Fire Emblem: Mark of Destiny

Interlude: Blinded by Light

"I hate you, I love you; if you don't speak out clearly, you're no different than a doll…"

Byakuya, Castle Shirasagi

Day after Corrin's Battle at Castle Krakenburg

In the Kingdom of Byakuya, the people were graced everyday with the sight of the sun greeting them with its bountiful light and beautiful backdrop against the sky, vivid shades of purple, orange and blue mixing together in harmony. Most were wide awake, believing that an early start to the day would lead to gains later on, with those being asleep working the endless nights for those that kept their kingdom safe.

Though while everyone rose early, it did not mean that everyone was an early riser. As the sun peeked through one of the many windows, a girl with silver hair tied in twin pigtails groaned as the light hit her face. She threw her pillow at the offending thing, knowing full well that it wouldn't do a thing, but still hoping to get in a few extra minutes of sweet slumber. Sleep that was rudely interrupted when several sharp knocks on her door roused her once more.

"If the castle is not on fire, you'd better have a good reason for waking me up." She muttered as her foot hit something soft that knocked against the wall of her room while she went to the door and poked her head out. Much to her consternation, it was the red haired Pegasus knight Tsubaki, aka 'The Perfect Man'.

Giving the girl a beatific smile that was not returned, he was nonplussed at her glare. "Good Morning, Cynthia. It's time for the morning rounds." He informed her.

"Not for me it isn't. I did that two days ago. It should be Saizo's turn." She grumbled, her glare intensifying with each passing moment.

Tsubaki coughed slightly, his face flushing red at her pointing that out. "Normally, yes. However, a priority message came in and he presented it to the Queen and High Prince Ryouma. They've been in the war room for the past two hours verifying the message."

This caught her attention, causing a single eyebrow to be raised. "If that's the case, why didn't Saizo wake me up earlier? I'm one of Ryouma's retainers. I should be present for that. Kagerou as well."

At this, Tsubaki winced. "Ah…he said that he had tried, only for you to 'be sleeping as deeply as a dragon with a snore to match and ruin all stealth missions'. Please don't kill me." He quoted before raising his hands in quick surrender at the murderous aura that enveloped the girl. "Queen Mikoto insisted you get your sleep and go on patrol in his stead."

Cynthia could feel a vein ready to burst at Saizo's 'message' but reined in her temper and slid her door shut. "Give me ten minutes and meet me at the stables." She ordered.

Even if he was the perfect man, Tsubaki wasn't fool enough to go up against an enraged woman who didn't get enough beauty sleep. "Sure." He quickly agreed before practically running down the hall and towards said stables.

Cynthia listened until the sound of feet shuffling against wood could no longer be heard and sighed before leaning down against the door. Walking over to a small clothes chest, she opened it up and began to change out of her nightgown and into more appropriate clothing.

Looking at herself in the mirror, she began to lose herself in her thoughts as she examined herself. Two years…two years she had been stuck in this kingdom and she only had gained more questions than answers out of it. All that had changed was that her hair was longer, with her twin pigtails going down past her neck, though not as far as Severa's own and her body was becoming curvier, gaining some of her mother's…bountiful assets that she had said would grow in late. It was still nothing on Noire, but that was about the only thing that she could be happy about.

As she continued to change, in the corner of her eye she caught what she had kicked in the reflection of her mirror. Several dolls had been lined up next to her bed and she had kicked one of them, the one with long blue hair, princely clothing and holding a toy sword in its hands. 'Lucina…' she thought to herself before her eyes immediately looked away, her hands continuing from muscle memory to put on her armor.

Two years was more than enough time to get a hobby outside of her heroics and she found it in sewing. Each doll represented one of her friends back in Ylisse and each one was painstakingly made by hand with the help of Byakuya's Queen Mikoto and youngest Princess, Sakura. They had taken the time and effort to help her learn when she had started off as clumsy and unable to do anything right. In fact, they had done a lot for her and her friends.

Ever since the battle with those shadows, everything felt…like a waking dream, if she had to compare it to something. One that you know isn't real, but it feels real enough that you can't separate truth from fiction. Her, Brady and Noire had awoken in a garden, with multiple weapons pointed at them and people speaking to them in a language that they didn't understand. They could do nothing but huddle up until a regal looking woman, whom she had later found out was the Queen, had asked in what she thought was Ylissan at the time what they were doing in her personal garden.

