Another long delay. Sorry everyone, I've been dealing with more back pain and other issues. Plus this one was hard to write due to how I want subsequent chapters to play out.

Not to mention I had to play Super Mario RPG's remake. Nintendo did a fantastic job with it. Such a nostalgia trip with some great improvements.

Chapter 111 – Secrets to Share (Harpstring Moon)

Anna watched as Byleth put a hand to her temple and sighed loudly while making her way to her room. It had been another exhausting day for them in Derdriu. Between organizing the city's defenses and trying to keep the soldiers from rioting, the Archbishop looked absolutely ragged.

But despite the stress that was clearly visible on Byleth's face, Anna had to have a word with her. She had already given herself two days to think about everything she'd heard Byleth tell Dorothea in the fountain, but her mind burned with questions that needed answers.

Walking up to the Archbishop, Anna asked Byleth, "Rough day for you too?"

"That's putting it very mildly," answered Byleth. "I had to have another ten men detained for starting a fight."

"Yeah, I saw Catherine doing the same to another group of guys. Derdriu feels like a powder keg that could go off at any moment."

Anna paused for a moment, thinking about what she had just said. If she questioned Byleth now, she knew it was possible she'd set off another proverbial keg right when they didn't need it. But she'd already come this far…

"Is something on your mind, Anna?" asked Byleth.

Anna almost hissed at this. There'd be no avoiding it now.

Anna took a pause and then said, "Byleth, I need to ask you about something."

The greenette knew it had to be serious. Anna rarely used her full name to address her.

"It's about what you told Dorothea in that fountain."

Byleth almost choked at Anna's words. After a second, Byleth said, "What are you talking about?"

"The Divine Pulse."

Now Byleth really did briefly choke.

"Come on, we can discuss it inside," said Anna, knowing they couldn't afford to be overheard.

For a moment, Byleth thought to use the Pulse to avoid this discussion. She could rewind and avoid speaking with the merchant. But then she realized she would only be delaying the inevitable. Anna would eventually corner her and force the truth out of her. And with how Anna had waited two days to ask about it, there was no way Byleth could go back and stop herself from telling Dorothea about it.

Knowing she had little choice, Byleth followed Anna into her room and shut the door behind her.

As Anna took a seat, Byleth asked, "How much did you overhear?"

"The whole thing, By," answered Anna. "You have the power to turn back the hands of time. You've had it ever since you arrived at Garreg Mach and started teaching at the Officer's Academy. You got it… from Sothis herself, while she was living in your body." This last part made Byleth jolt again, prompting Anna to add, "Yeah, I already knew. I heard you tell Dorothea about her after we killed Solon. She was sharing your body, but when she gave you her power, she disappeared."

Hearing this left Byleth speechless for a moment. But as she processed what Anna knew, she asked, "Why didn't you tell me you knew?"

"I didn't know how to break it to you. Everything was moving so fast then with Rhea and the Empire that there just wasn't time."

"So why now? Why now, when we're–" Byleth stopped herself, knowing that chastising Anna for bringing things up at such a bad time wouldn't help. Instead, she sighed and asked, "Does anyone else know?"

"About Sothis living in your body? Claude does. He overheard you and Dorothea too. But he doesn't know about the Divine Pulse. And, if he's telling the truth, he didn't tell anyone about Sothis."

This was of little comfort to Byleth's mind. Anna could see the stress in the greenette's expression, but she couldn't stop here. She had to know more.

Knowing she was going to regret her next question, Anna asked, "Byleth, why did you spare Edelgard?" When Byleth didn't answer, Anna added, "You knew the only way to stop the Empire was to take her down. It was the only way to end the fighting. So why, Byleth? Why did you let her live?"

The words rang in Byleth's mind again.

LET. HER. LIVE.

It was not the same as when it had happened at Gronder, but the phrase sent her mind flashing back to the image of the Sword of the Creator running the Emperor through. She could see the tears streaming down Edelgard's face. She could almost feel the touch of her glove against her cheek.

"I… I don't know."

"What?!"

"I don't know, Anna. I just… something came over me and I… I had to let her live. I couldn't let her die."

