Chapter 42: Condemnation

Nohrian Military Camp, The Kingdom of Nohr, Moirai

Year 625

Clack!

Alm snapped his arm up, blocking Kana's wooden training sword with the edge of his own. Another blow came quickly for Alm's chest, then his arm, then his legs, all of which Alm warded off with an easy flick of the wrist. Each strike bounced harmlessly off the flat of Alm's blade, drawing a frustrated growl from his opponent's throat.

"Tighten your stance," Alm said. "Draw back for now, and wait for the right opening to—"

Kana rushed him, aiming a hard, powerful swing at the gap between Alm's shoulder and his shield. A predictable—if not reckless—move, one that Alm dodged with a simple side-step. The wooden blade whizzed past him and struck nothing but air, causing Kana to stumble forward with the sword's wild momentum. He tripped over Alm's outstretched foot and, with a sharp yelp, smacked face-first into the dirt.

Sighing, Alm lightly bopped the boy's back with his own wooden sword, calling an end to their sparring match.

"Dang it!" Kana hit the ground with the bottom of his fist, cursing himself through gritted teeth. "How could you fall for the same trick twice?! Stupid, stupid!"

"Hey, don't say that." Alm crouched down beside him. "You're not stupid, Kana—you're learning. I know it may not feel like it, but you've been doing a great job so far. Your form has improved remarkably since we first started training, and the power you're putting behind your strikes is nothing short of impressive."

"But I keep losing," Kana grumbled into the ground.

"Well, that's because you're relying a little too much on your strength," Alm said. "You're trying to brute force your way to victory, but there's more to sword fighting than just how hard you can swing a blade at your opponent." He ran his finger along the rounded edge of his training sword, tracing the thin lines scratched into the wood. "It's a game of patience and strategy, of anticipation and reaction. You're struggling because you're focusing too much on where you want to hit me, rather than thinking about how I might move or retaliate against you."

Kana huffed and rolled onto his back. Clumps of dirt clung to his cheeks and his sweat-dampened hair, painting a dusty brown over the tired, demoralized frown sinking into his face. "There's so much to keep track of," he muttered.

"It will come more naturally to you the more you practice." Alm offered Kana a hand and pulled the boy back onto his feet. "But for now, I think it's time for a break. Clean yourself up, get something to eat, and—"

"I can keep going, sir," Kana insisted. He settled into his sword stance and rolled back his shoulders, wincing at the movement. "You attack this time, I'll defend. Give me everything you've got." His frown tightened, as did his grip on his training sword. "I can take it."

Alm sighed and shook his head. "We've done more than enough sparring today. Any more, and you might risk hurting yourself." He reached out to pat Kana's shoulder with a reassuring smile. "Rest and recovery are an important part of the training process, too, you know."

"But I don't have time to rest!" Kana jerked away from Alm's hand, snapping his sword up to put distance between them. "I need to get better! Because if I don't get better, I won't be able to wield Mama's sword effectively. And if I can't wield her sword, I won't be able to stop the dragon. And if I can't stop the dragon, then—then—" His eyes squeezed shut, voice dropping into a cracked whisper. "Everyone's going to die, and it'll be my fault."

Alm frowned. "Kana—"

"Just a few more rounds!" Kana begged. The wood of his sword cracked under the white-knuckled pressure of his fingers. "Please—I'll do better this time, I promise. I'll pay closer attention to your movements, just like you said, and I won't get tripped up anymore, and I—"

A black gauntlet, gentle but firm, came to rest on the boy's shoulder.

"Listen to your instructor, Kana," Silas said. "Training is like sharpening a sword against a whetstone. You want to do it often, sure, but if you do it too frequently—or too forcefully— you risk setting cracks into the steel. That's one of the first things you learn as a knight."

Kana's gaze dropped to the ground, lips pursed as he considered his father's words.

"Besides, you're going to need to save up all the strength you can." Silas grinned and ruffled Kana's silver hair. "Because you'll be sparring against me next time, and I don't intend to hold anything back."

Kana's face lit up. "Really?"

"Really, really." Silas nodded over to the camp's mess tent, where two little blond boys were giggling and shoveling huge slices of berry tarts into their mouths. Sophie laughed at their antics from across the table, almost to the point of tears. "Your sister and your cousins saved you a few slices. Laslow made them fresh for dessert—with extra filling too, just the way you like them." Silas nudged Kana in their direction. "Go on, before they end up eating it all for you."

