AN: Sometimes you rewrite a scene 5 times and still aren't happy with. Bleh. Any who, happier thoughts.

To zhuzizxhzjz (Mar 15, 2024): I'm hoping to keep it that way. I've got to at least reach the time skip before I can be allowed to consider giving this up.

To eseer (Mar 16, 2024): Hopefully just irl and not in world, that would make for a very unfortunate fix-it.

To Kasierreich (Mar 19, 2024): Hmm, I'd answer that, but I feel like it would be a bit of a spoiler (given that the characters are very much wondering the same thing). I will say that Reidun isn't much of a magician, to the extent that she has banes in both faith and reason. In terms of the other comment? I agree with Bustertank: 'Ghost shenanigans would be great'.

To Ver'dan (Mar 21, 2024) & Incognito74 (Apr 4, 2024): You both make it seem like I hid this story in some dark cave somewhere. XD

To all of you: thank you. I've said it before, and I'll say it as many times as I need to, these comments give me strength and make this all more worth it!

Haunting Daybreak - Plots and Plans

"Reidun, you need to stop," Joseph pleaded, uncharacteristically tired.

"Stop?" The child kept pacing back and forth in the room of the inn they'd rented. She'd turned to him to answer, her voice writ with worry. Gesturing in the direction of the guard they'd spoken to earlier that day as she did so. "How can I stop?! Didn't you hear what he said?!"

Of course he had.

"Reidun…"

"The Tragedy of Duscur. No one knows about it. None of the guards here, none of the merchants in the last town, nobody!" she continued, pacing once more. "It hasn't happened yet! We can stop it. We need to stop it!"

"No, you don't-"

"Why?!" she interrupted, finally stopping. "You always emphasise how important it is to be good. Spiderman wouldn't stand aside. He'd tell me that 'with great power comes great responsibility' and that I should do what's right!"

Joseph massaged the bridge of his unseen ghostly nose, the motion being completely unsatisfactory given his lack of tangibility. They'd been having this argument for almost a month now. In theory she was correct, but in practice…

"You're 12, Reidun," he argued again. "There are knights, lords, even kings involved in this. You don't have great power yet. The only thing you're responsible for-"

"-is my own future," she groaned, speaking in tandem with Joseph, before the heat in her voice struck back again. " I know! You've said it before, but knowledge is power. France is Bacon-"

"That's Francis Bacon," Joseph quickly corrected.

"Yeah, him," she waved off and then continued eagerly again. "We know something no one else does. I do have great power."

"Not here, not now. There are far too many converging elements: the Agarthians, Cornelia, Patricia, dissatisfaction at Lambert's reforms, the ties to Duscur, the church… and probably many more who have a stake in this. Even if we somehow stopped the Tragedy of Duscur as I know it, these elements would just collide in another way," Joseph explained. "Emphasis on 'if'. You're a child and a commoner. You barely have any money or wealth to your name other than what we got out of that bullion."

"I'm not giving up!" she declared, "If you don't think I'm good enough then we tell one of those kings you mentioned."

"What? Are you going to tell them you heard it from a ghost?" he snarked, his mind too slow to hold back the bite from his tone.

She flinched away, and he immediately regretted the failure.

4th of the Great Tree Moon, 1180

Fortunately the argument was far behind them at this point, even if it had never truly been resolved. In contrast, the current topic was rather mild.

'Joseph, why didn't you say anything? The pegasus stables are closed off again!' Reidun thought as she made her way to the training hall, having finally finished her meal.

"You seemed like you were having fun, and the pegasus stables will still be there tomorrow," he answered with a playful tint to his voice, trying not to alert Reidun to the potential danger she was in as he kept watch.

She passed through the doors of the hall and headed towards the racks where the weapons were stored.

'But the Blue Lions mock inner house mock battle is happening then! We'll be leaving the monastery, and by the time we get back the stables will be closed again!' she thought angrily.

Joseph, ignored the statement, instead hovering over to the weapon rack, "if the classes work anything like the games, you'll want to focus on axes, brawling, or bows to move into the Fighter class."

'Joseph!' she thought, but still complied with the suggestion, picking out a training Axe.

"Reidun, it's fine." he said calmly, floating beside her, "as Ingrid said, flying training won't really be available until the professors pick their houses for the year. That's still over two weeks away."

