#as opposed to sylvain and ingrid
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A/N: For the Blades in Hand zine! I wanted some post canon fluff, at least as much as Felix and Byleth allow themselves fluff. XD Last time I had written them in the endings where they go around wandering, so I wanted a more domestic route this time. And all based off the one line in their ending where they end up having duels every time they go home.
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Byleth wasn’t home. It was late at night, Byleth’s carriage should have arrived hours ago, and she still wasn’t home. Felix stood in front of his big bay windows, scowling at the slowly rising moon as though it had personally insulted him. No one would call him a patient man—Ingrid had bemoaned how little it took to set him off—but there was little else to do in the face of delays but wait.
He paced his dimly lit manor, the candles casting just enough light to see. Somewhere, a clock chimed, the hour late. Their children had already been tucked into bed, disappointed and sulking when their mother hadn’t returned. Felix hadn’t the words to comfort them; they had even less patience than he did. It was a Fraldarius thing, this desire to move, this need to get things done immediately and without delay. Byleth had always been good at the waiting game, whether it was teaching in their youth or handling important affairs as she cleaned up a war that she hadn’t started.
Aside from his soft footfalls echoing through the vaulted ceiling and the quiet tickticktick of the clock, the house was silent. The servants had long since finished their duties for the day. Only the stableboy stood outside, waiting to tend to Byleth’s horse. Felix watched the moon rise even higher, its silver rays lighting up the path to their front door. His sword dangled uselessly at his waist.
The clock chimed once, twice—at the eleventh gong, Felix stood stock-still. A familiar figure trotted down the path, her cloak pulled back. In the moonlight, her green hair glowed. Something in him uncoiled at the sight.
There were very few that could touch her, especially now that the war was over. Somehow, that fact never stopped the knots that grew in him whenever she returned late.
He was getting soft. A minor affliction he had feared as an ignorant child, and one that he now embraced as a father.
Her horse stopped at the front door. He listened to the soft murmurs as she talked to the stable boy, as she slipped off her steed and walked to the door. Felix stood in front of the staircase, expression impassive, as she walked in through the doors.
Byleth’s eyes lit up as she spotted him, her lips curving into a rare, soft smile. “I’m back.”
“Late,” he replied evenly, noting the slight limp as she closed the door. Her green cloak looked frayed and torn, and the dark splatters could only be blood.
“There was trouble.” Byleth unfastened her clasp and turned when he approached. “The children?”
“Asleep.” Felix gently pulled off her cloak. Their conversations were always quick, pointed things, like the strikes in fencing. Only the bare bones were needed, only the bullet point summaries had to be uttered. “The blood?”
Looking over her shoulder, Byleth smirked. “Not mine.”
Felix chuckled. He shouldn’t have asked. Stripped down of her travelling gear, he could see that she was perfectly fine. His gaze flickered to her right leg. Almost perfectly fine. Felix touched her hip lightly. Her skin was warm beneath her stockings. “Should we do this tomorrow?”
Byleth rested a cold hand on his, squeezing it lightly. Her other hand cupped his cheek, guiding him down into a firm kiss. He could taste her long, dusty journey on her lips. As she pulled back, she shook her head. “Today. I have not felt your sword in a month.”
Felix didn’t fight his smile. With every year that passed, he realized how lucky he had been to find her. There was no need for words between them, they only got in the way. There was no desire for pleasantries or any of the trappings of society, the social norms that only served to restrain and hinder them.
No, the only thing they needed was the swords attached to their belts and an open space to fight. Sparring was their religion, their weapons their gods, and there was no need for any tradition in their household aside from their clashes. Felix had long learned how to read Byleth’s body, with the reverence that Mercedes put into her prayers, and any questions he had would be answered as they fought.
Felix deposited her cloak in a corner. They could put it away later. The candlebras were fully lit, leaving two bright pools of light on the ground. Felix stepped into one, drawing his one-handed arming sword. The servants had cleared the room of any fragile items. No one had mopped. The area was clear for their fight. “With the clock?”
Byleth rolled her shoulders and cracked her neck as she entered the second pool of light. She drew her sword, a solid two-handed longsword. It didn’t have the same reach as her Sword of the Creator, but in her hands it didn’t need to. “Okay.”
The second hand ticked. He kept his grip relaxed. Her strength versus his speed. They fought so many times, they’d stopped keeping track of the score and focused instead on who was winning. Felix breathed in. Byleth breathed out.
The minute hand moved, a soft tick, and they both sprang forward. He struck first, as always: a sharp thrust to her chest. Byleth parried, a strong stroke that sharply cleaved through the air. Without a pause, she kicked him with her good leg, sending him flying back.
He didn’t miss her wince as she did so. Her leg hurt more than she had admitted. Her stoicism matched his, and it was hypocritical of him to say otherwise. Sliding to a stop on their marbled floor, he ducked at her follow up attack and elbowed her in the chest. Byleth grunted and hit his shoulder with her hilt.
Felix clenched his jaw and jumped back. Her eyes narrowed and he knew that she’d recognized his reaction for what it was: his old shoulder injury acting up again. It liked to do that, some spring nights, when winter’s chill still lingered long after the snow had melted.
Every movement revealed more and more of their time apart: the exhaustion in her arms from her long ride, the boredom of his paperwork dulling his blade, her nose ruddy from the drizzle she’d travelled through. It was better than any letter, more explicit than any conversation. What the memory forgot, the body remembered.
The dance continued: thrust, parry, duck, jab. Muddy footprints recorded their midnight duel. Moonlight streamed through the windows, and Felix was reminded of another starlit dance on a marbled floor, years ago when she had been a mysterious teacher and he hadn’t cared for her beyond her blade. Somehow, Sylvain had convinced her to dance with the entire class.
Felix had spent the entire song stiff, his hands wooden on her shoulder and waist as he impatiently waited for the night to be over. And when they had bumped into each other later, in front of the tower, he had mocked the entire affair.
Settle for being a lover, he had said. If you want passion, look elsewhere.
He had been a fool then. There was no better partner than Byleth, no better dance than that of their blades. There was no settling with Byleth, only rising to each other’s challenges.
And passion could be found everywhere, from their swords to their beds.
They clashed, steel meeting steel, speed opposing strength. Byleth’s eyes were alive in a way he rarely saw otherwise, burning with a fire as she instantly decided her next move. Felix was certain he had the same wild look, his hair flying out of its tie, his lips drawn into a smile that was all teeth and grit.
Since he was a child, he had known there was no place for him in peace. Even with his duties, his friends, his children, it was a feeling that stayed bone deep.
Yet.
Yet.
Here, in the middle of a fight with his wife, her sword nicking his cheek, his blade grazing her arm, he knew had found the one place he’d belonged. They were two extinct animals, but they were together, and perhaps that was all he had needed: a companion.
Byleth slashed at him. He dodged, but her hilt hit his wrist and he gasped. Before his sword could fall out of his hand, he grabbed it with his other. Sensing weakness, Byleth lunged forward. Felix ducked her thrust and kicked her leg. Her eyes widened and she groaned softly as she fell backward. Before she could hit the ground, he wrapped an arm around her waist, his blade pointed at her neck. “Yield?”
Byleth’s gazed flickered from her sword to his blade to his face. Sighing, she nodded, her weapon falling out of her hands with a sharp clatter. “You win.”
He smirked, pulling her up before he sheathed his own weapon. He kept his hand on her waist, feeling her shudder with every heavy breath. “We’re tied again.”
“No, I’m still one ahead—” Byleth let out a sharp breath and grimaced as she stepped with her hurt foot.
Felix didn’t hesitate before sweeping her off her feet and into his arms. His wrist ached at the added weight. When she shot him a disgruntled look, he pressed a gentle finger on her leg. “A sprain?”
Byleth stared at him for a moment before sighing. “A bruise that hasn’t healed.”
She relaxed, leaning into his chest. Her hair tickled his chin as he tightened his grip and headed up the stairs. Byleth wasn’t one for indulgence, neither was he, but he couldn’t deny the desire sometimes. It had been a month since he’d last held her.
“I missed this,” he murmured. I missed you.
Byleth smiled, hearing the unspoken words. “Me too.”
Their bedroom was considerably brighter than the foyer, the candles scattered on the desks, drawers, and other flat surfaces until the room had a warm, almost cozy feel. It would be annoying to put them out later. Despite that, they were oddly appealing in this late hour.
Years ago, he had told her that he wasn’t a romantic. It was funny how things changed.
Slowly, Felix deposited his wife on their bed, her bright green hair splaying on the dark blue comforter. She rolled over slightly, eyes closed and smiling contentedly as she buried her nose in the fabric. “They still smell of pine. I didn’t think we’d still need them.”
Felix chuckled, immediately guessing what her real question was. “It’ll be another month before we should remove them.”
Byleth was tough, but not Faerghus winter tough. Felix had long suspected the main reason she kept hosting Dimitri’s peace talks at the monastery was not because of its central location, as she claimed, but rather to escape the deep chill of winter. He leaned down, brushing the hair out of her face. Her eyes were emerald bright in the gloom. “The cold will leave soon enough.”
She leaned into his touch. Her cheek was as rough as her hands. “You said that before I left.”
“It is warmer now,” he rebutted, brushing her skin with a thumb. Part him wanted to linger here, to just stay like this. After spending years running, these days Felix found he wanted to stand still. He was getting soft. It had to be old age.
There was a first aid kit in their drawers. Early on in their marriage, they’d discovered it was an essential bedroom item. Between his lies and her deflections, it was a miracle they hadn’t lost a limb from delaying healing. Felix knelt next to the bed, setting the cloth bandages, a water-filled basin, and a washcloth around him.
Byleth moved up to her elbows, regarding him as he gently pried off her mud-encrusted boots. Her tights fared little better, flecked with the dirt. “Rough ride?”
“There was rain.” She exhaled sharply as he slid her tights off her right ankle.
His fingers skimmed her thighs and he fought the urge to investigate higher. Bruised skin greeted him as he examined her bare ankles, small black and purple flowers that ran up her leg. Carefully, Felix held her leg, his lithe fingers gingerly pressing as he assessed the damage. “A bruise?”
“Many bruises,” she admitted reluctantly. When he looked up, brow furrowed and lips a straight line, she sighed. “It looks worse than it feels.”
