"Absolutely not." Dimitri's eyes were wide, filled with worry.
"Tell me what?" Felix's question fell on deaf ears as his eyes flitted between the two of them.
"He has a right to know." Eve retorted, drawing herself up as tall as she could from her bed to look at Dimitri defiantly.
"We have strict orders." Dimitri shook his head, though he softened slightly. He understood why Eve wanted to tell Felix the truth, but they had no way of knowing what the consequences of it would be.
"Orders? What is this about?" Felix tried to cut in once more, but to no avail.
"You got to tell Dedue." Eve shot back, remembering how Dimitri had convinced Seteth to allow them to tell his vassal.
"That's different." Dimitri replied. "It would have been impossible to hide it from Dedue."
"Different how?" Eve's voice was beginning to raise. "You know that Dedue trusts you enough to not have asked any questions if you told him you couldn't say anything about us. You just wanted to tell him."
"There's no telling what Seteth will do if he finds out you told someone." Dimitri tried to plead with Eve, though he could see in her eyes she had already made her decision.
"Then Seteth doesn't need to know." She said sternly before her voice softened. "I want to tell him. Please, Dimitri. Just let me tell him."
"Tell me what?" Felix barked in frustration, finally calling the attention of the couple before him.
"Eve," Dimitri started, but decided against whatever he was going to say and sighed in resignation, "…go ahead."
"Felix, I know you've had your suspicions about me." Eve began slowly, deliberately, wondering just how much of the truth she should reveal at this point. "And…they're not completely unfounded."
"What do you mean?" Felix brows furrowed as he took on a defensive stance, all too aware of Dimitri's burning gaze on him.
"Dimitri and I are not in love." Eve glanced at her fiancée as she said this.
"I could have guessed as much." Felix half smirked.
"But our engagement is real." She continued. "We've been arranged to marry by order of the Church of Seiros. I'm sure you know how close the ties are between the Kingdom and the Church."
"What's that got to do with me?" Felix crossed his arms. "I don't care if you get married or not."
"Why would the Church of Seiros want the future king of Faerghus to marry some merchant's daughter?" Eve asked softly, watching Felix's reaction intently.
"You're not who you say you are." Felix had suspected as much but hearing her admit it somehow wasn't as satisfying as he had thought it would be. "And that has something to do with me somehow."
"Correct." Eve nodded. "I'm not a merchant's daughter. Who I truly am is not what's important at the moment. But what does matter is the answer to your question."
"Why would you sacrifice yourself for me?" Felix couldn't help feeling frustrated. It was as if he was trying to solve a puzzle that Eve had all the pieces to. He didn't like being in the dark; didn't like being spoon-fed information at her leisure.
"I serve House Fraldarius." Felix froze at her words.
"What?" He shook his head lightly, wondering if he had misheard her.
"House Fraldarius has protected me for many years. In exchange, I protect the head of the house and his lineage." Eve explained, though it left Felix no less confused.
"Protect you from what?" Felix asked. How did she fit into all of this? And why, if she indeed served his house, did he never recognise her?
"Eve." Dimitri's voice was cautious, a warning not to give too much away.
"There's no point in half-assing the truth now, Dimitri." She looked at him and for the first time he felt like he saw a true glimpse of her. Her eyes looked so trapped, bound by orders from the church. Telling Felix this sliver of the truth was the only freedom she could afford right now.
"Very well." He nodded, deciding to let Eve tell all that she wanted to.
"I…" She trailed off, taking a breath as if trying to figure out what exactly to say. "I bear a rare crest. One that makes me valuable to the church and its enemies alike."
"A crest?" Felix's brow furrowed.
"It's not that I would go against the church, but I didn't want to be their pawn." Eve continued. "Despite that, I still wanted to use my crest for good. So I found myself in Fraldarius territory where I promised to use my crest to protect the head of the house for as long as they would keep me hidden from the outside world."
"What kind of crest is that damn valuable?" Felix asked to which Eve's face took on a complicated look.
"It would be easier to just show you." She said, motioning for Dimitri to come to the side of her bed.
"You should be resting, Eve." Dimitri said gently. "Are you sure you're up for it?"
"I'll be fine." She dismissed his worries with a wave of her hand. "Just hand me that knife over there."
Dimitri reached to where she had a bowl of fruit resting on her windowsill. Inside, a small paring knife sat nestled between some apples. Felix watched intently as Eve took the knife from Dimitri and cut a small, shallow slit into the centre of her left palm. Suddenly, the tell-tale glow of a crest being activated illuminated her face and a symbol Felix had never seen before shone. Right before his eyes the cut on her hand disappeared completely only to appear on Dimitri's outstretched left hand which he had taken his glove off of.
