Chapter 1
Notes:
Cover art by @NgE_Commission on Twitter! The other art piece was done by @Bunana_Pancakes on Twitter! Please check their work out!
Chapter Text
Byleth wasn’t a stranger to the occasional bad decision, but the idea of driving her clunky SUV in the middle of nowhere was astronomically stupid, even in her opinion.
But she supposed she was entitled to stupidity, especially now.
It’d only been three moons since she last saw Jeralt’s mangled, bloodied corpse with glass and debris sticking out of him, as if he was just skewered meat. It was a hit-and-run, they said. The driver got away, but the cops reassured her that they’d hunt the killer down.
The driver was some rich trust fund kid named Monica von Ochs. The same Monica that dozed off in her history lecture last week.
Monica was never charged with anything but a slap on the wrist—Daddy von Ochs must’ve pulled some strings high up. Byleth couldn’t handle going to work just to see that little bitch sleep in class after killing Jeralt like it was another Tuesday.
She dreamt of Monica walking down the stairs in the history department. She also dreamt of pushing the little bitch down those same steps. Dr. Casagranda told her that intrusive thoughts were normal. Byleth was sure they weren’t if they were about murder.
Jeralt taught her many things, but not how to deal with grief. Byleth never understood why Jeralt would drink himself drunk every year on her birthday, staring at Mom’s photo. She understood now.
If Byleth heard one more “My condolences” or “I know you can heal from this,” she was going to lose it. She’d punched Leonie during his funeral after she accused Byleth of not shedding any tears. Leonie didn’t know Byleth cried herself hoarse during the night Jeralt died.
Thus, her current, impromptu road trip from home to Goddess-knows-where. She flipped a coin to choose between north or south of Remire. Heads won, so Faerghus it was.
The afternoon sun cast a golden light through her car window, but Byleth barely noticed that or any of the endless fir trees lining the side of the road. All she could think about was getting farther and farther from home, from everyone, from everything.
Byleth kept her foot on the gas, letting Jeralt’s favorite, cheesy ballad rock song play on the radio as she drove on with no destination in mind.
The moment the song ended, her car slowly halted to a full stop.
“What the…” Byleth muttered.
The fuel gauge showed she still had half a tank left. Weird.
She turned the key in the ignition. No luck. Twice more, and still no luck. Maybe something was up with her car battery?
She stepped out of her car, and the cool fall air hit her at once. Faerghus was always chilly this time of year, and in her rush to leave Remire, she didn’t even bring enough warm clothes. Shit. It was getting dark, too.
She checked under the hood to see if anything was amiss, but no dice. There probably weren’t any car shops nearby, either. Hell, there weren’t even buildings or people in sight. Only trees.
She must’ve been somewhere deep in the sticks because her phone flashed an ominous “NO SIGNAL” next to her dwindling battery icon.
Damn it.
Byleth weighed her options. She could camp out in her car for the night and hope she could hitch a ride with the next person who drove by—if someone drove by. Or she could keep going on foot on the off-chance she’d be able to find any semblance of civilization somewhere and call for help. Hopefully.
If Jeralt were here, he would’ve known what to do. But he wasn’t, and Byleth was alone in the cold darkness in the middle of nowhere, with no way to travel or call for help.
The Goddess herself must’ve been laughing at her from a distance, anticipating what stupid choice Byleth would make atop all the other ones she already made today.
Between waiting and walking, Byleth walked.
In the darkness, everything was amplified tenfold. The road was endless, the trees were colossal, and the air was oppressive.
Byleth didn’t know how long she walked. Time was nebulous when all she could feel was hunger and fatigue with her last granola bar gone. She wrapped her arms around herself when the wind blew, sending a chill right through her body. Her jacket wasn’t thick enough to withstand the Faerghan air.
Fuck, she hated the cold.
From what she knew about the Faerghus region, its wilderness wasn’t friendly to outsiders. The only people who ever really went out here were outdoorsy types who wanted to trek into its dense forests or history buffs who wanted to peruse the Unification-era ruins. It also wasn’t uncommon for people to end up lost around these parts.
And go figure, she chose to drive here on a Goddess-damned coin flip.
Without warning, the trees around her rumbled so violently that the leaves and twigs flew in all directions and fell all around her. No way in hell was that just the wind or some deer.
An awful, booming noise pierced the air, sending all the birds and other fauna flying and skitting in every direction. The ground trembled at the noise, and she nearly lost her footing.
The sound wasn’t like anything she’d ever heard before. Not an animal, not an earthquake—no, this was something else, something she wasn’t meant to hear. Maybe something not of this world.
Mine, something echoed. Finally, finally, finally mine.
Oh, fucking fuck.
Human instinct dictated two basic responses when experiencing situations beyond comprehension.
One, to protect oneself from a perceived threat. The problem with that was she had no idea what to protect herself from, so scratch that.
Two, to run away from a perceived threat. This, she could do, even if she didn’t know where the hell she was going to and running from.
So, she ran.
The adrenaline kept her going even though she was running on fumes at this point. She needed to go somewhere, anywhere for shelter, or else whatever made that noise would get her and—
No, she would live. She’d make it.
Her strength was running low, and Byleth almost felt her sore legs give in when she saw something distinctly not tree-shaped in the distance. On the side of the road was something… rectangular?
With the last of her energy, she ran towards the shape, and upon closer inspection, she saw it was some type of signage affixed on a wooden plank. The moon barely gave any light, but after squinting, she could make out something written on the sign.
Welcome to… Fhir…diad?
That name didn’t ring any bells, but Byleth’s fatigue-addled brain was too desperate for any trace of shelter, even if it was at Bumfuck, Nowhere. She’d even sleep in an abandoned cottage if it meant having some sort of roof over her head for a night. If the sign was here, then that meant Fhirdiad was only a few more steps away—
“Ah, excuse me!”
Byleth turned so swiftly towards the voice that she almost tripped. Her heart must’ve been pounding so loud that she didn’t hear him approach her.
The darkness made it hard to see, but she could vaguely make out a young man with light hair from the storm lantern he held in front of him. The lantern cast a light that only showed half his face, with the other half shrouded in darkness. He was smiling.
“Are you lost, by any chance?” he asked her kindly, like he didn’t want to scare her off. “It’s dangerous to be out here alone.”
“There—there was something back there, so I ran and—”
“Something?” He only looked at her sympathetically. “Are you alright?”
No. No, she wasn’t. Fuck, she was miserable, hungry, and exhausted beyond belief.
“...Yeah… I… my car broke down a few miles back, and I’m… I don’t have anywhere to go.”
“Oh...” He gave her a mournful look. “I’m so sorry you had to go through all that alone.”
Logically, she knew he was only talking about the fact that she was stuck in the Faerghus wilderness with nothing but the clothes on her back, but she could already feel the lump in her throat from trying not to cry.
The one good thing about the dark was that it was hard to tell if she was crying or not.
“If… if you’d like, I can give you a place to stay, and tomorrow, I can have someone fetch your car.” He gestured his lantern forward, pointing past the “WELCOME TO FHIRDIAD” sign. “I run an inn close by.”
Stranger danger, Jeralt always said. But she was cold and tired, and so, so desperate for even a crumb of warmth at this point. A comfy, fluffy bed sounded far more favorable than the alternative.
“That’d be really nice.” She bowed her head before looking back up at him. “Thank you so much.”
It only hit her then that she was just a blip away from passing out; she felt the signs of a telltale headache forming, but she was too distracted by the man’s friendly smile that she almost smiled back.
Homey was the one word she’d use to describe the Blue Lions Bed & Breakfast. The man—Dimitri—gave her some chamomile tea to warm herself up and led her to sit down at the reception area while he prepared her room and her keys.
Hm, were the other staff asleep? At least the place looked nice.
The interior was rustic as rustic could get—the room had a warm, cozy feeling to it, with the combination of wood, stone, and furs on all the furniture. Byleth was never a fan of the whole modern minimalist look, so the blues and browns and grays in the room contributed to the overall comforting feeling. It also helped that the fireplace in the middle of the room burned brightly.
Jeralt would’ve liked this place. He had an old log cabin up in the Oghma Mountains, and every summer, they used to drive up there together and fish in the nearby lake, leaving all their problems in the city. It’d been years since they last drove up there, and Byleth missed that.
She missed him.
“I hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long,” Dimitri said, interrupting her thoughts. “I finished preparing your room, so you should be all set. There’s also a change of clothes for you on the bed.”
“You’re fine. This place is really cozy, by the way.”
“Thank you. I’m glad you think so.” He was painstakingly polite in the thirty minutes they’d known each other, but Byleth supposed that was to be expected from someone working at a hotel. That, and having a really nice smile.
Now that they weren’t out in the dark anymore, she could see his face in its entirety.
He definitely didn’t look the part of what Byleth thought an innkeeper was. He looked young, as if his angular features sharpened after only recently entering adulthood. There was a prim and proper aura about him that belied his age, and his blond hair was short and neatly trimmed with some fringe falling right above his light blue eyes.
He was the classical definition of handsome, Byleth thought. Dimitri’s face was what people thought of when the word “attractive” came to mind.
His cheeks blazed pink, and she realized she’d been ogling him this whole time.
“Er, so—” He fished around his jacket pocket until he found a key with a leather strap attached to it. “Here is your room key—it’s for Room 205 on the second floor. Please call the front desk if you need anything, and I’ll be sure to take care of it for you as soon as I can.”
Like the perfect picture of hospitality, Dimitri bowed in a way that looked like he’d done it so many times before, with his right fist over his abdomen and left hand behind his back. Byleth took the key from him, and it almost felt weird to touch someone else again after not speaking to anyone for moons. It wasn’t a bad feeling, though.
“Thanks. I don’t know where I’d be right now if you hadn’t found me out there.” And she meant it.
“I’m glad I found you, then,” Dimitri smiled at her, and he looked so pleased, like she was the one who rescued him and not the other way around.
Byleth jokingly wondered if he treated all his guests this way. If he did, then no one would ever want to leave this place.
For a moment, his smile dropped, and she was worried she might have offended him somehow. Shoot, did she say that out loud? She tended to “put her fucking foot in her mouth,” as Leonie would call it.
But like she imagined the whole thing, his face returned to its usual cordial expression.
“So, um…” Byleth spoke up, unsure of what just happened. “Good night, I guess.”
Thankfully, Dimitri was gracious enough not to bring it up again, and he only bid her a good night.
“Enjoy your stay and sweet dreams, Byleth.”
There was a pressure on Byleth’s chest.
It started out as a faint press, like she wore a seatbelt wrong, until she felt that something was actively trying to crush her under its weight. Her eyes were closed; it hadn’t been long since Byleth had fallen asleep, but the pressure was getting unbearable that her eyes snapped open.
She wished she hadn’t.
The room was pitch black, but her basic human instinct knew the Thing above her was wrong—so terribly wrong, even if her eyes couldn’t perceive it. With its suffocating presence, the Thing above her writhed, pulsated, and slowly enveloped the entirety of her body. The hairs at the back of her neck stood, and every nerve in her body was screaming at her to run.
But she couldn’t move. Her limbs were frozen in place. The more she willed herself to run, the more she realized her body refused to listen to her brain’s demands.
In desperation, she tried to scream, hoping someone would hear her. Her voice wouldn’t come out, no matter how much her gut told her that the more she did nothing, something unspeakable would happen.
She felt the Thing quiver above her with an awful squelching sound before it inched its way closer to her. It stopped just a hair’s breadth away from her face, like it wanted to soak up her turmoil from up close. Her fight-or-flight instincts screamed at her to protect herself any way she could, but she was paralyzed in the face of the Thing’s inexorable being.
As if in response to her terror, it vibrated and pulsated. She felt something warm coil around her throat and slide up to touch her cheek, like a mockery of a caress. She wanted so badly to deny all this, to say that this was just a nightmare conjured by her exhaustion, but her mind couldn’t deny what her five senses told her.
She was going mad. The only reasonable explanation for a disparity between the mind and the senses was madness.
If she couldn’t get rid of the problem, all she could do was endure.