'I know, I know.' Reidun thought, before raising her weapon and starting her practice. '...but what if we don't find the time before then?'

Joseph shrugged nonchalantly, and answered, "then we'll learn then."

Reidun knew he was right, no matter how much she didn't like the fact. So instead of arguing further, she turned her focus to her training.

'So far so good.' Joseph thought.

The training hall wasn't particularly populated in the later evenings, but there had been enough notable faces that it would have been difficult for Hubert to try anything. The walk back to the dorm had been a bit more worrying, but fortunately Reidun had followed the stream of late nighters and nothing had happened then either.

At least now that Reidun was asleep, Joseph didn't have to withhold his worry.

Discounting magic, there were two ways into the dorm, through the door and through the window, both on opposite sides of the building. Which was why Joseph spent the night floating through the walls across the room and back again.

'Hopefully, I'm just being paranoid,' he thought.

Then, as if to taunt him, he was proven wrong.

An obsidian clad figure stalked the outer wall of the dorms, low enough that they wouldn't have been seen through the windows.

'...and just when the patrols had passed.'

He floated closer, close enough to get a look under the man's cloak and spot the dagger hidden underneath.

'Definitely an assassin.'

Honestly speaking, Joseph was somewhat relieved. A literal assassin sneaking through the night was on the more trivial side of attempts he was expecting from the brooding noble.

Though it still begged the question… how was he going to deal with this?

His ability to interact with the physical world was quite limited, but waking one of Reidun's neighbours and knocking on the window to reveal the assassin was well within his abilities.

'I don't think I'd be revealed, but that might cause enough of a scene to throw things off for Seteth.'

So not an acceptable solution, and for all the same reasons just blasting the man with magic would go just as poorly.

Better to simply avoid the problem entirely.

He let his connection tug him back to Reidun, and softly shook her awake. She was groggy only for a moment before he cast a quick Heal to wake her up.

Before she could say anything though, Joseph brought an unseen finger to his lips. "Quiet, there's someone outside trying to sneak in."

She nodded seriously, and thought 'Mirror Moon?'

"Yes, Mirror Moon," he answered with an exasperated sigh. Reidun had been the one to insist on code words for their more common practises, and endearing as it was, Joseph did still consider them somewhat cringe, as the youth of his world called it.

As per the plan, Reidun quickly grabbed herself a change of clothes and whatever she could think of needing through the night, then…

'I'm ready.'

"Alright." Joseph said. Then he weaved his hands together to form the spell he had in mind, finalising it with a spoken "Warp."

In a momentary flash, Reidun was gone from the room. Immediately, Joseph felt their connection wring tight, dragging him through the monastery at ludicrous speeds, until he finally came to a halt in one of the forested areas outside it where he'd sent his ward.

"So, Joseph," she began with a deceptively innocent tone. "What was that?"

"Nothing to worry about," he lied. "I should be able to Warp you back into your room before sunrise in time to run with Caspar, but I may have to sleep a little afterwards."

She nodded her understanding, continuing to get ready for the day, this wasn't the first time they'd had to teleport out of a room and back in by morning.

It was a minor relief for him that she didn't pursue the topic further-

"Was it a spy?" she asked suddenly, and while she was outwardly calm as usual, he could feel her inner self practically dancing with excitement.

"No, it wasn't a spy," he answered with exasperation.

"Then, a kidnapper there to steal me away in the night?" she tried, even more giddy.

"No Reidun, it wasn't a kidnapper," he answered again.

"Oh… Assassin?" she tried again.

"Yes, it was an assassin," he relented. 'Telling her that much should be safe…'

"Hm, then whoever it was you didn't want to hear about me seeing Crests can hire assassins, and considers that secret big enough to kill for," she concluded with a smirk, "That narrows it down."

Joseph remained silent, and Reidun radiated satisfaction.

"You know, I'm going to figure this out eventually."

'I really wish you wouldn't.'

5th of the Great Tree Moon, 1180

Reidun couldn't really complain about getting to spend the night catching up on some reading and being able to chat with Joseph openly again. She'd do it more often, but apparently, from what Joseph had said, skipping out on sleep was 'bad for one's sanity, even if you escape the physical health penalties'.

That seemed a bit strange in her mind: Joseph practically never slept and seemed completely fine.

