Cordelia walked out of a makeshift tent. Her hands were soaked with blood, and she held them like she was afraid of them. Gaius quickly retrieved a cloth and helped her wipe her hands clean. "Is… is he going to be okay?"

"What do you care?" Cordelia responded bitterly.

"I'm sorry. I know it's my fault that this happened, but that's why I'm here. I don't forgive him, Cordelia, but I couldn't let the Grimleal hurt you. I'm sorry about what happened. I am."

"I'm surprised you can still feel sorry for anyone."

"I know I've changed, but I won't let innocents get hurt. How are the girls?"

"Stable. I stopped the bleeding on Caeldori, and I set Soleil's bones. I don't know what's wrong with Ophelia. She just passed out, but she seems to be physically uninjured." Cordelia sat down on the ground. "We're in bad shape though. We need to find a settlement. We need to be in a real city. Caeldori and Mercer need real medical attention."

"Where could we go?"

"What about Southtown? It shouldn't be far away."

"We can't. Something happened to that town a few weeks back. Nobody seems to know what, but there isn't anything there anymore."

"Where can we go then?"

Gaius leaned his head back into his arms and looked around. He paused as he noticed several figures in the sky flying towards them. "Umm, Cordelia. We have company."

"What?!"

"Wyvern riders."

"Who could that possibly be?"

"I was hoping you would say they were friendly, but I guess things are never that easy." Gaius readied his arquebus as the wyvern riders got closer. Several of them remained in the sky and circled overhead as three descended to the surface. Three armed men dismounted and cautiously approached the two. The man in lead was middle aged and had short and spiky hair. It was graying, but otherwise his hair was a reddish brown. The man had brown eyes, and he wore gold plate armor. He raised his arms into the air as Gaius pointed his weapon at him. The two soldiers behind him kept their weapons ready.

"Hey, hey! Put that thing down. We just want to talk."

"Is that why you're armed?" Gaius responded. The man just shrugged.

"We need to be. You never know when Grimleal will show up."

"You're fighting against the Grimleal?"

"You've never heard of the Arch Surg?"

Cordelia looked puzzled, but Gaius thought about it. "I think so. That's some kind of insurgency fighting against the Grimleal right? I've been hired to assass-err… learn about them before."

"Well you're on our land. What is all this?"

Gaius looked around in exasperation. "You think we're some army? We only have wounded in our tents! We're trying to stabilize them while we look for real medical help!"

"We'll see about that." The man turned to the other two soldiers and nodded. The soldiers marched into the tents. Gaius raised his arquebus, but the man quickly drew his axe and disarmed him. "You stay right there!"

"The hell?" Gaius activated his pistol sleeve and tried to point his holdout pistol at the man, but he grabbed Gaius' arm and moved it out of the way before bringing his axe to Gaius' neck.

"Firearms?! Those are common amongst members of the Grimleal. Among everyone else? Not so much. What are you hiding?"

Cordelia walked up to the man. "What's going on here?!"

The man turned to yell at Cordelia, but he froze and stared at her. "Wait… I know you. I know you!"

"What?"

"You! You were a Pegasus Knight! You were with the Shepherds!"

"H-how do you know that?!"

"Because I was there! I remember that day. I will never forget that day. I was a Plegian officer with orders to cut off Ylissean forces at breakneck pass. It was part of Gangrel's plan to capture Emmeryn. She was Exalt at the time."

Cordelia and Gaius both stood in stunned silence. "You were the Plegian officer in charge! You were the wyvern rider!"

The man nodded. "Yes. My name is Vasto. That was the first time I ever commanded forces on my own. I remember you Cordelia. I remember you coming in to warn the Shepherds about reinforcements from the rear."

"How?! What?! We killed you?!"

"I was wounded, but I survived. By the time I made it back to Plegia, most Plegian soldiers had defected after hearing about Emmeryn's sacrifice. I didn't want to fight in the war anymore, so I went to live with my mother. I tried settling down, but then the Grimleal took over the world. I realized that this is what the Shepherds were trying to stop all along, and I realized that Plegia had been manipulated into helping. By fighting for Gangrel, I had indirectly contributed to Grima's rise. I swore to make up for that, so I've been fighting the Grimleal ever since. Now I'm with the Arch Surg."

Cordelia frowned. "What exactly is that?"

