Chapter Text
One Month Later
Pharamaceutical Leader or MONSTER? You Won’t Believe What This Man Did!!!!
A Gatekeeper Online EXCLUSIVE!
November 14th
Shocking allegations have recently surfaced connecting Agartha Chemical CEO Volkhard Arundel to alleged unlawful experiments on children. On Monday, November 11th, the newest episode of playing-card podcast “Emblemcast” contained a surprising bit of information.
The show’s guest, one “Edelgard Hresvelg”, the daughter of recently deceased businessman Ionius Hresvelg, accused Arundel of conducting illegal experiments that trampled upon the rights of their subjects, many of whom were children.
WIthin moments of the episode’s premier, a Chatter account called “SableAU” posted a link to the podcast with this text:
“Repost it, y’all! Spread this like WILDFIRE!
#AgarthaChem, the gummy guys? They’re AWFUL, listen to the last two minutes!”
Within 24 hours, “#AgarthaChem” became one of the day’s Top 10 most highly discussed subjects on Chatter. Minor protests were held outside the company’s headquarters, and Agartha’s press department released this statement:
“We apologize for any confusion, and would like to extend our deepest assurances that these troubling allegations have NO truth behind them.”
Regardless of their assurances, the social media wildfire continues for Agartha, and rumors abound that an official investigation by law enforcement is pending. Arundel could not be reached for comment on this article.
Kickin’ Arundel’s Dumb Ass Club
(You are an Admin)
Six Members
[TheDeerPrince]: hey did y’all see that article this morning?!?!
[TheDeerPrince]: we’re VIRAL now
[BlueLionBoi]: Excellent news!
[Ediecakes]: The Gatekeeper is little more than a gossip rag. I don’t think many will put stock in their report.
[ShortNSweets]: but it is a start. Soon more reputable outlets will pick up the story, and the more pressure we mount, the better.
[StrongSilentType]: be positive el :)
[StrongSilentType]: it’s something
[TheDeerPrince]: ur still trending out there
[TheDeerPrince]: almost all of it’s support
[Ediecakes]: I’ll take it. Thank you, everyone. Though I must say...
[Ediecakes]: ...I detest these names.
[ShortNSweets]: claude change the names
[TheDeerPrince]: mais non
[BlueLionBoi]: I think they’re funny! Ignore Edelgard and Lysithea, they are career party poopers!
[Ediecakes]: Your sense of humor is as ragged as your haircut.
[ShortNSweets}: i’ll wallop you
[TheDeerPrince]: wallop his kneecaps lmao
[OldManSeteth]: I Am Happy To See The Article Was Posted. I Think We Are Making Important Stripes!
[OldManSeteth]: Autocorrect
[TheDeerPrince]: Stripes
[ShortNSweet]: Stripes
[TheDeerPrince]: Stripes
[OldManSeteth]: Change The Names Claude
Thursdays were special for Edelgard. Over the past month, nearly every aspect of her life had changed, but that was one thing that remained the same.
Her return to teaching had been met with a rather clearly mixed reaction from her students. The first day she’d walked in the room, a pair of troublesome freshmen near the back of the class seemed to quickly lose all the color in their faces. Though she was not permitted to ask Rhea the names of those who had made the falsified claims against her, it wasn’t exactly difficult to infer some of the contents of that list.
For her own part, she continued as if nothing had happened. A professional certainly wouldn’t be expected to dwell on such things. However, loosening up was but one of the many lessons she had recently learned, and so Edelgard couldn’t help occasionally basking in the way they seemed far less likely to talk during her lectures now.
On her way out of the building, she certainly got more looks than usual. While she was far from a celebrity by any stretch, the allegations against Agartha had reached the general public consciousness, and Garreg Mach’s campus was no refuge. Thankfully, the attention seemed mostly confined to stares and excess courtesies, things like doors held open a tad too long or wide berths she was given on the sidewalks.
“Well, what are they gonna say, Edie?” Dorothea had scoffed one night over dinner. “Hey there, nice to meet you, so sorry about the year of torture in a creepy science lab, real bummer?”
Edelgard’s friends (a word that still felt a tad foreign on her tongue, but comforting) had responded to the situation with generally greater tact. Dorothea was the first to approach her about it, bursting into Edelgard’s temporary bedroom and immediately throwing her arms wide.
