A/N: Hey! Back at it again and with some good news! With school starting back, I'm able to once again write on the computer and during school free time, so updates should be quicker. I have a couple more outlines done as well!
Anyways, this time I found a way to include the Ashen Wolves! This chapter will mainly focus on introducing them. Let's get to it and I hope y'all will enjoy!
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Byleth slightly smiled out of relief. Finally some scene of normalcy. She reached for Dimitri's hand. "Come on, we can set up shelter at the monastery." Byleth remarked. "It'll be just like old times!"
Dimitri nodded and followed Byleth. The rocky ledge looking down to the ground below was steep, so the two had to find a detour to get down safely. Further down the edge, the ground sloped down and slowly became level with the ground below the ledge. Once they were in the valley between the hills of the monastery and the surrounding land, Byleth looked up towards the walls to the towns around Garreg Mach. She vaguely remembered parts of this area. In front of her was a river, which flowed around the valley and the cliff walls that stretched up to the monastery grounds. Up above a good chunk of the top of the cliff was missing. That has to be were I nearly fell to my death. Byleth added to herself.
The couple wandered around the cliffside to find a way up to the top. Another slope led them to the bridge uniting the surrounding land and the monastery itself. The gates to the monastery were wide open, which concerned the both of them. The friendly Gatekeeper would lay down his life to protect the gates and not let a single soul in. While the Imperial Army never made it inside the monastery itself, the fact that despite all that the doors remained open was unsettling.
The once lively and bustling marketplace was empty and abandoned. Byleth expected a couple of supplies to be left over from the frantic evacuation, however, every stall was picked over and stolen from. The only weapons left were either broken or crappy wooden ones. Not a single item was remaining at the item shop, only empty concoction and elixir bottles scattered across the broken stall shelves. The blacksmith stall was completely destroyed. The anvil, coal, materials, and tools were all gone, leaving only the stall itself standing and even that would be generous given the atrocious state it was in. The battalion stall was the only stall that wasn't as trashed so far. Loose papers about battalions for hire still floated around in there. The merchant stalls weren't even standing anymore, it wasn't even worth trying to salvage anything from the pile of rubble.
Not only was the marketplace in shambles, there was considerable damage done to the monastery buildings as well. Holes in the bricks, scattered debris, and overgrown foliage from over a year of neglect was everywhere.
Thieves were the only explanation. Word must've traveled fast that the monastery fell and was fair game. Some may have came here for a break from the hectic and chaotic war scene. Others might've plundered the area to make a few extra pieces of gold. Whatever it was, if any still remained, they must be eliminated immediately.
The pond was surprisedly cleaner than what Byleth would've thought. With the state of the marketplace and front gates alone, she expected the pond to be half drained, filled with algae, and very stagnant, however, it was almost exactly how it was left, although with stay debris floating around. Even the fishing poles were still intact, although some were several yards away from the storage stand.
Staring into the pond brought back fond memories. Byleth learned to fish and became exceptionally great at it, constantly bringing back big and rare catches for the dinning hall. Flayn would occasionally join her as well. Although Flayn wasn't as great at fishing, she was more interested in the fish themselves, mostly on how they tasted. The fishing tourney came to mind as well. Everyone gathered around the pond to fish up the biggest catch. Seteth was a little annoyed, especially since it was right before the famous Battle of Eagle and Lion, a mid-year battled that usually is used to showcase how much everyone has grown over the past year. Byleth mentally sighed at the memory and moved on to survey the rest of the damage.
The pond was about the only decently kept area in the whole monastery. The greenhouse plants were all wilted. The image of Dedue and Ashe excitedly showing Byleth their extensive knowledge on plants. (Or at least Ashe being excited. Dedue was as stoic as always, but Byleth could've sworn whenever she did encounter him in the greenhouse, the gentle giant would be smiling.) She remembered Annette telling her about an encounter she had with Felix in the greenhouse, where he walked in on her singing one of her silly songs to herself and she was embarrassed to the point of hiding in her room like Bernie for the rest of the day.
