A/N:

mostly canon-compliant

ideal formatting is on ao3 (link in my profile). i post the new chapters there first.

i would be most grateful for any reviews/thoughts. enjoy! :)

1180

Great Tree Moon

Life, for a long time, was simple.

As a mercenary in her father's company, Byleth fought, subdued, saved, and most of all, killed.

For her father. For coin.

For as long as she could remember, she travelled with Jeralt and his mercenaries far and wide across Fódlan, accepting jobs that he wished to, some he felt compelled to, and some that were unavoidable.

In between jobs, Jeralt whiled the time away either fishing or in taverns, drinking and making connections. As for her, she hunted, fished, read, watched the skies, and observed people and their behaviour. It was surprisingly similar how humans and the weather were to each other—fickle and intense.

For a long time, that was her life.

Except for recurrent nightmares of a war and an unfamiliar green-haired girl, life was simple.

Then she met Lady Edelgard, Princess of the Adrestinian Empire.

And everything changed.

The day Edelgard came into her life was a day just like most days.

It began with a nightmare.

First she was deep in the trenches of a large-scale war—guts spilling out of bowels, blood soaking the ground red, a beautiful woman savagely stabbing her nemesis to death—then she was in a dark cavernous room staring at the green-haired girl, sleeping soundly on a throne. Draped in an elaborate headpiece and deep blue dress with gold ribbons, the girl was no one she knew. No one she had ever seen or read about.

But this time, unlike all the other times before, the girl awoke.

She rubbed her eyes, yawned, and a chilling premonition fell from her lips.

It is almost time to begin.

A hand on her shoulder. "Hey, Byleth. Time to wake up."

Her eyes flew open. She was awake at once, alert and attuned to her surroundings.

Dawn. Remire Village. In her room in the inn. No sounds of danger.

Jeralt sat at her side studying her, the lines in his face furrowed deeply as he frowned. "Were you having that dream again?" he asked. "You seem to have the same dream every time we're in Remire."

Byleth nodded, shifting into a sitting position, and the book that she fell asleep reading—A Compendium of Military Tactics Across the Ages—slid off her bed onto the floor.

"I see," he said, picking it up to place it in her bag. "Let's set that aside for now. We should get moving. The others are—"

He paused at the urgent footsteps pounding along the corridor.

"Jeralt! Sir!" Pablo, a long-serving member of Jeralt's mercenaries, barged into the room, and quickly averted his eyes from her, presumably as she was still in her nightshirt. "Sorry, but your presence is required."

Jeralt glanced at Byleth. "Get dressed."

When she emerged from the inn into the early dawn, the sun not quite beginning its ascent, she found Jeralt speaking to three people. Two men and a woman. They wore similar dark clothing with gold detailing, but each with a different coloured cape over their shoulders. They pointed towards the woods surrounding the village.

"—attacked by bandits while we were resting at camp—"

"—outnumbered—"

"—after our lives and our gold."

"What's happening?" Byleth asked, stepping up to the group.

When they turned to face her, Byleth instantly noted three things.

One, all three looked to be about her age.

Two, they had concealed daggers on their bodies.

And three, the young woman was beautiful. Long and silky silver hair; smooth, unblemished skin; cherry red lips; and a confident, elegant air about her. Her eyes—a bright lilac even in the dim morning light—captured Byleth's, and there was a swoop in her belly, an inexplicable pull in her chest.

"I—" The woman hesitated, the words she was about to say dying in her throat.

Glancing between Byleth and the woman, the dark-haired man scoffed, "Wow! Cat got your tongue, Edelgard?"

"Be quiet, Claude," Edelgard snapped, regaining her composure. She tore her eyes away from Byleth, fringe falling to cover her face. "As I was saying—"

"Help us, please," the blonde man cut in in a deep voice.

"It is unbecoming to interrupt, Dimitri," Edelgard said.

"I was—"

"Bandits outside the village!" A frantic voice cried out and their heads snapped towards the entrance of Remire. Blazing torches illuminated a horde of bandits closing in on the village, their battle-hungry cries shattering the quiet of the morning. Villagers on their morning errands ran to hide inside buildings.

"Damn it! They followed us!" Claude exclaimed.

Jeralt's mercenaries, halfway in their preparations to leave, glanced towards him for direction. Her father looked at the young people, out to the bandits, then seemed to make a decision. "We can't abandon this village. Let's move!"

