Sleep eluded him, making Leo groan and sit up in his tent cot as his mind went over the afternoon's events once more.

He had, by pure accident and obstinate luck on Lazlow's part, found out a secret Xander had taken to his grave.

It wasn't too strange to think about in hindsight, at least. Rumors and spies were everywhere in the Nohrian court, the most transparent of which having been Iago. Leo didn't doubt that the man would have been low enough to take a pregnant woman and use her as leverage against his brother, let alone whatever the monster of a king would have allowed to happen.

Xander had quite likely kept his romantic life hidden solely for the sake of his lover's safety, and the thought made Leo grimace all the more.

"Of all the things he had to be denied ..." He thought with a huff and got out of his cot; he couldn't sleep with his mind preoccupied by this massive revelation. An overcoat and long boots were pulled on over his nightclothes to keep him safe from the bite of early spring air, and he slid a simple Ruin tome – a gift from Odin, elder magic from his homeland – into a pocket. There were Dragon's Veins around the forest if he was truly desperate, but in all reality, the simpler dark magic would suffice.

Waving to the guards stationed around camp, he began to walk aimlessly, using the light of a half-full moon to guide his steps while his mind was sorting through the knowledge he had obtained … and the parts of it that were still missing.

Siegbert had born too much resemblance to Xander – it was impossible to deny their shared bloodline. But there was the few things Leo had found off in his encounter with his nephew that made him pause. The boy had claimed his mother still lived … but there had been no indication given as to who she was.

'At the least', Leo thought with a sigh, 'she seems to have been open with Siegbert about his heritage.'

It was the only way to explain the way the teenager had stiffened and flinched when he had; he was aware of his royal bloodline, and perhaps was even frightened of it. Leo couldn't blame him, all things considered; even though he had only turned thirty-four recently, the prince felt years older after all he had seen as a child and teenager. Siegbert's mother had probably cautioned him to be careful with his words when asked about his family, and for that, Leo applauded the unknown woman; the answers had been truthful in spite of the vagueness, and would hold up to scrutiny from most anyone.

Leo, however, was not 'most anyone'.

He paused with a sigh, taking a moment to gauge his surroundings. A bitter laugh left him when he saw he was once more at the forest, staring into the trees and the gloom that resided beneath them. "It'll be hard to keep from lingering in here when it comes time to return ..." he thought with a sigh, even as his body moved forward to walk into the trees.

The earth and wood seemed to hum around him, as if sensing his bond to Brynhildr. The tome was back in Leo's tent, but his control over magic was good enough that he could control a small portion of its earth manipulating powers away from it. It was a great strain, however, and he more oft than not made a mess of things if he did so. Still, he took comfort in the woods' recognition of the power he held, and he could sense the Dragon's Veins that pulsed slowly beneath the ground.

Moonlight didn't reach through the thick boughs, however, forcing Leo to sigh as he waited for his eyes to adjust to the thicker shadows. His thoughts took the chance to steer back to his hidden nephew, and puzzled over the boy's features in his mind's eye once again.

Siegbert's height was all his father's, of that Leo was dead certain; the boy was also starting to show a bit of the same broad build too, but that was still difficult to gauge at the brink of puberty. However, apart from that, the rest of the boy's features seemed muddier and harder to pin on Xander alone. The eye color at least could be traced to Xander's mother, if the portraits of her Leo had seen had been accurate at all.

But that was about all that made sense from fraternal lineage – Siegbert's build had a smaller torso in exchange for longer legs, but both that and they boy's smaller nose weren't unheard of for a Nohrian native.

His eye shape and the burning red hair, however, were.

Leo frowned at that; the eye shape could easily point to a mother native to Nestra, but why would she traverse to inland Nohr instead of staying with the unborn child in her native land? The smaller nation was independent, and not even Hoshido would be so dense as to attack a Nohrian royal in neutral territory, especially not if the boy's heritage was dubious. Of course, the woman could have grown frightened by the fighting and insisted on traveling back to Nohr with her lover, only for Xander to grow more cautious and have her hidden away until the fighting was done and he could bring her to court as his wife and queen.

Apart from that, it was a solid claim with one major detractor; as far as Leo could tell, natives to Nestra had either black or dark violet hair, befitting their original heritage as nomadic desert dwellers.

So that left the flame red hair as the biggest mystery. It might have possibly come from Queen Katerina's side – the woman had been dead before Leo's birth, so he didn't know her and didn't wish to pry into his brother's business. But at the same time, the chances were incredibly long that it would skip at least two generations before resurfacing in Siegbert, not after his father and both of his father's parents had been blonde.

Leo cursed his analytical nature as he focused back on the world around him.

Only to all but leap out of his skin when a pair of copper-colored eyes came into focus a few feet in front of him.

