An: This is an unedited first draft. It's past midnight and I just want to get this out so I can get some sleep. (apologies for any drops in quality)
Prologue - An Inevitable Encounter
20th of the Great Tree Moon, 1180
Oddly enough, Flayn wasn't particularly worried, despite being carried away by a pack of eight bandits.
Based on how she read things were supposed to go, these bandits probably wanted her alive like the Dead Knight did, and odds were that whatever nefarious plot the Agarthans had in mind wouldn't have the chance to come to pass.
Firstly, the bandits needed to escape the knights.
If they did manage to escape the knights, there was a chance of running into Byleth and Jeralt.
If they managed to avoid Byleth and Jeralt here, they would meet them in the Red Canyon.
Even then, Flayn wasn't defenceless. Nosferatu wasn't the most deadly of spells, but with enough skill it could still be quite fearsome. She could likely walk away from any engagement with barely a scratch.
Flayn wasn't defenceless… but that was her only weapon, so the real question was whether she could win before she ran out or not.
'Mayhaps I should focus my own efforts on learning some more methods of doing harm,' she thought. She'd known Seraphim before, but had forsaken it in favour of curing sickness and disease with Restore. 'If I put my mind to it, I could probably even learn Abraxus. Alternatively…'
She thought back to the books. Not the events described within, but the commentary on the side. Byleth potentially had the power to bring out unseen talent. The insight to see through the restrictions and biases that restricted people, and have them become their best selves.
…or alternatively, make anyone capable of anything.
'Why should I restrain myself? Why should I strictly pursue the path of the Bishop?' she realised. Her talents certainly pushed her to be an effective healer, and she knew that it calmed her father's heart to keep her out of danger, but if Flayn wanted to push for a brighter future, she wouldn't- couldn't just sit back. She had to be able to stand on her own two feet. 'I could study black magic and pursue a future as a Gremory; I could take to the skies alongside my father as a Pegasus Knight.; or I could even arm myself and take to the vanguard as a Holy Knight.'
Those were the thoughts in the green haired girl's head when she noticed that her kidnappers were far less calm than she was.
The cause of that?
The orange haired girl who'd caught up to and pummelled the axe-wielding thug who'd fallen the furthest behind since the start of their attempted escape.
Flayn herself couldn't quite manage to get a good look from where she was tied, but she did hear them.
"Flayn! I'm here to rescue you!"
The voice was confident, possibly even jolly. Flayn recognised it. 'Victory lady?'
…though she hadn't quite put a name to the voice yet. Either way, she started to try to wriggle out of the amateur bindings holding her down. It wouldn't' do to not assist her rescuer after all.
As for Reidun? She was doing quite fine.
"Ow!" she exclaimed, as a blade cut into her arm. 'Oh I am absolutely going to destroy you!"
She turned and swung both her arms forward, catching her aggressor in the chest and gut with her iron gauntlets. She'd have followed it up, but the man had managed to recover and bring up his guard again.
"Fire!" the voice only she heard announced, Joseph's palm touched the man's back, the close contact smothering the flames enough to keep them out of sight as they burned through him.
He was also positioned to see the axeman sneaking up behind Reidun as she engaged another swordsman. He didn't need to shout a warning. She simply used his vision to step aside and avoid the blow, before stamping her foot on the grounded axe to lodge it into the ground.
One- two punches, and Reidun had opened up a vulnerability that let her third strike end him.
'I thought you didn't want to be discovered?' Reidun questioned as she worked.
"Flayn can't see from-" Joseph began to explain, but quickly cut himself off and pulled on Reidun's shoulder as forcefully as his spectral limbs allowed. It wasn't much, but it prompted Reidun to move herself, barely avoiding as a blade grazed the side of her neck.
She zeroed in her focus, snapping a jab at the extended elbow, and following it up with an upwards strike into the man's gut.
Rather than try to execute the man, Joseph switched his priorities and wove a Heal to close up the majority of Reidun's wounds.
'Too much, I can't get it all in one cast, but…' he thought, his eyes glancing over to Flayn who now had a much clearer view. "I don't think I can do much more without Flayn noticing. There's just the two with you and the two by Flayn left though. You've got this."
