Aversa knew her father was not someone to be questioned. Any decision he made was one hundred percent logical, and one hundred percent right, at least, that was what she'd been told by everyone else. Usually, she would agree. Usually, his decisions made sense.

But even she had limits.

"Father!" she yelled as she forced her way through the doors to the great hall, her dress smudged with black and her hair sprinkled with orange. The doors did not fly open as quickly as Aversa would have liked, but they moved fast enough to hit the servant girl standing behind them on her head.

Brushing past the fallen maid, Aversa stormed up to her father and said, "Why must I teach this... this insufferable brat?"

Yes, insufferable was the right word. That brat–Robin–three days had passed since her father had forced her to teach him, and he had been nothing but horrible to her. She didn't want to be with him as much as he did, but at least she'd tried to be nice to him, and he'd repaid her by trying to light her hair on fire!

Father would be outraged when he'd heard. Aversa was sure of it!

"Like I said, I'm busy," her father replied, the back of his robes cast in the shadows from the light pouring in from the window before him.

Or maybe not.

Aversa scowled. Yes, he was busy. He had made that obvious enough. "But why me?" With a pout, she kicked the floor. "Why not Ardri, or... or Cha–" Aversa's eyes flicked up to the window. "–or Ardri..."

"They have their own business to attend to. Business you should know better than to interfere with."

His voice dropped several degrees, and Aversa suppressed a shiver.

"But why me?"

When her father didn't reply, she said, a little louder, "I don't want to do this! Why me?"

"I do not know," her father said, and he raised a hand over his shoulder dismissively. "What would you like to do instead?"

She opened her mouth to speak, only to pause.

What did she want to do instead?

"I want to learn more advanced spells. I've already mastered the 'El-' level spells. You said I could move on to more powerful ones when you got back!"

"From who? Ardri?" her father shot back. "I don't expect him to be eager to teach you after you scared him off."

"Well he was mean to me, so he deserved it!"

"And now he will not be there to teach you anything else. That is why I've assigned you to teach Robin in his place."

Aversa clenched her fists, and her lips tugged down further. "But why can't someone else teach me advanced spells? Some other Grimleal, like... like..."

Someone like him.

"Because you're not ready," was his answer.

"Huh?" Taken aback, Aversa barely had time to react before she found herself staring down one of her father's gnarled fingers pointed right between her eyes.

"Look at you," he spat, with such force that, with such force that Aversa had to stop herself from pulling away as he waved a hand at her. "Already worn out from attending a child. Do you expect to learn more advanced spells if this is all it takes for you to admit defeat?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Aversa protested. "That's different!"

"It's not as different as you think."

Aversa didn't see how, but her father had spoken. Blinking back frustrated tears, she sulked and glared at the floor like it was the cause of this mess. Who else was she supposed to blame? Her father?

"Aversa."

Lifting her gaze, Aversa wiped her sleeve over her face and sniffled. "What?"

"I wouldn't have given this task to just anyone, you know." Her father slowly turned to face her, his face even. It wasn't a smile, but it wasn't a frown either.

"You... you wouldn't?"

"Of course not. You're special, Aversa." Slowly, her father reached down and stroked her face. Aversa leaned into it, embracing her father's touch, dry like sand. "Strong, too. Strong enough to force one of my strongest mages into submission."

"You're not mad at me for that?"

Her father shook his head. "Of course not. Such trivial action does not bother me. It does, however, leave me without anyone else to teach you. It's only fitting that you, as the strongest mage in here, teach someone so unfamiliar with magic how to cast, is it not?"

"But I don't wanna," Aversa mumbled again, looking away.

"Then how about this?" Her father's hands returned to his side, and his voice raised a degree. "If you teach Robin, I'll reward you handsomely. A warm meal, a new plaything, whatever you wish for."

Yes. Yes, that made sense. That was how things were supposed to be; you earned better things for yourself. If you wanted something, you had to earn it.

But she would have to take care of that brat. He was horrible, rude, and rotten to the core. Aversa hated him. Nothing would ever make her spend another minute with his terrible spell-casting, his hair-pulling, and his stupid little glares.

Nothing... except her father.

"Alright," she said quietly. "I'll do it."

