Hello everyone. I just have some life news to share plus a sneak peak into the next chapter, 'cause I've kept you waiting for a long time. (Although, if you were waiting for more content, I did post the epilogue for this story! If you don't care about spoilers, give it a read! It took over my life for a solid week, but has no feedback so far. I need validation! ;n;)

First off, my roommate Aire tested positive for covid-19. I took a little over a week off work so I could get tested, but I tested negative. While having the time off was a godsend, I wasn't getting paid in that time, so rent is going to suck this month.

Speaking of rent, the jackass that owns the house is trying to evict us AGAIN. There's been a mistake in the paperwork, so the constable never got the appeal that got rid of the first eviction and they're trying to enforce it again. Luckily we got a really nice officer who realized we were woefully unprepared, so he gave us the weekend to pack and leave.

So I called my mom to see if she still had a room available for me to move back in, but she's got another roommate moving in tomorrow, so that's a no. She'll let me sleep on the couch for a little bit, but it looks like I'll need to find a new place FAST. I'm frustrated because I literally JUST unpacked everything from the last time that douchebag tried to evict us, and now I have to pack it all up again. You know my drawing tablet broke in the last pack? I had to pay $80 for a new one, AND I'm not gonna get paid again for another week or two because of the week or two off I took. I'll have to pull from savings to rent a uhaul for my furniture.

On another topic, I was going to start recording LPs when I realized that my computer wouldn't play or record sound. Turns out there's a piece of aux cable that broke off in the audio port, which also happened in the last panic pack. I tried to fix it multiple times, but it's stuck tight. My computer is the one thing I'm afraid to take apart. Nintendo electronics are one thing, but a laptop? Scary. So I bought an aux-to-usb adapter to work around the problem (it was cheaper than getting the laptop fixed). Amazon said it came in yesterday, but I don't have it, so there's been an issue. An issue which is going to have a hard time getting solved because chances are I will no longer be at this house in a couple days. So I STILL won't be recording LPs with my fancy new capture card.

Last thing, can I just say once again how haunted as fuck this house is? I've already mentioned some things in previous notes, but here's some new stuff that's happened: I actually saw a foggy thing move! Then my cat has been chattering at the haunted war chest (no bugs or light spots in sight), and another cat was staring at the wall intently when all of a sudden something (or, rather, nothing) knocked stuff off a desk. And one of my other roommates saw a skull over Aire's face when the lights dimmed multiple times. Like, I don't even know why that asshole Mark (not even gonna give him a pen name; if you know a Mark who lives in the Dallas area who talks about trying to get some girls out of a house he tried to sell, don't even slap him for me. Punch him. Punch him hard.) wants the house back, it's super creepy living here. That said, I wouldn't trade it for anything because living with my roommates is the best thing ever.

So that's my life right now. TL;DR: I'm getting evicted again, I'm low on money again, and my future LPs have been put on hold AGAIN. Also my house is still haunted.

Anyway, you're probably here for the chapter. It was going to be a sneak peek, but considering I just splatted everything I'd written here I guess it's the new, "complete" chapter 33. Thanks for sticking with me!

Chapter 33: Becoming a Family

Robin and Frederick barreled through the doorway shortly after the children and I joined the fray. Morgan noticed right away, dislodging her sword from a dissolving risen. "Father, there you are!"

Robin startled at the address, but after seeing me nod he relaxed. "I'm guessing you're Morgan? Or…" he spotted Riley fighting nearby and stopped, confused. I heard him mutter, "Two?" His befuddled expression was priceless. Then he shook his head. Casting an arcthunder at a risen that got too close for comfort, he smiled. "You're the spitting image of your mother."

Riley looked over, eyes curious. "You're Father?"

Oh, don't tell me…each kid can only remember one parent? How convenient. (Not.)

Robin looked at me for an answer, because how could one kid not know who his own parent was if the other, clearly a sibling, did?

"Amnesia," I quickly explained.

"Of course," he shook his head in defeated exasperation before focusing back on the fight. "I'm glad you're okay, at least."

