Chapter Text
Enbarr was hot and the sun was shining down in unforgiving heat. It was the opposite of what Ingrid was used to - frigid winters and brisk air a distant memory. But like the heat akin to fire, her strikes clanged with live steel in ferocity, sparking at every clash. Her lance head collided with a sword in a twirling slice before parrying off one another. Her sparring partner was just as ferocious, his craving for strength nearly unmatched. But Ingrid needed to be stronger. War was coming.
She let out another battle cry and clashed with Felix once again, her lance spinning and piercing in strikes, Felix meeting her blow for blow. Their sounds of exertion and steel sung as it cut through the air filled the wide training grounds of the imperial palace. Soldiers would stop and stare for a while, while others walked away quickly in slight fear that they would get in the way or be called upon to be made an example of. The duel finished as they both made strikes that put their blades at each other’s throats. For a tense moment they held it there before withdrawing.
“You’re more intense than usual today,” Felix remarked while sheathing his sword.
Ingrid wiped the sweat away from her forehead with the back of her arm. Their sleeveless tops had been soaked through from the spar. Ingrid stabbed her lance into the dirt.
“We have to be ready. The march for the invasion is tomorrow,” Ingrid replied.
Felix said nothing. He would never be the one to ask her what was one her mind nor did he want to seem like he cared about such things. Ingrid had plenty of friends but Felix and Sylvain grew up with her. And now they were on the opposite side of the country and now, loyalties. No one else knew her quite like they did. So she found the words spilling from her mouth despite herself.
“Are you happy with the decision you made?”
Felix’s eyes narrowed. “I’m never happy.”
Ingrid groaned and pointed an accusing finger at her friend. “You know what I mean, Felix!”
“I don’t know what nonsense you want me to spew at you to make you feel better about whatever little fight you had with Edelgard,” Felix huffed. He watched Ingrid wince, caught at her true intention. The tightness in his shoulders loosened minutely as he watched Ingrid’s lips curve into a frown. He continued, albeit annoyed. “This was the only path, Ingrid. We couldn’t have stayed.”
Ingrid opened her mouth and closed it, pursing her lips together. “Even after Remire… and Captain Jeralt?”
Felix hummed, eyes pointed towards the sky. “Isn’t the Professor better suited for this conversation? She joined with the emperor as well, you know - and that was her father.”
“I… I supposed you’re right. I should seek her advice,” Ingrid replied thoughtfully. “Thanks Felix.”
“Tch. Whatever.”
Ingrid smiled in his direction regardless before turning on her heel to search for the Professor. She didn’t feel Felix’s stare on her back as she went. The warrior cut his gaze to the soldiers still idly standing by. The grip on his sword tightened as he barked.
“Hey! You just going to stand there staring all day or are you going to give my blade a challenge?”
The soldiers scattered to their duties like a flock of frightened birds. Felix rolled his eyes in irritation. In the corner of his eye, he caught the flash of a red cape and briefly caught eyes with Edelgard, Hubert by her side as always. Ingrid had long retreated in the opposite direction and Felix could see the brief turmoil in the emperor’s eyes before she turned away from him, walking briskly to whatever meeting she had to attend.
Felix crossed his arms over his chest once again and sighed. “Idiots.”
Ingrid had walked through the halls of the palace for the Professor and her signature green hair. She had stormed through these halls earlier that morning, in anger and frustration. Her mind settled on the training ground to blow off steam on an unlucky practice dummy. It wasn’t until Felix came that he offered her a real challenge to whatever emotions she was feeling, the wooden figure already splintered in several places. Felix looked as though he almost felt bad for it.
Ingrid sighed to herself, her memories of that morning returning to her full force.
The invasion was fast approaching and everyone was on edge. No one was particularly eager to meet former classmates in battle and the potential of killing them enough to make some of them sick. Ingrid was resolved however, this was the path she chose, Edelgard was who she chose. She wouldn’t turn her back on that, knight or not. She believed in Edelgard’s cause - the crest system had truly caused far too much suffering and to think that it was beasts pretending to be gods. It was enough to shake her faith in the church in its entirety.
But Ingrid still had her doubts, despite the fact that she confessed to Edelgard so devotedly and the newly crowned emperor had returned her feelings. It wouldn’t change her mind but it bothered her, so much that not even late night flights with Astra could clear her head. So that morning, on the rare occasion that she could share tea with Edelgard in the privacy of her chambers, she asked.
“Edelgard, I need to ask you something,” Ingrid spoke up, her fingers tightening over her knee caps, hoping to grasp onto some courage.