He pressed on a bruise and she hissed between clenched teeth. Clicking his tongue, Felix dipped the washcloth in the cold water. “How did you ride with this?”
Byleth shivered as the cold water hit her skin. Lightly, he removed the dirt and grime of her journey, the cloth only just touching her leg. “I wanted to see you.”
His hand froze at the comment. “It could have waited.”
“It couldn’t,” she disagreed, bending forward to run a hand through his hair. When he looked up, she cupped his cheek. “It really couldn’t.”
That tiny action, those small words left him as breathless as their fight had. He turned slightly, pressing a kiss with the corner of his mouth before returning to her leg. “What happened?”
Byleth leaned back and stared at the ceiling. “We had found some remnants of the Agarthans. They were stronger than we’d expected.”
It had been years, and they still hadn’t fully wiped out those conniving bastards. Part of Felix thought they never would. “You beat them?”
Byleth snorted derisively. “Of course.”
It was an insulting question. There was no other way she’d answer, after all. Felix changed the topic. “How were the boar’s peace talks?”
Byleth huffed. “The remaining nobles are stubborn—they’ve mostly agreed, but they just want to save face by delaying matters.”
“Old fools.” Felix clicked his tongue; the world was filled with morons. He let go of her leg. Aside from cleaning it, there was little he could do. “Anywhere else?”
Byleth gingerly kicked her leg. Satisfied, she shook her head. “No, that was it.”
“Good.” Felix gently kissed her ankle. He had never considered himself a tender romantic but then again, he had never considered himself a passionate lover either. With Byleth, he found that both suited him. He pressed his next kiss slightly higher up.
Byleth’s breath hitched, and he smirked against her slowly warming skin. It wouldn’t be long before he wiped the journey from her body. Before he could go any further than her knee, a calloused hand cupped his chin, forcing him to look up. Byleth leaned down, kissing him softly, her thumb brushing his cut. It stung. He could taste iron from her bloody lip. She pulled back and patted the space next to her. “Your turn.”
Felix nosed her shoulder, lips skimming her collar. “It’s fine.”
Byleth growled and forced him to stand. “It’s not.”
As though they were still fighting in the foyer, Byleth yanked him down, all but tackling him onto the bed. Now he was the one lying flat on his back, staring at their canopy. She leaned over him, her green hair falling over him like a waterfall. “It’s not,” she repeated firmly, her gaze never leaving his.
“It’s not,” he agreed, reaching up and burying his good hand in her soft hair. Her breath ghosted his lips as he pulled her down.
“Don’t think I’ll fall for this,” she murmured, pulling away before he closed the gap.
Felix glowered at the ceiling before forcing himself to sit up on the bed. She plucked the kit from the floor and plopped it between them. Her knees bumped into his as she adjusted for a more comfortable position. Byleth held out her hand and reluctantly, he placed his injured wrist on her palm.
Now that he was paying attention to it, it throbbed, sending dull jolts of pain up his arm.
“Didn’t think I hit you that hard,” Byleth murmured, her fingers lightly tracing the sprain.
“You got lucky,” he muttered, unable to look away as she tenderly rubbed a cold, white ointment on his skin. Despite her firm grip, her touch was tender and he could barely feel it.
This wasn’t the first time she’d tended to him. It wouldn’t be the last either. Yet, he still couldn’t get used to the sensation, to the feeling of another taking care of him. It was different to Ingrid’s aid, or even Mercedes and Annette’s healing.
Byleth’s fingers sent jolts of electricity down his spine. As she leaned forward, her hair brushed his skin. Cradling his hand as though it were made of glass, she started to wrap it with a cloth tape.
“Any changes here?” she asked, paying no attention to his stare.
Felix shrugged. “Nothing. Just the usual.”
“I didn’t think you’d ever say that.” Byleth chuckled, and he could feel the reverberations where they touched. “I thought you hated routines.”
Felix stiffened, remembering his stupid, foolish declarations in the academy. “I do. But this one…isn’t all terrible.”
She tucked in the end of the wrap, clipping it into place. She didn’t let go of his hand, staring at his palm as though she could read the future there. Maybe she could. Felix wouldn’t be surprised.
After a few moments, she brushed back her hair and kissed his palm. “No, it isn’t.”
His breath hitched as she looked up, her eyes dark and hungry.
There were traditions, rituals they kept whenever they parted, whenever they reunited. The duel. The patching. And now, another dance, a more intimate one without the blades and armour in their way.
Felix wasn’t a patient man. He had waited a month for his wife’s return.
Yet, as his wife pushed him down, her eager fingers already unbuttoning his shirt, he realized that his wife had even less patience than he did.
#felileth#byleth eisner#felix x byleth#felix hugo fraldarius#fe3h#fanfic#it's funny how different he is when I write him with byleth#as opposed to sylvain and ingrid#they soften him#while byleth matches his current edge
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Hiiii!! Could I request Yuri, Claude, Sylvain, and Dimitri with a reader who is surprisingly knowledgeable about a lot of things? The reason it's surprising? Reader hates anything school related like studying and is a big ol' goof.
Fandom: Fire Emblem Three Houses
Character(s): Yuri, Claude, Sylvain, and Dimitri
Note(s): I feel this so much. Hated studying in school, but I loved learning random facts
Claude
Not too surprising to Claude. Studying is boring, heck school is boring. He doesn't blame you if you fall asleep in class or don't turn in homework or anything.
Instead, he'll try to find ways to make it more fun for you. You're already pretty knowledgeable so it shouldn't be too hard to find ways to get you more into it.
It does amuse him to see some teacher or professor call on you during class because they think you're dozing off or not paying attention, but you easily answer the question.
Dimitri
He's the one that will give some light scolding if you sleep in class or try to skip classes because it's boring or something.
Dimitri knows you're smart and don't need all the lessons, but he still thinks it's good to contribute to the class. Even if it doesn't benefit you, it could help your other classmates learn some new things. Or maybe you have advice that they didn't even consider for learning.
He tries to be a good mediator to get you to try even a little for studying or classes, but he will just throw you over his shoulder if you insist on being stubborn.
Sylvain
He's the same way. He much prefers goofing off and flirting with you instead of studying. As long as you both can still pass exams then he doesn't stress too much about the studying aspect.
Really does prefer lounging with you and talking philosophy. It makes everyone do double takes when hearing you both sounding so smart considering you don't do anything in class. He finds that amusing.
Of course, there are moments when Ingrid threatens him to actually study and then he'll drag you with him to keep him company. It's fun to just talk to you about inaccuracies in the textbooks as opposed to doing actual studying.
Yuri
Yuri finds it amusing just because he hasn't been afforded the luxury of schooling and here you are at a good academy and not even trying.
Sure, there might be a touch of bitterness in his tone, but he hides it cause that's just life. No point in being angry because you got the better hand.
He'd make a comment about "Since you have better things to do and already know what you're doing, you might as well drop out." Mostly as a joke but there is a glint in his eyes as if he's challenging you to see if you'd actually do it. Acts smug when you still waste your time going to classes.
Taglist:
@unhelpfulnpc
#fe3h x reader#fire emblem x reader#yuri x reader#dimitri x reader#claude x reader#sylvain x reader#fe3h claude x reader#fe3h yuri x reader#fe3h dimitri x reader#fe3h sylvain x reader
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I love the work you've written! If it's not too much trouble, I would like to make a request.
The two characters I choose are Felix and Dimitri. The reader (Gender Neutral) was a close friend in their academy days. Five years later, they end up on opposing sides of the war. In the heat of battle, the reader faces their former friend in a duel. The result of that duel is, whether through words or combat, the reader agrees to lay down their arms, is spared, and is recruited to fight on the Kingdom's side.
In Dimitri's case, the encounter would take place after the Battle of the Eagle and Lion.
Thank you for your time and consideration!
Hello, my lovely! These two came out a bit long, so I will be posting them separately at the same time. This was such a well thought-out prompt and I felt so much excitement upon receiving it. Feel free to come back with more ideas! I'll be happy to respond (hopefully much faster). Have a wonderful summer!
Requests are open. The story will be continued under the cut.
Felix:
Enbarr. The last defense before the Imperial castle walls could be breached. The city often filled with bustling citizens. The proud capital of the Empire.
The battlegrounds for the beginning of a last stand against the Kingdom.
You couldn’t bring yourself to scan their ranks, knowing well enough that you’d only be able to make out the faces of those you had once called your allies.
The ones you would never again have the privilege of calling your friends.
I recommend you not even consider wavering in your resolve, a voice within your mind called out, or have you forgotten our deal?
Hubert. You turned your head to look back at the man, for good measure. He had taken your family in the midst of the war, bargaining their life for your cooperation. Naturally, you had accepted his terms. They meant the world to you, and they had done nothing wrong.
Such a decision meant turning your back on your king. Treason, was it? That was putting it simply, but the whole matter felt so complicated.
It looked pretty simple to your old companions, you were certain.
Do not think that my death will save them, either. I have given orders that any misstep of yours is to be responded to with the death of at least one of your family members. Choose which side to play at your own discretion.
Your face remained unreadable, but on the inside you were furious. This foolish charade had been going on for too long, and you had a terrible feeling you were going to regret everything you did today no matter what the outcome of the battle-
Someone was staring at you. You could practically feel their eyes boring into the back of your head.
Compelled, you kept your expression stoic as you turned at last to take in your adversaries. Dimitri would be leading the charge, the professor you once thought dead standing at his side.
Dedue, Annette, Ingrid, Sylvain, Mercedes, Ashe…all of them alive and determined. They were only awaiting their leader’s word to attack.
It was Felix who kept his eyes trained on you.
Only for a moment, you held his gaze. You didn’t allow yourself any more time than that. No matter what you felt was wrong or right, you had a family to protect. Never would they suffer from your negligence; you would keep them safe or die trying.
Pulling out two of the daggers from your belt, you awaited your own orders. A few words were exchanged between sides, and then the Kingdom Army attacked.
You held your position as they approached, seemingly faceless warriors falling on both sides. It almost seemed systematic, and the fight could have been described as evenly slated. Surprising, seeing how the Empire had far more soldiers on the field.