"But you knew she had to be stopped, By! She killed Dimitri! She started this war! Why would you go back on what you did?! You said it yourself: you ran her through! Why would you undo that?!"

Byleth couldn't answer. She turned away from Anna's gaze as the redhead grew impatient at her evasiveness.

"Why would you use that power for that, By?! You could've saved countless lives if you'd stuck with what you did! And what about everyone else you could've saved if you used it?! People like Jeralt! You could've saved him if you–"

Hearing her father's name was more than Byleth could take, especially the implication that she hadn't tried to save him. In an instant, Byleth's guilt was replaced by anger. She swiftly rose to her feet, throwing a table to the side as she did and silencing Anna's rant.

"Do you think I didn't try, Anna?!" Byleth said, barely stopping herself from shouting as she stormed toward Anna. "Do you think I didn't use it when Father died?! BECAUSE I DID!" Byleth punched the wall next to Anna's head as she shouted, "I TRIED! I TRIED, DAMMIT! I TRIED AND–" Realizing just how close she had been to hurting her redhaired friend, Byleth backed away from Anna and slumped back into her chair as she said softly, "And it wasn't enough…" She buried her face in her hands and sobbed, "I couldn't save him… not even with the Pulse…"

Byleth could not finish her sentence. Anna sat down as she looked at the palpable devastation on Byleth's expression.

"B-Byleth, I…"

"When Kronya stabbed him, I used the Pulse to go back and try to stop her. But then that… that man in black showed up… And I couldn't do it again. The Pulse, it… it takes time for the power to come back after I use it. And the further I go back, the longer it takes for the power to return."

Anna stayed silent, letting Byleth explain her side of things.

"There's not a day where I don't wish I could've tried again, Anna. Where I could've saved him…"

Letting Byleth sit in silence for a moment, Anna then asked, "Then what about Edelgard? Why did you go back on that?"

"I told you; I don't know. Something in me told me to let her live and I did."

Realizing Byleth had to be telling the truth, Anna asked, "Could it have been Sothis?"

"What?"

"Remember what happened when we were fighting that White Wolf? You said you lost control of yourself then. And when you killed Metodey, the same thing happened. What if Sothis made you do it?"

"But… I haven't spoken to Sothis ever since she disappeared at the Sealed Forest, Anna. How could it be her? And why would she tell me to spare Edelgard's life?" Then, as though struck by an epiphany, Byleth said, "Wait… what if it wasn't her? What if… what if someone else made me do it?"

"What do you mean?"

"When I was trapped by Cornelia, I felt something in my head. It wasn't like Sothis, and it wasn't like when I would lose control to the Goddess's power. It was like something was trying to make me lower my weapon. Anna, could it have been her? Could it have been Cornelia?"

Anna pondered it for a moment and then said, "I dunno, that doesn't seem right. I didn't see her doing anything like that. Mind control magic is very complicated. Not even someone as skilled as her would've been able to do it without sticking out like a sore thumb. And she was busy blasting you in the back, remember? Besides, how would she know about the Divine Pulse? How would she control you through time? And how would someone, even as powerful as her, control you when you have the power of a god? It just doesn't make sense."

Seeing Anna's logic, Byleth said, "I see your point. But someone or something made me turn back time and spare Edelgard. And because I did, we may have lost the war."

Anna paused for a second time, and then said, "We haven't lost yet, By. We've still got a chance to turn this around. But you can't go giving up on us now, you hear? What would Jeralt think if he saw you like this?"

For a moment, Anna worried she might have angered Byleth again at mentioning Jeralt. But after a few seconds, Byleth said, "He'd tell me to keep going. He'd tell me to get back up and try again."

Smiling, Anna said, "Sounds like him."

As the merchant took a seat next to her, Byleth said, "Anna–"

"I'll keep this between us, By." With a smile, Anna then said, "But, out of curiosity, anything else you could share with me about the Pulse?"

Byleth was confused for a moment and asked, "Why?"

"It'd be helpful to know what you can do with it. Don't worry, I'm not gonna go acting like it's a get-out-of-prison ticket or something like that."

Byleth took a moment to think about the request. Revealing the specifics of the Divine Pulse with Anna wasn't something she ever thought she'd do. She trusted Anna with her life, but even then, she knew sharing the secrets of the Divine Pulse could be risky.