"We can take care of ourselves, but thanks for the concern." Morgan commented.

"Arcwater!" Riley called, before a hot, high-pressure spray shot from his outstretched hand, stabbing holes into an approaching risen. Oh, what? Was that a spell?!

"Case and point." Morgan smirked, before slicing another down herself.

I gaped. "Why in the world were you hiding when we found you?" I took the time to heal Sumia, who'd accumulated some damage while we were distracted.

Morgan looked at me like I'd grown a second head. "Strategizing, duh. There were too many risen to take out on our own without a plan."

"I only have so many uses of each spell before I have to take a minute to renew them." Riley explained. "Plus, a lot of them are pretty advanced; it's dangerous to use some of them at my level." Quieter, I heard him mumble, "I was really pushing it with the arcwater."

Taking my eyes off the fight to examine him more closely, I noticed his hands smoking. Is that what happens when you cast a spell above your level?

Didn't Miriel say something about how you'd burn yourself out (or perhaps more accurately, burn yourself up?) if you use more magic power than you could handle? Yeesh. "I hope you weren't showing off for my sake. I don't need you going up in smoke as soon as I meet you."

"Sorry, Mother." He looked sheepishly chastised. "I'll be more careful."

We fought in silence, too focused on the battle to continue conversation. Which, really, is how it should be, but we'd gotten distracted.

I alternated between charging forward and backstepping, attacking and healing, respectively. Whenever I'd need to step back and heal someone, someone else was always there to cover us. The convenience of fighting with people you know is, well, extremely convenient.

"Mother!" Riley shouted, before casting another arcwater past me. I heard the groan of a risen and turned to kill it, but it had already been done in by Riley's hastily-casted spell.

"Augh, good Grima!" He swore, dropping his tome.

"Riley!" I worried. I filed away his choice in swears to think about later. If one arcwater had made his hands smoke, what would a second one do? I hurried over to check.

Grabbing him by the sleeve, as I didn't want to aggravate whatever the consequences of his spell were by grabbing his arm directly, I pulled him over behind the front line. Behind us, Morgan ducked under a risen's blade and scooped up Riley's dropped tome. Sumia and Frederick filled in the gap, giving us the cover we needed to take a breather.

"Alright, let's see them," I held out my hand.

Making a face, Riley did as he was told, holding out his hands so I could see.

I sucked in a breath at the sight; smoke rose from blistered skin, which not only covered his hands but went down his wrists and up his sleeves, presumably traveling farther up his arms.

"Gods, Riley, I appreciate the save, but there are other, less backlash-ridden spells in that tome, aren't there?" I took out my heal staff, channeling energy through the crystal like I had practiced.

I watched as the burns receded, leaving behind little trace of ever existing. Riley sighed in relief, before looking at my glowing hands with wonder. "I feel like you couldn't do that before," he said instead of answering my question.

"Yeah, I did a dumb, desperate, impulsive thing and ended up getting heal crystal shards stuck in my hands. They've broken up from use so they're not sharp anymore, but I glow now." I paused, remembering something. "And don't avoid my question! Goodness, for being the son of a tactician, you're awfully impulsive."

"Gee, I wonder where I got it." He looked pointedly at my still-glowing hands.

"Point taken," I held up said hands in surrender.

Morgan approached, holding out Riley's tome. "Here, you dolt. Try not to kill yourself with it, would you?"

"Alright alright, I get it. I'll stick to lower-power spells," Riley grumbled.

After the battle, Gaius found a chest sequestered away in a forgotten corner, containing Naga's Tear. Ah, right; that was the "real" reason for coming here in the game. Oh well. At least we hadn't left it behind.

On the way back to the castle, we discussed how we were going to proceed from here. I mean, we were a full-fledged family unit now, complete with children. The next logical step was getting out of the barracks, or at least getting our own room that wasn't divided by gender.

