Chapter Text
After a long and difficult for everybody month, Golden Deer House have finally successfully ended their mission, they found Flayn in Garreg Mach’s secret underground dungeon, but she wasn’t alone. The enemy’s army was strong and yet it couldn’t match with Byleth’s strategic talent. The fight was long but when she was about to deliver the final blow to the terrifying knight in black armor, another masked person teleported right behind the Death Knight. It looked like they were about to say something, but yet another person has appeared out of nowhere, but that man definitely wasn’t human, he had pale white skin, equally white hair and no pupils in his eyes. Byleth moved back few steps at the sight of that fearful creature, then she realized that his fingers were clutching on unconscious Flayn’s arm.
"We need to go," he said to both masked figures
"We were not supposed to take prisoners," hissed the smaller one of them
"There’s been a change of plans" said the pale man then he looked menacingly at Byleth and then all four of them disappeared. Byleth stood still for a moment after all of this, they've never been more shocked in their entire live, while Claude and his classmates explored the place where their enemies and Flayn just were. But they haven’t left any clue. The sword of the creator fell from Byleth’s hand. They failed.
Next days were even more difficult than the previous ones. Many people started questioning their safety in monastery and some students, monks and knights decided to leave. Seteth has disappeared as well but he left a note that he’ll be back when he find her, he took some of his most trusted wyvern raiders and left Garreg Mach to search for Flayn and people who kidnapped her. The Battle of Eagle and Lion was officially cancelled, for the first time in history, and there were rumors that great ball and White Heron Cup will be cancelled as well. So the morale were all times low. None of the classes received their missions, Hubert and Edelgard started to disappear from the monastery regularly. It was surprising for everybody, because of the dangers lurking in the dark. But they came back every single time. And at the end of the month Seteth came back as well, he was both exhausted and furious, nobody even tried to talk to him, he closed himself in his office and haven’t left for three days. At the end of the third day Byleth knocked to his door, but nobody answered so they just said:
‘We aren’t giving up on Flayn. We will find her’
And they left, after that them and Jeralt started writing letters to their mercenary friends to help them to search all over Fódlan.
Only at the end of year Seteth had opened up a little bit again. He was still upset and everything annoyed him, but nobody judged him because of that. He officially resigned of his position as Archbishop’s advisor so he could focus fully on searching for Flayn. But it has changed on the day when Jeralt was killed.
Byleth was lying on their bed with tears rolling down their face. Sothis was quiet for few days, she just had no idea what should she say to comfort them, so she just allowed them to mourn, because it seemed that they need it. Then somebody knocked on the door. It was quite late so they weren’t expecting any guests. Her students didn’t bother them, but Hanneman and Manuela could want to ask about something. Probably about Leonie. Apparently she also locked herself in her room. But they weren’t in the condition to talk with anybody. If that’s their colleagues, they will come again in the morning.
"Professor?" said the voice from behind the door and Byleth sit on their bed as soon as they heard it "I hope I don’t bother you, but I would like to talk with you."
Byleth stood up, lit the candle on their desk and opened the door, Seteth stood in the doorway, they just gestured him to come in by moving their head, while wiping their tears. He sit on the chair by the desk and they sit on their bed. They had no idea what to say and yet it was nice to see him after those terrible two months.
"Byleth" he said and they flinched, it was the first time in a really long time somebody called them by their name, "Those… creatures that are responsible for your father’s death are also responsible for Flayn’s kidnapping. You need to know that we share the same enemy and I don’t intend to stop you from tracking them down and avenging Jeralt. I want to help you but I would like you to listen to what I have to say."
Byleth nodded silently.
"Alright" he said and took deep breath "Flayn is actually my daughter, her blood is very rare and incredibly dangerous in the wrong hands and I’m not certain if they won’t-"
He wasn’t able to finish this sentence, tears appeared in his eyes
"I’m not certain if they won’t kill her" he finished at last "But I know that they need her right now."
"If," Byleth said in a hoarse voice, "If we want to find out where Flayn is being held, we need to catch one of them and question them."
"I think so as well. I will coordinate the actions of the knights and when I’ll learn about our enemies whereabouts I will inform you first." He said, then he stood up and headed towards the exit.