Seeing how reluctant Byleth was, Anna said, "How's about this? Since I know one of your big secrets, I'll tell you one of mine."

"One of yours?"

"Yeah, and it's not about my history with House Ernest."

"But why?"

"Call it giving you some insurance. If you know one of my dirty little secrets, it'll remind me to keep my mouth shut about yours."

Byleth stared incredulously at Anna for a moment, surprised that the merchant would go so far. Then, after thinking it over, Byleth said, "Alright. Deal."

Anna sat down and, with slight hesitation, whispered in Byleth's ear.

…

Cornelia finished speaking with two of her supplicants as Edelgard entered her chamber in Fort Merceus. Though the Emperor had mostly recovered from being poisoned, she had still been told not to exert herself. Yet Cornelia wasn't surprised to see Edelgard couldn't stand being cooped up in her room.

"Up and about at last, Edelgard?" said Cornelia. "Your physician is more skilled than I gave her credit for."

"It will take more than being poisoned to keep me down," said Edelgard.

"I assume you didn't come here just to assure me of your good health?"

"Of course not. You still owe me an explanation of how you plan to defeat Thales."

"That I do."

"Well, out with it, then. You said before that you weren't ready to defeat him yet. What will you need to make it possible?"

"That… I would rather show you than simply tell you."

Cornelia readied a spell, which Edelgard recognized as the same one she cast when showing her about the Pillars of Light. However, as she did so, Cornelia produced a small, neon crystal from a satchel, which began to resonate with her magic.

"What is that?" asked Edelgard.

"A Memoria Crystal. It will show us the past through someone else's memories. This one is from before I was born, some 1,400 years ago."

"Whose memories are they?"

Cornelia did not answer as she finished her spell. Just as before, everything briefly went dark for the Emperor as she began experiencing the past.

Edelgard opened her eyes to find herself on an ancient battlefield. There were Agarthans everywhere, thousands of them in combat with warriors led individuals with green hair and eyes. Yet despite their numbers, and despite their weapons and dark magic, the Agarthans were overwhelmed.

"Behold, the last great offensive of the Agarthan people against the children of the Progenitor God," said Cornelia. "It was a direct attempt to slaughter Sothis's descendants and retake Fódlan. Yet from the inception, it was doomed to failure. The ruler of the time, Volusianus, underestimated the children of Sothis and the devotion of their followers. And as a result, my people have never since returned to such days of power."

Edelgard watched as battalion after battalion of Agarthans were slaughtered, and while they inflicted losses upon the Goddess's army, it was to no avail.

Then, just as a regiment of Goddess soldiers rushed forward, a series of black rifts opened all around them. The soldiers had only a second of confusion before streams of pure unnatural dark energy surged out of the rifts, disintegrating any unfortunate enough in their path.

"Yet we would likely have been wiped out had it not been for the efforts of one man: the Avesta, Epimenides. In the common tongue, his title would mean 'Dark Prelate'."

Edelgard's view shifted to look at a man with snow white hair and skin, who dressed in a robe as colorless as his body. Yet his eyes shone an eerie orange, and a mantle of otherworldly energy surrounded his body. He raised a hand to several more Goddess battalions, creating more rifts from which the dark energy surged and slaughtered countless more men and women.

"He was a sorcerer unlike any other this world has known, for he commanded a power that was not of this world: a power known as Zahras. The Nihility. Though some of my kind like Solon could access Zahras, none could wield it the way the Dark Prelate could."

As Epimenides finished another spell, he shouted, "Отступите в тень, братья мои! Сегодня мы не допустим вымирания!"

The battle became chaotic as Epimenides continued to unleash his power upon the Goddess's army, slaughtering thousands in his attempts to buy the Agarthans time to flee. Edelgard, who could do nothing but follow the memory, briefly stepped toward Epimenides.

The Emperor then heard a woman shout, "Мы должны бежать, любовь моя!" She knew it had to be whoever's memory she was witnessing.

Yet Epimenides did not heed the woman's words as he rushed forward to engage a familiar face, one Edelgard was shocked to see.

"Is that… Rhea?!" Edelgard said in surprise.