As the mercenaries picked up their weapons, and Edelgard, Claude, and Dimitri followed them towards the entrance, Jeralt pulled Byleth aside. In a low voice, he said, "These kids are students from the Officer's Academy. By the look of those capes, they're nobility. Protect them. There might be a reward for doing so."

Byleth nodded. Objective understood.

The bandits poured into the village. Jeralt's mercenaries were already in key defensive positions, and the night soon erupted into fervent shouts and the clash of blades. Byleth ran ahead of the students towards the frontline, intending to keep them behind her. But to her surprise, Dimitri and Edelgard advanced by her side, clutching weapons they'd pilfered from somewhere. A lance for Dimitri and an axe for Edelgard.

"Stay behind," she said to Edelgard. Objective aside, she felt a strange and unfamiliar concern for the petite woman.

Edelgard raised a brow. "Are you looking at me and not Dimitri because I'm a woman?"

On her right, Byleth heard Dimitri chuckle.

"No. I'm a woman too," Byleth said. "I do not doubt you can fight. But for your safety"—she glanced at Dimitri too—"stay behind me."

"No. This is our mess. We will clean it up with you," Edelgard replied, turning her blazing gaze towards the next wave of bandits charging towards them.

"She'll be alright," Dimitri said.

"Be quiet, Dimitri," Edelgard shot back.

Before Byleth could demand they retreat, an arrow whistled by her ear to impale the bandit who appeared in front of them in the throat.

"You're welcome!" Claude called from behind.

Then the bandits were upon them, and Edelgard and Dimitri leapt into action.

As she expected from her quick assessment, Dimitri was a highly physical fighter, all body and strength, beating the bandits with pure dominant force into submission. But what she didn't expect, was Edelgard to be equally as physical. She swung her axe with ease and evident years of practice, precise in her strikes and lethal in execution. In no time, dismembered limbs thudded to the ground, leaving behind a writhing mass of screaming bodies.

Byleth couldn't remember the last time she felt so impressed.

So thoroughly impressed, that her eyes were still on Edelgard when a foolish bandit decided to rush Byleth, his knife inches from her ribs.

She saw worry flicker in Edelgard's face, quickly replaced by shock when the assailant crumpled to the ground, bleeding out from deep slices across both thighs. Behind him, his allies stumbled to a halt in equal shock at his sudden death.

Byleth flicked the blood off her sword.

Then, she got to work.

She slipped under guards and glided her blade across skin. She anticipated attacks, blocked the ones she could, and dodged the ones she couldn't. In her periphery, she was always aware of where the students were and whether they were safe. It took mere minutes for her to cut through the rest of the bandits and have the leader lie panting at her feet.

Fighting was a skill sewn deep into her muscles from the moment she could walk.

She held her first blade at three and slew her first man at nine. While children learnt their alphabets and sums, she learnt more ways to kill a man than one would ever think possible. While children ran outside and played with their friends, Byleth ran laps and built muscle to take down people more than three times her size. Reading attacks and recognising battle manoeuvres were as second nature to her as breathing.

And so, no one was more astonished than her, to find herself caught in a rare mistake during battle.

The leader seemingly subdued, she had looked to Edelgard for a split second to check she was unharmed, the inexplicable pull towards her a siren call, and the leader took the opportunity to leap to his feet and go straight for Edelgard. The student's eyes also on Byleth, she was caught off guard—her movements too slow, her dagger drawn too late—and there was nothing but desperate urgency in Byleth's actions, nothing but the need to protect Edelgard, that propelled her to take the blow meant for her.

The axe cleaved her in two.

And time literally stood still.

Flung back into the throne room of her dreams, the green-haired girl was awake and speaking to her. Her name was Sothis, she said, and she was full of admonishment for Byleth's carelessness about her life. According to Sothis, there was no choice but to turn back the hands of time. And before she could ask any questions at the incredulity of the situation, she blinked and was back in her body, taken back to the moment when the bandit leader lay panting at her feet.

She didn't know what was happening, but what she did know was she would never make the same mistake twice.

In this second chance, there was no desperation—she lunged towards Edelgard at the same time the leader did, knowing what he was about to do, in front of Edelgard before he could attack. And in this second chance, he was the one subdued, Edelgard safe and unscathed at her back.

"Thank you," Edelgard said quietly. "For saving my life back there."