"The Arch Surg is a name the Grimleal gave us. We call ourselves the Archanean Liberation Front. We chose the name to remind people of a time when humanity could defeat threats and be in control of its own fate. We also chose that name to remind people that we are all united against the Grimleal. It doesn't matter if you're from Ylisse, Plegia, or Ferox. We're all fighting to free humanity from their oppression."

"Why are you telling us all this, Vasto?"

"I know we were enemies once, but that doesn't matter now. We came down here because we thought you could be with the Grimleal, or that you could be brigands. We believe in the rule of law. It's not enough to fight against the Grimleal. You also need to rebuild human civilization. We have settlements, and we protect people from bandits and brigands."

The two soldiers that had been with Vasto returned from the tents. "They're telling the truth, sir." One of them said. "They have wounded, and two of them are in critical condition."

Vasto nodded and turned to Cordelia and Gaius. "You two obviously aren't with the Grimleal. You're Shepherds! Our leader will be ecstatic to see you!"

"What makes you think we're going anywhere with you?!" Cordelia snapped.

"We're not enemies anymore. We have food and supplies, and we can help your wounded at our base."

"So we should just trust you?"

"What choice do you have? You need help, and we can provide that for you."

"And you'll just give that to us?"

"You're the Shepherds! You're legendary! You almost saved the world from the Fell Dragon. A lot of people at our base would be very happy to see you. Medical supplies are nothing in exchange for that."

Cordelia turned to Gaius. He habitually shrugged before remembering that Cordelia couldn't see him. "We don't have much of a choice. Chrom and Caeldori need real medical attention."

Cordelia sighed. "Can you provide supplies for our wyvern and our Pegasus when we get there?"

Vasto glanced back to a Pegasus Cordelia had behind one of the tents. "Yeesh, that thing looks ancient. Is that the same Pegasus you had thirty years ago?"

"Yes. Can you help her or not. She's not used to flying this much anymore."

"Sure. Welcome to the Arch Surg. We're not exactly like the Shepherds, but we do believe in justice, and justice should come to few men's detriment but all men's fear. We will take the fight to the Grimleal, and you two will inspire our forces! Come with me. Our base isn't far from here."

Just as when he had fallen unconscious after his fight with Courtney at the Rockpile, Mercer found himself in a strange void of a continuance. Everything around him was black, and once more he couldn't see or feel his body, yet he felt like he was physically present somewhere. It didn't feel like a dream or an out of body experience. Mercer felt like he was in a very real location. In the distance Mercer could hear a strange chanting like what he had heard before, but it was much closer. He wandered towards the direction of it until it became very audible, and Mercer quickly realized that one woman's voice stood out from the others. He turned to find a familiar woman behind him. The woman hadn't been there when Mercer came from that direction, though perhaps direction was meaningless in this void. The woman had long navy blue hair, and she stood with her back facing Mercer, talking to nothing.

"Here in my empire, that you do not remember. Your hands do not toil. Your eyes do not see. Your ears do not listen."

"What are you saying?" Mercer called out. The woman slowly turned around. It was Lucina, and once more Mercer was made to come face to face with a woman that had once trusted him so much, only to be hurt by him. This Lucina wasn't twisted and warped by feral rage as E-13 had been. Painful as the sight was for Mercer, he was a little relieved to see her normal again. Mercer slowly walked towards her. Lucina didn't react. She continued to stand and stare blankly. "Lucina? How is this… what… what are you saying? Where are we?"

"Chaos reigns." Mercer turned around to see Maribelle, a noblewoman and a member of the Shepherds, standing behind him. She had the same blank expression as Lucina, and she spoke in a flat tone. "And your hands cannot toil. And your eyes cannot see. And your ears cannot listen."

"W-what?! What are you saying? What's happening?!"

Mercer looked away to find Frederick, a man that had once always been by his side. "But I will return, and my crusade will bring order to the land."

Mercer backed away, but felt someone watching him. He turned around to find Walhart, the former emperor of the Valmese Empire. "And through war your hands will toil."

"What?!" Mercer furiously glanced around, and every time he did he found a new Shepherd staring at him. They all gave him the same blank expression. He looked over to find Stahl.

"And through war your eyes will see."

Mercer looked over to see Olivia. "And through war your ears will listen."

"S-stop it. Stop it! All of you! Stop it!"

None of the Shepherds ever moved, but there were now so many of them that Mercer was surrounded. "I shall return." Sumia said.

