AN: WOW you guys loved last chapter, I'm delighted! That's why I feel a bit bad that this chapter is super chill and slow paced in comparison but it's necessary for all the future plot points I have set up, trust me!
Anyway! Reviews!
Dragon lord Syed 101: I wonder indeed! *hint, hint*
Matt Rogen: Yeah, I agree. TWSITD were super underwhelming compared to the three dimensional cast of the game—I will try go make them at least 2-D this time around! Also yes, one of Edelgard's biggest flaws is that she's so laser focused on the future she can't see what's happening at present—the opposite flaw of Dimitri. This shall be brought attention to later on!
Time Knight Leo: Thanks! And and Yes, the Blue Lions lost cause Lysithea wasn't Dark Spike-ing the hell out of DK and also he's OP af lol.
Random Fan: Is it weird that I feel the exact same way even though I wrote it? Lol. Glad you enjoyed! :D
PlopPrince: Thank you! Hope you enjoy this chapter too!
Chapter XI: The Knots of Fate
Jeritza slid a finger down the magically scarring wound on his side with a sort of delirious fascination as he sat in grin of his vanity and eyed its pink jagged length.
When was the last time a foe had wounded him?
Maybe years, and years and years ago...but not know. Not after training and honing his skills. So this was why this otherwise shallow, non-lethal and simple wound was oh so fascinating to him—almost as fascinating as the boy who put it there.
Thoughts of said boy fled Jeritza's mind as his bedroom door was flung open and a furious Edelgard marched in.
Jeritza let his shirt fall back over his flesh and sighed in agitation. "You have no right to be angry."
Edelgard scoffed. "I don't, do I?" She demanded, kicking the door closed. "You rampaged on an innocent village without my consent and mortally wounded students of the Officer's Academy, forcing me to intervene and risk detection! The Archbishop will no doubt demand an explanation as to how I knew you were being a bloodthirsty lunatic and what do you want me to say? Hmm? Intuition?"
Jeritza didn't answer. Instead he said, "He wounded me."
"What? Death Knight, are you even listening—!"
"The boy with hair of sunshine and the eyes of a beast," Jeritza said, looking into the distance. "That...boy. The Prince."
"He...managed to land a blow?" Edelgard asked in surprise. "Dimitri is a capable fighter certainly but...you've never been touched in a fight in—"
"Years, and years, and years..." Jeritza said quietly, showing Edelgard the wound. "Dimitri then? That is his name?"
"I—yes but that is besides the point, Death Knight. I want to be clear with you; never are you to take orders from anyone but I—least of all Tomas. Understood?"
Jeritza hummed carelessly in agreement and went back to sliding a finger up and down his wound. "Are you finished?"
Edelgard huffed and exited his room, slamming the door shut behind her, leaving Jeritza alone with his thoughts, thankfully.
"Di...mi...tri..." he mumbled the syllables under his breath.
-o0o-
Edelgard knew first hand what Death Knight's magic could do.
It had been two years ago and they had been sparring and frustratingly, Edelgard hadn't been able to land a single blow. Then he had struck her with Thunder and the fight had ended in a grand total of sixty seconds.
While twitching on the floor in sheer agony, Death Knight had looked down at her with actual emotion on his face—disappointment to be exact—and said, "I have no need for you."
He had refused to spar with her every since.
An odd man, Death Knight.
But, the point was his Thunder spell—it had only hit her leg back then but it had spread throughout her body like a virus until Hubert got rid of it with a Recovery Spell.
From what Edelgard had seen when she had arrived in those mountains, the Blue Lions healer either did not know how to cast Recovery or had no idea that was what she needed to do seeing as how all the Lions were unconscious.
And the Seiros mages might not know what to do either, what if...?
With a grunt, Edelgard buried her training axe within the straw dummy's chest, gripping the wooden handle in an angry grip.
"Curse you, Solon," She snarled before wrenching the axe out and serving the dummy's head with one clean swoop.
