Hey there guys! It's me, ya boi Ninni51 back at it again with The Otherwordly Soldier. Do you like the story so far? I hope I'm making a decent job, for a self-insert.

I've been very busy lately, what with doing anything to avoid writing this chapter simply because I hated it. I even had to rewrite a whole chunk of the chapter simply because I was not happy with how it came. So please, Read and Review.

Also, the next chapter will take a while to write: it may take longer than the usual week for me to post it, but, in its stead, I'll be doing a Q&A with the characters! (If I get enough asks) If you're interested in asking just about anything, do so.

Chapter 15: Magic is Everything!

I have moved everything important that I own into my hammerspace. The two tomes I stole, the clothes I first came with in this dimension (I never threw them away, despite there being evident tears in the fabric due to me getting shot and stabbed and what-not. I needed a reminder of home), my winged spear, the naginata, my shield and armor, and my Einherjar (apparently when I summon them it now comes directly from my heart which is kinda weird).

(Any of this is relevant how?)

Well… there's no room for me in the Shepherds' garrison. And I mean literally: my room is no longer there.

I guess some context is needed, huh? Well… let's start from the beginning…

As it turns out, all that confrontation and the frost DID raise the guards' alert, and we couldn't exactly stealth our way outta there since I was leaving a trail of blood after my confrontation with the ice spirit that by no means should be in this game. I had hoped that we wouldn't be found, but the guards aren't that inept apparently.

After finding us in a place that we weren't allowed in, the guards dragged our asses right into the cells where we spent the night, before taking us the morning after to throne room to plead for our crimes.

A rather amused Emmeryn and a slap on the wrist by Frederick since we 'technically' stole nothing (they checked our belongings, but found nothing since I had those two books in my… "dimension"? no idea, also Ricken didn't find what he wanted to find) means that we were back at the garrison and people just chalked it up to us wanting "an adventure" or whatever. The benefits of being a youngling I guess. However, that didn't mean that my troubles were over…


"You stupid *thwack* masochistic *thwack* irresponsible *thwack* imbecile!" Lissa started hitting me with her staff as soon as she saw my self-inserted injuries in the infirmary. She did fix me up first, though. That was nice.

"Hold on!" I shouted, covering myself with my hands to avoid thwacking. Lissa stopped, although the look she was giving me said that if I didn't have a damn good excuse I'd receive more thwacking, which I'd rather not, thank you. "In my defense…" I started, racking my brain for something to say. "I am much faster than you'd be inclined to believe." I blurted out. "Wha…?"

"See ya! Thanks for the healing, Liz!" I took off at a speed I didn't know I was capable of. I ran through the entire place twice, Lissa hot on my heels before finding my room, closing the door and pushing myself against it. Lissa tried to force it open, but I held strong. Eventually, she gave up trying, but not until after grumbling under her breath with promises of death.

I sagged in relief, leaning against the door as I let a sigh escape my lips. I finally looked at my room and holy shit Lucina don't jumpscare me like that.

"Took you long enough, huh?" She asked rhetorically. "Look, Lucina, I'm sorry I-" but she waved her hand in dismissal. "Nevermind that. I'm still mad at you, but we have more important things to do. It's tonight." Any trace of residual mirth from earlier vanished, my face immediately turning serious.

"Already?" I asked, a bit concerned. I had hoped that it would take a buttload of time, like, I don't know, EVERYTHING ELSE. "Alright. So, what is the plan? We must avoid Chrom getting injured, and Emmeryn's death. How do we do that?" She turned to look at me with a surprised expression.

"Wait, you want to save Aunt Emm? I thought you said-" I was so sick of this bullshit that I actually shushed her.

"Alright Lucina you're going to listen here and now to what I have to say. It's the second time this happens, third if you count my short encounter with Rose, but you gotta understand that I. Am not. Your Nick. I have no idea what the guy had planned, since he did not bother to tell me, but I. Am not. Him. So stop thinking I am." I saw in her eyes that tears were already gathering up and breathed deeply before letting out a sigh. "So, why would I have the genius idea to let Ylisse's pride get gutted while we can do something about it?" I was already feeling the beginning of a headache.

