I wake up to notice Elise and I are naked, 'Did we have sex? I don't even recall that.' There is a distinct lack of the intense smell I have come to associate with it, nope. She is still sleeping peacefully, one arm and leg draped over me, I bring my arm over and pull her closer, '...another hour won't hurt.'

"Lady Yasei!" I hear Jakob knock on the door, "I have your and Lady Elise's breakfast ready! I wasn't sure if you felt up to joining the others." He lets himself in. "Oh… Pardon."

"It's alright… Elise, we should get up."

She scrunches her face, "Elise says…"

"Yasei says wake up." I giggle as she reluctantly open her eyes and gets up. She does not even bother to look concerned when she notices Jakob in the room. I look to see that same stew greeting us… and a slice of raw meat? My little sister and I put on our armor and clothes.

"I took the liberty of hunting something before coming here, alas all I found was a stray rabbit."

"It's better than nothing." I smile. Elise and I start eating our meals, the stew is as bland as ever, but somehow it tastes even more dead without Keaton here. Even the meat is lacking flavor. 'Gods, knowing him, he probably fought to his death.'

I feel Elise wipe some tears away, while Jakob stands where he is the entire time, somewhat nervous. "There is one more thing, I wasn't sure how to bring this up…" I look up to see a note in his hand, "This was on the inside of your door when I arrived earlier, and after taking note of its contents, I decided to keep it on me, lest your brother or another Nohrian guard saw it."

He hands the note to me… it has the same handwriting as the one to Azura, it is so carefully written and just easy on the eyes, like the person spent a minute on each letter.. " Hello, you are a friend to the blue-haired beauty, correct? Well, I'm not sure if you noticed, but we might have 'borrowed' a certain Wolfskin before you entered the castle last night. It took a little convincing, but we managed to get him to a safe location north of here, it is rather well-hidden, even he had a hard time noticing it. We will make sure he is taken care of while you handle your business in Cheve."

I pause, "How do they know all this?" The next section of the note looks rather sloppy, the words seem to hop up and down, like the writer was bouncing with joy, "I am so glad that the lance I made Azura is being used! See you sometime in the future!" I read out loud, "How? How do these two know so much… are they stalking us?" I pause, "Not that I am complaining, mind you. Gods, he is safe!" I clutch the note to my chest like a lifeline.

"Kind of creepy that they know this, but…" Elise starts, "I wonder what these two 'sisters' look like? Knights in shining armor? Valiant Wyvern Riders? Ooo, a pair of sneaky Ninjas?" She nods to herself, "Ninjas would make the most sense."

"Except Phoenix, Keaton, and I can still sniff them out." I point out, "So, in order for that to work, they would need to be pretty far away." I get up with a smile on my face regardless, "But he is safe, so let's prepare for the coming battle!"

"Yaaay! Big sister is so happy!" Elise hugs me.

"What of the note, Lady Yasei? Wouldn't it be best to dispose of it?" My butler suggests, "I understand its significance to you, but if by chance if you were to lose it…"

"You're right, here lil sis. Make some magic happen, literally!" I hand her the note, she grabs it, snaps her fingers and it goes up in flames.

We arrive to the war room, where Xander is still hunched over the table, seemingly in the same spot as last night, Phoenix by his side. "Um, big brother, you did sleep, right?" Elise asks as she skips over.

The bags under his eyes tell it all, "I will after this battle, this is of the utmost importance." He turns towards me, "He fled, my men couldn't find him, but I do have every Nohrian soldier aware of my orders, sister." I gulp.

"Try moving this one over two spaces." Phoenix says. "Then this unit down one. Replace his tome with an axe." She doesn't even bother looking up, but I can see her smirk adorning her face, "Oh right, good morning you three."

"Gods, Phoenix, you are a prodigy. This war could have already been over with if we had you from the start." 'Wow, direct praise from big brother, now she is really living the high life.'

She shrugs, "Just doing my job." Jakob, Elise, and I leave the room to the main hold, where it is decidedly empty.

I notice that there is a brute of a man standing guard at one of the doors, he is dark-skinned with black platemail, "Lady… Yasei, correct?" His voice rumbles out.

I nod, "That's me, and you are?"

"Benny… just a guard." He shrugs before his face turns somber, "One of the two survivors of the Chevian guard."

I frown and Elise gasps, "Aw, that's horrible!" The youngest princess pouts.