They had pleaded their case and several of the people who understood them scoffed and tried to call them insane, but the Queen simply raised her hand and dismissed the troops, much to their amazement and frustration. When it was just them, the Queen had asked them to sit and recount everything that they could last remember. So they did, not leaving out a single detail of what had last happened before waking up in the garden.

Queen Mikoto listened, never once interrupting or looking at them as if they were crazy. In fact, the more she listened to their story the sadder her face became. Once they were done Mikoto said that she believed them and recounted to them a story of her own. The story of a woman who had ran with her husband from a kingdom with their newly born twin babies in tow, their land burning due a Dragon that had once been benevolent instead going mad. Her husband had told them to run as he held off their pursuers and the woman and her newly born children had continued to flee. Sadly, one of her two children didn't make it, unable to take the strain of a curse that had been placed on the three the moment they had left the kingdom.

As much as it pained her to leave one of her babies behind, she gave her child a quick burial before continuing to run. She eventually ended up in Byakuya, where she worked tirelessly to make ends meet for her remaining baby doing whatever odd jobs she could find. Her husband never came for her and she knew in her heart of hearts that he too had passed away. While she worked, she caught the eye of the newly widowed King. A passionate, whirlwind romance ensued between the two and they re-married to each other soon after. The newly crowned Queen, the mother who had lost her home and original husband and one of her two children, was Mikoto herself.

Parts of the story rang all too well with the time displaced children, recounting their own experiences with Grima, who had burned Ylisse and all of the continent of Archanea and Valm to the ground in its mad frenzy to kill all life. Mikoto knew that their story was in a way, similar but dis-similar to her own, which is why she took the risk to believe what they were saying. She welcomed them to stay in Byakuya for as long as they needed, so long as they pulled their own weight.

From there, Mikoto had recalled her servants and pardoned the trio in front of them for doing what only amounted to trespassing on private property. Their appearance was explained as them fleeing Nohr and while they were being pursued, they attempted a desperate and untested teleportation spell in which no control could be made over the destination. Her subjects, more specifically her Royal Guard and her eldest step-son, didn't believe it for a second but they said no more on the subject.

Instead, they let their weapons do the talking for them. In order to prove their worth, Cynthia and her comrades had to show off their weapons and techniques in a contest of skill against opponents chosen by Queen Mikoto's eldest step-son, Ryouma.

Brady had gone first as he was for the most part a non-combatant, focusing instead of healing. He had been set up against the retainer of Ryouma's younger sister Hinoka, a monk named Azama. They were each given a line of patients for whom they would have to treat their illness and give proper advice to help them make sure that they would not get ill again. A simple enough task for any healer, but there was a trick. Each patient down the line was progressively more ill and the actual cause as to why wasn't so easily discerned, even by the most celebrated priests in the Kingdom.

It was then that the Ylissan trio discovered that their own home was leagues ahead of Byakuya in terms of medical treatment, as Brady was able to treat everyone effectively and quickly using all the teachings his mother had drilled into him. Azama, on the other hand, had trouble with some patients that were displaying multiple symptoms to various diseases that he was having issues pinning down to one core area. When it came time to give proper advice, however, Brady had stalled badly due to being unable to speak the local language and had to use an interpreter to get the points across. Azama had a much easier time and eventually beat the Ylissan priest to the punch there, but Mikoto and Ryouma had to give Brady the win as he healed everyone the fastest and most effectively. It was only the language barrier between them that slowed everything down.

Noire was next in line to have her skills challenged. Her test was against arguably the best archer in both Byakuya and Anya in Mikoto's youngest step-son, Takumi. In a field behind the castle, multiple targets were set up at various ranges and both were given enough arrows that they could only get in one shot each. To make things fair, both she and Takumi were given bronze bows, or Yumi as they had been informed was the proper term there. The arrowheads were different than what Noire was used to firing and had to take some time to test the weight and balance of the arrows or else her aiming would be totally off.

This upset the already hot-blooded Prince and he began to shout at her in his home language. They didn't need to know what he was saying to know that he was insulting their friend as they were clearly seeing her cower in fear and the frowns that Mikoto and Ryouma both shot at Takumi. One touch of Tharja's hexed pendant, however, brought out Noire's other half and she tore into the Prince in return, albeit in the Ylissan language, before they settled their score at the range.

