IC Inbox - Isle of Avalon

[asaviorshand]

[For now, you just get the default automated message. Dimitri will need some time to figure this out.]

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[asaviorshand]

[Dimitri is caught by surprise by the notification from his device, and opens the text. He's even more surprised to see it's from Edelgard. He takes a few moments to contemplate a reply, then begins picking at the keyboard.]

Yes, and I hope it's the same for you.

I agree, we should meet and have a talk. I can meet on my lunch break, if you would like, or after I leave work for the day, around 5:30 in the evening. If neither of those works, I'm free all day on Saturdays and Sundays.

[flame_emperor]

Then let us aim for the cafe after work. It should be relatively quiet that time of day anyway. Tonight?

[asaviorshand]

Tonight would work fine for me. Is there a place you would prefer?

[flame_emperor]

There's a cafe near where Byleth and I call home. I find the cakes there to my liking. I'll be waiting for you there.

Switch to action

Edelgard arrives early, so she can be waiting for Dimitri when he arrives, and so she can sneak one of those aforementioned cakes before he arrives. She isn't...nervous, exactly. But the revelation of the past they shared, that she had forgotten and he had not, put a number of things in perspective for her.

No, she mentally corrected herself. She didn't forget. The memories were cut out of her by cruel men in masks with long knives. The memories of Faerghus, and the young playmate she could still only halfway remember, and who knows what else.

She's there, sipping her tea quietly, when Dimitri arrives, and she waves him over. "Dimitri. Please, have a seat. Would you care to order? I will pay."

[asaviorshand]

Dimitri couldn't help but wonder if it was the same cafe he had met Byleth at. If so, that would make things simple -- he already knew the way there.

Regardless, the moment he finished his work shift for the day, he clocked out and headed straight for the meeting spot, without stopping by his place for whatever reason. He didn't need to, so he figured it would just take more time. Even with that, he found himself the second to arrive.

It was an odd feeling, seeing Edelgard and being able to meet her like this, even though they'd spoken face-to-face once before. All the same, he was able to easily manage a smile and nod toward her as he walked up to the table.

"I think I will order something. However, please do not feel obligated to pay on my behalf. I can certainly pay my own way." That said, if Edelgard insisted, Dimitri would accept -- he didn't want to derail the purpose of their meeting with something as insignificant as payment for tea.

"Have you been well?"

[flame_emperor]

"Please, I insist." It's more an automatic response than anything, an unspoken rule of the nobility from back in Fódlan. Edelgard has easily discarded most of those mannerisms here in Avalon (she still smiles at how flustered Lorenz during the casual nature of their tea meeting, a few months back), and yet she finds herself slipping back into them preferable in this case. No matter the world or how things ended, or will end between them, Edelgard and Dimitri have...a history. Falling back on formalities keeps things...peaceable between them. Formal, yes, but she has no desire to reignite a conflict
already settled in her world. For now...assuming things ever change between them while they're here, this is the best way to interact.

A history that goes back further than she ever realized...at least on a conscious level.

She nods politely, folding her hands together on the table. "I have been, yes. Byleth's presence has made things here a great deal easier." She knows Byleth explained the exact nature of their relationship to him, no use dancing around it. "I pick up adventuring contracts and sell some of my artwork; between the two of us we've earned a comfortable enough living here." She gestures towards him as a waitress approaches to take Dimitri's order. "And yourself? Your work is enjoyable, I trust?"

[asaviorshand]

"Yes, very much so." Dimitri took a moment to place his order. He was sticking with tea for the time being, and little else. Once the waitress left, he resumed.

"I've been working as an appraiser and tester of weapons at the blacksmith. It's been quite an experience, working for a smith in a world separate from our own. I've had much to learn."

He paused. How would they try to segue into the heart of why they met up? Fortunately, he did think of something based on what he just said.

"Speaking of learning, it seems as though we've both learned much since arriving here. Both about this place...and about Fódlan."

[flame_emperor]

She appreciates Dimitri finding a way through to the main purpose of the meeting, and Edelgard nods. "Yes, that we have. When Byleth told me what you had told her, it..." She reaches for a drink, to sort her thoughts out. "I immediately knew it to be true, though I must tell you even with the revelation of what we once were, my memories are still...spotty, at best. I cannot remember you clearly at all. But it also explained other things, small things. You asked me about my hair once, in Abyss. I could never figure out why you of all people would bring it up, considering how quickly the subject changed."

And why he'd hated her so. There had always been his obsession with her supposed involvement in the Tragedy of Duscur of course, a belief this Dimitri had accepted was not true and moved past. But it had always run deeper than that, hadn't it? He'd taken her actions so personally, in a way that had never truly made sense to Edelgard. And now she had her answer.