"And the world will toil." Gerome said.

"And the world will see." Vaike said.

"And the world will listen." Owain said.

"And that world will cease to be." Nowi said. Mercer closed his eyes for several seconds and ran his hands through his hair. When he looked up again, the Shepherds were all standing around one man. He was tall and heavily armored, but also old. He didn't look any younger than eighty. His face was almost consumed by a raggedy and unkempt stark white beard, and his skin sagged with deep seated wrinkles. The man brought his blue eyes down on Mercer and gave him a cold and unfeeling stare, yet a stare that burned with intensity.

"My world will remain."

"GAAH!" Mercer flung himself forward to find himself in a bed. He was wearing nothing but his smallclothes, and beside him was a middle aged woman with an expression that combined fear and embarrassment on her face. Mercer darted his eyes around to find any signs of what had just happened being real, but the room he was in seemed perfectly normal. It had just been a dream, though it felt so real. Mercer awkwardly turned to the woman, who had apparently been rubbing some kind of oil on his chest. He slowly glanced down at his abdomen and noticed the oil around the wound E-13 had inflicted on him. There was a noticeable scar running below his stomach, but it was a far less traumatizing sight than seeing his intestines spilling out. "Where… where am I?"

"Are you okay?" The woman asked in a soft but professional tone.

Mercer nodded. "Yeah." He lied back down on the bed and pulled the sheet over him. "I'm fine. I just… had a nightmare. Where am I?"

The woman gently but compulsorily pulled the sheet back down until Mercer's scar was visible again. She went back to tending to it. "You're in a hospital. You're safe now. Your allies brought you here."

"You mean the girls?"

"A blind red haired woman and an orange haired man with strange goggles brought you here. They had young women with then, but they were as incapacitated as you were."

"An orange haired man with strange goggles?!"

"Yes."

Mercer became very worried. "He was working with the blind woman?!"

"They seemed to get along."

Mercer was afraid of Gaius coming back, but if Cordelia trusted him then he must not have been there to hurt him or the girls. He sighed and relaxed. "Are the young women okay?"

"Yes. One had broken bones, but that's nothing serious. One just needed some rest. The third had lost her hand and was suffering from severe blood loss, but she should be fine with medical attention."

"Lost her hand?!"

The woman nodded and didn't say anything further. Mercer wanted to ask who she was, but the question seemed to be less and less relevant to him as the seconds went by. It wasn't because Mercer didn't care, or even because he felt that the woman was just a nurse and nothing more. Rather, Mercer felt that he already knew her somehow. Mercer watched as the woman tended to his wound, uncaring about any supposed awkwardness to touching a scantily dressed stranger so intimately. The woman had a professional demeanor, and Mercer felt that she had likely seen severe injuries before. Perhaps she had even seen war and death before. Mercer looked up and carefully studied the woman herself. Though her hair was graying, it was still mostly a light blonde color. Her eyes were a soft and subdued blue, to the point where they were almost slate colored. Her face was soft, but also determined. "This might seem strange of me to ask but, have we met before?"

The woman stopped tending to Mercer's wound and took a deep breath. "Yes, Chrom. We have met before. I also met your elder sister once. I was once a priestess, and I made a pilgrimage to Ylisstol to hear her speak. I believed in Naga and the Earth Mother, but that was before Walhart rose to power. Walhart wanted to unite humanity and free us from the tyranny of gods. He wanted a world where humans were in charge of their own fate. I served in his empire to make his vision a reality, and I fought against your Shepherds when you came to Valm."

Mercer's eyes widened as he realized who the woman was. "You! You were the Valmese commander at Fort Steiger!"

"Yes. I can't say I ever thought I'd see you again, Prince Chrom."

"I thought you were killed!"

"No. I was badly injured, but life did not leave me. I initially tried to regroup with Valmese forces and launch a counterattack, but some time had passed since I was wounded. Walhart's empire was gone, and we heard that Walhart himself had willingly joined with your Shepherds. It broke our hearts to know that our leader had given up, but we decided that his vision could live on within us. When the Grimleal took over the world, we resisted them in any way we could. We never did much. If we did then they would have killed us long ago. We have been fighting in any way we can though, and that's why I'm here."

"What do you mean?"

"I know we were foes once, but that doesn't matter now. Valm, Ylisse, kingdoms, empires, none of that matters now. All that matters is that we're both human, and that we fight against the Grimleal."

