When Cormag found the energy to walk around camp, he found his feet took him towards the edge of the village, towards a sparse forest. He'd caught a glimpse of Artur in camp, but Artur was preoccupied with conversation in the busiest section of camp, and he wasn't in the mood to get caught up in that.

Everything that happened in the past day was still sinking into his mind, and all of it made him want to crawl away and hide. It was only his pride as a (former) Grado elite soldier that kept him on his feet. The thoughts traveling his mind were racing too fast for him to keep up, and he really wished they would just shut up.

Everything was Glen's fault. Everything was his fault. Everything was Valter's fault. Everything was Vigarde's fault. He should be visiting Glen. But then again, Glen brought this on himself. But Glen was doing what he thought was right. Besides, it was Valter who abandoned his original duty and almost killed Glen. And Valter was only here because Vigarde brought him back. To begin with, Vigarde should've had him executed, not exiled—

Cormag was so engrossed in his thoughts that he barely registered the sound of an arrow being notched and fired. He instinctively drew back, and not even a second later, an arrow embedded itself in the tree, right where his head could've been.

Whirling his head around, Cormag saw the pink-haired archer on the hill overlooking the forest, holding her bow with a glower on her face. She had been among those to first react when they'd confronted Eirika. Was she still suspicious? Was she planning on killing him while his guard was down? Cormag silently cursed himself for not keeping his weapon on hand. He hadn't thought that he would be under threat, but…

Her face dropped and her eyes widened, looking equally as surprised as he was. In fact, her eyes began welling up before she burst into tears. She sank to the ground, wiping at her eyes furiously.

Cormag wasn't sure if this was some sort of trick to set him up, but he didn't even have the energy to protest anything anymore. Before he could do anything, though, her blue-haired companion ran up to her.

"Neimi! What's wrong?! Why're you crying? Again?"

His use of "again" seemed to suggest her tears were a common occurrence, which eased Cormag's worries a bit. This didn't last for long, though, as he overheard the man ask, "Did he do something?"

Cormag's voice caught in his throat as white-hot rage surged through him. Why him? Sure, he was pretty rough around the edges, but he hadn't done anything. He gave his loyalty to Eirika, didn't he? What more did people want from him?!

Before he could say anything, he heard Neimi choke out "N-no… He… he didn't do anything" between sobs. Cormag instantly felt guilty that his first reaction was to almost lose his temper, again. Everything had been getting under his skin and putting him on edge, and he didn't like it.

To give Neimi a bit of privacy, the boy shielded her with his tattered cloak as he knelt next to her. Waiting for the situation to diffuse, Cormag awkwardly looked around for something more to do than just stand around. Spying the arrow that had nearly embedded into his skull instead of the tree behind him, he carefully pulled it out. He was glad his early training in the Grado army had him try out all different weapons. At least he knew how to extract an arrow without breaking it.

When he walked over, the boy acknowledged his presence with a glance of his head. "Neimi, he's not going to hate you. Look, he even brought your arrow back!"

When he only received sniffles in response, he continued, "Ne-i-mi. Come on."

"I'm trying, Colm… It…it just won't stop…!"

Colm turned to Cormag as Neimi slowly stood up. "Don't worry about her. Any time she almost gets upset, she starts crying like this. A fly gets near her pie? She's gonna start crying. She remembers her pet fox she set free? You bet'cha the tears are gonna come out."

"Mr. Kit was such a good fox, Colm!" Neimi was still wiping her eyes and nose, but she could make out a whole sentence without sniffling now.

"The whole army's used to it by now."

Cormag held out the arrow to her. "Well, uh, at least I know you weren't tryna kill me. It just came so close to hitting me, and you had… er…"

According to his brother, it was usually a bad idea to point out a person's expressions to them. It certainly didn't seem like it would be a good idea to tell her she had a scary look on her face, especially if that would send her back into crying.

He didn't need to say it, though, since Colm did it for him. "She makes a scary face when she's concentrating, right?! Right?!"

"T-there's only so many faces you can make when you're concentrating! You look like that when you see something you can steal!"

"You seriously look like you're gonna kill someone!"

"But… I'm not the only one who makes scary faces! Gilliam did it too! …Well, that was on purpose. And, um, he—" she pointed at Cormag "—he made a really scary face when I nearly hit him, too! That's why I thought he was mad."