"It was no matter," Byleth replied absently, her mind still swirling at all that had just transpired.

After the bandits were repelled, an anxious group of knights in silver armour had showed up looking for the students. Their leader, Alois, seemed to know Jeralt, and after a quick discussion, Jeralt decided that he and Byleth would escort the knights and the students back to Garreg Mach Monastery. He provided no explanation on their change of plans, but adaptability was a trait she'd learnt early, along with trusting Jeralt without question.

And besides, there were much bigger things for her to wonder about.

Like who was Sothis and how could she rewind time?

But also, how could she have made such a fatal mistake when fighting?

"It is a serious matter," Edelgard insisted, in a very serious tone. "The Adrestinian Empire owes you a debt of gratitude for saving their princess and heir apparent."

Byleth glanced at the princess and felt the full weight of her intense gaze. Again, there was that swoop in her belly, that pull in her chest; sensations she was wholly unfamiliar with. She cleared her throat. "Honestly, it matters not. I did not do it for gratitude. I did not know you were a princess."

Edelgard raised both brows. "You put your life on the line for a stranger? Who could be anyone?"

"Of course. All lives are the same, princess or not." But deep down, she felt that disingenuous. This princess was somehow different, different enough to spur her into a rare mistake.

"Hmm." Edelgard frowned thoughtfully. "You did not know of the Knights of Seiros nor that your father used to captain them. You also did not know that we are the heir apparent of our respective countries. Excuse my bluntness, but I'm most curious as to how you appear to lack some fundamental knowledge about Fódlan."

"Oh geez, give her a break," Claude interrupted, pushing his way in between them, making Edelgard stumble to the side. "She just saved your life, and you're chastising her for a lack of political knowledge? Not everyone has to be like us, you know? Byleth, unlike Edelgard, I"—he flashed a winning smile at Byleth—"am a much more appreciative heir. I like that you know little about politics. It'll be great to have an objective advisor to the Leicester Alliance—"

"Chastising her was not my intention!" Edelgard glared at Claude. "I was simply—"

"Being Edelgard," Dimitri chimed in, coming up on Byleth's other side. "The princess is awfully serious, as you can tell. In the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, we prize chivalry above all else. While political knowledge is beneficial, as long as you serve the Kingdom well in any means you hold expertise, such as the skilful way you handled the bandit situation, you would be most appreciated."

"Please! I meant no offence." Edelgard peered around Claude at her with a worried expression. "I truly am most grateful. If I weren't, I would not even consider asking you to lend your services to the Empire."

Byleth couldn't help but be amused at the solemn sincerity that strained the princess's voice. "No offence taken," she said.

Relief flooded Edelgard's face. "Good."

"Psh. What a sales pitch!" Claude scoffed and slung an arm around Byleth's shoulders. "For me, there is no "consideration" in the slightest. I must express to you how invaluable you will be to the Alliance."

"I concur," Dimitri said. "There will be no accidental or intentional offence from me when considering your knowledge or lack thereof."

Edelgard huffed in exasperation and stalked off.

Claude and Dimitri burst into laughter.

A few hours later, Garreg Mach Monastery came into view, a vast collection of buildings sprawled near the top of the mountains. Alois and the Knights continued to lead the party, with the heirs—who had seemed to bicker the entire way back—shielded in the middle, and Byleth and Jeralt protecting their rear.

Staring up at the Monastery, Jeralt sighed. "It's been a long time… I suppose it was inevitable."

"What do you mean?"

Her father met her inquisitive look, but shook his head. "One day," he said. "One day I will explain everything to you."

Used to Jeralt's taciturn nature, she didn't push. She knew he would share what he wanted when he wanted.

As they made their way up to the Monastery, Edelgard glanced over her shoulder back at Byleth. In the bright daylight, the sunshine casting a warm glow on her, Byleth thought once again of how beautiful the princess was. And as though sensing her thoughts, Edelgard smiled. A small one.

She found herself smiling back.

And to her surprise, Edelgard's cheeks pinked, and she turned away, crimson cape fluttering in the wind.

Byleth's smile faded, but an odd warmth lingered in her chest.

Somehow, just like Sothis proclaimed, what happened that day felt like the beginning of something. She was unsure what the days ahead would bring. But whatever it was, she was looking forward to it.

Especially if there would be more of a certain princess.