Chapter 98: Memory lane

When his eyes opened, he raised a brow as he no longer found himself within the monastery, instead he stood in a pitch black void, his eyes moved downwards, it appeared that it was not a total void, indeed he was standing upon some manner of stone flooring, quite well made it seemed.

He turned-

Something was different.

His right hand came up-

His right hand.

He had a right hand.

And he knew this hand.

Gold crusted skin, scaled and darkening into a deep red near the wrist and hand, his left arm came up to match and mirrored it in every way possible. Crimson gems along his knuckles shaped like diamonds, a slow blink, his eyes turned down onto his chest and he found himself staring into a jewelled eye in the centre of his torso.

Why would he-?

Ah, yes.

Mental projection.

His arms fell down to his side and he fought back a sigh, this would be nothing more than a mental projection. Though seeing his limbs like this again was something that brought about an odd emotion from him. Even though he knew it was a fake existence, this sense of knowledge was the same as he always felt, staring out onto the blackness.

For just a single moment…everything was as it should have been.

A strangled gasp from behind him broke his revelry.

Making a half turn, his gaze sharpened only a bit before his posture relaxed, though the same could not be said for the one who sat upon the stone throne stared back at him with a mixture of terror and surprise, almost looking as though they wished to shrink into their furniture.

He briefly found himself curious if this was some manner of irony, with himself standing upon a starless sky and staring up at some distant figure who sat upon a throne beyond the reach of time. It felt as though there was some small measure of irony.

The terror faded, instead replaced with apprehension and annoyance for only a moment, their eyes narrowed before they widened just a touch. "...Goetia?"

"Good, that saves me the trouble of needing to explain it to you." A moment passed, then he felt an invisible frown form upon his lips as he turned about to fully face the Goddess. There was something about this encounter that was moderately vexing to him, and he knew what it was. "Were you not aware that I would be entering your mind? I would have expected you to at least demonstrate some small measure of greeting, instead I am shown disgust and revulsion-"

"Get over yourself!" Sothis snapped back at him, finding the footing to recover. "Anyone would be surprised if you suddenly showed up in their room looking like that!" she punctuated the sentence with a finger stab towards him, frowning deeply as she did so and lowering the arm a second later. "I would have thought you'd appear in your form from the outside world, what manner of creature is this?"

He fought the urge to sigh, if only barely, as he recalled who he was speaking with.

"This is my body, or it…was my body." He explained slowly, just to ensure that she could actually understand what it was that he was speaking about. Bringing a hand up, he gestured towards himself. "This is nothing more than a mental projection of my consciousness within the mind of Byleth, I could change my form if I so desired."

He lowered the arm back to his side.

Silence stretched between the two of them, spanning a dozen or more seconds.

Sothis tapped away on the arm of her throne, then raised an eyebrow at him expectantly. "Well?"

"'Well' what?"

An irritated huff from the Goddess. "You said you could change your form?"

"If I so desired." He made sure to stress the word this time around, earning a twitch of the eye from the Goddess this time, she closed them a moment later and slumped back into her chair with an annoyed groan, he ignored her tantrum and instead cast yet another glance around their location, looking upon it with much greater interest this time around. "This space is not what I was expecting…Hmmm, perhaps that was a small error of mine. I had intended to carry myself into Byleth's mind, but it seems as though you have become more inextricably linked than I first imagined."

It was a mistake to think that aloud.

Sothis eyes snapped open with a smug grin already settling on her face, she was midway through opening her mouth - likely to deliver some inane comment that he would doubtless be better off with not hearing - before he managed to speak first and clarify his stance.

"It means that, as a Goddess, your line of thinking is much too human." She paused at that, raising a lone eyebrow. He was similarly surprised by this recent turn of events, but not overly so. Sothis current state should have had him envisage some alterations to the mindscape of Byleth, but he was off balance with the recent revelations that he had not had the time to account for those. "But that is not the topic of this visit. I am here for her memories of the fight and nothing more."

A dismissive wave of the hand to the Goddess as he turned away from her. "You may sit there and sleep if you so wish, or you may watch, I care not which you do so long as you make no effort to distract me."

He knew that he was mere moments away from a deluge of questions from the Goddess, but it was simply a matter of tuning her out until he got the information he actually needed from Byleth's mind, he was certain he could ignore her until the time of departure came about, then they could forget about this entire encounter altogether.

Raising a hand, he shifted the focus of the mind and brought the images to the forefront, remaining silent as they played out and then halting them, restarting them from the beginning and examining them once again. His gaze narrowed as he watched Miklan recover from one of his wounds, the flow of the blood reversed and entered his body once more, it was something that he had seen before, though not on a human.

"Well? What have you found?"