What further surprised you was how quickly Felix had encroached upon your position. His sword was in his hand, unmoving as he sprinted toward you, but he never started to prepare a swing. Even so, you held your own daggers up in preparation. You would dodge backwards and then propel yourself forth.
It would be as clean a kill as you could muster. The two of you used to get along so well, didn’t you? You never could have predicted this. In truth, you hated this.
“Why?” Felix demanded. The question caught you off guard, and his arm swung out to knock you to the ground.
You fell backwards, Felix pinning you down with a hand at your collarbone and a knee at your stomach.
“What are you fighting for?” he shouted, his sword at your throat.
Your breaths came out in pants as you were pushed farther into the ground, “You wouldn’t understand…”
“Maybe I could if you’d just tell me!”
“I can’t tell you! I’m not prepared for you to tell me it’s not a good enough excuse! You’re going to kill me anyway, so just do it now!” such a bold request, but you qualified it by pressing your neck into his blade.
Whatever you were expecting, it wasn’t Felix looking at you in pity of all things.
“It looks to me as though you’ve already come to terms with it. Maybe whatever it is really isn’t worth all thi-”
The second he dared to voice such a thought, you shoved on his wrist to push his sword away and launched yourself forward. There was a short tussle, but at the end of it, you were the one pinning him down. Just to ensure he didn’t escape, you stuck some of the daggers you carried on you through his mortal savant coat and into the ground, effectively keeping him prone.
It was more effective than you first believed it would be, actually. The bluenette could hardly move from how you pinned down his coat. He didn’t have the room to take it off, and he couldn’t build enough momentum to dislodge the daggers.
He was trapped.
“I don’t…” he released a grunt as he attempted to struggle against his coat, “...understand. What’s so important that you would leave me behind? That you would leave your friends…” another struggle, “...and your family behind?”
What? Your family was the whole reason you were in this mess. Wouldn’t he have noticed their absence alongside yours?
“My family?”
Felix made another failed attempt at leaving the confines of his coat, “We found them when we reconquered Arianrhod. They asked where you were, but none of us knew. Nice to know that all this time, you were getting friendly with the Empire. If I didn’t know any better, I would have guessed that you sold them out to the Emperor to get on her good side when things started getting tough for the Kingdom.”
“There’s no way you gained Arianrhod back without me noticing! I don’t believe you!” you exclaimed. As though saying he was wrong would make things right. As though you weren’t fighting all this time for nothing.
“Me? I can’t believe you. I never saw you as a fair weather person.” his condescending tone intensified. “How can you live with yourself? It’s pathetic.”
“I could live with myself because I wasn’t the one who sent them there! I didn’t have a choice! Quite honestly, the Empire could have done whatever with my life, but then they brought my family into it…”
Maybe he wasn’t lying. It seemed he had stopped trying to persuade you and began berating you. If he were trying to trick you, he would have been more persistent.
After all, how could he have known your family was at Arianrhod unless he was telling the truth? If the Kingdom had failed to capture it, they would not be here with bolstered numbers aiming for the Emperor’s head.
Besides, you hadn’t told him your family was your motive, and Felix was never the type to figure it out on his own. He wasn’t one to lie in order to get what he wanted, either. With all that in mind, he had no reason to say any of that unless it was true.
Oh, how the truth made your blood boil.
“That lying snake,” you spat, releasing Felix from the hold of your daggers, “I’ll kill him for this!”
Felix looked confused at your sudden change in demeanor, but he chose to back away to a safer distance before opening his mouth to question you. He didn’t have to ask anything for you to answer his unspoken inquiry, though.
“Hubert told me he seized the iron maiden and that my family was being kept inside. They’ve been held over my head for…Goddess, it must have been three years, now. Tell me, how long ago did you manage to take back the fortress?”
“Two moons ago? Maybe three; it was sometime during the Garland Moon.”
Maybe three months? “The Garland. Moon.”
You were so angry you couldn’t even find the words to express it. Yet what were you meant to expect from Hubert? For him to inform you that his only leverage over you had been taken away and that you were free to do as you pleased?
“I…” I’m sorry, you wanted to say, but the words wouldn’t come.
What have I done?
How many Kingdom soldiers fell at your hands these past few months?
Such was the cost of being an elite soldier of the officers academy. You remembered your mother telling you as much. Your allegiance could turn the tide of a war.
Well if that was the case, you sure as hell weren’t about to let the waves crash on your family. Or your friends, for that matter.
“Whatever it is you have to say, it can wait. As long as you’re coming back to us, that is,” Felix looked to you as if unsure.
“You can count on me,” you affirmed. “I’m done being the Empire’s tool. Just tell me what you’re trying to do, and I’m right there with you.”
He made a sound of understanding, then explained the strategy for securing the castle’s perimeter and marching on the palace.
“...Once the time comes to storm the castle, the professor promised her plan would become more specific. It all depends on…”
He didn’t have to finish his statement for you to know what he meant.
It all depends on how many survive stage one.
#fire emblem#fe3h#fire emblem three houses#fiction#fe x reader#fe3h x reader#fire emblem x reader#x reader#fe felix#felix hugo fraldarius#fe3h felix#felix fire emblem#felix x reader#fe16
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Hey, in the three frats au who d'ya think would play D&D? My first thought is Ashe
Oh definitely Ashe! I can see him being the DM, and off the top of my head I can recall that his supports with Ingrid and Hapi both involved his love of knightly tales…though in slightly different ways. I think those two would be very funny to see the kind of diametrically-opposed characters they would bring to the table.
And then maybe to round out the group…Bernadetta for sure, and hell, since it’s her support with Sylvain that’s making me think she’d be a good fit, maybe him too. Ingrid doesn’t think inviting him is a good idea and that he’ll flake after a session or two, but then he gets into it.
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on recruitment in three hopes
Unlike in Three Houses where you could recruit almost every other student except the opposite house leaders and their retainers to your house, Three Hopes has a lot more students who are locked to a specific route when they weren't previously this time around (Ferdinand and Caspar in Scarlet Blaze; Felix, Ingrid, Sylvain and Annette in Azure Gleam; Hilda in Golden Wildfire). This could be because unlike in Three Houses, everyone's stay at the Officer's Academy was cut short due to the political affairs of their respective nations and the school closing down, meaning they never had the chance to explore other possibilities outside their comfort zone, unlike in Three Houses where they spent the full year at the academy.
This also works in a different way - the characters in Three Hopes are recruitable during the war because their bonds with others are nowhere near as strong (and those whose bonds are established, are not recruitable). Meanwhile, in Three Houses, the only character who is recruitable during the war is Lysithea, and even then only because of her Commonality Connection with Edelgard.
Another aspect that is important is the time frame. In Three Houses, most of the students at the Officers Academy had some kind of idea of their future, and were studying there to prepare for it, or to at least look into a potential future. If they joined Byleth's class, the war starting completely changed their future and so they stuck to their Professor due to believing in them. In Three Hopes, the students are only at the Officers Academy for a few months before returning home, where many of them are suddenly thrust into important roles because of the turmoil caused by the altered timeline. So while in Three Houses they had time to make new plans, here they get none, and become better entrenched in their nation's system. Notice how a number of the characters you can recruit in almost every route are ones who aren't in super high-ranking positions (the Ashen Wolves, Petra, Ashe, and Ignatz to name a few), making it easier to defect to other sides. By contrast, characters like Ferdinand, Felix, and Hilda are effectively put into important roles that make them unlikely to defect.
The method of recruitment is also quite different from Three Houses, where most recruitment was done via a character asking to join Byleth out of admiration of them as a teacher and warrior, with no higher stakes at the time other than the house they belonged to. In Three Hopes almost all recruitment is more persuading the character to surrender and join the opposing side instead of dying for their faction during the war. For specific characters, some more specialized persuasion may be used, such as offering them special knowledge or opportunity to do something that matters to them personally (Hapi getting revenge on "those who slither in the dark" and Lysithea finding a means to restore her life expectancy), or using an already recruited friend of theirs or knowledge of their family's wishes to convince them. That the recruited character stays loyal afterward no matter what is at least partly explained by most of them holding the view that changing sides once may be justified or explainable, but doing so twice would render them untrustworthy for life. Much as the story of Three Hopes leans further into Gray-and-Grey Morality, so too do the methods of recruiting. Many of the characters will express they don't know who is really right in the war, and ultimately decide to fight for whoever they think will end it more quickly while giving them the biggest chance to personally survive. The biggest irony in all of this is that Three Hopes uses classic recruitment methods, persuading an opposing unit to switch sides.
Also consider how many students of each nation actually defect. The Leicester Alliance, due to its fractured nature, sees all of the students outside of Hilda able to be recruited in the other routes, mainly due to self-preservation as they see that the Alliance is unable to fend off the invading countries, though Lysithea and Leonie will not join in Azure Gleam. The Adrestian Empire, as the country that declared war, sees Petra, Dorothea, Bernadetta, and Linhardt able to be recruited to either route, citing their disagreement with Edelgard's war. Finally, the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, due to how close each student was to begin with, only sees Ashe, due to his loyalty to Lonato, defecting to either side, and Mercedes, who will join her brother Jeritza in the Imperial Army.
This could also be because unlike Byleth who joined the Officer's Academy as a Professor; Shez joins the Officer's Academy as a student alongside them meaning that Shez lacked the status and renown that Byleth had that would inspire a student to switch houses. This also works on a personal level too: Shez's supports with the students only start during the war phase as opposed to Byleth's which started during the school year itself.
plus the kingdom of faerghus culture values loyalty which would be instilled in to felix and ingrid etc unless broken ( them being able to defect doesnt mean they are less loyal or caring to edelgard edelgard permitted it
The fact that some Adrestians are able to surrender isn’t a sign of disloyalty to Edelgard just as the Faerghans mostly being unwilling to surrender isn’t a sign of their rock-solid loyalty; it’s a sign that the Adrestians value their lives and have an Emperor who values theirs, while the Faerghans grew up in a culture that values death in service.