Panting, Edelgard stepped backwards and wiped the sweat from brow, eyes flickering towards the open doors of the Training Grounds when she heard a commotion.
Edelgard returned the axe to its place in the weapon rack before speed walking to the outdoors. Students from the Officers Academy, Dance Academy, and all the other Monastery Academies were pouring out of their classrooms as gossiping mutters flitted about like birds.
But from the little Edelgard could snatch, she knew where she needed to head next.
"The Blue Lions are all seriously wounded, did you see the Knights bring them in?"
"All of them?"
"Every last one! Including Prince Dimitri!"
"Prince Dimitri? No way! Who could knock him down?"
The mutters only got louder as Edelgard entered the Monastery proper, heart thumping in anxiety and fists clenched tightly in rage. As soon as she entered the hallway containing the infirmary, students were all crowded around the closed doors, now no longer muttering but exclaiming.
"D'you think they'll live?"
"I bet five gold it was those no good Western Church idiots! You know the ones!"
"I saw them go in! Poor Prince Dimitri looked awful!"
As Edelgard reached the crowd, she began to shuffle students out of the way with clipped, "Excuse me"s and "Sorry"s until she finally reached the doors and knocked firmly.
"Professor Manuela!"
"Don't bother," a female student grumped. "She won't let us in."
The door opened a crack and Manuela's eyes peeked out. "I'm sorry, Edelgard. But no visitors right—"
"I'm not visiting! I can help!" Edelgard insisted, imagining that horrible Thunder spell eating away at Dimitri until his heart was devoured and he was lost forever.
Manuela sighed, eyes lowered in sympathy. "Sweetie, I understand Dimitri is your friend—" that statement sent a plethora of heads snapping towards Edelgard and she mentally sighed in annoyance. "—but I need all the concentration I can get. I have no idea what this spell is but—"
"Recovery," Edelgard said firmly.
Manuela blinked. "Pardon?"
"Cast Recovery and the Thunder spell will be dissipated," Edelgard repeated.
Manuela paused and said, "...I never thought of that!" Before the infirmary door slammed shut once more.
Breathing a sigh of relief that Dimitri's survival had raised significantly, Edelgard pushed back out of the crowd, annoyed at the new round of gossip.
"Princess Edelgard! You and Prince Dimitri are friends?"
"I told you guys I saw them walking together through Town one time! I told you!"
"What if they're secret lovers?"
Edelgard finally made her away out of the crowd and walked off as quickly as possible.
Goddess, she hated people some times.
Her annoyance quickly became an adrenaline spiked dash of horror however, as a firm hand grabbed her by the arm and tugged her into another hallway.
"You are a foolish girl," Tomas snarled as Edelgard scowled and indignantly tugged her arm free from his grasp. "What are you doing? It's bad enough you have to explain how you knew the Death Knight was endangering their life of your precious Dimitri! Now you must also explain your knowledge of the unknown spell that was cast!"
"I have everything under control," Edelgard snapped. "And may I add that I wouldn't even need to explain either if you weren't hellbent on spiting me like some child!"
"Don't you dare speak to me of maturity, girl!" Tomas hissed. "I'm not the one going to plays with boys while I have the weight of Fódlan's future balancing on my shoulders!"
Edelgard gritted her teeth and flushed. In embarrassment or anger she couldn't tell as she spluttered, "I was practically blackmailed into going to that play! And even I wasn't, what I do on my free time and who I spend it with are none of your business."
"Everything about you is my people's business, Edelgard. We've made you who you are," Tomas said. "And I've said it before and I will say it again, if that boy causes trouble he will be disposed of. So I suggest you take your feelings for Prince Dimitri and burn it." And with that, Tomas hobbled away on his cane, leaving a livid Edelgard behind.
-o0o-
Dimitri woke up to an aching throat and pounding headache.