“May I?”, she had asked. As soon as Edelgard had nodded, she was nearly tackled by the full force of a 170 cm theater major, the sheer power of the hug enough to propel her backwards onto the bed. The tearful conversation that followed felt long overdue, as Edelgard finally told the full story of her experiences at Agartha to her best friend.
“You could have told me!” Dorothea wiped some streaky mascara away from her cheek. “But...I get it. I do. God, Edie, this is...it’s so much.”
“And I couldn’t have made it through without you.”
The second hug utterly eclipsed the first.
The rest of the Black Eagles sent their own forms of support, each of them visiting at least once in the weeks after Emblemcast had gone live. Ferdinand and Petra were among the most frequent visitors, often joining the residents of Dorothea’s quickly filling apartment for dinner or games in the evenings. Caspar had managed to, through many nights of alcohol-fueled search trawling, rack up the home-video editions of the short-lived “Fire Emblem” anime adaptation in multiple languages, which he proudly delivered to Edelgard, along with a VHS player just in case. Even Linhardt, who Edelgard had honestly assumed despised her, paid her a visit, a box of teabags under his arm.
“Dorothea mentioned to me that...what happened makes it hard for you to sleep. These are my favorite, the aroma is a soothing one. Should knock you out pretty quickly, if you need it.”
Just as comforting as any of them, though, was Hubert. His cage had become a fixture on Bernadetta’s nightstand, and while Edelgard was still uncomfortable crying in front of any humans, an African Gray Parrot somehow felt less intimidating. His noisy chatter cheered her up in the mornings, and his frequent squawks of “Lady Edelgard! Lady Edelgard” sometimes made it feel as if her father was watching over her. And while she hadn’t had any bizarre dreams featuring a lanky man with a sinister smile since the first, she still couldn’t help but smile each time she remembered the extra birdseed.
There was one person, however, who hadn’t changed their behavior towards Edelgard at all after the news. She was waiting on a bench outside of the science building, waving cheerfully as Edelgard approached.
“El!”
Byleth stood and stretched, her full height towering over Edelgard as she was once again reminded of the sheer…state of Byleth’s musculature thanks to a rather tightly fitted shirt.
“Lovely to see you, Byleth.” Edelgard greeted, brushing a bit of hair away from her eyes. “Shall we be off for lunch?”
The surface of the campus lake glistened in the midday sun. Even as winter’s coming chill seemed to approach Fodlan, the weather was, for now, still accommodating to a picnic. That wasn’t exactly what this was, though, at least as far as Edelgard was aware. The “picnics” in movies always involved red and white checkered blankets spread on the top of a hill, with spreads of various ingredients decorating a pristine scene.
Sitting on a bench with a plastic bag full of a sandwich she’d quickly thrown together was...close enough. As she watched Byleth joyfully rip apart the plastic wrap on an unidentified hunk of meat, she couldn’t bring herself to care for the difference.
“It’s real food.”
Byleth’s voice broke the silence of the meal as Edelgard followed her finger to the sandwich bag.
“Oh! Yes, it is.”
“I’m glad you’re eating better, El.”
Byleth smiled, and Edelgard’s heart nearly melted on the spot. Unfortunately, the other woman evidently hadn’t heard her confession on the night of the podcast. And, try as Edelgard might, she hadn’t found another good opportunity to broach the subject since.
“Why, thank you.” With a mischeivous grin, Edelgard tapped the bench between them. “We wouldn’t want another unscheduled nap on this, would we?”
Byleth chuckled, and Edelgard found a surge of confidence in the depths of her stomach. Surely, here in one of their first meeting spots, under the light of the shimmering sun and next to a sparkling lake, was the perfect place.
“Byleth, I need to tell you-”
“Oh!” Byleth’s eyes widened. “Sorry. Need to ask. Are you coming to Nabatea tonight?”
Wincing as the moment drifted away again, Edelgard shook her head. “I don’t think so. I don’t have my deck, and as much as I’d love to see everyone…”
“You can borrow mine.” Byleth quickly cut in. “I don’t need to play.”
“Nonsense.” Edelgard shook her head. “You should have fun.”