Edelgard actually permitted Petra to surrender if the worst should come to pass. Edelgard chose her bond with Petra over her duty as Emperor here
when she’s defected? She doesn’t want to fight the Empire
raxistaicho . tumblr . com/post/689798004439384064
#fire emblem three houses#fire emblem warriors three hopes#feth meta#dorothea arnault#three hopes#fire emblem meta#fire emblem three hopes meta#fire emblem three hopes#shez#blue lions#black eagles#golden deer#ferdinand von aegir#caspar von bergliez#lysithea von ordelia#felix fraldarius#sylvain jose gautier#sylvain gautier#annette fire emblem#ingrid galatea#ingrid brandl galatea#felix hugo fraldarius#bernadetta von varley#raphael kirsten#petra macneary#linhardt von hevring#mercedes von martritz#ashe ubert#lorenz hellman gloucester#fire emblem lysithea
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Why I love Miklan in Azure Gleam
I know that some people hate what was done with Miklan in Azure Gleam, so I want to spread some love for what I personally felt was a great story beat through his addition. It worked on many levels for me, from highlighting the themes of Azure Gleam to providing great insight into several characters and how they make decisions.
Social Reform: Penance as Justice
Three main reforms explicitly occurred during the course of Azure Gleam, not counting Support-locked ones like education needed for proper representation. Those are:
Improving foreign relations
Reducing crest dependence
Refining their justice system
Miklan's situation covers the last two.
We know from supports like Ingrid's that crests are dwindling. Titles don't always pass to crested children in the Kingdom, even if they exist. Sylvain notes that the military and threat of invasion or bandits primarily drive the need for crests. Commonfolk require ways to fight without relics if they wish to completely demolish the need for crested nobles in Faerghus.
This makes crests a practical matter in the Kingdom, not religious. The Church has no opposition to the dilution of crest bloodlines. Nor do they stop actions taken to bring crestless people up to the same position of power as those with crests, such as commoners being knighted or mixed marriages being blessed by the king. A crestless noble like Miklan wouldn't be out of place among the new wave of knights and nobles Dimitri has been creating.
Regarding justice, several events show us that Faerghus has a stringent stance on treason and other criminal activity. The Western Lords believe their options are to kill the royal family to stop reforms or die if they fail, as evidenced by Dominic's hesitation. Cornelia feeds this fear, but with Dimitri's forced beheading of Rufus, it's confirmed for the players that criminals are dealt with harshly in the Kingdom.
Dimitri appears to oppose this way of thinking. This may be partly because he considers himself "the guilty" and believes in the duty of atonement. It may also be because he can't just execute people for every crime. Even outside of war, a poor nation like Faerghus has a plethora of criminals out of necessity. Ashe, now one of his knights thanks to Lonato's saving him when he was younger, is a prime example of this.
Unfortunately, change in Faerghus is not so simple. Lambert was executed and Duscur blamed to avoid reforms in the past. Even if those changes are shown to be just, such as re-establishing Duscur, dictating significant cultural changes causes unrest. That puts Dimitri in a position where he must simultaneously seek bottom-up (from the people) and top-down (from the leaders) reform.
Miklan: The Rebirth of an Educated Criminal
In comes Miklan. Well-educated in war and Kingdom politics, a proven leader, crestless, and a true scumbag. His reformation would be a perfect symbol for Dimitri's new Kingdom, which believes a person is more than their birth or past deeds. As a bonus, if Miklan fails to prove he can better himself, his execution would be only a minor setback.
Through his upbringing as a Gautier, Miklan has cultivated the exact skillsets that Dimitri needs in a general. All Miklan needs to do is stay away from the rest of House Gautier due to their sordid history and become his own man - under military supervision, admittedly. If he can live for himself and serve the Kingdom, it is a win for the country as a whole.
The fantastic part is that it works. You see NPCs go from hating him or cautiously optimistic about his role to admiring how far Miklan was able to go. They hope that they, too, can escape their past misdeeds and become respected. After all, if someone as awful as that could turn their life around, why couldn't they do the same?
Miklan personally and publicly proved that his lack of a crest never made him less intelligent or capable of serving as a leader compared to his brother and father. It was his own choice to do his horrible deeds and his choice to be better, as well.
Even in death, Miklan's changes during that short time end up as a massive win for criminal rehabilitation in Faerghus.
Sylvain: Friends and Choice
That brings us to the personal aspect. It can be tough to swallow that Dimitri would invite Sylvain's known abuser into a position of power within the Kingdom. In that decision, we see the difference between the priorities of the infamous 'Faerghus Four.'
Felix and Ingrid are friends of Sylvain, first and foremost. Although both take their duty seriously, personal codes of loyalty drive them forward more than the future of Faerghus. They struggle to look the other way for the sake of the greater good, Felix especially. And since they've seen Sylvain make self-destructive decisions for years, they no longer trust him enough to choose for himself or understand his limits.
Sylvain and Dimitri are the opposite. They care dearly about their friends, but they value being a good leader and securing the future for Faerghus over their personal feelings. Sacrifice comes easy to them. That isn't to say they're unfeeling. Dimitri creates the safest environment possible with the situation - he asks Sylvain for permission, keeps them separate, and makes sure Miklan will be executed if he steps a toe out of line. But ultimately, he trusts Sylvain, naively or not, to know himself and his limits.
To that end, I argue against the idea that Dimitri and Sylvain are "broken" for rejecting revenge as justice for Miklan and instead giving him an opportunity. I think they both made an incredibly mature, valid decision. And I think the fact their friends didn't like it was also valid.
It's a good reminder that moving on looks different for everyone. One victim's way of coming to terms with their abuse doesn't look like another's. They may even be totally incompatible. Not everyone can be okay with seeing someone who abused them living a great life, even if that abuser never harms anyone again. Others, like Sylvain, may want distance and the peace of mind that someone they love, abuser or not, no longer needs to live for only hatred. Which one is "right" can only be answered by the person living through it.
Sylvain and Dimitri move on by doing what they believe is the right thing for the people. It's their comfort when they know that any choice will be uncomfortable at best and deadly at worst. Others might find more peace in incarceration or violence toward those who have wronged them.
Miklan's arc lets us explore the messiness of human nature. He makes others suffer, so we hate him, yet he has suffered himself, so we also pity him. It forces players to reconcile the desire to see someone punished for evil acts with the compassionate idea that there is always a chance to change for the better, no matter our trauma, if we try hard enough.
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This is such a wild NPC take lmao.
He thinks that if they opposed Dimitri, he might lop their head off and hang it as an ornament... but he literally just said moments prior that the person Dimitri killed planned/attempted to assassinate him.
In the war, he lets people retreat with their lives, and they oppose him quite openly. Some Duscur citizens weren't comfortable with being friendly with Faerghus and started a rebellion, to which the leader of the rebellion was taken in for questioning and nothing worse.
There's a big difference between opposition and making plans to assassinate someone.
Also, isn't taking the head of one's enemy and displaying it like... an actual thing? Like a warning? And uh, Sylvain literally says in SB he hopes you (the player/the player's characters/his enemies) are ready to part with your head, because he means to lay it at his friend's (Ingrid's) grave. He literally threatened to decapitate his enemies and put the decapitated head at someone's grave (and I assure you, Sylvian being Sylvain, he would do it). But... it's not Dimitri saying something aggressively violent, so it can't be all that bad, right?! Even though like, Sylvain is one of the most vengeful, violent people right there with Dimitri.
But of course, it's not a Fodlan game if they don't try to portray Dimitri in a bad light at some point in his own route! I've literally said Dimitri could hand out candy to children on Halloween and be demonized and vilified for it and I am quite honestly completely correct.
Sorry Dimitri hung the head of a would be assassin up to warn people not to do that! Sorry Dimitri killed the person who tried to assassinate him! How scary! Sends a chill down your spine that someone would dare retaliate to an attempt on their life by acting in kind and taking the attacker's life who would have otherwise taken theirs!
Like, what are you so afraid for, NPC Man? Are you planning on attempting an assassination too? No? Soooo... what's the problem...??? You can oppose him, sure. That doesn't mean you're trying to take his life. If you try to take his life, yeah, it's totally warranted that someone you try to kill would kill you in turn.
#DCB Three Hopes Run#and then the night dimitri lopped off that not so assassin anymore's head#sylvain was so proud of him that they kissed. it definitely happened trust me i was there i saw it#(a bot liked the original post so i just reposted it LOL)
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So I finished Scarlet Blaze
I powered through the story in three days and can now look forward to enjoying the other two routes at a normal pace now that my Black Eagles obsession has been satiated.
There’s a lot to love about the story, but there’s also some really baffling decisions in there that drag things down a little bit. The story starts really strong and maintains that until just before the endgame and then things peter down from there instead of building to a satisfying climax. That being said I will admit that I was mostly just happy to have another full story featuring Edelgard and the rest of the Eagles and I’d say the amount of good content in here easily outweighs the bad content.
Anyway I've written some general, not too in-depth thoughts on the story beneath the spoiler tag and can answer questions if people have any.
To start with the things I really liked here I would say that there are three things I can think of that Three Hopes definitely did better than Three Houses and they’re all mostly related to the fact that Fodlan feels much more like a fully realized world in Three than it does in Houses.
The first big thing is that there are a lot more scenes that show what Dimitri and the Lions + Claude and the Deer are doing during the story and how they're reacting to what's going on. This does so much to make the story feel like it's actually taking place in a living world as opposed to Three Houses, where you get one or two scenes with the other characters and the rest of it is just Byleth + your chosen house steamrolling through the world with minimal challenge. One of my favourite parts about the story was actually seeing Dimitri, Felix and Sylvain reacting too and discussing the fact that we killed Ingrid and seeing how it affected them emotionally. That's the kind of thing that was really missing from every route in Three Houses.
The second is that the game does a much better job at showing the nuances of the political situation. So in Three Houses for example, you're just told in Crimson Flower that Count Gloucester is willing to bend the knee and you don't get any more information than that. In Scarlet Blaze you get several good scenes showing Gloucester talking the situation out with Lorenz, which is not only good character stuff, it's also good world building that makes the Alliance feel much more real than it did in Three Houses. You get similar scenes showing why different Kingdom nobles would side with or against Edelgard, and of course chapters dedicated to showing the situation inside the Empire with much greater nuance than in Three Houses.