When she was younger, Byleth used to get into a lot of accidents playing outside. Though she never burst into tears like the other children, Jeralt knew she still felt pain like they did. He taught her a “trick” to make the pain go away.
Count to three and think of three things that aren’t painful, he’d told her. So she shut her eyes and counted to herself, repeating the things she knew were undeniably real.
One. Her name was Byleth Eisner, and she liked fishing.
Two. Her father was Jeralt Eisner, and he taught her to like fishing.
Three. She missed him more than anything in the world, and the loneliness and grief ate at her so much that she almost killed—
Sleep, Byleth.
A voice that distinctly wasn’t hers rang in her head, and before she could even begin to process it, she felt her consciousness drift away to sleep once more.
Byleth woke up the next morning feeling exhausted. When she opened her eyes, there was no inky blackness, just the soft, quiet of the early morning light shining through her window.
She wondered if last night was even real. It certainly felt real, what with the Thing wrapping itself around her and nearly squeezing the life out of her. Still, when she checked, there weren’t any marks or impressions on her that suggested the Thing was actually here.
Right?
…Yeah, she was probably just tired. She walked around in the dark for hours until the weird rumbling happened, so it wasn’t surprising for her mind to come up with the most disturbing nightmare it could conjure. She used to binge horror films with Leonie when they were in college, and she’d sometimes have weird dreams of a headless knight chasing her around with a giant stick.
Last night was just another one of those weird, unexplainable dreams. That made infinitely more sense than the alternative explanation.
And certainly, last night was a much better alternative to the other kinds of dreams she’d been having lately. Those of the more violent variety.
Monica’s mangled body at the foot of the stairs. Her beady red eyes looking back up at Byleth, knowing just who pushed her down—
Stop.
Byleth reached for her phone on the nightstand and expected to see a barrage of missed calls and unread messages until she realized her phone died last night. She should probably ask Dimitri if he had an extra charger he could lend.
That, and she needed to eat, stat. Her last meal was a cinnamon granola bar, and that sated barely a fraction of her hunger.
She freshened up, wore the fresh set of clothes Dimitri prepared for her, and headed for the dining hall.
Even walking down the hallway, Byleth noticed the interior was decorated with painstaking care. Wood seemed to be the favored material, with all the tables and shelves made of ash wood. The hallway didn’t have that artificial, commercial hotel feel with the usual generic furniture and clinical lighting; it felt like walking through someone’s home, especially with the framed photos and trinkets on the walls.
She reached the front desk, hoping to at least greet Dimitri before she ate. The front desk was empty, so she supposed he must’ve been busy with some other administrative duties.
Eh, not a problem. She could wait a bit.
A flash of color caught her eye, and she noticed a framed photo hung on the wall behind the front desk. It was a photo of Dimitri smiling happily with what looked to be his friends. They were all posing in front of the Blue Lions Bed & Breakfast, seemingly happy to be together. They all had smiles on their faces, except for the one guy with dark hair who seemed like he’d rather be anywhere but there.
“Good morning, Byleth,” Dimitri greeted her, coming from the double doors at the far end of the reception hall. “I was just checking the breakfast arrangements today. How was your sleep?”
She was almost tempted to say terrible, what with the nigh suffocating hell of a nightmare she had last night. But he looked so earnestly hopeful that she didn’t want to make him feel bad for something that wasn’t even his fault.
“Don’t worry about it. Are you the only staff here?”
“I have some help,” he said, giving her a sheepish look. “Still, not many people come to visit Fhirdiad, so it never gets busy enough for it to be unmanageable.”
“Oh. Well… this place is nice, so I’m surprised I haven’t seen any other guests here.”
“Yes… it really is a shame.“
His gaze slowly drifted to the framed photo. She wondered what the story was behind it, but she wasn’t bold enough to ask him.
“Sorry,” he said, shaking himself from his musings. “You must be starving. I do hope you’ll like today’s breakfast.”
She could feel her stomach growl in protest, but if Dimitri heard it, he politely said nothing and only gestured towards the dining hall's double doors.
They entered the dining hall together, and immediately, Byleth’s nose was greeted with appetizing smells. The food was arranged buffet style, with chafers chock full of a dazzling array of hearty breakfast food and trays lined with freshly baked pastries. Scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, hash browned potatoes, muffins, croissants, sausages, and her favorite: fried fish. It was Byleth’s heaven on earth.
“Can I dig in?” The reason in her brain slowly dwindled into primitive hunger at the sight of the breakfast cornucopia.
“Of course! Please don’t let me stop you, Byleth.”
Wasting no time, she piled her plate high with at least one of everything from the chafers and trays. She sat at the table closest to the buffet, and when she took a bite of the bacon and eggs, she felt like Sothis herself cooked and blessed her food.
“This is—mmph—really good,” Byleth blurted between forkfuls of fish. “All my favorites are here—tell the chef I said thanks.”
“I’ll be sure to tell Dedue, then. He’ll be happy to hear it,” Dimitri said, taking a seat in front of her. “If there’s one thing we’re proud of here, it’s the food. It wouldn’t do if a bed and breakfast had a subpar breakfast.”
Byleth agreed.
As she stuffed another bite of the fluffy eggs into her mouth, she noticed Dimitri watching her intently. His eyes followed the movement of her fork to her mouth, and each time she bit into another morsel, his eyes locked on her throat, watching as she swallowed. She gulped down some of the orange juice from her glass, and a drop slid down the side of her mouth and to her chin. She felt his steady gaze following the drop’s course until it finally dripped down her neck.
It was a little embarrassing.
“You don’t have to be shy, Byleth,” Dimitri gave her an inviting smile. “You’re welcome to make yourself at home.”
Kind of him to say so. But still.
There was a nagging feeling under her skin she couldn’t shake off. It was weird to have a complete stranger be so kind to her for no discernable reason—to offer her all this food, give her lodgings, and find her exactly when she needed someone the most. Ah, shoot, she had to think of how much this whole stay would cost, was it over the budget—
Wait.
What was he doing there last night?
Her thoughts were sharper now that she wasn’t hungry anymore. If she mapped the whole thing out in her head, there was something off about it.
Yesterday afternoon, she drove north of Remire to Faerghus, and her car mysteriously stopped in the middle of the forest road. She decided to go on foot to look for help when… that rumbling happened. She ended up in Fhirdiad, some town in the middle of Faerghus, and Dimitri found her at the town entrance.
But it was late out, so why would anybody be out there? Most people didn’t have a reason to be skulking about the main road so late at night. Dimitri could just be a weirdo who liked nightly walks, or maybe he had a reason to be out there.
Was it really a coincidence he found her, or—
Her head suddenly throbbed the more she thought of it. The spike in pressure was so abrupt that she almost dropped her fork.
“Are you alright, Byleth?” He looked genuinely worried. She couldn’t find a hint of malice or suspicion in that sincere expression.
Shit, now she felt bad for doubting him when he was only ever kind to her.
“I’m okay,” Byleth said, trying to break some of the tension, “Do you, uh, know what’ll happen to my car?”
“Oh, yes. I had a friend of mine go and check. She should be back later today. You said you left it along the main road, right? ”
“Yes. Sorry about the hassle. There’s just… a lot going on.”
And she really didn’t want to dwell on it all anymore, if she was being honest.
“Well… while waiting for your car, I’d be happy to give you a tour of the town,” Dimitri offered, smiling nervously. “That is, of course, only if you want to! Please don’t let me stop you from resting if you’re feeling tired.”
He looked so hopeful, like he so badly wanted her to say yes, but was too afraid to overstep his bounds.
She thought about it for a bit. People rarely ever came to visit Fhirdiad, and it could’ve been because the town was so deep in the sticks that it was hard to access through regular means, or maybe because people had other places to be than a nondescript small town.
From what little she knew about him, she supposed he’d still tend to the inn as much as he could, making sure everything was in tip-top shape for whoever might visit—if anyone visited. Still, the thought of Dimitri just sitting at the front desk, eagerly waiting for guests who would never come… it hit too close to home.
After Jeralt died, she locked herself in her apartment for days and hoped Jeralt would come knocking at the door like it was all a joke.
He never came.
“Dimitri.”
“Y—yes, Byleth? I hope I didn’t put you on the spot. I—”
“I’d love to go on that tour.” She hoped the smile she gave him wasn’t too stilted; it’d been so long since she smiled that the muscles in her face almost felt unnatural at the motion.
He didn’t seem unnerved by her at all. In fact, Dimtri beamed at her in response, his blue eyes crinkling in joy as his lips turned upwards.
Oh.
At the back of her mind, she acknowledged him as attractive on a general, objective level, what with his symmetrical features and pristine aura. Yet it only hit her then that he looked so pleasing to her eyes that it was hard not to look at him.
She came to the horrifying realization that he didn’t just have a handsome face. He had a perfect face.
Shit.
Dimitri wasn’t kidding when he said Fhirdiad was a small town. Byleth could probably circle the whole town in ten minutes with her shitty car.
With a whopping population of eight, “commune” might’ve been the more apt term to describe Fhirdiad. Now she understood why nobody ever came—the settlement was barely big enough to be on the map.
Despite its size though, Fhirdiad was nostalgically beautiful in its own way. Dimitri walked with her along the main street, showing her the stores next to each other with brick and terra cotta facades and granite foundations, something she’d never seen living in Remire. Each little establishment even had its own patterned awning with vibrant writing in big, bold letters to indicate the kind of service they offered.
From where she walked beside Dimitri, she saw the backdrop of the verdant woods against the scenery of the colorful town square.
It almost felt like she was in a different world. This place was too idyllic to be in the urban Fódlan she grew used to. Hell, it was weird that a place like this even existed in the middle of nowhere. The statistical probability of Byleth running into Fhirdiad seemed practically non-existent, but she somehow got really, really lucky. Huh.
Fortunately for her, Dimitri interrupted her spiraling train of thought when he took the time to personally introduce her to each of Fhirdiad’s residents. Her mind went back to the framed photo at the front desk—her initial guess about them being Dimitri’s friends was right on the money.
Dedue was the chef at the inn, and though he didn’t say much, Byleth could tell he loved his job. She told him she really liked the maple bacon he made, and he responded by letting her try a bowl of the Cheesy Verona Stew he was making for dinner. She decided right then that she really liked Dedue.
Ingrid wasn’t at the repair shop when she and Dimitri stopped by; she was out looking for Byleth’s car—Byleth would have to thank her later. Hopefully, the repairs wouldn’t be too costly.
Mercedes ran the local clinic, and Byleth noticed how the clinic didn’t seem like any of the clinics back home; Mercedes had put up stuffed animals and scented candles, calming the atmosphere.
“Do you get enough patients around here?” Byleth realized too late that she definitely came off as rude.
Oh-so-sweetly, Mercedes paid no mind to Byleth’s little gaffe and only giggled at her. “Dimitri over there has a nasty habit of getting into accidents. He’s my number one patient.”
Needless to say, Dimitri hurried on to the next shop.
Annette was the cheery shopkeeper at the bookstore, and Byleth was surprised there were actually more than three shelves in the shop. Annette was so excited about having a new customer after so long that she gave Byleth a stack of “complimentary reading” that consisted of all three volumes of The Applied Principles of Reason Magic.
That was probably bad for business, but hey, free was free, Byleth thought.
Sylvain ran the flower shop. When she and Dimitri stepped in, Sylvain nearly shoved a bouquet of roses in her face, saying something about having a “breath of fresh air finally walk through the door.” Dimitri almost decked him.
The little cafe-slash-bakery-slash-bar—and a bunch of other things, too—was run by Ashe. With his chest puffed out, Dimitri was proud to say Fhirdiad had the best food in the area. Byleth was inclined to agree when she saw the blueberry cheesecake tempt her from the food display case. Dimitri promised they could have some of the cake later on.
The last place they visited was the convenience store. Felix didn’t seem to suit the role of a cashier, in her opinion. The moment she and Dimitri walked into the shop, Felix glared daggers at them, like they’d ruined his entire day by showing up.