"Berry tarts?" A slight, but curious, smile broke over Kana's face. "I guess a little break wouldn't hurt, if they're serving berry tarts…"

He tossed his training sword aside and hurried off down the path to the mess tent, waving a quick thanks to Alm and Silas before sliding into the seat next to his sister. He joined the boys in scarfing down whatever food his hands could find, and the grins and giggles of the other children around him only served to brighten his smile.

Silas's smile, though, slowly fell away to a furrowed brow. That of a concerned and conflicted father.

"It's not right," he muttered. "To place the fate of the world in the hands of a child… to expect him to fight against death itself with all that pressure hanging over his head…" He crossed his arms, the skin around his eyes wrinkling with pain. "It isn't right."

"I'm sorry," Alm said, voice quiet and grave. He'd been faced with the same responsibility, once: to wield a weapon no one else could, to strike down a mad god and save the world from annihilation. Just as duty and prophecy had demanded of him.

Alm frowned down at his Branded hand, at the reminder of all he had to sacrifice, all the blood he had to spill, to see that prophecy through. It was a heavy burden Alm would never wish on anyone else, let alone a 14-year-old boy.

But destiny could be cruel and unforgiving.

"We'll do whatever we can to support him," Alm said. "He's already proven himself a decent swordsman, but he doesn't have to face this threat alone—not if I can help it. You have my word."

Silas nodded, grateful but solemn. "Thank you, milord. Truly. I know things haven't been easy for you and your friends, especially after what happened at the Bottomless Canyon, but I—"

"Silas! Silas!"

Elise bounded over to them and hooked her arm around Silas's elbow, grinning from ear to ear. "Guess what! Guess what!"

"Is something the matter, Princess?" Silas asked.

"Nope! I come bearing news. Very, very good news." Elise swung her other arm out toward the north side of the camp, bouncing excitedly on the balls of her feet. "Xander and Camilla have finally arrived! With tons of supplies and reinforcements for us, too." She tugged on his elbow, dragging him out of the training yard. "Come on, they want to see you! You too, Alm!"

She waved for Alm to follow, and Alm obliged—after returning the wooden swords and polearms they had borrowed for Kana's lessons to the weapons rack, of course. He didn't want to leave a mess behind, especially with the arrival of this country's royal family.

By the time they reached the front of the camp, lines of armored soldiers had already begun to march through a gap in the wall of wooden posts that made up the camp's physical border. The soft shimmer of the camp's barrier magic had faded around the wall's thin opening, temporarily disabled by Prince Leo and the Dragon Vein beneath his boots.

A man wearing a black crown and a regal, fur-trimmed cape rode alongside the first wave of infantrymen. Overhead, a woman glided over the wooden posts and through the magic barrier on wyvern-back, her long purple hair sweeping the air as her massive mount found landing beside Leo and the glowing Dragon Vein.

The king and the eldest princess of Nohr, Alm presumed.

"Xander! Camilla!" Elise called out, waving. "Hi! Hey! Over here!"

The wyvern rider, Camilla, smiled at the sound of Elise's voice and slid out of her saddle, flipping her purple curls behind her as her feet touched rocky ground. "Oh my, what a wonderful sight this is to see!" she said. "My precious siblings and my dear brother-in-law, together again at last."

"It's only been a little over a week since we last saw you," Leo said.

"A week of utmost heartache!" Camilla sighed dramatically. She yanked Leo into a tight, inescapable hug, resting her cheek against the top of his head. "I just can't stand being separated from my family—especially my sweet baby brother. I'm never letting you out of my sight again."

"Camilla," Leo huffed.

"Oh, lighten up, Leo. I'm only teasing." Camilla ruffled his hair and released him from her hold, turning her open arms toward Elise. "And how fares my darling sister? Life at camp has been treating you well, I hope?"

Grinning, Elise threw herself forward at Camilla's invitation, much more eager to share in a hug than her brother had been. "Great, now that you and Xander are here!"

"That's so good to hear." Camilla patted her sister's back as they pulled apart, then glanced up to ask Silas, "And the little ones?"

