Severa and Caeldori: Ghosts of the Past


Hoshidan-Nohrian War- 5,122 days after the Assassination of Emperor Sumeragi

21 Days before the Ylissean Incursion


The fields here were beautiful. The rivers, even the trees. All of it so verdant and vibrant, as if it were out of a book.

And yet bloodshed found it all the same. Just like any other field in any other battle.

But at least she was on the winning side this time.

Selena nocked back another arrow, tracking very steadily the movements of a flying Hoshidan. They were so clueless, she thought, pitying the rider and her unsuspecting course, all the while lining up the shot. A flier could be a very real danger due to their mobility and avenue of attack, even for another flier like Camilla. Were it up to Selena, she would be in the vanguard with her sword and shield- a much more intense method of battle- but today the Princess's airborne threats were her mission, not another bloody field. She was a retainer, after all, not just any mook to die on the front. It seemed like an eternity ago, but Selena swore a vow to her liege and her country, to defend both from harm until her dying breath. The groaning or motionless bodies of multiple Tenma Knights scattered around her immediate vicinity was a testament to that oath.

She relaxed and the arrow came loose, leaving the archer in a trance. Sharp red eyes were left admiring the projectile's seemingly harmless course through the air until it abruptly collided into the neck of the beast bearing the Hoshidan. Selena loved animals, loath as she was to admit, considering the countless Tenma whose blood lay on her hands. She closed her eyes at the impact, nodding with a blank expression and using her ears alone to confirm the winged creature plunging into the river below, never to fly again. Opening her eyes once more, she barely caught vision of the rider who miraculously happened to bail out just in time, gracefully diving into the water as her mount bled out, staining the already-red water darker yet. A few moments later, the knight emerged, armor soaked and naginata just a piece of driftwood to float away.

Selena considered drawing one last arrow, but that would be a waste. Instead she drew her sword and walked towards the rider cautiously. Likewise, all the while sputtering and limping, the rider drew her own short blade, her main weapon discarded along the riverside. Severa raised her guard, drawing a line in the sand with her boot. She wasn't looking for blood. At least, not up close.

"Back away."

Were Camilla close by, Selena wouldn't have offered mercy. Were Beruka close by, the rider would be dead before she came out of the river.

"...Please."

Not taking the death of her Tenma lightly, the rider dashed forward, catching the archer by the legs with a kick and with a flash of her blade, went for Selena's neck. The rider's swing fell short as a parrying swing deflected the strike. Recovering with the motions of well-rehearsed combat, the Nohrian coiled the opposite way with her body, striking the warrior's head with the hilt of her sword, denting her helmet so that it blocked vision in her right eye. Growling, the knight threw her blade, which caught the Selena clean in the shoulder as she sidestepped away. The unexpected injury caused Selena to fall over, tripping on the loose rocks along the river. Using this time to take off her helmet, the warrior's red hair fell freely around her body, still soaking wet. Blood blended in as both liquid and hair cascaded in a crimson waterfall down her cheek.

And yet, something about it seemed oddly-

No...

Selena backed up, face to face with a glimpse into a nightmare. It was exactly her... Her face, her gleaming eyes, her effortless combat style... Even the few grunts Selena could extract from chipping away at her defenses... they sounded exactly like the woman who forced her to tears before abandoning her.

Mother.

"H-how dare you. How dare you look like her."

Not taken aback from the Nohrian's change in mood, the rider charged low, aiming for the legs again with her blade.

With a guttural shriek, Selena quickly leaned backwards from the knight's sweep and lunged in once the sweep fully extended, determined for blood. She winced in satisfaction as she felt her sword hit flesh, and the grunt of the knight in front of her confirmed that her blade struck true.

Regaining clarity, Selena realized that even though the rider looked like her mother, there were still very subtle differences. This woman was younger. More lean. She had Hoshidan features, clearly. And her mother had not died with a sword in her gut. She died far worse.

Watching Cordeli- the rider...fall to the ground, Selena turned her back and walked back to her horse. Stopping, her head turned as she regarded the knight. She sheathed her sword, standing a safe distance away. Gods her shoulder hurt.

"I'm sorry. I wish we didn't have to fight. But..."

"It's... war. But-" She coughed out, choking, "but I have not... f-fallen. Yet!"