Her father hummed, as if he hadn't doubted for a minute. "Good girl," he said.

His robes swept behind him as he turned away.

Arc 2 – Runaway in a Snowstorm

Some of Lucina's fondest memories were of her and her friends gathered at the center of camp, sitting around the fire. Even as the world was falling apart around them, they always had that to look forward to as night fell. It was always a nice break from the stressful lives they led; dirtied and tired as they were, as the last of the light faded from the skies forever tainted with dark clouds, they spent the final hours before the land around them turned pitch black resting, chatting, cooking, and telling stories.

Cynthia's stories, of course, were always about great and heroic deeds. Knights bearing sword and shield, saving princesses from bandits and children from bears, were what she spun her tales around. More often than not, the heroes of her stories found themselves tied down by whatever dastardly villain she'd pitted them against in the tale's darkest hour, helpless to watch as their loved ones were dangled over a cliff or the maws of a dragon to the sound of villainous cackling.

Lucina never thought she'd find herself experiencing something like that first-hand, but she'd never thought she'd be able to see her father again either, so apparently what she thought meant little.

The first thing she'd noticed as soon as she'd woken up through the annoying ringing echoing in her head was that whoever had tied her up cared little for how comfortable she was. The ropes they'd bound her legs and hands with bit into her skin, and the fact that she could only feel a slight tingling sensation from her limbs worried her. The spokes of the wheels she had been leaned up against were digging into her back, she was fairly sure her cape, or what was left of it, would be smeared with dirt and grass. Perhaps that was the intent, to make it as uncomfortable as possible, and if it was, whoever had found her had done a very good job, but that did little to lessen Lucina's already poor mood.

Which, of course, led to the second thing she'd noticed as she'd woken up; a pair of shining red eyes stared down at her, ones she recognized almost immediately.

"Mother! She's awake!" the girl standing over her exclaimed.

As she moved away, Lucina groaned and pressed the back of her head against the wagon in the hopes that it would muffle the squeaky voice still echoing in her head. It didn't, but the lumpy texture of the edge of the wheel helped her dispel the last traces of sleep from her head, allowing her to take in her surroundings.

Above her, the thick canopy tinted the sunlight streaming through a shade of dark green. White clouds dotted the blue sky, and the leaves remained still and silent as the cool forest air settled on her skin. The day was calm; a strange sensation, after all the chaos of the day before. Even now, Lucina could still feel the fringes of cloth graze her skin where her clothes had been torn open or burned away, and she was sure she looked a mess. It was tempting to fall back into the serenity, to let it engulf her, but any such thoughts vanished the moment that woman stepped in front of the small group of identical-looking red-haired girls and into her line of sight.

Crimson hair pulled back into a ponytail. Bright, flashy clothes, colorful like the outfit of a court jester. A long, steel sword hanging at her hip. That infuriating smug grin Lucina had never seen her without, a face that said everything of what she was and betrayed nothing of who she was.

Of all the people she could have ended up with, she just had to find herself with Anna, the Secret Seller.

Lucina groaned. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Ahem?"

Slowly, Lucina let her hand fall and met the gaze of the woman standing across from her.

"Excuse me? Can I help you, hun?" Anna asked.

Lucina grit her teeth and tried to hold back a scowl. "Yes, actually. I appear to be a bit tied up at the moment–"

"And you're rather lucky you are." This time, Lucina frowned, annoyed at the interruption, but Anna continued, tossing a pail of water that Lucina had just noticed in her hands into the grass. "If anyone else caught someone like you sneaking around their merchandise, they would've lopped off your head and tossed your body down a river."

Lucina blinked. "Someone like me? What do you–wait, you think I'm a thief?" She narrowed her eyes. "I'm afraid you're mistaken, miss. I am not a thief."

"Yeah, sure." Anna rolled her eyes. "Maybe you're not, but that doesn't change the fact that you were sleeping in my wagon."

"I swear, whatever you think I was doing, you're entirely mistaken."

"And I'm the Duke of Valm."

"What would I even be able to steal? I was asleep!"

"I don't know. What were you doing sleeping in wares?"

"I was..." Trying to get away from the Royal Guard? Like that would help her at all.