"They're settling in," Silas said. "Though Sophie and Kana aren't so 'little' anymore. At least, not in the way you probably remember, Princess."

"Leo mentioned as much in his letter," Camilla hummed, drumming her fingers on her hip. "It's a bit strange, I'll admit, but all that really matters is that they're here, and they're safe." The smile on her lips slipped away at the edges. "If only Corrin could see how much they've grown…"

Silas sighed, offering only a solemn nod as response.

"And we have you to thank for the children's safe return, I presume?" Xander trotted over on the back of his noble steed and addressed Alm directly. His sharp eyes drifted from Alm's face to his hip, where Falchion's handle glimmered under the dim light of the setting sun. "You and this… legendary sword, Leo wrote of?"

Alm stood up straighter under the king's inquisitive gaze. Shoulders back, chin up, presenting himself with the regal aura he had spent so much time practicing for the Valentian royal court. "It was a collective effort, Your Majesty," he said, resting his hand on Falchion's pommel. "By myself and by the brave, stalwart heroes who have taken up arms to fight alongside us."

Alm gestured back to where his friends had gathered, and regretted it immediately. Gray sat slouched against a bench, picking at his teeth, spitting into a tankard of watered-down ale before tossing the drink over his shoulder. Not far behind him, Mae was flinging a spoonful of berry jam at Boey's face, much to the children's delight (and to Boey's irritation). The jam missed and splattered over Annette's forehead instead, messing up the handiwork of the two little girls trying to braid her hair.

Merric just sighed and went back to studying the pages of his tome.

"They're great once you get to know them," Alm said with an awkward laugh.

Xander arched an eyebrow at the messy scene. "I'm sure they are."

"They're also not our only allies in this fight. We'll be meeting some more…" Leo cleared his throat, "stalwart heroes soon, using the power of the Dragon's Gate. Laslow says he knows of two other Outrealm warriors who wield swords similar to Alm's." His eyes flicked to the thin opening in the border wall and the soldiers standing at attention on the other side, waiting their turn to march through. "If we can reach them quickly enough, we'll have a near-complete Yato. With their help, we can finally work toward putting this invisible soldier threat to rest."

"That sounds like a wonderful plan to me," Camilla said.

"Seconded." Xander nodded, running his gloved hand through his horse's black mane. "And I assume you've figured out a way to operate the Gate without Corrin's help?"

"Kana has inherited her draconic abilities, so his presence—combined with the ancient texts I've been studying—should be enough to open it." Leo patted the cover of his tome. "All that's left for us to do is travel there, which shouldn't pose much of an issue now that you've secured the Dragon's Gate and its surrounding area."

Xander furrowed his brow. "Come again?"

"The Dragon's Gate," Leo repeated. "In my second letter, I asked you to establish a safety zone around the Dragon's Gate, so we could use it without interference from the invisible soldiers."

An uncomfortable beat of silence passed between the two brothers.

"You… you did set up that safety zone," Leo said slowly, "right?"

Frowning, Xander shook his head. "We never received a second letter from you, Leo. Only the one requesting we join you here to meet Corrin's children and their Outrealm companions. Nothing about securing the Dragon's Gate."

"What?" Leo stiffened. "How is that… I sent two separate carrier pigeons and a squadron of soldiers to intercept you en route to the camp, each carrying an extra copy of that letter."

"Well, we didn't encounter anyone on the trip here," Camilla said, pursing her lips. "It was, all things considered, a very quiet march from the castle. Uneventful, even."

"Perhaps suspiciously so," Xander muttered.

"Sabotage, then." Alm narrowed his eyes on the forest sitting just beyond the camp's borders. The hour was late, making it difficult to discern anything lurking within the shadows of the trees. "Someone—or somethings—didn't want your message to be delivered."

"What message?" Kana asked, wandering up to the gathering with Sophie and their young cousins in tow. Each of them were splattered with varying degrees of berry jam and tart crust (casualties of the food fight Mae had instigated, it seemed). "You guys aren't having a super important, super secret family meeting without us, are you?"

One of the little boys giggled, grinning up at Xander and Camilla. "Daddy! Auntie! Hi! We've been waiting so so so so long for you to—"

"Get back to your tent, Siegbert," Xander said, face paling with the same grim realization hitting all of the elder Nohrian royals. "Take your cousins and your friends with you. Now."