"The name's Cormag. And," he scratched the back of his head, "fair enough, I guess. People always tell me I look like a younger and angrier version of my brother."

At the mention of Glen, Neimi fidgeted. "Oh, I'm sorry… I…"

"Huh? Oh, if it's about him being, y'know, it's fine. I've…accepted it." He shifted his eyes to the side to mask his emotions, but Neimi continued.

"O-oh, I meant about pointing my bow at him yesterday… But there's also that…"

Having been a soldier for many years, it had completely slipped Cormag's mind that most people weren't used to pointing weapons at other human beings.

"Oh, uh, that? It's fine. I mean, you did what you had to, right? Besides, you have great aim. Nothing to be ashamed of there."

Neimi's cheeks started turning pink when he complimented her. Are girls always get easily flustered? First the princess, now her…

"A-am I really that good?"

"I mean, you almost shot Valter through the knee. I'd say that's pretty good. That's what made him retreat, too."

"Well… When something needs to be done, I do it."

Colm interrupted, "Valter's that greasy guy from yesterday, right?"

Cormag gave a slight chuckle, wishing he could blow off Valter as some "greasy guy."

"Yeah, that's the one. He's one of Grado's generals, so his skills are nothing to laugh at. Doesn't help that he's almost completely insane."

"When Colm and I attacked him, it was like—" Neimi's hands shook slightly, and Cormag didn't miss that. "—It was like we didn't even exist to him. He only noticed because I almost got his knee."

"Yeaaah, he's… a very single-minded person, let's say." Cormag hung his head in resignation, pressing a hand to the back of his neck. "Honestly, it's probably better that he didn't care about you guys. He—"

Before he could continue, Tethys' voice called out to them from the main part of camp. "Hey there, kids! Lunchtime! Don't miss out, because the villagers made something good for us today!"

At the word "lunch," Colm was just about salivating. Without waiting for his companions, he ran off ahead. "C'mon, Neimi, let's go get something to eat! You too, Cormag!"

"Oh, Colm," she sighed. "Why are you like this?"

Tana didn't realize she was absentmindedly stabbing at her food until Innes' voice broke her train of thought.

"Tana, is something the matter? Are you feeling unwell? You were exposed to the rain earlier."

Normally, she was a quick eater, but today everyone else had finished their meals while hers was only half-eaten.

"Er… No, brother, that's not it."

"Is it not to your tastes?"

She sighed. "No, Innes, the food is fine. I was just thinking."

"Evidently so," he scoffed before changing the subject. "The rain's cleared, but we're letting the path dry some before we depart. We'll be leaving tomorrow morning. You should take this time to train and make sure Achaeus is well-rested."

Without awaiting her reply, he left, and Eirika took his place. She sat down across from Tana with a smile, but it was the kind of smile she used to mask her worries. As a fellow princess, Tana practiced such a face often.

"It's not like you to be this slow to eat, Tana," she giggled. "Was Achaeus being difficult?"

Tana sighed. "Well, he was, but… That's not it." In Eirika's attentive silence, she continued. "I just paid a visit to Sir Glen earlier, but…"

After leaving Cormag's tent in high spirits from his praise, she passed by the hut Glen was housed in. Figuring that she should pay the man a visit in Cormag's stead, she walked in only to find him sobbing where he lay on the ground. Matthias waved for her to leave them alone, and she hastily shut the door. Stunned, she stood at long enough to hear his sobs grow even louder before running as far from them as she could.

Of course, men had feelings, even if she sometimes found that hard to believe. But she never expected to see a general—especially not one of the Imperial Three—so vulnerable. It had been on her mind ever since.

Even if Innes treats me so horribly all the time, he's almost always the first to find me whenever I get injured. If he never came to see me…I'd probably also…

"How is Sir Cormag during all this?"

"Cormag said—" seeing a mischievous, knowing smile dance on Eirika's lips, she hastily explained, "he insisted that I not use honorifics with him, really—that he doesn't want to see him."

Eirika's smile quickly fell. "Is that so…"

Seeing that Eirika had remembered something unpleasant, Tana pressed her for details.

"It's just… Earlier, Sir Glen told me that he does not wish for Sister Natasha to see him."

"Huh? Why? She's a great healer! Isn't she from Grado, too? You'd think he'd want another Gradoan to be healing him!" Tana's bewilderment was met with a shake of the head.