That aside, as promised, he had Warped her back to her room right before dawn in time for her morning run. With him asleep from exertion, she couldn't quite pull off the same extended sprint. Something Caspar seemed to notice.

"Hey, you good?" he asked. "Looks like you're having trouble keeping up."

Was he joking? Concerned? Angry? Without Joseph, she couldn't tell.

"I must be having an off day," she replied with her ever-friendly polite tone.

"It happens to the best of us," he said back, "anything to do with that weird rumour? Folks were saying you could see crests."

'Well, that is why the mysterious villain sent that assassin, and hence why Joseph was asleep…' she thought, while the words she spoke differed, "you could say that."

"So, is it true?" he asked.

"Not sure yet, I've only seen a couple so far," she replied honestly. Word was already out, so there wasn't much risk to it. "Professor Hanneman and I are going to run a test today to figure out, but it means I have to sit out the inner house mock battle."

"Ah shucks. I'd hate that," he said. "Hey, how about you spar with me tomorrow after the run to make up for it."

"An excellent idea," she agreed. 'Don't let opportunities slip by. That's what Joseph said.'

"Great, I'll bring the rest of the gang as well," he said, then turned to the tired group laid out around us, "you hear that guys?"

They groaned, and Reidun got an idea she was sure Joseph wouldn't approve of.

'If I want to find out who Joseph is trying to keep hidden, maybe I should give them an opportunity to get what they want?'

On top of that, if she put herself in enough danger, Joseph would have to tell her.

'What could possibly go wrong?'

She buried the idea away somewhere in the back of her mind by the time Joseph awoke, one of the many tricks she'd learned living with a mind reading ghost. Then, catching the man up on what he'd missed, mostly, they joined the rest of the Blue Lions heading out to the mock battle.

While the monastery was massive, it wasn't quite large enough to reasonably field such a practice, let alone three of them at the same time. So the Officer's Academy had grounds prepared for such practice in the unoccupied landscape that surrounded Garreg Mach.

This field in particular was mostly flat and forested, but we were all gathered on an adjacent hill that provided a natural overlook of the area. There were clearings in the battlefield, one at each end and diagonal cuts across the centre, together forming a slanted rectangular shape that ensured that neither side had a clear line of sight to the other.

It was a unique enough battlefield and, as said earlier, one of many.

'One of the perks of being mostly uninhabited,' Reidun thought.

"Hm, but why is it uninhabited?" Joseph pondered. "One would think that the centre of Fodlan would draw a lot more people."

Reidun visualised a nod, and pondered the unspoken question. 'There is the village, at least, but it is less than one would expect-'

"Ah, sorry, I'm distracting you. You should probably pay attention to the professor," he quickly interrupted, prompting Reidun to turn her focus back to the class.

"...no need to worry about your performance. We will be hosting many such exercises throughout the year, and expect that all of you will greatly improve when you begin to apply the strategies of the classroom to the field." Professor Hanneman droned on.

'...but it's so boring!' Reidun mentally groaned.

"It's only boring because you're lost. Which you wouldn't be if you were paying attention from the start," Joseph denied. "Sorry about that, by the way. This is important, you might get called up."

'Why would I-?'

"...while Reidun here will be assisting me with my observations," the professor continued.

She was fortunately paying attention enough to catch that and gave a silent nod to affirm what was being said.

While she didn't catch it herself, Joseph did note for her that a couple of her cohort members seemed disappointed with the announcement.

"Like Ingrid said, it would have been a bit unfair considering you seem to be ahead of the other irregular students," Joseph explained, and then elaborated with his suspicions. "I reckon they're simply disappointed that their odds were hampered."

By this point, the professor started sorting the cohorts into the two teams.

On one side, Dmitri, Dedue, Ashe, and Mercedes. On the other, Felix, Ingrid, Sylvain, and Annete.

Reidun had seen the honour students gathered like this before, but this was her first time to see them all with their cohorts, and, based on what Joseph described, it made for an interesting sight.

At the extreme ends of the spectrum were Ingrid and Sylvains cohorts. As Reidun was familiar with, her cohort had adopted a somewhat professional silence. It was clear that they would listen to what Ingrid had to say, but there was a distance that had been growing since the first day the cohort had assembled. Then on the other end was Sylvain's cohort. They seemed thick as thieves, real familiar with each other, but he didn't really draw any respect from them, and it was likely they would do what they themselves thought right over listening to his commands.

