It was dusk at the top of Yisstol's city walls. Cordelia was on her lookout shift, along with Belle, a veteran pegasus knight. She had finally started her service after looking forward to it for months, but the experience was nowhere near as fulfilling as she was looking forward to. She felt a gaping emptiness in her heart; She had felt as though there was nothing to fight for anymore.

She felt herself tense up, her fist clenching her spear tighter and tighter. A silent rage boiled inside of her, how could she have let this happen? She couldn't live with the fact that she never had the courage to tell Chrom that she loved him, more than anyone in the world. But because of her cowardice, she had lost. She should have been less worried and just gone with the flow. That's what Sumia does, and look at where she is now! Probably schmoozing off somewhere near the castle, baking another goddamn pie.

You've got it pretty good now, eh Chrom? Well gee, I guess I wouldn't know. I'm just that shy, useless girl who does nothing but train and never talks to anyone.

"Er, Cordelia, are you all right?"

Oh for the love of Naga, she's just muttered half of her thoughts out loud.

An awkward silence persisted.

"Oh, er, it's... nothing, Belle. Don't worry about it."

Belle chuckled. "It's your first day, isn't it?"

Cordelia sighed. "It is."

"Stressed?"

"I suppose."

Belle looked over at her. Her long cobalt braid danced in the lights from the city below as it blew in the wind. Her face was hardened by her years of service, but her eyes still shone like cut sapphires. "Cordelia, we're all very proud of you."

Cordelia went back to looking forward. Empty compliments weren't going to help her in the slightest.

"...Thanks."

She smiled. "You may not want to believe it, Tiamo, but the whole squadron thinks that you've been incredible."

Cordelia's eyes slowly shifted around. "The whole squadron. They think that about me."

Belle laughed. "Of course we are! Good grief, you're so talented, and yet you don't even realize how gifted you really are. It's a bit of a shame honestly. But damn it, I'll have you know that I wasn't even anywhere near as good as you are back when I was your age. You've really raced through the ranks, and I don't think it was all just due to the sudden need for soldiers because of the war... wait, crap, I don't think I was actually supposed to let that slip to the new kid."

"Actually, I already knew about that."

"Oh. Well then, never mind, we can just pretend that all that never happened."

Cordelia laughed a little.

"But, yeah. I talked with the rest of the others, and we all agreed that you were probably the most... qualified... person to move up. Hell, I think that you were more than qualified. In fact, I'd call you a genius."

Cordelia looked at her. "You really think so?"

"Hey, what does Phila say all the time about listening to your superiors? I think you've got some incredible potential in store, and I can't wait to see it come into full play some day. You're going to be just fine."

"...Thanks, Belle."

She went back to scanning the deep blue horizon. The great mountains were covered with great dark trees, and small villages dotted the landscape. There were lights coming from each one, looking like clusters of stars from far away. It was dark, and quiet.

But almost too quiet.

A cold wind passed through and chilled Cordelia to the bone. Something was very wrong.

Suddenly, a great orange blaze overcame one of the villages. It lit up like hellfire.

Then the same thing happened to another.

And another.

Before she knew it, half of the surrounding villages were becoming engulfed in flames. Cordelia gasped in terror. A great army could be seen marching across the valley, torches blazing, wyverns towering and flying, as they flew a violet flag with an emblem that nobody had ever seen before.

"Naga's name, Tiamo, do you see what I'm seeing?"

"Yes, I do. We need to mobilize."

"You've got that right. Tonight's the night our training pays off, Cordelia. We'll show those dastards who's boss. Officer Valentine!" She called down below.

"Yes, Private!" A falcoknight shouted from below.

"There's enemy forces coming through the valley, we don't know what they are, but there's hundreds of them!"

The officer hesitated."...Everyone assemble! We need every bit of firepower we can get!"

The knights below all grabbed their weapons and mounted their pegasi, all ready for battle. One by one, they flew up to the top of the wall ready to defend, as the archers and artillery mages up top readied their weapons.

Every one of the soldiers was ready to fight to the death to protect their capitol and their Exalt.

All twelve of them.

"Lissa!"

Robin stormed through the eerily empty hallway, his footsteps echoing loudly throughout as the statues lining the walls glared down at him with their judging, demonic eyes. He felt himself fading away as he continued to lose blood. His run slowed gradually to a walk. "No, no... not here... not now..." He muttererd. His breathing was shallow, barely enough to keep up with his racing heart.

The palace was a labyrinth. Dozens of doors dotted the great, looming corridors. Each hall branched off in a seemingly impossible manner, navigating solo was unfathomable. If only Chrom had been there to tell him where to go, lost and all alone, crying for help in a painful agony. He had no idea where the entrances or exits were, nor the quarters belonging to the princess or her bodyguard. The vast expanse swallowed him whole, the tick-tocking of a giant grandfather clock madly filled the hall with despair. With every ticking second of the clock, Robin's options only grew lesser and lesser.

