Chapter Text
Dawn filtered through the window of Rook’s new bedroom, slowly waking him up.
After agreeing to Rhea’s (sort of) suggestion of joining the Officers Academy, Seteth had taken him through the enrolment process. The paperwork would take time to officially process, but they’d decided to let him move into the last remaining room in the student dormitories immediately, rather than continue to take up a bed in the infirmary.
He sat up and stretched, before swinging his legs around and automatically reaching for his swords, which he’d kept in easy reach. As he grasped them, he halted and frowned in thought.
Seteth hadn’t said whether or not it was okay for him to wander the monastery with his weapons at his side. He guessed there was little reason for him to have them, the monastery seemed to be a well-protected place, but he did feel a bit wary about not being armed. From what he could remember, only the knights had carried blades, everyone else in the monastery didn’t carry anything, that he could see at least.
Leaving his swords be, he stood and headed for the desk in his room, where his new uniform sat waiting.
He’d been given it yesterday, after they had his rough measurements, and Seteth had made it clear that students were supposed to wear it while at the academy. It consisted of boots, trousers, and jacket, all black with cuffs, seams and other embellishments in a dull gold. It also came with a white shirt that also had a minor bit of gold threading at points, which he put on first. He followed this with the trousers and then jacket, experimentally stretching and moving to test the fit.
Considering they’d only got rough measurements; it fitted fairly well. It was a little tight, but the material felt durable enough to stretch as needed.
Finally putting on the boots, he checked himself in the mirror embedded in the door of the wardrobe. He had to admit he thought he looked a bit strange, but it wasn’t bad and he’d likely get used to it.
Turning away from the mirror, he considered his swords one more time, still not sure about taking them or not, before settling on a compromise and picking up Solas’ dagger from the bedside table. Since no one had bothered about it yesterday, he’d assume it was fine to carry around, and it could work for defence if he really needed it to, despite its strange design.
“Rook, are you awake?”
Seteth’s voice accompanied a gentle knock on the door, and Rook attached the dagger to his waist as he answered.
“Yes, you can come in.”
The man opened the door and stepped inside, nodding in satisfaction at what he saw, “Excellent, I’m glad the uniform was a good fit.” He smiled, “I thought you’d appreciate someone showing you where the dining hall was and tell you a bit more about how the academy functions along the way.”
“Thanks, but don’t you have a lot of duties? Since you’re the Archbishop’s second?”
Seteth smiled at Rook’s question, “Business related to the Officers Academy are part of my duties. Also, all of this year’s students and much of the faculty are currently away on a traditional, start of year excursion, they are unlikely to be back until this evening.” He looked briefly regretful, “We were ones to effectively drop this on you as well, the least I can do his help you adjust to the situation.”
Rook shrugged, “To be fair, there wasn’t exactly any better options for me, and it is a pretty good offer.”
The man smiled in thanks, before gesturing to the door, “Shall we.”
He led the way outside and down onto a broad, flagstone path that ran between the dormitories and the main building Rook had met Rhea in. Stopping briefly, Seteth gestured to a large set of double doors to the left, at the end of the path.
“Through there are the training grounds that can be used by students. Feel free to make use of them as needed, there’s plenty of training gear, and you can even spar against other students.” He then pointed to a building off to the left of the doors, “You can use the facilities there for bathing, most refer to it as the sauna, though there is more than a sauna there.”
“Sauna?”
Seteth smiled, “It does often prove quite popular, you may be in for a long wait if you want to use it over the regular washing facilities. Though your room being at the end of the dormitories closest to it may lend you an advantage.” He began walking towards the doors, “While this is the long way to the dining hall, it will take us past the classrooms.”
He turned right just before the doors, following the path, and soon a massive, ornate building came into view. It towered over them, sat at the other end of a bridge that spanned a canyon. As he caught up to Seteth, Rook pointed at it.
“What building is that?”
“The cathedral.” Seteth halted briefly to let Rook stop and admire it a bit more, “Services for the worship of the Goddess are held there.” He lowered his voice, “It also sits above the Holy Tomb, where you appeared.”
“Oh.” Rook turned his gaze back towards it, “Its impressive.”
Seteth smiled with perhaps a touch of pride, “It has stood strong for centuries.”
He resumed walking, and Rook kept pace, “So…how does the Officers Academy work? My schooling as a kid was pretty informal.”