Dedue's relationship with his own cohort was closer to Ingrid's side of the spectrum, but not as extreme, being more of a stoic silence than an orderly one. The unseen tension certainly didn't help things.

Similarly, Ashe didn't seem particularly respected by his cohort, but they did seem friendly with him.

Mercedes' group seemed relatively neutral, being neither particularly disciplined nor familiar, but likewise, there weren't any blatant weaknesses either in the group's cohesion. Which was not something that could be said for Felix' cohort.

There was absolutely no connection there, in fact, the boy basically seemed to ignore the group, which left them ambling about trying to keep up with what was going on.

The two who stood out as managing a good balance were Dimitri and, surprisingly, Annette. Dimitri's friendly demeanour served him well, but that didn't come at the cost of his air of authority. Meanwhile, Annette seemed to be leading some sort of improvised inspiring speech while her cohort listened attentively.

Then the teams finished forming and they went to each their own side to discuss battle plans, leaving Reidun alone with the professor.

"Excuse me, is there anything other than the crests you'd like me to keep my eye on?" Reidun asked.

"Ah, why yes. You will be writing the same report as everyone else, but given that you aren't participating, focus on evaluating both sides," he answered. Then he seemed to have an idea, "in fact, since you aren't participating in the planning, we should have a discussion of our own instead. What do you think of the coming battle?"

Reidun brought a finger to her chin to think, 'Joseph-?'

"Nope, he's your teacher this time," the ghost answered preemptively. "Talk to him if you feel you should."

She hesitated, staying silent a moment, before relenting and voicing her thoughts.

"I don't think the matchups are balanced, in terms of ability at least." She began evenly.

"Oh, how so?" the professor inquired, in what Joseph pointed out as a curious tone.

"Dmitri and Dedue are the two toughest fighters in the house. Even working together, Sylvain, Ingrid, and Felix are going to have trouble taking them down, especially with Mercedes there to provide healing. They will be very dependent on Annete and how well they work with her," she said, concluding with "add Ashe to that already lopsided equation and it appears very one-sided."

"Hm, you seem quite confident in your assessment," Hanneman observed.

"I've had the pleasure of sparring with all of them except Ashe, Mercedes, and Annete," Reidun explained, leaving out that she'd also learned about them from Joseph. "I can't say I know much about magic though, and strength isn't all that matters."

"Ah yes, that would make sense. Fortunately, not all battles are fought evenly, so even if you are correct there will be much to learn from this," the professor accepted, before looking down at his watch. "Ah, it seems it is time to begin."

He turned out towards the field where the battle would take place. On one side, Dimitri and Dedue stood together by one of the passages with their lance and axe, while Mercedes and Ashe waited at the other with bows.

'Why are they split like that?' Reidun wondered. Ashe and Mercedes were completely exposed, while the dynamic duo didn't have any cover.

Over on the other side, the team had also split up. At the other end of the path leading to Dimitri and Dedue stood Ingrid and Felix, backed up by Annette. This left Sylvain alone to pursue Ashe and Mercedes.

This made a lot more sense to her. They needed Annette's magic to break through Dedue's defences, so focusing their strength around her was reasonable. Meanwhile, Sylvain could threaten their flank without committing if it was too risky.

'...but why is Annete wielding her Axe?'

She didn't get to pursue the thought as Hanneman announced, "begin!"

With the size of the field, the start wasn't explosive. Dimitrie's team held back, merely advancing with a steady walk, while Ingrid's team rushed to seize the initiative.

It was when the two teams caught sight of each other that things started moving properly. Upon spotting Sylvain, Ashe called something back over to Dimitri, who immediately broke out into a sprint, cutting through the forest towards the other path while Dedue followed him at a slower path to protect his flank.

Ingrid wasn't just going to let this go, and tried to shout a warning over to Sylvain, but the tree cover between them in the middle of the battlefield was far denser than near the edges. Worse yet, she had no way of knowing that, being neither able to see nor hear him herself.

Mercedes and Ashe both pelted the noble, slowing him down, but not managing to stop him from getting into combat with Mercedes. It was hard to make out the details from this distance, but as the cohorts clashed, a few of Mercedes' own seemed to be taken out of the fight.

