It was finally time to use her abilities outside of training with the Eagles. Now she had to prove her worth in battle. She didn't feel especially passionate about fighting. All other demons she knew loved nothing more than a good fight and most relished the killing following their victory. Caspar, the blue-haired brawler, reminded her a bit of them, though he was less sinister and bloodthirsty. It was one more thing that distinguished her from her kind.

She was good at fighting. A thing no-one could argue about who even saw a glimpse of her prowess. Byleth got in a rush of killing every time she drew her sword. There was no emotion in the rush, just her sword pulsating in tandem with the blood flowing through her veins and the task at hand - killing the enemy.

Her allies didn't matter to her. Her only focus was the enemy and there were many of them. As the number of the bandits reduced to a sheer minimum, she was pulled out of her trance and took in her surroundings more consciously. The fire was put out, but most of the houses were in a really bad condition. The smell of smoke and fire almost reminded her of her home in hell. In hell there was always something burning even in her cold hell realm.

Byleth heard a thump behind a house and got curious. Where there more bandits left? Her sword always thirsted more blood even when it seemed to never be stained by it.

She rounded the house with a few steps and saw the Emperor talking to her meek archer. The body of a huge man laid a bit away from them in the ashes with an arrow proding out of his corpse. The stature reminded her a bit of-

The presumably corpse wasn't a corpse at all! He sprang up with a loud battle cry and stormed to the unarmed Emperor. His axe was posed to kill her.

Byleth didn't think. She just reacted. It was as if she didn't have control over her own body anymore, it just moved on its own. Without remembering how she got there, Byleth stood above the Emperor who seemed so small at this moment. Her arms were protectively held apart so the Emperor would not be harmed. She could hear the man running towards her. She could feel the draft of the sharp weapons edge falling rapidly to her unprotected back. She braced herself for the univenetable pain…

But it never came.

Instead Byleth saw and mostly felt the world splinter in thousand shards and felt a wave of dizziness fall over her. She had to close her eyes and shake her head. When she opened them again, Byleth looked in the frozen shocked expression of the Emperor. The pale-haired woman looked so young and fragile right now. Not like the Emperor she always portrayed, but like any other person in distress. Byleth felt once more the urge to protect her with everything she had.

However, she couldn't analyze the situation further, because suddenly everything went black before her eyes.

Did she pass out?

No, that could not be it.

Byleth could still think and feel her body. Careful she started walking and to her surprise she could feel herself moving, but didn't see herself move. That was quite a bizarre situation. It was like someone had stolen all the light and left her all alone in the darkness.

Minutes or months could have passed until Byleth finally saw some light. It was a greenish hue at the very edge of her sight. If she tried to look at it directly she only detected the vast blackness. The more she moved forward, the brighter the green light became and spread straight ahead from her.

A tall stone throne appeared in the mist of black with green hues that was all too familiar for Byleth. It was the same throne from her dreams with the sleeping girl. Instead of sleeping the girl was wide awake… and angry?

"Are you trying to get us killed?!"

Byleth always knew she dreamed often about this girl sleeping on her throne, but she never could see her clearly or remember her in detail. Now she could distinctly see all her features. The girl's dark green hair hung long and wild on her back. Two braids were braided with colorful ribbons. Her Jewelry and clothes were extravagant and in a fashion she never saw before. Also her ears were unusually pointed. She looked neither human, demon or angel.

Byleth didn't understand why she seemed so angry with her and why she would be killed.

"I have to teach you the value of our own life. I will guide you from now on!"

The girl was now floating down towards her.

"Who are you?"

"I am Sothis, but also called the Beginning. Remember that! Don't you dare call me a child!"

Had she read her thoughts? She didn't really feel scared - she never felt scared, but it was uncomfortable not knowing what all of this meant.

Sothis propped her head on her hand and tilted it in thought.

"Yes my name is Sothis and I am also called the Beginning. But who called me that and why could I just now recall it? Do I see disbelief in your eyes? You should thank me for saving your life and not doubt me!"

"I am thankful", Byleth replied truthfully and bowed with her fist over her non beating heart.

"Nice to see some gratitude from you. However you threw yourself before an axe to save just one young girl, how thoughtless of you! I stopped the flow of time, how did I do that?"

