This was really tricky to write. I'm sure some of you are gonna raise an eyebrow to it.
Chapter 30 – Ambition and Arrogance (Pegasus Moon)
Cornelia sat in her royal carriage as it rolled its way up toward the Arundel estate. She was on her way to Enbarr, but she knew Thales would expect her to report to him directly. She normally tried not to meet him in person whenever possible, but this instance couldn't be avoided.
Cleobulus, disguised as Valeska, rode with her in the carriage, but Kronya had not joined them. Cornelia knew it would be too risky to have her come with them; she couldn't afford to let Thales discover that she was still alive. The Nightblade was instead off assassinating a Loyalist sympathizer.
The carriage stopped and Cornelia stepped out as the doors to the Arundel estate swung open, revealing the man the Magistra despised with every fiber of her being. Yet she did not show her ire outwardly, knowing that the guards and servants were disguised members of their ancient race. Even in such a remote area, they maintained their human guises lest someone observe them in the open.
"Bias," said Thales, disguised as Volkhard von Arundel. "You are later than I expected."
"The weather necessitated a detour, Agastya," said Cornelia.
"You grow complacent, Bias. Has your station as Duchess of the Faerghus Dukedom made you soft?"
Cornelia did not reply to this, knowing she didn't need to.
"Inside, Magistra," Thales commanded.
Without a word, Cornelia followed Thales into the manor as the guards shut the doors behind her. Thales then turned a small pedestal that acted as a hidden switch. The marble stairs leading up to the second floor shifted, revealing a hidden passage underneath. The two descended the stairs, which shifted back into place.
After another minute of walking, the two found themselves in Thales's hidden sanctum. Various Magitek devices and blood-soaked implements filled the room, along with severed limbs, human flesh and bones, leaving no doubt to the Agastya's cruelty.
As he moved toward a granite throne on the opposite side of the room, dark flames surrounded Thales's body, changing him from the form of Lord Arundel. By the time he sat upon his throne, his skin and hair had turned white as ivory, and he now wore his ebony robes and armor instead of the finery of the Adrestian Regent.
Thales waited for a moment as Cornelia stood before him before saying, "You remain in a beast's form, Bias."
"My apologies, Agastya," said Cornelia as she touched a hand to her collarbone.
Cornelia's skin and clothes shifted, and her hair changed from its pink shade to a light magenta hue. Her skin became pale like Thales's, but her eyes remained a greenish blue. Her dress changed from crimson to black, connecting at her neck, but still exposing the cleavage of her enormous breasts and her flawless skin all the way to her navel. The dress retained its feather trim, though the feathers had also changed from red to black. Black markings trailed down from her eyes like tears, serving to make the Agarthan Magistra, Bias, as alluring in her true form as she was as Cornelia Arnim.
Thales, however, held no interest in physical beauty. As far as he was concerned, the sight of the woman disgusted him. Yet she still had her uses, and so he had no need to kill her. Yet.
"Your efforts in the north have slowed, Magistra," said Thales.
"The boar prince appears reluctant to take the offensive, Agastya," said Bias.
"And you do not send your army to attack him?"
"Convincing the Dukedom lords to comply with my stratagems is not so simple. I can't just order every soldier I have into Rodrigue's territory without drawing suspicion."
"I do not care for your excuses, Bias. Your task of bleeding both the Dukedom and Loyalists of their forces should be a simple one, yet you persist in keeping up appearances with those beasts."
With a short smirk, Bias said, "Do you not wear the guise of Volkhard von Arundel when speaking with Edelgard and her allies, Agastya?"
"Careful, Bias."
"You needn't be concerned, Agastya. The Dukedom and Loyalist armies will both be rendered ineffective in due time. I just recently sent Lord Gwendel and his army of 3,000 to Ailell to intercept the army of House Daphnel."
"And what would the Hero of Daphnel be up to in the Valley of Torment?"
"Surely you already know that by now."
Thales glared as he stood up and raised his hand, channeling his dark sorcery. Bias went wide-eyed as pain surged through her body. At the same moment, her windpipe contracted, as though someone were strangling her from the inside-out. She clutched at her throat, trying to focus her own magic to stop Thales from choking her to death. The pain soon became more than she could take, and she fell to her knees as Thales walked menacingly toward her.
"I would hear you answer from your lips, Magistra. Who is your master?"
Thales channeled more of his power into his spell, intensifying the pain in Bias's body.
Then, despite that her body felt like it was being torn apart, Bias wheezed, "You… are… Thales…!"
"What is Judith von Daphnel up to in Ailell?"
"She is… trying to… reinforce… the Knights of Seiros…!"
Thales paused for a moment, letting Bias quiver in agony before he asked, "And who is leading the Knights of Seiros?"