I never thought living in Ylisse would be so domestic. Romance, kids, house hunting, could it get any more—I couldn't even think of the word. This is not how I imagined my life going when I got out of high school. I thought I'd be getting a desk job, playing video games and cuddling cats forever.

"Merra, you listening?" Robin brought me out of my thoughts.

"Huh?"

"I'll take that as a no," he smirked. "I was just saying that I'm pretty sure neither one of us knows how to look for a place to live, so I was thinking we could ask one of the other Shepherds."

"Or you could ask me," Chrom interjected.

I jumped nearly a mile high. "Gods, Chrom, when did you become so light on your feet?!"

"I assure you, I am no such thing," the prince laughed.

"No offense, but why would you know how to find a place to live? You live in a castle." Robin asked, confused.

Chrom grinned conspiringly, "You're right; I don't know how to look for a place to live. But, as you also pointed out, I do live in a castle. There's too much room for the royal family alone; I'm sure we could spare a few rooms for the Shepherds' tactician and his family."

"Are you sure that's okay?" I worried. "You literally found us passed out in a field. Wouldn't someone be upset about our lack of status? Er, my lack of status anyway. I'm not sure about you, Robin—with Validar as your father, I think that makes you a prince? Maybe? Since Gangrel's dead, Validar takes over Plegia, after all."

Chrom's face at this realization was priceless. You could tell he had something to say, but wasn't sure how to put it into words. In the end, he just opened and closed his mouth a few times before having to give up and move on.

"If anyone questions it, they can answer to me," he eventually said.

A/N: I'm sorry I've kept content from you so long. If you want to read another of my stories that's actually been updating (I got a flash of inspiration and wrote like four new chapters in a week), there's always Game Sync! It's a…different sort of SAO SI. Instead of the main character being stuck in SAO like everyone else, she goes there when she dreams at night. I have an obsession with dreams, as you're probably aware by now, so I really highlighted the whimsy of them in the story. As a result, its following is rather small due to its strangeness…give it a chance for me?

When Merra suggested that Robin might be a prince all I could think was Chrom thinking /Oh my gods I kidnapped the prince of our rival country AND NO ONE EVEN NOTICED!/

Riley's Tome is actually a refined version of Merra's magic practice journal. It's super cool actually because I decided to indeed add in all my bullshit magic ideas, like implementing a hammerne staff spell to give the tome infinite uses. Instead of being a tome filled with fifty pages of the same spell, it's got like five pages each of multiple spells, some self-invented (all developed by future!Merra) and some canon, with the renewal spell at the end. That would mean that Riley has limited uses of each spell until he Renews them, sort of like playing Robin in Smash! Except more like running out of PP until you go to a Pokémon Center, but whatever. Point is, I put way too much thought into this. (I almost called arcwater Power Shower, just to be more fun. Couldn't take it seriously though, so I changed it)

Funny story, you know how much an active sleeper Merra is? I didn't know it until I moved, 'cause prior to that I was the only one on the entire floor, but I'm actually worse than she is! I talk, I mumble, I yell…quite a lot, actually. I forgot to warn my roommates, and early on it really freaked them out. In just the first week I yelled loud enough (some very not-nice words, at that) that not only did I wake up everyone in the house but me, but the oldest one thought someone had broken in, and she was about to bust into my room with a hammer! Even now I'll be talking and they have to check to see if I'm asleep or not. It's funny, but weird. Not only that, but I do hit the wall quite often. Just a couple nights ago I was trying to stab someone in my dream, and instead I hit the wall hard enough to bruise. Let me tell you, I do not bruise easy. Luckily the wall was okay this time. Another incident was that apparently there was a bit of sharp paint on the wall that I /just so happened/ to hit when I flailed in my sleep. The ensuing bloody scratch actually scarred! What the heck! It looks kind of like a hammerhead shark though so I don't mind.

Sorry. I tried to keep the A/N as short as I could, but as you can see that didn't work too well. Even if a lot of stuff is unrelated to the chapter ._. You guys are so amazing though that it's hard to not want to tell you everything all the time!