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The skies above Nohr and Hoshido were changing. From dark to light on one side of the world and from light to dark on the other. Whichever way Leo turned his head, he could see the shift on the horizon.There was change in the air—literally. And here he stood on the lip of two kingdoms, preparing to throw himself over the edge.“Ah, Lord Leo, perhaps I should tell you…”Leo had already decided to leap into the canyon. Corrin said it was necessary, and so he would do it, no matter how crazy it seemed. He had already doubted them once, and in turn, his father had announced that he was willing to destroy both Nohr and Hoshido out of pure carelessness. There was a lot to unpack there, and Leo was still in a bit of shock. But he’d made his choice. He’d follow Corrin wherever they lead him.Even if they lead him off the edge of a cliff. Literally.He squinted at the craggy edges of the cliffside in displeasure.“Lord Leo?” Odin asked again.Leo turned toward his retainer and raised his eyebrows. Odin was biting his lip, and he kept anxiously glancing down towards the gaps in the boards whenever the bridge swung in the wind. Which was quite often. The bridge was old and rickety, and there were dozens of people standing on it. It creaked ominously with every new breeze. Leo might have been more worried about the bridge simply collapsing underfoot and plunging them all into the canyon below if that wasn’t apparently the goal.A goal that Odin seemingly wasn’t too happy about.Leo recognized the signs. He was just surprised to see them on Odin, of all people. After all, he’d never known Odin to be afraid before—especially regarding things he should have been afraid of.“What is it, Odin?” he asked. “Scared to leap into the abyss, are you?”Then again, it wasn’t an unreasonable fear. Admittedly, even Leo had some reservations. They were jumping into the Bottomless Canyon, after all. Emphasis on bottomless.But he’d keep those to himself. He’d already decided to trust Corrin wholeheartedly from this point forward. There was no backing down now.“Odin?” Leo prompted again after a few long seconds of silence.Perhaps his voice came out a bit sharper than he’d intended. Out of the corner of his eye, he was watching Xander and Ryoma throw their legs over the rope railing. The sight was enough to make him tense.Odin’s shoulders jumped at the sound of Leo’s voice. Leo’s attention snapped back to him.“I apologize, my lord,” Odin said. He shifted his weight anxiously. “It is only… Now may not be the best time, but I thought I should tell you…”He trailed off, eyes catching something over Leo’s shoulder. Leo frowned and turned to follow his gaze, but out of the crowd behind him, nobody particularly stood out. He noticed Camilla, of course, but didn’t think that was who Odin had been watching. Leo’s eyes lingered on her anyway.His sister stood behind Xander, ready to leap off the edge after him, her retainers at her side. Just as Leo should have been.He turned back.“What is it?” Leo asked again. His brows furrowed as he puzzled over what had Odin so worked up, if not purely the fact they were jumping off a cliff. Surely Odin wouldn’t have been so apprehensive if he’d had reservations about that alone. Odin had never hesitated to speak up before.Odin frowned at the bridge, lips pressed in a tense line.A thought struck Leo. It was rather mundane, but—“You’re not afraid of heights, are you?”Odin blinked. Then he winced sheepishly. “I’m afraid so, my lord. But never fear! Odin Dark lives for the unknown! My very legacy is drawn from thrills and chills such as these!”“Alright,” Leo said absently. “That’s fine. We all must face our fears sometime.”His head snapped to the side as he watched Xander and Ryoma jump off the ledge. Leo’s chest clenched at the sight. He leaned over the railing to watch them disappear into the darkness, the back of his mind screaming that this was wrong, that they should be rescuing Xander from certain doom. The rest of him silently watched his brother sink below.Ryoma and Xander hadn’t even vanished completely before Camilla and Hinoka were climbing over the railing after them, preparing to jump.Leo wasn’t particularly fond of Hoshido’s royalty just yet, but if this was a foolish plan, then they would at least all perish together. There was some comfort in that.Camilla and Hinoka jumped over the edge. Leo’s heart thudded in his chest.The time for stalling was coming to a close.Leo nearly stepped away to take his place next to Corrin when he noticed Odin still standing there, looking unsure.He didn’t have much time to think about it. It had been years since he’d been afraid of anything as mundane as heights when he knew assassins and curses were much more real and dangerous threats. Admittedly, though, even the knowledge that everyone Leo loved and trusted was jumping into the canyon wasn’t enough to stow Leo’s fears completely, so Odin’s hesitance wasn’t unreasonable either.However, Leo wasn’t entirely sure how to help Odin other than the fact that “suck it up” was probably not the best response. Still, he wanted to try. He thought quickly. What would Corrin say, he wondered.“Here,” Leo said, holding out his hand. “We’ll go together, alright?”Almost immediately, he regretted the words. His face turned hot. His suggestions was so... childish.But he had already said them, and so Leo had no choice but to leave his hand outstretched in the air between them. Odin stared at the offered limb with more surprise than Leo thought necessary.Then, to Leo’s surprise, Odin took it. Odin’s hands felt strangely callused compared to Leo’s own. But they were warm.“My lord,” Odin said earnestly, holding Leo’s one hands between both of his own. “How clever! Certainly this shall be the team-up of legends! The two of us in a freefall into the unknown! Battling—"“Okay, enough,” Leo said hastily. He dragged Odin closer to Corrin’s side of the bridge and ignored the sugary sweet smile Corrin gave him when they saw Leo and Odin’s clasped hands. “Let’s just jump, okay?”“Forgetting something?”Niles suddenly appeared at Leo’s other side, eyeing their hands suspiciously. Leo’s face grew hotter with embarrassment.He coughed. “No, not at all. I was wondering where you’d gone off to.”“Just checking on the perimeter one last time,” Niles said. “Don’t want anyone sneaking up on us at a time like this. May I?”That last part was directed to Leo’s free hand. Niles didn’t wait for an answer; he took Leo’s free hand with surprising care, contrasting the flippancy of his voice. Leo gaped at him.Niles noticed and smiled thinly. “I figured I would be allowed to join the party as your other retainer. Or is that too much?”The “party” being the handholding party, apparently. If he said so, Leo had no doubt that Niles would have dropped his hand. The thought occurred to Leo to say so. But Niles’s hand was just as warm as Odin’s, and the words caught in Leo’s throat.The sight of the black abyss below them was rather off-putting. The feeling of his retainers—his friends—on either side of him did help.“Leo?” Corrin said curiously. “Are you going?”“Yes!” Leo said. “Just…”Behind them, he heard Elise whisper something conspiratorially. Takumi made a strange grunt in reply.Leo had the distinct feeling he was being laughed at somewhere, somehow. He glanced to his left and saw Odin staring uneasily into the darkness below. He doubted Odin had payed any attention to the last thirty seconds.Then, without looking up, Odin’s grip tightened. Reflexively, Leo squeezed back. He ended up squeezing Niles’s hand without thinking as well. At that, Niles’s smile shifted into something more at ease. He seemed to take that for an answer.Elise whispered something else that Leo couldn’t make out. Corrin cocked her head curiously.“Okay, yes, let’s get on with it,” Leo said hastily. More than just his face felt hot now.Crawling over the railing while both his hands were occupied was difficult, but Leo somehow managed. Odin didn’t climb over until Leo tugged at him, jolting Odin out of whatever stupor he’d gotten himself into. His head jerked up, and he scrambled over the side to join Leo and Niles. Niles snickered at him, fingers tangled with Leo's.Somewhere further down the bridge, Takumi was preparing to jump with his own retainers, but Leo paid them no mind. He noted he wasn't the only one holding hands, however.“Get ready,” Leo told to no one in particular.Then they jumped. “—really forgotten about us?” Laslow asked from somewhere Xander could not see. Tents lined either side of the camp path. “I mean… That time, he just seemed so…”“I know,” Selena sighed from somewhere equally unknown. They had to be just out of sight, around one of the tent corners. The glare from the low sun made it difficult to see. “But it’s been years. I get why you’re worried, but don’t you think he would have done something in all that time if he really cared? We’re practically nobodies at this point.”“I suppose,” Laslow said hesitantly.“Think of it this way,” Selena said. “He probably forgot about us. If I was in his shoes, I’d probably realize there were bigger fish to fry. I’m sure he’s been more focused on stuff like—”“I know,” Laslow said. “I just can’t help but think, what if? You know?”Selena was quiet for a moment. In that moment, Xander realized he had instinctively slowed at the sound of his retainer’s voice and that eavesdropping was a very unprincely characteristic. He hastened his pace and stared down at the parchment in his hand, determined not to listen in any more than he already had.At some point, Laslow and Selena’s voices melted away into the growing darkness. Though their tones had come across as somewhat serious, Xander was glad he had not heard anything too specific. It clearly hadn’t been Xander’s business, and Laslow and Selena were both entitled to their privacy when it did not concern their work ethic.Thankfully, their conversation had been vague enough that Xander did not quite feel the need to apologize for overhearing things he shouldn’t have. In any case, he honestly couldn’t make heads or tails of the conversation anyway. It didn’t linger long in his mind.When Laslow reported for duty a scant hour later, Xander very briefly noted that whatever traces of anxiety had lingered in Laslow’s voice earlier seemed to have entirely disappeared. Laslow was either a very good actor or he wasn’t actually that concerned about… whatever it had been any longer. Xander had the fleeting thought that it was probably the latter. Then he promptly forgot all about the matter. There were more important things to worry about.Valla was a strange, unforgiving land, after all. Who knew what secrets would be sprung upon the army as they journeyed forth? “Sweet dreams!”Camilla’s axe sank into the neck of the Vallite soldier. It fell with barely a sound. Selena grimaced but stood resolutely beside her lady’s wyvern, sword at the ready. She swung at another shimmering patch of air in front of her and struck gold. The soldier fell, its barely visible body flickering in the light.This was a castle ambush, but Selena would have said they were doing well.Camilla tucked a stray strand of purple hair behind her ear and smiled charmingly down at Selena. Her wyvern wasn’t flying, but she still had several feet of height on Selena. “You alright, darling?”