It was an interesting duel as neither of them gave a single inch. Each arrow that the two fired hit a bulls-eye each and every time, even as the targets got farther and farther away. All the while smug looks and backtalk was thrown out at each other. Eventually, they reached a target beyond what their bows could normally reach. Takumi did the best that he could but his final arrow was slightly off the mark, hitting the circle under the bulls-eye. When it came to Noire's turn, however, she paused, pulled off her glove, licked her index finger and pointed it into the air. A small nod of her head a few seconds later and she re-attached her glove and took aim at an awkward angle that made Prince Takumi laugh at her.

The arrow that had been launched looked as if it wouldn't reach its target by a good margin. Just as it was reaching the apex of its arc, however, a breeze picked up and carried the arrow further down the path before it hit the target dead-center on the bulls-eye. The prince turned an interesting shade of purple in the face while Noire became her timid self once more and hid behind Brady for protection.

Mikoto and Ryouma lauded the girl for her efforts though, stating that she had done something Takumi hadn't bothered to do ever since he had earned the right to wield his normal weapon, the Fujinkyu, or just Fujin Yumi to most in checking to see what direction the wind was blowing. The Fujin Yumi was unique in that the arrows were made of pure wind energy and could travel in whatever direction the user wished once they gained mastery over it and thus, the normal archery methods that were used began to be forgotten by the Prince until this wake up call.

When Cynthia's turn finally came up, she was paired off against Ryouma himself. He stated that since it seemed like she was the leader or gave off the most leader-like quality of the three, he had wanted to test her mettle himself. Once more, they were given wooden weapons in exchange for their real ones as real weapons could possibly kill them by accident should they be unable to stop or turn away in time from a fatal blow. That wasn't to say that wooden weapons couldn't do the same thing as Cynthia had killed bandits with nothing more than a plain old log at one point when her weapon broke during patrol and she had to improvise, but it did lessen the chances quite a bit.

Their duel became the stuff of legends around new trainees for the entirety of their stay as it lasted several hours, beginning at mid-afternoon and not stopping until the sun had set. Ryouma was extremely skilled, often poking and prodding into Cynthia's guard despite her having an advantage in reach with her lance. Cynthia, on the other hand, was far more experienced in battle and didn't give the High Prince an inch that didn't cost him dearly in being struck somewhere in return. They both lunged, parried, intercepted, struck and essentially beat one another into the ground over and over again with each new exchange of their weapons.

In the end, Mikoto declared it a draw when they were both clearly too exhausted to go on. Cynthia came out of the battle with some bruises on her arms, thighs and ribs as Ryouma consciously tried to avoid her more…private areas. He, on the other hand, had far more discoloration around his face, wrists, legs, stomach and back. From then on, the three had earned the respect of both Queen and High Prince and became retainers to three of the four royal children.

Ryouma took Cynthia herself, wanting to have a new sparring partner and someone that didn't tend to hide in the shadows consistently like his current two often did. The eldest princess, Hinoka, took Noire under her wing as Takumi looked ready to commit murder regardless of the Queen's wishes when they were debating who should go with whom. That left Brady to go with the foul tempered Prince who had been quickly brought to heel when Brady threatened to not heal him until the last second so he could feel each and every injury he got.

From then on, the trio of Ylissans did their due diligence in their jobs. It was more or less the same as what they did with Lucina, protecting their assigned lieges from any threat that they might encounter only without the apocalypse looming over them at any given time. At the same time, whenever any of them had a break they would go looking for any sign of their missing companions and never once giving up hope that they would eventually find them.

Unfortunately for them, as a royal retainer they were also very limited to how far they could travel across Byakuya's borders. Even when they were brought to the neighboring countries on dignitary missions, they weren't allowed to stray too far. So many of the leads and rumors they attempted to chase down were cold, non-existent or completely false but with no way of actually verifying what they were being told. The only place that the three had not searched was Anya and due to the high tensions, crossing into that kingdom with their current positions was the same as starting up the war that had gone cold between the nations once again.

All in all, they were stuck and the more time they spent being unable to do anything, the more frustrated Cynthia became. She didn't hate the Queen or her children or even the country, but this was not where she belonged. The Pegasus Knight wanted to go back to Ylisse, go back to being Lucina's personal guard and at least in her fantasies, getting Morgan to propose to her. The loss of her crush…no, the love of her life was the most depressing thing she had suffered. She had come to terms with her feelings for him a few months into being a retainer and anybody wearing a coat with a hood had made her look over at them before realizing it wasn't the same. He had haunted both her dreams and nightmares as she heard nothing from him.

