"So, you're not going to leash the wild boar either."

Claude's expression shifts in surprise at the blunt comment. His hands pause on Halide's stirrups as he turns to face Felix properly.

His eyes are a similar shade of green as Ingrid's, Felix notes, and there's that same fake easy-going attitude that Sylvain takes when dealing with nobility in Claude's personality too. The Alliance leader is familiar in a way that bothers the heir to the Fraldarius Dukedom and not being able to put his finger on why.

"A leash..." Claude repeats. He looks back in the direction of the Dukedom with a frown. For a moment, it looks as though he's somewhere else entirely and there's a shadow that darkens the man's face.

He shakes his head a moment later as if casting away something unpleasant and turns his attention back. "I'm not interested in turning a wild boar into a noblewoman's lapdog."

He doesn't get it either, Felix realizes and feels his disgust rise all the more. Of coursesomeone from the Alliance would see it the same as the rest of the fools in the Kingdom. His hand tightens on the grip of his sword and he steels himself to walk away, disappointed once more in the people around him. If only…

"Felix."

"I don't remember giving youpermission to speak to me so freely."

"Lord Fraldarius then." He hearsthe grin in Claude's voice and scowls. That title has an ugly ring to it. Only his father should be referred to in that way. Or Glenn; and Glenn's been dead for years now and with him the hopes of the Fraldarius Dukedom's shining glory and tradition.

"...Felix. What do you want?" He glares over his shoulder at the Alliance leader.

The humor is gone. Wiped away without a trace and Felix finds himself feeling as though he is staring down a wild Wyvern- or that thingfrom when the Imperial Army invaded Garreg Mach that spewed a stream of molten fire down upon the armies. He's never been able to get the sight or the feeling of awe-inspiring terror and fury that the divine beast inspired out of his head.

Or the comparison between it and the Professor they'd thought lost in the same battle.

Jewel green meets and holds cinnamon brown. Neither break eye contact nor back down from the unspoken challenge. "Have faith that this will work; if everyone does what they've been instructed to? You'll never have to ask again."

"I wasn't talking about an animal." Felix replies after a moment.

"I know." Simple response. A world of information in that two word reply.

Hope is a disgusting feeling in his chest and forms a tight knot in his gut. He's had this same feeling before only to be disappointed in the long run. He's no different from the rest of them, Felix tells himself, and to expect anything other than disappointment is setting himself up once more.

He snorts and shakes his head in dismissal of the foreign leader. "You're pretty arrogant if you think you can handle thatalone."

Another smile, somewhat lesssharp than before. "You're here, aren't you, Felix? Soon enough, Teach will be too, as will Sylvain and Ingrid, the rest of the Blue Lions and Golden Deer."

It's enough to make him hesitate in his response. To really think deeper on the man's words and what he thinksthe implications are. Does Claude really see what he's trying to warn him about? Does he understand the danger Dimitri presents himself as he is now, as he was five years ago, and that there's not a damned thing anyone has done to stop him or tame his violent ways?

Does Claude understand the caution in his warning and the deeper feelings that lie beneath them?

"And the rest?" His response is cool.

Shadows returned to the man's face. Green eyes go shuttered once more and he returns to saddling the great wyvern.

"We'll see at Gronder Field."

\\

Following the stupid boar has been a trial in patience and faith ever since.

Felix grits his teeth and steels himself against the charred-sweet scent of electrocuted flesh as he sends a bolt of lightning down the gullet of a man. That Imperial Soldier had been unfortunate enough to get too close, he'd palmed the man's face before unleashing the spell. As always, his eyes scan the battlefield and keep an eye out for the boar himself. Words from Claude's last message are still clear and kept at the forefront of his thoughts even as he tears his gaze from Dimitri's form to find Ashe still on the move.

This is not the first battle he has entered away from Dimitri, Ingrid, and Sylvain's side and Felix knows this isn't going to be the last by any stretch of the imagination.

This is, however, the first battle he has entered with Dimitri since the bastard was rumored, the greatly exaggerated rumor at that, to be dead. He hates the silent treatment their idiot Prince has given them all during the last several moons. But Felix hates it all the more that Dimitri once again has that same expression from years ago back in his eyes the closer it came to the execution of their plan.

The expression of a blood-thirsty beast driven mad by pain and rage.

He needs Claude's confidence and faith in this plan to be right. He needs that little bit of foundation to hold on to, to believe once more that there might still be something of his childhood best friend and younger… brother isn't right, but neither is anything else. He is family and he isn't all at the same time. Dimitri is a wild animal, an oversized boar with a nasty streak as monstrous as his temper and thirst for vengeance. He's more of a monster meant to terrify children into compliance or the idiots in their armies into actually being halfway competent 'lest they meet an unfortunate and gruesome end.