"He didn't explain it to me, but he said she was fine. There's just…something he can't say."

Men's logic existed on another plane of reality, Tana decided in her heart. She knew this well: she'd been living with Innes her whole life.

"He also told us to leave him behind when we leave tomorrow," Eirika continued. "But it doesn't seem right to leave him here all alone…"

"He won't be strong enough to travel?"

Eirika shook her head. "Grandmother told me it would take around a week for him to be able to recover enough to stand."

Tana winced in sympathy. She'd gotten sick enough, once, to stay bedridden for two days. Those two days were enough to bore her nearly to death, so she couldn't imagine having to stay in place for a whole seven. She didn't want to imagine it.

And if they were leaving tomorrow… If Cormag went with her, without ever seeing his brother again, and something happened to him…

Tana swallowed thickly and chewed on her lower lip in thought. "I should talk to Cormag."

"About Glen? But you just said that he didn't want to…"

Tana stood up. "Don't worry, Eirika. I'll find a way."

It didn't take longer for her to find him. As she'd expected, he was at the wyverns' corral, tending to Genarog. When she arrived, she found him pacifying his wyvern, who was hissing and snarling at Ruvest. From what she could make out, Ruvest had attempted to steal Genarog's food and was nearly bitten in return. Genarog had been stopped before he could inflict any injury on the smaller wyvern, but she was now huddled in a corner sulking as Cormag appeased Genarog.

Since Cormag was preoccupied, Tana instead turned her attention to Matthias and Larissa, who was busy devouring Lute's offering of carrots. She knew pegasi were herbivorous, and Achaeus enjoyed carrots, but she never thought wyverns liked them as well.

"It really depends on the wyvern. Kinda like us," Matthias explained. "Some people like carrots, some people don't. Some wyverns are picky eaters, some of them will eat anything you put in front of them."

Justus continued, "Don't even think about giving vegetables to Genarog or Andrassy. They love meat. Feed them lettuce, they'll probably eat you. They'll eat it if they're desperate, but they'd probably just hunt for meat anyways."

Tana placed an index finger to her chin. The wyverns were quite a bit bigger than pegasi. Even Guille, the smallest of them, was probably two-and-a-half feet longer than Achaeus. It didn't escape her notice that Larissa, now that she understood Lute to be a food-bearer, was snooping around Lute to see if the girl had any more food, though to no avail.

In Frelia, Achaeus ate around fourteen pounds of hay over the course of a day. Because he was participating in battles and using more energy now, it was around seventeen pounds a day. (Seth had not been terribly pleased about having to rebalance the army's rations to accommodate her and Achaeus when she joined unexpectedly.)

Wyverns probably had to eat even more than pegasi did, and she pointed at Larissa. "How much do they eat?"

The two men laughed, and Lute pulled out a notebook to jot down notes.

"Way too much!"

"They'd probably eat a person out of their house and home."

"Wyverns can be a chore. That's why there's only a small number of us. Maybe… Hey, Cormag, do you remember?"

Cormag gave a brief glance over at Matthias before turning back to Genarog, who was still huffing and shifting around. "I think it's around forty. Maybe forty-five."

Tana blinked. "F-forty-five only? That's…"

"Barely more than a platoon, yeah. And the total size of our army is roughly eight thousand men."

Truth be told, the numbers didn't really mean anything to her. She didn't know the size of her own country's military—she never had much interest in it, and her father didn't want her to be involved with the battlefield. Innes would know better what eight thousand men looked like, but all she knew was that Grado had a lot of soldiers, and not a lot of wyvern riders at all.

From what Syrene had told her when she first started her pegasus knight training, Frelia's pegasus knights took up around a quarter of their army. But pegasi were relatively easy to care for in Frelia, as they only needed to eat hay, oats, beans, and sometimes other plants like carrots as a treat. Because Frelia's terrain was mostly plains and low hills, it was easy to grow the crops they subsisted on.

There were also cases of mercenaries having pegasi, particularly in Carcino which did not have its own standing army. Tana had never heard of wyvern-riding mercenaries, though. Originally, she thought it was only because they were vicious, but looking at them now, it was probably less because of their temperament (though they were undeniably aggressive) and more the sheer cost of taking care of one.