Reidun quickly adjusted her posture, shifting from a punch to a grapple and slamming one of her two immediate threats into the ground, knocking him clean out.
'Yeah. Thanks!' she thought, letting her internalised confident smirk surface, even as she failed to quite pull her leg out of the way of the incoming blade. Rather than flinch, the elbow that she struck back with came even harder.
'Just two left,' she thought.
Then Reidun heard Flayn let out an indignant "Oof!" as the last two dropped her and charged.
The axeman approached first, but Reidun met him halfway, catching the blade of the axe with her shoulder before he could get a proper swing going. She immediately followed up with slam into the man's elbows to get him to let go of the weapon, and then a punch in his throat to finish it.
…but she didn't turn quickly enough to deal with the last swordsman, who's sword bit into her side.
'Ow!' she thought, curling her fist and freezing up in a moment of pain. Then she tensed up, stopping the blade from digging any deeper.
"You bastard-!" Joseph growled, weaving his hands into a spell.
'No, I've got this!' Reidun protested as she swung her next attack through the spectre's hands to disrupt him before the fist impacted the bandits face, only enough to knock him back. 'There's no more cover, Flayn would see everything!'
She twisted her whole body to bring her other gauntlet around to meet the final man's face and… Missed.
'Huh?'
She wasn't supposed to miss. No one else had managed to dodge it step away. These guys were too weak for that.
For a moment she stared down the man who'd lodged his weapon free and stood primed to counter while she was over extended.
"Nosferatu!"
When the blinding flash of light cleared, only Reidun and Flayn still stood, the green haired girl with her now unbound hands still raised.
Then with the immediate danger over Reidun let herself fall down to one knee, cupping the still bleeding around in her side.
"Reidun, you-!" Joseph started angrily, before seemingly calming down with a deep breath. "I value your life more than my secrecy. Please… don't try to stop me again."
The last part came out as a tired plea, and Reidun could only respond with an abashed acceptance as she turned her attention back to the world around her.
"Ah… Flayn, I'm here to rescue you, " she joked, emphasising it with a "I don't suppose you could heal me?"
"Oh, of course!" Flayn answered, running up and stopping before her. It was always a wonder for Reidun to see someone else cast magic. She couldn't feel the buildup and weaving that went into the spell like when Joseph did it. Instead, Flayn waved her hands and it just happened.
The spell was accompanied by a blindingly radiant emerald glow, it spanned out from the girl in a twisting pattern that Reidun managed to identify as the crest of Cethleann, or more specifically, based on the intensity and richness of the glow, the major crest of Cethleann.
Then the spell faded and Reidun's injuries were all gone.
'Joseph… I think she's a stronger healer than you are.' she thought, prompting a scoff from the ghost.
"I would be disappointed if she wasn't, she is a s-" Joseph cut himself off with a cough. "...a very talented individual…"
Reidun's mental self rewarded the ghost's very poor attempt at a deflection with a blank stare while her physical self rose to her feet with a smile.
"Woo, thank you. That crest of yours really adds some kick to that spell, huh?" She noted jovially.
Flayn frowned, "how did you-?"
"Reidun. Incoming," Joseph warned, and the Reidun immediately raised her guard and turned to face the direction she'd come from…
…but rather than bandits, the two that broke through the tree line wore the uniforms of the academy. Two that Reidun recognised as Ingrid and Sylvain, both armed and ready with each their own lance.
Ingrid's eyes scanned the field, before locking onto Reidun and Flayn.
"Reidun, you're all right," she pointed out, "what a relief."
"Ingrid, Sylvain, what are you two doing here?" Reidun asked casually, lowering her guard and relaxing her posture.
"Whatever you may think of me, for now you're a part of my cohort, I am responsible for you," Ingrid said. "I came running the moment I got the word."
"You should have seen it. That girl, Isabella, was practically in tears when she figured out she'd sent you off on your own," Sylvain pointed out, characteristically paying no mind to the 'break up' that happened earlier, before putting his hands together and raising his pitch to a falsetto, "'Please, she's all on her own.'"
Sylvain lowered his hands and stopped his imitation, lounging back.
"Beautiful girl runs up to me asking for help, how can I refuse?"
Ingrid promptly elbowed him lightly in the chest. "You just happened to be there and decided to tag along."
She turned back to Reidun and Flayn.