"So you're with some kind of resistance group?"

"We call ourselves the Archanean Liberation Front, though the Grimleal often call us the Archanean Insurgency, or the Arch Surg."

"So where do I fit into this?"

Pheros went back to tending to Mercer's wound. "Don't feel so threatened. We're not holding you here against your will. We're just treating your wounds, and your allies agreed to take you here willingly."

"I want to see them." Mercer demanded in a soft but aggressive tone. Pheros nodded.

"Of course. One of your old allies is just outside, actually. I'm sure she'll be happy to see you awake." Pheros stood up and exited the tent, and Cordelia walked in shortly after. Cordelia slowly made her way towards the chair, carefully feeling for it and occasionally stumbling over small objects strewn around the floor. Mercer couldn't bear to just sit and watch, so he got up and helped Cordelia to a chair beside his bed. Cordelia smiled at him, but she also looked very worried.

"T-thank you, Chrom, but you shouldn't be up."

"I'm fine. Really."

"Are you sure? You were very badly injured."

"I'm fine, Cordelia. Thank you."

Cordelia nodded and placed her hand on Mercer's shoulder. She slowly ran it down his chest, but recoiled when she reached his pectoral. "Oh you're uh, you're not wearing much. Did you just wake up?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure you don't need more rest?"

"I'd really like to talk, Cordelia. Where are we?"

"We didn't have many options after we escaped the Grimleal. We couldn't stay at the cabin because they could have attacked again, so we had to leave. I had to stop and help stabilize you and Caeldori, and that's when we encountered the Arch Surg."

"Are the girls okay?"

"Yes. Soleil had broken bones but she's recovered. I don't know what happened to Ophelia, but she's healthy now."

"And Caeldori?"

Cordelia was visibly pained. "Oh my baby. She… she erm…" Mercer took Cordelia's hand, and she trembled. "She… she lost her hand, Mercer."

"Gods!"

"She was almost passed out from blood loss when I last saw her. They've told me that she's made a full recovery, but they were still working on her prosthetic."

Mercer shook his head. His mind was still desperately trying to process everything that had happened to him in such a short period of time. The only thing he could bring himself to focus on was his immediate safety. "Cordelia… the woman here told me you came with Gaius. What's going on?"

"I was as worried as you are Mercer, but he's not our enemy right now. He saved us back at the homestead. The Grimleal forces would have overwhelmed us without him. He helped me get you and the girls here. He's not going to hurt us."

"He lead the Grimleal to us didn't he?"

"Yes but… but… he's sorry, Mercer. Really he's sorry. That's why he's helping. He wants to atone for what he did to us. Surely you can understand that?"

Mercer could understand wanting to help people to make up for past sins, but that didn't make him any less afraid of Gaius. Even then, he was actually calmed by Cordelia's seemingly genuine trust in him. Against his own judgement, Mercer found himself increasingly relaxed around Cordelia and anything she was familiar with. "Alright, but what about these people? Do you know who they are?"

"Yes. It was explained to me. They're called the Archanean Liberation Front. They're a resistance organization that fights against the Grimleal. Soleil said that Tiki mentioned them once, but Tiki didn't approve of their violence."

"Then why do we trust them?"

"We don't have many options right now. These people are helping us. You and Caeldori might have died without their help!"

"But they could be dangerous! Do you know who that woman that just walked out was?!"

"Yes. Pheros. She was the commander at Fort Steiger."

"You don't sound surprised."

"No. She's not the first old world foe I've seen here. After we escaped the Grimleal at the homestead, we set up camp in the wilderness. We were harassed by wyvern riders who claimed we were in their territory, but they became a lot more friendly after their leader recognized us. You'd never guess who it was."

"Someone we knew?"

"Remember the war between Emmeryn and Gangrel? Remember when Plegian forces ambushed us at breakneck pass? Their leader was a wyvern rider? His name was… is Vasto."

"He was the leader?!"

"Yes. He's with the Archanean Liberation Front now. So is Pheros. They may have been our enemies once, Chrom, but that was a long time ago. Now the people here just want to free humanity from the oppression of the Grimleal."

"Gods! Walhart, Gangrel, and Aversa turn up alive after we defeated them. Now minor generals are showing up? Did we kill anyone important back then?!"