Sylvain didn't quite manage a direct hit against Mercedes himself before Dimitri came out of the forest and struck, knocking Sylvain down and quickly cleaning up the rest of the cohort.

Meanwhile, a burst of wind had shot out towards Dedue and his cohort who had been slowly backing into the treeline. The magic crashed into the foliage and dispersed, having missed its target.

The man moved to counter-engage, but Ingrid interposed herself. It wasn't a defence that lasted long, but it didn't need to. Having taken the attack, she immediately backed out, opening up the way for Felix to charge the man.

The whole sequence had been smooth and well coordinated and, for a moment, it seemed like Felix might have caught the big man flat footed, but when he went to take advantage of the opening… a member of his own cohort had stumbled into him.

So Dedue, battered, still stood.

That had been enough.

The rest of his team had cut back through the forest, an arrow from Ashe announcing their arrival and removing the heir of Fraldarius from the field.

Quick thinking saw Ingrid successfully redirect her focus to Mercedes before Dimitri could break the tree line, stepping forward and readying her strike-

"There sir. Ingrid is using her crest."

-and managing to take out the girl and her entire cohort in one wide swing. Only for Dimitri to finally catch up and-

"-and there. Dimitri is using his-"

-strike the earth with an attack that knocked everyone in the area off their feet and quickly saw them taken out afterwards.

"That much seems obvious, but you did see it beforehand." Hanneman acknowledged.

The battle didn't last much longer afterwards.

Annette managed a final shot at Dedue, to knock him down, but then surrendered when she saw she was surrounded.

Speaking loudly, the professor announced the end of the match, and more quietly to Reidun said "that is the end of it now. We will need to wait for several of the students to be attended to before we can properly discuss the battle and what there is to learn. Let us go down and meet them, hm?"

5th of the Great Tree Moon, 1180

Flayn was procrastinating.

She knew that she needed to read Azure Moon, but instead she was wandering the monastery. She rationalised it of course, telling herself that if she stayed in her room all day until she was done that Seteth would catch on to something being wrong.

…but it was still procrastination.

Not that it was much of an issue. From a certain point of view, she did have until the 20th before the events began.

Like the days before, wandering the grounds was a different experience with what she had newly learned. Rather than fascination though, it was all quite saddening. Yesterday, it had been the encounter with Rhea that highlighted the matter best, but today…

"Ah, Flayn. Sorry, I didn't see you there. How can I help?" the new professor asked when Flayn knocked and entered his office. She did not know much about the man. Viktor had joined the faculty last year, arriving from the kingdom after his business struggled to keep up with a new competitor. According to her brother/father, the man had a competence in strategy and tactics that fit well with the three other professors. While Seteth questioned the man's motivations, those suspicions didn't appear to hold any grounds in reality, given that the professor always comported himself in an honourable and friendly manner. Doing so to such a degree that he was usually Classed as a Hero.

She figured that it must have been an act, given that the man was going to run the moment the students were put in any actual danger.

"Brother wished for me to inform you that the knights would be ready shortly, and that you should gather your house," she told him, not letting the thought take hold.

Viktor stood up from his desk, and collected the papers he was looking at together in a pile.

"Ah, thank you Flayn. I seem to have gotten too lost in my work and consequently lost track of time," he joked.

It was rather suspect.

"What is it that could have distracted you so?" she asked.

"I suspect one of the students may have arrived undeservedly, and possibly even have malicious intentions," he lied as easily as he breathed as he slipped on his coat to leave. "I had been intending to look into it during the day's mock battle, but professor Hanneman seemed to have taken an interest in the rumour they started, so I will be overseeing the Black Eagles instead."

Flayn backed out of the office to let the man leave.

"Thank you again for the message, and farewell," the man said as he departed, forgetting to lock the door to his office in his haste.

She should have maybe just let the matter rest, but knowing what she now knew of the man's character… she snuck inside.

It only took a glance at the desk to realise who the man seemed to be focused on.

Reidun.

It was not a name Flayn recognised.

'Could he have gotten her expelled before the story began?'

It would have been befitting such a villain. Though she knew not why he would do such a thing.

'Perhaps…'

If she was going to change the future, a small kindness would be a simple first step.

Next time she saw her brother/father, she'd tell him her suspicions and maybe that would save the student from expulsion without changing too much else.