It wasn’t like he had a multitude of customers waiting for him, she wanted to say—but she kept that to herself in case Felix would do more than glare at them.
“Ah, well… he’s always been like that,” was the only thing Dimitri told her.
By the time they finished the tour, it was already evening. Dimitri graciously led her back to the inn and let her know dinner would be ready soon. Dedue’s Cheesy Verona Stew came to mind immediately.
“I hope you enjoyed today,” Dimitri told her from across the table, pouring wine into her glass. “I know the others were happy to have someone new in town.”
“It was fun. Felix didn’t seem happy, though.”
“Don’t worry about him. He’ll come around someday.”
There was definitely more to it than that, but something in her mind told her not to press further.
Still, though. Byleth didn’t think she’d actually enjoy today. It’d been too long since she actively interacted with people. After Jeralt… died, she essentially cut off contact with everyone she knew, preferring to isolate herself rather than deal with empty platitudes and meaningless condolences.
Being around other people was tiring, but everyone here made her feel so… welcome, like they genuinely wanted her to be there. She hadn’t felt that in so long that she nearly didn’t realize how much she missed that. Jeralt, Leonie, her students—she almost forgot how it felt like to be at peace around others.
“Thank you for today, Dimitri,” Byleth told him. “Everyone was really nice.”
“They are, aren’t they? I’m fortunate to have them with me here. I don’t know what would happen to Fhirdiad if it was just me here.”
And they really did seem like a pleasant community here. It just felt a bit sad that they did all this work and upkeep, only to have no one ever visit the town.
“So how did you all keep the place up and running despite… uh… having no visitors?”
Honestly, she'd been curious about it since her arrival. It was interesting how a thriving little community managed to seemingly stay afloat all this time—that was practically unheard of back in Adrestia.
“This may sound hard to believe now, but Fhirdiad used to be a popular tourist destination a while back,” Dimitri explained with a contemplative look. “Then people stopped coming after…”
He closed his eyes for a bit before continuing.
“I’m sorry, this is going to sound unpleasant, but I’d hate for you to think that I’m keeping things from you.”
“I don’t mind, you can keep going.”
“Alright, then… well. I’m not sure if you’ve heard of this, but a few years ago, some university students ventured out in the Faerghus region to do a research project of sorts,” he paused again, as if trying to figure out what to say next. “Needless to say, they were never heard from again.”
Chilling—but that case sounded vaguely familiar. She recalled a story like that being all over the news some time ago when she was still an undergrad. Leonie, true crime junkie that she was, wouldn’t shut up about it.
“I suppose I can understand the fear around the incident… but what I never understood were the distasteful rumors that came after.”
“Rumors? Like what?”
Dimitri’s expression turned sour, mouth downturned into a hard frown. She’d never seen him look anything less than content the whole time she was here; it was unsettlingly out of character.
“Creatures. Or rather, monstrous creatures. There were rumors that the students were killed by monsters lurking about in the woods.”
Suddenly, her night out in the woods came to mind.
The booming, rumbling sound that made her skin crawl. And that voice she heard—
“You see, Byleth, the thing about monsters,” Dimitri continued, looking right at her, “is that they simply aren’t real.”
She looked into his blue eyes, and in a moment she wasn’t sure even happened, his eyes were a deep, inky black that reflected the expanse of a void, of an abyss so lonely and cold—
Then he blinked, and his eyes were blue again.
Chapter 2
Summary:
Byleth spends some time with Dimitri and discovers a few things about herself.
Notes:
Chapter contains: masturbation
Chapter Text
Byleth.
Hm?
Byleth. Byleth. Byleth. Byleth. Byleth. Byleth Byleth BylethBylethBylethBylethByleth—
Her eyes snapped open at the erratic voice calling her name. Day Two, and again, she was roused from her sleep.
Room 205 was still dark, but she immediately recognized the suffocating presence in front of her.
The Thing, in all its incomprehensible terror, visited her again.
Like clockwork, her body immediately froze, hairs tingling at the back of her neck, and sweat beading at her temples. She didn’t know if it was possible for the Thing to feel more imposing than it already was—she felt surrounded by it in all directions, all at the same time.
“Byleth,” the Thing uttered, its voice a terrifying cacophony of a thousand sounds she couldn’t even begin to describe.
Hearing it with her own two ears only intensified her dread. When she tried to shut her eyes to block it out, the Thing manifested, unbidden, in her mind’s eye.
That dream forced its way back to her.
Monica von Ochs finished class, grabbed her things, and headed down the stairs at the history department.
Byleth, Professor Byleth Eisner, followed behind slowly, making sure she wasn’t seen by Monica.
Monica stopped mid-step to check her phone for some bullshit notification from Goddess-knows-where, and Byleth stood behind her. Monica didn’t notice her presence.
Then, Byleth’s hands stretched forward and pushed.
Monica tumbled down the stairs, completely taken off guard. Her things scattered out of the pretty red bag her Daddy probably bought her.
Finally, Monica landed on the ground with a thud and a crack, her neck twisted at an odd angle. With the last of her breath, Monica looked back up to see her assailant’s face.
She saw Byleth. She wanted to scream, but she couldn’t.
And it felt good.
“W—what…” Byleth quietly asked, somehow finding her voice, “are you—?”
Slowly, the Thing gurgled and pulsed in its place before it moved towards her. She felt two tendrils encircle her midsection, pulling her closer until she was flush against it. As it held her, she realized someone was screaming, and that someone was her.
Did it plan to squeeze the life out of her? Eat her? Or–
“Don’t be afraid,” it voiced. “I won’t hurt you.”
The Thing proceeded to wrap more of its appendages around her, almost covering her completely. If she weren’t struggling to keep a grip on reality, she would’ve called this a paltry caricature of an embrace.
“You’re here. You’re really here. Finally, finally, finallyfinallyfinally—”
It wrapped more of itself around her even tighter, like it wanted to mold her to its body. Again and again, it whispered its nonsensical ramblings to her as it held her even closer to it. Her human impulse to fight or run from the sight of the terrifying unknown was no match for the Thing’s unrelenting grip on her.
If this was a nightmare, then shit, she hoped she’d wake up soon. If not, then… maybe Jeralt would be waiting for her on the other side, wherever that was.
All at once, she felt herself losing consciousness. A pressure in her head compelled her to sleep, and no matter how much she fought to keep her eyes open, she was no match for the voice in her head.
I’ll see you again soon. I won’t be far. Go to sleep.
The last thing she remembered thinking about before finally blacking out was a flash of black, blue—and then darkness.
Byleth’s head was pounding the next morning. A sign that she wasn’t dead yet, at least.
Last night’s nightmare was even more vivid than the previous night, if that was even possible. The Thing even wrapped itself around her and—
She shivered just thinking the sensation of it all over her. It was as if though it tried to consume her whole and leave nothing left behind.
Did that mean tonight, she’d be…?
Maybe that wasn’t the right question to ask. She came up with two explanations that had some semblance of sense:
One, the Thing was a manifestation of her grief and trauma.
The Thing was probably just some bullshit her mind cooked up. Dr. Casagranda told her it wasn’t uncommon for grief to affect sleep. According to her, nightmares could likely occur following bereavement. Goddess, she did not want to think about Monica again.
And how it felt good when she—
No.
Two, she was fucking exhausted, and this was her mind’s way of telling her to get a grip.
Obviously, she still wasn’t completely okay if her grip on reality was tenuous at best. This trip was supposed to help her relax and unwind, not let her mind get the better of her. Dr. Casagranda told her the body sometimes manifested psychological distress through physical symptoms, and damn if her headache didn’t remind her of that.
Painkillers. The convenience store probably had some.
Freshening up, she left her room and headed out. Dimitri wasn’t at the front desk this morning when she passed by, and weirdly enough, she felt a twinge of disappointment at his absence.
Fhirdiad in the morning was as beautiful as it was during noon. It was also quiet in an almost uncanny way. She was used to the noise of the city, so walking around town and hearing nothing but nature was… mystifying, in its own way.
It really felt like a place frozen in time, untouched by the outside world.
The bells on the convenience store door jingled as she opened the door, and Felix, grumpy and taciturn as he was when they first met, glared at her before going back to whatever he was doing.
Byleth browsed the shelves, pleasantly surprised by the wide array of snacks they had here. Barbecue-flavored chips, salted pretzels, cheese biscuits, beef jerky, strawberry gummies—they had all her favorites, and then some. Fhirdiad was a really nice place.
After plucking a bottle of painkillers from the checkout counter, she unceremoniously dropped all her snacks on it, startling Felix from drilling holes on the floor with his death stare.
“I’ll have all of these,” she said.
He stared at her mountain of snacks, raising an eyebrow at her selection before ringing up her items one by one. If he was judging her, he didn’t say it, but his face certainly did.
“You’re not from around here, are you?” Felix asked her, and she was almost thrown aback at the sound. He hadn’t spoken a single word since they met.
“I’m just visiting for a while.”
His eyebrows furrowed at her reply, and she was worried he might crush her pretzels with how hard he was gripping the bag.
“Then you probably still have time.”
“Time for what?”
“To get the hell out of here.”
Damn, was he always this rude to customers? She almost had to respect him for being a dick straight to her face.
“...Okay. I’ll be on my way and out of the store—”
“That’s not what I mean,” he grumbled, running his hand through his hair in frustration. “Look, just listen to me and–”
Just as he was about to finish, the bells on the door jingled, signaling the entry of more people.
“Hello, you two,” Dimitri greeted them kindly. Annette popped out from behind him and waved. “Hey there, Byleth! And hi, Felix! Do you have any peach rings today?”
Felix, who was staring Dimitri this whole time, moved his gaze to Annette, and for a split second, Byleth saw something break in him before he schooled his expression back into something less anguished.
“They’re… they’re on the shelf to the left,” Felix gestured to the shelf. Annette grinned at him in response, and Byleth saw something in him break a little more at that. Meanwhile, Dimitri’s gaze on Felix was steady and unblinking. He smiled the whole time, but it didn’t reach his eyes.
That was… definitely not nothing.
As happy as everyone was here—or seemed to be—Felix seemed to be the outlier. He wasn’t even smiling in the framed photo. Either Felix really hated his job, or there was something more.
Hm.
“Ah, Byleth,” Dimitri spoke up. “I wanted to ask if you’d like to accompany me to the café later today. I did promise that you’d get to try Ashe’s blueberry cheesecake.”
“Ooooh yes! It’s to die for—next to Mercie’s cream puffs, of course!” Annette piped up.
That cake. She was staring at it the whole time yesterday in the display case, and the idea of her not eating it was a direct affront to her. And eating with such pleasant, and dare she say, attractive, company?
Of course she’d go.
“Yeah, I’d like to go,” Byleth nodded at him, before looking back at Felix. “Thanks for the snacks.”
He nodded lifelessly, all the earlier ire in him gone.
Byleth picked up the bag of snacks and medicine on the counter, and as she left the store with Dimitri, she felt Felix’s eyes drill holes at the back of her skull.
She thought she heard him mutter a “go to hell,” but Dimitri kept her facing forward, as if to steer her away from the unpleasantness.
The painkillers didn’t seem to kick in yet even after they finished eating. The odd pressure at the back of her head remained there, as if a spider found the cracks in her mind and crawled inside, making its home in the recesses of her head.
Just a headache, she told herself. Even Dimitri said so earlier.
She looked down at her coffee cup, and it was a steaming, perfect black—just the way she liked it. The café was quiet, save for the quiet sound of the ceiling fan swirling above her and the gentle clinking of her fork on her plate.
Dimitri sat across from her, and he gave her a guileless, sweet smile.
“I hope this place is to your liking,” he told her. “I know there isn’t much to see around here, but I have a soft spot for the food.” He looked the part of an eager puppy waiting to be praised by its master.
That same, familiar pressure throbbed in her head, but this time, a delicate warmth spread within. It felt nice.
“...Everything’s delicious.” Her taste buds certainly agreed. The blueberry cheesecake she’d ordered was a nice contrast of a decadent cream cheese filling against a crumbly crust.