He paused, turning his head towards Sothis and staring at her, she had floated down from her throne and closed in on him while his attention had been elsewhere, now by his head and much smaller than he recalled, but he attributed that to his newfound form. He had almost forgotten what it was like to actually be able to look down on humans and other beings when they stood by his side.

A meagre fact, however.

"If I explain it to you now, I will still need to explain it to the others when I depart the mind of Byleth." He grunted out as he shook his head from side to side, turning his attention back towards the memory and allowing it to continue once more, angling his head as he did so and keeping track of every little detail that occurred within it, thus far he was finding it much more problematic than he initially believed.

"...There is no trace of magical enhancement."

He felt the questioning gaze of Sothis.

"I have access to the lingering memories of what Byleth's body experienced during the battle, I am moving through those as I perceive her ocular memory." The explanation was short and detailed enough that he assumed it would mollify the Goddess, the lack of a sudden string of questions at least supported that belief. Though that did not change his point in question, while there was no doubt something about Miklan that had been changed, he could perceive no difference in the human to those around him, or rather Byleth was unable to.

He paused.

No, something was different here, his focus shifted away from the visual memories and towards the senses once more. There had to have been something he overlooked. The magical energy would have been recorded here, especially with her heightened senses, even if she was unaware of it she would have still noted down the feeling on a subconscious level and yet he found nothing as he examined, it was as though she could not perceive the being in front of her at all.

Or rather…

His eyes moved away from the memory and fell onto Sothis once more, the Goddess blinked and leaned back from him, a slightly apprehensive expression played upon her features as she looked him up and down, eventually finding the strength to fold her arms over her chest and level a stern glare back at him, one that he deftly ignored.

"You halted the regeneration." It was the final thing of note in the confrontation, and even before then Sothis had demonstrated some manner of awareness that there was something amiss with Miklan but she had nothing more than mere instinct to base her concerns off of. He was not quite so limited, but the fact remained that Sothis had sensed something when Byleth had not. "...What did you sense with Miklan?"

A grimace from the Goddess, she rubbed the side of her head and frowned. "It…wasn't anything important at the time but…I…" she closed her eyes. "When I travel some distance from the child, I can still feel my link with her through our shared existence, wherever she might wander away to, I can still determine her exact location."

He could see where this was heading.

"You experienced a similar sensation with Miklan." She nodded slowly, his own eyes narrowed as the possibility played through his mind. Something greater than a crest and provided him access to the Lance of Ruin. Indeed, this was precisely what he was searching for, this missing piece of the puzzle all but confirmed what had happened. "I see, so that is what it was…though how would such a thing come into his possession to begin with?"

It was such a pure thing and so very old that there should have been no method by which he could have come into contact with it. Unless it was as Seteth and Seiros suggested and he had received aid like with Lonato, something that seemed very likely now given the nature of his enhancements.

He barely caught the raised eyebrow from Sothis, she was likely expecting an answer from him in regards to what he was speaking of.

"I have already explained that I am reluctant to explain the same conclusion twice over." The remark earned him a frown - a rather irritated one at that - accompanied with a glare but nothing else, the Goddess at least understood that she would be receiving the information in short order, so at the very least she understood the simple concept of patience.

"Though I am more bewildered as to how you were unable to prevent the loss of the body." He continued on, and this time the Goddess was far from silent, her face turned bright red as she swung an arm out and pointed it squarely towards him.

"It is hardly as though I could have done much of anything!" She snarled. "That battle took far more energy out of me than the one with the Demon could have done, dragging that human back in time was more tiresome than I could have foreseen and their physical strength forced me to exert more of my divine influence over the child! Something which she was ill-prepared for."

A slow blink, then his brows furrowed. "I examined the memories and I shall provide you with some small leeway, your weakened state combined with the nature of the surprise, I shall allow you the excuse that you were caught off guard." he raised a single finger, and narrowed his gaze.

"And yet this comes in the wake of the battle with Sitri? I would have assumed you would put further interest in developing the limits of your power."

The invisible frown on his face deepened.

"I examined that fool, he had nothing but power at his disposal and it was power he had not yet been granted the understanding to wield, if they have enough of this substance to spare of giving it to a petty bandit leader, then the next time you fight and individual of this calibre, there is a chance you might die."

Sothis looked ready to explode upon him, then she paused and pinched her face. "...Next time? What does that mean?"

This time, he did not fight back the sigh, a rumble escaped him as he lowered his head. "As I said, one does not waste material of this quality unless there is a reason for it. Giving the likes of this fool the power that he wielded serves only as a test for its efficiency…and now I am left to wonder if the Demonic Beasts attacked you by chance or by design."

Either way, it was something that could be deliberated on by the others, it was information that was nothing more than speculation at this point. Transporting days old corpses through the wilderness of Fodlan was stupid so it might as well have been pure happenstance that some Demonic Beasts chanced upon them. He needed to draw a line between reasonable suspicion and paranoid delusions.