The gurgling said otherwise. She had a few hours at best.

"Oh," Selena replied, concerned. "I..."

"What's your name?" The warrior asked weakly, blood staining the ground underneath her.

"Sele... Severa," She replied uncertainly. "Severa."

"Hm. You Nohrians have such harsh names..."

Selena felt a wrenching feeling in her gut as the phantom of her mother started to choke on her own blood. Her blow pierced her right lung, and even now her breaths, when cleared of fluid, were ragged and short.

I can't leave her here... But no prisoners... But I can't leave her to die... Damn it all!

Selena looked around, the battle clearly going in Nohr's favor. Princess Hinoka and Princess Camilla were talking, high in the air as their beasts hovered in place. But with both of their weapons were pointed at each other, she could guess what they were saying. With a well-aimed shot, she could end this battle right here.

Most of Selena said to protect her liege.

But a little bit of Severa told her to help the knight.

"Damn it damn it damn it!" Selena groaned, kneeling over and applying pressure to the rider's mortal injury.

"W... W-what are you doing..." the fallen knight mumbled, relaxing; the blood no longer collected in her throat as Selena oriented her upwards, lifting her upon her back. Together, they mounted the horse and rode for... somewhere. Somewhere beautiful, where battle would not follow.


Day 1


Severa came to first today as usual, yawning as she stretched her arms. It was barely sunrise.

"Caeldori, rise and shine."

Her name was Caeldori, Selena coaxed after a few meals. She had not the energy nor the will to run away. After a few nights, She had not the desire, either. They were allies, now. Both would be reported killed in action, bodies swept away in the Hoshidan river.

Camilla would probably find another retainer, if that blue-haired assassin was any indication. Beruka, Selena recalled. She had stepped in when the Nohrian assassin got the jump on Camilla. Agile sword versus aggressive axe, yet Beruka nearly got the upper hand if not for Selena's Risen-slaughtering wiles.

And then-

"Ungh. Ow. My neck."

Caeldori's eyes fluttered open, quickly shutting from the light. She winked one open, groaning at the desolation around them.

"Morning."

"Morning... yet it looks as if it could be night."

Thus, this was where they were. She and Caeldori had been wandering the countryside for a few weeks now, the latter partially recovered from the death blow Selena had dealt to her. Deciding now was the ideal time to get Caeldori back to her allies, along with a timely defection and pacification, Selena began to worry that they would be running into the Hoshidan army any given moment. Or even worse, the Nohrian. They were on fairly neutral territory, after all. Had they both retreated simultaneously? No way. She knew for a fact that Nohr was planning an offensive at the border. The biggest one yet. Even Prince Xander and Leo would be there. And... what was her name? Corrin?

Nonetheless, they were still a long ways away. Caeldori mentioned something about the Bottomless Canyon and when she heard those words, something seemed to ring out. For all intents and purposes, Selena assumed that meant that jumping in was tantamount to suicide. Still, the curiosity ate at her.

I will bring you back to Ylisse...

By her side, Caeldori rose slowly to a sit and yawned as she stretched out her sore neck. Her surroundings brought worry to her, but she was slightly at ease when she saw Severa.

"Hey, you alright?" Caeldori asked earnestly, brushing her hair of debris and vegetation. Severa smiled weakly at her and shook her head.

"Yeah... I'm fine. Just thinking how this is going to work out."

"You saved me. I will speak for your behalf," Caeldori offered, helping Severa up with her right hand as she rubbed her face with her left.

"I have Hoshidan blood on my hands, not to mention I'm the one who stabbed you," the Nohrian countered, which Selena punctuated with a drop in her shoulders.

"I will vouch for you, you have my word," Caeldori assured, rubbing Selena's bad shoulder with a smile. "They are rather accepting."

She was right, to be fair, Severa knew. Hoshido had found the young Caeldori as a young girl lost in the woods, with no one to claim her as their child. Instead, the girl became a rider in training, and a few years later, would be deployed to the front alongside all the others. Just another victim of war with nothing to lose, wandering the forests with nowhere else to call home. Apparently in Hoshido, orphans were common enough not to warrant suspicion if they so wished to join the army.

No questions, no follow-up investigations.

Just a girl, Caeldori was. A lost girl who had no idea where she came from.

"Thanks. But I think it will take more than that for a Nohrian like me to get an easy ticket out."