His hand flew to the pocket with the Ruin tome, fingers on the spine when a soft, feminine chuckle cut through the still air. "A bit late for a stroll through the woods, isn't it?" An equally soft female voice queried, and Leo focused at the area around the copper eyes. It took some strain, but he could make out a feminine form in the gloom as she stood before him.

"Then that raises the question of why you are up and about so late as well, madam," he replied curtly, both ashamed for being caught off guard and flustered from how well she was able to sneak up on him without his notice.

"Oh, that's a simple enough answer," the shadowed woman responded, "I'm from the pack – Matron Velvet asked me to send word that she heard of the situation, and if you need any assistance in the forest, she's wiling to help. The scum had tried to make pets out of a couple of yearlings."

Leo gave a nod, although his hand remained settled on the spine of his tome. "That explains why the younger members of the pack were out and about in the area, then," he responded, only to frown a moment later. "Your pack matron had you deliver this message in the dead of night!?"

"In her defense, garou don't have a full grasp on what humans consider a 'normal' time for some things," the woman responded. "Plus, we didn't know how early you would be rising – I would have merely passed word onto one of your guards if you were still abed."

"... Fair enough, then ..." Leo admitted, only to scowl – even for a native Nohrian, the darkness was far too much strain on his eyes. The woman had to have lived in these woods for at least a few years to manuver so well in this gloom. "Forgive me, madam, but I need a light ..." He began to murmur the incantation for a simple fire spell, and closed his eyes when he felt the magic condense in his palm to form a small orb of light to avoid blinding himself.

The sight he saw upon opening them, however, almost made him drop the orb in his shock.

Before him stood a woman that would only reach his chin if she stood against him, and although she dressed like one of the garou, there were no ears atop her head, and no tail swishing about her knees. Her arms were folded beneath her bust as she stood, and her red cloak was long and trimmed with white bear fur, the hood pulled up over her head to obscure her facial features but her copper eyes. A small dagger hung from her corset, and Leo could make out the outline of boot knives against the leather of her thigh high boots.

Clearly, he had found Siegbert's mother.

She seemed aware of this, as she gave him a grin that was all teeth. "Seen a ghost, or did you not expect to see me so soon after meeting my son?" The tone was teasing, and it was enough to ground Leo back in the moment and glare at the woman. Her eyes softened, and her stance relaxed. "I do apologize for startling you, but I wasn't expecting to encounter anyone from your group until I left the forest. I called out and questioned you once or twice, but you seemed lost in thought."

"... I was, to be frank," Leo admitted, dropping his hand to let the orb of light hover between the two of them. "The encounter with your son ..." He began, only to sigh and shake his head. He wasn't going to cower away, not when he had only half the truth and wouldn't be around long enough to figure the rest of it out on his own. "No, my nephew – even if it took my late brother's retainer to recognize him as he is. A few more years, however, and even Camilla'd have recognized him without a second thought."

To his surprise, the woman didn't flinch or bolt when he had claimed Siegbert as a relative. If anything, it seemed to remove what little tension was left in her form, her copper eyes softening and her hands gripping her elbows. "... He looks more like his father every day, doesn't he?" She let out a bitter laugh, a sad sigh leaving her mouth behind it. "Fourteen years old this past May, and already Xander's spitting image … it makes it hard, sometimes."

"You never kept his heritage secret?" Leo blinked, surprised.

"Xander asked the pack to keep me safe when I told him I was with child – they don't care about his bloodline or mine, so it's never been brought up. As far as the village and other garou packs are concerned, Siegbert and I are part of Matron Velvet's family." The woman gave a nod, only for her eyes to look to the ground between them. "... and I couldn't bring myself to hide knowledge of Xander from Sieg, not when the two never got to meet."

Leo let out a contemplative hum at her answer before he nodded; that answered a couple of questions he had; the garou, while they did serve the Nohrian crown if they were pressed, were largely indifferent to the intricacies of human inheritance. The pack's matron was either friendly with Xander, or merely owed him a favor if she took in his lover and unborn child without a fuss and keep the two hidden for fifteen years after his passing. 'He probably asked them not to say a thing until he came for them,' Leo thought to himself. 'And the indifference of the garou pack means that they referred to Siegbert as one of their own, so the human villages in contact with them would have to pay attention to him to suspect a connection … at least right now.'

However, that left a few questions still unanswered. "... Was Lazlow aware of this? He recognized Siegbert faster than I did."

Copper eyes looked up into Leo's russet ones, and the woman let out a wry smile. "He knew Xander and I were involved, yes, but he wasn't present when I told Xander about my pregnancy. If he was informed later in private is something you'd have to ask him yourself, sadly."

"Very well," Leo nodded. "And Peri?"