"Why?" Kana asked. His pointed ears twitched nervously at the heavy tension hanging over his family, and his hand slowly began to lower toward the Yato's handle. "What's—"

Alm spotted it. An almost imperceptible glimmer of dark energy in the trees, silently slinking atop the branches. A blink of soulless pink eyes, glaring at them through the shade of the leaves.

And the glint of an arrow, aimed in their direction.

Alm sprung forward and shoved the children behind him, raising his shieldarm just as the arrow whistled through the camp's open barrier. The razor-sharp tip thunked into the face of the shield, its steel edge leaking black mist over the metal's surface…

Only a few mere inches away from Kana's eyes.

"Nohrian… scum…" a voice hissed through the trees. "Betrayal… betrayal…!"

Another glint of steel shone through the leaves, and another arrow came flying for Kana and the children. Alm knocked it aside with his shield, planting his feet firmly into the ground as he braced himself for the next attack. The two little boys screamed and ducked behind him, wailing in fright and crying out to their fathers through panicked tears.

"H-he…" Kana stared at the arrow stuck in Alm's shield with wide-eyed horror. "He tried to kill me…"

"Come on out… little dragon…" the voice growled again, crackling through the forest like fracturing ice. The tip of his next arrow peeked out from the darkness, gleaming with murderous intent. "Time to pay… your mother's… debts…"

The arrow split through the leaves, but before it could cross into the camp Leo summoned a raging wave of fire from his tome and hurled it into the arrow's path. The flames swept over the heads of the Nohrian soldiers stationed outside the border wall, disintegrating the arrow, and crashed into the nearby treetops, setting ablaze the dry leaves and thick branches providing the archer cover. Hissing, the archer threw one last glare at the camp before retreating deeper into the forest, his flickering form disappearing between the shadows and the smoke.

"Takumi," Leo cursed through gritted teeth. "Of course it's Takumi. Looks like even death wasn't enough to rid us of his stubborn vendetta against Corrin."

Camilla hefted a heavy axe over her shoulder and swung back onto her wyvern's back, eyes hardened with a cold, dangerous fury. "If he thinks he can just attack Corrin's child and run away unscathed," she seethed, "he's got another thing coming."

"I thought you said they wanted to take Kana alive!" Silas tossed a worried glance back at Alm and the children hiding behind him. "Those looked like kill shots to me!"

Alm swallowed hard, tightening his grip on his shield. A terrible sense of dread weighed down his stomach like a jagged rock. "Seems like they've decided to change tactics."

"Get the children to safety!" Xander ripped a silver sword from his sheathe. "Camilla and I will lead the charge against Takumi and whatever forces he may have dragged here with him." He kicked his horse forward, riding back out through the camp's barrier with the wyvern's shadow trailing overhead. "Leo, Silas, stand guard here at the entrance. No one gets through. If they try, use the Dragon Vein to reseal the—"

A surge of lightning cracked through the air in a flash of scorching white light. It arched over the king, over Leo and the Nohrian knights, over Alm and his raised shield, striking the space directly behind Alm's back with vicious precision.

Striking the kids, to everyone's gut-wrenching horror.

The heat of the lightning's aftermath burned at Alm's neck, but the pain was nothing against Sophie's panicked shouts, Kana's pained gasps, and the shallow, ragged breaths of one of the young princes. The king's son: barely conscious, and barely moving.

"Oh, gods—Siegbert!" Sophie dropped to her knees, cradling him off the ground. "He—he needs—"

"I've got him, I've got him!" Elise hurried to their side with a healing staff in hand. The white crystal on top began to glow, emitting a gentle warmth that chased away the electric heat still sizzling through the air. "Keep him upright, Sophie. Forrest, remember the special magic we practiced back at the castle? The spell we used to heal the rabbit you found stuck in the garden fence?" She tossed a smaller staff to the boy in pink. "We need to do that for Siegbert right now, okay?"

The boy sniffed and nodded, tears streaking down his reddened cheeks. "O-okay."

"Who— why would—" Kama stammered at the sight of his cousin's wounds, then winced at his own. The blast of lightning had caught Kana in the side, burning a hole through his shirt and light armor plating. "Why did they—"

"Come on out… little dragon…" a new voice rasped through the trees, deeper than Takumi's. "Will you let… your family… die… for your… cowardice…?"

