Great Tree Moon

In the doorway of the Star Terrace on the third floor of the Monastery, Rhea stood in her simple shift with her hair unbound in the gentle breeze, watching as dawn broke across the sky.

After a moment she sighed and turned back towards her chambers, posture straightening as she walked, as though she were already wearing the regalia of the Archbishop.

She had not been relieved from this duty, she thought, as she sat before her mirror and began the careful process of combing her hair. She still had this part to play. Her Mother had made it very clear that this task was left to her. She had become one of the supporting pillars of the land and so she had oversee this transition; she had brought in on herself.

After her hair came the mantle, and as she pulled it on she looked over at the documents still poised ready at the edge of her bed. One was a copy of Edelgard's address to her nation. The line "twisting the Church of Seiros to their purpose by misusing the creed and falsifying the will of the Goddess" had been underlined sharply and a note in Seteth's precise hand in the margin went into somewhat exhaustive detail on the Emperor's expectations for how the creed would be amended going forwards.

Rhea huffed and shook her head. She had been slowly working towards many of Edelgard's points already. Impeded by the Western Church's intolerance and the Relic lore she'd mistakenly backed herself in to when she'd been younger and more foolish... The gradual softening of the doctrine over the next few centuries that she had intended had suddenly rushed forwards in one great bound to happen all at once. It was so very human. To have it all done immediately; to burn so brightly and so quickly compared to the slow embers of Nabatea. Yet she understood it. Had she not wished so dearly for her Mother to do the same? To sweep in and reform the land?

In the end, the duty remained her own.

After the mantle came the headdress. She moved back to the mirror to ensure it was correct, taking the document with her. On the reverse Seteth had noted the concerns from the Kingdom and the extensive bickering from the Alliance Roundtable. At the very edge of the paper Byleth Eisner had added a short note in her own careful hand;

"She would want more dancing."

It brought the faintest hint of a smile to her lips. In the midst of all the politics, the posturing, the manoeuvring… someone still remembered Sothis.

And now… now the Church could concern itself less with the judgement of Seiros, and more with the grace of Sothis.

She left the paper on her vanity and turned to collect the second document; her speech for the graduating class, her speech for the faithful still awaiting word from revelation, her speech officially bringing the Church of Seiros into the war.

She might never be ready to do this without her Mother's guiding hand. She might never be able to come to terms with the memory of Zanado.

Yet she picked up the speech and moved forward anyway.

A new year was about to begin.

~o~*~o~

At the dawning of the year 1181 a spark was carefully banked between the three nations of Fódlan. The new Emperor of Adrestia, Edelgard von Hresvelg, laid out the Garreg Mach Accords, binding each nation to the defence of their neighbours in the ongoing conflict against Those Who Slither in the Dark, and any outside threat that may arise to threaten the peace of Fódlan. Crown Prince Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd of Faerghus and Leicester's Heir Apparent, Claude von Riegan, added their seals to the Accords, each agreeing to reaffirm their commitment once they had ascended to their respective roles as King and Duke.

Each country, and the Church of Seiros, vouchsafed troops and supplies to Fódlan's joint army, under the combined leadership of a council of the three nations, the Church and the newly appointed General Eisner; First Commander of the coalition forces.

Sources from the time disagree whether the General was considered Saint or Demon, but her legend was soon to ring out across all of Fódlan and the lands beyond.

~o~*~o~

After the graduation ceremony on the academy grounds, while the House Leaders were officially handing over their headship to the next year's candidates, Leonie made her way down past the drawbridge to take her leave of the mercenaries. With Seteth's support, and Rhea's assent, Byleth's men had taken over their old billet and a couple of the buildings surrounding it as "neutral territory" -No longer officially part of the Church and not technically in any of the countries, a place where all would be equal. Emperor, Archbishop and Captain alike.

The men spilled out into the sunlight to greet her, Willard and Raoul leaning against the veranda's stone pillars as Sanderson swept forward and took up both of Leonie's hands. Byleth was not to be seen.

