Hey y'all. Much shorter chapter today just to finish off the month and get us started for the Guardian Moon!
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Day 22 of the Ethereal Moon
"Santaniel!"The man jumped at the call of his name, just trying to learn a new spell at the classroom with Byleth. He even nearly dropped his glass of water.
"Uh. Yes?"
He turned around and saw Seteth in wyvern rider armor, wielding Assal, "Duel me." Santaniel stood and stared at him blankly, "Any particular reason or?" He wasn't wearing any armor nor did he have his Holy Twins. He left them with Xavien for sharpening because the assassin was fascinated with the two tone whetstone, having used it all of last night to take care of the weapons they owned.
"I just wish to spar." Santaniel gave him a flat stare, 'That's utter bullshit.' The man seemed to realize that his word carried no weight with the young man and he reiterated, "It has been a long time since I've had the opportunity to wield Assal, that is all."
Santaniel sighed, "Alright. I'll go and get my Holy Twins." He looked at Byleth with an apologetic expression that also carried its fair share of confusion.
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Santaniel slipped his jade tinted armor onto his person and flipped the face guard down, duel wielding his axes as usual. "So. What are the rules for this?"
Seteth mounted his wyvern and complied to his request, "The rules are simple. Whoever yields first loses. The training grounds and the air above are the boundaries." Santaniel nodded and took the back line of the training grounds and waited for Byleth to start the duel.
"Begin!"
Santaniel knelt and waited for Seteth to move, 'He knows. He just wants to prove it to himself.' The green haired Nabatean shot forward like a comet on his wyvern
"You've already lost." Santaniel rolled and a loud crunch ringed out as he socked the wyvern with his right arm, conveying just enough electricity to knock it out, and throw Seteth to the ground as it bucked mid air.
Santaniel stood over him and simply commanded him, "Yield." The man grunted and he raised his arms above his head. Santaniel took off his helmet and walked over to Byleth, "Anyways. About Meteor, how do you properly summon it? That's the one thing I could never get..."
"Brother!"
'There's another one.' He heard Flayn run over to Seteth as he and the Professor discussed the spell, "So I have to..." He drew the glyphs and the spell burnt into existence, Santaniel dispelling it as it started to form the ball of burning fire.
"Ok. Now I'll just have to work on the aiming." Santaniel unstrapped his axes from his back and tossed them absentmindedly, "Maybe I'll be able to detach the chain from these things and just control them with my magic soon."
Byleth nodded and eyed the 'siblings' behind him. Santaniel turned and saw that Flayn was carrying the Caduceus staff and was now tending to Seteth's wyvern, "It still ok? Me and Byleth can help out if need be."
She shook her head and smiled, "He'll be ok. Just needs some rest." Santaniel smiled back, "Good. Sorry Seteth, I didn't mean to uh, y'know, knock it out so violently." The man nodded and took his leave, Flayn tailing him the entire time.
"They are awful actors." Byleth nodded silently in agreement.
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Day 23 of the Ethereal Moon
"Hey Petra?" Santaniel asked, finally finding the Brigid princess at the fishing pond. "Yes?" She responded, struggling with a rather large fish, glittering in the water with silvery scales. "You need help with that thing?" She grunted, shaking her head, "It is the difficult, but I will overcome this!"
Santaniel nodded and just observed, humming absently, as she eventually pulled the glittering fish above the surface and onto the dock. "Wow. Nice catch."
The woman immediately killed it, humanely, not allowing it to suffer more than needed, "It is the necessary to let the life flow easily." He nodded, already familiar with the teachings.
"Right. I actually had a request." Petra nodded and was seemingly very determined, "It's nothing very violent, so uh, go ahead and calm down princess."
She must've not realized she was looking as fierce as she was trained to be, but eased up.
"I was hoping you could help me make a dreamcatcher? It's something that's supposed to drive away nightmares or bad dreams. I just need help finding the materials for it."
She nodded, "What will the catcher of dreams require?" He showed her a list, "Feathers, a tanned hide, and a circle woven of sticks. Think you can take care of that? I have to get what goes in the center."
She nodded and smiled brightly at him, "Thank you so much Petra."
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Santaniel dug around in the labs, searching for research notes and for the center pieces of his gift.
He stumbled upon more than he ever bargained for though, a beautiful set of colored gems, all containing varying Crests. Santaniel grimaced and closed the box, "I'm tempted to bury these. They'll come in handy one day, but no one should have this power. Especially them. For now… They'll just be research tools."
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Day 24 of the Ethereal Moon
Santaniel stood in place while he got his suit tailored to him, the material consisting of sea green and cloud blue. It was made to match his silver jacket. "Thanks for the help."
Hephaestus stood nearby and spoke, "Manuela owes me because I found her black out drunk at the bar and brought her back to the monastery." Santaniel rolled his eyes, "Go figure."