Edelgard paused mid sip and set her tea cup down. Her violet eyes were soft and Ingrid almost lost her nerve, knowing the persona she would meet if she didn’t ask this inquiry correctly. Edelgard never showed this softer side to anyone and Ingrid was afraid - afraid that she could lose it if she messed this up. But at the same time, Edelgard hadn’t been completely truthful with her and that uncertainty and pain was enough for the knight to risk it.
“What is it, Ingrid?” Edelgard asked, genuine concern laced in her voice.
Damn it, don’t do that. Ingrid cursed in her mind. She took a deep breath and met Edelgard’s curious eyes with her determined own.
“I need to know why you were the Flame Emperor.”
Edelgard’s eyes widened for just a split second before receding back into a stoic expression. A wry smile overcame her lips, as if she’d been expecting this, just maybe not so soon. Or maybe she just hoped she could avoid it for as long as possible. Edelgard folded her gloved hands atop the table, a slight tightness in them. Ingrid thought that maybe she was afraid too.
“I knew you’d ask eventually, it’s only natural,” Edelgard began. Ingrid sat up slightly in anticipation of her answer. Edelgard’s smile turned to a frown. “But, I can’t say why. Not yet anyway.”
Ingrid immediately deflated. “Why not?”
“Ingrid there’s forces in this world at large but we have a bigger enemy to face first. We must remain focused on-”
Ingrid bowed her head low, her fingers sore from how hard she was gripping her legs. Her voice cut off Edelgard’s words, a suffocating feeling in her throat as she struggled to utter them. “What about all the people that died at Remire? All those people, those innocent children. What about them? You were there Edelgard, you said you worked with Solon. Tell me why you would work with such despicable people that murdered so many, murdered the Professor’s father.”
“Ingrid-”
“Tell me why,” Ingrid said again, tearfully but voice shaking with oncoming frustration.
“Ingrid, I promise you, I had nothing to do with those tragedies. I tried to stop them within my power. You have to trust me,” Edelgard replied, attempting to placate the knight. Had it been any other person, she would’ve dismissed them or had been more harsh. But this was Ingrid and she loved her. Which was why-
“Trust you?” Ingrid scoffed and Edelgard felt a pang in her heart. Ingrid had never spoken to her this way. The tone was almost unrecognizable. “How could you ask that of me?”
“Ingrid, please-”
“Deep down, you don't trust me , Edelgard. I threw myself in front of death for you, to protect you, and you pushed me away. You want to blame my knighthood for being so reckless but what about you, huh? Asking us to lay down our lives and you can’t even tell me of all people the truth.”
Edelgard stayed silent, jaw slack. No matter what she would’ve said, Ingrid wouldn’t have heard her. There was a fire in her eyes but also a grief in them. Edelgard knew it was her fault and she wouldn’t dare try to downplay that. She convinced herself that this was to protect her, so she still said nothing.
Ingrid stood and turned away from Edelgard before she could see the tears finally falling from her eyes. “I’m leaving.”
The knight wouldn’t see the emperor solemnly nod to herself as she listened to the door to her chambers open and close with a solitary click. Edelgard folded her hands, almost like a prayer as she rested her forehead against them, brow creased. She squeezed her hands so tight to keep her own tears from falling. She would remind herself that this was to protect Ingrid from what she wasn’t ready for yet.
But at what cost, Edelgard wondered as the sight of watching Ingrid leave her behind burned through her heart.
Ingrid’s heart felt heavy in her chest and it was only when she got so lost in her thoughts, did she bump into a solid surface with a light ‘oof’. Ingrid blinked a couple times as she came face to face with the Professor who had a curious look in her eyes.
“Oh! Professor! My apologies, I wasn’t looking where I was going,” Ingrid said sheepishly.
“Think nothing of it,” Byleth waved off before regarding her with just the slightest raise in her brow. “It’s not like you to be so lost in thought.”
“No, I suppose not,” Ingrid mumbled. “Actually Professor, I’ve been meaning to speak with you, if you can spare the time.”
Byleth gave her another curious look before nodding slowly. She turned on her heel and led the way. They walked outside of the palace and around the gardens where butterflies fluttered over the delicate petals. Soldiers saluted as they passed to which they nodded in return. Ingrid followed behind Byleth dutifully before the professor came to a stop in front of a pond. There was a bench nearby and Byleth took her seat, gesturing for Ingrid to join her. This was the quieter part of the palace, away from all the bustle of soldiers and nobles alike.
There were a few fish in the pond that swam about beneath the surface. Ingrid was surprised that the Professor didn’t take the opportunity to fish at this point. They rarely got moments of calm. Byleth said nothing with her hands folded loosely in her lap as the breeze weaved through her messy hair. She didn’t look impatient, she simply waited for Ingrid to speak her mind. Ingrid gulped.