He nods, "Those Hoshidans have put up an extremely tough fight, but with you all here, we'll win."

Jakob speaks up, "I shall make my leave, Lady Yasei. I should attend to the weapons and armor, unless there is anything else you require?"

"No thank you, Jakob." He bows and leaves, "So… training grounds?" I offer.

"I could use some more practice with a tome." She nods.

We both enter the training ground where I am surprised to see Azura in, wielding a wooden lance and sparring against Caeldori, "Too stiff, loosen your muscles up some." The ex-pegasus rider says as she floors the blue-hair songstress. "Strike a balance between readiness and relaxation. Too much of the former impedes movement, excess of the latter delays reaction time." At least she is looking somewhat relaxed.

"R-right…" She says as she gets up. She then takes a breath and assumed her stance again, "Better?"

"Very." The two have very different stances, Azura preferring to hold hers overhead, while Caeldori looks more like a battering ram. Regardless, the dark-blue hair forced recruit seems to have figured out Azura's fighting style before even she has… impressive.

"C'mon, big sis." Elise tugs me, a 'practice' Wind tome in hand. Unlike wooden weapons and dull arrows, there really is not a true 'practice' tome, so to compensate, mages are given a weakened Wind tome. It occurs to me that Phoenix could probably still kill someone while using it…

I grab a wooden sword and join her at an open sparring circle, while Elise has this serious look on her face that turns out really cute, her left cheek is puffed out. "Wind!" She exclaims as I side-step it… then hear a rack of wooden weapons get knocked over, "...whoops." She smiles. I giggle and we resume our match.

A half hour in and the training session are forcibly ended, with a soldier coming in to announce that it is nearly time for the assault, and that the plan for attack is about to be reviewed. "You've improved greatly, Azura. Frankly not enough to put you on the front lines, but I can say you can hold you own for a bit." Caeldori comments as we are leaving. "Perhaps that lance will make up for your lack of training."

"Is that jealousy I hear, missy?" Elise asks with a smile on her face.

"Sadly yes, Lady Elise. That lance is truly a marvel, my father wo…" Her mood drops, "...nevermind."

"Um, thank you, Caeldori. It was an honor to have someone as skilled as you to take time to train me." Azura says.

She flushes red from the praise, "Happy to be of service, Azura."

Selena is silent, while Camilla looks rather solemn, however it turns to happiness the second she lays her eyes on me, "Hello, my darling Yasei!" She pulls me into a hug… with my face in her cleavage, again. I choose to just return the hug…

Then Elise jumps from behind and wraps her arms around both of us, though they aren't long enough to go the whole way, "Yaaaay! Group hug!"

'Well, at least the heat isn't returning,' I pause at that thought, before my body trembles, 'Gods… Our pups won't have Keaton…'

"Big sister!" Elise exclaims as she breaks the hug, "What's wrong?"

"Keaton won't be here for…" I shake my head, "Nothing." 'I don't even know if I am pregnant yet…' My two sisters share a glance, but ultimately remain silent.

We enter the war room, where Xander and Phoenix are still present, Jakob has prepared a tea kettle, and is passing out cups. I nod my thanks, 'it's the soothing stuff again.' I take a sip.

"Normally, I wouldn't ask for a fancy meeting like this before a battle, but…" Phoenix starts, "There are a few major points to go over."

Xander nods, "High Prince Ryoma is with the rebellion."

I choke on some tea, "Really?" I ask.

"Unfortunately, yes." The Tactician confirms, "He also has brought a force of Hoshidans with him, this will be a difficult fight."

"You're not getting yourself killed are you?" Selena asks, staring straight at Phoenix. "...or worse?" 'Worse?'

"I'll be fine." She waves her off, "We got more important things to worry about than a replaceable unit, like a high priority and dangerous Hoshidan Royalty target."

"I am going to side with her here, Phoenix. You are too valuable to just throw away." The Crown Prince continues. "The other major issue is that we, as in the Nohrian army, has an informant leak."

"I can tell by the… disappointment in your tone, that you don't have a clue on who?" Camilla asks.

"Sadly yes." Phoenix takes control again, "We're dealing with a highly trained spy, if… theoretically, this person was stalking us, then they know how to hide from a Manakete's heightened senses." She grumbles, "It is rather infuriating." 'Stalking us? Avoiding heightened senses? Are the two 'Sis' people that is stalking us also giving information away?'