“I’m happy to hear that.” Dimitri looked at her, pleased, as if she made his entire day just by eating cake in front of him.
The warmth in her skull radiated more and more until she felt like her mind was open and free. There was a wave of pleasure that flowed from her head to her body, encompassing every inch of her. Every nerve ending in her was on fire, and was hyper-aware of his intense gaze on her. It took everything in her not to outright moan in front of him.
“How are you feeling?” he asked her gently, though his gaze was anything but.
“Nice,” she blurted out, the floodgates of her mind unlocked. “Warm and fuzzy.”
“That’s good to hear.”
His hand reached out for hers on the table, and the pleasure in her head intensified the moment their fingers made contact.
“Are you enjoying your stay here?” he murmured.
All she could do was nod, and an even bigger wave of bliss spread throughout her.
Dimitri was nice. Fhirdiad was nice. Maybe if she stayed here, she wouldn’t have to deal with her shit back in the city, back where that bitch ran over Jeralt and left him dying and bleeding at the middle of the crossroads. Monica lived, Jeralt died, and now, she was all alone, alone, alone—
“You’re not alone, Byleth,” Dimitri told her gently.
I will never leave you, something promised in her mind. You’ll never be hurt again.
“Promise?” Her voice came out sounding meek.
“I promise.”
“Okay,” she nodded back at him. “Thank you.”
He smiled even wider this time, and Byleth thought of how nice it would be to kiss that smile.
Just as the thought manifested itself, the Dimitri in front of her suddenly wasn’t. She could've sworn she saw him smile with a thousand mouths, all grinning with rows and rows of razor-sharp teeth. The-thing-named-Dimitri in front of her was barely human-shaped, with pairs of wings sprouting from his back, black scales covering the entirety of him, and clawed hands holding hers that miraculously haven’t broken in his monstrous grip.
She blinked, and he was Dimitri again, like what she just saw was a trick of the light.
Now she couldn’t sleep.
Byleth liked to think of herself as a mostly rational, levelheaded person only occasionally controlled by her impulses. She’d made it through twenty-eight years of existence not falling for dumb shit, as Jeralt taught her.
At least, up until this road trip.
She knew it was bad because the thought of Dimitri boning her kept her from sleeping. Saints, she was pent-up.
It’d been too long since she last rubbed one out, much less had a romp in the hay with someone else, and shit, there was just something about Dimitri at the café today that was so alluring. He was handsome, yes, but the thought of them kissing, nay, them fucking didn’t occur to her until today.
She almost made a fool out of herself when she came just by looking at him. He didn’t seem bothered by how weird she was acting, but she was sure that was just because he was polite.
Utterly humiliating… but Goddess, she just wanted to run her hands through his silky hair, pull his mouth to hers, and—
Hold on, hold on, hold on.
Was it normal to feel so aroused over someone she just met? Probably. People who hooked up knew each other for less. No big deal, right?
Was it normal for her to have orgasmed in public? No. That had never happened to her before, and she was sure most people tried to keep their business private. But somehow, something practically possessed her and made her come at the sight of him.
And what was that at the end… the thing that she saw…
It’s not important, a voice whispered. Just a trick of the light.
Mm… yeah, that made sense.
Her mind wasn’t exactly in its optimal state since she arrived here, so it was probably just another deranged figment of her exhaustion. Dr. Casagranda told her it was normal.
So.
Fuck it. One night of self-indulgence wouldn’t hurt anyone, and nobody but her would know about it anyway. It wasn’t like she’d be staying here forever, so—
All at once, that same wave of pleasure she felt earlier spread from her head to her body. She shivered at the force of it all. There was a heat pooling between her legs, and no matter how much she rubbed her thighs together for some friction, it wasn’t enough.
Slipping a hand in her shorts, she wasn’t surprised to see she was already soaked. She rubbed herself over her panties, and Goddess, it felt so good to finally have some reprieve down there.
She apologized to the fantasy-Dimitri in her mind, hoping he wouldn’t mind if she used him to get off tonight. He’d probably be appalled if he knew his guest fucked herself thinking of him.
He wouldn’t mind at all. In fact, he’d be quite flattered.
Good to know.
Images of Dimitri flashed through her head. In her imagination, Dimitri kissed her roughly, biting a trail of kisses down her neck to her breasts. He’d leave marks all over her collarbone to mark her, as if to tell everyone else that she was his.
That’s right.
Would he like her tits? It’d be nice if he did. She thought of him paying special attention to her breasts, kneading them like they were his playthings before tugging on her nipples. Even better, he’d suck on them, too, like he was craving her nourishment.
She slipped a finger, then two, inside her panties, and used her thumb to rub her neglected clit while the other two dipped into her wet cunt.
She couldn’t stop herself from moaning out loud. In the privacy of her room, she could fuck herself harder and let fantasy-Dimitri do the rest.
You’re doing amazing. Keep touching yourself.
Spreading her legs wider, she imagined Dimitri touching her like this, using his thick fingers to reach the parts of herself she couldn’t reach. He’d stroke her walls, fondle her needy clit, and finally, feast at her throbbing cunt like a starved animal.
And you’d taste absolutely delicious. Nothing in the world would ever compare to you.
Fantasy-Dimitri wouldn’t be as reserved as the real Dimitri—he’d go straight to lapping at her juices like he was born to do so, groaning at the taste. Her hips wildly bucked into her hand at the thought of it.
Then, he’d finally, blessedly strip himself of his clothes and present his cock to her, massive and fully erect after humping into the bed.
I’m so happy you want me. I’ve wanted you for so, so long. You have no idea.
She closed her eyes in pleasure. Fantasy-Dimitri hunched over her, and she saw his eyes glint with something predatory—otherworldly, even. She could almost feel his cock rut against her slit, covering it with her slick until he'd claim her for real.
He’d stretch her cunt so wide that she could just feel the slight bump on her stomach from the sheer size of his cock. The thought of prim, proper, shy Dimitri hiding that from her—Goddess.
It would hurt a bit, yes, but the pain would eventually morph into mind-numbing ecstasy as he fucked her like a madman after his own pleasure.
Eyes still closed, she pressed her fingers hard against her clit and let out a broken moan, and she swore she could actually feel him in here, like he was watching her break apart for him.
Byleth, you look so beautiful like this, all spread out for me, and fucked beyond belief—
Her peak was steadily approaching. Fantasy-Dimitri thrust into her, burying himself inside her heat until they both screamed each other’s names.
Beautiful, divine, transcendent, and mine.
Her cunt spasmed around her fingers, and her entire body rippled in pleasure before slowly basking in the warm afterglow.
She laid there like that for a while, head in a dazed puddle of pleasure. It hit her during her post-coital clarity that she probably needed a shower, but her limbs felt like jelly after that mind-numbing orgasm. She was getting sleepy.
“Sorry,” she mumbled to the not-so-Fantasy-Dimitri in her head. “Sheets aren’t clean anymore.”
I don’t mind, something whispered back. You did wonderfully.
For the first time since she arrived in Fhirdiad, she slept soundly.
Being around Dimitri felt… different now.
She may have jacked it to him—not that she’d ever tell him—but his whole aura seemed to have changed after that night.
He still exuded a kind warmth, but now, the air around him was also filled with something else.
She especially felt it every time they ate together. He’d stare at her too long for it to be comfortable, like he was trying to memorize the way she chewed her food, licked her lips, and swallowed.
His presence was even more pronounced now, as if she could just feel it if they were in the same vicinity. She didn’t think she had a sixth sense—she still thought that whole thing was a load of bullshit—but this felt eerily like it.
He was also, dare she say it, bolder around her. Of course, he was still as polite as ever, greeting her with the utmost cordiality she came to be familiar with. But this time, his touches lingered a little longer than usual.
He’d offer to carry her bags of snacks for her. Their fingers would brush only slightly, but she felt his fingertips caress hers as she passed the food to him. The friendly touches on her shoulder would move lower and lower, until they’d hover just hair’s breadth away from the small of her back. Those touches sent shivers down her spine.
Objectively, they were all just small, insignificant instances that didn’t mean much when considered on their own. But when amassed together, it painted a clear picture—something was changing between them in the week she’d been here.
And she didn’t mind at all.
It wasn’t just because Dimitri was an attractive person giving her special attention—though that definitely played a big part.
It was something simpler than that.
At first, she wondered why he was so kind to her despite her essentially being a complete stranger to him. The Blue Lions, as Dimitri affectionately referred to them, treated her so warmly as well, as if she was almost family. Why did she like all that? Why did she crave it so much?
Then she realized why.
It was so simple. So tragically human.
She was lonely.
She almost wanted to laugh because she never really thought of herself as lonely. A loner, yes. A lone wolf, definitely. But never lonely.
Fhirdiad was humbling her more than she’d like to admit.
“Byleth,” Dimitri called out to her, bringing her back from her thoughts. “Would you like some more tea?”
“Sure.”
They were having tea together at the reception hall, and Dimitri, somehow, always knew her favorites—not that she minded, of course. Today, he brought her lavender tea and shortbread cookies.
It was another pleasant, uneventful day at the Blue Lions Bed and Breakfast, and if she was being completely honest, the days were starting to blur together. Her time was always spent in pleasant company, and she had the impression that Dimitri was pampering her—what with all the five-star accommodations she’d been getting from him.
This was probably going to be an expensive vacation, but she wouldn’t regret spending a single cent.
Vacation… road trip… hm.
There was something she was supposed to ask him days ago, but she couldn’t remember just what it was. What was it again? Something about a car—
“Isn’t this nice, Byleth?”
“Hm?”
“To sit back and relax like this,” Dimitri mused. “I imagine it must be quite hectic in the city.”
He wasn’t wrong. Back home, she was always doing one thing or another. Every day, she woke up, taught class, made lesson plans, attended meetings, ate dinner, and went to sleep—rinse and repeat.
She didn’t hate it per se, but she sometimes felt so swept up in doing that she forgot what being felt like.
“...It was pretty busy. I don’t think I ever really had much time for myself other than eating or sleeping.”
“I can understand that. I actually grew up in the city myself.”
“Oh? You don’t really strike me as a city person.”
He had a way of steering the conversation back to her every single time, so hearing even a tidbit about himself was a rarity.
Dimitri chuckled.
“Living there was bittersweet. I had my fondest memories there with everyone I loved. And then one day, it all just…" he trailed off, looking into the distance.
At that moment, Dimitri didn’t seem like the humble innkeeper of the Blue Lions Bed and Breakfast. Instead, he seemed much older than he looked, carrying a melancholy she couldn’t hope to understand.
“It all went away. I should’ve known then that good things would always be unjustly taken away from us because the world is a cruel place.”
She understood the feeling all too well. Death was an ugly, ugly thing that didn’t care what it took and who it took from. The good ones—the ones that made the world worth believing in—were always taken away, leaving behind the lost, the broken, and the undeserving.
Monica’s broken body at the bottom of the steps came to mind.
“Still though,” he said, giving her an odd look, like he told a joke only he was privy to, “that didn’t stop me from wishing otherwise.”
The air around him was different now, charged with the strangely enticing tension she felt whenever they touched.
“And do you want to know something, Byleth?”
“What?”
He placed his hand on hers, running his thumb over her knuckles. It felt colder than it should’ve been.
“I think,” he answered, and his smile right then was the most beautiful and terrifying she’d ever seen, “my wish might be coming true.”
Chapter 3
Summary:
Byleth comes face-to-face with the awful truth.
Chapter Text
The Blue Lions threw her a party. According to Dimitri, it was long overdue.
“You’re our valued guest, Byleth,” he told her as he led her down the stairs to the reception hall. “You deserve to be celebrated.”
She didn’t think she did anything special to deserve a party, but Dimitri had a way of making her feel like it was okay to ask for more. Like she didn’t have to hold back on account of anyone.
Blue and green streamers lined the reception hall, and the Blue Lions even prepared tables upon tables of all Byleth’s favorites, from roast pheasant to glazed sweet buns—she really had to thank Dedue, Ashe, and Mercedes, specifically.