A flickering shadow stalked slowly, dangerously, out of the forest's darkness, dragging a golden katana through the grass behind him. Sparks of lightning crackled along the blade's edge, hissing with the fury of a thousand storms.

A fury matched only by the rage of a protective father. "Ryoma! You bastard!" Xander cursed at the shadow. "Leave them out of this!"

"Give us… Corrin's whelp…" Takumi's form dropped down from the treetops beside the undead swordsman, nocking an arrow against his bow. "Or we… will do to Nohr…"

"What Nohr did… to Hoshido…" Ryoma raised his katana, leveling its electrified tip at Kana and the children. "No. Mercy."

"No—!"

Another surge of lightning blasted out of Ryoma's blade. It scorched past Xander and his knights, past the border wall and the Dragon Vein. With little time to react, Alm threw himself over the kids and Princess Elise, hoping to shield them from the worst of the attack—

Frosty water sprayed across his face as Kana transformed into a dragon. He scooped them all up against his scaled chest with his tail and curled around them protectively, taking the full force of the searing lightning with his wings and his back. A pained whimper trembled through his nose, but he held his position even as bolt after bolt of lightning rained down over their heads, scorching the scales along his spine.

"Leo, seal the barrier!" Xander ordered from somewhere beyond the hissing sparks and booming thunder. "Seal the barrier right now!"

"But—" Leo began to protest, voice tight with panic, "you'll all be stuck out there without—"

"Seal the gods-damned barrier!" Xander snapped. "That's an order from your king!"

Another harsh blast struck Kana's back, brutal and merciless. The dragon momentarily buckled, panting with short, haggard breaths, but he tightened his hold around Alm and the others with a weak growl as he braced for the next onslaught of lightning.

The next onslaught, however, never came.

The low timbre of a gong shuddered through the air as Leo activated the Dragon Vein. A shimmer of light rippled over the wooden posts of the border wall, restoring the camp's protective barrier and cutting off the enemy's attacks. One, two, three more bolts of lightning struck the translucent dome hanging over their heads, but each attack failed to break through the barrier's magic.

With the camp safely sealed, Kana slowly lowered everyone to the ground and stumbled back, collapsing into the dirt. Smoke wisped off his charred silver scales, carrying the terrible stench of burnt fish.

"Kana!" Silas knelt in front of the dragon's face, lifting his head up by the underside of his maw. "Son, look at me. Look at me, please—"

"I'm… I'm fine, Papa…" Kana rumbled quietly. He blinked up at his father and tried pushing himself back onto his feet, whimpering with the staggered movements. "Is—ow—is everyone else okay?"

"That remains to be seen, unfortunately," Leo muttered, bending down to comfort Forrest through his frightened tears. Siegbert still wasn't moving, and all the people who had been outside the camp when Leo had closed the barrier—including Xander, Camilla, and a majority of the Nohrian soldiers—were now completely cut off from the magic's zone of protection.

Trapped outside with the shadows.

"What the hell is going on?!" Laslow ran over to their side, sword drawn, followed by the rest of Alm's allies. A dirty apron from cooking duty peeked through the gaps in his armor; he hadn't wasted any time preparing for battle. "What happened to the prince?! And where's—"

"Shields up! Spears out!" Xander commanded his soldiers from beyond the barrier. "Hold the line and drive them back!"

"He's not going to fight them, is he?" Elise asked, shooting Leo a panicked look. Her brother glanced away, lips pinched into a thin, tight line. "Leo, he doesn't have Siegfried anymore! How is he supposed to beat both Ryoma and Takumi with just a regular sword?!"

"He's…" Leo swallowed hard. "He has Camilla backing him up, as well as Nohr's most capable knights and generals. The Hoshidan brothers may be skilled, and they may be powerful, but they're outnumbered. Two people can't win against an entire army, even with weapons like theirs."

"Even so, we should do what we can to reduce casualties," Merric said, drawing a light gale of wind out from the pages of Excalibur. "Those of us with magic could provide your soldiers extra cover, if we line up along—"

Leo shook his head. "We can't do anything for them from within the camp. No magic, no arrows, no anything can pass through either side of the barrier after it's been sealed." He ground his teeth together, jaw stiffening. "It's basically an invisible, impenetrable wall. For us, and for our enemies."