"Look, I didn't steal anything, okay?" Lucina said, shifting the topic as she moved herself to a more comfortable position. "You could check my coat or my boots, but I've somewhere to be soon, so if you could just let me go..."

Anna nodded her head. "I could let you go. But..."

"But?"

"I'm a businesswoman, you see." The woman planted a finger on the side of her face, and that irritating smirk of hers grew a tiny bit wider. "Everything I do, I do for a reason, and there wouldn't be much of a reason to just let you go, would there?"

"You mentioned something about not killing me before. Wasn't there a reason for that as well?"

"Oh, that?" The woman shrugged. "We're much too close to Ylisstol. Have you ever had to sit through an interrogation from the Ylisstol guard? Let me tell you, it's very time consuming, and cleaning up a corpse takes even longer–"

"And a second wasted is a penny spent, is that what you were going to say?"

"Hey, a girl's gotta feed her family somehow. Business is business. Besides, what would I have to gain from that? Nothing, that's what!"

Lucina sighed. Of course, what had she expected? When she'd met Anna in the past, she'd been just like this. Money was the only thing she'd ever thought about, and even if this woman wasn't the same Anna she'd known, they were all the same, weren't they?

Adjusting herself into a more comfortable position, Lucina said, "If you're not going to kill me, then can you please let me go?"

"Woah, slow down there, buster," Anna said, holding up a finger to silence her. Her voice was almost mocking, and it grated on Lucina's nerves to no end. "Just because I won't kill you doesn't mean I'll let you get off scot-free! I wouldn't have gone through all the trouble of tying you up just to let you go, would I?"

Holding back another groan, Lucina asked, "What are you going to do?"

"Easy!" With a metal rasp, the woman drew her sword. "I'll cut off your fingers!"

At that, Lucina choked. "What?!"

"It's what they do to thieves in Plegia, or so I've heard." Running a nail up the flat of the blade, Anna added, "So unless you want me to get chopping, you better start talking!"

"Talking? What do you want me to talk about?!

"Oh, you know. Who sent you, what they sent you to steal. You know, the usual fare," Anna said, rolling her eyes.

"I'm not working for anyone!" Lucina struggled against her bonds, and though they were a lot less tight than the ropes that had held her back in Ylisstol, they weren't loose enough to come undone in a few seconds' time.

"Don't try to deny it," the woman said, coming closer. "You expect me to believe someone like you could afford fine clothes like the ones you're wearing? And that eyepatch too." She tapped it for emphasis, Lucina unable to do anything to stop her. "I know a Plegian design when I see one. You clearly get around, whoever you are."

A Plegian design? Lucina had never taken off the eyepatch to see for herself, but if it was such a dead giveaway, then it was stupid of her to miss it. Perhaps the people in Ylisstol Castle had been too wrapped up in the whole ordeal of her murdering the Exalt that they hadn't brought it up to her, but the least she could've done was check it as she was trying to escape.

"Look, I don't even know anyone who would want to sabotage you. You're the secret seller, aren't you? I'm sure half the merchant population doesn't know you exist."

"Well, you can never be too sure if you're in the business like I am." Turning back to the children gathered a few feet away, Anna said, "Watch and learn, girls! This is how you take care of competition!"

"Wait!"

Anna turned back to her and raised an eyebrow, but she didn't move any closer. That was good. That meant she was listening, and that meant Lucina wasn't about to lose her fingers.

"I'm not a thief or mercenary or anything like that!" Lucina said, shaking her head. "I'm a knight!"

"A knight?"

At the woman's suspicious glare, Lucina looked away and said, "A former knight."

"And what's an esteemed lady as yourself doing here? Don't you have a castle to get back to?"

"The Exalt let me go once the war was over, and my family disowned me for... treason..."

"Treason?"

"Yeah. I didn't come to steal anything, I just needed a way out of Ylisstol." An awkward silence settled in the air. "You don't mind, do you?"

Anna stared at her long and hard. For a moment, Lucina didn't think she'd buy the story. This was why she needed to remain anonymous; she'd planned on only making appearances at important events, she hadn't prepared a story for a false life or anything like that. This was something she'd come up with on the spot. If there were any holes, she didn't have time to correct them, and if she hadn't noticed the Plegian design on her own eyepatch, she didn't trust herself not to miss anything important.

