I have returned! After a very, very, very long and unexpected/unplanned hiatus, I have returned with...filler.

This was originally meant to be the Yarne chapter, but we can't have the Valmese arc finish too soon, now can we? There's still so much character to develop and relationships to explore! To those still waiting for the actual Yarne chapter, it'll come, I swear! At least I was honest with you this time? This could've been the third "Yarne, but not really" chapter!

So...yes. Apologies that this entire wait has turned out to be for a filler chapter, but that means we're one step closer to the next, non-filler chapter!

Also there will be some spoilers for Shadows of Valentia as well as other Fire Emblem games below. You read at your own risk. You have been warned!

To those of you still out there, as always, thank you for your continued readership! Even with the delay times between chapters. You're the real heroes!

Robin was a tactician first and foremost. But despite the fact that crafting brilliant battle strategies was what he was best known for, Robin was a lot more than just a tactician. Ever since Chrom found him face down in that field, Robin learned that he was, among other things, an avid reader, somewhat of an interior decorator, and very eager to learn new things. He was like a sponge, absorbing all the information around him in his thirst for knowledge. So pretty much a very eager student. And as time went on, apparently a budding teacher. He first fell into that role when he sparred with Lon'qu and then passed on what he learned from the Feroxi swordsman to Olivia, helping her with her sword skills and transitioning from riding her pegasus to myrmidon-style combat. Of course, then Morgan showed up and Robin found himself having to come up with ways to impart all his current knowledge to his very eager daughter.

So Robin supposed that he did have some experience in teaching others. And his lessons were, much like himself, intense and unconventional.

"Listen up, trainees! You'd best prepare yourself for the most intense magic lessons of your short lives or my name isn't Robin!"

If anyone was watching the scene, they would've wondered why Cordelia was so uncharacteristically shouting at the others, and why she was calling herself "Robin."

"Nya ha ha, but you're not Robin! You're Cordelia!"

And if people kept watching, they would be wondering why Sumia had such an unnerving smile plastered on her face.

Cordelia sighed. "I was being dramatic."

"So does that mean this whole magic lesson is gonna be a huge failure?"

"Damn it, Henry, why are you still here? Shouldn't you be flying around on a pegasus right now?"

It was just a good thing no one was watching, because there would be a lot of explaining to do if they were.

In his pursuit of trying to expedite Sumia's and Cordelia's magic learning, Robin decided the best way for them to get a grasp of magic (and the general feeling of it) was for them get a first-hand experience with magic. And by first-hand experience, Robin meant walking in a proper mage's shoes for a while. Or, in this case, a proper mage's body. And being one of the properest mages around, that naturally meant Robin's body.

"Nya ha ha, I'm just standing around getting a feel for this body. It's different to what I'm usually used to, you know!"

Also Henry because Henry was also a mage and was probably the only one who knew the whole "body changing" spell and was willing to subject himself to it.

"Erm, Henry does have a point, Robin," Sumia (in Henry's body) spoke up. "This does feel pretty weird and needs a little getting used to. I feel so much lighter…"

"And there's this strange feeling that I'm missing something," Cordelia (in Robin's body) added. "Like an extra layer of clothing or something?"

"Oh. Yeah, that. That's just my physical reaction to not having my coat," Robin (in Cordelia's body) explained casually. "Feels wrong, doesn't it?"

"…I can't believe you actually have a physical reaction to not having your coat."

"I means a lot to me, okay?" Robin shook his head. "Anyway, have we all got used to our bodies? Can we finally get this magic lesson started?"

"Oh wow, I am suddenly all athletic!" Henry (in Sumia's body) exclaimed, stretching. "This body is way nimbler than my own. It feels awesome!"

"Yes, good for you and stuff," Robin said dismissively. "Now go off riding a pegasus or whatever so we can begin."

"Nya ha ha, I'll go do just that! I can't wait to drop flower pots on people!"

"Ah, no!" Robin said sternly. "No dropping anything on anyone here! The only people you should be dropping things on is bandits or Valmese."

"Then I'll just—"

"And no seeking out enemies specifically to drop things on them! Actually, no seeking enemies at all! I'm not having you endanger yourself or Sumia's body just for some cheap thrills. Just, you know, go fly her pegasus and don't do anything stupid."

"Aw, you're taking a lot of fun out of this…"

"This isn't supposed to be fun!" Robin said irritably. "This is supposed to be an educational exercise for Sumia and Cordelia."

"It's strange, isn't it?" Cordelia whispered. "Seeing ourselves, I mean."

"That's for sure. Even stranger to see ourselves acting like, well, not ourselves. Seeing you be so irritable and snappy sure is something."

"As is seeing you with Henry's usual smile plastered on your face. If he keeps this up, he may break your face and you'll be stuck looking like that forever!"

"There are worse fates, I suppose." Sumia laughed softly before stopping. "…It doesn't really work like that, does it?"

"Just get out of here!"

"You got it, boss!"

With that, Henry saluted and ran off toward where the pegasi were.

"I have no idea how Tharja deals with him…" Robin muttered. "Then again, how does he even deal with Tharja?"

Cordelia cleared her throat. "Right. Now that we've settled that, shall we maybe…?"

"Oh. Right. The main reason why we're here. Let me see…" Robin flipped through his notes.

"You seem surprisingly unfazed by this whole thing," Sumia observed.

"Sumia, it's me we're taking about here. After all I've been through, seeing my own body and voice through someone else's eyes while being in someone else's body isn't even in the top ten weirdest things I've experienced."

"Heh, I suppose that's true."

"Besides, we've done this before. Granted, I was in your body that time, but it isn't all that different or new anymore. Now it's sort of mundane."

"I can't imagine what you think is exciting if switching bodies is just 'mundane' to you," Cordelia commented.

"I'd rather not find out. Anyway, magic. As you two are in mine and Henry's bodies respectively, you should feel the magic flowing through you and also should be able to conjure basic or even intermediate spells without having to resort to a spellbook. Let's try out some exercises so you can get a feel for it. First on the list is wind spells…

Owain Dark, scion of heroes, heroic hero of legend and overall awesome guy, was never one to back down in the face of adversity. Not even against adversity with terrible odds, like that time he single-handedly defeated the evil army of ultimate darkness and their super villainous leader! No odds were too great for Owain Dark! No enemy was too tough to overcome! No challenge was too…too…Owain didn't back down!

But as Owain looked between his cookbook and the mess in front of him that was supposed to be a cake, Owain was starting to think that he had met his match.

"…I don't think it's supposed to look like that…"

As if to confirm his suspicions, Owain's cake deflated and collapsed in on itself.

"Man, who knew cooking could be so hard?"

Owain sighed in frustration. But by the sacred blood running in his veins, Owain would not quit! Failure was simply not an option. The fate of the world and the future hanged in the balance! …Well, at least the fate of him proving his claims to Morgan and thus proving himself in her eyes. But that was basically the same thing! Lone wolf he might've been, but even the lonest of wolves needed to have a pack once in a while. And Morgan was basically his ideal packmate. Right up there with…

"COME, FOE! TASTE THE STEELY TANG OF CYNTHIA'S DEADLY BLADE!"

Owain could almost hear her voice as if she was right next to him…

"I AM CYNTHIA! YOUR BLOOD SHALL RUN THICK LIKE SWAMPLAND!"

Wow, he must've missed her lots since it really did sound like she was right outside his tent.

"I AM CYNTHIA! I FLOAT LIKE A LEAF AND STING LIKE A NETTLE!"

…Wait a minute…

"I AM CYNTHIA! QUAKE IN YOUR SUPPLE, CALFSKIN BOOTS, EVILDOERS! …Hey, that's not too bad!"

"Ho! Do my eyes and ears deceive me?!" Owain shot out of his tent faster than when Robin heard the words "Sumia" and "pie" together in the same sentence. "Cynthia? Is that really you?!"

"Hiya, Owain!" Cynthia greeted cheerfully. "What's up? What's got you all excited?"

"Cynthia!" Owain exclaimed, an intense look in his eyes. He then extended his hand. "In brightest day."

"In darkest night," Cynthia recited automatically, immediately putting on a serious expression.

"Let no evil escape my sight."

"Although try as they might."

"They will not escape true justice light!"

"Justice Twin powers, activate!" they both shouted.

"Form of—!"

"—An awesome intro!"

"The Scion of Legend, Owain!"

"The Wings of Justice, Cynthia!"

"And together, we are—!"

"—The Justice Cabal!"

The two then stuck heroic poses.

"Oh man, I feel like we haven't done our Justice Cabal intros in ages!" Cynthia exclaimed excitedly. "I feel so pumped and ready to kick butt!"

"Indeed! I feel as if I have been shot with a bolt of energy, refilling my being and…and…I can hardly contain all this power!" Owain roared. "Gods, you have no idea how much I missed you, Cynthia."

"Heh, someone's in a good mood today."

"Are you kidding? I'm finally reunited with my Justice Cabal companion and co-founder! How can I not be excited? Now I finally have someone who shares my enthusiasm for all things heroic and can help me come up with cool weapon names and add stuff to my bio. Oh! And we can work on our Justice Cabal intros and stuff!"

"Yeah!" Cynthia nodded eagerly. "Gods, it feels like we're jumping in as if we were never separated. I didn't know how much I missed our heroic banter, Owain."

"Yeah, I'm just glad we found you. I mean, yeah, I managed to hold my own fight for justice and righteousness all that by myself, but there's only so much you can do without your other half, right?"

"Right! So what've you been up to, Owain?"

"I've been trying my hand at cooking."

"Cooking, huh? Didn't think you had an inner chef in you."

"And judging by my progress, I still don't. However, that won't dissuade me from overcoming this trial and convincing Morgan of our intertwined destinies!"

"Morgan?"

"Yeah. Had to try and convince her to do the heroics with me while you were out there in the field. And like any good story, it involved an epic trial of strength! …Or in my case, cooking something. Still a trial, given how hard cooking is. How do people make food out of ingredients, anyway?"

"All it takes is practice and perseverance! Do it enough times and you'll be able to whip up dishes like a pro. Maybe even dishes as good as Mom's."

"Gods, if I could cook as well as your mother…" Owain wiped the drool from his mouth. "Anyway, what're you doing out here, O fated partner of mine?"

"I'm here doing some mental exercises and trying to hype myself up."

"Oh? For what? Our next battle? How we're going to liberate an entire country from the clutches of an evil tyrant?"

"No, something even more important."

"Well don't keep me here in the dark. C'mon, what is it? The suspense is killing me!"

"If you must know, I'm preparing myself to talk to my mom."

"…What? Why do you need to prepare yourself for that?"

"Well unlike all the others, my family situation is a bit complicated, you know? Mom and Dad aren't married, Dad has some other daughter who none of us has ever heard of, and we can't even be sure that Dad is Dad!"

"Oh. Right." Owain nodded in understanding. "I forget that there's a whole load of issues with Robin and stuff that needs untangling. Wait a minute, do you not really believe he's your father?"

"I don't know," Cynthia said, unsure. "He does act all different than I remember. Then again, Laurent says that may be because he's much younger here and hasn't had the experience of years of war, you know? All those years of fighting and stuff probably affects you something fierce."

"That does make sense…" Owain said thoughtfully. "Besides, this is coming from Laurent. If there's anything we've learned after all these years, it's that there's a good chance Laurent's theories are the right ones. Or close to it, anyway."

Cynthia nodded. "So that makes sense, but Sev's still not sure and I don't know what to think. It's all really confusing, and I'm not even close to being as smart as Laurent!"

"Yeah, confusing is certainly the right word for it…"

"And this isn't even touching how my parents aren't married yet, which is probably my biggest issue."

"That's quite the hand fate has given you…"

"So that's where these mental exercises come in. Given the whole weird situation with my parents, I can't really go off and hug my mom and tell her how much I love and missed her, now can I? No matter how much I want to. Heck, I almost broke down and did just that when I saw her."

"An understandable reaction when seeing your parents, especially after what we've been through."

"Exactly. But since she's not technically my mother yet or with Dad, I have to pretend to not be her daughter and instead just be some new soldier. I'll be cool and calm and collected when I do finally talk to her."

"Can you manage to do that?"

"…I'm working on it, hence the mental exercises. I'm coming up with cool intro lines to hype myself up so that I can talk to my mother and not blow my cover. Once I'm ready, I'll be all…" Cynthia cleared her throat and put on her best neutral expression. "Oh, your name is Sumia? That's cool, that's cool. I'm new here. Cynthia's the name, helping you guys is my game. Yep."

"A really cool and suave intro if I ever saw one."

"I know, right? Now I just gotta get myself in the right frame of mind to introduce myself like that to Mom…"

"Then I will assist you!" Owain declared.

"Really?"

"You bet. This whole situation must be really weird and rough for you, so I want to do my best to try and help you figure it out, as both your Justice Cabal partner and as your friend."

"Hey, thanks, Owain. I really appreciate it," Cynthia said gratefully.

Owain smiled. "No problem. Now, how do you want to proceed?"

"Well let's brainstorm some cool and heroic intros for ourselves. Once I get all the hype from being with my parents out of my system, we can work on how I can be cool around my mother and not spill the beans on our whole 'being family' situation."

"Sounds like a plan. Hey, where's Severa during all this?"

"Right now? I don't really know. She said she needed to do some investigating, whatever that means."

"Do you think she's trying to talk to her mom?"

"I dunno. She didn't seem too eager before."

"I wonder what she's doing…"

"I'm sure she'll be fine," Cynthia said confidently. "Anyway, I can already feel the heroic creative juices flowing. Oh! I already thought of something! How about…"

"Severa, remind me why you roped me into this again?"

"For the last time, Brady, of all the weird things going on here in the past, the fact that Robin has some girl who claims she's his daughter from the future is probably the weirdest. And totally suspicious! Which is why it's our duty to track her and see if she's up to anything sketchy, which, given her alleged lack of memories, impossible biography and totally suspicious circumstances, is very likely!"

"There's a lot to unpack there and I get why you may be feelin' all riled up now, but why'd I get dragged into this drama of yours?!"

"Because I'm only one person and can't track Morgan's movements by myself, duh!" Severa said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Besides, two heads are always better than one and I can use you for the intimidating factor."

"Does it really gotta be me, though? Couldn't you have asked Cynthia? Or Laurent or somethin'?"

"Stop whining, will you? It's not like you were doing anything when I found you."

"Hey, you don't know that! I could've been doin' plenty!"

Severa smirked. "That why you were looking at some flowers all teary-eyed?"

"Just how long were you standin' there?!"

"Would you be quiet?!" Severa hissed. "We're supposed to be tailing Morgan to see what she's up to. You're going to blow our cover!"

Brady rolled his eyes and sighed. Severa could be really pushy when she wanted to be. Because of that, she usually ended up getting her way.

"Hey, where'd she go?"

Brady leaned over and looked past the pile of crates they were hiding behind.

"She was right in front of us a minute ago!" Severa exclaimed.

"Think she saw us?" Brady asked.

"That can't be. We were really careful when we tailed her. And quiet, too. Until you started asking stupid questions!"

"Wha—? So now this is my fault?!"

"Hey, guys! What's with all the shouting?"

"Gah!"

Brady and Severa both jumped backwards, looking incredulous at Morgan, who suddenly appeared right beside them.

"Are we having some sort of meeting behind these crates?" Morgan asked curiously.

"What the—?! But you—! How did you even—?" Brady was frantically trying to piece together Morgan's movements and how she quickly went from being in front of them to being right here.

"Also, what's with all the shouting? Oh, are we under attack?!"

"Uh, w-well, that's…"

"No, that's stupid. If we were under attack, we sure as hell wouldn't be shouting about it behind some crates. Anyway, the bigger question should be what are you doing behind the crates!" Severa said, figuring the best way to get out of this was to flip this on Morgan and go on the offensive.

"Me?"

"Yeah, you know behind these crates, all skulking and stuff?"

"Skulking? Who's skulking? Really, Severa, I was just picking a spot for a little afternoon nap in the sun." Morgan paused. "Or I would be if the sun ever came out. I've been trying to find myself a cozy spot for what feels like the entire afternoon, but just when I think I've found it, the sun gets stuck behind some clouds. Can you believe that?"

"…So you've been wandering aimlessly through camp all this time…looking for a place to nap?"

"Hey, I had a very specific aim in mind when I was wandering, you know. I just told you it!"

Severa blinked, not ready for Morgan to have an answer to her accusatory assault, and also not ready for said answer being so nonsensical.