“To you, Byleth,” Dimitri raised his glass in a toast. “I—we really thank you for being here. It’s funny, isn’t it? How one thing can lead to another, and now, you’re here with us. It almost feels as though this was meant to be.”
Everyone else raised their glasses as well, toasting to her.
Being the center of attention wasn’t as weird as she thought it’d be. It almost felt like home being here with everyone like this.
“Thank you, everyone.” Byleth smiled, hoping she conveyed exactly how she felt to them. “I’m glad to be here, too.”
The party began in earnest when they all dug into the food. She’d been eating like a queen her whole stay, but Saints, Dedue really outdid himself with the roast pheasant. Thankfully, Dedue made three.
After some lighthearted goading from Mercedes and Ingrid, Annette got on her feet, stood in the middle of the room, and began to sing a song of her own creation. Her voice was beautiful, like a balm to the ears, and even if the lyrics didn’t make an ounce of sense—something about steaks and cakes—Byleth felt like she’d just experienced an aria leveling that of the legendary Dorothea Arnault herself, if not better.
Felix, who’d been standing off on the side this whole time, finally showed an emotion other than disdain—he was completely enraptured by none other than Annette’s singing. Byleth wouldn’t dare to call herself an empath, but at that moment, she saw a thousand emotions flit through Felix’s eyes.
He looked like he wanted to cry. From enchantment or something else, Byleth didn’t know.
“What do you think, Byleth?” Dimitri asked. “Are you happy here?”
Happy. That was a word so easily defined, yet so elusive to capture. It was nice here. Everyone was nice here. She was content. She was enjoying the party. But was she happy?
“I’m definitely better off than I was before. Thanks to you, especially.”
He said nothing to that, only smiling at her answer.
…Was this a test? If it was, then she could only hope she passed.
“Hey, Dimitri,” Byleth said, changing the subject. “Could you gather everyone together? I’d like to tell them all something.”
“Of course.” In no time at all, he gathered them all near the middle of the reception hall, their eyes and ears all on Byleth. Normally, all this attention directed at her would’ve been uncomfortable, but tonight was different.
“Hey, everyone, um, thank you so much again for tonight,” Byleth announced. “I… used to work as a professor, and one of the best things about it was when the class would have potlucks every so often, for birthdays and whatnot. Tonight… reminded me of that, so thank you for making me remember happier times.”
She closed her eyes before continuing.
“I don’t know how I can ever repay you for this, but maybe you can all visit me back home one day. I don’t really get any visitors anymore, but I wouldn’t mind if you all came over to Remire and—”
“What’s that?” Sylvain piped up, looking confused.
“What do you mean?” Byleth asked.
“Remire. Doesn’t ring a bell.”
“Oh, it’s a city near Garreg Mach.”
“Um…” Ashe meekly chimed in, “I’ve never heard of Garreg Mach. Is it a small town?”
Byleth didn’t think she ever met someone who didn’t know Garreg Mach University. It was practically United Fódlan’s biggest cultural landmark. Garreg Mach used to be a beacon for the now-long defunct Church of Seiros until it became the public university it was today. Even elementary schoolers knew that.
“It’s in Adrestia.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of an Adrestia before,” Ingrid added. “Is it close by?”
Huh?
There were people that lived under a rock, sure, but no one could ask what Ingrid asked with a straight face unless they were joking.
But none of them laughed. The Blue Lions all looked at her like she was crazy.
Byleth waited for them to say they were joking because there was no way they didn’t know what the entire southern half of United Fódlan was, especially since the capital was in Enbarr. No one could just… not know that.
“Adrestia’s, you know… that Adrestia? Where Enbarr is. Where Emperor Edelgard’s from.”
She waited for someone to deliver the punchline, to say that this was just a dumb joke made in bad taste and that they were just messing with her.
But they still stared at her, completely serious, and Byleth came to the slow, chilling realization that they weren’t joking at all.
“Sorry, Byleth,” Annette said. “It’s just… we have no idea what you’re talking about. Are you okay? Do you need some water?”
Byleth’s gaze moved to Felix, and there was a dead look in his eyes, like he’d given up on everything.
She wanted to deny it. She wanted to deny that something was off about this, that the creeping sense of dread in her was just unnecessary paranoia. But her mind was always in such a weird haze that she didn’t feel the need to question anything—until now.
What day was it again?
And, just as her mind tried to comprehend everything, that awful, awful pressure in her head she hadn’t felt in a while came back with a swift, piercing vengeance. It was so strong that lost her balance and nearly fell before Dimitri caught her.
“It’s alright, I got you,” he said soothingly, carrying her in his arms. “Apologies, everyone. I think it’d be best if Byleth rested for the rest of the evening.”
Byleth didn’t register much of what happened after that, other than the sensation of Dimitri’s strong arms carrying her up the stairs to her room and gently placing her down on her bed.
“Sorry for ruining the party,” she told him. “It’s just… it’s been a while since I had a headache this bad. Guess I was wrong for thinking it was gone for good.”
“None of this is your fault. You should take some time to rest.”
“...Okay. Can you pass me some painkillers? It should be in the nightstand drawer.”
He handed her the medicine, along with a bottle of water she placed on the nightstand the other day.
She… didn’t want to be alone right now. But it was already embarrassing enough that everyone saw her nearly pass out, and asking Dimitri was probably pushing it already.
Just as she was about to tell him it was okay to leave her be, he pulled a chair and set it next to the bed, sitting down.
“Um… are you sure you don’t have anywhere else to be?”
“It’s not a problem,” he replied. “I can stay with you until you fall asleep.”
“Well, if you’re sure. Sorry in advance if I start acting loopy from the meds.”
“I don’t mind. You can be anything you like around me.”
He was staring at her intensely again. When he looked like that, she wanted so badly to figure out what it meant. His eyes were full of emotion, but she couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was. She wanted to say it was attraction, or something akin to it, but no, that wasn’t quite right.
It was something undecipherable.
What was he thinking of whenever he looked at her?
“Hey, Dimitri?”
“Yes?”
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For finding me. For everything. Sorry if this is weird, but… that night, you found me when I hit rock bottom. I haven’t really been myself in a long time, but being here with everyone, with you—it’s helped me feel some peace again.”
The dimples on his cheeks deepened from how wide his smile was.
“I feel the same way,” he said, reaching for her hand. “I’ve been waiting for you for a very long time, so I’m glad you’re here, Byleth. You have no idea how happy I am.”
She wasn’t sure what he meant by that, among his other strange metaphors, but if he was happy, then that was fine with her.
They basked in comfortable silence together. He was good at that—making the long, once-awkward stretches of quiet become serene.
“Is there anything else you need, Byleth?” He asked, breaking the silence.
“Mm… I don’t think there is. But thanks for asking anyway.”
“Are you sure?”
The pressure in her head spiked again, and she wanted to shake the collar of whoever made these painkillers because they weren’t doing a Goddess-damned thing.
“I’m fine Dimitri, really.”
“Are you really sure there isn’t anything? Something that you’ve always wanted?”
His tone was affable, compassionate, even. But the air around him was filled with something heavy, an invisible force compelling her to get the words out of her mouth.
“What do you want, Byleth? I’ll give it to you no matter what it is.”
“I—I don’t—”
Tell me.
It was a command more than anything else, and no matter how much she fought against the pressure in her head threatening to crack her skull open and pour all her thoughts out, she couldn’t resist it.
“I want…"
“Yes, Byleth? You can tell me.”
And I’ll make sure to give it to you.
“I want… to kill her. I want to kill Monica.”
She said it.
She never told anyone, not even Dr. Casagranda. She never told anyone how much she wanted to see Monica bleed and rot for what she did to Jeralt. Saints, she imagined pushing the bitch down the stairs so often, Byleth could almost feel the sensation of her hands shoving her from behind.
Byleth killed her so many times in her mind that it almost drove her insane. She didn’t give a rat’s ass that Monica was her student—that bitch would suffer for killing her one and only family. The system let Monica get away with it, but Byleth wouldn’t let her escape so easily without retribution.
And Byleth came so close to it one day. She stood behind Monica, and just as she was about to push, her cowardly excuse for a conscience stopped her in time, letting Monica live her pathetic life, unpunished.
As the pressure in her head dissipated, Dimitri seemed uninterested in asking her about it anymore.
Good, she thought. No one could know.
No one could know how her biggest regret was that she didn’t murder Monica herself. No one could know how ugly and hateful Byleth really was inside.
Dimitri’s face was impassive, but the intensity of his gaze unnerved her more than it did earlier. Deep down, she didn’t want to admit that there were times Dimitri wasn’t Dimitri. She’d experienced that wrongness a few times before, but those occurrences were so fleeting that she didn’t think much of them.
The… thing she saw at the café. She nearly forgot about that, but the Dimitri in front of her now made the hairs at the back of her neck tingle, just as they did then. No matter what she said to convince herself that she was just tired, human instinct was not a trick of the light.
He smiled his signature smile again, flashing his too sharp teeth.
“It’s alright, Byleth,” Dimitri cooed. “You’ll be okay.”
She woke up to screaming.
It jolted her awake, and she scrambled around the room trying to figure out where it came from. If there was anything going on, she should probably go outside, check her surroundings, and make sure nothing amiss is going on.
It was a woman’s voice.
Oh, shit. Was it Annette? Mercedes? Ingrid? Goddess forbid if something happened to them—
Just then, the screaming grew louder, and Byleth realized it wasn’t just the scream of a woman who was panicked or alarmed.
No, this was the sound of pure agony.
Whoever the voice belonged to, she was suffering beyond anything Byleth could comprehend.
Her limbs froze in place. Suddenly, she didn’t want to go outside anymore. The door was the one thing that separated her from danger.
No matter how Byleth covered her ears, it wouldn’t stop. She removed her hands from her ears, and it was more apparent that the only sound her ears could pick up was her own heavy breathing. The screaming kept going and going until she realized the screaming was in her mind.
Fuck.
She smacked her head once, twice—then over and over, but it just wouldn’t stop.
So, she lay down on her bed, squeezed her eyes shut, and waited.
This—this was just a nightmare. She’d been sleeping so pleasantly these past few days—or was it weeks—that the thought of a bad dream seemed so far away. But she should’ve known that good things never lasted long when she let her guard down.
Then, the screaming finally, wonderfully, blissfully stopped.
She waited a bit more just to make sure the sound really did stop. Slowly, she removed her hands from her ears.
Aside from the erratic thumping of her heartbeat, there was only silence.
Dimitri. Should she tell him? Have him comfort her?
No, no. He’d certainly be polite about it, but no doubt he’d think she was crazy. And after her little episode at the party earlier? Absolutely not.
She doubted he’d believe her; hells, she couldn’t even believe herself at this point.
In all honesty, her mind was in a hazy soup of sorts—the days blended together that she didn’t even know what day of the week it was anymore. Or what moon it was.
Everything was just a pleasant haze.
There was the nagging sensation that she was forgetting something, but no matter how much she tried to remember, her mind seemed to block it out to some unreachable corner that not even she herself could access. All she could remember was that she was supposed to do something… on her way somewhere—or was she going away from something?
She didn’t know anymore.
But at least Dimitri was nice. He was always nice, even if there were times she didn’t really understand him.
Even if… she wasn’t sure that he was always Dimitri, and not something else.
Maybe this was just a fluke. Tomorrow would be okay again. She’d be okay again.
Dimitri said so.
She tried to sleep.
She really did, but even after the screaming stopped, she couldn’t find it in herself to let her guard down. Just as the sun barely rose, she decided to just fuck it all and get some air because she wasn’t going back to bed any time soon. She didn’t even bother getting dressed—instead, she threw on a robe and headed straight out.
Fhirdiad in the early morning was cold and a little foggy. If the town later in the day was an artifact frozen in time, then Fhirdiad at dawn was haunted, almost.
Byleth walked along the main street in silence until she saw something in the distance. The fog made it hard to see what was going on from afar, but from what she could tell, there was someone on the ground.
