20th Horsebow Moon, 1159.

I am terribly worried about the boy. He doesn't cry - neither of them cry - but he keeps clutching his heart. He squirms and scuffles soundlessly as if he's in distress and unable to alert us. Sometimes in the night, I swear he stops breathing. Not for mere seconds but minutes on end.

It's a terror to greet him in the morning.

My mind keeps turning to the worst.

But he proves me wrong each time. Each morning he's alive. Blinking at us from his crib. Solemnly. The two of them are always so solemn. As if they have seen this world before.

Rhea doesn't seem to think he'll live very long. She doesn't say it but I can see it in her eyes. And well… there's something there i don't want to think about.

I think if I pull at that thread, I'll know why she died as well.

I don't know that I can do that just yet.

The twins are too young to be left alone should I –

A dark blotch of ink bleeds away the words from the rest of the page.

It seems to help when I put him by his sister. She reaches for him always whenever he's not there, little arms always searching. When they hold hands, they both sleep so much more soundly. Peacefully, like little cherubs. I've started keeping them together for now.

I just … I don't know what I can do.

Bylead awakens in increments, stumbling into this life with the clumsy grace of a newborn foal. He slips from war and heat to his bed, rigid and uncomfortable as the ground the old king had died. In a blind attempt to protect his back, he turns and finds himself falling into another dream. A throne room. Empty this time and fraught with a ghastly chill in the absence of the young girl. Shuddering he tries to pull the sheets closer to himself but his hands find nothing to hold. Only hard stone meets his palm.

He awakens fully, uncomfortable and uneven, feeling as if he had made a misstep along the way.

He sits up, looking round for his sister first. Always blindly seeking her.

The last mission had been rough. She'd come back angry and though she didn't show it - neither of them are particularly good at that - she'd taken to their room early last night.

Byleth blinks back at him from the windowsill. She is a solid shade beneath the moonlight, a shadow carving out a space against the night sky. She looks at him for a moment longer. Assessing.

"Another dream?" she asks, mildly.

Bylead shakes his head. Not the correct one.

"Oh? Today was the first night I did."

It strikes him as wrong. Byleth never dreams. She's never the one to walk those battlefields. Never the one to cringe before the striking demands of a girl who looks so thoroughly through his soul he feels worn away. Bylead frowns at his sister as he approaches, noting the deep bruises beneath her eyes. Bruises brought about by a dream rather than the latest mission.

She lets him fuss, tilts her face in the moonlight obligingly as he looks her over.

"Which?"

"The one with the girl," she elaborates.

He did not expect that. Had always preferred Sothis and her solemn throne over the fall of a king.

"She asked me my name and did not seem to hear me when I replied. She called for you and seemed alarmed when you did not reply. In one breath and the next, she was gone again, leaving me alone in that room."

Byleth smiles, a sharp little thing. It's a smile reserved for particularly irksome missions and it sits wrongly in Bylead's chest for his sister to think of Sothis in such a way.

"I did not find it quite so comforting as you do."

Bylead doesn't speak, instead crossing his arms as he nudges for her to move enough so the two of them share a seat on the windowsill. Moments later he feels Byleth lean into him. A solid weight against his back. Her head drops heavily against his shoulder.

"Maybe you'll pass it back to me," Bylead murmurs sleepily as he settles in.

"You're welcome to it. In fact –"

A commotion outside.

The twins jump to their feet, Byleth's hand flying to her sword. Her eyes flick over the courtyard below them as if seeking out prey. Pressing closer to her, Bylead turns to the door, fingers grazing the daggers hidden in his sleeves.

"C'mon you two," Jeralt speaks as he opens the door, pausing a few seconds before he steps into the room. As if he is allowing himself a handful of seconds in case one of the twins elects to attack first.

He raises an eyebrow to see them both already up, "Dreams again, huh? Well, regardless, we have an issue. There's a group of bandits sweeping into town. Chasing a couple kids."

"Kids?" Byleth's tone drops the barest of a fraction as she crosses the room, falling into pace besides Jeralt. It's enough to convey her disapproval.

Bylead shuffles after them, casting one last look outside as he goes. There's the barest flash of color through the forest. Azure beneath the moonlight. It flits beneath a thick canopy of trees and he loses sight of them but he can, nonetheless, guess their trajectory. Their path will bring them straight to the inn.

"Yeah, a the lookout saw them. There's three kids running towards us at a full tilt."

"So they're unharmed," Byleth says.

"For the moment. You two head to the forest path, try to meet up with them. The rest of the mercs and I are headed east. Seems the bandits have split the group in half and are entering town that way," Jeralt says, unstrapping his lance, as he looks them both over, "We owe the people of this village a great deal with how long we've stayed. Take care not to allow the bandits a new target."

"Of course," Byleth replies.

Bylead looks at her and the Ashen Demon looks back.

Bylead only nods, falling in step behind her.