The conversation evidently concluded, they both returned to their meals.
[byleth]: she said no
[Dorothea]: : / : / : /
[Dorothea]: Dammit edie
[Dorothea]: Tell her the team needs the points.
“The Eagles need the points.”
Edelgard quirked an eyebrow as she chewed her sandwich, looking at Byleth with a tinge of confusion. “Trust me,” she began, after swallowing, “I’m as upset as anyone that the Lions have taken yet another season. But you are an exceptionally skilled player. The team is in excellent hands with you there.”
Byleth nodded, but Edelgard could see the slight hint of dejection on her face as she quickly looked down at her phone. That simply wouldn’t do.
“Would you like me to go with you, Byleth?”
More animated than she typically ever was, Byleth’s gaze whipped back in Edelgard’s direction as she nodded fervently. “Yes. Yes, I’d like that very much!”
“Excellent. Then I will.” Edelgard smiled. “It’s a...promise.”
For the second time this afternoon, she wished she had a little more courage as the conversation shifted gears, leaving those three crucial words at bay once more.
Edelgard couldn’t make it to Nabatea early, as she typically preferred. Her meeting with Professor Hanneman went longer than usual, as she had to thank him for assisting her in finding a substitute for her classes. She also found herself the surprise recipient of a lengthy interrogation by Dr. Casagrande, who found the Agartha experiments the stuff of medical nightmares and at one point had to storm out of the room to smoke and calm down. This had prompted an angry lecture from Hanneman, and she’d had to excuse herself in the midst of their endless bickering.
Thankfully, there was still a bus she could catch, and so Edelgard found herself once more stepping across the threshold of that oasis in her life, Nabatea. The jingling of the overhead bells announced her arrival and reminded her of simpler times, walking into the store on her first day at Garreg Mach.
“Welcome back, Edelgard.”
Despite her month away, the store hadn’t changed. The same stale air blew through a rickety fan, familiar stocks of board games and playing cards littered the sales racks and speckled the walls, and behind the counter, as always, was Seteth. He smiled as she entered, inclining his head towards the basement.
“I believe that they are waiting for you.”
She nodded, returning the shopkeeper’s grin. As her eyes fell once more on the blue banner that hung above the cash register, she couldn’t help but smile.
Second time was the charm.
As she descended the stairs, Edelgard found herself quickly headed off by Byleth, who was rushing to meet her. There was a smile on her face the likes of which Edelgard had never seen Byleth wear before, a full fledged grin that was unusual of the typically stoic woman. Still, it fit her.
“El, you made it!” Byleth wrapped her arms around Edelgard, thankfully restricting the force of her hug for the staircase. As she pulled away, she wrapped her hands around one of Edelgard’s, nearly dragging her down the steps as she went. “Come on, everyone’s waiting for you!”
“Byleth, calm down!” Though she was descending at an alarming rate, Edelgard trusted in Byleth’s steps...mostly. “I don’t even know what’s going on here! I...I still need to pay Seteth the tournament entry fee!”
As she finally stepped onto the concrete of Nabatea’s basement floor, all other thoughts were quickly banished from Edelgard’s mind. The usual crowd, it seemed, had all gathered. The Black Eagles sat among the front tables, with a beaming Dorothea at their center. Dimitri and his Lions, evidently having added Mercedes to their ranks, waited further back. The towering heights of both their leader and Dedue nearly completely obscured Lysithea as she sat among Claude and the rest of the Deer in the back of the room.
None of that was particularly strange. What was odd was the way they were all looking at her as she came down the stairs.
With a call of “Surprise, Edie!”, Dorothea leapt from her seat and spread her arms. “Welcome to your Welcome Back Celebration!”
Ever-energetic, Caspar nearly immediately began clapping and cheering, slowly leading the rest of the room to join in, with varying degrees of intensity. Byleth still stood before Edelgard, clutching one of her hands, but the smile on her face spoke volumes.
“Everyone, this is…” Edelgard stammered, taking a few steps forward. “Thank you very much, but it’s…” The poise and confidence she so often drew on came up empty, the Flame Emperor’s armor seemingly refusing to come on at all. “I…”
“We all know about what happened now, Edelgard.” Mercedes stood, smiling gently across the room. “So we wanted to do something to help you out.” Lysithea came forward, a small box in her hands. Edelgard recognized it immediately, the red satin and embroidered eagle emblem unmistakable.