“Never better!” Selena chirped. She eyed the air around her, but nothing stood out. “Where’s Beruka?”“Here,” Beruka said just as she swooped down from above. Her wyvern landed on the other side of Selena, practically trapping Selena between the two beasts. If it had been anyone other than Beruka and Camilla, she would have minded a lot more. Especially during an active battle.As it was, Selena eyed the air around them for distortions but accepted they had a brief reprieve. The way they were positioned, Camilla and Beruka were practically her shields anyway, even if Selena was supposed to be protecting Camilla instead.“And what did you see?” Camilla asked.Beruka nodded.“I flew above the army,” she said as though Selena hadn’t literally watched her do that. “The fighting is almost entirely contained at camp. The battle appears to be an even match on both sides for now. But Corrin—”Camilla’s face instantly hardened. “Are they in trouble?”Somewhere in the distance, Selena heard a dragon roar. It was the first roar she’d heard all fight.“So it seems,” Beruka said.Her words were pointless. Camilla was already pulling on her wyvern’s reigns, guiding it upwards. Only Camilla’s quick “Watch your head, dear,” served to warn Selena before the wyvern took to the skies with a powerful flap of its wings. She ducked just in time.With Camilla suddenly unobscuring her view, Selena could see more of the plaza that housed the astral plane’s throne. Corrin—in dragon form—seemed to be holding the line all by themselves. Their foes were invisible, of course, but Selena recognized the telltale shimmer in the air. There seemed to be a lot of it. Corrin was surrounded.Camilla would have taken off even if Corrin had only been struggling with a single enemy, but a swarm of them? It was a good thing Camilla had wings, Selena thought.Selena readied her sword and eyed foes and allies alike, already planning her path to the throne. Corrin was Camilla’s sibling, and they needed help. More than that, however, they were the leader. And Selena had made a promise. She would protect Corrin with her life.“Go!” she shouted to Beruka as she blocked another incoming blow from an enemy. Selena shoved the enemy’s blade aside with her own and swung. She hit something solid. “I’ll join you on foot!”Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Beruka nod. Beruka had probably calculated the odds already. Leaving Selena alone left Selena vulnerable. But there weren’t many Vallites lingering in their space any longer, and Corrin needed the help more.The throne was what the enemy wanted. It was where the enemy converged. It was where Corrin stood.Two on ten still wasn’t great odds—assuming there were only ten Vallites surrounding Corrin in the first place. It was difficult to tell. All the more reason to let Beruka get there before Selena and to be more safe than sorry.Beruka flew up and around the fighting. Camilla had already made it to Corrin’s side, and Beruka would join her in mere seconds. Selena stole a quick glance around and then darted forward to make it there on foot. She'd taken care of all the enemies in the immediate vicinity.It was sheer luck she didn’t see the blow to the gut before it hit her. Luck, and the Vallite shimmer being difficult to identify in a hurry.The armored fist hit her like a cannon ball to the gut. Air left Selena’s lungs in a rush. Her sword hit the dirt. She stumbled back, pain momentarily rendering her unable to breathe. She couldn’t even cry out.Then there was another blow, just as swift. This time it was a hard knock to the back of her head. Something solid but not sharp. The handle of a weapon?There was no time to think about it. There was only pain.Selena hit the ground, dazed, head throbbing. Parts of her scalp felt suddenly too warm. The world spun.She tried to get up and found that she couldn’t make her legs work. Cold, metal hands grabbed her by the back of her shirt, and the world flipped again. Selena grunted as she was thrown over someone’s shoulder like a sack of potatoes. An armored someone, if the dull stabbing pains in her stomach and chest were any indication.Her vision swam. Then she realized it was just the light refracting off the invisible Vallite’s armor.Selena jerked up as the soldier began to move—away from the fighting, she realized. It was carrying her away from the rest of the army.“Hey!” Selena shouted, pounding on the solider's back. Her fist bounced off his armor like a moth bouncing off a lantern. “Let me down, you dolt!”Something warm trickled down the back of her neck. Blood. That blow to the head had been worse than she’d thought.She reached for her sword before she remembered she’d dropped it in the dirt. Selena looked around frantically for someone, anyone, who she could call out to. She squirmed and slammed her elbow into the side of the Vallite’s head. It didn’t do much, but it made her feel better.“Can you hear me? Let me go, damn it!”Beruka, she remembered. She’d told Beruka and Camilla to go on. Where were they now?She searched for them, still struggling. Selena squinted towards the plaza, forcefully blinking her true dizziness away.Dragon Corrin stood their ground near the throne, still swatting at a swarm of enemies. Selena assumed so, at least. The Vallites were still invisible, but Corrin moved like they were fighting. So did Camilla, a tall figure seated on the back of her wyvern. Beruka was on Corrin’s other side, rounding out the three. They didn’t look pleased, but Corrin wasn’t struggling any longer. They could hold the horde off on their own.But Selena couldn’t. And she was getting farther and farther from camp by the moment.“Lady Camilla!” she called out. Not even the vacant vessel carrying her seemed to hear. She gathered her strength and tried again. “Lady Camilla!”That did it. Her kidnapper made an unpleasant gurgling sound beneath her, but it was too late. Beruka and Camilla’s heads snapped to attention as Corrin swung their tail. Selena was too far away to clearly make out the expression on their faces, but it was impossible to miss Camilla’s cry of outrage. She steered her wyvern into the sky just as she had when she realized Corrin was in danger. Selena’s heart soared with relief and gratitude.Only this time Camilla didn’t make it very far. Her wyvern only made it a few feet before an arrow suddenly pierced its leathery wing. Blood painted the once invisible weapon red. Camilla and her wyvern went down into the crowd of Vallites like an anchor into the sea. For a harrowing moment, all Selena could do was stare in horror.Then, ignoring the iron grip the Vallite soldier had around her lower half, she began to squirm and kick to free herself again.“Lady Camilla!” she shouted. “Lady Camilla!”She couldn’t see Camilla behind the body of her wyvern. Was she hurt? Was she dead?No. Selena saw her then, scrambling off her fallen wyvern’s back and into view once more. Her visage was distorted from the Vallites surrounding her, but Selena would have recognized her lilac hair anywhere. Camilla was okay. Or, at the very least, she was up and fighting. Her wyvern might have survived as well, but there was no way it was getting off the ground this time.A bit of dizziness lingered in Selena’s periphery, but the adrenaline in her system was helping to fight it. The soldier under her grunted every time Selena managed a well-placed kick or she knocked against his helmet a bit too hard, but he made no move to loosen his grip. It was as though he couldn’t even feel her struggling.Given what Selena knew about dragons and their magic, that was a distinct possibility.When she looked up again—still struggling—she saw Beruka charging towards her. Her wyvern’s wings flapped steadily, quickly gaining on Selena and her kidnapper. Selena’s eyes widened.She darted a look back to the spot Camilla had fallen. To her relief, she saw Corrin practically curling around Camilla as they both fought, talons and axe working in tandem. They moved like they had been practicing fighting like this for years, though Selena knew better.Beruka could afford to go after her, Selena realized. She didn’t have to stay by Camilla’s side this time, even though her job as retainer dictated otherwise. And so she wasn't.Beruka waited until she was almost directly above them before swooping down. Selena stopped struggling when she did, instead curling her arms up to try and give Beruka as clear a shot as possible. She didn’t know if it helped, but it was the most she could do while pinned.The Vallite’s armor was thick. There was no way Beruka could slice through it in one fell swoop. But she didn’t have too.Selena gasped again when the talons of Beruka’s wyvern slammed into the Vallite solder’s head and other shoulder. She felt raw power in the wind as the wyvern flapped its wings and swooped past. The soldier felt it too; he topped from the force of the blow in an instant. Selena went tumbling with him.His grip around her loosened. She pushed herself away just as she hit the ground.Selena hissed when she rolled and then groaned under her breath as she hastily pushed herself to her feet. Armor wasn’t made for rolling around in, and the rocks that dug into her skin uncomfortably when she rolled didn’t help. But she felt more battered than anything else, and that was a good sign. Even if her head swam again dangerously when she rose to her feet.A fresh bit of wetness trickled down the back of her neck. Selena hadn’t noticed it stopping before. If that first blow to her head hadn’t given her a hell of a concussion before, she certainly had one now.But that didn’t matter just yet. Not with enemies swarming. Not with Beruka doubling back on her wyvern and the shimmering air just a few feet away from Selena telling her that the soldier that had grabbed her was getting up again.Again, Selena wished she still had her sword.Beruka dove straight toward the shimmering air, axe in hand. Her face was impassive.Out of nowhere, an arrow caught her in the shoulder.Beruka’s whole body jerked back. The axe fell from her suddenly limp hand.With a whine, Beruka’s wyvern—it must have been instinctive, Selena would recall later, since Beruka’s one good hand was gripping her injured shoulder—jerked away from the invisible Vallite just as it swung its own weapon towards them. They avoided the blow, barely. Selena yelled a warning, too late.But Beruka’s wyvern didn’t stop. It flew away, away, away—closer to Camilla and Corrin, near their allies. Away from the edge of the forest, which Selena realized they had wandered dangerously close to. There were less enemies here, but it still wasn’t safe, as Beruka’s wyvern had clearly figured out.A second shimmer joined the first. It was another Vallite solider—an archer, Selena thought, it had to be—joining Selena’s would-be kidnapper. This shimmer went higher up than the first. Did the archer sit on a horse?Selena didn’t have time to wonder.