The third is that the game is much better at allowing characters other than Byleth and the chosen Lord to be plot important. I was so delighted to see Ferdinand step into a much more major role in the story and even get his own cutscene during the chapter where his father stages a rebellion with the help of the Slithers. So I think all three of those factors come together to really help sell Fodlan as a setting more than Three Houses did. After this game I’d say Fodlan is easily the most in-depth, fully fleshed out settings that Fire Emblem has ever had. Only Tellius really comes close in my opinion.
The first of which is that Rhea was still really underutilized. After the demo came out, I said one of the big things I wanted from this route was for the game to have an actual dynamic between Rhea and Edelgard and sadly the game did not deliver on that front. After you take Garreg Mach, Rhea disappears from the story until it’s time for her to show up to be the final boss. Big disappointment there.
Speaking of characters who are underutilized, the lack of attention given to Byleth in this story is criminal. They are meant to have the whole rivalry thing going on with Shez but they barely show up in the story and when they do they aren’t handled particularly well. Like, the Enlightened One transformation just happens out of nowhere with zero explanation and the only follow up on it is a conversation between Sothis and Byleth wherein Sothis acts like a completely different person than she was in Three Houses. I will say though, that their support with Jeralt is really cute. Seriously one of my favorite support conversations in the game and that’s saying something cause this game has a lot of good supports.
Another thing I didn’t really care for was Shez as the main character. Thinking of them just as a character I like Shez well enough but they simply don’t work in the protagonist role. I might make a separate post on this entirely later because I have a lot of thoughts on this and I don’t want to balloon the length of this post too much.
Also the Arval plot is a massive disappointment that really hurts the pacing of the story, and doesn’t do a good job of explaining anything that is happening in it.
And of course, the biggest problem with this game’s story is for some reason the exact same thing that was the biggest problem with Crimson Flower’s story. For some reason, for the 2nd game in a row they decided to end Edelgard’s route with major plot threads left unresolved and we don’t even get an epic cutscene to make up for it this time. Like at least with Crimson Flower we had the iconic Edeleth heartbeat cutscene, in Scarlet Blaze Rhea and Thales just fall off a bridge and that’s it. I’d imagine this is either they’re way of selling DLC or a clumsy effort to not invalidate the story in Three Houses.
So to sum up, the story is mostly enjoyable with a lot of messiness though. So exactly like Three Houses really.
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Some things I noticed playing Crimson Flower, with spoilers for it and Azure Moon below:
The very first thing I noticed was that Onset of a Power Struggle has its position flipped compared to To War. Makes sense, considering that you’re the invading army. It’s also much more difficult, not only lying about the objective (defeating all commanders, not rout enemy, though the displayed objective changes when Rhea shows up), but featuring multiple commanders instead of just one. Crimson Flower often features multiple commanders. It’s a very interesting and, on other routes, very underutilized concept.
The Bridge of Myrddin chapter was also made drastically different. In The Rose-Colored River, you have to take out three commanders who are pretty far from the starting position, with another coming in on turn two, while Beyond Escape has one commander fairly close to it. As such, Beyond Escape is considerably easier. The position flipping was rather interesting! It also makes sense. The bridge connects the Alliance to the Empire, and since you’re controlling the Empire and invading the Alliance (as opposed to passing through Alliance territory into the Empire), it makes sense.
Derdriu had you in the same map position as Azure Moon, except you’re supposed to take out Claude instead of helping him and Arundel doesn’t show up. So effectively the direction your army takes gets flipped, even if your starting position doesn’t. Fun fact, Claude mentions Almyran reinforcements even if you beat the chapter before any even showed up!
Protecting Garreg Mach is also considerably easier than on other routes! It was definitely a difficulty spike for my second Azure Moon and my Silver Snow playthroughs, what with being a rout map, but in Crimson Flower, you instead take out the commanders. Flayn doesn’t show up unless you saved Seteth for last, so it’s easier if you take him out first or second.
That chapter is also where I found out that the generic replacements for Church-affiliated characters are called Knights of Seiros (as opposed to Imperial, Kingdom, and Alliance Generals).
You know how I mentioned Seteth is carrying in my Silver Snow playthrough? He’s an even tougher mfer as an enemy. I actually had to use Raging Storm here to have Edelgard take out the sniper boss and then attack Seteth without killing him, because I wanted to spare him and the only way to do so is to defeat him with Byleth. He was also very difficult in Onset of a Power Struggle.
Lady of Deceit is much harder than The Silver Maiden, again because of the multiple commanders. I had to use Raging Storm again. Edelgard took out Gwendal, Ingrid, and Cornelia, while Byleth took out Rodrigue and Hubert and Constance worked together to defeat Felix. When Paths That Will Never Cross played, only to be cut short by Felix and Ingrid’s echoing screams? That felt like a punch to the chest.
Field of Revenge was also difficult because of the multiple commanders. It also hurt to kill Dimitri and Dedue. Killing the Kingdom General that replaces Mercedes was anticlimactic sandwiched between the deaths of Sylvain and Dedue, so next time I probably won’t recruit Mercedes. It helps my decision that I got all of her support conversations with Jeritza.
The music also felt unfitting. The Long Road feels more like an auxiliary battle track than something fitting of the penultimate battle.
To the End of a Dream may use Fhirdiad as its setting, but it sure as hell ain’t the same level as The King’s Triumphant Return. For one, Fhirdiad is on fire this time around, and it is far from an easy one-turn unless you have a fully-repaired Aymr and a willingness to spam Raging Storm and rig critical hits. Aymr was at three uses, so I had a squad of Edelgard, Byleth, and Jeritza charging for Rhea, while Hubert helped clear out a few enemies and Lysithea warped Jeritza forward when he fell behind Edelgard and Byleth (a Wyvern Lord and Dark Flier, respectively).
Overall? I really enjoyed Crimson Flower. I kind of wish you actually got to go to Shambhala (heck, the nuking of Arianrhod was the perfect opportunity for Hubert to find it!), but other than that, it was a fun time! It was certainly a fun challenge to try to clear the chapters in as few turns as possible! Hehe. I may actually become seriously interested in LTC-ing other Fire Emblem games, now that Azure Moon minimum deaths has altered my very playstyle regarding this game.
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The Chariot & FE3H
The Chariot is an archetype connected to drive, determination, and victory. The figure in the chariot is literally driving the chariot, and their armour belies a martial affinity. The star over their head shows their determination and strength of vision. They know what they want, and are enlightened of their own desires. We can tell that this warrior has been victorious thus far, as behind them are green fields and trees, as well as a strong and stable kingdom.
The Chariot reminds us that great success comes from using the mind, heart, and spirit. The mind we see reflected in the star, representing enlightenment and knowledge. The heart we see in the use of blue and water motifs, symbolising the subconscious and the emotions. The spirit we see in the two sphinxes which represent opposing ideas. The spirit must be in balance in order to achieve great things.
The crest associated with this archetype is the Crest of Daphnel. This name is perhaps inspired from Daphne, a Greek dryad. She is the daughter of a river god. Daphne turned herself into a laurel tree in order to escape from Apollo, who was hellbent on raping her. At least, this is as Ovid tells it. (The Greek gods are a mood, honestly.)
The dragon associated with this crest is the Flame Dragon. It represents both calamity and protection. A very forceful symbol in Japan. It is energetic, powerful, and moves things in the world. The way fire can affect things by burning them or making changes in them. The use of flame is close enough to “fire” that I would consider this dragon related to the Godai philosophy elements of the surviving Nabateans, which is strange, because the presence of Luin definitely makes it clear that this Nabatean is well and truly murdered.
My personal vision of this dragon is a sleek and slender dragon with flames bursting out around it. Unfortunately, this couldn’t be preserved in the relic, so part of this dragon’s essence is lost forever.
The character I connect to all these things is Ingrid Brandl Galatea. She is driven and a capable leader. She even has a personal skill to this effect, Lady Knight, which allows more powerful gambits. Just like Daphne, she is very against marriage and uninterested in romance. She even has a close brush with a forced marriage, but luckily didn’t need to turn herself into a tree. It’s also cool that the Laurel tree is often associated with victory, just like the themes of the Chariot. Just like fire, Ingrid is a force of protection for her kingdom. She is also energetic and forceful in her interactions with others. She pushes Felix and Sylvain around like nobody’s business, and even breaks down Bernadetta’s door in her quest to help the poor introvert.
Overall, Ingrid is integrated very well with her crest, dragon, and arcane archetype. Kind of strange considering she’s not a Nabatean. Perhaps she was the first character they planned out, so they bothered to make it all work? What do you guys think? How come Ingrid’s symbolism works so well, while Constance’s is just a hot mess?
Previous: The Lovers
Next: Strength
#fe3h#fe16#tarot cards#major arcana#the chariot#crests#crest of daphnel#flame dragon#daphne#greek mythology#apollo#laurel tree#ovid#ingrid brandl galatea#lance of luin
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I'm def not gonna defend the 3H recruitment cuz I'm pro route locking units myself. But simultaneously, they did record dialogue of units opposing each other so the devs clearly wanted players to recruit them and pit students against each other. Like Felix vs Ingrid and Dimitri. Dorothea vs Manuela. Shamir vs Catherine. Raphael vs Ignatz. All of these and more have dialogue meant to be used ONLY in these types of situations. So the devs clearly never wanted a tragedy where students die anyway.
Idk, I feel like they were fully aware that if they didn't have something like that in there then it would stick out like a sore thumb. And again, only making the player feel as bad as they want to feel. If you just recruit everyone then you never have to encounter that.
IIRC there's also some weird omissions? Like, Felix gets vs. dialogue with Dimitri on CF but Ingrid and Sylvain don't.
Also Sylvain vs. Felix at Arianhrod is completely recycled for Felix vs. Sylvain at Tailtean. I'm sure there's more like that.
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You know, I totally get your point re the Nopes devs trying to scrub Edelgard clean and never show her directly killing as opposed to CF. Yet simultaneously, as you also said, SB has the highest kill count of on screen playable characters like Ingrid and Sylvain. It's also the ONLY route where students are guaranteed to die, since you cannot spare Ingrid or Sylvain, unlike other routes where you can go around students and spare or recruit them to avoid shit. So I disagree that Egg is clean in SB
Fortunately, the Edelstans have already spun this into Faerghus's culture being just so toxic that everyone there would rather fight to the death than surrender, so Edelgard and co. just can't help killing them.