“Oh, my deck box!” She’d thought it lost, but Byleth must have gathered it up. “Thank you for returning it.” As she took it from Lysithea’s grip, she noticed the telltale heft of cards inside. Curious, Edelgard cracked it open and peered in. An eclectic collection of cards waited within, all ones she’d owned before, but…
“We couldn’t get the originals back.” Claude sighed to himself. “Trust me, I tried. So we did the next best thing. We all raided our boxes and put together a bit of a gift for you. Just stuff to try and make up for your collection getting stolen.”
Each card inside was affixed with a tiny post-it note on the outside of the sleeve, a name written on them. She recognized Linhardt’s careful handwriting on the first, a scuffed copy of “Navarre, Scarlet Swordsman”. The next was an “Ike, Radiant Hero” from Raphael, followed by a foil “Seliph, Heir of Light” that was evidently from Dedue.
The sound of Petra’s chuckling filled the room. “It was not hard to be remembering lots of the cards you had. You’ve certainly beaten most of us enough of times to recall!”
“I’m sure it’s, like, not even a tenth of what you used to have.” Hilda interjected. “But it’s a start, right? Maybe enough to get you back and playing again?”
As she continued to flip through the cards in the box, memories of matches at Nabatea flooded back. She’d played game after game with so many of these people, spent evenings enjoying the company and escaping the shadows that so often seemed to hang over her. There was a sense of camaraderie there, even if she’d tried so desperately to avoid much of it. Edelgard looked up, regarding her assembled friends with a smile that tried to hide the tears in her eyes. Before she could speak, Dorothea raised a finger to her lips.
“Now then, dear Edie, before you say anything else, there’s one more present for you…” She looked over her shoulder, frowning. “Just as soon as it’s ready. Bernie?”
From behind one of the concrete pillars near the rear of the room, Edelgard caught the faint sight of purple hair and the sound of a squeak.
“I’ll come and get it from you if you want. You don’t have to-”
Dorothea’s offer was interrupted by a diminutive figure stepping out from her hiding place. Bernadetta walked to the front of the room at a pace distinctly faster than was typical, her eyes locked on Edelgard as she tried to ignore much of the assembled crowd.
“H-here you go. From me. And the Eagles.”
She presented Edelgard with one final card. The name line read as familiar as always, “Arvis, Emperor of Flame”. The art, however, was something new entirely. It seemed that the original Arvis art had been painted over with careful brushstrokes, illustrating a different scene. The familiar sight of a burning castle was the same, but instead of Arvis, there stood a young woman with white hair that whipped about her in the wind. Her armor was the same crimson color of Edelgard’s deckbox, and she pointed an axe at the horizon, a look of hopeful determination on her face.
“Oh my…”
Bernadetta tapped the bottom of the card’s rules box with her fingertip, pointing out a tiny signature in silver ink.
“To a new dawn: Sothis Lowell”
Emotions surged as Edelgard gently took the altered Arvis in her hands. For all the time she’d spent collecting Fire Emblem cards, she had never felt so strongly about one before. “Thank you...I don’t know how to thank you all for this kindness.”
Bernadetta smiled faintly, then retreated, this time taking a seat at the Black Eagles table beside Dorothea, who embraced her.
“Everyone, this is...this is amazing. I am honored that you would do me such a kind favor. Thank you.” Edelgard could feel the weight of the deckbox in her hands, and an urge to compete surged once more. However, there was one important task that could not be put off any longer. “I would love to show my appreciation by playing with this wonderful replacement deck you’ve all constructed for me. But first…I...need to speak to Byleth in private.”
Byleth blinked in surprise, thankfully blissfully unaware of the reactions behind her. She didn’t see Dorothea’s exaggerated wink, nor Sylvain’s mock kissy face, nor the massive grin on Dimitri. This was absolutely fine with Edelgard, who quickly pulled the both of them up the stairs, past a very confused Seteth, and into a deserted corner next to a mall fountain.
“El?” Byleth’s eyes were wide. “What is this about?”