“Forgive me if I overstep, Professor, but I need to know…” Ingrid hesitated. How does one simply ask about their dead father? She remembered the torn look on Byleth’s face that day, it was the most emotion that she had ever witnessed. How they all wished it wasn’t turmoil that Byleth had expressed so blatantly. Byleth picked up on her discomfort and inclined her head.
“Just ask.”
“I wanted to know how you can side with Edelgard knowing that she works with the people that took your father away,” Ingrid said, quickly enough that she was almost breathless but not so her words were jumbled. Byleth closed her eyes and didn’t speak for a moment. Ingrid was on the verge of apologizing, profusely. Byleth’s eyes opened once again, with no expression of malice or grief, rather thoughtfulness. As if she shared these sentiments before but had found peace with them.
“It wasn’t Edelgard that killed him. It also wasn’t Edelgard that killed all those people at Remire nor was she the one who kidnapped Flayn.”
“But, how can you separate the two so easily?”
Byleth turned to her then. “You love her.”
It wasn’t a question. The Professor was far more perceptive than Ingrid had given her credit for. In battle she was a strategic mastermind but she never imagined that emotions were something Byleth was in tune with, given her commonplace behavior. Byleth only looked at her with the same blank expression.
“Well, yes, but-” Ingrid stumbled, a pale blush on her cheeks.
“I am not saying that to love a person is to ignore all of their flaws. Rather, it is to recognize their flaws, and love them still. And in some cases, forgive them. Edelgard made mistakes, Ingrid. We’re all guilty of such,” Byleth said quietly, as if she were far away somewhere, where a memory had bound her just for a moment’s breath. “But take that as you will, I’m not so familiar with those kinds of feelings.”
Ingrid didn’t know what to make of it at first. This was the first time the Professor ever spoke so much and on matters of love, no less. Once the initial shock passed, Ingrid thought it over.
“It makes sense what you’re saying…” the knight responded, pensive.
“Edelgard has undergone great suffering - if there’s something she isn’t telling you, it has nothing to do with your character. It has everything to do with her fear.”
“And she… told you this?” Ingrid asked almost bitterly. The Professor seemed to know something.
Byleth shook her head. “Days after my father’s death, Edelgard came to see me. In fewer words, she told me to stop wallowing and do something about it.”
“Seems a bit harsh…” Ingrid mumbled. Edelgard can be so headstrong, sometimes.
Byleth shared a light huff of amusement. “But she was right, I was accomplishing nothing and no step closer to vengeance.”
“...and you think because she told you such things, that she had to tell herself that to move forward from whatever is in her past, right?” Ingrid finished.
Byleth nodded. “I can only assume that’s how she got through how inexplicably worried she was about you while you were down.”
Ingrid would never forget that day in the infirmary. Edelgard was so angry, yet so sad. But she still resigned herself to protecting Ingrid, even if that meant them being apart. When they had finally kissed again did they realize how useless and foolish that idea was. They needed one another. There was no other way to exist.
The knight sighed and rested her elbows on top of her knees. “I was harsh with her. I was just hurt, thinking that she didn’t trust me. The fact that she always ran away. But loving her doesn’t entitle me to her past.”
“Perhaps not, but you two are better together than apart,” Byleth said. “You two will protect each other, stubbornly. Use that. Know that it exists and use that as your strength, not as a way to wound one another.”
Ingrid could feel the tears at the corner of her eyes. They made the same mistake again. When a single tear dropped, she felt a squeeze on her shoulder, the Professor offering her what strength she needed to sort her thoughts. Ingrid sniffed and wiped at her eyes.
“Thank you, Professor.” Byleth nodded with a slight tilt to her lips.
“What will you do now?”
Ingrid stood, resolute. She rubbed at her cheek at the last bit of dampness on them. It wasn’t as if the tugging feeling in her heart just disappeared. A part of her was still terribly afraid of Edelgard running or not trusting her fully as she did for her. Only time would tell and she would give her just a bit more of that. To love is to forgive but that didn’t mean to love is to follow blindly. There were bigger battles ahead and the invasion was tomorrow - there was no guarantee they would all make it out alive. She just had to make sure she did so when Edelgard was ready, when she had enough time, she would have the chance.
“Professor, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to be by her side right now. But we will march for the monastery tomorrow, we should survive that first.”
Byleth hummed. “After that?”
“I’ll protect her. Stubbornly.”
With that she ran off, leaving Byleth who had a proud expression on her face, behind.
Later in the afternoon, the Black Eagle Strike Force had gathered at the roundtable in the palace council room. Hubert and Byleth sat on either side of Edelgard. Ingrid had been across the large table, sitting between Sylvain and Felix. Edelgard had yet to make eye contact with her but she supposed that was to be expected. She did her best to remain focused on the task at hand. There was a large map rolled out on the table with several wooden pieces representing the imperial army placed on several points of the general outline of Garreg Mach.