Behind her, Brady chuckled. "Yeesh. This one's a grade A airhead. Must be nice, not having a care in the world."

"Oh I've got my share of worries, same as the next person," Morgan said matter-of-factly. She then thought. "…Well, I definitely do. Did? Definitely…probably. At least, I assume I did at some point..."

Severa couldn't believe what she was hearing. "If you have to ASSUME that you did, then you clearly DON'T!"

"Must be nice havin' all your troubles and painful memories wiped clean," Brady commented. "Now that head of yours is all puppies and rainbows and unicorns all the time."

"Puppies, rainbows, unicorns, and tactics!" Morgan added cheerfully.

Severa and Brady exchanged glances.

Brady decided to continue playing along with Severa's game. If he didn't, he'd probably never hear the end of it.

"Aw, you're shinin' me on. Ain't no way an amnesiac can be that bubbly!"

"Well, yeah, I lost my memory, but I still have my dad! And that's all I need at the moment while I'm trying to remember the things I forgot."

Severa's eye twitched. "How do you even know Robin's your dad if you lost all your memories?"

"Luckily for me, I didn't lose my memories that involved him. So everything may be new and uncertain and stuff, but Dad's the one certainty I can anchor around! Good thing, too, otherwise I'd be very lost and confused!"

"So you're telling us that you've lost all your memories, yet you want us to believe you somehow miraculously kept all your memories of Robin?" Severa asked rhetorically.

"Yep!"

Morgan's instant and cheerful response, as if it was the most obvious and normal explanation in the world, left Severa speechless.

So Brady picked up where she left off.

"Yeah, well, uh, just don't go thinkin' we trust you or anythin', understand?"

"What? You don't? Why not? That's terrible!"

"Because that explanation is so convenient and vague and full of holes that it's clearly some poorly thought fake cover!" Severa said, grateful to Brady for taking the initiative.

"And that means you could be an enemy spy!" Brady added.

"Me? A spy? That's ridiculous!" Morgan protested. She then thought about it. "Although I guess I can't blame you."

Severa and Brady were caught off-guard by this statement.

"I mean, when you put it that way, with my convenient amnesia and all," Morgan continued obliviously, "I guess I am preeeeeetty suspicious! I'd probably not even believe me with such a flimsy excuse, ha ha ha!"

"So, what, you just admitted you're a spy, then?" Severa asked, disbelief written all over her face.

"Well, no. Let the record show that I strenuously deny any and all accusations of spying. Me being a spy is crazy talk! However, having said that, I won't blame you for having your suspicions. Again, my whole story and convenient amnesia is pretty sketchy. So, you know. Good on you guys for investigating me! Although, again, I'm not a spy."

"What the—"

"Anyway, I think I see the sun coming through the clouds. That means I gotta run and find the spot where it'll shine before the clouds hide it again. Later!"

Severa and Brady watched in stunned silence as Morgan waved and ran off in pursuit of sunlight.

"…What in Naga's name just happened?" Brady managed to say after a few minutes.

"Isn't it obvious?" Severa turned to him with a victorious smirk on her face. "We totally got her dead to rights!"

"…What?"

"You heard her. We asked her in her face if she was a spy and she didn't deny it! Good job on that, by the way. Quick thinking. I knew there was a reason I chose you to be my partner on this!"

"I thought you 'chose' me because I was the closest chump you could drag along."

Severa frowned. "Stop trying to bring down the mood. We've got a huge victory on our hands and know for sure that Morgan is some sort of enemy spy sent here by Walhart or something!"

"…How do we know all that?"

"Were you not listening just now?!"

"I was listenin' plenty. And what I hear was Morgan sayin' she wasn't no spy."

"She didn't say that."

"She did too. Several times, even."

"Nuh-uh. Before she left, she said it was good that we investigated her since her excuse and amnesia were obviously fake."

"Uh, no. What she said was that she wasn't a spy, her explanation was suspicious, and that she didn't blame us for havin' our doubts. And then she said again she wasn't a spy."

"Why are you suddenly taking her side on this?" Severa demanded. "I thought you were going to help me!"

"I ain't on nobody's side, okay?! And I am helpin' ya, Sev!"

"How are you—"

"By tryin' to get you to see the big picture," Brady said. "Look, I know things're all weird with your family, and I get it you're feeling lost and confused."

"I'm not feeling any of those things," Severa stated flatly. "…Okay, maybe a little confused…or a lot. But mostly irritated and angry."

"So kinda like you are every day…" Brady muttered under his breath. "Anyway, say you got a confession outta Morgan."

"We did get a confession out of Morgan!"

"Fine. Then what're you gonna do with it?"

"Well that's a stupid question. Of course I'll—" Severa paused.

"You'll, what, tell Robin? The man who's her—"

Severa glared.

"...The man who she believes is her dear ol' dad? And said dear ol' dad who sees Morgan as his little bundle of pride n' joy?"

"N-not necessarily to him. I'd just—"

"Tell who? Chrom? His superior? The guy who picked up some schmuck off the ground and made that schmuck his tactician? That guy?"

Severa bit her lip.

"Or maybe Lucina? You know, Chrom's daughter who tries to see the best in people and is equally as trusting as her dad?"

Severa remained silent.

"Look, I ain't sayin' all this to make your life hard or nothin'. It's just, you know, you're all hot-headed now and not really thinkin' straight. And I wanna get you to cool off before you can run and do somethin' you'll end up regrettin'."

Severa closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"You okay, Sev?"

"…Yeah. I think I am. Eugh, much as I hate to admit it, you're actually right. Here I was all excited to report Morgan's confession and try to get everyone to see that she's not who she says she is. Thought I had it all planned out, except for the fact that everyone here's all buddy-buddy with her and each other. Gawds, Daddy always said to have a cool head and a clear plan in life. What do I do? Go rush off with nothing but my emotions. He would be so disappointed if he saw me now…"

"Hey now, there's no need to beat yourself up over this little thing, yeah?" Brady patted Severa on her shoulder. "You managed to reign in your emotions and calm down before you did anythin' rash."

"Yeah, with more than a little help from you," Severa said.

"Hey, someone's gotta keep a cool head 'round here. And there ain't no one better at keepin' their heads cool than us healers!"

"When you're not crying over cooking, right?"

"H-hey!" Brady immediately blushed. "I told you it was them onions causin' me to tear up!"

"Suuuuure it was." Severa smirked. "Anyway, I guess I owe you one, Brady. You snapped me out of my unhelpful state of mind and got me to focus on the big picture and come up with my long-term plan and goals."

"Oh yeah? What're those?"

"I still plan to reveal Morgan as the secret enemy spy she totally is. But now I just have to gather evidence until I can gather so much it becomes overwhelming and even Lucina will have to accept it!"

Brady couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"And I plan on doing that by sticking close to her and following her everywhere she goes! I'll gather evidence every time she slips up to make an irrefutable she's-totally-an-enemy-spy dossier!" Severa laughed, a triumphant look on her face.

"How can you possibly believe she's still a spy?" Brady managed to ask.

"Well duh. What else can she be? She basically admitted it herself. You were there!"

"Then she's one lousy spy. I mean, what kinda spy admits to bein' a spy?!"

"A very, very good one."

"How'd you figure?"

"Because under her weirdly cheerful and airheaded exterior lies a cunning, devious, and dastardly villain. And that villain is really good because she's kept up her façade for so long. And because she knows that we're on to her, she up and admitted who she is. Now that may seem crazy and careless to the ordinary person, but that's exactly what she was counting on! Because no sane person would believe that a good spy would just casually admit they were a spy, any such admission would be brushed aside, doubly so if they cultivated an airheaded persona. However, what she doesn't know is that we're better than your average person and also can see past her well-constructed disguise. So she doesn't know that we know that she doesn't know. And because she thinks she knows that we don't know, but we actually do know, we can use that to our advantage!"

Brady stared blankly at Severa.

"Come on, Brady, get with the game! This is like chess where you have to be at least three moves ahead of your opponent. And if we don't catch up with her, she may figure out our plan!"

"What—"

And Severa dragged him off with her before Brady could object or say anything else.

"Ha!"

A series of lightning bolts struck the training dummy.

"I see you're getting the hang of magic," Robin remarked approvingly.

"It's quite exhilarating, although I suppose I should be thanking you for lending me your body so that I can practice this," Cordelia said.

"Just remember what it feels like, yeah? Because it'll help you when you get back to your own body. But be careful not to try and overexert yourself when we switch back. My body can cast all manner of spells because I've been doing so for years. Yours, on the other hand, still needs to adjust," Robin cautioned. "For example, while I can cast an Arcthunder spell no problem, your body's still at the basic level. You'll have to do a lot more spellcasting before your body can cope with the strain of constant and advanced magic use."

"Understood." Cordelia nodded. "Although I'll admit that I'm going to miss this. Shooting streams of fire or gale force winds out of my fingertips is really something!"

"Once you start, you can't go back. But if you practice enough, you may get on my level sooner rather than later."

"Something I'll definitely keep in mind," Cordelia said, reciting an incantation and conjuring a small tornado to strike another training dummy.

Robin smiled, seeing how much Cordelia was enjoying all the magic.

"Whoa!"

Robin looked back to where the startled yelp came from.

"Sumia?"

"Robin! Cordelia! Look what I can do!" Sumia shouted excitedly.

Closing her eyes, Sumia managed to levitate herself several feet in the air, with her tome open in front of her. She then opened her eyes and conjured a stream of fire at several training dummies, incinerating them.

"How cool was that?!" Sumia exclaimed once her feet touched the ground.

"I see someone else is a fan of high tier fire spells," Robin remarked, amused.

"What? Oh, right. That was fun and all, but did you see me float?"

"Float?"

"Yeah, you know, when I lifted myself and my tome in the air and shot fire while I was keeping myself up there? I don't even know how I did it!"

"Ah, yes. Levitation. It's basic magic, really. Still, I'm impressed you managed to do it yourself without any practice or previous experience."

"I know, right? I was just trying to get the hang around spellcasting, but then I flipped a few pages and found some lines which looked interesting. I started reading and before I knew it, my feet were off the ground!"

Robin found it adorable how excited Sumia was getting over something as trivial as levitation.

"Say, Robin? How come we don't see you doing anything like that?"

"Like what?"

"You know, levitating." Sumia paused. "Or any other magical things like that. You and the other mages, come to think about it."

"What about us?"

"Well, you have magic and I'm sure you're capable of doing all kinds of cool things like levitation and the like, but I never see you do so. In fact, the only time I see you using magic is to fight. How come you don't use your magic outside combat?"

"Because it's most practical in combat," Robin said casually. "I don't see any use in, say, levitation in real life. Why float when walking exists and uses much less energy and concentration? I mean, sure, you can try and look fancy with your floating book and stuff when casting spells, but in battle that's just a great way of getting stabbed. I think the only practical use I can think of is summoning weapons."

"Oh?"

"Yep."

To demonstrate, Robin turned to where Cordelia was, muttered an incantation spell, and snapped his fingers.

"What the—?"

Cordelia had no time to react as the Levin Sword strapped to her side suddenly few off and right into Robin's open hand.

"Wow…" Sumia was clearly impressed.

"It's one of the more useful non-combat spells," Robin said nonchalantly. "Me and Miriel came up with it to keep Vaike from losing his axe. Great out here, less so on the battlefield since the spell binds to a single weapon and needs to be recast for others. Although I suppose it can be useful if you lose your weapon in the heat of combat…"

"I don't know about you, but that sounds plenty useful to me!"

"I suppose, but that's not why we're here in different bodies, Sumia. Speaking of, you've got a handle on magic in Henry's body, right?"

"I think so. It certainly comes a lot easier than when I'm me."

"Just remember the feeling, Sumia. It should make it easier to cast spells when you're back in your own body."

"I think today has been a very productive day," Cordelia said, approaching the two, hands still glowing with residual magic. "I will definitely pick up magic once we switch back to normal."

"I'm glad you two seem to have enjoyed our little experiment today," Robin said. "Also glad that it inspired you to really concentrate on your magic training. Of course, I'll be with you every step of the way to make sure you guys can cast the really good spells as soon as possible."

"Then we'll put yourselves in your very capable hands," Sumia said.

"I am nothing if not capable," Robin quipped. "Okay, and I think this is a good a place as any to stop. We've got a strategy meeting with the others soon so it'd probably be a good idea to return back to normal."

Having said this, Robin then stared at Sumia and Cordelia expectantly.

They stared back uncomprehendingly.

Robin sighed. "Well come on, you guys. Let's cast the spell that brings us back to our normal bodies."

"Robin? You…you do know that we have no idea how to do that, right?" Cordelia pointed out.

"Well don't look at me. I certainly don't know how to turn this around!"

"Wait a minute, isn't Henry the one who usually casts this spell?" Sumia asked.

"If by 'usually' you mean 'that one other time we did this,' then yes," Robin said. He then frantically looked around for Henry, who was nowhere in sight. "…Uh-oh."

"…You didn't tell him when to come back to us, did you?"

"You really shouldn't ask questions you already know the answer to, Cordelia."

Cordelia closed her eyes and inhaled. "So, to recap: we're all stuck in these bodies that are not our own, the only person who knows how to undo this is off flying somewhere, and we have a meeting with the others to discuss strategy soon. Is there anything else?"

"Oh gods." Robin tried to fight off his rapidly rising panic. "What're we going to do?! I have a meeting with Chrom and Say'ri and the others like, now! I can't go out like this! And Henry's still out flying Sumia's pegasus Naga knows where! Argh!"

"Robin, get a hold of yourself!" Cordelia grabbed Robin's collar and shook him.

"Ack! Okay, okay!"

Cordelia put Robin down.

"Is it weird doing that to yourself?" Sumia whispered.

"Very," Cordelia replied.

"Right. Okay." Robin took a deep breath. "So the situation as it stands is that, with Henry still being in a place that is not here, it looks like we're going to have to attend the strategy meeting like this. And by 'we' I mean me and Cordelia."

"Is there anything you need me to do?" asked Sumia.

"Yes. Stay outside the strategy tent and keep an eye out for Henry. If you see him, I want you to barge into the tent with him. I don't care if we're in the middle of talking strategy or something else equally important, just barge in."

"Right." Sumia nodded.

"Cordelia, you've been attending these meetings so you should know where we are, what we're going to talk about and what our next moves are, right?"

"I think I know enough to pass off as you," Cordelia confirmed.

"That's good. I'll be there and offer any tips and directions as you. It shouldn't be too surprising, since you do tend to give your thoughts and opinions at these things instead of just sitting there silently. So no one should suspect anything if 'Cordelia' begins to ask questions and give very tactically sound opinions."

"Right. And I'll defer to you for any specifics that you'll be best placed to answer."

"Sounds like a plan." Robin nodded. "Okay. Let's do this."

Well the strategy meeting wasn't a complete and unmitigated disaster that Robin thought it would be. Though it was full of surprises, like Severa and Brady showing up just after Morgan ran in reporting for duty as the official strategy meeting note-taker. Robin didn't even consider Severa and Brady types to pay attention to strategy!

But he supposed these things were open to anyone who wanted to listen in and contribute, so he let them stay.

And so everyone present discussed recent developments and their strategy. Say'ri informed them that since her brother's passing, she had managed to communicate with all the lords in Chon'sin and secure their support for her, what with her being the rightful ruler of Chon'sin now that Yen'fay was dead. She had also managed to talk them out of an open rebellion against Walhart, because all that would do is invite yet another invasion and subjugation of Chon'sin. Apparently it took a lot of persuading and cajoling since the people of Chon'sin were a proud people and being loyal servants of Walhart did a lot to hurt that pride. But hey, at least they were led by one of their own into that. And more than being proud, the people of Chon'sin were honorable. And obviously the honorable thing to do now was follow and obey Say'ri. And Say'ri assured everyone present that the loyalty of the Chon'sin lords was assured, since they were ready to rebel and die than willingly follow Walhart. Robin supposed Say'ri made not doing than and continuing with the present course of action easier to swallow by telling the lords in Chon'sin to only feign loyalty to the Valemese magistrates who stepped in to run Chon'sin until further instructions from above.

And according to Say'ri's agents, these magistrates were pompous blowhards brought in by Excellus to keep an eye on Yen'fay and were more concerned with keeping their power and privileges than actually doing anything (where Excellus got these people and why he was Walhart's tactician in the first place were questions that merited a thorough investigation all in themselves, but Robin decided not to think too hard about the little advantages life decided to throw him once in a while).

