"RIIIIING. RIIIIING. RIIIII-" *CLICK*

Morgan's hand was on the alarm clock before it could make another sound. She groggily looked at the time. It read 5:45.

'The sun's barely even up yet…' Morgan thought in her head. Her mind was a bit fuzzy. 'Why did I set it up this early again?' As she laid flat on her back, she pondered some questions in her head. What was the time? 5:45 A.M. What was she doing last night? Doing some prestudying for classes. Were there any tests today? None that come to mind. What even was today? Yesterday was a Tuesday schedule, which meant that today was a Wednesday. If Morgan recalled correctly, that would make today May 5th.

'Wait, May 5th?' She started to remember something important. "Oh yeah, that's right. Today's my-"

A knock came from the door.

"Yeah?" she called.

"You up yet?" A quiet voice spoke from the other side. "You said you wanted me to make sure you were awake, right?"

"I'm up! I'm up!" Morgan rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "Give me a few minutes. Can you wait for me downstairs?"

"Sure." The sound of footsteps moving away from the door was heard.

'That's right,' Morgan remembered. 'Today's my day to cook.'

A couple of minutes later, Morgan was standing in the kitchen wearing her school uniform and an apron. Both of her hands were on her hips. "We're going to do this in one go!" she said, psyching herself up. She turned to her partner. "You ready?"

Fie yawned in response. "Yeah, sure," she murmured.

Feeding off her partner's enthusiasm, Morgan clapped her hands together. "Right, so now that we're in that cooking mentality...what's on the menu today?"

The silver-haired girl shrugged her shoulders. "Your pick."

"Do you...have any specific things in mind?" Morgan asked.

"No."

"Do you...know how to make any special dishes?"

"Not really."

"Do you even know how to cook?"

"I can make military rations." At last, a response from Fie that was more than a few words. "Does that count?"

"That's a...unique specialty." Morgan's confidence was dwindling by the moment. "I don't think that's going to work, though."

"We don't have to go through with breakfast," Fie suggested. "We can always just do dinner instead. Just saying."

"And what do you propose we do for dinner?" Morgan queried.

"We'll just buy food from Kirsche's," Fie smirked, "and then disguise it as our own cooking."

"And, what, we just hand it over to the others saying 'Hey, guys! I hope you're ready for this tomato cheese flatbread that totally isn't a store-bought pizza'?"

"We can put fruit on it." Fie seemed to be filled with new ideas today. "No store would ever think about doing that."

"We have some of the smartest people in the academy in our class," Morgan counter-snarked. "They won't get fooled that easily." With no apparent help available from her partner, Morgan began to mull over the possibilities in her head. "Right. In that case, let's start with something simple and then work our way up from there. Sound good?"

Her partner shrugged. "Fine."

After gathering the ingredients together, Morgan set to work on preparing breakfast. It was a while since the last time she picked up a kitchen knife, but once she started working everything started to come back naturally.

"You're not doing too badly," Fie commented as she watched Morgan carefully cut some vegetables with her fingers tucked in. "Guess I'll let you handle the rest." She turned to leave.

"Oooooh no." Morgan reached out and dragged Fie by the collar like a cat. "You're staying right here; you're going to be doing the most important part, after all."

"Which is…"

"You're going to do the actual cooking," Morgan clarified. "Mixing together the wet and dry ingredients and stirring it to make sure nothing burns."

"You mean you can't just do that yourself?" Fie tilted her head slightly.

"Well, I can't do all the work, can I?" Morgan reasoned. "Don't worry; I'll lead you through it." With that, she went back to chopping vegetables with her knife. Once that was done, she cracked open a few eggs into a small bowl and whisked the yolk and egg whites together with a fork. Then, she gathered a handful of oats, put them into a pot, and added water to it.

"Normally, we'd use rice for this," Morgan explained as she filled the pot. "But we don't have any on hand right now, so the next best thing is oatmeal." When the pot was filled to her liking, Morgan placed it on top of an orbal stove and turned it on. She then motioned for Fie to stand in front of it and handed her a large wooden spoon.

"The trick is to stir it just the right amount," Morgan instructed Fie. "If you do it too quickly early on, the gruel will become too thin and it won't hold the other ingredients. If you do it too slowly, the oats might get stuck at the bottom."

