"He's leaving for the Outrealms, Henry. We have to beat him there and join his group before they disappear." The low, serious voice of a particular dark mage muttered as another dark mage looked over at her from his pot of steaming meat. He went back to the pot and took a deep breath over it, letting the smell of cooking animal fat permeate his nostrils.
"Oh, so Hale is finally going to look for that other daughter he has? Hehe, about time. Too bad we couldn't join him in killing those Risen. They never show up anymore! I've been looking for some undead body parts for months!" He noticed that his wife had begun looking for her traveling supplies, and then turned back to the pot. This wasn't for him – he preferred all of his meat cooked rare. He tried eating a piece of raw meat once, and while the blood was as fresh as he could imagine, it also made him sick for a week. He hadn't come up with a curse capable of getting rid of that problem yet.
"What? Does that mean I have to go, too?" A white-haired girl asked from the other room, walking in and noticing her mother gathering tomes and various odds and ends she used for her hexes.
"Yes, Noire. He's going to need help dispatching any fool that gets in his way. We might also be able to help him find that other Morgan with our magic." Noire shuddered at the thought of going into the Outrealms. She'd never been there – what if some monster tackled her and ate her? What if she got surrounded by Risen and killed? Or captured by a band of outlaws roaming the lands beyond?
"Oh, I don't think I should go. I wouldn't be all that helpful. I'd just get in the way or probably get lost." Her father put his hand on her shoulder and laughed.
"Aw, but if you stay behind, you won't get to see any of the fun! Also, you still haven't learned how to cook. Who's gonna teach you if we're both gone? Unless you're okay with eating raw meat or vegetables. I dunno about that first one, though. Seems like humans don't take well to it. It's a shame! There's so much blood in it!"
"Ahh! No! I'll go. Just give me a minute to get my things…" Noire said, going to another part of the house. Henry went back to the pot and took it off of the fire, letting the meat cool. Guess he'd just have to pack that up and have Noire eat it later.
"That's quite a clever hex you came up with, Tharja. Listening to Hale all those months after you confirmed he came back. You should teach me how to do that! Also, you don't happen to have a curse that would keep me from barfing back up raw meat, would you?" The dark mage smiled at the compliment. She knew the tactician would return after killing Grima. She was happy that he had come back so soon – and also unhappy that he hadn't come back sooner. She felt his life force radiate from southern Ylisse one day and immediately used the spell she had only finished after Grima had been slain. Both Henry and Noire had agreed that Hale might not have appreciated her running off to Ylisstol just to see him; the area they lived in was also prone to bandit attacks and the cursing opportunities were too good to pass up due to that.
"We can come up with that later. We have to leave right now. Noire! Just take your bow and your tomes! You're not going to need anything special for this trip!" Tharja yelled from the room, making Noire drop one of her tomes on the floor. She whimpered softly as she picked it up, knowing that she would inevitably have to fight something. Instinctively, she grabbed for the talisman that her mother had said she didn't really need. Her teeth clenched and she glared at the tome she was holding, suddenly possessed of a burning conviction.
"I WILL DESTROY ALL THAT STAND IN OUR WAY! OUR ENEMIES WILL BURN BEFORE US! THE OUTREALMS SHALL KNOW OF MY FURY!" Henry giggled at hearing his daughter's sudden personality shift. Surely the most entertaining non-blood-related curse he'd ever seen. At least, until Tharja had told him she removed it shortly after meeting her without telling Noire that she had done so. Now the object was just another trinket, with their daughter still believing it possessed some sort of power.
"That's the spirit! We'll make 'em bleed!" Henry responded. He took the meat out of the pot and sealed it in a bag. Tharja finished gathering her things and began to head for the door, with a smile on her face that Henry could only remember seeing on her when she was around Hale. He never did understand why she was so interested in him. Whatever the reason, it didn't change her loyalty to her family. That's all that mattered, really. He could handle the rest of her craziness.