Byleth noticed a small pile of unused seeds out in the open. She planted them for a brief moment of nostalgia and to feel at least a slither of emotion.
The dinning hall was dusty and filled with expired and rotten foods. The many feasts that were held there seemed like a far off memory now. The empty room served as a reminder of the past, back when everyone was united and didn't care about the future or each other's status's. It's unfair.. We can never do that again.. Byleth added in her thoughts.
The entry halls walls and carpets were destroyed, the courtyards were overgrown and unkept, the Knight's Hall trashed with books and broken training dummies scattered around, and the graveyard was severely unkept with the overgrown grass and dead flowers.
While surveying the damage, Byleth made a stop at the graveyard where her parents were buried. She crouched down and wiped off the thin layer of dust on the tombstone and read the same words carved on there from nearly 2 years ago.
Jeralt Eisner
???-1180
Sitri Eisner
1139-1159
Missed by many, but still in our hearts
For nearly the first time in a year, Byleth felt a twitch of emotion. Sadness, regret, guilt, all of the emotions were releasing after being suppressed for a year. Her eyes watered quickly and silent tears fell from her face onto the gravestones. Despite her father being dead for nearly 2 years, the hole left in her soul still felt empty as if it happened yesterday.
"Father.. I'm sorry I couldn't save you." Byleth said to herself out-loud. "But I promise I will avenge you. Everyone involved in your murder will pay."
Before departing her parent's graves, Byleth found some wildflowers to put on the graves. While it's not the best gesture, it would have to do until the flowers in the greenhouse she planted bloomed.
Meanwhile, Dimitri was surveying the damage on the other side of the monastery. Some of the dorms were untouched and even still had belongings of former students. Vines grew along the brick walls and some even reached the top of the second floor. The sauna appeared out of order but could probably be fixed with the right person. The training grounds were littered with broken dummies and weapons. Whoever used it last clearly had no regard in at least cleaning up the place. Thieves will be thieves, Dimitri supposed. But that doesn't mean they should run free. Especially the ones that kill for sport. Dimitri thought.
As always, the voices where murmuring to him. Mostly about Edelgard or even how he shouldn't be wasting his time with trivial things at the monastery. Dimitri mentally sighed and picked up a training lance to practice fighting against one of the few unbroken dummies.
Byleth was doing one last check around the grounds when she spotted a mysterious passage way she never saw before. She crept closer to inspect it. It was a somewhat hidden trapdoor the led underground. Maybe that was where the thieves are hiding. Before going in, Byleth debated if she should tell Dimitri where she was going. On one hand, if she doesn't, there's a chance Dimitri would get too worried about her. And if she didn't make it out alive, that could spell disaster. However, what lurks down there would be just petty thieves. She could easily take them out alone. Bringing along another mentally deranged person wouldn't be wise.
Byleth chose the latter.
She opened the trap door and created a small ball of fire using the Fire spell for light. With one hand under the light and the other firmly on her sword hilt, she walked down the stairs through the dark yet wide hall. Up ahead in front of her, torchlight could be seen. She extinguished her flame magic with a flick of her hand and continued on.
A bridge similar to the one that led from the monastery buildings to the chapel stood in-between the corridor and what underground hideaway awaited Byleth. She carefully strode across the bridge to the other side. On the other side of the bridge, more hallways were present, this time it was more like a maze.
Byleth chose to go forward and she wandered around the winding hallways. She made her way into an underground market of sorts, which was in much better condition than the one above ground. What was more interesting, is that there were actual people there.
Byleth gripped her sword hilt and was prepared to strike. For all she knew, these could be the thieves that plundered the monastery and they created this underground safe haven to avoid getting caught. However, a mysterious voice caught her off guard.
"Well, well, look who we have here." A haughty feminine voice called. Byleth quickly turned to where she believed the voice came from, drawing her sword in the process.
"Who goes there?! Who are you?!" Byleth responded. "I'm armed! Stay back!"
"I think the question is who are you?" A second, more masculine voice replied.