"And, what will you do next, Miss Leonie? My most cherished audience member? Now that the Academy has polished up your skills I suppose you'll be fighting off the Lords wanting to hire you."

"Ha! No, I'm not so lucky as that. I guess I'll have to head home and start looking for work... I need to pay back my debt after all." Willard and Raoul exchanged a glance

"Well, and so you could." Sanderson agreed "Not sure you heading all the way out to Sauin is going to do you much good at that though. Plenty of hunting work, some good, honest, salt-of-the-earth farmers, but nothing that will bring in the sort of coin you'd need to pay back the tuition here in any hurry."

"You've been to my village?" Leonie asked.

"Oh many times, I've been everywhere once or twice. Happen it, the Boss sent me that way on a little errand not so long ago. Come to think of it, it may interest you to know that you don't owe Sauin village a single gold piece."

"Wait, what?" Leonie exclaimed.

"That's right" Sanderson teased "The Boss sent me along to buy out your whole debt. Including that ridiculous fee Count Gloucester charged for recommending you. So, I suppose if you really wanted to, you could head home and start paying her back bit by bit… although you'd probably find it much more lucrative to work off what you owe her by joining the company."

Leonie looked at them in stupefaction for a long moment.

"But… but why?"

"Because we have a job to finish." Byleth spoke, and Willard and Raoul stepped apart to allow Leonie to see her standing in the doorway; arms folded, expression level "Because you fight like my Father. You'll never have his height, his reach, but from horseback that won't matter so much. I can work with that. Also… because he chose you, I suppose. I trust his judgement. You belong with us." Her head tipped to one side, a small smile filtering over her lips "What do you say, Apprentice?"

Leonie didn't need to think about it for even a moment.

"Yes! I mean, yes Ma'am! Yes Boss! Yes-"

"Alright, alright we get it." Raoul groused, and turning, waved them off, shouldering his way past Byleth "I'm going to catch some kip while you lot deal with all the emotional guff."

Sanderson rolled his eyes, and Willard sighed, but Byleth was still smiling for Leonie.

"Welcome to Jeralt's Mercenaries."

Hi

Yes, that does look suspiciously like a Crimson Flower cop-out ending, doesn't it? Where we're told the war on Agartha happens but don't see it. Well. About that.

The guys following this on Archive of Our Own already had a heads up about this, purely because of how the story is presented/space for ANs, x out of y chapters etc, so this may come as a surprise to you FFNet guys, and I'm sorry for that, but I'm putting the war-phase in its own fic.

See, around chapter 21-22 a number of people suddenly got very excited for a golden route.

I'm not writing a golden route. I'm still debating whether or not Dimitri even gets to keep his eye. People, students, will die. You can probably assume Claude is safe, eternal survivor that he is, but I will not give assurances for anyone else.

I'm also going to start leaning much heavier on the shipping -and not just Claudeleth either, although there will be plenty of that. I don't think I'll be changing the rating and the tone will be much the same, however, for those of you who really want the golden route; consider the author dead. If you want to take your leave here, and go on to imagine that everything is fine, to dwell always in sunlit gardens and play about with this continuity in your head, then you do that with my blessing. You may happily ignore the next part of the series.

To those of you thinking "Um, excuse me, the author is very much alive; she's been posting fanfiction serially and interacting with us in comments and there are enough lose threads here to open a haberdashery!" yes, you're quite right. General, or maybe Saint, or Oracle or Commander (I'm really not sure yet, I may give up and call it Identity Crisis) will start publishing… after a break.

See, there are some other things I've been working on that I want to give more attention to, so those of you who are just here for the Claudeleth can look forwards to that. And some of those things are actually side stories/paralogues to Mercenary, for those of you who really want more of this continuity sooner. Plus I'm being extra careful with it because… well, this is a completely new route, compared to white clouds which roughly kept in pace with cannon.

What I'm saying here is; don't panic, there's more coming, I'm just working on some other things for a bit. Cool? Cool.

Stay safe, and be excellent to each other.