"Well, in the original timeline you actually became a plegian soldier, quickly rising up in the ranks and becoming a general before you became the Plegian king by starting up a revolution to overthrow the Mad King Gangrel. Aunt Emmeryn was already dead by then though. I thought we would railroad the timeline into its original state." She said with such a matter-of-fact tone that it honestly scared me. What she said sounded so surreal, and yet she was so sure of it. I started to massage my temples as I pondered over what she had said.

"Alright—It's clear that that plan isn't going to work. There is just too much difference between the timelines to even hope to make it work. Me and the other Nick are too different to try to railroad it into something working and predictable. The timeline I have knowledge of accounts on Emmeryn's death in a different place to stir doubt into the plegian ranks, although I guess that the other me fit that role quite well. But since we don't have him, we'll have to save her tonight. Any ideas on how we'll do that?" I kept massaging my temples. OF COURSE we couldn't just simply follow canon, no, that would be too easy…

"Wait, if we just gotta save the Exalt, we could just guard her chambers tonight, right?" She asked.

"Wish it was this easy… but no, you also have to be near Chrom to protect him from assassins that would injure him." She made an O with her mouth in understanding. "We could spread rumors to stay on guard to everyone, but we'd risk getting the assassins on guard and having them not strike tonight…" Mmh… "Oh! Do you remember when you came here that you used that "Marth" persona?" I asked her. It was a bit of a gamble since I had not actually heard of Marth aside from the actual Ylissean prince, but maybe…

"You mean this old mask?" She asked, whipping out just what I needed.

"Yes! We could have you jump in at the last second to protect Chrom, warn him about the assassins and then we'll defend Emmeryn!" I said. Why bother making a plan when you can just copy paste canon? It's so much easier and prevents good ol' me from having headaches.

(I bet it's easier huh? Not like you can come up with a plan yourself)

I shivered as the traitorous thought settled in my mind. Why does this keep happening lately?! I thought I was over this…

As I snap back to reality I notice a concerned looking Lucina staring at me. "I'm fine." I dismiss her unasked question "I'll just need to take a nap right now. I haven't been feeling up to scratch lately and let me tell you: prison cells are NOT comfortable. Now shoo. I gotta sleep." I make shooing hand motions telling her to go away, and she casts one last concerned look towards me before leaving. Nosy.

After she leaves, however, OF COURSE I'm not gonna get some sleepy time. Because why would something go my way?

And so…

*thud* A strong blow against the door nearly busts it open, lock and everything. Only a few seconds pass before another, even stronger blow to the door sends me into full panic mode, hiding under my bed.

A third blow busts open the door, revealing Lissa in full battle priestess outfit, wielding a hammer. What?

"WHERE. ARE. YOU?" she basically screams as another blow can be heard. I decide to take a peek, only to find that my drawer was completely busted, broken under the force of a hammer-wielding-princess. It's kind of scary, honestly.

"Nick!" She screamed hysterically, before running out of the door, still dragging along said hammer.


"And that is why I'm hiding here." I said, from under Chrom's bed, matter-of-factly. I had decided to hide here, because this was probably the only room that Lissa wouldn't bust open in looking for me, and since she was STILL looking for me, I needed someplace to hide. I don't care if it creeped him out, I honestly feel like my life has a bit more importance than his commodity. "Also, I'm probably going to need a new room since she came in and started destroying the furniture." I'm lucky that she didn't bother with the bed, probably deeming it too obvious.

"Alright…" He said, cupping his chin in a thinking motion. "I'll try to talk to Lissa. You keep hiding here, she probably won't think about looking for you here. If it doesn't work… good luck. Naga knows you'll need it." He winced sympathetically before going off to presumably save me from his sister's ire.

I began reading 'Spellcasting for beginners' to help pass the time. It was nothing particularly interesting or anything, but it did help me understand how I could start speeding things up towards becoming a decent mage. Apparently there were different ways of training my magical output other than simply hurting myself over and over again (ugh), like starting to channel my magic into a big spell till it starts hurting and immediately dispel it, avoiding so the resulting frying of my arms (I still have a vein shaped burn scar on my arm that looks moderately cool, but is honestly a lot more trouble than it's worth), or I could simply rapid-fire smaller tier spells until exertion, basically building up my anima rank. Also, if I want to use a spell without hurting myself, I can flow the magic into the spell at a pace that won't hurt me, letting it rest on the outside of my body instead of simply forcing a large amount of energy through it.