“Selena!” Beruka called out, twisting to look back at her as the wyvern under her kept flying away. “The axe!”Selena gritted her teeth and dove.Axes weren’t weapons Selena had much experience with, but this one would have to do. There was no other choice.Selena hit the dirt for a second time. She turned her dive into a practiced roll and came up on the other side of her two enemies, axe in hand. It felt heavier than she expected. She held onto it with both hands.Selena couldn’t see their faces, didn’t know for a fact the Vallites were staring at her. But she could feel it. She could feel their heavy, empty gazes on her. She didn’t know what they wanted, but she knew exactly what she was going to do about it.There was no way she was going to let them take her here. Not ever.She had an axe now. It wasn’t the best weapon, but if Selena could get around them, could get back to her sword or find another weapon that she was more used too…In the distance, Beruka was struggling with her wyvern to get it to turn around. The wyvern hesitated, seeming to think about it, but didn’t stop on its path back to Camilla. It was a disciplined creature, but something about the Vallites always made the animals harder to handle.Even farther than that, Camilla and Corrin were still fighting. The details of what was happening with them had become increasingly difficult to note. Selena had been pulled farther away than she’d realized.There were others in the fray too. Felicia was frantically darting between shimmers in the air as more enemies circled Arthur some ways away. She thought she caught a snippet of green that might have been Kaze, but there was no telling without a better look. They didn’t seem to notice her, and Selena didn’t watch them long. She wasn’t sure if they would hear her if she called out, and she didn’t want to waste her breath and draw more enemies to herself if it didn’t work. They were too far away.It was only Camilla and Beruka who Selena truly had eyes for. And they were the only ones who seemed to notice her in turn.Camilla pointed her way. She might have called out but was too far away to be heard. Beruka might have shouted back too. Selena couldn’t tell.They were watching Selena, yes, but Selena was still well and truly alone.In the end, that was her downfall.When the armored Vallite inevitably lunged at her, Selena managed to knock its lance aside with her axe. She jumped backwards and tried to dart around them. But the archer Vallite took the opportunity to fire an arrow at her.It missed; Selena was too light on her feet to be hit.But the second arrow was a closer call, and Selena was forced to jerk back at the last second, the arrow slicing through the air right by her nose. The armored soldier managed to get behind her. He was lighter on his feet than she expected.Selena tried to double back again, to keep her momentum going, but the archer came up on her other side. His horse was too swift for her to counter.And suddenly there Selena was, with an enemy in front of her and another behind, holding a weapon she wasn’t very proficient in.Selena wasn’t stupid. She knew how bad of a spot she was in.She couldn’t change plans now; there was no choice but to run.She darted to the right to squeeze out of the gap between them. She darted towards Camilla and Beruka.Selena’s legs were long, but so was the lance.Something hard and wooden knocked her upside the head. Selena stumbled but kept going, pain blooming right behind her eyes. Her fingers tightened on the handle of the axe. She couldn’t risk dropping it like Beruka.Then, swift as it was silent, an arrow lodged itself in the meat of her calf.Selena fell with a screech. Pain licked at her muscle like flames. She felt the wood of the arrow stuck stiff in her calf as she crumpled. Pain Selena could deal with, but this—no. She couldn’t run with the arrow stuck in her. She even have the time to push herself up again.And Selena knew she didn’t have the time because she did try to push herself up again. She made it to her hands and knees before a hoof print suddenly appeared in the dirt in front of her. She tried brandish the axe only for her fingers to slip off the handle in surprise. The horse was standing on head of the axe, keeping her from picking it up. She had to drop it.Icy fingers scraped against her scalp and dug into her hair. Selena growled even as the archer yanked at her head, forcing her to stand quicker than she was able. She stumbled again, knocking into the invisible horse as she was forced to her feet; she put most of her weight on her good leg, but her injured leg still stung something awful. Another trickle of hot blood pulsed out of the wound as she was forced to her feet, trickling into her sock.“What the hell do you want from me?” she spat, twisting through its grip on her hair. She pulled at its fingers to no avail. “Just kill me if that’s your goal already!”Her skipped heartbeats betrayed the bravery in her voice. If these empty soldiers weren’t trying to kill her, she didn’t know what else they could have wanted. And they weren’t trying to kill her, or else they wouldn’t have dazed her and carried her away. They wouldn’t have shot her in the leg instead of the head if they wanted her dead.A voice in the back of her mind told Selena that she already knew what they were trying to do, but she didn’t want to even consider that option. She just wanted to get away.“Let go!” Selena yelled. “Beruka! Lady Camilla! Somebody!”But there was nobody. Selena knew that even as her hands were forced behind her back, even as she felt the cold bite of what could only be handcuffs around her wrists. She knew that even as she felt herself being picked up around the middle and thrown over the back of the horse like the cargo. Selena was on her own.She struggled anyway, thrashing and kicking and even biting where she could. Nobody pulled the arrow out of the calf, and she felt the sickening weight of it inside her every time she moved. The Vallites didn’t complain, though. They didn’t say anything. Her wriggling didn’t get her very far either.In the distance, some of her allies had finally noticed her struggle. Kaze came out of nowhere, ducking into a sprint and darting towards her. Face pale, Felicia reached out for Selena as though they could touch despite the space between them. But through the swarm of allies and shimmering bodies distorting the air, Selena could no longer see Camilla or Beruka.The archer’s horse broke into a sudden gallop. It shot off toward the woods, away from camp, with Selena on its back. Her heart sank further into her stomach.She didn’t stop struggling, but she already knew it was useless. She wasn’t going anywhere they didn’t want her to go.She could only stare, wide-eyed and open mouthed, as the silhouettes of her allies grew more and more obscured by the wood until finally she couldn’t see them at all. Laslow woke up with his face pressed against something very cold and hard.The cold was almost enough to soothe the throbbing in his right eye and cheek. Mostly, it was unpleasant.He groaned under his breath, not bothering to open his eyes just yet. He’d had enough black eyes in his past to recognize one when he felt it. This was a bad one too. The rest of his body ached in tandem.Regret flooded him in an instant when a deep, inhuman voice responded to his groan with a low chuckle. The laughter reverberated through the metal underneath Laslow’s face. His eyes shot open. He jerked upright, dreading how slowly the dark spots in his vision began to fade. When his vision finally cleared, his blood had fully turned to ice.He was in a cage.The almost embarrassingly thin bars, the gentle swing of the metal when Laslow shot up, the rounded top—He was in a bird cage.One big enough to hold a person. Barely. Laslow could stand if he wanted, but there wasn’t anywhere to go and he couldn’t stretch out his legs when sitting. He had come to curled up on the metal floor. Laslow pushed himself onto his hands and leaned over the side.When he looked down between the bars, the saw the dusty bricks of a chamber below. Far, far below.A giant stone mask crafted in the mockery of a human face stared back up at him.He jerked backwards, back knocking into the bars of the cage and making the whole contraption swing with the movement. Laslow’s stomach churned with nausea and fear.Anankos laughed again.“What’s wrong?” the dragon sneered. His voice was otherworldly and cruel. “Upset you can’t run away this time?”Laslow squeezed his eyes shut. It didn’t help.The hulking figure of Anankos the dragon sat mere feet below him, his true visage obscured by his ancient, chipped mask. Laslow didn’t have to close his eyes to avoid looking at him. He could have simply not looked down. But the very fear that Anankos shot through him made Laslow want to cover his ears and curl up as well, wishing the whole thing away like a bad dream.He knew it wasn’t. Laslow’s face hurt too much for that.