"Coco and B are right." A third voice added. "State your business."
"As the unofficial head of Abyss, I command you to answer." A final voice called.
Byleth kept turning around to find who was calling out to her. 4 figures emerged from one of the hallways. Byleth gasped. The uniforms looked similar to the ones from the Academy... they couldn't be...
"Answer, now." A purple haired man (or women, Byleth couldn't tell with the length of the person's hair.) commanded. His uniform was extremely similar to a house leader's uniform, only this one is more silver and he has a purple cape.
"I'm Byleth Eis-" Byleth had to stop herself from calling herself her old last name. "Byleth Blaiddyd, formerly Eisner." She responded with little emotion.
"Hold up, that can't be possible." A very masculine man who's uniform wasn't even buttoned up and exposed his muscular chest. "Everyone knows that the Blaiddyd line is dead now."
"Well, clearly everyone is mistaken." Byleth said as she sheathed her sword. "We're alive and that is what matters."
The third member, who had blonde hair but purple undersides and carried a fan, piped in. "Wait a second, aren't you the famous Professor from two years back?"
"That doesn't matter now."
"Of course it does." The final and pink-haired member sighed. "It means there will be a resistance towards the Empire."
"There isn't one already?"
The purple haired guy shook his head. "Not really. Ever since the Kingdom defected back over a year ago and the Alliance at a stalemate, there hasn't been any resistance that showed any promise."
"But with the king and queen alive, that means there is hope to end this disastrous war!" The blonde declared. "It is truly marvelous!"
"Yeah, no. Dimitri and I are lame excuses for a king and queen." Byleth argued. "Never mind that, what is this place? And how do you know about me and what's going on in the war? Were you the ones that destroyed the monastery upstairs?"
"You haven't heard of Abyss?" The masculine guy asked. Byleth shook her head.
"Let us change that shall we." The purple haired guy said. "Welcome to Abyss. An underground save haven for us outcasts. Allow us to introduce ourselves. I am Yuri Leclerc, leader of the Ashen Wolves and unofficial head of Abyss. For now at least."
"'Sup, I'm Balthus von Albrecht." The buff guy introduced himself. "But you can call me 'The King of Grappling'!" He pumped his fist in the air but the pink haired girl brought it back down.
"Calm down B." She said. "The name's Hapi by the way."
"Guess that leaves me for last." The blonde said. "I am Constance von Nuvelle, heir to House Nuvelle!"
"'Heir' is putting it nicely." Yuri snickered.
"Nonsense!" Constance interjected. "I am in the process of rebuilding my house's glorious name." She opened her fan and covered the bottom half of her face with it. "We just need this preposterous war to end!"
"Yeah... Right.." Hapi said. "Coco, I hate to break it to you, but you're not getting your house back, especially with the war."
"It doesn't hurt to try!"
"Well, if you can't even go out in the sun without getting all depressed, there is a low chance that you'll succeed." Yuri added.
Constance groaned. "Whatever. That just means it'll be more satisfying when I do succeed."
"Right, yeah." Yuri continued. "Where were we? Oh right, what this place is. As we said a few moments ago, this is Abyss. It was a safe haven for people outcasted by the surface but.."
"Was?" Byleth asked.
"Now this place is used to house mercenaries." Hapi said.
Balthus nodded. "However, we can't accept just any body. We prefer not to favor sides so we choose to house only neutral ones that just want to earn a living."
"That's why we know a decent bit of information despite not going up to the surface." Yuri said.
"You guys have been living here for how long?"
"A couple years." Constance answered. "We were students of an unofficial Academy house called the Ashen Wolves. Ever since the invasion, we chose to stay here since we don't belong on the surface."
"So to make ourselves useful, we set up this place as a mercenary inn of sorts." Balthus said. "We learned quite a bit about what's going on."
"So what is it?" Byleth asked. "It's hard to keep up when you're in the wild for the past year."