"Regardless, today is the assault, whether the leak is here or not." Xander picks up, "We're marching in ten minutes, I expect nothing less than the best of everyone. Phoenix, shall you go over the plan?"

She smirks, "My pleasure…"

The battlefield is nothing more than a deserted town area, the same one we passed through yesterday, the Nohrian army is stationed near the castle, while the Hoshidans are on the far side, huddled around the many ruined buildings… with big brother Ryoma standing in the front, next to some red armored woman riding a Wyvern.

"Nohrians! Today is the day that you will be routed out!" Ryoma claims, "Today is the day that Hoshido pushes the advance and end this war." He draws his own Divine Weapon, a katana sheathed in lightning. "...and the day I bring my dear sister to her senses…" He stares straight at me.

"We will push you out as we did so many times before, Hoshidans." Xander counters as he unsheathes Siegfried, "The might of Nohr will prove triumphant again… and you will not lay your cursed hands on our sister." As if summoned by his words, Camilla and Elise are beside Xander and me.

"We can't let you take our darling Yasei away from us again, High prince ." Camilla brandishes her Divine Axe.

"Yea! Yasei is our sister!" Elise pulls out her Arcfire tome.

"Nohr is my home." I add, 'Gods, we are going to be forced to kill him, won't we?' Yato is in my grasp.

"Scarlet, let's win this… for Hoshido!" He tells the female wyvern rider, and the Hoshidans charge.

"For Nohr!" Our forces charge.

Within seconds, arrows and spells fly from one side to the other, and within a minute, blades are clashing. 'This is my first time in such a large-scale battle.' The sound is getting close to near-deafening, I force myself to tone down the sensitivity of my senses, causing not only the sound to become bearable, but also losing grip on the other senses. Seems like I cannot just tune down one… Still, the draconic strength stays.

I deflect a blow from a sword-wielder, before running him through with Yato, and the dance continues, block, strike, parry, dodge, strike. The flow of battle is slowly becoming second-nature to me. My right arm is still sending out protests, but it is on a level that I can properly tolerate.

"Gods… Ninjas!" I hear Jakob call out as he is keeling over, 'already?' A quick glance shows he has been assaulted by two, I barely catch a glimpse… gods, one of them is Saizo, the hair and scar is unmistakable. The other is a female, with extremely long black hair, part of it currently covering the far side of her face, and the rest of it done in a ponytail. Both of them are wearing an expensive looking set of pure black armor that has spikes adorned throughout the body. Then the two vanish again.

"Master Ninjas." Phoenix corrects, "Keep the formations tight, people!"

I deflect another strike as I hear more Nohrian troops dropping, 'gods, those two are going to end us!'

Xander's horse neighs as a dark beam is shot from his Divine weapon, knocking Saizo to his back just as he re-appeared in an attempt to take out Camilla. The man quickly recovers and vanishes just as quickly, blood spots revealing his current location. A few moments later and I hear the other Ninja grunt in pain as Camilla's axe hits her with a sweeping strike. 'Good, now at least their blood tells their locations.' I summon my lance to take out a Hoshidan, before slashing another's stomach open. 'Blood, death!'

A bolt of lightning strikes the ground near me as Ryoma charges past me, heading straight for Xander. Camilla attempts to give chase, but Scarlet cuts her off, the red warrior's Wyvern cutting a gash into big sister. "Oh, you will pay for that, sweetie." Camilla swings her own axe with such force, that it rips off the Wyvern's front left leg. She keeps her momentum and rends its left wing, causing it to hit the ground. Scarlet manages to move out of the way from a third blow.

The female ninja attempts to vanish again, but receives a large slash on her leg from Azura's lance, the wound burning a bright blue… flame? Whatever it is, it causes the woman enough pain to prevent her from vanishing again, instead the ninja stands her ground, still managing to deftly dodge incoming attacks while landing her own strikes.

"Father… forgive me." Caeldori groans as she just falls… alive, but unconscious.

Camilla is managing to push Scarlet back, if only by a little, I end another Hoshidan's life and send out an energy sphere to knock yet another one out. "Perish!" I hear Saizo say as he strikes down a light-gray hair man.

"Laslow!" A woman with light blue hair that ends in pink yells, she is riding a horse, before landing a deep gash on Saizo, "Die!" She starts giggling as his blood flows.

"My sincerest a-apologies…" I hear another voice stutter before the world goes dark in an instant.