Opening his eyes had been an unwelcome and painful experience, for his lids were heavy and sticky. And the sunlight shining from the nearby window proved to be too bright for him, casing him to wince in discomfort and his headache to increase in intensity.
"Thank the Goddess," Manuela sighed. Dimitri frowned and turned to glance at the physician from where she sat atop a stool by his bed.
She took a wet rag from a bowl sitting atop the nearby bed table and placed it gently atop Dimitri's forehead. The prince let out a sigh of comfort as Manuela said, "I was afraid it was too late for you—I used Recovery on you Goddess knows how many times but that Thunder spell wouldn't buzz off!" The woman shook her head before she rushed off to get something. Dimitri gingerly moved back in his cot and sat up, relieved to find there was no more pain in his abdomen.
"How do you feel?" Manuela asked as she returned with a handful of glass vials containing translucent liquid of different colours.
"Fine thank you—although I feel I have a bit of a fever," Dimitri responded, eyes flickering around the infirmary and finding it empty.
His heart clenched slightly in worry as Manuela handed him a translucent blue vial. "That should help with the fever in a couple of minutes," she said before Dimitri asked, "The others...are they—?"
"Their injuries were in less dangerous areas and they recovered fairly quickly; I Iet them leave a day after they came in. You, sir, took three days longer," Manuela responded and Dimitri sighed softly in relief before drinking the liquid to its entirety. "Although emotionally they may be a bit under the weather. The Lions are having a little break to properly heal and Mr. Fraldarius is more than a little annoyed at the lack of a Professor and by extension lack of any training sessions or instruction. Not to mention Lady Rhea postponed all missions until further notice. Your other friends tried sneaking in so many times I had to threaten them with expulsion at least five times and don't get be started on your retainer!"
Dimitri chuckled along with the woman as she handed him a red vial. He could certainly imagine Dedue consistently trying to see him and failing each time with mounting frustration. The amusement quickly disappeared when something occurred to him.
"'Lack of a Professor?' What do you mean by that, Professor Manuela? Professor Hanneman is alright...isn't he?" Dimitri questioned, the fear seeping into his veins once more.
Manuela bit her bottom lip and looked away with a sigh. "Hanneman...had to be taken to some more qualified physicians in Adrestia. That strange Thunder spell struck him directly in the heart and my magic simply refused to work."
Dimitri whispered a forlorn, "I see," as his eyes fell to his shaking hands.
"Would've been the fate of you and all of your other friends with the exception of Mercedes had Edelgard not advised me to use Recover."
Dimitri looked up sharply with surprised eyes. "Edelgard? She came to see me?"
Manuela smiled slyly as he handed another blue tonic to him. "Oh she tried but I sent her away just like the others. Although she told me the spell's cure before leaving and well, needless to say you two are fairly talked about now."
"Talked about? I don't...how?"
"Word is you two are engagement," Manuela continued, and laughed in amusement as Dimitri burned scarlet. "Engaged! I—Manuela, you don't believe this foolishness, do you?"
Manuela batted a hand through the air. "Please, Sweetie. You're too hesitant and Edelgard's too stubborn for anything like that to happen any time soon. But the fascinating stories the students come up with are very entertaining!"
Dimitri sighed heavily and slumped his shoulders. Sylvain would never let him hear the end of this asinine rumour and dread was already weighing heavy on his chest—but not as heavy as his worry for Hanneman.
Or his hatred for...whoever that knight had—
"Death Knight!"
The memory returned to Dimitri sharp and clear. The deep voice, the red and white mask, the feather trimmed red armour—The Masked Man.
The Flame Emperor.
Every emotion fled Dimitri at once—everything but rage and sick excitement.
The Prince's fists clenched and shook while his breathing increased drastically, a dark smile spreading across his face.
How could he have forgotten? The Flame Emperor—his family's murderer.
His head was closer to Dimitri than ever before.