Seteth took another right, “The Officers Academy is divided into three houses, one for each of Fódlan’s three nations.” As they passed three large classrooms, each with its own banner, he gestured to them in turn, “The Black Eagles is for students from the Adrestian Empire, which is to the south of Garreg Mach. The Blue Lions is for students from the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, which is to the north. Finally, the Golden Deer is for students from the Leicester Alliance, which is to the east.”
The halted once more just outside the Golden Deer classroom, empty because of the excursion currently happening.
“Each house will train together, as well as be tasked with a mission each moon they must complete together under the supervision of their house professor. In the Wyvern Moon, the houses will also compete in a three-way mock battle, in which they can demonstrate how far they have progressed.”
Rook frowned, “So, what house am I going to be in?”
“Actually, we were going to let you decide.”
“Really!?”
Seteth nodded, “As I said, this whole thing was our idea, it seems reasonable to let you decide which house you want to join.” He smiled encouragingly, “Though there’s no immediate need to decide, you’ll get a chance to meet the other students first.”
They began to walk again, “You’ll also find that the houses are not as isolated from each other as you might think. Though you’ll have some lessons with your house, many will actually be mixed, due to students taking different specialties as the year progresses. You will regularly meet with your house professor to decide what classes you’ll take.” He gave another smile, “You can also transfer to a different house during the year, so don’t feel you have to think about the decision too much.”
Having passed through a small garden area, Seteth led him through a wooden door into a long room furnished with large, plain wooden tables and simple chairs. Church members, knights and even workers were scattered around the tables eating. The room buzzed with conversation, but more than a few eyes looked Rook’s way. However, being with Seteth seemed to prevent them from staring too hard or long.
Just as they reached the counter at one end, a knight hurried up to them.
“Lord Seteth, forgive the interruption but Sir Alois has returned with the students.”
“Already.” His face creased in concern, “I assumed they wouldn’t be back until this evening.”
“Apparently, something serious happened last night. He was accompanied by a group of mercenaries, he’s already gone to report to the Archbishop.”
“Thank you, I shall be there shortly.”
As the knight hurried away again, Seteth turned to him, “Forgive me Rook, I suspect this will take a while to sort. In the meantime, feel free to make use of the monastery facilities. I will try and continue your introduction later.”
Rook smiled in understanding, “Okay.”
“Thank you.”
With a swish of his cape, Seteth walked briskly out of the dining hall. The moment he left, Rook noticed that the stares he was getting markedly increase, and he did his best to ignore them as he got some food.
Shunk! Thunk!
With a satisfying noise, his longsword and rapier both struck home on the wooden training dummy. Constantly moving, Rook hopped sideways, as if avoiding a blow, and scored another swift stab with the rapier. Right in the centre of the handy target painted on the dummy’s chest.
After an awkward breakfast where lots of people stared at him but didn’t actually talk to him, he’d retreated to his room. He’d passed several students on the way, but they too simply stared at him in confusion, and filled with pent up energy, he’d decided to grab his gear and try out the training grounds.
They were a large stone courtyard, equipped with racks of training weapons, dummies and targets, and he’d set a couple of dummies up to practice on. He’d practiced the fighting style, he’d been taught, based around swift movements that chained fast slashes with the longsword and swift stabs with the rapier. These would be interspersed with dodges, hops, backsteps and maybe the occasional acrobatic flip, if you really wanted to show off. He also practiced moving swiftly from blades to bow, firing a series of quick shots from a slightly further distance.
Of course, doing this against a dummy wasn’t exactly challenging, since it couldn’t fight back, but it would at least help keep his skills up.
As he’d practiced, several students had entered to likely satisfy their curiosity about him. Most were lingering around the edge of the courtyard trying to watch him while looking like they were casually talking, and another was lurking in a shadowy corner, possibly believing that he hadn’t been spotted.
Deciding to act, Rook sheathed his weapons and stared directly at that corner.
“Are you going to try and watch me sneakily all day?”
There was a moment where they didn’t respond, but eventually another student walked confidently out of the shadows.
“I didn’t realise you’d spotted me.”
Rook folded his arms, “I’ve been in situations where spotting something hidden could prevent you being chopped in half by swinging axe traps.”
“I see.”