Bias struggled briefly, and then answered, "C-Cichol…! It is Cichol leading them!"
Thales, satisfied with her answer, released his spell's grip on her. Bias gasped for breath as she fell to her hands and knees before the Agastya.
"The Earthen Tiger…" Thales said as he paced around Bias. "Dealing with him will not prove difficult. But once again, I find myself needing to remind you of your place."
Bias did not reply to this, continuing to gasp for breath as Thales finished pacing around her. She looked up as Thales gazed down on her with contempt.
"Know this, Magistra: I would have taken your life long ago if I did not think you clever or ambitious. You would be useless to me without either quality. But you can keep no secrets from me, Bias. You delude yourself if you think you, a wretched woman, could ever usurp me."
Still on her knees, Bias answered, "I understand… Agastya… I am nothing compared to you…"
Thales smiled and said, "Good…"
He then turned and strode back to his throne, sitting down as Bias shakily rose to her feet.
The Agastya then said, "When you have finished with your errand in Enbarr, you are to ensure that none of the Gray Lion's followers return alive from Ailell. I do not care how you do it, but I will brook no survivors. You are then to send your army against the boar prince's forces. Wipe them all out. I do not care if you must lose the Dukedom's entire army to do it. I would prefer it that way."
"As you command, Agastya."
"Leave my sight, Magistra. And do as I have decreed."
Bias said nothing as she turned and made her way out of Thales's sanctum, the Agastya watching her in disgust as she left.
…
Riding in her carriage toward Enbarr, and having resumed the form of Cornelia Arnim, the duchess of Faerghus was in a particularly bad mood. Her new orders from Thales were going to make things much more complicated back in Fhirdiad. The local lords would be in an uproar if her hand was found in the destruction of House Rowe's army. She would need to deal with them very carefully.
Sitting opposite to Cornelia, Cleobulus remained in the guise of Valeska as she watched the duchess intently. She knew Cornelia would always emerge frustrated whenever she met with Thales. This time, however, Cornelia seemed positively livid, even if she was hiding it well.
"Taking out Gwendel's army… that imbecile," Cornelia hissed. "How does Thales expect me to match the army of the boar prince if I must sacrifice the Gray Lion and his men?"
"You don't need them," said Cleobulus. "We have more than enough to deal with the Loyalists."
"Perhaps, but it will be far more difficult to convince the local lords that we can take the offensive after losing House Rowe's army." Sighing, Cornelia then said, "But Thales will not allow them to live. We'll need to divert to Ephyra before returning to Fhirdiad."
"You intend to use 'her'?"
"The girl is due for a test run. If nothing else, Thales has given me a good opportunity to see how effective my modifications to her are."
Cleobulus said nothing, thinking about what Cornelia meant. The girl they referred to was still hard for them to control, as was her power. But if they wanted plausible deniability, she was a good way to achieve it.
After a few more minutes of pondering, Cleobulus asked Cornelia, "A question, Magistra?"
"Ask away, Cleo," Cornelia replied.
"How do you plan to overthrow the Agastya if he is aware of your intent to do so? How can we possibly wrest control of the Agarthans from him if he knows your every plot?"
"I must ask a question of my own in turn, Cleo." Cornelia paused and, looking Cleobulus in the eye, said, "Who do you believe is the Agastya's worst enemy?"
"The Fell Star. That's simple."
"Wrong."
Cleobulus didn't show surprise at this, allowing Cornelia to make her point.
"Thales… is his own worst enemy. He has ruled over our people for over five centuries now. He leads our people in the shadows with an iron fist, demanding their loyalty without question. And in those five centuries, he has bested no less than fifty separate would-be usurpers. You are right to ask what chance we have against such a powerful man."
"What's your point, then? How do we beat him?"
"Thales has become so arrogant, so self-assured in his power, that he finds the very notion of it being threatened… almost laughable. He thinks that, so long as he has his Dark Gift, no one, whether a man or a god, can ever threaten him. And that, Cleo, is his greatest weakness. That is how I intend to beat him: by stroking his ego and festering his conceit. I'm letting him believe that I am no threat to him. But he'll make a mistake. And when he does, I will exploit it."
"You say that as though you could kill him so easily," Cleobulus said with a frown. "You know his prowess in ritual combat."
"I know. And while I could potentially defeat him at it, that would leave far too much to chance." Cornelia scowled and then said, "If only his Dark Gift didn't give him such an aggravating immunity to my own… But even if I bested him in ritual combat, our people would never accept me as their ruler. They worship him by this point. Besides, how long do you think I'd hold the throne before Myson or Odesse stab me in the back? Our people must lose their faith in Thales's rule before I can strike, or what's left of our race will tear itself apart."
"Our race… You've seen the latest census, I take it?"
