Illness
After a failed attempt to save Emmeryn, the Shepherds have been running for hours since they left the execution grounds. The sky darkens as clouds cover the sun and rain begins to pour down the dry desert filled with large bones-like stone structure. It wasn't long before Basilio stops in his tracks and turns around.
"Hurry! There should be carriages waiting just through the ravine!" He tells them.
Chrom stays silent at his word.
"Chrom, please!" Robin begs.
"Rrgh… I'm… I'm coming." The man finally says in defeat.
"Now quickly! We're almost…" Basilio looks back ahead and sees something that takes him by surprise. "Huh? Damn!" A pair of brigands block their path. "Plegians! I knew it couldn't be that easy… They're right in our way! We must fight!"
"Ylisseans!" A voice cries out. "I offer you mercy! Surrender to me and live!" The voice comes from a bearded man who seems to be the leader of the army.
"Surrender? Sorry, I'm not familiar with that word." Basilio tells him.
"Emmeryn would not have wished for this to come to bloodshed."
Upon hearing this, Chrom perks up with anger burning in his eyes. "Don't speak her name!"
Despite what the prince said, the man neither smiled nor frowned in anger. Instead, he nods. "Your rage is justified, Prince Chrom. But the meaning of your sister's final sacrifice was not lost on me. I suspect many Pleginas who heard her final words would say the same. If you lay down your weapons, I vow to protect you as best as I can."
"How can we trust you after what your barbarous king has done?" Frederick demands. "I think we shall take our chances with weapons in hand!"
"I suspect you would say as much. So be it, Prince Chrom. I shall endeavor to grant you a swift and dignified end.
Despite their low morale and fatigue, the Shepherds quickly draw out their weapons and follow the female tactician impromptu that she made on the spot. Even with Robin's concern, Reina quickly rushes out to the battle field with Reina behind her. While the Shepherds slowly dwindling their ranks, the leader is having a conversation with one of his men.
"Forgive me, sir, but I… I no longer see the justice in hunting these people down." The soldier says. "I accept any punishment you see fit, but after all that's happened… I just can't."
"How dare you question the general's orders! You know full well the punishment for insubordination is death!" A wyvern rider near them reminds the soldier.
"B-But sir! These people are–"
"These questions are not ours to ponder, lad." The general calmly interrupts. "The soldier does not judge. The soldier delivers punishment."
"Sir, I… I cannot raise my lance against them. Even if… Even if it means death."
The general seems to have realize he was there during her death as well. "…You were there when Emmeryn spoke, weren't you?" He asks. "So be it! Those of you unwilling to fight are dismissed!"
"But I don't wish to abandon you, sir!" The soldier continues.
"I cannot defy the king, lad. I know him well. He would murder my wife and child to set an example. I will accept the blame for your action today. Now go!"
"W-wait, general! I see a cause worth fighting for, one I believe in: loyalty to my general."
"…Aye. That's a good lad." The leader speaks.
After a long period of fighting against the Plegian soldiers with reinforcements still coming in, Chrom and Robin manage to get past them as they make their way to the general.
"I am General Mustaga of Plegia." The general says. "If you wish to keep your lives, then you must win them!"
As he says this, Chrom rushes over to the general and attacks the man only for it to be blocked. Reina uses this chance to launch her arrow at him as it hit the general directly on the shoulder. Robin then rushes up and dealt with the finishing blow.
As the man collapses on the ground dying, he mutters, "Well done, Ylisseans… Please… spare my men…"
With that, the general is dead along with many of his men who died before him. Then a young woman with pink hair and dressed in clothing of a danger with a white head dress rushes over to them. "Khan Basilio!"
"Olivia! I'm sorry we kept you waiting." Basilio apologizes.
"When I didn't hear from you, I thought… I assumed the worst." The woman, Olivia says.
Basilio turns to the prince and the tactician. "Chrom? Robin? Meet Olivia. She'll be smuggling us out of here."
"Only if you hurry! Doubtless more of Mad King's men are on their way."
"Right! Pile in, you lot! And bid farewell to this Plegian hellhole." Basilio orders. Everyone follows the two to a caravan of wagons and quickly go into them.
"Ready? Hold on tight!" Olivia tells them as they make their escape.
It wasn't long before they could all see the skeletal stone figure of the ravine far behind them that they know they are safe from danger. They continue to travel in solemn silence as the harsh storm continues as if the heavens are crying tears over the death of their exalt. Although they survived the sudden ambush on them, nobody feels as relief as some hoped.
Occasionally, they would fight off bandits and some soldiers who come after them. After a while, they finally stop in the woods just on the border close to Ylisse.