"To hide the evidence of what was done to Miklan?"

"Yes, though that is merely one theory at the time and I have no evidence to support it at the moment."

She didn't look pleased with his answer but that was not his problem, he could not materialise facts to support his narrative.

Keeping his gaze for a few moments, she eventually let out a breath and started to float backwards, returning to her throne and seating herself down upon it, resting her elbow on the arm and leaning onto her fist for support, balancing her cheek upon her knuckles. "I am starting to wonder why we routinely seek you out for answers, given that you seem to unveil more questions. Ones that we did not even know existed in the first place."

"I cannot alter the fact that you failed to consider them."

Rolling her eyes at him, she kept her expression even. "Yes, I was wondering when you would make that manner of remark, though I shall say that this form you appear before me in…" her eyes lingered on him for longer this time, gradually raising a brow. "Your explanation about being a 'Demon God' now makes a great deal more sense than before…you looked like this from the moment you existed?"

Was that truly what she wanted to know?

"Not entirely." He admitted. "There were periods where I adopted a different form, though it could just as easily be said that every single body of the Seventy-Two Demon Gods was what I looked like, merely that this shell you see before you is the culmination of that hive mind."

Sothis offered a slow and disinterested blink, he found himself a little vexed by the lacklustre response to him. "Once again, I ask a single question and am rewarded with a vague answer and half a dozen more questions." she waved her free hand dismissively. "Then again, perhaps that is for the best. Whenever you give straight answers, I find them to be rather…disturbing."

He would have frowned at her if he had the mouth for it, instead he settled in contorting his expression into one of disapproval. "That is a problem for you and you alone. I am not here to provide a single blanket answer to all your worries, no such answer exists to begin with. I am working off limited information and have only just discovered there may yet be another individual in Fodlan that has demonstrated some meagre skill with magecraft."

The eyes of the Goddess closed. "Your definition of meagre and my definition, I feel, are drastically different. You're much too powerful for your own good, or you have been in the past, suddenly everything isn't a bother for you."

His brows crinkled. "...Are you going to complain that I am too powerful? You, who has the ability to alter the passage of time on a planetary scale with the mere wave of her hand? Do you even understand the level of power that such a feat would require?" It felt like the start of a bad joke to him, especially because he was all too aware of the cost that came with trying to change time to such an extent. Even for only a few minutes and in a localised area.

"That is not what I meant and I feel as though you know that." She responded with a flat look, then pushed her head off her arm and straightened herself out. "But that is neither here nor there, I am merely finding something to speak with you about…Regarding your body, I find it curious that you appeared in this form rather than the one you currently walk around in."

An internal frown. "I told you, it is a mental pr-"

"Projection, yes." She finished for him with a shake of the head. "What I meant was, if this form means so much to you, then why have you not altered your current body to match it? I saw the effect of the core you gave yourself." waving a hand, she gestured towards him and raised a lone brow. "It regrew your missing arm in the style of that and gave you flaming antlers. I do not believe, for even a single second, that you could not change your body to return to this…shape."

His brows raised. "You have raised your opinion on the level of my ability."

"That is not an answer."

"Why do you assume you are entitled to one?"

"I never said I was." Sothis remarked blandly, "I was making an innocent observation. That being said, I'm certain you've gotten all you wanted from here by now, yes?" he kept silent, not seeing the need to answer her, but she took that as an affirmation and gave a single nod of the head in response to him, "Then, in that case, I would very much appreciate it if you left, I would prefer you reveal some of those answers that you would like to avoid explaining twice."

"You are as demanding as ever."

"How else would anyone get an answer from you? It is hardly as though you are the most open person in the world."

He grunted in a low tone. "Everything I say is the truth, objectively or otherwise. I have omitted details but I have never directly lied."

That being said, he felt as though this conversation had long since eclipsed the need for it, he started to loosen his hold on the mind and pull back from it. Feeling the world around him start to fade away, his form turning transparent as he departed, though he kept his eyes upon Sothis as he did so. "Before I depart, I am curious, how long will it take for you to recover?"

A blink from the Goddess, then a touch of a smile upon her lips, "So concerned for my health? Though you will be relieved to hear that I am returning to my full strength steadily, by the end of the day I will be as I was before this entire event."

A scoff escaped him as he neared the end of his time.

"I am comforted only with the knowledge that you will not be a burden for an extended period of time."

Her eyes narrowed but she said nothing, instead a smirk wormed its way onto her face as she waved a hand almost mockingly at him in farwell.


He removed his finger from the front of her forehead, pulling it back to his side and dropping his arm beneath the cloak, taking a single step back as he did so and turning to the others. "I have the information that I need."