"Say horses eat around twenty pounds of hay a day," Justus explained. "Andrassy can eat a whole cow in one sitting."

As Lute furiously scribbled down notes, Tana looked between Justus and Andrassy with an eyebrow quirked in disbelief. "One…whole cow?"

Andrassy gave a small, satisfied screech. "He likes cows the most because they're nice and meaty," Justus translated.

"And they do this every day?"

"Oh, no, no! Eating a whole cow isn't that regular. See, wyverns don't eat at regular intervals. What they do is that they gorge themselves, and then they can go several weeks with relatively little food."

Lute spoke up for the first time in the conversation. "And by little food, you mean…?"

Justus shrugged with one shoulder, and Matthias laughed as he stood up. It seemed that Larissa herself was hungry, as she had been nudging the back of his head with increasing force and just started gently nipping at him, forcing him to turn his attention to her.

Justus continued, "Ehhhh, I'd say it ranges between something small like a rabbit, to something as big as a deer. Depends how much energy they want to store up."

Peeking at Lute's notebook, Tana watched as the girl scribbled "ASK ARTUR TO HELP CATCH DEER. BEFRIEND WYERNS W/ MEAT." The girl also underlined "meat" several times, which Tana found oddly amusing. She felt a vague sense of pity for the poor monk as she attempted to imagine the two slim magic users dragging a deer carcass back to camp. The monk was stronger than she expected—Innes told her that monasteries tended to be self-sufficient, so Artur likely learned to toil and tend to farms and it gave him muscle hidden by his robes—but a deer was still a deer.

"But enough about us old fellas," Justus suddenly piped up with a sly grin, pointedly addressing Tana. "I'm sure you're more interested in a certain someone else, hm?"

When Tana saw that his gaze had shifted over to Cormag, she reddened. "It… it… it's not like that! I'm not… no! I haven't even known him for a day! How could I…?!"

"Ah… So our little princess is one of those hopeless romantics, huh? I guess short flings here and there aren't your thing. Or is it because of your station? You're young and dreaming of a picturesque romance before you're inevitably pawned off in an arranged marriage, hm?"

"F-for your information, the Frelian family does not… Wai—Lute, just what are you writing down?!"

"Observations," the mage shot back cheekily.

"It's certainly not like that, though, right? She said so herself," Justus continued. At this point, he didn't even bother hiding the amusement he was deriving from the exchange.

"Of course not," Lute responded in turn. "It would be preposterous to think she desires that sort of relationship with a renegade Gradoan wyvern rider."

Tana's face reddened even further in embarrassment. The combination of a shameless bully and a perpetual straight face is truly something to behold…

Cormag came to her rescue, to her simultaneous relief and further embarrassment. "You really need to stop cracking crude jokes, Justus."

The older man sighed overdramatically. "If I wanted to be crude, Cormag, I'd—"

"Hey Genarog, I give you permission to take a bite out of Justus' arm."

Genarog moved a bit too eagerly at that comment, and Justus' face fell completely as he took a large step back. "Hey, hey! Cormag, wait! You can't do that! You know he'll gladly take a chunk out of me!"

"Then stop teasing our new boss."

"Fine, fine. I yield!" Justus gave a grin that was far too cheerful to be genuine, but Tana just wanted to move on at this point.

"Sir Cormag, I, um…" Asking him to see his brother seemed far too straightforward when she was still a stranger to him, so she quickly found an excuse to mask her true intentions. "Can you… teach me how to ride a wyvern?"

She'd just grabbed desperately for a topic, so she was just as surprised as everyone else with her question. Before she could try and come up with a reason, though, Cormag came up with one for her.

"…Ah, if something happened to your pegasus, you'd essentially be debilitated. You're not accustomed to fighting on land, are you?"

"Nope!" Realizing she sounded a bit too cheerful about this glaring flaw, she continued, "My training was completed pretty recently. And pegasus knight training is rigorous, so we usually spend all our time practicing fighting from the skies. It's a totally different world from fighting on land… as you know."

Eep! Cormag's an experienced wyvern rider! I probably sound stupid explaining things that he already knows… How am I supposed to lead them if I always sound like a rookie?

To her relief, Cormag didn't seem bothered at all. "The army doesn't seem to have any spare pegasi either, does it?"