"It really is just us, huh?" Morgan said as her family approached the Outrealm Gate. Chrom had given them plenty of supplies, and had suggested they start with the Outrealms they were familiar with first. The Gate lay less than half a mile away from them now, as large as a house and glowing with a silvery-blue aura.
"Yes, it would appear so. Visiting the worlds beyond us shall no doubt be an unrivaled experience. Mother, what do you remember from your previous excursions?" Laurent asked. His parents had been the only ones among them to have gone through the Gate before; his sister and he had only been found by them near the end of the war against Grima. As such, they didn't have the opportunity to go traipsing about in other worlds.
"The Outrealms that we had visited resembled alternate variants of the world we now currently inhabit. I distinctly recall there being an elderly man going by the name of Old Hubba, who has given Hale the Einherjar he currently possesses, an unusual type of Risen that attacked vegetation rather than humans, and an ancient castle containing priceless weapons guarded by thirty-six Deadlords. We did not have any sort of tactical advantage concerning the last scenario, so Hale had us retreat very quickly after seeing how ineffective our forces were at that time." A most unfortunate occurrence, indeed. That was a stark reminder that traveling in the worlds beyond this one had a countless number of unforeseeable dangers; afterwards everyone had agreed that it was better to focus on more local matters instead.
"Yeah, I don't think we'll be going there again. There wasn't anyone friendly in that area." Hale said. He looked back, just to make sure there wasn't anyone tailing them, and noticed three figures approaching them from the northwest. Two of them had white hair, one of them black… and two of them appeared to be Plegian dark mages. For some reason, a crow was perched on the shoulder of the dark mage with white hair.
"Hold! Look over there, everyone." Hale called. The family stopped and noticed the trio coming closer.
"Are they hostile?" Laurent asked, preparing to ready a spell. Hale noticed the crow and was suddenly reminded of the Plegian dark mage that had arrived in a cloud of crows, the identity of the female dark mage also becoming apparent to him now.
"No. Let's go over to them! I think they may want to join us!" The two riders guided their horses towards the three Plegians.
"Ahh! They saw us! I hope they don't think we're enemies!" Noire cried, hiding behind Henry. The crow flew away as the pair of horses carrying the Ylisseans approached.
"Nope! They would've totally attacked us by now if they did. Hehe, that would've been a funny way to die. Ripped apart by magic on accident! " Henry said, raising a finger as he imagined that scenario playing out in his mind.
"Henry! Tharja! It's good to see you two again!" Hale said as Miriel's horse approached them. He noticed that both of them wore rings on their fingers, where neither of them had worn such jewelry before. The girl behind Henry also looked quite a lot like the two of them, which had a very high chance of meaning… no. It couldn't be. He always thought Tharja would never settle for anyone but him, even though he was already married with children. But then again, Henry was probably the only person in the world he could imagine being compatible with her.
"Did you two get married?" Hale spurted, causing Miriel to raise an eyebrow and his children to look at each other questioningly. None of them had noticed the rings, he thought. Henry cackled and raised a fist at him, showing everyone his ring.
"Yep! So did you! We heard you came back from the dead and that you're now going to find that other Morgan in the Outrealms! It was Tharja's idea to bring us here, but I came along just to see what kind of mayhem goes on in other worlds."
"How did you hear about that? I thought all of our discussion never left Chrom's throne room." Hale asked, worried that a spy might have used the information to stage some sort of attack on Ylisstol.
"I always knew you'd come back. I could sense your life force returning to this world, and so I cast a curse on you that let me hear everything you did. You need our help, Hale. We're going with you." The tactician closed his eyes and shook his head after hearing that – now he almost wished it was a spy. Marrying Henry hadn't quelled her obsession with him at all. Miriel's only reaction was to push her glasses up, a behavior Hale had known her to do whenever she was getting frustrated with something.
"Well, that was a piece of information none of us desired to know. Father, are you sure we can trust these people? Neither of them appear to have full possession of their mental faculties." Laurent still held his Arcfire tome close to him.
