A/N: Hey guys, here is the third chapter of this okay-ish fanfic.

Chapter Three: Surprise Employment

(Third-person POV)

Hershel observed the others as they ate lunch in silence. Despite the temporary truce, there was still tension in the air. Frederick was still scowling at him, Chrom looked slightly perplexed and uncomfortable, Lissa was trying hard to smile and look unbothered by the tension, and Robin kept starting to say something only to stop and continue eating.

I should probably apologize and try to make it up to them in some way, if for no other reason than to get Frederick to stop glaring daggers at me.

"Ahem, um, Chrom? I'm…sorry for, you know, insulting you and making fun of your hero's speech, so, um, friends?

The silence seemed like it lasted forever before Chrom spoke up "I'd be more than happy to be friends, but please refrain from arguing with Frederick any further, he tends to overreact sometimes."

"I do nothing of the sort, why does everybody think that?" Frederick asked. He was promptly ignored.

"I'll certainly try my best." Hershel said with a smirk

"Now that we're all friends, can we get going?" Robin asked "I'd like to reach our destination before nightfall."

"Well said, Robin." Chrom answered "We should make haste for Ylisstol."

As they arrived in the capital, both Robin and Hershel were awestruck by the grandeur of the city. The buildings seemed to sparkle and the roads were extremely clean and well kept. The people were all smiling and talking as if they knew everyone in the city as well as they knew their own family. There were people hanging their laundry out to dry, there were children playing without a care in the world and the city seemed to be absolutely perfect in every way.

"How is it that everyone here is so happy?" Robin asked "I would've thought that in a city this big a lot of people would be impoverished or homeless"

"It's all thanks to the Exalt, she has made this city peaceful, and the peace makes the people happy" Frederick explained

Robin turned to Frederick "The Exalt is your ruler, yes?"

"Yes." Frederick replied "Her name is Lady Emmeryn. And speaking of the Exalt, it seems she has come to visit the citizens."

Robin looked down the street to see a large procession of soldiers carrying standards with the same strange symbol on all of them. In the middle of the soldiers was the Exalt herself, dressed in green sage's robes with a head adornment similar to a halo and on her forehead she bore the same mark as on the standards.

"That symbol on the standards, what is it?" Robin asked

"That is the Brand of the Exalt; it is a mark that every member of the royal family is born with. The Brand is proof of their Exalted bloodline." Frederick said

"Ah, I see." Robin responded "But if she's so important, then is it really safe for her to walk among the commoners?"

"The Exalt is a symbol of peace, Ylisse's most prized quality" Frederick answered "Long ago at the dawn of our age, the fell dragon tried to destroy the world, but the first exalt joined forces with the divine dragon and laid the beast low. Exalt Emmeryn reminds us all of the peace we fought for then."

"And with Plegia poking at our borders, the people need her." Chrom added "She's a calming presence when some might otherwise call for war.

"Then the Ylissean people are indeed lucky to have her" said Robin

"She's also the best big sister anyone could ask for!" Lissa added

"Yes, I imagine she…wait, what? She's your…" Robin asked with surprise obvious in his voice "But then that would make you and Chrom…"

"The prince and princess, yes" Frederick said "You remember Chrom's name and not this?

"Prince Chrom, forgive me, I should have had better manners, I.."

"Don't worry about it" Chrom interrupted "And just Chrom will do, I've never been much for formalities, anyway"

"But still…" Robin said, feeling slightly more self-conscious about the way he was acting.

"Wait." Lissa said "Where did Hershel go?"

"What do you mean?" asked Chrom "He's right behind…us. Where did he go?"

"He probably slithered away to meet up with his Plegian spy accomplices." Frederick said with disdain in his voice.

"Frederick, please." Chrom said "Let's not jump to conclusions like that without any evidence."

"Yes, milord. It's just that his actions thus far have been cause for suspicion." Frederick said as he glanced around suspiciously.

"But in any case" Chrom began "It seems Emm is returning to the palace. Would you like to meet her?"

Robin merely nodded.

"Well it's settled then" Chrom said "We make for the palace next, Frederick."

"Yes, sire." Frederick responded

(Hershel's POV)

Hah, they didn't even notice when I slipped away, or if they did notice they didn't care, or perhaps they didn't notice and they didn't care, or did they not care enough to notice, or maybe they didn't notice enough to care, or was it that they noticed something else that they cared about and because they noticed the thing that they cared about, they didn't care enough about noticing me to notice the care I took in slipping away from their noticing gazes...hm, yes, that was probably it. I am so clever.