After what felt like half an hour, Anna turned her skeptical gaze away from her. "Now that I think about it, the guards were being extra nosy last night. That was because of you?" When Lucina nodded, the woman made a noise. "And the eyepatch?"

"Spoils of war. It's not anything particularly rare," she said when she caught the interested glint in the woman's eye, "just something I found in some Plegian villager's home."

"Drat." The woman let her sword swing to the ground with a clang. "I guess that means I won't be able to get anything useful outta you, huh? Alright girls," she called over her shoulder. "Get back into the wagon, the lot of you! We're going to have to pick up the pace if we're going to get to the next town over before evening!"

"Yes, mother," the woman's daughters chimed.

As they scrambled back on board the vehicle, the woman spun around to look over Lucina's shoulder. "And you, Mister Gregory, why don't you load up our lady-friend here in the back? If she's some kind of traitor, I'm sure she'll fetch quite the reward, don'tcha think?"

"The name is Gregor! Not Gregory!" came the reply.

Lucina would have jumped if it weren't for the ropes holding her in place. There was someone behind me?! They were so quiet, I couldn't tell! was the first thought that went through her mind, before another one caught up to it. Gregor? Don't tell me–

Rough fingers grasped her collar, and suddenly, Lucina found herself hauled up into the air. She craned her neck up to see who it was, and sure enough, she recognized the rugged man towering over her as her Uncle Gregor. His face was a lot more smooth, less worn by battle at his younger age, but his eyes still held that jovial nature she'd remembered from him, and it was impossible to miss the color of his hair, orange-red like his daughter, Kjelle.

Before she had the chance to process it, the man dropped her into the hard wooden floor of the wagon. Lucina grunted in pain as her wrists were pinched beneath her, but Uncle Gregor didn't seem to notice, too busy clapping his hands together.

"Gregor is done! Now, we shall proceed, correct?" he said, walking back up to the front of the wagon.

Out of sight, Anna replied, "That we shall!"

The crack of reins split the air, and Lucina felt the cart rumble as it began to move once again. As soon as she was sure the woman couldn't hear her, she finally relaxed with a long sigh.

This wasn't ideal, of course. She was tied up, so she couldn't go anywhere until she found a way to work them loose, and the woman was going to sell her off if she didn't escape soon enough, but at least she still had her hands. That meant she could still do something about it.

Lucina would gladly take that opportunity.

As she wriggled around, clumsily working to slide her numb hands somewhere they could grab the ropes holding her arms in place, she thought she felt someone watching her. She glanced over her shoulder to find the woman's daughters gathered on the other end of the wagon. None of them seemed the slightest bit interested in her, though, because their mother was speaking to them about something now. Maybe it was just her paranoia acting up.

Still, Lucina shuffled herself until her hands were hidden behind a pile of magic tomes.

I won't get caught here, not this time, she thought. I'm not as helpless as I was before. There are no cell walls to trap me in. Whatever that woman tries to do can't be any worse than what I've been through before. I'll get out of here, no matter what!

Yeah, I know I'm horrendously late, no need to tell me, heh... (And on a Wednesday instead of a Sunday, too. Heresy!)

Where have I been? Well, I've been busy with studying. The school year's in the last quarter, and I've also gotta study for the SATs and the like. That, and I was also trying to force myself to work on a fic that just wasn't working for me. Took me a while before I decided to throw in the towel for the time being and whip up another chapter for this fic instead of any of the other fics I've got on the backburner. I guess it really is the favorite child, huh?

Anyway, director's commentary: I was gonna do another whole chapter of Robin and Aversa shenanigans to wrap that whole intermission bit up, but I decided that would've been unnecessary. Maybe it would've been fun to read, but I did sort of want to get back into the main gist of things. Anna and the Anna-ettes (see what I did there?) are also back in the story! Gregor too, though this time they'll be less of a one-and-done thing and will actually have some sort of purpose to the plot! Wonder what that'll be, hm?

Last thing, I decided to start giving these arcs names, if only to make marking out different segments of the story less of a headache. I mean, they've always had names, I've just sort of kept them to myself until now.

Like I said, I do have busy things coming up. Regular updates might not be something I can promise, but I'll certainly try. Until then, I wish you all well, and stay safe!