So yes. Ineffective leadership combined with Say'ri having the clandestine support of basically anyone and everyone of import in the country (who were actively sabotaging the government's efforts to find her and even feeding misinformation) meant that the Shepherds had free reign over Chon'sin as long as they weren't too obvious about it.

So it was decided that they would infiltrate Chon'sin and settle in a village close to the border with Rosanne. This village was close enough for Say'ri to be able to communicate with, and direct, her agents while being far enough to not raise any suspicions. It also had the added bonus of being close enough to Rosanne for the Shepherds to gather intelligence there for their eventual liberation expedition. Once there, the Shepherds would link up with their remaining army and direct the Resistance efforts. And despite how much Robin wanted to take the fight to Walhart, it was decided the Shepherds would wait in the village, bide their time, and prepare.

This course of action was approved since the situation with Walhart still looked unfavorable. Despite the disruption at Fort Steiger and the recent annihilation of his entire southern division, Walhart still commanded a formidable number of troops. After all, the soldiers commanded personally by him in the north were still relatively unharmed (the little skirmish at the Mila Tree notwithstanding) and the forces around Steiger were, albeit in a major way, only disrupted. So Walhart still commanded more soldiers than all of the Resistance armies combined, his only issue was maintaining control over Valm with one division down and the other in disarray. Keeping Walhart's attention to maintaining his grip up in the northern and central parts of Valm (and thus away from them) was why it was decided that the Shepherds would not immediately head to the capital and liberate Chon'sin. Robin wanted to fight Walhart on their terms and when they were ready, which he didn't feel they were. So while they prepared in Chon'sin, Say'ri would have her agents undertake operations in Walhart's territories to keep his armies there busy and thus away from Chon'sin (which was still ostensibly under his control). They would also be instructed to spread rumors among the populace to sow doubt about the supposed invincibility of Walhart and his army. If nothing else, it would give his local turncoat allies something to think about, which would in turn force Walhart to send troops to the relevant lands to maintain order. And hopefully those troops would stay there once Say'ri liberated her homeland.

But that was something to think about for another day.

What Robin was thinking about right now was how hard this meeting was. Not only did he have to pretend like he knew less than he did, but he also had to explain to Severa why they were doing what they were instead of the unreasonable thing she said they should do while pretending to be Cordelia (meaning not making his usual snarky remarks) and, worst of all, there was the Morgan issue. More specifically, there she was, being her usual self, and Robin wasn't there to shower her with affection and praise! She wasn't even standing next to him (no, it didn't count that she was standing next to his body because he wasn't it in). It was slowly killing Robin inside that he couldn't just walk up to her and tousle her hair or something. At least Cordelia must've somehow picked up how torturous this was for Robin since she smiled and praised Morgan for her contributions, much to Morgan's delight. It wasn't the same, but Robin supposed it was better than nothing. Weirdly enough, Severa just had to get in a word every time that happened. She was also being a lot more caustic than usual. Robin made a mental note to try and avoid her. He didn't even know Severa all that long but she seemed like a whole load of drama that Robin did not need in his life and was not prepared to deal with.

After the meeting concluded, Robin quickly took Cordelia aside and sought out Sumia. Much to his dismay, there was still no sign of Henry. Just when Robin was about to drag them all to Henry's last known location, suddenly…

"Hey, guys! I'm back!"

"Oh thank Naga. Henry, where in Naga's name…have…you…" Robin trailed off as he took in Henry's appearance. "…What the hell happened to you?"

For Sumia's body looked a lot worse for wear than when Henry set off with it. For one, Sumia's tunic had tears all over it (bad day for not wearing her usual breastplate, Robin noted). Moreover, Sumia's body was all covered with scrapes and cuts and there were twigs and leaves in her hair. Sumia's body looked like it had been dragged by a horse through several bushes.

"Funny story," Henry chuckled, taking a leaf out of his (Sumia's) hair.

"…I'm not going to like this, am I?"

"Oh gods, Henry! What did you do to me?!" Sumia exclaimed, clearly alarmed.

"Relax, guys! It wasn't anything serious," Henry said nonchalantly.

"You look like you've been in a fight," Cordelia remarked. "Have you…?"

"Nope! Although I totally could've, Robin made me promise not to. So all I did was fly around with Daisy, just like I said I would. And boy, was it fun! We really should do this more often, you guys."

"And how exactly did you end up like…this?" Robin pointed to the state of Sumia's body.

"Well, I thought I'd do some flying over the forest and feel the nature, you know? Then while I was doing that, I thought, 'hey, how cool would it be if I could free my hands and stand up and feel the air for real?!'"

"But you could feel the air before—"

"So that's exactly what I did. Or at least, started to."

"Oh no…" Sumia was understandably horrified.

"Yep! Must've done something wrong, though. Just when I was getting in the groove, a gust of wind blew out of nowhere and totally made me lose my balance!"

"You fell off you pegasus while in mid-flight?!" Cordelia couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"I know! Such a bummer. I was really enjoying flying through the air, too. Luckily for me, the nice trees broke my fall."

"…What," Robin said flatly.

"Oh yeah. I was over the forest, remember? Good thing trees have so many soft leaves and branches because I went through a bunch of them on my way down. I don't think I even broke anything by the time I hit the ground!" Henry paused. "Well, except for your tunic. Sorry for all the tears and holes, Sumia."

"Forget about the tunic. Aren't you hurt?" Sumia asked worriedly.

"Not at all," Henry confirmed, laughing.

"But…how?"

"Trees, remember? Besides, I feel like your body is made of rubber with how often you fall and manage to just brush it off."

"So…you're not injured?" Robin asked suspiciously. "Not even a little bit?"

"I mean, I have all these little scrapes and stuff which kinda sting, but that's nothing a little healing magic can't fix."

"And Daisy?"

"She's back in her stables. You're lucky to have such a smart pegasus as your partner, Sumia. She flew right around and managed to find me on the ground all by herself!"

"…We are going to have a very long lecture on the proper conduct and procedures of body swapping…" Robin muttered, shaking his head. "Later. For now, change us back, Henry."

"You got it!" Henry started mumbling his spell.

"Wait," Sumia began, "I think we should get ready for—"

"And KA-BLAMMMO!"

The last thing Robin saw was a white light. When he opened his eyes, Robin found his vision was blurry and he was on the ground, looking up at the sky.

"I always forget how disorienting that is…" Robin groaned as he got up. "Is everyone back where they should be?"

"Looks like it," Cordelia confirmed, examining herself.

"Good." Robin turned. "Sumia? You okay?"

"I…" Sumia checked herself over. "Yes, actually. A bit sore here and there and the scratches kind of sting, but other than that…"

"Told you, body of rubber!" Henry laughed.

"Well just count yourself lucky you didn't get Sumia hurt more than just little scratches. If you did, I would have been very upset," Robin said sternly.

"And I'd definitely not want that."

"Although I'm still miffed that you returned Sumia in this condition. Didn't I tell you not to do anything stupid?"

"You did and I listened. There wasn't anything stupid done form my end, no sir!"

Robin was about to tell Henry off before deciding he had better things to do.

"You're lucky no serious harm came to Sumia. Just don't let this happen again, otherwise I'll forbid body swapping entirely, even for educational purposes."

"Well I certainly wouldn't want that. After all, I plan to ride pegasi more often in the future. It's really fun! So I'll be super extra careful next time," Henry promised.

"Be glad there even will be a next time! Now go run off and do whatever it is you do when I'm not looking."

Henry opened his mouth to say something.

"I swear to Naga, if you say it's stalking me with Tharja…!"

Henry closed his mouth.

"Just get out of here!"

"Nya ha ha, you go it, chief! Bye, ladies!"

Henry waved goodbye to the pegasus knights and ran off.

"Dark mages…" Robin muttered, shaking his head. He then turned to Sumia. "Sumia? You sure everything's okay?"

"Weirdly enough, yes. I'm not sure if Henry cast some sort of hex on me or if I really did develop some sturdiness with all my years of falling flat on my face, but I don't feel terribly different than I usually do. Aside from the scratches and scrapes, that is."

"Huh. Well at least you're not hurt."

"And it doesn't look like there's anything that a little healing magic can't fix," Cordelia said.

"Yes indeed. But before I go to the healing tent, I think I'll check up on Daisy."

Robin raised a brow. "Oh? Is there any reason to?"

"Just for my own peace of mind. Seeing me fall off right in front of her eyes must've gotten her quite worried," Sumia said. "Not to mention Henry said she flew through all the trees to land and find him."

"Oh. Well you know best, I guess."

"Before I go, I wanted to thank you, Robin. I know it was a little weird, but I feel that your lesson today did wonders for my understanding of how magic works."

"It was very helpful," Cordelia confirmed. "Using your body to get a feel for it, I think I can confidently cast spells now that I'm in my own body."

"Then it's mission accomplished! Glad to hear that you ladies found today helpful." Robin smiled. "Think we'll need to do this again?"

"I think Sumia and I would prefer a bit more traditional lessons," Cordelia said, chuckling. "As interesting as it is switching bodies, I don't plan on making it a habit."

"Especially not after what happened today," Sumia added, looking at her torn tunic. "…Or maybe if we switch with someone more responsible."

"I'm not sure if anyone else will necessarily agree to loan their bodies, but I suppose we could—"

"I think we're getting a bit ahead of ourselves, no?" Cordelia interrupted, amused.

Robin laughed. "Right, right. Sorry."

"Anyway, I'll be going to check up on Daisy. Bye!"

"Don't forget to get yourself fixed in the medical tent!" Robin called as Sumia waved and ran off to the stables.

"So what about you, then?" Cordelia asked. "Have some important tasks to take care of now that you're back in your own body?"

"Always. But the most important task now is to go find Morgan."

"Oh?"

"Yes. It's been several hours and one strategy meeting and I haven't given her one hug and if I don't do that right now I may go crazy."

Cordelia raised a brow.

"I mean, do you know how hard it was in there? Not only did I have to watch her standing right next to me-yet-not-me, but I also had to fight every instinct I had not to just praise her and stuff. And you!" Robin suddenly rounded on Cordelia. "You couldn't at least have ruffled her hair once? She made a lot of good points in there!"

"I'm…sorry?"

"Yes, yes you should be. I hope no one noticed in there how much I didn't praise and/or hug Morgan."

Cordelia looked at Robin wryly.

"…What?"

"Nothing. I just think how adorable how worked up you get when you talk about her. You're basically one step away from gushing."

Robin scoffed. "I do not gush, okay? About anything."

"Not even about pi—"

"And even if I did, can you blame me? She's all a father could ever ask for. Morgan is smart and energetic and eager and a quick learner and so cute that I want to hug her and never let go!"

Cordelia crossed her arms, smiling.

"I love her so much," Robin said, becoming serious. "I don't think I've ever cared so much about someone as I do about Morgan."

"She's your daughter. It's only natural."

"That might be so, but it…scares me."

"Oh?"

Robin nodded. "Despite how clearly skilled she is, she's still young and has a lot to learn. And we're at war, so I always have to keep an eye on her to make sure she's safe, especially after that whole bandit raid a while ago where I almost lost her. Gods, I almost lost it then. The very thought of losing her fills me with such fear and I can't really handle it…"

"You don't have to do it all yourself, Robin," Cordelia said. "You have all of us looking after her too."

"I know that, but it's just—"

"We care about her just as much as you do. She's so charismatic that I think she's charmed herself into all of our hearts."

"Heh, must take after her father," Robin quipped. "I just hope I'm doing a good job."

"She seems to have turned out well."

"Yeah, although all her memories are based off what I was like in the future."

"From what I hear, it doesn't sound like you were any different that you are now."

"I can only hope." Robin sighed. "Despite her losing her memories, she still somehow retained enough to remember me from her time. I can only hope I meet her expectations and don't disappoint."

"How can you? She seems to adore you."

"Is it me, or what she remembers of me? What if I turn out differently as I grow older? What if that doesn't align with what she remembers of me? What if—"

"You're overthinking things, Robin. What matters is that you're her father, she remembers you and says that you're basically as she remembers you, and, most importantly, she loves you."

"But—"

"No buts!" Cordelia said sternly. "You can't spend your time worrying about the unknown of things you can't change. Live in the present, Robin. Enjoy what you have. I'm sure things will work themselves out."

"That's a very dangerous way to live as a tactician," Robin said wryly.

"Since when was raising a daughter like planning for a battle?"

"Gods, I wish it was like planning for a battle. At least then I'd know what I was doing and what to do! I'd be in my element and account for all the variables and know what my next three steps would be! I'd be prepared and confident. Right now? I feel like I'm in a dark tunnel wandering around blindly hoping not to trip and fall flat on my face."

"I don't think you have to worry, Robin. It seems like you're turning out to be a great father, even if you don't really know what you're doing."

"Gods, I certainly hope so. Although I suppose it helps that Morgan has such an accommodating personality. I don't know what I'd do if she were a rebellious teenager or something."

"I'm surprised. Didn't you read a whole load of books on childcare back in Ylisstol?"

"Yeah, on very young kids and stuff. None of those prepared me for my own teenage daughter dropping out of nowhere!"

"Well you certainly seem to have a knack for it," Cordelia said, sighing wistfully. "In a way, I envy you."

"What? You want to have your own kid drop on your lap all of a sudden?"

"Well, ideally I'd have started my own family or at least gotten married before then, but…"

Robin looked at Cordelia in shock.

Cordelia raised a brow.

"You really want to get married and all that stuff?"

"Is it really so surprising?"

"Yes, actually. You've been present in many of my 'no romance between the Shepherds!' rants and I don't think I ever heard you object, so I guess I kind of took it as you agreeing with me. Well, that, and the fact that you seemed dead set on your duties. I thought of you as a female Fredrick, basically. You know, dependable, reliable, married to the job and have no time to think about romance or all that mushy stuff."

"I don't know whether to be flattered or insulted," Cordelia said. "Besides, I wasn't the only one you ranted to about romance and love."

"Yes, but Sumia being a hopeless romantic was kind of a given, what with our whole history during the book club era. So eventually, reluctantly, I had to accept the fact that she will one day find her future husband, fall in love, and I would lose her forever."

"And that I'd want the same thing never occurred to you?" Cordelia asked, amused. "I was at those meetings too, you know. I also happen to have the same taste in novels as Sumia."

"Oh. My. Gods." Robin looked as though Cordelia had dropped an awful revelation on him. "The…the signs were there all along…! You were into romance novels as much as Sumia was! And how excited you got when the leads finally got together! I can't believe I didn't see it up until now…"

Cordelia watched as Robin's mind looked as if it would implode trying to take this new information.

"Okay, tell me the truth, Cordelia. How long were you planning this?"

"Planning what?"

"Planning to pull a Chrom on me!"

"Well I wasn't really planning on finding the love of my life and then marrying him only a few days after our first meeting, if that's what you mean…"

"But you were planning on finding the love of your life and marrying him and starting a family and totally ditching me! How could you, Cordelia?!"

"Robin, you're being dramatic."

"What I'm being right now is hurt, Cordelia. Hurt and betrayed! You, Sumia, Frederick and Miriel were like, my four pillars of stability! Ones I thought would stick by my side and never succumb to their mushy emotions and devote yourselves to your work right alongside me! It was devastating enough when I had to accept I'd lose Sumia, and now you're telling me I'm going to lose you, too!"

"You're not going to lose me, or anyone else, Robin," Cordelia said patiently.

"That's what they all say…"

"…Didn't you say you made your peace with this a while back?"

"Well, yes, but—"

"Also, doesn't Morgan's appearance and existence mean you yourself will be falling in love and starting a family?"

"I mean, realistically—"

"So when you really think about it, it'll be you who will be ditching me to fall in love and start a family," Cordelia finished, looking at Robin pointedly.

"That assumes that I'm the one to fall into the trap first," Robin shot back. "Besides, I wasn't even supposed to fall into the trap in the first place! It was just forced on me! I can't really have a daughter without having her mother, now can I?"

"That still doesn't change the outcome. Besides, I'm still surprised you're shocked by this considering I was there choosing and reading the romance novels with Sumia."

"Guess I was so focused on Sumia that my mind didn't make the connection to you." Robin sighed. "Gods, that's two of my pillars gone."

"Oh sure. You yourself are going to do the same thing, but blame the pillars."

"…You're the one going to fall first," Robin said defiantly. "And then all of this betrayal and drama will be justified and I will be vindicated."

"You never know. It could always be you…" Cordelia remarked playfully. "And then what're you going to do?"

"Be very upset that you strung me along for so long instead of telling me you were Morgan's mother from the very beginning."