Was he searching for her too? Was he hurt? Did he…die all alone and afraid? Not even Naga could answer those questions for her. That was why she had eventually gone to Queen Mikoto and Princess Sakura and swallowed her pride before asking to learn how to sew. The very first doll she made was in his image; Coat, goofy smile and all. It was so that she would never forget him, even as it became harder and harder to recall all of the little quirks about him that she had loved so much. She even had to repeat her memories of him every day just to remember what his voice sounded like. She had also made a copies of each of her dolls for her friends as well, even making ones of their parents.

While all of this happened, Cynthia focused back to reality and realized that she had finished putting on her armor and quickly tied up her hair before washing her face and brushing her teeth out of sheer habit. The thought of that only brought a sigh to her lips as she headed down to the stables. It meant that she had been in this kingdom, beautiful as it was, for far too long and she needed to get home soon with hopefully with everyone in tow.

Popping a stuff muscle on her back, she entered the stables where Tsubaki was waiting with both of their Pegasi in tow. Huey gave a soft neigh at seeing his rider and trotted happily as she mounted him.

Tsubaki had no trouble getting on his either, but looked at Cynthia with envy, as he had never seen a rider and their steed synchronize as well as she had. It spoke of a deep seated trust that was leagues above anything else he could think of and it showed whenever they did their rounds. Despite being an older stallion, Huey was leagues ahead of the entire Pegasus Battalion. He could only wish that someday he could get his own to trust him so implicitly.

Byakuya Throne Room

Early Morning

Even though the sun was only just crawling up over the horizon, the illustrious throne room to the royal family of Byakuya was abuzz with energy as messengers were entering and leaving at a frantic pace. A war room table had been set up halfway between the door and the throne and both Queen Mikoto and High Prince Ryouma were reading over the contents of a coded scroll that they had received from Suzukaze, a ninja they had been informed was captured by Nohr less than a week ago and was thought to be dead.

Since he had both survived and escaped from Anya and their infamous dungeon, it meant that the information in the scroll was highly important and was delivered in the swiftest haste. Having read through the scroll, multiple times, the Queen could only cry tears of both joy and sorrow at what she was told.

"Queen Mikoto,

I am writing to you to inform you of the situation that I and my companion Rinkah have encountered. As you were no doubt told, we were captured by Anyan forces and were taken to the dungeon underneath the castle. There, the others that were with me accepted that our lives were forfeit, but when our jailor came, instead we were fed, bathed and taken to an arena. We were…chosen…to be the opponents to the newly announced Second Prince Corrin to whet his blade with.

Queen Mikoto, I beg that you hold onto something as you read this…Second Prince 'Corrin' is our missing Prince Kamui. The resemblance to your facial features is uncanny and he carries your innate kindness inside of him. As we fought against him and a retainer whose identity nobody could seem to figure out, he had me at deaths door. He could have choked me to death if he so desired, but instead he settled for letting me go at the last second.

Even when King Garon ordered him to kill me and Rinkah, the only other survivor of the bout, he begged for us to live. With some quick thinking of his mysterious retainer, our lives were spared…even if we were forced to leave with broken limbs to do so.

Though sadly this is not all good news. It seems that Prince Kamui doesn't remember who he is. The name was slightly recognized when asked, but he knew nothing else. I know not if it is due to amnesia, the trauma of the incident at Cheve back then suppressing his memories or by some magical means but he really believes himself to be King Garon's child born during the 'Concubine Wars'. Maybe as a replacement to Princess Azura whom we have in captivity.

Before we left, the youngest Princess of Anya, Elise, healed our wounds, quite possibly at Prince Kamui's insistence. Otherwise I would not have been able to write this missive.

At the time this receives you, we will be at the Bottomless Canyon. We plead for exfiltration. Even if we escape, I highly doubt King Garon will let us get away so easily.

Your humble servant,

Suzukaze

P.S. Please tell Saizo I live"

The news that her true born son was alive sent waves of relief surging through Mikoto. The tears, the heartache and the worries that she had suffered for so many years was now at an end. Her son was alive and well despite the horrors of what happened at Cheve all those years ago. Though the fact that he believed himself to be Garon's son disturbed her on many levels and that he didn't remember who he was, she knew that the Throne of Truth would bring his real memories to the surface.

It had to…she didn't know if she could live through the agony of her own child not remembering his own mother.

Ryouma, on the other hand was far more jovial in the fact that his younger brother was alive. Just like Mikoto, he too had suffered because of the incident at Cheve that had cost him his father, King Sumeragi. He was the one who was supposed to have been there that day. Instead, he had been an obstinate child and played when he wasn't supposed to in the rain and came down with a cold. Kamui had gone in his place and that had been the last time he had seen either of them ever again. So to celebrate the joy of his brother being ok, he pulled his step-mother into a large hug and swung her around before composing himself and apologizing.