"Seems like a bit of a design flaw, dontcha think?" Mae grumbled. Boey threw her a hard glare and elbowed her in the side.

"Dragon Vein magic can be fickle. We didn't want to weaken the barrier by only reinforcing one side of it." Leo frowned at the shimmer of light rippling over the camp. "I could try modifying the magic, but it only takes one mistake to compromise the integrity of the entire shield. We can't risk giving the enemy another opening to attack the children again."

"So then, what?" Gray shrugged his shoulders back. "We're just supposed to wait in here, twiddling our thumbs and eating berry tarts while your king and his soldiers fight the real battle?"

Annette swung her Heroes' Relic up and over her shoulder, determined. "No way, there has to be something we can do to help. We just have to think!"

"Maybe we can use this as an opportunity to get to the Dragon's Gate," Laslow suggested. "While our army has the enemy distracted, we can sneak through the gate to my home world, recruit my friends and their Falchions, and—"

"No." Alm narrowed his eyes on the battle clamoring beyond the wooden posts, where spears flew, shields clanged, and bursts of lightning cracked across the sky. "That's probably what the enemy is expecting us to do."

"How do you mean?"

"The letters Prince Leo sent to the king were all intercepted by someone," Alm said. "The invisible soldiers, most likely. We have to assume they already know about our plans for the Dragon's Gate, which means they've probably already put measures in place to stop us from using it."

"I am unfortunately inclined to agree." Leo's fingers tightened around the spine of his tome. "Which leaves us with only one option, if you want to reach Laslow's home world."

Laslow moved his hand to his pocket. "You don't mean…"

"Your transport crystal," Leo nodded. "Use it to travel into the Outrealms and help Kana complete the Yato, while we deal with whatever battles and schemes the invisible soldiers have planned for us here. Hopefully, by the time they realize Kana has left the camp, you'll have already collected the weapons you need to unlock the Yato's full power."

Kana whined through his snout, then shifted back into his human form. "You want us to leave you all behind?" he said, grimacing from the pain of his electric burns. "W-we can't do that!"

"I don't want you to," Leo sighed, turning to face the flashing sky, "but right now, we don't have much of a choice."

"But—"

"Come on out… little dragon…" Takumi's voice came again over the din of battle, taunting. "How many lives… will you… sacrifice… to protect… your own…?" A crack of lightning whipped through a line of Nohrian knights, scraping just past Xander and his horse. "Selfish scum… just like… your mother…"

One of the soldiers screamed as the lightning ripped through his armor. Kana clapped his hands over his ears and squeezed his eyes shut, flinching as another man fell to Ryoma's blade. Alm winced along with him. Was there truly nothing else they could do here?

"They'll be okay," Leo tried to assure Kana. "Once you've left with the crystal, I can reopen the barrier without having to worry about the enemy shooting at you and the other children. Elise and our mages will then be able to heal the wounded using Physic and Fortify, and our reserve fighters—"

"Dear Goddess," Annette gasped, face rigid with fright behind the spikes of her bone-hammer. "No… oh, Goddess, no…"

Tensing, Alm snapped his head around and followed her gaze into the dark forest, squinting as a new flickering figure shambled out from the shadows. A woman—or rather, a monster that used to be a woman—stalked toward the Nohrian soldiers and the camp, head twitching violently beneath a veil of matted white hair. Thick, skeletal wings burst out from her hunched back, jagged spikes jutted out of her bulging shoulders, and black welts devoured the translucent skin around her glowing eyes. Every pore, every protrusion, every part of her dripped with dark, rancid, pulsating ooze.

Forrest shrieked at the sight and hid his face into Leo's leg. Leo could only stare on in silent, abject horror as the creature staggered into the battlefield alongside Ryoma and Takumi, towering over the trees. "What…" he struggled to form the words. "Is that a… a Faceless?"

"E-Edelgard," Annette squeaked out. "From when… when she used the Crest Stones to… to…"

A sphere of dark purple energy built beneath the tips of Edelgard's sharp, elongated fingers. With a garbled groan and a menacing hiss, she hurled the magic at the closest line of Nohrian soldiers her blackened hands could find.

