Fire emblem fates - TheGamer21 - Fire Emblem: If (2024)

Chapter 1: Ties That Bind

Chapter Text

Chapter 1

Corrin was always a kind soul to the point of being naïve, but that is what happens when you are sheltered in a castle for most of your life. All she could do is read books on tactics and other war based books, train with Xander, play chess with her siblings, and talk to her siblings not having a single friend outside the of this damn tower. At least she thinks she doesn’t, but every time she thinks about it she would get a headache, as if something was keeping her from remembering her past. Almost every night she would dream about the outside world playing with her siblings, eating all kinds of food from across the world, fighting side by side with her family. But one night this one dream was different then the rest, instead she was completely shrouded within darkness unsure what was going on. Suddenly she heard a faint angelic voice singing a song.

Looking around, she saw a bright light blinding her at first. When her vision clears up she see an image of a woman with orange eyes, blue hair, in traditional songstress uniform walking on a boardwalk towards the lake in front her singing, “You are the ocean's gray waves, destined to seek ♪ Life beyond the shore, just out of reach.” the woman then dives into the water. Then the strangest thing is that she could still sing underwater as if breathing underwater. The woman continued to sing, “Yet the waters ever change, flowing like time ♪ The path is yours to climb.” The woman dives past all of the building and islands underwater, and vanishes into a portal.

The portals scene then changes to a battlefield, where Xander leading Nohrian troops in battle. Next thing she knows the scene shifts to a man wearing red and gold samurai armor running in to fight on the battlefield, felling a soldier along the way with a glowing blue electric katana, before jumping on even more soldiers' heads and cutting down several more in one swing. The swordmaster then looked her brother in the eye and said, “Nohrian general! You face the high prince of Hoshido, Ryoma! I challenge you to single combat!” Corrin mouth flew open with shock when she heard who he was, but the shock turned to fear realizing what was about to happen. She shook her head trying to concentrate on how this fight would play out, ‘Judging from that display he put on shows he is not to be taken light. Prince Ryoma was fast, agile, and precise with his strikes; so he would be hard to hit. However Xander is pretty bulky so even if he’s hit he would just shrug it off and he’s go his Siegfried so he has an advantage from a distance. In conclusion this would be a battle of endurance where Xander would win.’ She thought.

Xander states back at him with respect saying, “I will accept your challenge, ‘high prince’. But I'm no general. I am crown prince Xander of Nohr!” Xander and Ryoma charge at each other. After that, both are about to attack with their swords. Suddenly the screen goes white and starts to glow with pure light. When she reaches for it begins to suck her into the screen. She then starts to scream as she enters the image of war only to be silenced by her mouth disappearing.

Suddenly her eyes burst open to find out that she is in the middle of a battlefield wielding a bronze sword. She saw samurai and ninja being cut down by berserkers and sorcerers alike. But in the air she saw the Kinshi Knights shooting down the wyvern riders. Corrin was starting to feel overwhelmed by everything in this battle, the smell of blood in the air, the sound of metal against metal, the sight of a person dying in front of her. This is what her brother was preparing for, this what she trained for this was war and she was trembling at the sight of it. Then she felt a hand clasp her shoulder pulling her out of the way. When she looked back she saw a dead man on the ground in front of her with arrows sticking out of him.

Suddenly a red haired Sky Knight and a gray haired archer were by her side, with a pink haired shrine maiden behind her. Unsure what was happening she just continued to stare blankly until the Sky Knight smacks her on the back and says, “come on, Corrin! We've got work to do.” Snapping her out of it. Then a fighter comes out of nowhere hitting her with his axe, Corrin grips her sword and attacks him missing the counter completely. Then the fighter begins to attempt to attack again only for the Sky Knight to guard Corrin for the fighter's other attack. She then asked Corrin concerned, “Corrin, what's the matter with you? You seem distracted... If you're worried, don't be. All your siblings are here with you. The Nohrians don't stand a chance!”

Corrin was confused on what that would mean and was about ask to explain when she felt herself remembering things she never knew existed, the names of these strangers Hinoka the sky Knight, Takumi the archer, and Sakura the healer: the Hoshidan royal family. Hinoka then ask Corrin, “Ready to attack?”

Corrin then says, “I’m ready." And then charges him attacking with her sword doing a front flip slicing his chest slightly open but it only seemed to make him mad so he grips his axe and starts attacking with more fury than before. Corrin only barley managed to dodge almost all his attacks when she lost her balance and got an axe to the shoulder. Corrin cried out in pain but held on to the axe to keep the fighter close so she could head but him allowing him to be unarmed. She grabbed her blade in her other hand and did an upward slash to the fighter killing him.

As soon as she finished the fight she something strange happened, almost as if she were split in two, her spirit separated from her body she was taken to see how the enemy was moving even though her body was in a different place. Her sprit was taken to the fight between Ryoma and Xander. The weirdest part was she able to see things; like how much damage they were going to do to each other, how often they would hit or miss the attack, and how much of a chance it would be to get a critical hit on the opponent. Watching her brothers fight she saw that Ryoma was breathing hard showing how exhausted he was getting but he didn’t let it show and said, “I demand to know why you Nohrian dogs are invading Hoshido! Was that cowardly attack on my people your doing as well, princeling?” Xander looked almost confused as to what he was talking about but simply replied, “ ...I have nothing to say to you. Surrender now. If you refuse...you die here.” Xander road towards him with his sword in hand attacking him delivering a powerful blow to Ryoma almost killing him luckily for Xander it looks like he wouldn’t do much but then his sword and body begins to glow a faint cyan color. Somehow she saw a symbol appear above his head and knew what was happening, he was activating his skill Astra. He then said, “For the glory of Hoshido...!” and then with blinding speed he did 5 consecutive strikes on Xander makings Jim just as weakened as Ryoma.

Transferring her spirit to the other side of the field she spots Camilla, Leo, and Elise trying help Xander but come across a bridge broken in two. Elise is the first to notice it and says, “Oh, no! The bridge collapsed! How can we help our sister now?” Camilla then decides to reassure Elise by saying, “Not to worry, Elise. This royal blood in our veins is still good for something” Leo managed feel something tugging in his stomach and asked, “Have you spotted a Dragon Vein, Camilla?” Camilla then just smiles and replies, “You know me too well, dear little brother!” Camilla flies over to the Dragon Vein and uses it to dry the river. Elise then cheers, “Yaaay, it worked! The river dried up!” Camilla then says, “I would never let you down, darling. Now, everyone follow me.” Leo had to block Elise’s path before she ran forward and said, “Elise, you're not ready for the front lines. Stay back. Camilla, and I will take care of the Hoshidans.” Camilla and Leo then cautiously move closer to the Hoshidan forces, while Elise stays behind to heal from afar.

Corrin’s spirit was transferred over to Hinoka seeing the shock on her face at what happened to the river. Hinoka then said, “The Nohrian army used a Dragon Vein to dry up the river! But I thought only royals held that power...” Takumi tried to keep a level head but ultimately failed at it badly. He was more anxious to take them on then said, “Yeah, which means there must be some real big shots over there. Suit me just fine. I've always wanted to use a Nohrian royal for target practice!” Hinoka then talked to Corrin saying, “Stay focused, Corrin. The Nohrians brought their heavy hitters this time.”

Corrin then sees a man with an orange beard enters from the left with reinforcements. He then speaks up so all his soldiers can hear him, “Listen up, cannon fodder! We have a direct order from King Garon. He says kill ‘em all!”

Hinoka then see the a small group of people enter trying to kill us all so she say, “Dammit, their reinforcements had arrived! I'll go scout out how many there are. Takumi, Sakura, Stay with Corrin!” Takumi didn’t want his sister to get hurt but he knew she could handle herself pretty well with her lance so he nodded as if to say ‘Understood.’ Sakura then agreed with her sister saying, “Y-yes. Good idea.” Hinoka moves then hops on to her Pegasus and flies to meet the army halfway. Takumi then says, “Hang in there, Corrin. The Nohrian royals are not pushovers... We'll have to work together to beat them. As the eldest, I guess you're in charge. Tell me what to do and I'll do it.” Takumi moves right next to Corrin to keep Sakura safe. Sakura looked at the princess bleeding from her shoulder and torso, and asked, “are you hurt, Corrin!? Here, let me heal your wounds!” Sakura uses her bloom festal to heal Corrin’s wounds. Corrin started to get the feeling back into her arm again as the wound closed up and the blood dried.

Corrin turns around to see her Yukimura entering the fight with reinforcements to drive them back. Yukimura hops off his mechanical creation and gives the order, “Comrades! Do not let them cross this line. We must defend Hoshido.”

Suddenly her spirit was then transferred back into her body and just when she got back an enemy Lancer appears right in front of her about to strike, but she jumps back to gain some distance. Sakura being not able to defend herself gets scared and says, “Oh n-no! An enemy!” Takumi readies his bow saying, “It's an ambush! Sakura, stay back. You aren't equipped to fight.”

Hinoka then saw what was going on so she called out to say, “Takumi! Corrin! I'm counting on you two. Work together to defeat that solider!” Takumi didn’t always trust so easily, especially when it came to Nohrians, but his sisters life was on the line so he swallowed his hatred and proposed, “Listen, here's how we're going to do this! With my bow, I can shoot this one from here. I'll soften him up, and then you can jump in and finish him off. Got it?” Corrin looked at him unsure whether or not to trust him but something in her heart is telling her that she can trust him, so Corrin nodded in agreement with him. Sakura said from behind her brother, “Be careful, Corrin!” Corrin just smiles at her reassuringly. The Lancer attacked Corrin by thrusting forward but she used her sword to deflect the attack to the left throwing him off balance. When he regained his footing he began to turn around only to get hit with an arrow made of light in the gut. Using this opportunity Corrin decides to end his suffering by cutting him down.

After Battle Hinoka flew back to meet with her family. She then said, “Corrin, Takumi, good work fighting off that ambush.” The two warriors were thanked her for the complement. Sakura then said, “You were amazing, Corrin.” Corrin said, “oh it was nothing, it was a team effort” Then Takumi decides to walk up to her arms crossed saying, “That went well. Probably because SOMEONE gave you good advice. ...And you're welcome, by the way.” Hinoka saw that Corrin’s ego was about to grow faster, “No time to talk! Let's see how Ryoma's doing.”

The four royals ran all the way across the bridge to meet with the high prince still alive. When the met with each other Ryoma was on one knee breathing heavily trying to get up using his katana. Xander was in a similar state as Ryoma, his sword arm was barely raised. Hinoka then asked concerned, “Ryoma, are you alright?” Ryoma replied, “I'll be fine. I'm glad to see you're all safe. Enemy reinforcements are headed this way. I want you to get rid of them. Corrin, I'm counting on you to keep Hinoka and the others safe.” Royals charged forward with Corrin leading them only to stop halfway to meet Xander. Xander smiled at the sight, happy to be reunited with his sister saying, “Corrin! Thank heavens we found you, and that you're alive and well. Quickly, come join us! Your family has come to take you home where you belong.” Before she could speak Ryoma stepped in front of her and said, “Quiet, Nohrian filth! Corrin is my sister and a princess of Hoshido!” Upon hearing this a wave of emotions began to flow through her; confusion, denial, sadness, etc. It was as if someone had just shattered her whole world. Xander’s voice was what broke her out of her own head, “On the contrary, Corrin is MY sister and a princess of Nohr!”

Camilla, Leo, and Elise then meet up at Xander's side as a family. Camilla then said, “Corrin! I was so worried about you. Don't ever wonder away from me again!” Leo smiled saying, “I'm glad you're OK, Corrin. You must have the devil's own luck!” Elise jumped for joy cheering, “Yaaay! We got our sister back!”

Hinoka not able to hold back anymore shouted, “Nohrian scum! First you kidnap her, now you lied to her?! Corrin is MY sister, not yours!” Camilla focused her attention to Sky Knight with a look she knew all to well, jealously. Camilla then laughed, “You are mistaken. Corrin is my sweet little sister. You may not have her.” Ryoma made sure that Corrin was looking at him before he said, “Don't be fool by their words. You belong with your true family in Hoshido!” Xander then said, “We have loved you and raised you since you were a child. Come home, little princess. We can live as a family once more!” Ryoma then turned towards his siblings nodded to his family to give him some space. Ryoma’s side then began to get engulfed in a bright light as he said, “Come home to Hoshido, Corrin!” Xander’s side on the other hand was shrouded in darkness as he replied, Corrin! Nohr is your home!

The two sides began to argue about who Corrin belongs with. Corrin tried to speak up but when she did her voice didn’t seem to work at all. She tried again but still couldn’t hear her own voice, instead the voices around her were starting to get louder and louder. She tried everything to get her voice to work yelling, screaming, even pain but all it did was make it worse. The argument got so loud that she had to cover her ear but could still hear it. Looking up she saw inside the light and dark she can see the royals readying their weapons at each other. Corrin tries to run in between the royals but hear body wouldn’t move. She didn’t know why she cared about the Hoshidan royals like family but she did and didn’t want to see them in pain. The royals then charged forward to attack, Corrin channeled all of her fear and anger, closed her eyes, and let out a blood curdling roar. The roar blew the entire illusion away leaving her all alone in an empty void. As she opened her eyes she saw there was nothing left.

Suddenly a faint voice was heard in the distance, using her pointy ears she focused on the sound to pinpoint their location. What they were saying was, “hey you over there. Yes, you in the Cape, if you want to save your siblings and the world you have to come to me.” Upon hearing this, her first instinct is to run towards the unknown voice find out what it meant but, she didn’t know if it was a trap or not. So she drew her weapon and charged forward to meet with the disembodied voice.

After running for what felt like hours she found a bubble the size of a house. She cautiously entered the bubble bracing for whatever is on the other side. When she enters she is in a small bedroom with access to a bathroom. There was a queen sized bed on the right-side of the room with a dresser and a stool at the end of it. In the bottom left-hand corner of the room there is a round table with two chairs on each side. She then heard a loud flush coming from the other door in the top left-hand corner next to the front door. When it opened the mysterious voice spoke, “ took you long enough to get here.” As the voice spoke someone began to emerge from the bathroom with a hand towel. When the person fully revealed themselves she stared in disbelief as the person in question was herself. The clone just stood there unfazed saying, “I was starting to believe you wouldn’t make it.”

Corrin was starting to get mad about this entire thing. Being left confused about everything that has been happening was not going to be okay with her, so she clenched her fist around her sword and raised the blade towards her and asked, “who are you, why do you look like me, what did you mean by save the world?” The Corrin copycat didn’t even look fazed by the sword in her face, she just looks amused. Corrin 2.0 laughed at her attempt to be threatening and replied, “don’t worry about that you’ll have plenty of time before I tell you the whole truth so I’ll leave you with some words of advice; when faced with a difficult choice, always follow your heart. Also make sure to have a backup plan when someone ends up betraying you. As for my name and appearance well, you can call me Kamui. If you like I could look like you or I could be in this form.” She grips her hand on piece of wood wrapping her in a flowery cocoon. When she blossoms out of the Cocoon Corrin is surprised to see that Kamui turned into a male version of herself only younger. The young prince spoke in a sarcastic tone, “will this please you my queen?”

She shakes her head yes clearly speechless at the sight of him changing as if it was nothing. “Good, now I’m going to say this once so listen up, you won’t remember this but, your choices have unforeseen consequences that may cause to lose some people but no matter what you must continue your path.” Corrin agreed to this but asked, “what are you talking about?” He then said, “don’t worry once your memory are restored, you will remember. All you have to do is wake up.” Then the entire room begins to fade to white, as the same words kept repeating over and over–"Wake up!"

Chapter 2: Nohr

Chapter Text

Chapter 2

Have you ever had one of those times where you are asleep and had a good dream, but when it ends there is nothing but pure darkness left. Well for Corrin this was it she was waking up. As Corrin began to stir when she heard Flora voice her saying, “Time to wake up, Lady Corrin!” The princess slowly opens her eyes slowly being blinded by the light shining in her eyes. Slowly they began to adjusts and she could see clearly again.

Flora was looking over her ladyship smiling down on her. Her light blue hair was wrapped in a bun and she was wearing her standard maid outfit. Felicia then comes in at the other side of the bed staring down with pink hair in a ponytail saying, “Hey, wake up, Lady Corrin! Up and at 'em!”

Corrin yawns as she wakes and sits up in bed, stretching her arms to get the blood pumping. Corrin looked around her bedroom and it looked just as her dream only all her retainers were present. Looking down she notices her sleeping attire consists of nothing but a plain white t-shirt and no pants, luckily she wore a blanket over her bottom half. When she looked outside her window she saw it was still dark out. Confused as to why, she asked drowsily , “Hrmmm...What are you talking about? It's still dark outside.

Gunter, the eldest of retainers, said, “Listen well, Princess. It may be dark, but it is indeed in the morning. You have practice today.” He had that same stern look on his face as always but deep down Corrin knew he cared. Jakob on the other hand was the opposite he was kind to her but, not so much with other people. Even though she knows this she still believes that there is more to him. He then speaks up to say, “I have taken the liberty of reading your armor, and, er, pounding out the dents. Your brother is a fearsome opponent, is he not?”

Corrin groins at the sound of training against Xander but accepts this, “Ugh. Fine. I'm still not completely awake though...” she then fell back into bed to sleep and cover herself back inside the sheets. Flora looked over to her sister with a mischievous look in her eyes and said, “oh, we can help you with that! Felicia, would you please assist me?” Felicia shared the same look and replied, “Sure thing!” Flora & Felicia placed both their hands on each side of Corrin's face. They both closed their eyes and channeled the power ice magic to cool Corrin down long enough to wake her up.

Corrin's eyes burst open at the feeling of cold ice on her face, causing her to jump out of bed, not fully, but enough to the point of waking up. Corrin then starts talking through her chattering teeth, “Waauuugh! Cold! Cold! Cold! I-I'm awake! T-T-Totally awake now!” Flora then brushed her hands together and said, “That's how we deal with slugabeds in the Ice Tribe!” Corrin replied annoyed, “*sigh* Trust me, I know. I wish I could have finished the dream I was having though...”

Jakob then asked curiously, “Interesting, Do tell-what kind of dream was it?” Corrin tried to recall her dream but only bits and pieces remained, “It was...strange. Some people who look like Hoshidans kept calling me their sister. But all of my brothers and sisters are here in Nohr... right?”

Flora placed a hand on her shoulder and replied, “Ah, of course Lady Corrin, but perhaps we should talk about your dream another time?” Felicia began rushing everyone but her sister out of her room saying, “It's time for you to get ready, milady. Prince Xander is waiting for you!” Corrin got out of her bed to get ready for the day. Flora made a plan to set up a bath ready for Corrin, while Felicia was gathering clothing for her to wear. As soon as her bath was ready Corrin had a nice soak to rest her head, unfortunately Flora saw this coming and gave her another chilly awaking. When she got out after 30 minutes of soaking, she grabbed her towel and wrapped it around her chest and hair. Corrin stood behind her shoji and changed into her black, gray, and gold armor. Corrin stepped out and asked, “how does it look? I made some… altercations to it so it wouldn’t be a tight fit. Guess where.”

The two maids shook their heads in approval, but only Felicia seemed noticed a little difference. So she asked, “what about the shoes milady?” Corrin then replied looking down as if just realizing she wasn’t wearing shoes, “oh, well when I wear shoes my feet feel uncomfortable and I can’t move as well when I’m training, so I take them off once in a while and thought, ‘might as well cut out the middle man and lose the shoes all together.’” The two maids share a moment of understanding. Corrin leaves the room rhetorically asking, “now who want to see me get my ass handed to me by my brother?”

30 minutes later

Xander was standing on the rooftop with his little brother Leo, waiting for his sister to show up. Xander stands there with his arms crossed waiting as Leo counts down, “5, 4, 3, 2 -" just when Leo was about to finish, Corrin enters almost out of breath saying, “I’m here, not late, still here.” Xander stares at her crossed at her. He walks over to her and says, “you were cutting it pretty close there Corrin almost thought you wouldn’t make it.” Corrin stood up trying to control her breathing and said, “you know me always wanted to make an entrance.” Xander try’s to look stern but ultimately failed letting out a small chuckle. “Okay you are here now so let’s begin.” He says tossing her a bronze sword. Seeing this, she then instinctively jumps forward spinning through the air like a drill and grabbed the sword in one hand, landing on both feet and slicing the air in front of her. Leo clapped slowly at Corrin’s display and said mockingly, “I’m impressed but you could have stuck the landing better. Plus if this was judged by style instead of skill you would win, but it’s not.” Xander pulled out his bronze sword and points it directly at her holding one hand behind his back. Corrin spun around in a circle while spinning the sword, landing in front of Xander holding her sword behind her and her elbow in front. Xander then says the words, “begin"

Corrin then charges and does an over head strike which is easily blocked by Xander who isn’t even trying. Xander then twists the blade to the side pinning her blade under his, he then uses his elbow to attack. Corrin’s face connected with his elbow sending her staggering back wiping the blood from her nose. Xander then ran up and did a horizontal slash, but she jumped backwards avoiding the attack and then launched herself forward ready to strike. Xander was prepared to block from the from the front, but as Corrin reached Xander she does a front flip going behind him attacking from behind. Corrin was fast but Xander was faster, he spun around and barely blocked the attack. Xander used his blade to send her past him and attacks her from. Stumbling forward Corrin but quickly recovered, using her hearing she knew he was going to attack so she side stepped into a backward 1080 spin kick to Xander’s face. When landed she could see he’s barely even phased by this, he even began to attack her striking her in the stomach with the butt of the blade. Corrin felt as if her stomach was going to come out of her mouth and fell to her knees as Xander backed away slowly.

Leo laughed at the sight of his sister failing, “That's our sister for you. You won't beat the strongest knight in Nohr by sleeping all day, Corrin!” Xander was never one for teasing but this may just push her to her limits, “Giving up so soon, Corrin? I expect more of you. You are a princess of Nohr! Pick up your sword and try again.” He said in a commanding voice. Corrin slowly got up and said, “But, Xander, I-“ Xander began giving one of his famous pep talks, “We train like this so that we can defend ourselves from our enemies. Father has been tracking your progress. If you can't land a decent blow on me ...he may never permit you to leave the Northern Fortress. Ever.”

Hearing this Corrin was renewed with newfound determination. She then asked unsure if he was telling the truth, “What?! D-did he really say that? That's insane!” Xander smiled at the sight of her being excited, “Motivated, are we? Then use that fire to best me in battle, little Princess. If you would see the outside world beyond the view from your window, defeat me. Prove that all of the time I've devoted to training you have not be in vain!” Xander lowered his sword and waited, “The first move is yours, Corrin. Come at me when you are ready.”

Corrin ran at Xander swinging her blade at him over and over again trying to desperately get a hit off, Xander on the other hand was just dodging as if she was a baby attacking him. Then when she stopped he said to her, “You swing timidly, without resolve. You must genuinely try to kill me.” Xander then ran forward cutting open her hand causing her to try and gain some distance. Corrin then raised her sword to be on the defensive. Xander runs up to her again trying to close the distance with blinding speed. Corrin used her sense of hearing and touch to tell where he was going by listening to where the wind blows. Unfortunately for her, he was already behind her. When she turned around he then hit Corrin with the back of his fist sending her back a full two spaces. Lying on the ground with her cheek sore, she saw Xander had jumped into the air and was about to deliver a finishing blow; luckily she had enough energy to roll out of the way, Xander however had a backup plan, as he landed he thrust his sword forward stabbing Corrin in the leg. Corrin screamed when she felt her leg pierced by cold tempered bronze and was removed just as quickly letting the blood flow like a river.

After the first battle, Corrin was down on one knee trying to use her blade to get up. Barely able to stand Corrin began to pant catching her breath, trying to keep balance. Her legs wound was still bleeding, but the cut itself felt like it was on fire, it only got worse when she put some weight on it, so she had to hop on one foot for the remainder of this fight. Xander looked at her leg and said, “Hmm, looks like that wound needs attention. In that case...” Xander then placed his hand on the ground to channel the power hidden within. He then uses the Dragon Vein under his feet to enchant the middle of the rooftop to make a safe space that heals all injuries. When it came to magic Xander was never the best, but dragons had magic within them so anyone with the blood of dragons could exploit it.

Corrin was caught off guard by the dragon vain being activated which was weird because royals are supposed to be able to sense. “Ah! There was a Dragon Vein here?” Corrin asked shocked. Xander then replied, “You should have sensed it as well. The blood of dragons flows in your veins, as it does in all royals, you were just so focused on beating me that you didn’t notice. You must learn to harness this draconic power wherever you may find it. Heal your wounds, Corrin, then find the courage to come at me again.”

Corrin then hopped over to the healing spot only to lose her balance and fall flat on her stomach and crawl to the healing spot. She was so close to the area that she could almost feel it, all she had to do was reach out and touch it. Using the last bit of strength she had left over she launched herself into the healing spot. Before almost passing out from the pain. When she entered the zone she was immediately full of energy, her wounds began to slowly heal, and the collar was staring to return to her face. Xander then said, “Good. Now that you've recovered some of your strength, try again!”

Corrin was ready to change in and beat him when she felt in the back of her head that charging forward would be a bad idea. So she stayed put and thought about different strategies to beat him. Corrin thought to herself, ‘Xander is very bulky when it comes to taking hits so of course he will just take it like it’s nothing, there’s also his strength is nothing to laugh at either, he is slower but his years of experience have sharpened his instincts.’ The best plan she could think of is to use her full speed to wear him down. Corrin was feeling good as new when she stepped out of the holy light. She got one knee in a running start, staring directly into his eyes holding his gaze. Xander felt it in his gut Corrin was finally going to take this seriously.

Corrin burst off running at full speed towards Xander who braced for the attack. Corrin knew Xander would block and attack that was his entire fight pattern never change forward and wait for them to mess up and strike. When he was on the offensive he made sure to attack killing them in one blow. Corrin knew this so when she ran towards him and she made it look like she was about to attack causing him raise his sword to block, smiling Corrin moved to the side behind him. Corrin slid to a stop into a spin kick to the back of the knee knocking him off balance. He then swung his blade to attack from behind, but Corrin used her agility to do a side flip over the blade. Once she landed she grabbed his arm and did a disarming method she read about in some of her books. With his weapon gone Xander managed to grab her arm, twist it, and punch her in the face. He was going to punch her again but, before the hit landed she caught it.

(Flashback)

Corrin from time to time has felt a strange power start to surface almost every time she was extremely sad, angry, or frustrated and in turn created some thoughts that made her think things that would make common folk insane. For example, when Leo blew up at Corrin when she was helping him cast a spell he created and took him 5 months to perfect and master at the age of 11. Corrin on the other hand had preformed the spell perfectly on day one, this pissed off Leo they shifted their praise to her. Corrin went to make sure he was okay but only received hostility. He said something’s he regrets such as, ‘your just a scared little girl who doesn’t belong’ and ‘I wish you weren’t my sister.’ She ran to her room crying that night but the dark thoughts began to creep in further telling her how she could get rid of her pain, Leo doesn’t consider you as family, or how everyone is against you. She almost considered listening to the voice, until Leo came in apologizing for his outburst at Corrin and explained his reasoning for being angry, “you see Corrin all my life I’ve devoted myself to my studies of magic. The reason for that is so I can stand out from my siblings, with Elise being great for moral, Camilla being monster on the battlefield, and Xander being next in line, I don’t fit in. So magic was what I was the best at. But I also wanted to impress them because I was jealous of how much attention and praise you were getting, and when you used the spell with no magic practice what’s so ever I got mad and said something’s I didn’t mean. I know that doesn’t excuse my behavior but I just want you to know I’m glad your my sister.”

This apology was heartfelt Corrin almost burst into tears from hearing it. She then thanked him for apologizing and said, “Leo I’ve always thought the world of you, I always dreamed that one day I’d grow up with your intelligence and fight side by side together with the others like a family.” The two embraced in a hug nearly killing Leo on the inside but first his sister he would just have to suck it up.

(Present)

The power began to flow through her but this time was different instead there was no dark thoughts, she felt the power flow through her without the negative stuff. She focused that power into her forehead leaned back and head-butted the crowned prince, knocking him down and back towards Leo who was both shocked and impressed at the same time. Xander sat up to say, “Well done, Corrin.” He then sheathe his sword as he got closer to Corrin and continued, “You're getting stronger every day.” Corrin then followed suit and said awkwardly, “Thanks Xander. I couldn't have done it without your, uh, tough love.” Xander then shook his head in disagreement saying, “I believe you have natural talent. Some day, you could be the greatest warrior in all of Nohr.” Corrin is shook when she heard that but decides to play it off as a joke, “Now you're just teasing me.” Xander kept his face the same as always saying ,“You know me, Corrin. I never joke about serious matters. I mean what I say.” He then looks out onto his kingdom and continues with, “You could be the one to bring light to our kingdom so long shrouded in darkness.”

Corrin noticed the hint of sadness in his voice when he spoke of Nohr, “Xander...” Leo then interrupted her by saying, “Typical. You know that true strength is more than simple swordplay, right?” Corrin then started to spaz out trying to form her sentence as best as she could, “Leo, h-he didn't mean-“ Xander then began to ruffle Leo’s hair and said, “Calm yourself, little brother. You really are competitive to a fault. As I've always said, you're a talented mage with formidable magical abilities.” Leo then tried to fix his hair and said, “Hmm. Well, just remember that pointy metal sticks are not the only path to power.” Staring at Leo having a conversation with Xander Corrin then remember, “Oh, Leo I've been meaning to tell you something.” Leo and Xander turned their attention towards Corrin and Leo said, “Something important enough to derail this conversation?” Corrin then said, “Well...your collar is inside out.” Leo looked at his collar aggressively to make sure she wasn’t playing him, “What?!” Xander then laughs teasingly at him, “it would appear someone got dressed while still half-asleep.” Leo runs away to fix his collar not before saying, “Ugh! Wh-why didn't you say something earlier?!” Xander continued on to tease the young prince saying, “Ha-ha, sorry, Leo. But that sort of thing is what makes you so lovable.” Corrin agrees as well but could have sworn she saw a faint blush in his cheeks.

Corrin turned around to see her sisters Camilla & Elise enter the group. Camilla was standing there looking like a vision of pure beauty with her curly purple hair, her battle skirt showing off a lot more skin then Corrin would like, and her chest size was pushed up further thanks to the armor stealing the gaze of every man and woman in Nohr was ease. Next to her was the youngest royal Elise. She stood next to her older sister wearing frilly pink dress fit for a troubadour, having her hair in a twin tailed fashion, and wore pearl like earrings. Camilla saw Corrin with a bruise on her forehead and rushed forward asking concerned, “Are you all right, Corrin? Did you get hurt at all during practice? If you did, let me know right away so I can take extra-special care of you...” Corrin smiled at Camilla’s worry to hide her embarrassment and said, “I’m perfectly fine, Camilla. As always, thanks for your concern.” Elise then appeared next to Camilla seeming to have run over as well. She says, “I was worried about you too, Corrin!” Corrin then pats her on the head saying, “I know, Elise. You wouldn't visit me all the time if you didn't care so much, right?” Elise tilts her head giggling, “Teehee... Do you like it when I visit?” Corrin then replied, “Of course! I'm not allowed to leave this fortress, so visits are all I look forward to!” Elise smiles at her sister cheering, “Yay! I'm glad to hear that. Spending time with my sister makes me so happy!”

Elise then leaps toward Corrin hugging her tightly, the force of the leap was strong it causes Corrin to spin around. Corrin was taken by surprise by this almost tripping over but managed to catch her. Elise then stopped spinning around and looked up to say, “I love you so much! I love you more than anything in the whole, wide world!” Leo looked annoyed at the sight of this and said, “Elise, when do you intend to behave like the adult that you technically are?” Camilla intercepted the question, “Well, I for one think her cheer is a good complement to this gloomy kingdom, Leo.” Corrin agreed with her big sister, “Well said, Camilla. Every one of you is so dear to me. You've all been so patient and kind since I lost my memory... I don't even mind being quarantined when I'm with you. I'm so grateful to have you all.”

Xander looked at his siblings smiling as if there was some sort of inside joke she wasn’t going to get. He then said, “We are grateful to have you as well. But, Corrin, I have some-“ Camilla then pulled Xander back, interrupting his sentence, to ask if she could tell her. Xander reluctantly agreed and Camilla continued, “We have wonderful news, Corrin! Father asked us to take you back to the capital!” Corrin was surprised by this sudden news, as long as she can remember she was stuck inside this tower for years on end without so much as a friend her age, but hearing that she finally gets to leave, she still can’t believe it is true. Still unsure if this is real Corrin asked, “Really?! Does that mean...” Camilla smiled holding up a small seal and handed it to her saying, “Yes. It means you can finally leave this drafty fortress.” Camilla hugs her comfortingly saying, “You must have been so lonely all this time, separated from the rest of the world... But now you'll be free!” Elise then asked, “Isn't that wonderful?!” Corrin answered the question , “It...it really is. Thanks, Elise.” Corrin then looked at her tower in disbelief saying, “Wow... I'm finally leaving this place... Maybe now I can join you all as a soldier, fighting for Nohr?” as she said it out loud she realized her dream of fighting side by side her family was within reach. Xander then tried to hurry them along so the won’t be late, “There will be plenty of time to discuss the details with Father. Let us depart.”

The siblings start to depart when Leo stops her from going saying, “in a minute I got to talk to Corrin for a second.” Corrin looked confused as to why he was trying talk. She then asked, “what do you wish to talk about Leo.” He then replies with a soft look of worry in his eyes, “Corrin I want to ask you are you prepared,” Corrin looked confused as to why he asked, so he elaborated, “war is never pretty sis, the only fighting that you have done is with Xander and on the battlefield your enemies will try to kill you no hesitation, sometimes you may even lose your allies and your soul if you’re not careful. It’s kill or be killed out there so, are you ready to go to war because if you aren’t then go back to room.” Corrin understood the tough love wasn’t trying to scare her bit to warn her of what leaving implies, but Corrin has been waiting for this day since before she could remember, which isn’t very long, she has wanted to leave this damn fortress for so long, and now that it was within her grasp she was not going to give it up without a fight. She looked at Leo with sheer determination and say, “Leo it’s nice to know you actually care for me, but you don’t have to worry I know what I’m going into, I’ve been ready. Besides I know I can’t save or spare everyone but I have to at least try right.” Leo closed his eyes and smiled at his sister and said, “that’s what I like to hear, now use that starter seal and let’s go see father.”

Corrin twisted the golden seal and it began to glow, so she threw it over head and watched as it glowed even brighter and brighter. Then she felt multiple bolts of lightning struck her 3 times. She felt her body surging with new power and strength, her body aching as if she had fought in many battles, her mind racing recalling several fights styles in her head and all she has to do is learn how to use it, and the piece of resistance the skills, she checked them on her sash and saw one skill on the top and another in the middle of the sash. The top one is her personal skill and the one in the middle is the removable ones that come with the class. She also noticed a small bracelet on her wrist and couldn’t remove it for the life of her. Leo saw the struggling Corrin and reassured her saying, “don’t worry about that it’s a sort of a tool of battle I’ll show you how it works when the time is right, okay.” She stops trying to rip it off and says, “fine, but this feels weird on me.” The two siblings run in order to catch up.

Xander and the rest of his siblings along with Lilith and the other retainers were waiting for their siblings at the entrance. Corrin and Leo find everyone stands there by the exit. Xander asked annoyed, “did you finish your chat, everyone is all certain about everything.” The two said simultaneously said, “yes Xander.” Lilith ran up to Corrin and said, “I hear you can finally leave the fortress. You must be very happy, Lady Corrin. Gunter has asked me to go with you to the capital so I can look after your mounts.” Corrin then replied, “Glad to hear it! I'd miss you if you weren't coming along too.” Xander, still trying to be on time says, “Lilith, are the mounts ready?” Lilith bowed to Xander and said, “Yes, mi-lord. Everything is ready, and the mounts seem excited about the trip. They are all very fond of Lady Corrin. Probably from all her time in the stables...” Camilla added to that statement, “Our Corrin does love animals. Such a kindhearted soul... Why she even nursed an injured baby bird back to health one time!” Everyone else was talked about how she was a master with animals, Lilith on the other hand became all ridged for some unknown reason. No one seemed to notice except for Corrin who became worried something was up so she asked, “Lilith, is something wrong?” Lilith snapped out of her nervousness and replied, “Oh...no. It's nothing.” Elise then felt a light-bulb go of in her head and responded, “Isn't it obvious, Corrin? Lilith is sad because she's going to miss you!” Corrin was confused as always, “Miss me? But she's coming with us.” Elise thought about a little, “Oh, right!” Elise then explained it plainly, “Well then, I bet she's sad because she won't have you all to herself anymore. You've always been especially fond of our sister, haven't you, Lilith?” Elise’s statement left Lilith feeling embarrassed and her face turning red. She tried to say something but all that came out was, “I, er-.” Xander cleared his throat, “As gripping as all this is, we should be on our way. We mustn't keep Father waiting.” Corrin then got excited, “Yes, let's go!”

Gunter looked at the twin maids as Lady Corrin hopped on Lady Camilla’s wyvern and says, “Flora, you and Felicia will remain here to watch over the fortress. Jakob and I will accompany Lady Corrin. We may be gone for some time. Take good care of this place.” Flora didn’t question this because as much as she liked lady Corrin Flora was still technically a prisoner to this place but hoped that she made out alive and said, “Of course! You may rely on us.” Felicia who was more cheerful said, “Safe travels, Lady Corrin!” Corrin smiled back at the maids and said, “Thank you. I hope to see both of you again soon...just not here!” then the royals rode off to the king beginning their journey of destiny.

Chapter 3: Gift of the Ganglari

Chapter Text

Chapter 3

When Corrin was younger she always got excited whenever she had the chance to leave her tower. The chance to see new sights and experience new people made her both excited and nervous at the same time almost like she was going to throw up. Even if she gets nervous she still has a good time as long as her siblings are with her. Unfortunately she was feeling extra nervous because they were arriving at the Capital of Windmire, Castle Krakenburg. Whenever she comes there it’s never a good thing; she either gets scolded, beat, or not often praised. Upon arriving at Castle Krakenburg Corrin and her siblings, walked toward the entrance. The walls surrounded the castle on the outside but on the inside the walls was a a town surrounding the castle. Everyone walked slowly to the entrance Xander, Camilla, and Leo were in the front, while Corrin was lagging behind. At one point, Elise was next to Corrin but she was faster than her and waved at Corrin to catch up, before joining the others.

The royal siblings entered the castle doors together and saw the great hall that stood before them. It was a long hallway with a red carpet flooring and a black carpet running all the way to the door on the other side. On the sides of the room were entrance to other rooms with suits of armor alongside the wall. The thing she noticed different from this place was the new chandelier hanging in the middle of the room. When they all reached the door Xander stopped and turned to everyone. He said, “okay everyone remember, father is not a patient man so be on your best behavior” he subtly looked in Corrin’s direction. Corrin rolled her eyes and replied in an annoyed tone, “yes Xander we know.” Xander simply nodded his head and turned around.

Corrin knew why he was being so serious about how to speak to Garon. When it comes to Garon and her relationship they barely got along; she didn’t agree with his methods of cruelty, he almost never take her advice on showing kindness, and every time he looked at her he saw an annoyance. She couldn’t quite remember when this started but she knew deep down she shouldn’t be ashamed of her anger. She knows she should love her but she just couldn’t do it. She was pulled from her thoughts when she heard a loud creaking noise coming from the door. She shook her head and put on her best ‘princess’ face and walked in to meet her father.

Inside the throne room was Garon sitting on his throne with his retainer and tactician Iago. Inside the room was just him sitting on the top of the stairs and not much else which is very depressing. On the right side of the room was a four corner barricade that housed a giant rock and had gates that led somewhere. As they all approach the throne king Garon looks up and said, “I see you made it here safely, Corrin.” (oh, I see your still alive). He said her name with such disgust, not many would pick up on it but she did. Corrin then replied in a serious yet sinister tone, “Yes, Father. How I’ve longed to see you and visit Castle Krakenburg again. I feel like I’m dreaming…” (if only we were alone then I would kill you). Garon continued, “It is only thanks to your diligence that you are here. I am told you are now a warrior almost on par with Xander. You finally possess the strength to be an instrument of Nohr’s power in the world.”(be grateful I let you live you little parasite, your just a tool for me to use). The two starred each other down waiting for the other to back down but it was almost always Corrin.

Elise saw the obvious tension in the room and intervened, “Father, will she be all right outside of the fortress?” Camilla picked up on what Elise was trying to do and followed up with, “I worry about that as well. Isn’t it dangerous for Corrin to live outside the fortress’s magical barrier?” Corrin was grateful for her sisters always caring about her but she wanted to pay it back by showing that she can handle herself and that they don’t have to worry about her as much. So she refutes, “I appreciate your concern, but I earned my way here and I’m ready to fight.” Garon resumed, “ Corrin, as you know, Nohr is at war with the eastern kingdom of Hoshido.” Corrin then says sarcastically, “really, I hadn’t even noticed with all the soldiers here,” she spreads her around to the room to make a point. Xander looks back to glaring at Corrin for joking around when she was in father’s presence, so she sighed and said, “Yes, Father. I have heard as much.”

Garon clenched his fist on the armrest of the throne as if to break them. Corrin knew better than to joke around with him because he was always serious and rarely cracked a smile, but she felt like he was testing her all the time to see if she had a breaking point so this became normal for her. “We of the royal family are descendants of the ancient gods, the First Dragons.” He said as if excluding her out entirely just to piss her off. “As inheritors of that divine strength, we conquer those who oppose us with ease. One who learns to wield that power can destroy an entire army of common troops. Xander, Camilla, and Leo have already shown that they possess this power, even Elise has displayed this once or twice. I expect no less from you.”

Corrin starred directly at him unflinching, “I am aware of your expectations, Father. And I have trained every day to become more like my siblings.” Then the craziest thing happened, Garon smiled, “Hmm…you show promise. But you will need a suitable weapon in order to serve Nohr. Garon began to chant in an inaudible language that the royals never heard before going, “stoner ór souls ok jörð hidden, vistilr mik brimirinn forbidden”. To Corrin the word that were said were translated in her head, “a stone of souls and world hidden, reveal to me the sword forbidden,” about 4 or 5 times. Suddenly the ground began to open up revealing a glowing light and their eyes grow wide from the display. Out from the hole a dark black hilt emerges. Then chunks of purple metal started pouring out of the hole and one by one the metal started to connect to the hilt creating An evil looking, twisted blade. Looking upon the finished product it seemed encased in a miasmic cloud of some form of dark energy. Garon then presented the blade to Corrin to take it.

Corrin stood speechless at the sight she saw and just said, “Wow…” Staring at the blade every instinct in her body was telling her that not only was this familiar to her but it also felt wrong at the same time. She was so entranced by the sword that when Garon spoke it spooked her, “This is Ganglari, a sword infused with magic from another world. With this sword at your side, you will crush the Hoshidan army with ease.” Corrin repeated the word in her mind and intended up being translated to “Wanderer” she didn’t know why she knew that but she was starting to pick it up little by little, “Thank you for this generous gift, Father.” Xander starred at her and found his father’s generosity quite unsettling, “Hmm… Generous indeed,” there is always a catch when he gave out presents like this. Garon then gave a cold sneer to Corrin and said, Now, let us see you put that sword to its proper use…” he pointed at the guard by entrance commanding, “Bring out the prisoners!” The guard then bowed, “Yes, sire!” Corrin was still enamored with this sword that she almost didn’t think she heard them right, “I’m sorry, but did you say Prisoners?” The guard then came forward with 4 prisoners cuffed and chained around their necks.

Looking at the prisoners closely Corrin noticed the attire of the prisoners and the bracelet on their wrist like her. The two men in the back were wearing samurai uniform but didn’t have any distinctive details about them, must be twins. The prisoner to the right was a little more memorable. This guy for a prisoner was a ninja with green hair and the air around him was calming. The other one not so much instead it was a female who radiated rage and anger. She had been wearing a mask with a red manes on the back over her snow white hair. Comparing the two of them she thought the she was a lot more muscular than him while he was more lean for a ninja. The one thing she couldn’t remember about this woman was her class. Before she could recall it Garon spoke up to say, “These are prisoners from our most recent skirmish with Hoshido. I want to see your power with my own eyes. Use that sword to strike them down.”

Corrin sighed but agreed to his request. When she walked out onto the field she noticed Gunter and Jakob with her. Gunter then said, “I shall join you, milady. My lance arm is perhaps rusty but still serviceable. Jakob, will you join us well?” Jakob then answered almost immediately, “Naturally. I couldn't allow someone of your advanced years to bear the burden alone.” He then turned his attention to Corrin, “Lady Corrin, there is no need for you to soil your hands with this filth. Please relax and leave the fighting to us. Afterward, I will prepare you some tea.” Corrin then replied, “that sounds lovely Jakob, but I get the feeling after this I won’t have the time. Maybe later you could join me deal.” She raised her hand for him to shake it and he accepted, “deal"

The three soldiers stood in front other giant rock, Jakob with a knife in hand, Gunter on his horse with his lance raised, and Corrin with her sword drawn. On the other side of the rock the prisoners retrieved the weapons rack allowing them to choose their weapons. The woman grabbed a brass club and gave it a couple of test swings, while the green haired ninja grabbed a brass shuriken. The two samurai grabbed two brass Katana as well. The woman and ninja waved their hand over the bracelet that was also on their wrist and a holographic displaying option for map, allies, items, and enemies; they both pushed enemy button. Corrin and the gang felt a glow coming from their bracelets unsure of what to do she looked towards Gunter and he made a swiping motion over his own and an image of the two came up. “Whoa.” she said in awe, then she followed suit and did the same. The image of two came up, looking closer Corrin almost had the name of the class but couldn’t say it. The woman began to speak in a serious manner, “I am Rinkah! Daughter of the Flame Tribe’s honorable chieftain,” from that sentence alone she realized what her class was, an Oni Savage. “What is your name, Nohrian princess?” she said

Corrin cleared her throat and said, “I’m Corrin. Nice to meet to meet you.” Kaze’s eyes grew wide at the mention of her name. He then mumbled to himself, “Corrin… Can it be?” Thanks to Corrin’s pointy ears, she can hear a lot of farther and softer sounds. Corrin tilted her head as if a question mark appeared above her head saying, “Huh? Have you heard of me? If so how, I've never left the fortress?” Kaze then composed himself and says, “… I am Kaze, a ninja of Hoshido. Show me what you can do.”

Corrin’s bracelet shut off the hologram and she was unsure what to do and asked Gunter. He sighed and then explained, “the bracelet is like a guide book it tells you important things that can help change the outcome of battle,” he then waves his hand across his to display his options, “Maps can give you a layout of the battle field which is good for navigation. Allies checks up on your party members to see what their capabilities are, run scenarios, and give orders. Items allow you to pull out anything from the convoy, manage your inventory space or unarm yourself. Lastly enemies show you how many enemies there are in total and their capabilities.” Corrin nodded as he explained the whole system to her. She then waved her hand over her bracelet and selected enemies and their holographic images were shown on the bracelet. She noticed that there were numbers next to Rinkah, Kaze, and the rest along with their skills and inventory. She was trying to study them as best she could but then Garon grabbed his axe and slammed it to the ground and said, “Kill them all.”

Corrin cursed Garon under her breath and was about to move when she feels a gravitational force pulling at her gut. Jakob saw the weird look on her face and asked, “Is something the matter, milady?” she replies, “I feel…something emanating from the ground. Could it be…”

(Flashback)

Back when Corrin was 8 years old she and Xander took her on a field trip to somewhere nice. “Where are we going, what will we be doing, will we go there again anytime soon?” She didn’t know when the opportunity was ever going to present itself again, so she excitedly asked questions. Xander then raised his right hand and she instantly shut her mouth. He calmly said, “all will be revealed in due time,” he then held out his hand holding a blindfold, “but first put on this blindfold.” she then tilted her head sideways as if to ask why. “Just trust me,” he added. She put the blindfold over her eyes and made sure she couldn’t see. She then sat on the back of his horse holding on for dear life. Xander reassures her, “don’t worry Corrin you will not fall off, so you don’t have to hold on so tightly.” She then rebuttals, “it’s your fault for making me wear this ridiculous blindfold, I’m nervous about this whole thing.” After riding for what seem like an hour, they stopped.

He got off his horse and helps her down. He held on to her hand leading her to a wasteland but not telling her that. “Corrin we have reached our destination,” he told her. she began to reach for her blindfold, but Xander stopped her and said, “ not yet. There was a reason for this trip little princess, it’s a training mission.” Corrin sighed because she knew there was a catch, Garon would never allow her to leave unless she had to. “Okay, what exactly do I have to do out here?” she asked curiously. He replied, “I’m teaching you to enhance your senses, to use them all at once.” She then scratched the back of her head, “how am I supposed to do that? I know how to use them separately, but together all at once seems impossible.” He put his hand on her shoulder and said, “nothing is impossible for a royal Corrin. I will walk you through it step by step okay.” She then nodded her head with determination.

“Okay first things first name all five senses of the human body.” Corrin rubbed her chin as she was thinking and said, “sight, taste, smell, sound, and touch.” He gave a small grin and continued, “that is correct, if you didn’t have dragon blood that is. You see Corrin you’re a Princess of Nohr and as a princess you have the blood of dragons flowing through your veins with it comes power and responsibilities.” She gave a wide grin and said, “what type of powers, big brother?” He patted her head saying “you will learn in due time,” he then continues his lesson, “this sixth sense, or dragon sense as most people call, allow us to sense the remaining power of a dragon nearby or far away. With it we can do amazing feats such as altering terrain, affecting people in range of the dragon veins, and so on.” “so basically you have the powers of God at your fingertips. What’s next bringing back the dead?”

Xander gave a stern look of annoyance this made her bow her head apologizing. He replied, “dragon veins are points in the world that have the essence of draconic power that was left behind when they this world. So, while they can do some amazing things, there are limits to their power. But that is a story for another time.” He felt a powerful presence pulling him towards it but stayed rooted to where he was. He then said, “okay I'm going to teach you the ways to harness its power and use it.” she replies making a mocking solute like a soldier, “okay I'm ready Xander.” that was almost enough to make him laugh but he managed to suppress it well enough.

“First things first, finding a dragon vein. You might not be able to see them but you can feel them. Concentrate on everything happening around your body, the smells in the air, the feel of the wind, the sounds you hear. Let them guide you to it. Its sort of a churning feeling in your gut and the tighter it feels the closer you are.” Xander explained and stepped back.

Corrin closed her eyes focused on her breathing, taking slow deep breaths. After doing this for a few seconds she began to notice the little things around her the feel of the dirt between her feet, the heat from the sun beating down on her skin, and sweat that was forming on her eyebrows. As she continues to notice the little things, she sensed the presence of a powerful aura emitting from a short distance. She began to walk towards it as if it were a magnet. The closer she got the more nervous she started to feel. When she made it to the dragon vein she felt on the verge of throwing up. Xander congratulates Corrin on finding the dragon vein saying, “nicely done little princess now its time for phase 2.” She asked clutching her stomach with one hand, “what’s phase 2?” he smiles and simply says, “take off your blindfold.”

She hesitant to take it off but she did anyway and what she saw shook her to the core. Everywhere looked was a wasteland; rivers dried up, trees chopped or burned down, and only dirt and dead bodies (human and animals) everywhere. Corrin always tried to see the beauty in everything, but this sight really broke her heart. Noticing a dead bird right in front of her Corrin cradled its body shed a tear for seeing this bird hurt. Xander placed a hand on her shoulder and said, “now you see Corrin, war affects everyone and everything around you. For example each person you kill has someone or something worth dying for maybe a loved one or maybe a family. In battle you don’t think about it or hesitate it will get you killed, but when the fighting is over you are left to wonder if you should have killed that person. Not only that but the environment could be set on fire for a diversion harming the ecosystem.” Still looking down she asked, "why is war happening now shouldn’t we be living in peace? I’m sure everyone wants peace so why,” she turned around her eyes sprinkling tears everywhere she asked with a mixture of anger and sadness in her voice, “why do we have to fight for this damn war?”

Xander looked her in the eyes with a pained expression on her face. Taking a shaky breath all he could say was, “I don’t know little princess I..” He paused and composed himself, “all I can do is show you how to defend yourself so you can figure out that out for yourself okay.” Corrin’s expression started to subside so she answered carefully, “*sniff*…okay.”

“Alright now for now try using the dragon vein right in front of you.” She got down on the ground getting closer to the power. She tried to summon her power but only managed to make a spark appear in front of for 3 seconds before fizzling out. Xander sighed, “Do me a favor close your eyes,” she made a questionable face but he said, “just do it, trust me.” Confused and doubtful she obeyed anyway and said, “imagine a place in your mind, a place that feels right to you, as if you were a painter and this land is your campus. Once you have it in mind imagine how it makes you feel and use that emotion to fuel the power flowing in you.”

She then closed her eyes and began to let her imagination run wild. Seeing the field for what it is now she could probably interpret what it looked like before; luscious green grass as far as the eye can see, full grown trees where the stumps used to be, flowing rivers and ponds, and grave sites for the bodies animal and human alike. Just thinking about the whole thing brings a small tear to her eye. Xander watched her focusing and suddenly felt the ground begin to shake. Then pebble started to levitate off the ground and the dust began to spiral around her forming a ball of light above her. Then with a shout she channeled her feelings of sadness through her she let it explode in a big burst of her. The ball of energy slammed on the ground and a shockwave blasted wind everywhere outward around the area. The winds were so strong that he was pushed back with sheer force. When the winds cleared he saw Corrin passed out on the ground unconscious. He ran straight towards his sister checking her pulse. Luckily she was still breathing just put a little bit too much pressure for her. The sun shines down on his sister and the dust around them began to dissipate. Looking up he saw the land was formed back to what it originally was as if the damage there was nothing but a dream. What’s better is there was a statue of a dragon he never saw before as a tombstone. All he could say was, “my God.” Dragon veins have been known to affect a certain area or elements of weather, but she managed to affect the whole battlefield. Looking at her he thought to himself that, ‘she will be the strongest out of all of us.' He picks up the tired princess and puts her on the back of his horse and rode off.

(Present)

Corrin closed her eyes and uses the Dragon Vein in front of her. A giant ball of energy arose from the ground and smashed into the entire boulder in front of them exploding the rock. When the dust settled down there was a grate with a healing light emitting from its pit. Jakob stared in awe as he saw Corrin in action and said, “Extraordinary! No debris field can stand up to your mighty lineage!” Even Garon was willing to give her credit where credit was due, “Heh... Well done.” Gunter patted her on the head for that and then elaborated on her plan, “I see excellent plan, milady. Now we can hide in there and ambush our foes and if we get injured the light will heal our wounds so we don’t use Jakob’s staff. But please remain focused, milady. This is no mock battle-a mistake here could cost you your life.” “Right Gunter, you and Jakob move to the center while I stay here and monitor their actions. But first I should ask what you have Jakob.” Jakob then answered kindly, “Milady, I'm well trained in the dagger effective both up close and at range. I can even attack foes hiding behind walls, which may prove useful.” She pondered on how she could use him effectively but ultimately told him, “okay now get going.” Jakob hopped on to Gunter’s horse and rode towards the center.

They did all they could for now so they braced for the attack to happen. Rinkah and Kaze shared a look of complete understanding and made a plan to take one of the swordsmen and go around the other way to attack from both sides. Corrin pulled up her map tracking the enemy and noticed the group split in two just as she predicted they would. The two groups stayed by the corner waiting for there move being cautious.

Corrin knew the stage was set for the perfect attack, but before she tried to put her plan into action Gunter reminded her, “Remember your training. Each weapon has strengths and weaknesses. You would do well to consider them before you attack.” “Alright Gunter thanks for the reminder.” She said. She tried to think of the weapons properties that made them superior to a certain type of weapon, but came up blank. Luckily she came up with a saying, ‘fire burns grass, grass absorbs water, and water drowns fire.’ Since that made no sense she had to color code the weapon types: swords and magic = fire, Lances and knives = water, and axes and bows = grass. So now that she remembers her saying thanks to Gunter, she knows where to go and who to move.

Giving the order she commanded, “Gunter I need you to stand behind the east entrance without your weapon.” “of course mila— wait WHAT!” he said in shock, “forgive me for speaking out of turn milady but, why the devil would I do that exactly, I could die.” Corrin sighed and answered his question, “Gunter I was told that warriors grow from their experience in battle so I have to gain some. Besides you probably have so much you can take most of the hits and emerge without so much as a scratch, am I wrong?” Gunter was about to retort but stayed silent knowing she had a point and just said, “as you command milady.” He then let his lance disappear into his bracelet and rode off.

Corrin pointed towards Jakob and said, “stay right there Jakob that’s an order I need you to heal us if we can’t heal fast enough from the light.” He then bowed to the princess, got off the horse and said, “ ah, an excellent choice milady. Not only do you know that Butlers can also use staves to heal wounds but If I in the middle I will lend you and Gunter a hand in combat.” “exactly and you also don’t have much experience fighting so this a good way to exercise your skills.” Corrin walked toward the other gate on the west side and braced for the attack.

The ninja Kaze snuck around the corner careful not to make a sound like he was trained to do. When he was near the entrance he signaled to the samurai that on the count of three Kaze throws his shuriken to start off and the samurai will go in for the kill. Meanwhile Rinkah was doing the same on the other side getting ready she lowered her mask and prepared for Kaze to make the first move. He raised his hands counting down, ‘1...,2…,3!!!’ Kaze jumped out and attacked with a threw two brass shuriken at Gunter aiming right for him, but he was prepared and blocked them both with his shield. He then said, “Ha-ha your going to have to do better than that now.” Looking back at Kaze he noticed he was smiling, Gunter saw the shuriken was holding something. Before he could find out what it was, a blast of smoke appeared in front of him blinding his line of sight.

The samurai came out fast pantries to attack. Gunter tried to lift up his and barley managed to parry with the shield launching him away. Unfortunately this left him wide open for Kaze to throw another shuriken right in the shoulder. It was a small bounced right off but it still weird. Usually his reflexes are better than that but his muscles are starting to dull and become more sluggish. Before he could recover the samurai took another swing at Gunter but his horse jumped out of the way staying in rang. Kaze then spoke, “so you noticed the Shurikens effect, they may not cut deep, it can sap you of your strength making you weaker. Your death need not come all at once.”

Corrin would have helped Gunter but as soon as Kaze sent a smoke bomb Rinkah and her samurai jumped out and yelled, “Behold the might of the Flame Tribe!” After that they started to rush Corrin and Jakob. Rinkah attacked with an overhead strike, but thanks to Xander’s training she blocked it with ease. Then out of nowhere flames spewed from the club, luckily she had always been a special case when it came to temperature. The cold was always something that bothered her whenever it was chilly out she always felt fatigued so had to wear a lot of clothes and stay in her room to stay warm, however when it was warm she felt like she could do anything, so a little heat didn’t bother her. While she was focusing on Rinkah, Jakob noticed the samurai about to make his move. He ran forward and equipped his iron dagger and blocked the samurai’s attack. Using his lower body strength the samurai jumped out of the way avoiding Jakob’s counter attack, but Jakob still pursued the enemy. Corrin raised her sword higher and kicked Rinkah in the stomach. Jakob saw Rinkah down on the ground almost recovered and changed course immediately slicing open her cheek. This ends up angering her more allowing her to sweep his leg with her club and kick him towards Corrin. Corrin helped him up and asked, “are you alright Jakob?” Jakob steadies his breathing and noticed that the pain in his stomach was fading. He then says, “I’m fine milady thanks to your dragon vein.”

Looking back she noticed Gunter was blocking blow after blow but noticed that he was slower then usual. She asked, “Jakob what’s wrong with Gunter?” He answered, “Throwing knives and shuriken are meant to weaken not kill. You have to be either extremely good at using them or set them up to kill.” Shifting her gaze back and forth finally coming to a decision, “Jakob go help Gunter he may need your help.” Jakob looked concerned and began to protest, “but milady—” he was cut off from her interruption, “that is an order! Besides I will be fine I can handle these two. Oh and tell Gunter ‘don’t hold back'”

Jakob than hesitated and said, “…understood milady.” He then ran away to help Gunter as ordered by Corrin. Rinkah was about to chase after him when Corrin stopped in front of her blocking her path. Corrin said with sheer determination, “you want to get to him your going to have to go through me first.” Rinkah gave a sinister grin to which Corrin was confused about. Then tapping on her bracelet she was able to see her stats but noticed her eye pupils were replaced with fire that burns deep down in your soul. She then said, “as you wish princess,” and changed forward. Rinkah made it look like she would attack from the right causing Corrin to try and block, but she stops mid swing and swung to the left to make an opening. Corrin tried to correct her mistake but it was to late for her. Rinkah managed to get hit on Corrin leaving her a bit dazed. Then the samurai went in for a quick stab at her and Corrin used the momentum to do a one handed side flip¹² and dodged the full strike allowing the katana to graze her side. When she landed on her feet she used as much strength as she had and dashed forward. Before Rinkah could react Corrin was right in front of her and did an upward slash leaving a wound on her lower abdomen knocking her to the ground. Not missing a beat she lands with a downward kick in the gut. Rinkah then said in rage, “Nohrian scum…”

Meanwhile Gunter was doing his best to dodge the attacks but the Shurikens would always hit there mark. No matter what they did they couldn’t damage him at all. Kaze had just finished throwing his ninja stars but which Gunter dodged with ease, but what he didn’t realize was that was what he wanted him to do. The samurai was about to attack from the side when suddenly a dagger flew out in front of him. With that Jakob jumped out next to Gunter and said, “Allow me to join you Gunter.” Seeing Jakob was something he nor the enemy would ever seen coming so he asked, “what are you doing here, I thought you were with lady Corrin.” Jakob looked back and saw her battling Rinkah and turned back turned back and said, “she told me to help you out. Oh that reminds me she told me to tell you ‘don’t hold back.’” This caused Gunter to smile menacingly at his opponent’s. He then held out his hand and summoned lance from the bracelet. He said to Jakob, “let’s show these Hoshidans how its it’s done.” Jakob nodded and hopped on the horse.

The two charged towards the samurai ready to take him down. The samurai saw was going to charge him down and run him through with his lance and was prepared to dodge last minute for a counter strike to the horse. But then Jakob jumped into the air and threw a dagger at him from above to weaken him up. Kaze saw this and threw his shuriken to block the dagger. But Jakob anticipates that and threw another one at a much different angle than the first one. Kaze instantly figured out the butlers plan but it was too late. The first dagger was knocked off course by the shuriken and the second dagger redirected it to the intended target. The samurai looked up and saw dagger aimed at his head and dodged grazing his cheek. When Gunter got there he swung low tripping him down and slammed the butt of his lance on the samurai’s head so hard he have brain damage.

Corrin was now faces with her opponent and said, “you don’t have to fight you know just surrender and you won’t get injured.” He just gripped his sword and got into his attack stance ready to fight, “okay I warned you.” Corrin said raising her weapon. The two ran towards each other and clashed together try to see who would over power who. It looked to be the samurai at this point, but decided to put all her weight on the pommel and duck underneath the katana making the samurai stumble and his back open wide. So after she got out of the hold she spun around and struck his back. Blood started to soak his clothes as he fell to the ground in pain. Garon was starting to smile seeing Corrin’s progress and said, “she preformed better than I thought she would Xander, I’m impressed.” “Thank you father, she has proven herself to be able to assist us in the war,” he said. She was about to walk away when her ears heard his heart slowing down. His blood pressure was getting lower and she knew she couldn’t leave him to die. She just remembered that in her pocket she had a Vulnerary in case of emergencies but it was her last one. She poured it on his back and the wound closed up instantly. Garon’s smile turned back into a frown as he saw her help the enemy. She then ran over to Gunter and Jakob to see how they were doing.

Kaze was throwing Shurikens left and right at both Gunter and Jakob while dodging knives from Jakob. Corrin entered from the back and said, “I’m here to help out.” They nodded and coordinated their attacks, Corrin does a 360 spin as a diagonal attack²³ after Jakob threw a dagger towards him. Kaze block the first one but couldn’t block the second one because of the dagger weaken him. He then came to the conclusion that he has to dodge to late an got cut on the across the chest. Corrin then does a barrel roll with her sword and drilled to the side of her opponent and did a round house back kick¹⁶. Gunter then charged in and swung his lance under Kaze’s leg tripping him. Lastly Jakob did a sideways 360flip“ landing a downward kick. Kaze said in disappointment, “I regret…nothing...”