Cordelia shrugged. She held Mercer's hand with both of her own and gently caressed it. "Look Mercer… without these people… you might not be here. We don't know them, but we don't have to be hostile to them. They are enemies of the Grimleal. That makes them our allies."

Mercer remembered Keith and the tyranny he brought to Veslil. "That's not necessarily true."

Cordelia didn't say anything else for several minutes. Mercer waited for her to speak, but she didn't. The two just held each other's hands and took in the quiet. Mercer found himself staring at Cordelia's features. With all the horrible things that had happened to him in just a few days, Mercer wasn't sure where he'd be without her support. Why did she care so much for him after everything he'd done to her? The emotion that had the most powerful effect on Mercer's mind whenever he looked at her was still guilt, but he also felt something else. He hadn't felt anything like it in thirty years, and it was hard for him to describe or understand it, but it was pleasant. He felt safe around her. He felt younger. He felt like he didn't hate himself anymore. The crippling self loathing that Mercer had long accepted as a form of penance returned whenever Cordelia left, but as long as she was nearby, Mercer felt a peace he hadn't known in decades. He still didn't feel like he deserved it, but there was no denying he wanted it. Mercer lost himself in looking at Cordelia, contemplating his role in her life, and didn't even realize several minutes had passed before she finally spoke up again. "Chrom?"

"Y-yes?"

"Why didn't you introduce yourself to me as Mercer?"

"What?"

"When I called you Chrom, you didn't correct me. Ophelia and Soleil told me you called yourself Mercer. They told me you snapped at them if they called you Chrom. Caeldori said you never told her to call you that though, and you never told me. Ophelia and Soleil insisted that you didn't want to be called by your name. So why didn't you correct me?"

Mercer hadn't even realized. He was so overwhelmed with emotions when Cordelia talked to him that he never thought about his name. "I… don't know."

"Why change your name at all? Why hide who you are?"

"I couldn't let the people at my village know who I was."

"But why refuse to let Ophelia and Soleil call you by your name?"

"Because… because Chrom died thirty years ago."

Cordelia looked hurt, and she slowly shook her head. "No! No. You're still here! You're still with us! I know you hate yourself but that doesn't mean you aren't still a good person. The girls, Ophelia especially, went on and on about you when they first brought you to the homestead. They believed you were the best hope for the world. You can still be what they see in you! You can be what I see in you."

Mercer sank his head into his pillow and withdrew his hand. "Cordelia, do you know what I did after it happened?"

"After what happened?"

"You know what I mean. After it happened. After it all fell apart."

Cordelia was very nervous about where Mercer was going. "N-no. Of course not."

Mercer took a few deep breaths and thought about his story. "I blacked out after the fighting stopped, but only for a few minutes. When I woke up, everything was still there. The bodies were still there. The blood was still there. The Falchion, stained in the gore of the men and women who had once seen it as a symbol of hope, was still there. My daughter, her dead eyes frozen in that last listless stare, was still there. I just… I couldn't be there. I wanted to bury them but there were dozens of bodies, and I just couldn't be there anymore. I grabbed the Falchion and left. I didn't have any destination in mind. I just walked. I walked and walked. I don't remember how long it was. I remember the sun setting and coming up a few times, but I don't remember how long it was. I don't remember very much about that time really, except for one thing. The wild animals I came across… they were afraid of me."

Cordelia shivered and brought her hand to her mouth. "Oh, Chrom."

"Eventually I found a beehive. A huge one. I watched as the bees went about their lives. They were all busy working for the hive. No one bee cold survive on its own. They all work for the good of the hive. For the good of other bees. They only cared about helping each other. The Shepherds worked together. They cared for each other. They trusted me, and I betrayed them. Watching those bees, it filled me with rage. I… I attacked the beehive. Hundreds of bees, maybe thousands, came out and attacked me. They stung the crap out of me. Next thing I knew I was on the ground. I could barely breathe, and a furious pain burned my entire body, but I didn't die. Life clung to me like a sickness. I decided though… I decided that Chrom did die that day. I'm Mercer now." Mercer turned to Cordelia. She couldn't see his glare, but his voice told her everything she needed to know about how he was feeling. "Call me Mercer from now on, Cordelia. I mean it."

"B-but-"

"I mean it."

Cordelia hung her head, clearly regretting bringing it up. Mercer wasn't going to back down on this, but he couldn't take the silence anymore. "So uh… where are we? Where exactly are we?"