"It seems like you didn't need the help, but we saw the bandits closing in behind us. What's the plan?"
"If the ruffians have the students surrounded, perhaps it would be better for us to move away from the danger instead?" Flayn suggested, before pointing ahead through the mountainous passage ahead of them. "I believe that if we continue this way we can make it to Remire village."
'So Seteth sent her here to influence Byleth,' Joseph concluded, giving Reidun a slight nudge to accept with a little lie. "You should probably listen to her. I won't tell you why, but she is probably a decent commander."
"Good idea," Reidun agreed, accepting Joseph's minor spoiler gleefully. "While we're at it, we might encounter more bandits on the way. As the healer you'll probably have the greatest oversight, so why don't you take command?"
"Me?" Flayn exclaimed in surprise.
"A sound idea," Ingrid agreed. "Lacking an explicit commander definitely hampered us when we had our practice match against Dimitri."
"Oof, don't remind me," Sylvain winced, then he twirled his spear with a flourish. "Give us the word chief."
"R-right!" Flayn answered, quickly coming to grips with the situation and continuing with more confidence. "You three shall form a vanguard. I will follow behind you…"
Flayn was quite certain that she'd lost track of the plot.
As it turned out, her actions had consequences.
As far as Flayn had understood the series of events… Flayn's mystery rescuer and the student who'd shouted victory in the early mornings the first couple of weeks were Reidun, the girl that Flayn had prevented from being expelled. Stopping Reidun from being expelled put her on the field trip, such that when Flayn herself was kidnapped, Reidun went to the rescue. Ingrid and Sylvain followed after Reidun, and… somehow… that led to Flayn being temporarily appointed as a commander.
It was admittedly not that much of a diversion, but it was unexpected.
Would her actions here likewise have unexpected consequences?
'Perhaps our actions will divert the thieves away from the Red Canyon,' she thought, just one of many possibilities.
'All in all, a valuable lesson to learn,' she had concluded, before focusing on the present once more. Though she did allow herself an amused thought, 'there are not many alive today that can claim to have fought under Saint Cethleann.'
The four of them were approaching the highest point of the mountain pass, when they spotted their first enemy.
A lone bandit.
'Excellent!' she thought.
"Sylvain, take the lead and hit him as hard as you can. Ingrid, please stay close." Flayn ordered, following close behind Sylvain, ready to cast a spell if needed.
She'd gotten a good grasp of Reidun's abilities from the earlier skirmish and saw that the girl's gauntlet's were quite exhausted by the end.
'She must have gotten particularly lucky to make it as far as she did with so few injuries…'
Flayn had to reinforce her order with a calming gesture to Reidun to stay back.
'Let us see what the two of you can do.'
Sylvain certainly didn't disappoint, striking right through the lone figures hastily raised guard and cutting him down with a single tempest lance.
"Ingrid, keep going. I believe there is another group ahead," Flayn commanded, moving to support her. "Let us lure them out."
"On it," Ingrid answered, taking the lead towards the next turn.
Like Flayn predicted, a flock of enemies poured out from where they were hiding throughout the sparse treeline.
The blonde managed to hold her own well against the first two enemies who reached her, even guarding Flayn as she did so.
Ingrid could have maybe handled another, but Flayn wasn't taking any chances. Sylvain and Reidun smashed into the side of the attacking force, taking out one each with combat art and gauntlets, then Flayn herself blasted one of the two -now injured- bandits who'd led the charge, letting Ingrid finish off the other.
That left one, who made a final desperate attempt at Ingrid. A parry, riposte, and tempest lance saw an end to that.
That left just the students and Flayn alone once again.
"Good job, everyone, let's-" Reidun began.
"Reidun, mood," Joseph stated curtly, unheard by anyone else.
A sombre air hung over the group, rising like air from the corpses at the feet of the two other students.
Reidun interrupted herself with a cough and adjusted her expression appropriately. "Sorry, if you two need a moment…"
"No, you're right," Ingrid denied, taking a hold of the distraction and shaking herself off. "We should keep going."
"We shall at least be taking the time to mend your wounds first. You took quite the beating there," Flayn said, sitting Ingrid down. "...and remember: it is only natural that this troubles you."