"Not too fast but not too slow," Fie repeated. "Like this?" She stirred the spoon in a wide circle at a moderate pace.

"Yeah, just like that!" Morgan grinned. "You learn quick."

Fie gave a small hum and went back to stirring. While her partner was occupied, Morgan looked around the kitchen for a spare cooking container, eventually finding a small saucepan and setting it beside the stove.

"How come you need another one?" Fie noticed.

"Because I'm going to show you the next step," Morgan answered. She looked at the contents of Fie's pot and nodded. "That looks great. Now set it over a cold burner and help me scoop some into here."

Fie nodded. Putting the pot elsewhere on the stove top, she transferred some of the oatmeal into the saucepan. "I was wondering why it looked like there was more than we needed," she remarked.

Morgan nodded, eventually raising her hand for Fie to stop scooping. She then set the saucepan on top of the heated burner and grabbed the bowl with the eggs and the fork.

"Now watch closely," Morgan told her partner. "This next step's the most important part, so be sure to take lots of notes! I'm only going to show this to you once, got it?"

"Got it." Fie stared at the saucepan intently. "Taking lots of mental notes."

Holding the back of the fork close to the bowl, Morgan lifted her hand slightly, allowing the eggs stream through the slots into the gruel. "Once you've put the eggs in, you want to let it simmer for a bit," she explained. "The main goal is to have the eggs in small pieces, so stirring it while it's raw won't let it cook as thoroughly. And when it gets to around this color…" Morgan pointed at the solution, now sporting a golden yellow color from the eggs. "You can start adding other things into it. In this case, we can add the vegetables I cut up earlier." As she said this, Morgan reached over to the tray with the sliced vegetables and scraped a little amount into the saucepan. A little while later, the oatmeal solution began to boil.

"When it starts acting up like this, it's time to stir. Same principles as before: not too quick but not too slow." As she took the large stirring spoon into her hands, Morgan turned to her classmate. "You might want to step back."

Fie broke out of her concentrated stare to look up. She looked a bit confused, but she nodded and retreated back a few steps. Seeing that her cooking partner was a safe distance away, Morgan took in a deep breath and put the spoon into the saucepan. As she began to stir, she broke the cooked eggs into smaller chunks and scraped some of the oatmeal that had gotten stuck at the bottom. She started off at a slow pace before gradually increasing as the mass of the soup began to lighten, at which point she slowed down to a moderate stir. She also made an effort to cover some of the solution over the vegetables so they could heat up.

'So far, so good,' Morgan thought. 'It's just stirring a bunch of raw ingredients together. Nothing more, nothing less…"

As soon as she thought that, a familiar chill ran up Morgan's spine. The sound of creepy laughter seemed to reverberate through the air.

'Aaand, here we go.'

The golden yellow soup started to turn into a sickening red color the more Morgan stirred. In the place of steam, red vapor started to emanate from the saucepan. The temperature in the kitchen felt like it was steadily increasing.

"!" In the corner of Morgan's vision, she saw Fie instinctively reaching for a knife to defend herself.

"Nothing to worry about!" Morgan attempted to assure her. "This is completely normal!"

"You call THIS normal?" If it weren't for the current situation, Morgan would have been patting herself on the back for gauging a reaction out of the usually-stoic girl.

Morgan stopped stirring and turned off the orbal stove. "Well, normal for me anyways." She lifted the saucepan up from its place on the burner and set it to the side for her partner to see. Putting aside the obvious red coloring that shouldn't have existed in the first place, the rest of the finished product looked relatively tame. The eggs were separated into small chunks and blended well with the oats, and the sliced vegetables looked reasonably cooked, though some looked close to being charred. Any person who didn't see the creating process could have easily assumed that too much food coloring was added.

Overall, not too bad for not having cooked in a while.

"Anyway, that sums up the rest of the process," Morgan said. "Think you're ready to give it a shot?"

"Was that supposed to happen?" Fie asked. She sounded cautious. "Cause if the end result looks anything like that, then I'll pass."

Morgan laughed. "Don't you worry about yourself; this is just something that happens exclusively to me. The whole point was just to show you what to do in the next step, so if you do that, it should come out fine and not…" She looked to her bubbling red concoction. "Look like this."