Byleth blinked slowly, staring at the vacant expression upon the face of the tanned man before her brows knit together. There was something odd about the experience just now, as though it had been longer than she felt. Or maybe something else had happened? There had been a slight moment where her head felt a little heavier than normal but nothing else.

Her eyes moved from Goetia and onto the others in the room, both of whom were looking rather surprised by the sudden turn of events, she wasn't sure why that was. They had asked Goetia to do this in the first place so were they expecting him to have failed or something? She didn't see why that would be the case, so their confusion was only serving to build upon her own.

"Is…is that it?" Seteth was the first to raise his voice, sounding rather incredulous and folding his arms over his chest.

Byleth blinked again, understanding blossomed in her mind as she nodded her head up and down, drawing the attention of the others towards her. She jerked her head to Goetia, "The spell is quick. It didn't take long last time either."

They were expecting something more, in fairness to them she had been a little surprised the last time that Goetia used the spell, he just walked up to a man, touched them and then walked back out while saying how he had everything he needed. Much like he had done in this case, it was certainly a time saving process. Maybe he could teach it so that interrogations didn't take as long?

"What were you expecting from me?" Goetia voiced, sounding almost indignant. "A flash of light or an extended chant?" another pause, the brows of the man furrowed as he brought his left arm up and waved a hand. "If anything, I would have expected your first question to relate to the topic at hand, rather than the efficiency of my work which I believe has already been discussed many times over at this point."

Seteth looked as though he was going to say something, then thought better of it and shook his head. Instead settling his expression into a more neutral one. "As you say, what were you able to learn from this experience, Goetia?"

A brief pause, then Goetia spoke. "The Heroes Relics only work because they have a matching crest, a simple enough analogy of the right key for the right lock should be sufficient for this analogy." he explained at first, though this was already information that she knew, it had been drilled into her head that she was a massive exception, or so was claimed at least.

He waited a moment, then carried on. "But there comes with this, the existence of something else. A master key, one that is designed to open all the locks. In this case, a universal crest which operates with any and all Heroes relics." he remained silent for a second, then continued on. "Naturally, such a crest does not exist, rather it is a concept that I would assume predates the existence of the Crests entirely, it would also explain the ability demonstrated by Miklan to remain immune to the temporal alterations."

Byleth raised a brow but said nothing, Seteth looked slightly concerned but the biggest surprise was Rhea.

Her face was now rapidly losing blood.

"I conclude that, through some unknown means, Miklan came into possession of the blood of the Goddess herself."

The reactions were immediate, Seteth's brows shot up and his jaw nearly fell open, the shock lasted for only a moment before unfolding his arms and taking a step forwards, his hands clenched into fists before he managed to speak through gritted teeth. "Explain."

He didn't sound angry at Goetia, but he sounded angry.

"The Crests originate from an existence such as your own." He brought up a hand, gesturing between Rhea and Seteth. "Through the blood of your deceased race, it works in tandem with their crest stones and the Heroes Relics themselves, channelling and amplifying magical energy in such a way that the end result is a weapon of incredible power. Though this much you already know, I assume."

A slow nod of the head from Seteth.

"The blood of the Goddess, however, would predate all of this." Goetia brought up a single finger. "Her original blood, or an essence of her existence before she assumed a lesser form which ended with her death, would be considered the origin of all crests entirely, the entire system by which they were modelled upon, therefore it would not be improbably to say that her blood would act as a suitable catalyst and it should go without saying what having a prototype crest would do for a normal human."

Byleth slowly nodded her head, understanding his explanation thus far even if she didn't really follow along with the words he was saying. But something tickled at her mind, a little question. "How did he remember?"

"Simple." Goetia answered without missing a beat. "Sothis is incompetent."

She blinked, not quite expecting that answer.

"Excuse me!?" Naturally, Sothis didn't remain silent either, appearing next to her head with a rather shrill screech of fury, she spared a glance to the hovering Goddess who looked very close to going red in the face, but then fought herself back and folded her arms in rather clear irritation. "I'd prefer a more detailed explanation than just calling me an idiot."

"I was going to elaborate." Goetia offered a dry reply, turning his head from her and towards the others. "I briefly spoke with Sothis in the mindscape of Byleth during my examination of her memories, her own testimony and the experience of Byleth have led to this conclusion. She could not differentiate between Miklan and her own host. In every way that mattered, they were biologically the same to her own understanding."

Byleth pulled her brows together slowly, giving out a low hum as she did so. "When I went back…I pulled him with me?"

Goetia glanced at her from the side and nodded once. "When Sothis used her authority, she did not understand the existence of Miklan and thus she pulled back everything that registered as 'herself' with her." he pointed at her. "Which means you, because of your shared existence. Even those with crests do not have such a close link with her, leading to the conclusion that he was more closely related to her than even Seiros is."