"First, tell us what you know so we know where to start." Yuri said,
"Alright, here's what I know." Byleth started. "I know that the Kingdom has been renamed because of that bitc- I mean witch Cornelia. Half of the houses defected with her but others are forming small resistances to it. So far their endeavors have been useless since all they've been doing was taking out Imperial soldiers stationed in the Kingdom that get replaced a few weeks later."
"Interesting." Yuri responded. "Here's what we know. Obviously what you said was true. The Alliance is in a rough spot, it's pretty much divided into two. The neutral Alliance led by Claude and the pro-Empire Alliance led by House Gloster." Byleth nodded. She even knew that before her and Dimitri's exile. "But there's more."
"Go on."
"It appears the war isn't just to abolish the Church, but also to take over all of Fódlan." Hapi added.
"What?!" Byleth shouted. This couldn't be. Why would someone want to unite a whole continent who's already divided as much as it is? It would just cause more problems that it would solve.
"It's crazy, we know." Balthus said. "But that's what we heard at least."
"I don't see how people could side with the Empire." Byleth commented. "Not after everything Edelgard has done."
Constance tilted her head in confusion. "What do you mean? All she did was launch an attack."
"Clearly you guys live under a rock." Byleth said.
"You're not wrong about that part." Hapi mumbled.
"Tell us, what did she do to you." Yuri asked.
"For starters, like you said, she declared war on the Church. What has it even done to her? Like yeah there are nonbelievers, but that doesn't mean that she should destroy the faith people have! It's absurd!
"I may not be a strong believer, but I do know the goddess is real and she has her own way of working in our lives." Byleth ranted.
"Maybe she just doesn't want the influence it has on Fódlan?" Hapi suggested.
"I have always found it weird how much of a grip the Church has on the rest of the continent, but a whole war? What ever happened to negotiations?"
"Unfortunately, Rhea is unrelenting. You've seen it right?" Constance said. Byleth looked down and nodded. She couldn't deny that.
"I wish there was a way out of this without having too much bloodshed, but that seems impossible now." Yuri said. "But maybe if we get a new face for the Church, one who doesn't rule with an iron fist, one who believes in true separation of Church and State." He eyed Byleth. "We heard from Aelfric that Rhea has taken a liking to you. Maybe you're the change the Church needs."
Byleth rolled her eyes. "Like that's going to happen. I was already the Queen of Faerghus, I can't lead a Church I don't know much about of anyways. Besides I- wait, who's Aelfric?"
"He's the guy that looks after us." Balthus said. "He used to be head of Abyss, but when the monastery was attacked, he disappeared."
"Which is also why yours truly is now the unofficial head." Yuri added pridefully.
"He did keep mentioning something about a woman named Sitri." Hapi noted. "But I don't know why because she's dead."
Byleth gasped at the mention of her mother's name. Whenever she finds this Aelfric dude, she has tons of questions to ask him about her mother.
"What's the matter?" Constance asked.
"Oh, that's my mother's name." Byleth responded. "I guess they must've been friends back then."
"That's all we know about the war, unfortunately." Yuri said. "Just the same ol' cycle everyday."
"Thank you." Byleth said before turning around to depart.
"Um, you're just going to leave us here?" Balthus said.
Byleth turned around. "I thought you guys lived underground?"
"We do." Hapi said.
"But you're just going to leave us here without asking to join the resistance?" Constance asked.
"There is no resistance." Byleth said. "If you guys desperately want to join one, make one."
"Theoretically we could, but you have something we don't." Yuri said.
"And that's?"
"Power. Influence. Leadership." Yuri said.
"You're the Queen of Faerghus. Imagine the morale that could be boosted once they found out you and Dimitri are alive." Hapi added.
"Like you said, the other half of the Kingdom isn't with the Empire. They would join you and others could follow." Constance said. "Imagine! The long thought dead king and queen rise from the ashes to take back what was once theirs!"
"I appreciate the flattery, but no thanks." Byleth said. "I am not a queen anymore and Dimitri is not a king anymore. We are nothing but demons in human bodies."
"Well the good luck defeating the Empire." Yuri said. There was a moment of silence. Neither the Ashen Wolves or Byleth said a word.