"You never said anything beyond that." It isn't accusatory or meant as an attack, just a simple statement of fact that while Edelgard had forgotten their childhood connection, he never had, and had never tried t reignite it at Garreg Mach. "And after awhile I put it out of my mind. I suppose my counterpart in your world must have done the same."

[asaviorshand]

Dimitri listened quietly as Edelgard spoke. He too remembered the time he had brought up her hair color in Abyss. It had been quite a bizarre sight, to see the girl he had befriended all those years ago, now with her hair white instead of the light brown that he remembered her having.

When Edelgard brought up her counterpart in Dimitri's history, he nodded. "I did eventually bring it up to the version of you in my world, during a parley we had outside of Enbarr. I remember what you said in reply when I returned the dagger. You thanked me, and said that it was because of me...because of my parting gift and my words, you never lost heart."

Dimitri paused for a moment as the waitress came back with his tea, and he continued. "During our days at the Officer's Academy, I didn't think it relevant to mention. We all had our own affairs, our own inner demons. Not to mention all of the activity during our year there. In the end, the main reason why I brought it up was because...well, because I had your dagger at the time. I felt it only right to return it before our final confrontation."

[flame_emperor]

Edelgard thinks for a moment. Dimitri's words seem to have stirred the recesses of her mind, and the inklings of a memory. Even though she cannot recall the words precisely, if what Dimitri says is true, she had internalized them to such a degree, that his telling her about them reminds her. "Yes...by my uncle's carriage." She says. "You gave me the dagger. I remember now." She stopped carrying it on her person long ago, and certainly didn't wear it to this meeting today like she did with their first meeting, when Edelgard had heard he'd returned.

"All this time I've carried it and couldn't recall for the life of me how it had come to me." It was Kingdom-made and must have come from her time there, but nothing beyond that. But it was a well-made weapon and a useful tool besides so she never felt the need to get rid of it. "How did it come to be back in your hands?" She takes another drink. "It never left my side in my world. It's here with me in Avalon, in fact."

She nods at his reasoning. "Yes, I understand. And I am not angry at you for keeping your silence. To be honest, I'm afraid the knowledge would not have changed anything. I was already too set on my path by then." She sets her cup down.

"But I do wish you to know something. That I forgot our time together...it wasn't that the time was unimportant to me, or of no consequence. I did not forget you by choice. I'd have held onto those memories, if I could have." Yet another reason to hate Thales for what he had done to her. Not only had he taken her family from her, but also the memory of the one good childhood friend she'd once had. The one...

She remembers that night at the Goddess Tower, when she'd spoken of her first love to Byleth. A young man of the Kingdom who's name she could not remember. A young lord's son. "I know that time meant a great deal to me." She says finally, and leaves it at that.

[asaviorshand]

Dimitri sat quietly, listening intently as Edelgard spoke. He took a few sips of his drink as he listened, though his gaze never turned away from her. There was no emotion on his face, aside from a little surprise at Edelgard's comment that she hadn't forgotten him "by choice." It was an odd way to phrase forgetting a memory, given that people rarely consciously choose to forget. It sounds almost as if she were made to forget.

"Five years ago, at the Academy. It was mere days after Jeralt's murder. Professor Byleth and I noticed a conversation occurring among the Flame Emperor, Monica, and a man neither of us knew. We did our best to eavesdrop, but we were noticed. The Flame Emperor threw a dagger at us, but narrowly missed. I picked it up and held onto it." He closed his eye for a few seconds before continuing. "Of course, that's when I began to suspect the Flame Emperor's true identity. I was in deep denial until that day in the Holy Tomb."

Dimitri paused to take a deep breath. The fight in the Holy Tomb was an awful memory for him, and he generally preferred not to think about it. Fortunately, given everything else Edelgard had to say, he didn't have much opportunity to dwell on it, as he sometimes did.

"I am glad that the time meant that much to you, as it did me. It also matches up with what your counterpart in my version of events told me the day we made parley." He hesitated a few seconds before continuing. "There is one thing that you said here that was left unmentioned then, though. You say you did not forget 'by choice.' It thus sounds as though you were forced to forget. Would that be correct?"

hahaha it's been how many weeks? uhhhhh whoops

[flame_emperor]

Edelgard thinks for a moment, her memory stretching back five years to before the war. Just after Jeralt's murder... "Yes, I remember that meeting." She recalls. "I was furious with them both for what they'd done, and I promised there would be a reckoning for the Captain's death. But there was no eavesdropper. Your counterpart did not go looking for us, it seems." But then, Edelgard's Dimitri would have had a much less personal relationship with their professor. Or perhaps his own investigations simply never lead anywhere because his assignments kept him away from the activities of the Flame Emperor. "Thales." She says suddenly. "The man you did not recognize. His name is Thales. Has Byleth spoken to you of him?" If he's still active in Dimitri's world, that is a loose end that will need to be clipped very quickly if Dimitri is going to have any chance to make something of the peace he has won for his Fódlan.