(This, as is often the case, reads like sour grapes, in this case over the Lions being the most loyal of the houses and Hopes not giving any fodder to the belief that Felix/Sylvain/Ingrid would be so much happier betraying the Kingdom, that Felix and Annette's daddy issues are best resolved by killing their fathers, etc.)
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Scarlet Blaze - Chapter 13-Chapter 14
We are close to the end-game now!
Story
Mercedes says she’s ok now with fighting the Kingdom. I guess that’s… something….
Lol, Yuri is like “You want to put me to work? Neither you or Edelgard can afford to pay me the price for my life”. Kek.
There is literally a trade route with a foreign country mentioned by an NPC (and the game has the gale to claim the Central Church prevents outside contact)
Ashe is a little happier here too, but only because he wants to help the people in Hyrm that were attacked by the Slithers. A distraction, I guess.
Alois actually had something nice to say about the Church, about how we could learn from them at how they dispatched people and supplies to help those in need. Kinda cool.
Frankly, Shamir confuses me. She says she also wants to kill some of Edelgard’s supports because of the Dagda war. She has no chill.
There is a merchant that is actually someone undercover, pretending to be a merchant… huh.
Constance is kinda irritated that the Duke didn’t consider her house as one to contact for the uprising (lol)
Dancer class is honestly kinda awesome, haha.
Arval comments on this corner of the world being an uncontrolled mess. Lol. It’s been a while since he has chimed in in general.
Some more new slithers appearing on the side missions
OK, here we go, reclaiming Fort Merceus.
Kroyna is here... and now she’s dead.
Why did the Slithers even get involved?!
Jesus christ, Ferdinand just fucking murdered his father. I mean, guy was an asshole. But it was still his dad.
This makes me feel something.
Now that a bunch of Houses have been... destroyed, a new duke needs to be picked.
Ferdinand asks if Edelgard is trying to give him solace.... and she looks confused. (So, I don’t think she did, I think she was just being practical).
I guess there are no more rebels in the Empire now.
Edelgard now has total power now, they literally said it out loud.
Edelgard has a point - it makes no sense for Thales and crew to stop those protecting the archbishop from being crushed.
Edelgard STILL doesn’t trust Shez. Really, this war should be about killing the Slithers, not the fucking Church.
We STILL DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE SLITHERS EXCEPT THAT APPARENTLY THEY DON’T WORK TOGETHER, THEY JUST DO CHAOS ON THEIR OWN.
CHAPTER 14
Whelp, guess it’s time to go crush the Kingdom and Rhea, or so the game claims.
Whoa, Jeralt and Byleth are actually in on the story now.
Jeralt seems totally cool with the idea that if he needs to kill Rhea, he will kill Rhea.
Rhea is suggesting now we retake the monastery. To keep the Empire in check, and to shake the faith of others who loyalties are weaker.
Oooohhhh, time for Valley of Torment.
Man, we haven’t seen Rhea for so fucking long.
Caspar mentions his brother will likely be blamed for what happened to the fort. Betcha that will go nowhere.
Apparently there are still lords who oppose Edelgard’s plan in the Empire (and Monica wants them stamped out)
Leonie kinda whines about not being includes in Jeralt and Byleth’s convos.
Jeralt actually tells Byleth why he left the Knights, interesting (we as players don’t get to know why, though).
Man, Hubert and Claude figured out that Dimitri and Rhea are after the monastery.
Cyril appears in a side map (he’s going to die, ain’t he?)
“adherents to the status quo” THEY ACTUALLY SAID STATUS QUO, I’M DYING, IT’S LIKE THE DISCOURSE
*sweats* Here we go.
This is basically the three way battle again. Except that that it’s really two-version one. Seteth doesn’t want Flayn here.
“Empire supremacy” sure Edelgard
Felix is here!!!
Sylvain has come to save felix’s life
Sylvain wants to avenge Ingrid.... Too bad he dies. :(
Flayn has appeared. Hubert comments about “Saint Cethleann” and a second coming, lol.
Dedue....
He doesn’t die.
Neither does Flayn, boooo
Nor does Seteth, he retreats too.
Edelgard asks Dimitri to step aside and break it off with the Church, and return to his people. But Dimitri refuses, because he knows Edelgard will likely go after him still.
After the battle, Byleth appears shows up and just talks to Shez.
Well, we are chasing after Dimitri now. And Edelgard wants to be the ones to apprehend Dimitri.
Rhea went to the monastery, I guess.
Ooohhh, Arval has taken over Shez’s body...... And attacked Byleth.
IF YOU DIDN’T RECRUIT BYLETH HOWEVER
There are some minor Arval dialogue changes, since now you will be killing Byleth.
The title of the chapter is different. If you recruited Byleth, Chapter 14 is called Torment of the Eagle and Lion, but if you didn’t recruit Byleth, Chapter 14 is called A Clash of Ambitions.
There is no Byleth scene here, it’s completely skipped.
Fleche, despite being alive, is notably absent here at camp.
Nevermind, there is actually a different Byleth scene, where he gives Claude some “tips”. Claude asks Byleth to come with him after the battle is over, saying he feels like “maybe his path would be different” or some nonsense. Very on the nose. Curious to see where this goes. What tips did Byleth give him?
We get a different scene with Claude now. Claude signed a pact with Edelgard under duress since they were being attack.
But Claude also is against the Church and the Kingdom so they won’t be be “shackled to the past” or something like that. So he is declaring war on both the Empire and the Kingdom.
Is he... a moron?
The Kingdom just wants to be left the fuck alone overall.
So instead of him helping in battle, we fight both armies.
Hilda retreats, no death there
Claude ded now. Not sure if he can survive this battle....
Byleth appears for one last battle. Sothis is controlling him.
Byleth seems to be fighting back Sothis’ control, which is why we win, I guess.
Byleth dead now.
This was a harder battle this way.
Shez feels empty after killing Byleth. He wonders if there is another way to solve this. Which... solve what? You were after Byleth.....
Arval feels relief though.
Interestingly, it’s Shez who can realize that there is a secret path here this time.
I didn’t feel like replaying this chapter for all the character dialogue. So I went and watched it on Youtube.
Claude will ask Lorenz to take care of the Alliance should he fall.
We really going to be ending this route by saving Count Varley? Amazing....
Paralogue
There is a single paralogue for chapter 13, and you need Jeralt and Byleth with Leonie.
Firstly…. Leonie is a bitch. She was so mean to Byleth, asking how Jeralt could raise such a cold and unfeeling person. (Jeralt then admitted that he wasn’t the best dad).
The whole battle, which was killing poachers, Leonie and Jeralt talked about their time together, completely ignoring Byleth for the most part. We don’t even know where Byleth was during Jeralt and Leonie’s time together, we don’t learn that at all. :/
Jeralt then goes to the villagers to get a feast (he was kinda expecting one), and Alois won’t even be there. He even doesn’t let Byleth or Shez come. What a jackass.
Byleth was cute though, when he thought Shez really meant they should hold hands on the way home.
CHAPTER 14 PARALOGUES
STOP GIVING ME PARALOGUES, I WANT TO BE FREE, ASGKFDAKGDAKGJFDKGJKFDSJGKFDSJGKFDJGKDSGFDSKGKFDSJGKFDSJGKFDJGKJFDG
Leonie and Shamir Paralogue.....
Apparently, there is a HUGE merc group called the Guardians of Foldan that just.... exist?
Anyways, boring paralogue. Some nobles took a shine to Shamir and wanted her kidnapped, and that’s really it.
Whoa, they are NOT HIDING the fact that Shamir is bi here, the noble interested in her is... a woman.
Damn, lady.... stop catching all the ladies!
Linhardt and Caspar’s paralogue....
we are getting the last of the rebels with their fathers in this paralogue.
Caspar is really bloodthirsty with his father. They are having a competition to see how many they can kill. :/
Caspar’s older brother is mentioned again. Looks like he will be “reassessed” for his failure for defending the Fort from the former Duke.
So far, there have been less rebels and more... thieves. Even Linhardt says as much.
Wait, and then Count Bergliez and Count Hevring turn on us to “test” Caspar and Linhardt.
Man, a waste of another paralogue. It made very little sense. It just shows off the “friendship” of the dads more, really.
We get the magical gauntlets though from Caspar’s father. “Jarngrepir”. Or, as my tongue likes to call it, “Jarnfreplerpler”
Caspar seems.... particularly stupid in Hopes....
Supports
After chapter 12 is done, a few more supports open up: Shez with Hubert and Edelgard.
Edelgard with Shez - Why is so much Slither stuff behind supports and paralogues? But this support basically confirms that Edelgard in Houses turned a blind eye to the Slithers. However, this doesn’t…. mesh well with Houses? I mean, correct me if I’m wrong, but… Edelgard also allowed them to exist because they were useful to her cause. This makes it seem like Edelgard DIDN’T have a choice with the Slithers in Houses, but that just doesn’t make sense with what we know. Also, Shez says Edelgard was different because she was a noble who paid attention to him. Never mind Claude and Dimitri and all the other nobles from the houses who gave him the time of day before he chose his house.
Hubert with Edelgard - Nothing to really say about this, honestly. Just Hubert saying he finally trusts Shez. Somehow, Hubert can sense there is “another person” in Shez and worry that Shez will become another person entirely. Feels a little forced, for Hubert to be able to “sense” that.
Jesus, they don’t give you a lot of time to gain supports between Leonie and Ferdinand. Damn.
Leonie and Ferdinand C - Leonie thinks there might be a cultural difference between nobles?! UM, EXCUSE ME, WHERE IS THIS ELSEWHERE?! Everything else is all about how all the nobles are the same, down with nobility! Maybe, and I say just maybe…. countries are different?!
Leonie and Jeralt Support - It’s a little weird, because Jeralt says that he wasn’t in Leonie’s town for long, and even tells Leonie at camp that she wasn’t really his apprentice (although he does tell her kinda “ok, fine, you were my apprentice” after she whines a little). But in this support, he says he is proud she was his apprentice. OKie dokie.
Leonie and Ferdinand B support - Never mind, this support turned dumb. Leonie has come to the conclusion that all nobles are the same. Ferdinand is also saying that he is the only one who is doing stuff like… take care of horses…. Um… Marianne is right there? Holy fuck this support was dumb, dumb, dumb.
