Cordelia

I have cried for the second time in my life today. The first time was when my mother died. Since then I have left my friends to follow their own path. I started working in a library in the capital, but it seemed like boring and unimportant work. I joined the Pegasus Academy. It was easy due to my previously existing experience. A random person signing up for the army was suspicious, especially considering they could ace basically any test thrown at them. I was eventually accepted.

Then when the Shepherds were escorting the Exalt, Plegian forces attacked the capital. All of my squad except for me was killed. I got on Sabbuke and flew straight to where the Exalt should be. I met up with the Shepherds. After a battle, I was accepted into the Shepards.

I was given the tent that Sumia used and set up another bed. When Sumia was out of the tent, I just collapsed, sobbing. Nobody heard my wailing, or if they did, they headed Sumia's warning to leave me alone.

Cordelia lifted her ink pen off the scroll. Normally she didn't write diary entries, but she really needed to get her thoughts out. She was intentionally vague in case someone saw it will it dried.

"Hey, you okay in there?" Cordelia looked up to see Sumia entering. She had removed her armor but still had her purple battledress on. The pegasus knight plopped down onto her bedroll.

"Yeah I'm fine," Cordelia replied, setting a rock over part of the paper to keep it down as it dried during the night.

"Hey, what's that," Sumia said, looking over at the paper,"Oh, Cordelia, I didn't know you lost your mom." Sumia must have lacked proper balance, as she fell face first onto the paper.

Sumia got up. Her face was covered in black ink,"Oh gods Cord. I'm so sorry," she said.

"It's okay Sum," she said, "We can head down to the river and clean you up."

"Okay," she said nodding.

Sumia went ahead while Cordelia looked at the paper. It was completely smudged. She grabbed the paper and folded it up. It was worthless now. She would just toss it into the fire. She took the lantern and went out to follow her friend.

The fire was still going and seemed to have fresh wood in it. Cordelia looked and saw their tactician, Anankia, reading a book by it.

"Hey Cordelia," the tactician said.

"Oh, hi," the pegasus knight said.

"I had a question to ask you." she replied.

"Sure ask away."

"Well, this book here says that Plegia is defined by large deserts.."

"Wait, you didn't know that already?" Cordelia said shocked,"Any Ylissean kid knows that."

"Amnesia," she replied, tapping her head.

"Oh gods, I'm so sorry ma'am."

"It's okay," Anankia replied,"Anyway, Once we get into Plegia we are going to have to reconsider our scouting guard. Horses would have a lot of trouble walking on the sand. Any suggestions?"

"Well Ricken knows a sand hardening spell, but expanding it past himself would be challenging, same for Mirel. Sumia and I can ride our pegasi… Gods, I left Sumia alone, in the dark."

Anankia stood up. "Should I come with you?"

"No, you don't have a lantern and I can't wait. Just stay by the fire," Cordelia ran out of the camp, not bothering to look to see if the tactician followed her.

"Sumia! Sumia! Sumia!" Cordelia traversed the woods, slowing making her way to the stream. The trees weren't so thick that moonlight was blocked, but she was still thankful for her lantern.

In the distance, to her left, Cordelia heard sobbing. The knight ran toward the position of the cries.

Cordelia found Sumia on her side. Her leg was wrapped up in a root. Sticks filled her hair and there were some small tears in her battle dress. The ink was still on her face, but it had dried and smudged more.

Cordelia ran forward and lifted her friend's face up. "Are you okay?"

"No, I'm worthless," she replied.

Cordelia crouched down to her friend's level."No, you know that's not true. You're one of the best pegasus knights we have in the Shepards. Maybe you didn't notice, but you took out the entire southern wyvern brigade this morning. They couldn't even get into Virion's range before you knocked them out of the sky."

"I'm not talking about battle," Sumia sobbed out,"I'm talking about all this." She motioned to her leg with her free hand. "Who cares how strong I am if I miss a battle because I'm stuck in the woods?"

Cordelia felt around for a sharp stone to cut the root with. She began sawing at the root, placing the lantern near the root for better lighting. It was hard work.

"Hey, Cord," Sumia said,"when the Shepherds were resting up in Regna Ferox, Chrom told me this interesting story." Cordelia kept sawing. Whenever Cordelia had to spend a long time rescuing her, she would tell her stories. "Apparently when Lissa, Frederick, and Chrom were on their own, the same day they found Anankia. They found a group of five disoriented people. The weird thing was, they had armor and weapons. The leader, a woman with blue hair, a lot like Anankia's, said that they were from far away. They were chasing after 'invisible warthogs' and needed the Shepards' help in defeating them, to prevent further damage."

"There was also a gray-haired man who called the lady his "liege", a pink haired Cleric who didn't say much, a quiet blue haired war dancer, and a red-headed sword user."

Cordelia paused. Sumia had just accurately described Queen Faith, Jakob, Princess Sakura, Princess Azura, and her mother. War dancers were so rare, that Azura technically being a songstress could easily be overlooked.

Sumia continued,"Apparently the leader was a princess of Nohr and Hoshido." Sumia snorted,"I'm calling wyvern dung on that one."

What was Faith doing in Ylisse? Maybe the portal that Rhajat reopened to enter Ylisse was the same one. She had heard Faith jokingly call Vallite soldiers 'invisible warthogs' on the campaign in Valla…

"Anyway," Sumia continued,"the weirdest part was the redhead. Chrom found her hiding in some bushes. She said she knew of you. She also told Chrom to give you a message 'Tell her you met a girl named Selena who swears to surpass her someday',"

Cordelia dropped the rock and stared at the root. "How does mother know about me? She always said I looked like her mother, but...no it can't be," she pushed the unsavory option out of her mind.

"Cord, are you okay?" Sumia asked, craning her neck to see her friend.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine," Cordelia stuttered out. She sawed quickly and broke the root. She then started unwrapping it from her friend's leg.

Standing up, she helped Sumia to her feet, walking back toward camp, trying to push thoughts of her mother far from her mind.

Author's Notes: The chapter plans are: Tharja's recruitment, a modified version of Gaius's and Tharja's S support, Severa's recruitment, and Anankos drawing the Awakening trio to the tree of Valm. I might do something with Anankia's past using Lucina, tieing it to Fates, but it depends how busy school is/it starting or not.

Also if anyone was confused about Gaius's hair color, he has orange hair, even though his mother is Beruka. Same with Tharja. She has her canon hair even though Nyx puts it a shade off in game.