"W-what?" Felix was taken aback, stunned speechless.
"My crest allows for transference of injury." Eve said as she reached for the salve and clean bandages that were meant for her on her bedside table. "I suppose that's the easiest way to describe it."
Felix watched as she bandaged Dimitri's wound that had once been hers. How was such a power possible? And if there was a crest like this that existed, why didn't he know about it? Eve said she served house Fraldarius, but he genuinely couldn't conjure any memory of her from before this moon.
"How did you end up here then?" Felix asked. "How does all of this lead up to where we are now?"
"I did what I promised to do." Eve smiled bitterly into Dimitri's palm. "But I wasn't careful enough."
"What happened?" Felix watched her intently, trying to discern anything he could.
"My crest doesn't just work for shallow wounds." She looked up at him after she finished bandaging Dimitri's hand. "Surely then the church wouldn't take such an interest in me."
"What do you mean?" Surely, she wasn't suggesting what Felix was thinking. That would be impossible. There had to be limits to the power of crests, even if they were supposedly gifted from the goddess.
"I can save someone who has been killed." Eve's voice was nearly a whisper now, so low Felix almost couldn't hear her. "I can only do it right at the moment of death, and it takes pretty much all of my energy to do it, but it's within the realm of the power of my crest. But my crest's power is equivalent exchange. That means someone else must give their life for me to raise one."
"Impossible." Felix breathed.
"Last moon there was an accident. A section of wall came crumbling down and your father was crushed." Eve continued on. "I kept my promise to him and used my crest to revive him—at the cost of a servant's life."
At that last part, Eve cast her eyes down. She seemed genuinely remorseful at the loss of another life.
"It's the hardest when it's an accident." She sighed. "If it was an assassination attempt then the obvious answer is to trade the assassin's life for Rodrigue's. But…well, I had to keep my promise. I had to save Rodrigue."
"And in return my fool of a father sold you out to the church." Felix grimaced.
"No." Eve's head shot up and she shook her head earnestly. "It wasn't Rodrigue's fault. There was a representative of the church there. They reported to Seteth what had happened. If it weren't for Rodrigue I'd probably be locked up as the church's prisoner somewhere."
"That's why I went to Fhirdiad." Dimitri spoke up from where he stood at Eve's bedside. "Rodrigue had written me a letter imploring me to accept this engagement he had arranged."
"My father arranged your marriage?" Felix asked with incredulity.
"He did it to protect me." Eve replied. "He knew that once the church knew about me and my crest, they'd want to have me close. But he couldn't bear the idea of me being locked away. Afterall, it was my promise to him that put me in this situation."
"So he convinced the church to allow me to marry her." Dimitri continued on. "That way she would be closely linked to the church where they could keep an eye on her. But she would also be able to live her life relatively freely."
"The church claims they just want to keep me safe, but I know that they just want to keep my crest close in case anything happens to Lady Rhea." Eve shook her head. "Rodrigue knew I didn't want to be a pawn, that I wanted to cut my own path in my life. He told me that marrying Dimitri would be the only way I could keep some modicum freedom."
"So that's why you're here now." Felix spoke slowly, trying to wrap his head around all this new information.
"And that's why I saved you." Eve smiled gently. "Because my promise to House Fraldarius still stands."
"We've been put under strict orders not to tell anyone the truth about Eve or her crest." Dimitri added. "Seteth said that especially now that enemies of the church are taking up arms, we can't have anyone knowing that Eve has such a valuable crest. It would make her a target."
"I would appreciate if you didn't share this conversation with anyone." Eve said, staring holes into Felix.
"Why go through all of this?" Felix had just one last question on his mind that he couldn't leave unasked. "Why not just disappear? Run away. You could have avoided all of this, so why stay?"
"I wouldn't expect you to understand." Eve sighed. "But Fodlan is my home. And I have a promise to keep to your family. I already failed you once; I couldn't just disappear."
Failed him how? Felix looked on as Eve battled with some wave of emotions within her. He just didn't understand her. Why would she have such staunch loyalty to his family? Even though he now knew more about her than he ever had, Felix felt even more perplexed by Eve. She had a powerful crest like none other he had ever seen, and for some reason she had pledged only to use that crest for House Fraldarius. And when the church discovered her, rather than run she was roped into an arranged marriage with Dimitri at his father's behest. None of it made sense. There was something else tying Eve to Fodlan; and there was something more to the story that Eve was keeping to herself.