And it ties into matters that Dimitri now asks about. "I do not know if my memory loss was a happy accident or if it was always intended." She replies honestly. "But the end result is the same either way, so yes, you are correct." She collects her thoughts for a moment.

"Did you ever learn why I chose "the Flame Emperor" for my alter-ego's sobriquet specifically?" She asks finally.

It's OK! No harm, no foul.

[asaviorshand]

Dimitri sat and listened silently as Edelgard spoke. Come to think of it, the Flame Emperor had said something of there being no salvation, right? So that's not hard to believe, fortunately.

Thales... The name was unfamiliar to him. However... "She had not mentioned anyone by that name, no. But given what Kronya and Solon had done, it's entirely possible that she did, but simply by another name. She did, however, mention Cornelia and...and Lord Arundel."

The last name was one Dimitri spoke reluctantly. He had no indication of how Edelgard felt about her uncle after everything that had happened so far. He didn't know how mentioning his name would go over. But as Byleth had mentioned him as one of the people working behind the scenes, it was something they'd have to discuss.

When Edelgard asked him if he'd learned why she took up the name "Flame Emperor," Dimitri shook his head. "I didn't, no. Given everything that was going on, it was but one detail lost among many, I'm afraid."

[flame_emperor]

Edelgard nods when Dimitri mentions the name of her uncle. "Then yes, she did. Volkhard Arundel died shortly before I was taken to Faerghus." She explains matter-of-factly. "Since then, the Lord Regent of the Empire, has been Thales. Of all those who slither, he is their leader, and his crimes are unforgiveable." No salvation...yes, she remembers speaking those words, as Dimitri remembers, though in his arrogance Thales had simply waved them off as merely Edelgard letting out some steam, a childish tantrum not to be taken seriously. But she would make good on it, and there would be no shadow deep enough for Thales to hide from her.

"If Arundel is dead, then your Fódlan is in better standing than you realize." She carries on, somewhat relieved. "And you have accomplished what I currently have been unable to." Thales still carried a great deal of influence within the Empire, and could not simply be removed by force. To do so would tear apart the Empire at a time when unity was needed more than ever. "Unfortunately, I will require a more...surgical approach in removing him." Surgical. For a moment, a look of disgust crosses her face. She hates that word. "Those who slither will be lost without his will to guide them and their powerbase in the old Empire smashed. You would do well to capitalize on that when you return, if your Fódlan is to have any chance of prolonged peace. You must run them down to their lair, before their forces have a chance to rally and regroup under someone else." It's strange, to speak so clinically, in so detached a manner, about a world in which Edelgard had died, her dreams unfulfilled, to the man who killed her. And advising him on how to proceed, even. But it was what it was. His Edelgard was dead, and Dimitri and his Byleth left to pick up the pieces. Edelgard would give what advice she could, if it gave them more of a chance to build something better. "Had I the location of their base I would give it, but Hubert has so far not been able to run it down, though he believes it may lie somewhere close to Alliance territory, somewhere in the Empire's eastern borders."

She takes a sip of her drink. "Intentionally so, I imagine." She replies, before squaring her shoulders. "What I am about to tell you is an intensely private matter, known only to a handful of people." In Avalon, only Byleth knew. "I am trusting that this will remain so, Dimitri." There's a great deal she will not discuss, but after everything he'd been through, after he'd tried to reach out to another her, and in memory of what they had once been to each other, she will allow him in, just a little.

"I called myself the Flame Emperor, because I bear two Crests within me. The Crest of Seiros that runs in the Imperial bloodline...and the Crest of Flames."

[asaviorshand]

"...So, that's what was going on with him." Dimitri lowered his gaze and his eye narrowed. "I'd had my suspicions for quite some time. Church records in the library at Garreg Mach showed that he had been generous and timely with donations up until a certain point -- and then they stopped, suddenly and completely." The fact that he had seemed to go from a pious man to nothing overnight was simply far too suspicious. It also fueled his hunch that he had originally been involved in the Tragedy of Duscur.

"It was pure chance that I had the opportunity to slay him. He had overextended by invading Deirdriu with a detachment of Imperial forces, and Claude led them into a trap with himself as bait. When we arrived to aid the Alliance, he and his men were in the city and trapped between two forces." Dimitri frowned before saying the last part: "Frustratingly, he insisted on taking all of his secrets to the grave." That last part frustrated him beyond belief. He had needed answers about what happened nine years ago, and all Arundel would do is taunt him and tell him to go fight Edelgard. