Chapter 8: Hopes & Dreams

The trip back to the middle district went just as smoothly as Anna had expected. And by smoothly, she meant distressingly painful.

Leila's supplies were contained in one large bag, but this bag was heavier than the pairs of weapons, books, and containers that she kept standard on her travels. She had to wonder what it was that she did to make her concoctions that involved such tools.

"Leila, do you always travel this light?" Anna asked, obviously unhappy with their position, but as she held one side of the large sack and Leila held the other, the herbalist just hummed a tune to herself and ignored the sarcastic comment.

After a painful march up the road to Garren's home and the pitying looks and laughter of the population of Ylisstol, the duo finally arrived. Leila dropped the sack upon their arrival, leaving the weight to fall on Anna as she wondrously gazed around the room.

"It's so spacious here! I could have three, no four of my shops in this place! Oooooh, where do I start?!"

"You...can start..." Anna heaved as she lifted the strangely heavy package off of her chest. "..By doing your job. Here, follow me."

Turning from the main hall to the west corridor, they quickly came upon the open door to Cathlyn's room. Leila's eyes darted around the small space, until they caught sight of the young man whose face was stained red. To Anna's surprise, Leila darted to his side, already beginning to search for what plagued him.

Cathlyn, whom had been sitting at her desk quietly until the two arrived, jumped with a mild shriek at the sound of Leila marching through her room. Anna stifled a laugh, but the daggers shot at the young merchant showed that it was noticed all the same.

"Who is this?" Cathlyn asked, her attention now directed at the older woman pressing her head to Robin's chest.

"This is Leila, the potion shop owner you sent me to find. She's...a little weird."

"Wow. Didn't expect her to be real. I'd only ever heard rumors." Anna's head snapped to Cathlyn, her anger building at these words.

"You…You didn't think she was real? Then why did you send me down there?!" Cathlyn waved her hands to calm Anna down, but there was no real effort in the gesture.

"Well, it was either find her, or spend money on a cleric who does nothing but praise Naga in front of us for an hour." She gave a shrug. "Could've been worse."

Anna didn't buy into her act. She felt that Cathlyn had every intention to send Anna to the lower district knowing the dangers. If Leila had really been a myth amongst people of the middle district, she might not have escaped unscathed. Her gratitude for Leila only increased with this thought, but her ire for Garren's daughter did as well.

Before Anna could come up with another retort, Leila shot up from Robin's bedside, and spun on her heel to face the two girls. Her typical smile was still there, but it was much more subdued. It was clear that she was nervous, though over Robin or her ability to win Anna's favor, she was unsure.

"A fire source, please!" She exclaimed, to which Cathlyn responded by handing over the candle in the room. Leila keep it at the edge of the desk before rushing back out into the main hall. When she returned, she held in one hand a vial containing a pink liquid and in the other some form of stand to hold the vial in.

She positioned the stand over the candle flame before inserting the vial. The stand hung the vial just high enough to avoid touching the fire, but the flames licked the very edge of the container. Leila leaned at the edge of the desk, scanning over the contents of the small bottle intensely.

Both Anna and Cathlyn were unsure of what to make of it all, but the sounds of Robin groaning and rolling in his slumber were enough to bring them out of their confusion. Before either could make a sound, Leila held her hand out as to stop the two, only stopping to remove the vial from its stand, its contents now bubbling within.

"Both of you, please cover your noses."

"Huh? What are you-!" The question was cut short when Leila popped open the vial, releasing a devastatingly strong scent throughout the room. Anna immediately recognized it as the scent that she had taken in before fainting earlier in the day and forcibly covered Cathlyn's mouth and nose while holding her own breath. Cathlyn shouted muffled arguments, but Anna refused to let go. While they fought, Leila poured the contents of the vial into Robin's mouth, the bubbling substance steaming as it touched his tongue.

As the concoction slid down Robin's throat, the groans suddenly changed into screams of agony, and for a moment, both watching girls shot harmful intent towards the newcomer, but in another, Robin calmed down, his face changed from the long-held grimace to one of deep sleep.