Fie set her knife down on a nearby tabletop. "I'm guessing that's why you said you wanted me to handle the cooking?"

"Yeeeup." Morgan put a lid on the saucepan and placed in on the dining table. "If we're being honest, I don't really understand why that happens myself. All I know is that whenever I try to make something, everything I touch turns out like that. It's not that I don't know how to cook; it's just that it's near impossible for me to actually create something without it getting ruined."

"Must've been tough growing up," Fie commented.

"Eh, it's not so bad when you get used to it." Morgan shrugged her shoulders. "I can still prepare and cut up ingredients just fine, so at least I can still help around in the kitchen. I'm surprised you're not freaking out as much."

"Call it a good poker face," the silver-haired girl replied.

"So…" Morgan's voice trailed off. "You're not going to ask more about it?"

Fie shrugged. "If you don't know about it, I don't know about it. Simple as that. I think I'm ready now."

"You can do this." Together, they hoisted the first pot onto the burner and turned the stove back on. While Fie stirred the gruel to scrape some of the oats from the bottom, Morgan cracked open a few more eggs into a bowl and whisked them together with a fork. She then handed both of them to Fie, who repeated the same motions that Morgan had shown her. After waiting for a bit so the eggs could simmer, Fie grabbed the rest of the chopped vegetables and put them into the pot before stirring. This time, the soup maintained a golden yellow color throughout the whole process.

Morgan, who was watching her partner's progress, nodded in approval. "That looks great. Nice going, Fie."

It was faint, but Morgan could see the traces of a smile appearing at the corners of Fie's mouth.

"By the way…" Fie said. "What are we going to do with yours?"

Morgan looked to the saucepan, neglected for containing a botched attempt at breakfast. "I was planning on throwing it out...unless you want to try it?"

"Is it poisonous?"

"Well, I don't think it is…" Morgan tried to recall the last time someone tried her cooking. "The worst that could happen is that they'll get knocked out for a few minutes."

Fie hummed to herself. "I guess it'd be a shame if we let your hard work go to waste…"

Morgan didn't like where this was heading, but her mischievous side was curious nonetheless. "Got any bright ideas?"

Fie turned to face her with the most deadpan of smirks. "Ever heard of Devil's Roulette?"

The unfortunate victim of the game of Devil's Roulette turned out to be Machias. Fortunately, only a small portion of Morgan's soup was added to his bowl, so the worst Class VII's vice president got was a breakfast that tasted like dishwater and a slightly upset stomach. A few sips of coffee later and he was back to normal, though the prank left him insisting that Fie and Morgan never share the same kitchen again.

Aside from that, the rest of the school day went by lazily without any other issues, so when Morgan returned to the dorm and noticed that the top of what seemed to be a drawstring bag was sticking out from one of the mailboxes, she initially paid it no mind until she did a double take and realized that it was sticking out of HER mailbox. Walking to it and opening it revealed a medium-sized satchel that was all scrunched up inside, almost as if the mailman had tried to push it in all the way but eventually gave up. Taking the bag out revealed that it was slightly heavier than one would expect. Morgan wondered why anyone would ever bother sending her something one month into the school year as she dragged the satchel upstairs to her room. Once she closed the door, she loosened the drawstring to find that it was filled to the brim with assorted envelopes, cards, and small packages that were all addressed to her. It was only when she spotted a random card with the words 'Happy Birthday' on it that she put two and two together.

'Huh, I had completely forgotten,' Morgan thought. 'I wonder how they found out, though…'

She fumbled her hand within the satchel, using her sense of touch to settle on a roughly wrapped parcel with a store-bought card taped to it. She took off the card and read its contents:

"Hey there, little lassie! A little birdie told me it was your birthday today, so I got you a little treat from the marketplace. Would've sent you a pizza, but I reckon it probably would've gone cold by the time you read this, and we both know that pizza tastes better served smokin' hot. But don't worry; I'll be more than happy to treat you to the house special next time. Just make sure to give me a reminder.
Hope you're having a blast at the academy. Miss seeing you around.
Always remember to keep it stylish.
-Donavan."