Cordelia's reply was cut off by the sound of footsteps.

"Oh, Dad! There you are!"

"Heeeeeeeeey, Morgan!"

"Dad, I—Oof!"

Morgan didn't have a chance to say anything further as Robin rushed over and trapped her in a bear hug.

"Whoa, Dad! What's wrong?!"

"Nothing's wrong. Why?"

"You rushed over faster than a bolt of lightning and are now almost crushing my ribs…"

"Oh, sorry." Robin loosened his hug slightly but still didn't let go. "I'm just glad you're here with me."

"Am I not supposed to be? Also, I was in the strategy tent with you like, a few minutes ago."

"Well, yes, but you're here again! Besides, is it wrong for me to show how much I like having my daughter close to me?"

"Heh, when you put it that way…" Morgan returned her father's hug. "I won't say no to you paying more attention to me."

As Cordelia watched the scene between father and daughter, she was amazed at how Robin had come.

For as long as she knew him, Robin was her tactically brilliant superior officer on the battlefield and her eccentric but endearingly bumbling friend off of it. Yet with the sudden appearance of his daughter from the future, she was beginning to see a side of him that she never knew existed before (and would have never guessed existed).

While Robin was reluctant to accept that Morgan was indeed his daughter at first, he did eventually come around to it (with a little help from her and Sumia). And when he did accept that he had a daughter, Robin's entire attitude around her changed. When it came to Morgan, Robin was doting, caring, patient, and maybe a bit overprotective. Despite admitting to not knowing what he was doing and that he was fumbling in the dark, Robin clearly loved Morgan and was doing his best for her.

Cordelia found it touching, really, how much Robin loved his daughter and how proud he was of her. She really did mean it when she said Robin was turning out to be a great father. After all, the evidence was in front of her eyes every day, even if Robin couldn't see it.

If anything, his future wife was one lucky woman, whoever she was. Robin was clearly a very loving and devoted father. And if Cordelia had to guess, he would probably show at least as much love and affection to his wife as he showed to his daughter. And on top of all that, Robin was good, kind, and generally fun to be around. Lastly, he wasn't too bad to look at, either (Cordelia did enjoy the sight of him in the desert without his coat, although she'd never admit it. She didn't know that his coat hid such a well-toned body).

So really, Robin was kind of the complete package. Not a bad package, if Cordelia were honest.

Cordelia blinked, not expecting that thought to pop into her head.

"…Anyway, I'm afraid this is where we part ways, Cordelia. Have to recap the meeting and discuss things with Morgan," Robin said, interrupting the pegasus knight's thoughts.

"W-what? Oh, yes. Right. Uh, see you later, Robin."

Robin nodded and proceeded to walk away with Morgan.

Cordelia cleared her throat awkwardly, trying to get her thoughts in order.

Maybe she should take a page out of Robin's book and park those thoughts. Or not go there in the first place. After all, Robin was destined a wife, he just hadn't met her yet. And Cordelia never really looked at him that way. Even if she had, she was pretty sure that she'd know if she felt something for him by now!

Although there was nothing to suggest that she wasn't—

Cordelia shook her head to stop her thoughts from going into dangerous territory.

She needed to train or something…

"Okay, here we are." Owain looked inside the stables. "And it looks like your mother is in there."

"Yeah! Great. Okay…" Cynthia tried to calm herself.

"You'll be fine. Just remember not to let anything slip out about the future. Keep yourself cool and collected."

"Right. Cool. She's not my legendary, awesome and heroic mom, she's just another soldier here."

"Well, she's technically also your superior…" Owain shook his head. "Never mind. You'll be fine. It'll be just as we practiced."

"Right!" Cynthia took a deep breath and marched inside.

"Go forth, my comrade in justice! I'll be rooting for you!" Owain cheered.

"Oh Daisy, thank you for coming back for me," Sumia murmured, stroking the mane of her pegasus. "You always do look out for me, don't you?"

The sound of someone clearing their throat made Sumia look up.

"Oh, hello. You're our newest member, aren't you? Cynthia, was it?"

"Yes, hello. Hi. I was just in the area and I…" Cynthia took in the state of Sumia's clothes. "Dear Naga, what happened to you?"

"I…"

"It looks like you came back from a battle with ten, no, twenty bandits." Cynthia's eyes lit up. "You totally did, didn't you?"

"That's…a lot less embarrassing than what actually happened," Sumia muttered. "So, uh, yes."

"Wow. So you must've been on patrol and then got ambushed by a bunch of ugly bandits! But they were obviously no match for the legendary Sumia! And you got out of there with only minor scratches on your uniform!"

"Uh…"

In the doorway, Owain facepalmed.

He and Cynthia practiced for her to approach her mother in a cool and detached manner. What Cynthia was doing now was basically the opposite of that! Then again, he supposed he couldn't blame her. After all, their parents were legendary and meeting them was basically like meeting your heroes and idols in real life!

"Heh, sorry. I guess I got a little carried away there…" Cynthia said sheepishly. "I'm just a really big fan!"

"Oh wow. I'm not used to having fans."

"Really? Because, in my time, you're a true legend. The most famed pegasus knight of all! There are so many stories of your heroic and terrible deeds."

"Oh wow, that sounds—wait a minute, terrible deeds? What terrible deeds?"

"Well there was that one time when you smashed through the enemy lines to rescue a stricken Chrom."

"That doesn't sound too bad…"

"Or the time you argued with Chrom and slapped him in the face!"

"I, er, well that did happen, but—"

"Or the time you went into a blood frenzy and downed friend and foe alike!"

"Goodness, not that again!"

"The point is, I was raised on such stories, and they gave me strength and inspiration!" Cynthia said, before continuing more calmly, "A-anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say is that you were my hero and I was really excited to meet you. I…I hope we can work together."

"Of course," Sumia replied, making a mental note to be careful about which historians she talked to and to redouble her efforts in writing her version of events. "I don't see why not. I heard you were a pegasus knight too, right? Maybe we can share tips?"

"Can we? Because that'd be awesome! Although I don't know what a rookie like me can share with someone like you…"

"Don't be silly! There's always room to learn new things. Besides, I don't know what stories you heard of me, but I'm far from the expert you think I am. After all, I don't have the experience of my future self who you've heard so much about."

Cynthia's eyes went wide. "Oh wow. To think I may be able to teach something to you of all people…"

Sumia smiled. "I look forward to working with you, Cynthia."

Once they had made it into Chon'sin, the Shepherds had a much easier time traversing through the country than they did in the rest of Valm. True, they still had to avoid the main roads and passages just to be safe, but the fact that they were passing through the land with the knowledge that they would not be harassed or spied on (since Say'ri was communicating with the local lords to map their passage) helped a lot. They could even stop by relatively big villages to rest and resupply. The local Chon'sin lords were nice enough to move their soldiers away when the Shepherds approached or just have them turn a blind eye to the group of well-armed individuals coming to rest at the local inn.

And all this not sneaking around the country like scared mice meant that the Shepherds had more downtime until they reached their destination and planned their next steps. That meant everyone was more relaxed than usual.

"Where the hell is he?!"

…Well, almost everyone.

"Severa? What's wrong?" Lucina asked, seeing how her friend looked more irate than usual.

"Hm? Oh, hey, Luce. Just looking for Brady," Severa replied. "You seen him around anywhere?"

"I have not, unfortunately. I think he might be out getting supplies with some of the others."

"Figures," Severa said, frowning.

"Is there anything specific you need Brady for? I am willing to assist if I am able," Lucina offered.

"Thanks, but I'm not sure this'll be something you'll be interested in."

"Try me."

"Well, Brady was supposed to be my partner in investigating Morgan. Although some partner. We tailed her a few times and barged in after her on one strategy meeting and suddenly he's nowhere to be found when I need him!"

Lucina sighed. "Investigating Morgan, Severa?"

"Yes, investigating Morgan! Because there's no way in hell I'm just sitting down and doing nothing when there's some girl pretending to be Robin's daughter!"

"…And Brady agreed to help you with this, did he?"

"I may have twisted his arm a little bit."

"Severa…"

"Relax, Luce, I'm not going to do anything stupid or dramatic. Suspicions as this whole thing may be, I see that Morgan's been here long enough to have convinced everyone that she's not a threat. And if I make a scene about her, I'll be the bad guy."

"She really isn't a threat, Severa…"

"Gods, see? She's even got you fooled!" Severa paused. "Although I guess that's not too surprising. Your first instinct is to see the good in people no matter who they are."

"Severa, Morgan has been with us long enough for me to determine without a doubt that she has no ulterior motive for joining us. If she were to pull something, she's already had ample opportunity to do so."

"But you can't seriously believe she's telling the truth."

"I—"

"I mean, come on. Robin's daughter from the future? Really?"

"W-well—"

"And on top of it all, didn't you say she said she remembered her 'father' and that he acted as Robin is now?"

"Yes…"

"Luce, come on. Leaving everything else aside, that alone is a bunch of crap. Like, all of us remember Robin and he was never like this!"

"That may be true, but perhaps he was like this before the war in our time?" Lucina offered weakly. "If I recall correctly, that's what Laurent suggested."

"Yeah, like we're supposed to believe someone can just radically change their personality after a war."

"Severa, remember that the war lasted a lot longer in our time than it did now," Lucina reminded her friend.

"So? From what I hear, there was a war here too. And Robin now seems completely unaffected by it!"

"Severa, while I understand that some things now must be very confusing and frustrating for you—"

"You can say that again…"

"—must you worry about them now? I thought that you had agreed to take Robin's advice and try to not to dwell on these issues lest they injure your mind?"

"Hmph. Easy for you to say. Your parents are all normal in this time. In fact, they're even better. Your dad seems spry and energetic and your mom is as graceful and elegant as ever."

"Yes, I suppose that is true…" Lucina spied an opportunity to change the subject. "How is your mother? Have you had a chance to speak to her?"

"She seems fine from what I see," Severa said nonchalantly. "Still has red hair, still rides her pegasus. Obviously younger than I remember her. Probably still as perfectly adept, though…"

"Did you not yet speak to her?" Lucina inquired.

"No." At Lucina's curious expression, Severa continued, "I don't really see the point. I mean, she's still not married and I can't really spill the beans that I'm her daughter, now can I? So absent that, I'll just be another soldier to her."

"Do you not want to at least lay some of the groundwork?"

Severa shrugged. "Maybe, although I don't really see what we can talk about while our relationship remains under wraps. You can imagine that I have a whole load of questions and things I want to talk to her about, but that's mostly as mother and daughter. I can't really walk up and tell her how much I missed her and how long I've been waiting to see her, now can I?"

"Severa…"

"And that's not even getting into the whole situation with my father. Hell, they're not even together yet! I might as well be an orphan for now. Father and mother completely oblivious to each other, to me, who's come back only to find everything's all weird in the past…"

"Everything will be okay, Severa," Lucina said sympathetically, putting her hand around Severa's shoulder. "You just have to believe."

Severa took a deep, shuddering breath. "Easy for you to say. Your situation isn't nearly as complicated…"

"It all worked out for the others," Lucina pointed out. "Their parents fell for each other just as they did in the future. And in my case, under very exceptional circumstances."

Severa actually smiled at that. "So that's actually true, huh?"

"It's a story that beggars belief, yet that doesn't make it any less true."

Severa closed her eyes.

"Not everything has a logical explanation or can be resolved by a neat plan. Sometimes all you can rely on is faith."

"That sounds like something your father would say."

"I believe I heard him say something to that effect on several occasions."

"And I believe mine would reply that that's a very dangerous way to live."

"We seem to have done well enough."

Severa shook her head, laughing quietly.

"Are you feeling better?"

"I guess. Although you know my father also hated having unanswered questions. And that's one of the few things I inherited from him."

"Severa…"

"And there are so many unanswered questions around! I feel that if I don't at least try to get to the bottom of one of them, I'll go crazy!"

Lucina looked at her friend worriedly.

Severa sighed in frustration. "Sorry, Luce. I meant what I said before when I promised not to do anything stupid or dramatic. But also just sitting here and doing nothing is not doing it for me. I have to do something!"

"What, exactly?"

"Digging, I guess. Seeing who Morgan really is and what she's like. I was also going to try and figure Robin out, but that whole situation gives me a huge headache when I think about it and I come away with more questions than answers."

"Laurent did provide a provisional answer for that one…"

"I suppose I have nothing better to work with. Might not like it or think it's even true, but I guess it's better than nothing, which is where I am with Morgan."

"Does that mean you won't be looking at Robin with suspicion and questioning everything he does?"

"Oh I'll still be questioning, don't you worry. After all, someone has to make sure this version of him has his tactics straight!"

"That's…something, I suppose. And Morgan?"

"I'll stick close to her to see what's she's up to. There's no way someone can always be so happy and clueless all the time."

"What about Cynthia?"

"Wha—? That's not—! That's totally not the same thing!"

"Isn't it?"

"No!"

Lucina raised a brow, grinning.

"Sh-shut up!"

"—is why I think it drags the plot of Stories from Valentia down."

"Really? Of all the things to find fault in, the love story between the main characters is the thing that breaks it for you?" Chrom asked, amused.

"Don't get me wrong, Chrom. The whole thing is very neatly presented. It may have some problems, but the overall package is a very good one," Robin said. "However, it would've been way better had the main pairing that the damn book is pushing on you throughout been better executed."

"What's wrong with the love story between Alm and Celica? I thought it was sweet…" Noire mumbled.

"For one, it was completely forced. Like, if you're going to push a love story between the main characters, make me believe that these two characters are madly in love. Show me why they are in love with each other instead of just telling me they are and leaving it at that. Like, seriously. Alm and Celica spent, what, some time living together as children, right? And okay, I accept that they could've developed some kind of childhood crush, but then Celica gets dragged off to gods know where and both she and Alm spend the next dozen or so years apart, never seeing each other. Are you telling me that their little childhood crush thing not only survived all that time, but actually somehow developed into actual, real love? Despite the fact that they didn't talk or see each other for like, a dozen years?"

"Well—"

"And they don't even see each other all that much during the actual story!" Robin exclaimed. "The first time they meet after like a dozen years results in some kind of fight, and then more separation. And then they spend basically the entire book apart except for the very end. Yet the book somehow expects me to believe these two are madly in love and destined to be with each other. Come on. Every time I read about their supposed love for each other, I kept asking myself exactly why were they so in love in the first place. And you know what? I struggled to find an answer!"

"As dramatic as Robin may be, I actually agree," Cherche said.

Chrom raised a brow. "Really?"

Cherche nodded. "We have read many a novel together in our little gatherings, all with their own individual romantic subplots. And I have to agree with Robin that the Valentia book was on the weaker side in this respect. I fear that the author makes the mistake of telling the reader of their love for each other instead of showing it."

"Exactly! Like, yeah, other books in the series may not have had the best writing, but at least I could believe in the characters' relationships, you know? They actually spent time together, fought wars, got to know each other and fall in love. Seth and Eirika? Knew each other for a good long while, spent time together, had history, fought a war together and fell in love. There, done. Easy and believable. Eliwood and Ninian? She ran into him and he saved her several times in the course of the book. And because he was a heroic and charming knight, of course she fell in love with him. And we all know the story of Marth and Caeda. Contrast those with Alm and Celica, who have maybe...two chapters together in the entire book, yet are supposed to be madly in love with each other. Hell, I'd say that Faye would have a more believable relationship with Alm than Celica!"

"Now that is a surprising thing to hear!" Lissa said.

"...What?"

"Well, for one, you of all people ranting about fictional characters and their loves lives. Since when do you care so much, anyway?"

"I do not care. And even if I did—"

"But crazier than that is you actually rooting for the one with a kind of unhealthy obsession with the main character to get with the main character!"

"I don't see what's so crazy about it. Faye sure spent more time around Alm than Celica did."

"Well I just find it surprising that you'd root for her, given your own history with ladies having an unhealthy obsession with you," Lissa commented.

"Okay, I'll be the first to admit that Faye isn't the best written character in the book, but come on. She's not even remotely similar to Tharja!"

"Isn't she?" Lissa asked innocently.

"No!" Robin exclaimed, taking the bait. "Noire, with all due respect to your mother, she's a terrifyingly effective soldier, a reliable comrade, and a very good mage."

"Oh you don't have to tiptoe around the subject for my sake," Noire said quickly. "I know very well how uncomfortable Mother makes people, yourself included."

"Thank you." Robin then turned to Lissa. "But she's also a terrifying presence off the battlefield almost as much as she is on it, and she's also a creepy stalker!"