"In more detail than you, Cleo."
"We're down to less than 10,000–"
"I know, Cleobulus. And our numbers dwindle by the day. Thales has every intention of driving our people to extinction in order to inflict the same fate on Fódlan and the Children of the Goddess."
Cornelia looked out of the window at this moment, seeing that they were entering Enbarr now. The Imperial Palace loomed in the distance as dusk began to settle over the Adrestian capital.
"We have little time left," said Cornelia. "For Agartha's sake, and our own, we must hurry."
"So, what's your plan? We don't have time to wait for him to slip up."
"Oh, but he already has. There's something I haven't mentioned about our last meeting, Cleo."
Cleobulus, now interested, listened intently to what Cornelia had to say.
"I told him that the Earthen Tiger was leading the Knights of Seiros," said Cornelia. "And he believes me."
Cleobulus smiled after a moment, knowing the implication Cornelia had made.
"He has no idea that the Fell Star lives," said Cleobulus.
"Indeed. He's already making mistakes. We just need to continue ensuring he makes them. And he still has no idea who 'Rissa' really is. He's giving us the advantages we need. We just need to expand our options so that when the time is right, we can bring his rule crashing down around him."
"Is that why we're here then?"
"Yes, Cleo."
"Do you really think she'll help us against him?"
"I cannot be certain she will. El's such a difficult girl to handle. But if I can do this right, she'll become a powerful ally in our fight against Thales."
"You doubt you can get her on our side?"
With a hint of sarcasm, Cornelia said, "Thales has done an exceptional job at antagonizing her. Destroying her family, cursing her with the Goddess's blood… It will not be easy for me to sway her to my side."
"Why not just steal her mind and be done with it?"
Admonishingly, Cornelia answered, "Cleo, you know how I feel about taking such a heavy-handed approach. I cannot simply force her to aid us, or she will betray me at the first opportunity. No, I must convince her to willingly offer her aid to us."
"And how do you plan to do that?"
By this point, the carriage had rolled its way through Enbarr's streets and was now arriving in front of the Mittelfrank Opera House. Cornelia smiled as she saw the emperor's carriage was already sitting in front of it, with its driver waiting patiently.
"You know how persuasive I can be, Cleo," said Cornelia.
With that, the duchess of Faerghus stepped out of the carriage and made her way into the Opera House.
The plot thickens, yes?
Writing the interaction between Thales and Cornelia/Bias was very hard to do. I needed to convey that the two clearly have no love for each other, and that Thales believes he could kill Cornelia with ease if he wanted to. However, he views her as useful, so he's letting her live even if he knows she isn't to be trusted. In fact, he expects her to be treacherous, and wouldn't think her useful if she wasn't. I'm also deliberately trying to portray Thales as misogynistic, so apologies if that rubs you the wrong way.
Meanwhile, Cornelia still wants to overthrow Thales, but she's basically treading on eggshells while doing so. This has to do with Thales's Dark Gift, which I'll leave to you to figure out for now. Part of his power makes him immune to mind control, so Cornelia can't use her power on him. Not to mention he's worshipped by the other Agarthans. The big problem I had was making it reasonably believable that, even though Thales knows she plans to betray him, he doesn't see the need to kill Cornelia yet. Most villains in such a position wouldn't leave such a thing unchecked, but it's thanks to Thales being so damn arrogant that he believes Cornelia is no threat to him. While Cornelia is a masterful schemer, Thales believes his raw power eclipses hers. This is NOT to say that Thales is incompetent, though; quite the opposite, he's extremely cunning and powerful, and not to be taken lightly.
I've kind of made the Agarthan society a parallel (in some ways) to the Tal'darim from Starcraft II, with Thales being the equivalent of Ma'lash (no, not a parallel of Alarak; Alarak's way more badass). In such a society, one only advances by taking a higher position from someone else, usually by killing them. It's somewhat the same with my portrayal of the Agarthans, but Cornelia can't just get someone to stab Thales in the back and then take over, as she'd then have to contend with other potential usurpers. Though she wants to usurp Thales, Cornelia knows she can't do it the old fashioned Agarthan way or she'd be taking way too much of a gamble.
It's complicated, I know. But that's my attempt at capturing supervillain politics. I hope I'm doing it right.
On a side note, Cornelia's appearance as Bias is based off a picture I saw on the Fire Emblem Reddit channel. Look up "Cornelia TWSITD" and you should find it. Credit goes to SageOfAnys for making the artwork.
Finally, that bit about Cichol? That'll play a part in the future, but not for a good while. But on that note, does "Earthen Tiger" seem like an appropriate title for him? I couldn't come up with something else, so if you shoot me a good suggestion, I may edit it in.
I'll leave you to think about this one, and I'll see you next week.