Chapter 32
Once they had all regrouped and gotten off of Demon's ingle, the Shepherds set a reverse course, now directing themselves towards Valm Castle, where their final battle against Walhart would take place. Nathan sat in silence in the caravan, riding with Ricken, Donnel, Lon'qu and Chrom. The group was covered in sweat and dirt from the battle within the volcano, making them a sorry sight to look at as they tended to their wounds.
"Next battle, we'll be somewhere at room temperature, I hope…" Chrom grumbled as he chugged his flask of water.
Nathan scoffed. "That was half your idea, old man, don't come crying to me…"
"On the bright side of everything, there's only one more fight left, I suppose!" Ricken mused. "If we can defeat Walhart at Valm castle, the others will surrender, no doubt."
Lon'qu nodded in agreement. "It's not as simple as that sounds. The remainder of Walhart's forces will all have gathered there, no doubt…that mustached man, Cervantes…and that tactician, Excellus…they'll be waiting for us along with the Conqueror."
As Nathan moved his hand back to his water container, he noticed a note stuck inside the flask. It was folded up and had been stuck just into the top of his container. The tactician looked around at the others, who hadn't noticed anything, and once they weren't paying any attention, he slipped the small piece of paper into his pocket. If it was important enough to be delivered to him with extreme subtlety, it was no doubt meant for only him to read.
"But still, that mountain was amazing, with all the flames and orangey stuff!" Donnel ranted as Nathan zoned back into the conversation. "My ma isn't gonna believe when I tell her I went in a volcaner!"
The rest of the 'Cabal' laughed, with Donnel grinning sheepishly.
"You do have a point, though…" Nathan muttered, "But I mean, that was a once in a lifetime experience, as in something I don't think any of us want to do again!"
The others vigorously nodded in agreement.
It wasn't long after when the group set up camp for the night, having found their way back to the Mila Tree once again and setting up their things at it's base.
Morgan and Owain had gone into town to finally use their pay to buy tents for themselves and 'move out' of sleeping with their parents, Lucina and Cynthia going with them to do the same. This gave Nathan some time alone, deciding to go for a walk off into the forest surrounding the Mila Tree.
"I had a feeling you'd be around again. You and Validar seem to like popping up when I wander off alone…" The tactician muttered into the air. The twin version of him stepped out from behind a nearby tree, surrounded by the familiar purple aura, sneering at him.
"My my, I think you're onto us!" The man mocked. "Don't worry, I'm not staying long."
Nathan rolled his eyes. "Good to hear. Say what you want, and then get out of my face. I'm not listening to your lies anyways."
The twin chuckled. "You sure about that?"
"Um, let me think for a second…I'm gonna go with…yes, I'm not listening to you."
"Humph." The twin grunted, mockingly pouting. "Well, I'll say my piece nonetheless…you can't stop fate, as I said before. Flavia is about to return with news of fate following its course. Maybe that will open your eyes."
Nathan's eyes widened at his twin's bold statement. "You-" He began, but the duplicate tactician had disappeared into the trees, leaving only a purple puff of smoke in his wake.
"Nathan, come quick!" A frantic voice called from back in the camp. The tactician rushed back to the camp, fearing the worst – his twin being right.
Once he arrived, the tactician looked on in horror as Flavia stumbled into the camp, being helped by Lon'qu and Chrom as she was covered in cuts and bruises.
Ricken rushed up to the group from nearby, with Lissa in tow.
"I'll have you healthy in no time, Flavia," Lissa declared, looking over the bruised warrior. "Let's get you into the medic tent…"
Once the group got Flavia into the tent and onto a bed, the warrior passed out from fatigue. Nearly all of the shepherds had arrived, watching over the body of the East-Khan, breathing heavily.
"She'll be out for a while, but she'll live." Lissa told them, after casting some of her healing magic on the woman. "I'll stay here in case I'm needed to help more."
Chrom breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks, sis." He then turned to the rest of the shepherds.
"Basilio…didn't make it." He confessed. "Flavia told Lon'qu and I just after we found her. That's all we know for now."
A silence fell over the gathered shepherds, a combination of shock and sorrow for all.
Frederick was the one to break the silence, standing next to Chrom. "The rest of you can go off, take care of the camp and get ready for are march to Valm castle. Chrom, Nathan and myself will wait for Flavia to awake. There may be more she knows…"
The rest of the shepherds dispersed, except Lon'qu, who had taken a seat on one of the beds next to Flavia, staring at the woman. Nathan caught the eyes of the man, seeing sorrow in them for the first time. Lon'qu had heavily admired Basilio, striving to become as strong as him, and possibly even one day surpass the man.