"I mean, Faye followed Alm to war just because she liked him…"

"But Faye didn't watch Alm while he slept. Nor did she collect his hair while doing so!"

"...Did Tharja really do that?" Olivia asked.

Robin sighed heavily. "Yes, no matter how many times I told her not so since it's weird and creepy. Weren't you there when I complained about this? I remember doing so a lot."

"We thought you were being dramatic."

Robin stared at Chrom in disbelief.

"You do tend to exaggerate things," Lissa chimed in helpfully.

"So you all, what, thought I made all that stuff up about Tharja for fun?!"

"Well not the stalking part. We saw how she did that first hand," Chrom said. "Sometimes without you even being aware."

"And even after seeing that, you had trouble believing the whole thing about the sleep and the hair?"

"To be fair, it's not the strangest thing that has happened to you."

Robin glared at Cherche, who smiled innocently in return.

"You know what, I hope you all get your own creepy stalkers who watch you sleep at night and steal your hair for weird and creepy experiments. Then we'll see who's laughing!"

"As interesting as that would be, I doubt Minerva would take too kindly to uninvited guests sneaking into my tent. Also I'm sure a big, strong knight like Frederick here will keep any troublemakers at bay."

"Cherche, with Minerva and your natural skills with the axe, I doubt my help will be necessary."

"Perhaps not, but it will be appreciated all the same."

"Get a room, you two. If I didn't know better, I'd say you were flirting right in front of my face."

"Flirting? Us?" Cherche asked innocently. "Perish the thought, Robin. We know how you look down on that sort of thing. Isn't that right, Frederick?"

"Indeed."

"Well at least I can count on some people to keep it professional around here…"

Noire had to pretend to look for something on the floor to hide her knowing smile while Lucina drank to stifle her laughter.

"Anyway," Robin continued, "Faye is leagues better than Tharja for reasons already mentioned. Yes, she wasn't the best written character and yes, her feelings for Alm border on the unhealthy."

Lissa snorted. "Border? Robin, it's fully—"

"But! She manages not to pester Alm or do anything creepy. More importantly, she spends the entire damn book with him, from beginning to end. And not in that stupid 'always in your heart' kind of way, but actually by his side. Hell, she went to war just to be with him! And yet Alm is still thinking of that girl he had a crush on when he was a kid and who moved away so many years ago? Come on."

"I didn't know you felt so strongly about it."

"The love stories and romantic subplots in the stories we read tend to rouse passionate feelings in our resident tactician," Cherche informed helpfully. "Even if he does try to deny it."

"It's not my fault all authors insist on throwing romantic subplots into their stories. And some of them feature more prominently in the plot than others, which can bring a story up or completely ruin it, depending on how believable the romance and chemistry is between the main characters is."

"And I'm guessing the main pairing in Valentia ruined the story for you?" Lissa inquired.

"It went a long way." Robin shook his head. "Which is a shame. Were it not for the star couple and the author ramming into your head how much in love they are despite not really showing the reader why, the book would've been one of my favorites. It's quite excellent in all other respects...well, except for some of the chapters in the deserts and swamps. Those battles went on for pages and reading about them was a tedious slog. Felt like they went on forever! Oh, and that little convenient plot save in the end."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. Celica gets possessed, Alm has to kill her, but then Mila brings her back to life, good as new so she and Alm can go on and fight Duma. Too convenient, if you ask me. Like, really, killing Celica off after what is supposed to be an emotional fight with Alm and then immediately bringing her back via Mila's magic so everything works out? That's terrible. Might as well have written fairies coming and sprinkling magical dust everywhere that made everything turn out fine."

"If I recall, didn't something to this effect happen in the first part of Stories from Elibe?" Olivia said.

"No, that's totally different. When Ninian died near the end, the legendary hero Bramimond used the last of his quintessence to revive her."

"But that's—"

"Totally different, yes. Instead of your supposedly dead goddess coming and making everything better, you have one of your legendary heroes heroically transfer his quintessence, thereby giving up his life in order to give life to Ninian. The theory behind quintessence was also expanded upon as part of the story and so does not come out of nowhere and feel like a convenient plot fix. Yep." .

"I…see."

"Frankly I'm more surprised this has got you more worked up than that whole thing between Celica and Jeddah," Chrom said. "Knowing you, I'd have thought you'd be complaining about that part for, well, ever."

"First of all, I am pleased and pleasantly surprised you have managed to do the reading, Chrom! You usually come to these meetings blind and uninformed."

"I thought it'd be good to get to know at least some of the novels you guys are discussing with my wife," Chrom said, before adding, "Getting you off my back on my constant lack of reading is a big plus, though."

"I'm glad you finally decided to take an interest in our sessions beyond just eating the snacks."

"The snacks definitely help."

"That they do. You can thank your sister for them. She never fails to deliver her signature cookies and they're always signaturily tasty," Robin said, munching on a cookie.

Lissa visibly puffed with pride.

"Anyway, back to your original point, that part with Jeddah and Celica actually makes perfect sense, if you think about it, despite what the critics say."

"I have to hear this."

"No, really. Of course people say that was a good example of poor writing and of course Celica shouldn't have trusted that guy because he's clearly evil. But the only reason we know that is because we, the readers, know that guy is evil. For Celica, a follower of Mila who spent pretty much the entire book looking for her goddess to make everything better, finding out that Mila is all stone and stuff would be something that would lead to an existential crisis. With the one you pinned all your hopes on and spent your entire life devoted to sealed, what else is there to do? And here comes a guy who follows Duma's religion, which is basically the Rigelian equivalent of yours. He seems knowledgeable enough about Mila and Duma and stuff, also being the guy who showed you Mila was sealed and told you that without the magical sword, everything and everyone would be pretty screwed since now Duma can't be hurt by anything. And then, when all hope seems lost, he tells you that all he needs is your soul to fix things. Keep in mind, you kind of already had knowledge of this."

"And don't forget how he says that Alm will suffer when he'll come to slay Duma," Noire added. "Since it's impossible now."

"Oh, that too," Robin said dismissively. "So being Celica and after all you've been though, is it really that incredible that you give up your soul? Like, sure, you have no reason to trust this guy, but it also seems like you have no other choice or hope. People criticising her decision are doing it from the reader's point of view instead of Celica's. When you take into account her position and circumstances, her actions make complete sense."

"I seem to recall people made the same criticism at Eirika and her giving the stone to Lyon," Lucina commented.

Robin frowned. "The fact that some people think that was somehow Eirika's fault still makes me mad."

"Is it not? I haven't read that book yet but it seems a bit suspect, giving her country's relic over to someone possessed by the Demon King," Chrom said.

"Chrom, we're best friends, right?"

"Right."

"Two sides of the same coin, brothers in everything but blood, etc, right?"

"Right…"

"So you wouldn't think it strange if one day I asked you to hand me Falchion or the Fire Emblem, would you?"

"Well, it'd be a little strange, given that you've never shown any particular interest in them, but nothing suspicious. Of course I would give it to you."

"And up to that point, you'd have no idea I was possessed by some kind of evil abomination since I would've acted completely normal."

"...What?"

"Congratulations, Chrom. You've successfully handed your country's relics over to me, who will now proceed to destroy them since, unbeknownst to you, I have been secretly possessed by an evil abomination all this time. In other words, you have just done what Eirika did."

"...Oh."

"And hers made much more sense since she knew Lyon from their childhood and he was an accomplished mage who would maybe know how to figure this whole mystery out." Robin paused. "So in conclusion, it was a completely understandable course of action for Celica to take given the circumstances, just as it was for Eirika. Alm and Celica make a less convincing couple than say, Alm and Faye, and Stories from Valentia would score a lot higher if the writers managed to devote more time developing their relationship and less time on swamp battles."

Lissa whistled. "Wow. That was a wide tangent."

"It was about average," Olivia remarked. "We have gone wider before."

"You've made your thoughts on the book known now, Robin. But I am curious as to how you would fix some of the problems you say the book has," Cherche said. "Do you have any thoughts on the matter?"

"Give Alm and Celica more time together to develop their relationship, for one. Give believable reasons as to why they are supposedly destined to be together." Robin then grinned mischievously. "And maybe have Faye join in since she's done more for Alm throughout the book than Celica has."

"Oh my. Advocating a polyamorous relationship, are we? I didn't know you were into such a thing, Robin," Cherche said playfully.

"I mean, sometimes it's so hard. Like, you have Tethys and Marisa into Gerik and he would go so well with either of them but can only go with one. If it was up to me, I'd totally go all the way and have three of them get together, and screw any laws that say otherwise."

"...There are laws against that?" Noire asked quizzically.

"...I think so?"

Lissa raised a brow. "You don't know?"

"How the hell am I supposed to?"

"I mean, back at home you were kinda the guy who rewrote a bunch of laws and introduced even more. I think you called it 'streamlining the legal framework of Ylisse' or something."

"Well, yes, but you can't expect me to know every law in the country by heart!"

"Actually," Lucina waded in, "I don't believe there are any laws that prohibit such relationships. At least, not ones I can recall from my studies."

"...Really? Nothing at all? What about the church and Naga? Surely she must have some words against that sort of thing."

"You might have to ask someone more versed in the works of Naga than I, but I can't seem to recall anything to that nature…"

"Well there has to be something! Everyone else seems to marry only one person."

"For the most part, yes, but that's nothing telling you that's a strict rule you have to follow," Chrom said. "And of course, there's Las Nagas…"

"Oh right. Gods, that's a chapter in my life I'd like to forget…" Robin rubbed his temples. "But wait a minute. If there's nothing stopping people from having more than one romantic partner, why doesn't everyone just marry a bunch of other people to expand their pool of romantic partners?"

"Probably because most people found the one they wanted to spend their entire lives with and don't need anything or anyone more than that," Chrom stated confidently, wrapping his arm around Olivia.

"And the historical precedent," Frederick added.

"Oh?"

"Indeed. I believe it was Harold VIII who managed to wed himself to six women."

Robin (along with Liss and Olivia) stared at Frederick in disbelief.

"Although to be fair to him, three of his wives died of illness or during childbirth. And one of them due to a tragic accident. In the end, he was wed to two wives simultaneously.

"And he made that work?"

"The history books state that period was part of the Ylissean Golden Age as Harold's wives offered wise counsel which he listened to and acted upon."

"Well that seems a good a sign as any to have more than one-"

"Of course, after his death, various claimants to the Ylissean throne emerged from his many children and plunged the land into a long and bloody civil war that almost destroyed the entire country."

"Oh."

"So I suppose while there is nothing prohibiting anyone from having multiple romantic partners, historical precedent suggests that may not be the best course of action."

"That, and most people need only one romantic partner for them," Cherche added.

Frederick smiled slightly. "Indeed."

"...So basically everyone only marries one person because no one made the other option work, huh?"

"I like how that is what you've taken away," Chrom stated dryly.

"The only reason it didn't work with Harold was down to poor planning," Robin said dismissively. "See, if I was him, I would come up with an airtight plan of inheritance that would have divided my possessions equally between my surviving wives and children. No one would be better off than the other and thus there will be no reason to fight over the spoils. Also I'd have raised my kids better than that."

"Wait a minute, when did you go from being the guy who yelled at us for falling in love to being the guy who wants to marry multiple women?" Lissa asked.

"I didn't go from being—"

"Well I suppose we should've seen it coming, especially given what happened at Las Nagas…" Chrom mused.

"…I thought we all agreed we weren't talking about that ever again."

"Oh?" Lucina looked curiously between her father and Robin. "Did something happen in Las Nagas involving Robin?"

"I see an interesting story here." Cherche honed in like a shark sensing blood.

Chrom's grin radiated smugness as he glanced to Robin. "Funny you should ask, Lucina. You see—"

"Is this 'not talking about it ever again'?!"

"With how worked up Robin is, this story must be very good," Cherche remarked.

"Oh, it is."

"Chrom, think very carefully about what you are about to do," Robin warned.

"What can you possibly do, Robin? You've already used my most embarrassing stories against me. I think it's time to return the favor."

"Just remember that you're in the same room as your wife, sister, and daughter from the future. And I still have stories up my sleeve."

"Yeah right. What else can you possibly—"

"I was there during your bachelor party."

Chrom fell silent.

"Oooh, I sense an embarrassing story," Lissa said in a singsong voice.

Chrom looked at his sister, then back at Robin.

"…You wouldn't."

"Try me."

Chrom considered his options, weighing the benefits of revealing one of Robin's most embarrassing moments in his life against the costs of Robin retaliating by revealing a moment that Chrom would dearly like to forget.

"I think you should totally do it."

Chrom looked at Lissa.

"Whatever Robin's got on you can't possibly be more embarrassing than Las Nagas, can it?"

Fortunately, Chrom was saved having to make a decision when the door to the room they were in opened.

"Here we are!" Sumia announced, entering the room. "Sorry we're late. It took us a little while to get all the ingredients."

"Ingredients for wh—" Robin's eyes widened as he saw what Sumia was carrying in her hands.

"That's right!" Sumia smiled brightly. "We figured that some of you went too long than you would've liked without one."

"So we decided to whip up some pies for some of you," Cordelia said as she walked up behind Sumia holding her own pie.

Robin didn't even care that his mouth was openly watering.

"Oh dear Naga, I—"

Robin's praises were interrupted by the sound of running footsteps.

"I sme—WHOA!"

Slipping and a thud.

"Ouch. Stupid rugs…"

A moment later, Morgan burst into the room.

"Do I smell pie?!"

Sumia and Cordelia exchanged confused glances.

"…Did you see anyone behind us when we were walking here?"

"No."

Sumia laughed softly. "Like father, like daughter."

"It is pie!" Morgan exclaimed. "Smells like…blueberry. And strawberry?"

"Goodie! I love both of those!" Robin clapped his hands in excitement.

"Easy there, you two. These pies are for all of us," Cordelia said as she and Sumia put the pies on the table.

"That might be so, but we're first in line!"

"Robin, be nice. These pies are—" Chrom began reaching for a piece before Robin slapped his arm away. "Ow!"

"Chrom, you're my best friend and I love you like a brother, but if you make a move against my pie before me, I will bite your hand off."

"Robin, this pie isn't for you. It's for everyone."

"It usually starts off being for me and ends up being for everyone but me! And that's usually because of you!"

"What, so now that's somehow my fault?"

"Can we eat the pie now?" Morgan asked, holding her fork and knife and looking longingly at the strawberry pie.

"Of course, honey. Cut yourself a piece," Robin said. "But hurry before someone comes in and steals it!"

"Oh my gods, you guys. Robin's willingly sharing pie. I think the world's about to end!" Lissa exclaimed.

"Of course I'm sharing my pie. Why wouldn't I share pies with my daughter?" Robin asked.

"Because you don't share pies with your best friend and almost-brother?" Chrom said.

"Sorry, Chrom. You're much lower on the priority scale than my daughter…and nowhere near as cute."

Morgan tried to say something with a mouthful of pie.

"Not while you're eating, dear," Robin said disapprovingly. "While lessons with Maribelle generally make me want to kill myself, I do acknowledge that her etiquette lessons have some merit."

"I think we should all just calm down a bit. There is more than enough pie for everyone," Sumia said, cutting pieces and giving them out.

"That's right, Robin. Remember that sharing is caring," Lissa added.

"Sometimes I think I care too much…"

Just then, the door burst open.

"Don't try to hide it from me! I can smell it from outside. You have pie, don't you?!" Gaius' eyes zoomed in on the table.

"Oh no, I know where this is going. Not this time!" Robin gracelessly stuffed the piece of pie on his plate into his mouth.

"Robin, what—"

"What's with all the shoutin'? Oooh, what's smellin' so good in here?" Vaike entered the room after Gaius.

"Bubbles and co are having pie without us!" Gaius complained.

"What? Pie? Without ol' Teach? Robin, how could you?"

Instead of answering, Robin stuffed another piece of pie into his mouth.

"Look! He's taking all the pie for himself!"

"He ain't gonna do that if Teach has somethin' to say about—"

"I came as quickly as I could!" Stahl panted as he ran into the room. "I…I heard pie…!"

"…Dad?"

"Quif Mofgn!" Robin swallowed the pie in his mouth. "Get your pie while you can!"

"Uh, uh, right!"

Morgan reached for a piece.

Chrom was leader of Ylisse and commander of the Shepherds. As such, he had to set an example for others to follow. He was taught to be dignified, restrained, and to eat properly with a fork and a knife.

"Oh no, I'm not missing out on this!"

But first and foremost, he was a man who was kind of hungry and liked pies almost as much as Robin.