Byleth ran to it, hoping that whoever it was, she could probably bring them to Mercedes’ clinic and—
Someone was on the ground. Byleth froze, legs unable to move after what she saw.
One, they were dead.
Two, she knew the deceased all too well not to recognize them.
Monica—or rather, her corpse—lay on the ground, mangled beyond recognition. Her limbs were sprawled in impossible positions that could have only been achieved through breaking her arms and legs. The worst part of it all was her torso—if she could call it that. A blade would’ve at least had a somewhat coherent incision through her torso. It looked more like hands, or claws or something tore the skin off her chest and stomach, spilling her entrails and guts out of her.
Her only recognizable feature was her face, forever frozen in terror at whatever might have done this to her.
“What—what the hell is this…"
So many questions flit through her mind all at once.
How did Monica get here? What the hell was she doing here? Why was she dead on the fucking ground in the middle of Fhirdiad?
Who did this to her?
You already know the answer to that.
This… this wasn’t the work of a wild animal—no, whoever did this to her knew exactly where it would hurt the most. Someone less sadistic would’ve just chopped her head off right at the beginning, but this… whoever did this wanted Monica to be in absolute torment right up until the moment of her death.
Only someone who loathed her with all their being could’ve done this.
“Byleth,” a low voice whispered to her, and she belatedly realized it was Dimitri right next to her ear. “Did you like the surprise?”
He knew. He knew she wanted Monica dead. After all, she told him yesterday, didn’t she? Bared her entire heart and soul, ugly as they were, to Dimitri, who promised to give her whatever she wanted.
No, no, no. Dimitri wouldn’t do that. There was no way he could do that to someone because he was a good person, unlike her. And besides, something this gory couldn’t have happened without someone seeing or hearing anything.
But she heard it, hadn’t she? The screaming in her head from last night. She was going fucking crazy, imagining something terrible had happened, only for the screaming to be all in her head. Something did happen, but it made no sense as to why she heard it. Until now.
“I wanted her to suffer,” he continued. “So I made sure she did.”
Dimitri, he—
“Are you pleased, Byleth?”
The feeling Byleth had seeing Dimitri—earnest, sincere, Dimitri with his shining blue eyes—asking if she was pleased with him for committing murder… it was something she physically couldn’t contain.
Didn’t you want her to suffer?
“I… I—”
Now you can stay here forever. Isn’t that wonderful?
He was looking at her like he already knew the answer, but Byleth still wanted to cling onto the last shred of reason she had left in her. The one thing in her that Jeralt told her never to let go of, no matter what.
In the face of this utter madness, Byleth did the one thing she set out here to do in the first place.
She ran.
Dimitri didn’t chase after her, but she felt his gaze burn on her back as she ran.
In a place as small as Fhirdiad, there was nowhere to run. He’d find her eventually.
But she still had to try.
She should’ve known something was off. She’d felt it so many times during her entire stay, but every time she tried to explore just why she felt this wrongness, something would drown her in a weird haze that made her stop thinking.
Everything will be okay, that something in her mind whispered in times of doubt. And, too comfortable with the strange voice in her head, she’d listened.
And now, here she was.
Someone had to know something about this place—about Dimitri. Someone who could help her make sense of all this.
One person came to mind.
She barged into the convenience store, not caring about the candy machine she knocked over.
“Hey, what—”
“Felix,” Byleth said, slamming her fists on the counter. “What the fuck is going on?”
He looked back at her, his amber eyes wide with shock.
“...What do you mean?” He asked slowly; his guard was still up.
“There’s something… there’s something weird going on here—with Dimitri —I don’t know what it is, but… you know something, don’t you?”
Felix didn’t answer.
His silence, his reticence to be with the rest of the group, his hateful glare at Dimitri… and his longing glance at Annette.
He knew something.
“Goddess damn it, Felix—”
“I told you to leave back then, didn’t I?” he scoffed. “But you didn’t fucking listen.”
She thought he was mad at her for arriving, but that wasn’t true; he was mad at her for staying.
“Just… just tell me the truth, Felix. Tell me what’s going on here—in Fhirdiad, with everyone… with Dimitri. Tell me, Felix. Please.”
He grit his teeth, looking so badly like he wanted to say something, but was unable to.
“I don’t know if you heard the screaming last night, but…” Byleth shuddered at the memory, “someone was killed here. Brutally.”
Still no answer.
“It was Dimitri. He did it. He… told me so himself.” Each word stung as it left her mouth. The idea of him killing—killing for her was just…
Pleasing. What you’ve always wanted.
No. No, no, no—
“...I fucking knew it,” Felix said.
It was Byleth’s turn to be absolutely speechless.
“I wouldn’t put that past him, he’s—”
At that, he looked pained, like he’d been punched in the gut. She’d seen that expression on him before so many times. She saw that same look when he watched Annette sing at the party yesterday; her heart almost broke at the sight.
“Fine, I’ll tell you everything.”
Felix slumped on his chair and stared at the ground. For someone who looked young, his shoulders sagged like he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders.
“I… we were on a trip—for school, I mean. We were doing a project on post-Unification Faerghan artifacts, but,” he paused before going on again, “we got lost. Our van broke down in the middle of fucking nowhere. Sylvain suggested we go out and look for help. So we did. We walked for miles hoping to find something, but… there was this awful noise. Everything was shaking and none of us knew what the hell was going on, so we ran.”
That was… exactly what happened to her before she got here.
“Then, out of fucking nowhere, Di—he appears. Says he runs an inn in the nearby town. And, like the gullible, hungry idiots we were, we followed him.”
She swallowed the lump in her throat. Their stories were too fucking similar.
“It’s all fine at first. We get food and shelter. We get everything we want. Everybody’s happy. But then… days became weeks, then months and no one wanted to leave. No one but me. I started seeing weird shit and apparently, no one else did. I thought I was going crazy.”
Felix was hyperventilating now, and Byleth knew all too well what he’d gone through.
She went through the same.
“Shit, I told them we had to go—that this wasn’t home. But no one listened. They all said Fhirdiad was home. They said they were meant to be here, that they were born to be here… they acted like anything outside Fhirdiad didn’t exist.”
Her mind went back to the party. None of them knew what Adrestia was. Adrestia.
“That bastard did something to them. I don’t know what the fuck he did, but he messed something up in them, and now…”
His gaze met hers, and she saw unshed tears in his eyes.
“We’re all stuck here playing make-believe for his happy little fucking town. I don’t even know how long we’ve been here. For all we know, it could’ve been years. If anyone even looked for us, they probably gave up at this point.”
The gears turned in Byleth’s head. The details, the circumstances—it all added up.
The Blue Lions were the students that went missing in Faerghus ten years ago.
Leonie used to theorize they were eaten by wild animals in the forest. Dimitri said some people thought monsters killed them.
Was he lying about that, too?
I would never lie to you, I—
“Why are you the only one who remembers?” she asked, using all her willpower to concentrate on Felix.
“Hell if I know. I think he did that on purpose to fuck with me because I tried to escape once. Probably saw that as betrayal and punished me for it.”
Felix sighed.
“...I can’t do a damn thing but watch everyone in this fucking town dance around like everything’s okay.”
That was the voice of a man so defeated, so absolutely hopeless, that he'd given up on everything. He wasn’t living—he was simply existing against his will.
“Felix, I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be,” he spat. “It’s all that bastard’s fault. I don’t know what he wants from you, but he might trap you here like he did with us, or just fucking kill you, like he did that woman. He’s done it before with people he deems as ‘trespassers.’”
Her blood ran cold at that.
“That’s why this joke of a ‘town’ is fucking empty. You’re the only one that’s ever made it this far alive.”
Don’t listen to him. He’s just trying to scare you. I—
“Go now before he comes for you next,” Felix said. “You can still remember home, right? The faces of the people you left behind?”
She thought of Leonie and all her students.
She thought of Jeralt’s grave, the hydrangeas she left there probably dead already.
“You have to leave before he completely fucks with your mind. I tried, but…" he stopped, holding back what looked to be a sob.
The unspoken words I couldn’t leave everyone behind rang in the air.
“Even if I could leave, I don't think I can just walk out of here without my car. I haven’t seen it since I left it on the road.”
Come to think of it, she never actually saw any cars at Ingrid’s repair shop.
Dimitri… planned all of this from the start.
“You can… you can use my bike.”
“You have a bike?”
“The last fucking thing I have left from home that he hasn’t fucked with,” he said with a bitter smile. “It should still be hidden in the shed behind the bookstore. Take it and go.”
“What if I get help? I can—“
“No one can help us anymore. We’re a part of his fucking hive mind town now,” Felix said. “If you make it out… don’t ever come back. Don’t come back for us, don’t even think about us, just… move forward with your life and don’t look back.”
In a move she never thought she’d see him do, Felix bowed his head in front of her.
“Please.”
Following Felix’s instructions, Byleth went to the shed behind the bookstore later that evening.
She had no idea where Dimitri was or if he was following her. He might’ve known what she was up to, but if the probability of escape wasn’t zero, then she could at least try.
For Felix and for everyone else here.
Just as she was about to use the key Felix gave her to open the shed door, Byleth heard the back door to the bookstore open.
“Hi, Byleth!” Annette greeted, holding a watering can. “I was, uh, just about to do some watering. Gotta keep the plants healthy after all. What’s going on?”
“Felix told me to get something,” Byleth said, her face even.
“Oh, okay!” she replied. “Um… if you’re on the way back to see him, can you please tell him I’m worried about him? He… hasn’t been acting himself lately.”
Byleth gave a shaky nod. The irony in that statement made her want to laugh and cry.
Just as Byleth unlocked the shed to get Felix’s bike, Annette finished watering her little flower pots. Byleth couldn’t find it in herself to tell her that she didn’t know if she’d ever see them all again.
Or if she’d make it out of this unscathed.
“Annette,” Byleth said, catching her attention.
“Mm-hm?”
“Do you… want to go home?”
“Home?” Annette looked at Byleth, confused. “I’m already home, what are you talking about?”
Byleth’s heart broke for Felix, Annette, and the Blue Lions at that moment.
“...Never mind,” she sighed. “By that way, you sang really well yesterday. I’m sure Felix thinks so, too.”
“Oh! I—”
With those last words, Byleth turned her back on Annette, sat on the bike, and steered away, mourning everyone in this sad, broken, town.
She found herself at a crossroads of sorts—she could take the main street all the way to the town entrance. Unfortunately, the chances of someone seeing her—of Dimitri seeing her—were more likely.
There was also the wooded path leading to the forest. Fhirdiad was surrounded by acres and acres of forest land. This was… a less stable option, what with blind navigation into the unknown, but with some luck, maybe she could make it back to the main forest road and book it all the way back to civilization.
It was a gamble, but it was a gamble that led her to leave her car that fateful day and end up here.
So, she pedaled onwards to the forest—to the unknown future.
As expected, the terrain was uneven and rough with unpredictable dips and hills; it’d been so long since she rode a bike that she was rusty and fell more than once. But she got up every single time, not caring about the bruises and scrapes. They were a small price to pay.
The sun was setting, and Byleth was slowly losing the last vestiges of precious sunlight she had left. Fuck, she had to keep pedaling. She had to at least make it to the main road and—
Then, it happened.
The trees around rumbled and the ground shook violently, and that awful, terrible booming echoed, making her stomach drop in dread.
It was happening again, like the same night her car broke down.
Don’t leave. Come back, I promise I won’t hurt you, please, please, please—
It was coming for her. That imposing, all-encompassing presence was unmistakable.
The voice in her head was never hers—it belonged to the Thing that led her to Fhirdiad and haunted her in her sleep.
Dimitri comforted her, cradled her fragile, broken mind, and told her monsters didn’t exist. But as he said so, he was not the Dimitri she knew. He was something else.
Suddenly, it was getting harder to see what was in front of her. Logically, she knew the sun still hadn’t completely set yet, but the darkness around her spread unnaturally quickly, as if it was trying to consume everything in its path.
The Thing was getting serious.