As they get off, Chrom looks around. "I-it seems everyone has managed to survive."
"It may be my imagination, but it seems the enemy has become even more aggressive." Frederick says with a frown.
Stahl nods in agreement. "They were all really bloodthirsty and cruel. Like they were bandits or something!"
"Stahl, some of them ARE bandits." Reina points out. "But I agree with you."
"Were the rumors of rebellion false?" Robin wonders.
"I wonder. I saw a sorcerer in the enemy lines laughing as he attacked his own comrades." Gaius says and frowns. "The guys he attacked all panicked too. No matter how you look at it, that's not a friendly fire, more like a falling out."
"Unbelievable…"
"By the way, Gaius, should we go in this direction?" Chrom asks.
"I-I want to ask that too! I-I'm not trying to say I don't trust you! I just never gone through here before…"
The thief nods. "Yeah. There should be a ghost town around here where we can hide."
Frederick looks around. "We must rest soon. Everyone is at their limits after the battle and all these fights."
Virion frowns as he mutters examining the surroundings. "A withered forest and slimy earth. A village located in the heart of the mountains. It's been quite a long while since anyone lived there."
"That's true. There's no way crops would grow in this kind of soil." Stahl agrees then he gasps and points in a direction. "Over there!"
"A small abandoned village! It's really there!" Robin says in surprise.
"The majority of the old houses are already decaying. It doesn't look to be uninhabited." Virion examines.
"It's enough to keep off the rain. It is no palace, but right now, I want nothing more than to let Lissa rest." Chrom adds.
"I-I'm all right now! Ehehe… sorry, everyone. I couldn't stop sobbing, even though we were in the middle of battle… I'm all right now!"
Stahl sighs unconvinced by her words. "You don't look 'all right' at all, Lissa."
"Uh… that's not true!"
"Chrom, you must rest as well. Your wounds still hurt, do they not?" Robin asks.
The prince shakes his head. "I'm… fine. We must not… linger here."
The tactician grimaced a frown. " Chrom… Your anger is not yet spent…"
"Of course not!" The man shouts. "I will not forgive those dastards who killed Emm!"
Luke looks at Chrom with a worried expression.
"R-right…" Robin replies and suddenly, a surprised look comes across the tactician's face as she nearly trips.
"Mozu!" Drago calls.
"Robin?" Lissa asks with concern. "What's wrong, all of a sudden?"
"Ah… um… I-it's nothing. I simply missed a step."
Lissa looks unsure of her response. "Huh? Really?"
"Yes. Pay me no mind. C-come, everyone, we'll catch our breath here. Don't worry, we just need to wait here until everyone has recovered from the fatigue and injuries. We'll surely return to Ylisse after all this."
They nod as the group heads over to the village as Meena looks over at Reina who has a downed look on her face.
"Reina, are you okay?" She asks.
"Y-Yeah… I'm fine." Reina replies as Éclair looks at her with concern.
Not long after they take refuge from the rain, Robin sends the candy thief to scout their surroundings as Chrom, Robin, and some of the soldiers go out to check the area. After a couple of hours, Gaius returns with new as he hands the bundle of food to Stahl, whose stomach wouldn't stop growling.
"But there's nowhere else to hide around here. What do we do?" Meena questions.
Frederick then looks over to the bundle of food Gaius brought with him in Stahl's hand. "Gaius, you can't have."
"Huh?" The green armored knight looks up with a question look.
"Hey, hey. Do you doubt me. I didn't steal it." Gaius says.
Frederick chuckles, "I'm joking."
"Hah. If I did that, Robin would definitely yell at me, 'Go return it!' I paid for it properly."
"Yeah, we know." Meena replies.
Stahl laughs weakly. "Ahaha… it didn't sound like a joke at all."
Frederick ignores the knight's comment and continues. "But in actuality, our food provisions are steadily diminishing. They will soon reach their limit."
"Do you think maybe that village will give us some food?" Stahl wonders.
"Give up on that." The thief bluntly answers.
"Why?"
"I'm saying you shouldn't approaching the people who live near that abandoned village."
"So… What do you mean?"
Frederick steps back with a gasp in shock and Gaius nods. "More importantly what are Robin and the others up to?"
Frederick returns to his composed self as he begins to answer. Meena looks over to her older sister with a worried look. "Reina? You haven't said a word for a whi-"
Suddenly, the trainer begins to collapse to the ground only to be caught by her sister.
"Reina!" Meena shouts. "Hey! Are you all right?!"
The three rushes over to them with a worried look.
"What's wrong?!" Frederick asks, stunned by the sight.
When hearing the weak breathing, Meena touches her forehead with her hand and she frowns. "She has a severe fever."
Their eyes widen in shock as Frederick quickly orders Stahl to get the healers and looks back at Reina.
"How did this happen? She was fight just a moment ago…" The great knight mutters.
Then they hear a gasp, causing them to turn to see it was coming from the thief, whose eyes widen in surprise. "A fever? …Don't tell me… Robin got one too." The two looks at Gaius in shock as he explains, "She was acting weird earlier too, remember? When the princess was asking her if something was wrong. She nearly fell."
"I hope not…" Frederick trails off.
As Chrom and Robin walk through the rain to the abandoned village with Lissa, Virion, Luke, Drago, and Chi, the tactician calls out from where she stands, "Look. Over here."
The walk over to her as the Ylissean prince says in surprise, "A graveyard."
Sadden by the sight, Lissa frowns as she looks around. "There's so many of them… what in the world happened here?"
"A cluster of simple graves marked only by stones." Virion says with a sad look. "Yet would be correct to thing that they are the graves of those who fell in battle."
"But that's ridiculous! For there to be a war up on this mountain…"
Luke shifts his gaze at Chrom as he explains to them, "Ylisse and Plegia have continued to quarrel since times of yore. The numbers of skirmishes have decrease during Emm's reign, but it seems that they occurred frequently in every corner of the continent in Father's time. Disaster may have fallen this village then."
Robin frowns. "The war has continued for so long."
"Very well. Then shall we offer these flowers?" Virion suggests. "I went through the trouble of gathering them after all."
Lissa nods. "Yeah. Good idea. Let's place them on the graves."
As Lissa leaves with the archer and her partner Pokémon behind the two, Chrom frowns and mutters, "So flowers bloom even in this soil."
Robin nods weakly. "Yes. You're right. Even in a place like this."
Chrom, Luke and Drago look at her with a question look.
"Robin?" Chrom says with uncertainty at her unusual words.
"The two kingdoms have been at war since ages past." Robin continues. "Why continue to repeat something so meaningless? Are they trying to destroy each other? Even though war breed nothing but sadness. This… earth where such beautiful flowers grow… is stained with blood."
Chrom frowns. "It is because they have behaved aggressively since ancient times. Most likely after the time Emm spoke of. Ylisse has always been threatened by Plegia."
"Even so! Continue these attempts to destroy each other is sheer folly from both sides!"
"Robin!" The Ylissean prince shouts in anger. "Are you saying that Ylisse is also at fault? Are you siding with the Plegians? With those dastards who killed Emm?!"
"Eru?" Luke calls out.
"T-That's not wat I… meant…" The tactician argues back.
"Then what did you mean?" The captain asks in confusion.
At that moment, Lissa and the two come rushing back.
"W-wait, Chrom! Don't fight!" The princess shouts with tears coming out.
Chrom slowly regain his composure. "Damn! At a time like this, we should be returning to Ylisse as soon as possible and preparing to defeat Gangrel! And yet, I… what am I doing here?"
"Chrom…" Robin calls. "It is especially at a time like this… that you must remain calm… and lead… everyone…"
Suddenly, Robin staggers as she tries to keep herself up only to start falling back.
"Mozu!" Drago shouts in surprise.
Lissa gasps in shock. "Robin?!"
Virion quickly rushes over and catches the woman just in time as Chrom rushes over to his tactician in a panic. "R-Robin?"
Virion raises an eyebrow as he jokes. "Oh? Whatever is the matter, Robin? You collapsed so suddenly. Did you so long to be embraced in my arms?"
Robin remains silent as her breathing is ragged and her cheeks are flushed red. Virion suddenly frowned as an alertness expression immediately comes over him.
Seeing his demeanor suddenly change, Lissa becomes nervous. "Virion?"
He immediately touches the tactician's forehead. "She… has a terrible fever…"
"W-What?!" Chrom exclaims upon the revelation.
Just then, the group hears footsteps running over to them causing Chrom to turn around quickly in surprise. "Damn! Not now! Don't tell me-"
Luke brings his arms out and shakes his head, indicating that the footsteps does not belong to the Plegian soldiers.
"Prince Chrom!"
The group begins to relax upon hearing the familiar voice and a figure of the East-khan comes rushing over to them. However, the frown that Flavia has made the group slightly anxious.
"It's your Pokémon expert! She's fallen ill with a severe fever…"
"What?!" Lissa says in shock.
Her eyes go over to the princess and the female tactician as she grits her teeth in frustration. "Damn it! Not her too! You should bring her to where they are fast!"
I got it!" Chrom replies with an anxious look across his face. "Let's go, Shepherds! Hurry!"
The group nods as Virion quickly carries the tactician and they follow the khan and the prince back to the abandoned house.