The student was tall, his hair dark with the fringe hanging down over one eye. He had an overall shifty look, and it was so obvious, Rook wondered if maybe he was cultivating it deliberately.
The student inclined his head politely in greeting, “Hubert Von Vestra, I serve Lady Edelgard as her vassal.”
“Rook.”
Hubert eyed him for a moment, “You appear to be a student, yet I’ve not seen you until today.”
Rook gave a carefree smile, “Late addition, I don’t think my enrolment paperwork is properly through yet. It’s complicated.”
“The church allowed you to enrol even though the year had already started?”
“It was actually their idea.”
Hubert raised an eyebrow at that, clearly wanting to know far more than that, but a feminine voice interrupted them.
“Hubert, I see you’ve met Rook.”
As they looked towards the voice, Hubert gave a short bow to the white-haired girl that had joined them, “Lady Edelgard.”
Edelgard nodded at him, then focused on Rook with a slightly unnerving intensity.
“I am Edelgard Von Hresvleg, house leader for the Black Eagles.” She gave a short nod of greeting, “Seteth informed me, and the other house leaders, that you would be joining the academy.”
That at least explained how she knew his name, and why her skirt version of the uniform had an additional red cape over one shoulder.
“He also said that you were going to be allowed to choose which house to join.” She gave a small smile, “I am confident you’ll find the Black Eagles more than welcoming if you wish to join us.”
“Princess! Are you trying to charm our new classmate to your house already?”
His uniform bearing a yellow cape, a student with brown, messy hair sauntered up to them. He had a carefree smile on his tanned face, but it didn’t quite reach his green eyes, which remained calculating.
Edelgard gave him a brief glance, “As if you weren’t here to do the exact same thing, Claude.”
Claude shrugged, “I’ll admit I was hoping to meet our new friend, but I fully intended to get to know him a bit first before giving the recruitment pitch.” He shook his head, “Honestly, you and Dimitri really don’t leave time for niceties.”
“But you were going to try and recruit him afterwards of course.”
A third student appeared. He was the tallest of the three, his blonde hair loose. A blue cape indicated that he was the third of the three house leaders, and he gave Rook a short bow in greeting.
“A pleasure to meet you Rook, I am Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd. I’m the house leader for the Blue Lions.”
Claude grinned at him, “And by process of elimination, you can probably guess that I’m Claude, leader of the Golden Deer.”
Rook returned the grin, “Rook, but you’ve apparently already been told that.” He glanced between the three of them, “Are all three of you here to try and convince me to pick your house?”
“It shouldn’t be surprising.” Hubert answered, “You must have some sort of talent to be enrolled in such a way.” He smirked, “And my own observations appear to confirm that.”
“And we are house leaders.” Claude added, “It is kind of our job to make our house sound appealing to a potential new classmate. House pride and all.”
“Regardless, the choice is still yours.” Dimitri smiled, “I look forward to getting to know you whatever house you pick.”
The next morning, Rook once again found himself entering the Audience Chamber, though this time, it was to meet the three house professors.
After meeting Dimitri, Edelgard and Claude, he’d been introduced to several of the other students, giving him a fair grasp on what the three houses were like. The Black Eagles were pretty much all nobles, apart from Dorothea, a former diva for the opera who’d got sponsorship from a noble to attend the academy. The Blue Lions were also mostly nobles but had a couple more commoners in their ranks. They were also very martial focused, Faerghus was a kingdom that strove for chivalry and knightly ideals, leading to skill with a weapon being expected from their nobility. The Golden Deer had the most commoners, The Alliance had a booming merchant trade, meaning that commoners who could make it in that business could gain money and influence. They were probably also the most boisterous and least united of the houses.
This also meant that he’d found out what had happened on their excursion. A group of bandits had attacked them at their camp, but thanks to the Knights of Seiros, there’d been no serious casualties. The three house leaders had broken away and ended up enlisting the aid of a group of mercenaries. One woman in particular, Byleth, had apparently impressed, if the descriptions of her deeds from the house leaders were any indication.
One of the three professors had also run away, and Rook wasn’t surprised that Seteth had ended up being occupied all day with organising a replacement for the sudden vacancy. He hadn’t seen the man until dinner, when he’d briefly told him to come to his office the following morning to meet the professors and pick his house.