"I'm so sorry about them! They're not that dangerous. I promise." Noire said from behind Henry. Hale sighed and turned back to Laurent.
"The girl's right. While they are definitely… different from most people, they can be trusted in battle. So," He looked back at Noire,
"You sure do look a lot like these two. I'm going to guess you're their daughter. Right?" She nodded and moved from behind her father, revealing her bow and magic tomes. On one of her hands was a ring identical to Tharja's, the telltale sign of a future child.
"Yes. I'm Noire. You must be Hale, and the people behind you your family. Please don't hurt us. We really do just want to help." Morgan found the situation very much like the ones her father had told her about in the past. Supposedly, Henry had shown up while the Shepherds were surrounded by Risen, literally being flown in by a bunch of crows. Tharja was once part of Gangrel's army, but had no desire to be there and was recruited by Chrom, showing that she had an unhealthy interest in her father that obviously had not changed. Laurent had never really met these two, since they weren't typically sent out to battle.
"Of course. We could use the extra help. Don't worry, Laurent. I'm sure Father knows these two well enough to trust them, even if they are a little strange." Laurent finally put his tome away at his sister's words.
"Well, since you already know what we're out here for, that saves me the trouble of explaining it to you. Let's go, then. We can't waste any time." Hale jumped back on Miriel's horse and the seven went into the Outrealm Gate, intent on going to the place where they had first met Old Hubba. Perhaps if they found him again, he might know something about the Xenosoul Morgan.
"No, he's dead. Like a doornail. Been that way for about a week now. They just buried the poor sap a few days ago." A villager explained to the party, which shocked everyone but Tharja and Henry.
"How'd he die? Was it bloody? Did Risen kill him?" Henry asked, with the perennial smile on his face creeping out the villager.
"We don't think so. Haven't been any of those things around in years. No, we think it was some kind of assassin. Old Hubba was never liked much by a lot of folk, but I didn't think anybody would have the gall to actually off him. The thing is, whoever it was, they stole all of his Einherjar. That's probably what they were really after, I think. Hubba was probably an unfortunate consequence of that theft. I can't imagine someone around here would dislike him enough to go after him, though."
"That's horrible. Well, um… I know this might sound strange, but have you seen a woman that looks like me, but older?" Morgan asked. The villager turned his head towards her and then leaned back, surprised.
"Well, I'll be. You do look familiar. Margaret? Was that her name?"
"Morgan. You've seen her? When?" The villager thought for a few seconds.
"Some years ago. Before his group came here and saved us from that fight between the Einherjar." He pointed to Hale, whom he remembered as the man giving orders to the army.
"Yes, she was the one who gave Old Hubba his first Einherjar cards. She tried to explain to him that he couldn't just play around with them, but he never listened. Wore a white robe with gold on it, or something. Heck if I know where she is now, though. Only stayed a few weeks and then left with her group." Morgan's shoulders sank. Her other self had already been here, which probably meant she wasn't going to come back to these realms anytime soon. Right? There had to have been more realms than anybody could explore in a lifetime, and this place wasn't that remarkable aside from Hubba, so why would she want to return?
"Oh. Well, thanks for your help. We're trying to find her because our world is in danger. Her group has what we need to save it." The villager nodded and looked back at the town.
"I see. If you all need a place to stay, we've got enough rooms at the inn for all of you. Heck, I'm sure the innkeeper would appreciate the business. Might sound surprising considering there are Gates all over the place around here, but we don't get too many visitors."
"Are there any juicy animals around here?" Henry asked, raising his finger. The villager sighed at the dark mage and pointed out to a forest close by.
"Hunting grounds are out there. Help yourself. If that's not your thing, the inn also has a restaurant. If you all don't mind, I think I should be going. I've got errands to run."
"Wait. Just one more question." Hale said.
"Do you think we could look at Hubba's old house?" The villager shrugged.