Flayn's hands came aglow with magic, and Ingrid relaxed at the words.
The light faded and Flayn pulled her hand back. "Unfortunately, there will be more to come before we are done. Are you ready to continue?"
Ingrid stood back up, and braced herself.
"Yes."
Reidun took the lead moving forward, with Flayn right at her back and the nobles behind them.
"If what we're feeling is normal, what does that say about her?" Sylvain said with quiet curiosity.
Ingrid shot him a harsh look. "Sylvain, really?"
"Are you telling me you haven't noticed?" he countered.
Ingrid hesitated, glancing forward to the subject of their conversation, Reidun, who had gone right back to the inoffensive smile that she always seemed to wear.
She shook off the doubt, instead asking, "what are you getting at?"
"Nothing, nothing at all." Sylvain lounged back, waving off the unspoken accusation, and turned his gaze the same way. "I just can't seem to figure her out, is all."
Suddenly, Reidun stopped, right at the edge of the tree line.
Flayn quickly stepped up alongside her, spotting three bandits who were standing a ways ahead, walling off the pass.
"Hm, we that should be no issue," Flayn surmised.
Reidun shook her head and pointed along the cliff edge where the tree line continued.
"Two more, waiting in ambush."
'Really?' Ingrid thought, straining to see what Reidun saw. 'I can't see anything.'
"Do you see how they're armed?" Flayn asked.
"Swords, both of them. Classless like the rest," Reidun answered.
'Faster than all of us, save Reidun with her gauntlets, but she's faster than the axemen,' Flayn surmised. 'Sylvain and Ingrid are quite similar in ability, but Sylvain pushes himself harder when he's close enough to myself or Ingrid to show off.'
It was perhaps to be expected of a Philanderer such as him.
'Odd that he doesn't seem to care to show off for Reidun,' Flayn mused offhandedly, before she continued. "Very well, I believe I have a plan."
…
Reidun burst forth in a full sprint towards the three axemen.
The pair of swordsmen tried to perform a pincer against her from behind, but instead came face to face with Sylvain, backed up by Ingrid.
While he blocked their paired attacks, the first axemen met Reidun halfway, his axe elliting a high pitched whine of a screech as it scraped against her iron gauntlets. Those same fists were already in motion when the sound began to echo.
As Reidun finished her fourth rapid blow, Sylvain, twisted his lance, knocked the weapons locked with it way off course.
As Ingrid stepped around to Join Sylvain's counterattack, the second and third axemen struck, achieving only shallow wounds against the smiling student, but she hadn't been idle. Her twin fists knocking the air from each of them, before coming up and crashing down like a meteor.
"You're wide open!" she shouted, just as Sylvain's and Ingrid's lances finished off each of their opponents as well.
Another wave dealt with.
Flayn moved to heal Sylvain first, almost being distracted by the loud shattering sound of Reidun's gauntlets breaking apart.
Ingrid saw Reidun stare at the pieces, and where she saw an unchanging expression…
'Joseph, they broke!' Reidun anguished.
…to the ghost, the girl may as well have been sobbing.
"It's fine, we can get you a new pair, we have the money left over after all," he reassured.
'It won't be the same! They were awesome, I even saved a damsel in distress with them!' she lamented, mourning the loss of her new weapon far more than she had any life Josephp could remember.
"Then we can get them repaired. Just remember to bring the pieces," the ghost compromised.
'You promise?' the girl thought hopefully.
"Reidun… I'm a ghost. I couldn't stop you from spending your money if I wanted to," he remarked blandly.
'Oh… right,' she realised, then noticed Ingrid staring. "Sorry, I'm still not completely used to how quickly weapons break. Today's the first time I used these."
"I don't recall you owning gauntlets," Ingrid remarked conversationally, while Flayn finished up healing Sylvain.
"I didn't, I picked these up while I was out last weekend," Reidun explained.
'Really?' Ingrid sighed in frustration, letting it taint her tone, "if you needed equipment, you could have just asked."
Reidun adopted a sheepish expression.
"Everyone was telling me that you didn't want me around," she explained.
'Excuse me?' Ingrid thought in surprise, but before she could voice her thoughts Reidun's expression lightened up again.