Now, where am I? There's a huge white castle type structure in front of me, there are some bushes and trees behind me, I'm standing on a dirt path, and I think I see a couple of armed guards waaaaay to my right, and they seem to be coming this way at an alarming rate.

"Hey, you, what do you think you're doing here?!"

"Who, me?" I asked. Now that they were close, I could see that that one of them was short and fat with heavy armor and a lance that looked much too big for him. The other one was tall and skinny with barely any armor and a short sword at his waist.

"Yes you, who else would we be talking to?" The short one said "But never mind that. What are you doing in the royal gardens?"

The royal gardens? How did I get here? Either I climbed wall while I wasn't paying attention, or this place has some really incompetent guards.

"Hey, wake up; you haven't answered our question yet."

"Well, my good sir. I honestly have no idea how I got here.

"A likely story. Sir, I'm afraid you're coming with us."

"Why are you afraid?"

"What?"

"You said you were afraid that I was coming with you. Does that mean you're afraid of me?"

"I was kind of wondering the same thing, Bob." The tall one chimed in.

"No, it's just a figure of speech, Bill"

"Then what were you actually trying to say, Bob?"

"What I was trying to say was that we're arresting him, Bill"

"But what-"

Agghhh, I can't stand listening to these two. Wait, maybe I can escape while they're still arguing, and hopefully they'll care too much about their argument to notice that I'm trying to carefully avoid them noticing me, or perhaps-

"Hey, stop staring off into space and let's get going" Bob said

Dang it! I wasted my chance. Time for plan B.

Okay guys, you got me, now just-WHAT IS THAT?!" I yelled as I pointed down the path behind them.

Just like I predicted, they both fell for it, now I have to get out of here.

I began running farther into the gardens, but it wasn't long before they realized what had happened and came charging after me.

Gah, how am I gonna lose these guys, I'm already starting to run out of energy. What are my options here? I can let them catch me and throw me in prison. I can try to fight, but that probably won't end well seeing as they have weapons. Wait, a corner of the building is coming up, and there are bushes around that corner. All right, it appears that my best option is to hide.

C'mon, gotta run faster, just a little bit more and….yes, I made it, I just hope they didn't see me.

"Where did he go, Bob?"

"I don't know, he must have run farther in. Let's go, Bill."

Hah, losers. I guess I should wait here until the heat dies down, but, it would probably be advantageous and more comfortable to sit in a tree rather than a bush.

I promptly climbed into the nearest tree and made myself comfortable on one of the larger branches.

"Hey, buddy."

"GAH!"

"Hey, keep it down, yeah? I'm over here."

I looked around and found a man sitting on the branch directly to my right. He was fairly tall and lean, but still well muscled. He was wearing some kind hooded cape over some light armor.

How had I missed that?

"Why are you up here, guy?" He asked

"I could ask you the same question." I replied

"Eh, I was being chased by some loser guards last night, so I had to hide up here to avoid them. Everything's been on high alert out here because of it."

"Ahah, that's funny. I'm up here for the exact same reason."

"Oh, good. That's a relief."

"I beg your pardon?"

"I'm just relieved that you knew the password, because if you didn't, I was gonna have to kill you, haha."

…What?

"Yeah, ha…ha, that's…hilarious."

"Why are you acting so nervous? You are one of the thieves that we hired, right?"

"Yeess?"

"Then you've got nothing to worry about. All you need to know is that the job is in one month, your job is to unlock as many doors as possible and in exchange, you can keep whatever loot you find. Oh, and you're to meet up with the rest of the group inside the palace."

"Okay. Um, what exactly was 'the job'?" I said with a guiltily innocent smile

"Didn't they already tell you?" Suspicion clear in his voice

"Well, kinda…sorta…not really."

"That's okay; I hear the employers have been bad about details lately." He said with a sigh "You and the others have been hired to help us accomplish two things; seizing the Fire Emblem, and assassinating the Exalt."

Oh, good, I thought it was gonna be something difficult. Ugh, what have I gotten myself into?

A/N: I'm quite proud of this chapter and it was fun to write as well.

Okay, guys; I need you to give me feedback, I don't care if it's through review or PM, I just really need feedback because I don't know if you guys like it, or if it's a total train wreck of a fanfiction. So please give me some kind of feedback.

Thanks for reading!