"Uh...Dimitri," Manuela laughed awkwardly. "Darling, there's no need to get worked up over a bit of gossip! Give it a moon and it'll blow right over."
Dimitri flinched out of his semi-trance and turned to Manuela seriously. "When can I leave?"
"I—um..." Manuela looked away apprehensively before stating, "Soon? This afternoon at the latest, I believe."
Dimitri took in a deep breath and nodded slowly. He had waited four years for this moment—he could wait a few more hours.
-o0o-
There was a painful mixture of agony, happinesses, and longing that came about when something you desired was so close yet so tantalizingly out of reach.
And everyday, when she saw Byleth, every night when she dreamt of holding her close and keeping her away from anything and everything forever, Rhea felt that very feeling.
Unfortunately, Jeralt had made it very clear that he wanted Rhea far, far, away from Byleth outside of House business
—and she wouldn't, *couldn't* give him a reason to take her away again.
Rhea watched her from the balcony outside the Audience Chamber, dark blue hair bounced against her shoulder blades as she carried a wooden crate filled with glass bottles and cups, presumably something for her Golden Deer class.
Rhea had hoped when she had sent Byleth to Zanado she would remember something and surely come running. After all, if Byleth came to Rhea by her own volition, Jeralt couldn't be mad, could he?
But alas, when Rhea had briefed Byleth and Claude on their mission, the girl's eyes hadn't lit up with delighted recognition and her mannerisms hadn't reminded Rhea of her mother at all.
She sighed softly to herself. It seemed she'd just have to wait a bit longer.
Rhea quickly masked her despondent expression and turned when she heard the Chamber doors open and a familiar pair of footsteps nearing.
"Seteth," she addressed with a practiced smile. "Do the Blue Lions have a suitable substitute?"
"Yes, Lady Rhea but..." Seteth's voice trailed off and the look on his face made Rhea's smile falter as he handed her a letter. "I'm afraid the Western Church has made due with their threat of rebellion."
As she read its contents, Rhea didn't even bother hiding the displeasure from her face this time.
-o0o-
"Four of these cups are filled with water. The other four are clear, odourless poison," Byleth said monotonously, legs atop the desk and mug of coffee mixed with beer in her hand. The mentioned glasses were neatly lined up beside her ankles. "Choose the wrong glass and you will die."
The Golden Deer stared wide eyed at the threat. Except for Claude who looked very much at ease.
Byleth found herself curious to know if it was a facade or genuine serenity.
Gingerly, Ignatz rose a hand and Byleth turned her unblinking gaze from Claude to him. "Ignatz?"
"Uh...you're joking right, Professor? We're not actually going to die—right?"
Byleth took a lengthy sip of her beverage before tilting her head to the side. "That depends, Ignatz," she answered finally. "Did any of you study?"
This time, only Lysithea looked at ease while the rest of the Deer's faces ranged from guilt to "whoops" to more abject horror than before.
Before Byleth could call on a student to step forwards, the open doors were knocked and a cheerful Knight stepped in.
"Morning, Professor! I've got something to report!" The young man—The Gatekeeper, Byleth liked to call him because she didn't know his name and didn't care to learn it—said before holding out a probably official looking paper that she casually accepted and gave a once over.
"Okay. You can leave now," Byleth told him. Gatekeeper gleefully saluted and trotted off.
From the distance, Byleth could here him call, "Morning, Princess Edelgard! Nothing to report!"
"Good morning, Gatekeeper," a tight voice responded.
"...why does everybody keep calling me that?"
Edelgard breezed past the Golden Deer homeroom with an air of indignation that Byleth was certain wasn't caused by Gatekeeper because that would make no sense.
Then again, Gatekeeper was annoying.
"Oh, no he's not! You're just a big bully!" Sothis, who had been silent up until now, chided.
Byleth took another sip from her beer-coffee and shrugged carelessly before announcing, "We've been deployed to the Kingdom to stop a rebellion," to her Golden Deer.