"I’ll do everything in our power so you won’t need to avenge your daughter," they said right before he left, Seteth turned around, bowed and said:
"Thank you, that means a lot to me" then he left
Seteth kept his promise, when he got a report that stated the Sealed Forest as the possible whereabout of their enemies he immediately informed Byleth and their class about it. Rhea tried to stop them from needless risk of their lives, but thanks to Claude’s intervention they could set-off. And yet they failed, again. Solon killed Kronya and trapped Byleth in some sort of magical void. Their disappearance shook everybody to their core, but not much more than their appearance when they managed to escape, both their eyes and hair changed color to light green. But the battle wasn’t over yet, all of them still had to question Solon, he however killed himself before they could ask their questions. After battle Claude immediately ran to Byleth to talk with them, Seteth however stood a bit away from them just staring at Byleth’s green hair.
‘It’s impossible’ he said, his kind was slaughtered millennium ago. What happened in that void? He kept asking himself.
Seteth has become much scarier since the kidnapping of Flayn. He was pale and had dark circles under his eyes, he didn't speak much, he always looked furious and tired at the same time. When Bernadetta bumped into him at night, she screamed and woke up everyone at Garreg Mach and probably some people from the surrounding villages. Everyone in the monastery was worried about the situation, but his colleagues had better insight into what he was doing.
"He doesn't eat, he hardly sleeps, he works all the time" Shamir was enumerating at lunch "I don't know anything about it, but it doesn't sound like the healthiest lifestyle."
"Not to mention how he sometimes spends long hours in the cathedral. Praying at the statue of Saint Cethleann. Especially at night," Alois added sadly.
Byleth was glad that the rumors were not ultimately focused on them, although Seteth's situation was depressing for everyone. When their coworkers invited them to their table on a quiet Friday after class, Byleth expected that they would want to discuss the details of their transformation. Especially Hanneman. But even he didn't seem to be in the mood for this interview.
"I am actually impressed that it is able to function at all. This is not normal," Manuela sighed, "And it's not like I haven't tried anything about that. I tried to talk to him about it. But he doesn't want to even listen to me. He has collapsed several times on the stairs or in the corridor, he should not strain himself so much"
"All right. I'm not suggesting anything, but maybe a good solution would be to hit him on the head with a heavy object. For his own good?" Catherine suggested. Jokingly, but to her surprise, everyone at the table nodded, so she added, "... I wasn't serious..."
"Maybe it was a joke," said Alois sneeringly, "but with Seteth's stubbornness, this may be our only chance. And what does the child of our late captain have to say about it?"
After realizing that no one was speaking, Byleth looked up and was surprised to realize that all eyes were on them. They did not know what to say, they did not listen to them, all the time they was rummaging through the food with her fork, lost in thought. The recent events had greatly overwhelmed them, they missed Sothis' voice, who could now advise something. They just looked around nervously, aware that everyone was expecting something from them, and they didn't know what. Fortunately, Cyril's arrival saved them.
"Hey, if you're so worried about Seteth, he just came back. He was just in the cathedral."
They all looked at each other. Perhaps the only way to reach him will be through collective intervention. So they got up and went in large numbers to the cathedral. It was late so there weren't many people there. A few monks here and there, seven or eight on the back pews ready to sneak out as soon as they finish praying, and a few students under the altar. Seteth was nowhere to be seen, so he was probably in a shrine with statues of saints. The group started looking around when they suddenly heard a sound as if something heavy had hit the floor. The students in front looked towards the shrine. The group began to run. As they entered, they saw Seteth lying on the floor at the foot of Saint Cethleann's statue. Manuela ran up to him and put her fingers to his neck. Nobody said anything for a moment, and then she stood up, pinched the bridge of her nose, sighed and said slightly irritated:
"He's fine. It’s just a consequence of several sleepless nights in the row. Come on, let’s get him out of here."
Alois and Catherine picked him up and they all went to the infirmary. Manuela examined him on the spot, but luckily it was just a matter of lack of sleep and food. So they expected him to wake up relatively soon. It wasn't even an hour before Seteth sprang out of bed. He looked around and, frightened, said, sitting up:
"I have to go back to..."