She pedaled faster and faster despite how her legs and lungs burned from the exertion. Only adrenaline and desperation kept her going, but she could also feel it behind her, only getting faster and faster.
Her human curiosity and human instinct dueled with each other. A part of her had the urge to look back to see the full visage of the entity that haunted her for so long. She’d only caught mere glimpses of it in her dreams, but even then, her whole body instinctively reacted to it by freezing in paralyzed fear.
Her human instinct told her to move forward and run.
Don’t leave me, please, Byleth. Turn back, please, please, please—
At the back of her mind, she knew that Felix’s bicycle was no match for the Thing’s shadowy tendrils closing in on her. The pressure she felt all too many times before came back to her all at once that she nearly fell off the bike if not for her sheer determination to keep pedaling.
There was the mad, desperate compulsion to stop in her tracks and succumb to the voice. Her head hurt badly, but it hurt even more to fight that unnatural urge she knew wasn’t her own.
But she fought anyway.
Please stop fighting it. It’ll hurt less if you do. Please, don’t do this—
It was getting dark so fast that she didn’t notice the thick tree roots ahead of her. The bicycle wheel was no match for the roots, and she fell off her bike, rolling down a nearby hill and landing at the base of a tree.
It hurt.
Her body full of cuts and bruises, her head throbbing in pain, and—fuck—her ankle. She must’ve sprained it as she fell.
All she could do was crawl. It was a testament to how the last thing holding her up was her willpower.
Unfortunately for her, willpower wasn’t enough.
The darkness—the Thing—reached her. She still couldn’t see it while she crawled on the ground, but she could feel it surrounding her, enveloping her slowly.
You’ll be okay now. You’re safe now.
No, she wanted to scream. But it was too late.
Shadowy tendrils slithered around her limbs and stopped her from moving. She felt herself getting pulled closer to the Thing, and this time, she knew it was really over.
All she had left was her sense of self. Like Jeralt taught her so many years ago, she closed her eyes and counted to herself, repeating the things she knew were undeniably, irrevocably real.
One. Her name was Byleth Eisner, and she liked fishing.
Two. Her father was Jeralt Eisner, and he taught her to like fishing.
Three. She needed to go home. She belonged—
—With me. Where you were meant to be all along.
Chapter 4
Summary:
Dimitri makes Byleth's dreams come true.
Notes:
Chapter warnings: dubious consent, eldritch horror, mind control, mindbreak, tentacle sex, tentacle dick, come inflation, cervical penetration, lactation, oviposition, eggpreg, stockholm syndrome - a.k.a., all the good stuff lol
Please mind the tags!
Chapter Text
When she woke up, she wasn’t in pain anymore.
In fact, she wasn’t flat on the ground and covered in dirt when she woke up. Instead, she was lying in bed in Room 205. Back at the Blue Lions Bed and Breakfast.
That could only mean one thing.
“Byleth,” Dimitri called from where he was seated next to the bed. “Oh, Byleth, I was so worried about you.”
He caressed her hair, and instead of the usual tenderness she felt from it, there was an indisputable hint of possession, as if daring her to try to leave.
Now fully awake, she was hyper-aware of everything around her. The usually fluffy comforter now felt stifling, like it was trapping her to the bed with its heaviness. His hand, which should’ve been warm, was colder than it ever was. It felt ice cold each time he ran his hands through her hair.
“You really shouldn’t go off on your own like that, especially at night when it’s so dangerous. I’m so glad I found you in time.”
She looked at her arms and saw that the bruises were gone. How did…?
“Oh, your injuries? It’s alright. I made sure to give you some first aid. I hope you’re feeling better now.”
He sounded so genuinely peppy, but that didn’t erase the fact that it looked like her bruises never even existed. She tried moving her ankle, and there was no pain at all. When she looked under her blanket to see, there wasn’t even a bandage on her bare foot.
It looked perfectly, terrifyingly normal.
“Dimitri,” Byleth croaked, voice hoarse from just waking up, “Felix… he told me the truth.”
“Oh?” Dimitri was smiling serenely, and it was the most horrifying smile she’d ever seen.
“He… he said you trapped them all here in Fhirdiad—the Blue Lions. That you did something to them—to their minds—to make sure they never left.”
She gulped, dreading what she had to say next.
“Felix also said you killed trespassers,” she continued, trying to gauge his reaction. “Like you did with Monica.”
Dimitri only blinked at her, not giving any indication he acknowledged anything she said.
“Are you going to trap me here? Or are you going to kill me, too?”
He looked genuinely appalled that she even asked him, like the very concept of hurting her was just unthinkable to him.
“I would never hurt you,” Dimitri said.
Believe me, Byleth. That’s the last thing I would ever want.
“Then,” she steeled herself for the question she never, ever wanted to confront since her first night in Fhirdiad. “Will it hurt me… will the Thing hurt me?”
The friendly, amiable pretense he so-diligently held on to immediately dropped at that. There was nothing on his face that held any of his previous warmth.
She realized she was wrong about a fundamental truth.
All those times she thought Dimitri was off, she’d thought the Thing deliberately borrowed Dimitri’s identity to let her guard down. Or that maybe Dimitri and the Thing existed symbiotically and switched places from time to time, explaining how strangely omniscient Dimitri was about whatever happened in town.
But she’d been gravely mistaken.
The Thing and Dimitri were not two separate entities. They were one and the same.
The voice in her head that promised the world to her, whispered sweet nothings to her, said he wanted her so bad it hurt—it was Dimitri.
Who was he?
What was he?
Sharp, piercing images of Monica’s corpse appeared in her mind without warning. Monica with her neck broken from falling down the stairs. Monica’s body skewered with glass and other debris in her car.
Monica’s mutilated, defiled corpse, with her guts exposed for the crows to feast on.
“I only did what you wanted, Byleth,” Dimitri said, voice soft with affection. “You told me how she hurt you, so I showed her what it felt like.”
She… did, didn’t she?
She may not have said everything, but he heard it, nonetheless. He knew. He saw all the times she killed Monica in her mind. How she desperately, desperately wished Monica paid for what she did to Jeralt. How ugly she was for wanting to hurt someone beyond comparison.
These were not his thoughts. She could delude herself into thinking he fed them to her, but they weren't. They were hers.
Byleth Eisner was not a good person.
Good people didn’t wish suffering upon others. Good people moved forward, found something to live for, and made an active effort to be better. She was none of those things.
She never thought of herself as a particularly good person, but to truly, irrevocably know that she was vile all along—that it took losing Jeralt to realize that…
That realization broke something in her.
“...It’s my fault,” Byleth uttered. “Everything that happened here, I—”
If she didn’t go on this stupid road trip, if she didn’t wish for Monica to die, then—
“No, Byleth, listen to me.” Dimitri said, gripping her hand with both of his. “You are not a bad person.”
You’re perfect.
“What do you mean?”
“You loved your father so much that you were in so much pain when he died. Isn’t it only natural to want to honor your loved ones by hurting those that hurt them?”
“But that’s…" Someone still got hurt, regardless. Was that still right? Her head felt woozy just thinking about it.
“I think the pinnacle of love,” Dimitri said with a fond look, “is to love someone so much that you’d do anything for them. Why is it so evil to want that?”
Jeralt… Dad once said he would’ve died for Mom. It was during her 15th birthday, and he was deep in his cups, pouring his heart out to her. Dad said he would've done anything to take all Mom’s pain away so she could live just a little bit longer.
He wasn’t a bad person; far from it.
“You, Byleth, love with all your heart. To say something so pure and unconditional is evil… I think that is true evil.”
“Do you really think so?”
A pleasant haze filled her mind. She was getting sleepy.
“Absolutely,” he said with conviction. “And Byleth, I care about you. I only want you to be happy.”
“Why?” Byleth asked, using the last of her strength to stay conscious. “Why do you care?”
“Because,” Dimitri cradled her face oh-so-gently as he gave her the most genuine smile she’d seen from him all this time.
I love you.
Byleth was floating when she woke.
Or not. She couldn’t tell anymore. There were a lot of things she was unsure of now.
What time was it?
She could technically count the seconds that ticked by in her mind, but even then, she would only know the time that passed, not the actual time of day.
Where was she?
It was Room 205, but it also wasn’t. She felt that vague, yet nagging wrongness that came with seeing a place she logically knew was familiar, but also strange. Like in a dream.
Of course, the one thing that stood out was him.
Byleth had no frame of reference to describe Dimitri because no human was meant to see him, in all his terrifying, otherworldly sublimity.
Even the demonic beasts of old were knowable creatures—with their talons and scales and limbs, all easily identifiable to the human eye.
But Dimitri was something else.
He was everywhere and nowhere at the same time; there was no way for her to tell where he began and ended. The shadows in the room were him. The vulnerability of having a thousand eyes on her was him. The ever-shifting, writhing mass of inhuman devotion was him.
“Byleth,” he breathed, and her skin crawled at the discordant sound. “Relax.”
Pitch black tendrils slithered up her thighs, chest, and neck—only then did she notice her nakedness. She struggled to move, to fight against this unknown with the last shred of human reason she had left in her. It was futile.
The tendrils writhed. More of them came to envelop her, making sure almost every inch of her was covered in him. A warm liquid the color of galaxies oozed through them and sept into her skin, as if it evaporated into nothing.
There was nothing but cold dread at first. He said nothing, but she heard an unmistakable hum of perverse satisfaction as her skin absorbed the last of the liquid cosmos.
The fog in her head cleared, and a sharp sense of pure, fluid want spread from head to cunt.
Suddenly, it was warm. Then warmer, then hot all over, and she needed it so badly she could die—she needed him to touch her more, to take all of her until there was nothing left of her.
She tried to rub her thighs together in an attempt to create some friction, but the tentacles, as thick as roots on ancient trees, held her down.
“Please,” she begged, already feeling her wetness drip onto the sheets.
“Let me make you feel good.” She couldn’t tell what sort of expression he was making, but the dreadful cacophony of sounds that made up his voice sounded almost… pleased.
Two of the tentacles morphed in front of her eyes, changing its shape from blunt, smooth ends into something almost flower-shaped. Then, they coiled around each of her tits, squeezing and kneading the soft flesh until the ends latched onto her erect nipples.
Her tits were never particularly sensitive, but when she felt the brambly, strange texture of flower-shaped tips suck on her nipples at erratic intervals, she moaned at the feeling. Her chest tingled, and a heat pulsed in her as the tentacles suckled on her nubs roughly, milking her.
“Beautiful, so beautiful,” he cooed. “I’ve always loved your tits, Beloved. Always wanted to feast on them.”
She whimpered at the praise.
“I want… I want…” Her mind was turning to mush, words failing her.
“Yes, Beloved? What do you want? ”
“Kiss—kiss me, please…”
If there was a way to be even closer to him, she would take it, no matter what it was. Without his human face, she couldn’t gaze at the blue of his eyes or nibble on the plush pink of his lower lip. Still, she wanted to be connected to him, as lovers would.
“As you wish.”
Another tentacle, thicker this time, pressed its slick head against her lips. Instinctively, she opened her mouth for it to enter, and it wasted no time sliding past her tongue, fucking right into her throat. She gagged at the sensation, not used to something of that girth breaching her mouth like that, but all she could think of was just how happy she was to be filled.
As it pumped itself at the back of her throat, the tentacles on her tits sucked harder, sending a piercing jolt of heat right to her cunt. Drool dripped down the side of her mouth, and words completely escaped her.
She still wanted more.
Dimitri must have understood because all at once, several thick tentacles wrapped themselves around her frame and lifted her up, suspending her in mid-air. They spread her legs wide, exposing her pink, twitching hole to his all-seeing gaze. She could just feel her clit and cunt pulse in anticipation.
He was already in her head; let him defile her body, too.
The thinnest tendril so far, not any thicker than a common cable, fondled her swollen, needy clit. Her back arched at the near-electric sensation, and slick gushed from her hole down her thighs.
That same tendril continued to tease her clit, pressed at it with varying degrees of pressure, until she climaxed, clenching at nothing.
More. She needed more now.
The tentacle in her throat pulled itself out, giving her a chance to breathe in.