That was apparently the final thing worth saying that either one of Seteth or Rhea were going to listen to, the latter froze up as though she became a painting and the former narrowed his eyes, raising a single finger before his eyes clamped shut, his head dropped down and he turned away, pacing away from them and to the other side of the room.

She watched his movements, he walked right up to one of the walls and then leaned forwards, falling into it and using it to keep him up, she was sure that the wall was the only thing that was keeping him standing, else he would have just hit the ground.

"As for how-"

Byleth didn't feel surprised that Goetia hadn't so much as even let the clearly disturbed reaction phase him, still continuing on with his explanation as though nothing had happened. Whether it was for the benefit of himself or others didn't really factor into anything right now, she needed those answers and she figured Sothis needed them to, that is if the thoughtful frown on the face of the Goddess was any indication.

"-I cannot answer that at current." He finished somewhat lamely, but didn't remain quiet for long. "With the body of Miklan gone and all but certainly destroyed, courtesy of the digestion of a Demonic Beast, there is little left to base this off of but speculation-"

"The vault."

A croaking sound, her eyes turned to Rhea, the woman had her hands clasped over her face as she fell forwards, staggering as though she had been struck. Byleth caught the words and narrowed her eyes just a little, something about that reaction implied that she knew what the answer was.

After a moment, the woman was able to collect herself and lower her hands. "T-the vault it…Mother was a Goddess and she was special…she…took on a new form to live amongst the humans of Fodlan."

It sounded less like an explanation and more like a ramble, if the hazy look in the eyes of the woman was any indication.

"A vessel then? I see." Goetia hummed, it was a low mutterance that she barely caught. "It would explain how it was that she perished so easily. Transferring her consciousness into the body and limiting herself in such a way, even if she was a Goddess she would have been far more vulnerable to an attack. But…" he frowned, glancing away.

"She was…recovering." Rhea replied almost listlessly, shrugging her shoulders up and down before she looked away. "Mother had…she had needed to do something which required so much power that she fell into a deep slumber…" her expression shifted into a snarl. "That was when they struck like rats. Cowards. When she was weak. When she couldn't…"

She kept quiet, her eyes lingering on Rhea and the unshed tears on her face, then shifted her focus towards Sothis to see how she was handling this. These were the details of her death, after all, she wasn't sure how the Goddess was going to take it.

A stone face Sothis greeted her, blankly staring in the direction of something, it clearly didn't matter what it was. When she did eventually speak, it was in an utterly toneless voice. "Well. It seems we have all the answers for that mystery at least. I wanted to live with humans, I was forced to use enough of my power to leave me vulnerable and then I was killed. In the end…" she blinked twice, then shook her head. "No, not for right now…ask her about the vault, she sounds distressed over that."

Byleth hesitated for a moment, then acquiesced. "What was in the vault?"

The sniffles of Rhea still echoed through the room, the woman on the verge of tears rubbed at her eyes, exhaling a final time and then bringing her head back up, revealing the slight hint of redness around her face, visibly fighting back more tears, the look of grief slowly started to fade away.

Their eyes hardened, a faint glow entered them and it became clear that while they were looking at her, they weren't actually seeing her. Instead, the gaze of Rhea seemed to pierce right through her and towards something else, her arms fell down at her side and gradually clenched into fists, the wavering lips drew tight and her nostrils flared. "So that is why they stole it. To disgrace her further?"

It was a hiss, or close enough to one.

Something in the room shifted, she wasn't sure when but it suddenly felt a lot heavier, she frowned and glanced around, it wasn't just her but rather everything felt as though it was being pushed by something. A chance in focus, Goetia was frowning and looking down at Rhea with disapproval.

"Control your emotions before you tear the room apart." He all but ordered in a typical fashion, but it was without real heat within his voice. "I am not going to repair it if you vandalise your own monastery."

It was with that single comment, the rage of Rhea started to simmer down, their eyes closed and the weight which had been forcing itself upon her shoulders eased away, slowly but surely, until it was no longer present. A sharp breath escaped the Archbishop, their hands came up to cover their face and muffle the sigh behind their palms.

Byleth watched mutely, the woman removed her hands from her face and revealed a blank expression, a forced calm if ever she saw one. The brilliant green eyes of the woman swung around the room, looking onto everyone for only a single instant before she glanced away to the side.

Then she opened her mouth and let the words spill out.

"Mother had more than one crest stone."

Byleth slowly blinked as the words bounced around in her head, then her brows slowly pinched together as she realised what they actually meant. Her hand came up, resting just above her heart, feeling for the unbeaten rhythm in her chest which had never been as loud as it was right now. Or rather, the silence had never been as deafening.