Cordelia's expression didn't improve. She grabbed Mercer's hand again and held it very tightly. "Mercer… oh gods. Do I have to call you that?"

"Please, Cordelia."

Cordelia sighed. "Alright. Mercer, the name of the settlement we're in is… it's called Nowi Falls."

"W-what? What?! Why is it called that?!"

"Come on. Get dressed." Cordelia tugged on Mercer's arm. "Maybe I should show you. You'll see it eventually anyways."

Soleil walked into a medical tent to see a man standing over Caeldori. Caeldori had her right arm outstretched, but it didn't end in a human hand. Caeldori now had a prosthetic at the end of her arm, and the man helped her hold it up and ran his fingers along the device. The hand resembled an armored gauntlet, but it was the size of a hand and was strapped directly to her arm. The man with Caeldori was carefully explaining its operation to her, and Caeldori's expression grew more pained with every word. The man didn't notice at all. If anything he was excited at the device.

"Any questions about how it works?" The man asked eagerly.

Caeldori was almost choking down tears, and she had to steady herself for her voice to come out steady. "How-how do I move the fingers?"

"Oh sweetie, you must not, you must not have been paying attention there, heh. You can't move the hand itself! It's not a human hand. That would be impossible. You move the fingers with your other hand." The man took Caeldori's left hand and placed it on the prosthetic. "Now if you lost both hands then you would be in trouble, but you still have your other hand. You use your left hand to manipulate the fingers." The man moved Caeldori's hand and made her move the fingers on the prosthetic. "The fingers can grip items tightly enough to hold them, so you can easily hold a weapon or a pen or a utensil with this hand. Just put the item in your hand with your other hand and mold the fingers around it. The hand should be able to hold it." The man flipped the prosthetic over and pointed towards several switches. "These switches make the fingers release. Each individual finger has a switch, and the one on the back of the hand releases all the fingers. That way you can easily let go of anything you're holding."

Caeldori stared intently at the hand. "Okay." She said very meekly. "Thank you."

The man smiled and left. He hummed as he left the tent, and Soleil initially caught his optimism. She walked up to Caeldori's bed with a particularly large smile on her face. "Well if it isn't 'Iron Hand Caeldori'! Good to see you feeling better." Caeldori broke down crying. She instinctively brought both of her hands to her face, and so ended up hitting herself with the metal hand. This made her cry even more. Soleil felt her heart sink into her gut. "Wait, no! I-I didn't mean to make fun of you! It was a joke! Don't cry!"

"GO AWAY SOLEIL!"

Soleil sat on the edge of the bed. "Hey, come on. I'm sorry. Really."

"I said go away!"

"I know we don't always get along, but I can't leave you like this! I'm sorry I… I should be more sensitive. I just… I just want to help."

"Soleil-" Caeldori said through tears. "-just leave me alone." Soleil handed Caeldori a single rose. Caeldori took it, but she was more confused than anything. "What the hell is this?"

"Flowers! You're a hospital patient after all."

"Is this a damn joke to you?!"

Soleil stopped smiling, and she gave Caeldori a solemn look. "Like I said, I know we don't always get along but… I can't leave you like this. Come on. What's wrong?"

"What's wrong?!" Caeldori held up her prosthetic, the fingers still stuck in the positions the man had put them in. "I'm a freak!"

"That's… that's what this is about? You hate the way it looks?"

"My right hand is like some kind of a machine! Look at me! This isn't normal." Caeldori let her arm fall back down and sunk into the pillow. "People are going to look at me, and they'll just see some kind of freak."

Soleil was quiet for awhile, genuinely stunned by Caeldori's words. "You… you hate it because you think it's ugly? I can't believe that. Knowing you, I thought you hated it because it would slow you down in battle but… you hate it because you think it'll disturb people?"

"Soleil, you must think me a heartless woman to expect me to only care about warfare. I'm a soldier. Soldiers fight for a cause, but they also want a normal life to go home to. I want a husband someday, Soleil. Who would give me a second glance with this?"

"You think… oh Caeldori. That's not true at all. You're a good looking woman!"

"That doesn't mean anything coming from you, Soleil."

Soleil got up and sat on the other side of Caeldori's bed. She gently pulled the switch on the back of the hand, making the fingers release and extend straight out, and held it. The two women locked eyes, and Soleil gave Caeldori a genuinely heartfelt smile. "Hey, come on. This? This doesn't mean anything. You're a brilliant woman. You're strong and intelligent, and you are very beautiful. Really."