“Answer me!”
The room shook from Anankos shout. Laslow choked on a gasp as the cage rattled around him. He’d thought the question was rhetorical. He struggled to find his voice again.“Ah,” he said and then coughed. He answered, “P-Perhaps a little.”There didn’t seem to be a point to lying. Anankos knew Laslow had to be scared witless at the moment. And Laslow didn’t want to know what would happen if he was caught in a lie.He chewed on his lower lip and made a very conscious decision to do whatever he could to keep Anankos from becoming angry again.Thankfully, Anankos seemed to like his answer. Laslow didn’t look down a second time, but he heard the pleased tone in the dragon’s voice when he said, “Good.”When Laslow didn’t reply immediately, Anankos continued.
“I let you three ingrates get away that time. I allowed you to have your fun and build your false courage. And now it’s time for you to receive the punishment you deserve.”
There was a strange emphasis to some of Anankos’s words. A power that came and went when he spoke, shaking little trails of dust from the ceiling that Anankos didn’t seem to notice.Laslow wondered if this was the madness the other—the human—Anankos had told them about. If it was, it felt different than Grima’s malice. Anankos hated humans; of that, there was no doubt. Laslow could feel the hatred dripping from every word. But his hatred was different than Grima’s. Less controlled, perhaps.“So that’s your plan?” Laslow asked, heart thumping like a rabbit’s in his chest. “You’re going to kill us?”The way Anankos spoke… Were Odin and Selena trapped too? Laslow looked around but saw no other cages strung up from the ceiling. There were other chains, however. They lined the ceiling and led through several empty holes shaped like doors on either side of the chamber. The holes were the same height as Laslow’s cage. Perfectly sized for Laslow’s cage to fit through as well. Could Odin and Selena be on just the other side of the wall, trapped just as Laslow was? Was there a mechanism that moved them to and fro?If death was the plan, then why bother with a cage at all? Why string Laslow up like a plaything?He got his answer immediately.“Of course I’m going to kill you,” Anankos said. “And I am going to do it slowly. I am going to savor your piteous deaths.”Laslow balked. Anankos laughed again.
“You humans are always so selfish. Living on my lands. Forgetting all the things I did for you. Running off with my blood inside you like a thief in the night. Thinking you’re so clever. You deserve to be punished.”
The chamber shook as Anankos rose. Laslow gulped and pressed his back against the cage as far as the small space would allow. When Anankos lifted his head into the air, his awful mask was eye level with the cage. Its stone eyes were closed, but Laslow couldn’t tear his eyes away. Anankos’s head was easily bigger than Laslow’s cage.If Anankos so much as knocked against it, Laslow worried the frame would break apart and he’d fall to his death right then and there.Thankfully, he didn’t. But the dragon’s words were far from a comfort.“You took my blood,” the dragon snapped. “And for that, I am going to keep you here until your pathetic excuse of an army arrives. I am going to trample your troops and roast your loved ones in front of your face while you watch on helplessly. And then it will be your turn. Maybe then you’ll feel a fraction of what I do. Of the pain your kind has caused me.”Anankos cocked his head as though peering deeper into the cage, as though he could see through the mask. He must have been able to; Laslow didn't know how.It was a horrible thing, to have a dragon’s full attention.Laslow had no weapon, no allies, and no plan. The weight of Anankos’s gaze sat upon his chest like a mountain.“Who knows?” Anankos said carelessly. “They weren’t that far off when I sent those pawns to deal with them. They could arrive to their doom at any moment. Assuming my soldiers don’t take care of them first.”The thought seemed to please Anankos even more. Laslow tried to gather himself.“Oh, no,” he said, voice distant to his own ears. “Don’t worry, I have complete faith they’ll get here in no time.”That was also the truth. This time, however, Anankos wasn’t happy to hear it. He growled lowly, and the reverberations rattled Laslow’s bones.
“Watch your tone, worm. Or I might not be as patient as you’d like.”
With that, Anankos flopped back down to the floor, disinterested. The walls trembled and then eventually stopped.The chamber grew silent as Anankos apparently did not have any more to say. The adrenaline rushing through Laslow’s veins did not cease, however. His heart pounded in his ears. His hands shook.Hysterically, he realized he had no idea how he was going to explain this to Xander when the prince arrived.Once up on a time, the thought of revealing the truth had been the worst of Laslow’s troubles. That choice seemed to be taken out of his hands now. There was no way to brush off an actual dragon kidnapping you.Strangely, the thought wasn’t so terrible anymore. Now, there were a few more pressing matters to take care of first.Like getting the hell out of the cage. Laslow didn’t like tight spaces. And he was liking them less with every passing moment.He really, really hoped Selena and Odin were okay. The tingling aftershocks of magic dancing on Odin’s skin disappeared somewhere around the same time as the bad taste in his mouth. Whatever spell he’d been hit with, it hit him hard.Odin had woken up alone and stuck in what seemed to be a reinforced, human-sized bird cage. The room he was housed in was nearly engulfed in darkness. The only light to see by streamed through an arched hole carved through the wall. Judging from the chain that lead through that hole and connected Odin’s cage to somewhere far away, he presumed he’d eventually find out where it went.The amount of light he was given was minimal, but Odin almost regretted it anyway. His cage was suspended in midair, and the weak torchlight did nothing to pierce the veil below him. Odin had no idea how far above the ground he hung. And he didn’t want to. His cage shook and shifted when he moved, and he in no way wanted to see what was below him. So he didn’t look.Instead, he listened.Odin had woken up groggy and disoriented from the magic, but he hadn’t woken up deaf. When Anankos—because it had to be Anankos who roared and shook the very walls with his voice—roared about killing and blood and “punishment,” Odin only caught half the words. But he received the message loud and clear.They were going to be housed here for the time being. Until something new happened. Whether that “something new” would be Corrin showing up with the army or Anankos growing tired of waiting was anyone’s guess.So when the chains started clanking after an eternity of silence and Odin's cage was dragged through hole in the wall after hole in the wall until he eventually found himself suspended above Anankos’s head, it wasn’t just his fear of heights that rendered him speechless. Odin was thinking. He only half paid attention to the taunts Anankos threw at him. A dangerous game, some might have said. But Odin’s mind was too preoccupied to come up with speeches and jeers in turn.The army had been a day or so away from Anankos’s castle when they had been ambushed. Or so the Vallite boy Anthony had said. Whether or not they could trust him was another story. Corrin certainly did. Not that they had much of a choice. They had been rather close to Anankos's castle when the ambush had hit them, however…Either way, Odin felt certain Corrin and the army would make it to Anankos’s castle soon enough. Especially since he had no idea how long he’d been unconscious. For all he knew, a full day had passed. If that was the case, Corrin and the rest of the army could come busting in through the main doors at any moment.Odin had no idea what Anankos’s castle had in store for the army. But no matter how big it was, how many traps it was filled with, it was still only a castle. It would not take longer than a day or two to find the main chamber, even if they encountered trouble at every turn. And again, who knew how long Odin had been unconscious already?Eventually, Anankos grew tired of him and sent him away. Shimmers on the floor that must have been Vallite soldiers spun the large handles of the crank-like contraptions that controlled the movement of the cages. There were several cranks all lined up in a row on the floor, and it took more than one soldier at a time to move them. Odin couldn’t study the mechanism for long; the cages moved slowly, but soon enough he found himself right back where he started—in the same dark room he’d woken up in.In a way, he was grateful. Had he been forced to examine the distance between himself and the ground any longer, he might have passed out. A dangerous lightheadedness wafted over his mind already.Odin had failed to tell Leo a great many things, but his fear of heights had never been an lie. That fact was as true as the sun was golden.Odin hated the cages much less than he hated their height.He distracted himself any way he could.He tested his magic and surprisingly found himself still able to cast simple spells. He didn’t have the energy or the resources for something more complex, but after eyeing the thick padlock keeping his cage door locked tight, he eventually decided he could melt the lock off. It wouldn’t have been too hard, even if Odin had to use the same spell more than once. He’d readied his magic.Then he thought better of it. The cage’s bars were thin and breakable. That was a double-edged sword. If Odin used thunder magic to break the lock, the electricity would travel through the metal of the cage and he’d shock himself. If he used fire to melt it, there was a chance he’d weaken other parts of the cage and send himself straight to the floor—wherever that was. Wind would only make the cage rattle and spin. Odin thought he would definitely pass out if that happened.Which left dark magic as the last option. But dark rituals required a sacrifice of some kind, and Odin didn’t think he’d have the energy to spare if he used himself as an offering. There weren’t any other resources he could count on either. On top of that, he’d always been a little clumsier with performing dark magic from memory. Elemental spells were easier. But none of the elements would help him in this case.Odin inspected the cage some more—including the awful drop into the darkness below. The distance to the floor was imperceptible. He had no way of knowing how big of a drop there was between himself and the ground. In Anankos’s chamber, it had been no less than sixty feet. Even if the distance was a little less in this room, there was a good chance a fall could still kill him.Assuming he had the proper upper body strength and busting open the cage doors didn’t send him plummeting to his death, then what? Odin could climb the chain that was hooked to the top of the cage and follow it back to Anankos’s chambers. There, he'd be caught instantly, of course. There was nowhere to climb down on the way if he followed the ceiling chain. Odin had checked.No. What else could he do? There had to be something.Odin thought and thought until it felt like his brain was going to melt out of his ears. Eventually, he was forced to admit he was just mulling over the same useless options over and over.There wasn’t anything he could do to free himself just yet. He’d just have to wait for something to change.He pressed his back to the bars and groaned. Odin had never been much for waiting. He was much more of a “act first” type of guy. Action kept his mind from thinking too much. Like it was now.Odin wondered where his friends were. He wondered if they were all okay. He wondered what Anankos would do if Corrin didn’t show up soon enough. He wondered what would happen if Corrin showed up right now. He wondered what would have happened if Grima had been the kidnapping type, and then he shuddered. Some things were better off unknown.Stuck in a cage suspended above the unknown, heart racing both from his fear of heights and the fear of the dragon waiting for him several corridors away, Odin’s mind tumbled in an endless hamster wheel of thought. Selena talked back to the dragon once.Just once.