Vaporizing them instantly.

"Come… on… out…" the monster rasped, "little… dragon…"

Kana choked on a sob, gripping his dragonstone with trembling fingers. "Stop it… please, just stop it…"

Edelgard launched another blast of magic from her disfigured fists, incinerating a gruesome path through another swath of soldiers. The spell slammed into the barrier and burst into black mist, sending the camp into a fit of violent tremors.

The direct attack, the fierce shaking of the ground, snapped Leo out of his stupor. "Go!" he shouted back to Laslow. "Get them out of here, now!"

Laslow nodded with a strained, "Yes, sir." He scooped up the unconscious Siegbert into his arms and fished out a clear crystal from his pocket, motioning over his daughter and her little friend. The girls scrambled over to him from their hiding spot—a collection of posts standing behind the mess tent—and stuck themselves onto his hip. Forrest joined them at Leo's urging, crying into his sleeve.

"Come on," Sophie said, voice cracking as she tugged on her brother's arm. "We need to—"

"They're dying because of me," Kana whispered, unable to staunch the flow of tears. He flinched again as the monster smashed her fist into a battalion of armored knights, crushing them beneath her twisted knuckles. The protrusions sprouting from her back sliced through the air, nearly knocking Camilla right off her wyvern. "Maybe… m-maybe if I—"

"No, Kana," Alm said, chest heavy with the familiar ache of duty, loss, and war. "They're trying to bait you into a trap. The moment you step foot out there, they will kill you—and without you and your sword, the rest of us are as good as dead." He rested his hand on Falchion's hilt, his Brand glowing with the blade's divine heat. "You have to press forward, no matter how much it hurts to turn away."

Kana cast one last guilt-ridden glance to the battle beyond the barrier. He swallowed a shuddered breath, wiped his nose on the back of his sleeve…

And nodded.

As he and Sophie ran off to join Laslow's side, Leo regarded Alm with the faintest of smiles—something grateful, but unmistakably grim. "Thank you," he said. His eyes slid to his son, to his niece and nephews. Wisps of fire gathered along his fingers as he forced himself to step away, closer to the Dragon Vein and the border wall. "Keep them safe for us."

Alm brought his Branded hand up to his chest, clenching it into a fist over his heart.

"We will."

By the time Alm reached the others, the children's final farewells were already underway. Elise had given each of them a tight hug and a reassuring smile, so warm and bright she almost had Alm fooled. "Don't worry about us," she said. "We'll protect the camp in your stead, while you all go out and save the world."

"You can't come with us?" Kana asked quietly.

"That transport crystal is pretty small," Elise said, "and can only take so many people with it at once. Between the other children and your Outrealm companions, you've already got quite a large number of friends traveling with you. We don't want to risk straining the magic too much, you know?"

Kana just stared miserably at his feet.

"You'll be okay," Silas said, patting his shoulder. "You have your mother's strength, and you'll have your sister watching over you—not to mention all these brave new allies you made in the Outrealms." He lifted Kana's chin up from the ground, smiling something soft and sad. "You can do this. I know you can."

"I'm not worried about me," Kana mumbled.

Sighing, Silas pulled him and Sophie in for one last hug. He planted a kiss atop each of their heads and, after clearing his throat, stepped back to distance himself from the rest of the group. Elise followed, still smiling even through the tears welling up in her eyes.

"Stay close to me, everyone," Laslow said, securing his arm around the unconscious prince, "and try to stay as still as possible. It shouldn't take us long to get there."

His daughter reached up to grip his gambeson. "Where are we going, Daddy?"

"To see Grandma Olivia, love." Laslow focused the entirety of his concentration on the crystal in his hand. A vein in his forehead bulged from the effort. "To Archanea. To Ylisse."

The crystal gleamed under the sun's last remnants of light. Alm sucked in a deep breath as a sudden burst of magic exploded out from its center, enveloping Alm and all the people standing by his side.

The last thing he saw was Edelgard's grotesque shadow turning her ghastly face toward the camp before the entire world disappeared in a flash of white.

—

…No, a voice from the spiritual plane whispered. Not Ylisse. Not yet.

Golden light melded with white, nudging them toward a new path.

You are needed at a different point in time.