Hurry up and cage the wild boar. Look, he's losing his grip- even in his swordplay, he's getting sloppy. If he keeps progressing like this, he's going to get himself killed.

His blade finds purchase deep within an enemy soldier's gut. There's a scrape of metal on bone as he withdraws and finishes the man off with another one-two set of slashes. A flick of his wrist casts blood and gore to the ground. Next enemy. Next body in his way that he'll get rid of before Dimitri can get to them and lose just a little more of what humanity he has left.

An arrow neatly slides between the gap of an armored unit's helmet. Felix's lightning makes short work of him moments as the man drops his weapon and clutches at the shaft protruding from an eye and hits the ground with sparks dancing along the metal joints.

Ashe gives him a brief but tense smile and a thumbs up. The stupid child with dreams of becoming a proper knight has managed to live this long and was assigned as the second guardian of their wayward Prince. His skill and range with a bow have grown in the last five years, as has the sense of cunning that was always there beneath the surface. He's still soft as ever, as far as Felix is concerned, and has yet to lose that naive idealism and hero worship of knighthood in Faerghus.

His eyes- a much lighter, duller shade of green than the ones he's used to seeing as of late- widen and his jaw drops a bit in shock. "Holy shit."

It's Felix's turn to be surprised. Ashe doesn't curse often, citing that it's unbecoming of a knight or some similar kind of bullshit, and it's typically well warranted whenever he does. His head snaps back to the battlefield to see what managed to catch him by surprise this time- and finds his own eyes widening in kind.

She is there.

Watching her is like watching poetry in motion; the closest thing he has found to an actual act of Fodlan's Goddess come to life. Her blade flashes- she has no need of the Sword of the Creator, nor any other fancy Relic that the nobility in Fodlan prize so greatly-and her enemies just fall to pieces at her feet. Literally too, he notes as one unfortunate soldier loses an arm and his head shortly after. Maybe she's closer to Saint Seiros, the one who took on Nemesis a thousand or so years ago; Saint Seiros was more of a warrior than the Holy Goddess herself, after all. He doesn't really care about history so much as he enjoys the thought and imagining of the tactics and brutal savagery on the battlefield.

The mage who meets his end at her blade didn't even stand a chance, Felix admires the brutal efficiency in which she dispatched that particular threat. A blade straight through the spine and out the other side while his back was turned; vicious, merciless, and clean. There's no expression on her face whatsoever. No sign of the softened gaze, slightest of smiles you'd have to pay close attention to notice, or anything other than cold, hard warrior carving their destiny in blood, flesh, and trampled earth.

"She's incredible." Ashe breathes. He can't stop himself from watching their former Professor cut her way through the ranks of Imperial Soldiers. "I wanted to believe she was alive, but actually seeing her in person…"

"Seeing isn't everything." Felix replies and shakes himself free of the spell her reappearance has cast over him as well. For the first time in years, he actually allows himself to have the faintest iota of hope again. Claude wasn't lying, not about this at least, and if the Professor herself were alive, well, and just as powerful as when they'd last seen her? Well, maybe there was a chance everything wasn't destined to go to shit after all.

"Huh? Wait, Felix, where are you going?"

There's a brief smile on his face as he plots a course to intervene in the, he counts three, no, four men she'll have to cut through before he gets to her, Professor's way. "I just said it, didn't I? Seeing isn't everything; I'm going to make sure it's really her."

Ashe huffs and follows after him. "You're really going to fight her now? Of all times and places?"

"It's a battlefield, Ashe, accidents happen."

\\

"This is not to my liking, Dorothea."

Petra's quiet but tense complaint reaches the songstress' ears easily. They have their orders and have been watching the way the rest of the army has been losing their lives one by one. Honor guard, or so their official roles are in this particularly ugly battle, and yet they have done nothing but follow Edelgard's orders to the letter.

And by orders, they've been doing literally nothing except sniping a few enemies who've been able to get into an unacceptable range before falling back to flank their Emperor.

Edelgard herself is tenser than she's been in months and the way her violet eyes flick across the battlefield, searching for someone or something, worries the two women. They know of the plan, Dorothea more than Petra at this point in time, and they have their orders to retreat once Dimitri arrives to challenge Edelgard. They don't like it, not with the level of brutality and bloodshed that follows in the man's wake, but orders are orders and unless they are told otherwise? They intend to follow it.