I could keep Roy and maybe Hauteclere constantly summoned so that I wouldn't have to keep them in my pockets at all times and they could get a bunch of fresh air. I'll do that, actually. So long as the mana flow isn't severed from me it should be fine. I've been using them as slaves lately anyways, and that is so Not Cool™.

"Roy and Hauteclere, come forth!" I called. I was running out of catchphrases.

Roy proceeded to stare at me weirdly as Hauteclere started stretching, her arm noticeably in an iron sling I had no idea where it came from. "Are you hiding under a bed?" Roy asked after a long moment, even him unsure of what he was asking.

"Indeed I am." I replied, unphazed by his disbelieving tone.

"Why." He continued.

"Because Lissa." I offered, and apparently that wasn't enough explanation to him, since he simply arched a red eyebrow questioningly, so I sighed and elaborated. "Lissa is chasing me down because I keep hurting myself by accident and this is the only place I feel safe enough being in." and apparently that was enough for Hauteclere to start guffawing loudly while Roy simply shook his head in exasperation at my antics.

"Oh and so- Bwah hah – you called us to save you from the big scary princess?" She asked, wiping a tear of mirth from her eye as she stared down at me.

"Actually" I began "I just want you to keep a constant draw on my mana. Wander around, spar, introduce yourselves to the shepherds, do whatever you feel like. Take it as personal time." I shrugged as much as I could from my lying down position.

"Oh." She stopped laughing, suddenly looking at me weirdly. "Well, that is oddly thoughtful of you. Thanks!" She replied shooting a thumbs up and went out of the door, ignoring my indignant cry at her last statement.

This book is damn old, but surprisingly well kept. It's pretty much what you'd expect from it: in the first pages there's a basic explanation for all the types of magic existing, while in later chapters there's actual chants that you can try for yourself, with the explanation for them. Attached to many of the pages are also notes, probably added in a later time to point out stuff.

Apparently, dark magic is a lot more related to having a "gift" for the dark arts, so either you can do them or you can't. There's no in between. After that, though, it gets a lot more powerful the more knowledge you have on how the world works, so it's basically a lot of studying, as I had suspected. It is powered up by your own mind and, surprisingly, using your body as a transformer from the Earth's (?) thermal energy to dark magic.

(Would Francis make a good dark mage considering he's in college?)

Anima, instead, is a lot more loosely based on knowing the concepts, although you obviously need at least a basic idea of what the hell it is that you are doing. It relies a lot more willpower and draws on the caster's own mana storage to fire the spells, although said mana is also taken from the ambient mana. For example, in a desert where mana is excessively lacking due to the nonexistant amount of life, you'd have to draw more on your own mana than the ambient's, instead, in a highly mana-polluted zone (like a fooken portal) you could cast as much as you wish That is also probably why in Plegia regular mages are a lot harder to find compared to dark mages. Apparently, there are way more types of anima magic than the regular Fire, Wind and Thunder; Water, I found out, is apparently a very unpopular choice due to being a high-cost low-reward magic. You're basically Hydro-pumping your enemy, only it's actually closer to squirting them with a water bottle if you're not good at it. It actually has a fairly decent usage outside of warfare, which still keeps me interested in it.

Also, (and on this I found very little) anima magic relies on having the spirits' favour as well, and depending on how well liked you are they empower you.

(There's a major spirit in the hammerspace. Is that enough to garner the spirits' hatred?)

Light magic, that in our times has been forgotten, apparently relies on faith, although in a very weird and loose way. Apparently, the "faith" you require is to trust that, every time you call upon something's power it will answer your call and grant you said power. The deity in this case can be any, as long as it can answer your call: for example, I could pray to Grima for his power and channel it into light magic and it'd work regardless of the fact that he's basically a necrodragon. Not that I'm gonna do it. Ew. It has apparently gone extinct sometime after Marth's reign because of some crazy cult that an exalt has faced with his own merry band of friends that in my honest opinion would deserve a game in of itself. Nevertheless, seeing as this book has been written in the Akaneian Era, it actually contains some spells that I could try if I actually had someone that I could draw power from.