This made Mikoto giggle slightly before she looked at the third person at their war table. Dressed in the traditional garb of a Byakuya ninja, a man with red hair, a face mask and one eye shut due to a grievous wound blinding it looked down at the bottom of the message.

"Saizo…he's alive." She told him with a smile.

The ninja looked at her and scoffed. "He shouldn't have gotten captured in the first place. The fact that he only lived due to his opponent's mercy, even more embarrassing."

Mikoto just gave him a warm smile. "Yet…even so, he is alive and will be coming back to you."

Saizo looked away, unable to refute that statement.

The fourth and final person at their table was a much older man, who had stubble growing on his chin and a pair of corrective seeing lenses on his face. Dressed in the garbs of the honored Minister of the Right, the grand strategist Yukimura looked at the map dividing Anya and Byakuya.

"My Queen, with this news, we do have grounds on which we can finally wage war against Anya. In just a few weeks, we could have all of our forces mobilized and sent out so we can hopefully mount a rescue mission as well. Do you feel as if we should do this?" he broached the topic to his liege

At the word 'war', Mikoto's face fell. Even though her son was alive, he didn't know apparently that he was a Prince of Byakuya. He had been fed the lie that he was an Anyan Noble for even longer than she could be a mother to him. So even if she demanded him back, Garon would just laugh at her and have Kamui say those nightmarish words like a nail to her coffin.

That he was not her son and she was not his mother.

Even though her heart ached at the idea of leaving in that horrid place even longer she was a Queen first, then a Mother.

"No. It wouldn't do us any good until Kamui himself admits that he is a Prince of Byakuya. Otherwise Garon can get some of the neutral nations to join him, saying that I've gone insane." She explained.

Yukimura nodded and began to roll up his map before Mikoto placed her hand on his shoulder.

"That does not mean that we can't do something else. After all, Suzukaze and Rinkah asked for help in their retreat and they were worried Garon might send troops to finish the job that Kamui helped to prevent. So I think a small show of force to remind them of what they did might be necessary." Despite her gentle smile still being on her face, behind it was an aura of malice that made all three men step back a bit.

After all, the fires of the Dawn Dragon had nothing on a mother scorned.

The humble strategist nodded at her idea. "I'll prepare some of the troops…" he began to say before Ryouma cut him off.

"Actually, Yukimura, I'll go myself. It's been awhile since I've seen the Canyon and I think having me be there personally will make everyone think twice about trying their luck." The High Prince offered.

The look that the strategist gave him was full of worry, but ultimately he gave up to the whims of his superior.

"Very well, but do take some of the Pegasus Knights that we have with a few of our 'specialized' weapons in that area. I heard that lightning strikes often in there and Raijinto could very well become out of control with all the ambient electricity in the air." He added, to which Ryouma gave a firm nod.

"I won't have to take all three of my personal guard either. I think Saizo would be enough for this, especially since it IS his brother that we are picking up."

Mikoto gave a small nod of her head to seal her approval for their idea and from there, the 'war council' was broken and everyone got back to their daily routine, though now things were beginning to pick up speed since this was a very time sensitive operation that they were doing.

That was when the Queen remembered something. "Oh yes, before I forget. Saizo." She called out to the ninja, who immediately dashed over to her and bowed.

"Yes, my Queen?" he asked, ready to serve.

"As punishment for your little game earlier, you'll have to be the one that deals with Cynthia's wrath when she gets back from morning patrol on what was supposed to be her day off once you return from this mission." Despite being known as a wise Queen, Mikoto, to the rare few, was also known to be quite mischievous, especially to those that earned the right to be toyed with.

The red haired ninja let a small bead of sweat escape his forehead in genuine worry. "…yes, my Queen."

Mikoto giggled at the much less enthused response and waved him off. Once she was alone, she collapsed onto her throne and touched her heart with sorrow clear on her face.

"I may be glad that you're ok, but I can only pray to my fallen husband and child that you'll remember me before my time is gone…" she whispered to herself.

Castle Shirasagi Town

Morning

As the trickle of light from the dawn gave way to the full luster of the morning, so too did all of Byakuya begin to swing into full gear. Merchants set up stalls, food began to be cooked and traders were beginning to haggle their prizes for hard gold.