He didn't have time to finish the sentence because Catherine gave him a little push and he landed on the pillow again. He looked at her as if she had stabbed him in the back. In a moment he tried to stand up again, but this time Shamir pushed him.
"You're not moving from here," she said in the firmest tone she could bring out. And her voice was firm by nature.
Seteth looked around and realized that no one would let him continue his search. In an instant, he was overcome with anger and bitterness. He hid his face in his hands and was silent for a moment. For several days it had been difficult for him to gather his thoughts.
"I shouldn't be here," he said, and only now did everyone realize he was crying, "I should be out there looking for her."
"Seteth," Byleth said firmly but gently, "you need to rest. You were very lucky to collapse in the cathedral. What if it happened to you in the woods? You would be an easy dinner for wild animals. Remember that if you are gone, there will be no one to save Flayn."
At that moment he understood. He exposed his face and lay there staring at the ceiling for a moment, tears still streaming from his eyes. Everyone looked at him and at each other, nervously awaiting any answer.
"You should have a good rest and eat well." Manuela said finally, "We'll take care of the search. If you overexert yourself-"
"I got the message," Seteth interrupted her, surprisingly calmly. He hated inaction, but he was so exhausted that he had to agree with his colleaguess. At the end he added "And thank you.’"
The war broke out unexpectedly, many people ran away long before the fight, students, merchants, monks, and even knights. But it wasn’t surprising. Church was in a tough spot because it couldn’t count on military support of Kingdom nor Alliance, because Empire wanted then to pick a side and nobles didn’t wanted to act recklessly, they wanted to see the result of the first battle before they decide. Byleth knew how low their chances were for victory, but they still had terrain as their advantage, even if it wasn’t much. They barely had any other options and abandoning Garreg Mach without a fight wasn’t an option. Rhea, Byleth, other professors and knights were discussing their strategy while Shamir with Cyril and some volunteers were evacuating citizens of nearby towns. Seteth was helping as much as he could, but deep down he felt like he was just wasting time and he hated that feeling.
‘If you want to run, do it and find her. We will fight with or without you.’ Said Byleth while both of them were rushing through corridor
‘I know but what if I find her if we won’t have home we could safely return to’ he answered them clearly angry.
Everybody was nervous when the battle started, but everybody who could, everybody who was either brave enough or dumb enough stood to fight. At the beginning Edelgard has sent to fight surprisingly few troops and yet there were well known and strong soldiers, Randolph, Death Knight, Hubert and the Empress herself. Seteth attacked Death Knight without second thought, but he managed to retreat before Seteth asked him any questions about Flayn’s whereabouts. The battle was tough, but Byleth and their people won. But there was not time to celebrate because thousands of soldiers were approaching Garreg Mach. In this very moment Church’s army knew that they had no chances for winning this, so they focused on slowing down the enemy until the monastery was evacuated. Seteth took some wyvern riders to transport wounded soldiers and civilians to safety, so he wasn’t there when The Immaculate One joined Church’s forces, nor how Byleth fell down the cliff after they faced that person who kidnapped his daughter.
When Flayn woke up she realized she was in entirely different place than before. She was In tiny cell, so small that the bed she was lying on took one third of it’s space and with only a tiny window in doors that barely gave any light. She was tired and felt dizzy, mages took a lot more blood than previous time. And yet she was still in good spirits. She knew that somebody will come and rescue her and that her father won’t rest until he finds her. She knew that. But there was something that bothered her. Mages only cared about her blood, does that mean that they know who, or rather, what she really is? And there was one more thing. Why they changed location? Does that mean that somebody was close to saving her? If that’s the case, she thought, somebody will save her soon, it’s just the matter of time.
So she waited. Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months and Flayn’s hope was getting weaker and weaker, but it didn’t die.
One day she was sitting on her bed with knees under her chin praying for rescue, just like every other day, hoping that absence of mages for few days meant something good. She was wrong. Few hours later two mages opened up doors and entered her cell. She stood up calmly and went with them. They entered the big room, she’s been there frequently, mages took her blood here. But this time it was arranged differently, there was bed now instead of chair, and syringes that were lying on the table were full of some weird looking liquid. She stood in the entrance carefully watching the room until one of the mages pushed her.