The church's physician muttered something under her breath about him being ungrateful. "Thank you Manuela for still helping me despite not thanking you before this." She made a noise of pride and Santaniel couldn't be bothered to decipher it. "So what's Xavien up to today?"
"He said he was doing some research about poisons in the library today. Something about 'Which ones are sour or not'" Santaniel just waved it off, "I don't even want to know."
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Xavien groaned as he hit another dead end. "What does a man have to do to be able to know how a poison tastes..."
He picked another book off the shelf and read, "So, the people in his class don't know he has two Crests, unless it's us, Lysithea, Felix, or Byleth. The people outside of his class, unless he told them, wouldn't even know he has one Crest more than likely, that being of Ernest. So I'm guessing it was a poison to assassinate a commoner or whatever his other half is. What would I use for a mission like that... One that can kill only those with certain blood. A rare, specific poison. But who the hell tries to kill someone without doing research? Or did they know he was Nabatean, and just didn't know it was half and half?"
He flipped through pages and scored nothing, slamming his head on the table, muttering curses to himself. "So. Let's assume that it was just a test. They'd need to know who they were dealing with so that rules out people in his immediate class, no nobles or the commoners in the Golden Deer. The Gautier boy doesn't like him, but he's smart. He'd know what he was doing and saw him transform. That leaves about four people and the ones in the Blue Lions are innocent because neither of them could even sneak without breaking something. Edelgard is a royal, she couldn't get around without... Hubert. That's who it is."
He dug through the books of the Empire, finding several about poison and jumped through a mirror, avoiding the Mire that struck the opposite wall.
"He knows."
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Day 25 of the Ethereal Moon
Santaniel slid his suit on and followed with his jacket, "Alright. Hephaestus you're going to supervise, correct?" Hephaestus nodded as he slid on his pure black suit, only a crimson red under shirt notifying any other color. "Do you have to look so edgy?"
Santaniel asked, pulling on some shoes he borrowed from Balthus, well, 'rented' as he put it.
"It was Mercedes' idea. She's wearing a pure white dress with ruffles of blue on the bottom." Santaniel rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you're totally going to 'Supervise' ya love sick dog." Hephaestus gave him a glare and Santaniel retorted to the silent remark, "I got that from you. Xavien, what's your plans for today?"
Xavien looked up from his books, "Unless I need to kill someone there." Santaniel and Hephaestus gave him the same glare and he groaned. "Fine, if I have to go to satisfy you idiots I will."
"Good. Just make sure no one's sneaking around and make sure everyone is accounted for. I don't want Hubert near anyone right now, alright? Keep an eye on Edelgard too." Xavien nodded and tucked his orders away in his neat little mind cabinet.
"You got it boss. When's the pay?"
Santaniel rolled his eyes and threw a berry at him, "Smartass."
Before the three left they took a stop at Arti's grave, leaving a bushel of forget-me-nots before leaving for the night. "Rest in peace Arti. We'll be back on your birthday."
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Xavien hummed as he listened to the music ringing throughout the hall, looking over the railing of the entrance hall where it was being held.
He looked around and spied the pairings, Ashe and Ingrid, Mercedes and Hephaestus- Who was being careful not to get caught slacking as a 'supervisor', Petra was chatting to Linhardt, Claude was trying to drag Byleth out on the floor, Hilda was with Marianne, Lorenz was trying to convince Leonie to come out with him. She was refusing. Heh.
He took a look to the other side of the floor and spotted Santaniel with Lysithea, talking intently about what he assumed to be Crests or cooking. Info dumping onto one another? Probably.
As they were talking Felix and Annette joined them, and he had to say, Felix looked alright in a suit. Alois, Catherine, Jeralt, and Shamir were talking. The two ladies and the old knight groaned when Alois said one of his puns.
Ferdinand and Dorothea were already dancing, amongst the fray were Edelgard and Dimitri as well, their retainers off to opposite sides of the room. Bernadetta was in her room, as usual. Balthus was off with Raphael and Ignatz to train, 'Maybe Hapi is there too?'
Yuri and Constance walked in and made a beeline for Santaniel's group, Constance speaking energetically to Annette and in turn Lysithea while Yuri struck up some light chatter with the boys. Reminds me of a couple days ago. Granted, I don't think Acheron was very happy when he found out his wife died... Or attempted to cheat on him.'
Soon the main dances were underway and the people who had dates strode out onto the dance floor, he kept an eye on Hubert like instructed to and the sinister man met his gaze, a smirk glazed over his face.
'Little rat...'
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Byleth snuck out of the room, much to the chagrin of Sothis, hopping his way to the top of the Goddess tower. He sighed in relief as he sat at the window, gazing over the monastery, 'Thankfully we might have a peaceful month for once...'
