[He’s quiet for a second, drumming his finger against his thigh.]
I had never met her before. But what she is - a Volstrecker. Spies and secret police for the Cerberus Assembly.
In my youth I was being trained for this. The only difference between she and I is. . . by circumstances other than by my own decisions, I never completed the training. Got away.
[He thinks about that for a bit, shrugs a little.]
The cause was the Empire, I suppose. Or. . . the people in power there. This woman, in particular, was, uhm. Sent during a war, with the Krynn Dynasty. Assassinations, most likely. And she was caught.
She was accusing me of betraying the Empire to the Dynasty, and we did help the Dynasty for a time. But my cause has always been the Empire. I want to. . . cut out the cancer, the corruption, from the heart of it. And what that woman serves is the corruption.
[ His words cut out as something else slips forward, reshaping the space around them into another memory.
It's been five years since the fall of Garreg Mach, and you think the war might finally be drawing toward an end, though not because of any progress that you've made.
You've spent hours at the roundtable, bickering with the other lords of the Alliance in person and on paper, and it's becoming clearer with each day that you can't balance between those that want to side with the Empire and those that want to launch an offensive much longer. Soon the war will breech Alliance borders, and the loyalties of the lords with fracture and split.
You know that Edelgard has reclaimed Garreg Mach, and that you're running out of time and options.
But for once, you decide to clear your head, stationed at the archery range, arrow after arrow flying from your fingers until someone interrupts you.
"They took the Bridge, Claude."
It's Hilda, and as you lower your bow, you try to understand what this means.
With the Bridge of Myrddin under the Empire's control, there's no stopping their advance into the Alliance. Without the Bridge, you've lost your ability to launch your own offensive and take the Empire by surprise. You waited too long.
"Is Judith back?"
Hilda's silent for a moment, but she answers before you can ask again, "... No, she fell in battle."
"What?" There's ice and disbelief in your veins, a sudden fear that you can't comprehend. "That's imposs—"
"People say Edelgard has a new general leading her troops." The words don't stick. Don't make sense when you're still thinking about Judith, who you can't imagine being outmanoeuvred, outmatched. Who's too clever to lose her life. "It's Professor Byleth, Claude. She's back."
He grimaces as the memory suddenly fades, a sting in his chest that isn't quite physical. ]
... Evidently we're both dealing with troublesome Empires.
I understand how people can end up on opposite sides of a battlefield. There is so seldom a pure wrong and a right in war. People only wish. . . to defend what is close to them. Their loved ones.
Our group? Uhm, that is sort of a complicated question. We all have our own motives, right? We went to the Dynasty because Veth's husband was a prisoner there, and wound up earning the favor of the Queen, so it made sense to stay, but most of us never had a desire to become involved in politics or the war.
For me, though. . . I would say what I care for are the people of the Empire. My father was a soldier in the Empire, so I always. . . I was raised to be loyal, but I also saw first hand the corruption of some of the rulers. That there are people who are a cancer on the Empire, who began this war for selfish reasons and wouldn't care about people like my father. So I became a traitor and defected to the Dynasty because I thought perhaps the enemy of the Empire could come to see that the people of the Empire were not who she should be at war with, that her quarrel could be satisfied by bringing the corrupt to justice.
And ultimately, we were able to leverage our position to get the Dynasty and the Empire to agree to a peace treaty.
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That woman, was she a former ally of yours...?
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[He’s quiet for a second, drumming his finger against his thigh.]
I had never met her before. But what she is - a Volstrecker. Spies and secret police for the Cerberus Assembly.
In my youth I was being trained for this. The only difference between she and I is. . . by circumstances other than by my own decisions, I never completed the training. Got away.
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[ It's hard to tell, with the short glimpse that Claude was given. Difficult to tell where the factions were and who belonged where. ]
What was the cause?
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[He thinks about that for a bit, shrugs a little.]
The cause was the Empire, I suppose. Or. . . the people in power there. This woman, in particular, was, uhm. Sent during a war, with the Krynn Dynasty. Assassinations, most likely. And she was caught.
She was accusing me of betraying the Empire to the Dynasty, and we did help the Dynasty for a time. But my cause has always been the Empire. I want to. . . cut out the cancer, the corruption, from the heart of it. And what that woman serves is the corruption.
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[ His words cut out as something else slips forward, reshaping the space around them into another memory.
You've spent hours at the roundtable, bickering with the other lords of the Alliance in person and on paper, and it's becoming clearer with each day that you can't balance between those that want to side with the Empire and those that want to launch an offensive much longer. Soon the war will breech Alliance borders, and the loyalties of the lords with fracture and split.
You know that Edelgard has reclaimed Garreg Mach, and that you're running out of time and options.
But for once, you decide to clear your head, stationed at the archery range, arrow after arrow flying from your fingers until someone interrupts you.
"They took the Bridge, Claude."
It's Hilda, and as you lower your bow, you try to understand what this means.
With the Bridge of Myrddin under the Empire's control, there's no stopping their advance into the Alliance. Without the Bridge, you've lost your ability to launch your own offensive and take the Empire by surprise. You waited too long.
"Is Judith back?"
Hilda's silent for a moment, but she answers before you can ask again, "... No, she fell in battle."
"What?" There's ice and disbelief in your veins, a sudden fear that you can't comprehend. "That's imposs—"
"People say Edelgard has a new general leading her troops." The words don't stick. Don't make sense when you're still thinking about Judith, who you can't imagine being outmanoeuvred, outmatched. Who's too clever to lose her life. "It's Professor Byleth, Claude. She's back."
He grimaces as the memory suddenly fades, a sting in his chest that isn't quite physical. ]
... Evidently we're both dealing with troublesome Empires.
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[That's what first jumps out at him about this. Byleth mentioned he was from a different time, but not. . . that she was leading troops against him.]
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[He shrugs.]
I understand how people can end up on opposite sides of a battlefield. There is so seldom a pure wrong and a right in war. People only wish. . . to defend what is close to them. Their loved ones.
But it must have been difficult.
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[ He doesn't comment on whether or not he had any reservations in fighting against Byleth. ]
Can I ask what it was that you and your group were fighting for?
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[He isn't a stranger to it either, but. . . ]
Our group? Uhm, that is sort of a complicated question. We all have our own motives, right? We went to the Dynasty because Veth's husband was a prisoner there, and wound up earning the favor of the Queen, so it made sense to stay, but most of us never had a desire to become involved in politics or the war.
For me, though. . . I would say what I care for are the people of the Empire. My father was a soldier in the Empire, so I always. . . I was raised to be loyal, but I also saw first hand the corruption of some of the rulers. That there are people who are a cancer on the Empire, who began this war for selfish reasons and wouldn't care about people like my father. So I became a traitor and defected to the Dynasty because I thought perhaps the enemy of the Empire could come to see that the people of the Empire were not who she should be at war with, that her quarrel could be satisfied by bringing the corrupt to justice.
And ultimately, we were able to leverage our position to get the Dynasty and the Empire to agree to a peace treaty.
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That's quite admirable. My hope is that Fódlan can find peace through understanding rather than cannibalism as well but.
I guess rooting out just the corruption is more difficult than total takeover.
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[ ... ]
This is a really uplifting conversation, isn't it?