"Hey, it's from the Don!" Morgan remarked. Donavan Tennant, otherwise known as "The Don", was the owner of a pizzeria in Heimdallr. He was a lively fellow who enjoyed entertaining people while making his pies, and it was largely thanks to him that Morgan was introduced (and became addicted to) pizza in the first place. "Sounds like he's still doing well. I wonder what he got me…" She eagerly tore of the wrappings to reveal, much to her delight, several bags filled with bear jerky. Morgan couldn't help but squee as she opened a bag, took a stick of jerky out, and held it over head as if it were a legendary weapon. "I hereby dedicate this to our lord and savior, the Don! Long live the Don!"

As Morgan happily munched on her piece of jerky, she reached her free hand into the bag again and randomly chose another card to read. Compared to her previous present, this next item consisted of just a folded card that seemed rather crudely put together. Morgan opened it and read its contents:

"Heard it was your birthday, so here's a little something for you in case you're back in town and still in one piece. Try not to die out there.
-H."

Attached was a handwritten coupon for the pastry shop Infaillible, good for one half dozen donuts of any choice. Morgan snorted. Based on the initial, she surmised it was sent by Herman I. Toomes, the owner of Infaillible, though given the state of the card it was probably sent on a last-minute whim. Herman was a man of few words who acted very business-like and rarely spoke more than was necessary. Despite that, he holds great pride in his craft and treats the rest of his staff like family. "As blunt as ever, I see. Honestly, though; I'm only a military student. It's not like I'm fighting a war."

But then again...

Morgan set the card with the coupon aside and drew another item from her letter stash. The next item she picked was a small parcel with an envelope tucked in the strings covering the wrappings. Untying the strings and removing the material revealed a rectangular box that contained several quartzes of assorted colors as well as a small guide detailing the functions of each quartz.

"I think I've got a good idea of who sent this one," commented Morgan, but just to make sure, she opened the envelope and read the letter inside:

"Good day, Morgan. I hope you are doing well. Normally, I'd call you on your orbment, but since you're a student now, I figured it would be better to send you a written note instead. A good thing too, as your employer also notified me that it was your birthday today, so I included some extra things as a little birthday gift.
Accompanying this note is a box containing some support quartzes from Johannes that I got my hands on. Most notable among this small collection is a fire quartz that allows the use of the "Fire Bolt" art. To make it easier to tell which quartz does what, I also took the liberty of including a description for each quartz so you can mix and match at your leisure. I'm certain you already know this, but do use these responsibly."

"I suppose that explains why everyone knows it's my birthday," Morgan mused, pausing to take a look at the box of quartzes. "Looks like I was right about it being from Old Man Omar; it's definitely the kind of thing he'd give someone. Actually, it's probably the ONLY thing he'd be able to give someone that's legal." Omar Viridian was an inventor who was always tinkering around with old gadgets, orbments, and other miscellaneous objects. Despite him veering into his late sixties, his mind and hands were still as sharp as ever, being able to fix and make just about anything provided he has the parts. His main strength, however, lied in his expertise in making weapons, though due to a lack of a steady income he couldn't branch out as far as he would have liked without certain workarounds. Morgan continued to read the remaining contents of the letter:

"Now this next part is in regards to the 'project' we've been working on. I am pleased to report that the next model is almost finished. With luck, I'll be able to complete it within a few months. I know you're likely going to be busy with school, but if you're willing and able to help test the new model, I would greatly appreciate it. I'll be sure to keep you posted.
Yours truly, O. Viridian."

"Now there's some good news," Morgan smiled. "I'll have to find some way to make time to stop by. I wonder if George could let me go during a free day…"

Deciding not to wait any longer, Morgan took the satchel by its bottom and dumped the rest of its contents onto the floor. She spent the next few minutes reading cards, opening envelopes, and removing the wrappings from packages. Seeing all these birthday wishes gathered from a collection of people she met back in Heimdallr made her feel nostalgic inside.

Finally, she arrived at the final item in the lineup. It was another rectangular parcel laced with string and covered in packaging, but this one was a bit larger in size compared to Omar's gift. Morgan first opened the envelope that came attached with the parcel. The letter was written in elegant handwriting.