"Yes…" said Cornelia. "Though perhaps you might better know her as Seiros."

Edelgard knew Rhea was indeed Saint Seiros, but she was surprised to see her in such an ancient time. Seiros charged toward Epimenides as the Avesta created a sword of pure dark power out of thin air and clashed with Seiros's exquisite Mythril blade. The two exchanged blows for what felt like an eternity before Epimenides channeled the power of Zahras again, trying to erase Seiros from existence. Seiros created a barrier of holy magic as several rifts discharged toward her, creating an enormous explosion as their magic collided.

Yet despite how it looked, Edelgard knew this battle was a foregone conclusion.

Within seconds, a burst of light surged forth as the massive form of The Immaculate One took Seiros's place. The white dragon of legend let out a roar as it unleashed its holy fire toward the Avesta, who dodged the attack and countered with his own dark power. Several blasts of otherworldly energy hit the dragon, causing it to screech in pain and forcing it to take evasive action as it soared through the skies.

But then, as the memory forced Edelgard to flee the battle, she saw The Immaculate One's fire engulf Epimenides's body, and the Avesta plummeted from the sky as his body disintegrated.

As the memory ended, Edelgard heard a woman wail in despair at his death.

…

Edelgard gasped as she was pulled from the memory. After taking a moment to catch her breath, she asked, "What happened to him?"

"He fell against The Immaculate One," answered Cornelia. "His body was destroyed, yet his Darkheart, which we call the Voidstone, remained. For whatever reason, Seiros did not destroy it. Perhaps she couldn't, or perhaps she feared what would happen if she did. Instead, she chose to seal it away in the depths of Zanado."

"The Red Canyon?"

"That place was once the main settlement of the children of the Goddess. It has been abandoned for centuries with the near extinction of their race, but I have no doubt that the Voidstone is still there. If I can retrieve it, I will be able to command the same power the Dark Prelate once wielded. And with it, killing Thales will be a simple matter."

The story sounded almost too good to be true for Edelgard, but she knew the memory had been all too real. If Cornelia could indeed acquire such power, Thales wouldn't stand a chance against her.

Yet at the same time, Edelgard wondered whether letting Cornelia obtain such power could come back to haunt her.

Better think hard on this, Edelgard.

EDIT: Okay, since the logic of Byleth not realizing that someone mind controlled her is "impossible", I've redone that part. Byleth has now at least entertained the notion that someone mind controlled her, but logically thinks that the theory has a lot of holes in it. She's still thinking along the lines of what she knows about mind control magic, though; she doesn't know Cornelia has Dominus.

If you're concerned that Cornelia's mind control would make her unstoppable, that may be true in a one-on-one. But one of the key themes of the Fire Emblem series has always been that its heroes don't fight alone. They fight together, side by side, and that makes them strong. So, if Byleth had to fight Cornelia, ideally she wouldn't try to solo her. As I've said in a previous chapter, Cornelia can only mind control one person at a time; if she had to face multiple of our heroes at once, she'd have a lot more trouble. And just because Cornelia can mind control Byleth doesn't mean Byleth couldn't break out of it. I'm not trying to portray Cornelia's Dominus power as infallible; claiming it's a "no limits fallacy" is jumping to conclusions.

And for those who are claiming I'm not consistent with things, well, that's tough for me to do. When you have ADHD, consistency isn't exactly easy to write in a story. I'm doing the best I can, but I'm only human.

As for the other parts of this chapter, Cornelia's reveal about Epimenides is something I've been working up to. It's going to be a major arc whenever I finally get around to a Part 3 of Songstress. His "Dark Prelate" title is a personal insert, meant to be a bit of a reference to Zeratul from Starcraft. If you want me to keep using Avesta, I'll do that.

I apologize again for the 3 week delay, but I'm frankly feeling quite burned out right now. I've been writing this for a while and over the last few weeks, it's been hard to put myself into a writing mood. I can't just force myself into it, though. It doesn't help when people keep saying "asspull" or "woke" and the like in reviews, which further kills my motivation.

Oh, and sorry if you wanted me to have Anna tell a secret, but I left it ambiguous so you can use your imagination. Just think of something silly that Anna wouldn't want anyone to know.