"As we were talking about before, pegasi are high-maintenance creatures. Lovely, of course, but taking care of them is a bit of effort. So we didn't bring any extra pegasi since we weren't meant to be an invasion force."

At Cormag's quirked brow, she continued, "I don't know all the details since I wasn't allowed into the war meeting, but… Innes and Eirika were two separate forces meant to travel quickly to Jehanna and Rausten. But because of, well, stuff, we ended up joining together. So we weren't exactly designed to be fighting huge battles."

Cormag nodded slowly. "So if we're taking Guille and Ruvest along anyways, may as well learn to use them, is that right?"

"Yup!"

"The princess of Frelia, riding a Gradoan wyvern?" Cormag gave an amused chuckle. "You are one weird girl, you know?"

Tana flashed a grin back. "It's my best trait, promise!"

To Tana's relief, Cormag chose to humor her request. The first order of business was teaching her how to feed and groom a wyvern, using Genarog as an example. The wyvern took a step back upon seeing her approach, however, and she froze in her spot.

"Um… I don't think he likes me…"

"Nah, it's just because you're a stranger. C'mon, Genarog. She's nice."

Genarog peered at her for several more seconds before bumping her forehead with her snout. Tana gave a small yelp of surprise as Cormag chuckled.

"That's the Genarog stamp of approval. I guess he was impressed by your combat moves yesterday."

"Please, that was nothing to be proud of…"

"Maybe it wasn't professional, but it sure was effective. I think Matthias would have a better memory of how well you fought, though. Ask him later about it."

That strain of conversation ended there as Cormag showed her how to understand wyverns. How they ate, how their teeth were structured, how to tell whether they were tired or hungry. After a bit, Genarog was tired of being Cormag's demonstration and curled up with his head nestled away as if to say, "Go pick on someone else." With a laugh, they moved over to Guille, who was a much more eager subject.

"Guille's pretty young," Cormag noted when Guille nuzzled into his hand as he stroked the wyvern's snout. "He's really responsive to the attention we give him, see? Here, give it a try."

As Tana reached her hand out, Guille lowered his head even more to make himself more accessible. With a giggle, she gave him a stout rub on the snout before moving her hand up to the top of his head and giving him a long, gentle rub. He took especially well to that and shifted his whole body towards her with an approving growl.

Cormag smirked. "Heh. Looks like you're a natural! Or maybe the wivre breeds are just more affectionate as a whole. Either way, he absolutely loves you already."

He then walked over to Guille's side and smoothed his hand over the wyvern's back. After a moment's pause, he gave a stout pat to Guille's back, and the wyvern obediently lay down. "This is how they know to lay down," Cormag explained again for clarity. "Here, get on his back."

"Without a saddle?" Tana had never ridden any creature bareback before, not even Achaeus.

"If I'm to make a custom saddle for you, I need to know how you sit on him."

"The saddles the other riders wore won't work?"

"Hm? Do pegasus knights not use custom-fit saddles? With wyverns, since being thrown off is a pretty important issue, all saddles need to fit the rider perfectly. I doubt a saddle designed for a man a foot taller than you will fit you."

"Oh…" Now that she thought about it, Tana remembered that her saddle was made custom-fit for her when she received Achaeus. The saddle had been a gift from Syrene. "In Frelia, most pegasus knights are around the same size. We do use custom-fit saddles, but I guess it isn't that hard to figure out when most of us are similar."

Cormag nodded in understanding, then pat the top of Guille's back. "Alright, Tana, sit up here." After she did so, he began to reach his hand out before stopping himself. With a slight tinge of red in his cheeks, he sputtered, "I, uh… I kinda have to put my hand near… y'know. To get the measurements for a saddle."

Tana's face turned what she was sure was a spectacular shade of red, and she was extremely glad she was wearing her training pants instead of her combat shorts and skirt. "W-well… it can't be helped, so, erm. Please, go ahead."

She looked away as Cormag moved around her, muttering measurements to himself. After what felt like an eternity, he finally said "Alright, princess. You can get off now. And, uh, sorry about that."

"I-it's no matter! Really, you're doing me a huge favor, so I can't complain."

"Well, without a saddle, there's not much I can do for you in terms of training, so I guess we'll break here. I'll see if I can modify one of the other saddles so I don't have to try and buy all-new material for one."

"Well, if you need anything, just ask me! You're talking to a princess, after all. I'm sure I can get it one way or another."