"Dear Morgan,
I hope this letter finds you well. It is hard to believe that a little over a year ago we had only heard of each other by name. Now you are an essential part to all of our lives. On behalf of the Vander family and all the people you helped to foster connections with, we wish you a happy birthday and a fruitful time at the academy.
Normally, we'd be content with just sending our regards through a letter. However, Fauna reached out to me this morning and told me to send these books to you. Apparently they're from your good friends. I questioned her myself on why they would go about such a circuitous way of sending you presents, but apparently that information is confidential. Regardless, it's still heartwarming to know that they are still thinking of you.
Best wishes, Aurier Vander."

"From them…?" Morgan carefully untied the strings and removed the packaging to reveal a pair of books. The book on top was titled What vs. How - The Four Stages of War and had a picture of a painting depicting a scene from the War of the Lions on the cover.

Her eyes widened. "This one's the new book on tactics that came out last week!" she exclaimed. "I've been meaning to get this!" Morgan scanned through a few of the pages with a giddy smile on her face. "I owe you guys so much!" Promising herself to read at least a chapter or two before the end of the day, she set her newfound prize to the side and set her sights on the second book. It was a velvet hardcover with a picture of two men positioned back to back on the cover. The one on the right was standing and wistfully reaching his hand outward while the one on the left was kneeling and dutifully praying with a sword by his side.

"'Falling for Him in a Fortnight'?" Morgan read the title. "Why does the name sound kind of familiar?" She pondered the name for a moment before noticing a corner that was sticking out from inside the book. She opened it to find a small piece of paper with some words written in lovely cursive.

"When the clock strikes nine as the night sky wears the moon as its pendant, I shall summon you for an audience from across a great distance."

"Well, no surprises as to who sent this one," snarked Morgan. "Though I guess this means I'm booked for the evening." Making a mental note to have her homework finished before 9:00 PM, Morgan looked at the open book and shrugged her shoulders. "I should go grab some dinner, but maybe I'll take a quick peek first…"

She picked up the book and began to peruse its contents. After a little while, however, Morgan closed the book sharply and tossed it onto her bed, her face flustered.

"WHY IS IT ANOTHER BOYS' LOVE BOOK?!" she shouted.

Morgan treated herself to a nice dinner at Kirsche's to get her mind off of her encounter with her new romance novel. One whole pie of pizza with extra meat and one strawberry sundae later, she went back to the dorm and carried on with her usual evening routines, finishing up her homework and reviewing new material before taking a thorough shower. Now she was sitting on her bed in her pajamas, avidly reading her new book (the one on tactics, not the romance novel, thank you very much) while waiting for her appointed time to come.

Finally, Morgan's personal orbment began to ring. She looked up from her book to check the time. The clock read 9:00.

'Guess it's time for my audience.' Placing a bookmark in her book, she picked up her orbment, flipped open the cover, and spoke into it. "Hello?"

"Hello and happy birthday, my dearest friend!" spoke a cheery voice over the line.

Morgan let out a cross between an exasperated sigh and a lighthearted chuckle. "Thank you. I'm grateful to hear you say that. But with all due respect, using a book to pass along a secret message? You could have just sent a letter."

"I wanted to, I assure you!" her friend insisted. "But alas, I had my own personal duties to fulfill, and having someone else write a message for me would have removed all the fun in writing it. If it were up to me, though, I would have hopped onto the earliest train to Trista so I could congratulate you in person!"

"Yes, and what an upset THAT would have caused," Morgan remarked sarcastically. "Please do the empire a favor and try not to take too much after a certain, ahem, wandering bard."

A giggle was heard from the other side of the line, unfazed by Morgan's comment. "At any rate, my brother already had a gift for you in mind, so it seemed only fitting that I follow his lead. Well? Did you enjoy our gifts?"

"Well, I definitely liked the book your brother gave me, so be sure to tell him that. But as for yours…" Morgan tried to sound imposing. "Of all the books you could have given me, why did you have to choose one of THOSE books?"

"Why, Morgan!" Morgan's friend feigned surprise. "Surely even you should have grown accustomed to seeing those titillating fantasies at the academy! I simply wished to broaden your horizons!"