"So what do you think is the best way to go about this?" the Tenma rider asked, kicking rocks around as she packed up.

It's a leap of faith. Faith that you will see Lucina again. Your friends. Your home.

"Has anyone ever come back from the Bottomless Canyon?"

Caeldori nearly laughed, glaring at Selena.

"What, you're going to kill yourself?"

"What!? No... I mean... isn't it odd that no one's ever... explored this area fully? Surely there's something interesting down there."

"Yes, it's called falling to your death," Caeldori countered, looking Selena in the eyes. "Are you mad?"

"I'm just curious," Selena admitted, shirking away from the taller woman's gaze. "Just curious."

You need not jump alone.

"..."

"I guess it's a dumb idea, and I'm not hoping to die... I think. I am a little uh, interested, though. I'm not suici-"

The rider stopped.

"Let's do it," Caeldori nodded, making up her mind.

"W-what?!"

"Now I'm curious. Hoshido and Nohr thinks we're dead. And yes, I am quite literally abandoning my post, as you are, but... Really? No one remembers me. There's really no one for me back home."

"You have somewhere to go! You can still go back! I-I mean, sure, it's not a perfect idea but I was saying it out of jest-"

Jest? Or necessity?

"Let's jump. Like I said. I'm just an orphan girl left to die, and you're a deserter. Well, we're both deserters, but you get my point."

"You're an idiot."

Caeldori frowned. "If I recall, you're the one who had the curiosity to jumping to our deaths. I possess the sole voice of reason here."

"And that voice is reaffirming my offer to jump," Selena countered, looking a few hundred feet away towards the crevasse.

Just take your first step. She will follow.

"Let's do it."

"We're fools," Caeldori laughed, "Suicidal fools. We're going to die."

"Who says we're dying?"

I can bring you home.

As if being led on by a blinding power, Selena walked uncertainly towards the edge, growing closer. She couldn't place her thoughts, trading glances every few steps with Caeldori, who nodded at her reassuringly.

Before they could even see the crevasse, the world went black.


Day ?


When she awoke again, she was falling. And yet, she felt motionless. Like she was suspended in a black void, not capable of motion or action. Where was Caeldori?

"Last time we spoke, I quite angrily ordered you to stay in Nohr. And yet, here we are. I apologize for the change in plans."

Grima.

"Your orders be damned. You're the one that led me here, right? Those weren't my thoughts in my head."

It all made sense. Selena growled, eyes darting but not seeing a thing.

"Yes and yes. Look, Severa, I'm... losing it. As it were. My plans are coming into motion but I need you back in Ylisse."

"Oh yeah? Why is that? You're the one who brought me to Nohr."

"To make bonds. To tie you to this place even when I yank you home. And now that you have them, I want you back."

"Why? Wait, where is Caeldori?"

"She's here, next to you. She can't hear me, as... Let's just say she doesn't know me. She's here though. And as for the why..."

"Caeldori!" Selena yelled, looking around. She felt something grab her hand.

"Severa, you alright? Jeez, my head. Oh shit, we're still falling?" Her scream carried on, but Severa focused on the voice again. Like a gnat she couldn't quite place, Grima's voice echoed throughout her mind.

"When I will it, you will either keep falling until you starve to death, or you will listen to me. Choose."

"Selena, what's that? Do you hear something?"

"I choose for you to take me home," Selena whispered, gripping Caeldori's hand tighter. "So I can come right back to that portal and kick your ass."

"What?" Caeldori wondered aloud. "Are you... talking to me?"

"No," Selena replied. "I'm talking to him."


Day 118


"My liege, it appears our unnatural disasters have stopped. My scouts are reporting major flooding throughout the whole continent, including Hoshido, Cyrkensia, Cheve... I have never seen this level of chaos before. They say that the mountains have flattened and the valleys have risen. It is the end times, others say. Still no sign of your children, or their troops."

"It seems that the gods want our world toppled apart. I sense something amiss with our country. Send our other armies out west."

"West? There's nothing-"

"There's something. I intend to claim it."

"And what of the Hoshidan armies to our east?"

"Let those mongrel dogs sit like the pups they are. They will not act until we do. But there is something more worthy a challenge than them."

"My king?"

"I sense... a Conqueror. One with power like mine. I will claim it."