Which I don't.

So that point is moot.

Finally, as Maribelle had briefly explained, wand magic comes partially from the caster's own mana, (unless they are not using a channel like a book or a staff, like I tend to do occasionally although it is not advisable) and from the feeling of empathy with the target. Apparently though, there's a catch: the stronger the empathic tie with the target is, the stronger will be your magic in turn, but you are also a lot more likely to panic. Healers, at least at the time of Merric (although I don't know if those practices are still in use) were taught with methods that border on point of torture (Take in mind, though, that almost never in the continent of Ylisse were people put against their will to become healers, since it almost always led to the point of madness) to not become emotionally compromised with their patients and to not panic in the face of death and pain. Lissa and Maribelle have gained a whole new brand of respect from me.

(Rose is a healer too)

Shivering as I thought that, I noticed that as a post-it note, clearly made a lot after the original book was released (seriously this thing was ANCIENT. Well kept, for sure, but damn.), were also the explainations of two more types of magic, both of which particularly interested me: Cards.

Apparently, somewhere 2000 years from now, tales talk about an old man who could summon thousands of spirits to fight at his aide, always returning from death despite being slain countless times and their loyalty unwavering. He managed to conquer Macedon on his own as a result. However, before he could move onto other targets, a sudden illness befell him, and as his health condition rapidly deteriorated, the spirits stopped attacking the other countries. Before the king could die, however, he sealed his magic into thousands of cards and gave them to his daughter, a woman named "Einherjar", asking her to finish the conquest of the world he had started. However, the daughter revealed her plan, and the illness was in reality poison that she personally put in his food to stop him. Finishing him off, the daughter vanished without a trace, and legends say that the spirits are still kept in custody by her dynasty, who add the most valiant heroes to their ranks.

(Not really, right now.)

Also, if one knew the secret to this kind of magic, they could technically seal anything they wanted into them. This was apparently discovered after the Radiant Hero came, bringing with himself several cards that were said to be imbued with magic. So, the Spectre card from RD and such fall under the same category as the Einherjar? I should ask Old Hubba about them sometime.

I'm also working towards becoming a decent class, rather than a lance-locked foot soldier. As it is, I'm currently aiming for either a reclass, and then see my alternative classes (do I even have them considering I started off as a civilian?) or to simply evolve into a Basara or some other Magic based class, since it is simply superior to physical weapons and a strong person could snap me like a twig if I stayed in the frontline. Maybe not now, but take for example that a wyvern knight or a paladin decides to ram into me with the strength of their mount. Since I can't do much to halt their momentum aside from chucking my lance at them, even if I raise my shield up they're gonna simply break what's behind it. I have come to the point where nothing but the best of magical attacks even do anything to me at this point. I'm stuck at this weird spot where I cannot use magic effectively without hurting myself, but I am a lance class with stupidly high.

Actually- hold on a second.

(Uh-oh. Woe is me moment coming.)

Why am I even planning any of this? Do I honestly want to stick around in these barracks for the rest of my life, fighting day in and day out for a world that I don't even know about?

Like, honestly. I have no motivation for fighting. The shepherds are my friends, sure; I have the responsibility because of having knowledge of the future, ok- but do I honestly want to be a soldier? Before any of this, no matter how shitty it was I had a life, a dream-

I had a family.

And I threw it out of the window, just because I didn't want to deal with my problems.

(And it only took a month to realize that.)

A month. A month. In ten days it would be my birthday, and I'm gonna spend it fighting for my life in a war I have no place in.

In nine days it would be Francis' birthday. And as an early gift, I have given him one less brother.

I can already feel the panic attack rising in my throat. I deserve it.

Despite what any silly nightmare may say, I don't think he could ever bring himself to hate me. Oh sure, he might be bitter about stuff when we argue, but it never lasts more than a day at worst.