"Multiple Divine Cores?" Even Goetia sounded moderately taken aback by the revelation, or as surprised as she had ever heard him sound by something like this. A quick look to his reaction, his brows were slightly raised and his lips parted for a moment, then he composed himself quickly. "I assume that this second divine core is no longer in your possession?"

"...It was stolen during the Rite of Rebirth." Seteth's voice echoed from his corner, the man stepped away from the wall and brought himself about to face them, moving back towards the group and looking down. "Months passed and we were without any leads as to what happened. The attacker was able to conceal the sound of their breaching the vault and took only one thing."

"...I see." Goetia's response was slow. "Then it would appear that was the intention, a two pronged effort. Keeping yourself and the knights distracted while they ventured and took this single item from your vault, combined with the attempted theft of the Sword of the Creator, it seems they wished to combine the two items together."

But that didn't explain why there were two crest stones? Did that mean that there was someone else with a Sothis inside their head? Could there be someone else who shared the same ability as she did?

Was that person Miklan?

Had it been Miklan?

"That being said…" Goetia remarked, bringing his hand up and cupping his chin, a thoughtful frown now upon his features. "Even if they were able to steal this second Crest Stone of Sothis, that does not explain how it was transferred into the body of Miklan to begin with, the strain on an unprepared human alone would have been catastrophic for them. The amount of magical energy coursing through his body would have ripped him apart in less than a second."

A beat.

"That would be assuming the trauma of the surgery did not end his life first and who would go through such effort on nothing more than a thug who was content with robbing merchants and living as a criminal?"

He was right, that sounded stupid to her. If they could do something like this, then surely there was better-

Rhea looked even more pale now, her head turned and she looked at Seteth, even the normally stern faced man was starting to turn more ashen by the moment.

"...It is a coincidence Rhea…" The man spoke in a slow and strained tone of voice, but Byleth was unsure of who he was trying to convince, himself or the Archbishop. Especially when his hands came up and pressed against his forehead. "There would never be…they could not surely have managed to endure all this time without us ever knowing about something like this? They would never have been-"

"Then what is it, Seteth?" Rhea stepped to the man, sweeping an arm around. "Some nameless bandit gains incredible power and wields the weapons of our dead kin? One who has already shown a capacity to gather followers and would likely have continued their trail of destruction? Whose very existence would have thrown Fodlan into disarray with the power he wielded?" she growled out the next words. "Where have we seen such a tale before?"

"He was not the next Nemesis!" Seteth snapped back at her, sweeping his arms either side of her and then gritting his teeth. "He couldn't have been-"

"But it would answer so much, wouldn't it?" Rhea sounded almost crazed by this point, a half chuckle escaped her which shifted in tone, her head cocked to the side. "All those who spontaneously turned on us with magic none have seen? The attack on the Monastery…the effort to steal mothers body and then power of this mere bandit thug!"

She spat out, hands clenched to her sides. "A repeating story of a thousand years ago. Always hiding and using agents to carry out their evil ways...never having the courage to step out into the light to be expunged from the world like the vermin that they are?"

"The battle of the Tailtean plains wiped out their command!" Seteth argued back to her, bringing up an arm. "Macuil himself went down there and scorched half of the fields with fire, even with their general leading from the front they were routed by the time that Nemesis was killed! If there were any survivors, they would have had no one to rally behind! They had to have perished-"

"And what if you're wrong?" Rhea cut him off sharply, Seteth recoiled as though he'd been struck, eyes wide like saucers and his mouth hanging low. "What if we've given them a thousand years to recover? What if they were using this time to learn from their past mistakes…think about it, we never even suspected it was them! None of these past debacles seemed linked but for now…we left them alone and they exploited this respite to their heart's content…"

Byleth had little concept of what was being discussed, shooting a glance at Goetia and finding him stone faced, watching on the argument with seemingly little desire to interrupt, almost as though he was curious as to how it was going to end.

She was curious as well, but she would rather someone actually told her what was going on.

"They're speaking of an experience that has disturbed them both." Sothis remarked, it was an almost pointless observation. Anyone would have been able to tell that if they just looked at the pair of them for more than a couple of seconds. She'd see the same from some of the mercenaries she used to travel with, getting scared of sounds because of something that happened in the past.

She didn't understand it all that well.

"This isn't quite that bad, but they are terrified." Sothis didn't miss a beat, clearly reading her mind and disparaging her assumptions quickly. The Goddess rubbed her chin. "They returned to the topic of Nemesis once more, the man who isn't the fallen hero most laud him as…and they believe that someone attempted to make Miklan the second coming of this man for a purpose."

"We should all be thankful for your ability to state the obvious, Sothis." Goetia whispered, just loud enough that she picked it up.

Seteth and Rhea were too busy arguing with one another to actually hear it.