Hand resting on the strap of a satchel containing things he needed for schoolwork that Seteth had just given him, he followed the man into the room, whereupon he was introduced to the three people waiting there.
“Rook, these are Professors Hanneman, Manuela and Byleth. Professors, this is Rook.”
Rook’s blinked in surprise when he heard the name of the same mercenary the house leaders had been singing the praises of the day before but paid it no further mind.
Hanneman, a tall, thin, grey-haired man with a moustache adjusted his monocle, “A pleasure to meet you.”
Manuela, a brown-haired woman dressed like a famous singer smiled at him, “Delighted.”
Byleth, a woman with long, loose, teal hair who looked barely older than Rook himself, politely nodded, her eyes gazing at him intensely.
Rook gave the short greeting bow he’d seen others do, “Hello.”
Seteth continued, “You will learn from all three of your professors while here, as well as others, and your classes will be fairly broad at the beginning. However, as the year progresses your lessons will become more focused as you and your fellow students start to specialise. Each professor will also take charge of one of the houses.” He smiled, “And now, I believe all that is left is for you to pick one.”
Rook considered for a moment, considering the three options before finally coming to a decision.
“The Golden Deer.”
“Very good.” Seteth nodded in acknowledgement, “I shall go and finish off your paperwork and leave you in the capable hands of your professor.”
As he left, Manuela nudged Byleth, “Well this is interesting, the Golden Deer getting both the mysterious professor and the mysterious student.”
“Manuela.” Hanneman addressed his co-worker, “As excited by that as I’m sure you are, we should be getting to our own students.”
“I suppose, after yesterday’s upset it would be good to get back to normality.” She winked at him, “The Black Eagles do have a mock battle in few days to win.”
With that, she nodded farewell to Rook, and Hanneman sighed before doing the same. Rook looked to Byleth.
“So…you’re my professor?”
“Yes. We should get to class.”
She began walking towards the door and Rook quickly followed. They travelled in silence for a while, Rook not sure whether or not he should try a conversation, when she suddenly stopped and stared at him.
“Why did you pick the Golden Deer?”
He hesitated, thrown by the suddenness of the question, before answering, “Honestly, they seemed closest to what I’m used to, I didn’t really think too hard about it.”
“I see.”
She resumed walking with no further comment.
The next couple of days passed quickly, as Rook adjusted to the stricter schedule of a school.
He and Byleth had been met with a lot of surprised students when they’d entered the classroom. Apparently, Byleth becoming a professor had been kept secret from all but the house leaders. Even then, Claude hadn’t known which house she’d picked, so it took a while to explain it all before anything resembling a lesson could begin. From there, she’d begun preparing them for a mock battle between the houses that would take place a few days later.
This seemed to be something of a test of her abilities. In a way that was very similar to Rook’s enrolment, Rhea had decided to hire Byleth quite suddenly. Naturally, Seteth was concerned that she’d be a suitable pick, so they’d arranged the mock battle for her to prove her capability and let her see the student’s skills for herself.
Four students would be picked from each house to take part in the battle under their professor’s command, while the others watched. It would be fought using training weapons, and an enchantment would be placed over the battlefield to make magic attacks harmless (though the students couldn’t cast anything particularly powerful yet).
She spent the first lesson finding out what skills they actually had, then picked the four to actually fight. Over the next couple of days, they focused on training those four to get them somewhat reasonable by sparring against those who hadn’t been chosen until the day of the mock battle itself arrived.
Rook checked over the weapons he’d been given, as one of the four picked to fight, he’d been supplied with training swords and a training bow.
Beside him, the pink-haired Hilda grumbled aloud, “Urgh, why did the professor pick me! I’m too dainty for this sort of work!”
Rook briefly eyed the large training axe she was carrying around but said nothing. Knowing that she would look for any excuse to wheedle her way out of work.
She whined to Byleth as she passed, “Professor, I’d be way more useful cheering from the side lines, can’t someone else take my place?”
“No.”
Not even breaking stride, Byleth answered bluntly and Hilda pouted as Claude sniggered. On Rook’s other side, the fourth member of their team spoke up.
“What’s the problem Hilda? It’ll be fun going against the other houses.”
Raphael was the biggest in their class. The blonde was heavily focused on strength building, and his muscles were so big his shirt buttons were constantly straining to stay together. He also had an appetite to match his size, evidenced by the large pile of snacks he was rapidly working his way through.