"I just don't have your confidence, Soleil."

"Well maybe I can teach you. You said you wanted to learn to talk to people like I can. Tell you what. How about the two of us go out and pick up guys sometime."

"W-what?!"

"I can be your wingman. That's the term Pegasus Knights use right? I'll show you that no one will care about this thing. If anything it'll give you something to talk about."

"I-I don't know."

"Come on! Saving yourself is overrated, and you don't seem like the cougar type. You won't be young forever."

"I just… I… I don't know." Caeldori took her hand away, but she also smiled back. "But if you're offering to spend time with me then… we can do that."

"I know we've had our differences, but it's killing me to see you like this. I… I want to… what I'm trying to say is that I'll always be here for you if you really need me. We don't always get along no, and maybe it'll always be that way, but I don't really want to fight you. I'll help you get over this." Soleil picked up the rose that Caeldori had dropped and placed it in her prosthetic hand. Caeldori nodded.

"Thank you, Soleil."

In the town square outside of the tent where he had recovered from his wounds, Mercer fell to his knees as his gaze fell on the city's namesake. When Mercer had first seen Nowi, he was amazed that he got to see a Manakete. Now he was seeing more than he ever wanted to. The city of Nowi Falls had been built around the building sized corpse of the eponymous manakete. The body was nothing more than skeletal remains, but it was still in the shape of Nowi's dragon form. "What… what the hell?!" Mercer said with a voice so shaky that it was barely audible. "What the hell? What the hell, what the hell, what the hell?!"

Cordelia placed her hand on his shoulder. "She didn't die with the others, Chr-I mean Mercer. That's what Vasto said. She survived, but the Grimleal have some way of hunting down manaketes. They followed her for years, and eventually she turned and fought. She… well you can see what happened."

Mercer shivered uncontrollably as tears rolled down his face. "So now her corpse is a damn landmark?!"

"Well she died in her dragon form so… yeah. The body was too large to be moved."

Mercer ran his fingers through his hair and rocked himself back and forth. "Gods! What is wrong with people?! That used to be a person! That was a person! I knew her! Now she's a damn landmark! They named the city after her body being here! What is wrong with people?!"

"The settlement was founded by scavengers after Nowi died. They stripped her corpse for raw materials. Her scales were used to make weapons and armor. Her organs were turned into herbal medicines. Her meat was a cheap food source. They abandoned this place after the corpse was stripped to the bone, and the Arch Surg took it over after they had long left. They didn't choose the name."

"This is so messed up, Cordelia. This is SO MESSED UP! Gods. She was always a little girl in my mind. Now she's a damn landmark!" Mercer sobbed into his hands as Cordelia hugged him. "This is so messed up." He muttered in a broken voice.

"I know… Mercer. I know. This is why we can't give up on ourselves. We have to be strong for the ones that didn't make it."

As Cordelia and Mercer sat in mutual misery, a crowd of Arch Surg soldiers gathered at the other end of the skeletal corpse to listen to a speaker. Cordelia and Mercer didn't notice until the speaker began to shout, and the crowd roared in response. The two made their way around the massive skeleton and joined the crowd as they cheered on the speaker. The man was very old, and his white beard went down to his chest. Mercer froze in shock at the sight of him. Cordelia could tell that something was wrong, but she couldn't break Mercer out of his trance.

"Brothers and sisters of the Archanean Liberation Front, raise your arms in celebration of our victory!" The man roared. The crowd raised weapons into the air and roared back. "Today we celebrate victory, the great victory of survival! The Grimleal thinks it has won! Our very survival proves otherwise! Our very existence is an act of rebellion against them! Until they manage to kill every one of us, they cannot claim victory!" The crowd roared in agreement. The man took in the crowd's fervor for awhile before continuing. "And even if we do fall, others will rise again. We are not just men and women fighting for freedom. We are an idea! They cannot kill our idea, but we can kill them! The tyranny of the Grimleal will soon falter like the corset of an elderly noblewoman at a feast, and we will show them the meaning of beard… I mean FEAR! We will show them the meaning of fear!"

The soldiers in the crowd roared in agreement. Cordelia slowly turned to Mercer and whispered in his ear. "Was that… was that Cervantes?!"

"Yes." Mercer shook his head. "Did we kill anyone back then?!"

(Who is constantly rereading this chapter?)