"That reminds me. I don't hate you. Isabella lied," she stated simply, before shifting her attention entirely away from the topic. "Well, we better get going-"
"Hold it!" Flayn commanded, approaching the duo accompanied by Sylvain. "Let me heal you as well."
Ingrid eyed the boy suspiciously as Flayn got to work again.
'Did it really take that long to heal?'
Unlike with Sylvain, all it took was a couple of quick casts and Reidun was back to practically full strength.
Ingrid sighed again, realising that he'd probably stalled so that she could have her talk with Reidun…
'...or just to flirt with Flayn.'
She and her problem causing subordinate hadn't even touched on the actual conflict between them, but this had been a decent first step. For one, she had just learned that she needed to have a very pointed talk with her cohort.
'There will be time to talk about Duscur later.'
They encountered one final group as they reached the other end of the pass.
It was quite frankly, not an impressive battle, even if one of the three bandits was some sort of lieutenant.
"We should almost be able to see the village from here," Flayn pointed out. Having made herself quite familiar with the area before the trip.
"Great, let's just hope that's not where their hideout is," Sylvain groaned. "Weren't we supposed to be meeting less of them going this way?"
Ingrid shrugged, pulling her spear out from the last bandit to go down a bit away from the rest of the group. "Perhaps, we've simply been unlucky."
Reidun regarded her cohort leader with a look, just in time to see the shadow step out and appear behind her.
Panic. Genuine Panic.
"Look out!"
Ingrid spun quickly, but the silhouette's sword was quicker. The flat side of the steel blade smacked into the girl's temple, knocking her out immediately. Blood pooled and began to tear down her face, having reached her chin by the time she hit the ground.
Two lances and a nosferatu shot up into position, but the figure just casually stepped into the light, not at all intimidated.
A short dirtied white cape covered his shoulders and some of the ruffled finery beneath. His glistening black boots were covered in mud. Most recognisable of all was his face, one that everyone present recognised.
Flayn's eyes widened in shock.
"Professor Viktor?!" she exclaimed. She'd known he was villainous, but this…
"Now, now…" the man started, his voice thickly laden with condescension. "...I can get away with a reputation for cowardice and disgrace, but killing one of the Kingdom's precious crest-bearing nobles would place far too large of a target on my head, but…"
The man's sword swayed down, hovering right over Ingrid's neck.
"...too much of a shock and my hand might slip," he finished. Then his gaze drifted over to Flayn. "You may approach. I believe I may have hit her a bit too hard. Fresh students tend to be so fragile."
Sylvain's grip tightened and the shaft in his grip creaked under the force as he motioned to step forward.
"You touch her again, and I'll—"
A drop of blood from where the steel blade touched Ingrid's neck stopped him in his tracks.
"Need I remind you, rather touchy at the moment, it's been a frightful evening after all." he threatened. "I do still have the option to simply kill you all and leave no witnesses."
The man's voice went serious and a frown took over his features.
"Don't tempt me."
A contemptuous and tense silence hung in the air.
"Alright, please… let me approach," Flayn relented.
Viktor smiled maliciously.
"By all means."
He stepped aside to let her approach, pulling up the blade to inspect it dismissively as he did so.
Flayn took a hesitant step closer, but it was enough for her to get a better look at the downed girl, and burst into a run.
'She's fading!' Flayn realised, quickly kneeling down and channelling a heal spell. She could still save her, but it would take time and focus. '...exactly what he was aiming for.'
Viktor spared the grounded duo a contemptuous glance, before taking another step forward and addressing the two remaining students.
"You know, I had initially simply planned to do this myself, but a threatening letter and a specific set of instructions threw my plans out quite thoroughly," the man droned on. "I would have thought that the thugs would have been good for something at least, but nay. It seems in addition to losing my position at the academy, I will still have to do this myself."
Sylvain's eyes narrowed.
"And what is 'that', exactly?"
Viktor scoffed.
"Oh please, it has nothing to do with you," the man dismissed with a wave of his hand. "In fact, I'd appreciate it if you simply stepped aside and let this happen."
He focused on the boy with a twinkle in his eye.
"I'm quite sure this girl means nothing to you. No harm needs to come to you, the church girl, nor your friend."
Sylvain faltered, and the twinkle in Viktor's eye intensified.