Corrin spun her sword and stuck it in the ground and let out a shaky breath and said, “guess I did it right.” The guards rounded up the prisoners who were coming to together. Kaze accepted his fate and just said, “So this is how it ends…” Corrin was still trying to catch his breath placing her hands behind her head and said, “Phew! They’re really tough, aren’t they? I hope all Hoshidans aren’t this strong,” she then looked up at her father and said in her most respectful voice possible, “I’ve won father now may I leave the to go outside the kingdom.” Garon was displeased by the sight of her weakness but he calmly ordered, “almost you have to finish what you started. Execute them!” Corrin looked at her father and asked, “But. Father…they’re beaten. You want me to execute helpless prisoners?” she knew she definitely wasn’t the favorite, but had to put on her best smile and said, “if we kill them now won’t the Hoshidans come here to avenge them. Same thing with the flame chieftains daughter he will want revenge as well, you have to realize–.” Garon slammed his axe down hard silencing her. He was not amused one bit and spoke in low and angry tone, “You dare question me child, your father, your King?! I ordered you to kill them! Now obey.” those last words he said sounded like a growl of some type. Corrin looked them in the eye and saw some were scared to die and some accepted their death. Corrin knew her father would take back his choice to let her leave but every drop of blood in her told her this wasn’t right. “No! It’s wrong! You can’t make me kill them!” she spoke looking him straight in the eye without blinking. Garon then put away his axe and said, “I won’t argue the point any further either kill them or I will.” Corrin sheathe her sword as an act of defiance. Garon shook his head and said, “so be it. Just remember you made this choice,” then he pulled out a tome and opened its pages saying, “Ragnarok.” The 2 sets of three fire balls swirled around colliding with the samurai. They were engulfed in flames, screaming in pure agony trying to put out the fire but it wouldn’t go down. Eventually the screams stopped and all that was left was a charred husk smelling of brunt flesh.

Corrin looked at the sight before her and was horrified at the sight that had befallen the prisoners. She knew they were prisoners but still seeing someone die it changes you. All she had to say was, “Gods!” Garon then aimed at Kaze and used Ragnarok again and this time instead of a burned corpse instead it would act as an explosion. Kaze braced for the attack but when a few seconds passed he was unscathed. Kaze silently questioned, “Hm? Why am I unharmed?”

When the smoke cleared up it was revealed that Corrin blocked the attack with her sword. Corrin was out of breath with scuff marks on her body. She had heard of father’s power and how no one ever survived a fight with him. Every battle was a massacre, every fighter decimated. The fact she was still standing after being in a fight with the prisoners surprised her and her family. She suddenly felt all the adrenaline flowing through her faded and everything hit her at once. She got down on one knee breathing hard.

Elise tried to run towards Corrin but Camilla held her back so she just said, “Corrin! What are you-,” but she couldn’t finished her sentence because she knew what she was doing, saving lives. Xander just stood there in shock, ‘unbelievable… no one has ever survived fathers attack before, Corrin really does have the a lot of potential,’ he thought to himself. Leo was concerned about what Corrin was about to do now that she just dug her own grave. Garon was beyond angry and yelled, “You would defy me directly, Corrin?!” Xander saw what his father reach for his axe and intervened, “Father, please forgive her! She doesn’t yet understand our situation. If we could show her what war really was like then she would—” Garon’s voice boomed across the room, “you wish to send Corrin out into the world the way she is now, she would only slow you down or get our soldiers killed,” Garon had a very devious plan, “I will forgive this slight, under one condition Xander, you kill them and if anyone gets in your way, kill them too.” Xander’s heart sank when he heard that. He knew Corrin was stubborn when it came to saving lives and beating him, but so did Garon. “Father please that’s hardly a fa-.” Garon shouted, “DO IT! KILL THEM ALL OR I WILL!” Xander hesitated for a moment but pulled out his sword Siegfried.

Xander walks up to Corrin. Xander looked her down and raised his sword to her saying, “Stand down, Corrin. If you don’t, I will be forced to end you.” Corrin’s body felt sore, her legs were about to give in and her arms were jelly. Looking up at Xander she could tell he didn’t want to do this, but looking at the prisoners she knew she had to save them. She used her sword to get up and got in her fighting stance, “No, Xander. I won’t let you do this! If you want them your going to have to kill me.”

Xander closed his eyes and said, “so be it.” He then charges at Corrin slicing at her arm. Corrin try’s to block the next one aimed at her leg but he just cuts her hand. She always knew Xander was holding back during training but this is ridiculous. Corrin decided to go on the offensive and attack him she did an aerial kick² into a leg sweep and rotates the blade to do a sideways 360 like Jakob²³ did, but Xander just dodged the attacks like they were nothing. Xander continues to dodge the attacks but then their swords clash together holding tightly. He asks, “Why do you refuse, Corrin? You know the Hoshidans are our sworn enemies.” Corrin replies, “I know, but…this is different. These people can’t fight anymore. Why not show mercy?”

Camilla and Elise have to watch as there siblings have to fight each other possibly to the death. Camilla wasn’t extremely religious but gave a silent prayer to the dusk dragon, “Please, dusk dragon, stop this fight and please… save my dear, sweet Corrin…” Elise was started to tear up a little but held back. She then looked to Leo asking, “No, no, no! Leo, what should we do?” Leo saw the look of sadness on his sisters face then to the two trying kill each other and switched back and forth, but just sighed, “Why does this fall to me?” Leo then pulled out his legendary tome Brynhildr and raised his hand aiming it at Kaze and Rinkah.

Underneath Kaze and Rinkah a bunch of branches wrapped around them squeezing the life out of them. The two were gasping for air and thrashing around as the branches tried to snuff the life out of them. Corrin and Xander looked to the sound and saw the two prisoners lifeless bodies hanging in the air. Leo releases the prisoners from the branches grasp and they fell with loud thud. Leo then kneeled and said, “Father, I have dispatched our enemies on behalf of my softhearted sister. I only ask that you would be merciful in your punishment of her…” Garon raised his hand silencing his son, “Enough! I will consider the matter later.” He then gave a stern glare at Corrin and left the room.

Corrin and Xander sheathe their blades and Corrin said to her younger brother, “Leo! How could you?! They were beaten! There was no reason to execute them!” Leo then flashed a sly smirk at his sister, “Agreed. Now hush.” Corrin was confused for a moment but began putting the pieces together, when reading her books she read that on the neck there is a pressure point that can give the illusion of death. She began to ask, “Leo, did you–” ‘use a branch to poke a certain spot on their necks’ is what she would have said if Xander hadn’t walked towards them interrupting the question.

“Enough, both of you. The battle is over.” He said as if seeing nothing wrong with what just happened. Xander turned to stare at Corrin, “Mark my words, Corrin… One day, an act of kindness may be the death of you.” Xander’s statement was meant to be a warning but for Corrin it sounded like she would have to give up her ideals. Corrin dug the heels of her feet into the ground and said almost in a threatening manner, “Perhaps, but if so I’ll just kill those who betray me or stand in my way,” Xander could’ve have sworn her eyes were glowing blood red then she emphasized, “anyone.” Xander couldn’t tell why but he felt afraid, not like enough to make him cower but enough to take her seriously. She continued, “ besides if I’m kind. I will die without regrets. So win-win. Well win-loss because of killing so there’s that.”

Xander was a little taken aback by her first response but was glad that she wouldn’t lose who she is. He placed a hand on her shoulder and said, “…Well said Corrin spoken like a true princess of Nohr,” he then walked towards the guards and said, “Guard! I would examine the prisoners’ belongings. Bring their remains to my quarters.” The guard bowed his head, “Yes, Your Highness!” They both were picked up and put in a wheelbarrow and took the bodies to the princes room.

When Leo and Corrin were alone she continued to converse with Leo, “Leo, your spell…” Leo finishes the sentence, “Was only enough to make them seem dead, yes. I should have followed Father’s orders. But…” he couldn’t tell her he doesn’t want to see her sad because she would tease him and never let him live this down, so instead he said looking away, “Camilla and Elise always make such a fuss when I do anything to upset you.” Corrin saw Leo’s face turn red and decided she teased him enough for today, “Thank you, Leo. I’m sorry for teasing you about your collar.” Leo rubbed the bridge between their eyes trying to repress the memory, “You can repay me by not mentioning it again.” Elise came over with her usual bundle of energy saying, “That was great, Brother!” Camilla cleared her throat taking a serious tone, “while it was, I doubt this will be the last we hear of this. Father never forgets a slight. I would watch my back if I were you Corrin he might be planning your punishment.” Corrin just shrugged, “eh what’s he going to do kill me? Let him try I’m not ashamed or scared.” The royals went up to meet with Xander

After they all made it to Xander’s room he asked Leo how they were going to get them outside the castle. Leo had a plan for this whole situation just in case Corrin couldn’t do it. He saw a laundry hamper and placed the body inside covering them with the dirty clothes. Leo then said, “okay outside in the back there is a hole big enough for them to fit through. Luckily it’s right next to where we do the laundry so perfectly convenient.” They all made their way to the backdoor. Some guards let them past others had to be distracted. Leo commanded the first on to help return some books to the library in the castle, Elise was going out to pick some flowers for fun and took them with her, and Camilla had little trouble getting the last guards attention as he as well as every person in Nohr was attracted to her beauty. Xander and Corrin made it to the laundry room and met with a maid. “hello milord and milady, dropping off more laundry I see. Very well I shall get started right away,” said the maid. As she was reaching for the laundry Corrin placed her hand on the top of the maid’s stopping her. The maid was quite shocked and was about to say something but Corrin intervened, “that won’t be necessary, my brother is trying to teach me how to do laundry myself. This way when I’m all alone I’ll at least know how to clean my clothing.” Xander stared at her for a brief moment in pure amazement, but quickly caught on, “yes it is, even the tiniest bit of information can help.” The maid bowed respectfully and walked away leaving the two alone.

Corrin and Xander took the two out of the hamper and dragged them to the door. They waited till the coast was clear before exiting the door. The two siblings laded them down next to on another ready to wake them up. Corrin then said to Xander, “remember what Leo said ‘apply a little pressure to the nerve on their neck to wake them.'” Xander nodded and they both did what they were supposed to do. The two woke up with a gasp for air looking around trying to get a look at their surrounding. When their eyes landed on the royals their reactions were different. Kaze gained some distance getting far from them, while Rinkah got angry and tried to attack Corrin. Rinkah’s fist was just a hairs away from her because Xander had grabbed her by the wrist and pushed her away like she was nothing. Xander spoke up trying not to draw any attention to them, “Listen well. It is only my sister's kind heart that has bought your freedom. Disappear now, lest you be spotted by our king.” Kaze didn’t hesitate and left out the hole in the wall leaving Rinkah alone with them.

Rinkah was prideful in her abilities and a hot head, but she knew when to pull back. Fortunately for her she could still voice her anger, “Tch. I am not a hostage to be freed, princeling.” She shot Corrin a death stare that could rival even king Garon himself, “You said your name is Corrin? When next we meet, I will make you pay for this humiliation!” Corrin knew this was a threat but still she could give a small smirk, “I know, but I was hoping the next time we met, it could be as friends.” Rinkah’s blood started to simmer so much steam was practically coming out her ears as she heard this foolishness, “Softhearted fool! I am a Hoshidan warrior. You do not understand what you suggest. Why would I be friends with my enemy.” Corrin just shrugged, “you wouldn’t, but you would if we weren’t. I understand that right now Hoshido and Nohr are at war. But I’m trying to plan ahead for the day the war is over and we can live in peace. I think everyone wants peace even you.” Rinkah was taken aback by this statement but didn’t let it show. She turn to the hole and began to walk towards it but stopped. She then said, “I’ve heard rumors of a sheltered Nohrian princess who knows nothing of the world. I see those rumors are true.” She turned her head to look her in the eye, “If we do meet again, the world will have no doubt taught you the error your ways.” Rinkah then leaves through the hole to escape.

Chapter 4: Journey Begins

Chapter Text

Chapter 4

Corrin and Xander are outside doing laundry for about 30 minutes when Corrin asked, “remind me again why I’m doing this again? Not that I’m complaining but why?” Xander clipped a pair of pants on the clothesline and said, “there are three reasons why Corrin: The first being I need my laundry done and you don’t know how yet, second we have an excuse as to why were out here because if someone saw they would report something suspicious going on, lastly I needed to get you alone to talk.”

Corrin paused the scrubbing of Xander’s shirt and asks, “why do you want to get me alone Xander.” Xander looked her dead in the eyes saying, “do you remember the time you asked, ‘why we have to fight a war when other want peace?'” she looked down remembering that day, “yeah, you couldn’t give an answer.” “Yes well I lied, the reason I chose to is so you can find the answer for yourself. The world is a dangerous place Corrin, but it can also be a beautiful one as well; telling you about it would prepare you, but experiences can be different.” Corrin nodded her head understanding what he meant she had to experience world herself to understand it, and if she has a bad experience well that’s a part of growing up.

“So, what’s your reason Xander?” He combed his hand through his hair and replied, “this may come as a shock to you Corrin, but there used to be a time when father smiled.” Corrin just scoffed at the response. “No, I’m serious. He was always a man of both courage, honor, and chivalry and a loving father. However, he also frequently indulged in many woman loving them all while being married.” Corrin’s eyes went wide with shock, “how could father cheat like that, he was married to someone and when your married your only supposed to be with that one person.” Xander looked sad thinking about it but quickly changed his face, “it was an arranged marriage Corrin they didn’t know each other, but they loved their child and they tried to make it work. Eventually he slept with others and as a result, the mistresses began jockeying for his favor, often turning to violence in the process because they wanted power and used their own kids to do it. There used to be a lot more than just us but they died. He lived an unhappy life and eventually hardened into the person he is now, but I believe that conquering Hoshido may return to his old self.”

Corrin felt bad for Xander and a little bad for Garon, no one should be unhappy for that long. Truth be told she wanted to make her family proud and see her father smile too, but she wouldn’t do so at the expense of her morals. “While you fight this war to see father return to normal and to protect the people, I will fight to bring peace to our home and theirs.” Xander smiled at his sisters conviction and said, “I look forward to it little princess,” Xander looked at the blood stain that she couldn’t get out, “try soaking it in cold water then scrub.” She seemed confused for a moment but remembered their doing laundry, “thanks brother.” They continued to work on laundry for the rest of the day without any interruptions.

1 hour later

Outside the inner gate of the Castle, Corrin sees Elise waiting out front. Elise runs up to meet her halfway to the door. The sisters hug it out as Elise asks, “where were you Corrin father has been asking for you?” “Xander was teaching me how to do laundry incase I’m alone. It’s now safe to say I still don’t know how to do laundry well enough.” That would normally get a chuckle out of Elise, but didn’t even make her twitch. Corrin raised her eyebrow, “what’s wrong Elise.” “I’m worried about you, father may be our dad but he won’t hesitate to kill us if we defy him. I don’t want you to get hurt Corrin.” Corrin saw a her sister look down, but placed a hand on her shoulder, “hey, look at me,” Elise stared into Corrin’s eyes, “I will be fine, I have a feeling father needs me for something. So he won’t harm me too badly even if he wanted to. Now if you’re done crying, it’s time for father and I to have one of our famous father/daughter chats.”

Elise lead Corrin made their way to the doors of the throne room to confront Garon. When Elise stopped in front of the door she grabbed Corrin’s hand saying, “All right, Corrin. Let’s go in there together. Even though I’m not as good at convincing father, I’ll help as much as possible. Between the two of us he has to forgive you, right?” Corrin wanted to say something, but thought this over, ‘if Elise went with me, my odds of survival might be enough to save me.’ Corrin grinned, “thanks, Elise. I hope you’re right.” Elise shook her body to get herself to relax, “All right. Deep breath, and… here we go,” she knocks on the door loudly “Father! We have something we need to talk you about!” They waited for a response but not a sound was heard from the other side. Elise was about to knock again when Garon’s was heard laughing like a madman.

The two were taken by surprise at the king’s sudden outburst, Elise was confused because she was sure that he was alone. Corrin knew Garon was a cold but not crazy, so the laugh shocked her. All Corrin could muster up was, “Father?” Elise started backing away slowly, “I think maybe we should come back la–.” Garon interrupted with a booming voice, “Hrmph! Who’s there?” The two froze in place paralyzed with fear. Elise swallowed the lump in her throat and answered Garon, “Oh! Sorry to bother you, Father.” Seeing Elise answer him as plainly as possible Corrin shook off her nerves, “Yes, we apologize if this isn’t a good time.” Garon’s impatience grew higher and higher with every moment, “What do you two want?” Elise evened out her voice and took a deep breath, “Father, we’re here to apologize,” she then stared at Corrin pleading to not anger him, “Right, Corrin?” Corrin hated Garon but loved her siblings more so she swallowed her hatred and agreed as sincerely as she could sound, “that’s right. I’m sorry for questioning you.” There was nothing but silence for a moment, then Garon spoke, “You may enter.” Then the doors open as if automatically revealing Garon.

The inside was as empty as you except for the king himself. In the middle of the room was barren, but leading up to the other side where the stairs lead to him sitting on his throne. The princess entered and slowly approached the throne and knelt in front of their father. Garon’s face was unreadable as Corrin could tell and it made her nervous, but she didn’t let him know that. He clapped his hands together and pointed at Corrin, “Corrin… You disobeyed a direct order from me. Ordinarily you would not still be alive.” Corrin wanted to say ‘if I had a second chance… I would do it all over again,’ but instead she just kept her head down and said accepting her fate, “I understand…” Elise begins to interject trying to persuade her father, “No! Father, I can explain-,” but Garon raised his hand stopping Elise from speaking any further. “Silence! As I was saying you are my child, Corrin. So I will grant you some leeway if you can complete the task I have in mind for you. A mission outside of Nohr. If you complete this task successfully, I will pardon your crime in full.” Corrin was surprised at his task not only was she going to see the outside world but also by the fact Garon allowed this. Usually he would punish her in someway, that’s when her surprise subsided and asked, “Really?! What sort of mission?”

Garon answered, “There is an abandoned fortress perched on the Hoshidan border. I wish to know if the building there remains serviceable. You are to travel to the site and inspect the premises.” “And if it is occupied by Hoshidans kill them right? What is the catch?” His anger toward her insolence was angering him but he didn’t let it show, “No battle will be required, as for the catch well you will find out later. Do you understand? I won’t tolerate being disappointed twice…” Corrin nodded her head, “Yes, Father. It shall be done.” Corrin left with her sister in tow to leave Garon alone.

Corrin gave a heavy sigh, releasing the breath she didn’t know she was holding, while Elise is jumping for joy at the news. “Amazing we have to tell the others right away.” Corrin nodded and made their way to find the others to tell them the big news. Meanwhile Garon was alone started to pray and a giant illusion of a stone face appeared to him. He smiled, “I have done all you asked my master but what if your plan fails,” he started to hear the same the dragons voice in a different language that wasn’t English but ancient dragon, “dubitas me Garon?” Garon smiles saying, “no my lord I’m just thinking, Corrin is a resilient person if she lives, it could be a problem. So I was thinking if she survives we send a clean up party to finish the job.” His god was silent for a moment but says, “optime, si Corrin vivit mittere coetus occidere eam,” and the head disappears from the room. Garon then calls in his adviser, “Iago,” the doors open and Iago enters and before he says anything Garon speaks, “bring me Hans, I have a mission for him.” Iago bows and leaves.

Corrin and Elise found the others at the front gate with Camilla pacing back and forth nervously, Leo reading a book, and Xander just chatting with Gunter and Jakob. When Corrin entered the room Camilla was the first embrace her siblings. “So how was your chat with father,” she said. Leo closed the book and joined in as well, “yes, I wish to know if we should be planning your funeral or not.” Elise got angry at him for that, “Leo!” “Just saying what we were all thinking.” Xander joined the group to listen to the story. Corrin took a deep breath and began to deliver the news, “there is good news and bad news, take you pick on which you want to hear first.” They all said, “GOOD!” Elise delivered the good news for her, “father said he is willing to forgive Corrin and is letting her leave the castle.” The other are shocked at this news, especially Gunter. Camilla clapped her hands together saying, “that’s amazing Corrin this is everything you ever wanted.” “I know that’s why I’m excited.” Corrin said. Xander, Leo, and Gunter shared the same look of suspicion, and Xander spoke up about it, “I’m glad you may leave little princes, but what is the catch.” She then began discussing the mission with the royal siblings in extreme detail.

The Royals each handle the news differently Leo is being the ever realist in the family trying to figure out why he forgave her, Xander was proud of her for getting what she wanted, and Camilla was worried as always, “Darling, are you sure you’re going to be OK out there? I don’t like this…” Corrin knew Camilla was just looking out for her so she tried to ease her worries, “Of course! Please don’t worry. It’s just an abandoned fort, so unless ghost are a thing you have nothing to worry about,” she said with a smile but then turned serious, "they aren't real right." Thus earning a chuckle from her sister. Leo was more serious in this endeavor trying to get her to take this seriously, “You’re acting rather casual about all this, Corrin. It isn’t like Father to be so forgiving…” Corrin knew what he meant, king Garon was cruel to anyone but she thought his kids would have some leeway, “Huh? What do you mean, Leo?” Leo was about to explain when Elise interrupted, “That’s enough, Leo! Don’t be so worried all the time, sheesh. And don’t even try to scare Corrin before her first mission!” slapping Leo on the back of his head causing him to lose his balance.

Leo then regained his balance rubbed the back of his head, “Hey! That’s not necessary. All I’m saying is that you should be careful, I have a bad feeling about this.” Camilla stepped up trying to help, “I suppose I’ll just have to come along. That way I know Corrin will be safe. Plus I can give her some advice.” Corrin was thinking about this when a voice entered behind her, “I’m afraid that’s not possible.”

Looking back towards the direction of the voice to find out that it was none other than Garon’s Tactician and Retainer, Iago. He entered in wearing his black and gold sorcerer armor with read out lines. His feathered Cape and collar were following him like a shadow. Corrin rolled her eyes at the sight of Iago smirking in that half mask he wears. She didn’t know the real reason why he wore that mask, but rumor has it he has a scar so nasty that he lost his eye. He stopped in front of her, snapping her out of her thoughts.

An annoyed Camilla asked, “Why ever not, Iago?” Iago still smirking at the Royals explained, “Lady Camilla, King Garon intends his expedition as a test of sorts for her to prove her capabilities as a warrior. As his top advisor, I have been entrusted with coordinating this mission and I will not have any interference. He would like to know whether Princess Corrin is worthy… After all, she IS a part of the royal lineage. Therefore, your assistance would simply muddy the results. Unless you believe that she isn’t ready, I mean if her own sister doesn’t believe in her then-” “That is not what I’m saying and you know it!” Camilla said taking a step forward with her hands set a blaze. Corrin placed a hand on her shoulder causing Camilla to see her face calming down a bit, “calm down he’s just trying to provoke a reaction,” she whispered in her ears, cooling her hands down. Corrin stepped in front of her addressing Iago, “Understood, I need to do this all by myself.”

“Not all by yourself, Corrin.” A voice came out came from behind Iago. A figure stepped out from behind Iago revealing that it was king Garon. Corrin was surprised to see him here and not in the throne room. She knew he was going to tell her the catch but didn’t think he would do it himself, “Father! I didn’t see you there.” Garon stepped out greeting his children, “Rest assured, I don’t intend to send you out there completely defenseless.” Then a big bald pale berserker holding his axe over his shoulder.

The berserker stared at her and bowed, “…Milady.” Garon then introduced the man, “This is Hans. He is a veteran warrior and will ensure no trouble befalls you. This is my condition for you, complete my task with Hans at your side.” Corrin looked at Hans in the eyes and saw a raging fire in him and had a feeling he would be a problem, but she didn’t have a choice but to accept, “Thank you, Father.” With that king Garon and Iago left the room while everyone going on the mission had went to go head out. Corrin was about to join when Xander grabbed Corrin's arm whispering, “I’d be wary of that man if I were you, Corrin…” Corrin hated being right sometimes but was glad to know Xander thought something was up, “What do you know about him?” Xander explained, “He’s a criminal. A murderer and scoundrel. I arrested him myself, years ago. Father seems to think he’s rehabilitated, but I’m not so sure. That said, he is a formidable soldier.” “I see. Don’t worry I’ll play it safe and keep a close eye on him,” Corrin’s arm was released and she left the castle to go to her mission.

The Royals watched as they saw their sister leave for her first mission, disappearing into the night. Xander was about to leave when he heard the sound of a whistle coming from the front door and saw a wyvern in front. Camilla grabbed her thunder tome but Xander stops her before she could hop onto the mount. “Where do you think your going Camilla?” he said in a low commanding voice. Camilla put on her best charming smile saying, “oh me, I’m just going to get some training.” She was about to hop on when he stopped her again, “I know you too well Camilla, your going to follow Corrin, aren’t you?” Camilla just sighed as her response. “I know you are worried about Corrin, but you can’t protect her forever. This is her mission and we must respect that and wait. Besides father made it perfectly clear she must evaluate the fort by herself and her group will provide assistance, otherwise father wouldn’t forgive her defiance.”

Camilla thought about this and knew Xander was right, but she also said, “remember the day Corrin came to us?” Xander was surprised she brought that up but nodded. Elise had a confused look on her face because she didn’t remember that day, but Leo just held his head in silence. “She was such a young child tied up like an animal, eyes red probably from crying, and covered in blood. Father kept her in the tower for a week and she was still causing a problem for him.” Leo continued, “it got to the point where he was considering execution, but I suggested sealing her memories away and preformed the spell myself and she thought of us as family ever since. However every time I look at her and she sees me as family I feel worse every time and when I lash out it pisses me off more that she is so forgiving after what I’ve done.” The two wiped their tears coming out from their eyes. Camilla continues saying, “so you see, I act that way towards her because when she does find out I want her to have some good memories of us so she won’t hate us and Nohr forever; and I want her to know her family loved her.”

Xander knew from the day she called him brother he would care for her as much his other siblings and also wished he could tell her. However the king’s word is law and he was ordered to stay silent, at least that is what he told himself anyway. He was about to speak up when Elise picked up a staff and made her way to the stables. “You too Elise?” Xander asked. Elise replied, “yes, me too. Xander I may not know as much as I like about Corrin or fathers past, but I do know this Corrin is family and we don’t turn our back on family.” Leo spoke up, “as much I’m not the sappy type, I must agree with Elise. You said it yourself Hans is a murderer and a scoundrel you don’t trust him and neither do I. You have to know this whole thing doesn’t feel right.”

Xander was clearly out voted, but a part of him was glad this was true because he wanted to help her out. Looking back at father and back at his family he smiled, “if we’re going to do this we do it right.” The Royals smiled back at Xander thankful he agreed. “we will trail behind Corrin and watch from a far spot hidden away, while Camilla will fly above to get a view of the action. If she is in trouble you give me a signal and we intervene. Everyone understand?” The Royals nodded in agreement and went for the stables.

A while later at the Bottomless Canyon; Corrin, Gunter, Jakob, and Hans made it to their destination. Naturally Corrin took in the outside world’s fresh air, it’s dark sky, even the ambience finding the joy in seeing the outside world. Corrin stopped when she saw the bridge connecting an island to the other side. Looking down she saw nothing but darkness in an empty void. She grabbed a rock and threw it into the pit and waited to hit the bottom, but not a sound was heard. Corrin said trying to make light of the situation, “let's see complete darkness, no sound of reaching the bottom, complete fear. We're either in hell or The Bottomless Canyon.” Gunter would naturally tell her to take this seriously but instead said, “but we left the castle milady,” earning a laugh from the princess herself while Jakob just rolled his eyes, “but yes. It’s the natural boundary dividing Nohr and Hoshido.” Corrin still waiting for the thud of a rock hitting the ground said, “It really is bottomless, huh?”

Gunter sighed saying, “Let the eternal darkness below be your answer. Those who fall in never return… I truly despise this place. Something about the land around here just isn’t right. The sky here is always dark and foreboding, and lightning strikes all who fly across. This clearly a place us mortals were never meant to enter. Normally we’d go around… But the fort that King Garon wants surveyed is right over there.” Corrin just smiled, “Oh, it’s not so bad. Or perhaps I’m just happy to be outside in the fresh air! Compared to the inside of that fortress, this is downright exciting.” Gunter replied, “Ha! That certainly puts things in perspective, milady. Come, let’s proceed.”

Gunter’s face got serious as he made it to the middle of the Canyon, when he saw the Hoshidan Army occupying the fort. Gunter cursed under his breath, “Blast! It looks like this fort isn’t as abandoned as we thought. Why the devil is this place crawling with Hoshidans?” Two samurai meet Corrin's party to talk to them. The Hoshidan made sure to stop in front of their path, “Hold on! Do not advance any farther, soldiers of Nohr.” On her bracelet an image of a ninja came up out of nowhere, “I am Omozu, ninja of Hoshido, Crossing that bridge is a violation of our border treaty. Turn back at once, or we’ll be forced to attack!” Jakob whispered to Corrin asking, “What should we do?” Corrin replied, “We’re not here to fight. I suppose we’ll have to turn back and report to Father. Gunter smiled, “Wise decision, Lady Corrin.” Hans on the other hand wasn’t smiling and had a rage in his eye that was hidden behind his sinister smile, “Who asked you, old man?” Gunter shocked by that out could only say, “What?!” Which gave Hans enough time for him to charges at a Samurai.

Hans jumped into the air and brought the axe down with a mighty yell, “Gyaaah!” The Hoshidan made a blood curdling scream as the axe was embedded into his skull, “AAAUGH!” After Hans kills the Samurai the other one attacks, but Hans caught his hand and threw him over the edge. Hans had a twisted grin on his face as he relished in the killing, “Ah ha ha! Die, scumbags!” Omozu saw this display and wasn’t happy about it, “You’ll pay for this!” Corrin angrily grabbed Hans and spun him around to face her, “what the hell are you doing?! We had no reason to engage these troops!” Hans just brushed her hand off him and scoffed. Corrin’s rage grew as Hans showed how much he didn’t care, “We should have tried diplomacy first. We weren’t sent here to fight!” Hans challenged her authority saying, “Speak for yourself, weakling.” Corrin was taken aback by this and questioned him, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Omozu clenched his fist and said to his comrades, “Soldiers of Hoshido, hear me! Do not leave a single Nohrian alive!” A random soldier shouted in the back, “Prepare to attack!” The army was now determined to defend the fort. Gunter: looks back at Corrin, “Argh! Looks like there’s no getting out of this now. Get ready to fight, Lady Corrin.” Hans laughed like a crazed maniac, “Gyaaah! Die worms!” he ran across the bridge and began to engage the enemy samurai on the bridge.

Corrin just ignored the helper and tried to form a plan, but Gunter spoke up, “Now then, Lady Corrin. There are two kinds of battle formations. You’ll need to learn both, and fast! If you want to unleash the most potent attacks, stand in adjacent positions. From that alignment, allies may be able to attack simultaneously. You can take a defensive position by absorbing an ally into your bracelet. Your ally will benefit from your support, but you won’t be able to attack. However occasionally they will block an attack meant for you sometimes, but always block a second strike from the opponent’s ally. To switch out swipe the bracelet okay.” Corrin Understood what he meant and nodded. She then gave the order, “follow me to that island south.” They did just that without a second thought. Jakob asked, “what now Lady Corrin?” “We analyze the battlefield for an advantage.”

Hans brought his mighty axe down on the first samurai, but he jumped out of the way and leaped over Hans and slashed his back. Hans barely felt it and just charged at him aiming for him, while the other samurai took the opportunity to at from behind. Hans felt himself get stabbed but his adrenaline and rage kept him from feeling it. He then swung his axe behind him chopping his head clean off. “No!” said the other samurai. Fueled by new found determination he rushed Hans using all the speed he could gather and moves quick enough to dodge the attack and deal cut after cut to his body. Hans is got annoyed trying to hit the samurai but always being to slow, so pretended to look weak and tired for the samurai to come closer ready to finish the job. As he lifted his blade Hans dodged out of the way and grabbed him by the neck and broke it in two.

Gunter decided to see up ahead and saw that the whole thing was filled with archers and one samurai so he made sure to tell lady Corrin, “Lady Corrin, I’m afraid the enemy’s position across that bridge may be impenetrable. We’ve got to look for another way across. Lady Corrin! See if you can find a Dragon Vein around here.” “Oh, you mean the one right by the edge over there?” Gunter was shocked by her answer and Jakob said, “you knew they were there lady Corrin, since when?” Corrin smiled scratching her head saying, “since we got here of course.” Gunter snaps out of it and says, “lady Corrin why didn’t you say or do anything about it?” Corrin became serious for a moment saying, “Hans ran out there and started this whole mess so he needs to learn the consequence that come from rash actions. Plus if he takes out a few stragglers oh well,” Gunter and Jakob looked shocked to hear this from her of all people until she explained, “I don’t like him going off killing people but what choice do I have. Father gave me a task and condition so I have to do this just this once and after that we never have to meet with him again.” With that she walked towards the edge and focused on the abyss in front of her and created a bridge in front of her and told everyone to follow her across to the other side.

Omozu saw the display of power from the fort and turned to his comrade saying, “Gods! Did you see what just happened to the cliff? Who are we dealing with here?” His comrade just said, “maybe the Nohrian royal family.” Omozu just sighed saying, “damn it.”

Hans came running towards the bridge coming up to see that a samurai and three archers were waiting for him. He just began to charge forward, while the archers took aim and shot him full of arrows, bringing him to his knees. He knew he couldn’t move forward that was just suicide, “Bwahaha! Look like I’ve done enough damage for the time being. Time to lay low and see how this all plays out…” then hand retreated to heal his wounds. One of the archers said, “should we go after him, sir?” The samurai said, “no, we need to stay here.”

Corrin saw the archers surrounding the fort with the samurai in it. She remembered a fact about archers that might help with battle. Archers fight better from a distance because they need time to shoot an arrow, but some bows have pretty short range and are capable of close combat attacks. Other bows can shoot from so much further away and are for master snipers. Corrin needed to make sure her hits connected but how? She then remembers a trick Leo also taught her to gain the upper hand on Xander, an incantation to halt multiple enemies at once. It was kind of like a freeze staff but it could hit multiple people, but Leo said it need some of your life force energy to cast. The freeze staff was a rank D spell and she barely messed with magic, this could cause so serious damage to her if she wasn’t careful.

Corrin then told them her plan, “okay here is the plan I have a spell that can freeze them all over there, once I cast the spell Gunter will pair up with me and I will take one of the archers out. Jakob, go right next to me and heal me up the spell may drain me a little bit so be ready. Everyone clear on the plan.” Gunter asked, “when you said pair up you mean-” Corrin interrupt, “defensive, yes.” That was all that needed to be said to forget them to comply. Corrin rubbed her hands together and began the incantation, “rocky road and land of plot, make these archers not move from their spot,” and made a pushing gesture with her hands towards the archers. She was unsure if it worked or not but didn’t have time to test it. She suddenly felt a bit dizzy and almost threw up, she felt a little extra weak in the process. Jakob, without hesitation, healed to health status and the color returned to her face. She thanked Jakob and said, “I’m fine now.”

She was about to absorb Gunter when she heard a sound a few feet away. Jakob saw in the distance and said, “Look! More troops are arriving from the south!” Gunter looked and saw he was right, “More enemy reinforcements… Take caution, Lady Corrin.” “Right, let’s go.” She said as she and Gunter hit each others bracelets, thus allowing Corrin to absorb Gunter. She felt different now that Gunter was merged but still felt like herself. She felt stronger, tougher, more agile and a lot wise. She then heard a voice in her head vibrating in there, “seems pretty impressive I know.” The voice scared her a little and said, “Gunter is that you?” He said, “yes milady I’m here in your head so don’t worry about it, now let’s go kick some ass.” “okay let’s go Jakob follow me.”

Corrin and Jakob charged forward towards the fort. Corrin ran straight to the archer south of the fort. She stood in front of him revealing herself to the enemy. He was about to take aim and shoot but he noticed that his footing was uneven and a little of balanced. So he tried to move but his feet were stuck and he couldn’t move. Corrin ran towards him and hit him with the but of her sword with her brand new strength knocking him out. Corrin was amazed by this and waited for Jakob to be right next to her. “Okay lady Corrin, now what where to next?” Jakob asked. “that is simple we circle around the fort and take the archers out one by one and ambush the samurai togeth-,” she then looked up and saw an arrow pierce the sky and said, “Jakob, behind you from above!” Jakob turned around and saw the arrow coming straight for him so he spun around counterclockwise avoiding the arrow. Jakob breathes a sigh of relief and heard the archer say, “intruders to the south!” Corrin just shrugged and said, “or we can just fight head on like Hans and go for the samurai now.” She left for the fort while Jakob went for the archer.

Inside the fort was very barren, yet felt very powerful aura coming from the fort renewing her with energy. As she was taking in the sites she saw the samurai right there in the middle of the fort, while the other archers are visible through the fort on the other sides. The samurai wasted no words onto her and readied his blade aiming it directly at her and she drew her weapon as well. He came running towards Corrin and attacked with a downward slash. As if controlled she blocked the attack and parried hitting him with the butt of the sword, only this time it didn’t knock him only to the ground and the archer to the north had an arrow trained on her. Before she could move to block she felt something push her out of the way and saw that it was a ghostly figure of Gunter standing in front of her. He calmly says, “it’s not your time yet, get back out there.” He then disappeared like that, she then shook her snapping out of it. The next attack was faster that she barely had time to block, but she did. They both clashed steel for a good minute until he left himself open and Corrin stabbed his side. Lucky for him she didn’t hit any vital organs. Corrin then gave him a hard hook kick to the face knocking him out.

While Corrin was taking on a samurai, Jakob was about to fight an immovable archer east of the fort. Jakob saw that both of the archers had arrows read on Corrin, so he charged the east archer and knocked the arrow out of his hand. He went for a stab but the archer blocked with his bow. Jakob kicked him in the gut, and followed up with a cut to the knee. The archers was on his knee and kicked him to the ground.

Corrin and Gunter were still merged together and waited for Jakob to regroup. Suddenly the bracelet on the samurai glowed and another archer came into the fight. He was staring her down and noticed he wasn’t stuck to the ground so he was going to be a hassle. Then as they were about to fight, Jakob came out of nowhere and jumped into the air doing a spinning side flip cutting down the archer that stood in her way. Once he was knocked out he spun the dagger in his hand and threw it at the archers up north of the fort. Corrin sighed, “nice work Jakob, your really skilled with that knife.” Jakob bowed his head saying, “I could do no less milady.” Corrin saw the archer get up and removed the dagger. Corrin then turned to Jakob and said, “hey Jakob, let me try.” She then took off running and when she was close enough she used all her lower body strength to launch herself in the air. She ended up doing a 360 spin slash, cutting the bow in half and taking out the guy out. Jakob caught up with her and hung his head down while kneeling down on his knee saying, “forgive me lady Corrin I could have sworn I finished him but fail.” Corrin placed a hand on his shoulder and said, “you did your best that is all I could ask for.”

Suddenly to the south she sensed something was up she looked at the map on her bracelet and saw two Pegasus knights coming from the bottom on the map. They seemed to hold some iron lances and waiting to strike. Corrin then thought about her next phase of her plan. She new charging in would be suicide also she was hoping to take the fort before they came. She might be able to block one hit if she let’s Gunter protect her and knock him out. Jakob can be behind her to give her some more backup. Then she could transfer Gunter to Jakob and grant him some defensive to keep him safe. That was all she had so far, but it will have to do.

“Follow me Jakob, but stay one space behind me I have a plan,” Corrin said. Gunter’s voice rang out into her head, “winging it as you go along is not the best idea lady Corrin.” Corrin thought back, “it’s the only one I’ve got.” Corrin and Jakob went to go meet one of the samurai head on. She then saw him stands there watching her closely waiting for her to move, but she wouldn’t. She egged him on by taunting him with her hand to come attack her. The samurai fell for it and came directly at her to deliver an attack. Corrin stood patiently and readied her blade, waiting for the attack. As she stood there, the samurai was about to hit when a ghostly hand stopped his blade. It was Gunter holding the sword hostage and Corrin emerged from the ghostly figure and sliced across his stomach. After that Jakob threw his dagger at him making him pass out from the pain.

Corrin got to Jakob and said, “alright, I need you to take Gunter for me this time I have to do this on my own, you handle the Pegasus knights while I get the others okay.” Jakob nods in agreement as Corrin transferred Gunter to Jacob’s bracelet. Suddenly her strength faded away and she felt vulnerable and exposed, while Jakob had the opposite effect of the transfer. Jakob ran out to meet the Pegasus knights halfway, but ended up drawing out a samurai instead. The samurai was not like the other one, he was faster and not stuck in place. The butler did a front flip ove r the enemy as he was coming and slashed his back. The samurai held back a pained grunt and whirled his sword around getting a clean shot on his chest. It was just a graze but it still hurt. The samurai went in for another attack with the butt of his katana right in the gut. Jakob managed to catch the katana and kicks him in the nuts. The samurai fell to his knees holding his pain unable to continue.

While Jakob was fighting the samurai, Corrin attacked the ninja occupying the fort. She then casts the same freeze spell on her opponent feeling the backlash of the spell again. Corrin says to the ninja, “Omozu, I hope you know that I didn’t want any of this to happen like this. I hope you may forgive us one day.” Omozu responds angrily, “forgive you, Forgive You! Do you even realize what you’ve done here today? Hoshido won’t stand for unprovoked attacks like this. Revenge will be ours!” he then pulled out his ninja shuriken ready to fight. Corrin brought out her Ganglari and attacked him first. She tried to close the distance with her enemy, but he threw his first shuriken at her. Corrin tried to dodged, but the shuriken seemed to follow her, so she blocked with her blade. What she didn’t know was that a second shuriken was in the shadow of the first and barely blocked it. When she made it to Omozu she did a front flip with her sword extended out. The sliced down his chest. She then heard a sound coming from behind her and she dodged it to see a dagger coming right for Omozu, hitting him right in the shoulder knocking him down.

Suddenly Corrin felt weaker than normal; her blade felt heavier, she felt sluggish, and she was vulnerable. That was when she learned the hard way that ninja shuriken are just as dangerous if they hit your blade and not you. He was about to get back up when she placed the blade pressed up to his neck. She had him right their and ready to finish him off, only she hesitated to finish him. On one hand Xander taught her to fight and not hesitate, but on the other she refused to kill without a reason. Masking her emotions she said, “surrender now and your troop can live; they have families, friends, people they care about waiting for them to come home, are you really going to let them die,” she said in an emotionless tone of voice. Omozu was contemplating on this and reluctantly agreed, “Damn you! This isn’t over…”

Jakob was in the fight for his life fighting an archer and two Pegasus knights at the same time. He was dodging everything from the arrow shots and Naginata strikes. He purposely stood in front of the Pegasus knights to get the archer to shoot at him and dodge so the arrow hits the knights instead, however he couldn’t keep this up forever and he was getting tired and slower. Even though he has Gunter absorbed he isn’t doing much damage to them as he would’ve hoped. He got ready for them to attack but they stopped to take a look at the fort. The ninja was shouting orders from the fort telling them to retreat and fall back. The soldiers ran back to the woods never to be seen again.

After the battle, Corrin checked the unconscious bodies for healing items and found two Vulneraries with one helping left inside. She gave one to Jakob and took the other one for to give to Hans. Gunter said, “aren’t you going to take it yourself milady?” Corrin replied, “I’m fine Gunter, Hans needs this more than me anyways. Besides I need him back alive so he could report to father about our success.” Jakob took the Vulnerary and the next thing he knew his injuries were healed of any and all scratches and wounds. Corrin looked back to see the destruction all around them and took it all in. She had a simple plan to observe and report back her father, but Hans messed it all up with his bloodlust. She decided to just let it go for now and sigh, “This isn’t what I had in mind…but at least I’ve completed Father’s mission. Let’s get going everyone.”

They were about to leave when Corrin stopped and turned around hearing the rustling in the trees. She was about to investigate but then a group of warriors come out of the woods. It was the Hoshidan Army, or at least a small scout party. It consists of two samurai and a ninja in the main force, while the other consist of other fighters that ran away. Corrin has met w lot of ninjas today but this one stood out to her the most. The ninja had short straight red hair and a scar over his right eye. Something about his face seems familiar somehow, but she can’t tell with that mask he is wearing.

The ninja sawed who took the fort and just scoffed, “You’re the leader of these troops? Pah. You’re nothing more than a girl.” Corrin clenched her fist but remained calm. So she replied, “well this girl just took back the fort with only three people, and you what did you do… whoever you are?” “My name is Saizo. I’ve come to claim your life,” he says as he pulls out his shuriken and gets ready to attack. Corrin pulls back out her blade and warns everyone, “Hey! Everyone! We’re still under attack!” She was in quite the predicament; she couldn’t run they would follow, she couldn’t hide the fort would be retaken, all she had to do was fight. Saizo turned to his comrades and ordered them to, “Destroy them!” they were charging with Saizo at the frontlines ahead of the group. He wasn’t as fast as the others she had seen but he was fast enough. As she waited for him to attack she heard a voice behind her, “I won’t allow it!”

Just then Xander appears in front of her blocking the attack with his sword Siegfried. Its glowing red aura was as intimate when Xander used it to fight her, but this time it was comforting to see it used on her side. Saizo backflips away and hypothesized, “This must be their real commander…” Xander ignored him and put all his focus on his sister, “What’s going on here, Corrin?” Corrin was glad Xander showed up when he did other wise this would be a challenge. Then a thought entered her mind why is he here, how did he get here so fast, but mostly, “Xander! How did you know we were in trouble, were you spying on me?” Xander started to get a little nervous and could feel a bead of sweat trickle down his face, “w-well, you see… I was–.”

Suddenly Camilla, Leo & Elise appear from behind with each of them on their own respected mounts. Leo rode atop a black stallion dark as night and horns as a part of the head gear opening his Brynhildr waiting to attack, while Elise rode an brown filly with jet black mane and tail carrying her staff. Camilla however, rode a purple Wyvern and heaves her mighty axe over her shoulder. Her Wyvern hovered in place bouncing her up and down for awhile distracting most of them in the army as they stared at her admiring her beauty. Either way Xander was relieved the focus was off him and how he got there.

Leo then stepped in with an impressed grin and said, “We’ve arrived just in time. Your luck never runs out, does it, Sister?” Camilla also steps in with a worried look saying, “Are you all right? I was so worried about you.” Elise was her usual bright and cheerful self, “We’re all here for you, Corrin!” Corrin was happy to see her family cared enough to show up to her first mission, but now wasn’t the time for that and she had to be focused so she said, “Thank you, everyone! Um, but before we get too carried away… we ARE under attack.” The moment she heard this, Camilla’s worried look shifted to that of serious anger, “who dares attack my beloved Corrin? I’ll have their heads on a platter!” Corrin was starting to feel intimidated by her. At first her aura was always calm and gentle towards her but this time she was almost like a completely different person. She tried to calm her sister down by saying, “I’m not hurt, Camilla. I’m fine.” Camilla then smiled back at her but, still had that same intense aura, “But, darling…it’s the thought that counts!”

Camilla’s Wyvern proceeds to fly up in the air and dives at the two samurais. They dodge out of the way at first, but her wyvern caught one with her tail. Camilla jumps off her mount and proceeds on foot. Having a sad*stic smile on her face she slices off his left arm that was holding his blade and cuts his legs in half. The samurai was crawling away in desperation and fear, while the others watched in horror. The samurai was hacking away at the Wyvern with his sword but wasn’t making a dent on her scales, while she was choking the life out of him with all her strength. Camilla then steps on her samurais hand and chops it off. There he was a lump of flesh just bleeding out she was about to deliver the final blow when a neck snap broke her out of it. She turned and saw her wyvern holding a lifeless corpse of the samurai with a snapped neck. She then kills the samurai to and his suffering. She then sensed a presence about to strike from behind her. With a snap of her fingers a thunderbolt struck right behind her nearly missing her attacker from behind. It was Saizo who was attacking, but he dodged just in time. She then hopped onto her mount and flew up into the air to take care of the rest.

Corrin was feeling uncomfortable with the whole show. Seeing her doting older sister mercilessly mauling them with a smile on her face and said, “I never knew Camilla could be so…ruthless…” Elis just laughed like this was normal, “Heehee! That’s right, you’ve never seen her on the battlefield before. Don’t worry she is just blowing off steam.” Corrin asked changing the subject once and for all, “so how did you know I was in trouble exactly?” The others were about to get an earful after this.

Saizo was barely surviving the attacks and his troops were dropping like flies, “This is not going well…” just then another ninja appears out of nowhere to help out. Corrin just groaned at the sight of a fourth ninja sight and thought to herself, ‘how many ninjas am I going to fight today? At least this one was female.’ This ninja wore a pink and brown outfit with a yellow scarf around her neck. Her hair was in a ponytail in the back and her hair covered the right side of her face which was beautiful to say the least. She spoke with Saizo to discuss her plan, “Saizo! What’s wrong? What’s our status?” Saizo answered ta bit out of breath, “I misjudged the situation. We’re outnumbered. Kagero, do we have anyone else on the way?” The female named Kagero gave a small smile, “Affirmative. Lord Ryoma is right behind me.” It couldn’t be seen but Saizo was grinning under his mask, “Ahh… Then I think this battle is as good as won.”

Xander over heard the conversation and said to his siblings, “It looks like more Hoshidan reinforcements are on the way.” Leo asked, “Indeed… What should we do?” Xander had to make sure Corrin was safe and out of harms way, “Well, Corrin is safe, and the fort’s condition has been evaluated. There’s no reason to engage Hoshido further at this point. Corrin, you take the lead with Gunter. We’ll follow close behind and make sure no one is following behind us.” Corrin wanted to fight with them side by side like equals but knew she wasn’t ready, so as much as she didn’t like it she follows them without hesitation, “Will do. Thank you, Xander.” Corrin, Gunter & Jakob run across the bridge on their way back to the castle. Jakob on the other hand was caught up in the fight and couldn’t get by.

Corrin and Gunter were halfway across the bridge to the other side to Nohr when she noticed someone was missing, “Gunter, have you seen Jakob? He was here a second ago…” Gunter couldn’t think about that now he had to protect his liege, “I’m sure he's right behind us. Now hurry up. I can’t stand being on this bridge a moment longer.” They almost made it to end if the bridge when Hans appears from the other side of the bridge to meet them halfway there. Corrin could sense something was amiss when Hans was holding his axe, “Don’t worry-you won’t have to stand there much longer.” Gunter questioned Hans about it, “What is the meaning of this?” Then Hans had that same look in his eyes, “Less talk. More death.” Hans was about to aim at the board under her feet when Gunter pushed her out of the way. When Hans broke the board under him, Gunter and his mount fell down into the Bottomless Canyon)

“Gunter no!,” Corrin said in disbelief as he fell into the Canyon only to disappear beyond a veil of darkness. She shed tears as she watched her friend die in the Canyon never to return again. She looked back at Hans with quiet anger, trying to keep her cool and said, “Why are you doing this? Your own ally…” Hans didn’t seem to care at all in fact he was smiling at her, taunting her and had the nerve to say, “Aww, did I knock your babysitter into the ditch?” he then readied his axe and continued, “Here- you can meet up with him at the bottom!”

Corrin couldn’t hold back her anger anymore this man needed to die for what he has done. She let herself feel the rage burning inside of her. Nothing else mattered to her except revenge against Hans, he attacked first, he got us into this mess, and he killed Gunter; now he must pay. Hans was about to land a strike but his axe was blocked. Didn’t know was that Corrin's arm transform had transformed into a spike.

A magenta colored smoke started to emanate from Corrin’s skin, her eyes still holding tears were glowing re, and when she spoke Hans could have sworn she was growling, “You’ll pay for this!” With a yell she used her spike hand to swat the axe away launching him two feet back. Suddenly her body started to change; her skin turned light grey and covered in scales, her finger and toenails grew into claws, her teeth sharpened into that of a wild animal, and horns started to form on her side of her head. Hans stood there in his place shaking with fear for the first time in his life, “What?! What kind of…freak…are you?” He definitely shouldn’t have said that.

Corrin moved faster than the eye could see and was in front of Hans and attacks Hans with an uppercut to the chin launching him up into the air. As if guided by instinct she jumped up into the air, catching up with Hans and threw him on to the other side where they first entered the Bottomless Canyon. She dived head first into the woods and continued her pursuit of Hans. Hans ran forward to try and meet her halfway, but ended up with her slicing his chest with her claws and did a high hook kick to the face permanently scaring him. Unsure where he was swinging he swung his axe right at her hitting her in the arm. He proud of himself only to realize that it didn’t cut into her skin at all and bounced right off. She just laughed at his attack and said, “that’s adorable you think you’re a threat still, don’t worry I’ll take my time with you.” Drawing her blade she slices Hans up like she’s trying to carve up a Turkey, dodging blow after blow and breaking any bone she can find. Hans managed to block this next attack his axe and pins her sword down, but she then points her arm at him and turns it into a spike again stabbing him in the chest narrowly missing his heart. Letting her sword go she did a side flip onto his back and plunged her claws into him. Hans tried shaking her off, hitting trees, but nothing worked; he even tried to grab her at one point but she just bit off his middle finger and ate it. She was starting to enjoy this a lot more than she should, but she wanted more. So she ripped her right claw out of him and used it to move his head and bite into his shoulder taking a chunk of in her stomach. The taste of human flesh and fresh blood were forever marked upon her tongue and while it was bitter at first it slowly became more savory than before. She then pushed off of him and threw him into a tree.

Hans quickly used his hand to cover up his shoulder wound to stop the bleeding, but that didn’t stop his wooziness, he thinks she bit a nerve causing a blood geyser to rise before hand. He looked up and saw Corrin pick up her sword and stared in disbelief at the monster before him, “It can’t be..” he said branding his axe towards her. As she is now in full view with blood all over her mouth, hand, and armor. She then opens her mouth and her tongue extended like a reptile and she licked the blood off her face. She then said, “you taste awful you know that.” He then managed one final swing but she caught it with one hand and threw it to the side. Corrin crouched down and showed her claws again speaking in a calm yet threatening tone of voice, “now before I kill you I want answers, Hans.” She brought her claws up to his face and with each question she went from his forehead to his chin slowly, “why did you try to kill me? Why did you provoke the Hoshidans?” Suddenly using her speed she grabbed his neck and used her claw to sink in enough to his neck, now with one quick motion she could tear out his throat. Her voice became that of a low growl, “And why did you kill Gunter?” He was refusing to answer the question and so she gripped tighter around her neck and yelled, “Answer me!” Hans then gave his answer, “Just following orders. King Garon’s orders.”

After hearing his answer Corrin regained control over her emotions and her body returned to normal. Her grip eased up on his neck and said, “What?!” Hans used the opportunity to kick her away from him and runs back to the castle. Corrin got back up and yelled, “Come back here!” She was about to chase after him when the Ganglari acts violently and lifts her up into the air. Corrin was now above the clouds trying to hold on so she doesn’t fall down and become pavement paste. The blade just stayed up there like it was waiting for something to happen or to pass. After a couple of minutes her sword let her plummet straight down into the Bottomless Canyon, “Huh? Ooohh Ccrrraaap!” Corrin is now falling into the Canyon at super fast speeds but no matter how hard she tried she can’t seem to let go of it. This looks to be the end for her she was going to die and no one would know about it. She was scared of what would happen and she didn’t want to go just yet.

Suddenly she heard a voice that was speaking in a foreign language to her but she could understand it perfectly, “Mea Kin, mei deos, sanguis meus ... dracones dona mihi fortitudinem! Magna Moro, obsecro te!” When Corrin heard this her mind went into overdrive and translated it to, ‘My kin, my gods, my blood… Dragons grant me strength! Great Moro, I beseech you!’ She looks up to see Lilith has jumped in after her but then a bright light surround her turns herself into a white fish looking dragon with a splash of blue a d red on it’s tail and grabs Corrin and pulls her up out of the Canyon.

Corrin was a little confused on what just happened and started to stammer out questions, “Lilith? Is that you? What…ARE you?” Lilith tried to explain but for some reason she found it hard to find the right words, “Lady Corrin… I knew this day would come eventually.” She took a deep breath and spoke, “This may come as a shock, but I am not a human.” Corrin spoke in a sarcastic tone, “really you don’t say, but seriously are you a dragon? If so what type because you’re not like any dragon I’ve ever seen.” Lilith knew the humor and sarcasm was just a bit of fun so it didn’t bother her, “Yes, this is my true form. You’ve seen it before. Do you remember? That strange bird you rescued in the barn…” Corrin thought back to that day and remembered the creature snuggling into her as she heal it, “That… was you…?” Lilith was smiling as she remembered that day, “It was. Once I recovered, I was able to take human form. You were so kind to me that I decided to remain a human that I might serve you. The pearl I’m using is my Dragonstone so I can change from human to dragon anytime I desire. The most important thing to me is that you’re safe…”

Lilith strength starts wane as she has been holding her for a while and starts to descend. Lilith let’s out a small shriek as she tries to hold on a bit longer. Corrin saw her struggle and thought about how Gunter sacrificed his life for hers and didn’t want anymore death because of her, “Lilith! Be careful! Drop me if you must… I won’t have you sacrifice yourself for me!” “That’s not going to happen lady Corrin I can do this. I just need a plan,” Lilith aimed right underneath her and spoke once more in a foreign language Primo dracones, ego invoco tibi. Dona nobis aditus ad astralem planum!” Corrin once again translated it to, ‘First Dragons, I call on you. Grant us access to the astral plane!’ Suddenly a gateway open and Lilith flies into it and inside it was blue and green flashes and next thing she knows they are laying in an open field completely barren of anything.

Corrin looked all around and saw not much around her but looked up to see a giant dome covering the entire platform and beyond. Looking back at Lilith she asked, “What just happened?! Where…are we?” Lilith flew right in front of her and transformed into her human form, “This is a world parallel to the one in which you live, Lady Corrin. It is known as the astral plane.” “Okay then, follow up question, how were you able to get us here?” “The First Dragons have granted us the power to inhabit this dimension. Under their protection, we are safe here. Oh! Allow me to prepare a place for you to rest…” Lilith extended her left arm and created a treehouse out of nothing and placed it in front of her.

Corrin was stunned at the feat Lilith just pulled, but she also found it strange, “Did… did you just use a Dragon Vein?” Lilith was a bit confused because of course, she was a dragon after all. Then it hit her that Corrin was trained to sense power from a certain point and now that it is all around her she can’t sense it at all so she explained, Yes. The power of the First Dragons flows freely in this realm, which would explain why you can’t sense them all around you. You should know that space and time operate differently here as well so you can stay as long as you want without worry of growing old or being late…” Corrin was so immersed in this world that she almost didn’t catch that, “I have so much to learn…” she then noticed that the place lacked in population as well as buildings, “Is there anyone else here? Where is everyone?” Lilith then had a sad look on her face but answered, “No, we are alone. There used to be other dragons here to teach me but they all left days ago. There’s no one left here… but me.” Corrin understood what she meant, trapped in that tower in her early years she was lonely and had no one it got pretty depressing without everyone else, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to invoke any bad memories.” Lilith put on her best smile and said, “It’s OK, Corrin. I’m not lonely as long as I have you in my life,” this is why Corrin and Lilith got along well because they both had people in their life that made them feel less lonely, “Now…you should get some rest.”

Corrin and Lilith entered the tree house that it was a full on bedroom that looked vaguely familiar but she knows that she never saw this place before. She looked at her armor and noticed she was covered in blood so she asked Lilith, “Lilith do you think you could…” She was about finish her question when Lilith stopped her midsentence, “don’t worry I’ll wash your clothes, so just relax a bit.” Corrin went into the bathroom and took a shower to clean the blood off her, while Lilith cleaned Corrin’s armor and clothes. Corrin came out in a bathrobe and decided to take a nap in the bed for a while.

After what seemed like an hour to her she woke up feeling completely refreshed and alive. She heard a knock at the door and quickly hides under the covers, only to remember she and Lilith are the only ones here. “Come in.” Lilith entered the room holding her clothing and armor for her, “You seem to be well rested milady. How are you feeling? I know this is a lot to take in, but I’ll try and help in due time.” Corrin put on her clothes and armor, “Yes, it is. But I feel much better now. My wounds seem to have healed already. And my mind is racing! I have so many new questions about this world…” Lilith stopped her from speaking and said, “All in good time. For now, some business remains in the other world.” Corrin almost forgot about her mission, she was so caught up on healing, that she let her mission slip her mind, “Yes, you’re right. I can’t relax until I know everyone made it safely home.” Lilith was worried about what would happen to Corrin after she left, so she warns her, “Of course. There is just one thing you should know before you go back. When I open the portal, you will return to the same location you came from. That means you’ll arrive right on the Hoshidan border. There may be soldiers lying in wait for you…” Corrin took up her blade and sheathed it, “I understand. I’ll be ready for them.” Lilith saw the determination in her eye and said, “Very well. Then I will open the gate.”

Lilith opens up the portal to Corrin and Corrin jumps right through. Corrin is now back in the real world and stretches, “Ah, I’m back.” Looking around for her siblings, Corrin finds out that there is no one around and that she is alone, “But… where is everyone?” Suddenly a voice calls out, “You’re mine, Nohrian!” and smacks Corrin over the head with a club, knocking them out cold and drag them further over to the Hoshidan border.

Chapter 5: Reunion

Chapter Text

Chapter 4.5

Saizo was busy scouting the woods across the Canyon to make sure that no one had infiltrated the camp, while Kagero was looking after Lord Ryoma to keep him safe for a while. He had just finished and is now about to check in with Omozu about a status update on the fort. When he finally made it to the for he saw Omozu deploy a samurai to go and deal with it, as he crossed the bridge to Nohr territory. Saizo was curious what was going on and decided to investigate. “Omozu! What is going on here.” Omozu hands Saizo a telescope and points it at the forest across the bridge, “something is coming through the woods, but we don’t know what. It’s causing the trees to shake so it’s definitely big and not an animal.” Saizo saw something move through the air and land in the top of the tree. It was fast but he saw it with his one good eye. He returned the telescope to Omozu and said, “wait here and do not move your troops, unless I give you a signal got it?” Omozu nodded in agreement and Saizo took off to go investigate.

Saizo put together a bomb to blow up the threat on the other side. He made it straight through the front lines and waited for the threat. He quiets them down and searches the trees for any sign of movement. He then sees a figure coming out of the woods, but to him it looks like a shadowy silhouette. His ninja instincts started to kick in at the right time to because he sensed danger coming from above and used his flame shuriken to block the attack. When he looked down at the ground he saw that he deflected a shuriken. Looking up he saw that the ninja wasn’t in the same tree anymore, but in another one and leaps out to attack him with another shuriken. The enemy tried to attack overhead, but Saizo dodged just in time and countered throwing his flaming shuriken at his enemy. Unfortunately the other ninja threw his and they collided with one another, knocking them both back to each others hand. The other groups were about to enter the fight but he stopped them from interfering.

They both charge at each other with blinding speed and clashed. Every slash was blocked by Saizo and attack he dished out was countered. Saizo had clashed with the other ninja in a power struggle, until Saizo tripped him and held a knife close to his throat. The ninja conceded dropping his dagger and said, “still haven’t lost your skill, huh brother.” This in turn shocked him to the core and he removed his opponents scarf to see it was none other than Kaze, his younger twin. He helped him up and scolded his brother for that, “are you insane? If you were an enemy you would be dead!” Kaze just smiled at him and said, “its more challenging that way, besides I had to make sure you hadn’t gone soft.”

Another rustling in the tree was heard and everyone readied their weapons, but Kaze reassures them, “it’s fine, that’s just Rinkah.” Rinkah fell out of the tree and dusted herself off. The others lowered their weapons and bowed to her, Saizo was still skeptical about the whole thing though. “Hi you must be Saizo, correct?” Rinkah said. He nodded at this and asked, “Rinkah, how did you get here? Last I recall, both of you were trapped in a cell at Castle Krakenburg. So how did you escape?” Rinkah fell silent, not daring to reveal her humiliating escape. Kaze on the other hand, has no shame whatsoever and answers, “we were set free by a Nohrian royal. I know what you’re going to say, but don’t worry I checked to see if we were followed. Luckily we weren’t, although I still made sure to split up and hide for a while so no one would find us just in case.”

Saizo was still not easily convinced by his own brother, so he continued to question him, “why would a Nohrian, especially a royal, let go of a prisoner?” Kaze looked at his fellow warriors and said to his brother, “it is best we explain this to lord Ryoma, I have some news regarding Nohr brother that I must deliver personally.” Saizo was still skeptical about the whole thing but he knew his brother was a good man and loyal to the end. Saizo sighed, “…okay fine. Under one condition, I will be there with both of you when the news is delivered.” “Deal brother,” Kaze said shaking his twins hand.

The three warriors set out to go see lord Ryoma in the woods to tell him the news. Rinkah was farther from the others keeping her distance from the group. Kaze noticed this and decided to slow down a bit, when met back up he said, “your lagging behind, you can come up closer. The more ahead you are, the closer to your goal you will be.” Rinkah says in a annoyed tone, “I know, I just choose not to. No offense but, I wish to be alone right now. So if you don’t mind.” “Of course just thought, you could use some company,” he said, picking up the pace to catch up with his brother.

After 30 minutes of wandering they found the camp. The area was covered with small tents for soldiers to sleep in and there was a fire where soldiers were cooking up a stew and keeping warm. In the center of the camp was a big tent, and the person standing outside was none other than Kagero. Kagero saw Kaze with Saizo and had a small smile on her face, but regained her composure. “Saizo, what are Kaze and Rinkah doing here. I thought they were captured by Nohr.” Saizo just says, “it’s a long story, but he has information to pass on to lord Ryoma.” Kagero was grinned at the sound of that and said, “okay right this way.” She then opened the tent and went in to speak with Ryoma. She came out a minute later and said, “he may see you now.”

The three entered the tent and saw Ryoma in his red and gold armor on his knees meditating with his back turned to them. His hair was a lion’s mane looking long and spiky, and his white vest over his armor ties the look together. Saizo bows on one knee and the others follow his lead, “apologies milord for interrupting your meditation, but I have someone here to see you.” Ryoma bows and rises to his feet and turns and faces them. Ryoma was still wearing his samurai face plate, matching his red and gold armor. Ryoma becomes surprised to see Kaze and Rinkah standing right in front of him, but he eventually smiles seeing them alive.

“It good to see you both again. However, how is it possible that you are both here and not captured?” he asked curiously resting his hand on his sword. Rinkah and Kaze shared a look of understanding and he spoke, “we are free because your sister set us free milord.” Ryoma’s hand dropped from his sword when he heard about Corrin, but other was still close at the hilt. Saizo's expression softens a little bit but doesn’t loosen his grip on his shuriken. Ryoma made sure that everyone in the tent was out and not able to hear them. All that remained was Kaze, Rinkah, Ryoma, and his retainers.

Ryoma gestures for his retainers to come to his side and for the former prisoners to sit down. As they did, Ryoma asked, “tell me everything you know from the very beginning and don’t leave anything out.” Kaze and Rinkah recapped on what happened at the castle. Rinkah recounts her battle with Corrin and what they talked about when Kaze left, while Kaze talked about how she acted and how she helped them escaped. “…And that is how we escape from Nohr.” Ryoma was silent for a moment, trying to process everything he has just learned. After processing the information he smiles, “she’s alive and not completely brainwashed, wait but then what would happen if...” He then was about to ask Kaze who to lookout for when suddenly a samurai came entering the tent.

The samurai came in looking worn-out and beaten, clutching his shoulder from the pain saying, “lord Ryoma emergency.” Saizo intervened, “lord Ryoma is in a meeting at the moment, don’t just enter without warning.” Ryoma spoke up to Saizo, “Saizo it can wait let him through,” Saizo let him pass reluctantly, “now what did you need of me?” The samurai took a deep breath and explained, “Nohrian soldier out on the bridge, they have come to take it.” Saizo didn’t even hesitate upon hearing this and grabbed his shuriken and said, “I’ll go and handle this myself I’ll be right back.” He then left as fast and took a couple of soldiers with him. Ryoma got up to his feet as well and said, “sorry Kaze looks like we have to finish this discussion some other time.” Kaze nodded accepting his lords actions. The other solider said, “lord Ryoma I will go as well to but I need to get some Vulneraries first.” Ryoma stopped him and said, “no you have fought enough, going out in battle while you are tired is a bad idea. Stay and keep watch over camp while we’re gone.”

“I’ll go with Rinkah and warn Saizo your coming,” Kagero said as she was leaving with the Oni savage. He was about to leave when the samurai said, “if I can’t help on the battlefield, then can I leave you with information instead?” he nodded allowing him to tell her, “the commander of the group is a royal, and yes she can use the dragon veins just like you sir.” Ryoma hope of seeing his sister was sky rocketing and asked, “can you describe her for me.” “She has long whitish hair, has a glowing purple sword, pointed ears, and red eyes. Why’ you ask?” Looking away Ryoma smiled at the news and said, “just curious.” He walked out of the tent and marched to meet with Saizo and the rest.

After Corrin and the others retreated
Corrin had taken Gunter to the back to the palace while her siblings were staying behind and fighting. Jakob was also one of those people because he was cut off by the other groups of Hoshidans blocking his way. The Hoshidans were taking a beating in this fight and the Nohrians weren’t even struggling. Xander was in the back protecting Elise while she healed her siblings, occasionally cutting her opponents down. Camilla was going wild and attacking anyone in sight, with a smile on her face. Leo was carefully choosing his targets and analyzing his opponents for a weakness. The Nohrian royals were winning until a lightning strike almost struck Elise, luckily Xander pushed her out of the way and took the hit. Xander shouted, “who dares to attack my sister?!”

When Ryoma exits the woods with his sword drawn, everyone else stopped the fighting and cleared a path. His sword was glowing light blue, crackling with electricity and smoking from his first attack. His eyes were staring at the people in front of him and raised his sword at Xander, “you Nohrian general, you face the high prince of Hoshido Ryoma. I challenge you to single combat. If I win the fort is our, if we lose the fort is yours.”

Xander knew this was Corrin’s mission, but he has always been covering for her so he is prepared for an excuse for his father. “I accept your challenge high prince, but I’m no general,” he then pulls out his sword, “I am prince Xander of Nohr.” The two charged towards each other ready to attack Xander's horse hops up into the air for Xander to do a downward stab to the prince, Ryoma managed to block the attack with his blade and a shockwave of electricity and dark magic echoed from their clash. Xander was much stronger than Ryoma and was overpowering him, but Ryoma got out of the power struggle and used his speed to attack landing a clean hit to the horse. Lucky for Xander’s horse had armor on so not much damage taken from him. Xander attacked again, but Ryoma just dodged out of the way and counter attacked. Ryoma kept cutting at Xander and his horse while dodging and parrying Xander’s strikes; while Ryoma kept landing blow after blow on him, Xander wasn’t taking that much damage and kept taking them like it was nothing.

Xander was getting annoyed with this and decided to end this right now. When Ryoma tried to attack him he waited for him to strike instead of trying to attack where he was. Ryoma made it look like he went low, but at the last minute he went high and started to attack. Xander managed to block the attack and with all his might parried the attack knocking him off balance. While he was still in the air Xander attacked Ryoma with all his might, fortunately Ryoma blocked the attack, only barely, so it still did damage to him. Ryoma was knocked farther away and was breathing heavily after having the wind knocked out of him. Xander took advantage of this and raised his blade to the sky aiming a dark energy blast at him. When the blast fired Ryoma blocked it with his blade, the electricity of the blade was enough to deflect it completely with out breaking at all.

After it ended he arose unscathed by the attack and said, “hm.. not bad prince Xander, as expected you are a tough opponent.” “You’re not so bad yourself high prince,” Xander complimented. “But don’t think I’ll go easy on you.” “Okay then.” He said readying his blade.

Unfortunately they both heard a voice coming from the forest that sounded like a woman in trouble. It caught everyone’s attention and Xander’s eyes were filled with worry as he knew whose voice that belonged to. He looked back and saw the same concerned look on his opponents face. Ryoma and Xander shared an understanding that they may be royalty, but family comes first. Ryoma sheaths his blade and says, “we will finish this some other time, go help her.” Xander smiles and they both turned to their troops, “everyone fall back and that is an order.” They each went back to their respected sides.

Xander and his siblings were investigating the screams coming from the forest. Camilla was flying high above the forest searching for any signs of trouble up ahead. She stops and calls them over saying, “hey over here, I found something,” and dives down to in investigate. Her siblings made it to find what looks like a small crater in the middle of the forest. Xander and the others inspected the area to find some clues and tried to piece together what happened. Elise was checking out the trees and saw claw marks on the tree. She felt it and saw that they weren’t like any creature she saw, so she decided to ask her siblings. She turned and felt her boots stepped in something sticky and red. Her eyes widened in terror and stifled a scream. She thought to herself not daring to find out the answer, ‘who’s blood is this. Please don’t be Corrin’s.’

Leo was searching for clues and found a shard of metal on the ground. He was about to keep searching until Elise called for everyone else. After they gathered Xander already saw a puddle of blood by Elise. Camilla got her away from the puddle and saw a trail to follow. “hey there’s a trail of blood going to the castle we should follow it, since the tracks are fresh and all.” Camilla pointed out. Xander replied, “good plan,” he said halfheartedly staring at the blood preying it’s not her blood. “what every caused all this damage must have been a dangerous. Be careful everyone and stay close.” They all then ran back to the castle, following the trail of blood.

Meanwhile on Hoshido side
Rinkah was questioning Ryoma, “Lord Ryoma we need to talk alone.” He follows Rinkah to a secluded place and asks, “what is the matter Rinkah?” Rinkah’s face was in a rage filled state and said, “what was that out on the field? You had prince Xander on the ropes and could have killed him right then and there, yet you let him go, why?” Ryoma kept his emotions in check and spoke respectfully, “someone was in trouble on Nohr's territory and the prince seemed concerned, so if I couldn’t help I’m sure they could.” Rinkah doesn’t believe that for a second and says, “that’s a lie and you know it! If he’s alive he will be a problem in the future!” “Then we will deal with him sooner or later. I will take your concern in consideration though. Is that all?” She was about to challenge him but knew the enemy was Nohr and not each other, so she learned to hold back this time. She shook her head saying no and he walked away. She was about to leave to when she heard talking and saw Corrin hanging in the air holding a small bird creature thing. She couldn’t make out what she was saying but saw a glowing light on the ground and she fell right into it. After a flash of light she was gone and nowhere to be seen at all. She was about to walk out until the light returned and she was waiting right there.

She knows Ryoma let him go because his sister was in trouble, but won’t admit it. While she hates to admit it, Corrin did spare her life and this could be a good way to repay her. Besides she spent time with the royals so she could have some news on them, that could be useful. The moment Corrin turned around she snuck up behind her and when she was close to her Rinkah shouted, “You’re mine, Nohrian!” and hit her on the back of the head, knocking her unconscious. She put away her club and picked her up in her arms and took her to Ryoma.

As she carried the sleeping princess to Ryoma, she noticed something was different about her. She couldn’t see it, but she sensed she was troubled by something. When they first met she could tell there was a small flame in her heart that was ignited during their fight and it grew brighter and stronger when she stood up for what she believed in, however now it’s as if her fire has grown 10 times as much since last time. The only person to come this close is her father, but this fire is more sinister and darker than most, almost evil. She cleared her mind of these thoughts and took her to Ryoma.

She finds Kaze helping load up and he noticed the person in her arms. He went to lord Ryoma and brought him to meet Rinkah at the gate. When he saw the woman in her arms he knew it was her it was Corrin, but just to be safe he needed confirmation. Ryoma kept a straight face and asked, “is this…” He couldn’t bring himself to finish it, but Rinkah answered, “yes, she is.” “how did you capture her?” she then told them everything except for the glowing light she fell through, didn’t want people to think she was crazy.

Saizo appeared and said, “lord Ryoma I know what you are thinking, but I must remind you that she is still from Nohr, raised by the Nohrian royal family. They will come looking for her if we take her with us. Then we will an army on top of us.” Ryoma thought about this and came up with a plan, “which is why Rinkah and Kaze will split up and take a different route to Hoshido while we take a different route.” Rinkah said with a pained expression, “wait what?! Why do we have to do that.” Ryoma turned to Rinkah and said, “if she stayed with us she would see this as kidnapping and get hostile. She’s met you both and you have a decent relationship so she will feel more comfortable around you two.” He then directed his attention to Saizo and said, “and Saizo she could have information that could be useful, and she could turn once she learns of who she is. So we are taking her with us, understood.” Saizo reluctantly agreed and went to talk to Kaze.

Rinkah said, “I will meet you back at the palace.” Ryoma gave a silent nod and went back to packing. Saizo placed his hand on his brother’s shoulder and told him, “don’t get caught again.” Kaze just smiled and said, “I won’t.” Kaze then said goodbye to Kagero who pulls him in for a hug for a moment and they walk away later. Rinkah and Kaze left with Corrin in hand taking a different route to Hoshido.

Meanwhile at the castle the Royals make their way to the throne room to find their father sitting on the throne and Iago standing by his side. Garon asked angrily, “what is the meaning of this children, you should know better than to barge into the throne room like this.” Xander bowed and the rest followed suit and said, “forgive me father, but this is an emergency.” He nods, “…very well, but just this once. Now speak.”

Camilla is the first to ask, “firstly did anyone else return from Corrin’s mission yet?” he replied, “Hans already told me what happened in the field regarding Corrin's mission and I must say I’m disappointed in her.” The other Royals are confused a little but Iago was there to fill in the gaps, “oh you don’t know,” he said with a wicked grin on his face and continued, “Hans came in torn to shreds, saying lady Corrin attacked him unprovoked and disappeared leaving him for dead.” “What!” Xander said. Camilla and Elise were in disbelief, “it can’t be true,” Elise said. Leo questioned him, “Iago don’t lie to us. Corrin would never attack someone unprovoked, so you must be lying.” King Garon spoke up, “he is not lying, he was right by my side, so I’m his alibi.” Iago still had that same look on his face, “it is fine king Garon, the prince just wishes for me to prove it, so here.”

Iago then clapped his hands and Hans stepped out in bandages covering his scars and a patch over his shoulder. “Your highness,” he said in a low bow, wincing in pain. Iago pulled out an orb and placed his hands on Hans bald head, “the truth is in his memories, see for yourself if you must. The spell I’m about to use is made for dwelling into the memories of a person to see who is right. Oh but you already know a variation of this spell, don't you lord Leo?” this made Leo feel pain in his heart over what he had done. Iago begins a dark magic spell, ‘gnidih si snaH tahW, fo hturt eht wohS, tirips dnA, nwad ot ksud morF.’ The place got dark and cold in the night, the orb was glowing brighter and brighter as he chanted over and over again. Then a giant cloud show everything from Hans point of view. What they saw horrified them. Corrin had claws horns and sharp teeth. Her speed was incredible, her cuts were precise, and she was tossing him around like a rag doll without even breaking a sweat. The next scene was something that made them really sick to their stomach. She hopped on his back and bit a chunk of his shoulder off and lick the blood of her face. Elise had her face turned away into Camilla crying, Camilla was mostly okay but a look of worry was on her face, Leo was trying and failing to hold back his vomit and ended up throwing up in an urn, Xander was the most calm out of them but wouldn’t give up.

After this everything went back to normal and Xander was the first to speak, “do you really expect us to believe this, last I checked Corrin didn't have horns." Iago said with confidence, "it's no trick my lord this came directly from his memories, besides I couldn't doctor the footage even if wanted to." He looked to two for help and he confirmed it, he then said, "what do we do we do about Corrin. How do we bring her back.” Garon had a puzzled look on his face and said, “we don’t bring her back. Its obvious that she has turned traitor and has been waiting for the chance to flee and disown us. If she comes here again then she will die.” This caught their attention and Xander was not having any of that, “father there has to be more to the story that we are not seeing! We have raised her from the day we took her in and loved her as if she were our own! You would turn her away! We have to save her!” Garon yelled back, “bring her here? Just to kill my men, me, you, and Nohr. No that is not happening!” “she is a part of our family! She is your daughter–” Garon got up and yelled, “SHE IS NOT MY DAUGHTER!!!” the whole room was silent for a moment before he spoke again while getting closer to Xander, “I may have brought her here and gave her a home, but you forget blood is thicker than water. Ask yourself, if she found out the truth, would she embrace and forgive you or turn on you for revenge. I knew once she found out she would hate us and kill us and that is the proof.” He said pointing at Hans, “as king of Nohr I will take care of our home you must do the same.” They were staring each other down to see who would crack first and neither wanted to show weakness. Eventually Xander relents and bows, “forgive my outbursts father.” Garon turned away and sat back on his throne and said, “to your rooms and do not leave them all night, understood?” The other Royals were hesitant until he said it again with more bass in his voice, “understood?” They all said in unison, “yes father.” They turned away and went to their respected chambers.

On their way to bed Leo asked Xander, “you’re not gonna let this go are you?” Xander said, “no, of course not. We will have answers starting tomorrow okay.” They all agree, all except for Elise who was still had tears in her eyes. Camilla bent down and asked, “what’s the matter sweetheart, are you alright?” She focused her breathing and spoke, “ *sniffles* i-it just… Corrin in the memories, the injuries, and the feral look on her face. If she turned, then does that mean she hates us.” She shared a look of concern with the others and said, “of course not she is just lost. If we find her then we can take her home and we will be a family again. Okay.” A smile appeared on Camilla’s face and brought on to Elise a little bit and she nodded. They all made it to there respected chambers and went to bed after a long day.

Chapter 6: Hoshido

Chapter Text

Chapter 5

Corrin’s had a major headache as she was beginning to stir. The princess eyes slowly opened and she saw a blinding light. She rubbed her eyes to get the sleep out of her eyes and focused on her surroundings. From the look of things it was a cabin and a small one at that. She then got startled after hearing a voice that said, “Ah, you’re awake.” She turned and saw it was Rinkah, holding a piece of meat on a stick over a fire pit, “Sorry about that bump on your head.” Corrin then said, “It’s you! From the Flame Tribe, right? Where are we?”

Rinkah removed the meat from the fire when it came out nice and tender, “Yes, I am Rinkah. This is a Flame Tribe village within Hoshido’s territory. I’m going to hand you over to the Hoshidan authorities,” she takes the meat off the stick and holds it out for her to eat, “but first eat, you will need your strength.” Corrin was a bit skeptical about the meat considering how mad she was when she was spared and how prideful she was, although for some unknown reason for her, she was having a craving for red meat. Rinkah sighed saying, “don’t worry its clean. If I was going to kill you, it would be at your full strength, not while you’re like this.”

Corrin took the meat and bit into it. It tasted a bit bland, but edible. Corrin thanked her for the food and asked, “you hungry to or…” Rinkah shook her head saying no, “you were out for a long time so I ate the first one so finish up.” Corrin ate was halfway done with it and decided to ask the question, “I suppose they’ll want to hear an explanation for the unprovoked attack. And then they’ll probably execute me. Am I right?” Rinkah just gave a co*cky smile and chuckled, “Heh. I don’t think so.”

After Corrin finished her food she heard knocking on the front door, “ Gods…they’re here already, aren’t they?” Rinkah regains her serious expression and answers, “Yes. It’s time to go.” She opens the door and a cold wind blasted her in the face and she began to shiver. Rinkah saw the cold princess and sighed putting her hand on her arm. Suddenly, Corrin felt warmer and regained her composure asking, “Rinkah how did you…?” The Oni savage answered, “when we made it here your body temperature fell drastically but my body heat was enough to keep you warm. It was so bad you would have died if it weren’t for the cabin.” “So in a way, you saved my life?” Rinkah looked away sheepishly and said, “consider us even then and never mention this again.” The moment they exited the cabin, they were surrounded by snowy mountains and entered a village with others wearing light clothing, as if the cold doesn’t bother them.

Kaze then meets up with Rinkah & Corrin in the village. Kaze seems to be wearing a long scarf around his neck to protect him from the cold. As Corrin and Rinkah approached Corrin was the first to greet him, “We meet again. Its good to see you…” while he looks familiar Corrin can’t seem to remember until he pulled his scarf down, “Kaze, right?” Kaze ended up smiling and bent the knee with his head down, which took the princess by surprise, “Yes. I’m glad we found you, Princess Corrin.”

Corrin was now even more confused, “You are? Wait, am I missing something?” Kaze got up and insisted, “Please come with me. All will be explained.” Corrin still very skeptical reluctantly agreed, “Very well.” The three travelled across the snowy mountains for what seemed like hours. The cold was air felt like daggers cutting her face as she continued. All around her she saw mountain after mountain and nothing but snow for miles. She definitely would have passed out if not for Rinkah so she was grateful for that. “How much further are we to the capital exactly?” Corrin asked. Kaze grinned and said, “just beyond this mountain, and you’ll be out of the cold.” They were now in front of the mountain base and laze began to walk around the base of the mountain. Soon Corrin felt the sun light on her face and bathed in the sunlight for a while, until Rinkah urged her to move.

When she made it past the mountain, the sun’s harsh rays blinded her and warmed her body up. When her eyes adjusted her eyes filled with a mixture of wonder and excitement. Kaze noticed her silence of and said, “welcome lady Corrin to Hoshido.” Corrin has been in the tower for all her life so any thing she experienced always made her a little excited, but this sight itself was enough to move her to tears. At the bottom was a giant field of grass inhabited by anyone. Inside the gates she could see shops and houses for the residents to make a living. In the middle of the town square she saw a giant statue of a dragon wrapped around a stone. It was somewhat like the dragon statue in Nohr, the only difference being that it had its wings open, it was standing on the stone instead of wrapping around it, and it was made out of darker colored stone.

The bottom layout was nice but the true sight to behold was on top of the mountain side. Up the mountain was a stairway that lead to a castle on the mountainside. Corrin asked, “that castle, that’s where we are going right.” Rinkah nodded, “that there is Castle Shirasagi, where the Hoshidan Royal family lives.” The castle had a beautiful garden in the front and a waterfall going into lake after lake. The castle itself was very tall holding everyone and the entrance seemed to be very wide.

Kaze and Rinkah lead Corrin to the Throne Room of castle Shirasagi, which was a long walk ahead of them. After they reached the throne room Corrin was so tired her legs buckled as soon as she made it to the castle. Kaze and Rinkah gave her some water to rehydrate her. She accepted and drank the water, once she was done she thanked them and gave it to the others to see if they were thirsty. They refused and helped her up. The three now entered the throne room, only to find a samurai in red and gold armor standing in front of the throne. He had spikey brown hair, his vest was pure white and had a sort of regal air around him so he must be royalty. For some reason, this samurai looks familiar but she can’t put her finger on it, then it clicked in her mind that he looks like a lobster. She was about to ask Kaze, but she just saw him kneel to him and followed suit.

The samurai said with a straight face, “Welcome back, Kaze. Good work.” Kaze looked up at him saying, “Thank you, Lord Ryoma.” That name clicked in Corrin’s mind, she felt a small pain in her head as she tried to remember where she heard it from. “Did…did you just say Lord Ryoma?” Corrin asked. Rinkah answered, “Yes, this is the high prince of Hoshido, Lord Ryoma.” Corrin remembered a ninja saying his name and figured that was the reason, but something in her heart was saying that wasn’t the reason. Eventually the thought just went away and she accepted her fate, “I understand.” Ryoma looks Corrin in the eyes trying to see if she remembers him, “Hmm…” Corrin opened her arms and said with no fear, “What are you waiting for? If you’re going to execute me, please get on with it.” Ryoma turned to the side and stepped back, she turned to everyone was staring at someone. Then, a beautiful lady appears gathering the attention of everyone. She wore a white and gold priestess uniform, wearing a ponytail with a crown on her head. She had a small beauty mark on the left side of her chin, brown eyes, and a ring on her right middle finger.

The priestess saw the sight before her and moved closer and came face to face with Corrin, “I cannot believe it is really you…” Corrin usually felt nervous around others but this woman had a familiar calming presence about her, “I’m sorry, do we know each other?” She suddenly hugs Corrin and all the sadness she had building inside came out and let her tears fall. It makes Corrin freak out at first and she is confused as to why she is hugging her, but then she began to comfort her by stroking her hair and embrace the hug, even though this is embarrassing, “there-there.” “Oh, I’ve missed you so much! Corrin, my sweet child!” Corrin paused for a moment unsure if she heard right and asked, “Your sweet child?! What are you talking about? That’s not possible…”

The woman released her and wiped her tears away, “Oh, my poor Corrin. It’s a sad story. When you were very young, you were abducted by forces from Nohr. I am your mother, Mikoto. All this time, I didn’t know if I’d ever see you again!” Corrin was shocked and disbelief to hear this and had millions of questions, but this didn’t make sense to her. Her siblings said her mom died during childbirth, so for now she had to play it cool, “But King Garon is my father! None of what you’re saying makes sense.” The lobster lord said, “It must be quite a shock, but I assure you that she speaks the truth. I am your elder brother, Ryoma.” Corrin shook her head in disbelief as to what she was hearing, “No, no, no… Xander is my older brother! Leo, Elise, and Camilla are my siblings…”

Ryoma winces at the name remembering Xander from their fight, but the other names were foreign to him, “Are those the Nohrian royals?” She nodded and then slowly eased her into the explanation, “They’re not your family by birth Corrin. I still remember the day you were taken. In those days, there was tension between Hoshido and Nohr, but no full-blown war. Not until King Garon lured King Sumeragi-our father-to Cheve under false pretenses. He said it was for a peace conference. Ha! His real plan was to murder our father in cold blood. And to make matters even worse…he kidnapped you.” When Corrin heard the story she was still reeling from her shattered reality, but that part about Garon didn’t really surprise, “okay, that I believe.” Ryoma grinned a little, but then gave a concerned expression, “You really don’t remember any of this? Not even a single memory?” Corrin thought back on all her memories and answered, “No. Honestly, I have only the vaguest memories from my early childhood. The earliest thing I can think of is the day I met my siblings in Nohr, but only how I acted and not my reasoning. There are times when I can sense something beneath the surface… A blurry image. Like a stone at the bottom of a lake, shimmering and ethereal. But when I try to pick it out, I lose it and can’t remember. Even if I can remember, I instantly forget it and don’t think about it for weeks.” Ryoma sighed, “Well, I can’t imagine the Nohrian royals would share much of the past with you. I know this is a lot to take in. But it is good to see you again sister.”

Suddenly a samurai appears out of nowhere and kneels to Ryoma. When he spoke it was in another language, but luckily she had a lot of time on her hands in that castle so she naturally learned Japanese from books and teachers. So to translate the Hoshidan, “Lord Ryoma! I have an urgent message. We’re under attack from the north!” Ryoma’s eyes were filled with fear at the sound of this, “No! Hinoka and Sakura are in that area right now!” The Hoshidan confirmed this for a fact, “Yes, milord. I’ve been told that they’re working to help evacuate the villagers.” Ryoma brings Rinkah and Kaze up to their feet saying, “Very well. We’ll need to provide support. I’ll leave immediately.” He then turns to Corrin and says, “Corrin our sisters are in trouble, will you come with me? I want you to see the truth with your own eyes. Plus it will be good to see what you could do in battle and meet your sister’s.” Corrin was still unsure if they were really family but knowing someone is in trouble and she knew she could have done something about it, she couldn’t turn her back on them even if they were her opponent. “Okay I’m with you,” she looked back at her potential mother and said, “we should talk later after this.” Mikoto nodded, “I would like that very much, how about after dinner tonight.” “Sounds like a plan.” “Until then, please make yourself comfortable. Explore the castle, or stroll the grounds outside. You’ll be safe here.” She almost went in for another hug, but refrained because of her daughters memory loss, and instead just gave her a handshake.

After the awkward tension between the two, Corrin left with the others to save her supposed sisters. Mikoto watched as Corrin and the rest left on their mission. She addressed the samurai in a professional manner, “you’re dismissed sir.” The samurai bowed and left. Mikoto went back inside and went to her room. When she arrived she locked the door and let out all the emotions she was holding back. All the sadness, anger, and pain she felt when she lost Corrin was replaced with joy and happiness when she returned to her. The tears refused to stop as she was just overwhelmed with joy that her daughter is home.

She then heard a knock on the door and decided to fix herself up. So she wiped her tears, put some eye drops in her eyes, and straightened her dress. When she opened the door she found it was her retainer Orochi at the door with a grim look on her face, “Orochi what brings you here.” She entered the room and said, “its bad milady, its really bad.” Mikoto calmed her down by grabbing her by the shoulder and speaking softly, “relax, remember to breathe,” after she calmed her retainer down she asked, “I’ve never seen you so worried before, what happened?” Orochi took a deep breath and said, “I had a premonition about today and it regards you and lady Corrin.”

Mikoto sighed, “is what your about to say that, ‘lady Corrin returning has a bad omen.’ Or perhaps, ‘your death happens in a week.’” Orochi was surprised that she knew about her own death before her, “you knew this whole time? If you knew then why are you so calm about this?” Mikoto placed a hand on her shoulder and said, “I’ve know since the moment Corrin was kidnapped. That night she was taken I had a vision of how I died and Corrin’s future.” Mikoto lead Orochi to an empty picture frame and waved her hand across the empty frame. Now in the picture was a shifting photo of Corrin raising a blade in the middle. Mikoto took down the frame and when it shifted the image changed. “You see Orochi, after my premonition of my death, I received another vision of the future. Not of my fate but the one of my children.” When it was shifted to the right it showed the Hoshidan Royals and Azura standing by her side. “On one side Corrin joins Hoshido and follows her birthright, but on the other side,” she shifted the frame to the left and it was the Nohrian royal family this time, “she sides with Nohr and choose conquest instead.”

“So what your saying is her fate is undecided, she could either help Nohr win the war or help us win the war. Talk about a tough choice huh?” Orochi said. “That’s not the crazy thing, look at this,” Mikoto said as she placed it on the table. She then covered half of the frame in a shadow, showing the two crowned princes are shaking hands as the two royal families coming together in agreement. “It looks like she has the potential to unite the two kingdoms or destroy them. This could end the war Orochi, this could bring peace.” “All at the expense of your life?” Mikoto wore a sad look on her face saying, “Orochi I know you have a good heart, but this has to happen. A mother will do anything for her kids, even die for them. If I must die so that the war may end so be it.”

Orochi sighed knowing full and well that her mind was made up, “very well milady.” Mikoto placed a hand on her shoulder and hugged her friend, “thank you for your service Orochi, I’m proud to call you my friend.” Orochi embraced the hug and let out a couple tears, “I’m going to miss you lady Mikoto.” Mikoto also let out more tears, “I have one final request as your liege, make sure my children don’t find out and no one finds out.” She bowed to Mikoto and agreed to this.

Meanwhile with Sakura and Hinoka
Sakura was riding on Hinoka’s back while she is on foot, but soon they are surrounded by a horde of Faceless. Hinoka sent her Pegasus to fly a couple of villagers out of the danger, so that is why she doesn’t have her mount. “Sorry I’m slowing us down. Of all the times to sprain an ankle…” Sakura apologizes. Hinoka resides to give her a smile to cheer her up, “Don’t worried about it, Sis. We’ll be OK. These stupid beasts don’t stand a chance against me.” She placed Sakura on the snowy grounds and drew her lance. Sakura was still worried about her sister and decided to help anyway she could, “I hope you’re right…” she said as she pulled out her staff. Suddenly she heard a Pegasus neigh from above and pointed it out to Hinoka, “look up there sister, it’s your Pegasus.” Hinoka gave a whistle and the Pegasus came right away. She got on it and thought to herself, ‘let's hope I can make it out of this alive.’

Ryoma and company ran into the snowy region to and saw an army of Faceless there, he then said, “Take a look around, Corrin. This is a treacherous region for battle. It’s important to scout ahead and look for any troublesome areas.” When he turned around he saw Corrin was not behind him and asked, “where is she?” Rinkah turned around to see Corrin hugging her from behind much to her annoyance. “Why is she-” Corrin answered before he could finish, “I don’t do well in the cold and Rinkah’s body heat is keeping me from passing out.” Ryoma remembered something Mikoto gave him and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a small fire charm and said, “mother gave me this charm when I told her about you, it’s supposed to help with cold snowy areas so you don’t freeze.” She took it up and pinned it on her chest armor. “Thanks Ryoma, I appreciate it.”

“That’s great and all, but can you let me go now!?” Corrin immediately let go and apologized, “forgive me if I made you uncomfortable.” Rinkah’s face was slightly red but she said, “it’s fine, so long as you are okay.” Corrin then refocused on the mission, “so anyway, what’s the plan?” Ryoma said, “first, we locate our sisters and second we kill them all. How we do that will be up to you.” Corrin was unsure about this, but gave a confident nod. “all right think I can locate them but you need to be quiet.” They all agreed and waited. She closed her eyes and focused on everything around her, the cold temperature, the sound of monsters, and the feeling of snow between her toes. She focused in the farthest creature and heard a faint sound of grunting coming from the corner of the forest. Shutting out the monsters were hard to do, but not that hard. Eventually she heard a horse and a woman fighting. She then opened her eyes and saw two women surrounded by creatures miles away. The older sister seemed to be a Pegasus knight while the youngest seemed like a healer.

Ryoma noticed that Corrin’s ears were moved a little when she was focusing. When she turned around Ryoma and the others were startled by what they saw. Corrin’s eye pupils became vertical, her red iris color filled her eye and the area around her eyes turned grey and scaly. Corrin was confused as to why they were surprised but decided to brush it off, “they’re over there in the left hand corner of the field. So are you going to stare at me all day or do you want to fight?” Ryoma wanted to point out the change in facial features she had, but before he could she went back to normal.

Ryoma looked at Rinkah and Kaze and they just shrugged. He then said, “okay then Rinkah and Kaze will be under your command while I’m going in alone to distract the rest.” “whoa there, I know your strong but are you sure you got this?” Corrin asked concerned. She didn’t know him very well but that didn’t mean she didn’t want him to get hurt. Kaze ease her worry, “it’s okay lady Corrin, lord Ryoma is the best samurai Hoshido has. This won’t be a challenge.” Rinkah agreed, “its true he even went toe to toe with prince Xander.” Corrin thought Xander would beat him without breaking a sweat, guess she still has a lot of work to do to get stronger. “Okay then Ryoma. I’ll lead them west and you do your own thing,” They nodded and were about to go through with their plan before she stopped them, “but there are a couple of dragon veins around and the hills seem to limits their movements, so leave the big one alone.” Ryoma nodded.

Rinkah noticed to the side that a village’s gates were still open and decided to warn Corrin about it, “Hm? That village… Not everyone has evacuated yet. We should warn them to stay out of harm’s way!” “Good looking out Rinkah, go check out the village and warn them, Kaze and I will move up ahead.” Corrin agreed. Corrin and Kaze watched as Rinkah went to the village, while they went west. Corrin said, “I’ll stand in front to take the hits while you hit them from behind me okay.” Kaze nodded, “hope it doesn’t come to this, but I’ve brought some Vulnerary for you. Please use it as necessary, Lady Corrin.” “Thank you Kaze, I’ll use them wisely,” she said as Kaze handed her a Vulnerary with three helpings in one flask. She used her bracelet to put away the healing item for safe keeping. She then lead Kaze to the first Faceless to take it out, while Ryoma went north to distract the other Faceless creatures.

Visiting the Village was a smart move on Rinkah’s part because she met with an Old Man guarding the gates, “greetings traveler what brings you here,.” Rinkah wasted no time in explaining the situation, “listen you have to lock up the village, the Faceless are coming. I'll stand by to handle them you just lock up and hide.” “Oh, thank you, kind warrior! Everyone in our village is so grateful. Please, take this. Good luck!” said the old man as he gave her a Goddess Icon. She then saw Ryoma pass the village and went to attack the other Faceless, she then went back to Corrin to help her out.

Corrin sensed a Dragon Vein near by and lead Kaze to it. She hid behind a tree and saw a Faceless on top of the hill and wanted to catch it by surprise. Just then Rinkah tapped her on the shoulder and using her training, she grabbed her arm and flipped her. Rinkah fell flat on her back and Corrin saw what she did and quickly apologized, “sorry Rinkah didn’t know it was you.” “it’s fine lady Corrin, in fact it shows your more capable than I gave you credit for.” Rinkah said. “Well you did hit me over the with my back turned,” Corrin replied. “A dishonorable way of fighting I regret, but it was necessary.” Kaze interrupted the two saying, “lady Corrin your plan.” Corrin snapped out of it and told them to stay put while she uses the Dragon Vein.

When she was on top of the Dragon Vein, the Faceless immediately saw her and began to warn its friends. She had to use it now, so she summoned the power from within the Vein itself and destroyed the hill, unfortunately a Dragon Vein can’t kill people so it was unharmed. Rinkah was amazed at the site before her “Did you see that? The entire hill just disintegrated! Is that the power of a Dragon Vein? I had no idea…” Kaze stood amazed at her power, “To harness the ancient dragon powers is truly a magnificent gift. Yet I wonder if even the royals who wield that power can fully control it… Still, strategically using Dragon Veins could be the key to this rescue.”

Corrin got a closer look at the creature in front of her. It was a big green hulking creature wearing a mask full of holes, its wrist were bound by chains and a fowl black breath came out of its supposed mouth. She readies her blade and waited for it to charge at her.

Ryoma saw Hinoka block an attack meant for Sakura, and countered by spinning her Naginata slicing off its head. She then flew around Sakura to protect her while Sakura was keeping watch and dodging attacks. Ryoma yelled out, “Hold strong, Sisters! I’m coming for you!” he then destroyed a hill with a Dragon Vein and used his blade to summon lightning from above to destroy the Faceless. The lightning bolt fried it and he moved up to destroy the others.

Corrin saw the creature charge at her and waited for the right moment to strike. When it was within striking distance she stepped forward and sliced it in half or she would have but she heard the creature still growling and gave a backhanded fist. Before she could block, a shuriken went straight through its head knocking it down. When she began to turn, she noticed Kaze was right by her side. She then asked, “how did you do that?” Kaze just said nonchalantly, “I just jumped up and threw my shuriken at it, milady.” Corrin decided to try again only more specific, “I meant killing that thing, I’m sure I killed it, but it survived.” The gears in Kaze’s head started to turn and he explained, “oh, the head is the weakness. One hit kills them instantly, if it hits brain.” Rinkah stepped in, “I hate to cut this teaching lesson short, but more are coming for us.”

She saw that Rinkah was right, two Faceless were charging forward to meet them head on. As they all braced themselves for the attack, one of them attacked Rinkah first. She put on her Oni mask and prepared herself. The first one smashed the ground and threw a bolder at her, but she managed to dodge it. She then went in for an attack and saw Corrin with her she saying, “I'm with you.” Rinkah jumped up and attacked with her mighty club. When she struck the Faceless her club bathed her opponent in fire. Corrin then said, “let me try.” And attacked with a diagonal splash towards it, cutting off its head. The hulking creature crumpled to the floor. Rinkah asked, “trying to steal my prey, are we?” Corrin immediately tried to resolve the situation only to realize she was teasing.

Corrin was about to retort when another Faceless came to her and punched her in the face, staggering her a bit but not knocking her out. She looked back at it with rage, her eyes changed again and her body radiates magenta smoke. With her other hand she uppercuts him with unnatural strength, launching it up into the air. Kaze saw the opportunity and launched a shuriken at the Faceless head as it fell down. Once it fell down on its front, Corrin stabbed it downward style into its head, having it disintegrate right there. She cheered saying, “guess I did it right.” She received praise from them in there own way; Kaze agreed with her, while Rinkah nodded slightly. They made there way to the next Dragon vein to get closer to the princesses.

Ryoma had just finished killing two Faceless by slicing them into tiny little pieces. He then turned an entire hill to ruble in a matter of seconds and charged forward to attack the last one he saw. He yelled, “you die, now!” and kicked it and sliced him down the middle. Just then he remembered something and decided to contact Corrin, “Corrin I have some advice for you I just remembered. When you are in command, you can lead your allies in battle. Or, you can allow them to engage the enemy as they see fit. Just be careful to never let your guard down!” Looking up he sees his sister’s in trouble, Hinoka was letting running out of steam fast, and Sakura was trying to dodge but her leg was in a makeshift splint so it stopped her from dodging well. He hung up and ran over to help.

After Ryoma hung up, she destroyed another mountain and charged forward to kill the first one near them. Rinkah and Kaze paired up together with Kaze being the lead unit, and teamed up with Corrin to take it down. Corrin attacked first while Kaze attacked from behind her. Kaze decided to finish it off with a well placed shuriken throw killing it. Corrin then heard a loud sound coming from the mountain over there saying, “Do your worst, monsters. I promise I can be meaner than you!” Corrin then obliterated the mountain and saw two woman fighting off three Faceless, “I think I see someone over there. It might be the princesses. We should get close and try to speak to one of them.”

Sakura was facing an enemy holding her festal tightly saying, “I’m not scared of these things…as long as Hinoka is close by!” It raised its hand to strike her right where she stood. But when she opened her eyes she was unharmed, so she looked up and found the creature had steel poking out of its stomach. She looked to Hinoka and saw Kaze take one of them off her to lighten the load. Turning back to where the Faceless was she noticed a woman with pointed ears and red eyes in front of her. Hinoka then meets up with her wondering who was her new friend was.

Corrin met up with the two princess and asked them, “Hey, are you two all right? We’re here to help.” Sakura answered nervously, “Oh! Th-thank you so much. Yes, we’re OK…for n-now.” Corrin sighed out of relief, “Excellent. I think we have things under control at the moment. But please stay back for the time bring. We’ll take care of the rest of the monsters.” Hinoka was a bit skeptical of this character and questioned her, “Who are you? I thought I knew most of my brother’s troops.” Corrin thought about that question for a while but just said, “it’s a long story and we don’t have time to explain.” Hinoka just sighed and reaffirmed her strength by saying, “Anyway, I appreciate the help, but it’s really not necessary. It takes more than a few dozen 800-pound monsters to bring me down!” Corrin saw her clearly in trouble but was acting tough so she decided to pull one of her favorite tricks on her, “Well, I’m glad you’re feeling confident. Just know that we’ve got your back. We’ll just leave you alone.” She began to walk away from the two princess right away.

Sakura looked at her with a disappointed frown and Hinoka felt worse. She then chased after the mysterious figure and said, “Hey, wait a second!” Corrin gave a small smile but quickly covered it up and turned around. Hinoka said in an apologetic tone, “I didn’t mean to be dismissive. Thank you for coming all the way out here. I owe you one…so take this,” she then gave her a Concoction with two full servings, “You can use it in a pinch to heal your wounds. Now really, don’t worry about me. I’m at my best in situations like this!” Corrin put the Concoction in her bracelet storage, “Thank you. I’ll use this wisely.” Corrin was about to leave again but Hinoka stopped her pretty fast, “Hey, you never did tell us your name.” Corrin thought back and realized she was right, “Oh, sorry. I’m Corrin. Nice to meet you. Anyway see you around.”

Hinoka’s entire body went stiff when she heard that name. Thinking back she remembered Corrin had red eyes, pointed ears, and when she smiled she sometimes had sharp teeth. “Corrin? Corrin?! This can’t be a coincidence!” she said. As she watched her leave she smiled thinking how much she grew up. She didn’t know if she was really her sister or imagining it, but she didn’t care. Hinoka went to see her again but was intercepted by Ryoma. “Sister are you all right?” he asked as he regrouped with the others. She nodded and tried to move past him but he continued to stand in the way and said, “I know what you’re doing Hinoka and as much as I love a reunion, we are in the middle of a battle.” He made a good point as usual, so she controlled her emotions and said, “okay fine. But I need to know, is that really Corrin?” Ryoma nodded with a smile. That little Expression was enough to confirm it. Hinoka pushes her feelings aside for a moment and helps take out the test of the creatures.

After the reunion, all the royals and Kaze helped take out the remaining three Faceless. Sakura used the Dragon Vein to lower the mountain, Hinoka and Corrin took on one Faceless together, Ryoma took one by himself, and Kaze took one on to protect Sakura. Kaze’s Faceless was bigger and stronger than the rest so he assumed it was the boss, the sound it made confirmed it, “RWAAAAAAGH!” he decided attack it with his shuriken from afar only to get them brushed off as the boss charged at him. He ended up pushing Sakura out of the way with him getting punched in the gut receiving a decent blow. Thanks to the pair up he felt very little pain. Luckily he grabbed its fist and stabbed its arm. He was being waved into the air and throws him upward. On his way down the Faceless was about finish him, Rinkah’s spirit blocked the attack allowing him to aim for the head.

Corrin attacked from below, while Hinoka attacked from above. Corrin kept the attention on her and dodging as best as she could. Hinoka attacked when it least expected and killed it without hesitation. Lastly Ryoma waited for his opponent to move with patience. When it was close enough he sliced the creature in half and destroyed the head. After that he looked around and saw no other creatures left and went to regroup with the others.

After regrouping with the others Corrin made sure their were no other enemies and everyone was accounted for. The two princesses came over to talk to Corrin. Hinoka was still hesitant to get closer, while Sakura did the opposite and got up close and said, “Thank you so much for coming to our aid. Those monsters would have caused more damage if you hadn’t come. I have to ask, though… Who are you?” Corrin smiled at the princess and answered, “Oh, my name is-” Corrin was interrupted by Hinoka walking up to her. Hinoka answered for her, “Her name is Corrin.” Corrin remembered she had already answered the older princess and replied, “Err, yes. Nice to meet you properly. I almost forgot I introduced myself, so that makes you Hinoka correct…” she paused as she saw tears start to well up in her eyes and asked, “are you all right?” Sakura noticed this as well and asked, “Hinoka? Are you OK?”

Hinoka then put her hands and head on Corrin’s chest to hide her tears. Ever since the she became a Pegasus knight she tried her hardest not to think about the kidnapping and what might’ve happened to her, but seeing Corrin alive in front of her and real all her emotions started to flooded right out of her. Hinoka spoke softly that barely anyone could hear but Corrin could, “Finally…after all these years… I…I’ve missed you so much.” Hinoka begins to cry, “S-sorry…

Corrin ends up feeling a bit uncomfortable in this situation and looks to Ryoma while trying to comfort her, “Oh! Um…” Ryoma explained to the confused princess, “Hinoka was so attached to you when you were little, Corrin. When you were taken from us, she cried for months. One day she stopped crying and pick up the Naginata. And I will say…if you ever find yourself facing business end of her weapon… …you will soon be filled with major regrets about your life decisions. She vowed to bring you back to us someday… And now here you are.”

Hinoka regained her composure and dried her tears, “I’m sorry, Corrin. I’m not usually this emotional. But I’m just so happy to have you back.” She turn around and yelled in the distance, “Take that, Nohrian scumbags! We win, you lose!” Sakura was still in disbelief at the person in front of her asked Ryoma, “Wait…is this really Corrin?” Ryoma waved his hand as if swatting away a fly, “Yes. I know it’s big news. I’ll fill you in on the whole story later. For now we should return to the castle before Nohr deploys more monsters. Everyone, let’s head home!”

On the way back Corrin asked, “What were those things, anyway?” Ryoma calmly answered his sister, “They’re known as the Faceless. Creature with no will of their own. Created by Nohrian mages.” Hinoka interjects in her own words, “I call ’em dead meat. But they’re the only thing Nohr can throw at us right now. Our mother, Queen Mikoto, put up a magical barrier around our kingdom. Regular enemy soldiers find themselves without the will to fight upon crossing it. So long as Mother is able to keep the barrier up, Nohr can’t invade Hoshido.” Ryoma takes over once again, “That’s why Nohr sends those…things. They have no souls-no will of their own. That’s why they are able to penetrate the barrier and terrorize our borders.”

Corrin looked at her sword and was confused, “if the barrier takes away an enemy soldiers will to fight, why aren’t I effected by it, I mean I’m technically an enemy soldier right.” Ryoma explained in as little as he could because he couldn’t tell either, “well you are our sister Corrin, so mother must’ve known you wouldn’t want war, plus you fought to protect not to harm.” She still couldn’t believe what she was hearing, “But…the Nohrians wouldn’t send monsters to terrorize innocent people…would they?” Hinoka reaffirmed what she knew about Nohr, “Of course they would. They’re pure evil. Sometimes the Faceless even turn on the mages who created them. But the Nohrians don’t care. They’re willing to sacrifice their own just to hurt others. I’ll never forgive them for that, or for stealing you away. They’ll pay for all the suffering they’ve caused!” Corrin couldn’t believe it

After the fight at the snowy region, Corrin decided she needed some time to think about all this and took a walk. On her walk she thought about her supposed everything her supposed siblings said to her. She knew there were bad people in Nohr, but to think they would make monsters like that. If this is what they are capable of what else were they keeping from her. She shook her head trying to get her minds off her siblings who have been hiding the truth from her all her life. She smacked her forehead super hard to think about something else. She decided check her surroundings and saw that she at some lakeshore. She decided to focus on its details to keep her mind busy, The setting sun glistening over the water, petals falling over the lake landing into the pond, the calm quiet air around her. In the midst of thinking she unconsciously thinks, ‘if only they were here to see it.’ She then snapped out of it letting out a large frustrated yell, “ UUUUUGGGGHHH! I can’t stop thinking about my siblings…”

Just then Corrin heard a song from over the boardwalk on the lake. Corrin turned and a blue haired lady in a white and blue gown and a head dress, her eyes were the color of amber and she wore a necklace. She listens closely to the lyrics:
You are the ocean's gray waves, destined to seek
Life beyond the shore just out of reach

“Hm? What a beautiful song…” she said and before she knew it, she was hooked and drawn to her voice.

The blue haired lady kept singing not noticing Corrin at all.
Yet the waters ever change,
flowing like time. The path is yours to climb.

As she begins to sing her pendant begins to levitate and so do small droplets of water from the lake. Corrin was amazed at what she saw and involuntarily took a step forward, making a squeaking sound. This spooked the blue songstress and made her turn around.

The two starred at each other in awkward silence for a moment until Corrin decided to break the silence. “Err, hello. I’m sorry to bother you. I just got lost in your singing. There is something about that song captivated me…” Corrin said nervously. The songstress looked her up and down and came to a realization, “you must be Princess Corrin.” “Yes. And you are?” she said extending her hand. The mystery woman greeted her handshake without hesitation, “I’m Azura. A former princess of Nohr.” Corrin’s confusion grew more and more as the day went on, “Former? I don’t understand. If that were true, surely I would have heard of you. I grew up with the Nohrian royal family…”

Azura gave a bittersweet frown as she answered, “I’m afraid I’ve been here a long time. After you were taken by the Nohrians, the Hoshidan forces retaliated. They tried desperately to get you back, but they failed again and again. However, I wasn’t as heavily guarded. Hoshidan ninja easily kidnapped me. I suppose we’ve both been hostages for most of our lives…” Corrin felt a little guilty because of this, “Gods…I’m so sorry.” Azura reassured her that it’s okay, “No, it’s OK. I may technically be a hostage, but I’ve lived a happy life. The people of Hoshido have accepted me as one of their own. Even Queen Mikoto herself treats me as if I were her daughter.” Corrin felt a hole in her stomach, “Does she? Hmm…” she was unsure of her mom and was frustrated with the fact that she couldn’t remember her. Azura picked up on her troubled face and asked, “Did something happen between you and Queen Mikoto?”

Corrin sat down with her feet over the lake shaking her head saying, “No. I just don’t know what to do. She seems perfectly lovely, but I don’t feel any connection to her. But she loves me. And so do all my blood siblings-who I’ve just met.” Azura sympathize with Corrin because in a way they were the same, so she sat down and said, “I understand. If I were to return to Nohr, I suspect I’d feel the same way.” Corrin looked out in the horizon thinking about her siblings; how she use to play together with Elise, how she trained with Xander, how she studied with Leo, and how Camilla would always make her feel better after she had a bad day. She wasn’t sure if she was actually part of the family but those were the best times for her and it was familiar. This place was great but everyone is a stranger, “Do you think you could start over there? Live a new life among strangers?” Azura have her honest answer, “No. Given a choice, I would prefer to stay here in Hoshido. Queen Mikoto is a peace-loving ruler. King Garon is not.”

Corrin knew she wasn’t wrong, her dad was always cold to her any chance he got. He needlessly killed people for minor things, threatened to kill her siblings, she even punished her more severely and he even sent a murderer to kill her. If she saw him again she wouldn’t hold back and kill him. Azura changed the subject, “So, Corrin…what are you going to do?” Corrin thought about it a little and was still unsure, “I don’t know. For now, I’m just going to spend some time thinking.”

After thirty minutes of sitting and chatting, Azura got up and said, “well Corrin dinner is almost ready, let’s me lead you to the dining room.” She reached down extending her hand for Corrin to grab. Corrin accepted it and got up. She lead Corrin to the dining room pulling her along very fast. “slow down Azura we’ll make it in time,” Corrin said feeling like her arm was about to rip out of her socket. Azura countered, “I’m sorry Corrin, but the good stuff will be taken if we don’t hurry.” Eventually they both made it to the double door. “Here we are, the dining room,” Azura said while looking at Corrin, “you gonna be okay?”

Corrin opened the door to reveal a long hall with a table to match. At the end of the hall was a door leading to the kitchen, the other doors lead to where the soldiers went to eat if they didn’t have other plans. Within the dining hall she was all her supposed siblings, her mother, and a younger man with his hair tied back into a long ponytail talking to Hinoka. He turned facing her and gave a look of disgust. He had. When Hinoka looked in the direction he was starring in and saw Corrin and Azura at the entrance. She went over to greet them saying, “ Corrin how was the walk around?” Corrin replied, “it was something interesting, I found a lake by the castle and met Azura.” Hinoka smiled at that and said, “I have an idea, how you, me, Sakura, and Azura go explore the town when your free tomorrow. I can show you around and we can get to know each other.” Corrin gave a smile saying, “sure thing, sounds like fun.”

Corrin walked over to Mikoto and she smiled, “ah Corrin, I have someone to introduce you to someone.” She lead her to the ponytail man. Looking closer his hair reminds him of a pineapple, which strange as to why she keeps comparing them to food. Mikoto introduced the two, “Corrin this Takumi, your younger brother. He already knows who you are.” Corrin raised her hand introducing herself, “nice to meet you Takumi.” She extended her hand and he reluctantly takes it and shakes it. After he let’s go he goes to take a seat within saying a word to her. “Well nice to meet you to,” Corrin said sarcastically, “what’s his problem?” Mikoto looked apologetic saying, “sorry about him, he’s just not so easily trustful. Just give him time,” Mikoto saw Ryoma enter and clapped her hands together, “in the meantime, why don’t we seated for dinner.”

Everyone began searching for their seats. Sakura pulled Azura to sit next to her on the far right, while Hinoka sat Corrin down in between Mikoto and her. Mikoto sat at the very end of the table next to Azura and Corrin. Ryoma sat with Hinoka while Takumi sat by Sakura. At the table were plate with two sticks next to the plate and a glass on the other side of the plate. She saw a bowl filled with water and everyone was dipping their hands into it, so she followed there lead. After a while the servants took them away leaving them in utter silence once again. The awkward silence was to much for her to bare, so she broke the silence, “so do you guys always have dishwater as an appetizer or is this a special occasion?” Sakura giggled at Corrin’s joke. Ryoma decides to go along with it, “well we would have used mop water but we ran out.” Sakura's giggle turned into a chuckle at his joke, which was accompanied by Hinoka’s laughter.

Takumi was holding back a smile and laugh at the joke, but Corrin caught him. “So um… Takumi was it. What can you do?” Takumi raised an eyebrow asking, “what can I do?” Corrin elaborated, “well Ryoma is a samurai, Hinoka seems like a Pegasus knight, and Sakura seems good with medicine and healing. I was just wondering what your thing is.” Takumi got skeptical and said, “why do you want to know?” Corrin rubbed the back of her head nervously, “well back in Nohr I had four siblings, two brothers and two sisters to be exact. So I’m just trying to find the similarities between you guys.” Takumi was still dodging the question, luckily Ryoma asked a question, “what were they like Corrin?” Corrin was caught off guard by that, she honestly thought they wouldn’t want to know about Nohr, but still was pleased, “well they weren’t all bad if that what your asking, they were actually quite nice once you got to know them.” Hinoka just scoffed, “I find that hard to believe.”

Corrin tried to speak up but then the chef came in speaking in Japanese, “dinner is served.” The word sounded like Japanese but in her mind she heard English. Then servants came out and placed meal after meal on the table in front of them. The meals consist of pork buns, dumplings, Hamburg steak, rice bowls, fish, etc. Corrin's mouth began to salivate over the plate, but she composed herself. Mikoto said, “okay kids let’s dig in shall we.” They all clasped their hands together and ate. Corrin looked at Azura and saw she was grabbing one of everything like her and thought, ‘maybe we aren’t so different after all.’ She looked back at her plate and saw it was filled with different food. Compared to the rest she was like Azura. Mikoto then sighed, “this is nice, all of us here together.” Sakura spoke up agreeing with her, “y-yes, it really is,” she then took a bite of her rice.

A servant came out with some glasses and drinks. They began to serve the drinks to all the royals. Finally when they reached Corrin, they were about to trip and fall because of the carpet. As soon as the servant tripped, Corrin sprung into action. She stood up, stopped them from tripping and saved the pitcher from falling without spilling a drop. They then regained balance and said in Japanese, “I’m sorry milady, forgive me please. And thank you for the save.” Corrin was about to speak when Takumi said, “she just thanked you and apologized to you.” “Oh thanks for the help brother. I really needed it,” she told him sarcastically. She then faced the servant and spoke fluent Japanese, “it’s fine, I’m just glad your okay. And your welcome.” They then gave her a glass filled with a drink and left.

Looking back at everyone she saw they were all staring at her, but only Hinoka seemed to asked, “you speak Japanese?” she then answered in a different language, “Jitsuwa watashi wa,” she shook her head and spoke English, “sorry about that, I was trying to say I just know what people are saying. It’s like I can hear the words translated in my head, same with reading. So I picked up a couple phrases here and there.” Hinoka said amazed, “strong on the battlefield, kind to other and multilingual. That’s really amazing, isn’t it Takumi?” By the time she turned around he had already finished his food and his drink and excused himself from the table. He then went to go clean up his plate leaving his family to have a good time.

Corrin looked a bit disappointed he left but Sakura said quickly, “don’t take it to personally he’s like that with everyone at first, b-but he grows on you. Give him time.” She gave Sakura a small smile reassuring her, “don’t worry Sakura, I have a plan to get on his good side, but first what is important to him, sentimental wise.” Mikoto saw the look in her eyes and trusted her, “his Fujin Yumi is important to him.” They all looked at her with trust and she nodded. They all ate together having a good time and finished their food. When Corrin got up she asked, “uh so, where can I sleep exactly?” Mikoto gave a wide grin and got up from her seat and said, “follow me Corrin I will lead you to your room.” The two left the dining room.

After a long search, Corrin & Mikoto were in front old room at Castle Shirasagi. Mikoto turned around and said, “Welcome back, Corrin! This is your old room.” Inside she sees a pretty standard room filled with drawings, a bed, and tea set for children. Looking around she noticed she still had chopsticks in her hand and said pointing to her hand, “what about that?” Mikoto looked down and saw the chopsticks and she got embarrassed, “oh uh, these are my important chopsticks. I never go anywhere without them.” She then nervously laughs. Corrin joins in and steps on a piece of paper, she picks it up and says, “And what’s this?”

Mikoto looked at it and gave a sad smile, “Oh! That’s a picture you drew when you were a little girl.” She then pointed the figures in the picture and named it, “This is your father, this is me, and that’s you. It’s so cute!” “*sigh*,” Corrin sighed looking at the picture. Mikoto looked around the room with her smile faltering, “We couldn’t bear to touch a thing in this room after you were taken. If we put your things away, it would have felt like giving up.” She then reached up and caressed her face lovingly, “You’ve grown so much. I can’t believe how beautiful you are!” At the queens touch, Corrin reached deep down but still nothing. She shook her head and backed up, “I’m afraid I still don’t remember anything.” Mikoto seemed concerned at her reaction.

“I…I just don’t know how to respond to your stories. I do believe I could be your child… But everyone here simply feels like a stranger to me. I don’t feel any connection, I don’t remember anything about you all, I don’t even know what to feel.” Mikoto wanted to comfort her, but with how she is now it would only do the opposite. So she stayed back and said, “I understand, Corrin. Please don’t worry about it. Just take your time your memories will come back.” Corrin saw the sad look in her eyes and said, “I’m so sorry. Here you are, maybe my real mother, and I don’t feel anything…” Mikoto reassured her daughter, “Please. It makes sense. You spent your whole childhood in Nohr. I’m sure you were quite sheltered, not allowed outside, barely any visitors. It must’ve been lonely up there. You will need time to think all of this through and search your soul. But I hope that someday we can be a family again.” She bows her head saying good night and leaves.

Corrin is now alone in her room and had took the time to process the whole debacle. Her family in Nohr had known about who her mom was and refused to tell her. Thinking about how many times she asked she always received the same answer, ‘she was a good woman’ or ‘she died when you were born’ Etc. Corrin was now in her old room with no way of knowing her mom was and that angered her. Then their was Hans, the man who took Gunter from her, he was the reason for this whole situation he refused her orders and tried to kill her; now he was running free while Corrin was captured by Hoshido. Lastly tears began to well up when she thought about Gunter and how kind and fatherly to her he was. She then laid on the bed and sobbed into the pillow as the night went on.

Chapter 7: Baby steps

Chapter Text

Chapter 5.2

Corrin had woken up that night at 3 a.m. and decided to walk around and search the place. The halls were empty with no one around so she decided to go to the training area in the back. The backyard was massive filled with targets for archery and shuriken throws, training dummies, and other objects. In the room behind her she saw an empty room with wooden swords, probably a sparring area. She entered in the sparring room to find Kaze sleeping kneeling on his knees, or at least supposedly sleeping. She decided to back out slowly and leave him but the floor creaked causing him to answer, “are you all right lady Corrin?”

Corrin froze in place like she just got caught stealing a cookie from the jar. She cleared her throat and apologized, “sorry if I disturbed you, I just couldn’t sleep and decided to look around.” Kaze just smiled, “it’s okay, I was just meditating. Care to tell me what troubles you milady?” Corrin tried brushing it off and faked a smile, “oh, I’m fine. I’m just not used to this place yet is all.” Kaze asked her more determined, “lady Corrin, are you okay?” She then teared up after letting in her emotions and told him everything troubling her: her mixed feelings her siblings in Nohr, her retainer Gunter dying, the truth about her bloodline, all of it. “…I want the truth, but I don’t even know what’s true anymore. Was it all an act? Did they even care about me? Was I even part of their family?”

Kaze closed his eyes to think for a second, “when lord Ryoma had heard you were kidnapped his eyes were filled with hate and anger for what King Garon had done, but he also expressed worry about what happened to you there. In Nohr, I saw prince Xander's eyes filled with that same look when King Garon gave you an order, along with everyone else’s. King Garon might not have, but your Nohr siblings did and it hurt them. I don’t believe your siblings wouldn’t have hesitated if they didn’t think of you as family.” He was making sense at the moment but she was still unsure. “King Garon might not have been the best father for you, but your Nohrian siblings are family. My advice is to meditate on it,” Kaze got up and turned around, “good night, lady Corrin.” “Good night, Kaze.”

She thought about what he said and decided to follow his advice and meditate. After 30 minutes, she realized she had no idea how and ended up taking a power nap. She got up and decided to just walk around the castle. She then heard someone in the room and decided to eavesdrop.

Inside she heard Takumi saying some weird things such as, ‘that banana is mine, Ya crazy bastard’ or ‘don’t worry Oboro, I’ll be your date.’ She was sure he didn’t like her being here, but she was also curious about what made him tick. If only she could get him to spend time with her. Then it hit her, she gave a mischievous smile and entered his room.

Takumi woke up to the sounds of knocking coming from his door. He put on his robe and said, “come in.” Then a blue haired girl with the same pineapple shaped hair and amber colored eyes entered his room. She wore an orange and black kimono with a stomach plate in front and arm guards to match, she also wore black pants with diamonds on the side and boots. She with a sly grin on her face, “good morning, lord Takumi.” “Good morning,” he then checks his pockets and felt a note one. Oboro asked, “is something wrong Lord Takumi?” He showed her the piece of paper and read it:

Dear Takumi,
I challenge you to a duel! After breakfast meet me in the training ground, I’ll explain the rules when you enter.
Sincerely Corrin

Takumi then crumpled up her note and threw in the trash. Oboro gave a confused look, “you're not going to accept her challenge? Usually, you and Hinata would accept without hesitation.” “No way, I don’t trust her. This could be a ruse to get me to lower my guard and get information, well I'm not falling for it.” Takumi then opened his closet for his clothing and went behind the changing shoji. Oboro’s face gets bright red and she immediately turns around. She then says, “L-Lord Takumi, if what you say is true then maybe…” she then chose her words carefully, “maybe you can help convince her. if she is betraying us for Nohr, then maybe you could convince her to join us.” Takumi then emerges from the shoji in his normal outfit saying, “Oboro, usually you would get angry when Nohr is involved. This seems almost out of character for you, so what is your reason?” Her face started to change thinking about Nohr, but she kept at ease around Takumi so she was fine. “She is in a similar position as lady Azura correct, so she spent more time with them. Wouldn’t that mean she could tell us about the castles defenses, passages, and guards? Plus she is trained from what I’ve heard, so you can see how she fights first hand.”

Takumi thought about it and said, “well it would be a chance to learn about Nohr, but I don’t know,” he then opened his weapon trunk and his heart stopped for a moment. Oboro asked curiously, “is something wrong.” Inside he found his Fujin Yumi gone and only another note:

P.s
Incase you said no, I’ll be holding your weapon for you until you agree to my terms. The first one is keep this between us. Come and get me pineapple hair.
Sincerely, Corrin.

He ripped up the paper in anger and marched out saying, “she wants a fight I’ll give her one.” He then leaves the room and is at the dining hall, he calms down and enters the room to see everyone smiling. Mikoto was the first to notice him and said, “ah Takumi your just in time, breakfast is almost ready.” He then sat down across from Corrin and gave her his best Oboro stare. Corrin just asked smugly, “are you okay brother, you seem upset?” He then answered, “I’m fine, just curious…” he thought about his next words carefully and said, “…about what you were talking about.”

“Oh Corrin was just telling us about the time she stole some food from the kitchen in Nohr and escaped,” Sakura said. Corrin decided to retell the story from the beginning, “so anyway, king Garon allowed me to go to this gala which was the first time I was able to see the castle.” Takumi was confused, “what do you mean first time?” “I wasn’t allowed to leave the tower I stayed in, so any chance to leave the tower was a blessing. Anyway my siblings managed to convince him it was okay. At the party I was very nervous around these new faces, some were mostly just power-hungry nobles, others were kind and friendly. I soon smelled something sweet coming from the kitchen, so I hid under a snack cart and rode it to the kitchen. When I made it to the kitchen and the cart stopped I saw it, the Rainbow Fruit Cake.”

Sakura was grinning from ear to ear at the sound of cake and asked, “you wouldn’t happen to uh… have the r-recipe would you?” Corrin smiled and answered, “how about we make it for dessert tomorrow, deal?” Her cheeks got a little red with excitement and agreed to the deal. Just then the servants came and placed plates of Omurice, omelets, and rice with fish. They all dug in and tasted the breakfast and Corrin was again speechless at the food.

She swallowed the omelet and continued, “anyway the cake was magnificent The festive rainbow fruit cake featured colorful cake layers separated by cream cheese frosting and fresh fruit. As I saw the cake was too big to steal, I later found out that was used as reference to make mini cakes. When the chefs back was turned around I made my move. I grabbed about 12 and put them in a bag to help I was about to go back when the chef saw me. I ran out of there as the head chef chased me down the hall. Then I… I….”

Corrin then couldn’t remember what she was about to say after that. Suddenly Corrin just went silent and Takumi asked, “Corrin, are you okay?” Corrin then turned her attention to Takumi saying, “yeah I’m fine, why do you ask?” Ryoma then said, “you were telling us about how you escape the chef.” Corrin looked rather confused as to what he was saying until he dropped it. “So the gala in Nohr how was it, besides the cake.” Hinoka asked. Corrin then perked up at that and said, “oh it was fun, I got to dance, eat, mingle, sing. it was fun.” Azura paused eating and asked, “I didn’t know you could sing Corrin?” Corrin answered, “of course, I can also play piano if you like.” Mikoto clapped her hands together with a smile, “how about at dinner you and Azura do a duet?” Corrin and Azura agreed to this and finished their breakfast.

Corrin finished her breakfast and got up, “excuse me, but I have to go train. Do you happen to know where the training grounds are, queen Mikoto?” Mikoto felt pain hearing her call her that, but she masked her pain, “just around the back. Takumi will show you the way.” Takumi almost spit out his drink when he heard that, “*cough*… *cough*… don’t I get a say in this?” They all shook their head and he got up and lead her to the training grounds.

After they left Corrin then thanks him for showing her around, “I would be lost without some guidance, so thanks.” Takumi just brushes it off saying, “Just don’t get too comfortable…SISTER.” Corrin seemed confused by this and asked, “Pardon me? I don’t understand.” Takumi began to clarify, “let me break it down for you, I don’t trust you. You were raised by the enemy, you don’t remember us and you have no respect for personal space, so shouldn’t you be heading back to Nohr soon?” Corrin got in front and looked him in the eyes, “I’ll leave once I learn the truth.” She then followed to the training room.

Takumi and Corrin bonding
Once they entered the sparring room, he found two Shinai's ready to use. He then turned around and said, “okay I’m here, now where is my Yumi?” Corrin just smiled smugly and said, “slow down there speedy, first I must tell you the rules of the game first.” Corrin jesters towards the seat in front for him to sit. Takumi accepts and sits down. As Corrin sits down she says, “now I assume you have read the note. Did you follow my instructions correctly?” Takumi pinched the bridge between his eyes out of annoyance and replied, “I did.” She nodded and explained the rules, “if you want your Yumi back, you must play a game with me. The game is simple you must duel me in a one v one. First to land three hits on the body wins and before you ask, no tripping doesn’t count.”

Takumi thought about this for a moment and realized something, ‘the weapons of Nohr are different than the ones in Hoshido, she probably thinks they are the same weapon. If I dodge and block I could see how sloppy she is and win easily.’ He needed to know the whole story if he was going to beat her, “what’s the catch?” Corrin then pointed to herself, “if I win I keep the Fujin Yumi for the rest of the day, you can challenge me at the same time and place tomorrow to get it back,” she then pointed at him, “if you win you get your Yumi back, but either way the winner has to ask the loser one question about themselves and answer honestly. Deal?”

Takumi shook her hand and confirmed it, “deal.” They each let go and went to their respective areas. Takumi was meditating for his duel but Corrin was just napping for a the rest of the time. When he got up he picked up his Shinai and got into a fighting stance, only to realize 30 seconds later she was asleep. He poked her with the end of his Shinai and woke her up. As she then got up from her nap, he asked, “why are you sleeping, if you challenge me?” “well they don’t teach meditation in Nohr, so I tried to copy you but ended up napping,” she said scratching the back of her head embarrassed.

Takumi just sighed, “… let’s just get this over with already.” They both got into their fighting position and could tell the different styles between them. Takumi had held his blade outwardly with two hands, while Corrin had used a one handed fighting stance. Corrin was the first to attack with a wide swing, only for him to dodge with ease and counterattacked. His Shinai stabbed her, but she dodged to the right and kicked him in the face. Takumi clutched his nose as Corrin said smugly, “my point.” Takumi got into his fighting stance and attacked again this time watching out for her feet. Corrin was barely dodging his attacks and was losing steam. Takumi did an overhead and Corrin held her blade to block, but as she blocked she tried to kick his side only for Takumi to counter with his kick into a leg sweep into an axe kick.

Takumi got into his fighting stance and waited for her to fight. She got up and attacked with a diagonal jump slash, he then blocked it completely. Corrin expected this and let go of the blade to deliver a powerful side kick to his chest, he then blocked it and grabbed her foot. She then smiled at him and twisted her body to kick him in the face, knocking them both down. Takumi was groaning, “why is it always the face?” Corrin got up and summoned that dark energy she needed, that familiar feeling she got when she used against Rinkah and Xander resurfaced. He then got up and saw she was different then usual and decided something had changed. He knew he had to pull out all the stops with this one, so he pulled out a blindfold and covered his eyes.

The darkness shrouded his sight and he focused on the rest of his senses to amplify his surroundings. Corrin then moved faster than the eye can see and went behind him to head tap him, but he stopped it with his blade. She then began an onslaught of attacks with blazing speed and tremendous strength, but with his heightened senses he dodged and weaved from her attacks. She then charged at him, but he was prepared and used the but of his sword to beat her.

The score was now 2-2 one more point to win. Takumi kept the blindfold on, while Corrin calmed down and just decided to fight normally. She did a vertical 360 front flip into a spin slash, but they were parried by him and left herself wide open from behind hitting her back. With that, that was the game. Takumi took off his blindfold in victory and saw a crestfallen Corrin. She then grabbed his hands and surprises him with a beaming smile, “that was awesome, when you fought me blindfolded. You beat me without seeing, and then you managed to keep up with my speed and predicted my movements. We have to do that again someday.”

Takumi was taken aback by this sudden praise that he almost smiled, but he kept his straight face and got down to business, “yeah I know, anyway my Yumi if you please.” He held out his hand and she said, “remember the deal, you have to ask a question if you win. So ask away.” She then sat down on the outdoor bench. Takumi still skeptical sat next to her asking, “how do I know you will tell the truth?” Corrin then hold up a charm and places it on her chest, “this charm keeps me from lying, so come on tell me anything you want. I’m an open book, I have nothing to hide.”

Takumi then thought about his question very carefully and had to find one that answered all his questions, but didn’t want any loopholes and had to choose a specific question. He then got one in his mind, “are you a spy working for king Garon and whether or not you are please tell me how loyal you are to him?” Corrin’s smile faded and a serious sad expression appeared. Takumi saw the sadness she had and immediately felt regret, “you don’t have to answer yet just until the end of the day, if you-”

She suddenly shook her head no saying, “I set the rule, I’ll answer the question.” She then took a deep breath and said, “I’m not a spy for king Garon, if I were I would suck at it. I’m a terrible liar to begin with, so you would have to be very gullible to believe me.” She saw the look on Takumi’s face getting annoyed and resumed her answer, “as for my loyalty I have almost none for him.” Takumi wasn’t convinced at all, he then said, “really, you expect me to believe you have no loyalty to him at all?” She then clenched her fist thinking about Garon’s “methods” on discipline and her anger flared up so much it almost sounded like a snarl. “I don’t care if you believe me or not, but trust me, the only reason I didn’t betray him was because of convenience.”

Takumi genuinely curious asked, “what do you mean by that?” she put on her best warm smile and said, “you really want to know, don’t you?” Takumi nodded confirming his answer. Then she said, “if you come by tomorrow morning at the same time I’ll tell you.” She then left giving him his Yumi back, leaving him curious about her. He then looked at his Yumi and saw it a small stub, then he extended his bow to it’s full length and practiced his shooting.

Sisters and Corrin bonding
After her fight with Takumi, Corrin changed into some normal clothes laded out for her. She wore a plain white one piece dress and sandals, which was similar to the one she had in Nohr, only black. She then met up with her sisters and Azura at the front of the castle gate waiting for her to show. Hinoka was wearing a red t-shirt with black pants, Azura wore a white and gold shirt that left her midriff showing and a blue skirt, and Sakura wore a long pink skirt with a blue shirt. She appeared in front of the gate and was greeted by Hinoka, “hey Corrin, we were just about to come search for you. Where have you been?” Corrin answered, “Takumi and I decided to spar for a while, it was pretty close but I lost.”

Hinoka smiled and said, “well that’s fine, anyway are you ready? I want to show you around town before evening.” Corrin nodded and met up with her sisters. Sakura fidgeted with her fingers nervously being looked at by Corrin, while Azura politely smiled at her. They all descended the castle stairs and made it into town. Corrin saw the bustling streets full of people and shops to spend time in and was enamored in the sights. Hinoka got in front of the group, held up a list and said, “okay I have a list of activities we can do today, since Corrin is new here how about you choose.” Corrin looked at the list of activities and was amazed at the amount of stuff she could do. One activity ended up sticking out to her and pointed it out to her sisters.

“How about visiting the museum? I’d love to learn about Hoshidan history,” Corrin suggested. Hinoka looked uneasy but agreed, “I’ll show you the way.” They were on their way to their destination, on the way she passed vendors, shops, and a blacksmith. She had sparkles in her eyes at every little thing the smell of rose, the sounds of people, even the feel of the ground. She then sees a big building and saw it was written in Japanese. She pointed to the building and said, “that’s the museum right there right?” She was very grateful to be multilingual otherwise she wouldn’t be able to navigate the town.

Azura still was surprised she could understand Japanese fluently when it took her almost 5 years to learn the language fluently, but Hinoka and Sakura were very much not surprised. Hinoka nodded, “yep and I’ll lead you through there.” As they all enter the museum, Corrin was amazed at the sight before her. The paintings had depicted battles and legends of the past, statues were of various heroes who have passed, and the lore tablets were a great source of information. The first painting seemed to depict 2 dragons of different shapes and sizes fighting. Azura caught her stares and said, “ah, this painting seems to have grabbed your attention.” Sakura stares at it and recognizes one of them as pure white.

Hinoka gave an explanation for it, “this painting is a representation of the war between Nohr and Hoshido. See the dragons and land in the paintings.” In The painting was a long serpent-like white dragon that seemed to glow, while the other one was smaller but was equally as intimidating. Azura pointed out, “these are the 2 kingdoms respected dragons, the Dawn Dragon for Hoshido and the Dusk Dragon for Nohr. You could tell the difference between the two of you see the textures and colors used.” Corrin then looked around the museum and saw some other exhibits to get a better understanding of their history and culture.

Eventually she explored the full museum and came across a statue of a woman she didn’t know, but looking closely she resembles Sakura a bit. Corrin asks her sisters who that was but Sakura gave a bittersweet smile, “that’s our m-mom, Queen Ikona.” Corrin looked confused for a moment, that is until Hinoka explained, “Queen Ikona is our father’s first wife and all our mom, while Queen Mikoto is our stepmom, making you our half-sister.” Corrin then understood what she meant by that. Corrin then asked, “how did she die, if you don’t mind me asking?” Hinoka took a deep breath and answered, “4 years after Sakura was born she was bedridden before dying of sickness.” Corrin saw tears start to form in Sakura’s eyes and sympathized with her a little, after all she thought her mom was dead for years. She asked Hinoka loud enough so Sakura could hear, “hey Hinoka, don’t you think Sakura looks just like Queen Ikona?” Sakura looked up and had her eyes dried, Hinoka then looked at Corrin and smiled nodding yes.

They then left the museum and Corrin asked Azura what they should do next. Azura then insisted, “oh that’s fine, today is about you so do what you desire.” Corrin shook her head saying, “I insist, besides it’s no fun if we do what I want all the time. Plus I’m curious about what you guys do for fun.” Corrin then handed her the list of activities and waited for her to choose. She then landed on a shopping option. Azura explained, “I needed to buy something important.” Corrin and the gang traveled around the place until Hinoka found a blacksmith working on some new weapons, and decided to stop by. Hinoka talked to him and he gave her a new Naginata to purchase. It was equally balanced and the right size for her, so she paid full price for it. After she got her weapon she used her bracelet to put it away.

They then made it to the market and browsed around for anything of interest. Corrin saw a book store and took her sisters with her. The shopkeeper introduced herself with the usual sales pitch, “hi there, I don’t think I’ve seen you all around here before? I’m Jessica and welcome to my shop.” Corrin answered politely, “I’m Corrin, nice to meet you.” Jessica saw the princesses and said curiously, “lady Hinoka wasn’t your sister named Corrin.” Hinoka nodded saying, “this is my sister.” Jessica got nervous and was about to bow, but Corrin stopped her before she could.

Jessica asked what book she was looking for and Corrin answered without hesitation, “I’m looking for a book on poetry have seen any.” She looked around in the back and picked out a couple hundred books relating to poetry. Corrin looked closely at the titles and saw half were Nohrian and chose the first volume of Hoshidan poetry. She paid her coin for the book and Azura bought a book of folk songs. They then left after that and Sakura’s stomach growled like crazy.

Corrin checked the list and remembered a pastry shop they past on the way to the museum. Sakura’s face flashed a light pink as Corrin got closer, “hey I saw a pastry shop awhile back, want to go check it out.” Her eyes sparkled with anticipation and said, “yes.” Corrin took her to the shop she saw and they all ate something. Sakura chose an ice-cream sundae with banana, fudge, strawberries, and sprinkles. Corrin chose a shaved ice for her treat, while Azura chose an ice-cream scoop of vanilla. Hinoka ate some sponge cake for her. The four sisters enjoyed their own treats until Hinoka spoke up saying, “so how do you like Hoshido so far Corrin.” Corrin answered as honestly as possible, “I think Hoshido is nice, I still don’t remember this place but now I have new memories outside, that I definitely won’t forget.” Hinoka smiled at this and took a bite of her cake. Sakura asked, “what do you mean?” Corrin paused, took a deep breath and a spoon full of shaved ice. She then began to explain her past, King Garon’s orders to keep her in the tower, her never going outside, and her occasional company from her siblings and staff cheering her up. Azura took a bite of her ice-cream and said, “that makes sense, King Garon would say no to you leaving to keep you from the truth.” Hinoka had finished her cake and got angry, “it’s more of a dictator, what kind of person leaves a child in a tower for years up there without any outside contact.” Corrin answered jokingly, “Garon, who else?” They all laughed and finished their snacks.

It was Hinoka’s turn to choose a place, but she didn’t want to. “I think it’s time we go home. Besides don’t you have that duet with Azura?” Hinoka asked making sure she had time to rehearse. They all agreed and went to the castle to practice. After a long journey they made it to the castle, Hinoka and Sakura left them to practice. In the hall there was a grand piano and Azura asked, “so you have a song in mind for tonight?” Corrin thought about it about it and played a small melody and gave some vocals to set the tone. She then told Azura, “those notes are the only ones I will use in the song. So it’s fairly simple to follow along.” Azura was okay but asked, “what’s the song called?” Corrin answered handing her a sheet of music called “Scars” with the top highlighted for her. Corrin and Azura practiced for hours until it was perfect. After that they went their separate ways.

Corrin then bumped into Takumi at the training grounds and greeted him, but he coldly said, “hi.” She watched as he shot arrow after arrow at the targets and said, “how does that work exactly?” Takumi was annoyed by her questions and said, “look I don’t have time for your questions, I have to break my record. So if you don’t mind I need to focus.” Corrin held up her hands in defense saying, “okay, just curious is all.” Then a bell ring and dinner was ready to start so Corrin got ready and made it to the hall.

At the dining hall she entered and sat at the table, as she looked around she noticed the hall had a new addition to the place. A piano in the corner of the hall away from people. She sat down next to Azura and Hinoka with one space between her and Mikoto, while the others are opposite to them. The servants brought out the food and presented them with different foods from all points and dug in. The room was filled with endless chatter from the room and laughter from the room. Eventually everyone finished and Ryoma said, “Corrin, I believe you have told us you can play piano. Is that correct?” She looked at the piano then Azura and went to the piano to play her song. Corrin said, “this one is called ‘Scars’ enjoy.”

Corrin then played her melody and Azura began to harmonize with it. She then sang in a melodic voice the lyrics:

I refuse to lose
It's a part of me, but I choose
To not fill your shoes
With your mental abuse
In the moments when I feel weak
You may say it's 'cause I'm half a woman
But just remember the words you speak
Are the reason why my mother ran
Don't matter what you expect (Oh)
You think that I could pretend? (Ho-hoo)
Can you live with your regret? 'Cause
My wounds will never forget
The scars that you left
The scars that you left

Corrin then got lost in the song and let the music take over and sang with confidence:

It's the ones around me
That have helped me to see
That what's mine is not yours
The reflection of me
That I see is burning
Is the passion in my soul
In the moments when I feel weak
You may say it's 'cause I'm half a woman
But just remember the words you speak
Are the reason why my mother ran

Corrin and Azura looked at each other and came together and they blended perfectly together:

In the moments when I feel strong
I won't deny it's from the power you gave
But just remember you don't define me
It's my own path I chose to pave
Don't matter what you expect, no
You think that I could pretend? No
Can you live with your regret? 'Cause
My wounds will never forget
The scars that you left.

The song then end and they both turned to see their families reactions. Some shed tears while others were mesmerized by the voices, but they all applauded for them, even Takumi clapped at that. They took a bow and Sakura complemented them, “you were ama-amazing guys, the song was very beautiful.” Mikoto asked, “where’s that from, I’ve never heard it before?” Corrin got a little embarrassed and said sheepishly, “oh it’s, uh …my original song.” Hinoka and Ryoma were shocked, “you write your own music?” she nodded. Corrin was starting to form a warm feeling in her chest and she knew she was going to like it here.

Meanwhile while in Nohr
Xander wandered into Hans’s room with a bottle of strong liquor and asked, “you want to drink?” Hans allowed him to enter and they both sat down. He then cracked open the bottle and asked the prince, “so to what do I owe the pleasure of you being in my room?” Xander sat down at the table and said, “well, after Corrin attacked you I thought that you deserved it. I now see that I was wrong, I believe I should get to know you more.” “Well glad you brought this then,” Hans said as he poured two cups of liquor in there cups, “here have a drink.” They raised their glasses to toast and Xander spoke, “let’s toast …to new allies.” Xander was the first to drink and the alcohol burned his throat, but he took it like a champion. Hans took his drink and gulp and wasn’t ’fazed by it one bit.

After a few minutes Hans began to talk about brutal things, such as drugs, women, and battles he fought. Xander seemed to be sober but faked being drunk to get Hans guard down. Hans then finished his story, “…and that’s was the best night I ever had at a brothel.” Xander laughed drunkenly, “that-that girl mmusht have been either have low standards when drunk or you must have good game drunk.” Hans got a co*cky grin on his face and asked, “is that a challenge, prince Xander?” Xander brought out a second bottle and said, “yes I am.” Hans smiled and drank until he passed out from the amount of drinking he did. Xander got up activated his bracelet and contacted his siblings, “he’s out cold, move to phase two.” He removed his glove and whispered a silent thank you to Leo’s anti-drunk spell working on him.

Chapter 8: this takes the cake

Chapter Text

Chapter 5.3

Somewhere in a small town in Nohr, there was a training camp for men to become a knight of Nohr. In this place a man with silver grey hair and eyes to match came out of his tent to find a gathering is taking place on the field and goes to investigate. Suddenly a man slapped him on his back saying, “Silas my man, me and the people are going out into the town pub tonight, how about you join us?” Silas said, “I don’t know Jack, I should review training that knight.” Jack grumbles, but got curious about the knights gathering. They then went over to see what was going on.

In the crowd were Nohrian knights in training waiting for their leaders to give their final announcement. Silas heard the Major speak of something, “for those who are willing, there will be a test to take tomorrow night. Those who wish to enter will be advanced to the next rank only knights and lieutenants allowed through. If you pass you advance, lose and fail you get kicked out of camp or demoted. Come forth if you wish to take a risk.” After that everyone was silently waiting for someone to sign up. Then Jack walked up and wrote his name on the sign-up sheet and said with a smile, “this is going to be a piece of cake, who's next.”

After that a small group of knights signed up one by one until the list was half full. Jack took then caught up with Silas and so did the Major. The Major asked Silas, “hey I need you and jack to go into town for guard duty today, so you’ll be there for until afternoon. If you wish to enter the test might want to sign up before sunset. Who knows, you might be able to meet the king soon.” Silas fought back the urge to say something, so he calmed down and said, “I’m not in a rush Major Kang, I’ll see you around Major.” He then took Jack with him to the town to guard it from attacks.

Jack and him were walking down the street surveying the town for criminals or danger. Jack was talking about his dreams of leaving this place and making it big time as a knight, but Silas looks at his necklace around his neck and thinks about his best friend. The necklace was his most valuable possession not just because of the little black amber jewel, but because his friend gave it to him. He would have thought back to that day if Jack didn’t snap him back to reality, “Hey! Are you even listening man?” Silas apologized, “sorry man, I was just lost in thought for a moment.” “Still thinking about your childhood crush huh?” Silas’s cheeks got flushed pink and said, “I told you she is just a friend, but yes I am.” Jack then said, “do I have to be jealous of your old friend? Seriously though, if you miss her why don’t you visit her.” Silas sighs, “I’ve already told you I’m forbidden from seeing her again, the only way I can is by making myself a knight.”

Jack and Silas bumped into a drunk in a hood and he leaned on Silas. Silas eventually got him off and said, “be careful old friend,” and sent him his way. Jack then turned to Silas and saw something different about him. “Hey man where’s your necklace?” Silas then looks around his neck and found his neck was bare. He thought back and realized that he was robbed. He searched for him and found the thief getting away. Jack saw the criminal as well, he then looked to Silas and made a silent agreement to catch him together.

They then give chase in the city to catch him, but the thief is faster than they are. Luckily for him he learned the town's roads better than anyone else, Silas took a right to cut him off at the edge of town. He was running faster and faster to get ahead, but came up on a dead end. Looking to the side he jumped on top of some crates and dumpsters to gain access to the rooftops. After that he jumped from roof to roof catching up to the thief. Silas runs around a corner and jumps down into an alleyway and stays hidden until the thief is about to pass him. Silas then tackles him and holds his hands behind his back. Jack catches up clearly tired and checks his pockets, finding the necklace. Jack said panting, “how did… you know… where he would be.” Silas got the prisoner up and replied, “I’ve been studying the town's roads for years, I know how to navigate from one point in town to the opposite side of town.”

Jack shook his head and said, “I’m impressed, let’s take him to jail.” Jack and Silas cuffed him and brought him to the town jail for him to be punished. Silas then heard a conversation from the shops and it interested him, “…I'm telling you she had pointed ears. It's true.” Silas stops suddenly and listened in, “impossible no one has pointed ears, except dragons.” Jack stopped to see saw Silas frozen in place and asked, “Silas are you-,” Silas then shushed him and continued to listen. “It’s true, she had red eyes, bare feet and very beautiful.” Silas got involved in this conversation saying, “hey what are you guys talking about?” The shopkeepers stiffened and gave their best practiced speech, “oh, nothing sir knight. My friend was talking about this girl he saw in Hoshido.” Silas looked at his friend and asked, “tell me did she have pointed ears, red eyes, a head band with a clip on it?” The guy said, “yeah and what was weird was she had no shoes on.” Silas said, “you say she’s in Hoshido right?” he nodded eagerly and Silas left.

Silas was about to run back to the training grounds when his friend stopped him, “where are you going?” Silas just answered, “I’m going to go see my friend again,” and went to camp. Jack took the new prisoner to the jail site, while Silas went to sign up for the test. He was in luck because he got the last spot in the entire listing. Looking at the necklace he had he began to remember his best friend.

*flashback*

He was at this gala for the king of Nohr, where people try and do business with the king. Silas was wearing a suit and tie when he got there, only to see not many children were here. His parents then saw King Garon and approached him, “hello milord, thank you for inviting us to this gala.” King Garon smiled his creepy smile and replied, “happy to have you, but I don’t believe I met him yet.” He then pointed at Silas and he responds bowing, “I’m Silas milord, I’m their son.” He tells him to enjoy the party and have fun, but it’s super lonely here and there’s not a lot of kids here. He had decided to go explore the castle and was about go around the corner when suddenly, “oof,” he bumped into a girl with short wavy hair, red eyes, pointed ears, and she wore a blue dress with a necklace and had a duffel bag.

Before he knew it, she got up and extended her hand to help him up. She said, “sorry about bumping into you, are you okay?” “I’m fine,” he was about to introduce himself when he saw the bag and asked, “what’s in the bag?” she looked at the bag nervously and replied, “…Drugs.” That was an obvious lie, but when he was about to ask a voice came from down the hall saying, “there she is get her!” she looked back and saw the guard was running towards them and she said, “got to run, bye now.” She then ran down the hall without looking back as guards passed him. Silas ran to catch up to the guards and asked, “what’s going on?” the guard said, “some kid snooped in the kitchen and swiped the dessert.” That was all he needed to hear as he increased his speed and was right behind her.

She then jumped off the side wall to make a quick turn the left, then jumped past a laundry cart. Silas saw a cart and waited for it to move then resumed running catching up to her slowly, while the guards bump into the maid. Corrin runs right into Felicia making her drop Leo’s books. She looked up to see lady Corrin and bowed apologetically, “I’m so sorry lady Corrin, I didn’t see where I was going and-” Corrin then began helping her without question. Silas almost caught up to her, but stopped at the sight of her helping a maid. Corrin then said, “it's alright Felicia, it was my fault to begin with. So why do you have Leo’s books?” Felicia answered saying, “he asked me to recommend some books for him that I read, so I’m putting them in his room.” She smiled at the maid and gave her the last book running off to go escape. Silas then resumed the chase and saw her duck into the next room to hide from the guards, so he naturally followed her only to find out it was a woman’s changing room.

The women then screamed at him to get out and he did say sorry. He got out there with his cheeks bright red embarrassed at his actions. Corrin then felt bad about it and said, “hey, don’t be too hard on him. We were just playing tag and I got carried away a bit is all.” Some of the females were okay, but the others were still skeptical. She waited for the others to leave before exiting only to find the boy gone. She went to her secret hiding spot and hid to bag in a suit of armor. Jakob found her tell her, “Lady Corrin I have been looking for you everywhere, what are you doing here?” Corrin told Jakob, “I got lost exploring this place, then I saw this suit of armor and thought it looked cool.” Jakob led her back to the party, where she would be waiting to enjoy the party.

Silas was back at the ballroom and saw his parents speaking to king Garon and he approached him. King Garon said, “ah Silas, your parents were just talking about you.” Silas said with a smile and said, “all good things I hope.” King Garon asked, “they said you wish to be a knight of Nohr, correct?” Silas nodded yes and heard some footsteps coming closer. “I would like you to meet someone,” he then revealed a little girl hiding behind a butler, but comes out to see a familiar face. He was shocked to see the mystery girl he was chasing was the king’s daughter, but hid it immediately, “hi I’m Silas.” The girl was shocked but said calmly, “I’m Corrin nice to meet you.” The king said, “how about you go play with him for a bit Corrin.” Corrin nodded nervously and said, “of course father.”

The two walked away with the mysterious boy Silas and once they were alone, he asked, “so what was in the bag?” Corrin froze but then answered, “I’m guessing you didn’t believe me when I said drugs, huh? …It was just some desserts for later, I was going to share with my siblings and retainers.” Silas had seen her caring for others and being considerate, so he decided to believe her. Silas then asked her, “So the party is nice don’t you think?” She looked at him and smiled, “sure, if you like the eternal darkness motif. All we’re missing is a rainstorm and the night would be complete.” Silas laughed at that in agreement to the joke.

The two ended up having a conversation about their personal lives and had fun. They each learned about each other's hope’s dreams and favorite things. Corrin learned Silas was from a noble family with a long history to honor, he loved helping others, and was a great storyteller, while Silas learned Corrin was a kind and gentle soul who was quite awkward towards other and tried to be more outgoing. Corrin then asked, “what is your dream?” Silas answered with pride, “to be a knight of Nohr of course. I want to help people and uphold my family’s legacy, what better way to do that than by being a knight?” Corrin thought for a bit, but couldn’t think of one. Silas asked the same question, “what’s your dream?” Corrin then got defensive and said, “it’s nothing, it’s just too silly.” Silas was now more curious about it and persisted, “come on I told you mine.” Corrin still refused then she heard music and went to see what was happening.

Silas was following behind and saw dancing people having fun. Then got nervous and backed up nervously hugging a wall. Silas saw her nervously hugging a wall staring at them dancing and said, “hey, do you want to dance with me?” Her face then turned red at the suggestion he made then he says quickly, “you don’t have to if you don’t want to, I just thought you wanted to with you looking out at them.” She instantly speaks up making sure he understands, “no-no that’s not it at all, the truth is *mumble*” “Huh.” “I don’t *mumble*” “What.” “I don’t know how to dance, there happy?” Silas gave a slight chuckle at that revelation, but Corrin seemed angered, “oh, is that funny to you?” Silas shook his head saying, “no it’s just that, well you’re a princess and you don’t dance. I would have assumed you went to many dances at this place.” Corrin rebuttals, “I’ve lived in a tower most of my life what did you expect?”

Soon the song changed to a slow song completely and Silas took a deep breath, “what I’m trying to say is,” he then extends his hand and says looking away shyly, “come dance with me. It’s easy just follow my lead.” Corrin was unsure about this, but she didn’t feel nervous around him at all. Usually she was shy around others, but she felt comfortable around him. She blushed a little bit but slowly took his hand laid her to the dance floor. Silas instructed Corrin to face him and grasp his hand, while he held his hand on her side. He told her to watch his movements and be like a mirror only opposite. He then moved his left foot forward while she moved right back, and they moved in unison to the side staying front of each other. Corrin was slowly gaining confidence in her dancing and became less stiff relaxing. Silas smiled, “and you said you don’t know how to dance, you’re a natural.” She took the complement and got lost in the music, soon the song ended and she thanked him for the dance.

They ended up bowing to each other, then king Garon and some nobles stood in front of her. Corrin got scared and bowed her head. King Garon asked, “so child how are enjoying your time with the boy?” Corrin answered timidly, “I-I’m having fun.” Then he smiled, “good because I have a proposition for you-” just then Camilla and Elise came into view and made a grab for Corrin, “sorry father, but Corrin is needed may we borrow her for a moment?” He scowled at them but reluctantly agreed, “…very well.” Silas was confused as to what he needs Corrin for, so he asked, “what did you need from her anyway?” His dad said getting down to his level, “your mom and I made a deal with king Garon, to help you become a knight.” He was initially shocked but it then turned to excitement at the news. He then saw the look on his mom’s face and asked, “what’s the catch, what does he get in return?”

“Silas we’ve been going through some hardships at home where we have to lose the house. Luckily, we’ve come to an agreement: if we fund him with soldiers from our house, we keep our house and status.” Silas didn’t see that as a problem until his dad added, “ and marry lady Corrin. ” That made him shift to say, “what!” Then suddenly it got dark and a single spotlight appeared on stage and that’s when he saw her, an older looking mature woman with long purple about 16-17 years old wearing a purple and black dress that fit her figure. She then announced, “thank you for that great performance, now it’s time for a special guest to do a personal piece called ‘Mirror Mirror’ performed by my sisters. Let’s give a hand to princesses Corrin and Elise of Nohr!”

The crowd clapped as they entered the stage, Corrin was a bit nervous at the idea of playing for people but looked back at her siblings which calmed her nerves. She tuned out her surroundings and let her fingers graze the piano keys and play the notes in a soft melody to open up. She then begins singing in an angelic voice:

Mirror, tell me something

Tell me who's the loneliest of all?

She pauses after those note and then points to Elise to begin her violin playing. Once she does Corrin resumes playing but speeds up the tempo of the piano to keep up with her sister. The two played in perfect harmony and Corrin resumed singing seeming to gain everyone’s attention:

Mirror, tell me something

Tell me who's the loneliest of all?

Mirror, what's inside of me

Tell me can a heart be turned to stone?

Elise then began playing faster, while Corrin's fingers blazed from key to key faster than ever all across from one side to the next displaying her skill. Elise played her violin in and out on the piano solo. The piano was getting quieter and quieter then, Corrin surprised them all with her singing voice. She sung a high c for this part breaking a couple glasses in the process. She then resumed her piano snapping Elise out of it and playing as well. She then slowly builds up her voice to resume singing her song;

Mirror, mirror, what's behind you?

Save me from the things I've seen!

I can keep it from the world

Why won't you let me hide from me?

Mirror, mirror, tell me something

Who's the loneliest of all?

She then goes softly to finish the song:

I'm the loneliest of… all

The crowd cheered for her giving her a standing ovation. Corrin looked out at the crowd and saw Silas and Garon were clapping along the crowd. Corrin got up and with Elise they bowed to the audience and left the stage. Silas looked at her and smiled thinking to himself, ‘maybe this won’t be as bad as I thought.’

*end flashback*

Meanwhile in Hoshido

Corrin was frustrated at the fact that Takumi beat her in another challenge. She this time challenged him to a game of shoji to test his brain. The bet was the same stakes as yesterday, only doubled and instead of stealing his weapon, she stole his diary. She then returned it to her brother getting serious again saying, “alright what do you want to know about me?” he thought about his questions carefully and asked, “what did you mean by what you said yesterday, about being loyal because of convenience?”

Corrin thought back and showed him her back. What he saw was scars across her back and most were healed to the point of nonexistence. “I got these for speaking out when I was 10 years old,” he showed her a another on her stomach, “this one, because I tried to escape.” That alone made him feel even worse after what he said to her a few days ago. She continued, “I was scared of him to an extent, but as I got older and stronger, I grew more and more confident, up to the point where I disobeyed him to kill prisoners. My siblings and servant were the only friends I had in that tower, so I’m loyal to them not him.” He saw her welling up with tears thinking about it and wanted to cheer her up a bit. He thought back and asked, “hey Corrin, you said you had a suggestion for my Yumi, want to test it?” Corrin wiped her tears and said jokingly, “is that your next question?” “Nope.” Corrin nodded and got up to train.

Takumi took out a stick that extended into the Fujin Yumi, he reached for where the drawstring was and a beam of light illuminated as the drawstring. Corrin was so amazed and awestruck that she didn’t even notice Ryoma calling her. “Corrin, Takumi!” This however shook them out of their daydream instantly. Ryoma asked curiously, “what are you doing?” Corrin answered immediately saying, “Takumi decided to show me how his Yumi works!” Ryoma was pleased by his brother's willingness to show her his weapon, so pleased that he decided to join in. “Well since we’re showing weapons, here’s mine,” he said unsheathing his electric katana. The sheer electricity made all the hairs on her body stands up and as he slashed the air it was set ablaze.

Corrin was amazed at the display from the until Takumi shoots an arrow of light at the target destroying it on impact. Corrin thought about the display of weapon skill and thought about different trick they could do. She then asked, “hey Takumi, how does your Yumi work?” Takumi said with pride, “well the wielder must demonstrate a high level of concentration and will to call the bowstring. The arrows also require concentration, even the slightest drop in focus will cause the string to dissipate.”

Corrin thought about it and came up with an idea, “what about exploding arrows or grappling hook arrows. Oh, or maybe shooting multiple shots at once.” Takumi stopped her saying, “I don’t think it works that way, Corrin.” She asked curiously, “why not, if it requires your will and focus to use, shouldn’t we be able to will it to existence?” Takumi thought about this for a while and realized he never tried before. He told Corrin, “I’ll try it later, but thanks for your feedback.”

Corrin then set her sights on Ryoma and asked, “now Ryoma your blade is a sword imbued with lightning. Is it possible to shoot a slash of lightning at your opponent, absorb lightning to make it stronger, or summon another blade of lightning to your side?” Ryoma laughs at his sister's enthusiasm and said, “I have tried a slash of lightning and it did work, but I never once tried to do those other things you mentioned. Maybe Takumi and I should train together for a while to see if we can.” Corrin smiled at that but noticed the time and told them, “Hey um, I have to go I promised Sakura I would do something with her. Do you know where she is?”

Takumi answered, “last I checked, she was having tea with mother.” Corrin thanked him and ran to find them. Takumi and Ryoma looked at each other’s weapons and then each other. Takumi aimed at the target and shot an arrow of light, then he focused as hard as he could to split the arrows in two. Soon he heard a single hit from the target. He went to check and saw his arrow tip was wider than normal. He wasn’t going for that, but it’s progress. He felt happy seeing a new way to get stronger, but he also felt jealous seeing as Corrin knew more about the Fujin Yumi’s capabilities than him.

Corrin and mom bonding

Corrin knocked on the door to her mom's room and heard footsteps on the other side. She stepped back and her mom answered the door, “ah, Corrin just the person I wanted to see. We were just talking about you.” Corrin asked jokingly, “all good things I hope?” Mikoto invited her in to have some tea, which Corrin accepted. Corrin saw a neat and tidy room with a closet, a bed, a table and another door to the bathroom. She saw Sakura at the table and gave a nervous wave to her sister, “he-hello.” She takes a seat in between the two with and Mikoto pours a cup of tea for her saying, “sorry it’s a little cold.” Corrin reassures her, “it's fine,” she then remembered something her brother taught her and focused her energy to warm her palms with fire magic. The heat transfers from her palms to the cup and soon steam comes from the cup.

Mikoto asked, “how did you do that Corrin? It should be cold by now.” Corrin answered sheepishly, “well in Nohr, my brother Leo taught me how to use magic without a Tome or scroll. It’s very risky though and you have to use your life-force to cast it, luckily the lowest ranked spells cause the least damage.” Sakura looked concerned and check her vitals to see she is still okay. Corrin took a sip of the tea and was found it tasted good, “wow this is amazing,” “Thank you, Corrin, I made it myself.” Corrin smiled, “as great as this was, I’m here on a mission,” she turned to Sakura and Mikoto to make sure they were listening. Mikoto asked, “what is the mission?” Corrin answered enthusiastically, “a baking kind of mission!” This got Sakura excited and put a cover over it to keep the pot warm. Corrin remembered the promise to Sakura and got the plan set.

Corrin explained how she needed help gathering ingredients to bake the cake she told them about and her promise to bake it with Sakura. Sakura got up and led her to the kitchen, but Mikoto stopped them asking, “mind if I help you, I know a little something about baking.” Corrin thought about it and agreed, “sure thing Mo-” she stopped herself not yet comfortable with calling her that yet, “…Lady Mikoto.” Mikoto still felt sad but said, “I’ll lead you to the kitchen, follow me.”

The three ladies went to kitchen and Mikoto dismissed the people in there. Inside Sakura asked excited, “okay sister what do we do first?!” Corrin pulled out 2 mixing bowls, 5 baking pans, and a couple utensils. She then said, “first I need these ingredients: 10 eggs, sugar, flour, food coloring, heavy whipping cream, sweetened condensed milk, cream cheese softened at room temperature, and fresh kiwi and berries for decorating.” Sakura was about to go get the berries when a servant came in with all the ingredients she needed. Corrin and Mikoto just shrugged and took the ingredients.

Mikoto said, “okay Corrin, now what’s next.” Corrin explained, “this dish takes three separate things to be done. So, I’ll handle the cake with you, while Sakura handles the frosting.” They all agreed and went to the stations they were assigned. Corrin asked Sakura to pass her the eggs, then she does. Corrin then cracked ten eggs into the bowl very carefully. Mikoto passes her the sugar and Corrin was about to use it until a thought came to mind. She dipped her finger in the sugar and tasted it only to out it was salt. Corrin asked Mikoto, “um did you taste this to make sure it’s sugar?” Mikoto thought back and realized what she almost did and tasted it. She apologized, “sorry I can be a bit forgetfulat times.” Corrin just laughed, “it’s fine, one time when I made tea to cheer up my sister in Nohr, but I didn’t know the difference between salt and tea. She still drank it though, but tasted salt for about a week.” The three laughed at that story but went back to baking.

Sakura adds the milk and cream cheese to the bowl and begins to beat them until smooth. She did this for a while until she saw no lumps at all. Corrin looked over and said, “good work Sakura. Next, add in the extra cold heavy whipping cream and beat on high speed until it increases 3 times in volume.” She nodded at the instructions, and stared at the fruit. She managed to steal one strawberry and eats it without anyone looking at her.

Corrin then proceeded to beat her batter until the mixture doubles three times in volume, but Corrin was unfamiliar with baking so she held the whisk awkwardly. Mikoto guided her daughter’s hand and fixed her position, “see feels more comfortable right?” Corrin agreed, “yes, it is. Thank you for coming to help out with the cake, to be honest I wouldn’t know how any of this worked without your help.” After whisking up the batter, she uses a spatula to fold in the flour in thirds. She then resumed mixing, “everyone in the castle did everything for me, cooking, cleaning, even dressing me. Luckily, they stopped after a while, the cloth changing, not the other stuff.” She then finished mixing the batter and separated it into five equal portions for the five separate cake layers. Mikoto said, “if it means anything, I think you have a natural talent as a Baker.” This comment fills her with a sense of appreciation.

Mikoto then added different food coloring into each layer, folding it in lightly so you don't compromise the fluffiness of the batter. She then began to bake the layers at 350°F, each one took about 15 minutes to bake. Luckily the oven could take three at a time and there were the two of them. Corrin asked Sakura, “how’s the frosting coming along, sis.” Corrin could clearly see that she was snacking on the fruit, but she tried to hide it anyway, “ack, *munch* *munch* *gulp* it’s fine.”

Corrin gave a slight chuckle and took a berry and popped it into her mouth. She then asked, “how about we have taste then?” She then picked up the spatula licking the frosting and liking it. Sakura asked, “mind if I have a taste?” Corrin answered, “yes,” and with an accidental the frosting splashed her face. “Oops, sorry.” Sakura gave a mischievous smile saying, “oh it’s fine,” Corrin then saw Sakura move her hand into the flour. “Besides you should have done it like… THIS!” she said flicking the flower at her sister. Corrin rolls out of the way only for Mikoto to get hit instead. Sakura and Corrin had worrying looks on their faces, but Sakura had more worry than normal. Mikoto then got the sugar and started flinging it at them.

The three then began a food fight throwing ingredients at one another and they were loving every moment of it. For corrin this was the first time she felt like part of the family. This went on for a while until Corrin paused the game, she smelt the air and checked on the cake. She took the cakes out toplace them on the table and checked the inside with a toothpick. The toothpick came out clean so Mikoto said, “the layers are ready, now what?”

Corrin answered by taking a decorative plate out, “now we take the cake layer out of the pans and spread on some of the cake cream and top with a layer of fruit.” Corrin took out the cake layers, Sakura spread the cream, and Mikoto placed the fruit. After the Sponge Cake was layered with cream and with strawberry slices on top, Sakura used the remaining cake cream to frost the outside of the cake and Mikoto decorated the top with the rest of fresh fruit. When the finished cake was done, the three women stared at the cake to admire their handiwork. Sakura’s mouth was watering at the sight of it and said, “m-maybe we should get a slice, y-you know to... make sure it was made right.” Mikoto shook her head saying, “not yet, besides we did make a mess here we must clean up.” They looked around the kitchen and saw the mess.

After cleaning for a while, the chefs came to cook dinner for everyone. The three then began to set the table for dinner and separated to get ready for dinner. They each took separate baths and dressed for dinner. By the time they entered the dining room, the others were already there waiting for them. They took their seats and the chefs bring them chicken and beef with some rice on the side. The conversation was starting to get lively as everyone talked about their day. Hinoka was in the stables riding her Pegasus and training with Rinkah, Kaze and Azura hung out, while Takumi and Ryoma were in testing her theory about their weapons. After finishing their meal, the chef brought out dessert, their cake. It stood there in all its fruity glory, enticing everyone with its smell.

Azura was the first one to comment on it, “my, what a lovely cake.” Takumi said, “it's not about how it looks, it's about how good it tastes.” Mikoto was about to cut it, but thenshe gave it to Corrin saying, “how about you take the first slice?” Corrin hesitated at first, but accepted it and cut a big slice of cake. She then said something surprising to everyone, “Sakura hold out your plate for this slice.” Sakura placed her plate out and thanked her for the cake. She then proceeded to pass the cake slices around until everyone had a slice.

They each tooka biteof their sliceand were surprised by the taste of it. The family paused a bit until Sakura and Azura say, “Amazing!” They all then dug in and had a smile on their faces as they ate the cake. Takumi said, “whoa this is amazing. I wonder whomade it.” Mikoto answered proudly, “why, corrin did.” Ryoma was a bit surprised at that, “you bake sister? That’s amazing.” Corrin just played it off as nothing saying, “it’s nothing, I'm surethe cooks do it better.” Hinoka replied, “what are you saying, this is amazing! I doubt I could cook something this good.” Mikoto said, “she’s right Corrin, you said before that everyone did everything for you. The fact that you know how to make it from only seeing it once is impressive!” Corrin felt a sense of pride from this happiness. Whenever Corrin had accomplished something, such as successfully casting Leo’s spell with little effort, passing a test, or learning languages; king Garon never praised her for anything. She smiled saying, “thanks,” and finished her dessert.

Chapter 9: Knight test

Chapter Text

Chapter 5.4

Meanwhile in Nohr
Hans’s eyes began to open slowly and noticed a harsh bright light to his left. He jerks his head away and tries to move his hands to block the light, but when he tries, he finds out they are immobilized. Soon his eyes start to adjust and he finds his hands tied and his legs strapped to a chair. He began to struggle until a voice came out saying, “don’t bother. Those restraints are magically binding” He then saw a man with pure white hair, a blue hood, and eye patch on his right eye emerge from the dark shadow. He continued with a cruel smile plastered on his face, “but go ahead and struggle, it makes this more fun!”

Hans snapped back saying, “release me at once before I fillet you alive jackass.” He went to the side and picked up a small knife and hook saying, “a fighter till the end I see, you will make this interesting.” he then stabbed into Hans's leg and cuts all the way to the knee. The Berserker was used to pain so it didn’t bother him much, but still it does hurt a bit for him. He had to clench his teeth and fist to keep himself silent, which was enough to excite the guy, “what's the matter, cat got your tongue. Tell you what, how about a little game? if you can withstand all my methods without making a sound, you can go. If not then you have to tell me what really happened to lady Corrin.” Hans was silent but that look in his eye made him much more defiant. So, he took it as an agreement and got to work.

Meanwhile in the camp at night, ten knights in Nohr were gathered in front of their superiors waiting for them to speak. Major Kang was the first one to greet them all, “welcome, future knights of Nohr, to the promotional exams,” Everyone solutes the Major and he solutes back continuing, “those of you who have shown up have trained with us for a while, and it has been an honor to be your trainer. However, only few of you will be promoted and journey with us to the Nohrian castle.” The people murmured amongst themselves, while Silas paid close attention to his seniors as they spoke. “The games will consist of three rounds, horse racing, strategy, and combat prowess. The person who makes it to the top three recruits will be promoted and accompany me to Castle Krakenberg to meet with the king. Now let the games begin, everyone to your mounts! ”

The knights ran to their stations to get their mounts ready for the race. When Silas got to his chestnut-brown horse, Max (short for Maxine), he pulled out an apple and fed it to her. When the horse finished eating, Silas petted her long black mane, put on her armor, and hopped on. He used his feet to give her a slight nudge to start moving and grabbed the reins to steer his mount.

On his way to the races, he saw a comrade’s snow-white horse going crazy. Not even hesitating Silas went to go help, “hey what’s wrong with your horse?” His comrade, a female recruit with short brown hair and blue eyes, said, “He’s probably hurt somewhere. I'm trying help him, but he won’t stay still.” Silas got down off his mount and held up his hands whispering, “shh... hey bud, it’s okay. I'm not gonna hurt you, I just want to help.” he held out his hand let the horse come to him, but when the horse stepped down it winced in pain. Silas checked the mounts leg and saw a thorn in his leg, so he removed it as fast as he could and the horse whined in pain.

Soon the owner went over and horse calmed down by placing her forehead on the horses whispering, “it’s okay, I got you.” The horse calmed down and she turned to Silas and thanked him for her help. Silas got on top of his mount and rode off to the races. Cutting it very close he arrived saying, “sorry I'm late, one of our comrades needed help with their horse and I had to help them out.” Major Kang discussed with his fellow superiors and they wrote something down on their clip boards. The silver haired knight was nervous thinking he may have wrecked his chances at passing. After they finish Major Kang said, “while you did cut it close, you are here on time so we will continue as planned. However, never forget you are always being watched. Understood?” Silas bowed and accepted his order.

One of the knights gave a slight chuckle at Silas being scolded. Jack whispered, “it’s okay Silas, you did a good thing.” he then flashed a reassuring smile at Silas. This reassures him and he takes his place in the race. Major Kang then gave out the instructions, “Welcome everyone to the first test. Now I’m only going to say this once, so listen up. You and your horses are going to be riding three laps around entire camp, first one back here wins the race. During the race there will be obstacles in your path, it is up to you to figure out how to get past them.”

Silas looked over at the one who chuckled and offered his hand saying, “may the best knight win.” He however let his arrogance get the better of him, “I plan to,” didn’t take his hand. Major Kang started the count down, “3...” the knights readied their mounts, “2…” Silas readies his reins and waits for it, “1…” his hearts racing like mile a minute and the blood is pumping faster in his veins at the anticipation, “GO!!!!!”

At the sound of Major Kang’s words, the horses dashed off to the race. Silas gave his mount a slight nudge with his foot and with a flick of his reigns he rode faster. Silas got a pretty good start and was sitting pretty well in fifth place, however the arrogant rider was in first place and gaining speed. Silas made it to his first obstacles and they were fences. Some were big, some were small; but they were laid out with enough space to run through. Silas knew if he went around them, he would lose progress. He grabbed the reins and through their communication she ran faster. He made sure to go in as straight a line as he could, but soon a big fence was blocking their path. He commanded her to run faster, until she jumped over the fence with ease catching up with the fourth place holder. Maxine was pushing herself to the limit to get past every fence by riding in between them or jumping over them.

Eventually he made it to fourth place and made it past the first obstacle. He patted horse on the neck and Max appreciated it. He was gaining on the third place holder and made it to the next obstacle, hoop jumping. Running faster max jumped through the first three with ease and ran right next to third place holder. Looking to the side Silas nodded to her and made Max run faster than before. She jumped through hoops hoping that they didn’t lose pace.

Lastly the next challenge was a bridge with a 27 feet gap over a lake with the distance to match. Going around it would be a safer time consuming detour, but on the other hand the shortcut can give him an advantage or slow him even further. Silas directed Max to take the long way, but she wasn’t good with that. Silas patted her neck and said, “not yet Max, let’s save that for later.” She reluctantly agreed and took the long way.

As Silas rode to around the lake, he sees a couple his comrades attempted to jump it, but only ended up jumping into the lake. It wasn’t deep but it did slow them down. Once he went around the lake, he was catching up to third but decided to lay back and wait for the right moment. The first lap was coming to a close and Silas was still biding his time in fourth place waiting for the perfect moment to get ahead.

Silas finished his first lap and went back through the same process again. He decided to pass by third at the ring section and leave the rider in the dust. When he reached the lake he saw that his friend Jack was in second and decided to chat with him for a while. “Hey Silas,” Jack greeted his friend with a smile. Silas replied, “sup Jack, hope your not going easy on me.” Jack laughed at the statement, “in your dreams, golden boy. I’m just biding my time until the very end.” Silas then answered, “I like the way you think, but don’t think I’m slow. Me and Max got a few tricks up our sleeve.” He then proceeded to get a bit farther than Jack while still being in shouting distance.

After the second lap concluded he went through the same process again. He had just finished the hoop jump when suddenly a ton of barrels roll out in front of them coming out of nowhere, spooking the horses. Jack and the lead unit along with a couple others jumped over the snakes. The other had to gather their courage before continuing. Silas was back in fifth place and was going to lose, until he saw a way forward. Max charged ahead at full speed, the wind in his face the sound of hoofs on the ground, the rapid heartbeat, it was home for Silas.

Silas steered Max toward the lake making her run towards the lake. Silas the caressed her neck and said, “okay girl on my mark,” she then was close to the edge and Silas said, “jump now!” she jumped high up into the air and flew over the water, passing everyone going around the lake even first place. Everyone saw this and while everyone was amazed at the spectacle before them the soon to be second place lead got faster.

When he landed on the ground, he was in first place and crossed the finish line. The next to cross was the arrogant rider and then Jack. The rest followed suit and the Major stepped up and addressed them, “okay cadets, now that the preliminary round is done, we are going to do the real test. Return your mounts and within 30 minutes we will have your final test.” They each disbanded and went their separate ways.

Silas met with Jack and the two put away their horses. On their way to get lunch the arrogant knight bumped into them, but Silas apologized first, “sorry about that friend.” The knight scoffed saying, “you should be, watch where you’re going will you.” Jack stood up for him and told him, “hey what’s your problem.” “None of your business,” he looked back at Silas and said, “don’t think just because you won the first round you’ll be chosen. I’m going to win this thing.” He then walked off towards the mess hall.

Silas turned to his friend and asked, “what’s his problem?” Jack explained the whole thing, “that's Kenny Everett, his father is some rich associate of the king. His dad pays for everything, so he grew up to be arrogant and always took the easy way out. I’d watch out for him if I were you.” Silas wasn’t one to judge people hastily, but was smart enough to know who to trust. So he nodded and agreed to do just that and would have went to prepare for the next challenge, but suddenly he saw smoke coming from a burning building in the town. He told his friend and they both went into town without hesitation.

They managed to make it there just in time and saw a three story home on fire. A couple of other recruits joined to see the commotion in town. Silas asked a man coughing from the smoke and asked, “what happened here?” The guy coughed but answered, “someone caused the fire on the rooftop.” Jack came up and asked, “how many people lived there?” “about 6 people, but only 4 made it out. Some say they might be on the top floor or something.” Jack gave a worried look towards Silas expectantly.

Silas saw the fire was about to spread to the other buildings next door, he began to analyze the situation and came up with a solution. He turned to his group and asked, “okay cadets, who here knows magic?” Half the people raised their hands and he gave the order, “okay, those who can use Fimbulvetr, I need you to use the ice magic to stop the fire from spreading; while the rest who can’t try and use the Rat Spirit. As for the rest evacuate the houses next door and provide any healing you can.” Jack asked, “Silas, what about you?” Silas looked straight at the house and on fire and thought about what the guy said about people trapped in there. He looked back at Jack and gave him a determined look, at that moment Jack knew what he was planning and supported him.

Silas charged straight into the building with no hesitation. The heat coming from the fire, the lack of oxygen in the air being replaced with smoke, and the place crumbling around him was enough to hinder Silas's path. However this just an obstacle that he could overcome. He climbed up the stairs and heard crying from upstairs and was in the hallway. He called out to the voices, “Hey, are you okay?! Tell me where you are!” just then in the next room the ceiling came loose and gave in, causing the fire to grow for a second. He yelled completely worried for them, “WHERE ARE YOU!” he suddenly heard a kids voice coming from down the hallway. He proceeded carefully, but quickly.

He tried to enter the room, but it wouldn’t budge. Silas thought about what to do and came up with a plan. He rammed the door as hard as he could and broke the door down. He coughed as he inhaled a lot more smoke. He turned and saw that it was a nursery he entered. He called out again and he heard whimpering from the closet. He slowly opened the closet and saw a little girl about 9 holding a year old baby clearly terrified. He got down to her level and spoke calmly, “hi there, are you okay?”

The girl said, “I-I’m fine. I couldn’t get out, so I hid here. By the time the fire spread we were alone and no one came and…” Silas saw her tear up and patted her head smiling, “hey, look at me. You did the right thing, you could have gotten hurt if you ran out. Now follow me, I’ll lead you out of here.” She nodded her head and got up. He then asked her name and she said softly, “Katie.” Silas smiled, “nice to meet you Katie, I’m Silas.”

The two went out into the hall and he noticed some of the floorboards are going to give out so he pointed out which one to jump on. She followed his instructions carefully and almost made it across. His vision was dizzy from the heat and lack of oxygen, but this helped him notice the ceiling was about to give. He yelled out, “move out the way,” just in time for her to jump to safety. The ceiling came crashing down, destroying the path within the process.

The hallway was completely gone and all that was there was a giant hole filled with broken wood on fire. Silas called out to Katie, “are you alright?” she nodded yes and checked her brother making sure he was safe. He took a step back and jumped across the gap. He barely makes the jump, only to be holding onto the floorboards for dear life. Silas was very grateful for the fact that he was wearing gloves, because the floorboards were hot as hell. He tried to pull himself up but the floorboards creaked threatening to break underneath. He didn’t see anyway out of this, but he knew he had to send the kid away, “get out of here kid, save yourselves. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.”

Katie was about to leave, but she looked back and knew she couldn’t after he risked his life to save her and her brother. She then remembered the a metal broomstick that she never fixed. She tore a piece of cloth and used it to hold the metal. She held it over to him and said, “grab on.” He did as she said and he pulled himself up, for a little girl she was pretty strong. Once he was pulled up, he got her out of there in one piece.

He coughed trying to breath in clean fresh air instead of smoke. Katie’s parents were running towards him and hugged their kid. While Katie was explaining, Silas came up with a plan and put it into action. “Jack!” he yelled to get his attention, “use any form of wind magic to suck out the oxygen, now!” Jack gave the order and the magic users created a whirlwind around the building until the fire went out. Once the fire went out the people cheered and praised the knights for a job well done. Katie’s parents came up to him as and thanked him for his bravery. The knight humbled himself and said, no thanks required, I’m just a guy trying to do the right thing.” The family thanked him anyway and went to their way.

Soon Silas caught a glimpse of Major Kang and the other officers standing there watching him. He then approached Silas’s group and asked, “Silas I need a full report of the events that took place here.” Silas gave his full report of what happened in town, others interjected adding praise to Silas leadership. Once he concluded his report, he asked the Major, “anyway, we could’ve used your help out there, where were you guys?” Major Kang responded, “finishing your test preparation. After seeing you guy handling the situation, we figured you had it under control,” Silas was about to retort, but then he began coughing up a lung. Major Kang had a worried look on his face and said, “go to the infirmary and no that is not a request. You have 10 minutes before the last test starts.” Silas wanted to complain, but knew better than to disobey a direct order.

While he was hospitalized for ten minutes, Major Kang came to his bed to check up on him. The Major asked him, “how you feeling kid?” Silas answered jokingly, “like I just smoked a weeks supply of weed, but aside from that I’m just fine.” The Major laughed at his joke, but Silas then asked a serious question, “how’s the girl and her brother.” The Major was silent for a moment trying to find the words, “they’re fine, thanks to you,” Silas smiled a bit, but then the Major got serious, “Silas as your knight trainer, I’m going to give you a choice.” Major Kang took a deep breath and explained the next test is a mock battle with real blades and magic and announced he will fight last. He then gave him his choice, “in your current state it will be extra difficult to win your matches. So you can either stay here, rest up and heal, and sit the whole thing out; or you can join in your weakened and compete, the choice is yours.” Silas thought about what he just said and asked, “if I do this will I be disqualified and fail?” Major Kang looked away and didn’t give an answer, confirming his suspicion. Silas just laid back down and got some rest.

Soon the tournament has begun and the first person up was Kenny and some dark knight. One of the representatives hopped up stated the rules, “this will be a stamina battle, first to yield or knocked out wins! The last rule is no killing, understood?!” the soldiers yelled back, “SIR YES SIR!!!” The match began without hesitation. Kenny pulled out his iron sword, while his opponent pulled out a Thunder Tome. The knights circled each other before finally making their move.

Kenny charged him trying to close the distance between the two, while the dark knight was sending thunder balls towards him to keep him away. Kenny deflected and dodged the blast as they kept coming. Eventually Kenny was within striking distance and attacked, but the mage used imbued his electricity around his fist and clashed with the iron sword. Kenny had his opponent on the defensive and got his movements down packed. He then feints with a left and jabs with a right, hitting him square in the face. Kenny was delivering blow after blow and delivered a slash to the torso. After that he did a round house kick to the face knocking him out. The Major announced the winner as Kenny and he helped him up, taking him to the barracks.

The next fight was with a bow knight and cavalier. They both fought each other to a will to win, but ultimately the bow knight has won that fight. The cavalier tried to fight from up close, but they were slower and the bow knight was a faster shot. To the second bracket Kenny was brought back into the fight to battle a Fighter with a steel axe. Soon the fight began and the fighter charged forward swinging his axe like crazy to hit him, but Kenny managed to dodge the strikes. After 30 minutes of analyzing the fighters movements he concluded that there was an opening when does the overhead attack. Kenny’s patience paid off, he pretended to trip backwards and look helpless to lure him in. Once he was about to attack, Kenny got out the way and cut his stomach and back.

The fighter did a backhanded punch for that attack, knocking him back. Kenny got up and saw that his opponent was looking a bit woozy so he decided to act fast. He grabbed his blade and proceeded to attack. The fighter shook his head and charged. The fighters swings were a little slower and easier to dodge, creating an opening for Kenny to attack. While Kenny’s attacks were quicker than ever, the fighters were slowing down he was getting tired. After that he got knocked out, Kenny carried the heavy brute to the medical tent after being declared the winner.

The next round was Jack fighting a Malig knight. Jack was wearing his heavy armor and held a steel lance, while she was using a Fire Tome. Jack gave a silent curse and readied his lance. The Malig knights shot fireball after fireball at him, but he was able to barely dodge. He managed to get up close and personal with her but, hitting her would be difficult. She was quick and very nimble and blasted him with all she had, but he held up his shield to block the attack. He above his shield in his face and knocked her Tome out her hands. After that he gave one powerful shove knocking her to the ground and pinned her to the ground unable for her to get up. She tapped out and Jack was declared the winner of the fight.

Next up was the bow knight fighting a great knight. The great knight’s armor was incredibly difficult to break through no matter how much the archer shot. Eventually the bow knight ran out of arrows and had to fight up close, which was the biggest mistake you could make. The great knight managed to take him down with little effort, ending the fight. The Major felt a pit in his stomach as he saw who was next. The Major cared for Silas like a son and was looking forward to seeing him finally graduate, but he is a knight first and must do his duty.

He steps up and announces the next fight about to begin, the next fight is about to begin warriors take your spots.” When a female bow knight appeared, Silas was nowhere to be seen. The other were waiting but they knew he wouldn’t show. With a heavy heart the Major said, “well since he didn’t show, Silas is here by disqualifi-” “WAAAIIIITTTT!!!!” Suddenly, a screaming Silas came in running making it just in time for his match. His heavy breathing made it hard for him to speak, but he eventually did, “I’m… I’m here… for my test.” The Major smiled seeing him continue, but he had to hide his expression and remain neutral. “Before we begin, we would like to tell you that you have the option to not compete because of your injuries, but if you-,” Silas interrupted the Major before he could finish. “You could say it Major, I’m no quitter. Besides I’ve got this in the bag.”

The Major nodded and allowed the fight to begin. The female bow knight and Silas circled around each other formulating a plan of attack. Silas was still having stamina problems due to the smoke incident so he had to be mindful of how moved and breathed. He picked up his sword and charged forward, but the archer saw that coming a mile away. She tried to gain some distance and shot an arrow at him from afar, only for him to block her attempts. Soon he caught on to her attack pattern, and zigzagged around to avoid the whole attack. He finished by catching arrow and used the momentum to launch it back at her.

The bow knight dodged, but then Silas got up close and punched her square in the jaw. She then was pushed back a bit and landed on her back. Silas then got up close and held his sword to her throat. He told her to yield and she reluctantly did as he pressed his blade closer to her throat at the slightest twitch. He helped her up and congratulated her on a good fight. He then saluted his superiors as a sign of respect and led her to the barracks. The soldiers were gathering around and congratulated him on his victory over the bow knight.

After Silas had her sit down, Jack patted him on the back startling the Cavalier, “that’s our golden boy, not even a little smoke lung can stop him.” Silas laughed, “true, but it was a pretty even match. How about you fill me in on what I missed?” Jack explained to his friend all that happened, although he exaggerated a bit with his battle a bit. Silas smiled as he finished, “wow I really did miss out on a great show.” “right, but don’t worry I’m up next. So when I win this fight we might face each other in the finals.” Silas high fives his friend and says, “true maybe we’ll finally find out who’s stronger.”

Soon everyone heard the bell and ran to the stands. “Sorry man, but my audience awaits. See you at the finals?” Jack raised his fist. Silas gave him a fist bump agreeing with him. Silas went to his seat and saw both Kenny and Jack enter with their respective weapons. Silas analyzed the fight to see who would win: Jack was a heavy armored unit so his defense is impregnable, he tends to rush things and get impatient so that puts him at a disadvantage, and his place has better reach than a sword. However, his opponent is a mystery: since Silas never saw him fight he doesn’t know how he operates, but what he knows is that Kenny has lighter armor so he’s quicker. All he could do is pray his friend is the winner.

At the start Kenny rushed him, but Jack used his lance’s long reach to keep him at bay. As Jack thrust his lance at him, but Kenny deflected the attack and tried to attack. However Jack blocked with his shield and parried the attack, throwing him off balance. He then sweeps Kenny’s leg, causing him to trip. He then was about to stomp Kenny, but he rolled out the way just in time. Kenny and jack continue trading blows for ten minutes until they were heavily breathing.

During the fight Kenny was studying his opponent until he had spotted his weakness, every time he thrust his lance a gap in his armor could be visible on his shoulder. If he times his strikes correctly he could get a clean hit. Soon jack thrust again but Kenny’s quick reflexes allowed him to counter and stab him into his shoulder.

Jack suddenly felt dizzy, his vision was blurry, and his balance was off. Kenny attacks again with blinding speed, but Jack used his loss of balance to dodge. Kenny however, recovered and pressed the attack and sliced him up. Every slice and stab, causes Jack to feel much more dizzy. Eventually he fell to his knees and got a kick to the sternum, knocking him down. Silas watched his friend refuse to get up after the countdown.

A couple other knights came to help Jack heal up from the fight. Silas went to go see his friend in the barracks, but he was taken to the medic tent. One of the knights explained what happened, “this is what happens when you face off against Kenny, they get beaten to a pulp so bad they probably won’t wake up. I’m sorry Silas.” Silas answered, “thanks,” and walked away.

As he wander the barracks, he saw a shadow in the distance and decided to follow it. He snuck up close to see what they were doing. As he got closer, he saw his soon to be opponent, Kenny, pull out a mystery scabbard and placed his blade inside. Kenny then counted down from 5 before pulling it out and its dripping with a strange liquid. He gave a small gasp as he realized what was happening, ‘he was cheating.’ Kenny had put the scabbard away in his locker, closed the lock and walked away. Once he was gone, Silas sneaked over and opened the knights locker. Inside he found the scabbard and two vials within the locker. He took both vials and ran away from there.

He then found the bow knight he faced off against and asked him for a favor, “hey, I need you to take these to the medical tent to determine what they are. If its dangerous go to Kenny locker and swipe his scabbard and take them to the Major, if not place them back in the locker. Can you do this, please?” The bow knight was skeptical, but agreed to it. She then ran off to the medical tent, while Silas got ready for his battle with the great knight. After witnessing his friends fight he knew to aim for any opening in the armor.

As the fight began he charges the great knight and attacked with renewed vigor. He was focusing mostly on speed, while the great knight was blocking every single attack. He attacked the same for a while, until he faked him with an upward slash and instead went to the side and stole the shield he used. The great knight then brought out an axe to attack, but Silas knew how to easily beat an axe. The great knight swung his axe with great momentum, so Silas used that momentum against his opponent. Soon he found the great knight on the ground and placed his sword on his neck.

Once he was declared the winner of the semifinals, he helped him up and took him to the barracks to rest. After helping him out, Silas saw the bow knight he requested look into the vile situation. He ran over to her and asked her, “so, what did you find out?” She handed him a vial with a green liquid saying, “this vial contains the venom of a snake, the symptoms that it causes are dizziness, loss of balance, slight nausea, and drowsiness,” she handed the other into vial into his hand saying, “this is the anti-venom to cure you. If you don’t get injected with this before 24 hours happens, let’s just say you’ll be in trouble.” Silas suddenly put the pieces together in his head, ‘Kenny coated his blade in venom and planned to use the anti-venom to cure them before he was discovered.’

Soon a thought entered his mind and he asked, “what about the others?” she answered, “they are all alright and showed none of the symptoms it’s safe to assume that they were given the cure before they got there.” Silas was relieved that his comrades were safe and asked, “did you tell the Major yet?” she shook her head no and he continued, “tell him right away but, make sure under no circ*mstances this fight isn’t stopped. Understand.” She was a bit concerned about why he asked that, but agreed. Soon the bell rung and it was his turn to fight in the finals. He got into position and entered the ring to face off against his opponent.

Once he entered the ring, Kenny began taunting him, “out of all the people I have faced, you are the one I looked forward to beating the most,” Silas was just silent to the comment, “what’s the matter so scared you can’t even speak,” still Silas was mute, thus annoying Kenny more and more, “hey, I’m talking to you here, say something.” Silas then unsheathed his blade and said, “I’ve just got one thing to say to you,” he then goes into his fighting stance and looks at him with pure quiet rage, “let's dance.” Kenny gave a smug grin and got into position.

The Major was about to start the fight, when someone came to talk to him. It was the bow knight from Silas’s fight and she told him everything she was supposed to. He contemplates his decision but starts the fight, he then looks towards Kenny then Silas. He then makes his decision, “this fight shall…” he paused as Silas gave him a look of understanding, causing him to yell, “begin!”

Silas smiled and the two charged forward clashing their blades against each other. Kenny was stronger than Silas, so he had let him move past to break the clash. He then spun around to attack from behind, but Kenny was faster and parry the attack. The two continued trading blows for 30 minutes straight. Kenny was strong and fast, while Silas had more technique to one up him.

Kenny managed to knock Silas’s sword arm to the side, knocking him off balance. He then decided to go for a kill shot and aim for the head, leaving Silas no choice but to dodge. He moves to the side to dodge, but he still to slow and got his cheek sliced. Suddenly Silas started to feel strange; his body became sluggish, he had a headache, and felt like throwing up. He managed to hold it down for a while, but Kenny to go on the offensive. Silas tried to defend himself but he was too off balance and dizzy. He attacked Silas with new found fury and managed to knock him down.

After Silas was beaten to the ground, Kenny spoke, “this battle is over. Did you really think a newbie like you could beat a super elite like me?” Silas racked his brain for answers, but came up with nothing. Suddenly a thought came to mind, ‘what if I could fight while dizzy?’ and thought back to his first day playing with Corrin.

Flashback
Silas was looking forward to today, he gets to spend time with his new friend Corrin. His classes are done, so he has some free time; plus he can learn all about being a knight from the best. He is directed towards a tower by an old looking great knight with light purple hair in black armor. He lead Silas to Corrin’s room and knocked on the door. “Lady Corrin, are you in there?” Corrin replied, “yes Gunter, I’m just doing homework.” “Well I have a Sir. Silas with me and‐,” Corrin suddenly opened the door and she looked a bit different than at the party from before. She wore a pure black t-shirt and sweatpants with no shoes.

Corrin allowed him to enter, however Gunter stayed to guard the door. Silas was surprised to see her bedroom like this, but it was a pleasant one. Corrin spread her arms, “welcome to my humble abode. Over there’s the bathroom, that’s the balcony, and that’s pretty much it.” He then decided to complement her room, “this is a nice place you got here. It has a lot of character.” She went over to her desk and said, “thanks, but I can’t play right now. My brother gave me some political homework.” Silas asked, “how about I help you out? I know a thing or two about law and politics.” She luckily agreed to that and the homework was a breeze to finish.

After they finished, Corrin was unsure what to do now. She never had a friend her own age, who didn’t work for her father, before. Luckily Silas knew what to do and started asking questions, “so what do you like to do in your spare time?” Corrin answered, “I like poetry, learning and music.” Silas asked, “what’s your favorite poem?” She reached for her book on the shelf and said pointed to an old poem, “this poem right here called ‘Rapunzel and the thief.’ Its about a princess locked away in a tower by a witch, but thieves came and freed her.” Silas jokingly said, “sounds like you two have a lot in common.” She gave a small smile but didn’t answer.

They began to talk for ten minutes, until they heard a knock on the door. She opened it and realized it was Xander, her older brother. Silas's jaw dropped at the sight of the crowned prince, to be in his presence is an honor not many have. Silas got nervous and hoped no one noticed. Corrin asked, “he big brother, is it training time already?” He nodded and said, “I heard you finished your homework and came right over,” his attention went to Silas and asked, “who's this?” Silas stiffened seeing the aspiring knight in front of him. Corrin managed to introduce him, “this is Silas, my friend from the party. Remember I sang a song and the desserts.” As if a light bulb went off in his head, Xander remembered and said, “oh right, nice to meet you boy.” Silas bowed to the knight out of respect.

Silas began to speak, “can I just say, it’s an honor to meet you milord? I’ve always dreamed of becoming a knight since I was young.” Xander smiled and said, “it’s always nice to meet a fan. How about you come train with Corrin and me?” Silas smiled and agreed to this.

On the rooftop Xander put them into a giant mixer and explained the lesson, “today we are going to focus on ‘off balance fighting.’ The training today is to get used to the dizziness of poisons or headaches. Once your done mixing attack me.” Silas and Corrin were thinking the same thing, “is this safe?” they said. Xander didn’t answer and just started the mixer on high.

Corrin and Silas were grateful the went in without a eating anything, because when they exit they felt completely off. Silas just swung wildly in the fight, but Corrin was just watching him. Xander held back even further, dodging and weaving and using his dizziness against him. After that display, Corrin decided to join still feeling dizzy. Instead she made her weakness into her strength, she swung to the left and used the momentum of being off balance to attack the right. Xander blocked and parried the hit, but Corrin countered by backflip kick to the face. Xander retaliates by slicing forward, once she lands she bends over backwards and sluggishly dodges. Silas was watching intensely as she quickly adapted to fighting like this.

After an hour of training they have gotten use to fighting like that and Xander ended their lesson. Xander stayed for a while to catch up with his sister and get to know her friend. Silas asked, “how did you get so good at fighting like that?” Corrin carefully said, “I sometime get myself dizzy when I’m bored, so it come to me naturally. Just swing to one side, then attack on the other. For dodging, small movements causes you to dodge.” Xander complements the two, “Corrin you did excellent today, Silas you could use some training but you have spirit. You’ll make a great knight someday.” Silas was happy to here that and had good rest of the day.

Back to the fight, Silas got back up and readied himself, even though he was dizzy. Kenny said with annoyance, “stay down, final warning.” Silas was still dizzy but stood his ground and said, “I can do this all day.” Kenny charged forward, but this time Silas was ready. He did take Corrin’s advice and swung to one side to hit over on the other. It was parried but he did the same flip she did, kicking him in the face. Kenny attacked again dominating with his speed, but Silas drunkenly dodged and counter attacked like it was nothing. Silas has completely turned the tables on Kenny and is completely making a fool out of him. Kenny and Silas charged each other, but Silas did Corrin’s signature drill attack to knock him down. The battle was over and Silas had won, but he soon passed out and everything went black.

Silas then woke up in his medical bed resting, until he met with his friend Jack standing right next to him. He spoke up, “rise and shine sleepy head, you sure are full of surprises, aren’t you?” Silas asked, “what happened to me?” “you fell unconscious after beating the sh*t out of Kenny and humiliating him in front of everyone. You were out for three weeks.” Silas rose out of bed so fast he got light headed, “WHAT!!!” Jack laughed at that, “I’m kidding, it was only about ten minutes.”

Silas breathed a sigh of relief but asked, “what about Kenny, what happened to him?” Jack said angry, “he got himself kicked out for cheating, now he is never allowed to be a knight,” Jack helped him up and took him to the podium for ranking. When they made it, the knights were happy to see him and applauded him for his skill. They took their spot on the podium where the older knights stood in front of them. “ today we are here to witness the graduation of our junior knights. As I call your please step up.” He called everyone one by one and knighted the junior knights. Soon Jack was called up and kneeled with a goofy grin on his face.

Soon Silas was called and Major Kang was right next to him. Silas kneeled forward and waited for this to finish. Silas felt the cool metal touch his shoulder and he became a knight. He thanked them for the opportunity to be a knight. The council of knights dismissed the former junior knights and gave them their first job, “tomorrow we will be going to the Nohrian capital to meet with the king to discuss the war, so I want you all up bright and early at dawn. Dismissed!” The knights saluted the captains and left.

At night in a local pub, the now official knights were out drinking to celebrate their promotion. Jack convinced Silas and Major Kang to join them for a quick drink. Jack made a toast, a toast to new chapters in our lives.” They clinked their glasses together and drank their beer. Silas and Major Kang look at each other and saw the were about to finish. The both slammed their drinks down and saw they were tied. Jack order a big mug of beer and started a chugging contest that he participated in. The bow knight started counting down, “3… 2… 1… GO!!” The three chugged the beer for two minutes, until Major Kang finished first, leaving Jack in second, and Silas in last. The knights cheered his name , while jack joked, “how is it you can win against a cheater in a fight, yet you can’t out drink us?”

The dark knight asked, “how did you beat Kenny, weren’t you poisoned.” “Let’s just say a friend taught me how to fight dizzy.” Jack rolled his eyes knowing who it was, but didn’t say anything. After one more round Silas called it a night and left with Major Kang. Major Kang stopped and placed a hand on his shoulder, “do you remember the first day we met?” Silas answered, “of course, I was looking for my uncle’s house only to hear he died. Then I met you and in his will, you had to train me to inherit his house.” The Major smiled and said, “did you know I wasn’t sure what to do?” Silas was a bit surprised by this but shook his head, “I’m not the type to take on an apprentice, so I kept my distance. But the more I got to know you the more I started to care about you. Looking at you now, I’m proud to call you my student and my friend.” Silas smiled and thanked him. They each went back to their tents and sobered up before bed. Silas stared at the keepsake Corrin gave him and whispered, “don’t worry Corrin, we will meet again.”

Chapter 10: Mother daughter day

Chapter Text

Chapter 5.5

Another day another loss for Corrin as she challenged him to a race around the castle and lost. It was a close race with Corrin ahead, but Takumi had used a burst of speed to pass her winning by a hair. She said frustrated, “damn it, thought I had you this time.” She reluctantly surrendered the win and waited for his questions for her. Takumi then made an observation about something, “now that I think about, didn’t you say I get two questions the other day and only used one?” Corrin sighed reluctantly agreeing with him, “…very well, what do you wish to know about me?”

Takumi asked with a softer tone, “why do you keep challenging me and stealing my things?” Corrin hesitated for a moment but spoke telling a half truth, “well I knew you would have questions about Nohr and I had information relating to the subject, so I stole stuff that way I can give you information, if you earn it. Also, stealing was just a bit of fun.” She has a small laugh and scratched her head, but Takumi saw through that and shook his head, “I’m serious Corrin, what is the real reason?” Corrin got a little embarrassed about it, but she gave her answer anyway, “remember how you were the day we met, you were far colder and distant from me than the others.” Takumi thought back to how he acted and justified his behavior, “can you blame me, you were in Nohr for years and didn’t even remember us. I’d have to be a real idiot to not think you were a spy. Hell even with Azura here longer than you, I still don’t trust her to this day.” “To be fair, do you trust anyone at all?” Takumi hesitated, but refused to speak.

Corrin nodded agreeing with his statement, “I understand, but it was the way you acted that caught my attention. I may not be a genius, but I know what envy and jealousy look like.” Takumi stammers, “j-jealous, me, what makes you say that?” Corrin continued, “well you probably noticed but every time I complemented you on your victory, you get a bit red and your mouth twitches into a smile, even though you try to hide it. This tells me that you’re unsure about your skills and worthiness, right?” Takumi got surprised by her blunt answer and was about yell, but caught himself and remained silent. Corrin then said, “just like my other brother,” this made him curious and turned towards her, “he is gifted in magic and strategy, and was known throughout Nohr. But ultimately when it came to me, my siblings always diverted the attention to me. He ended up jealous of me so much I thought he hated me.” Takumi felt awkward being compared to a Nohrian prince, but decided to take it as a compliment. “We made up later, but I decided to learn from him and complement him when I can; with a little bit of teasing from time to time. He taught me magic, strategy, history. etc. What I’m trying to say is you guys remind me of my Nohrian siblings so I wanted to help you and even though I don’t remember you, you feel like family.”

Takumi then says something unexpected, “for my second question, if you won what would you want to ask me right now?” Corrin smiled and asked, “I would like to know what father was like, before he died.” Takumi gave a small chuckle and grated her wish, “Father cared deeply for his family, had fun with us every time were together, he was the best father he could be. He was brave like all kings should be, yet kind to all people even our enemies.” They then began talking about Sumeragi and what he was like. Eventually he stopped and decided to show her, “hey Corrin, check this out.” He aimed his Yumi at his target and fired a light arrow. In midair it split into two separate arrows hitting the far side of the outer target. Corrin wasn’t sure what amazed her more, the fact that her theory being correct or the fact that he got this far in a day. Corrin and Takumi spent some time together before Ryoma came by again.

Corrin asked, “Ryoma do you need me for something?” He told her, “Yes actually, I’d like for you to come with me to the lake. We’re having fish tomorrow and well I like to start early.” Corrin agreed and said goodbye to Takumi as she went to go fishing with her brother. Takumi thought back to how nice she seemed and thought, “maybe, she is all bad.”

Corrin and Ryoma made it to the lake and saw Azura singing on the pier. Ryoma paused at the sight of his sister singing and what they saw next shocked them. Her amulet glowed a little bit and as her feet touched the water, she began to dance on the water without sinking. The dancing was so fluid and graceful it had her mesmerized, it would have gone on longer if Ryoma hadn’t stepped out of the bushes. “Azura!” he yelled to get her attention. The sudden call was enough to cause her to lose focus and fall into the water. Corrin came out worried she would drown however; she emerged from the water and swam to shore. She looked a bit angry at Ryoma saying, “Ryoma, I told you before not to surprise me when I’m practicing!” Ryoma laughed and said jokingly, “sorry, but I was going to fish with Corrin and I didn’t know you were here.” She was still annoyed but let it go, “I’ll forgive you, but only if you give me your dessert at dinner.” He smiles in agreement, “deal.”

She decided to stay and help out with fishing to make it faster. Ryoma instructs her on the different methods on how to fish: spear fishing, fishing with your hands, or using a fishing rod. “I would go with the bare-handed fishing, the water is amazing,” Azura suggested. Corrin and the rest jumped in the pond and proceeded to capture fish after fish. This went on for a while and Ryoma picked up the last fish. Corrin was still in there with Azura searching underwater but she was running out of air. She then swam up with Azura in tow to the surface. When she exits the water, she swam to the land and they took a break.

Ryoma asked, “so, how are you enjoying your time in Hoshido?” Corrin answered as honestly as possible, “it’s nice, so far the people are nice and the sights are very beautiful here.” Ryoma couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride at that, until she said, “but, it’s very strange though.” Azura sympathized and said, “I understand to some extent, although I didn’t have any friends in Nohr when I left, I felt a bit homesick.” Ryoma knew what she was saying, Nohr was the only home she knew and now that she was in another country with her birth family, she couldn’t forget her other home.

Ryoma decided to talk about something else and said, “so how are things with Takumi? Correct me if I’m wrong but, you two seemed to be getting along.” Corrin smiled awkwardly and answered, “well I’ve always been good at getting people to open up, especially my opponents.” Azura asked, “how did you get him to open up, I’ve tried for years but he still refuses to let me call him by name.” Corrin let out a small chuckle and answered, “well it’s still a work in progress but I think I’m wearing him down, he started taking my advice so that’s something.” Ryoma interjected, “so not that much huh?” Corrin nodded. The three continued their conversation till noon, then Mikoto found Corrin.

“Ah hello children, good to see you relaxing.” Mikoto said happily. Corrin bowed in her presence, “hello queen Mikoto, we were just fishing. Look at all we caught.” She saw a bunch of fish in the basket and clasp her hands together, “wow we’ll feast tomorrow.” Mikoto got serious for a moment, “I want to ask, Corrin you want to spend the rest of the day with me?” Corrin smiled at that and said, “yes, I’d love to.” The girls went to go into town leaving Ryoma and Azura alone, so they could have time together.

Mikoto decided, “how about we go buy some clothing for you. In a few days, I’m officially going to announce your return to all citizens and formally welcome you back to Hoshido.” Corrin was speechless at the news and didn’t know what to say, so she just said, “that sounds good, so let’s go.” She led the way to the clothing store, but remembered she never traveled to the clothing store before. Mikoto gave a small giggle and led her to the store.

Mikoto lead her to the clothing store. On the inside, a female employee greeted them, “welcome to the clothing store. Oh, hello Queen Mikoto; whose this?” The queen answered, “this is my daughter Corrin.” Corrin smiled and introduced herself, “hello.” The employee smiled, “well have a look around to see what you like.” Corrin and Mikoto each pick out different clothing to see what looks good on them. Corrin had a grey sleeveless dress with black stockings and a striped shirt with denim pants; while Mikoto had a creamy white and blue dress, a grey shirt with shorts, and a purple shirt with a kitten on the front and a silk jacket.

Corrin and Mikoto entered the changing room to try on their outfits and modeled the outfits, they laughed and complimented each other’s sense of style. Next they decided to try on one new pair of shoes each. Corrin wore strapped sandals, while Mikoto wore slip on shoes. Corrin was smiling at the fun they were having great time and Mikoto was happy to bond with her daughter. Mikoto and Corrin decided to buy their clothing and their shoes. Mikoto then asked, “okay so where to next? We could go to the theater, or to some places from your past, or-” suddenly her stomach growled causing Corrin to giggle. “How about we get a snack to eat.” Mikoto rubbed the back of her head and agreed.

Luckily for them they stumbled upon a food stand. Mikoto comments, “this stand serves the best Takoyaki in all of Hoshido.” Corrin tilts her head in confusion and asks, “what’s Takoyaki, I never heard of it?” “Takoyaki is a ball-shaped snack made of a wheat flour-based batter and cooked in a special molded pan. It is typically filled with minced or diced octopus, tempura scraps, pickled ginger, and green onion.” Corrin’s mouth began to water but she learned to control it and ordered for the two of them.

The two sat down on a bench in the park, Corrin takes one out and pops it into his mouth. The outside has a crunchy flaky taste, while the octopus was chewy on the inside. She gave a goofy smile and said, “this is good.” Mikoto was happy about this and smiled. Mikoto saw her staring in the distance at the everything in sight. Mikoto asked her daughter, “what are you staring at?” Corrin shook her head and said, “oh it’s nothing, I was just thinking about how beautiful the outside world is.” Mikoto agreed with her daughter, “that’s true, the world is a beautiful place if taken care of. However it could be very dangerous if you aren’t careful.” “That’s exactly how I see the world,” they both looked at each other and smiled.

Corrin took a bite of her Takoyaki and asked a bit nervously, “what was I like as a baby, if you don’t mind me asking?” Mikoto answers happily, “I’d be happy to explain. You were very quiet as a baby and rarely cried, but when you did get angry or upset you were very, how do put this, accidentally destructive,” Corrin was confused about what that meant, but Mikoto explained, “one time, before you were taken, you were woken up in the middle of the night and cried so loud it broke half the glasses in the house; plus the doors almost fell off their hinges. I had had to sing you a special lullaby to make you sleep.” Corrin was now curious, “how did it go?” Mikoto started to sing a small song:

It always feels so quiet in the dark
It always feels so stark
How silence grows under the moon
And it's always gone so soon
I used to think that I was bold
I always knew love was for fun
Now all my stories have been told-- except for one

The lyrics sounded familiar to her so she started to try and predict what she would say next:

As the stars start to align
I hope you take it as a sign
That you'll be okay
Everything will be okay
And if the Seven Hells collapse
Although the day will be my last
You will be okay
When I'm gone, you'll be okay

Corrin got every word correct and realized that she remembered that song. She decided to join her mom in singing:

The day that you arrived, the sun went black
An artificial night
You came and stole away the light
And put it in your eyes
How could I possibly suspect
That you'd eclipse the midnight sun
I thought that I knew all the moons
But then you pulled me back to one

Mikoto surprised at her remembering the song, but joined in all the same:

If the stars ever align
I hope you take it as a sign
That you'll be okay
Everything will be okay
And if the Seven Hells collapse
Although the day will be my last
You will be okay
When I'm gone, you'll be okay

And if the heavens crash aground
I know you'll hear the trumpets sound
And you'll be okay
Everything will be okay
And when creation goes to die
You can find me in the sky
Upon the last day
And you will be okay

Corrin ended up falling a sleep for a couple of seconds before waking herself up. Corrin apologized for sleeping but ended up explaining, “I remember that song. I wrote it when I couldn’t sleep at night, or at least I thought I did. I even sang it to my sister to help her sleep.” Mikoto wiped tears out of her eyes, causing Corrin to feel guilty, “oh, don’t cry, please.” Mikoto shook her head, “no these are happy tears, I thought you had forgotten me but I’m glad you still remember me a little bit.” They both were talking and finishing their food enjoying their time together. When they finished they decided to go back to the palace put away their spoils.

Once they returned, Mikoto told her, “hey Corrin how do you feel about all you can eat?” Corrin was confused and repeated it back to her, “all you, can eat?” Mikoto explained, “it’s a place where you go in and eat as much as you want for two hours.” Corrin had a smile and said, “I’ve never been to, well anywhere really, but it sounds like fun.” Mikoto said, “how about we all go out to dinner tonight?” Corrin agrees and they each go into the palace happy as can be. Mikoto then fills in the others about dinner and tells the chefs.

Meanwhile in Nohr
“Wow you sure have to be one of the toughest bastards I have ever broken,” said the tormentor. Hans was covered in scars and cuts, his nails were missing, his fingers were broken, most of his teeth were pulled out, and he was covered in blood. “well would you look at that, I’ve nearly run out of tricks to use. Oh well, time to end it.” Hans gave a smug grin to his tormentor knowing he won. But what didn’t know was that he was far from over with him. He grabbed a bucket full of some liquid and threw it all over Hans. The liquid burned his cuts and skin, as if acid entered his blood. He was so close to screaming but held it in. Eventually the pain stopped and he was feeling very good, in fact he felt downright healthy. He looked down at his fingers and saw that his nails had grew back. Using his tongue to search his mouth, horror set in as his teeth had grow back. The tormentor said, “now time for phase two.”

Hans decided now was the time to mouth off, “you lying son of a bitch, you said you let me go if I didn’t make a sound.” The tormentor rebuts, “true, but that’s if you can hold out for all my torture. Before I was just warming up.” He then took up a metal rod and a machete, and held them close to the fire. “Hans, I’m both a very creative and patient person. So I could do this all day. I’ll give you one chance,” he took out the two metal objects and said, “you could either tell me the truth of what I ask or I show you just how creative I can be.” Hans just gave the same look and spat in his face.

Wiping the spit out his face he spoke, “okay then, until your ready to answer, I’m going to continue.” Hans had him figured out he was going to use his sword and rod to cut him up while burning him. But unexpectedly, the tormentor went behind him and raised him up still cuffed. Hans began asking, “wait what are you doing back there?” He gave his usual twisted grin and said, “oh, I just found a good place to put this rod,” he then grabbed Hans ass and was about to sheath the rod when Hans yelled, “alright, okay, you win!”

The tormentor holds the machete over his crotch and to intimidate him, “good choice, now answer me this. What really happened on that bridge?” Hans ended shutting up and refused to speak, until his tormentor pushed the rod closer to his ass, “okay fine, what I said to the royals was a half truth…” Hans then spilled his guts, his mission, what happened, and why he did it. “Well that was good. Now it time for your reward for telling the truth,” he removed the metal weapons from Hans and was about to use something else for torture.

One hour later, the tormentor came to the common room and met with the royals. “Niles. how did it go, did you get what you needed?” Leo asked. Niles has a satisfying smile on his face saying, “oh, I got what I needed alright.” Leo was a bit concerned about the meaning behind that, but he would rather not know, “anyway what did he say?” Niles became serious for a moment and recounted everything Hans said to him. The royals were quiet as they he continued, eventually he came to the end, “…then he ran away and never looked back. Said the last thing he saw was her falling into the bottomless canyon to her death.”

Elise was crying into her sister’s chest, Camilla held her sister tight while keeping her rage in check so she wouldn’t harm her, Leo was left stunned at the revelation, and Xander, who was always the most calm out of everyone, ran right out of there with his sword leaving them alone in there. Leo asked Niles with a cracking voice, “did you erase him memory?” Niles nodded, “by the time he wakes up, he won’t know why his butt’s sore or what happened last night.” Leo turned to him and asked, “wait what?” Niles quickly changed the subject and left them alone.

Xander had disagreed with his dad from time to time and even when he would follow orders he would do things his way. But this time saw red and was on a war path and didn’t care about being proper or respectful. He barged in to the throne room and demanded answers, “father, explain yourself!” King Garon was mad at Xander for intentions his meeting with Iago and said, “Xander, what is the meaning of this. I’m in a meeting.” Iago tried to step in, “it’s clear that the prince isn't taking the news of Corrin’s betrayal well. Maybe he should-” In Xander’s annoyance, he cut him off, “not now Iago, this is between me and father. So stay out of it.”

Iago tries to speak again, but King Garon raised his hand and spoke, “very well, what is it that’s so important that you needed to interrupt my meeting?” Xander opens a tome and Hans’s voice confessing to everything. King Garon was unfazed by the whole ordeal, but Xander was furious, “how could you do this to Corrin? And don’t bother lying, Hans had a truth spell on him.” King Garon put on his best sad look and gave his explanation, “I had hoped to spare you, but I wasn’t lying about Corrin betraying us.” Xander’s anger died down a little due to his confusion, “what are you talking about?” “Iago told me that he heard Gunter told her everything about her origin and his plan to over throw me. He wanted her to get stronger to prove her loyalty to me just to stab me in the back. I questioned him, he denied it; but that look in his eye was enough to kill me. So I…” king pretended to choke up and said, “I couldn’t take the risk.” Xander shook his head and said, “that’s a lie, she would never betray us for anything.”

“I did the spell and showed Gunter and Corrin admitting to everything.” Everything deflated out of him and his sword became heavy, his knees buckled, and he hung his head in shame. Garon got up and placed a hand on his shoulder, then knelt down to face his son, “Xander I understand you care for her, but you have to understand as king you have to make the hard decisions. Now we have to accept that she betrayed us.” Xander felt defeated and guilty for how he failed her. Xander was eventually let out and explained to his family and Corrin’s retainers what father showed them. They each went back to their rooms and handled the news their own way.

Camilla carried the little Elise to her room, because she cried herself to sleep. Camilla then walked slowly back to her room, but as she walked back to her room she started remembering things about Corrin. The first day they met, her encouraging words, and the games they played. Once she made it back to her room, she allowed the tears to flow down her cheek. She curled up into her knees and let the tears flow.

Leo made it to his room and looked around the place. He looked at the picture she drew him when she was younger. He started to remember the good times and almost let a tear fall. Then he heard a knock on the door and put away the picture, “c-come in!” Felicia opened the door and asked, “excuse me milord, I just wanted to see if you were okay.” Leo just brushed her off and said, “I’m fine.” Felicia had a sense he was hurting, but he wouldn’t say. So she pushed forward, “are you sure, I feel like your upset about-” Leo turned around and yelled, “I said I’m fine!” Felicia was silent seeing the that his eyes were red and a tear ready to fall. The next thing she did was very surprising, she hugged him tightly. He tried to struggle out of it, but for such a small maid she had the grip of a pro wrestler. She held him until he calms down and all the emotions come rushing out of him.

Back in Hoshido, Corrin and the royals came back from the all you could eat buffet with full stomachs. Takumi shakes his head in disbelief, “I still can’t believe you are 8 full servings of food.” Ryoma interjected, “I almost thought you would’ve went for a 9th. I was worried you hadn’t eaten for hours.” Corrin just brushed it off, “oh that was nothing, one time during Thanksgiving, Garon gave me a challenge. If I could eat whatever’s in front of me, I could go out into town for 24 hours with guards. After 9 courses of large servings and a super sized Turkey, he gave in and kept his word. Although I wasn’t able to eat any meat for a week without gagging and slept for a day.”

Hinoka laughed, “that's pretty impressive sister, I thought you and Azura were competing for a minute.” Mikoto turned to Corrin and asked, “Corrin could you come with me for a moment, I need to show you something.” She was confused but agreed, telling them goodnight she joined her mother. Mikoto took her to the roof of the castle and Corrin was amazed by the sight. The entire kingdom of Hoshido was lit up, the stars in the sky were shining bright, and the people seemed to be having a good time at night. Corrin was amazed how different the two kingdoms were, yet so similar at the same time.

Corrin said, “I haven’t seen a view this beautiful since Nohr’s festival.” Mikoto curiously asked, “Nohrian festival?” “Yeah, they happen every autumn. It’s like a costume party with games, prizes, street food, and fireworks. Its amazing, you would’ve loved it.” Mikoto smiled, “yeah I would.” Mikoto saw she was closer but still keeping her distance. Mikoto asked, “hey, do you want to ask me anything? You must be curious about me.” Corrin thought about it and asked, “what was your life like, before me or my siblings.” Mikoto thought about her life and wondered how to word it, “my life was peaceful before the war, I had a sister, a home, everything you could want. But tragedy struck, my home was gone, my sister was separated and we were all alone. Until I met Sumeragi, he took me in gave me a new home, a new family. Even his wife accepted me even though I had a child. She even gave me the go ahead to marry him when she passed away. We got married and everything was perfect. I like to look forward never back.”

Corrin smiled and whispered, “she was right.” Mikoto asked curiously, “who was, my dear.” Corrin seemed surprised Mikoto heard that and clarified, “oh, my Nohrian sister, Camilla. I had so many questions about you that I didn’t know. She said, ‘you were kind, caring, and always curious about things.’ But she said that you died during childbirth, so I assumed Garon hated me because of that.” Mikoto saw the trouble look on her face and wrapped her arms around her daughter saying, “even if that happened, it wouldn’t be your fault. I would never blame, so promise me you won’t blame yourself for something that isn’t your fault.” Corrin hesitated at first, but she agreed, “I promise, mother.” Mikoto was surprised to hear that and smiled, “you called me mother.” The two embraced and stayed there for a while hoping the moment won’t last them by.

Chapter 11: The return

Chapter Text

Chapter 5.6

The next morning in Nohr felt a whole lot more gloomy than usual. The castle walls had some joyful moments, but today they were all just silent. Everything in the palace became bland and dreary. Elise wouldn’t leave her room, she barely smiled anymore, and she lost her appetite. The Twin maids were both having mixed emotions about this as well; Flora was extra cold to everyone because of the news, Felicia was sad to lose both her friends but was holding it together well. Last night when Flora and Felicia were alone the two comforted each other, the strong emotions caused their room to be completely covered in ice. Leo had tried to keep himself with his studies and spell work, that way he didn’t think about it. Camilla took the news the hardest, she would go to the training field and fight the soldiers in the army. When training ahead would hold back intentionally because they didn’t serve as a challenge, but this time she stopped pulling her punches. She channeled her rage and bitterness into power and fought until it was all out of her system. The only one who seemed to have been okay was Jakob, he was in denial thinking she was still alive. Xander saw the state of the castle and it’s people, and decided to call in his most trusted retainers this chambers.

After 10 minutes his retainers entered his room. His first retainer Peri had entered covered in fresh bruises and blood, while still plastering her innocent smile. Laslow entered second with the only injury visible was from a hand print on his face, probably from one of his latest flirts. Xander’s retainers were an odd bunch, but thought time and time again they proved their loyalty and capability. Peri asked excitedly, “hello lord Xander, what’s the problem? Does someone need stabbing, is there an attack,” she suddenly gasped and looked scared, “or are we in trouble?” Xander shook his head, “don't worry, no one is in trouble. I just needed some advice.” Laslow smiled, “oh I see, you finally want advice on hitting on women.” Xander immediately shot him down, “absolutely not Laslow, that would be highly inappropriate!” Laslow just scratched the back of his head saying, “ha, sorry Milord. Just a jest. What did you wish to talk about?”

Xander looked serious towards his retainers, took a deep breath, and said, as you may have noticed, the castle has been in a state of depression ever since we heard about our sister, Corrin.” Peri and Laslow gave a sad and solemn at the mention. Peri said, “yeah, from what I heard she was very nice and caring.” Laslow was about to say something, but noticed lord Xander giving him a death stare. Laslow just said, “that she was, she reminded me of an old friend. Kind, loyal, a free spirit, and scary when pissed off.” Xander was curious about his friend but now wasn’t the time for that. “Well, my siblings and her retainers have been taking it pretty hard lately. This isn’t the first time we lost a sibling, but this one hurts much worse. I was wondering what advice you would give considering your… past.”

Peri and Laslow began to remember what it was like to lose family, their sadness became visible. Peri was the first to speak, “I lost…” but when she tried to speak the words wouldn’t come out and tears started to roll smearing her makeup. A mixture of rage and sadness battled inside her, but she told her liege the truth, “I lost my mommy when I was a little girl. A nasty butler fell in love with her and became obsessed, but she refused to accept his confession. He didn’t like it and decided that if he couldn’t have her, nobody could.” Xander had somewhat of an experience, all his father’s concubines wanted his dad’s favor. The only difference is that instead of killing him, they killed each other to keep him for themselves. “My mommy’s killer was hanged but, it left me broken like this. My advice would be killing your family’s killer.”

Laslow decided to enter the conversation, “Peri I get how you would think so, but that wouldn’t help at all. It would only hurt in the end.” Peri wiped her tears and replied, “it would?” Laslow nodded, “of course, in my home land most of the people I’ve known or loved have died: my mother, my father, my mentors, my friends. The worst part about loss is that you have so much to say, but before you have a chance to say it they die. My advice, give them the chance to say goodbye. It will give them the closure they need.”

Xander thought about how their ideas made the most sense and tried to decide. Peri has a point, killing Hans would make him release all their built up rage, but he is under his father’s protection so that is out of the question. Laslow was also right losing all his siblings was a dark time for them, but at least they got a proper burial. Corrin may not have been blood, but she was family she should be honored like one. Xander spoke up and said, “thank you both for this …enlightening conversation. I have preparations to prepare, so you both are dismissed.” The retainers bowed their heads and left.

Meanwhile at the border of Windmire, Silas and his Comrades had finally arrived at their location. Silas had paused for a moment staring at the entrance to the Capital nervously. His friend Jack saw him hesitate and said, “what you waiting for, a grand applause?” Silas shook his head and said, “it’s not that, it’s just that…” Silas paused for a moment, but then revealed his past, “last time I was here I was almost executed and banished, now that I’m back I wonder how much has changed, how I’ve changed.” Jack placed a hand on his shoulder and said, “calm down, look at it this way. You had friends back here right?” Silas thought for a moment and said, “yeah, I did.” Jack continues, “what about family, you guys still on good terms?” Silas nodded. “See, imagine how ecstatic they will be to see you again. Trust me, you earned your knighthood and your freedom. It’s time to go home.”

Silas took his first steps into Windmire and instantly all the good times came running back to him: the day he met Corrin, the Nohrian Festival of Bonds, his parents. Silas paused for a moment and thought, ‘I wonder if my parents are okay?’ He wants to let his family know he’s back and that he’s okay, but he has his orders to consider. His mentor lead his unit to the castle gate with him and Jack in the front of the unit. Silas was extra nervous about coming here and once again facing the king who banished him, Major Kang noticed this and said, “quit your squirming,” Silas looked at him, “your not that same little kid who left here, you’re a knight now act like it. Whatever’s troubling you we face it head on together, no matter what.”

Major Kang’s words can be harsh sometimes, but they are oddly encouraging. Silas then slapped himself in the face now more determined than before. The gate opened and the knights were taken to the training grounds, while those three entered castle Windmire. The Jack was amazed by the design of the castle’s interior, while Silas marveled at how the place hasn’t changed one bit and reminisced about the good times he had. His trip down memory lane was cut short when they reached the king’s throne room. Jack whispered, “here we go Silas, once we step through those doors there’s no turning back. You ready?” Silas nodded, “I was born ready.”

Once the door opened, Major Kang, Jack, and Silas entered the throne room; and there they were King Garon and Iago waiting for the news of there soldiers. King Garon greeted Kang, “ah Major Kang, you have arrived. Please enter.” As they got closer, Iago noticed a certain sliver haired knight standing to the side. Iago smiled at him smugly, but didn’t say anything. For the most part King Garon didn’t seem to notice, so he was in the clear. The three knights bowed down to the king and Major Kang gave his report, “I have completed your task sir, I have brought the most able recruits to the castle.” King Garon looked at the number and noticed three knights before him, he asked disappointed, “this is all you brought?” Major Kang quickly refuted, “the rest went to the training grounds, I didn’t want my entire unit in here.” King Garon nodded thinking it was a reasonable response.

Iago decided to jump into the conversation, “might I ask why you brought these two specifically here?” Major Kang had to be very careful not to say anything about Silas’s condition, “these are my best recruits; Jack here is a good fighter and…,” he pointed to Silas, “this is my student, he’s clever and has a big heart.” Iago smiled, “well we knew someone like that, but he ended up betraying us after everything we did for him. We help his family in their financial crisis, we allowed him a chance to be a part of the royal family, and he betrayed us.” He said all this while watching Silas to see how he would react, and it was working. Silas clenched his fist behind his back, but kept a poker face. Iago was enjoying seeing his reaction, but king Garon stepped in, “yes a tragedy, tell me what do you think about the ordeal, Silas.”

Silas held his ground not showing any fear, Jack and Major Kang backed him up. Silas answered not sorry or ashamed, “I think this is a clear overreaction, and I hold no regrets about what happened.” Iago managed to point out the obvious, “speaking of banishment, why exactly are you in Nohr? Last I checked you were still banished.” Silas shook his head, “correction I was banished, but king Garon gave me an out.” King Garon was crossed at that statement, “lies, I did no such thing.” Silas smirked, “then take a look in my mind, it will show proof I’m telling you the truth.” King Garon nodded toward Iago, he then preformed the memory projection spell on Silas and he was flashed to the day of his execution.

Silas was about 15 or 16 when he had his hands chained behind his back, he had on that same necklace, and his head was put before a chopping block. His head was placed down and he was filled with a sense of hopelessness. The king decided to use his own axe to do it, Silas was just waiting for this to end. He could see his parents in the throne room crying and pray for a miracle, the royals each gave a sad sympathetic look. Corrin continued to look down and not face him. Iago was still giving that same annoying smile standing next to the king. King Garon raised his mighty axe to its maximum height and brought down with all his might.

Time suddenly began to freeze for Corrin, seeing her best friend about to be executed was more than she could bare. She felt sadness and guilt for being the cause of his death, but most of all she felt rage towards her father. She was too mad to feel her body change: her hands became sharp claws so dark, light couldn’t escape, her arms skin became tough gray scales, and her eyes began glowing a dark crimson, and her body emitted a magenta colored energy. She did even feel herself move, she just did. Just when the axe was about to kill him, she caught the blade of the axe. Even though she was feeling full of energy, she was still having trouble holding it back. She gave a loud roar like yell and pushed him back.

Iago saw this and decided to cast a spell from his own personal Tome. Dark swirls of energy were surrounding Corrin and Silas and eventually exploded into a flurry of purple vapors. Xander and the others were shocked and horrified at the sight of that befell the two. The royals were about to fight as well, but then the smoke cleared up and Corrin was covering his body with hers. Iago tried it again, but she was ready for it and with blinding speed she sliced the right side of his face. The claw mark burned along his right side and he screamed in agony. Corrin then calmed down and went to check in on Silas.

King Garon got up and was ready to kill, but Corrin stood in front of him defying his order. King Garon said, “move out the way Corrin and maybe you won’t be punished.” Corrin stands her ground and says, “no, I refuse.” Iago was about to attack again, but Camilla had an ax to his throat, “please Iago, give me an excuse to kill you.” Xander and Leo were by his side completely, Elise was also in the frontlines. King Garon addressed his children for their behavior, “you all would disobey me?” They all nodded defying his word, Corrin saw him grip his axe tightly.

Corrin stepped forward saying, “father you can’t kill him, just because I snuck out. This isn’t a fitting punishment.” King Garon stepped up and said, “okay then, you decide his punishment.” Corrin was confused along with the other royal, until he explained, “give me a good reason why I shouldn’t kill him and a befitting punishment. If it’s good enough I’ll go with your idea.” Corrin was still reeling from the shock of this working, but she managed to come up with a reason not to kill, “the people out there are already living in fear of disobeying you, if you continue to push there will be a mutiny. They will rise up against you.” King Garon asked, “then what do you suggest, Corrin?”

Corrin looked at Silas trying not to cry, she knew that she would regret the next words that came out of her mouth but still said them. “We give him a date worst than death,” she struggles to finish the word, and choked on the words, “…and banish him from Nohr.” Silas was surprised by the suggestion and so was her siblings. Corrin explained further, “that way, he won’t temp me to leave. So long as he’s gone, I won’t leave the tower. That seems fitting, don’t you think?” Silas began to beg playing along, “no, please milord, you can’t do this.” King Garon smiled, “I can and I agree, guards get this boy out of my sight.” The guards took Silas out of the town boarder and thrown out.

The memory ended and king Garon said, “what was I looking at?” Silas then explained, “since my memory is so good, I remember lady Corrin saying, and I quote, ‘So long as he’s gone, I won’t leave the tower.’ Am I wrong?” king Garon unfortunately said, “yes she did.” Major Kang saw what he was doing and decided to bring out some knowledge, “and you agreed to her deal, meaning you made it a royal decree.” Jack then brought it home, “and I bet that lady Corrin left the castle, while my friend was out of town. So, by technicality, his banishment is nullified and void.” Iago check the Nohrian law book and was about to cast a little spell, but the Major said, “Iago don’t even think about it. I studied the book of law to bottom.”

King Garon stood up and said, “enough, I am the king and my word is law; since it is law, I shall permit Silas’s return to Nohr as a knight,” Silas smiled and bowed to King Garon, “thank you, my king. I vow to protect Nohr from all threats.” King Garon said, “you better. Now you are all dismissed, I have other matters to attend to.” Silas and the others exited the throne room leaving Iago and king Garon alone. “My king, why did you allow him to return. He was clearly a problem to control and manipulate.” King Garon looked back at him and said, “look at it this way Iago, if Corrin is truly dead his only reason to not obey is his family. If she is then wouldn’t it be better to see Corrin kill her best friend.” Iago smiled said, “that’s genius milord, so what’s your next plan.” King Garon heard a disembodied voice belonging to his master saying, ‘minn soldiers eru inn staðr, tímirinn til strike er nú.’ King Garon smiled, “I have an idea.”

Silas was relieved to know that the king permitted his return, now he and Corrin are going to be reunited after so many years. He was acting so excited to be back, he never realized his mentor and friend were calling him, “SILAS!” He asked startled, “yes?” “I was asking if you can give Jack a tour of the place, while I check the rest of the army?” Major Kang knew he probably had some other old friends here, so he gave him a chance. Silas nodded and Major Kang left for the training grounds.

Silas gave him the full blown tour of the place, first the ballroom where he met Corrin, the dining room for the royal family, the barracks where the knights and retainers sleep, and the cafeteria where the knights and retainers eat. On their final destination, the kitchen, Silas pushed the door open and the door bumped into a maid carrying a pot of tea. Silas heard a shattering sound and opened the door slightly and apologized, “sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going.” When he looked down he noticed that a certain pink haired maid was on the ground. She turned around and said, “hey it’s fine, it was my–” she froze at the sight before her and gasped, “Silas!” Silas responded with, “Felicia! It’s good to see you again.”

He helped her up and she hugged him, he embraced her back and she asked, “how’re you, how’ve you been?” Silas was about to start when two other familiar servants entered through the other door. The ponytail butler was the first to notice the mess she made and reprimand her, “Felicia I told you to be careful. This is the third time this week.” Felicia’s blue haired ice twin stuck up for her, “Jakob it’s fine, I knew she would drop it so I made an extra pot of tea just in case.”

Felicia felt worse than ever, but Silas stepped in, “actually it was my fault, I opened the door and bumped into her.” They then finally noticed, who was there with her, “Silas!?!?” they both said. Silas replied jokingly, “Jakob good to see you haven’t changed and Flora you still aren’t giving people the cold shoulder aren’t you?” They were both happy to see him again, but they both hid their emotions really well. Jakob asked, “what the devil are you doing here?” Flora asked the same question, “yeah, you’re suppose to be banished.”

Silas was about to explain, but Jack stepped in, “as tempting as it is to explain, don’t you think we should get all your friends together. I don’t want to have to hear this again and again.” Silas mentally slapped himself, he was so focused on catching up with his old friends, he never introduced Jack. “Oh, where are my manners. Guys this is Jack a friend from knight training, Jack these are Jakob, Flora, and Felicia.” Jack shook their hands and said, “nice to meet you guys.” Jakob and Flora gave a cold and indifferent response, but Felicia was the only person willing to smile at him.

Felicia then came up with a new idea, “hey have you met with the royals yet, I bet they will be excited to see you again.” Silas thought about it and said, “that is a great plan.” Flora was about to say something but couldn’t, she didn’t want to hurt him and they went to go meet the royals in the backyard. Flora took the tea to them, leaving the rest behind. Jack caught up with Silas and asked, “so Silas you know the twins and butler, what’s their deal.” Silas asked confused, “what do you mean?” “Well the pink maid seems okay, the others are a bit more cold.” Silas made a chuckle sound, “oh don’t worry about that, they’re actually pretty nice once you get to know them. Flora keeps people at arms length; but once she opens up, don’t f*ck up and betray her trust. Felicia is the opposite and gets to know everyone, but her enthusiasm covers for her clumsiness. Jakob may seem indifferent and cold, but the reality is that it’s an act and he’s afraid of getting hurt. Jack nodded and said, “hey I’m going to go meet the other knights, you have fun.”

Jack left as Silas and the others made it to the backyard. In the backyard was long table with a portrait of Corrin, aged to the present, surrounded by flowers. The royals all sat around a round table drinking tea, wine, and beer. Silas looked at all four of the royal and was amazed at how they grew: Lady Elise looked to be the same height, but her hair grew out. Lord Leo seems to have matured a little bit, but still can’t get dressed judging by his Cape collar. Lady Camilla has the most notable change, her hair is longer, her confidence is astonishing, and her proportions have grown significantly. Lord Xander seemed more muscular and well built. Everyone seemed so different, but Silas noticed that they seemed unhappy. He decided to wear his helmet and investigate for himself.

As he got closer he heard the end of the conversation of what Camilla’s saying, “-and she said it was the best festival ever.” They all laughed at the story and reminisced about good time. However, they heard clanking of armor and turned to see a knight behind Camilla. Xander got defensive and said, “I’ve told the others not to disturb us, please leave.” Silas could tell that they were in a bad mood, but didn’t back down, “I’m sorry, I’m new so I didn’t get the message. May I ask what your talking about.” Camilla gave a kind response, “well we were just talking about our darling sister Corrin and all her adventures.” Silas saw an opportunity and said, “ah yes my favorite is when I took her to see outside the town.”

Leo and Xander spit out their beer and Camilla choked on her tea, Elise was unaffected by that and said, “what a coincidence, Corrin’s old friend Silas took her out the town limit.” Silas removed his helmet and said, “I know I did.” Everyone was surprised by this and they all yelled, “Silas!?!?” Elise was the first to hug him, she spun him around as she hugged him, “Silas I’m so glad you’ve returned.” Silas smiled, “it’s good to be back lady Elise,” he then pretended to notice, “wait, did you get taller? You were right here to my stomach, but know your to my chest.” Elise smiled saying, “yep, I’m not so little anymore.”

Speaking of chest, Silas felt something soft and squishy press up against his back. Camilla’s arms snakes around his neck and Camilla says, “my-my Silas, look how much you’ve grown. So tall and handsome.” Silas’s face turned red from Camilla’s flirtation and stutters, “w-we-well you’ve changed as well, lady C-Camila.” Camilla was having fun teasing him again, his cute reactions always brought a smile to her face. Camilla asked, “oh, how have changed?” Silas wondered how to word it, and stammered, “you’ve grown p-prettier.” She smiled and hugged him tighter saying, “aw your so sweet.”

Leo decided enough was enough, “Camilla you can stop teasing now. I got some questions for him.” Camilla reluctantly released him, Silas released a breath he didn’t realize he was holding in. Leo patted him on the back and asked, “so Silas, how did you get back in the Capital exactly?” Silas explained to the royals about Corrin’s deal having a loophole, his confrontation between him and King Garon, and his training; he didn’t mention Corrin being in Hoshido because he thought they knew. He finished with, “…and that’s how came back to Nohr after so many years of banishment.” Leo and the rest laughed at his explanation, “wow, not bad for a loophole. Didn’t think Corrin could come up with a deal like that.”

Xander stood up and faced Silas and shook his hand with a fierce grip, Silas gripped back with the same strength. Xander then pointed to the necklace Corrin gave him before he got banished and said, “I’m surprised you kept that old thing.” Silas held it in his hand and replied, “well I promised myself that I would give this back to Corrin when I returned, speaking of which where is she?” Everyone remembers why they’re out here and the atmosphere turns sour, Xander knew the news would crush him but he had to tell him the truth.

“Uh Silas-” Xander was saying, but Silas pulled out a piece of paper. “Oh right before I forget,” Silas then pulls out a piece of paper with a picture of Corrin in normal clothes, “a guy drew this picture from memory, so I brought it to compare.” Xander was about to speak when he and Camilla noticed that the picture was of Corrin now and not her younger self. Xander asked, “the guy drew this from memory you said, right?” Silas nodded, “yes milord, he said he saw this girl in the Hoshidan Capital a couple days ago.” The others showed this to the others and they had a relieved and hopeful smile on their face. Camilla asked, “what was this artist name?” Silas was a bit confused, but as a knight he had to say, “I think it was Danny Randolph, why do you ask.” Leo had to be the one to tell him because knows how much she means to him. So he tells them all he knows, “Xander wanted to host a funeral to mourn her passing.”

Silas was a bit worried for a moment, but he was perfectly fine. Xander said, “well that doesn’t matter anymore, we have to go to Hoshido and get her out of there.” Leo, the active voice of reason, answered, “whoa there hotshot, your talking about charging into the Hoshidan Capital and attempting a rescue. Besides what makes you think she would want to comeback.” Camilla sighed, “I hate to agree with Leo, but he has a point. If she already knows about her parents, then maybe she will resent us for keeping the truth.” Elise intervenes and says, “big sister, what are you saying? We have to see her again to at least try and confirm it.” Camilla rebuttals, “if she doesn’t want to comeback, we can’t force her. I just want her to be happy and if she’s happier there, we should let her be.”

Camilla and Leo were about to leave, but Elise pulled the big guns, a quote from Corrin herself, “we can’t abandon her, she’s our ohana.” This made them stop in their tracks and remember her saying, “Ohana means family, family means that-” Camilla and Leo finish the saying, “no one gets left behind or forgotten.” Camilla said, “I remember,” she hesitated for a bit and said, “I hope she won’t hate us. Leo you in.” Leo sighed and answered, “let’s go save our sister.” Xander smiled and dismissed Silas, they left with everyone else to meet with king Garon.

Xander and the rest opened the doors to the throne room and Xander was about to knock to let his dad know their here, but on the otherside they heard king Garon’s voice. He was speaking in an all new language no one heard before, Elise got a bit nervous and said, “not again.” Leo asked, “what do you mean, ‘not again?’” Elise answered, “when me and Corrin went to see father he spoke in a different unknown language, but weirdest thing is he was completely alone.” Camilla gave a worried look to Xander, he knocks on the door and king Garon invites them in.

As they went inside, king Garon asked his children, “my children, to what do I owe the visit?” Leo and Camilla search around, while Xander tells his father the news he learned from Silas. “…we need to go to Hoshido to get her back,” “Xander,” king Garon said trying to answer, but he ended up getting cut off. “Before you say no, she can still be a powerful ally if we get her to our side.” “Xander.” “and she is a part of this family, so we can’t just leave her.” “You’re right!” They were a bit surprised by him agreeing to help and not be paranoid about the whole thing. “I was planning on sending you four to the Hoshidan Capital to invade, the fact that Corrin is there is a coincidence. So you may search for her, but if she is not back with you and refuses, she is a traitor and must be destroyed. Is that understood, my children?” The royals bowed to him and they left to go raise an army.

Meanwhile in Lady Corrin's room, Jakob was there packing up a bag full of survivor gear. He was about to hop out the window when the twins found him sneaking around. “Jakob what are you doing?” Flora said. Jakob replied, “I’m off to help lady Corrin of course.” Felicia shook her head and said, “going at it alone is a bad idea, at least take some back up with you.” Jakob scoffs, “and who would I take, you two were trained by me and the old man. Felicia is the better fighter, but Flora you are a better healer.” “Which is exactly why you need us, we could be useful in your rescue.” Jakob shook his head, “no I need you two to cover for me at the palace, beside king Garon wouldn’t notice one butler missing but you two are very noticeable missing.” Felicia decided to follow his wishes, while Flora gave a response, “just be careful out there okay, lady Corrin doesn’t need another dead retainer.” Jakob nodded and started his journey to Hoshido.

Chapter 12: Mother

Chapter Text

Chapter 6

It’s been at least 1 week in Hoshido and Corrin already feels like part of the family. Corrin had already experienced more of the outside world than she thought possible, and now that she has, she wasn’t about to go back. Her siblings were the best part: Sakura was the opposite of Elise in terms of comfortability, but she had a good heart. Hinoka was more of a warrior type princess who seemed more comfortable around guys. Takumi warned up to her a little bit but is still skeptical of her. Ryoma was one of the three she was comfortable around because he reminded her of Xander. Azure was one she could relate to the most, they ended up becoming good friends. Now queen Mikoto was a challenge to get comfortable around, Corrin wanted to get to know her but was scared to. She wanted to find out what she was like, but was scared she wouldn’t like what she saw. But once she did, she was happy and now she finally knows her mom.

Speaking of family, today’s the day Corrin gets accepted into the Hoshidan family. In her room she puts on the grey sleeveless dress, stockings, and sandals. Looking in her mirror she heard a knock on her door and answered, “come in!” It was Azura in her light blue dress and wears sandals, she explained, “I came to check if you were nervous.” Corrin sat down and said, “oh that, I’m okay. It’s just I feel kind of naked without my armor on, I’ve worn it almost everyday so it’s weird for me to be out of it for so long.” Azura asked, “May I see your bracelet on your wrist?” Corrin gave Azura her wrist and she tapped it twice, suddenly her regular clothes were turned into armor. Corrin was amazed how instantaneous it was, Azura explained, “the bracelet doesn’t just hold items and communicate to the enemies and allies, it also allows for instant armor up. You can suit up for battle at anytime with that.”

“Ah that would be good for ambushes when you aren’t prepared, thanks,” Corrin said and reverted back to her regular clothes. Azura sat down next to her and said, “I get the feeling that wasn’t the problem, what’s wrong?” Corrin felt a pit in her stomach and said, “it’s just that, if I do accept this and I become a member of Hoshido, am I betraying my Nohrian siblings? I know you and king Garon have bad blood, but my Nohrian siblings have been there for me every step of the way. They also can be a bit possessive at times, but are generally nice.” Azura thought about this and said, “my mom and I were from a different land that is long forgotten now. She came to Nohr for a better life for me, king Garon saw my mom and became his second wife. She didn’t love him particularly, but she just wanted for me to have a normal life. I was about 6 when she died and I was alone and isolated from my siblings. Then I came here and I was accepted by everyone else in time, and felt at peace. The point is we didn’t know where we belong or where we felt at home, but just because you become part of another family, doesn’t mean you forget where you come from.”

Corrin understood what she meant, she felt at home with her siblings and loved them more than anything. Now she cares about her Hoshidan siblings as well and refuses to harm them. All the doubt from her mind is gone thanks to this conversation, “thanks Azura, I really needed that.” Azura smiled and nodded, “yeah we have to stick together after all.” Corrin paused for a moment and realized something, “oh that reminds me, since you’re a former princess of Nohr doesn’t that make us sisters?” Azura nervously said, “I guess so, I didn’t realize it,” she then left for the throne room and teasingly said, “see you there, sis.”

Once Corrin made it to the throne room, she was met with Mikoto in front of the throne, “You look as if you’re feeling better after a few days, Corrin.” Corrin replied, “I am, yes. I still have many questions, but at least now I have a few answers. Thank you for giving me the space I needed to think in the beginning.” Mikoto replied smiling, “Of course. I’m glad to hear you’re feeling better, but if you wouldn’t mind, I have a small favor to ask.” Corrin was a bit skeptical and asked, “what is it?” “Would you try sitting on the throne for a moment?”

Corrin looked atop the stairs and saw a big looking throne; the backrest was orange and the bottom was black. It even had some small steps to rest your feet, but still she was a bit curious about this, “Why would I do that?” Mikoto explained nervously, “Well…this throne is infused with the power of the First Dragons. It is said that those who sit on it regain their true form and mind. I thought if you sat on the throne, then perhaps-” Corrin interrupted her asking, “Wait… Do you not trust me? Do you think I’m under some kind of Nohrian spell?” Mikoto quickly said, “No! It has nothing to do with trust. I just wonder if the Nohrians have been sealing away your early memories… If so, maybe this special throne could help bring those lost pieces back. Those sweet memories of me and your siblings…” “I see.” Mikoto then felt guilty pushing her, so she apologized, “I’m sorry, Corrin. I don't mean to push you toward something you don’t want.” Corrin then reassured her, “it’s fine, actually that would explain why I can’t remember something’s. But maybe we could try that later.”

Suddenly, a man with his teal-colored hair in a small ponytail and glasses appears before them. He had in his hands was a book called, ‘the Chronicles of Hoshidan war, volume 6.’ The man came in and addressed the queen, “Excuse me, Lady Mikoto. The ceremony is about to begin.” Mikoto bowed to the man and said, “Thank you, Yukimura. Corrin, you probably don’t remember him, but this is Yukimura. He’s one of our strategists and brightest leaders. We would be lost without him!” Yukimura's face turned a bit red at her praise, “You are too kind, milady,” he then became serious at the sound, “Though in truth, I still have much to learn. That said, I am here to help in any way I can, Lady Corrin.” Corrin nodded and shook his hand.

Followed by Yukimura All of the royal siblings entered the castle, Corrin smiled at her siblings and most smiled back. Mikoto: Corrin, there’s a reason I’d like to make a public announcement about your presence here. There have been rumors circulating about spies from Nohr infiltrating the castle. I would like to quash those rumors once and for all.” Corrin nodded and responded, “it makes sense I am from Nohr.” Mikoto nodded and turned to Yukimura and asked, “Yukimura, is everything ready?” Yukimura answered, “Yes, milady. People are beginning to gather at the plaza.”

Mikoto smiled and replied, “Excellent. Thank you. Corrin, I’ve arranged for Takumi, Hinoka, and Sakura escort you there. But if I’m being honest take your time and have fun before this event begins. I need to speak with Yukimura first, but I’ll meet you at the plaza soon.” Hinoka grabbed hold of Corrin’s arm and said, “We’d be happy to show her around more. Thank you, Mother.” Mikoto then turned to Azura and asked, “Azura, do you mind going with them as well? I think you two will get along well.” Azura replied seemingly emotionless, “Not at all. It would be my pleasure.” Corrin and Azura seemed to get along well with one another, but Takumi just scoffed at the two, “Hmph.” Sakura walked right beside her with glee, “I can’t wait to show you around! I think you’ll l-love it here.” Corrin matched her smile saying, “Thank you, Sakura. A trip in town sounds like a great idea.” Corrin, Hinoka, Sakura, and Azura leave first and Takumi reluctantly agreed to go with them.

Mikoto was then left with her son and strategist, she then displayed a worried look, “I hope Corrin is truly OK with all of this…” Yukimura thought about queen Mikoto's Coronation and thought she went through something similar of an identity crisis. So, he answered, “Yes, I can’t imagine the position she's in. It’s a lot to process. That said, I think her return is a message from the gods.” Ryoma added, “A good message, I hope.” A confused Yukimura asked, “Why do you say that?” Thinking back to the invasion and the rescue of his sisters, Ryoma remembered a feeling of uneasiness from the blade she had, “I don’t know. After that invasion up north, I just feel uneasy, especially around her blade. We should remain on high alert, if you ask me.” Mikoto knew why that was, but kept to herself and they both walked away.

Meanwhile in the town, Corrin and her siblings came across an Old Woman’s booth, “Hey, young lady! Would you like to try my world-famous roasted potatoes? They’re delicious and nutritious! I guarantee you’ll love ’em.” Corrin wasn’t particularly hungry but she was curious, “Well…sure! Why not?” She paid for one and took a bite, the herbs and spices mixed together to create an explosive taste like never before, “Mm…I’ve never tasted spices like these before. This is amazing!” Old Woman smiled with pride at a satisfied customer, “Ha-ha! Told ya! Here, take an extra one on the house. Share it with your friend!” Corrin bowed to the nice old lady, “Well, thank you very much!” She then handed Azura the potato, “Here you go, Azura.” Azura took the potato and said, “Thank you, Corrin,” she and Corrin made clinking motion with the potato; and when she tasted it her eyes started to sparkle, “Mm, you’re right. This is delicious.”

Corrin looked around and saw the people having fun, dancing, and having a good time. No matter how she looks at it, Nohr and Hoshido are very different in terms of prosperity. Azura saw Corrin thinking about something and asked, “are you okay, Corrin? You seem to be out of it.” Corrin regained her composure and replied, “oh I’m fine. It’s just that everyone really is friendly here. And it’s so…bright…and open. It’s quite a contrast from the fortress I grew up in.” Azura gave a short smile, “I’m glad you like it. Like I said, I’ve always been happy here.”

Azura happened to see Takumi glaring at her and sighed, “Takumi…” Takumi put on his best pissed off face, “Hey, who said you could call me by name? You haven’t earned that privilege yet.” Corrin sighed at Takumi’s cold attitude, she knew he was tried to be cold to keep her at arm's length, but enough was enough. “That doesn’t even make sense,” she said without thinking. Takumi looked back at her, “Excuse me?” Corrin decided to stand up for her sister and try and bridge the gap, “Azura has been in Hoshido for as long as I’ve been gone. Shouldn’t that be enough to consider her part of the family?” Takumi was just being stubborn at this point, “I don’t care. I don’t trust either of you. I just wanted to tell you that to your face.” Corrin really just wished he would be honest with her.

Sakura elbowed Takumi and sincerely apologized, “I apologize for Takumi’s rudeness. He’s a bit of a hothead, you should have seen how he warmed up to mother,” she then handed her another snack, “Anyway, how’d you like to try a sweet rice dumpling? It’s a Hoshidan specialty!” Corrin smiled at her and took the rice ball, “I’d love to. Thanks, Sakura!” Sakura then gave a bright smile, “You’re welcome!” Corrin then noticed that smile she gave was oddly similar to Elise, “You know, I’m very close with a girl in Nohr who’s around your age.” This peaked Sakura’s curiosity, “Oh? What's she like?” Corrin then began to describe her sister, “Well, she's generous and kind. Always putting the need of others first...” Hinoka then heard horns blaring in the center of the plaza and turned to everyone saying, “All right, everyone. The ceremony is starting. Let’s head to the plaza!”

When Corrin and her siblings made it to the center of the plaza, there they saw queen Mikoto, Kaze, Rinkah, and prince Ryoma standing Infront of a statue of a giant dragon. Mikoto looked through the crowd and her eyes landed on her children, she gave a nod and addressed the crowd, “greetings people of Hoshido, I have come to you bearing great news.” she takes a deep breath and says, “years ago, our King Sumeragi of Hoshido traveled to Cheve at King Garon's invitation to resolving the differences between our two countries. However, Garon's proposed talks turned out to be a trap, he killed my husband in cold blood, and stole my daughter.” The crowd booed the mention of the tyrant king, Corrin felt a bit uneasy considering she lived with him for years. Mikoto held up her hands to calm the crowd and continued, “not only that but one-month earlier, the daughter of the flame tribe and a ninja of Hoshido were taken prisoner. However, they managed to escape and with them they brought back our lost princess. Ladies and gentleman please welcome, lady Corrin!”

Corrin looked around and saw she was alone, while her siblings were already at the front waiting to take her place next to them. The people were clapping and cheering for her to join them, they even cleared a path for her. The sight of her family standing there waiting, accepting her, it was a beautiful sight. However, something was still missing, her Nohr siblings. Corrin decided to one day bring all her family together, but for now she wanted to be with her birth family. Corrin took her rightful spot next to her mom and knelt before Mikoto. Mikoto said a saying in Japanese, “Reimei ryū no na no moto ni, katsute no ō to ōhi, sosh*te hoshi-dō no hitobito. Seidan kōsh*tsu e yōkoso.” Corrin felt a cool liquid touch her forehead and she said, “Okāsan arigatō.” she got up and whispered, “Watashi wa anata o hokori ni omou yō ni doryoku shimasu.” Mikoto whispers back, “Anata wa sudeni motte imasu, watashi no kodomo.”

Corrin takes her place by her siblings, while Mikoto is talking to the citizens in the plaza. Everything was going alright, until Corrin noticed shimmer in an area of the crowd. Focusing on the area, she saw a hooded man in the crowd standing there menacingly. She suddenly felt her bracelet summon her blade to her side against her will, she looked down at it and saw that a giant eye in the middle of the hilt. Confused Corrin tried to stuff the blade back into her bracelet, but it refused as if it had a mind of its own. Takumi was the first to notice and say something, “hey put that away, will Ya.” Corrin answered, “I would if I could, but it's like it refuses to go back in.” Corrin looked up and saw the hooded man reach out his hand and tries to summon the Ganglari from Corrin's scabbard. She grips the handle with all her strength, but it’s putting up a fight. Everyone soon noticed Corrin acting weird and begin to murmur among themselves.

Hinoka asked Takumi, “what’s wrong with Corrin, she’s acting really strange?” Takumi looks around and saw the shimmering spot in the crowd. He then looked to his sisters' dance with her blade and noticed the blade was going to the spot. Thinking fast he unsheathe his bow, but it was too late for him to do anything. Corrin couldn’t hold it anymore and let it go involuntarily, leaving burns on her hands. Takumi went and charged towards the blade to stop it, but once the hooded man wielded the blade, the first thing he does is plunge the Ganglari into the ground, creating an explosion of dark energy that destroys the plaza and sends its bystanders flying. Ryoma shielded Sakura from a majority of the blast with his body, Takumi was launched back a few feet away, Azura uses the power of her pendant to create a barrier in front of herself and Hinoka; while Corrin was all alone and shocked at what happened to her blade.

At the end of that chaos, the Ganglari shatters into dozens of pieces that shoot in Corrin's direction. Corrin gasps frozen fear and tried to hide herself to minimize the hit. Corrin didn’t have any way to dodge it and was scared she might die. Just then, Mikoto leaps in front of Corrin and was pierced by the Ganglari’s shards. Mikoto’s screams echoed throughout the town from the piercing. Corrin had a mix of fear, realization, horror, and shock written on her face seeing her mom in front of her in pain.

Mikoto stumbled forward and falls into Corrin's arms, her breathing labored at the moment. Corrin panicked not knowing what to do, she yelled out, “Medic, we need a medic, please!” Mikoto grabbed her face and says with a ragged breath, “(gasps) You were not hurt? Tell me you’re OK.” Corrin want to tell her to not talk to save her breath, but the look in her mom’s eyes said she knew she wasn’t going to make it. So she had to make sure she was okay before she pasted on. Corrin took a shaky breath and finally answered with tears welling up in her eyes, “I’m fine…” Mikoto gave her daughter one last weak smile, “I’m so glad…”

Mikoto then collapses limp in Corrin's arms, dead and the tears in her eyes fell, “(sobs) Mother!” Ryoma looked back and saw his mother dead, he looked around with his eyes full of hatred and they landed on her killer. Sakura looks past Ryoma and see her mom on the ground before realizing she’s dead, “Mother?… Mother!” Sakura tried to approach Mikoto, but Ryoma stops her not wanting her to see her see her like that. Then, Ryoma pulled out Raijinto and points it to the mysterious person in anger. “You there!” He growls and slashes at the mysterious person using Raijinto, but he disappears like a ghost. Ryoma yells out into the wind, “Show yourself coward!” He then reappeared somewhere else and egged him on to get him, and he fell for it hook, line, and sinker.

Meanwhile during the explosion while Hinoka was shielded, she saw Takumi fly straight into the statue and crash onto the floor. She looked to Azura and she said, “go ahead, I’ll cover you.” She nodded and ran to her brother and saw him covered under rubble. As she was almost done digging him out, she heard a scream from her mother. Takumi was barely conscious from the shockwave, but the scream woke him up and he saw his sister saving his life. “Oh your alive, thank God,” Hinoka exclaimed. Takumi was about to ask when he heard Corrin's shouting in the distance. He looked to his sister and she whistled to her Pegasus who was circling around the plaza above. She flew up in the air with Takumi and they stared in disbelief as their mother laid dead in Corrin’s arms.

Corrin stared at the sight before her, trembling and panting with grief and rage. She looks down at her hands to see her mother’s blood literally on her hands. She was sitting there feeling like sh*t when she came to the realization, it was the sword that did this, the sword given to her by King Garon. He knew Hans would fail and she would be brought here, so he sent people to infiltrate Hoshido to kill her. She was tired of being his puppet and being hos tool, this time she will have her revenge starting with this guy. She saw her brother fighting the hooded man and her blood was boiling over to its tipping point. A magenta light started to emit from her hands, her breathing became erratic, and power overflowed. Corrin roars like a wild wyvern and was surrounded by a magenta fire. Her began eyes glow bluish-white, her skin then turned into whitish-grey scales, her body grew more till she was on all fours, she grew wings, a tail, horns, spikes along her back, and claws. When the fires cleared, Corrin’s anger made her lose control of herself so much she transforms into a feral dragon.

The royals were beyond surprised at their sisters transformation, Sakura was a bit scared at the dragon before her, but she trust Corrin wouldn’t hurt her. Takumi muttered worried, “Gods! What is that?” Hinoka was amazed at his sisters transformation from human to dragon, she thought it was kind of cool to be a dragon. Ryoma answered his brother’s question, “It's an ancient dragon. I never thought I’d see the day…” His instincts told him to duck and he was glad he listened. A sword whooshed past his head and he countered back. Before he realized warriors that seemed semi-visible had infested the plaza.

Takumi and Hinoka saw that there were some civilians still in trouble and they siblings needed help. Hinoka and Takumi stared at each other and warned the others, “guys there’s still some citizens alive and hurt, Hinoka and I will help them!” Takumi looked between the group and for the first time he swallowed his pride, “Azura, your in charge, keep them safe and calm her down. Don’t fail!” Azura nodded as her brother and sister left to go and rescue people. She looked at Corrin in her form and used her pendant to telepathically warn her, “Corrin! A word of warning, if you can hear me. Watch out for enemies carrying Wyrmslayers! They’re a type of blade designed to pierce dragon scales-and they work!” Corrin must’ve heard her because she watched the enemies in front of her and ran to the other side to fight the two iron sword users.

Azura was glad that some part of Corrin was still in there, but now she had to find a way out of this. Azura looked to Sakura who was mourning her mother’s death said calmly, “everything will be alright, but only if we fight together. Can you do that?” she wiped the tears out of her eyes and tried to be brave, “ *sniffle* yes.” Azura nodded and gave the order, “Kaze and Rinkah, you two will go to the left. Sakura and I will follow Corrin.” Kaze and Rinkah bowed, “yes milady!” Rinkah left but Kaze stayed back to say, “be careful out there,” and left.

Azura saw that Corrin was standing around there tired, it must be the first time transforming so it takes all her energy to move. She tries move closer but she growls at her angrily, “Corrin, listen! My song can help you win this battle. Using it can give you another chance to attack or take cover in a pinch. Please don’t hesitate to ask me for help!” the half dragon hesitated at first but allowed her to sing. Azura sang a small tune and Corrin roared with energy. She then charged towards the two sword users, lucky for her they had iron swords. Corrin charged right at one of them and did a barrel roll straight through the enemy, separating him from the waist down. Once she land the other sword fighter attacked her from behind, only for the sword to not leave a mark whatsoever. Corrin looked back snarling and did a 360 tail whip to the head, the impact was so strong it made his head turn upside down. The two corpses disintegrated before their eyes and Azura realized what they were. “Oh no, they found me,” she muttered. Sakura asked, “what is it sister?” Azura brushes off the question and goes forward with the plan.

While they were helping Corrin on the right side of the statue, Kaze and Rinkah approached the enemy on the left. He was alone and had a Wyrmslayer so Rinkah would be at a disadvantage. “Kaze I have a plan, you go in first and try sapping his strength with your shuriken. Then I’ll come in and finish the job.” Kaze nodded and went on ahead. Using his ninja training he snuck around as silently as possible, placing slippery obstacles in his way unnoticed. Then he made it to a hidden clearing and when he saw an opening, he jumped out of the hiding place and threw two shuriken at him. The swordsman turned around stepping on a piece of glass tripping him leaving him vulnerable and off balance. He fell back and the two shuriken landed on him. Rinkah then put on her mask and did her flame tribe battle cry, she charged forward, jumped into the air, and slammed her club into his head making him disappear.

Ryoma and the mystery man were locked in deep combat, Ryoma was dodging his sword strikes and making some quick slashes here and there, but the mysterious stranger was very bulky and stronger than any opponent he had faced. Once he blocked an attack from the mystery guy and it pushed him far back, that’s when he learned not to block and just dodge. “Vengeance will be mine... Prepare to die!” Ryoma said powering up his blade and sent a flying disk of lightning towards his opponent. As the attack hit the mysterious swordsman, he walked away chuckling, “Heh. Heh. Heh...” Ryoma has trained his whole life fighting Faceless, soldiers, and even other nobles; but these are unlike any other opponent they’ve ever seen before. He called his siblings to motivate them, “Be careful, everyone! These enemies are no mere Faceless. One wrong move and they’re perfectly capable of ending you. I hope we can count on Corrin even in this new form…”

Sakura turned and saw Corrin charging into the another battle with mages and warned her, “Watch out for magical attacks, Corrin! Your defense against physical attacks is strong…but you’ll need higher resistance to protect yourself against mages.” Corrin knew that and still charged ahead the first enemy was a Wyrmslayer enemy. He saw her coming away and at the last minute dodge to the right, making her miss completely. The Wyrmslayer guy saw an opening and sliced off her scales on her right leg, she cried out in pain at the sky. Sakura shouts, “No!” and tries to help her, but she is stopped by Azura. “don’t go rushing in, we need a plan to save her.” Sakura looked down and noticed something on the ground, Azura picked it up and asked, “what is this?” Sakura answered, “it’s an HP tonic, they give warriors a temporary boost to health. There’s other that give boost strength, bulk, and speed as well; but they last for only a little while depending on if you in danger.”

Azura thought about this and a light bulb flicked on in her head, “Sakura, I have an idea, I’ll distract him while you heal up Corrin in that corner right there.” Sakura asks, “your going to fight?” Azura nodded, “don’t worry, Hinoka and the queen taught me how to fight, I’ll be fine.” She chugged the tonic and was met with a bitter taste, suddenly she felt completely different as if more full of energy. Azura took out her brass Naginata and charged forward doing a 360 spin toward the enemy. She managed to land a decent hit on him but not a fatal one, he retaliated by swinging his blade but she dodged just in time. She twirled around her Naginata with grace and elegance as if it were a dance, and he said in his native tongue, “þú skulu eigdejumkr lítþúr pathetic faðir” Azura seems to understand him and spoke in the same tongue, “þá komokr finish jobrinn.” Then the two charged to attack each other.

Kaze and Rinkah were on the other side and saw two Dark Mages closing in on the dragon, Rinkah said determined to fight, “you take that one, I’ll handle the other one.” Kaze stopped her from attacking and came up with a counter offer, “how about we fuse our power like before?” Rinkah didn’t like the sound of that at all, “no way, I’m a warrior not some spectator.” Kaze decided to point out her main flaw to make her see reason, “okay then, just tell how you plan on attacking from a distance.” Rinkah kept quiet knowing he was right, “just make it quick.” Kaze smiled smugly, “good idea.” They both fused together and he felt more powerful than before. He then got there attention by yelling at them, “If I may, allow me the honor of killing you.” One of them took the bait, but the other could careless about him. She threw a thunder spell at him and he couldn’t dodge it as he was falling. So he took the hit and the shock hurt, but he was still alive.

Sakura was around the corner of the statue base ready to heal her sister, but the Dark Mage fired a thunder blast at her wound from a distance at her exposed skin. Corrin roared in pain at the shot, and tried clawing at her only for it to be ineffective. Corrin was attacked again and again, Sakura could have sworn it sounded like crying. Sakura then without thinking jumped in front of the blast and deflected it to the side, “I won't allow it, if you want her you’ll have to kill me!” the Dark Mage just attacked her instead and shot her with a thunder blast bringing her to half health. When she was hit with the blast, she immediately healed Corrin’s leg and Corrin grew back the scales she lost. Sakura was on the ground in pain and the mage standing over her ready to finish the job. Sakura then held up her hand and it stopped for a moment, “wait! If your fighting me, who’s watching her?” Sakura pointed to up above and saw the dragon and the Mage said in a different language, “oh, f*ckk mik.” Corrin then proceeded to chomp the mages head clean off and devour it whole. Corrin let out a big roar and charged everyone else.

Azura was dodging gracefully out of the way of the Wyrmslayer and hitting him with not very strong attack’s. Eventually she gets hit with a powerful swing and feels a cut on her stomach. Thank goodness for the tonic or else that might’ve killed her. He had her down and would have killed him, if Rinkah hadn’t bashed him over the head with her club multiple times. She then said, “More fuel for the fire.” Kaze then split from her and addressed Azura’s, “here take this Vulnerary.” She takes it and drinks the Vulnerary without hesitation. Just like the tonic it had a bitter taste to it, but the pain started to fade and the cut started to close up. She got up and said, “thank you Kaze, I’m fine. For the time being, we should really help Ryoma.”

Speaking of Ryoma, he managed to deliver some small cuts to the figure and dodged the rest. However Ryoma was running out of stamina and got slower. He swung his blade but the hooded guy picked up on his patterns and dodged his strikes with ease. He looked up smiling and said in a different language, “At var fun, nú þat's minn turn.” He then came at Ryoma and slashes through his armor like it was butter, and came at him with blinding speed. Ryoma was unable to block all of his attacks or dodge them and sustained massive damage. He managed to get back on his feet and face him down.

Suddenly he heard a roar from behind him and saw Corrin staring at them. Ryoma decides to let this go and move to the side, “he’s all your.” The mystery man flicked the blood off his Kodachi and said “Vismer…what you’ve fömk. Heh. Heh. Heh…” Corrin and him charged forward, Corrin jumped in the air and used her antler horns to try and stab him. He grabbed hold of them with his bare hands and stood his ground, although she did manage to push him a considerable distance. When he began to push her back, she decided to get desperate. She grabbed hold of him with her tail and started beating him into the ground with her tail. She then lifted him to what they thought was her face turned out to be a face mask. The mask revealed an leathery blueish gray face with glowing eyes. Corrin began summoned her power from within and she shot a whirlpool of water out her mouth, launching him multiple feet away into a wall.

He then got up very sore and gripping his left arm he comments, “Urgh… eigi vándr. Heh. Heh. Heh…” She tries for another attack, but by the time she fires it he vanishes. She sees that he is gone and in frustration she roars and starts destroying thing in the town. Sakura comes up to Ryoma and heals him up saying, “big brother are you okay?” “A bit out of breath, …but I’ll live,” Ryoma then noticed Corrin’s rampage, “damn it, if this continues, everyone and everything will be destroyed.” He didn’t like his options, but he didn’t have a choice it seems. If this continues he will have to lose another part of his family today. Then out of nowhere Azura proceeds to walk towards dragon Corrin while singing, “You are the ocean's gray waves ♪ Ahh...” Ryoma’s big brother instincts activated and tries to stop her, “Azura! No, stop!” As Ryoma runs to Azura, she conjures a water barrier and pushes Ryoma back.

Azura looks at Ryoma briefly silently telling him to trust her, then continues to walk towards Corrin as she sings and spreads her hands out. As Azura gets closer to Corrin she trots back wary, “You are the ocean's gray waves, destined to seek ♪ Life beyond the shore, just out of reach.” The power of her song had a calming effect on her when they first met, but this seemed to be giving her a headache making her angry and hostile. After their adventure Hinoka and Takumi were flying above to see Azura trying to calm her down. “Yet the waters ever change,” Corrin decide she was a threat and slashes Azura with her claw, causing her great pain. As Azura falls down, Sakura covers her eyes with her hands and whimpers, “No!” Hinoka was shocked at the sight of her sisters fighting each other, while Takumi was still a bit more scared than before. He pulled out his bow just in case and took aim. Corrin roars in triumph, but noticed a blue light in front of her and stops roaring. Then, she look at the barrier as Azura resumes singing in a pained way. She weakly looks up at her singing, “Flowing like time... ♪ The path is yours to climb.” Corrin grabs Azura's neck with her claw, causing Azura to choke. Then, she removes her mask to look at Azura as she touches her claw and tears spill down her face. Azura then slowly reaches for her face saying, “Kill me if you want, but…do it as yourself, sister.”

While Corrin has Azura on the ground, let’s take a look into Corrin’s mind. Corrin is filled to the brim with revenge, guilt, anger, and pain; so much that she didn’t even register what was happening to her family. She just saw pure red and was ready to kill, smash, and destroy; but then felt a calming light envelop behind her and gave way to some clarity of what was happening. Corrin looked around and saw she was in a small bedroom and in the chair was what she thought she would look like as a man. He was a bit on the young side, but they could otherwise be twins. His differences were his hair having short hair and long bangs parted to the side and a scar on his right eye. He pulled out a chair and served some tea for them to enjoy, “have a seat, the tea will get cold.” Corrin asked, “who are y-” He then put up his hand and insisted, “tea first, answers after.” She looked back at the screen at her holding Azura’s neck, she wanted to go there, he again insisted, “don’t worry about her, time moves differently in the mind she will be fine.”

She wasn’t sure who he was or if she trust him, but the sooner we get out of this, the sooner she goes back to normal. She and him clinked their glasses together and drank the tea. Suddenly memories of their first encounter have already to resurface, the dream, his warning, all of it. She said weakly, “Kamui?” He clapped his hands together and said, “great so you remember me, that makes this so much easier.” He proceeds to pull out a key to that door and places it on the table. She asks, “what are you, are you my conscience or something?” Kamui answers hesitantly, “I’d say or something. To put it simply, I’m you.” She was even more confused than normal, so he took a deep breath and explain with a chalk board.

“Okay have you heard of time or multiversal travel?” She shook her head no, so to explain he drew three circles and a line with three points and two branching paths. He points to the each of the points on the line explaining, “Okay so this is the timeline, each dot represents a point in history. The first one is when you got captured, the second one is when Azura got caught, the last one is now. For each event that happens there will always be an equal or opposite outcome, thus creating a different timeline or another reality.” He then moves on to the circles, “like let’s say each circles another timeline, you never got taken to Nohr or one where you escaped Nohr for good. Each action gives birth to an equal or opposite reaction, thus making new realities. Do you understand now?”

She repeated back what she understood really well, and asked, “…and that’s what I got, but how does this explain you?” He was silent for a moment saying, “after I lived my life, I made a deal with dragons long dead and they gave me a choice to be a guide for other versions of me so they don’t make my mistakes or pass on. You can guess what I chose. So, I traveled from Corrin to Corrin and guided them the right way as their conscience and I was shown different results. But I’m still here so my job is still not done.” Corrin took in all the information she could and realized what he meant by results, “the choice you mentioned before, it’s coming up right now isn’t?” He nodded sadly answering her question. “I don’t suppose you’ll give me advice.” He shook his head, “I can only guide you once you’ve made your choice, until then your on your own.”

Corrin was filled with nervousness and frustration, she had to make a choice that would decide not just her fate but her friends and families as well. Kamui then gave her a key saying, “the best I could offer you is this, open the door and all your memories will return and you will regain control.” She took the key and saw he had disappeared. She walked up to the door and opened it completely and everything came rushing back to her, all her hidden memories appeared to her in her mind and she now knew who she was.

Outside Corrin gained some clearance and releases Azura, which she smiles as she lets go of her claw. After that, Corrin felt all the rage and pain subside and transforms back into a human with a roar. She shrank back down to her normal size, her wings, tail, and horns retracted into her, and her skin returned to normal. Once the smoke cleared, Corrin is seen clutching her head. Then, a flash of light briefly emerged from her forehead as Corrin looks upward. Corrin said panting, “*huff* *huff* Ughhh… I…I finally remember! I remember…”

In the past she was around eight years old and wandering with her father around Cheve. She looked up at her father and was met with a warm smile. He looked just like Ryoma, except for the mustache and long goatee. His armor was a white and gold color scheme, with a hint of blue. His head piece had what seemed to be horns, but was just part of the headgear. She asked, “father, is it true we could end this war peacefully?” He knelt down and said, “yes it’s true. When we see king Garon let me do all the talking and nobody will get hurt.” She looked around and noticed five Ninja guards around them and he answers, “those are just precautionary measure, in case this is a trap.” Among the guards was a ninja a bit older than her, while the rest were in there late 20s.

King Sumeragi saw in front of him a misty fog and out from the fog he appeared. King Garon walked out in his black royal armor and Cape, with a cold and calculated look on his face. The two kings met in the middle and began their discussions on the war. King Garon held out his hand welcoming the king, “kin Sumeragi, I’m glad you accepted my invitation.” King Sumeragi shook the rival kings hand and said, “well if this is the only way to end the war so be it.” His cold empty eyes focused their attention on her, “and who is this little one?” king Sumeragi pulled her behind him and said, “my daughter. Now shall we get on with it?” he looked around and saw one of the ninjas get assassinated and said, “of course.”

King Garon said a speech about the history of Hoshido and Nohr, “centuries ago, the there were 12 powerful dragons waged war on each other to determine who would control the world, with some of these dragons using humans as pawns to further their goals. The dragons blood-bonded with their chosen humans and granted them incredible power.” King Garon looked to see another soldier fall. King Sumeragi answered, “yes, I know the story. Then one other dragon created five weapons for humanity to wield to fight the wars.”

King Garon nodded, “true, but what if they hadn’t intervened? Who would have won?” the Hoshidan king shrugged. King Garon gave his answer, “we don’t know, but the dragons had the right idea. One rule, one land. Imagine the way we would live if only one dragon was left standing, it would be a world where everyone is under the same rule.” King Sumeragi shook his head saying, “that sounds like a dictatorship, everybody has there own good they worship, so we shouldn’t force people to think the same or act the same.” Another two fell as king Garon stalled. This time Corrin heard something, far to the right a loud thumping bangs in her head and goes silent. When she looked to the sides she saw some of them were missing and when she looked at the right another guy was missing. She tried covering her ears, but she it was still too loud.

King Garon said, “it doesn’t have to be war, just surrender and your people won’t suffer. What do you say?” king Sumeragi stood his ground and said, “and if I refuse?” King Garon got sternly serious, “then I will show no mercy.” Corrin then heard a drawing of a bow behind her and breathing from above. She remembered the kid and quickly warned, “kid behind you!!” the kid ninja and her father turned around and saw a thief just let go of an arrow to shoot it. The ninja jumped out of the way in time and threw a two shuriken at him. She saw the attacker go left and the shuriken ricocheted off each other to do a sharp turn into his head.

King Sumeragi looked back and saw that king Garon was smiling at her, “impressive.” Sumeragi was pissed at this moment, “you tricked me, you never wanted peace didn’t you?” “Of course not, I needed you here just so I could kill you.” Sumeragi then pulled out his Raijinto and was about to charge him, but he was surround by five of the assassins. “Now you know I can’t make it easy for you,” he then walks off into the distance into the fog. The king and the ninja surround Corrin to protect her, and the two begin to defend her as best as they could. The assassins were super tough and dangerous, but they were still no match for him and the kid. The ninja took one of them on allowing for the king and princess to escape.

The king led his daughter down the back way and once the ninja was out of sight, king Garon was in front of him standing in front of him. He yelled, “Garon, we end this!” using what little strength he had he summoned a massive lightning bolt from the sky to shoot him down. Once it was done, his breathing became ragged and Corrin rushed asking, “are you okay, father?” He nodded, “I’m okay just a little winded, now let’s get out of here.” He led her closer to the dead corpse and she asked, “uh father, one question?” He said, “yes sweetheart.” “If you die do you turn into sticks and hay?” He looked down and saw she was right, he was set up. He quickly turned around and was met with king Garon standing in front of an army of archers. He pushed Corrin behind him and said, “stay back.”

Garon gave the order to his archers, “fire at will,” and shot their arrows. Sumeragi blocked a couple of them, but gets shot at by a barrage of arrows, groaning in pain. Corrin was shocked by the sight of her dad stuck with so many arrows, Sumeragi saw her dad look at her saying, “run.” She tried to run but a guy held her by her hair and made her watch. Garon walks up to Sumeragi taunting,” I’m disappointed in you, Sumeragi. *sinister laugh* That wasn’t even my best trap.” He then brandishes his axe and slashes Sumeragi with Bölverk, and she witnessed her dad laying on the ground dead.

The sight of her father dead awakened something inside her, the tears in her eyes fell in anger, rain began to pour, and her hair became lit a flame; thus allowing her to be free. He tries to grab her again, but then a spike was in sticking out of his chest. Corrin’s blind rage turned her into a half dragon hybrid, with wings, a tail, spikes across her back, antler horns, and sharp teeth. She looked back and her eyes were locked on her enemy. She crouched down and on all fours she charged her enemies and with her claws and tail she cut them to bloodied bits. One by one they started to fall and she bathe in the blood of her enemies, but some wizened up and deserted. She wasn’t done yet and flew up to cut them off, she then blew a water vortex at them and the force was so great all that was left was skeletons.

After all that, king Garon was seen standing there without even a scratch. He threw down his axe and fought with his hands. She charged forward with great speed like a freight train, but king Garon shot fireball after fireball at her only for her to dodge. She jumped up and flew towards him and their clashed fist sent a shock wave across the town. The two continued to trade blows, but then she dodged and landed a gut punch. That seems to have stagger him a bit, taking advantage of that she head-butts him hard to the wall. Using her speed she starts throwing combo attacks to his gut, chest, and ribs. Garon tried attacking, but everytime she got close she would dodge out the way. He then tried to grab her, but she flipped him on his back and jumped up to beat him into the ground. King Garon got tired of this and kicked her high into the sky. Then he turned his arm into its gray muck form and grabbed on to her. On certain he held her, he pulled her down super fast yelling, “DIE!” and punched her right between her ribs.

The force was enough to kill a regular human, but Corrin survived it. However, it knocked her out of her powered up form and left her on the ground gasping for air. Corrin looks at the ground briefly, then, she see Garon saying, “You poor thing. Orphaned at such…a tender young age. You are my child now.” As he proceeds to grab Corrin while laughing evilly, Corrin loses consciousness.

Back to the present, Corrin remembers almost everything and her headache subsides. She mutters out in a somber voice, “My real father…” Azura knelt down and is the first to comfort her, “Are you all right, Corrin?” When she looks back at Azura, sudden flashes of her being pinned by her rushed back and Corrin felt worst, “Yes, I’m fine. Just disgusted with myself. Are you OK? I can’t believe what I just did to you. It was like…I had no control over myself.” Azura shook her head, “Please don’t worry about it. That wasn’t you. It was the blood of the ancient dragon that runs in your veins.” Corrin was confused by this and said, “I thought only the Nohrian royal family had dragon blood.” Ryoma was the first to explain, “The blood of the Dusk Dragon runs in the Nohrian royal family. And the blood of the Dawn Dragon runs through ours. But you’re special, Corrin. You can actually take the form of a dragon.” Azura contemplated the ordeal and said, “I’ve heard of such a thing. But this is my first time seeing it in real life…” Corrin looked around and said shocked, “… Never mind me. What happened to all the innocent people in town?”

Corrin looks around at a devastated plaza showing nothing but ruin in its path. Hinoka gave the grave news, “most of the occupants didn’t make it, but we managed to save everyone else who had.” Corrin picked up a dirty stuffed bunny toy from the wreckage, “I can’t believe this. The entire town…devastated. An hour ago these streets were filled with vendors and children and…” Ryoma spread out his hands, “So you see, Corrin. This is the work of the Nohrians. This is what they do. Let me guess. That sword you carried…was it a gift from King Garon?” Corrin didn’t even have to answer because the look of betrayal and rage on her face answered his question.

“He masterminded the whole thing. It’s not your fault. He knew you’ll be captured and brought before the queen…” Corrin thought about that, but one thing doesn’t make sense, “wait if he knew I would be brought back here to meet mother, why hire a murderer to kill me, and how would he know I would get caught?” Ryoma shook his head saying, “I don’t know.” Corrin addressed her siblings and apologized, “I’m so sorry I couldn’t see it coming…” Takumi got feed up with this and said what he meant, “Your apology means NOTHING.” Corrin knew this was bound to happen, so she accepted it without any resistance. Takumi continues his rant, “This is all your fault! Mother is dead, along with countless others. And it wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t shown up on our doorstep. You don’t belong here!” Ryoma intervened and said, “Enough, Takumi!” Azura joined to make him see reason, “Your words don’t change anything. And besides-” Takumi blew up at Azura as well, “Shut up, Azura! You’re no different than Corrin. An interloper.”

Azura was use to this so she took all the hits she could, Corrin didn’t, “Takumi…” Takumi yelled, “Don’t speak my name! I don’t want to see you again. Are we really to believe you had no idea this would happen?” Hinoka stood next to him failing to calm him down, “Takumi, what are you saying? Knock it off! You just saw Corrin help us defeat those Nohrian soldiers!” Azura added, “Takumi, please. You must listen. Corrin is your sister. If you don’t trust me, that’s one thing. But Corrin is your own blood.” Takumi turned his back to her, “Mother is dead. Thanks to her. She's not my sister.” Corrin became very apologetic and thought maybe she shouldn’t have come here, “I’m so sorry, everyone. I’ve brought nothing but pain to all of you. It would be better if I’d never come here— maybe I should just leave.”

Just when she was about to leave, Yukimura appeared, “Please wait. I don’t believe that’s what Queen Mikoto would have wanted.” Takumi turned to him saying, “What do you know about it, Yukimura?” Ryoma scolds him for his rudeness and paraphrased, “What he meant to say was, did she say something to you?” “I hate to deliver this news, but…” he took a deep breath saying, “Queen Mikoto foresaw her own death.” The royals were surprised by this revelation, but wait for him to speak, “This isn’t your fault, Corrin. King Garon set these events in motion. And the queen speculated that there may be an even darker force at work. She didn’t know when or how death would strike, only that it was certain. And there’s one other thing. Please take a look at that statue.”

Everyone looks at the statue which was half destroyed and a sword was stuck at the center of the statue. The sword was a golden colored blade that had four empty slots. Corrin asked a rhetorical question, “Is that…a sword?” Ryoma stared in disbelief, “It can’t be…” Yukimura answered, “It is. The divine sword Yato. Much like your weapon, Ryoma. The divine Raijinto… And your Fujin Yumi, Takumi... Yato may be wielded by only a singular warrior. One who is chosen by the blade itself. One who is worthy to wield it. It is said that the Yato was forged to be the key to peace in our world.” Corrin wondered, “The key to peace…” suddenly the Yato rises from the stone and flies to Corrin's hand as if it was called.

The royals had very unique reactions to the ordeal: Ryoma stated the obvious, “The blade has chosen Corrin!” Takumi said in disbelief, “Impossible.” Hinoka was the only one to seem to be excited for her, “Corrin, do you know what this means?” Sakura was worried about her lack of response and asked, “Corrin? Are you listening? Can you h-hear us?” Kaze appears before the royals and Yukimura to give a report, “Lord Ryoma! I have important news. A massive Nohrian force is gathering at our border.” Ryoma looked around and this was the tipping point, his people, his family, everyone has suffered because of king Garon. He wants war, so be it, “This is the final straw. I have worked hard to avoid an all-out war, but now… Death is too good for them. Who’s with me?” The others rallied and they charged to face the Nohrian soldiers.

Soon only Corrin & Azura are left behind contemplating the decision to go to war. Corrin spoke up to break the silence, “There must be another way. Surely the answer is not more bloodshed. But I feel I must follow Ryoma to the border. If I can help avert total war…” she was about to walk, when Azura stopped her, “Wait, Corrin! There’s something you need to know. If you become embroiled in a fight right now, it would be easy to lose control. Your dragon blood could take over again. And if you yield completely to the dragon, you may lose your humanity altogether.” Corrin almost forgot about that, being controlled by her emotions wasn’t fun the first or second time. She didn’t want to lose herself, but she hated feeling useless, “Is there anything I can do?” Azura thought about the stone her mom gave her and got an idea, “Yes. I can give you a Dragonstone. It will allow you to control the dragon’s power and still return to your human form. Now, please close your eyes…” Corrin followed her order without question, “Very well…” Azura whispers a short chant, conjuring the Dragonstone for Corrin and the Dragonstone connects with Corrin’s soul.

Azura finished the connection, “… There. You should be OK now. This Dragonstone is now attuned to you alone. Be sure to keep it safe, it’s the only one I got.” Corrin gave her a small smile of appreciation, “Thank you, Azura. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Azura wasn’t use to receiving praise, so her face started to heat up at the complement, “Oh! Um…” Corrin realized how uncomfortable she must be and apologizes, “I’m sorry. Did I make you uncomfortable? I know we’ve known each other only a short while, but I feel close to you. You already risked your life to help calm my dragon form. I only hope I can repay the favor someday.” Azura bows saying, “Thank you, Corrin. I feel close to you as well. I feel…safe when I’m with you. I wish to keep you safe too. That’s why I’m coming with you to face Nohr.” The two sisters go meet up with there family.

Chapter 13: Into The Ground

Chapter Text

Chapter 7

Corrin hadn't seen many battlefields, but this one was by far more packed. The Nohrian troops charged forward attacking the enemy soldiers. Looking out there she saw Ryoma fight someone she didn’t expect to reunite with yet, her adoptive brother Xander. Corrin saw her sister Hinoka protecting Sakura, while Takumi shooting two arrows a second at soldiers. Azura turns to her and says, “you help out Hinoka, I got Takumi.” Corrin had no time to argue and chose to help her sister, while Azura ran to her hot-headed brother. Azura blocked an axe swing aimed at her brothers head and dispatched of him quickly; Takumi stared at his sister and nodded towards her, showing his appreciation. Meanwhile Corrin ran up to her sisters and cleared the surrounding area faster than she intended. Hinoka sighed, “thanks, let’s get through to the middle, that’s where Ryoma is.” Corrin nodded and followed behind her sister, knocking out anyone blocking her path.

Xander and Ryoma were locked in combat, until Xander broke the clash. Xander and Ryoma were both out of breath, but Xander and Ryoma were about to attack again. Before they charged forward, Corrin stood between the two rival princes, the Nohrian prince said relieved, “Corrin, you're alive! They haven't harmed you, have they?” Corrin was glad to reunite with her family, but the circ*mstances were not ideal. First things first, answers, “Xander! I'm fine. But... why are you invading Hoshido?!” Xander answered her question, “we all thought you were dead and mourned you for awhile, but when we heard you were alive in Hoshido we came to take you home. As for the invasion, father’s mission is to conquer Hoshido. Join us, and we'll end this quickly. If we conquer Hoshido here and now, we can avoid unnecessary bloodshed.” Corrin thought about the offer and didn’t know what to do, so she stalled, “Xander... I...I need a minute.” Ryoma then tried to persuade her, “Be careful, Corrin. That man is a Nohrian commander!” Corrin looked to her other brother to see his silent plea, “Ryoma...”

Suddenly, Corrin heard a dragon roar from above and the sound of horses getting closer. Then it turned out to be her other siblings, Leo, Elise, and Camilla smiling at her. Camila was gave a smile, “Corrin! I was so worried about you. Don't ever wander away from me again!” Leo gave her a small smirk and commented, “I'm glad you're OK, Corrin. You must have the devil's own luck!” Elise however was just excited to see her, “Yaaay! We got our sister back!” Hinoka spoke up angrily at them, “Nohrian scum! First you kidnap her, now you lied to her?! Corrin is MY sister, not yours!” Camilla’s entire demeanor changes to that of a cold and calculating assassin, “you are mistaken. Corrin is my sweet little sister. You may not have her.” Ryoma spoke up trying to persuade her, “Don't be fooled by their words. You belong with your true family in Hoshido!” He made a good point but then Xander tried to persuade her to his side as well, “We have loved you and raised you since you were a child. Come home, little princess. We can live as a family once more!” “Come home to Hoshido, Corrin!” “No, Corrin! Nohr is your home!”

Suddenly Corrin realized that the scene before her looks exactly like her dream she just recently remembered, every word, every action, even the tension between the two warring sides were alike. Corrin looks at Xander briefly, then, she look at Ryoma who reaches out to her, “this way!” Corrin then sees Hinoka, Sakura and Takumi run up behind Ryoma and look at he. Sakura stutters out, “B-Big sister?” Corrin looks over at Nohr to see her other siblings do the same. Elise reaffirms who her family is, “She's my sister!” Corrin looks at Xander who also reaches out, “We're your family.”

Corrin was in a rock and a hard place determining who to go to muttering, “My family...” she knew this choice would come soon, but that didn’t mean she was ready. On one side, she loved her Nohrian sibling and couldn’t betray them after all they did for her. On the other hand, she now knows that the Hoshidan royals are her birth family and they’ve been so kind to her so far. If all her siblings went to kill Garon she might chose Hoshido, for her mother. However either way she will betray her family, so there isn’t a way out of this.

After considering the situation, Corrin decided to stay out of this, “I... I won't betray anyone.” The two sides weren’t expecting that answer, but allowed her to continue, “I won't fight against the people of Nohr after you cared for me all these years. You and Camilla, Leo and Elise... We might not be related by blood, but you are family to me. You've been with me for as long as I can remember.” Xander smiled saying with pride, “Well said, little princess. What ties us together is thicker than blood.” Ryoma asked worried, “What are you saying, Corrin? You would discard your true family and side with those who stand against us?” Corrin eased his guilt answering, “...No. I refuse to fight against my Hoshidan siblings, either. Ryoma...we might not have spent much time together, but you are my family too. You, Hinoka, Takumi, Sakura... I don't want to fight with you on this or any other battlefield.” Ryoma also smiled with relief, “We feel the same, Corrin.”

Corrin faced them both and said determined, “...But I can't side with either of you against the other. I cannot betray any of my family.” Xander and Ryoma asked in sync, “Corrin, what are you ...going to do, then?” Corrin apologized to keep them from fighting, “I'm so sorry, both of you. Please, set your swords aside! I'm sure a peaceful solution exists. If we could just—” Xander remembered his father’s words and drew his blade, “I've heard enough! Corrin, I can see what you're trying to accomplish here. However that is not possible, father gave specific orders. If you refuse to join, you are a traitor and you must be executed. As your older brother, it is my duty to take you home...” Ryoma followed his lead and drew his blade, “Not while I still stand... Corrin is finally back with her family—I will not let you take her again!”

Corrin was losing them, so she shouted and tried to get their attention, “No, wait! Xander! Ryoma!” Xander and Ryoma just ignored her and tried to solve it the their way, “Don't think for a moment that I will let you take Corrin without a fight. It seems only right to cross swords with my opposing equal. As the heirs of our respective families, why don't we settle this here and now?” Ryoma and Xander prepared to strike, “Prepare yourself, then. I will defeat you in defense of my kingdom and my sister!” Corrin’s pleas fell upon deaf ears as her family prepared for a fight with each other, “Please, both of you, stop! We can still talk this out inste—!” Corrin was interrupted by the two sides charging each other.

The two sides clashed and an all out fight broke out. Looking out there she could see that both sides are pretty evenly matched: Takumi was a little bit faster and had more mobility than Leo but was vulnerable to magic more, while Leo took the hits like a champion. Hinoka and Camila were more or less equally matched in all terms of fighting, except Hinoka was a little more lucky with the narrow misses. Corrin thought to herself, “Gah, it's no use! They just won't listen to me... I'll have to step in if I want to stop them!”

Corrin looked to her left and saw Azura next to her and said, “We'll have to get their attention if we want to stop them from fighting...” Azura considered using her secret weapon, but it wasn’t that bad yet, “I have an idea... Why don't we attack the groups closest to us? If we defeat the leaders, Ryoma and Xander can't possibly ignore us.” Before Corrin could agree, Jakob came running towards her, almost out of breath. “Ah, I'm so glad… you're safe! I'm here to… help you, milady,” he said out of breath. A surprised Corrin replied, “Jakob?! What are you doing here?!”

Jakob answered honestly, “I've been trying to find you ever since I heard you might be alive, I apologize for not coming sooner, milady. It may have taken me a while, but now that I'm here, I'll support you.” Corrin smiled at her devoted butler and said, “Thank you Jakob! We're grateful to have you! Also, don’t worry about it, the Hoshidans were actually really kind.” Jakob looked around and noticed her lack of allies, “I'm a bit unclear as to which army we are fighting, though. Everyone seems so fired up, and they aren't exactly looking at us with happy eyes...” Corrin scratches her head awkwardly, “The short version is...we're up against the Hoshidan army and the Nohrian army right now. I've kind of chosen not to side with either one.” For as long as she knew him, Jakob was never nervous of any task, until now, “B-both armies?! Lady Corrin, what have you gotten yourself into?” He then composes himself, “I suppose it matters not. Your enemies are my enemies. I shall assist you, whatever your intentions.”

Corrin looked to the right and saw that there were three Wyvern riders all with iron axes from Nohr, while to the left their were a variety of enemies on Hoshido’s side. They had a samurai, a spear fighter, and a Oni Savage with an iron weapon. She told her small group of allies what the plan was, “okay Jakob, Azura we handle the Nohrian commander first since they are closer and can fly over the river. I will act as bait and take the hits while you guys flank them. Jakob your with me.” They followed her orders without question Corrin stood next to the river and egged them on to their attention, “over here ugly, fight me.” Jakob stood behind her to back her up and just being close to him, Corrin felt more aware and untouchable. Azura stood next to Jakob and sang to encourage them both.

The Wyvern riders flew towards the traitorous princess to take her down. The first one downward to attack, but she was much more prepared than they gave her for. He swiped at her, but she dodged the attack and did her 360 slash attack and Jakob followed up with a knife throw, knocking him down. The second one tried to attack as well, only this time aiming for Jakob. The Wyvern rider attacked Jakob and caught him off guard and barely dodged the strike. He felt a sharp cut on his arm and saw his arm was cut and his sleeve was cut. He got angry and yelled at the rider, “how dare you!” The rider swung again and again only for Jakob to dodge them with ease as he continued to yell, “this is my best suit, do you know how hard it is to get a custom made butler suit made, you buffoon?!” Jakob charged into a slide under the Wyvern and shot a dagger at the rider, embedding into his shoulder. The rider felt weaker because of the dagger, then Corrin delivered the final blow to knock him down.

When she knocked him out, she felt herself felt different somehow, more powerful and light on her feet. Then she was about to pick up the knife, but it disappeared in front of her. Jakob answered, “don’t you remember milady? Ranged weapons, such as dagger, shuriken, and hand axes; instantly return to your hand after being thrown.” Before she could answer, Azura yelped dodging the strike from the lead Wyvern rider and retaliates with a strike with her brass Naginata. Corrin then delivered a slash to the rider to help out and then Azura knocked him out with the Naginata. Corrin commented, “good job guys.” Azura looked to the left and saw the Hoshidan forces were advancing and warned, “we’re not done yet. We got an Oni savage past the bridge.” Corrin saw the space between the bridge and the savage. She looked back and saw Jakob had obtained a new skill. She chose to ignore it and said another plan she had.

Before they could move Azura’s ability activated and healed them up a little bit. Corrin ran toward the savage and he charged her as well. They got closer and closer until at the last minute, they both jumped over him and Corrin attacked the spear fighter with her new Yato blade. Jakob threw two daggers at the Savage and it didn’t do much but sap his power, while Azura also did some good damage knocking him out. Jakob threw an extra dagger toward the spear fighter to assist his liege. Corrin thanked Jakob for his assistance, “thanks Jakob.” Jakob healed her and the cuts she got were healed up, then his cut from the axe also healed as well. All that was left was the samurai, Corrin looked at him standing his ground and said co*cky, “seriously guy?” the three of them together dispatched of the samurai by knocking him out with the butt of the blade. She felt the same light feeling and obtained a new skill as well.

Meanwhile Xander was fighting the Hoshidans, he noticed Corrin knocking out his commander, “What? Corrin has defeated my forward commander? We can't afford to be caught between her forces and the Hoshidans...” He had no choice but to retreat, “Stop the assault! All units, await my command!” The Nohrians siblings were confused, but accepted the command, along with the army. The Hoshidan force also saw Corrin take down their commander and Ryoma said, “Corrin has defeated my forward commander?! What is she up to? Does she really intend to fight against us?” He also swallowed his pride and chose the safe option, “...We can't handle fighting on two fronts. Everyone! Hold position!”

Corrin, Azura, and Jakob stood together witnessed Xander and Ryoma’s army have stopped fighting and are standing in the battlefield. Corrin was a bit out of breath from all the fighting, “*pant...pant...* It wasn't easy, but... I think we got them to stop fighting...” However little did she know Ryoma and Xander weren’t listening at all, “...Tch. Why, Corrin? Why would you turn on us this way? Even if we aren't blood related, don't you feel any loyalty at all?” “Xander! I just want you to listen to what I'm saying!” She tried to explain, but Ryoma spoke up, “Corrin... Why would you betray Hoshido? Have you lost all sense of justice?” Corrin looked to Ryoma and said, “You don't understand, Ryoma! I haven't betrayed you!”

Xander thought back to his father’s warning about blood ties and his conditions concerning Corrin, “I...always thought of you as a sister...” he looked to his siblings and sighed, swallowing his feelings he told them, “...Damn it all. Spread word among the troops. Corrin has turned traitor! From this moment forth, she is our enemy and should be captured on sight!” Corrin wasn’t really shocked or surprised, she was more annoyed than anything, “Why won't you listen to me?!”

After Xander left to his group, Ryoma spoke to her with hope, regret and disappointment in his voice, “Corrin... Even now, I still remember the agony I felt the day you were kidnapped. I know we can't get back the time we lost... But... I still hoped that someday we would be reunited as a family... I see now that I was living a fantasy. ...Tell everyone. Corrin is truly lost to us! If she insists on becoming our enemy, then all we can do is fight her!” Corrin tried to get through to him, “Ryoma! I...” however he returned to his army to regroup. Corrin was about to chase them, but Azura stopped her and reasoned with her, “Wait, Corrin. Nothing you can say will reach either of them. We need to retreat for now. We can't afford to be caught.” Corrin looked to the sides and saw them ready their weapons, “Xander...Ryoma...” having no choice she followed her sister’s advice, “I promise you'll understand one day.” Corrin, Azura, and Jakob then flee the battlefield.

Soon the three of them ended up in a big field with no warring kingdoms chasing them. Azura bent down with her hands on her knees to catch her breath, but when she finally caught her breath she spoke up to Corrin, “...Whew. We managed to escape, but I'm sure they're still on our trail. We can't leave things are they are now—we'll be branded as traitors by both kingdoms.” Corrin didn’t respond to that knowing she was right. Azura then warned her of her of the outcome if she continues down this path, “Listen to me. You'll lose everything if you don't choose a side. It's either Hoshido or Nohr.” Corrin shook her in disagreement, “No way. There's a third option. I can choose not to support either side and that’s what I chose to do.”

“How?” Azura asked intrigued. Corrin looked Azura in the eyes and said, “I have family in Hoshido, that’s true, however I also have family in Nohr. Even if I were to lose everything... Even if all of them despise me... I can't raise a blade against my family, I won’t. I don't care if I lose everything or if they all hate me, but at least this way I won’t be the reason either of them die, because I chose a different side. This is what I've decided and I will follow it till the end.” Azura thought about what she said and replied, “I see... You have to be willing to risk a lot to accomplish something major... I suppose you're right.” Her mind went back to her mother’s last moments, “...My own mother lost her life protecting Nohr. But I don't think she regretted her choice. She died to protect the ones she loved.” She then reminded her of her mom and aunt in that way, “I've made up my mind as well. I will follow you down the path you've chosen.” Corrin was surprised by this at first, but she smiled with gratitude, “Azura... Thank you.”

Jakob answers and says, “you can count on me as well milady, I will help no matter what. Consider it an apology for doubting your survival.” Corrin felt very awkward and replied, “there’s no need to apologize, I would have thought the same thing if I were in your position. However your loyalty is much appreciated.” Jakob bowed to her and thanked her, “your kindness knows no bounds milady.” He then looks around and notices that its getting pretty late, “lady Corrin, shall I begin to make camp?” Corrin shook her head saying, “that won’t be necessary, I got this.” She then spoke in the ancient language of dragons fluently, “Aperire portam Lamia.” (open up the gate Lilith). Suddenly Lilith appears before her in her dragon form saying in ancient draconic, “non opus est clamare domine Corrin, hic sum.” (no need to shout Lady Corrin, I'm right here.). Corrin then says to her, “paenitet Lamia, sed magna leo.” (sorry Lilith, but great timing.)

Jakob and Azura were confused, but only Jakob had the courage to ask for context, “Lilith?! Milady, do you mean to say this creature is our stable girl? It can't be...” Corrin rubbed the back of her head awkwardly saying, “Actually...it can. And it is.” Jakob couldn’t believe her and thought this was one of her jokes, “Sorry, milady, but I fail to grasp the joke. Lilith is a human, not a...fantastical beast.” Corrin shook her head and replied, “Look, I know it's confusing. I'll explain everything later. Come on! I want to show you something before we get caught. Azura, you believe me right?” Azura nodded and a bright light opened at their feet, and Jakob asked startled, “My word... What is that light?!” “Erm, I'll explain that later too...” Corrin said before jumping into the portal. Jakob jumped in without hesitation thinking she was hurt or in trouble, while Azura shrugged, “I’ve seen weirder,” and entered and they were transported to the Astral Realm.

When Jakob and Azura first exit the portal, they were utterly speechless at the sight before them. Where they were standing was a pedestal with a throne and crystal ball, beyond that was an open field with a few buildings, a pond, a forest, a spring, and a mine. Jakob found Corrin and saw she was busy talking with the creature said to be Lilith. While Azura was wondering around like a excited child, Jakob got her attention, “Beg pardon, Lady Corrin, but might I inquire...what just happened? And where precisely are we?” Corrin and Lilith shared a look, Corrin and her began to explain. But first Lilith shifted into her human form and replied, “I apologize for startling you, Jakob! Please, allow me to explain...” they both explain in detail about Corrin’s first experience here and this places history. Jakob is still processing, but he understands to an extent, “...I see. So, to be clear, we are in something called an astral plane. Fascinating. Truly fascinating. Oh excuse me, I will explain this to lady Azura right away.” He then bows to her and goes to find the wandering princess to explain where she is.

Lilith and Corrin continued their conversation, “Lady Corrin... I know the choice you just made was a difficult one. From here on out, you and your allies will continue down your chosen path. I promise to do everything in my power to help you on your journey. As such, please feel free to use this astral plane to rest or prepare for battle.” Corrin smiles at her friend and said, “Thank you, Lilith. Your kindness and support are very much appreciated.” Lilith replied blushing, “Aww, you're so very welcome! Oh, by the way, this place is filled with Dragon Veins. Long story short: You can use them to customize your castle as you see fit. Let's try it now. I'll help!”

Lilith placed her hand on the crystal ball and holographic projections of 4 buildings. Lilith stepped out the way and instructed her, “the Dragon Veins have a limit to how much you can put up in a day, so choose wisely.” Corrin noticed two of each buildings were Hoshidan and Nohrian. Corrin thought about it and knew that if she was being hunted they needed weapons and staves. She chose to install a dusk armory and a rod shop. She sudden felt a Dragon Vein next to her and went towards it. Corrin looked to Lilith and she encouraged her to do it, so she did and imagined the staves on the left, and the weapons on the right. Suddenly two shops appeared on each side of her and they were open.

Meanwhile in the distance Azura was finished exploring and started watching the fish in the pond. Jakob stood next to her trying to catch them some dinner, while explaining what this place is. “…And it would seem this place is deserted, but I have to admit this place is quite nice,” he said failing to catch a fish. She giggled at his attempt to catch a fish, but she suddenly felt a Dragon Vein far away and looked in the direction. Suddenly two shops appeared on either side, one being Hoshidan and the other being Nohrian. She looked to see him finally touch the fish, only for it to get away and an idea entered her mind. She asked Jakob, “may I try something?” Jakob smugly stepped aside, “be my guest milady.” She used her singing power to lift four fish out of the water. Jakob stared in awe and envy at her power as the fish fell down. Jakob grumbled about how she did it better than her, but got to cooking the fish.

Soon it became night and the remaining crew sit around the camp fire with their fish on a stick. Lilith was in her little dragon form and took little nibbles at the fish. Corrin was catching Jakob up on what she has been up to since her kidnapping, from meeting her family to now. Jakob was a bit skeptical about the turning into a dragon bit, but he trusted her. “Wow… just, that’s a lot to take in. Are you alright milady?” Corrin didn’t want her allies to worry about her, eventhough she was hurting, “I’m fine, Jakob.” He saw that she played with her hair, she did that when something was wrong. However, he said nothing else and dropped it.

Corrin then changed the subject to get less depressed, “so who has an idea what to do about the war. We can’t hide here forever and I won’t fight my family.” Azura swallowed a piece of fish and answered, “I’ve got a plan that can end the war, save the two kingdoms, and possibly bring our two families together. All we have to do is go to the bottomless canyon.” Lilith nearly choked on her fish at that and replied, “lady Azura, are you sure about that?” Azura nodded, “there’s something there that we need to see, but you guys must trust me.” Corrin looked to Jakob and he said, “I will follow your lead lady Corrin.” Corrin nodded, “let’s go to the canyon first thing in the morning.” Lilith shook her head and said, “actually lady Corrin, the portal I opened to the bottomless canyon is still there, so I could just teleport you there.” Corrin smiled, “really, how convenient. Then we will go at noon, giving me time to practice with my Dragonstone. Agreed?” Everyone nodded and Lilith answered finishing her fish, “it’s settled then, let’s rest up lady Corrin.”

Corrin asked Lilith, “where is everyone sleeping by the way?” Lilith points to the sides and said, “on either side of the castle has an opening, go there you will see a couple of barracks with a bed and bathroom.” Corrin said, “wow you thought of everything here, huh Lilith?” Lilith answered, “well they belonged to the villagers who used to live here, but now they are abandoned.” Azura asked, “what happened to them,” Lilith answered solemn, “some villagers who lost their home, the astral Dragon took pity on them and let them stay here. But very little are still around. Only about 12 villagers remain and there used to be 100’s.” Corrin asked curiously, “what happened to them?” Lilith answered, “most have live full lives here, others left to find a new home.” Corrin answered, “must have been lonely, being on your own like that?”

Lilith shook her head and changed the subject, “it’s late, I’m going to my temple. Good night.” She flew to her temple to get a good night’s rest and the others left for the barracks to get some sleep. Corrin went up into her tree house that was her own private quarters and it was just how she left it. She closed the door and went into the bathroom to take a shower. However when she was about to strip out of her armor, she heard Kamui's voice, “nice plan.” She stopped when she heard and looked around to find she was alone. She shook her head and whispered, “I must be going crazy,” Kamui answered, “not yet you aren’t.” Corrin continued looking only for her to look in a mirror to see her own reflection. Corrin sighed, “just need some water, that's all.” She bent down to wash her face and when she finished, she looked up to see Kamui’s face instead of her own.

Corrin was a little spooked and jumped back, Kamui was laughing saying, “that never gets old. How you feeling?” Corrin caught her breath saying, “what are you doing in my mirror?” He replied, “I told you, I’m here to guide you. However I am trapped inside your mind until I get a vessel of my own, so until then I’ll be like your conscious and warn you of something dangerous.” Corrin sighed, “can we do this tomorrow, I’ve had a really long day and need to relax.” Kamui nodded, “sure but tomorrow you must do what I ask, it could make your journey much easier. Deal?” she covered her mirror saying, “deal.” She then enters the shower to get herself clean.

Chapter 14: A Vallite funeral

Chapter Text

Chapter 7.2

The world works in mysterious and cruel ways, one minute your having a welcome home ceremony; the next your fighting semi-visibly enemies invading the kingdom and your sister turns into a dragon. At least that’s what Takumi thought, his sister who he was starting to open up to, was a giant, out of control, monster. He wanted to trust her and have her as family, but when Mikoto and the civilians died, all that happened the past week was just erased. He needed someone to blame and she was the closest person there. However, now wasn’t the time for this, he had to stop the invaders from destroying the town.

Hinoka and him flew up above the town to see that there were multiple warriors terrorizing the city, buildings were crumbling, screams were heard throughout the city, and fires were erupting. Hinoka looked back at him and said, “I’ll take the west, while you handle the east, our retainers should meet us there as soon as possible.” Takumi nodded visibly angry, Hinoka then spoke up, “she didn’t know Takumi, you have to–” Takumi then skydived into the air and with his Fujin Yumi, he shot an arrow at the ground. Channeling all of his concentration, he conjured a small cyclone to slow down his fall speed. Hinoka just rolled her eyes and said, “showoff.” She then went to the west leaving her brother to fight by himself.

Takumi grabbed his Yumi and went to go help rescue the citizens. He came up on some mercenary with an iron axe staring him down. Takumi reached for the nonexistent bowstring and then a green light bowstring appeared before him. He pulled back the string and a light wind arrow appeared, however the mercenary disappeared and became semi-visible. He focused his hearing and breathing to sense the threat, but the mercenary moved as if like a ghost. He couldn’t detect him at all and quickly opened his eyes and jumped to the side. He felt a cut on his cheek and knew that was just pure luck. He had to find a way out of this and fast, because the mercenary was fighting like crazy. His every attack was precise and calculated to kill, Takumi had dodged a couple of hits but felt the full force of the attacks and no shot at winning if he couldn’t see him. He was on his knees bleeding and in pain, when the mercenary came closer he began to notice a slight shiver in the air surrounding him.

Takumi rolled out the way and threw dirt into his eye blinding him, Takumi pulled back his bowstring and said, “...Die already!!” As he fired his bow, he focused on the arrow until it hit its opponent and once it landed, he willed it to explode and the mercenary splattered everywhere. Takumi took his concoction and felt instantly healed up, then he went to go finish his mission. He went around the city and saw a couple ninja helping out with search and rescue. He found a couple and helped lead citizens to the castle in order to keep them safe. Eventually, he noticed an old man underneath a pile of rubble and lifted it with all his strength but it was not possible. The old man said, “leave me milord, save yourself.” Takumi refused he lost one parent today, he wasn’t going to let some kids go through the same thing.

While he was busy lifting the rubble, he heard a voice in the distance, “Lord Takumi!” it was Oboro and Hinata, his retainers. Takumi yelled back, “Hinata, Oboro, over here!” They saw the old man trapped and helped lift the rubble off the old man with success. The old man crawls out saying, “thank you, milord.” Takumi answered, “no problem.” A sky knight took him to the castle and left them alone. Takumi asked, “what are you guys doing here?” Hinata answered enthusiastically, “Oboro saw an explosion take place in the center of town. We warned Yukimura and the others and he sent us to investigate.” Oboro looked around and asked, “wait, where’s lady Mikoto?” Takumi's silence answered her question for him.

Just then the group heard someone in the distance, Takumi changed the subject quickly, “we got people to save, you two with me.” They both bowed and followed his lead, their next citizens were two semi-visible warriors holding a couple hostage and threatened to kill them. Everytime Takumi aimed at one, the other pressed a knife to the others neck. Takumi then remembered Corrin's suggestion, and focused on his arrow. He let his arrow fly at high speed and when it was halfway there, the arrow split in two and embedded theme into the warriors foreheads. Hinata spoke up amazed, “holy sh*t, how did you do that lord Takumi?” He just answered, “concentration and determination.” The three continued to fight by their liege, and they figured out how to locate them at least. While they are semi-visible, they give off a small shimmer around them. It’s hard to see at first but their eyes adjust to the sight before him. Together the three friend helped as much as they could, however Takumi heard a loud roar in the town square. Oboro asked frightened, “what was that?” Takumi answered coldly, “its Corrin.” Hinata looked confused, “I had no idea she could make such a beastly sound.” He replied, “don’t worry, I will handle this and give the rundown later, in the meantime continue searching I’ll meet you at the castle.” They nodded and Hinata went headfirst into battle. Oboro stayed for a while and just said, “be careful lord Takumi,” and ran to join her partner.

Moving on to outside the Capitol, the Hoshidan and Nohrian army were awaiting for their orders. Ryoma went back to his family and told them the news, Hinoka was in denial about the betrayal all together. “No way, she said no to both sides. So wouldn’t that mean she just isn’t choosing a side because she doesn’t want to hurt her family?” Ryoma answered sadly, “true, but if she isn’t with us then she will have to face justice for the lives lost.” Takumi made a comment, “good.” Sakura answered, “but she couldn’t have known it was a trap. Please Ryoma.” He answered immediately, “its already done, everyone has orders to capture her and have her stand trial for everything that has transpired, if the people find her innocent then she will be free and if not she will be punished.” Sakura started to tear up and went home, Hinoka went to check on her, while Takumi asked, “what now, brother?” Ryoma looked around to see his men are exhausted and said, “fall back everyone!”

Meanwhile Xander was giving a similar explanation to his siblings. Camilla was the first to speak, “so how did the talk go, did you convince her to join us?” Xander gave a long pause before shaking his head no explained the situation to them. The Nohrian siblings each had a concerned look on their face, Leo then muttered, “great, how do we get out of this.” Elise’s usual cheerful energy is depleted at the sound of Corrin being considered a traitor and replaced with a serious expression, “but, Corrin didn’t choose Hoshido either. Can’t father see she could still be a part of our family?” Camilla bent down and said in a gentle manner, “I’m sorry, once father has his mind set on something he rarely changes his mind. The first time was a one time bet, the second time was a reasonable request. This is not one of those times.” Elise let a tear fall down her cheek and hugged Camilla, while Xander saw that his soldiers were in bad shape. “Fall back, everyone fall back to Nohr!” The soldiers on both sides went to their respective kingdoms and they never looked back.

Fast forward a couple hours or so of healing the survivors as much as possible, the soldiers began a funeral for the queen and those they couldn’t save. The royal family sat in the throne room with Kagero, Yukimura, Orochi, and Reina and no one was saying a word. Yukimura decided to pass out an envelope with each of their names on it, “she wanted to give these out before she died, however she said to open it if your ever worried about Corrin.” The siblings put away the letters and Ryoma asked him, “are the preparation for the funeral ready?” Kagero answered insistent, “actually milord, queen Mikoto gave me specific instructions in case she died back when I was assigned to her.” Hinoka responds, “please elaborate.” Kagero recounted what she was told, “she desired to be placed on a boat, then set the boat out to sea with her body, next set it ablaze with an arrow fired by skilled archer, and lastly have a feast full of drinking and reminiscing about the dead and the life they lived. The boats symbolized safe passage into the afterlife on the same vessel that aided their travels in life, so they played a key role in funeral rites. For others, the honors went a step further, and they were buried with their actual boats.”

Reina spoke up, “lord Takumi, lady Sakura, if you desire, you can assist in saying goodbye.” Takumi nodded without hesitation, “it would be my honor.” Sakura just nodded wiping the tears from her eyes. Kagero pulled out a piece of paper and said, “this is an old prayer from her old home. If you like you can say memorize it for the funeral.” The royals thanked Kagero, while Yukimura set the time saying, “we will begin in one hour, in the meantime get your affairs in order and in two days we will hold a war meeting.” Everyone was dismissed to focus on the funeral their own way. Ryoma held his pain inside throughout the meeting, but once alone he began to reminisce about his mother and his sister.

He held his picture of his family closely and began to reminisce about the days before hand. Suddenly his red haired retainer, Saizo, entered to say something, “milord, I have finished scouring the town for any suspicious people. I find none so far, but I found a couple of injured people and brought them back here.” Ryoma nodded, “thank you Saizo.” Saizo was about to leave, but he asked, “do you blame her, milord?” Ryoma looked up and asked confused, “what?” “Lady Corrin, if she has betray us, then she is our enemy. So if you blame her make sure it is for the right reason and that you don’t regret anything.” Ryoma thinks about this and remembered Kaze was taken, “king Garon is to blame for this, she had no knowledge about this. However she fought against us, so she is our enemy to be captured.” Saizo bowed to him and said, “very well milord, but remembered she may be family, but your kingdom needs you.” With that Saizo leaves him to ponder his thoughts.

Hinoka was out training to keep her mind busy and not think about it much, but it can only do so much. She kept attack until she was sore but soon her retainer Azama. Hinoka then manages to break another wooden dummy, Seeing this Azama speaks in his calm and brutal tone, “well seems like you showed that dummy whose boss.” Hinoka turned around to see Azama watching her train, “how long were you standing there?” “Oh, the whole time. Seeing you think training to forget your sister’s betrayal and mother’s death to no avail is quite amusing.” Hinoka was about to say something, but realized he was right. She decided to ask, “okay so what do you suggest I do then?” Azama just shrugs, “while her death is a sad one, death comes for us all at some point, so no point in getting worked up about it. If I did care though, I’d write everything in a letter to the deceased with everything you feel and then burn it.” With that he healed her hands and left her alone. She stared at her fist and went to her room.

Sakura was crying in her room sad about losing her mom and sister all in the same day, she blamed herself for not being kidnapped instead of Corrin. If she were kidnapped then her sister would still be here and her mom might still be alive. Just then her retainer and best friend, Hana, entered her room. As she entered she saw her friend sad and asked, “lady Sakura, do you wish to talk about today?” Sakura said, “I couldn’t save her, its my fault.” Hana put her hand on Sakura's shoulder and replied, “no, you did everything humanly possible. If anyone is at fault it was Nohr.” Sakura insists, “but I’m a healer, I’m supposed to help people. If I can’t do that then…” Sakura didn’t finish her sentence, but Hana began to talk, “you know what happened to my dad right? He died in the king’s assassination, if I had told him to not go he would still be alive. At least that’s what I believed. The thing about life is that no matter how hard you try to save someone, you can’t save everyone. People will die no matter what, we just have to save as many as we can and hope no one else has to die like that.” Sakura said, “thanks for the advice Hana, I’m feeling a bit better. But can you stay with me for a bit, I’m not ready to be alone?” Hana embraced her friend and stayed that way for a while until she was better.

Meanwhile, Takumi pulled out his hunting bow and went to the forest to do some hunting. He decided it was the best way to distract his mind from her death. As he exited his room, Oboro was standing in front of his room worried about his well being. The two were too close together and Oboro being embarrassed and nervous around her crush, she backed up and tried to look professional. Oboro cleared her throat and said, “lord Takumi, your brother wanted me to check in on how your… doing…” as she saw a bow in his hand, she began to trail off and asked, “where are you going?” Takumi wore a serious and emotionless expression on his face as he answered, “hunting, for the dinner tonight.” Takumi tried to walk past her, but she grabbed his wrist and said, “I’ll go with, there might still be some invaders we missed.” Takumi sighed, “sure.”

They made their way toward the forest and didn’t speak all the way there. Eventually Oboro got sick of the silence and asked, “what you hunting?” he answers quickly, “deer.” Oboro asked a follow up question to break the silence, “where should we start?” Takumi continued to answer quickly, “in the direction of deer.” She thought to herself, ‘well this is working perfectly.’ Oboro knew what he was doing, he was trying to push her away like she did when her parents died. She slowly tried to get him to open up, “you know you can talk to me, if you have something to get off your chest.” He paused for a moment, but just to see a hoof print, “tracks. They seem fresh and go west of here.” They followed the tracks in silence, but Takumi silently said, “I keep seeing it, the sword, mother, it keeps replaying in my head.” Oboro placed a hand on his shoulder and momentarily forgot her station, “Takumi.” Luckily he was too focus on hunting to notice, but he instead said, “the deer in close.”

The two were getting further and further away from the castle chasing this deer. Oboro managed to figure out what he was doing, and said, “lord Takumi we should go back, we have might get lost.” He ignored her and pressed onward in his own little world. Everytime he get closer, the deer gets spooked and runs off. With only ten minutes before the funeral begins, he sees his prey and stays behind a rock. He pulled up his bow, took aim, and steadied his breathing. As he was about to let it fly, Oboro lowered his bow causing the fear to run.

Angry Takumi snapped at her, “why did you do that, now its running again!” Oboro looked him in the eye and said, “like you are right now?” Takumi was taken aback by that statement and replied, “I… I don’t know what you mean.” She sigh and explained, “when I was little and my parents died, I shut myself off from those close to me. I just do my chores, train, and anytime I was free I would just make clothes. I became a shut in and didn’t want to speak with people.” She paused as she reopened the wound and continued, “then my uncle said to me this analogy, ‘when an animal is wounded, it becomes scared and cautious of the people around them. In order to heal they must stop the bleeding or it will die.’” Oboro placed her hands on top of his and says, “we all have been wounded and we have been trying to deal with it our own way, but this…” she gestures to the forest and finishes, “this is a distraction meant to run from your problems.”

He looked down and said, “if I was–” Oboro cut him off saying, “fast enough to see an attack that caught even your sister off guard, stopped an attack that would have killed you instead so that we mourn you. There is no if’s in this world, only consequence. The question you should be asking is: are you going to keep running from your duties or are you going to face your fears?” She gets up and extends her hand, he takes it and they abandon the hunt.

At the funeral of the Hoshidan queen and citizens, Ryoma and the rest of the royals stood on stage. Ryoma stepped forward and looked at his speech. He then crumpled it up and spoke from the heart, “you know I came up here to talk about all the people we lost, but this time I think I’ll say what we all are feeling. Some of us are sad about what has transpired today and most are angry. I’m not going to say don’t be angry, because I’m angry myself. The mad king knew he couldn’t attack Hoshido with the barrier up as long as queen Mikoto still drew breath! So the coward sent my own kidnapped sister to be killed in Hoshido, knowing our queen would protect her with her life! First it was my father who paid the price of trusting Garon, then my sister was stolen, and now my family has lost another mother! How many more must we lose, how many families must bury their own!? I say no more, tonight we will mourn our dead, while tomorrow we will end this war and rebuild!” The crowd cheered for Ryoma’s speech as he got off the stage.

The funeral went off with out a hitch, many of the families said their goodbyes and they were all set onto a large ship in the water. The royal family then carried their mother and placed her down in the middle of the ship. Yukimura then began to give his own speech as the boat was pushed out to sea, “May the gods welcome you and lead you through the Dawn Dragon’s great battlefield. May they sing your name with love and fury, so that we might hear it rise from the depths of the Heavens and know that you've taken your rightful place at the table of heroes. For a great woman has fallen: A warrior. A queen. A mother. A friend.”

Takumi, Sakura, Reina, Yukimura, and other archers equipped their bows. Orochi used an Ox spirit to charge in a straight line to light up the arrows. The royals spoke the pray that mother wrote, “Lo, there do I see my father. Lo, there do I see my mother and my sisters and my brother. Lo, there do I see the line of my people back to the beginning. Lo, they do call to me. They bid me take my place among them, in the fields of heaven, where the brave may live forever.” Takumi was the first to shoot the arrow and it landed directly on the ships haul. Sakura was having trouble aiming, so he adjusted her angle and she let loose the arrow. Everyone else shot their flaming arrows and before they knew it, the ship was set ablaze. It began to burn in the distance and everyone prayed for there safe travel to the afterlife.

Chapter 15: Unspeakable World

Chapter Text

Chapter 8

The early morning sun broke through the curtains of Corrin's tree house. The sunlight warmed her eyes up causing her to open them, but as she opened her eyes she noticed something was off. Something big and leathery was covering her, but a small amount of light was seeping through. She tried to turn around, but she wasn’t able to do it. She reached out and was surprised to find that her hands have become sharpened claws and her skin has turned to gray leathery color. Her shock turn to panic when a thought occurred to her, “what do I look like, now?” She tried to get up only to find she was hanging upside down by a grey and blue tail. She screamed in shock as the tail dropped her onto the bed, as she landed her perception cleared and her full vision came back. She rushed to the bathroom in order to get to the mirror, stumbling into the bathroom she looked into the mirror and she screamed waking up the entire camp.

In her reflection, she saw that she resembled a mix between a dragon and human (ironic isn’t it). Her skin was scaly gray and blue, she grew long antlers on the side of her head, her teeth sharpened to fangs, she grew leathery wings and a tail to match, her eyes resembled that of a Wyverns, and not only her hands but her feet also became claws. She quickly washed her face hoping she was dreaming, but when she look back she saw her other persona. Spooked by his presence, she jumped a little at that. He spoke stating the obvious, “someone’s jumpy, what’s the matter new look not to your liking?” Corrin got angry at hearing that, “you did this to me, change me back!!” Kamui shook his head, “sorry kid, but in order to do that you would have to give me control of your body. However, I’m two weak to take over while your awake. So you’re going to have to do this yourself.”

She was about to ask how, but she suddenly heard a knock on the door. “Milady are you okay in there?” Jakob asked concerned. Corrin yelled back in her most calming voice, “everything is fine! I thought I saw a bug, turns out it was a dust bunny!” Jakob sighed in relief, “well if you like, I shall make you breakfast. I’ve caught a boar in the woods and I’m making a pork stew. Come down when you are ready, okay Milady?” Corrin replied, “sure thing, be down in a minute.” Corrin could hear her door being closed and she let out a deep breath she was holding. She listened to see if Jakob was far enough and once she confirmed it, she turned to the mirror, “so, you said I’m on my own, how do I change back?” Kamui asked, “well, first things first, clear your head, and think of absolutely nothing. Once you do that, you will be fine.” Corrin was skeptical, but followed his orders. She quickly quieted her racing thoughts, she steadied her breathing, and closed her eyes. She felt as if something was crawling all over her, or entering her head, back, and tailbone.

When the feeling went away, she opened her eyes and saw she was back to normal. She sighed in relief that she was back to normal, she called for her other half only to be met with silence. Corrin just washed her face and got ready for the day, but when she dresses up into her black dress before she left she said, “thanks Kamui,” to an empty room and left to meet with everyone. Once she exits the tree house, she is hit with a heavenly smell of pork. She climbs down and made it to their campfire from last night. Azura spotted Corrin coming and waved her over, “Corrin, I saved you a bowl and a seat here.” Corrin sat next to her and thanked her for the bowl, she tasted the stew and replies, “this delicious Jakob, a little bland but still good.” Jakob bowed saying, “I did my best milady, but without a proper kitchen and seasonings this is the best I could do.” Corrin immediately tried to cheer him up, “no, no it’s still good. It’s just, I wish my siblings were here with us.” Azura gave a nod, “yeah, me too. However, the past can’t be changed all we can do is move forward.”

After they finished eating, Corrin noticed Lilith wasn’t around. “Hey where is Lilith, did she eat yet?” Corrin asked them curiously. Jakob answered, “I told her breakfast was ready, but she hasn’t come out yet. She should be in her temple still.” Corrin poured a bowl for the little dragon saying, “I needed to speak with her anyways, might as well bring breakfast.” Jakob pointed her in the direction, while Azura went to the mines to search for some gems.

Corrin opened the door and found Lilith, in her dragon form, watching everyone on some screen. Lilith saw Corrin holding a bowl of Pork stew and said in her draconic language, “Lady Corrin, I’m very happy to see you.” Corrin like always, understood what she was saying and replied, “hey Lilith, I came to give you some breakfast.” She pointed to the platform under her and Corrin placed the food down on the platform. Lilith descended and ate it all in less then 6 seconds, after she was done let out a burp replying, “Thank you, lady Corrin! Now I feel more powerful now!” Corrin nodded saying, “your welcome, judging by your reaction you must have been hungry.” Lilith opens her mouth and uses her long tongue to lick all around her face replying, “dragons have a higher metabolism than a human’s, so we eat more food than normal people.” In her head Kamui said, “I could've have told you that, you know.”

Lilith looked skeptically at her liege and asked, “did you say something lady Corrin?” Corrin answered confused, “I never said anything.” She then heard Kamui say out loud, “hello Lilith, good to see you again.” Corrin shook her head to tune him out, but Lilith caught on that someone else was in her head. Lilith decided to telepathically speak to the voice coming from her liege, “hello, voice in lady Corrin’s head.” Corrin took a step back in shock and said, “hold up, did you…? How did you...? Okay, you have to teach me how to do that.” Lilith asked in Corrin’s head, “who is this, lady Corrin and why is he in your head?”

Corrin and Kamui explained as best as they could about their unique situation, but when they made it to the multiversal part she seemed to understand everything. “Oh, so your from another world, good to know,” Lilith said. Corrin said, “anyway, how were you able to hear him?” Lilith answered, “dragons can’t speak out loud in our dragon form, it always comes out as our ancient language. However, dragons can communicate telepathically, which explains how we are fluent in every other language, even animals.” Corrin thought back to when Lilith first started, how she trained her to focus her senses and how to access that hidden power she uses, and why she was the stable girl, it all made sense, “that explains so much.”

Corrin then asked, “what are you doing here all alone?” Lilith answered, “here, I’m keeping an eye out for potential dangers that wish to harm the castle. Think of me like a guard dragon. Also, I’m designing a couple new buildings for the castle.” Corrin asked, “whoa really, that’s great.” Lilith responds, “yeah, but I don’t know which should be first? There’s a mess hall for, whatever army members you can find, to eat and hangout. Another idea is a lottery, here one lucky person could get items and resources we don’t have.” Corrin decided, “how about the mess hall, I’m getting really sick of the ground.” Lilith nodded, “okay, I’ll get right on it mildly, but shouldn’t you get ready for training. You said you need to practice using your Dragonstone, there’s still an open field out there.” Corrin smiled and nodded, “thank you Lilith, for everything.” Lilith smiled, “your welcome Milady.” Corrin left from the temple, in an attempt to train.

In the middle of field Corrin, pulled out her Dragonstone and thought to her voice in her head, “okay Kamui, I know your there. I need your help, please. Teach me how to use my Dragonstone.” Nothing happened at all. “Come on, I know your listening Kamui. I have to control this power, otherwise I’m putting what little family members I have left in danger.” Still nothing happened. Corrin got angry at him for ignoring her, “you know there your family too, if truly cared you would help me.” Still nothing. Corrin puts away her stone and is about to leave, but then she hears him speak, “channel your emotions from before into the stone and you’ll transform. The trick is to not let your rage control you. As for the in between, focus on the moment on the bridge.” After those words he went silent.

Corrin pulled out her stone and focused, she remembered her mothers lifeless body, the rage that built up in her, king Garon. She felt herself getting taller and heavier, it was also getting harder to walk on two legs. Next thing she knows, she is in her dragon form in all her glory and let out a massive roar of excitement. This brought the attention of Azura and Jakob. Jakob looked towards Azura saying, “that’s lady Corrin?” Azura smiled saying, “yes, it seems she is testing out her hand as a dragon.” Corrin looked at herself and got a good look at what she could do. She then cleared her mind and she was back to normal, she turned around to said, “hey, did you see that? I was a dragon and in control, sure it was for a moment but, still.” Jakob nodded yelling, “good work lady Corrin, it was truly a spectacular experience to seeing your dragon form!” Azura yelled, “that’s great Corrin, keep up the work!”

After about two hours of training, she got the hang of her Dragon form and knew how to use her new size and power to her advantage. However control over her tail and wings were still a work in progress, but she was now use to her dragon form and powers. She was about to start up again, but Azura stopped her saying, “Corrin it’s time to go.” Corrin turned and said, “really, okay then. Let’s go.” Azura and Corrin then made their way to the portal, but as they walk over. Azura felt something touch her foot, “What might this be? I suppose I'd better take a look...” she picks it up and it turns out to be a bronze lance. “It’s a bronze lance, I’d hold onto it if I were you. We need all the weapons we could use.” Azura nodded, “true and were not exactly swimming in coin, so we can’t buy weapons carelessly.” Azura put away her new lance and left to meet Jakob.

The two lady’s met with Jakob and he greeted them, “ready to go?” Azura nodded confirming she was, however Corrin’s response was cut short by Lilith, “wait a minute.” Corrin and the gang saw Lilith in her dragon form appear to them. Corrin asked, “what’s the matter, Lilith?” Lilith replied, “I can’t let you leave without proper gear.” Lilith turned into her human form and she lead Corrin to the crystal and said, “now say, ‘collect all bonuses.’ There’s some extra weapons and items in there for you.” Corrin said exactly that and instantly two bags materialized in front of her.

Azura and Jakob checked inside the bags and were surprised. Jakob said amazed, “look at all this weaponry, its enough to arm a small army.” Azura also pointed out, “there’s also enough items and medicines to help us out of a pinch.” Corrin laughs enthusiastically, “we’re more than prepared for it,” and takes an Axe Splitter, Armourslayer, and a Sunrise Katana. Azura joins in stocking up on items and chooses a Raider Naginata, while Jakob took the knife with an apple stuck to it, a Sting shuriken, and a Mend staff. Corrin found something very special and showed her group, “check it out, they look like small charms.” Azura asked, “what are they?” Lilith answered, “they are seals. One is called a Battle Seal, it can grant you a modest boost in offense. The other is a Visitation Seal, it does the same except with defense.” Corrin added, “these could come in handy, Jakob maybe hold onto the Battle Seal while Azura takes the Visitation Seal.” Jakob asked, “mildly, wouldn’t you benefit from the Seal more?” “I have the powers of a dragon, a legendary sword, and I’m crafty. I think I’m fine.” Jakob nor Azura argued and followed her orders.

After finally finishing preparing, the three were ready to transport. Corrin asked, “so Azura, if we travel to the bottomless canyon and we can save our kingdom?” Azura responds, “more or less. And once we get there, I have much to tell you. Things I heard from my mother...and the truth about this world...” Corrin looked to Lilith and said, “okay Lilith, were ready.” Lilith nodded and opened a portal to the bottomless canyon and said, “okay, this portal will send you to the bottomless canyon. However since I have other duties to attend to, I won’t be available to help you get back. So Jakob take this.” She tosses him a key which he catches, “the key allows you to open the portal that I have used from here. Out there it can open portals anywhere you wish.” Jakob summarizes, “so in the astral plane, I can open portals you opened on earth, but out there I can open portals anywhere?” Lilith nodded, “yes.” Jakob opened the portal without asking more question because it was giving him a headache.

The party bid Lilith goodbye and travel to the Bottomless Canyon, as they stepped through the portal. On the other side, Corrin was reintroduced to the bottomless canyon. Corrin remembered Gunter falling to his death, her sword pulling her down to her death, and her first battle. She protectively held herself to stop herself from shaking, Azura asked, “are you okay?” Corrin replied, “This is the Bottomless Canyon, its where we had our first mission, where I last saw my family on good terms, where we lost Gunter. This place holds a lot of bad memories.” Corrin shakes her head to calm herself and say, “anyway what is it you need to show us?”

Azura was worried about Corrin, but figured now was not the time and answered, “not yet Corrin, not until we are away from prying eyes. We'll jump into the canyon first.” Jakob tilted his head quizzically, “huh, give me a minute.” He pulled out a canteen and took a sip take, “What! If we jump from here, we'll all die. No one will ever find us, that's for sure—but we'll be ghosts!” Azura reassures them to trust her, “Don't worry. You won't die if you jump. You have to trust me. I know that asking a lot, but I swear I have a good reason.” Corrin thought about it and asked, “Azura... You'll tell us more of what you know after we jump into the canyon, right?” Azura confirmed, “Yes, if that's what you wish.” Corrin thought about her family and her mother’s killer, “... Then we have no choice.”

Corrin and Jakob follow Azura to the bridges middle. Jakob looked over the edge and dropped a pebble over the edge. He waited and waited not hearing a sound of it hitting the ground, only for it to never come. Jakob asked Corrin one more time to confirm, “Are you certain about this, milady?!” Corrin reassures him, “Yes. Everything will be fine. I trust Azura. Besides, she hasn’t given me a reason to distrust her yet.” Azura walks towards the edge of the bridge and over the rope bridge, “Thank you, Corrin. I'll go first and wait for you to follow.” Corrin follows suit and says, “All right. I'll be right behind you.” The two ladies look to Jakob expectantly, causing Jakob to sigh, “...If my mistress is going, then I'll need to find the courage. I would give up my life if my lady commanded, after all. It should be an easy thing to follow her anywhere, even...” he looked over the edge and gulped, “hell.” Jakob joins them over the edge.

Azura then looks to them and instructs, “on three we jump. 1… 2… 3!!!” she throws herself from the rope bridge, with Corrin then imitating her, and Jakob reluctantly following suit. While falling, they pass by sharp looking rocks that narrowly hit them. They dodge them effectively well enough to not hit anything. Once they were clear, Azura looks back and nods, before the three are swallowed by darkness and then black out. Corrin slowly wakes up in a field and rises up slowly. The field continues to a sideways land formation, only to reveal numerous floating islands, some inverted and others sideways, and broken skies. The islands have remains of ancient buildings and grassy fields.

Corrin looked around in amazement saying, “...Ugh. Is this...the bottom of the canyon?” She checked out her body and said, “That was a heck of a jump, but nothing seems to be broken...” Azura was relieved, “Thank goodness. I said you'd be all right, didn't I?” She turns to Jakob to address him, “and you Jakob, how do you feel?” Jakob dusted himself off,” I'm fine, of course. I'm relieved to see Lady Corrin is unhurt as well.” Corrin looked around and asked, “So... Where are we? This place looks like it's definitely seen better days...” Azura took a deep breath and explained, “...This is the kingdom of Valla. It's responsible for the war between Hoshido and Nohr.” Corrin tilts her head in confusion, “Responsible? How?” Azura then felt an uneasy feeling, like they were being watched, “... Follow me, both of you. If we linger here, we'll be spotted.” The two followed Azura to a secluded cave away from prying eyes.

Once they were deep enough in the cave, Azura lit a torch and surveyed the area. “...We should be safe here.” Azura continued, “As I was saying... The throne of Valla is occupied by King Anankos. Before his arrival, this land was a peaceful one. All was well until Anankos killed our king and took the throne for himself. Once bountiful farmlands were devastated, replaced by wastelands and graveyards. He even has power over the souls here, he corrupts the people here and turns them into his loyal soldiers.” Corrin processed the information, “He destroyed an entire kingdom?! For no reason at all?” Azura nodded, “ ...Yes. And he isn't finished. He wishes to lay waste to the entire world. First Valla, then Nohr and Hoshido. Even now, he's the hidden influence that quietly forces Nohr and Hoshido to fight. King Garon's invasion, the sword gift, those are the result of Anankos's subtle manipulations.”

Corrin responds, “That's horrible! But...” She was angry that he destroyed a kingdom for the hell of it and now he was trying to do the same to her two homes. She had to tell them, “if it's true, then maybe we can stop this war by defeating Anankos! We need to get back up above and explain this to everyone! If we can get Nohr and Hoshido to work together with—” Azura interjects, “I'm sorry, but you can't. You mustn't talk about Valla to anyone when you're beyond its borders. If you do, you'll trigger a curse that will cause your body to dissolve and disappear. That's what happened to my mother... To Arete, the former queen of Valla.”

Corrin was disappointed when she heard the news about the curse, but that disappointed to curiosity when she heard about Azura’s mom, “What? Your mother was a queen in Valla, not Nohr? Then, that makes you...” Azura confirmed her suspicion, “Yes... I am a Vallite princess. The king that Anankos murdered... He was my father.” Corrin replied in surprise by the news, “No! And you were forced to flee?” “Yes... But I wasn't able to tell anyone about this before. Because of that curse... Even if I wanted to talk, I couldn't. I was trapped—no matter how much I missed my parents or my home. I had to keep it all bottled up inside... ...Until now,” Azura had a sad and pained expression when she said this.

Corrin felt bad for Azura, losing both her parents at a young age, having to watch her home be turned to a shell of its former self, and to be silent about the whole thing; it was enough to send anyone into a depressed state. Corrin then stepped forward to her instinctively reaching out, “Azura...” Azura looked into Corrin’s eyes serious and explained, “Listen, Corrin. I'm sorry to say this, but... Now that you've chosen this path, you'll know exactly what I've been feeling. No matter how much you want someone to understand what's happening... No matter how much you want to tell them the truth... You won't be able to tell them. You need to prepare yourself for that. I can't even express how painful it is to know the truth and not be able to say it.” Kamui responds in her head saying, “I can relate.” Corrin shook her head saying, “...All right. I understand.”

Azura moves in further but then she hears movement from the other side, “What was that?!” All around them the noise was getting louder and louder, “...There are enemies approaching—a rather large number of enemies. Corrin, we'll need to deal with this threat before we can continue.” Corrin nodded pulling out her Yato blade, “OK!”

The three saw two paths forward, one going straight and another around the corner. Azura gave a word of warning, “Tread carefully... Our enemies may use the shadows to ambush us.” Corrin then remembered Lilith’s training when she was fourteen. It was late at night, Lilith brought her to the rooftop and she taught her to see in the dark with no problems. She focused on her surrounding and her vision became clear, she could see everywhere and everything. Straight ahead had a Sigel on the ground, while right seemed to be the right path. Corrin stepped up saying, “follow me, I can see in the dark.” Jakob asked, “one of your, draconic abilities mildly?” Corrin nodded and went right, Jakob was behind her with Azura in turn.

She heard about three enemies around the corner, she heard a heavy arm or clanking around her. She smelt the scent of sweat and blood from another, so she assumed Fighter maybe. She also heard a draw string being pulled and knew it was an archer. She made a fist and gave the order, “There’s a heavy armor unit in the middle and an archer in front. I’ll draw him out, Jakob stay behind me and back me up.”

Azura lights the path and runs up to the archer, turns out it’s an outlaw. The outlaw aims at her with trained eyes and fires an arrow, but she uses her surroundings to her advantage. She jumps across the wall and slices off his head with her Yato blade, blood splattered across the wall and stained the blood of her blade. The sight before her was enough to turn her stomach, but she held it down and steadied her hands. Then a Fighter appeared and attacked her, she blocked the attack but the swing was stronger than she though. She was tossed to the right and pinned to the wall by the crazy brute, Jakob threw a knife into the side of his neck, “May I step in.” This was just the distraction she needed, as he loosened his grip and she cut off his hand and cut him in two.

Lastly a great knight came up and tried to stab her with an Iron Sword, she blocked the strike and did a jump slash in the air yelling, “you won’t stop me!” She then gave him the same treatment as the Fighter, and cut him in half. Corrin stared at the dead corpses in her path and she felt guilty about taking their lives, sure they were mind controlled but maybe she could help them. Azura noticed Corrin was lost in thought about this and placed a hand on her shoulder to say, “you did the right thing Corrin, killing them freed their mind for a short while. However, Anankos brings them back everytime they fall, so he has an endless supply.” Corrin was horrified by that revelation, an endless possessed army of the dead, only to gain clarity in death. However, now that she finished butchering them she no longer felt guilty about it. It wasn’t a permanent death but it was a way to grant some peace. She looked back to say, “good to know, thanks for the insight Azura and thanks for the assistance Jakob.” They both nodded and continued through the darkness.

Corrin continued on, but she seemed to be having a hard time moving. Azura summoned her power from her pendent and sang her song to Corrin. She was suddenly invigorated with energy and charged forward ready for action. Corrin used her night vision to see ahead and saw around the corner was more enemies. “After we go around the corner, make a right.” Corrin orders. Azura and Jakob nodded in agreement. Kamui spoke in her head, “now would be a good time for you test out your Dragonstone, your dragon form should bounce off attacks.” She decided to trust him, mostly because if she dies so does he. Plus, if she can’t trust herself, who can she trust.

She equipped her Dragonstone, transformed and charged them, she was met with a ninja and archer shooting her from afar. The shuriken did its job and saps her magic making her feel more vulnerable, so much that an archer got a hit off. Next a cavalier came and tried to do some damage, but Corrin had other plans. She inhales and shoots out a high pressure stream of water, blowing holes through the cavalier, but the ninja escapes with slim damage. Corrin gave a small cheer and said in her mind, “I did it!” Kamui said, “nice attack, for a first timer.”

Jakob gets behind Corrin and threw a dagger to finish him off. As the ninja falls, Azura sings to Jakob giving him more energy to perform again. Jakob then heals Corrin a little bit and she telepathically speaks to him, “I can always count on you guys.” Jakob bows to her saying, “thank you mildly.” Then the archer steps out of the side and attacked him. As he fires an arrow, Corrin impaled him on her horns. Jakob got an arrow to the shoulder and he felt pain as he clutched his shoulder. She returned to normal and asked concerned, “you okay?” Jakob pulled it out with minimal effort and replies, “just a scratch mildly, I’ll be fine.” Corrin saw Jakob’s bracelet glow, he saw it and summoned his Fruit knife. Kamui spoke in her mind, “tell him to eat it, the apple has healing properties.” Corrin says, “hey Jakob bite the apple, that’s an order.” Jakob looked surprised at the order, but he trust her judgment, he bit into the apple and he felt a warm glow as his shoulder healed up.

Jakob checks his shoulder and sees the wound is gone, “amazing, how did you know mildly.” She answered, “Just a feeling, anyways the spear fighters there in the corner. Jakob attack from the fort, and I’ll back you up. Azura, when he’s weak attack and finish him off.” The three nodded and attacked, Jakob threw knife from the fort, while Corrin and Azura double teamed him. As a Songstress, she wasn’t built to fight a giant battle. However she was trained well with a lance as well as her voice, so she can hold her own against a fellow lance user. As Corrin and Azura dispatched the spear fighter, Corrin led the charge to the next room. Corrin was faced with a ninja by a treasure chest. At the bottom was a fighter, a Samurai, and two archers.

Corrin pulled out her Yato and summoned her draconic power, she transformed into her half dragon form and attacked the ninja with blinding speed. She does a front flip slash into a 360 spin and stabs him with her arm spike. Next, her arm turns into a cannon like mouth and shoots a water blast, instantly disintegrating the ninja. She reverted back to normal and was met with Jakob running towards her screaming, “mildly, get down!”

Corrin was taken aback by the shouting, but what surprised her was that Jakob tackled her to the ground. In her place through the wall, an arrow would have impaled her. Corrin was about to ask what that was, but then a fighter appeared to snap them back to reality. The axe man brought down his iron weapon, but Corrin rolled out the way with Jakob on top. Concentrating on her arm, she turns it into a dragon spike and stabs him. Another archer shoots her but she blocked it, Azura came up and attacked with her lance. Azura was constantly twirling her lance gracefully, almost like a dance. While he was distracted, Corrin got up and thanks him, “thanks Jakob.”

After Azura dispatched of the archer, Jakob distracted the archer with his knives. Corrin and Azura attack a samurai, first Azura blocks then Corrin retaliates with an upward slash. After he dissipates, Corrin picks up a Vulnerary and sends her Sunrise Katana to the convoy. Jakob was weakening his opponent to an extent, but they both were hurting. Jakob channeled his power, his blade glowed a clear glow and said, “Time to take out the trash!” he spun it around his finger and threw it through the wall like a Frisbee and it hit the archer dead on. After the archer died, Jakob found a key on the ground, he picked it up and decided to use it on the chest up ahead. He opens the chest to find a killing edge in perfect condition, he takes it with him and meets up with the gang. Corrin trades him the Vulnerary for the killing edge, then he takes it and heals his wounds.

Corrin travels further to the left and is met with a cavalier, a ninja, and knight with a chest in the middle. Corrin transformed with Jakob right next to her to back her up. The ninja attacked from afar, but it wasn’t aimed at her. She noticed Azura was behind her and blocked all two of the shots. It didn’t hurt, but she felt weakened and tired. Then the cavalier tried to do something with the ninja, however it left no scratch. She channeled her rage and summoned her power to strike the cavalier with a head-butt. She reverted to her half dragon form and killed him with her claws by tearing his throat out. The ninja dropped another Vulnerary and Corrin put it away in the convoy, trading Axe Splitter for a Levin sword.

Corrin pulls out her Levin sword and Jakob attack the knight with their ranged weapons. The fort was keeping him alive when he had a sliver of life left, luckily that meant he couldn’t leave the fort or he won’t heal. Corrin was glad Leo taught her how to identify a person’s weakness, she had to thank him for that later. Jakob got up close and personal with the knight, and thanks to his strength being sapped and his armor flying off, he was able to stab him in the heart and take a chest key. Azura sang to them to rejuvenate them, the two were bursting with energy at the singing. Jakob opened the chest and his eye jumped out of his socket. “Lady Corrin, look at all this gold.” Corrin checked the chest and picked up a gold coin. It was pure solid gold, but as she touched the chest it disappeared to the convoy.

Corrin saw two paths up ahead, down one path she saw nothing, but down the other path she saw a shadowy figure, “What the—? Is there something wrong with my eyes? Could that knight be...” She ran forward and that’s when she came face to face with her lost retainer Gunter. Gunter turns to see his liege and expresses her relief dismounting, “Lady Corrin!!” Corrin approaches slowly confused, happy, and scared, “Gunter! Is that really you?! And you're alive?!” Gunter nodded in confirmation, “I am. I lost consciousness as I fell, and when I awoke, I was here. I have no idea how I survived such a fall... But I swear on my blade I'm no ghost. My arms and legs are as sturdy as ever.” Corrin held back her urge to hug him and weep, even though she wish she could. However, they were in a battle, so she had to stay calm, “It's good to see you in one piece, Gunter. I'm so glad we found you.” Gunter kept a serious face, “I would love to celebrate, milady, but it appears we don't have time right now... These foes are truly challenging. I'll help you fend them off!”

Corrin nodded, but said, “sorry Gunter, but your too strong. Without proper experience, they can’t grow. So you and I should fuse for more protection.” Gunter nodded, “okay Milady, but I’ll traverse while you fight. However, leave Hans to me.” Corrin clenched her fist in the mention of his name, “so long as I get to finish him off, I’m good.” Corrin hopped onto his mount and the four go to the right and she turns him south. Gunter supports Corrin in her defense, allowing her to fight with more strength. Corrin was then faced with some Cavaliers, she easily dispatched the two with a Levin sword with no damage. When finished, she received a chest key. She sent the key to Gunter and the others followed.

Corrin made it to the fort by the chest, while Jakob took the chest key from Gunter’s inventory. He opened the chest and found a steel sword. The knight was attacking, but Gunter blocked the attack, “Watch your back, child!” Corrin slices forward and destroys the knight. She and the rest continue down to meet with a couple archers, a spear fighter and a fighter, luckily she held a Levin sword. However he attacked Jakob dealing some damage to each other. Corrin managed to finish him off, and take the chest key. She went down and used her Levin sword to kill the fighter from a distance. She found a Vulnerary and put it in the convoy, plus she opened the chest and found a mend staff.

The other archer shot at her, but she could hear it coming and caught the arrow. Then attacked the archer with her Levin sword and the archers chest was tossed to Azura. She opened the chest to find an Armorslayer, she sang to rejuvenate the team and the rest went to fight a spear fighter. Corrin used the Levin sword, but the spear fighter was a little faster than the rest. He barely dodged and got the tail end of the attack, it still hurt a lot though. Jakob threw some fruit knives with her, taking him down and his key. Jakob opened the chest and received a rescue staff. Corrin turned to the right and was met with a samurai, who attacked from the darkness. However, thanks to her night vision she could block the attack without a problem and parried the attack with her Levin sword. An outlaw shot an arrow, but she blocked the arrow and shot a lightning bolt at him. Jakob threw a knife at the samurai and killed him. Azura also did some work and took care of the outlaw.

Then a fighter came for Azura but Corrin took care of him for her, with her Yato. Looking around, she saw that they went in a complete circle. Corrin addressed her small party of warriors, “okay, that should be all this cave has to offer. Let’s find the exit.” Jakob nodded, “that would be wise, but where is the exit.” Corrin replied, “oh, it’s right where we found Gunter. All we have to do is take the right and we could leave.” Azura asked, “wait, if you knew where the exit was, why take the other path?” “Because of the treasure, we need all the material we could carry.” Azura and Jakob didn’t say anything and just walked away.

Soon Corrin and the group almost made it to the end, but Corrin heard something next to the wall. Corrin ordered, “Jakob and Azura head over to the place, I’ll take out the archer for you.” She pulled out her Levin sword and attacked the archer close by, while the rest moved forward. Corrin managed to take him down with lightning, then once he was down she swap to Gunter to meet with the rest.

Once the two party’s met up, Gunter swap back to Corrin so she was used as bait. Corrin was now face to face with an Oni Savage, who came charging at her like crazy. She blocked his wild swings with ease, and in two moves he fell. Corrin and Jakob moved closer to the boss, but a samurai blocked her path. She just sliced his head off without hesitation as she walked forward, Jakob put a spare Vulnerary he dropped in the convoy. Now all that was left was the berserker in the fort.

Corrin was about to move, when Azura stopped her, “careful Corrin, some enemies don’t move from certain spots no matter how much you attack them.” Corrin nodded, “thanks for the heads up. I think I have a plan.” Corrin pulls out a mini lance and dart. “Azura you take him on, I’ll pair you up with Gunter to help you out defensively. Also Jakob can stay close by with a knife to sap his strength, plus your skill Gentilhomme helps with damage.” Azura asks, “Corrin I’m capable, but not that much. Are you sure?” “if Shuriken and knives sap the strength of your opponent, you should do more damage.” Jakob took the dart and Azura took the lance, which was heavy to her, but they go through the fort to handle the berserker.

Jakob throws the dart at the berserker and he blocks it with minimal effort, but the dart was already doing its job. He got sluggish and felt Vulnerable, that’s when Azura assisted in attacking. But it did little to no damage, and the fort healed him up. The berserker was attacked, but luckily she barely dodged the axe. Jakob threw a dagger again to make him weaker again, along with Azura’s singing Jakob went again and again. Azura and Jakob keep their attacks for a long time, after about an hour or two of fighting they were tired and Jakob used up most of his staves, Corrin saw that Azura wasn’t able to get stronger with weapons, so she just ended it with a lightning bolt. Azura looked at her angry, “could you not have done that sooner.” Corrin responded, “yes, but now try and lift up your other weapons.” Azura wields the mini lance with ease now, Corrin explained, “Leo taught me a way to use stationary enemies as training dummies, by doing minimal damage with guaranteed survival. I call it, Boss Milking, you get a lot stronger and more familiar with weapons to make them easier to use.” Azura nodded in approval, “that is… pretty impressive, crazy but impressive.” Jakob agreed, “you get use to it. She always has crazy ideas that work out.”

After the Battle, Corrin and crew seized the fort and the enemies stopped coming. Corrin and Gunter separated and she instantly embraced him in a warm hug, she couldn’t hold back the tears that welled up, but she was happy to have her friend back and didn’t care, “Gunter, it's so good to see you safe and sound!” Gunter was taken aback by this display of affection, but he didn’t hate it. He embraced her and replied, “I'm glad to see you too, Lady Corrin. After I fell, I truly thought I'd never see your face again.” They separated and he saw a single tear fall from her eye, he wipes away the tear and looks at her with the eyes of a proud father, “It seems you've grown stronger while we've been apart, as well...” The two noticed that they weren’t alone and Corrin composed herself in front of her army.

Jakob looked him up and down replying in his cold and cool nature, “So you aren't dead, old man. Can you give me back the time I wasted grieving over your demise?” Gunter gave an annoyed grunt, “Hmph... You haven't changed. It wouldn't hurt for you to be kinder. But, why are you all here?” Azura stepped forward, “I brought them.” Gunter looked confused for a moment at the stranger, “And who are you?” Azura answered decided to give a short answer, “My name is Azura. If I said I was the princess kidnapped from Nohr as a child...would you understand?”

At that those word, a light went off in Gunter’s head and replied, “Ah! Yes, I remember when you were little. I apologize for my failure to protect you from your Hoshidan kidnappers...” Azura dismissed his guilt, “There is no need to apologize, really... It doesn't matter at the moment. I'd rather learn how you've survived here. You are quite the knight to have avoided meeting a terrible fate.” Gunter questions curiously, “You seem familiar with this place, Lady Azura. Where are we, exactly?” Azura replied straight forward, “This is Valla, an invisible kingdom tied to the world by the Bottomless Canyon. It is ruled by Anankos, who wishes to destroy the entire world. So long as he remains on the Vallite throne, the world will not know peace.”

Jakob steps in and explains, “Listen up, gramps. I'm only going to warn you once. If you talk about any of this while not in Valla, a curse will dissolve you!” Gunter is shocked by that type of magic, “What?! Is that possible?” Corrin nodded, “It seems so Gunter,” she rubs the back of her neck nervously, “Also, I've...made enemies of both Hoshido and Nohr, Gunter.” He screams, “how!” “I couldn't bring myself to side against either of them, so both turned on me. Gunter I know we just reunited but I need your help, whenever we meet next, it will be a difficult fight. Will you stand with me?” Gunter took a knee and bowed his head, “Of course, Lady Corrin. I shall always remain at your side.” Corrin smiles, “Thank you, Gunter.”

Gunter gets up processing the information, “I feel like I must be in a dream, surviving being attacked and falling so far... Though I have to admit... Hans was a disappointment. He barely left a scratch.” Corrin growled at the mention of his name, but calmed down and asked, “Ah, that reminds me: Hans said something strange. He claimed he was following King Garon's orders by attacking you. Gunter had a far away look in his eye, “I'm embarrassed to admit this, but... King Garon despises me.” Corrin figured he despised everyone, “Despises you? Why?” “After being honored for valor in battle, I was granted an audience with King Garon. He offered me dragon's blood; accepting would require absolute loyalty to the king. It would have meant becoming his most trusted retainer, the highest of positions. However, it also would have meant leaving my homeland, my wife, and my child. I turned him down. I wanted to live a normal life. I begged for his understanding. I will never forget his resentment...his rage,” he said those last words with such anger, she thought she might explode if she looked at him wrong. “I didn't know...” she tried to comfort him, but suddenly a Vallite woman, accompanied by two soldiers, appears in front of the party of four.

The invisible woman said in a shimmering voice, “Leave now... You should not be here.” Corrin was surprised to see another opponent, “What the— Who are you?!” The mystery enemy took out a Tome and answered, “I am a mage of Valla... You were warned. Vallite warriors, eliminate them.” The mage and warriors attacked them, but Corrin transformed into her dragon form and became a shield for them. Gunter was surprised to say the least, “my word mildly, you can turn into a dragon?” Corrin responds, “yeah it’s a long story.” Corrin wasn’t hurt by the warriors in the cave, but the mage was tougher than most and actually left a mark. Azura said, “This is bad... I don't think we're strong enough to defeat them. Let's retreat to the other world!” Corrin, her retainers, and Azura run off with them chasing right behind them. The party made it to the Bottomless Canyon exit and they all jumped down.

Corrin opened her eyes and saw she was back in the other world, she looked around and saw that they were all here. She sighed in relief, “Phew... It looks like we've made it back. Who was that woman down there? She said she was a mage...” Azura just looked up at the sky and down the chasm, “... When dawn turns to dusk. When dusk turns to dawn. Then the door will spawn.” Corrin asked curiously, “Huh? Is that a poem, Azura?” Azura answered, “My mother... She said those words to me a long time ago. She said that when dawn turns to dusk, and dusk turns to dawn... The pass in the Bottomless Canyon opens or closes.”

Gunter repeated the poem, positive he heard it before, and suddenly remembered something important, “When the dawn turns... Hmm... Oh, I get it. Once every few decades, the skies above Nohr and Hoshido will reverse. If I remember right, that should happen a year from now.” Azura confirmed, “Yes. I'm sure that's the sign that the pass down there has opened or closed. Since we're obviously able to travel there now, it will close next time. Once it closes, it will stay that way for decades. We won't be able to get there... We don't have much time.”

Corrin now had a time limit, and came up with a plan, “I see. Then, we'll need both kingdoms to stop fighting each other and help us. If we had Xander and Ryoma, there's no way we'd lose.” Azura knew she was right, but she was a bit skeptical about that, “But how can we convince them? We can't tell them the truth and we don’t even know where they are at the moment!” Corrin replied, “We'll just have to find another way. It's the only chance we have. Now that I know there is a common enemy for both countries to fight... I think we can save Nohr and Hoshido. All I can do now is believe in myself and try to convince others to join us. All I need to do is get them to trust me without speaking of that place when everyone is out to capture or kill us, how hard can it be?” Azura couldn’t help but crack a smile at her attempt at humor, “Corrin... I suppose you're right. I felt so powerless on my own, but together we might be able to pull something off! Nothing will change if we stay here. Let's return to Hoshido first. I feel like they might be more willing to listen to us.”

Jakob pulled out the key and said, “we can go through the portal from Hoshido’s fields so we have time. If you like mildly we can rest in the Astral Plane.” Corrin agreed to that, “sure thing, I got to purchase some stuff anyways.” Jakob open the portal and Gunter reflexively put his hand over his sword, but Corrin relaxed him, “its okay Gunter, this is our base. Just follow me.” Gunter calmed down and entered the portal with his liege and was amazed by what he saw. Then Lilith greeted the returning army, “welcome back mildly, the mess hall is ready to be built.” Lilith looked to the right and saw Gunter right next to her liege, “Gunter, your alive. We thought you were dead.” Gunter gave a hardy laugh, “ha, it’s going to take more than an over grown hole in the ground to do me in.” Corrin used her dragon vein to create a mess hall in front of the armory and instantly it assembled before their eyes. Gunter just said, “I need a drink after today.”

Lilith led the group to the mess hall and the inside was well furnished. It had small rows of tables, a counter for taking orders, and the kitchen was fully stocked with an oven, a stove, herbs, and spices. Jakob clapped his hands together, “now this is more like it Lilith, finally something useful I can use.” Lilith puffed out her cheeks, “thanks, I think.” Corrin decided to ease the tension, “how about we hold a welcome home celebration? You know, we just got Gunter back, we now have a mess hall, and we have a plan: find my siblings and convince them to join us.” Azura decided to go along with it to help distract them from the pain they will endure this trip, “that sounds like a great idea Corrin. I still have some fish from the fishing spot today.” Jakob put on an apron and replied, “I shall cook us a feast for royalty.”

After about 40 minutes of explanation on what happened to Corrin since Gunter left, Gunter was left speechless, “wow mildly, that’s a lot to take in.” “Yeah well, a lot can happen in a week.” Gunter asked, “no, I mean… your mother, the transformation, are you sure your okay?” Corrin fiddle with her fingers nervously, “I don’t know, I’m feeling angry at king Garon for pulling this stunt, I’m hurt that my siblings in Nohr didn’t tell me, and I’m confused about why I’m sad about losing a mother I never met until a week ago.” Gunter then returned his fatherly demeanor, “mildly, I can’t even imagine the pain you must be feeling, but I do know survivors guilt. It wasn’t your fault, you didn’t know what would happen, your good intentions were used against you. Take this a lesson, always have a backup plan and be cautious.” Corrin sniffles a bit, but regains her composure, “thanks Gunter, that helps.” “My pleasure mildly.”

Jakob came out the back with Lilith holding a tray full of seafood: there was lobster and crab legs, salmon, sashimi, etc. Jakob set the table with the food laid out, “dinner is served, help yourselves.” Lilith responds, “wait a minute, I have something for you guys.” She goes behind the counter and pulls out three tall glasses of alcoholic drinks that were unfamiliar to them. Gunter asked, what drinks are these?” Jakob raised his hands in surrender, “don’t look at me, I have no idea.” Lilith explained, “this is an alcoholic beverage made by the dragons called Mead: Its fermented honey mixed with water, and sometimes with added ingredients such as fruits, spices, grains, or hop plants.”

She pours everyone a glass and they take a sip of the foreign drink. To their surprise the mead tasted amazing, like a sweet wine, with a similar texture to sherry but with a distinct tone of honey. The group sang her praise, Jakob said, “wow, still surprised you have good taste in wine.” Gunter said, “well, I’m glad I stayed alive long enough to taste this.” Corrin just asked, “where’d you get this from, you make it?” “The dragons came up with the recipe years ago and gifted it to the people…” she paused remembering the curse, “…down there, but it was deadly to humans without dragon blood.” The two retainers took a spit take fearful of their life until Azura continued for her, “but, didn’t the dragons create a safer mead for mortals to drink?” Lilith nodded, “yep, the mead wasn’t as good but it was close.” Gunter sighed in relief and drank up as Jakob cleaned up. Corrin announced, “okay guys, we have a long day ahead of us. So tonight, we party like there’s no tomorrow.”

The nights were filled with laughing, drinking, eating, even a little bit of singing. For that night the group didn’t think about the curse, the fate of the world, or even the enemies that they had to face; at this moment they were just friend drinking together. Corrin knew that they had a long journey ahead, but she was glad to have friends she could trust.

Chapter 16: The plan for war

Chapter Text

Chapter 8.2

People say that you never know what you have until it’s gone, that’s how all of Hoshido felt after the death of their beloved queen Mikoto. Before the days of the palace were filled with laughter and cheer, but now it was filled with dread and rage. The royals sometimes hope that the funeral was a nightmare and their mom would be at the breakfast table welcoming them to eat, but they soon realize it wasn’t a dream at all when the hall was empty. Ryoma was the only present one at the dining table because, Takumi still felt guilty about not picking up on the attack sooner, Hinoka was training for a fight, and Sakura was still patching up the soldiers from before with some fellow healers. The crowned prince sat down in silence and ate some breakfast, but it tasted less flavorful than usual.

After some silence, the Ryoma got out the dining room and went to spoke with the war council. Inside he found his sisters, His mother’s retainers, and Rinkah standing around the table, Hinoka was the first to speak, “ah Ryoma, you’re here. Now we can get talk strategy.” Ryoma looks around and said, “Takumi hasn’t shown I see, is he still grieving?” They chose to stay silent and that answered the question. Ryoma decided to change the subject, “okay then, we'll have to start without him. The first thing to do is recruitment, after that attack on the town we lost a lot of people and a few were left injured. So, we need to recruit new soldiers, what do we have Yukimura?”

Yukimura pulled out a map and explained, “okay, first would be Mokushu. It's known for its highly-skilled ninjas and vast array of terrain such as forests and intricate cave systems. Then we have Izumo. The Izumites are a peaceful people, and consequently their country is known for having the best healers and only a small military. Also, since the flame tribe won’t send more allies, the Wind tribe is the best option, they are autonomous and friendly to Hoshido, so maybe we can ask for help. My plan is to send one representative to each place to get allies.”

Ryoma remembers something about Nohr, “actually, I think we may have another possible ally. When Corrin was here, she said that she ever heard something about choice rebelling.” Hinoka replied, “are you sure? Ryoma, she said that unsure if that was true. Even if it was you can’t just walk into Nohr alone.” “We have to try, Nohr's army consistently of armored, bulked up and Calvary units. It would be useful to have some of those on our side.” Yukimura replies, “I believe that is a smart choice. Not only would we be fighting fire with fire, but they probably know the way to the castle and some other useful information.” Hinoka disapproves, but trust her brother.

Yukimura continued, “now would be the wind tribe, who else will leave.” Rinkah responded, “I’ll go, I was going to my father to ask for assistance anyway. Might as well head to the wind tribe as well.” Hinoka then recapped, “okay, so we got Cheve and the tribes taken care of, now we just have Izumo and Mokushu left. I propose Sakura go, Izumo is known for its healers so who better to send then our best healer.” Sakura denied the offer, “I can’t go, there’s still healing to be done. I have to stay here.” Hinoka sighed, “then if you're staying, then I’m staying.” Sakura responds, “but sister, I have my retainers to keep me safe, I’ll be fine.” Hinoka rebukes, “I’m not just doing it just for you, I’m doing this for me too. When I faced off against Princess Camilla, I was barely able to dodge her strikes and I had a feeling she was holding back. So, I need to continue my training to get stronger.” Yukimura said, “well, I can’t go. I’m needed here to defend the castle.”

The rest of the table was silent wondering who to send to Izumo, until a voice spoke out, “I’ll go to Izumo.” They turned to see it was Takumi just standing in the doorway, his hair was down all the way, his clothes were messy, and just looked like a mess. Ryoma shot up and said, “Takumi, how long were you there.” “The whole time, I’ll go pack my things and notify my retainers,” Takumi said and just left them alone. Hinoka was about to get after him, but Ryoma stopped her, “give him time, this could be good for him to get out of the palace.” Hinoka listened and sat down.

Suddenly Kagero entered the room and greeted the royals bowing. “Good morning, milord. The patrol of the kingdom is clear of any invaders, our troops are helping in the reconstruction of the town, and all the weapons and supplies are accounted for.” Ryoma replied, “good work Kagero, where is Saizo?” “He's still checking thoroughly, he’s probably on his third patrol.” Ryoma nodded, “I have a favor to ask, refusal is optional.” Kagero nodded in agreement and listen to her liege’s explanation. He explained the recruitment plan and where everyone is going, however when he brought up Mokushu she shut it down politely and quickly. “I’m sorry milord, but I have to decline. I also would advise choosing some other place instead of Mokushu.” The group was confused by this and asked, “why?”

Kagero remembers when she and Saizo were dating, she and him were together during a Hoshidan festival. Lord Ryoma gave her and Saizo the night off, so this was the closest thing to a date night that they could think of. At the festival he wore a white and blue Hakama without the mask, while Kagero wore a light purple skin tight bodysuit and a hood with gold on the inside. The costume was reminiscent of her everyday work clothes the only difference is the eye mask made to match. When Saizo and her met, he was stunned by how amazing she looked he forgot to speak. However, because he was a ninja and a master of hiding his emotions, he quickly calmed down and stuck out his hand saying, “the outfit seems familiar, is it base off your ninja gear?” Kagero replied, “yes, Oboro made it for today.” She looked a bit nervous asking this question but asked anyway, “does it not suit me?” Saizo quickly turned red, cleared his throat, and turned away to reply, “well, it is a nice outfit for missions and you don’t look terrible.”

Kagero knew he was trying to say she did in his own way and took him into the festival. The couple played games, won prizes, and competed in races. After a game of darts, Saizo won her a special dart and enchanted it, “now whenever you're in trouble, just say where you are and throw it, and it will come to me.” Kagero held onto it and said, “thank you, this will come in handy.” Saizo felt his tongue get dry and decided to go get something to drink for them, Kagero sat down on a bench and waited for her boyfriend.

Suddenly, she feels a person's gaze on her. She hears them getting closer and arms herself with her dart and a Kunai she brought in case of emergencies. She turns around and point the dart directly at his eye only to stop an inch from his face. She looked and saw he seemed harmless, just a random Hoshidan with orange hair, wearing a red Yukata. She pulled back, but continued to keep her guard up, “I'm sorry, I thought you were trying to fight me.” The guy said, “it’s fine, you had the right idea to be wary, but not for that reason. I just wanted to talk to you.” Kagero looked confused and asked, “oh, why’s that?” He said with a straight face, “do I need a reason to talk to a beautiful woman?” Kagero then realized what was happening, she was being hit on. “I see what you're doing and you seem nice, but I’m already here with someone.” The guy looked around and said, “I don’t see him around here though.”

Suddenly he felt a strong hand on his shoulder, “that’s because you’re not looking behind you.” He turns to see an angry Saizo, but he didn’t even look fazed by him. “Oh, so this one is your boyfriend. My apologies, I'll be on my way.” The guy gave Saizo a smug look and walked away. Kagero sensed that Saizo was angrier than usual as the man left but he was also a bit scared. Kagero asked, “is everything okay? You seem tense.” Saizo rubbed his bad eye saying, “I’m fine, I just need some air.” Kagero replied, “there is air everywhere.” Saizo sighed as to realize how right she was. She then suggested, “how about we go up to the hill top to see the fireworks? A good explosion always puts you in a good mood.” Saizo reluctantly agreed and went with her to the hill top.

Saizo and Kagero sat down on a bench and waited for the fireworks to start. The couple remained silent for a while, Kagero looked over at Saizo and noticed he made a troubled look. Thinking back, the guy was completely calm when she nearly stabbed him so he must be strong, he was pretty good at hiding his presence so far, and he wasn’t scared of Saizo, but Saizo seemed shook up from him. Kagero came to a conclusion and wanted to confirm it, “aren’t you going to ask it?” Saizo answered, “what.” “Your curious about what he said and what was happening, aren’t you? Or was that just jealousy?” Saizo said calmly, “I’m not jealous of some guy, but…” he paused looking nervous, “what did he say?” Kagero decided to lie, “he started by hitting on me and then he talked about you like he knew you from somewhere.” Saizo sighed knowing he didn’t want to talk about it, but he had to do it. “Its true, that I’ve met him before.” He fell for her trap hook line and sinker.

Saizo explained in the whole thing, “years ago my father, Saizo the Fourth, had a meeting with the leader of Mokushu. What it was about, I don’t know, but my father denied his request. The next day my father was found dead with a high amount of poison in his system. I had a feeling that it was the leader of Mokushu who did this, so I infiltrated Mokushu to prove it. Although I managed to confirm my suspicions, I failed to gather evidence and assassinate him only to get captured. The tortured me for 24 hours, but luckily my captor broke his knife inside my ribcage, so in retaliation he cut my eye. I used that piece to escape and left that place, losing my eye in the process. That man was a Mokushujin.” Kagero placed a hand on his and said, “what do you plan on doing now?” Saizo replied, “the leader is driven by a lust for power and authority, and will take any measure that he deems necessary in order to achieve his ambition, regardless of whether they are dishonorable. Once he slips up, I will be there to end him.” Kagero replied, “I’ll be there right with you, I promise.” Then the fireworks went off and the couple grew closer that day.

Back to the present, Kagero explained in a simplified version of what Saizo said, “the leader fights without honor and he’s lustful for power and authority, does that not sound like an untrustworthy person. It is also safe to assume he would sign on with Nohr in a heartbeat.” Ryoma could tell she was holding out asked, “how do you know this Kagero?” Kagero had always obeyed her liege’s with honor and loyalty, but she respects Saizo too much as partner and ex-lover. “It is not my story to tell milord, if you desire to know, ask Saizo.” Ryoma decided to let it go and said, “okay, Mokushu is out of the question.” Yukimura argued, “but milord-” Ryoma looked at him and insisted, “Kagero is a loyal retainer and a good friend, I trust her judgment Yukimura.”

Yukimura let it go and replied, “okay then, I guess we have to count on Izumo, Cheve, and the wind tribe to be enough.” Ryoma nodded in agreement and ended the meeting. Kagero was about to leave, but she was stopped by her liege. “Kagero, I have a request to ask you.” Kagero nodded saying, “anything milord, what mission do you have?” “I’m on my way to Cheve and I need you to come with me, just you.” Kagero agreed, “I will pack up milord, I assume that Saizo be here guarding the castle with Yukimura as well?” Ryoma confirmed, “yes, you both are loyal and good fighters, but I trust you will be a better choice.” The Hoshidans prepared to make their next move, not knowing what the enemy is going to do.

Meanwhile on Nohr, the royal were almost home to report to their father. Usually they were happy to return because Corrin would there waiting for them to visit and lift their spirits. However now all they feel is depression, their sister, who was raised with them, turned traitor. Elise was lagging behind sad, Leo was mentally preparing himself for incase they met again, Xander and Camilla were thinking of a way to convince their father to let her join them. Camilla said, “she didn’t flat out say she is against us, if we choose our words carefully we can–” Xander interrupted, “father is not the type to change his mind easily, unless there is something in it for him. Like with Thanksgiving, Corrin said she would give up on going outside if she failed the task before her and focus on her training and studying.”

Suddenly a voice came out and said, “it will take more than some deal to fool your father.” Iago appears in front of them and Xander asked, “Iago, what are you doing here?” Iago had a smug look on his face, “well if we're being technical, I’m not here. I’m back at the castle watching over your progress and judging by your sad expressions and the lack of lady Corrin, I’d say she is either a nasty traitor or dead.” Camilla clench her axe tightly and said, “I would watch your tongue if I were you Iago, you might be safe as an illusion but at the castle your very much killable.” Iago held up his hands in surrender and said, “forgive me, milady. If it means any conciliation I hope she has turned traitor, that way she is alive. Then I get to kill the little traitor myself.” Camilla slightly raised her axe, but Leo stopped her, “he’s just trying to rile you up and make you angry.” Camilla whispered, “I know,” and put down her axe. Iago stretches and says, “well, I’ll inform your father that you are on your way. Goodbye royals.” His illusion dissipated and Camilla just said, “I hate that man.” “We all do,” Xander agreed. Leo reminds them, “well what can we do? He is one of fathers right hand men, we hurt him we get punished. It’s best we bid our time.”

After 1 ½ hours of travel, they returned to the castle and are now standing in front of the throne room wait to report to their father, scared for their sister’s life. Xander was about to open the door when he heard the king speaking in an unfamiliar language and laughing like a mad man. They all looked towards each other with concern, but Elise spoke up, “he’s acting strange again.” Camilla asked, “he’s acted like this before dear, why didn’t you say anything?” Elise simply replied, “I thought this was normal.” Their chatter was heard outside and he invited them in saying, “who goes there? Enter and do not waste my time.”

Xander opened the door and he saw he was alone, no Iago, no Hans, just him. He sat there holding his mighty axe, Bölverk, sharpening it in his lap. He addressed his children in his usual cold mannerism, “your back early, I heard you had to retreat from Hoshido, why?” Xander took a deep breath and began giving his report, “the Hoshidans army was stronger than we had anticipate, so naturally we had to regroup and–” “Stop,” Garon said. One simple word was enough to stop his sons report, just goes to show how much fear his father holds over him. Garon sighed, “let’s try this again, shall we? I don’t want to know about the opponent’s army, I want to know whose fault is it that you failed.”

No one was willing to answer, afraid of their father’s reaction to the answer. Xander felt that as the eldest he must protect his siblings no matter what, so his next decision would be for them. He took a step forward and bowed, “I accept full responsibility for our defeat father.” The kings patience was thinning and he got up aggressively, “but that is also a lie, we both know who is to blame!” Xander saw him get closer and tried to calm him down, “I’m serious, it was my–” Then some dark magic claws latched onto Xander’s neck, arms, and legs. The claws dug into his flesh and left a mark, since Xander trained his body to take hits well he neglected to build up his resistance to magic damage. So this attack from her father hurt like hell, his screams could be heard within the throne room.

The siblings looked away in fear of what was happening to their brother. Garon walked up to his children and they refused to look him in the eyes, so he said circling them, “you three know who is responsible, don’t you?” they remained quiet for a while, but as soon as he stopped in front of Elise he asked again raising his backhand, “don’t you?” Leo quickly spoke up, “Corrin!” Garon looked towards Leo as he continued, “we lost because Corrin refused to side with either kingdom, and she attacked both sides.” King Garon scratches his beard as a way to cover up his initial intentions, “that’s right, she betrayed us and turned her blade on our family. We take her in, trained her, fed her, bathe her, and this is how she repays us?” Camilla clenched her fist and thought to herself, 'you mean kidnap, and we did all the loving and training, all you’ve done is make her suffer.’ Camilla unclenched her fist as he landed on her, he continues, “as children of the Nohrian royal family, it is your duty to protect your kingdom from all threats especially those close to us. Understand?” He looked at Xander as he said this, they all agreed, “yes father.”

As he went to sit back on his throne, he dispelled the magic around Xander. The crowned prince struggled to get up and Elise used her mend staff to heal his wounds. King Garon sat on his throne and said, “now we must move forward.” He dismissed his children and they left completely scared of himself wrath. Xander stumbled out the room with the others assisting him. They asked if he was okay and he replied, “I’m fine, just a little tired is all.” Camilla noticed that Elise was quiet for a while and hasn’t said anything since speaking to father, she also had a troubled face on her. Camilla asked, “is everything okay, dear? You seem troubled.”

Elise took a deep breath and just said what was on her mind, “to be honest, I think Corrin has a point.” Xander looked shocked, “what!” Elise quickly replied, “think about it, her family is in Hoshido and Nohr, either way she is betraying her family. This was probably the best option to save both her family’s.” Xander stood up and said, “Elise, I get it but in war you can’t save everyone, especially family. We should know more than anyone how true that is. She made her choice to go against us, so we must do what we must to stop thing from getting worse.” Elise snapped, “worst than this, look at us, look at our kingdom, our subjects. Corrin left to get far from father because she not only hates him, but fears him. He knows magic is your weakness, but still used it on you. You could’ve died.” He didn’t deny this and stayed quiet while she continued, “ever since she came here, father became paranoid, abusive, and spiteful, especially towards Corrin. If I were in her shoes, I’d leave as well.”

Xander got up and replied, “so what do want me to do, betray my homeland and become a traitor. I can’t do that, as the crowned prince I must protect my kingdom, people and family. I can’t defend that if I’m a traitor, I must fight for change within the army.” “Corrin is fighting for change out there without sacrificing her morals, why can’t you.” Leo stepped in and calmed them down, “whoa, whoa, whoa, guys let’s just calm down a little bit okay. We’ve all just had a long few days and are probably just tired. Lets get some rest and continue tomorrow.” The two reluctantly agreed and went their rooms, leaving things very tense.

Chapter 17: Traveler's Plaza

Chapter Text

Chapter 8.3

Corrin woke up to the bright and sunny sky smiling through the window, only to find that she hadn’t been hanging on the ceiling like before. Maybe Kamui decided to give her a break on the control. Speaking of her Male counterpart, he speaks up, “finally awake, now we can get down to business.” Corrin rolled her eyes, greeted her voice in her head, and just got ready for the day. Once she opened the door, she saw bright beam of light coming from a small plaza. Kamui sounded intrigued, “oh it’s that time again.” Corrin asked, “what do you know of that light?” Kamui told her, “A lot actually, but maybe you should get a closer look.” Corrin was nervous but she complied and went to investigate.

Once she made it to the light, it immediately went away and in the plaza Corrin stood shocked. She saw a female woman who looked like her appear right in front of her. She seemed completely to have a few similarities such as her ears, hair and eye color, and even age; but she seems to have a beauty mark under her eye, curved eyes, a butterfly hair accessory, and her hair was in a low pig tail style. The mysterious doppelganger said, “oh you must be this castle’s me, nice to meet you.” Even her voice sounded a little different, she forcefully shook Corrin’s hand introducing herself, “my name is Sabrina. What’s your?” Corrin answered, “Corrin, where did you…”

Suddenly more versions of her came as well, some looking the same as her, some of different shapes and sizes, such as: being younger, having scars, different genders, etc. The others decided to walk around the castle and explore the castle grounds, some went into the mines, the shops and the food hunting spots. Sabrina told her, “This place must be relatively new.” Corrin pulled her to the plaza and asked her, “okay what is going on and who are you guys?” Sabrina saw that the plaza glowing and tried to warn her, “uh, I wouldn’t stand here if I were you, which I am.” Kamui also agrees, “she’s right, you’re about to–” suddenly in a flash of light, Corrin disappeared in a flash of light leaving Sabrina alone with her numerous copies.

Corrin found herself on a wooden path, each with its own branching path. She looked around and saw other branching paths covered by a fog. She began walking on the path and muttered to herself hoping Kamui was still there listening, “what is this place?” Kamui explained, “this is the last place you want to fall off of, trust me. Welcome to Yggdrasill, the world tree!” Corrin asked, “the what tree.” Suddenly a large thumping sound was heard from the distance, causing the road to shake, “what was that?” Kamui simply answered, “trouble.” The sound got louder and louder, Corrin backed up slowly and pulled out her Yato blade. Kamui then said panicked, “run and don’t stop until you’re safe.” Corrin ran as fast as her legs could take her, taking a different path each time eventually a doorway opened and she jumped inside it.

Corrin then appears to be in a castle that looks like hers but has a whole new style. There were a lot more buildings, a lot of statues, and some different crops. She turns to the left and finds Takumi standing next to her, she gets startled and jumps back. Takumi says jokingly, “someone’s jumpy. First time?” Corrin answered, “little bit. Where am I?” Takumi answered, well this is castle Fort Knox. Come with me and I’ll give you the tour.” Takumi took her on a whole tour of all the facilities that were scene and answered some questions.

Meanwhile back at Corrin’s castle, Azura woke up with a massive headache that felt like it was splitting apart. She felt sluggish and was having a blurred memory of last night. She put on a light blue long-sleeved off shoulder top and tan shorts and exited her room to the mess hall. The bright sun irritated her, making things worse for her headache. She walked with her head looking down and saw a pair of feet passing on the way back. Gave a quick greeting, “hey Corrin.” She didn’t bother listening for her response and entered the mess hall.

When she entered, she found Jakob just sitting on down and not in the kitchen. He seemed to be hungover as well. As she placed her head down, a loud thud and squeak from the table was heard by Jakob. He picked up his head, “do you mind keeping it down, I’m trying to get over this headache.” Azura quickly replies, “same here.” Gunter emerged from the kitchen with three cups of coffee and some bacon and eggs. “Here you are, this should help you both with those nasty hangovers.” Azura and Jakob drank the coffee that helped a little bit, but the headaches only subside for now.

Jakob asked, “how you not feeling like sh*t old man, while I’ve got last night's dinner in my toilet this morning?” Gunter answered, “please Jakob, with my years of experience with drinking I’ve become immune to hangovers.” Jakob grumbled, while Gunter was humming a small tune Mikoto taught her when drinking. Azura asked, “how do you know that song?” Gunter replied, “don’t you remember lady Azura? You were singing it after 3 mugs of Mead. You were quite silly drunk.” Azura’s face became bright red from embarrassment and apologized, “sorry, I have a low alcohol tolerance.”

Then they saw Corrin enter the room with a different hair style, a beauty mark, and a butterfly head piece. She said in a different voice, “ha, I remember this place my first time.” Jakob immediately got up and fell back down feeling dizzy, while Gunter and Azura were noticing the new look. Gunter got up to greet her, “morning milady, shall I make you breakfast.” “No need Gunter, but I think you might have a problem.” Gunter asked, “what do you mean?” Suddenly another person entered and it was a younger version than of Corrin, then a Male, etc. Jakob asks, “is this me being hungover or is this real?” Azura speaks up, “oh so you see them as well, I thought I was going crazy.” Gunter agreed, “I see them too guys, let’s get to the bottom of this.” The purple haired Corrin spoke up, “hi, uh… I may know where your Corrin is, but I think we should talk to Lilith first.” Gunter replied, “thank you, uh…” “Sabrina.”

The three residents and Sabrina entered into Lilith’s temple, and as if today couldn’t have been any more surprising, an older looking villager opened the door. Azura asked, “who are you?” the man replied, “I’m Jasper, I’m one of the people who use to live here.” Jakob remembered, “right, Lilith said villagers use to live here before. Anyways why you here in Lilith’s temple?” Jasper replies, “I come by to visit occasionally to make sure she isn’t lonely. A few of my friends come by as well.” Gunter changed the topic quickly, “anyways, we need to talk to Lilith about this woman.” He pointed to the Corrin lookalike and they were let in.

Lilith heard her friends' concerns about the Sabrina and the others, while eating the bacon Gunter has made. Lilith swallows a piece strip of bacon and checks the castle grounds to find there are multiple Corrins. Lilith figures out that the true lady Corrin is not around, she asks Sabrina, “did you happen to meet a different version of yourself.” Sabrina nodded, “yeah, she was pretty shocked to see us. Then she dragged me to Travelers’ Plaza to talk only to get sucked in.” Gunter asked, “where did the plaza send her?” Sabrina answered, “my guess the world tree, Yggdrasil.”

They all looked a little confused until Lilith explained, “Yggdrasil, also known as the World Tree, was once where a Divine Dragon queen from another world rested and drew her last breath due to mortal injuries after a grand battle with the Evil Dragon King. The tree holds the power to balance different world, timelines, and realms on each branch. Luckily someone harnessed the trees' power to travel to different realms, timelines, and worlds, the realities and worlds sometimes have many similarities but also many differences. Such as: one where Gunter died, or one where Felicia joined first. It is even the birthplace of most gods.” Sabrina spoke up, “the Travelers’ Plaza acts as a way for many of us to travel to other castles in other timelines to get more resources, because our castles only allow 2 natural resources and advice on team development.”

Azura summarizes, “so Corrin is in a different timeline, so all we have to do is search all the multiple timelines and hope we get lucky.” Sabrina and Lilith shared a look of concerns and answers, “there might be a way, but it's risky.” Jakob answered, “my liege is trouble, I will help follow her anywhere.” Gunter nodded, “same here, I’m not going to lose her after we just reunited.” Azura shifted back into her combat uniform, “we’re all going, we can’t do this without her.” Lilith changed back to her dragon form and telepathically told them, ‘Fine, but you need to take this with you.” She hands them a card with her face and numbers on them and warned, ‘don’t lose it and don’t fall.” Gunter took it and placed it in his pocket, “I shall protect it with my life.” The group made its way to the Travelers’ Plaza and entered into the World Tree

The group was amazed at the sight before them, it was so calming and beautiful to look at. Azura was blown away by how many pathways there were and said, “this is incredible, I don’t know how far it goes on for or where it begins, how do people navigate this.” She was about to look down, but Lilith stepped in front of her saying, “careful lady Azura, should one fall from the branch's path, they will be erased from being.” Jakob asked concerned, “uh… don’t you think that would’ve been valuable information before we got here?” Lilith shook her head and just called Gunter forward, he came forward and she asked for the card. She grabbed it in her teeth, while Sabrina let out a loud whistle.

A loud stomping could be heard from behind them, they all got down low to keep their balance, except for Lilith floating and Sabrina who is used to this. The figure got closer and closer until a giant squirrel stood in their path. It was completely glowing orange, it had brownish-grey eyes, an arm band on its left arm, and wore a satchel on its back. Gunter softly spoke, “God’s help us.” Sabrina stepped in front of them saying, “don’t worry, this is one of the three guardians of the world tree, Ratatoskr. She has the responsibility of overlooking the worlds, realms, and timelines within the tree, also she’s a messenger for the other two guardians.”

While Sabrina goes to explain to the giant squirrel, Lilith and Gunter gave her the card to sniff. After a while she picked up the scent and bows down waiting for everyone to hop on. The group hopes on its back and the squirrel uses its hikes up its legs to run. Lilith turns human again and holds on tightly, everyone else follows suit and with speed they were off on the hunt for their leader.

Meanwhile in the other world, Corrin was learning everything she could about the World Tree, Ratatoskr, and the different castles across the timelines. Kamui finished up his lesson on the pathways, “…so in conclusion, each choice you make at the time makes a new path.” She was just sitting on the steps processing all the information she just received. Kamui could feel her a little sad and asked, “you alright?” Corrin shook her head no and hesitated for a moment, before ultimately saying, “it just that, I got to thinking. If there are billions of possible timelines, does that mean my mom has to be alive in one of them, right?” Kamui told her, “Corrin, I know you miss her, trust me I know. But let me tell you straight away that going to another world isn’t the key to solving your pain.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Kamui told her, “Corrin, I know you because I’m in your head. I also know ever since you got to the Astral Plane, you never grieved her death. You’ve been bottling it up inside, but one day it will explode.” Corrin didn’t have time to grieve, she had a war to end, and the sooner it ends, the more family she could save. Kamui spoke up, “Corrin, in whatever timeline we jump to there is but 3 constants: we must choose a path, we get kidnapped, and our mother must die. That may not seem fair, but that is war.”

Suddenly there was flash of light at the Plaza, she turned to see it was her friends and Sabrina. Corrin went over and said, “hey guys, what are you doing here?” Gunter responds, “looking for you, after we realized you were gone, Sabrina and Lilith came up with a plan to find you.” Azura said, “we had to ride on a giant squirrel to find you, it was a pretty good experience.” Corrin apologized, “I apologize for making you worry, but seeing this place as it is, I took some of their resources. I got rubies and peaches from here.”

Sabrina walked up to Corrin and asked, “well I guess there are some introductions necessary, welcome to my castle.” Corrin was surprised to hear that, “oh, this is your universe?” Jakob nodded, “of course, on the way here she seemed familiar with this place.” Sabrina told her counterpart, “Listen Corrin, traveling the world tree is dangerous without the proper ID, if Ratatoskr finds you, she will throw you off the edge. Luckily that's only if you you carry bad intentions, she is an excellent judge of character.” Kamui comments, “she’s like a giant furry bouncer.” Corrin asked, “what type of ID do I need?” Lilith gave her a card and as soon as she touched it, the card melds with her skin on her back hand. Sabrina explains, “there now you whenever you wish to go home you will be instantly sent back. However, if you use any of the facilities you will be kicked out for some reason.” Corrin comments, “well that’s rude.”

Sabrina asked them, “hey, how about this? One arena battle and you can go to another castle to get some different resources.” Corrin thought about it and said, “well since we’re already here, might as well entertain ourselves.” Azura brought Corrin to the side and asked, “Corrin, need I remind you that we’re on a deadline and in need of an army?” “Relax Azura, we have time. Besides, we still need resources to survive and I'm sure everyone needs some nutrition in their diet instead of meat and fish.” Azura thought about it and realized she had a point, “fine then, one fight and that’s it.”

The group made its way to the arena where they met up with a strong looking Kaze. Kaze isn’t fazed by the other Corrin and just asks, “oh lady Sabrina, were you planning on using the arena to develop our combat skills?” Sabrina nodded, “yep Kaze, also I'm giving my guest a show before they have to leave.” Kaze nodded, “very well, I shall not disappoint.” Then suddenly, another ninja appeared, “Saizo the Fifth—here to help.” Corrin recognized him from the bottomless canyon.

Corrin asked, “so how does this work exactly, do we just send someone in and they fight for money?” Sabrina answered, “close, while they do get paid for their efforts and tasks, we bet our resources. Like our peaches and rubies, bet one on your champion you can double, even quadruple our resources.” Corrin thought about it and said, “that is pretty smart, but where do...” Kamui stopped her, “it's better not to question the how, saves us the brain pain.” Corrin shook her head and just accepted it, “I'll just bet a peach.” Sabrina nodded, “smart trying to get more resources.”

They watched as a Sword Master and Oni Chieftain entered the arena waiting for their opponents. Corrin, Sabrina, and the rest took their seats to watch the fight. Kaze and Saizo stepped out, the two bowed to their opponents and then the battle began. Kaze threw out a needle at the Sword Master to weaken him a little, while Saizo faces off with the Oni Chieftain with a katana. The two brothers moved completely in sync, a whirlwind of red and green cut down the two with ease. The crowd cheers for them and the two disappear into the arena.

Corrin and the rest met up with the ninjas and Kaze said, “What an excellent fight. My opponent was a worthy rival.” Saizo scoffed, “oh please brother, that was the only possible outcome.” Corrin spoke up, “well you guys were amazing out there, was the easiest gamble I ever made.” Sabrina interjects, “actually, if you like you can go a second time to quadruple the winnings.” Azura interjects, “I don’t know we already have won one battle, let's not push our luck.” Corrin thought about it and said, “don’t worry Azura, they got this.” Corrin accepted and the two brothers were met with an Sniper and a Spear Master.

Kaze took on the sniper, and Saizo attacked the Spear Master, but they were stronger than the other guy. Kaze’s shurikens seemed to do nothing to his aim, while Saizo was struggling to damage to the Spear Master. Saizo’s strikes were parried with the swing of the Naginata, while the sniper was matching every shot Kaze made. Saizo and Kaze looked towards each other and nodded at each other. The two ninja charged them together, but at the last second the two swapped spaces so fast, it was like teleportation. The Spear Master and Sniper felt a little woozy and pain in their body, it turns out that their weapons were laced with poison. The poison doesn’t have to land a hit on them, the smell is enough to do the damage.

Kaze says coldly, “It ends here,” and throws it from in the air to knock out the Sniper. Saizo raises his sword and says, “You've breathed your last,” then moving fast in the air he maneuvers in a zigzag line. The two ninja go to the exit and the group goes to see them, they both bow and said, “mission accomplished.” Sabrina spoke up, “good work guys, unfortunately the arena needs to go under some renovation for extra earnings. So make do with what we got for now ok.” She handed the ninja their pay and Corrin her winnings. Corrin took the peaches and said, “good work guys, I’ll come by to visit some time.” Then she and her group disappeared into thin air, Sabrina then said, “I hope so.”

In a flash of light the five friends were standing in the middle of their castle. Lilith was the first one to speak, “well that was an interesting adventure, it’s been a while since I went to a different world.” Jakob questions, “how many times have you traveled?” Lilith answered unsure, “I don’t know, like 1 or 2… hundred.” Jakob’s eyes went wide for a moment, but Lilith noticed that one of her one of her buildings were ready to build. Lilith asked Corrin, “lady Corrin look at this.” The group looked at the different buildings that Corrin could make, and Gunter said, “oh have you decided to build more of facilities.” Lilith shook her head and said, “no look.”

She then pulls up a map of the place and shows a number at the top. Lilith explains, “this number represents the amount of dragon vein energy you can use, however I use most of it to keep this place up and running, which is why it’s so low. It would seem to increase after every battle you face, every 24 hours, and visit other castles.” Azura asked, “so the more we step out the castle, the more energy we get for the facilities.” Lilith nodded and Corrin suggested, “maybe we should keep exploring then.” Lilith answered, “but what about the mission milady?” Corrin just said, “there’s always tomorrow, I’m not in the whole fighting mood right now.”

Lilith could tell Corrin was going through something, but didn’t know what. Azura and the retainers picked up on this as well, so Azura answered, “I agree this could lead to more weapons and items. Also this would be good for morale.” Gunter agreed, “true a troop with no morale has no reason to fight.” Jakob went to the mess hall and made some food with the peaches she won. When he came back, he made enough for everyone saying, “don’t think we’re going in that tree without your lunch or backup.” Corrin smiled and went into the Traveler’s Plaza with her friends exploring the multiverse.

Chapter 18: Ryoma's plan

Chapter Text

Chapter 8.4

In Nohr the weather had the usual dark and dreary atmosphere, with thunder and lightning a storm was brewing. All the way at the border of Nohr, stood a male and female boarder guard. The man was big and intimidating looking knight with a scar over his left eye, he had short blonde hair with teal eyes. He wore a greyish black heavy armor holding a giant shield in one hand and an iron lance in the other. The woman on the other hand was a smaller muscular woman with a bow accessory on the back of her long wavy blonde hair, she had light blue eyes the color of the sky, wore a white and blue fighters outfit, and a steel axe by her side.

The life of a border guard could be described as relatively boring. All you do is stand around and watch for intruders, and in the event someone does come through here they interrogate them and its mostly just traders or returning citizens. Not to mention that the pay isn’t much, it’s enough to make ends meet but not enough in one soldier’s eyes. The fighter was just sitting there board out of her mind, while the knight was just watching the sky and nocturnal birds fly across the air.

The male knight saw an owl by the tree and decided to watch it majestically fly across the sky. The female fighter let out a loud groan, “this is boring, it’s all boring just standing here.” The scary knight replied, “that’s the job Charlotte, stand guard, watch for enemy activity, report and very possibly fight.” The fighter, Charlotte, picked up her axe and said, “yeah, but almost nothing happens here. It’s been three months since we had a good old fashioned brawl.” “Well nobody has invaded yet, but that’s because people aren’t crazy enough to attack the entrance.” “Do you ever get bored Benny, or at least feel like you could be more?” The knight, Benny, shook his head, “I get to play with animals without working too hard, I’m good.” Charlotte said, “really, so you’re okay with being a border guard?” Benny nodded as he watched the owl leave.

Suddenly another soldier came to take over and said, “hey Benny, the horses seem to be not feeling well can you check.” Benny looked to Charlotte and then replied, “okay.” The guy decided to take his place and talk to Charlotte, “it sure is a beautiful night out, isn’t it?” Charlotte rolled her eyes at this guy, she’s been hit on so many times at this point she can probably sense his intentions. She also knew about this guys reputation, how he always hits on any woman that he takes an interest in then dumps them when he’s bored with them; plus he has no respect for others whatsoever. If she had it her way she would have told him a few places she shove her axe, however she answered in annoyance holding back, “don’t talk to me, just watch for enemies.” The guy walked up and said, “don’t be like that mildly, I’m just trying to make conversation.” He then tries to place his arm around Charlotte, but she catches it and says, “I know what your really trying and I’m not interested, for the 50th time.”

Meanwhile in the forest, Prince Ryoma, his retainer Kagero, and a few soldiers were approaching the Nohrian border. The Pegasus knights and ninjas he sent to scout ahead returned with news, “we report that the enemy camp has soldier’s all around the wall sire. We placed small group of our comrades at the spots.” Ryoma responds, “okay how many are there?” “Around 100-150 soldier’s sire, so a few of our ninjas placed explosives in different places around the camp to disorient their troops. Also some noticed a few ballista’s, the explosives should take care of them as well. Just give the signal and the explosives will activate.” Ryoma nodded, “good work man, wait for my signal.” The ninja bowed to the high prince and got into position.

Ryoma looked to his retainer and could tell something was wrong, so he gave her permission to speak freely, “what’s the problem Kagero?” Kagero answered worried about her liege, “isn’t this a bit too reckless milord? We don’t want to rush into things.” Ryoma gave his opinion and replies, “we need that army for Hoshido, and the only way into Cheve is through the boarder, I just have to get in, find the rebels, and convince them to join us. How hard can it be?” Kagero sighed, “you really are reckless aren’t you milord, very well I will follow you till the end.” Ryoma stood by and gave the signal.

Looking up and seeing storm clouds, the guy pulled out an umbrella saying, “looks like rain, you brought an umbrella?” Charlotte shook her head, “what’s the matter, scared of a little rain?” Charlotte looked up and noticed that when the storm cloud had a flash of lightning it was in that same exact spot, a little to the by the front row of trees in the forest. Suddenly Charlotte heard a big explosion coming from the rear of the wall, “what the hell was that?” The guy next to her responded, “I don’t know, I’ll go check it out while you–” Just then suddenly a sound of another explosion occurred on the other side and sounds of fighting were heard. Charlotte thought back to Benny and thought he might be in trouble, then a powerful looking Samurai with a sword that crackles like a lightning bolt, a ninja, and a small army were attacking forward.

Charlotte saw the army and decided to ultimately drop the act, she told the guy calmly but forcefully, “go get Benny, I’ll hold them off.” The guy replied, “come on, you know you can’t take on all of them by yourse–” she cut him of by picking up a rock and throwing it towards one of the enemy soldiers, she threw it with so much raw strength it went straight through 2 of the soldiers heads, brain matter flew everywhere as the two crumbled down. The man stood there in shock at the sight he witnessed, she turned back and said, “Get. Benny. Now.” This time he ran with everything he had, while she ran straight to the enemy.

Benny was trying to calm down the horses, he gently hushed them down in a calm and quiet tone of voice, “there, there, focus on the sound of my voice.” Suddenly the horses seemed to be in more distress, Benny also senses a presence close by. It was a samurai and a spear master, the samurai had a katana that was duel sided, a duel katana maybe. The other has a raider Naginata ready to strike him down. Benny sighed bored, “I don’t want to fight you, but if you insist at least not in front of the horses. Just walk away and we all go home happy.” The samurai calmly said in English, “I wish we could.” The other one spoke in fluent Japanese, “Shikashi, moshi anata ga watash*tachi no jamawosurunara, watash*tachiha-sō shimasu.” Benny didn’t need a translation to know what that meant. He crack his neck without using his hands, picked up his lance and braced for the attack.

The spear master jabs his Naginata at Benny, but he just sidestepped to the left. He would have counter attacked if he was fighting one on one, but he was not so lucky. The samurai tried to stab him with his sword as well, but Benny used his shield to parry the strike and counterattack. He swings his lance under their feet, the spear master dodges the attack but the samurai wasn’t so lucky. As he trips down to the floor, the spear master got in for a second attack. Benny’s was hit with the Naginata and although it didn’t do much damage, it made him stagger backwards. The spear master then swap to an iron weapon and aimed for the joint gaps in his armor, but Benny countered with his lance and delivered a powerful strike with his shield. The spear master staggered a bit and was stabbed through the chest. The samurai on the other hand was still alive, he was about to try and avenge his friends death only for a javelin to pierce his heart.

From where the samurai was standing was the lance guard, he asked Benny, “you okay?” he nodded and realized that Charlotte wasn’t with her. He asked calmly, “where’s Charlotte?” He answered, “Charlotte told me to come get you, she’s fighting the front gate.” Benny sighs, “alright then, grab any soldier’s that are injured and save them, I’ll handle the front with Charlotte. And if anyone’s free tell them to come to the front.” The lancer nodded and was about to leave, but Benny stopped him, “also, i-if you lose…” He looked directly into his eyes, but he struggled to say anything. The lancer got nervous and ran away saying, “I won’t lose that’s a promise.” Then he runs away. Benny was trying to give him a good luck charm, “I’ve got to get better at getting to the point.”

Ryoma, Kagero, and his army were fighting like crazy to breakthrough the border, however thanks to Charlotte’s combat experience she was able to hold her own. Charlotte used her steel axe to cut down her next opponent, but while she was distracted Kagero was using her daggers to sap her strength. Charlotte at first didn’t feel anything, but over time she felt her strength leave her. Eventually she lost so much strength, she was that of a toddler. Then Ryoma decided to step forward, figuring out that she was tired out already. Kagero remained in the shadows to survey the area. Ryoma looked down at her and said, “you’ve fought well warrior, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Play dead and we will walk past you.” Charlotte picked up her axe and said, “you better kill me, because I’ll come back for you.”

Ryoma sighs, “Corrin I tried.” Ryoma lifted his sword, the energy crackles with electricity, and when he was about to strike; his blade was stopped by a lance. Charlotte looks up and sees that it was Benny, her friend blocking the attack. Ryoma began to push Benny back a bit, but Benny used his lance to slide his opponent’s sword past him. Taking advantage of this Benny then attacks Ryoma, but then a dagger interrupted his attack. Benny readied his lance for battle, but Charlotte also join the battle. Benny said concerned, “you should rest.” Charlotte smiled, “and let you have all the fun? No way in hell.” He smiled and gave her a concoction, she took half the bottles helping and all the injuries were gone.

The rest of the Ryoma’s army came forward and attacked, Charlotte and Benny held the line waiting for reinforcements. The two friends charged ahead to meet the enemy halfway. The two friends fought like a well oiled machine, Charlotte cuts into a few of them, while Benny takes the hits with his shield. They were doing good until another dagger tried to sap their strength, Benny however dodged the attack and pointed it out to Charlotte, “Charlotte, I see her and I know where she is going to go to next.” Charlotte came up with a plan, “Benny, have you ever played rocket ship? Its a game where your picked up and thrown up in the air.” Benny was starting to pick up what she was saying, he picked her up and like a javelin or spear, he threw her up into the trees where the ninja was hiding.

Charlotte flew as graceful as an eagle and with her battle cry she yelled, “Don't underestimate me,” tackling the ninja out of the tree. The two fell from branch to branch, when they crashed on to the ground the two heard a snap on the ground. Charlotte rolled over and got a good look at the ninja; her long chestnut brown hair was tied up into a ponytail, her bangs covered the side of her face. Charlotte saw that the Kunoichi had a broken leg, she thought to herself, ‘that ought to put her out of condition, now to go find Benny.’ She was about to leave when she turned around to look at the Kunoichi, she tried to reset her leg but it failed. She wore a blank expression on her face but could tell she was struggling. Charlotte let out a groan, cursing her kind heart, and pulled out her axe.

She turned to the Kunoichi and began walking towards her, the Kunoichi pulled out her shuriken and was prepared to go down fighting. However to the Kunoichi’s surprise, Charlotte walked past her and chopped off some wood from the tree behind her. Charlotte makes two splits, takes up some sturdy vines, and goes to the Kunoichi. The Kunoichi raises her weapon cautiously, “Modotte kudasai.” Charlotte replies calmly in her language, “Daijōbu, anata o yatou tsumori wa arimasen. Anata no kizu o chiryō sa sete kudasai.” The Kunoichi was taken aback by the barbarian speaking in Japanese, she hesitantly put her weapon down and let her take care of her. Charlotte pulled out her belt for her to chop down on, when the Kunoichi chomped down on it she said, “Ttsu kazoetara, anata no ashi o risetto shimasu, junbi wa dekite imasu ka?” The Kunoichi nodded and the count began, “1… 2…” Charlotte then without warning reset her leg, then she began working on her leg brace.

The Kunoichi’s cry was muffled by the belt, but once she calmed down she said in plain English, “thank you for helping me.” Charlotte replied, “don’t mention it.” Once she finished, Charlotte was about to leave when the Kunoichi said, “why did you help me when we’re enemies, if we meet up again we will be forced to kill each other.” Charlotte answered, “I know, but as far as I’m concerned your fight is over. Right now you are just someone in trouble.” The Kunoichi was taken aback by this one’s kindness, especially towards her enemies, she asks, “what’s your name, warrior.” She introduced herself, “Charlotte.” “Kagero,” the Kunoichi replied. The two nodded and left to their respective battles.

Benny was struggling to take on the rest of the army, but thanks to his reputation making him out to be a monster and his intimidating aura, a few of them fell to his lance. The next one he was about to face off against was the leader himself, with his electrical katana. The leader was a bit intimidated by him, but not that much, he charged forward to attack. Benny barely blocked in time and received massive damage. Benny tried to attack him, but the leader dodged out of the way. He then attacks again landing a devastating hit on Benny, breaking his shield in half and ripping a hole in his armor. Benny was wondering how he was going to get out of this, but he was also worried about Charlotte. She’s been in the woods for a long time so she should have come out by now, but he knew better than to underestimate her.

Speaking of Charlotte, in the back he could see enemy units flying. Everytime someone tries to rush in two end up flying back. Just then a flash of familiar blond hair jumped over one of them and did a spinning hook kick to another enemy. It was Charlotte, and not only was she fighting the army barehanded, but she was winning. She landed in front of the leader saying, “let’s hope you put up more of a fight.” The leader looked down and whispered, “Kagero.” Just then more of the boarder guards came out and readies their weapons for an all out assault. The Nohrian commander addressed the leader, “Hoshidan forces, your numbers have been split in to thirds! Those who have not been killed are captured, surrender now and you may retreat! However if you continue, this field will be soaked with your blood!” The army readies their weapons and readies for the attack.

Ryoma readies his blade and yells to his men, “do not falter men, the enemy may be strong but we have the numbers let us seize their fort and take our first step taking king Garon down! For queen Mikoto! For king Sumeragi! For Hoshido!” Everyone yells back, “for Hoshido.” While Ryoma was giving his speech, the Nohrian commander gave a similar speech, “warriors of Nohr, here today on this field we make history! Everytime someone tries to invade many have failed and do you know why? Its because before they can get to the Capitol they have to get through here first! We are Nohr’s first defense and even if we fall they have to go through the others! Are you with me?!” The army cheered, “sir yes sir!” He answered, “then follow me men! For Nohr!”

Then the two army’s charged each other and a full blown battle happened. The Hoshidan and Nohrian army clashed in the heat of battle, each side delivering solid hits on one another, everyone equally matched. The Hoshidan army was a little bit faster and more defenses, while the Nohrians were more offensive and versatile. The Hoshidans were managing pretty well and some were even feeling a little bit hopeful, but then suddenly the left side of the Hoshidan army was engulfed in flames nearly killing them.

Ryoma looked up to notice that the magic turrets were up on the top of the wall, Ryoma looked up and thought to himself, ‘I don’t understand, all the turret were destroyed.” He looked up and saw one of the dark mages take out a small figure and it grew to life. Ryoma was surprised, Nohr knew if they were being ambushed the turrets would be the first to go, so they made sure to carry portable turrets. The high prince decided to focus his efforts on those turrets, so he gave the order, “sky patrol get our magic units on those walls and take those turrets!” The sky knight flew high with a respective magic user in tow, however as they made their way to the turret three wyvern knights blocked their paths.

Ryoma charged forward cutting down a small group of enemies, reaching within close proximity of the commander, until one berserker with a hammer knocks him back a few feet. Ryoma get back up and dodges volleys of arrows, only to get hit with another hammer hit. While on the ground he tries to lift his blade but his enemies step on his arm to hold him down, another guy knees him in the face with a damaging crunch. He saw the hammer was about to come down and he was about to die, but then a shuriken pierced his heart.

Ryoma looked back to see his retainer Kagero standing over him, he looked to her leg and saw she was wearing a makeshift leg brace. As she helped him up, he asks, “Kagero, what happened? Last I thought you were dead.” Kagero answered throwing another one at an outlaw, “I was tackled out of the tree by a tree by that fighter, but on the way down I broke my leg. That same fighter helped me and fixed up my leg.” Ryoma summons a bolt of lightning from the sky, frying a female dark mage, “why would she help an enemy?” Kagero answered, she said my fight was over, so she saved me. However, it’s not over till I say it is.” Ryoma nodded, “well I’m glad your okay, I thought you had died.” Kagero nodded, “I was trained by Saizo, he taught me to never give up.”

Kagero heard an explosion from the right and saw that their comrades were getting destroyed. “milord, what is the plan? Do we sound a retreat or go all out and take them all out.” Ryoma looked all around and saw that his comrades were dying and the Nohrian army was overwhelming them. Ryoma saw that it was a lost cause, but he couldn’t leave without meeting the resistance group. Ryoma couldn’t just let them all die, so he made his decision, “Kagero call a retreat, too many of our troops are dead or injured.”

Kagero nodded, “very well milord, let’s get you to safety milord.” She tried to drag him away, but he pulled away, “no, I’ll stay behind and cover your escape.” Kagero spoke worried, “absolutely not, my job is to protect you and to make sure your okay.” Ryoma answered, “this is a direct order, not a negotiation. You must get to Hoshido, warn my siblings about me, then find me in Nohr!” Kagero was about to argue, but she knew her liege was being serious. So she nodded and said, “as you wish milord, but how will you be able to take on everyone alone?” He pulled out his blade and said, “don’t worry about me, I’ve got this.” Just as her liege ordered, Kagero pulled issued a retreat. As the army ran away Ryoma summoning all his mental strength he called down lightning bolts in front of the army.

He stares down the army and says, “Nohrian captain, you face high prince of Hoshido, Ryoma, I challenge you to single combat!” The Nohrian captain thinks about this for a moment, but he decides to say, “no point in doing that, if you beat me my men will just jump you. So I’ll make you a deal if you beat all of us, your free to go, but if you lose you’ll be our prisoner.” Ryoma got in his starting stance and thought back to his time at the palace while his father was still alive.

It was late at night, the eldest prince was on his way to the training room. He stopped short to see his younger brother was standing in front of a cabinet, there he was staring intently at it as if to watch it move. He began to reach for it, but before he could Ryoma called out, “Takumi.” Takumi looked behind him and saw his brother and backed up away from it. He asked frightened, “Ryoma, why are you up so late?” Ryoma answered, “I couldn’t sleep, so I came to train. Why are you here?” Takumi says, “same here, I was just looking for a… a…” he looks over to see a Shinai rack and picks up one, “my favorite Shinai.”

Ryoma was still skeptical about the whole thing, so he asked, “then what’s in the closet.” Takumi got even more nervous and answered his question with another, “what closet?” Takumi Ryoma stepped closer and turned him towards the closet, “oh that closet, well I was just curious about what was in there is all,” Takumi explained. Ryoma knew he was lying and said, “Takumi, you know as well as I do that father and lady Mikoto keep their personal weapons. That also means they are off limits.” Takumi explained, “yeah but, aren’t you at least a bit curious about them and how they work?”

Ryoma didn’t answer for a moment, but he said confidently, “we will get them soon enough when we’re older, until then they remain hidden.” Takumi pleads, “come on brother just one peak and we leave, no touching required.” Ryoma looked behind him and saw they were alone, he looked at his brothers pleading eyes sighing, “fine, but no touching. Just a quick peek and that’s it.” Takumi nodded and they both opened the door slowly. But as soon as it opened, the sword and Yumi flew out of the closet.

When they looked behind them they saw their father and lady Mikoto there holding their weapons. King Sumeragi speaks up, “just what do you think your doing with these weapons?” Takumi and Ryoma bowed to their knees, “we’re sorry.” Ryoma continued to explain, “the truth Takumi and I couldn’t sleep so we decided to tire each by training, but we got curious about the closet.” Sumeragi replies, “Ryoma you know better than to open that cabinet, they contained our divine weapons and if anyone grabs steals them the catastrophes will be enormous.” Takumi and Ryoma agreed apologetically, “yes father.”

Mikoto pulled him aside and began to talk, “Sumeragi wait, their just kids so their naturally curious. They’re going to inherit them in the future anyway, maybe you should teach them about them. Besides we both know what you were like as a kids.” Sumeragi calmed down a bit and told them to rise, “come here boys, I’m gonna give you guys a lesson on the weapons.” He sat the two of them down and began to ask them a question, “so you your curious about them, what do you wish to know.” Ryoma and Takumi raised their hands at the same time, but Ryoma got picked first. Takumi scoffs, but relents to his father’s choice. Ryoma asks, “where do they come from?”

Sumeragi looked to Mikoto and she stepped in, “I think I can help explain. Long ago, twelve powerful dragons waged war on each other to determine who would control the world Some of these dragons using humans as pawns to further their goals. The dragons blood-bonded with their chosen humans and granted them incredible power. The war raged on for ages until one day, one of the Dragons had decided to end the bloodshed once and for all and forged the legendary weapons: Fujin Yumi, Raijinto, Brynhildr, and Siegfried as a means to fight them. Humanity was selected to wield these weapons, plunging them into the Dragons' war. However, it still was not enough, the warriors needed to combine their efforts to win. So the Dragon made a final weapon to channel the power of all 4 Divine weapons, the Yato blade. With the Yato fully powered, new strength could be felt within the others, and the dragons were losing. Eventually, the First Dragons began to degenerate and most of them cast off their mortal bodies to avoid falling to death or madness while their blood bonded descendants persevered. Those who fought and served a certain dragon went to make their own land and home, Nohr, Hoshido, the tribes, etc.”

Ryoma and Takumi were amazed by the story, the telling of how the weapons came to be, the war between gods, the origin of Hoshido, it made them stand at the edge of their seats. Takumi then asked his question, “what about the other three, Yato, Brynhildr, and Siegfried?” Sumeragi had a grim scowl on his face, “unfortunately my son, the neighboring kingdom of Nohr hold Siegfried and Brynhildr, as for Yato it will show when a worthy successor is chosen.” Ryoma looked confused, “but father how does a blade know it successor is worthy?”

Sumeragi stood up and simply answered, “there are three things you must do to truly worthy of the weapon: 1) the weapon gauges your potential for worthiness, if it flies to your hand then you have the potential to be worthy. 2) understanding the weapon, the divine weapons are very complex to use, the only limit is your imagination and understanding. Once you know how they work and your bond grows deeper, then you will unlock its true power. 3) self doubt, the weapon will sense your doubts, to be truly worthy you must know you are worthy. Once you’ve mastered that you will have full control over your weapon and power.”

He opens his blade and in a flash of lightning he was gone for what seemed like a millisecond. Sumeragi then sheaths his blade and fruit from the trees as if on command, he then smiles smugly at Mikoto. She scoffs quietly, “show off.” The youngest brother yawned and felt sleepy, Mikoto smiled, “well looks like someone can finally go to sleep, let’s get you two to bed.” Takumi shook his head, “no I want to hear more.” Sumeragi interjects, “I know son, but you must sleep.” The two picked up the two kids and put them in their respective rooms, where they were put to bed.

Back to the present, Ryoma unsheathed his blade and charged the first enemy he saw. The mercenary swung his sword, but Ryoma blocked it with the Raijinto. In that moment Ryoma thought about the lightning infused with the blade, how it summons its power from the sky with righteous fury, how you must be precise with your strikes, how you must think quickly on your feet. Ryoma suddenly felt the blade doubling in his other hand and the next thing he knows he’s dual wielding, one Raijinto and a bolt of lightning. Using his other hand, he decapitated his opponent. He runs in and moves fast like lightning, in a flash he cut through multiple enemies with ease.

As Ryoma got closer, the leader put all his archers on the back and waited for the signal. When Ryoma made it to Benny and Charlotte, Charlotte could tell he was slowing down because his strike were slowing down, his arms felt like tree trunks, and his breath was heavy. She told Benny to follow her and charged forward, as they began to charge she dodged the attack and threw a fallen soldiers hand axe at his head. Ryoma counters with the blade, and turns to ask, “you fight well warriors, but this is your final battle. But before I finish you, what is your name?” Charlotte answered, “Charlotte and Benny.” Ryoma slashes with speed and precision, but Charlotte barely managed to dodge and block his attempts at her life. She made it apparent to block the sword and dodge the lightning bolt, unfortunately she couldn’t touch him in because she was too slow. Benny was almost invulnerable to all his strikes, but his blade managed to slip past the armor.

Eventually he managed to land a decent hit on her with Raijinto, cutting into her left shoulder. However Benny slammed his shield into his back, knocking him down. Benny pulls her up and explains, “see that, he’s slowing down and he can’t sense danger.” Charlotte nods, “one takes a hit the other dishes one out, sounds like a plan.” Benny charges forward and blocks with his shield, the clang of the Raijinto on the shield rang though out the battlefield. Benny counters with a lance thrust, but Ryoma parries it with ease cutting his armor. But Charlotte catches him off guard and land a punch to the jaw. Ryoma got up and attacked Charlotte, but the same result happened with Benny this time. Ryoma’s arm was starting to numb and his stamina was depleting, he swung his sword for it to get blocked by Benny and Charlotte to kick him in the gut. Benny and Charlotte were winning this battle and Ryoma was tired, they had him on the ropes and all looked hopeless for the Hoshidan prince.

However sensing the storm up above, he channeled what little energy he had in him and sent it to the blade. In doing so the sword glowed brighter and brighter, Charlotte caught on to his plan and got Benny away from him just as lightning struck his sword. Ryoma stood tall and raised his blade high, the electricity from the blade grew tall enough to cover the field. He did a horizontal slash and cut him down most of the army, the archer before the strike shot the arrows to end him. Then a cloud of dust appeared over the battlefield covering everything the eye can see.

The leader and a few of his soldiers who survived, were coughing because of the dust. When the dust settles, Ryoma is seen wobbling from the arrow in his shoulder. He passes out from the exhaustion and the blue glow that comes from the sword goes out. The commander sends multiple two of his soldiers out for the body and blade, “take him, get him in our most secure cell we have, and get that blade in my office.” He pulled one of the healers to the side and asked, “how many.” She closes her eyes and channels her magic through her physic staff, doing so allows her to gauge how many are still capable of being saved. “100 killed, the rest are just injured,” she explained. The commander yelled, “any healer just standing around grab a stave and heal as many as our soldiers we can.”

The soldiers helped as many of their fellow soldiers that were still breathing, the healers did as much as they could but they were losing more staves than they realized. They eventually had to heal manually, but first they had to get them to the medical tent, so the ones who could lift but weren’t hurt too bad were assisting the others. Benny picks up two of his dead soldiers and takes them inside camp to heal, Charlotte does the same but holds twice as many. After 2-3 hours of moving bodies, healing the injured, and repairing everything. The soldiers were losing decided to hit the hay. The captain was on his way to his office when he saw Benny and Charlotte digging a grave for all the dead bodies. He thought back to how those two were able to take on the prince of Hoshido and almost beat him. Then he went back to his office to write about to day events in the report, requesting more troops, and prisoner transfer. Once that was done, he placed it on a pigeon leg and it flew to the castle.

Chapter 19: The dinner party

Chapter Text

Book 3 chapter 8.5

Do you want to know the worst part about traveling on foot? It takes longer to reach your destination. How, because Takumi left Hoshido with his team three days ago and just made it past the wind tribe. Takumi and the rest were still a full day away from the land of Izumo, but morale had started to wane because of the attack on the capital. However, the princes’ retainers were still trying to keep their spirits up. Oboro wore her uniform as a spear fighter, while her partner Hinata wore a purple samurai uniform, consisting of much sturdier chest plates and gargets that resemble standing steel collars with various cultural clothing items worn underneath. Oboro helped by setting up camp and checking in on the rest of the army, while Hinata took a few of the men to break some stuff to get all that anger out, and Takumi did the hunting.

Late at night, Hinata and Oboro spoke to their liege. Hinata spoke first said, “lord Takumi, can we stop soon?” Takumi replied, “were almost to Izumo, just a half-days journey from here.” Oboro steps in front of her liege, making him stop, “lord Takumi, “we haven’t had a moments rest since we left. Our troops need a break, and so do you.” He looked at them and then at the troops and sighed reluctantly, “okay everyone, make for camp!” Everyone instantly fell to the ground, exhausted. Takumi and his retainers set up the fire pit and cooking station, while the others set up a few tents to sleep in. A few hunters enter the tents with a few animals in the area and get to cooking. With some clean water to boil the vegetables, they decided to make a stew for everyone.

Takumi decided to prep the meats for cooking while Hinata and Oboro were setting up camp. Hinata looked to his best friend with concern, “Oboro, can I ask you something?” Oboro answered while hammering in a stake for the tent, “go ahead, Hinata.” “I’m a bit worried about lord Takumi. He hasn’t eaten or slept since we left, and he has been training nonstop.” Oboro finished setting up her tent and said, “can you blame him? His mom died right in front of him. No one would be okay after that.” Hinata asked, “maybe I should talk to him. Our training together could get all that anger out of his system.” Oboro thought about it and agreed, “yeah it could work.” The two nodded and continued setting up tents and getting dinner ready.

Once the tents were set up, they headed to Lord Takumi, who had just finished cleaning and preparing the meats. Oboro was the first to speak up, “wow looks good.” Takumi replied, “wasn’t easy, just these guys have a lot of guts.” He handed Oboro and Hinata the meats and said, “help me carry these, please.?” They both nodded and assisted in taking the meat to the cook. Once all the meat was sent over to cook, Oboro was ordered by her liege to help with cooking the meats. She nodded and did so with no complaints, while Hinata was sent to guard the supplies. Takumi went into the forest with his Fujin Yumi and Shinai.

One hour later, dinner was ready, and Hinata was looking for his liege. Hinata found him with his Yumi shooting apples off trees the moment they fell off their respective branches, blindfold Hinata stared in awe at the skill he had displayed, the precision of each shot, the speed of each arrow of wind fired, almost as if he were the wind itself. Just then, Takumi shot an arrow in his direction, but Hinata deflects it with his blade. Takumi took off his blindfold and apologized, “sorry Hinata, what are you doing here anyway?” Hinata replied, “I came to tell you dinner is ready.” Takumi nodded, “I’ll be there soon. I just got to finish my training.” Hinata stepped forward and pulled out his sword, “lord Takumi, you haven’t eaten in much since we left. If you continue you’ll collapse.” Takumi said, “I’m fine, don’t worry about me.” Hinata toss him a sword, and Takumi caught it with ease. He said, “if you’re scared, you won’t be able to beat me, then just say that.” Takumi looked towards his retainer and said, annoyed, “I’m not scared of anything.” Then Hinata got into his fighting stance and said, “prove it.” Takumi matched his stance, and the two battled.

5 minutes later

Takumi was lying on his back with a blade to his neck, Hinata looked almost disappointed at his victory. He sighed, “the fact that I’ve beaten you this easily means you’re not fine. This isn’t the fight that I want, I want you to be your best, and the only way to do that is to eat and sleep. Otherwise you’ll be useless to everyone. You taught me that, milord. So come get dinner before it gets cold.” Hinata held out his hand, and Takumi took it to get up. Once the two made it back to camp, Oboro was there with sharing three bowls for her liege, her partner, and herself. She saw her friends and waved them down to come sit with her, Takumi and Hinata ate with gusto after training so hard. Throughout the rest of the night, Takumi took the time to take it easy.

The next day, everyone was well rested and continued their journey to Izumo. By the time they reached the end of their quest to Izumo, it was about 3:30 pm. The village was full of small huts for the villagers, there were crops of vegetables and fruits, and on top of the hill lay a giant castle which held the Archduke. When they entered the village, people could feel the tension as soon as they entered, people whispered, people ran inside, and others avoided them. Takumi looked to his retainers, and while Hinata was just as confused, Oboro was making that same scary demon face. Takumi said, “Oboro, you’re making that face again.” Oboro replied, “I can’t help it, I sense Nohrians close by. It’s best to keep on your toes.” Takumi nodded, saying, “okay, buy this place is neutral so Nohrians are gonna come once in a while,” and headed to the castle.

Upon entering the castle, they are met with an Onmyoji with long white hair with an accessory, a symbol on his forehead, and slanted eyes. He stood upright and had a regal air about him befitting a man of his status. Takumi stepped forward to introduce himself and bowed his head, “good evening, I am Prince Takumi of Hoshido. I’ve come to speak with the Archduke of Izumo.” The man began to open his mouth, but what came out was not what anyone was expecting. “I’m Archduke Izana! First heir to the divine bloodline, descendant of the gods…keeper of prophecies, and voted best hair in Izumo five years running! I’m so happy to have some visitors from Hoshido. Now, what kind of weird stuff do y’all like to get into back in the homeland? No, never mind, we’ll get into all that later. Let’s just sit back and relax and put on some slippers for now, right? Am I right?”

Everyone was taken aback by the overall friendly nature of the Archduke, which is not what they were expecting. It was enough to make Oboro momentarily calm down. Takumi replied, confused, “uh… yeah, maybe the slippers can wait. We have some news we would like to discuss.” The Archduke brushed off his comment, “oh please, we’ll have time for all that soon. Right now, you and your group have probably been traveling far to get here. The least I could do for my guests is offer them some rest and relaxation,” he then points to Oboro and continues, “I know she could use it.”

Takumi looks to his retainer and says, “oh, she usually makes that face whenever she is near Nohrians on command.” The Archduke laughed, “ah yes, of course, that makes sense with the whole war going on and whatnot. But don’t you worry, milord, any Nohrians or Hoshidans who come here are welcome to stay and relax to their hearts content. However, violence between the two is a big no-no here. This reminds me that I need to confiscate your weapons to prevent any temptation for a fight.” The staff members heed out an empty sack for the weapons, Takumi looked to his soldiers and said, “do as he says, we’re in his domain.”

Everybody throws their weapons in the sack to be taken, but when it made it to Oboro and Hinata, they look to their prince as if asking for permission. He said, “go head, it’s fine.” He the gave a small smile, and they gave up their weapons. However, Oboro kept a small knife up her sleeve just in case her instincts were right. Once Takumi placed his Yumi in the sack, Izana said, “now then, how about that rest and relaxation I mentioned. My workers will show you to your rooms and the spa. Dinner will be at 7:30, we’ll meet at the feast hall and you can tell me all about yourselves.”

The tour began with the spa, where the healers were relaxing their customers’ bodies with the works. Then came the 3 separate hot springs, one for male, female, and mixed. Lastly, the bedrooms. Luckily, there were enough for everyone to get their own, so the soldiers chose their own rooms. Some had to bunk up with others. Takumi’s retainers were still by his side until he got to his room. The Archduke placed his hand on the doorknob and opened it, saying, “and this lord Takumi is your humble abode.”

Looking around, Takumi and his retainers were amazed by how spacious it was. It had a couch to relax, a music tome, a magic projector to watch plays recorded and a live-in bath. It was safe to say this was amazing, but Takumi said, “it’s great, but where will Oboro sleep?” Archduke Izana said, surprised, “oh, I thought you would want your retainers close by. Plus, we only have one extra room, so somebody has to share eventually.” Takumi and Oboro looked to each other, cheeks bright red. The two looked away, and before they could speak, Hinata spoke up, “well I should take my own room. My laundry stinks really badly, and I snore a lot. Oboro would be a better choice, don’t you agree?” Oboro says, “I don’t mind if lord Takumi is okay with it.” Takumi was silent for a while until he said, trying not to let show nervous he was, “I suppose it’s okay, I could take the couch while she gets the bed.” Hinata hung his head while Oboro seemed a little disappointed. The three went to unpack in their respective rooms.

After they all unpacked, everyone took advantage of the fact that they were at the most relaxing kingdom ever founded. The spa masseuse had them like jelly in their hand. All the tension was leaving their bodies, and instead, it was replaced with a sense of calm. Some even had time to get their hair, nails, and feet done. The rest also enjoyed the outdoor hot springs and were having a pleasant time. Even Takumi was grinning at the relaxing atmosphere in his personal bathhouse. After a long soak, he hops out, dries off, then puts on his Robe.

When he opened the door to his room, he saw his retainer. Oboro was sitting next to a pair of clean clothes. Oboro got up and said, “ah, lord Takumi. I have prepared you a fresh set of clothes while the others are being washed.” Takumi nodded, “thank you, Oboro. You can go use the bath as well.” Oboro bows her head and goes into take a bath. Takumi got dressed and relaxed for a bit, waiting for dinner. When Oboro exits the bath, she has her change of clothes on and then asks, “how do I look, cute, right?”

She stepped out wearing a blue and white floral dress and heels to match, her hair was tied in her usual ponytail, and she wore makeup, which she rarely did. When he looked at her, the first thing that came to his mind was, “beautiful.” Oboro froze in place at his words, and a slight blush creeps on her cheeks. Takumi mentally smacks himself at saying that he then tries to fix what he’s saying, “I mean, your dress is beautiful, not to say that you’re not, because you are. Not that I meant anything inappropriate, just that you’re my retainer, and I respect you too even think of doing that. Not that I wouldn’t, just because, uh; I mean…” It was at this point, Takumi was just rambling on nervously. Luckily, this caused Oboro to let out a small chuckle and raise her hand because she thought him being nervous was cute, “lord Takumi, it’s fine. I know what you meant. You look great, too.” Takumi cleared his throat and regains his composure, saying, “yes well, thank you. Let’s go find the Archduke.” The two left their room and went to the dining room.

In the dining room laid an entire feast fit for two armies. The army stared in awe at the delicious food in front of them and waited for the okay. The Archduke laughed, “well what you guys standing there with your stomachs growling, dig in everybody.” The army each took their seats, and the staff served them as best as they could. They had roasted duck, mashed potatoes, steak, fish, gravy, etc. Takumi and his retainers sat close to the Archduke to discuss their deal. Takumi took a bite of his steak and found it to be tender and well done, falling apart like butter. Oboro pours some gravy on her mashed potatoes and finds it to taste very creamy. Hinata was just stuffing his face with anything he could find while maintaining his manners.

The Archduke asks the prince, “so how do you guys like the food, I hope I got it to your liking.” Takumi nodded, “yes, the food is quite good. But that’s not why we’re here.” The Archduke puffs out his cheeks disappointed, “all work, no play, I see, that’s no fun. Fine, I guess I can be serious for a moment.” Takumi nodded, “thank you, you see my sister had come back from Nohr after being kidnapped and…” he explains what has happened in his hometown and explains why he is here carefully, “and that brings us to today.” The archduke nods, “wow this is serious. I didn’t think Nohr’s king would be so devious. The whole thing gives me the Willie’s.” Takumi nodded, “right, which is why we need justice for all of those who were hurt. Plus you’re the master at throwing parties, so much so you would help us in this fight against Nohr.”

The Archduke made a pained face and said, “oh milord, my heart bleeds for you, but we can’t get involved with the war. It goes against our neutral way of life. Plus, we are mostly healers. What could we do?” Takumi rebuttals, “my sister is a healer, and she has used her staff to save more lives than take lives. That is what I’m trying to do by recruiting your help. Besides, how long until someone from Nohr comes to Izumo to capture this place by force and trickery?” At that comment, Oboro could swear she could see an eye twitch. She also noticed that a few servants poured out some wine for the army. Izana says, “I assure you, no Nohrians will trick me or steel from me, for the big G.O.D.S says so, and I talk to them so…”

Just then, the servants poured wine for the prince, his retainers, and the archduke. The prince asked, “so there’s nothing I can say to convince you otherwise?” The Archduke nodded, “sorry pal, how about I make it up to you. I’ll give you and your group a place to stay and plan out your next move. What do you say?” The Archduke raised his glass, waiting for the prince to drink with him. Takumi was disappointed to hear he couldn’t get their help, but he figured it was better than nothing. Hinata seemed to not be bothered by this. He considered any cooperation to be successful. However, when the two boys were about to reach for the cup full of wine, Oboro stopped them. “Wait a minute,” she says, “I’m not convinced, sir. I think Archduke is hiding something.” The Archduke looked confused, “what do you mean?”

Oboro folded her hands in front of her face and unintentionally glared at him, “no offense, but when we first met, you said you were a prophet and speaker of the gods. However, you act as if you never knew why we were here. If you’re a prophet, shouldn’t you already know why we’re here?” The Archduke felt a small bead of sweat on his forehead, but he said, “of course, I’m just being nice as to hear you out. Besides, I already asked the Gods, and they said no.” Oboro rebuttals, “then I could have a second opinion. How about you have a little chat with them right now. Besides, I’ve asked our Hoshidan diviner for answers about the future. So I’m interested to see you divine a prophecy unless you can’t.”

The Archduke looked to his servants and then was about to speak when a loud thud was heard from the other side of the table to see a few of the soldiers coughing and puking up blood, then landing dead on the table. Some were still alive but twitching and struggling to breathe. Hinata looked at the wine and said, “maybe I’ll pass on the wine, then.” Takumi got up angrily, “what’s the meaning of this, Izana?” The Archduke sighs, shaking his head, “you should have just drank your wine and accepted our deal. Now I have to do this the hard way.”

With the snap of his fingers, Nohrian guards entered and pulled out their weapons. Oboro’s face went back to that of a demon, “you little sellout, you’re working for Nohr!” Izana shook his head, “unfortunately, no. Allow me to explain and reintroduce myself.” Then, in a flash of light, the archduke had transformed into a different person. It was a pale pasty dark mage with blond short hair, a red and gold horizontal striped hat, and sea sick eyes. He introduced himself, “my name is Zola, retainer of King Garon and trickster extraordinaire.” Oboro smiled her demon face, “I knew it, no royal would ever act like a buffoon as you did.” Zola looked offended, “how dare you, my impression was spot on. But if you’re still not convinced I’ll have you meet the Archduke himself to compare.”

Takumi asked, clearly trying to buy time for Oboro to grab her hidden knife, “what plan to do with us?” Zola smiled, “you see, lord Takumi. My liege sent me out to get infiltrate the resistance and a few territories of Nohr to weaken from the inside and prepare for his rule. However, when I was sent to the resistance, it didn’t take too long for them to figure out I was a mole for the king and try to kill me. So I left and reported back to him, only to find out I had been replaced by that greasy haired rat, Iago. He ratted me out to the group and kept it hidden from the king, resulting in me having to hide away here. Then I work my way up, take over, and let King Garon know of my conquest of Izumo. Thus forgiving my failure and my position returned. If I turn you in, and my return shall be assured.” Takumi shook his head, saying, “yeah, you might wanna hold off on that welcome back party.” Zola asked confidentiality, “and why is that?”

Takumi was glad Oboro was his retainer. She was quick thinking and had a plan B. While he was monologuing, Oboro secretly passed her knife to the prince. Then, when Zola got close to him, Takumi pulled out the knife and held him by the neck. Zola stiffened and looked pale, Takumi replied, “you forgot that I won’t go quietly.” Zola asked, “you sure you want to do that? What about them?” Zola’s guards grabbed Takumi’s retainers instantly with as much resistance as they could, but it was too late. Zola had the knife pressed harder to his neck. The prince said, “what are you doing?” Zola answered, “assuring my victory, of course. You kill me, and then my allies are free to do whatever the hell they want with you and your soldiers. The men they will kill first, as for the women… well let’s leave that up to your imagination.” Takumi was about to slash his neck, but he saw one guard holding Oboro closer much to her disgust. Zola continued to bargain, “However, if I’m left alive, I will order my men not to kill or harm anyone here, and I will send for king Garon to send someone to escort you to Garon. I’ll even sweeten the deal, I’ll even give you an antidote for the poison. So, do we have a deal?”

Takumi looked to his soldiers, then to Zola, then his retainers one about to be executed and another worse. He knew Zola’s deal was his best Chances of survival, but he needed assurance. That’s when he realized he had one last card to play. “okay, how about this? I’ll take your offer, but only if my army and retainers get sent into the dungeon first, then I follow after into the same one as them, finally I’ll lock the door behind them. Until then I’ll hold on to you till then.” Zola refutes, “you know I could let them do what they want with them with just one word?” Takumi rebuttals, “I know, but I believe you want to continue living more than returning to Nohr. Am I right?”

The next scene shows Takumi and his army are in a room with enough space for everyone. Luckily, some of the healers who rebelled were also imprisoned, so they had treatment. A few of the soldiers were being cured, but others were depressed and angry. Takumi looked to his retainers and saw Oboro and Hinata were talking. Looking at her, Takumi felt a sense of dread at the memory of what Zola’s guards were planning to do, and then he felt relief, knowing that they were okay. He walked over to his friends and asked how they were feeling, Oboro replied, “I’m fine. A little pissed we got captured but, but glad my instincts were right.” Hinata replied, “I’ve been through worse, but right now, I think we should focus on morale. Everyone here is looking a little distraught.”

Takumi looked around, seeing that Hinata was right. Some were crying in the corner, others were training to escape, others just laid there bored. Takumi stood up and let out a deep breath, addressing his army he said, “people of Hoshido, healers of Izumo, hear me now. I, Prince Takumi, had a plan to ask Izumo to ally with us to end this war for good, but instead, I ended up getting us captured. I understand some of you are angry, sad, and accepted your fate. But I haven’t, and I—” Suddenly, a loud clapping could be heard from the crowd, interrupting the princes’ speech, followed by a random solider speaking out, “let’s stop right there, milord. We all talked this through, and we’re not giving up nor resent you for surrendering.” A female soldier spoke up this time, “if you hadn’t threatened him, and made sure they couldn’t harm us. I don’t even want to think about what happens.” Hinata says confidentiality, “we aren’t dead yet, we will follow your lead to the very end milord.” Oboro smiled and nodded, giving Takumi the confidence to move forward. Takumi may not have been fast enough to save his mom, but his quick thinking saved his army.

In the back, a slow clap was heard all across the back. A voice then came from the background, “well that was a lovely speech. It was so moving that I might cry.” Takumi went to investigate and asked, “who said that?” Why I’m the one you seek, of course.” Then upon looking, it was the Archduke, the real one. Takumi kneeled to the ground and said, “Archduke Izana, it is an honor to meet you.” He waved his hand, saying, “oh please, no need for formalities. Just call me Izana, we’re all neighbors here we should get along. But I am sorry I couldn’t offer you something to drink, but hey, I hear you guys tried the spa and hot springs. How were they?” Takumi and the rest looked to each other. It seems that they underestimated Zola’s impression of the Archduke.