"I've said it once before and I'll say it again," Morgan replied bluntly. "You're not making a convert out of me."

"What a shame…" Her friend sounded playfully disappointed. "I suppose that means I'll just have to try harder next year!"

"Please don't give away your surprises before they actually happen…" Morgan complained.

Another cheery giggle. "Teehee! Ah, but enough about me; tell me about you! Did you do anything special today?"

"Well, I did receive some gifts from people in Heimdallr, so that's a plus," Morgan recounted. "One of them even sent me bear meat, so that's another plus. Also, I…" She gave a slight chuckle. "I made breakfast for everyone in my dorm today."

Her friend gasped. "Did I hear that correctly? Could you perhaps say that once more with clarity?"

"I made breakfast today." Morgan articulated every syllable.

"YOU made breakfast today?" her friend repeated in the same articulated manner.

"Yes."

"For other people to partake in?"

"Yes!"

"And your dormitory is still standing?"

"Hey, I don't cause THAT much collateral damage!" Morgan tried sounding defensive, but she was smiling. Her friend was laughing as well. "Besides, I had someone to help me. I prepared the ingredients and they took care of the rest. I can proudly say that no people were harmed in the making or eating of this breakfast!"

'Except for maybe Machias,' Morgan added in her head. 'But that was due to circumstances outside of my control.'

"It sounds like you had quite the eventful day," Morgan's friend spoke. "I take it your time at the academy has been enjoyable thus far?"

"Well…" Morgan briefly hesitated, thinking back to what transpired during her last field study. "There were a couple of...hiccups here and there, but overall, yes. I think I'm enjoying my time at the academy." Morgan positioned her back against the wall and tucked her legs in. "This whole 'Class VII' thing is proving to be a bit tougher than I initially expected, but it's nothing I can't handle."

"That's reassuring to hear!" Her friend sounded relieved. "A friend I've made at St. Astraia's has a sibling who attends Thors as well, and from what I've heard, the curriculum has been especially arduous this year. Cedric and I were a bit worried in regards to how you were faring, but it seems we needn't be anxious at all!"

"Oh?" Morgan raised an eyebrow. "You've been making friends?"

"You say that as if it were a rare occurrence!"

"Well, I can't deny I'm a bit surprised," Morgan admitted. "But then again, this is YOU we're talking about. You could sway an entire Erebonian crowd just by smiling."

"Teehee! You flatter me!"

The two went back and forth like that for a while. Eventually, Morgan found herself gazing upon the collection of cards, envelopes, and other whatnot she had received today, now neatly organized on top of her drawer, and was reminded of something she wanted to know. "Say, would you mind if I asked you a question?"

"That would depend on the question," her friend replied.

"See, I was really surprised to find that a lot of people sent letters to me," Morgan began, "but it wasn't just because I nearly forgot about it myself. Rather, I don't recall mentioning anything about my birthday to anyone. With that said, one of the people who wrote to me mentioned they heard about it from my employer, so I have to ask: did the Vanders act on their own volition or did someone instruct them to let everyone else know?"

"I...may have asked someone to spread some rumors about a day commemorating the contributions of the Vermillion Deliverer," her friend confessed.

"I'm not mad or anything," Morgan said calmly. "Really, I'm glad that this was all set up, but you didn't have to go through all this trouble for me."

"But today is supposed to be a celebration of the day of your birth!" Morgan's friend reminded her. "You should take part in indulging yourself every once in a while; you only turn twenty once, after all!"

"Not everyone's birthday is treated like a national holiday, you know," Morgan countered. "And besides, when you're a military student, sometimes you have to know when to forego certain pleasantries."

Morgan's friend sighed. "I suppose that's fair enough. I do apologize if it came off as sudden or even an intrusion of your privacy, but…" Her friend paused. "You did say that you wanted to know what it felt like to live a normal life, and, dare I say it, what is a normal life if there aren't any people who are willing to spoil you every now and then?"

"S-Spoil me…?" Morgan thought about that last point for a moment. "I suppose you're...not wrong."

"I know you have a tendency to...forget personal details," her friend continued. "Cedric and I...I'm sure you're well aware that we won't be able to talk together in this manner once we grow older, so more than anything, we wished to remind you that there are now others who are ready to support you just as you had aided them. Of course, we will also continue to take strides in offering our assistance as best we can but…" Another pause. "Just don't forget that you will always have a place here with us. Consider this a present from all of us to you."