"Pardon me, but do I know you?" Reidun finally interjected, the inoffensive smile back on her face after her moment of panic.
The professor's face broke into a snarl.
"You really don't recognise me!?" he snarled, stepping passed the hesitating boy towards the lone commoner. "You ruined me! Robbed me from under my nose and used the money to fund the competitor that ran my house into the dirt!"
'Robbed?' Reidun pondered. 'I haven't robbed many people…'
Unbidden, an image came up to the forefront of her mind. Castle guards, restraints, the dungeon.
The Noble who'd who'd ordered it all.
"You have no noble backing; no guild connection; no reputation; and no strength of arms to deny me."
The voice, the face.
The same man who stood before her at this very moment.
"...I had to sell my title, shame my family name, and even then… all I could get was this stupid position as a professor!" he kept ranting as he approached.
'Joseph, plan?' she asked.
"Draw him away," Joseph shot back quickly. "Aggravate him, get him focused on you. Once they're gone, I'll Warp you to safety."
'Got it, piss him off then,' Reidun thought, and immediately put the plan into action with a scoff as she slowly stepped backwards. "Wow, you're that Viktor?"
Then she made a show of rolling her eyes.
"I'm going to have to disagree, sir, because you're entirely wrong…" she continued, adopting a viscous smirk. "To be a competitor, there has to be competition, and quite frankly, your house didn't make the cut."
The words seemed to strike the man, less for their meaning and more for the frank audacity of it.
"You, imbecilic commoner-!"
"As for robbing you? That's rich coming from the man who threw a thirteen year old into a dungeon so she couldn't stop you from taking everything she owned." Reidun interrupted with a mocking disappointment. "You know what the worst part is? I didn't even keep the gold."
"You what?!"
Reidun shrugged, slowly gaining more and more distance from the very bewildered looking Sylvain.
"Once I found out you gained most of it from extorting your own people, I gave it back," she admitted, before letting out a short laugh. "Most of them used it to pack up and travel to other lands. So really, you basically did that to yourself."
Viktor's face had gone red and his eyes bloodshot.
'Now for the cherry on top…' Reidun thought, before smirking once more and looking down her nose at the professor. "With the full backing of a noble house, you lost an economic war against me and the pocket change my commoner parents left me. Congratulations, I believe you've discovered a new low for incompe-"
"Aaargh!"
The flash of steel would have been too fast for her if she hadn't seen it coming. Even so, the steel sword tore through her raised defence, leaving a very visible and deep cut across her chest and upper shoulder.
She hastily tried to bring the point of her spear back between them, barely managing to scratch the man's sleeve as she did so.
Flayn and Ingrid were still within sight.
Sylvain was staring as well. Uncertain. Conflicted.
'Urgh, come on. You need to-' Reidun thought, before mouthing the last word of that sentence to him as they made eye contact. '-go!'
"Heal!" Joseph cast, and Reidun's wound began to close.
…but not entirely.
Joseph quickly floundered and tried to ready another spell, but Viktor was faster, worse yet, the blood seemed to have sated the man's burning rage and brought it back to a controlled simmer.
"I've dreamed of this," he relished as he swung again, casually pushing aside the weapon raised to block and painting a ragged crimson stripe across the girl's shoulder and chin. "...but I didn't take you for a bishop. How wonderful of you to heal yourself so I can savour this moment!"
"Heal!" Joseph cast again with panic, not yet done with the wounds from the last attack, the spell only managed to reduce the stripe to a thin line. "They're not leaving! Reidun, say something."
"Sylvain!" Reidun shouted, thinking quickly. "You were right! I used you! For your humour, your skill, and your good company. Our entire relationship was fake. So, by the goddess…"
She desperately swung her weapon, buying herself a moment and almost managing to almost direct a stab at Viktors gut…
"...take the girl you actually care about and go!"
…then Viktor parried the attack, and rewarded the effort with a swift riposte into her gut.
"Argh!" she exclaimed.
The man's excitement had died down, and all that remained was a cruel indifference as he pulled his sword out.
"Eyes on me, girl. I want you to look me in the eye as I take your life," he demanded as he raised his weapon. "There is no one here who will save you."
"How the hell…"
Rapid steps, the swinging of lance through the air, the emerald glow of a crest.
"...do you expect me to stand aside when I hear something like that!"