"That's it?" Byleth asked. "That's all you're going to say to my response."
Yuri nodded. "You seem set in your ways. I won't stand here trying to convince you otherwise."
Byleth opened her mouth to respond but quickly shut it. He had a point. She groaned. "Fine. We'll form a Resistance to fight back, but only because Dimitri and I aren't enough to take on the Empire." Byleth said. "And I have one condition."
"Name it and it's yours."
"Dimitri and I kill Edelgard." Byleth said. "No one else."
"Done deal." Yuri accepted. He extended his hand. "Shake on it?" Byleth shook Yuri's hand, sealing the deal.
Byleth turned to head back to the surface. "Come, we'll let Dimitri know and start our plan of action." She said. The Ashen Wolves followed, although Constance was lagging behind.
When Byleth opened the trapdoor that led to the surface, all of the Ashen Wolves had to shield their faces from the bright light.
"Ugh, being underground for so long made me forget how bright the sun really is." Balthus groaned.
"You said it B." Hapi commented. She turned behind her. "Hey, how you holding up Coco?"
Constance emerged from the dark corridor and shielded her face from the midday light. "Too bright.. unlike the future of House Nuevelle."
"Wasn't she just optimistic about rebuilding her noble house?" Byleth asked Yuri.
"Constance always gets depressed when she's in direct sunlight." Yuri said as he closed the door to Abyss. "Just get her indoors and she should calm down."
Byleth shrugged. "Oh well." She said. "Follow me, I have an idea on where Dimitri could be." She headed towards the training grounds and the Ashen Wolves followed.
The doors to the grounds was slightly ajar, which gave Byleth her answer on where her husband went. "Wait here." Byleth said as she opened one of the doors a little more. "I'll signal you all to come in." Everyone nodded and Byleth entered the training grounds. Dimitri was carelessly swinging a lance around at broken training dummies in the center of the training grounds. Byleth snuck closer and grabbed a training sword on the ground. When there was an opening on his blind side, Byleth gracefully parried an incoming blow.
"You're back." Dimitri said.
"Way to greet the one person you have left." Byleth scoffed as she lowered her sword.
"I apologize." Dimitri said, looking down. Byleth raised Dimitri's chin with her free hand so she can look him in the eye.
"I'm only joking." She said, although her tone didn't suggest she was.
"Even in the darkest of times you still manage to get a slight joke in." Dimitri said with a slither of a smile forming but it quickly fell. "Any information on the rest of the monastery?"
Byleth nodded. "About that." She replied. She explained the situation to Dimitri. About the Wolves, about Abyss, about what they knew, and about the agreement they made. Byleth signaled for the 4 Wolves to come out and she introduced them one by one. Dimitri, however, was sceptic.
"Are you sure we can trust them?" Dimitri asked.
"Look, we need all the help we can get." Byleth said. She leaned in to whisper something to him. "Besides, the quicker we build a resistance, the sooner we can finally get our revenge."
Dimitri let out a heavy sigh. "Fine, they can join us." Dimitri said. "But at the first sign of betrayal, I will not hesitate to turn my lance against you."
"You won't have to worry about that." Balthus said. "Like we said to Byleth back in Abyss, we want this war to end as much as you guys, and lucky for you two, we don't really care about the Empire."
Byleth turned to the Wolves. "Alright, all we need now is to get our friends back here and formally assemble the resistance." She said.
"Our strength is yours, your majesties." Yuri said as he bowed. Dimitri and Byleth were taken aback being called by their old titles. They aren't the rulers of the Kingdom anymore. Byleth put her hand forward.
"For the resistance." She said.
One by one the Wolves put one of their hands atop of Byleth's and Dimitri hesitantly did as well. "For the resistance." The Wolves recited.
For the first time Byleth felt an emotion she never felt before. A spark has been lit inside, one that will surely spread to a fire that will blaze all over Fódlan.
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Hope y'all enjoyed! Next up, some familiar faces will start to trickle in and join the fight!
~ The Artist Sylveon 🌸