“Just because you don’t mind being all sweaty and gross!”
“Everyone, prepare to begin.”
Byleth got their attention and led them to their starting point at the south of the field. The Black Eagles were starting more to the west and the Blue Lions to the east. From where they were, Rook couldn’t see the opposing students, due to a copse of trees ahead of them, but there was an obvious gap running through it. Byleth pointed towards it.
“Rook, head straight for that gap as quickly as you can when the battle starts, the other students will think you easy to deal with and break cover to attack. Use your speed to draw them into the open where we can deal with easily.”
“So, charge in recklessly so they think I’m isolated and bait them into following me to a position where they’ll be the ones isolated.” He grinned mischievously, “If it doesn’t work straight away, I could start calling the rude names as well.”
Byleth shrugged, “Whatever works.”
She continued to give instructions to the others and soon, Seteth, acting as adjudicator for the battle, gave the signal.
“Begin!”
As ordered, Rook sprinted towards the gap in the trees, Hilda groaning in annoyance as he left the others behind. He rapidly approached the trees, and as if on cue, a ginger-haired student leapt out to intercept him with a lance.
“I am Ferdinand Von Aegir!”
One of the Black Eagles, Ferdinand boldly declared himself and thrust his weapon forwards. Though unused to facing lances, Rook nimbly dodged it and quickly stabbed forward with his rapier. Ferdinand deftly parried with his lance and Rook was forced to back up as he swung the butt of it forwards to knock him away.
He gradually drew the Black Eagle backwards, dancing between lance thrusts, until one managed to graze his side. Just as Ferdinand whooped at his successful strike, Raphael barrelled into him with a roar, driving his fist into his opponent’s stomach. The force actually lifted Ferdinand off the ground, and he landed in an undignified heap on the floor, knocked out of the battle.
The rules were that if you received a blow that would normally kill or incapacitate you, you were defeated, and a blow like that definitely would’ve counted.
Raphael punched the air in victory, but Rook readied for the next fight, and he spotted their next foe heading straight for them.
“Look out!”
Leaping in front of Raphael, Rook’s blades intercepted the sword of Felix, and the dark blue-haired member of the Blue Lions quickly disengaged before he could counter. Out the side of his eye, he saw light blue, spiky hair as Caspar, from the Black Eagle, charged towards Raphael. The much larger blonde met him and the two started to tussle as they tried to get a good blow on the other.
Rook kept his focus on Felix, and the other boy shot forwards with a quick strike. Deftly rolling to the side, Rook stabbed with his rapier only for it to be turned away by Felix’s sword. He then tried to take advantage, but Rook crossed his two blades and blocked the strike, taken back by the force of the blow that forced him to crouch.
There was more strength behind it than there should’ve been.
He managed to push Felix’s blade away and used the opening to push violently away from the ground with his bent legs, as he did so, he swiftly sheathed his blades and drew his bow, managing to fire an arrow before he hit the ground again.
Though it did no actual damage, it would count as a ‘killing’ blow, and Felix growled in frustration before stalking off the field. Quickly checking for the next enemy, he saw that Raphael had managed to pin Caspar, and Byleth had fended off Edelgard while he’d been busy with Felix. He spotted Hubert in the trees and was drawing his bow to fire a shot at him when Claude screamed a warning.
“ROOK, ON YOUR RIGHT!”
Instantly switching his attention that way, he had just enough time to see Dimitri swinging his lance towards him. He tried to dodge, but while he avoided the blade he was struck squarely in the chest by the lance haft. The force lifted him clean off the ground, and he was certain he heard something crack as he was struck.
He flew several feet, the blow knocking him flat on his back, and out of the battle.
“Are you certain you’re alright?”
Rook smiled reassuringly at the concerned Dimitri, “Yeah, still aches a little but they tell me it’ll be fine.”
Ultimately, the mock battle had ended in a victory for the Golden Deer, but that had largely been due to the skill and tactics of Byleth. Rook had remained the only ‘loss’ on their side, but it had still been a close fought battle, though he would admit he missed most of what happened after Dimitri struck him out.