"I think she knew about our tryst, yes, but not about the pregnancy." The fact that this woman knew who Peri was lightened his heart a touch; she clearly had spent some time with Xander's retainers as well, and trusted them. "Before you ask, I did describe them as best as I could to Siegbert in case he was to encounter them – Lazlow about scared him out of his skin when he grabbed his arm earlier today."

"... Was he afraid for his life?" Leo felt his heart twist into a knot at that. It wasn't an unreasonable fear, truly, but the idea still wounded him.

It seemed the woman recognized his pain, because the smile she offered him was bittersweet. "When word reached the pack that Xander was … dead by Hoshidan hands," her voice grew tight at the last few words, making the knot in Leo's chest tighten, "I wasn't certain at the time if you would accept a widow you didn't know had even existed until that moment. Let alone a widow with an unborn child – I suspected the inheritance issue would have been worked out by the time I even reached the capital in my state, and it felt safer at the time to keep our existence hidden." A pregnant pause followed that, and a pained look filled the woman's eyes. "... I'm sorry if my selfishness caused your family unnecessary grief."

"You haven't," Leo sighed, "It was a smart choice on your part – neither Camilla nor I would have wished you to travel to the court like that, especially not with Elise lost as well ..."

To his shock, the woman visibly recoiled at that. "Th – she was claimed by the war too?!" Leo was surprised by the anguish in the woman's voice.

"... Did you meet Elise as well?" He asked; of all people, he didn't think that the woman would have known his younger sister …

Silence followed his question, one that lingered for a few moments before the woman drew a breath that shook. "Y … yes … I knew Elise, although not as well as I wished," she admitted, "She … she saw Xander and I slip off in Nestra when we decided to have a night to forget and eloped. We hadn't planned on any witnesses, but well … her excited giggles and sobs were hard to miss even on opposite ends of the chapel."

Leo had thought the pain in his heart couldn't have grown stronger, but the words he heard proved that notion wrong. An elopement, one Elise had born witness to; Xander must have made her promise to keep her silence, one the youngest princess would have been all too happy to keep. If Leo knew his sister, she would have merely been overcome with joy to see her eldest sibling smile for the first time in who knew how many years.

A look at the woman who stood not five paces away from him made Leo's heart ache even more; he couldn't imagine how frustrating and heartbreaking it had to have been for her, kept on the sidelines of a war and unable to even comfort her husband … let alone say a proper farewell to him.

But, at the same time, the news did explain part of the perpetual gloom Leo had noticed clinging to his brother in the last few weeks he had seen Xander alive. At the time, he had merely thought that it was due to the betrayal of the one they had called sibling, but now … now Leo knew better. His brother's heart was tender beneath the armor and guarded glances, so being separated from his wife and unborn child had undoubtedly torn him apart inside as his duty dictated him to a cold grave far too early.

With a heavy breath, Leo let his hands clasp behind his back. "If … it's not too much to ask, madam … I would like to get a better look at your face." He stated, making coppery eyes that were filled to the brim with tears meet his russet ones. "I understand if you refuse, but … I want to know the woman who brought my brother some sort of comfort in his life, and not just by a voice."

There was a hesitance, one that made doubts stir in the back of Leo's head, but the woman gave a nod and lifted her hands to her hood. "There's no point in hiding myself now, is there ..." a bitter laugh laced her words, but all questions that it raised soon died in Leo's throat as the hood fell back and onto the woman's shoulders.

Flame red hair shot through with white fell around a tired face, the thick waves cropped short to form a chin length bob as those copper eyes watched him from beneath the fringe. Her mouth was flat despite the waver that came with fighting back tears, and faint lines were beginning to form near the corners of eyes that were sharper in shape than her son's.

Leo felt his stomach knot along with his heart, vague familiarity stirring in the back of his brain. He knew this woman's face, he knew he did!

His confusion must have been visible, because the woman let out a sad laugh and a shake of her head. "Why am I surprised? It's been fifteen years since you and I last saw one another in Cheve, and even then, that was the only meeting we had relatively face to face until now ..."

"C- cheve?" Leo blinked, trying to recall the event she was talking about. "The last time I was there, it was to help Camilla out when she challenged the -" His breath deserted him, and he stared at the woman in wide-eyed shock.

Fifteen years ago, her hair hadn't been that long, and she had stood on the battlefield across from him in Hoshidan red and white, the fiercest of frowns on her face.

Fifteen years ago, there had been blood on her weapon as she glared Camilla down, standing protectively between them and three younger siblings with fury in her eyes.

Fifteen years ago, the woman in front of him had been Princess Hinoka of Hoshido.

Tori's Notes: ... Really though, the mystery would have been a lot less obvious if Selena wasn't the ONLY REDHEAD NOT NATIVE TO HOSHIDO.

Also one of only two redheaded girls in the first generation barring a redheaded Corrin. (Sakura's hair is pink that's different - *shot*)