He stopped. He felt a cool breeze flooding into the hall, surrounding him with a determined wind. Out of the corner of his eye branching hallways led to a great, arched exit, open and unguarded. Robin shakily ran over to the door, nearly collapsing onto a marble column. He leaned on it to keep himself standing. He needed to reorient himself, he needed to keep going. Gravity dragged on his body. There wasn't much time left. The indigo sky was set off by burning flames over the town below. He could barely fight at all in his current state, there was nobody to direct, the situation was hopeless. He sank slightly towards the ground. His vision began to blur as he noticed a violet flag flying atop one of the gates to the city. He couldn't even think of what to do any more. He'd lost his greatest asset, his analyzation and sharp mind.

All he could do was just remark on how strange the flag looked.

Violet? What an odd colour for a flag, he thought. Not even an emblem on it, how curious. He felt himself fading away into nothingness. But, as he continued to stare at the flag amidst the chaos and noise, he noticed that it did indeed have an emblem, his vision had just blurred beyond comprehension. He tried with all his willpower to at least see who was invading. It looked like an inverted triangle... a very squiggly one, although perhaps it could have been his eyes... gods he'd lost an awful lot of blood... oh, it has eyes...

six eyes...

He snapped up in shock.

He was immobilized, eyes wildly glazed and staring at the distant flag.

No... it couldn't be.

He lifted his right hand. His glove was caked in sweat and blood from trying to keep his wound at bay. He picked up his left arm and fiddled until he got the ruined glove off. The cool breeze enveloped his hand. Sweat dripped down his brow. He clenched his hand into a tight fist. His heart continued to race. Slowly and shakily, he turned his hand around...

Robin blacked out with the mark of Grima burned into his mind.

Cordelia could see Belle's eyes darting nervously around. The jerkiness and nervousness in her movements were deeply disturbing for a knight of her experience and formidability.

"Wh-why are there so few of us here at the gate?" She implored. Her voice shook as it struggled to overcome the volume of the advancing troops.

Officer Valentine gave her a grim look. "These were the only troops deployed here for the night. Commander Phila and the strongest platoon are abroad, and the rest are at the castle."

"What? We can't fight them on our own! We're vastly outnumbered, they'll rip right through our lines like they were made of paper!"

"And they'll only do it more easily if you panic and let your guard down, Private!" She snapped.

"But we-"

"Calm down, Belle, remember your training. If we stand our guard and maintain formation we'll be just fi-"

Suddenly, an arrow flew right into Valentine's forehead.

Her eyes became lifeless glass marbles as they rolled back into her head, blood trickling out of her mouth as she finally keeled over to her right and fell like a heavy ragdoll, still clenching her javelin in her cold fist.

Cordelia stared at the officer's lifeless body laying twenty feet below. The smell of blood lay stagnant in the air.

Belle screamed. "Maria, NO!"

An uneasy atmosphere fell over the scene, chilling her bones, as a knight panicked and charged to her death, sending everyone into a flurry of clashing spears and swords as fire and lightning chaotically rained down from above.

Author's Notes

Special shoutout to Emmeebee ( u/4544582/) for beta reading and editing on my first couple of chapters! She's been a huge help, helping to turn an average story into something worth reading, and I really appreciate it! She hasn't done this one quite yet due to scheduling, so I'm just hoping that it's all right as of now. I mean, I got 7 chapters in with 65 followers, so I must be doing SOMETHING right.

Golly gee willikers Phila's tactics are awful. Wouldn't you like for her to learn a little something from Robin, eh?

The first and last thirds of this chapter came very naturally story-wise to me, which is always really nice. But my oh my, Robin's story kept changing direction for me, and it never really gained momentum until now. In short, it's a lot different from my original plan, which, while it may have been kind of nice from a shipping standpoint, really made the characters come off as cowardly in retrospect. The scene's spirit will probably live on, but just in a different way.

Story fun fact time! Belle is actually named after the main character of Fire Emblem: Staff of Ages, which is a pretty neat FE7 romhack made by my internet shitpost fam r/fireemblemcasual. It stars a pegasus Lord, so that's pretty fun. It's not done quite yet, but give it about 5 million years and it should be the best romhack ever! I also created a character for it named Jay, who appeared waaaaaaaaaaay back in chapter 2.

Officer Maria Valentine doesn't have a real origin, though, I just thought the name sounded neat. It's like you've got this pretty, damselly-sounding feminine name, but then you stick an "Officer" in front of it and then WHOOSH instant badassery. Too bad she only got like 5 lines in the entire story, I kinda liked her, especially since she was on a first-name basis with Belle. Maybe she'll be like the Boba Fett of this story. Or perhaps more realistically, the one stormtrooper that spins around his gun and yells "Traitor!"