"Fair enough," he grinned. Just as she was about to walk away, he suddenly spoke again. "Wait, Tana."

"Huh?"

"…Was there… something else you wanted to talk to me about? I just have a feeling you didn't come here to ask me how to ride a wyvern."

I… I completely got caught up in everything earlier that I forgot! Aaah! And how did he know, too? This is too much embarrassment for one day!

"…Tana?"

Realizing she had gotten flushed again and had turned her whole body away from him, Tana took a deep breath to calm her nerves. Looking into his eyes, which reflected a mix between confusion and amusement, she replied, "Actually, there… was something I intended to ask you about."

Cormag was silent for a second, perhaps already anticipating what she was going to say. "Very well. What is it?"

"Will you… visit your brother before we leave?" He bristled at the question, so she continued, "I know you don't want to see him like that, but… I'm sure he'd be heartbroken. If you left without seeing him, and then you never came back… if something happened to you in battle, and he couldn't be there…"

With quivering lips, she managed to utter, "I… I know the terror of almost losing my older brother. I remember thinking 'The last time I spoke with him might really be our last.' It… it was an argument. We were both being stubborn, I got mad, and I stormed off and never even said goodbye before he left. Then I ran away from home to join Eirika, and we found out Innes was ambushed by Carcino and already lost half his men…"

If she'd looked up, she would have seen the concern in Cormag's eyes. She kept her eyes to the ground, though, her vision blurred with tears. At this point, she didn't know why she was still talking, but she couldn't stop.

"I knew that a lot of our soldiers died when Grado ambushed the Tower of Valni out of nowhere. But seeing all the men that died protecting Innes… it was my first time seeing so many of our soldiers dead. Maybe just a day ago, or hours ago, they were laughing… talking about their futures… and now it's all just gone. Innes could have been one of them. Gerik and Tethys could have been one of them, too. And if Tethys died… then Ewan would be… he'd lose his only sister… It's horrible…"

Cormag shifted uncomfortably. It dawned on him now just how many people in this so-called army were completely new to warfare. They weren't here out of naïve dreams of glory. They were here to protect someone else or because they had nowhere else to go. These were the people that his emperor had ordered them to hunt and kill.

He had no words to console the princess, and he had no right to. A day ago, he was blindly following orders without thinking about what they meant. Hell, he'd been angry at his own brother for risking his life to stick to his beliefs. Shame pierced his heart to the core.

Licking his dry lips, he tried offering what little solace he could. "I'll do it, Princess. I'll go and talk to Glen before we leave. So please, don't cry… I…"

Matthias swiftly came to his rescue, and Lute, who had left a bit earlier upon seeing Tana start tearing up, dragged Artur and Neimi back with her.

"It's alright, Princess Tana," Matthias consoled as he placed a strong hand on her shoulder. "It's good to let your emotions out. C'mon, let's sit down, okay? Lute's brought Artur and Neimi, too. They can probably help you better than us old vets can can."

With Neimi's help, Tana was guided over to a log to sit down as Cormag stared dumbly after them. Guille's low growl caught his attention, and the wyvern looked at Tana with a tilt of its head.

Cormag rubbed the back of Guille's neck sadly as he fed the wyvern a treat for his earlier cooperation. "Sorry, Guille. Looks like that's all the headpats you'll be getting from her today."

It wasn't until late in the night when Cormag went to see Glen, when most of the camp was asleep. There wasn't any need for him to have gone so late, but Cormag didn't want anyone to pry into his affairs. Nobody would've batted an eyelash, of course, but Cormag had that funny sort of pride. As he quietly made his way to Glen's house, he heard Prince Innes, Saleh, and Seth talking in low voices in a candlelit tent. As he passed, Innes briefly lifted the tent flap to see who it was. Upon recognizing him, Innes gave a curt nod of understanding and went back to his business.

Once Cormag arrived, he knocked on the door but didn't bother waiting for a response before he entered. It didn't matter to him whether Glen was awake to know of his visit. He wasn't even sure what he had to say to his brother. If Glen was asleep, that would've been fine. At the very least, he'd see his brother before he left.

It didn't surprise him, though, that Glen was wide awake, staring at the ceiling as the candles near him flickered. Glen gave him a moment's glance before returning his gaze to the ceiling. Cormag closed the door behind him, and hesitantly shuffled over to the window, maintaining a healthy distance from Glen.