Morgan's hand grazed the small of her back. Truly, she was blessed to know so many people that she could call friends. "How am I ever going to pay my dues to you?" she said with a sigh.

"You could always recompense me in books," her friend suggested. "Books that spin tales about the lives and loves of handsome gentlemen…"

Morgan laughed. "Absolutely not." She looked at the time. "Anyways, it's getting a bit late. Aren't you feeling tired today? You should go to sleep soon."

Her friend snickered. "Now those are some words I haven't had the pleasure of hearing in quite some time. Does this mean that you're going to attempt to make me retire for the day?"

"Would you like me to try?" Morgan asked daringly. "If you're willing to wait, I'll be more than happy to take a train to Heimdallr, waltz right up to your front door, and personally tuck you in to bed." For dramatic effect, she was gradually lowering her voice with every word until she was speaking in a hushed whisper. "Rest assured, I'll make sure you sleep well tonight…"

Her friend made a small squealing noise. "G-Goodness! Hearing you whisper that in my ear just sent the ghastliest shiver up my spine! Don't concern yourself with coming over; I'll personally see myself to bed."

"That's good to hear," Morgan said, her voice returning to normal. "Give my regards to your family for me."

"Of course," her friend replied. "I bid you goodnight, Morgan."

"Good night, Your Highness."

With that, Morgan hung up and closed her orbment shut. Feeling that it was a good time to call it a day, she turned off the lights and went to bed.

That night, Morgan dreamt that she was in her apartment, blowing out the candles on a cake as she was surrounded by her friends and family. She felt the warm embrace of her mother. She heard her father wish her a happy birthday.

It was a good dream.

Author's note: Fun fact - this is my first "original" chapter for this story, meaning that this was written without anything from the game to base it off of. Needless to say, I feel both really accomplished and also really nervous.

Now, there is one thing I've noticed that I feel the need to address, and that is that a majority of my current audience seems to have come from the Fire Emblem side of the fandom without any prior knowledge of the Legend of Heroes side. I bring this up because while I did play Awakening first, I wrote and planned this primarily from the other perspective, which is why not only is there is a lack of Fire Emblem-related content outside of the occasional reference, there are also several literary elements present here that are otherwise alien or would go unnoticed by those who went through a typical Fire Emblem story.
See, the main draw of the Legend of Heroes series is the way it interweaves its characters with its world-building, in the sense that every character, ranging from main heroes and villains to the most mundane of NPCs, stands out but still feels like they belong in the world. As such, the first objective in all of this is to figure out how to weave in a character who, for lack of a better term, was never supposed to belong in the first place (i.e. Morgan). These intermission chapters simply give me a greater opportunity to solidify Morgan's place in the new world (along with acting as shameless filler before I get my act together and start writing the next chapter). Whether this involves incorporating aspects from her home universe is something I have not yet determined. Also, there are times where it feels like I'm spouting out random ideas that are often vaguely worded or never properly delved into. This is a normally a dangerous thing to have for any piece of lore, particularly in Fire Emblem, but in an overarching continuity like the Legend of Heroes saga, such occurrences are more commonplace (note that this is a series that would use something as trivial as optional collectibles as a form of foreshadowing). As such, it was something that I wanted to incorporate into my writing so it could be more befitting of the universe, and sorry to say, I don't think it will be changing anytime soon. I only ask that you be patient when encountering something that you don't understand, because there is a chance it may tie to something important. I will say that a number of you are very observant readers, so don't stop doing that. Wild Mass Guessing is in fact very much encouraged.

On a different note, shout outs to those of you who gave your opinions on the idea of adding "insert songs". The general consensus seems to be that while they're not coherently a bad idea, they can be somewhat distracting, especially if more than one song is used in succession, so I'll keep their usages only for when it counts.

Oh yeah, I also added in some OCs for the heck of it. Feel free to guess the inspirations for some of them. (^▽^;)

Anyways, that just about covers everything I wanted to talk about. Hope to you see you again soon! Deuces! (≧ω≦)ゞ