“You’re so full of yourself,” she groaned when Anankos finished his “I’m going to kill all of you blah blah blah” speech. Different dragon, same intent. A very menacing intent, but still. Selena pretended to be more flippant than she really felt.It was a bad move. Anankos snapped at her. Literally. The edge of his stone mask brushed the cage when he roared, and Selena yelped, eyes widening. She held onto the bars of the cage with a white-knuckled grip. The stones in the ceiling made a very discouraging sound.She didn’t fall. Anankos continued as the cage ever so slowly began to stop swinging.“Afraid, human?” Anankos jeered. “You don’t know the true meaning of fear. When those unruly humans of yours appear and I show you exactly what I do to miserable humans like yourself, then you’ll know. Consider this a free sample for now.”Selena had a reply to that, but she purposely swallowed it. Anankos huffed with satisfaction and laid back down. Probably to gloat internally, she thought. But he hadn’t won anything yet.Talking back was a bad idea. But Severa had a brain.So she paid attention. She had no idea how long it had been since she’d been tossed into a cage and made to dangle from the ceiling like a mistreated pet. It felt like an eternity had passed, but more realistically, it had probably been hours. Selena hadn’t slept, exactly, but there had been a few times she’d blinked back to reality only to realize she didn’t know how long she’d been staring into space. Her head injuries may have been worse than she thought. Or the boredom was just that bad.Not that Anankos offered to make sure she didn’t die of neglect and untreated injuries before Corrin showed up. A stupid move on his part if he really wanted to keep her alive for revenge or whatever. Jerk.She smacked her lips together. She was thirsty.But Anakos didn’t offer any water either, so she just had to ignore that too.Anankos laid down and didn’t move again. Selena didn’t know if he was lost in thoughts of his own or what. She didn’t call out to him and ask.Instead, she started examining the world around her.Anankos didn’t send her away immediately. Selena took the opportunity to mentally map out everything she saw. Large cranks on the floor below controlled the cages. The chain holding Selena’s cage was attached to the ceiling somehow. When the chain moved through the holes in the walls, Selena’s cage went with it. Eventually, that chain took her back to some sort of holding chamber. That same chain was connected to the cranks below, obviously.Her crank controlled when she came and went, but at first Selena couldn’t figure out how her cage could be raised and lowered. She stared up at the top of her cage for a long time until the answer came to her. There was no way to get in or out of the cage from the ground. It wasn’t meant to be raised or lowered. Anyone with a set of wings could throw a prisoner in the cage, but then the prisoner would never be able to get out on their own. Not without breaking both their legs on the way down. Or worse. Selena needed help if she wanted to leave.The only way the cage was ever going to reach the ground was if the ceiling chain broke. Then the cage would fall and smash into a hundred pieces when it hit the floor, probably killing her in the process. The cage wouldn’t simply slip off the chain, however. Her cage—and probably Odin and Laslow’s cages, though she had yet to see them—were attached with a hook that slipped through one of the thick links in the chain above. They were probably reinforced with magic.Theoretically, if the chain snapped but Selena’s cage remained attached to the half still connected to the crank, then she could be lowered down safely. But it would take a hell of a lot of raw strength to keep her from plummeting to the floor in the initial break. Someone very strong—or, more likely, several someones—would have to hold the crank the moment the chain snapped. And then they’d have to be sure not to slip as they lowered her down.There could be no mistakes. One slipup, and she’d go crashing anyway.Selena wasn’t so sure that was a risk she was willing to take. But if Anankos got angry, she might not have had a choice.Besides the dragon and the cranks, the chamber was empty. Selena couldn’t spot anything else that might have helped her out of this jam. She hadn’t known what she had expected. It was a rather lonesome castle.She couldn’t escape yet. Not on her own. But, she thought, she could work with this. She’d think of something.Once upon a time, she might have doubted that someone was coming for her. A younger Severa certainly would have. But when Selena closed her eyes, she saw the image of Beruka charging toward her atop her wyvern’s back. She saw Camilla wielding her axe like a dragon’s claw to clear a path toward her. She could already hear Corrin’s regretful voice in her head saying they had to make to Anankos’s side as soon as possible, to put a stop to this and rescue everyone while they still could.She knew the boys had to be here with her. They had to be. Unless they had miraculously managed to avoid getting captured like her, she knew Anankos had probably sent for them as well. The holes in the wall across the way proved that Anankos had the space for more cages.She didn’t think the ambush had been just for them. Anankos really, truly had been trying to kill Corrin and wipe them all out. But the three of them certainly hadn’t hurt as bonus prizes, she thought. She remembered Anankos’s voice echoing across the land all those years ago. The swords nipping at her heels as she dove toward the canyon. The voice that followed her down, screeching “Thieves!” like a curse.A small part of Selena cowered inside her. It was the part of her that whispered no and you’re alone and they’re not coming, nobody is coming for you. Selena took several long moments to squash that voice inside her like the unwanted insect it was. It mostly worked.Of course, she told herself. Of course Camilla would come. It would take a hell of a lot more than a dumb dragon to stop her. Selena knew it was true.And when she did arrive, Selena would do her best to makeup for the trouble she caused. She’d triple her efforts as Camilla’s best retainer. She’d makeup for the fact Camilla had saved her this one time by saving Camilla a dozen times over.Yeah. It was a plan.Selena just had to wait long enough for Camilla to get there. And when she did, Selena would bust Odin and Laslow out too. It was only a matter of time.Of course she was afraid. She was very, very afraid. Selena had wanted to curl up and cry the moment she realized where she was being taken, when she was forced to look upon Anankos and his terrible form directly. She was certain Laslow and Odin felt exactly the same.But crying didn’t get anyone anywhere. And it wouldn’t even make her feel better, because Anankos and those gross, blank soldiers would have been watching her. So Selena held it together.For Camilla. For Laslow and Odin. And for herself most of all.There was no way she wasn’t getting out of here. Laslow had all but chewed his lip and a patch of skin on his inner cheek entirely raw when he felt the cage move again. A whoosh of air left his lungs when the cage jolted in place, then moved toward Anankos’s chamber faster than it had the previous times he’d been moved. It was arguably swift.He got to his feet and wrapped his fingers around the thin metal bars. Something was different this time.He saw the other cages for the first time when he burst into Anankos’s chamber. Laslow’s heart skipped a beat when he saw the familiar bodies stationed in them. Odin hung from Laslow’s side of the room, and Selena hung from across the way. They were both as trapped as he was. But they were there, and they were alive.“Selena!” he called out instinctively. “Odin!”Selena had pressed herself against her own bars, mimicking Laslow’s stance. She stood awkwardly, like one leg hurt, and mouthed something he couldn’t make out. Odin stood in the center of his own cage, looking wary. But his head snapped to the side when Laslow called out for him, and Laslow could see the flash of relief on Odin’s face when they saw each other.Below them, Anankos stomped his foot. The chamber shook. All three of them fell silent.For a moment, all was quiet. Even Laslow’s cage rocked soundlessly. Out of the corner of his eye, the shimmer of Vallite soldiers below moved away from the cranks.Then the main door was thrown open.Corrin lead the march, standing tall as the rest of the army trailed behind them. To Laslow’s relief, he saw Xander and Peri and the rest of the royalty plus retainers stand behind Corrin. A quick scan of the crowd revealed the rest of his friends were there too. Only Laslow himself was missing from the group. They looked beaten to hell and back, but they were standing strong.Laslow’s chest swelled.Nobody said anything, but he saw the way Xander and Peri looked up at his cage and wrapped their fingers around the hilt of their weapons. It seemed as if the entire world was waiting for Corrin to speak first. Even Anankos.Corrin marched to the center of the room and stared the dragon down, an army behind them.“So,” they said after a tense silence. “This is Anankos.”Anankos rumbled, “I’ve been waiting for you, Corrin.”A bead of cold sweat ran down the back of Laslow’s neck. His vantage point allowed him to see everything in the room at once, but he would have given away that advantage in a heartbeat if he could have been on the ground with everyone else instead.Corrin lifted their chin and unsheathed their blade.“You’ve been toying with us for far too long!”That set the dragon off.“Why?” they asked miserably, bobbing his masked head as he took in the army before him. “Why is it wrong to manipulate humans? Your race is weak. Its forgotten its place in the world—forgotten its benefactors. You exist solely for the amusement of your betters—dragons!”Anankos punctuated this declaration with a wail that shook the chamber. Even Corrin drew back, wincing. Laslow’s grip on the bars tightened to an uncomfortable degree as his cage swung. He spared a glance toward Selena and Odin and found them staring down at the scene before them, just as Laslow was, enraptured. Odin appeared vaguely nauseous.