Leila capped the empty vial shut before waving the girls out of the room, following suit shortly after. As she exited, Leila's smile grew back tenfold.

"He should be much better by tomorrow. Or maybe in two to three days. He won't be waking up for awhile…" Leila nervously tugged on her short hair, but the smile was still bright and shining, clearly proud of her success.

The pair put aside their problems with one another to focus back on the problem at hand. Cathlyn was the first to ask. "What exactly did you do to him?"

"Oh, sorry for keeping you uninformed! It's simple. I put him to sleep with large dose of sleeping potion!" She raised the empty vial in the air for added effect, seemingly unaware that she had used it all up moments ago. "It relaxes the body, and the more used, the higher chance of slumber. And warming it makes it taste less like pegasus shavings." The girls both shivered as they imagined the fur of the winged beast on their tongues. "You see, your friend wasn't sick. He was having a nightmare. A really bad one."

"Then why was he crying out in his sleep? Doesn't pain in nightmares usually wake someone up?" Anna asked, in disbelief of the simple diagnosis. Leila was eager to explain.

"In most cases, that's true. A jolt in a dream would be enough to wake someone. It's rare that a person is screaming through their dreams. Overall, it seems that he simply hasn't woken up from the nightmare. My potion will keep him from thrashing about, but it can't stop his dreams. He could end up like this again."

There was a moment of silence as they came to accept that this solution may not be permanent, but it was broken by Leila's enthusiasm.

"Sooooo, do I get the job?"

Cathlyn and Anna once again locked eyes, this time Cathlyn clearly dominating as Anna sought to avoid further contact. Despite the lack of notice for either party of the household, Anna felt indebted to Leila. The woman had come up from her own home and solved their problems in a flash, and all she wanted was work. Not to mention her original home being a decrepit old shack that isn't fit for anyone to live in. Deciding to work out the details later, Anna gave Cathlyn a begrudging look of apology before giving her answer.

"…Yes. You passed the test with flying colors!" She tried her best to share in Leila's enthusiasm, but the delivery was forced.

Cathlyn clearly had objections, but she held them in. Anna knew that she felt just as indebted to Leila as she had, and neither of them were going to crush the eccentric alchemist's dreams.

As Leila pulled them both into an inescapable hug, the two shared a single thought.

Just what have I gotten myself into?

The clouds cleared, and the hooded mage was nowhere to be found.

Chrom's heart pounded as he saw the enemy sneering down at him from high above, where his sword could not reach him. As he charged another blast of dark energy, Chrom felt the first inklings of defeat rise within him.

However, when a powerful wind enveloped the evil mage, those feelings receded immediately. Even higher, touching the very top of the ceiling was Robin, using wind magic to keep as high in the air as possible. Unable to keep both himself and Validar in air with his power, he dived for Validar, charging a bolt of lightning in his hand whilst the sorcerer was held captive.

The wind dissipated, and though the dark mage had time to conjure his own magic to block Robin's attack, he was incapable of anticipating Chrom's. Before he could realize, the Falchion was arcing towards him. Validar attempted to use his other hand to prevent Chrom's assault, but Robin pressured him into focusing all of his energy on one target. In one fluid motion, Chrom leapt for the sword he had thrown, caught it mid-spin and tore through Validar with a hacking slash. All three combatants fell to the ground, Robin and Chrom groaning at the long drop, but they would not lose focus. They gazed over to the bleeding mage, his body fading from reality.

The battle was won. Validar was no more.

Notes: So uh, it's been a full year. What happened to my enthusiasm to write, you may ask? Well, at some point, it died. Overloaded with a whole lot of new elements in my life, I didn't exactly ever want to work on the story. It was only very recently where the fire came back, and I was able to continue with the same feelings that I came into this story with.

I can't promise that I'll be working faster from now on, but I can say that at the moment, my passion for the story has been refueled. If you guys are willing to put up with how long it takes for me to update, I can earnestly say that I will get this done. It's just going to take a while.

Thanks for reading, as always. It's good to be back.