There was silence between them for a minute or so. Cormag couldn't read Glen's expression at all, but he glanced at his brother's form. It didn't escape his notice how controlled and labored his chest rose and fell. He didn't know how much pain it took that even breathing was difficult, and he didn't want to know.

"…So, you came."

Glen broke the silence. His voice reflected neither joy nor anger. It was simply a statement.

"I'm here. Glen." Cormag responded because he felt the need say something in response, but he didn't know what to say.

"Did Princess Tana ask you to come?"

Cormag quirked an eyebrow. "How'd you know?"

"Someone told me you'd made some… good friends." A small smile crossed his face as he heard Cormag's disgruntled sigh. The younger brother had always hated being talked about.

"I'm glad," Glen continued. "You've never liked being with people. But you seem to be getting by here."

Cormag knew what Glen was getting at, and he did not like it. Not one bit. Between gritted teeth, he snapped back, "Don't say that."

"Heh."

Silence fell between them again. At this point, being in his brother's presence again, Cormag didn't even feel any of the anger or self-loathing he'd felt earlier. He wanted to say something, just find the damn words so he could part with his brother on a good note. But it was as Glen had said. He'd never liked being around people, and he never knew what to say.

This is my brother! Why can't I even find the blasted words to say to him…?!

Cormag didn't even notice he was digging his nails into his arms in frustration until he heard his name called. Looking over at Glen, he saw his brother give a slight shake of his head before realizing what he was doing.

Glen beckoned him to come closer, and as Cormag complied, he saw his brother struggle to sit up. "Don't push yourself," he warned, but he helped his brother up anyways.

A flicker of pain crossed Glen's face as he leaned back against the wall, but it was replaced by an immense sadness. The hand Glen had placed on Cormag's shoulder for support also lingered even though he no longer needed it. Suddenly, Glen pulled Cormag close, and it took all Cormag's strength not to topple over his brother's frail body as he managed to find a precarious balance.

"Glen—!"

It occurred to him then that Glen had buried his face into Cormag's shoulder, preventing them from seeing each other's faces. He had also wrapped his arms around Cormag in a loose embrace, as it was all he could manage with his current strength. The slight tremble of his arms as they strained for reach told Cormag as much. Cormag felt a weight sinking at the bottom of his guts, afraid what was to come.

"Glen…? I told you, don't…"

Cormag stopped himself as he felt tears stain the shoulder of his tunic as Glen's arms began to tremble for a different reason. Biting his lip, Cormag willed the tears stinging at his own eyes to go back in. Seeing his eyes didn't want to obey his mind, he tried to distract himself by remembering Neimi's "It…it just won't stop!" from earlier, but this only served to make the tears well up even more.

"Cormag…" Glen spoke in a low, weak voice that reminded Cormag all too well how precarious his situation still was. "Pa died the winter before you were born, and Ma was never in good health…"

Cormag knew where this was going, and he didn't like it. "Stop… Glen, don't…"

"I took care of you the best I could these past twenty-three years. You've always been a good kid, Cormag… You never gave me any trouble… You were the best brother I could've ever asked for…"

"Stop that… stop… I don't want to hear it…"

"Stuff happens, you know? I might not see you after this… So…"

"You… you're going to make it through, Glen… Don't say that…"

Cormag couldn't envision a future without his brother with him. Farming, cooking, training, missions… everything he'd ever done, he'd done with Glen by his side. Imagining doing any of those things without his brother was like leaving a hole where he should be. It wasn't possible, there was no way he could do it…

Glen continued as though Cormag hadn't said anything. "I want you to live for yourself from now on. You've been by my side for so long… I want you to be free. The people in Princess Eirika's army are kind… I'm sure they'll take care of you. Don't worry about me."

Temporarily breaking Glen's hold on him, Cormag shifted onto both knees and pressed his head into Glen's shoulder this time, wrapping his arms around Glen as tight as he could without crushing him. He didn't care if his sobbing and sniffling were undignified and unbecoming. He didn't want to leave. He didn't want to leave Glen alone. But there also wasn't anything he could do to help, and he knew that. All he could do was engrave these precious few moments into his heart, one last time.

"Glen, I… I…"

"I know, Cormag. I love you too. Stay strong. You can do this."