And as Chrom grabbed his own piece of pie, Gaius, Stahl and Vaike lunged at the table.

"Heya, Sev! Whatcha doin'?"

"Oh. Hi, Cynthia. If you must know, I'm trailing Morgan."

"How's that going?"

"Fine, until she bolted faster than an arrow off somewhere. Like she'd been struck by lightning or something. I never seen anyone run that fast!"

"Wow, really?"

"Yeah. Tried to follow her the best I could, but she runs fast for such a short kid!"

"Think I can help?"

"I guess it wouldn't hurt. You probably have more stamina than Brady…"

"Right!" Cynthia paused. "Hey, did you hear that?"

"Sounds like shouting and fighting." Severa listened. "Think it's coming from over here. Come on."

Both girls ran toward the sound of the fighting. When they reached the room the sounds were coming from, they saw what could only be described as utter chaos.

Sumia, Cordelia, Olivia, Frederick, and Cherche were sitting on one side of the room, drinking tea and eating pie.

Noire and Lucina were busy cleaning pieces of food off Morgan.

In the middle of the room, amidst a broken table and chairs, Robin, Chrom, Gaius, Vaike, and Stahl were piled on top of each other in the middle of a fight, covered in blue and red stains while Lissa looked, cheering.

"What the hell is this?!" Severa cried.

Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing.

"Uh…it's not what it looks like," Stahl offered.

"And for the record, this is all Gaius and Vaike's fault," Robin said.

"Wha—? If anything, this is your fault, Bubbles! If you just shared your pies with the rest of the class, then—"

"Ooh, there's pie? I love pie!" Cynthia said excitedly.

"Great. Another one I'll have to keep an eye on…" Robin muttered.

"Hey, wait a minute. There isn't any pie around here! It looks like you ate it all! Or…" Cynthia squinted. "Is that pie pieces on your clothes?"

"Yeah, funny story about that…"

"So…let me get this straight. All of you were fighting over pie," Severa stated flatly.

"To be fair, the pies are really good," Gaius offered.

"I can't believe this…" Severa facepalmed.

"What I can't believe is that you idiots actually jumped the table. You could've at least left the pies alone!" Robin snapped. "Now they're all over our clothes!"

"Well it's not our fault that—" Gaius paused mid-sentence. "Wait, what's that noise?"

Gaius, Chrom, Stahl and Robin all turned their heads to Vaike.

"What's he doing?"

"He looks like he's eating something."

"What, there's something left to eat?"

"Wha? No, definifly nofin' and defiifly didn't ufe my bofy to profecf amy pie!"

It would've been more convincing if Vaike's mouth wasn't covered with blueberries.

"He's still got pie!"

"Hand it over!"

"Hey, I still didn't get any!"

Severa and Cynthia watched in utter confusion as the fighting resumed.

"Uh…"

"Man, our parents in this time are weird."

"To be fair to them, Mom's pies were really good," Cynthia said.

"Yeah, but they never fought over them in our time."

"Hi, guys!" Morgan waved them over after Noire and Lucina were done wiping pieces of pie off her face. "You come here to have some pie?"

"No—"

"Yes, although it looks like we came too late. There's none left!" Cynthia whined.

"Nothing, except these two pieces!" Morgan proceeded to pull two pieces of pie out of her sleeves.

"Ooh, goodie!" Cynthia's eyes lit up. "How did you manage to get those?"

"Slipped them inside before the fighting broke out," Morgan explained casually. "Was going to offer it to the others, but they were too busy fighting. So I guess now they're going to you."

"Yes! You're the best, Morgan!"

"Hey!" Severa elbowed Cynthia in the ribs. "Remember who we're getting it from!"

"But Sev, pie!"

Severa's life was not going as she planned.

Granted, she didn't really have a very coherent plan for her life to begin with. She was too little to make a plan for her life when she had the chance and the world went to hell when she reached the age where she could think about her life and her long-term goals for it. By then, she considered it a success if she survived for a day and didn't see any of her friends die.

So it was like that for a while until they came up with a last ditch attempt at fixing everything. With Naga's help, they had the chance to go back in time and prevent Grima's rise and make sure the world didn't get completely screwed up in the future.

It was crazy and stupid and not even guaranteed to work, but you take what you can get when you're desperate enough.

Severa didn't know what to expect. To be fair, one doesn't have much time to think or prepare themselves before stepping into a weird time portal when the undead forces of the Fell Dragon are biting at your heels.

So Severa followed Lucina and the others into the unknown not too distant past. And it was…well, it was better than the future she came from, that was for sure! For one, there was sun! And the grass was green, the land wasn't dead and she could actually hear birds and other living creatures. So that was nice.

Less nice was the fact that she was alone in some unfamiliar land, but it still beat where she came from (Severa would later be very annoyed when she found out that she landed in a completely different continent than she was meant to).

So Severa tried to make do with what life handed to her, which was try and make enough money to travel to Ylisse and maybe meet the others there. The others, and her parents. The one bit of luck on her otherwise luckless journey was running into Cynthia and stopping her from doing something stupid. Again. Basically the story of her life, but her father made her promise to look after Cynthia and Severa couldn't really break her promise to her father. Especially since it was the last thing he said to her before he and everyone else…

So, yes. Life in Valm was unexpected but not necessarily unpleasant. The only thing that was trying to kill them were the occasional bandits, which was a welcome change of pace from constant and endless prowling Risen in her future. Although she would never admit it, Severa longed to meet her parents in this time, alive and well. She expected it would be a bit strange, seeing them being the same age as her, but that didn't matter. She just wanted to run up to them and hug them and tell them how much she missed them. Maybe yell at them a little bit for dying, too. But just a little bit.

Those were her expectations. And they were immediately shattered upon actually seeing her parents. Or not, since they apparently weren't married in this time. They weren't even dating or anything!

So what was supposed to be one of the happiest moments of her life turned out to be a long series of questions and headaches as Severa tried to make sense of the fact that she existed while her parents weren't married, fathers in this time acted like complete idiots (Severa could take solace in the fact that she wasn't the only one, after seeing grown men fighting over pie), and there was some weird girl who claimed she had amnesia who was also supposedly Robin's daughter.

And since trying to unpack all that at once caused Severa one hell of a migraine when she thought about it, Severa decided to tackle those issues one by one.

And the first issue Severa was going to investigate was Morgan. Severa considered trying to get to the bottom of her father's strange behavior, but that plan went out the window as soon as she saw her father wasn't the only one (seeing the usually calm and collected Chrom fighting with the others over pie was weird).

So yes. Morgan. Severa was going to find out who she was, what she was really doing here, and why did she choose Robin of all people to be her father.

And the first step of that was to watch her target and what she did.

"Okay, so according to my notes, the pieces are all…"

And what she was currently doing was sitting at a table and setting up some sort of board game.

"What're you doing?"

"Huh?" Morgan looked up and smiled. "Oh, hi, Severa! Are you here for our weekly game session?"

"Your what?"

"Game session," Morgan repeated. "Total Warfare, to be precise. It's a really cool tactical board game that me and the others try to play every week. We even got themed boards and units based on the Stories From series. We've been on the Jugdral board for the past couple of weeks. See?"

Severa looked over the detailed board and the pieces Morgan was putting on it.

"Pretty cool, huh?"

Severa scoffed. "Pretty nerdy is more like it. Don't you have better things to do that waste your time on childish board games?"

"They're not childish and it's not wasting time. These games have so many rules and effects and stuff they require several layers of tactical and strategic thinking. It's the perfect practice tool for amateur and professional tacticians alike!"

"I find that very hard to believe."

"It's Dad's favorite game. And you should know he's the best tactician around," Morgan said.

Severa's eye twitched.

"Anyway, you here to join today's session?" Morgan asked. "I think we have some pieces for you."

"Please. You may waste your time with your little board games, but I actually have productive things to do with my time. Besides, who else would join you with this waste of—"

"Behold my heroic entrance!" came a voice from outside before Owain barged into the room. "Owain Dark is here once again to do battle against the forces of darkness and evil! And win!"

"Hiya, Owain!" Morgan greeted. "Here to get your butt kicked again?"

"Ha! You may have got the drop of me those other times, but now have my friends by my side. There's no way we can lose!"

Severa rolled her eyes. "Right. Of course Owain would be here for your little nerd game."

"Hey, it's not—"

"Come, let's get this game started. I feel confident that we can win this."

Severa raised a brow as Nah walked into the room.

"Nah?"

"Hello, Severa," greeted the manakete. "Are you here to join our session?"

"No, I'm not. I'm guessing you're participating in this, then?"

"Of course," Nah confirmed. At Severa's stunned expression, she continued, "Don't look so surprised. This game is actually pretty deep and interesting for a board game."

"See? Nah thinks it's cool," Morgan said.

Severa supposed that wasn't too surprising. Nah was the youngest of their group (even if she tried very hard not to act like it) and so it was probably to be expected she'd be interested in board games.

"W-wait for me!"

"Noire?" While Severa wasn't surprised to see Owain and Nah join Morgan in playing their little game, Noire doing so was genuinely surprising. "What're you doing here?"

"O-oh. Hi, Severa." The archer waved timidly. "I'm, uh, here to…finish the fight…?"

"You're totally going to get wrecked," Morgan informed helpfully. "My armies are unstoppable and my dice rolls, insurmountable."

"Ha! Your overconfidence will be your—"

Owain's speech was interrupted by more people entering the room.

And the people who came next genuinely shocked Severa.

"And so after many trials and gruelling challenges and nefarious henchmen, our proud group of heroes finally makes it to the lair of the villain to put an end to the evil once and for all!" Owain narrated, putting his Seliph figure forward. "'Your reign of terror end today, villain!'"

"'Mwa ha ha! You are so deluded, Brother. Thank you for bringing all your pathetic little friends to me for that saves me the trouble of having to hunt them down one by one. Now I can kill them all in one place!'" Morgan laughed maniacally, placing her Julius figurine in front of her castle on the board. "'You will all die here!'"

"'Not while I have the strength of my friends to support me!'"

"'I am here with you, cous—I mean, brother!'" Lucina said, resolutely moving her Julia figure beside Owian's Seliph.

"As are we."

Severa watched in stunned silence as Lucina, Noire, Nah, Olivia, Sumia, and her own mother got into character and stayed that way all through their fight with Morgan.

"Ha! Lucky roll! That means Julius takes an entire twelve damage!" Owain said triumphantly. "Feeling the defeat inching closer, Morgan?"

"Please. I'm like, the final boss. Do you really think I'll go down that easily?" Morgan then flipped up a card. "I activate Julius' special home terrain ability, Child Hunts."

"That doesn't sound good…" Noire mumbled.

"It's probably pretty bad. But in the game, it allows me to roll three dice to restore a portion of Julius' health as long as I'm in Grannvale territory. The amount of health restored depends on the rolls, obviously. And oops! It looks like you all took the fight right to my capital in the middle of Grannvale."

Owain's confidence faltered. "You're kidding…"

"Nope! So prepare to watch as I restore…" Morgan rolled her dice. "Nice! Fifteen health!"

"I told you we should've played it safe instead of marching straight for the capital," Nah admonished. "Now we're stuck in a fight with low supplies while Morgan basically has unlimited health restoration."

"Oh no, are we going to lose…?" Noire asked worriedly.

"Peace, friends. We will face this unexpected challenge and emerge victorious. I'm sure of it," Lucina said confidently.

"Your hope and confidence give us all strength, cousin!" Owain nodded then turned to Morgan. "You won't win this time, Morgan. We've all come too far to fail now!"

"Too bad it was all for nothing. Because, really, do you think you can just waltz into my home turf and expect me to, what, roll over?" Morgan cleared her throat. "'You will all die here!'"

"'Julius, please! Is there no trace left of the kind and gentle brother I remember from when we were young?'"

Severa couldn't believe how into this whole silly roleplay Lucina was. She put so much emotion into her lines it was as if she was putting herself in Julia's shoes.

"'That boy was weak and pathetic. He died a long time ago and I am stronger because of it.'"

"'No, I refuse to believe it. Please, look inside yourself! My son, you were not always so cold and uncaring! Whatever happened, you must fight it!'"

Severa had less trouble accepting how much Olivia was getting into the role. After all, Severa recalled that Lucina's mother was part of a traveling theater troupe before she became queen of Ylisse. And even after becoming queen, there were times when she came and read stories to her daughter and the rest of the children, adding her own dramatic reading style and making the stories a lot more exciting. Maybe that's where Lucina got it from…

"'Ah, I see you fools have brought my mother to me, thus saving me the trouble of hunting her down.'"

Lucina looked genuinely horrified "'No, you wouldn't…!'"

"'Oh, but I would…' Also the game basically encourages me to since Julius does double damage to Deirdre if they ever face each other on the board, so…"

"Oh dear, I see where this is going…"

Morgan and Olivia rolled their dice.

"Yep." Morgan nodded definitively. "And that's that."

"'Ah, my children...it is up to you...to...to...'" Olivia sighed and made a dramatic scene of dying before putting her Deirdre figure to the side.

"'You fiend!'" Owain exclaimed. "'To do such a thing to your own mother…!'"

"'What're you going to do about it, Brother?'"

"'We will avenge her and end your reign of tyranny!'" Lucina vowed.

"'And how do you plan to do that? If you haven't noticed, you're in the middle of my territory with overwhelming home field advantage on my part. You're all doomed!'" Morgan laughed evilly.

"Er, actually…" Nah began, looking over the thick rule book of the game, "I think your actions just now have given us a way to defeat you."

Morgan's laughter immediately stopped. "...What?"

"Yes, I think that's right. It all depends on certain conditions…" Nah looked up from the rule book. "So Julius has just defeated Deirdre, we have Julia on the field, and I think we also have Arvis, right?"

"RIght here." Cordelia held up her Arvis figure.

"In that case, I think that checks all the marks," Nah said, satisfied.

"Checks the marks for what?" Noire asked.

"Checks the marks for Julia to immediately draw and equip the Book of Naga from the deck," Nah explained, picking up the deck of skill cards and looking for the one in question.

"If I recall correctly, isn't that the book that was used to actually defeat Julius in the actual story?" Sumia asked.

"The very one." Nah picked up the card in question and handed it to Lucina. "And just like its source material, the Book of Naga negates the debilitating effect from the Loptous tome and actually gives Julia effective damage against Julius, multiple depending on the dice rolls."

"Oh man, are you kidding me?! You all make it to the heart of my territory so I can take you out because of all the terrain bonuses I get, but because I take out one unit, that suddenly just gives you guys the key to defeating me?" Morgan couldn't believe her luck...or lack thereof.

"To be fair, the requirements for Julia to pull the Book of Naga are quite strict," Nah said. "You can't just go and pull it from the deck just like that."

"And I just managed to tick all those requirements…" Morgan facepalmed.

"Does...does that mean we actually won?" Noire asked timidly.

"Never!" Morgan suddenly exclaimed. "There may not be a way for me to win, but I will go down with dignity and grace! Surrender is for cowards, even if the situation is hopeless. Now roll!"

"Wait, roll? But I don't even have time to make my awesome and final moment heroic speech yet!" Owain protested.

"Roll!"

Morgan and Lucina rolled their dice, and given the advantage given to Lucina by the Book of Naga, there was no way Morgan was winning this battle.

"'"GHARRGH... NAGA! YET AGAIN... YOU HAVE BROUGHT RUIN... TO ME..."' Morgan clutched her throat before making gurgling noises and falling to the ground.

Lucina sighed. "'It is done. May this land now know peace.'"

"Oh man, that was AWESOME!"

Everyone looked at Owain, who was standing up with a very excited look on his face.

"After so much blood, toil, tears and sweat, we swept aside all the forces Morgan threw at us and took down her Julius right in her home turf. The only way it could've been better is if I managed to do it with my Seliph and Tyrfing."

"Although it certainly would've given you an advantage, I think I trust Lucina's rolls more than I do yours, Owain," Cordelia said, amused.

"W-what? I don't know what you mean. My dice rolls have been—"

"Owain, you almost completely missed getting Tyrfing," Nah stated flatly.

"W-well—"

"To be fair, Morgan has had really good luck with her rolls," Sumia said. "Much better than Robin, at least."

"What I lack in Dad's dramatic flair, I make up for in really lucky rolls!" Morgan said brightly, getting up from where she was lying. "Good game, everyone. That was really fun! I didn't expect you to get so far. Or get so into it."