Leonie and Lorenz’s support - The Church paid back some of Leonie’s money since it shut down. How absolutely EVIL /s. It’s a weird conversation overall, that apparently commoners “don’t make their own choices” and that “commoners don’t want to be commoners anymore”. I’m…. huh. It feels like whoever wrote this support just doesn’t understand the world in general. Leonie making it as she has isn’t proof of change upon them - what about mercenaries? Seriously, this support makes no SENSE.
Leonie and Lysithea Support - Lysithea’s biggest concern for becoming a commoner is that she won’t be able to get candy anymore.
CHAPTER 14 SUPPORTS
A bunch of supports unlocked after killing the Duke.
Shez and Ferdinand - Ferdinand has been depressed this whole route.
Ferdinand and Edelgard - Ferdinand is so loyal now. And he says he did the right thing by killing his father. Also, Edelgard doesn’t want to lose so people won’t say bad things her and her war. And Ferdinand would rather die than see people end up saying shit about her. Yay....Ferdinand does mention that the commonfolk need to be educated before they can carry on. (AND EDELGARD DIDN’T THINK ABOUT A SCHOOL, FERDINAND CAME UP WITH THE IDEA).
Edelgard and Bernadetta - Thales is still live, so Edelgard is still bothered. Also, Edelgard doesn’t believe in being kind to people in despair, because it doesn’t really help them.
Hubert and Ferdinand - I honestly prefer silly Ferdinand, this serious Ferdinand isn’t as fun. :/ Ah, the “Twin jewels of the Empire” was mentioned here.
When will my suffering end of this route?
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fuck
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figured it was better to save my thoughts on character outfits for three hopes until we had gotten to see them all. my initial impressions when we just saw edelgard, claude and dimitris designs was that three hopes was looking to be a refinement of designs from houses itself but like most things regarding three houses quality it seems the answers a lot more... down the middle in terms of quality then it first appeared.
blue lions
dimitri: love this design more then his original ts design. i feel thats because dimitris original ts design was made with more thematic purposes in mind but his new design is just made to be appealing to look at.
dedue: not much has really changed but not much really needed to change. still, the beard is such a natural fit for dedue that i cant help but consider it highly.
mercedes: again not a design that changed much at all and not really one that needed to change much at all. i will add that ive always actually liked her original ts hair contrary to a lot of people, but the new bob is probably more appealing to a wider number of people.
annette: i feel like her new design better captures her personality? not that annette cant have depth mind, just that shes very much defined as a go getter kinda quirky young girl which her new look better evokes in my mind.
ashe: i feel like they didnt know where to go with this one? its not bad, its just such an odd shift from his original. still it feels like something ashe would wear to me, hes aiming to be a knight after all.
felix: as opposed to dimitri whos design went from a more thematic to a more aesthetic design, felix feels like hes going in the opposite direction from a more aesthetic design to a more visually thematic one. and i find that incredibly fascinating, like, why are you wearing your dads cloths felix? are these glenns cloths actually? are we gonna get something more directly confronting the fact that felix is written to be incredibly hypocritical/not as insightful as he thinks he is? this one whets my story appetite.
sylvain: sylvain channels his inner lewyen and gets a scarf time? its different flavored but nice in its own way not much more to say other then his hair could have stood to have a bit more height to it if that makes sense?
ingrid: like sylvain theres not much to say, its different but very nice in its own way. hair could stand to be an inch shorter or so but other then that another solid design overall.
black eagles
edelgard: in a weird spot because i actually do like her new ts design, but it also feels like its even worse at conveying the idea of an armor unit then her original design was. there are definitely some interesting implications to draw from that mind, but it doesnt changed the fact that every edelgard design ive ever seen just feels off for one reason or another.
hubert: apparently someone saw how people thirsted over hubert and decided to double down on the wet rat bastard idea hard this time. whether it was to make him less appealing or infact more appealing i cant quite decide, but i dont think theres anyway to get past how hubert looks like a discount version of himself.
dorothea: thats certainly dorothea. ive never been particularly fond of her or her designs so i cant particularly comment, but this feels about the same as her other designs to me. boring if effective at provoking the image of a high society lady.
bernadetta: proof if proof be needed that bernie was always intended as more of a gag character then anything serious. im not gonna waid into the debate on that, but i will note that it must be someones fetish on the design team as theyve seem to have doubled down hard on shut in neet bernie this time.
ferdinand: theres something about the outffit itself i like more then the original, it feels more ferdinand if that makes sense, but the hair really infuriates me this time as it only looks good at certain angles. when it looks shorter then it actually is, ferdinand looks his best.
caspar: the design that feels the most like a mid tier evolution before hitting fully evolved caspar to me. i actually rather like it overall including the short spiked hair.
petra: idk this one feels like a dud to me. individually a lot of the design elements would look pretty good in an outfit designed entirely with them in mind, but as it stands it feels like they mashed several competing designs together without much thought on the cohesiveness of it.
linhardt: femboi linhardt? idk what the case was intended for here, but overall like annette i feel this design better captures linhardts personality and character then his original ts design.
golden deer
claude: i like this design a lot more then the original but not because i strictly think its a better design but more so because this design has most of everything i like in character outfits. another case id say of less thematic intent more visual intent.
hilda: another perfectly serviceable design that looks different but still good. cant decide which hairstyle i like more for hilda but im leaning more towards this one as it feels more like one she'd actually wear in a war setting.
lorenz: looking dapper and fine overall lorenz, people can make fun of his hair all they like but he really makes it work and i like how this feels more applicable for a mage/dark knight which lorenz is primarily geared towards being.
raphael: raphael decided to show off some more muscle which im always down for. the bandana helps bring it together giving him a more worker look which i feel works for him.
ignatz: love the colours a lot more this time and i vastly prefer this compared to his original outfit which just confused me. only thing i dont like about it is the breatsplate, that doesnt fit ignatz as much as it fits ashe and hed have been better off with a more cloth based look there.
lysithea: like claude i like this outfit more not because its a strictly better outfit and more because it just has more design elements that appeal to my tastes then her original look did. i will say i lean to this also being a better fit for lysitheas personality as well though.
marianne: and your gonna hear me roar oar a a a a a a oar like mercedes its a case where the outfit hasnt really changed because ya didnt really didnt need to change much about it, but the hair style has changed to something im not personally more fond of but recognize as a good visually appealing hair style.
leonie: i like her original ts outfit more really but this one looks nice as well and has a bit more individual flair and personality to it then before when she was more so cropping elements from jeralt.
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Feral Grandchild AU: Since Byleth is publicly known as the Archbishop granddaughter she probably drowning in marriage proposal. So obviously she asks around for advice on how to deal. What do you think everyone advice is (and whose would be the most/least helpful). [I bet Hubert would be amusing]
Personally understands Byleth's situation and has good advice to offer:
Mercedes, Ingrid. They're both in this same situation, and all of them with a sliding scale of fatherly support - Jeralt is definitely burning proposals and sending threatening letters back to everyone who makes an offer, while Ingrid loves her father and accepts that he's doing what he sees as necessary, while Mercedes does not like her adoptive father who only ever took her in for her Crest.
Personally understands Byleth's situation and has questionable advice to offer:
Bernadetta. Just pick a room to hole up in forever and ever - "but not this room! This is Bernie's room! It's already taken!"
Personally understands Byleth's situation but only has the most terrible advice to offer, thus making it sound like they aren't sympathetic at all:
Sylvain. You Know.
Has questionable but well-intentioned advice that does not fit the way that Byleth is approaching this matter:
Lorenz. He's offering to introduce Byleth to people, he's giving tips on what to look for in a suitor and what makes someone good for your family and house. He's assuming that Byleth wants the same thing that he at this point thinks he wants, which is to select a worthy marriage candidate.
Has questionable, self-centered advice:
Constance. "I offer to you my hand and all of my many talents! Approval from the archbishop herself and the hand of her grandchild will surely bolster House Nuevelle back to its former glory!"
Makes light of it to help set Byleth at ease:
Petra. She doesn't have an obligation to get married anytime soon or against her will, but she's keeping an eye out to help strengthen ties between Fodlan and Brigid, "so if ever you are getting tired of all of these Fodlan nobles, you may come back to my homeland with a noble of Brigid instead!"
Dorothea. "You want to get all these nobles off your back, and I'm looking for a good spouse who can provide a future for me..."
Claude. He might be recognized as heir to House Reigan, but having come out of nowhere he's still got those opposed to him, "so maybe it'd shore up my claim if I marry the archbishop's grandchild! Although that might give Rhea and the Church more of a foothold in the Alliance, so maybe not..."
Straight-up has terrible advice and knows it:
Balthus. "Punch 'em. Then when they send their people after ya for insulting them, come down to Abyss and we'll keep the bounty hunters off our tails, together!"
Hapi. "That kind of thing makes me want to sigh for you. Maybe you should take me to one of their estates and I will."
Hubert. "For those who cannot take a hint, poison should do the trick quite nicely."
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Domitila [Pt. 1]
Summary: Sylvain arrives for the king’s birthday and recalls why it has been so long since he has been to Fhirdiad.
Rating: T - Suitable for teens, 13 years and older, with some violence, minor coarse language, and minor suggestive adult themes.
Words: 2564
Notes: I’m really excited for this one! Even if it’s, like, the fifth Sylvain series I make. Anyways, Domitila de Castro was the lover of the Emperor of Brazil in the early 1800′s.
The palace ballroom formed a kaleidoscope of partygoers, festive nobles and their ornate display of house colours blending together in the cool light of the thousand bulbs throughout the chandeliers. Each opposing hue and carefully placed symbol embodied their various disagreements and positions over the many centuries, but together, they formed a united front that acted as a barrier between their world and the real world.
He is born here, out of this blue blood, but he never felt as if he belonged. His entire life, Sylvain Gautier was a passive observer. He stood in the corner of every party and observed their displays of superiority with ill-disguised disdain for the rituals and the people that partook in it.
That particular strain of noble Faerghusi children has missed the mark on sociability. Ingrid did not care for the constraints placed upon her gender, Felix was more interested in fencing than just about anything, and Crown Prince Dimitri walked around the castle as if he would sooner cry if anyone tried to address him. He just followed suit, with his own issues and his own failings.