Or, in Dorothea's case, she intends to follow it unless Edie's life is in jeopardy. She'll willingly take a scolding or imprisonment if it means not losing one more person important to her.

She reaches out and gives the tanned warrior's shoulder a gentle squeeze in acknowledgment. "I know, Petra."

"I am not having understanding." Petra's eyes narrow and her grip tightens as she follows a soldier wearing the Alliance's yellow ochre tabard with her eyes. He's a little too close for her liking and if he comes five feet closer, she'll send him to meet and apologize to his ancestors. "Is she having great disappointment and doubt? Did we offer a great wrong or failure?"

Dorothea can practically see Edelgard's expression shift away from her business-like one to alarm in her mind's eye and the hasty-but-formal denial of any disappointment or doubt in those around her. "It's not that, Petra, I promise."

"Is it not?"

"No. She has faith in us." This is hard to explain. "It's part of her plan. Do you trust Edelgard?"

Petra is a little too quiet for that to be comforting and Dorothea looks over to see the taller warrior with a troubled expression on her noble face. Her lips are pressed together and her brow furrows. "I am having worries that Edelgard will not be having trust in us."

"That would make two of us." She sighs and tries not to run her hand through her hair. It's already dusty and dirty enough. She will quite literally kill just about anyone in order to get a bath and feel clean for the first time since this plan was put into action. Edelgard has been acting… off the last several weeks too. A lot of emotions cross her face when she thinks no one is watching, and if Hubert isn't there, Dorothea and Ferdinand are and have gotten quite accustomed to reading her moods.

The Emperor is afraid of what this battle means and there is nothing either of them can do to help her but be there and pray that this will work out for the best. Dorothea watches the way Edelgard's back stiffens a handful of moments later. The grip on that Relic of hers tightens and her feet seem to sink in, just a little, to the ground beneath her.

"He is here." There's a grimness to Petra's voice that sends an icy finger down Dorothea's spine.

Dimitri.

"You must live on to lead your people," Edelgard speaks to Petra as she gently, but firmly, pushes the woman back behind her when the warrior comes to put herself between Edelgard and the approaching enemy. Her eyes linger on the man making short work of her troops before flicking to the faint blob of pale green and black on the battlefield. The Professor is here too, she should have known the woman wouldn't be able to sit idle while the three of them put their plan into place. She cannot afford Byleth's interference; the battle must go as planned even if there is a great risk something will go wrong.

Her eyes narrow and her body burns as she channels her magical power into one fist. "Those fools who went up the hill will pay with their lives…" Fire explodes from her fist and hurls itself forward in a shriek. The damned Crest flashes behind her in a burst of light as the spell goes off. "...in the crimson flames!"

The hill erupts into an inferno. She hears the cries of men and women alike, ally and enemy, as they are burned alive on the spot. She knows the expression her dear teacher must be making at the sight and at her ploy to delay her just a little longer.

"Edie." They lock eyes for a brief moment and Dorothea, backing down, drops her eyes first. This is not the outcome she wishes for and both of them know it. The plea in Edelgard's eyes for her to trust her just one last time as Petra looks to her for support and for what to do next. Hubert might be Edelgard's retainer and her most trusted advisor, but the two of them have a bond even Hubert can't touch in the same way that Edelgard has watched a bond form between herself, Hubert, and Ferdinand. The four of them are a powerful force to contend with and they have used that force to keep one another safe- even at the cost of pissing the others off.

Dorothea nods to Petra and takes several steps back to show Edelgard she understands and intends to obey the order given. For now. Edelgard, in turn, understands that Dorothea is choosing to follow the orders of her own free will and can, and most likely will, change her mind if things do not go according to the way they planned.

As Dorothea watches Edelgard put more distance between the two of them, she can't help but reflect on what the past five years have taught her about the meaning of faith- in regards to other people as well as in general.

Faith is something Dorothea has never sat well with. It isn't solid, it isn't tangible and doesn't make sure there is safety at night, a meal that will fill her belly, or ensure any kind of future. As time has gone on, however, she has begun to understand that faith itself holds little in regards to religion or is solely something the Church of Seiros has any control or monopoly over. That the Church and their Goddess have very little control over whether or not happiness, sadness, hard times or good times occur.

Life itself is a circle of happiness, sadness, hard times, and good times; and during the last five years of war, Dorothea has come to realize that every hard time she has experience has (usually) followed through with something positive to keep her from breaking down and giving up entirely. That, in her eyes, is what Faith truly is; believing that the worst will be over and done with soon and that there are better things ahead.

Better things that she can help bring about with her magic, her voice, and her own two hands.

Professor… please hurry.