"Are you kidding? This is the type of thing I live for! Heroic heroes of legend doing battle against evil, banding together to fight impossible odds, wielding weapons of legend…" Owain sniffed, overcome with emotion and how epic all this was. "Oh, and I have to thank my teammates for their assistance, for what is a hero without his faithful companions?"

"And we would like to thank you for making our games so dramatic," Sumia said. "You and Olivia sure add flavor to every round."

"It reminds me of when I was part of the traveling theater troupe. Granted, there's a lot less dancing and moving involved, but getting absorbed in your characters, the plot, the scenarios…" Olivia sighed wistfully. "It's so nostalgic."

"And we would also like to thank our antagonist for her equally colorful contributions," Cordelia said, turning to Morgan. "She does as good a job as Owain and Olivia."

"I may not be as good as Dad, but I like to think I took a few pointers from when he gets his evil on."

"I can't believe how seriously you people are taking this," Severa said, disapproval clear in her voice. "I mean, it's not like we're at war or anything. Not like you people have anything better to do, right?"

"Well, yes, but we do get lulls here and there," Morgan pointed out. "We can't really spend all our time on war-related stuff, now can we?"

"Besides, it's good to unwind and have a little fun now and then," Cordelia added. "It does no one any good to just concentrate on work all day."

Severa couldn't believe her own mother was siding against her. She was also so serious in the future! Always "duty" this and "responsibility" that. Gods, was her mom weird in this time too?! But more importantly…

"Also, you people are playing the game wrong! Like, why do you have Arvis and Deirdre fighting alongside the likes of Seliph and Julia? They're supposed to be dead!"

"That may be true for the source material, but it would be a bit silly for a game that spans Jugdral to have half its playable characters unplayable due to events in the original story," Nah said. "That's why the makers took a little liberty with the rules and which units would be available."

"Hmph. It's dangerous to play with the rules of the source material when making a game based off of it. And what was that back there?! You could've totally taken down Julius even without the Book of Naga. Your Seliph was equipped with Tyrfing and everything!"

"I—what?" Owain was unprepared to suddenly be the focus point of Severa's ire.

"Duh! Don't you know that Tyrfing grants its user a bunch of points in attack and significantly increases their magic resistance? Even with Loptous' attack penalty, Seliph armed with Tyrfing would be more than enough to take down Julius. The only way it wouldn't work is if you rolled, like, a one compared to two sixes!"

"I...wow. How do you know so much about the game?" Morgan asked. "I thought you thought this game was stupid and nerdy?"

"I...w-well…"

"Then that'd make Severa the biggest, stupidest nerd among us all."

Severa looked in abject horror at Cynthia, who entered the room.

"Oh yeah. She was super into the game as a kid. I think she got into it through the bedtime stories we heard when we were young. Heh, I remember her spending entire evenings reading the rule book trying to learn the ins and outs of the game."

Severa was too mortified by Cynthia's casual dropping of her childhood hobbies to speak.

"But the real tragedy was you guys not letting me on your games!" Cynthia cried. "Especially you, Owain. How could you? You know how much I love stuff like this! We even used to play our own version of this as kids!"

"I-in my defense, we started this game a while ago and you only showed up recently…!" Owain offered lamely.

"Owain, I swear if someone here has the Larcei figure…!"

"Peace, Cynthia. Although it's true that you've missed this game, I think everyone here had so much fun playing this through the days…" Olivia trailed off, looking at others for approval. When everyone else nodded, she continued, "that we'll be starting another game with another board."

"Yes! I get to be here from the beginning instead of joining mid-way. Thank you!" Cynthia pumped her fist in the air. "So what board are we going with?"

"Ooh, I put forward Magvel!" Morgan said, looking for the game board in question. "And this time you guys can try and take down the DEMON KING FOMORTIIS! ...Played by yours truly."

"Now Morgan, while we all do enjoy your portrayal of the bad guys in each of the games, don't you think someone else deserves the chance to play the role?" Sumia asked.

"I suppose. Are there any takers?"

Sumia looked around for someone to take the opportunity.

"Owain Dark always fights on the side of light and justice!" Owain declared.

"As do I," Lucina said.

"I don't think me playing a bad guy will be a good idea…" Noire mumbled.

"It would be interesting to try out different mechanics, but I think I'll do that next time," Nah said. "Magvel has Myrrh, who I've really been wanting to try out."

Sumia looked over at Olivia and Cordelia.

"I'm better at support," Olivia said, picking up a Tethys figurine.

Cordelia shrugged. "Maybe next time."

"So that settles that. Prepare to fall at the hands of THE DEMON KING!" Morgan set up the board.

"Ooh, awesome! This looks just as I remember it!" Cynthia sat excitedly with the others, looking through the pieces. "I'll totally be Tana, Winged Princess of Frelia who swoops down and heroically smites villains and monsters atop her pegasus!"

"Everyone, pick your pieces to do battle!" Morgan looked over to Severa. "You want to join in? Cynthia says you know your way around the game, which saves us the trouble of having to go through the rules and stuff with you."

"I…"

Severa was about to make a poorly thought-out excuse before several thoughts ran through her head.

Firstly, she supposed that her self-imposed mission now was to keep an eye on Morgan and see how she acted and how everyone acted around her. And keeping Morgan occupied during one of these (usually) very prolonged games of Total Warfare was a great way of doing that while also making sure she wasn't doing anything shady.

Secondly, while Severa really didn't want to have anything to do with her mother while Cordelia was still single and not involved with Severa's father (not to mention Severa's own issues concerning her mother), another part of her really wanted to spend some time with her mother. Any time. After all, Cordelia was still her mother, despite any issues or reservations Severa might've had. So maybe Severa would be able spend some time just playing this game with her mother and not break down or say anything compromising. Just...two normal people playing a very complicated board game.

And thirdly, there were few things that irritated Severa more than having people play this game wrong. She spent an ungodly amount of time during her childhood (and beyond) reading up on the rules and strategies of the Total Warfare series and no one was going to play the game wrong as long as she was there! There would be rules and order!

"Hmph. I guess I'll stick around long enough to make sure you all stay alive and don't get destroyed by the Demon King." Severa sat down at the table with the others. "Now let me show you how it's done."

"Ha!"

Robin jumped back to avoid his opponent's swing and immediately went for a counterattack, his quick strike making contact with his opponent's stomach.

"Aaaand you're dead," Robin declared triumphantly, swinging his practice sword.

"Oof. Indeeding." Gregor paused for breath. "Robin is being much more faster and nimble every time he fight Gregor. Is, how you say, floating like butterfly and stinging like very big bee."

"Yep. Thus is the new direction of my fighting style while my coat remains indisposed of." Robin sighed heavily thinking about it. "I now have to plow all my efforts into speed and precision to make up for the fact that I don't have access to my more devastating magic spells. It's...an interesting change of pace, let's say."

"From what Gregor is seeing, Robin's pace is being very fast!" Gregor laughed, before looking Robin up and down.

"Hmm…"

"...What?"

In response, Gregor reached into his bag on the ground and pulled out what looked like a vulnerary.

"Here, Robin. You will drink this, yes?"

"What what, exactly?" Robin said, eyeing the vulnerary suspiciously.

"Is special medicine Gregor drinks on hard journey and after good training session! Tastes like bottom of old well, but is very good for you."

"Um, thanks for the offer, but I don't think I need any special medicine at this stage."

"You have no hurting of throat? No hacking up of lung?" Gregor inquired.

"What? How did you—?"

"During training just now, Gregor hear you breathe. Is raspy like old dying donkey."

"You paid attention to the sound of my breathing while we were training?"

"For sellsword like Gregor, health very important. Soldier must be strong, yes?"

"I...yes. And I'm guessing you have your own tips and tricks on this topic?"

"Gregor have three rules: gargle, wash hands, and take temperature!"

"Seems easy enough."

"Gregor may have one more thing, but is very secret. Only men can do. You are man too, yes? Maybe Gregor share with you…"

Robin raised a brow.

"You sleep in same bed as Gregor! Then we share body heat! "

Robin blinked. "...What?"

"Body becomes very cold at night, yes? This keeps muscles limber!" Gregor said merrily.

"An extra blanket will do just fine, thank you," Robin deadpanned.

"What of Gregor's special medicine? Is very important for health!"

"Fine, if you're going to insist on it. Give it here."

Gregor handed the small bottle to Robin.

"Now Gregor suggest drinking slowly since medicine since taste—"

Gregor was interrupted by Robin chugging the medicine in one go...and then promptly gagging.

"Ack! What the hel—urgh!" Robin felt he was about to throw up his entire breakfast. "Is this medicine or poison?!"

"Is definitely medicine, although Gregor understand why Robin might feel poison. Is why Gregor usually advise drinking slowly."

"Urgh." Robin dry heaved. "This better be worth it, Gregor. I feel...gods. This somehow tastes worse than usual potions!"

"Taste being worse is how you know is better!" Gregor laughed.

"Yes. Well. On that optimistic note, I have to go to a strategy meeting now. If I keel over or throw up, I'm holding you responsible!"

With that, Robin walked off unsteadily.

Gregor chuckled. "Is reminding Gregor of when Gregor first drank medicine. Oy, Gregor feeling all nostalgic…"

"Gregor."

"Oy, is Panne! What can Gregor do for Panne?"

"Nothing. But I have noticed that you were struggling somewhat when sparring with Robin."

Gregor winced. "Is true. While Gregor still skilled and seasoned mercenary, Gregor not as swift and nimble as Gregor was when Gregor was young. And Robin having new style that is hitting swiftly and hard many times in many places. Gregor thinking Gregor's body will be sore in morning…"

"I see. Come."

"Oh? Where Panne taking Gregor?"

"I have made some special tea. It should ease the aches and pains your body will feel. It would...be beneficial for you to drink it."

"Oh ho! Gregor is being lucky man for having Panne looking after him so!"

"We have received several pieces of news from our agents," Say'ri reported.

"Good news, I hope?" Chrom said.

"It varies. Firstly, Walhart's continued inability to track and end us once and for all combined with our successes against him have given some of his allies cause to re-evaluate their support for him."

"That is good news indeed."

"Aye. This doubt is more acute in lands that are far from Walhart's current area of control and that have a weak imperial presence."

The assembled Shepherds looked at the map on the table.

"That...would mean Chon'sin and its immediate neighbours," Morgan said.

Say'ri nodded. "Aye. In fact, some of my agents have been contacted by representatives of Lady Erica of Renacia to discuss a potential alliance of sorts."

Robin scoffed. "Yeah, right. Those traitorous dastards betray us back at Steiger, forcing us to lose our momentum and a significant portion of our army, and now they want to play nice again? I'll bet this is just another damn trap for those bootlickers to hand us to Walhart and gain his favor."

"If I may," Cordelia spoke up. "While your concerns are no doubt warranted, I feel I need to point out that it was the same Lady Erica that had us cornered outside Steiger and let us go."

"Is that so?"

Cordelia nodded. "They had us completely surrounded and could've handed us over to Walhart...or worse. But they didn't."

"While that gesture is appreciated, I doubt she did it out of the goodness of her heart," Frederick stated flatly. "She and the others that day must have had some ulterior motive for sparing us.

"I'm not saying that's not true and that she didn't. I'm just saying that's what she did."

"It might also be worth considering that it is precisely these same lands and rulers who have armies that are mostly intact," Say'ri said.

That certainly got Robin's attention.

"Aye. If you recall, our erstwhile 'allies' at Steiger had brought their own forces to assist us. While we did manage to severely disrupt Steiger's forces and eliminated those under the command of my brother, we did nothing against the forces brought by the traitor lords to assist us at Steiger."

Robin frowned. "Wonderful. So aside from Chon'sin and maybe Rosanne, the only other significant military forces in the region are under the command of those who betrayed us previously."

"'Tis a sad situation indeed," Say'ri agreed. "However, perhaps the next piece of news will change your thinking of the situation."

"There's more?"

"Indeed. Just as we are aware of the wavering of Walhart's allies in this region, so is Walhart."

"Of course he is…" Robin shook his head. "But what's he going to do about it…?"

"Take his army from the north and come down to the affected lands to reinforce the faith in his cause," Say'ri replied.

Robin's head shot up at this news.

"Although it will not be his entire army and they will face delays," Say'ri continued. "Despite a heavy imperial presence, our agents are running a successful sabotage operation in the north. Their activities have forced Walhart and his allies to leave a sizable military presence in the region in response to our actions."

"But he's still marching an army that outnumbers ours down here…" Robin mumbled, feeling a shiver running up his spine. "How fare our preparations?"

"We cannot yet afford a prolonged war on our territory. While my brother did ally with Walhart, thus leaving Chon'sin's defenses untouched, they still require extensive reinforcing for a prolonged conflict with Walhart's forces. We will not be ready at our current pace, especially since I must direct matters from the shadows in this village."

Robin growled and looked at the map again.

"Which territories are wavering?"

"Our most immediate neighbors." Say'ri pointed at the map. "We have plans for Rosanne, but there is also Renacia to our west and Andrast further north. My reports suggest that the situation in Andrast is volatile. There is mounting tension between supports of Walhart and opponents of their country being a part of the imperial war machine. Their ruler, Lady Eizengard—"

Morgan looked up from her notes. "That name rings a bell. Wasn't she at Steiger too?"

"Aye. I have reason to believe that she plans to purge those who support Walhart and take her country out of its alliance with Walhart. However, she is conscious that they will stand alone if she were to proceed with her plans. It would take a major event to trigger her plans…"

Robin took all this information in, a plan slowly forming in his mind.

"Sounds like a good time to make alliances and form a common front against Walhart," Chrom declared. "We're short on manpower even with the remaining Feroxi forces and it seems we have several potential allies around who are willing to assist us against Walhart."

"You're far too quick to forgive and forget," Robin muttered. "However, this news means we must accelerate our plans."

"What do you suggest we do?"

"I don't trust these people even a little bit after what they did to us," Robin said bitterly. "However, they may prove useful in our fight against Walhart, so we'll give them the excuse they need to break free. Firstly, we'll have to bring our plan to liberate Rosanne forward."

"By how much?"

"Let's say in the next few days.

Chrom raised a brow. "Why the urgency?"

"Because we'll need to do as much as possible while Walhart makes his way down to us. Say'ri."

"Aye?"

"Bringing our liberation of Rosanne forward means that our plans for Chon'sin must also be brought forward."

"You mean for me to march to the capital sooner rather than later?"

"That is correct. Having both Rosanne and Chon'sin break free from Walhart in quick succession should show that we are very much active and alive. It should also give cover for the wavering lords to break from Walhart."

"Uh, Dad? Does that mean you are willing to have them help us?" Morgan asked.

"No, but I suppose some of them not outright killing us at Steiger has earned them some credit. Right now, their use to us is as buffers."

"Buffers?"

"Yes. To act as buffers and slow Walhart's advance down to Chon'sin. He may not make it down here for several months yet, but it'll be even slower going if he has to fight his way through hostile territory every step of the way. Hopefully they can slow him down enough for us to be ready once he reaches Chon'sin. With any luck, they'd have damaged his army enough, too."

Chrom frowned. "I don't think I like the idea of using other countries and people as shields to take the brunt of Walhart's advance."

"And I don't like being betrayed and having my plans thrown completely out of the window, not to mention having lost a bunch of people trying to get out of that betrayal," Robin said darkly. "This is the least they can do for us."

"And if they wish to form some sort of alliance or united front? What then?" Lucina asked.

"We'll see," Robin said noncommittally. "We'll have to have a discussion about how many soldiers we have, how many they have, and how desperate we are. It'll also depend on how many of them actually break from Walhart. But that's for after the liberation. Right now, our objectives are to liberate Chon'sin, Rosanne, and stall Walhart's advance down south as much as possible. With that in mind, here's what I suggest…

Robin felt exhausted after the strategy meeting. He didn't know why, but it felt like it lasted forever! He felt weak, tired, and a bit sweaty. What he needed was a good night's sleep and—

"Hold it right there, Robin!"

Nagging. That wasn't what he needed right now. Especially not from…

"Severa," Robin greeted tiredly. "What do you want?"

"Don't you give me that!" Severa snapped. "What was that nonsense at the war council just now?! "

"What, with the battle scenario simulations?"

"On the last one, you said we should let the enemy retreat. Are you daft?! Anyone with half a brain would know to pursue and finish off the enemy! Gawds!"

Robin rubbed his temples. He really didn't need this right now…

"Look, whatever complaints you may have, I'm sure they can wait until tomor—"

"No, we're discussing why you're letting the enemy go instead of killing them, right here, right now."