"Obvious to some, perhaps." The Goddess shot back, though it lacked any heat. "But this is concerning, this implies that there was a group who created Nemesis to be the way that he was…which would imply that they were the ones who-"

"Set him into a position where he might kill you, yes." Goetia surmised bluntly. "If you had exhausted your magical energy to the point where you needed to recover yourself and had devoted a majority of your consciousness into a host body, then your death makes a great deal more sense." he paused, then shrugged his shoulders. "A series of events fell into place to allow the single chance to kill you, I doubt they would have achieved it otherwise. Though any group who might be able to kill a God is not one that would be easily defeated…from personal experience."

A light grimace after the final sentence, she would have asked but her eyes flickered back towards Seteth and Rhea as they continued.

"Even supposing they did manage to survive." Seteth pointed down to the ground "And have been plotting for this last thousand years, what are we supposed to do now? Would you have us go tearing through every single complaint and accusation levied against the Church and treat them all as though they were working at the behest of the Agarthans?"

"You speak as though we'd have the luxury of being able to choose." Rhea stated with a low voice, one which promised danger. "We could never take chances with them, and if we hold back on the possibility that they aren't still around, then they could use this time to enact more ploys, the next of which might not be met with failure."

"That's paranoia and fear talking, this is not as it was during the war of heroes." Seteth snapped. "We cannot point to a single group and call them an enemy, they have been meticulous to the point we didn't even suspect them until now and who is to say it is them in the first place? Who is to say that Miklan was nothing more than a mere experiment for the likes of the Demon Sitri?"

Rhea paused for a moment, then turned towards Goetia, perhaps looking for some clarification.

Goetia was silent for a moment, then he slowly looked to the side. "It is not impossible."

Byleth withheld a twitch, only her fingers moved to demonstrate her reaction to the words. It sounded as though he meant for the answer to be less vague.

"They would have been in a limited position." The non-answer continued to spill forth. "And setting humans against one another in such a way would not have been difficult. Especially as Sitri would have known how."

A pause, Goetia brought his face back around.

Devoid of emotion, his words became lifeless and empty.

"The tactic of using a pawn to sow discord and chaos amongst a continent and then taking advantage of the aftermath is one I - and through association, Sitri - have seen used to great effect in the past."

No, there was more than that.

She knew there was more than that.

"And the ramifications of unleashing Miklan with the Lance of Ruin upon the world with the knowledge he was Crestless would indeed sow division."

He paused, perhaps to gather his words, he looked thought.

Like trying to stop himself from saying too much.

She didn't miss how he side-eyed her for less than a second.

"With the destruction of Fodlan being their aim and being in a weakened state, it is logical that Sitri would have sought out alternative methods of wiping out humanity."

Seteth followed along with a disturbed frown, nodding in silence.

"It is no secret the cultural importance of the Church, as well as your own, thus this place would be my first target either physically or theologically. Miklan would have served as a mere thug but the power he wielded was beyond any of those who have a crest."

This wasn't just an on the spot thought.

This was something that came with experience.

She spoke up. "He could say he was blessed by the Goddess." the eyes of the room turned to her, she shrugged her shoulders lightly and nodded to Goetia. "Not like anyone could say otherwise. Was wielding a hero's relic and was really strong. Wasn't affected by time jumps."

"Between the rebellion of Lonato and the actions of Miklan, it is very likely that Sitri sensed he was losing his magical energy and hoped to use the Chalice of Beginnings to restore himself; during his weakened state he would have made connections with tools he could use for a later date. Hypnosis and memory burnings would have been within their realm of expertise, as one of those from the Control Tower."

The what?

Goetia paused for a moment, she almost missed the twitch, as though he hadn't meant to say that.. "...The control tower were those who were assigned the function of organisation. The Demons Gods who oversaw commands and relaying messages and information. Their functions were not suited for combat, rather they were…messengers who could function as tacticians if the moment called for it."

It was clear he was uncomfortable with the topic, she watched as he turned his arm over and stared down at the scars running up his forearm, the burnt patterns, his hand clenched into a fist and he sharply drew it back under the white cape, hiding it away from sight.

"...Miklan would have been without orders after the death of Sitri, thus he would have taken matters into his own hands and done what he wished from the very beginning. Targeting the manor of the Gautier family and stealing the Lance of Ruin. Sitri might have indeed been forging him into a similar role to Nemesis, but that in itself is not proof of these 'Agarthans' you speak of."

Seteth, throughout the conversation, had gone from disturbed to looking more and more relaxed as it went on, it showed in his face with the upturn of the lips as Goetia seemingly washed away his concerns.

Rhea was much slower, looking as though there were several times she would have interrupted but stayed herself. Instead, she just kept her face tight and said nothing.