Perhaps, the redhead considers, his parents secretly thanked the Blue Sea Star for his only proclivities being to lie and to fuck, both of which could be leveraged positively. Alas, they still demanded and demeaned, and off he is sent to another function.
He oftentimes tried to escape, but nine out of ten, he would settle in a certain spot, where he could see and be seen, but never approached, until such time he has locked his target for the evening. Then, the show would be over, and, come morning, he had to sneak out from a too large of a house, meant to keep what is out, out, and what is in, in.
His loyalty bound him to that very spot, present out of obligation but antisocial out of preference. After one too many glasses of whiskey, Sylvain felt this weird pain in his chest. It had been there since his first day at the palace, but he had grown so used to ignoring it that he often forgot it was there.
Beneath his hatred for the aristocracy, he just wanted to be one of them.
To be like Count Gloucester’s child, who pranced around Fhirdiad for one of those years. That polished look, that natural adaptation to this ecosystem, that lack of concern towards any goal in life, that instant acceptance to every group and every gathering in the city. Sylvain would be loved then, his parents would love him, his friends would love him, his dates would love him.
In a way, he did.
He became Sylvain Gautier, the enfant terrible one of the oldest houses in all of Fódlan. The cheap Don Juan, the nightmare of every father, the desire of every girl. He basked on the glory, he lost himself on the débauche, and he was loved. So, so loved, but not enough, not the way he wanted it.
The margrave cannot complain too much. It is exactly these tendencies, his terrible behaviour, that led him towards the greatest thing that has ever come out of his life. It led him to his marriage.
He could still remember the heat of the camera flashes on their wedding day, reporters invading the private moment he had waited for since the day he met Byleth Eisner.
From the first time their eyes met in that bar in Garreg Mach, Sylvain knew that Byleth was special. She was not like the women he had met in the aristocratic circles of Fhirdiad. She did not care about her royal lineage or elevating her social status, and she did not write him off as the screw-up playboy and she did not run away when he raised his defences.
She made him laugh and she could probably drink him under the table given a chance. Instead of looking down on him, she looked at him like a falling star, a wish for something she thought she would never find.
Sylvain brought her into his world, he presented it all to her, because he honestly thought that this was the best part of himself. Byleth, in turn, rose to the occasion, her quiet and severe neutral expression served her well amongst the nobles, her disciplined personality won the begrudging approval of his parents, and his friends had been able to peruse why it was that made him actually fall in love.
Perhaps a little too well. As their college years came to a close, and they begin to settle into their roles in society, Dimitri began nurturing dedicated interest on the woman. Sylvain noticed, but he felt much too weak to say anything about it. In turn, the crown prince was much too timid to say anything about it, as well, and so the tension never resolved itself.
Until Byleth resolved it for them.
“Once upon a time…” She told Sylvain one night, as they lay together in his bed, his ear against her beating heart. “There was this man, the best friend of an Emperor. In a voyage through the realm, he had met a woman, Domitila, who was exceptionally beautiful and intelligent, with whom he fell in love. So much so, the friend brought her along in the imperial carriage.
“Alas, not only he loved this woman. The Emperor, for as long as he knew Domitila, the more he fell for her. The friend, noticing that he had much to profit from this situation, proposed that she breaks up with him and leaves with the monarch, just as long as they share on the favour. He loved her, but he loved the money more, and so did her.
“I’m not Domitila, Sylvain, Dimitri is not the Emperor and you are not the friend, this is not our story. I love you, I want you, and I want for you to remember this, because it is not going to change anytime soon.”
She picked him. When given the opportunity to become a queen, she picked Sylvain Gautier.
The press sold the tale as a beautiful love story, and for once, Sylvain agreed.
“This is too good to be true.” Sylvain whispered underneath his breath on the night he proposed, watching Byleth sleep in his arms as her engagement ring twinkled back at him.
When he said those words, the margrave was full of hope and love. He never could have expected how right he would be.
Their wedding was a whirlwind. The gossip rags ate the story of a love born in a lowly tavern in Garreg Mach up, and their faces were shown in every supermarket magazine from Sreng to Brigid. Moreover, they were happy with it, with themselves, with the future that waited for them.
That honeymoon bliss did not even make it to the wedding.
Soon, they were overwhelmed with external pressure forcing them to conform to the ideal noble couple. Their dream of having an intimate barn wedding was destroyed the moment they opened it up to the public. Slowly, decisions were pulled away one by one until they were just actors in their own ceremony. Without realizing it, they traded their individuality and privacy for the selfish desires of his image-conscious parents.
There were nights when they thought about giving it all up. They considered running away to some mountain and eloping in tee shirts and blue jeans, but the insecurities and the disappointment they were sure to cause would chain them in place.
Everything was so far out of their hands that they lost their way…
“Is that Sylvain Gautier?” A noble whispered to another.
His ears burned at the sound. It had been so long since he had been heard his name whispered about in the confines of a ballroom, but it was hardly the first time.
Deciding to marry that woman was the easiest decision he ever made, but the consequences proved to be the greatest challenge he had ever faced. The media may have loved them as the booze-drinking, commoner-and-noble couple, but the aristocracy did not share their sentiments.
Tasked with penetrating into the Faeghusi aristocracy and running a large tract of agricultural land, Byleth and Sylvain were forced to take into account the nobles’ usually stupid opinions. They had to change. They traded jeans for couture and cheap whiskey for vintage champagne. Their parties were formal affairs instead of casual gatherings with friends and a few drinks.
Byleth, as she was prone to do, rose to the challenge. She engrossed herself in becoming a successful and helpful margravine, and Gautier business prospered under her careful guidance. Even when she wanted to punch a noble and tell them to go to hell, she knew what to say, and he watched in awe.
Sylvain seldom knew what to say. Even when he learned the dances and the jargon, he felt like he was a step behind. Unlike his wife, the court knew him. They had seen him in the corner of parties for all of those years, despising them from behind his bottle of booze, hitting them up and discarding them in the morning, and they were unlikely to let him in because he was now required to be restrained.
At events, they whispered about him and wondered how on earth Sylvain Gautier convinced someone like Byleth Eisner to marry him.
She was still the one ray of delightful sunshine in the raging storm of their responsibilities, though. No matter what pressing function faced them, she was his wife. She was the same college student and dive bar enthusiast from Garreg Mach that he fell in love with, and she loved and supported him through everything. Through every blunder and insult, The man thought about her and found peace. He would do anything for her, even if it meant losing himself.
The first two years were magical. They were beautiful and special, and Byleth and Sylvain held onto them with everything they had.
Losing one’s way is not quite noticeable at first. It is just a few more steps off the path and then a few more, but once lost, the tracks and foundations upon one builds up their lives becomes less and less defined. Sometimes, the journey meets once more and reunites people that were dearly missed, but other times, the path just gets farther apart until the fork in the road the two-face look nothing alike.
Sylvain does not know when it happened, and neither did Byleth for that matter, but it changed. He stopped looking at her and seeing his wife. He saw Margravine Byleth of Gautier. She stopped wearing those beat up tennis shoes that he liked so much, and she stopped sneaking away from parties to share a flask and tease the other nobles.
She was not the college girl full of wanderlust and adventure. She was a noblewoman with responsibilities and a fief to promote she had to do the job that fell under his purview but he refused to play that role. He resented her for that, he resented the fact that he went to the trouble of finding her, when she turns out to be just like every other girl in the city.
Byleth stopped looking at him and seeing the cool kid from campus, easy-going but opinionated. She saw Margrave Sylvain of Gautier, a man forced into his worst nightmare because he had the unfortunate fate of loving someone like her, who seemed incapable of lending him the strength of breaking them both free. He stopped trying to tell those jokes that used to make her laugh at events, and he stopped sharing the intimate secrets that bound them together in the first place.
He was not the man who tore down his walls to let her in anymore. He was the reluctant Margrave who craved for freedom.
In a way, being uncharacteristically generous and candid, the redhead can understand why it was so. Byleth, again and again, misunderstood him. She thought that “bringing her in” meant having her conform, and placing upon her the traditional burdens of a margravine. She was so, so wrong, so many times, and it killed him.
On the other hand, he never managed to actually and directly tell her that he did not want any of it, that he did not want her to pick up the slack where he left off. He wanted for both of them to be free. The only thing that he could ever tell her is of his admiration for her talent in the role, how much of a good job she was doing.
In this almost intentional maze of misunderstandings, they held on to the love they felt for each other. They held on so tight their fingers turned white, but they only found rope burns.
Year three began with a fight on New Years’ Eve, Sylvain and Byleth so caught up in screaming at each other that they missed their New Years’ kiss. Now, they do not remember what the fight was about, but they remembered the sinking feeling they both had when they looked around and realized every other couple was sharing a kiss while they were farther apart than ever.
The arguments did not end there, either. For months, it felt like they were just a ticking time bomb waiting for the next disagreement.
Byleth would lament that he did not support her at some function or another, while Sylvain would complain that he was forever being forced into uncomfortable situations. The woman would grow tired of his ridicule of the aristocracy and remind him that they were now a part of it, and the man would scream that they would both always be outsiders.
They would yell at each other about the big things like when a family would ever fit into their lives, but they would also bicker about the small things like whether or not they should always drink whiskey when Gautier was full of lovely wines.
The arguments were not the painful part though. They were founded in passion and love after all. No, it was the resentment that burned, and it was the silence that killed.
On that third anniversary of their wedding, they sat across the table from one another and felt like they were staring at strangers. Even when standing next to each other, they were lonely. They longed for the beginning of their relationship, but they never seemed to get it back.
Sylvain remembered year four with painful accuracy while Byleth found numbness in the ordeal.
The day he moved out was silent. Byleth sat on the bed, watching her husband pack his things, out of the house that was lawfully his, but she did not try to stop him. To others, they said that he was going to spend more time at the home property up in Gautier to perfect their new venture into fishing farms, but they did not say it to each other. They did not explain his leaving at all.
Instead, they just knew.
Gone were the days of following their lover to the airport or the train station and declaring their love and commitment. After everything they had been through, their passionate love affair ended quietly. There was no explosion, just a dull and melancholic fizzle.
The papers arrived on Sylvain’s doorstep six months later.
*_*_*_*_*
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