"It…wasn't…meant to be this way…" Nathan could hear Lon'qu faintly mutter to himself, before he put his head into his hands.
He turned around to see Frederick carrying in chairs for him, Chrom, and Lissa. He ran over to help the man, who waved him off. "What kind of second-in-command would I be if I couldn't carry chairs for milords and milady?" He questioned.
Frustrated, Nathan rolled his eyes, storming out of the tent. Chrom walked over to follow, before being stopped by Lissa.
"He'll be back soon enough." She gently told her older brother. "He's been…going through a lot, lately."
Chrom stood watching Nathan stomp away before sighing exasperatedly and collapsing back on one of the chairs Frederick had brought for him. "Well, I guess we just sit here and wait…"
After a few hours of sitting in silence, Flavia finally began to stir. "Someone get Nathan!" Chrom yelled in surprise as Flavia opened her eyes and slowly managed to sit up. Frederick rushed out of the tent as fast as his legs could carry him, heading for the tactician's tent.
"Take your time to get yourself together," Lissa urged to Flavia. "There's no point in talking about anything until Frederick gets back with Nathan, anyways…"
As Frederick scrambled into the tactician's tent, he spotted the man sitting at his desk, reading a small note and smiling slightly. "Milord! Flavia has awoken!" He cried, nearly knocking the tactician out of his chair in surprise.
"That's great, Freddy…but remember when we talked about using inside voices? Those would be nice right about now…" Nathan complained, folding up the note yet again, stuffing it into his pocket.
"If I may ask, without snooping, what is that note you carry?" Frederick curiously inquired as Nathan got out of his chair.
"Oh, that? Just a love letter from Lissa." The tactician quickly fibbed.
Frederick bit into the lie hook, line, and sinker, eyes widening as he emphatically replied, "Oh, how romantic! I'm currently working on a novel for my beloved Cherche, perhaps you could read over it though first to edit it for me?"
Nathan's mind was elsewhere, still oddly grinning as the two walked away from the tactician's tent. He brushed off Frederick's question, replying, "Uh, yeah, sure, Freddy. Whatever you need."
Once the great knight and tactician arrived at the infirmary tent, Flavia was sitting up and eating. Chrom, Lissa, and Lon'qu all sat around her, waving to Nathan and Frederick as they rejoined the group.
"I would prefer not to try and be so direct, but we're going to need answers pretty fast, so what happened out there? What happened to Basilio?" Nathan pressed.
Flavia shook her head as she chewed a piece of meat. After she had swallowed it, she replied, "Walhart happened."
"But how? Basilio is the strongest Feroxi warrior!" Lon'qu interjected.
"Yeah, but the keyword there is that he's the strongest Feroxi warrior. Walhart isn't anything like what Basilio would've been used to facing, from what we've been told." Chrom mused.
Flavia nodded in agreement. "The stories are true," She told them. "He wiped out our entire force by himself in a matter of minutes. By that point, we knew we couldn't win. Our only hope was to stall him. Basilio even managed to injure that 'Conqueror', but it wasn't anywhere near enough. He's no man…he's a demon."
"We'll just have to be ready, and go at him with everything we have." Nathan decided. "It's already obvious that we have no other choice but to fight, anyways. He may have been able to defeat you and Basilio, but no man is invincible. We'll find a way."
"Well said," Frederick chimed in.
Flavia's eyes then widened, remembering the gemstone she was given. "OH! Yes…" She reached into her pack, pulling out the shiny small stone and tossing it to Chrom. "The oaf gave me this before he died." She told the man.
"But I thought he said Ferox lost their gemstone ages ago?" Lissa asked. "So why didn't he tell us he had it?"
The East-Khan chuckled. "Hell if I know, I was just as surprised as you are."
Chrom pulled out the fire emblem, adding gules to one of the holes on the artifact. "So, that makes three gemstones…we're just missing two now."
"I'm going to try and recover some strength before tomorrow's battle." Flavia muttered as she chowed down on her food. "If there's anything else you need to know from me, let me know."
Frederick nodded. "Thank you, milady. We appreciate it."
The group then got up, exiting the tent. Once they did, they noticed Say'ri and a few other shepherds nailing some items into the ground. Upon closer examination, they saw they were crosses to mark graves. 'Yen'fay' was carved into one, and 'Basilio' into the other.
"No more…" Nathan could hear Chrom softly muttering to himself. "This ends here."
So I've been having a problem lately with people posting reviews and them not showing up when I go to look at them. (I.e. My review count says there are 46 reviews but I haven't seen the two that were apparently posted, except for one which was awaiting moderation so I approved it, yet it never showed up in the actual review section...)
If someone could let me know if they have a way I could fix this, it would be much appreciated!
-Nate