Sylvain's Tempest Lance impacted the unguarded man's rib, not managing to pierce, but bludgeoning with enough force to knock the man back and see a handful of blood spit from his mouth.
"You stupid- idiotic- second son!" Viktor roared. He swung his weapon with no finesse, simply bashing it against the lance that Sylvain had raised as a shield and knocked the boy off his feet.
In a swift motion, he pulled back and readied to strike again.
Everyone could see that the attack would hit before Sylvain regained his footing.
…but it was not one, but two lances that blocked his way.
"You absolute idiot!" Reidun chastised with a massive smile, side by side with the boy, and while Sylvain was off balance… she was not.
She adjusted her stance, smoothly transitioning to the starting position for a tempest lance.
The three strikes earlier had been enough for her.
She had gotten a proper measure of Viktor's strength.
'I can take him out. Right here, right now!'
"Reidun, watch out, he's a Hero!" Flayn suddenly warned, but Reidun didn't understand the warning, and her weapon was already in swing.
By all the natural laws, she had been right.
By the world as she understood it, she had victory in her grasp.
By the world she envisioned, her strike should have landed before Viktor could strike back.
…but instead, Viktor's blade flashed through the air with a supernatural swiftness and time seemed to freeze with the tip a hair's breadth away from Reidun's throat.
It is known that when a Hero is pushed into a corner, that they can always pull off a victory. What some would call a miracle.
Joseph knew this ability by a different name.
Vantage.
…and where Reidun had been ignorant, he had been prepared.
"Warp!"
The blade passed through empty air and a purple flash from behind him was the only warning Viktor got before Reidun's combat art struck his chest where Sylvain had weakened him and cut him in two.
There was a moment of silence as the professor's body fell to the ground in two parts.
Then Reidun laughed.
"Haha, that was close," her eyes twinkled with the rushing adrenaline pumping through her veins. The near manic excitement in her eyes was a complete contrast to the casual words she spoke next, "So… Remire Village?"
An: That basically concludes the prologue, hopefully lining up with the prologue of the game. I went into this wanting to write this fic in Third-person Ominsscient, but ended up instead writing in Third-Person limited... which I feel was a bit messy when the two main perspectives I was using overlapped. Oops.
On a side note, minor mistake I noticed in this and the last chapter: the brave effect on gauntlets only applies on attack. I'll have to remember that moving forward.
As a final note, since it's not likely to come up in the fic itself: Viktor is not the original professor. Reidun's existence/actions led him to take their place.
To eseer (Aug 24, 2024): Unfortunately not. Nosferatu only has 12 uses for a Priest, Flayn's starting class. At her starting stats, the spell has 16 Atk and 2 AS. In contrast the maddening bandits have 2 Rsl and 19 HP. Sure, she'd barely be taking any damage, but she'd need 2 casts per bandit and would run out by the 6th one!
To Royalrain20xx (Aug 24, 2024): In Sylvain's defence, Reidun was basically guiding a fleet of airplanes to land with all the false red flags she was raising, whether or not that excuses his persepctive/actions? Eh, author is dead, I won't state my opinion! And yeah, Reidun has learned all the wrong lessons XD ("Hm, Joseph is going to hold back unless I'm in danger, so obviously I just need to get into bigger danger!")
To moistrabbit6 (Aug 26, 2024): I'm glad you're enjoying it! Though I won't make any guarantees about this not being a mid fic in the long run. Until then at least, enjoy!
To Uemei (Aug 27, 2024): I don't personally think redundancy is a particularly bad thing, in truth. Especially since I've (unintentionally) accidentally made Reidun somewhat of a mirror/alternate of Byleth (aka, bootleg Shez). Even then, I think Reidun and Byleth have somewhat opposite problems. Byleth struggles to express themself, but (if their suppports are any indication) they seem to be good at reading people. On the other hand, Reidun can feel quite healthily and decently express themselves, but struggles with reading others.
I'm glad you think so, I'm trying my best to adapt things to represent not just the plot of the game, but the game itself as well.
I don't plan to flame out anytime soon, but ass you've probably noticed, updates aren't exactly fast. (Sorry!)
I'm going to have to hold my silence on the ghosts though.
I'm glad you're enjoying this!