“So answer me, Corrin! Why am I the one left to suffer? Why am I the one left to die? Why do humans flourish while I am buried here? Ignored! Forgotten! Tell me why!”
He roared again, somehow more powerfully. Laslow’s heart skipped several beats as the chain above his head—his one lifeline—rattled.
“Answer me! Answer me, you pathetic little humans!”
“Ugh! How’s this for an answer!”Corrin shot forward and struck Anankos’s stone mask. The Yato bounced off the mask without leaving a mark. Corrin stepped back and said something else then, but it was too quiet for Laslow to hear.“You dare bare your teeth at me?” Anankos dipped his head closer to Corrin, unafraid. “Lashing out with your sharp sticks… Corrin! I will take your pathetic life. Then I will make your body my own. You’re one of my bloodline. You will serve as a vessel for me!”Xander stepped forward then, standing shoulder to shoulder with Corrin. He stared Anankos down as Ryoma did the exact same thing from Corrin’s other side.“As if we’d let you!” Xander called out. “Everyone, protect Corrin!”Ryoma echoed him. “We’ll stop this monster! Don’t let Anankos anywhere near them!”
“Impudent fools. As though you simple creatures could ever stop a dragon!”
Anankos swung his head and knocked both Xander and Ryoma aside. Corrin barely managed to dodge the blow. The princes were knocked off their feet, and Laslow, Odin, and Selena all cried out in horror.But Anankos wasn’t finished. He swung again at Azura, who had crept away from the main body of the army to help Corrin regain their ground. She was carelessly thrown asunder as well.“No!” Corrin yelled. Then they said something else, again too quiet for Laslow to hear, even as he strained.Suddenly, Xander’s sword began to glow. But it wasn’t just Xander’s sword, Laslow realized. Leo’s tome, Ryoma’s sword, Takumi’s bow—they were all glowing with a strange light. Laslow blinked, his mouth falling open. Had he missed something in the one day he’d been gone?Whatever that light was, Anankos didn’t like it. He reared back, away from Corrin and the army. Corrin looked around at the glowing weapons with the same awe Laslow felt.Again, Laslow couldn’t catch the words that were said. But that didn’t seem to matter much. The Yato’s glow shone even brighter for a moment, and when it dimmed—Laslow squinted and strained. He was so far away, but… Did the Yato look different now?Several people spoke at once, but it was Ryoma’s voice that rose above the crowd.“Everyone, get ready! Pour all your energy into your attacks! We’ve got to support Corrin!”A spark bounced in the corner of Laslow’s eye. He turned his head.Odin crouched in his cage, peering down at Anankos, who had seemingly forgotten them entirely. His hands were raised. Ruby sigils and magic swirled around him—thankfully outside the cage, as Odin’s hands had slipped through the bars. He looked down at Anankos with an intensity Laslow knew meant he was getting ready to attack.Odin turned and caught his eye as well. He raised his eyebrows as if to say, Should I do it?Laslow looked down. Anankos was very, very large. And they were very, very small. And trapped.But the battle was about to begin whether they were ready or not.He looked back up at Odin and shrugged. Go for it.A streak of red shot from Odin's hands. The blast of fire magic bounced off Anankos’s mask like a single lit match warring against a glacier.Laslow thought he heard someone—Niles or Leo, perhaps—call out for a spit second, but then their voices were drowned out by Anankos’s rage and the shouts of the army below.
“How dare you?”
“Our power is yours, Corrin!” Xander shouted. “It’s time to defeat Anankos!”Corrin swung at Anankos again. This time, the blade left a mark—a long, jagged line carved right through Anankos’s mask.
“This foolish battle was your decision. Remember that!”
Laslow missed what happened next.Anankos was a blur of movement. His claws scrapped against the stone, and his long neck curved up, up, up. There was a blast of fire down below. Draconic fire.  Then there was another blur of movement, and the chamber shook and shook and shook and—Ting! went Laslow’s chain as it snapped overhead.The world gave out from under his feet.He screamed. He knew he did. Laslow's hair whipped around his head. His fingers slipped from the bars, and Laslow thumped against the side of the cage as his prison went into a freefall.Then, just as suddenly, he stopped.Laslow knocked his forehead against the bars as he jolted to a halt. It took a moment to register that he wasn’t dead. The dull ache in his skull had turned back into a pounding headache. But he wasn’t dead.In fact, Laslow had only fallen a few feet from his original position.He looked up. Selena and Odin were both staring down at him with horrified expressions, frozen. The chain that had once kept Laslow firmly attached to the ceiling had snapped. One half of the chain hung limply. The other half—which Laslow’s cage was still connected to—was still mounted to the ceiling. He hung straight down from it.He followed the end of the chain that wasn’t connected to his cage downward. The other end of the chain was still firmly attached to a crank.By breaking the chain, Anankos had inadvertently caused Laslow to be able to be raised or lowered like a real cage. He couldn’t move side to side anymore, but he sure as hell could reach the ground without dying now.Especially since Xander and Ryoma were clutching both handles of the Laslow's crank in order to keep Laslow from falling. They were visibly straining to keep their grip, but neither let go. Their combined strength was just enough.Laslow felt his face flush as Xander and Ryoma slowly worked their way around the crank, gently lowering Laslow to the floor. They were both very strong. It was quite the sight.Then he shook his head and looked up, watching Selena and Odin get further and further away. Odin in particular looked nervous, probably blaming himself for Laslow’s almost-death. Laslow flashed him a smile to let him know it was alright. Then he looked at Selena.Selena shook her head quickly, and a bit of tension left Laslow’s shoulders. It was alright, he thought. At least, that’s what he thought Selena was trying to tell him. He wasn’t confident yet, but he at least wasn’t going to throw up. They’d get Odin and Selena out of there somehow. Ideally without risking a fall like Laslow.The closer to the ground he got, the clearer Xander and Ryoma's straining became. He heard them grunt with exertion as they spun the crank around and around. Laslow’s cage practically fell the last few feet to the floor, and he wobbled when he landed. But that was fine because he’d made it. He'd lived. Laslow was on solid ground once more. The prince’s arms dropped to their sides.“Lord Xander!” Laslow shouted over the din of the battle around them as Ryoma picked up his sword and turned away. “Are you alright? That was incredible!”There was a lot more to be said about Xander and Ryoma’s quick thinking than just “incredible,” but Laslow’s brain felt as though it had short-circuited. Xander stepped up to Laslow’s cage and raised his sword high.“Stand back,” he grunted. There wasn’t much room in the cage, but Laslow backed up as far as the meager space would allow.And then Xander’s sword came down in a powerful arc.The cage’s padlock shattered in an instant under the might of Siegfried. Laslow darted forward, throwing the cage open before even Xander himself could manage it.He wrapped his arms around Xander, ignoring how uncomfortable and dirty the princes armor felt, as well as how out of line his actions would probably be later. He was just so happy.Xander shifted under him, arms slowly raising, but Laslow would never find out of Xander meant to push him away or hug him back. Laslow released Xander and rocked back on his heels. He lifted his chin, but then everything suddenly caught up to him at once. The ache in his jaw and cheek, the hunger in his stomach, the lack of sleep—Laslow stumbled.Xander steadied him with a hand on his shoulder. Laslow beamed back.“Wow, am I glad to be out of there!” he said. “You have my eternal gratitude, milord. Quick thinking too!”Did Laslow wink just then? He couldn’t be sure. He was a little out of it. A full day of nonstop worrying quickly replaced by the euphoria of a friendly face would do that to a person.Xander’s stoic face told Laslow that he’d be hearing more about this later, but the hand he’d laid on Laslow’s shoulder squeezed him warmly.“Are you alright?” Xander asked, eyes searching. “Can you fight?”Laslow wasn’t sure he could fight, actually. But there was a dragon looming in the corner and not much of a choice. Besides, he wasn’t planning on leaving Xander’s side again anytime soon.“Give me a sword and I’m all yours,” he replied.Miraculously, Xander cracked a smiled. He let go of Laslow’s shoulder.