—

Castle Altea, The Kingdom of Altea, Archanea

Arch. Year 609

When the crystal's light faded away and color returned to the world, Alm found himself standing on a wooden drawbridge.

A familiar wooden drawbridge, over a familiar moat.

"What…?" Laslow muttered, blinking around at the new landscape. The crystal in his palm had crumbled into silver dust, blowing away in the gentle breeze. "Wait, this—this isn't—" Startled, he jerked around, gaping up at the white castle towering over their backs. "That's not the right—"

"You brought us to Castle Altea?" Merric's eyes swept over the castle's exterior, studying each and every stone set into its walls. "Remarkable—even 2,000 years in the future, it looks exactly as I remember it. The descendants of House Lowell have done an incredible job maintaining it."

"Altea?" Laslow slowly shook his head, as if in a daze. "No, that can't… Altea doesn't exist in my time, not anymore. Not since the Schism."

Merric furrowed his brow. "What do you—"

"Hello?"

Over their heads, a girl with long pale hair peered down at them from the battlements, clutching a golden tome close to her chest. The book radiated with an ethereal presence, so much so that the air around the girl seemed to shimmer and bend with her movements.

A presence not unlike the divine heat forged into Falchion's blade.

The girl leaned a little farther over the edge, squinting to get a better look at their faces. The tome resting in her arms began to glow—first gold, then a soft purple—resonating with the sword hanging off Kana's hip.

"What is it, Princess Julia?" a different voice said, followed by a familiar head of silver hair. "Is someone—"

"Ashe?!" Annette gasped. She dropped her hammer, a flood of tears threatening to burst down her cheeks. "Ashe, is that you? Is that really you?!"

Ashe scrambled over to join the girl at the ledge, staring down at them in disbelief. "Annette?" His expression turned beaming. "You're back! And Kana, and Alm, and—you're all back! Felix, come here!"

When Felix appeared on the battlements, steel drawn in response to the sudden commotion, Annette nearly broke down into sobs. A rare, relieved smile ghosted over Felix's face at the sight of her, but it was quick to fall away as he came to recognize the despondent mood hanging over the rest of the group.

"What happened?" he asked, his expression hardening into something far more serious.

Kana sniffed and shook his head. Too upset, too distraught, to utter even a single word.

Character Bios

Camilla: Malig Knight

—Eldest princess of Nohr. A seductive but rather ruthless woman, one who will stop at nothing to protect her dearest family. During Nohr's conflict with Hoshido, she dedicated much of her energy and battle prowess to supporting Corrin's command and keeping her beloved sister safe by any means necessary. But in the end, not even her obsessive, overprotective instincts could keep Corrin away from me.

—Relations: Daughter of Garon (deceased). Half-sister of Xander, Leo, Elise, and adoptive sister of Corrin. Aunt of Siegbert, Forrest, Sophie, and Kana.

Ryoma: Swordmaster

—DeceASed prince of Hoshido. A wise and deterMined leader who foUght to keep his family and his countRy sAfe from the NohrIan king'S FerocIous coNquest, choosing deAth by his own bLaDe rather than sUrrender his honor To the enemY.

—Wielder of Raijinto

—Relations: Son of Sumeragi and Ikona (both deceased). Stepson of Mikoto (deceased). Brother of Takumi, Hinoka, Sakura, and stepbrother of Corrin. Uncle of Sophie and Kana.

Xander: Paladin

—King of Nohr. A dutiful and headstrong man dedicated to his responsibilities as King, and to making amends for the violent actions of his late father. Since the end of Nohr's conflict with Hoshido, he has spent a great deal of time and effort restoring the peace between their two countries, hoping that one day Nohr and Hoshido will be seen as inseparable allies rather than as bitter enemies. Perhaps he should have rebelled against his father sooner, if he was so concerned about "peace" and "honor."

—Former wielder of Siegfried

—Relations: Son of Garon and Katerina (both deceased). Father of Siegbert. Half-brother of Camilla, Leo, Elise, and adoptive brother of Corrin. Uncle of Forrest, Sophie, and Kana.

Okay despite my misgivings about the art direction, Engage has been pretty fun to play. Hope everyone else has been enjoying it too, if you've picked it up!

Next chapter: Recollection and regret.