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From the moment Dimitri first saw Byleth, he knew she was meant to be at his side.
But he had failed to adequately impress her, and she had chosen to teach the Black Eagles, and everything had fallen to pieces. Even when Edelgard revealed her true colors and he thought that surely, surely Byleth would desert her, she had followed, blindly, like a moth caught by a flame.
It was impossible to believe that Byleth would side with the woman who killed his family. The only possibility was that Edelgard had lied to her, or even used some dark magic to ensure her loyalty. He raged at the emperor for it, and when the professor fell to her death, he added her name to the list of those Edelgard had taken from him.
But miraculously, four months ago the professor was again seen with the Imperial forces. A second chance had been dropped into his lap, and he was determined not to squander it.
He laid a careful ambush, and even more cautiously hid his trail.
The professor was the only survivor of her patrol, spirited away as Dimitri's few trusted accomplices arranged their false corpse. Only a handful were to know Byleth was captured. Even fewer were to know the ransom letter was never sent.
Rhea, who possessed knowledge of many forgotten magics, had managed to tweak the appearance of a dead soldier until she could be mistaken for Byleth, but they had still needed to dress her correctly. Edelgard and her lapdog were certain to analyze the possessions.
Unfortunately, most of the professor’s belongings were sacrificed to this endeavor. Dimitri had managed to save a few things, ones that would have been plausibly taken by raiders. Her boots, her gold medallion, some of the fabric of her tights. The ring that had been resting on a silver chain between her breasts.
That ring was now shoved to the back of a drawer, where he wouldn’t have to think about what it likely meant. About who might have given it to her.
The tights—he had kept the tights, in a moment of weakness. They'd already lost any scent of her skin thanks to his elated, lusty inhales, sitting awake in bed yearning for when he could next visit her and confirm this was real. Once that scent was gone, there was nothing left to stop him from giving in to the urge to wrap himself in them and imagine he was fucking her thighs, back in the Blue Lions classroom where she should have belonged, should have taught—
It was so clear to him that she was never meant to be with Edelgard. Yet even out of that tyrant's grasp, Byleth seemed not to see it. She had been recalcitrant so far in response to their questions, even when he promised complete amnesty.
Three times Dimitri had had Rhea check Byleth for traces of magic, yet they could find no signs of what had been done to her. Dimitri feared that Edelgard must have used some combination of dark sorcery and falsehoods to sink deep into the fabric of her mind, rather than a simple enchantment.
But even if the corruption of Byleth's mind went deep...he couldn't bring himself to give up on her.
His nights of late had been spent searching through a collection of books confiscated from the School of Sorcery, locked away by the crown for safekeeping after a mage attempted to take over a noble's court with forbidden magics a century prior. Rhea would have understood the books better, but he had yet to convince her that Byleth was truly bespelled, and she was growing impatient with his attempts to prove it.
After many pages of spells to curse one's enemies, or compel a betrothed's purity, or render a rival's fields barren, Dimitri at last turned the page to a promising header—even if it was still not precisely what he wanted.
If one’s wife has been ensorcelled by another
Many times a man has come to me afeared that his bride has been bewitched by another, and that he should not know his heirs as his own. While at times I have been able to assure such a man that his fears are misplaced, many times my client's love has indeed fallen under the sway of some villain.
Through this spell, your very seed shall gain the power to heal her clouded mind.
Ah. That would explain why the passage had been limited to wives.
If she is accepting of all manner of congress, seed poured directly into her body shall be as a cleansing bath to her soul, but if her mind has been too thoroughly twisted, fear not: even that left on her skin will soften her towards the purity of your intentions.
Surely Byleth would not agree to lie with him. But...this was the first promising entry he'd found. If he could focus on seducing her body, and through it cleanse her mind…perhaps he could cure her.
Even as his body flared hot at the thought of it, he hesitated. He wanted her to come to him on her own, once Edelgard’s poison had been expelled.
Of course, even once she is no longer poisoned against you, you must take care to clear any falsehoods that have settled in her mind, and guide her heart to reject her captor. Her heart will be most open when her mind is filled with pleasure, and when her body is most strongly craving for you, you will find you can speak directly with her innermost desires, though her conscious mind will not recall such conversations.
Once she is bound with an heir—
Bound with an heir? Was that a necessary piece of the spell, or an assumption about the user's goals? The thought of Byleth pregnant was lovely, but...before he managed to cure her? Although…something about the thought stuck at the back of his mind, and he realized this could present a solution to one of his largest obstacles.
Rhea.
She was already demanding that Byleth be executed and her mother, whoever that was, ripped out. From what Dimitri had gathered, she had once thought them one and the same.
Perhaps he could convince Rhea that motherhood might allow that part of Byleth she had adored to resurface. If he could convince Rhea to give it a chance, then if nothing else it would allow him time to work, free from her calls for Byleth's death.
—do not grow complacent in the giving of your seed until you are confident her affections are fully secured.
Should your line be bestowed of a Crest, as most of my clients, a most useful tool shall appear to allow you to discern whether the enchantment has been lifted. In bits and pieces, the mark of your lineage shall appear on her skin as you restore rightness to her mind.
Once past the starting traces, then even if you must leave her side for duty, this time away will increase her longing for you, and as her thoughts focus on you, so too will they drift away from the knave who bewitched her.
If your Crest fails to manifest, or worse, is replaced by the Crest of another, you must cut her off, for she will never accept you.
The rest of the section detailed the particulars of the spell itself. It was...not quite what he was looking for, but closer than anything he had found thus far. He bookmarked the page, and kept searching.
Two days later, Dimitri could find no other spells that promised to cure a bewitchment. He read through the description again, turning the implications over in his mind. While he refused to touch Byleth until she invited him...would putting his seed on her skin really be so terrible if it were the path to cure her confusion? If he tried to sway her mind with words alone, he had no illusions that Rhea would take matters into her own hands long before he made progress. And who knew if pure words could even work on whatever Edelgard had done to her.
And to have her bearing his heir...his stomach warmed at the thought.
He was no fool. Given the other contents of this particular book, he could only assume it was considered disreputable. But if he needed to fight dark magic with dark magic, so be it.
He would do whatever it took to save her.