“Let’s find Peri and get that solved then.”Odin spared just enough time to despair and then subsequently rejoice over Laslow’s averted death before turning his attention elsewhere.Unlike Laslow, Odin was still stuck.But he still had his magic. And, now that Laslow was safely on the ground, Odin was the only one still in a cage on his side of the room. If Anankos swiped at him again, he was certain Odin would be the only one to suffer the consequences. Selena would be safe.And if he got the angle just right, he was certain Anankos wouldn’t even realize the magic had come from Odin either. There were dozens of spells and swords being hurled at the beast every minute now. What was one more? Odin couldn’t just sit idly and do nothing, trapped or not.His first spell hadn’t seemed to do a lot to affect Anankos. But it sure had distracted him. That was enough.It was difficult to create spells without the help of tomes to make sure mages got the incantations right. But it wasn’t impossible. Odin had a pretty good memory, if he did say so himself. He also had a little bit of dragon blood of his own backing him up. All three of them did.So he knelt between the bars, gathered the golden sparks of electricity between his fingers, and prepared to fire off another shot.“Don’t you ever learn?”Odin whirled, the spell dissipating between his fingers in surprise.Niles flexed his hands around another fat link in the chain that connected Odin’s cage to the crank below. It was a steep upward climb. He hadn’t made it to Odin just yet. But he was close.Niles didn’t have the luxury of even a flimsy cage bottom supporting him from below either. His hands and ankles were wrapped around the chain tightly. They were the only things keeping him from plummeting.If the chain jostled even a little—if Anankos shook the room in a fit of anger again—there was a very real possibility Niles would fall to his death. Odin gaped.“I know you have a death wish,” Niles continued, the tension in his jaw betraying his light tone, “but please do try to leave others out of it if you can. Namely me.”He crawled up another link in the chain. Then another. He moved swifter than Odin had expected. Niles probably had experience climbing ropes and other precarious things due to his past a thief, but Odin couldn’t have been more grateful for it.“You’re a mad man,” he said with awe, grinning. He glanced down worriedly, but Anankos looked much too preoccupied with the forces below to realize what was happening literally right above him.Niles grunted, hauling himself the last few feet to Odin’s cage. “I suppose you’re rubbing off on me then. How awful. Are you going to make this up to me?”He didn’t follow the chain all the way to the ceiling. Instead, he wrapped his fingers around the bars of Odin’s cage as soon as they were in reach. The cage swung with uneven weight as Niles abandoned the chain to plaster himself against the side of the cage, but he didn’t falter. Odin slipped his arms through the bars and gripped Niles by his shirt to keep him from falling. His heart raced at the very thought of Niles slipping. “If you can get me out of here, I can start thinking of a few things,” Odin said. His chest was bursting with excitement and fear.Niles reached into a small pouch on his waist with one hand and pulled out a lockpick.“If you could make sure not to drop me while I unlock this thing, that’d be a good start,” he said.Odin clutched him close.  Selena had seen everything. She saw Laslow’s averted fall, and Xander and Ryoma’s incredible feat of strength. She’d noticed Niles climbing up the chain to Odin’s cage before Odin himself even noticed, though Selena purposely hadn’t called out to him about it. That would have only served to alert the enemy.She watched Corrin’s and Anankos’s forces battle it out below. Steel met steel as visible soldiers swarmed the invisible ones. Anankos belched fire at all that dared to come too close, and Corrin ever so slowly chipped away at the dragon’s armor with Yato’s true form.Selena saw all this happen, and yet she still somehow missed Camilla’s approach until Camilla came right up from below.“Woah!” Selena jerked back from the side of the cage as a mass of armor and leathery skin filled her vision. She nearly collapsed right then and there. The bleeding from the arrow wound in her calf had long since stopped, but it still hurt something awful. Especially when she moved quickly like that.She managed to stay standing, however.Camilla smiled lovingly, hovering in midair on the back of her wyvern. She brandished her axe.“I’m so glad to see you, dear,” she sighed. “Now stand back.”Selena didn’t need to be told twice.Camilla’s axe wasn’t imbued with any magic like Siegfried, but it was still made of good quality steel. Her raw strength wasn’t anything to sneeze at either. The padlock on Selena’s cage fell apart after a few good swings.“Oh my,” Camilla said, lowering her axe. She sounded tired. “I’ll need a new axe later after this. But for now—”She threw the cage door open. Her wyvern flapped its wings steadily, hovering perfectly by the opening. There was enough space between the wyvern and the cage to make room for the wyvern’s wingspan, of course, but Severa knew she could make the jump, injured leg or no.Besides, she wanted to be with Camilla, and she couldn’t stand sitting in that cage any longer. So the moment Camillla threw open the cage doors, Selena lept. Camilla twisted and caught her with open arms. The wyvern barely wavered beneath them.Selena carefully scrambled into the seat behind Camilla, wrapping her arms around Camilla’s waist to keep from falling. She got the impression Camilla would have held her longer if she could have, and Selena wouldn’t have minded. But there was a battle underway. Her injured leg ached, but she ignored it. “Lady Camilla, are you alright? What happened while I’ve been gone?” A memory from the last battle bubbled up in her mind. Her eyes scanned Camilla’s wyvern for wounds but saw none. “Is your wyvern safe the fly?”Camilla laughed. “Oh, Selena, how I’ve missed you.”“I’ve missed you too,” Selena said absently, though no less truthfully. She looked down, past wyvern’s wings, and saw Hinoka circling below them, keeping any enemies looking upward occupied from the back of her Pegasus.“My girl is doing just fine,” Camilla said, stroking her wyvern’s neck. “The wonders of modern magic can accomplish a lot these days. You, on the other hand…”Selena snapped to attention. Camilla looked at her over her shoulder.“I’m alright!” Selena reassured. It was mostly true. She wasn’t feeling great, but she could fight. If she stuck to the back of the army, at least. And ignored the headache that came and went. “I can fight! I want to kick this guy’s ass.”She wondered if that was too much, but after a beat, Camilla nodded. Her hands tightened on the reigns, and Selena strengthened her grip around Camilla in turn. They were going to join the fighting below in a moment. She was ready for it.“Alright,” Camilla said. “I’ll accept that for now. But the moment this battle is over, I have a few questions for you, Selena. Not just about your health.”Selena swallowed. “That sounds fair enough.”She pressed her forehead against Camilla’s armored back.The wyvern dove. When the battle was over, Laslow stared at the empty space where Anankos used to be. Laslow’s clothes did not change, and his skin did not thrum with the loss of any magic. The spell the human Anankos had placed on them—on all three of them—before arriving in Nohr did not waver. Laslow did not think it ever would.But it was a spell the human side of Anakos had cast. The side that hadn’t been driven into madness. The draconic side of Anakos had vanished into nothingness now. So there really, truly, was not a trace of the original Anankos left.Laslow let the arm clutching his sword drop to his side. His whole body ached.He stared.No more cages, he thought. No more running. He didn’t have to jump at shadows anymore.It hadn’t been so bad, in the middle. When Laslow and Selena and Odin had all been in Nohr long enough that they figured the time had long since passed if Anankos was really going to follow them. It had been rougher at the start, when they barely scraped themselves out of the canyon and somehow made it to Nohr, head spinning as they suddenly found themselves retainers to the princes and princesses. They hadn’t known what to expect, what would happen. They had all been adjusting still.It had been at its worst recently. Before Anankos had nabbed them. When they slipped into Valla and Laslow felt Anankos’s metaphorical shadow nipping at his heels like fire. When Selena had reassured Laslow with rushed whispers that they must have been forgotten by this point. When Odin admitted to confessing his fear of heights to Leo so he didn’t have to confess another uncertain fear in its stead.It had been a shock when Laslow woke up in the cage. A horrible fear finally realized. But it was a fear that had haunted him for a while, and the gnawing question of when finally turned into a more manageable what now?And now it was over.He stood there even as the others threw their hands up and cheered. Laslow cheered with them, of course, but he felt distant. Different, though he really wasn’t. He stood there as everyone swarmed Corrin in excitement and celebration—as Peri giggled and cheered with the best of them, as Xander went over and clapped Corrin’s shoulder. He was waiting, but he didn’t know for what.