Every now and again, small patrols of soldiers would pass by, giving a sense of control and comfort to the people. Even those that were clearly out of place, as one hunched over priest and a timid archer stood out amongst their fellows.

"Man, two years and we still got nothin'. Starting to think all we're doing is following ghosts around." Brady grumbled in Ylissan as he and Noire did their own rounds for the day.

"M-m-maybe so, but we can't give up. Morgan is still out there." Noire stated with clear faith in their ability to at least find their leader, if nothing else.

"Hopefully. We didn't kill Grima twice just for him to be pushing up daisies here." Brady pessimistically interjected. He took a few more steps forward before he saw that Noire wasn't following. Looking back, he saw her fingering her talisman necklace.

"…Don't say something like that again. Please." She stated, her eyes hardening slightly as did her voice. While she was still shy and sometimes needed the power of her mother's hexed talisman to speak her mind, being belittled by a belligerent prince for two years had her develop thicker skin and she was more inclined to defend herself.

Brady sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, yeah. I swear, you and Cynthia both still got it bad for him and I dunno why. Morgan's a good kid, but he ain't the kind of guy great stories are made from. I'm pretty sure Inigo's still weeping from when you two both rejected him and said you were going after Morgan." He muttered.

Taking in a slightly breath and letting it out, Noire began to walk step in step with her friend again. "B-by the way…" she whispered, her eyes looking to the side.

"Yeah, we got ourselves a follower. Probably Azura, she's taken quite a fancy to us for some reason a few months back." Brady noted quietly, seeing flecks of white at the edge of his vision.

"We haven't done anything to upset her or cause her to be suspicious of us, have we?" Noire asked.

"Nah. We've been pretty careful about our meetings. Poor Cynthia though. She's getting to the end of her rope with that Saizo guy. I'm sure she's ready to run the sorry bastard through with Huey." Brady responded before going back to his regular voice, pretending what they spoke about never happened.

Noire got the picture fairly quickly. "H-he's kind of mean, yeah. All he does is stare at us…a-always. I-I think he e-e-ven followed Cynthia into the ladies room several times until Queen Mikoto told him to stop."

Brady snorted at that mental picture of Cynthia swearing death to Saizo while trying to pull up her underwear and waving a spear at him. "No wonder she hates him. I'd stab a guy too if he didn't give me any privacy in the loo."

By now the two had walked into the heart of the Castle Town. It was hustling and bustling just like they expected it to be and they quickly blended into the local crowd, having had a LOT of practice in doing such a thing. In Brady's own case, having Kellam as a father helped him to erase his presence out of everybody's mind much easier than anyone else.

Noire, on the other hand, had gained her mothers' penchant for stalking and thus was also able to quickly blend into the crowd, following Brady into a nearby alleyway before ducking underneath some boxes that had been stacked up on top of each other. Sure enough, after a moment of two of waiting Princess Azura had quickly ran by, trying to catch up with them and instead going into an empty back alley.

Before she could even think of backtracking, however, the two Ylissans quickly came out of the alleyway and surrounded her with some quick footwork from Noire cutting off Azura's own attempts to get around them.

"Alright. Time for you to answer a question. Why have you been followin' us?" Brady asked bluntly, cutting straight into the heart of the matter.

"I…I…" Azura attempted to come up with something but could only sputter.

"I-it's rude for you to eavesdrop on us." Noire continued, gripping her hands tightly. Considering she had previously seen them break a sturdy bow in half in a fit of anger against Prince Takumi, Azura was now much more nervous.

"Well? We're waitin'?" Brady pressed, tapping his foot impatiently.

"I want you outworlder's gone!" Azura finally managed to get out before slapping her hands over her mouth.

At that declaration, Noire and Brady's eyes met and silently communicated back and forth with nothing more than subtle body language before they both came to a decision by nodding at each other.

"Aside from the rudeness, Princess we want to be gone as much as you want us gone but we need to find our friend first. We don't leave our friends behind." Brady calmly explained.

It didn't do anything to placate the Princess. In fact, she was outright glaring at him now!

"W-why do you need us gone so much now?" Noire asked, trying to change the direction of the conversation.

Taking in a deep breath, Azura slowly lowered her arms. "You're changing things too much, too quickly. You'll ruin so much with your interference."

It wasn't the first time that they had heard talk of this fatalist nature before. In fact, Lucina was the one to put forth that argument when the future children wanted to immediately find their parents. If they came too quickly, their parents might never have fallen in love or married due to their interference or insistence without any facts to cover things up. If they came too late their parents would be dead a second time. For Azura to be speaking like that only showed that bad news would be on the horizon and sooner rather than later.

"I'm assumin' prophecy here? Or some sorta fate bull?" Brady asked.

Azura's only answer was to begin singing. As she did, motes of water from the surrounding area began to cover her. Noire attempted to reach out to her but cried out when a wall of water not only repelled her touch but sent her flying back several feet.

"Noire!" Brady shouted as he ran towards her but the water wall was wide enough that he couldn't do anything until the singing was done. All the water had then spilled onto the ground and Azura was gone.

"Noire! Brady!" A voice shouted at them.

Looking up, the cleric saw Cynthia riding towards them at top speed with Huey.

The moment she came close enough, she pulled Huey up so they landed gently and she all but bounded off her mount towards her fallen friend.

"I saw the water light show and came as quickly as I could! Are you ok? Are we under attack?!" The Pegasus Knight asked, firing off one question after another.

"N-no. We found Azura following us and we wanted to know why. We confronted her and she just said that by us being here we will ruin everything and that us 'outworlders' need to be gone." Noire explained as Brady took out his heal staff to clear up the slight scrapes she had gotten by being knocked to the ground.

"Azura? That's strange, she's supposed to be the nice, quiet one." Cynthia noted with a frown on her face.

"Yeah, well she didn't like us from the moment we got here and it's only gotten worse over the last few months. You notice she doesn't even eat at the Royal Table anymore if we're there?" Brady asked the others.

"Now that you mention it…she doesn't. She's technically a Prisoner of War so she wasn't supposed to be eating at that table by law but Queen Mikoto all but adopted her and she did it for a while at least. So what changed?" Cynthia pondered, recalling the Princesses' odd behavior of late.

"I think us being here fucked up some plan of hers. She all but said she had some sort of prophecy and whatever it included, we weren't supposed to be in it." As Brady said this he finished fixing up Noire and placed his staff away.

"I-I don't like this Cynthia." Noire whimpered.

"Yeah…I don't like this either. Let's get back to the castle, but don't tell anyone what you two did. A lot of them still have animosity towards us and while Azura isn't beloved by the people, she has more sway and word than you two." Cynthia half-said, half-ordered them before getting a nod of agreement from her friends.

Going back to Huey, Cynthia mounted the Pegasus and took off to continue her patrol.

"Morgan…come back soon. I'm a hero, a follower. The one that goes and hits people that you point at. I'm not a strategist or a tactician like you are. We NEED you." She thought to herself. It wasn't long until she was joined by Tsubaki.

"Ah, Cynthia, was there something wrong?" he asked, having seen the light coming from the back alley but sticking to an air perimeter while Cynthia herself went to ground to investigate.

"Just an argument between two talisman users that began to fling spells at one another. I broke it up, told them to cool off and go home." She lied flat out.

"Hm…that's troubling though. We drill proper etiquette into all of our talisman specialists to make sure they don't abuse their power but I guess anger makes you have selective memory. I'll make sure to include that in our report." Tsubaki suggested as they did one last lap around the castle town before heading back to Castle Shirasagi proper.

Castle Shirasagi

Mid-Morning

Going back to the throne room, both Cynthia and Tsubaki noticed that the activity in the normally quiet castle had seemingly skyrocketed in the few hours that they had been gone. Entering the throne room, it was a lot worse with many of the ministers and administrators running around and shouting things at each other which jumbled into a bunch of incoherent background noise.

Queen Mikoto herself looked harried as she signed off on several papers before seeing the two Pegasus riders and ushering them over.

"Mikoto-sama, is everything alright? I've never seen the castle this busy unless we were under siege." Tsubaki asked once they were close enough.

For her part, Queen Mikoto gave them a strained, but gentle smile. "Well we are not under attack, but we had received some…very interesting information and I sent Ryouma and Saizo, along with a few others to verify it as quickly as possible." She explained.

Cynthia blinked several times before realizing something. "Wait, why didn't you summon me back to go with them!" she half-shouted, stomping her foot in frustration at being left out of the loop.

Queen Mikoto placed a hand on Cynthia's shoulder before giving it a firm squeeze, making her freeze in place. "I am sorry, Cynthia. You didn't deserve having your day off ruined like this and being pulled to and fro, but this mission was very time sensitive." She said in a very serious tone of voice, causing the silver haired rider to nod her head slowly.

"It's just…what kind of retainer am I that I can't even guard my charge if he goes off without me?" Cynthia asked in a low voice, being reminded all too well of Lucina sending her to all sorts of places while rushing off to danger by herself.

Hearing this, Mikoto eased her grip and rose from her throne before pulling Cynthia into a motherly hug, earning gasps from everyone in the room. "You're a good person. You follow orders but you also know what your duty is. You know that you have a mission of importance yet you still sacrifice it for our sake, even if it feels forced to you. No matter what, remember this Cynthia: a soldier who follows orders is valuable, a soldier that follows belief will be priceless. You are following your own belief that you will meet your lost friend. Thus, in battle you will be unstoppable. Don't let this little roadblocks stop you."

Cynthia slowly nodded before hugging the Queen back. They stayed like this for several minutes before Mikoto had let her go and sat back down on her throne. "You're dismissed for the rest of the day. Go, eat and take some more well deserved sleep. I will be calling you back soon enough." She ordered.

Cynthia nodded and bowed deeply. "Mikoto-sama." She whispered before turning around and leaving. Hushed whispers filled the air as both Queen and her fellow rider watched her go.

"Tsubaki…your report." Mikoto softly asked and the red haired flier gave a small nod.

Cynthia's room

Nearly kicking the door open, an emotionally spent Cynthia flopped down onto her futon, looking up at the ceiling above her and staring at nothing. It seemed like life really was testing her patience lately, something that she had never been good at, as many of her friends would back up that claim. "What am I doing?" she asked herself.

Blindly reaching out to her side, she gripped one of her handmade dolls and pulled it forward, before blinking as tears began to fill her eyes when she saw it was her Morgan plush. The empty eyes and smile felt so hollow to her already spent spirit and she wanted to be free of all of this. Fighting for a place that wasn't her home, fighting for people that had forced her into servitude lest she lose her life and fighting a way that wasn't hers.

"What would you do?" she asked, bringing up her other hand and tracing a finger over the dolls cheek. It did not answer her, of course and with the ever growing silence she found herself growling before tossing the doll at the ceiling.

A moment of pure terror found its way worming into her soul at how angry and miserable she became, even as her doll suffered no damage and landed right back down onto her stomach.

Everything, everything was just becoming too much for her. Unable to hold her emotions in, she began to let her long held-in tears finally come raining down onto her face.

All while staring at the smiling doll made in the image of her crush, which she now held in a death grip and would not let go of.

"I hate you, I love you…but if I don't ever speak up when I find you, then I'm no different from this doll…." She whispered while sniffling and sobbing almost silently.

Thus did the day pass and another opportunity to be free slipped her by, being slowly blinded by the light around her.

End Chapter

A/N: Yeah…I had this chapter like 90% done for the longest time and then I just found myself in a rut. Overstressed from job. Losing said job, being unemployed, finding new job, etc. etc. etc. Lots of life things just completely killing my muse and mood.

Only now is it finally coming back. I know this isn't the fanfic you wanted to see updated. I had no idea 'The Show Must Go On' would be as popular as it did. But I also want to stress: PLEASE STOP SENIDNG ME PM'S ASKING WHEN IT IS DONE. BeenJammin, I'm looking at you. The more you ask, the less motivated I feel because I HATE feeling like I need to be rushed on doing something. I warned you about that, TWICE and you STILL keep asking me saying you'll stop if I give you an answer. STOP DOING THAT BECAUSE I DON'T KNOW THE ANSWER MYSELF.

I'm getting over some very hard personal issues that have happened over the last two months. I will do what I can, when I can. I will TRY not to leave without updating for another year, but I can't promise that I will.

On a side note: Langrisser Mobile. Holy shit this is all I ever wanted Fire Emblem Heroes to be. It's better than it in every way possible. Even better, it actually lets you play the spark notes version of the games main story, starting from Langrisser 2 (aka the main one everybody cares about), which is sort of like a pre-dated Fire Emblem Fates in and of itself. You have the path of light, path of darkness or setting out against both.

Is it still gacha? Yes. Is it Waifu Wars? Somewhat. While not as plentiful, the 'armor' is just as colorful for 99% of the female cast. The artist for this game has a cameltoe fetish and it shows.

Does it inspire me to do a crossover? HELL YES.

Speaking of Gacha: Fate Grand Order. Waifu Wars is literally all that needs to be said about it. Visual Novel is the other thing you can say, but Waifu Wars is the first.

Also a great game, but it sucks your wallet dry very quickly.