After laying stunned for a while and then needing a little help getting off the battlefield due to a cracked rib or two, he was in the middle of being healed when the Deer claimed victory. He’d been told that Hilda had turned her annoyance at being made to work towards the opposition and had smashed Dimitri out the fight not long after he’d taken down him. Byleth then guided them through the few remaining, including the other professors which she apparently defeated singlehandedly.
Rook had to admit that the healing magic of Fódlan was impressive. In what felt like no time at all, one of the monastery clerics had mended his ribs with what looked like little more than white light and a brief incantation. It had also been treated as something that wasn’t a big deal, like it was a fairly basic spell.
Dimitri didn’t look convinced, “If, you’re sure.”
Rook stood and stretched a little to prove his point, “See, its just sore now, no harm done.” He frowned, “Though how did you put so much power behind that swing?”
Dimitri sighed, “It’s because of my Crest, and sometimes I can’t fully control my strength.”
This was something he hadn’t heard of, and Rook’s frown became more confused, “What do you mean by ‘Crest’?”
“You don’t know? But I suppose you did come from beyond Fódlan.” Dimitri explained further, “Crests are power that runs through the blood, often in noble families, or rather, the noble families exist because of Crests. The Church teaches that they are gifts of the Goddess, granted to her heroes many years ago, heroes whose descendants became the noble families of today.”
“And they make you stronger?”
“Not all of them.” Dimitri folded his arms, “My Crest of Blaiddyd does give me incredible physical strength, but the granted power varies between Crests. Some are more for magic, or speed, and so on.”
Rook pondered this information, “And not everyone has one?”
“Indeed.” Dimitri sighed, “Because they’re inherited, Crests are usually kept within noble families. Though occasionally one has manifested seemingly at random in someone unconnected to one.” He shrugged, “Though they can skip generations, so it may simply be someone in their bloodline had a Crest that effectively remained dormant. I’m sure Professor Hanneman would happily explain more to you; he is a Crest Scholar of no small renown.”
“Maybe, I’ve not heard of something like that where I’m from.”
Dimitri smiled, “Still, if you are certain you’re alright, I’ll take my leave. Though don’t be surprised if Felix demands to spar you at some point, he doesn’t often encounter people who can fight him as effectively as you did. You are quite the fighter, though that may be why I hit you with the force I did.”
He gave a nod of farewell and left, leaving Rook considering what he’d just learned.
So, Fódlan’s nobles had magic in their blood, Crests that gave them enhanced abilities of some sort. They seemed to form a large part of Fódlan’s society, considering Dimitri’s initial surprise that he didn’t know what they were. Many of the students were noble, did that mean that many of them had Crests as well? He probably should speak to Hanneman a bit more about it, if they were a big part of the culture he was now in, it was probably best to have a bit more knowledge about it.
He left off his musings and headed for the classroom. Before they were due to finish for the day, Byleth had told him to join the rest of the Golden Deer there once he was healed, so she could give all of them details of their mission for the month.
“Hell!”
Kostas hurled a stone moodily, knowing his bandit group were sunk now their employer had ditched them.
They’d been hired for what should’ve been an easy job. Ambush a bunch of brats and kill as many noble ones as they could, but it had gone sideways the moment they launched the attack. No one had told him the Knights of Seiros were present, and they’d had no difficulty forcing his men to flee. He’d tried to hunt down the three that had separated from the rest, but they’d run straight to an entire mercenary group.
He’d found them temporary safety in the depths of a difficult canyon, but it only had one exit which was now covered by the Knights of Serios. They hadn’t found them yet, but it was only a matter of time until they did.
“Boss, what do we do?”
“I’m working on it!” Kostas snarled at his nervous lackey, “I aint dying here cause some pompous, self-named, ‘Flame Emperor’ left us high an’ dry!”
“I can offer you assistance.”
Kostas glanced around furiously, searching for the sudden voice, “What! Who’s there!?”
“Abandoned, you’ve been left to die, but I can grant you power in your flesh, strength to defeat those that hunt you.”
“An’ how are ye going to do that!?” Kostas snarled, “What’s the catch!?”
“A deal, not a catch. Bring me what I seek, and I will strengthen you.”
“So, yer offering a job.” Kostas paused in thought. He and his men were facing certain death if the knights found them, and that was only a matter of time. What did he have to lose here? It might be worth at least hearing the offer.
“What is it yer after?”
“A boy, carrying a blue dagger, and I need him alive.”