“Laslow?” Xander said, suddenly appearing in front of him again. Laslow blinked and realized he must have lost time just now. “Is something the matter?”Slowly, Laslow shook his head.“Not at all, milord. I’m as ecstatic as you are.” Before Xander could say anything more, he continued, “It is only… Don’t you have some questions for me, Lord Xander?”He had to. Because it wasn’t really over yet. Not until every last truth about Anankos was out in the open. Only then could Laslow really put it behind them.He wanted very badly to put the memory of that awful madness behind him.Xander looked at him carefully.“Perhaps,” Xander said after a moment’s passing. “But I think we could all do with a rest first and foremost.”Laslow’s smile ached, and not just because of the mottled bruise on his face that Peri had teased him about. It felt good. “Honestly,” Leo said, inspecting Odin from head to toe. “A fire spell, really? If you’re going to be reckless, at least use something stronger.”“Aw, well, you know,” Odin said. He rubbed at the back of his neck. “I’ll probably have to apologize to Laslow for that, won’t I?”“Probably,” Niles said, a hint of a smirk on his face. His hair was flat with sweat, as was Leo’s. It had been a long, difficult battle. But it was over now.Odin was free from the cage, and Valla was free of Anankos’s treacherous grasp. More importantly, his feet were on solid ground again. Today had been a win-win.“I see you’re not going to apologize to Niles or I for getting yourself kidnapped,” Leo continued with no real heat. Odin didn’t think he meant the words. “Honestly, what was even the point of all this? I don’t understand why Anankos would grab you three in the first place. For leverage? If that was the case, Xander or Camilla or I would have been a better—Why are you smiling?”Leo cut himself off with a stare.Odin’s grin grew larger. “Because I appreciate the fussing, Lord Leo.”“Fussing! I am not f—” Leo seemed to realize he was, in fact, fussing. Not that Odin minded at all. Still, Leo cleared his throat and tried again, at a more reasonable level. “Yes, well. Perhaps I am. A bit.”This time Niles chuckled. Leo gave them both a side-eyed stare. His shoulders slumped.Leo sighed. “I suppose it’s over now. I’m glad to see you relatively unharmed, Odin.”True, Odin had gotten off more cleanly than Laslow or Selena. They both looked like they had been knocked upside the head something awful. Odin’s body dragged with exhaustion after the last battle, but he knew he’d come out better than his friends. He felt a little guilty about that.“As am I,” he told Leo. Then he turned to Niles. “And you! I know I said this earlier, but truly it was truly ingenious to climb the chain like that. Such courage! Such brilliance! My umbral friend, I would almost say you have the making of a legend!”“Almost?” Niles snorted. “We just killed a damn dragon, Odin. What in the world do you expect us to do to top that?”“Well, if you’re asking…”Leo pinched the bridge of his nose. “Oh, no. We’re marching straight back home after this. No more adventures. Everyone is taking a mandatory break for…” He seemed to consider this. “For at least one full day. Then we catch up on the backlog of work and stories we’ve missed since we’ve been out of Nohr. Gods know how much there is to do even after the war is over.”“Lord Leo!” Odin pretended to be disappointed. Niles snorted again.“No buts,” Leo said. Then his expression melted into something softer and more familiar. “Truly, Odin. I’m glad to see you safe and sound.”Odin’s mask melted away a bit too. “You two as well. My soul is greatly unburdened to see you both unharmed after such a harrowing escapade. I must insist you tell me all of the glorious deeds and battles you witnessed while I was away!”“You’ve only been gone a day,” Niles said, but the crack in his façade betrayed his flat tone. Smiling a little, he said, “I’ll update you later, partner. You heard Lord Leo. Rest first.”“Well, if Lord Leo says so.” Odin certainly wasn’t going to fight a break.“Good,” Leo said. He looked around the now ruined chamber and up at the night sky. “Honestly, though. Why did he take you three? Was Anankos so lost to his madness that there was no reason at all?”Niles sent Odin a surreptitious glance, as if daring Odin to finally confess the truth to both of them. “You just said it yourself, Lord Leo,” Odin began, feigning surprise.Leo and Niles both peered closer at him in anticipation. The tension was thick in the air.Odin’s lips twitched. “Rest first, stories later!”Niles groaned loudly. Leo stared for a moment before shaking his head.“Whatever it is,” Leo announced, “I’m sure it’ll give me a headache.”He was probably right, Odin thought. Thankfully he knew where Elise kept the pain medication. “Are you dying?” Beruka asked without much inflection in her tone to indicate she cared one way or the other.Selena knew that wasn’t true. Beruka did care. Selena was just a bit too busy fighting to stay conscious to properly process her words.She slid down the cracked wall until eventually she sat. Selena forced herself to breathe evenly through her nose, stretching her injured leg out in front of her. She hissed. Dry blood from her earlier head wound flaked onto her hand when she rubbed at her neck.“No,” she said after a long beat. Then: “Maybe. Probably not.”Selena’s eyes were half-closed, but she still caught the blur of movement that was Beruka bobbing her head.Beruka said, “I will fetch some medical attention and return.”“Wait,” Selena said, reaching up weakly. To her surprise, Beruka did. “Just… Sit down with me, would you?”Beruka said, “You need—”“I’m not dying, alright?” Selena said, more tired than annoyed. “So just sit down for a moment.”Again to her surprise, Beruka sat. It took a moment’s hesitation, but still. She joined Selena on the ground. Selena opened and closed her mouth twice before she figured out what she was trying to say.“Thanks,” Selena eventually managed. “For trying to save me earlier. I appreciate it. Are you still hurt?”“No,” Beruka said promptly. Then she said, “You should not be thanking me. I failed to ensure your escape.”Selena rolled her eyes. “Yeah, but that’s not your fault. Corrin was in trouble, and we got separated. Stuff like that happens sometimes. You still came to save me.”“But you were captured anyway,” Beruka pointed out.“But you tried,” Selena insisted. “It’s the thought that counts, right? So thanks.” When Beruka didn’t answer immediately, she continued, “If you blame yourself, then it’s my fault too. I got caught off guard. But honestly, there wasn’t anything to be done. Sometimes we’re just outnumbered and outmatched like that. It’s just bad luck and a lesson for later.”It had taken more than a little chiding for Selena to accept that fact herself. Eventually, she’d been forced to. Unless she could go back in time, her being kidnapped was what it was. Everything had worked out in the end, though. Selena just regretted not being there for Beruka and Camilla more.“Alright,” Beruka eventually said. Selena wasn’t sure if Beruka believed her, but she seemed to accept her words for what they were. “If that’s the case, then in the future we should ensure you have a wyvern of your own so you do not fall behind.”Selena blanched. It was only partly from exhaustion and old wounds. “Let’s not go that far just yet.”“But—”“We can work on it later,” Selena said. Hitching a ride with Beruka or Camilla every now and again was okay, but she still didn’t like the idea of a steed of her own.Beruka’s eyes flickered away from Selena’s face and back. “Understood.”There was a crunch of rocks underfoot as someone came closer to them. Selena opened her eyes and tilted her head up.Camilla towered above them, looking like a goddess of death. She smiled at them and held out her hand. Selena took it, grunting as she was pulled to her feet. Beruka raised soundlessly.“I still have those questions,” Camilla said breezily, eyeing Camilla. “But I think you need to see a doctor first.”Selena didn’t deny it. “Probably.”Camilla reached out and tucked a dirty lock of loose hair behind Selena’s ear. It must have fallen out of her pigtails.“You don’t have to push yourself, you know,” Camilla said. “You’re my retainer, but I don’t mind looking after you every now and again too. It’s only right, don’t you think? That goes for you too, Beruka.”“That’s not how this is supposed to work,” Beruka said.Camilla laughed lowly. “Perhaps. But there is more to this world than ‘should,’ don’t you think?”Beruka fell silent again.Selena wobbled on her feet. She was very tired.“Come on,” Camilla said gently. “You’re safe now. I made sure of it. Let’s rejoin the others. I’ll even carry you on my wyvern on the way back, Selena.”Selena certainly did not want a wyvern of her own just yet. Maybe not ever. Definitely never a Pegasus. But riding with Camilla sounded rather nice.Camilla wrapped an arm around Selena’s shoulders. Beruka flanked her other side. They guided Selena back to the group together, mindful of her hobbling.