Edelgard sighed, summoning the last embers of courage that sparked in the depth of her gut. “Byleth, I have something I need to tell you. Since we met, everything in my life has changed. And you, Byleth, are one of the greatest reasons for that. You taught me that I could believe in myself, but more importantly, that I could still believe in others. That maybe the world wasn’t quite as terrible as I had always imagined, and that even in my darkest days, I will have those who care for me by my side. So, what I’m trying to say is…”
Edelgard took a deep breath, the rest of the world falling away as she regarded the amazing woman before her.
“I love you, Byleth. Would you do me the honor of being my girlfriend?”
Edelgard was prepared for the agonizing, century-long pause, followed by the sting of rejection, but neither came. Instead, Byleth opened her mouth wide, and began to laugh.
“I was going to ask you if you took much longer!”
“What?” Edelgard could feel the blush on her cheeks deepening as Byleth chortled, leaning forward to grip her in a tender embrace.
“I’ve been waiting, but I didn’t know if you...had the same feelings. So I waited, and I waited, and I asked my Dad what he thought I should do…”
“You asked your DAD? Jeralt knows?”
Byleth nodded, and Edelgard felt the slightest urge to duck her head in the fountain and wait for a merciful drowning rather than the ignoble death of an utter roasting by cheek blush. “He said I should wait just a little longer, and I was worried, but…” Byleth paused a moment, and Edelgard could feel her grip loosen slightly. “Do you really mean it?”
“Of course. I would like nothing more than to date someone as strong, smart, and kind as you.”
“And I think that you are the bravest woman I know.” Byleth pulled back now, and the pair stood there, each with their hands on the other’s shoulders as the fountain spat joyfully before them. Something about it simply felt right, the way Byleth’s face shone as her serious tone subsided into giggles once again. Edelgard tried to fake a pout, but couldn’t hold it for long, and soon they were both laughing, basking in the joy of one another’s arms. In that moment, the fluorescent skylights of Garreg Mach Mall seemed every bit as radiant as any full moon could ever claim.
When the couple returned to Nabatea’s basement, all eyes were, predictably, on them. Dorothea in particular was leaning forward across the table, her expression akin to a hawk in search of wounded rabbits. After such a lovely surprise was given to her, Edelgard decided that perhaps the gathered crowd deserved one of their own. She pulled gently on Byleth’s sleeve, and once the taller woman looked down, she stood on the tips of her toes, slowly moving forward in the offer of a kiss.
When Byleth returned the favor, the experience wasn’t perfect. It was clear that neither of them had much experience, with Edelgard’s approach utterly clinical and Byleth’s simply scrounged from the remnants of scenes played out on a VHS, but to the both of them, it felt utterly perfect. To their spectators, it evidently had a similar effect, as bursts of hoots, cheers, and whistles broke out from around the basement. By the time Edelgard pulled her attention away from Byleth’s lips, she could see that Dorothea had already nearly shrieked herself hoarse from the excitement.
“Ahem.”
Following Byleth’s shocked stare, Edelgard whirled around to find Seteth behind her, his mouth set in a stern horizontal line.
“Oh. I’m sorry, I…”
“If you’re...done with that.” The shopkeeper smirked as he handed over a stack of papers. “Here are the night’s pairings. Consider your entry fee on the house tonight, Miss Hresvelg, so long as you don’t mind handing these out, and you refrain from starting any additional riots in my establishment.”
“Thank you, Seteth.”
As she finished distributing the night’s pairings, thanking and greeting each of her competitors, Edelgard came to the final sheet in the stack.
Edelgard Hresvelg
Table 4
Seat 2
Byleth Eisner
Table 4
Seat 1
“Well, well, well…” Edelgard grinned as she brandished the announcement to Byleth, sliding into her assigned seat for the night. “It seems we’ll get to have a rematch sooner than expected.”
“I hope you know that just because we’re dating, I’m not going to let you win.” Byleth replied, fishing the rickety deck box from her bag.
“Oh, Byleth. If you were the type to do something like that, I don’t think we’d be dating in the first place!” Taking the altered Arvis card from the stack, she placed it on the table. “I’ll be using “Arvis, Emperor of Flame”. She presented the deck of cards to Byleth, taking in the familiar sights, scents, and sounds of the wonderful place she called home.
“Time to shuffle up!”