"Look, the actions really depend on the circumstances," Robin said, quickly losing patience. "In that scenario, we would've been chasing the enemy into rugged, mountainous terrain."

"So?"

"So they can't travel at speed through those mountains. It's just not possible. That leaves us plenty of time to finish them off once we're back at full strength. Besides, if a storm hit while we were marching, we'd be devastated. Mountains are fickle things. It was best to play it safe in that case. "

Severa frowned. "...You just think you've got ALL the answers, don't you? You sure have gotten a big head since Chrom made you our tactician... "

"It's my job to have the answers. Chrom certainly didn't make me tactician because of my dashing good looks."

"How very humble of you."

Robin sighed. "Look, if you're unhappy with my response, what would you have done?"

"HA! Don't think you can trick me with your...trickery!"

"Yes, because me asking you what you would do in a scenario when you're clearly so unsatisfied with my answer is trickery," Robin deadpanned, rolling his eyes. "Unless you're just making up excuses or whatever to yell at me for whatever reason."

"Don't think you can—"

"Think about it and give me your answer. Unless you are just looking for excuses to yell at me, in which case, stop it. I have better things to do than listen to some very annoying nagging."

And much to Robin's satisfaction, he entered his room and slammed the door in Severa's very shocked face.

As soon as he did, he collapsed on his bed and immediately fell asleep.

Severa couldn't believe what just happened. Did that just happen?

All she wanted was to probe this Robin and find the reasoning behind his actions in the last battle scenario. She remembered discussing the same scenario in the future and wanted to compare answers and reasoning. And yet somehow, like with everyone, she came off as too aggressive than she meant to, and…and…

It's not like she meant to come off as aggressive! And certainly didn't mean to nag! Especially not to her...her..

Severa clenched her fists to try and steady her breathing.

No, he wasn't. Although he looked a lot like him, he wasn't. He was too different. He wasn't even married! It didn't hurt because he wasn't... It didn't hurt. It didn't…

She would go away and think of the scenario. Go away and remember what her father told her. Remember everything they discussed. And then she'd be back with the right answer and she'd prove herself then!

Red.

Red as far as the eye could see.

The sky was dyed red by the setting sun.

The earth was red, covered in a sea of crimson Valmese uniforms, advancing like the tide to the shores of Ylisstol.

So much red. So much blood. So much destruction.

But Robin fought on. Robin fought the endless tide, vowing that it would crash against the walls of Ylisstol, but never penetrate the city itself. The Valmese would try and take Ylisstol. And they would die there.

Robin watched from the air as the Valmese siege towers approached the outer walls and were bathed in fire magic from the walls. He watched as the Valmese brought their ram to the gate and the soldiers pushing the ram were peppered with arrows. He watched the death and destruction.

Robin was tired. So very tired.

"What Robin needing is a change of scenery!"

Robin looked up to see Gregor approaching from the sky.

"Gregor? What're you doing up here? Are you dead?"

"Gregor is no more dead than Robin! But Robin is feeling almost dead because he is tired, no?"

"So very tired…"

"Then let Gregor take Robin away to rest."

Gregor extended his hand and Robin gratefully took it.

The next thing Robin was aware of was that he and Gregor were walking toward the sun.

"Gregor? Where are you taking me?"

"To best place to rest. Is hottest area around!" Gregor replied mirthfully.

Then both of them were in a hotel surrounded by fire.

"Here. Robin need change of scenery. And what scenery better than surface of sun!"

"Thanks, Gregor. It sure feels warm…"

"Is nice and warm to be taking nap. Here." Gregor sat and put a hand on his knee. "Robin must be tired. Rest head on Gregor's knee. Gregor promises that it softer than softest pillow!"

"That sounds nice…" Robin said gratefully, lying down and putting his head on—

"Argh!"

Robin woke up so suddenly and quickly that he fell out of his bed.

"Gods."

It took a minute for Robin to realize where he was, which was in his little room in the inn they were staying in. In Chon'sin, and not…

"Oof…"

He was sweaty, yet shivering. He was also feeling a bit weak despite having just slept. And more importantly, he was having weird dreams involving Gregor!

Robin put a hand over his face, making a mental note to have a talk with the mercenary and his weird medicines. Or, more specifically, about never recommending any medicines ever again.

"Good job, ladies!" Robin shouted, clapping his hands. "You're making great progress with the magic."

"It's all thanks to our patient teacher," Sumia said, clutching her practice tome.

"Yes, I'm very good," Robin agreed matter-of-factly.

"Then what does our master magic teacher have next?" Cordelia asked.

"Next we practice hitting a moving target. Or rather, you practice trying to hit me before I make it to you."

"Um, Robin? Are you sure we're ready?" Sumia asked hesitantly. "It seems like a big step from just hitting practice dummies…"

"You're going to have to practice against moving targets eventually. Not like our enemies will be nice enough to stay still and let them hit you."

"That's true…"

"Look, this is all practice, yeah? The goal is to improve your aiming and casting skills by replicating a real life combat situation. Just try your best and we'll go from there."

Sumia took a deep breath. "Okay."

"Cordelia?"

"Got it."

"Good."

Robin then walked to where the training dummies were lined up.

"Ladies! I'm going to rush you now. Get ready!"

Robin counted down from three and dashed to where the two pegasus knights were.

Naturally they couldn't hit him, what with them still being new to the magic thing and all, but they did get off a few spells, which was a good sign.

Robin ducked underneath Sumia's fireball and poked her in the stomach with his practice sword. He then spun around and tapped Cordelia on the chest.

"And...dead."

"I thought you said this was practice," Cordelia commented playfully.

"Well, it was. And in practice, you two are dead," Robin replied, grinning. "Anyway, good effort, you two. You had enough concentration and sense to get a few spells off before I closed the distance."

"We're glad you approve."

"I do. Although I do have some comments. Cordelia, I'll be with you in a minute. Sumia, your form could…"

Cordelia watched Robin give Sumia pointers and moved to correct her posture.

He sure was paying Sumia a lot of attention. Then again, Cordelia supposed that it may have been because Sumia required a bit more help. Well, Cordelia thought she required help too. She may have taken to magic because of her innate ability to do well in whatever she set her mind to, but that didn't mean she didn't need Robin's guidance on it! After all, she was still a novice and thus needed his help! She didn't feel any ill will toward Sumia or blame Robin for helping Sumia, it was just...Cordelia wished he would pay attention to her too…

Wait. Was this... ?

Cordelia shook her head to dispel such thoughts.

Of course it wasn't. She wasn't jealous! Why would she be? Robin himself said he would be with her in just a moment. He was just helping Sumia first. He wasn't ignoring her and so there wasn't any reason to be jealous! Not that she was jealous in the first place or anything.

"Robin, are you okay?"

Sumia's concerned voice broke Cordelia out of her thoughts.

"Yeah. Fine. Just…" Robin shivered. "...Okay, let's pause the training for a few minutes, yeah? I need to talk to Gregor about something real quick."

"Robin, I don't think you look very—"

"I'll be right back."

"Gregor! We need to talk about that medicine you gave me."

"Ah, Robin is feeling spry like spring chicken and is wanting to thank Gregor for the good feelings, yes?"

"No, Robin is wanting to talk to you because your blasted medicine gave me weird and crazy dreams and I don't want to repeat that experience or have anyone else go through it!"

"Is Gregor maybe in these dreams?"

"Sadly."

"Ho ho ho! Is true! You dream of sharing bed with Gregor!"

"No, thank the gods. We weren't in a bed! We were in the air... Then we landed...on the sun, I think. And I rested my head on your knee... Gods, it was horrible... "

"Do not be feeling special. Gregor have that effect on many people."

"Do you think this is funny? Since then I've been feeling tired, weak, and sweaty! Look at my eyes! They're bloodshot!"

"Sometimes Gregor have this effect. Is usually on women, but—"

"It's not funny! It is most definitely not funny!" Robin snapped. "I have ch-chills up my back even as we speak... "

"Chills? Hmm…" Gregor suddenly looked thoughtful. "Here, Robin. Let Gregor look in eyes."

"Oh no, I'm not letting you get any closer to—"

"You are strange person. Now make with the hushing!"

"Hey, what are you—?!"

"Bloodshot eyes... Chills on spine... Strange dream…" Gregor frowned. "You had insect bite not long ago, yes?"

"Did I? I guess a great big millipede bit me on the ankle the other day, but I don't see how that relates to—"

"Oy, is so terrible! You suffer dangerous infection carried by large bug! We must render treatment with no delay. Gregor fear your life is at stake."

"What, really? You could tell all that from—"

"No delay. Come. Gregor take you to healers himself!"

"I don't think you need to—ACK! Put me down, Gregor! I can walk all by myself!"

As it turned out, Robin really did need a little help since he passed out while trying to explain to Libra that he felt fine, that Gregor was overeating, and that he didn't need urgent medical attention.

Robin stood, grimly looking out at the misty Ylisstol countryside. He exhaled, his breath visible in the cold morning air.

"Good speech," he said as Chrom walked to stand beside him. "Very motivational."

"I may not be able to fight as well as I used to, but at least I can inspire others to do their best," Chrom replied.

"They'll need all the help they can get for what's coming."

"Don't I know it." Chrom shivered, only somewhat due to the cold. "Look at them, Robin. It's like the entire land has been painted red with the colors of Valm."

Indeed, for as the men stood looking out on the wall, the entire countryside ahead of them was covered with Valmese soldiers.

"By the time we're through, it'll be painted red with their blood," Robin mumbled, reaching into this coat to take out a small metal flask.

Chrom raised a brow. "You sure that's a good idea ahead of what'll be the most important battle of our lives?"

"Series of battles," Robin corrected, taking a long swig from his flask. "Besides, everyone needs a little liquid courage, especially ahead of what'll be the most important series of battles of our lives."

Robin offered his flask to Chrom, who declined, still looking at Robin skeptically.

"Chrom, you should know by now that it'll take more than this to even remotely impair my judgement."

"I would certainly hope so…" Chrom muttered, rubbing his jaw.

Both men remained silent, each with his own thoughts.

"...Robin?"

"I've done all I can, Chrom," the grandmaster replied preemptively. "We're now standing in what is possibly the most fortified city in the history of man. I have spent every copper coin, tapped every line of credit, and squeezed every merchant and contractor to complete this series of walls, traps and defenses that now surround Ylisstol. By forcing them to lay siege, we deny the Valmese the use of their cavalry. With the famous Valmese cavalry now out of action/having to fight on foot, we just might have a chance. I just pray to Naga it will be enough…"

"I have faith in your and your abilities," Chrom said, putting his hand on Robin's shoulder, "We'll make it through this."

"I certainly hope so, although I'm not looking forward to all the bookkeeping after all this is said and done. The amount of debt we'll be in is arguably scarier than the Valmese."

Both men chuckled despite the grave situation.

Chrom sighed. "It feels like forever since we've laughed like this."

"You don't get much time when you're planning to defend your city from what looks to be a long and devastating siege," Robin remarked idly.

A flap of wings cut off whatever Chrom was about to say.

"Hail." Cordelia saluted atop her pegasus. "I have relayed your instructions to the soldiers. Everything is ready as per your orders. We await your command."

Just then, horns sounded in the distance.

Everyone looked out to see movement in the Valmese lines as they began manning their siege weapons.

Robin grunted. "Cordelia, ready your troops. We'll need air cover once the Valmese approach the wall. Tell Sumia to be on standby in case things go badly."

"Robin, I—"

"I know. Me too."

Cordelia looked at Robin, who had a gentle smile on his face. It was his usual reassuring smile that made her think everything would be okay.

Taking a deep breath, Cordelia nodded.

"Sir."

She then spurred her pegasus into the air to prepare her squadron.

"Good soldier. Keeps it professional in front of the troops…" Robin muttered. He turned to Chrom, who nodded and addressed the soldiers behind them.

"This is it, men! Ready yourselves! Remember that we cannot let any of these Valmese in! Not a one!"

While Chrom was shouting instructions to his men, Robin drank what remained in his flask.

"And so it begins…"

Robin slowly dragged himself back to consciousness, and immediately regretted it as he was suddenly overcome with an intense feeling of nausea.

"Oh gods…!"

"Hey, take it easy!"

A pair of hands gently pushed him back into his cot.

"Wha—?" Robin squinted. "...Sumia? What…? Where…?"

"In the medical tent. I heard you passed out as soon as Gregor brought you in here."

"You had us worried, Robin," came another familiar voice. "Worried and quite busy."

"...Cordelia? You're in here too? Since when?" Robin asked.

"I thought it would be good to follow Sumia's example and try to get some experience with healing and medicine. If I could get the hang of healing magic, great. If not, at least I'd have some practical skills for the battlefield," Cordelia explained. "And off it, apparently."

"Urgh, what happened? And why do I feel like I'm about to throw up my insides?" Robin groaned.

"Count yourself lucky to be alive, Robin. Do you know how close you were to dying?"

"What, again? What was it this time?"

"It's no joke, Robin," Sumia said. "Libra said that if we didn't catch the infection when we did, it'd have killed you!"

"Infection? What infection?"

"Remember when you were complaining about a pain in your leg? When you were bit by something?"

"Yeah, something big and creepy and long." Robin shuddered thinking about it. "But that was a few days ago!"

"Well apparently that was something very big, creepy and very, very poisonous," Sumia stated matter-of-factly. "And the longer you leave the poison to work its way through your system, the higher your chance of dying."

"And given you left it for a few days, well…" Cordelia trailed off, nodding instead to Robin's bedridden form. "You certainly gave the healers quite the scare. We really had to scramble to come up with an antidote to halt the poison spreading through your body. Not easy, given the limited resources here."

"Really? How long was I out?"

"About two days."

"Two days?! But my plans—!" Robin tried to get up before wobbling due to sudden dizziness.

"Take it easy, Robin." Sumia was at his side and pushing him down to the bed in an instant. "You're still weak and we're still in the process of expelling the poison from your body."

"Well I guess that's why I feel all weak and weird…" Robin muttered before a thought occurred. "Wait—!"

"We still need a few days to prepare before we set off for Rosanne, so no, your little incident here didn't completely derail your plans," Cordelia informed helpfully. "And before you ask, no one else knows, aside from Chrom and a few others close to him."

Robin opened his mouth to ask another question.

"We told Morgan and the others that you had a bad case of food poisoning and needed some rest."

"And they bought that enough to not bother me for two days?"

"...We said it was as bad as the time you bought that dried seaweed for Sully from that sketchy merchant," Cordelia added.

Robin looked at his two friends in horror. "So everyone thinks I'm basically spending my time in the outhouse!?"

"Well, at least it stopped the others from wanting to visit you?" Sumia offered sheepishly. "B-besides, you wouldn't want Morgan to see you like this, would you?"

"...No, I guess not," Robin mumbled, covering his face with his hands. "It's embarrassing enough knowing I almost died from some bug bite. I don't think I could live it down if Morgan found out too."

"There's no shame in it, Robin. We're in a new land with species of bug and other animals that we're not familiar with and—"

"That's all well and good, but I'm still not having my daughter finding out I almost died from a bug bite. I don't plan on dying anytime soon, and least of all in this embarrassing way."

"Well, then mission accomplished," Cordelia said. "Instead you've been incapaciated due to extreme bowel movements caused by something you ate."

"That was the best you could come up with?!"

"On short notice, yes."

Robin glared.

"Well hey, at least Chrom knows the truth," Cordelia said, raising her hands.

"Gods, I would have been very upset if that was the story you'd have led him to believe. Poisonous bug bite is bad enough, but that…"

"Then crisis averted!"

"...You know, I really hate you sometimes."

"Okay, you two, let's focus on getting Robin better instead of unimportant things like our excuse as to why no one could see him," Sumia said, getting a bottle with some dark liquid in it. "Here's another dose of the antidote. While we don't know how it tastes, it smells quite, uh, strong, so…"

"Why can't this stuff ever taste good…?"

As he was lying there and taking his disgusting antidote, Robin made a mental note to thank Gregor. After all, it was due to the mercenary's keen eye that Robin was still alive. Well, Gregor's keen eye and the diligent work of the healers. He made a note to thank them also.

And lastly, he made a note to thank Sumia and Cordelia. They may not have been fully trained healers like Lissa and Maribelle, but their nursing skills were enough to get Robin out of the many times he found himself in the medical tent, which was much too often for his liking.

Then again…

Robin looked up.

Having two caring (and attractive) women fussing over him wasn't the worst thing in the world, although it would've been nicer without the whole "almost dying" bit...