Ingrid was to lead the pegasus battalions to breach the initial wall and take out the ballista on the watchtowers. She would then join the strike force on a frontal assault through the main gates of the monastery. Ingrid could feel worried eyes on her as she spotted Dorothea looking concerned for her close friend. It would mean Ingrid would be the first of the strike force to move in and perhaps the first to fall.
Not happening, she thought vehemently in her mind as she looked hard at the map. The war began at this battle and she would not die there.
“Do you have any objections to this strategy, Ingrid?”
Hubert, cold and condescending as ever. Ingrid held back her exasperation and only nodded.
“I’m ready,” she stated, meeting his poison-green eyes head on. He seemed to huff indignantly but continued to speak to the others about their strategies and roles before rendezvousing at the gates. Ingrid listened intently, her mind on nothing else than the battle. It was easier to do that than focus on reconciling with Edelgard, at least for now. The meeting was adjourned hours later, everyone ready to get some rest in light of their march the next day. The scene seemed familiar to Ingrid as everyone filed out. But Edelgard didn’t call out to her. Instead, Ingrid lingered by the door when once again, the last Eagle departed. She was faced away from where the emperor still sat.
“Edelgard. Let’s survive tomorrow, okay?”
Ingrid didn’t get a reply and she breathed in deeply. She reached for the door handle again, not knowing what else to say. If there was anything right to say at that moment, she didn’t find it. Her hand grasped the handle and then she heard Edelgard’s voice again after what felt like an eternity.
“I’ll tell you everything. But after we both survive tomorrow,” Edelgard said, the emperor persona in full force as if it were her crutch from what she really wanted to do. Ingrid smiled a melancholy smile but nodded regardless.
“I love you, Edelgard,” Ingrid whispered, so quietly that Edelgard almost didn’t catch it. To her, it was almost bittersweet. How much it warmed her heart but the creeping uncertainty of how long Ingrid would love her, if she would ever grow tired, held her in an ice cold grip. She wanted to say something but it didn’t feel like she deserved to.
“You don’t have to say it back,” Ingrid continued, her voice surprisingly steady. “Just come find me, when you’re ready.”
The knight left then, the door swinging closed behind her, and once again, Edelgard watched her go.
They left Enbarr and arrived on the monastery grounds days after.
Ingrid led the battalion while they used the cover of the clouds to approach the monastery. She felt a heavy pit in her stomach as Astra soared closer. The memories of this place filled her mind. This was where she found her friends - where they shared many laughs that echoed through the halls, moments of peace when they ate together, sorrow when their hands shook from the blood that stained them. At the monastery, between the houses, there was a genuine connection from hierarchies apart. It’s where she found love in the most unexpected way and now they were going to shed blood all over its grounds. It felt almost wrong to taint it but there was no turning back. She cast her gaze on the approaching army, almost like a swarm as they rumbled the skies with their armor shifting with every advance. On the front lines, the Black Eagle Strike Force held their formation, weapons in hand. Edelgard led them with her head held high - the memories of their fight pushed aside for now.
It was now or never.
Ingrid saw the two high towers with the ballistae guarding them and a line of archers that stood on the bridge that connected them. They wouldn’t stop her. With a battle cry and her lance pointed forward, the league of pegasi rushed forward from the skies, and descended on the soldiers. They weaved through waves of arrows and spun out of the way of large rocks being hurled at them at high speeds. Two pegasi battalions made their way towards the towers as ordered as Ingrid made her way towards the archers. Astra tilted on their nosedive left and right - the knight could hear the whistle of the arrows as they flew past her cheeks. She threw javelins down, piercing through some of their chests. At one point, she hopped off Astra, rolling onto the stone bridge and springing back into battle. She twirled her lance in a deadly dance, cutting her way through the path of archers, their anguished cries as they fell rang through her head as she killed more and more of them.
Some of these soldiers supported her in training exercises and battles at the academy and this was how she repaid them. When the last guard fell with a slash across his neck, Ingrid whistled and jumped off the bridge before his body hit the ground. In a swift aerial dive, Astra caught Ingrid as the pegasi knights regrouped with the main army. Ingrid swooped in front of the strike force, armor spattered in blood that felt heavy on her shoulders.
“The watchtowers have fallen, Your Majesty,” Ingrid reported.
Edelgard seemed to blink away whatever emotions clouded over her eyes, clearing at the sight of Ingrid unharmed. Bloody but breathing. The emperor nodded and struck the hilt of her axe into the ground with a command that boomed through the battlefield.
“Black Eagle Strike Force, Imperial Army, move out!”
And so the emperor had decreed, the war had truly begun and the Church of Seiros would be crushed.