I had been holding onto life for four years, just for him and mom. For the longest time, they were the only things that mattered.

And then I threw it away.

Man, I must really suck as a brother, huh?

Damn. I really gotta get away from under here, the dust is getting in my eyes making me tear up. Perhaps I'll go jump off the castle's balcony. That's a high enough point.


That's how Roy found me, at the highest balcony of Ylisstol's castle having snuck in once again (neither me or Ricken had given the secret that allowed us to get in, blaming it instead on the guards), crying my eyes out while I simply sat there hugging my knees, wondering once again if I just should end it for the second time. I had gotten lost in staring at Ylisstol from all the way up here. Very pretty, if I do say so myself. Which I do. It was nearly dinnertime I think, I had spent a lot more time reading the book than I had thought, judging from the position of the moon, and the attack would happen at midnight. I was vaguely aware of his presence as the mana flowing out of me didn't travel very long, barely half a meter; no doubt the same way that he knew how to find me. No guards would pass by here; this place being hidden from the patrol shifts as there was no reason someone would want to get to this place. Well, besides me.

He said nothing, opting instead to place a hand on my shoulder. Ignoring it, I decided to simply strike some meaningless conversation.

"Do you *hic* wish Lilina were here? When all of this is over we could try to find *sniff* her." I said, trying (and failing) to avoid having my voice crack from the tears.

"Sometimes." He replied. "Missing home?" He asked. I simply nodded, burying once again my face in my knees, my hair falling on my face. Despite my desperation, some part of my mind opted to take notice that it had been a while since the last cut, and now my hair had taken a long-ish look, nearly arriving at my shoulders, being mostly green with the roots starting to re-assume their natural chestnut color.

"Wh-where's Hauteclere?" I asked, trying to distract myself. At this, Roy chuckled and said "She's been drinking Vaike under the table for the past half-hour." He shook his head amusedly. I simply nodded again. That sounds like something she would do.

"Come on, let's head to dinner." He tugged me lightly, trying to get me to move, but I just didn't feel like it. Not that I could go back there anyways. "Can't. Lissa's mad." I said. He simply chuckled and pulled harder on my shoulder. "Come on, I'll protect you from the big, bad princess." He replied, a sense of mirth washing over us.

"Alright. If I die, it's on you though. You'll become the Einherjar of an Einherjar." I got up, starting to head towards the door, a plan on how to sneak past the guards already in my mind.

"You? An Einherjar?" He replied. "You'd be heroic enough? Psh." He said jokingly.

"Of course I'm heroic enough!" I replied, turning my nose up in the air haughtily. "Who else can say to have had TWO heroic kings under his command?" He simply shook his head in amusement.

Maybe I can last long enough to at least see this war through. It can't be that bad, right?

(FOR FUCK'S SAKE, HE JUST HAD TO GO AND INVOKE MURPHY, DIDN'T HE?)

Then a knife flew past me, nailing Roy in the chest as both he and I summoned our weapons. He started coughing blood as I charged towards the assassin, him following with a limp after. Being flanked by both of us, the assassin took out his sword in a reverse grip, but he couldn't avoid both me and Roy attacking him at once, Roy cutting his head off after he dodged my stab with the lance.

And soon, all hell broke loose.

There was no time for moping. Maybe later, but certainly not now.

(It has begun)

It has begun indeed, Nick.

This chapter was a pain in the ass for the longest time, thinking about how I would play out the assassination for longer than I'd be proud of saying before going "Fuck it" and starting it like this. Hope you guys aren't disappointed by the lack of changes from canon, but it's gonna be a pretty long while before we start seeing some. As much as I'm going to get chewed out for saying this, I believe that for the most part Awakening's plot is solid, aside from Walhart, Yen'fay and Emmeryn being fucking stupid, (although the latter is explained in game) even though it's really, really predictable. But what can you do.

Also, let me remind you that from now till the next chapter you can ask anything to the characters and I'll make them answer forcibly! :D So ask away.

That thief kill earned Roy 33 points! Woo! Still not enough exp for me to bother switching up his stats.

Hope you have a nice week, Read and Review, Ninni51, out! *drops mic*