"I don't see why you'd want to do that, but as long as you don't take anything, I think you could get away with it. I think they were going to start cleaning the place out so they could sell it, or something."
"Okay. Thanks. Sorry for taking up your time."
"No problem." The villager turned and left. Morgan looked at her father, wondering what he wanted to do at Hubba's house.
"What do you hypothesize you'll find at that abandoned house, Father? Some clue as to who killed him?" Laurent asked.
"No. If the only thing that was taken from the house was the set of Einherjar, then it's possible Hubba might've had something else around that would help us find Morgan. Perhaps she left him something else. It can't hurt to look. Now that we know she's not here, we don't have to stay here that much longer. These people are willing to house us for a night, so let's take them up on that offer. We don't know the next time we'll be able to do that."
"So you'll rent us the rooms. Okay! Come on, Tharja. Let's go kill some animals and eat 'em! Noire, you should come. Maybe this time you can hit one of them in the eye!" Henry said, rubbing his hands together and chuckling. Doubtless he was already imagining one of Noire's arrows skewering some poor creature's eyeball, Hale thought. The girl shivered and tightly held her bow in her hands.
"But… that's so brutal. Why can't I just go with Hale and his family to the restaurant?" Her mother grabbed her shoulder and made her face her.
"No. You're going with us. If I have to go with him on one of his hunting trips, so do you." She briefly looked at Hale as she said this. She had no problem with Henry's hunting per se – but she'd be damned if her daughter was going to spend time with Hale when she wasn't. Noire went for her talisman and took hold of it, suddenly glaring at her mother and gripping the bow very tightly.
"THEN WE SHALL RUTHLESSLY SLAUGHTER THOSE PATHETIC LITTLE BEASTS! FATHER! YOU WILL WITNESS MY SKILLS DO EXACTLY WHAT YOU HAVE HOPED FOR! COME! I WILL WAIT NO LONGER!" She shouted, running past Tharja and into the forest. Morgan had covered her mouth in surprise, Laurent was shaking his head in disbelief, Miriel had raised an eyebrow in intrigue, and Hale felt sorry for the daughter of those two.
"Does that… happen often?" He spoke slowly, his words tentative. Tharja let out one of her sinister laughs, and Henry waved a hand at them, dismissing Noire's outburst as if it was nothing.
"Yep! She's really something, isn't she?" He said. Tharja turned to watch her daughter running into the forest and commented on it.
"I do like that she can be aggressive, but she needs to learn how to control it. She's my daughter. There's no reason she should be so scared of everything." Hale looked at Miriel, who read his mind and affirmed what he was thinking with her look: Noire most certainly did have a reason for being that way, but neither of them were about to tell Tharja that.
"Well, I suppose we will see you when you're done with your hunting trip. You know where we'll be."
"This'll be great. Let's go." Henry started running into the forest after his daughter. Tharja chuckled again and turned back to look at Hale one last time.
"Don't you leave without us. We didn't come all this way for nothing. Goodbye now." She said the last part in a voice attempting to sound sweet, which only made Hale sigh with embarrassment and Miriel push her glasses up to her face again.
"Why did you let them come with us again, Father?" Laurent asked. The tactician turned and walked past them towards the inn with his head down.
"I'd said it's because they know how to fight, but… oh, gods. We might have to return back to Ylisse a lot sooner than in six months. Let's just go check in, okay?"
A/N: So there's the weekly update. As Hale is able to use tomes as a Trickster, so is Noire able to use dark magic as an Archer. She's not really all that good at it, though – an E rank in it, I'd say.
Good news for those of you who want more than just a weekly update: I've decided to get down to business and start putting those writing gears into overdrive. For the next week, expect updates every other day. That means you'll see a new chapter on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday this week. As always, if you've got an opinion on how the story's going, let me know. Fireminer, I appreciate your review. Thanks for writing it. Hopefully I've done a bit better this time around.