"Lie on the bed," ordered her one of the them and she followed the command. Then the other one tied her arms and legs to bed frame. She wanted to scream but she was so terrified she couldn’t even say anything and before she even realized mage injected her one of those weird fluids and started chanting some spells. First mage started writing something in his notebook. For the first few minutes nothing happened but then purple light surrounded her and unimaginable pain consumed her entire body, it was like thorns of roses were growing in her veins. She cried and begged for mercy, for help, but no one was there. She was all alone. And her painful screams and groans were echoing through the walls of empty dungeon for many hours.
It’s been five years, but for Byleth it was more like a blink of the eye, in one second they are falling during the battle for Garreg Mach, in the other they wake up after being pulled from river. They were happy to meet Claude in monastery, but they were hoping to meet the whole class, or at least those first eight members of it. After spending together few hours Claude decided that the best way to check it his former teacher was still in shape was to fight some thieves that were looting nearby town. During the battle more students from the Golden Deer House has joined the battle. Even if the whole world was turn upside down, the bonds all of them shared were unbreakable. When all of them headed towards the monastery, laughing and talking, they heard voices coming from the hall. They all looked at each other and stealthily entered through slightly ajar doors when familiar loud voice said:
"WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?!"
It was Caspar, but not only him, everyone came back, Felix, Petra, Annette, Mercedes, Linhardt, Bernadetta, Sylvain, Ingrid, Dorothea, Ferdinand. They all laughed, ate, and talked. And Byleth just looked at them all, beaming with pride, they weren’t children who needed their advices for everything, they were adults, ready to fight hand in hand with them. The whole reunion took an hour, maybe more, everybody were talking and just trying to catch up what happened to everyone in those five years and then they heard somebody approaching. All of them stood up and took weapons in their hands but who they faced was not an enemy. It was Seteth, and right after him Catherine, Shamir, Cyril, Alois, Hanneman and Manuela appeared. Everybody was surprised and yet happy. Claude took an opportunity and started discussing the topic of further actions they had to take to fight back the Empire. The discussion wasn’t long but everybody agreed that they had to make Garreg Mach their base but it required a lot of cleaning. When everybody split up to clean up the place, Byleth asked:
"I guess that you haven’t found her?"
"No," he answered sadly, "But I won’t give up, I will find her, no matter how long it takes."
For Fódlan the war was long and damaging, but the Resistance Army knew that the end of it was slowly approaching. United armies of Alliance, Almyra and the Knights of Seiros were moving deeper and deeper into the enemy’s territory. But there were no signs of Flayn nor Rhea, Judith said that Rhea is most probably in Enbarr and probably that was the last place for them to search over. Seteth was getting more nervous day by day. He knew how high the stakes were, he knew what their enemy did to his brethren and he was afraid that they may use his daughter and Rhea as test subjects. He feared that more than anything else. Their blood, bones and hearts were itself very dangerous and he was aware that his allies, at least the closest ones should know about this threat. He gathered all of them in the Advisory Room and closed the door behind them.
"Thank you all for coming," he said while bowing, "I know that many of you were in the middle of important tasks but there is something that all of you should know a long ago. Something that whole Fódlan should know a long ago."
Everybody started to look at each other not quite sure what that was suppose to mean and he just took a deep breath to calm himself down and started:
‘" need to apologise to you, I wasn’t honest with you. Flayn is actually my daughter"
"I knew that," said Claude proudly and Seteth just continued:
"I should have told you years ago, I am aware of that, but I did it to protect her. Her blood is unique and incredibly dangerous in wrong hands… Does any of you has any idea where did the name Red Canon come from?"
Byleth flinched, they had no idea where was Seteth even going with this but them and Sothis actually wondered why Zanado was named this way. Nobody answered, because how would they know.
"Millenia ago a civilization of beings, different than humans, lived there. They had traits unimaginable for humans, they were stronger, they couldn’t die and were eternally young and had ability to change form. The Immaculate One, the mighty white beast that lent us aid during the battle for Garreg Mach is one of them. Humans knew about the powers of the Children of the Goddess. The group of thieves arrived in Zanado and… killed everyone and the canyon was painted red with blood. You know the Immaculate One under two different names, one of them is Saint Seiros and the the other is Lady Rhea."