"Aw what?" Hilda whined. "Why do we have to go on a mission? The other Houses are taking a break, why can't we?"
"Show some humanity, Hilda!" Lysithea snapped. "The Black Eagles can't go on missions because Professor Manuela is busy tending to Prince Dimitri and the Blue Lions can't because Professor Hanneman is in critical condition! They aren't on break."
"Oh, get off my back, twerp! I wasn't saying what happened wasn't awful, I'm saying we need a break too!" Hilda snapped back.
"We don't need a break, Hilda. You're just lazy," Lysithea said with a roll of her eyes.
"Okay, can we stop throwing around insults?" Ignatz practically pleaded.
"Agreed. Let's return to the lesson," Byleth said and Ignatz squeaked.
"O-o-on second thought—"
"Ignatz. You first."
-o0o-
So much for progress.
Dimitri had opened at least five encyclopedias and not one showed and any mention of a Flame Emperor.
Dimitri has gone straight to the library after Manuela gave him the go ahead to leave. He hadn't eaten or seen his friends—all he did that afternoon was read.
And with every book he slammed shut in defeat, he felt a sense of hopelessness chill the fire of his determination. He had tried looking for Tomas to get some aid but he didn't appear to be here.
"Dimitri."
Dimitri jumped and swivelled in his seat, looking up to find a vaguely familiar face partially concealed with a white half mask staring down at him. dark blue eyes shone through, and his long flaxen blond hair was tied in a black bow.
"O-oh, hello sir. I was just looking for—"
"Why...are you out of class?" The man said in a slow husky voice.
Dimitri blinked in confusion. Hadn't Manuela said they had time off? "I beg your pardon, sir, but...I was under the impression there were no classes."
"I found my letter very specific."
"Letter?"
The man sighed. "Time wasted yet again. Never your mind, come."
Still somewhat confused, Dimitri stood and followed the man out of the library.
"I...presume you are our new Professor then?"
"Correct."
"Ah! Apologies Professor..."
"Jeritza."
"Jeritza! That is a lovely name."
The man gave Dimitri a sideways glance. "What is so lovely about it?"
Dimitri flinched and quickly coughed up, "...it's...unique?"
Jeritza blinked slowly and returned his gaze forwards. "Not really."
Dimitri was fairly certain it was a unique name—he'd never heard of a single child named Jeritza—but he wasn't about to argue.
After a few moments of silence, Dimitri said, "I'm sorry for not being aware—"
"You are bringing to attention irrelevant matters. Do not."
"Oh! R-right."
More silence.
"I don't believe I've seen you around before," Dimitri said finally.
"That is correct."
Silence.
"Do you need to see the syllabus—"
"I do not need one. I have one here." Jeritza tapped his skull. "I do not enjoy being held back by words on a page."
"...Ah."
Silence reigned once more and Dimitri didn't try and start another conversation.
The Blue Lions class was certainly going to be interesting from now on...for better or for worse.
-o0o-
AN: Thanks to everyone being terrified of The Coronavirus, school's out and that means I can write more! Meaning more chapters for YOU! WOOHOO!
Thanks Coronavirus!
It's a damn sin Jeritza isn't Blue Lions recruitable tbh. I mean YEAH Azure Moon is the only route where there's a unique playable character that isn't a main lord or their loyal retainer and the other routes deserve something too, and YEAH Crimson Flower has a LOT of un-recruitable characters but, first of all, you can get Lysithea, Felix and Mercedes in CF and they're phenomenal units who basically function as one man/woman armies anyway, and second, that unique character is Gilbert and nobody gives a shit about Gilbert. Soooo he doesn't even count in my books.
And I mean COME ON! A route about death, redemption, and getting over hard stuff! Jeritza/Emile would've been right at home in the Blue Lions!
K, Rant Over!
Next chapter will pick up once more,
Fantasy Fan OUT!