"...Even weak as Sitri was, they would have been more than capable enough of entering the vault and it is hardly as though anyone would question the appearance of Aelfric during the Rite of Rebirth." Goetia continued on, closing his eyes, his expression neutral. "...He would have intimate knowledge that this vault was where you would keep valuable items and wished to see what there was. I doubt it was their intention initially to create Miklan, they merely saw a chance and took it once they saw the other divine core."

An exhale from Seteth, the naked relief on the face of the man was surprising, a far cry from the usual stern frown he wore otherwise. His hands fell to his hip and he sent a light smile in the direction of Rhea, it lasted all of a second before it vanished, indifferent frown returning once more. "There…nothing more than the lingering remnants of a threat already dealt with."

Rhea remained silent, then she looked away. "...A convenient set of circumstances to provide a comforting answer."

Maybe, but that didn't mean it was the wrong answer.

Goetia was obviously uncomfortable with the subject at all, but that didn't mean it was the wrong answer. Then again, maybe there was something more with this other answer that she was rushing towards.

She didn't know which to consider.

"Go for both." She spoke aloud, drawing the eyes of the room towards her. "Better safe than sorry."

Clearly Seteth didn't approve, the frown made that rather obvious, the man looked seconds from cutting down her response before he paused, then brought his hands up to rub at his eyes. A quick glance to Rhea made it obvious they had been won over to her suggestion.

"...Very well." An exhale from the aide, the man lowered his hands from his face and towards his hips. "I shall begin an investigation into the links between Lonato and Miklan, if there were any at all. Though I doubt anything shall come of this…" he turned to the Archbishop and frowned. "There is no point in which we can begin at all."

"...I have faith in your diligence."

That didn't seem to enlist the sort of confidence that it might have done in the past, if the light grimace was any indication.

"I am concerned that you have all overlooked a single glaring issue." Goetia's voice cut through everything, they all turned to see a frown now painted upon his features. "There is a Demonic Beast that has likely integrated a Divine core into its body. As time progresses, it shall become elevated to a point where it becomes a threat to even you."

That set the mood instantly.

Seteth tensed. "...It is that serious?"

Goetia nodded once. "The power of a Demonic Beast is middling at best, not on the level of a true phantasmal. Though with the integration of Miklan's body, the power will be spread across himself and into the beast." he gestured towards herself. "Sothis might have disabled the regeneration within the core, but there is no method of knowing how it will interact with the biology of a Demonic Beast, especially when their very nature is based around the absorption of mana from the atmosphere."

A shared frown spread across the room. "I will begin issuing orders at once, unless you can track it?"

Goetia remained silent for a moment, then exhaled and shook his head. "Perhaps if it were different, but with the cores of Byleth and Miklan being identical even within her memories and without having seen the original, I would have no method of differentiation. It would inevitably lead to the exact same location again and again, that being to Byleth herself."

Silence hung in the air.

"And…Divine Beasts - even at their lowest - are on a scale above that of phantasmals. It is not a creature I could do battle with without preparation. Not without understanding the species of Demonic Beast first and then considering how the presence of a Divine core would affect it."

"Then, for the time being, this shall become our top priority." Seteth stated with a grave tone. "If you require anything to assist you, do not hesitate. As Professor Eisner has said, it is better to be safe than sorry…and on the off chance that the creature does not become a monster, it would be better to recover the Stone all the same."

She figured that would have been a good enough reason.

He cleared his throat. "That was all that we required. Professor? Thank you for your assistance and Goetia…you have my appreciation for escorting the Archbishop to Enbarr and back." a brief pause, then an approving nod of the head. "And on that topic, I shall say I approve of your new attire. It is respectable."

She could just imagine the comment Goetia could have made.

'Implying I did not look respectable before.'

She heard Sothis snort from beside her, shooting a small glance at the Goddess who was making a poor showing of stifling her grin, bringing up a hand to cover her mouth as well while making a pointed effort to not look at Goetia.

Something that didn't work as Goetia gradually glanced over to them, narrowing his eyes just a touch as though he knew what they were saying.

"...I was presented with an opportunity to change my attire and took it." He replied slowly, tearing his eyes away from them. "Your approval of it is noted." a brief pause, then he turned his eyes onto Rhea and visibly twitched. "I…have reason to accept the offer you made earlier. I will leave you to finish the remaining details and then find me at a later date. If that is all."

Whether it was or not, Goetia was already halfway towards the door before anyone could even think of saying anything.

She was a little confused by what he meant though, but elected to ignore it, given that Seteth was now shooting a rather puzzled look at the back of Rhea's head, she figured it was for someone else to sort out.

She had other things to do.

With her mind focused, she moved for the door after Goetia.

She had Mercedes' advice to put into play.

Hopefully the kitchens had been repaired.

Vaguely, she heard Sothis mutter something about being impatient to see how it all turned out, but she tuned her out. She doubted it would take so long.