"And you might have a peaceful day for once." Sothis materialized out of thin air and shimmered in the moonlight.
He sat there for a few minutes, having conversation with the Goddess until the echoing of rider's boots could be heard echoing up the staircase.
Sothis vanished as suddenly as she'd appeared, as Hapi's face peaked around the corner and uttered a surprised, "Professor?"
"Yes?" He replied calmly, evident he was in no mood for the conversation, so Hapi just sat next to him silently, letting the music below carry up the stairs and into the room. Happy voices making the memories he hoped they'd always have.
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Day 27 of the Ethereal Moon
Santaniel summoned Meteor over the head of the Demonic Beast in front of him, the Crest of Macuil blistering fourth next to his chest to hide it from others.
"Shatter like glass!"
"I don't have time for this!"
Lysithea yelled as she summoned Hades on the back half of the monster, turning it into a cindered disappointment. Santaniel flashed in her peripheral, "Ready Lys?"
She hopped onto his back and they were off to the next monster, Lysithea hopping off as Santaniel engaged it in close combat, getting an easy hit with his talons as it tried to attack a student.
"Perish." He sunk his fangs in and Lysithea gathered another pool of energy to summon Hades, erasing the back half of it, as Santaniel crushed the front half. 'Has the form gotten bigger or am I just now realizing it?'
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Byleth slashed his Sword of the Creator across the throat of a monster, Felix and Annette following it up with shots of their magic and sent the beast to its death.
His father Jeralt engaged with a monster just a bit further away with Hephaestus at his left riding his Demonic Wolf. Byleth joined them and cracked the sword like a whip into the monster's eye, sapphire blue blood pouring from its now empty hole.
Hephaestus casted Death and Jeralt slammed into it with his blessed lance. The thing fell and he heard Santaniel roar, engaging another damned thing.
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"I'll end this." He cut across the beast with his talons as it dug its claws into his tail. "You little..." He sunk his fangs into its neck, pouring molten venom in along with his own scarlet fire scorching its hide.
"Fall back and let someone heal you, you're bleeding heavily." He knew it was Xavien speaking with scry and he did, picking up Lysithea on the way to the main group. He felt the healing spells wash over him and he transformed again.
"Where's Flayn?" Marianne pointed over to where Byleth, Hephaestus, and Jeralt were taking down a monster.
"Good. Xavien is here too right?" Lysithea pointed at Xavien who was opening a chest and pulled out a bullion of gold and some Arcane crystals, "Ok. That's everyone accounted for."
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Byleth stuck the Sword of the Creator through the beast's throat, a waterfall of blood coating him. "Nice work kid. Let's go, everyone is accounted for and-"
"Wait!"
"Sounds like that's coming from the chapel. Let's go check it out, Hephaestus, you go back to the brats and tell them we're doing some investigating." The mage nodded and rode his wolf back to the group. "Let's go kid."
The father-son duo jogged toward the chapel, having left the horse at the outside door. "Hello? Someone in here?"
"Yes! Under the rubble! I don't think I'm hurt but I am stuck." Jeralt sighed and they both went to work picking up the rocks and chucking them out of the way to reveal Monica, the small red haired woman they saved a couple months back with Flayn.
They helped her outside and Byleth casted, "Recover." Byleth went to grab his father's horse, turning at the sound of his father's voice, "Run along now."
"Thanks for all your help sir..." Byleth gasped as she pierced the small of his back with a dagger, drawing an audibly pained gasp from Jeralt, 'No... not like this.'
"You're just a pathetic old man. How dare you get in the way of my brilliant plan... you dog."
Byleth grabbed the flow of time and pulled on it hard, scrolling it back to the moment where she started to circle around his father, 'I can't let another person die.' He unsheathed his Sword of the Creator and lashed out, the only thing preventing him being the magical barrier of a tall, white haired and hideous man.
The scene played out again, but instead of Monica insulting his father she turned to the man and asked, "Huh? What are you doing here?"
"You must survive. But merely because there is still a role I require you to fulfill." The red haired woman ran to him and they vanished into Warp. Byleth rushed to his father as he fell to the ground, a death rattle within his lungs.
"Sorry... it looks like I'm going to have to leave you now." He closed his eyes but Byleth's were only starting to well up and his first tear hit Jeralt's cheek, causing him to open his eyes and look up at his son.
"To think the first time I see you cry, your tears would be for me. It's sad... and yet, I'm happy for it. Thank you... kid." The gentle, silent sobs of Byleth were overcast by the rain, letting the man slowly grieve in peace for the one person in life that gave him purpose. The only one he could truly say he loved.
All the while, a woman in a white and red mask watched, silently shocked, warping away as Hubert stepped up behind her. "Shall we, Lady Edelgard?"
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Four Hundred and Eighteen Weeks Remain