“Does that feel good, Beloved?”
“Yes…! So, so good—”
“I’m glad you think so,” he said, and his words made her throb even more. “But you want more, don’t you? ”
“Yes! Yes, Dimitri, please! I want, I want…" she mewled, long past the point of caring about appearances.
“You have to tell me with your words.”
“I want—I want you to… inside me… fuck me, please—”
Byleth didn’t know if Dimitri was capable of smiling, but she could certainly feel the air around him fill with something she identified as joy.
Two more of his tendrils hooked their tips inside her to stretch her hole open for him to peruse, and she shivered when she felt the cold air hit her. She bucked her hips forward, enticing him to use her cunt to his heart’s content.
His girthiest tentacle gurgled right in front of her, and it reshaped itself. It shifted and morphed until she recognized its new shape for what it was—a cock. She supposed she should have felt intimidated at the sight of it—the tentacle-cock was obscenely thick, thicker than her arm, even, and it had barbs all over the monstrous shaft—but all she could think of was how much she wanted it inside her, now.
It prodded at her slit, and she couldn’t tell if the wetness she felt was her slick or the fluid oozing from his cockhead.
Nothing existed but the sensation of his gargantuan cock finally, blissfully pushing itself inside her until he was satisfied. The stretch of his cock was impossibly wide, and the strain felt so good, like she’d finally been anchored home.
Then, he moved. There was no time for her to adjust as he thrust deep in her. She felt the barbs on his shaft catch on the bumps of her walls with a squelching noise, and, Goddess, that friction was pure ecstasy.
“So good, Beloved. So, so, so good—”
The tentacle-cock fucked her at an uneven pace, and Byleth could only howl at the mind-numbing sensation of being fucked to completion. He thrust so brutally, and he went in deeper and deeper until she felt a bump against her cervix. The indent of his cockhead bulged from inside her stomach, and she moaned at the mesmerizing sight.
Byleth’s cunt practically overflowed with slick, and Dimitri pushed forward until his ridiculous cock breached her cervix and found its home in her womb, like it always belonged there.
“Byleth, I love you, I love you so much, so, so much, stay with me forever—”
His ramblings went on to be more incoherent as he fucked her womb harder and harder until—
“Don’t leave me again. Choose me this time, please, please, please—”
The entire mass of him shivered, and she knew he was close.
“Di—Dimitri,” Byleth said, breathing heavily. “I’m all yours.”
At that, the tentacle-cock inside her spurted deep inside, flooding her womb with all its thick, scorching seed. She clenched around him, too lost in the sensation to say anything else. He came so much in her that her stomach distended at the ridiculous load he let out.
“You look so beautiful like this, Beloved,” he murmured. “So full of my seed.”
Goddess, she felt so full, so complete, and she didn’t know why or how she lived this long having gone without this, without him.
She didn’t know how long they went at it. By her sixth orgasm, she stopped caring.
He came in so many times that her belly looked about six months pregnant at this point. Not that she minded.
Her mind was a malleable soup only filled with thoughts of Dimitri, and all she knew was that this felt good and she didn’t want it to stop.
As if in response to that, the two thin tendrils that’d been sucking her tits this whole time pulled even harder.
Something dribbled out of her nipples. It was slow at first, just mere droplets. But the tendrils massaged and squeezed the soft flesh of her breasts until her nubs practically squirted milk all over her torso.
“Delicious,” Dimitri whispered, using a tendril to suckle at her right tit. “Thank you so much for sharing this with me.”
Her body had drowned in him so much that it was as if nature itself was preparing her body to carry his brood. The thought made her even wetter, if that was even possible.
Another one of his tendrils gently lifted her left tit, pushing it close to her mouth. She closed her lips around her nipple and moaned at the taste of her own milk.
"I have one last gift for you, Beloved. I know you’ll love this one.”
And that was when she felt it.
Somehow, the tentacle-cock at her entrance expanded even more, and she saw a lump pass through his cock and move inside her.
Eggs. He was going to fill her up with his clutch.
“You’ll never be lonely again. This is everything we’ve always wanted,” he cooed.
She lost count of how many eggs there were, and she barely even registered how much he put in her and how much she climaxed from it. But it was alright.
Completely filled with seed and his brood, they would finally be a family.
Dimitri, the human Dimitri, cradled her from behind. His hands caressed her swollen belly gently, and his cock was still in her, keeping their eggs safely plugged up in her, along with his seed.
His fingers traced the newly-formed lines on her stomach. The deep blue lines were jagged and sharp, and when put together, it almost resembled a star, albeit a broken one.
Something about the symbol was familiar, like its name, its importance, lingered at the tip of her tongue, but for the life of her, she wouldn’t come to mind.
And, for some reason, the symbol made her want to cry. Out of sadness or happiness, she couldn’t tell.
“What… what the fuck…"
She was so focused on Dimitri’s ministrations that she barely registered Felix’s presence in the room.
“You,” Felix hissed, directing his furious glare right at Dimitri’s unbothered face, “What the fuck did you do?”
“I’m just giving her what she’s always wanted,” Dimitri replied matter-of-factly, “A family. That way, she’ll never be lonely again. Isn’t that just wonderful?”
“Oh, cut the bullshit! You messed with her mind, just like you did with everyone else! And now—and now she’s…”
Felix looked at her. His expression was a mix of anger and disgust, but the one emotion that stood out was the bleak, unadulterated despair in his eyes.
“Why do you look so sad, Felix?” she asked, tilting her head.
“No, you—”
Felix didn’t understand, did he? All her life, there had been a gaping, empty feeling that something wasn’t right. That she’d been looking for something aimlessly in her short, pathetic life and found nothing until she arrived in Fhirdiad.
“I’m finally home,” she said.
Chapter 5: Epilogue
Summary:
Leonie looks for Byleth but finds someone else instead.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Leonie was going fucking crazy.
Byleth had been missing for months, and those dumbass cops told her to just give up because, according to them, missing persons cases in the Faerghus region were all too common because of its dense forests and undeveloped wilderness.
She already knew that. Fuck, she spent years trying to figure out what the hell happened to those university students. And well, no dice.
It was heartbreaking to see Rodrigue Fraldarius, famed lawyer, break down on live television all those years ago at the loss of his last living son.
But she would find Byleth. Jeralt would’ve moved heaven and earth to do so.
The cops told her that Byleth’s SUV was last seen on the main forest road in Faerghus. When they checked to see if anything was amiss with the car, they found nothing out of the ordinary with the engine or anything else. There weren’t any signs of a struggle either, so a kidnapping or an attack was probably unlikely.
That only left one possibility—Byleth left her car voluntarily.
Leonie couldn’t think of a good reason Byleth—straightforward, no bullshit Byleth—would just up and leave her perfectly-functioning car in the middle of nowhere.
Unless something made her leave.
Which was why Leonie hauled ass all the way back to the damn road they found her car at. The police had given up their investigation, so Leonie said fuck it, she’d do it herself.
They fought the last time they saw each other, and the memory of Byleth punching her during Jeralt’s funeral haunted her. There wasn’t a day Leonie didn’t regret mouthing off at Byleth when she needed her best friend the most.
Leonie drove onward, moving past the endless fir trees. Goddess, was there nothing out here? Not even an outhouse?
She drove for what felt like hours until she saw something amiss on the side of the road.
A boy stood there, back turned to her, looking at what seemed to be some sort of signage. She couldn’t make out all the words because the kid blocked some of the letters out from where he stood.
All she could glean from it was Welcome to Fhir-something. Whatever.
More importantly, what was a kid doing all the way out here? Where were his parents?
She sighed. Fucking people nowadays.
“Hey, kid,” Leonie asked with the window rolled down. “What are you doing out here?”
He turned from where he stood, and in the afternoon sunlight, his blond hair almost looked golden.
“Are you lost?” he asked, mint eyes gleaming.
Notes:
:^) one more to go
Chapter 6: ???
Summary:
Dimitri makes a wish.
1st art by: @silvermoon0808
2nd art by: @pndglcs
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Death was not gentle.
Of course, Dimitri did not expect it to be. Every Faerghan at heart knew death to be a bloody, grisly ritual one had to undertake in order to be reunited with their loved ones in the afterlife.
But Dimitri saw none of them. Father, Stepmother, Glenn, Rodrigue, Dedue—he saw none of the faces that perished in Duscur and the Tailtean. To rub salt in his wounds, his dear childhood friend left him to join the Imperial banner in their pursuit to drown Fódlan in misery. He called Dimitri a boar who thirsted for blood. But it was he who betrayed his country and left everyone in Faerghus to rot.
That woman managed to rob him of everything he’d ever loved, and now he was alone, even in death.
Dimitri only saw a vast expanse of nothingness—just an inky blackness enveloping the entirety of this mockery of an afterlife.
He supposed he should’ve felt fear at the endless unknown before him, but all he could feel was regret.
Regret that he couldn’t save anyone. Regret that his life amounted to nothing.
Regret that he lost her.
Byleth.
The burning desire to see her again, to tell her everything he never could—
Why did you choose her? Did you ever think of me while you were with her? Did she make you feel loved?
I wish I could undo everything. Forgive me.
I love you.
—it overpowered everything else in him. He would wander aimlessly in this abyss, forever lamenting his short, pathetic life and how he lost the one thing that made it worth living.
But…
.
.
.
.
.
“I’m sorry,” his beautiful, unshakeable professor wept. “I’m sorry our paths had to cross this way.”
He was sorry, too.
“Goodbye,” she whispered, positioning the Sword of the Creator over his head. “I’ll follow you soon, Dimitri. I hope you can wait for me.”
.
.
.
.
.
Byleth.
Death had stolen too much from him, taken all he ever held dear. So he would spit on death’s face, claw at it, make it bleed until it relented and gave in to his ironclad will.
He would see Byleth again, or die a second death trying.
As if hearing his plea, the void licked at him, consumed him whole, and took his flesh, blood, and soul as an offering. It took his very being and molded him into something else, something beyond human.
When the void finally returned him to himself, he awakened.
He was still Dimitri, but also not.
He was still Dimitri, but also more.
With his newfound existence, his mind had never been clearer before now.
“Byleth,” he whispered to no one.
He would wait a thousand years—hells, an eternity—for the day he could see her again.
Notes:
Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed ^^
Just some notes in case anyone was interested:
- The art above is how I visualize them in this fic lol.
- Fhirdiad town inspo: Wilkeson, Washington State
- I took lots of inspiration from Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni, Hotel Dusk, and Saya no Uta.
- Surprise, this is actually a reincarnation fic!
- The story takes place in a post-Crimson Flower modern AU. Most of the Kingdom and the Church of Seiros have been lost to history (because… history is written by the victors 🥲).
- Tempest King Dimitri died in the Talitean Plains, but his sheer willpower and determination essentially brought him back from the dead and transformed him into an eldritch horror beyond human comprehension.
- Dimitri trapped all the Blue Lions in his rendition of "Fhirdiad" because he wanted to recreate what he lost in the original CF timeline (which was him, his professor, and his dear friends together forever lol).
- The Felix in this AU joined the Black Eagles with Byleth. That’s why Dimitri purposely leaves him as the only lucid one, forever stuck watching all his friends be part of Dimitri’s weird hive mind town—it’s punishment for having betrayed Dimitri a thousand years ago 😢 Kind of like a big "fuck you for betraying me, now you get to watch everyone you left behind be happy without you" 😢
- Felix and Annette dated before shit hit the fan.
- Time is wack in Fhirdiad. Fhirdiad is basically an eldritch location Dimitri created to suit his own needs (and Byleth's lol). The real Fhirdiad burned down a thousand years ago in the war.
- I didn’t want to describe the eldritch horror in too much detail towards the end, but I did base its appearance on Saya’s true form in Saya no Uta (please google this at your own risk).
- Dimileth’s eldritch children grow at an alarmingly fast rate, and they can change their forms, just like he can.Tempest King Dimitri is such a great rendition of Dimitri, and I absolutely LOVE writing about him. What a guy, am I right?
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