Entire crowd was listening to him with wide opened mouths. Everything he just said was simply unbelievable and one could simply treat this as some sort of joke, but Seteth was deadly serious.
"Bandits who killed the citizens of Zanado created deadly weapons from their bones and hearts, that you today call relics, and used their blood to gain their powers, that you today call crests. Rhea wasn’t the only survivor, there were five of us. You know us from history, we assisted Seiros during the War of Heroes." He felt very nostalgic saying this and yet he smiled as this weird weight from his chest, that he wasn’t even aware of, disappeared.
"You are Saint Cichol…" said Hanneman doubting his own words. Seteth only shrugged.
"There is no point of hiding this anyway. Yes I am Saint Cichol and Flayn’s real name is Cethleann and we shouldn’t hide this anymore. Fódlan deserves to know the truth… but the last time it did my entire kind was slaughtered. Our enemies may use Flayn’s powers against us I just want-" tears were shining in his eyes, "If you will ever see a demonic beast with a Crest of Cethleann or a relic that you have never herd before… I want to be the first person to know about this"
Nobody commented that, they just nodded in silence, but before anybody headed towards the doors Seteth spoke one last time:
"I would like you to not talk about our real identities. Fame is not something I need these days"
"You heard him?!" yelled Byleth and everybody’s eyes focused on them, "We can’t give up in our searches, go back to your tasks and prepare for battle. I think that in two months we will arrive in Enbarr!’
"Aye!" yelled back everybody in the room
After breaking down the door of dungeon, which location was pointed in the letter from Hubert, Byleth, Catherine, Claude and Seteth bumped into few mages in black masks who tried to attack them, but they were no match for the finest warriors of resistance army. They rushed down the stairs. Their steps and battle sounds were echoing through the walls of the dungeon until they reached Rhea’s ears.
"Who’s there?!" she asked and her voice sounded weak and hoarse, she definitely wasn’t in good health
"Rhea?! Where are you?!" Seteth yelled back at her
"Don’t mind me! Go and save Flayn! There’s-" she started coughing but quickly tried to finish what she needed to tell them, "There’s secret staircase in one of the rooms. Go right now and you’ll see some doors behind one of them you’ll find staircase!"
She starter coughing again. They knew that she was sick and if she wanted them so safe Flayn first that could only mean one thing.
"Catherine, go back and bring Manuela, Marianne and Mercedes and as many healers as possible," Ordered Byleth.
They needn’t to say that twice, Catherine just silently nodded and run up the stairs even faster than she came down. Claude, Byleth and Seteth just rushed through the corridor until they saw few doors. They split up and started peeking through small windows.
"This one!" said Claude while breaking down doors. Stairs lead even deeper underground and all three of them had this unpleasant feeling. They went down but with caution. They arrived in the same looking corridor with six doors as a level before, but the stairs lead even deeper.
"We’ll do further. You stay here and check those doors." Said Claude to Seteth already going further down.
Seteth rushed towards the first doors and started peeking through the small windows. The rooms were small and all of them looked the same but he couldn’t see if somebody was inside to he just destroyed locks and enter all of them with his lance. But they were empty. But at the sixth door he saw a small, emaciated, ghostly pale, person with white hair and empty green eyes and dark shades under them. She looked angrily into space clenching her fists like she didn’t even recognize him. She had the same dress as five years ago but it was worn out and dirty. She could barely stand. And at this moment something inside Seteth just broke, tears started to roll down his face.
"Flayn…" he said as Spear of Assal just fell from his hand and he rushed to hug her. But she didn’t hug him back.
"Oh Flayn… Oh Flayn…" he repeated sobbing
But she didn’t say anything, she didn’t react in any way. She felt how her father’s tears pinched her cheek but she had no idea what to do, what to say. Her thoughts were chaotic and she was still scared that the mages could return in any moment. And yet she felt so warm. So safe. For the first time in a long time. Her legs were bending under her weight and she felt that she was slowly losing consciousness in her father’s arms and the last thing she herd was Seteth screaming something in panic.