Sothis was deep in thought and also Byleth's thoughts were running wild.

Why was Sothis here? Wherever here was… Did she really cease the timeflow? And if she could do this, could she…

"Can you reverse time?", Byleth dared to ask, but she felt no hostility from the green haired.

"Of course, I must turn back the hands of time!"

A large white glowing circle with more circles and symbols within appeared before Sothis. The symbol in the middle was oddly familiar to Byleth. Before she could look more closely at it, the whiteness of the circle began to grow and over layed all other colors. It blinded Byleth so much that she needed to shield her eyes with her hand. When that wasn't enough she had to squint her eyes together.

"I can only reverse the time a few moments back. Use your time wisely", was the last thing Byleth heard.

The brightness was too much. Surely she would be blinded forever if it would continue. Abrupt the glaring color stopped and suddenly scenes of the last thing in the normal human world she remembered flashed in reverse before her eyes.

…

The presumably corpse wasn't a corpse at all! He sprang up with a loud battle cry and stormed to the unarmed Emperor. His axe was posed to kill her.

It was the same szene as before! But now Byleth knew what was going to happen and she jumped in front of the Emperor, disarmed the bandit and let his head roll away from his body.

It all felt surreal and Byleth experienced dizziness and vertigo again. Had she imagined it all? Where was this Sothis person?

"I must thank you, Ashen Demon. You saved my life."

Byleth turned around to the Emperor. The pupilles of her eyes were still blown wide. Whether it was from fear or adrenaline, Byleth couldn't tell. There was a rare honesty in her words. In this moment all the walls were gone from her eyes and all Byleth could see was a person grateful to be alive.

"Your majesty! Are you alright?"

As quick as the moment lasted as fast the walls were back up and the woman turned to her right hand man.

"I am fine Hubert. The de- Byleth defeated the attacker before any harm could befall me."

An unexplainable warmth filled Byleth as Edelgard used her real name instead of the generic demon. What a strange feeling. When was the last time she felt that?

She simply did not understand emotions - neither the dark, bloodthirsty, angry emotions of demons, nor the varied and complex emotions of humans. She didn't even want to start with angels and their states of minds.

Byleth could only remember one moment where she had felt something clear. But it was so terrible that she never wanted to think about it again. In general, the Ashen Demon could hardly remember anything in detail. It was as if her head was full of fog as soon as she tried to remember more.

Somehow all this had changed and she could remember every last detail of Sothis and how it had felt when the world shattered and time had stopped. That couldn't have been her imagination. This had to be real!

How odd this all was…

Before the blue haired could sink deeper into her musings, Hubert blocked her line of sight. He looked disgruntled as ever, maybe even more than usual.

"You have my deepest gratitude for saving her majesty." He spoke like the words tasted like ashes in his mouth and he bowed as lightly as possible.

Byleth merely nodded. She was a bit overwhelmed by all of this.

Despite all their efforts, the majority of the village was destroyed. It could be repaired, but it would take time.

So the Emperor held a speech to the villagers and offered them a place at the palace until their homes were rebuilt and offered help with the repairs.

Most of the people were grateful or just tired and mournful. However there were some disgruntled voices about how the army hadn't arrived fast enough or why there were so many bandit groups running free through the empire. If the Emperor heard them she didn't let it show on her face.

Some knights stayed back to give the fallen a proper burial, while most of the army and villagers made their way back to the palace.

The way back took more time than when they hurried to the rescue. They no longer had to rush to a battlefield and both the knights and the commoners were tired and exhausted. So it was a slow progression.

For Byleth, however, it felt like they were traveling much quicker than before. They reached their destination, faster than she could sort her thoughts. Her head was swarmed with thoughts, memories and … feelings?

It was all so strange. The Emperor released everyone to their well deserved rest and Byleth's feet lead her automatically to her room, which was rune free now as Edelgard had promised.

For a long time the Ashen demon just sat on her bed and stared with a blank expression at a wall in the dark. In her mind she replayed the scene over and over again. How she had moved to protect the Emperor by sacrificing herself. How the timeflow stopped and the world shattered. How she spoke to the girl - Sothis.

Finally she decided to try to sleep. Maybe she could visit the girl on the throne once more and hopefully get more answers out of her.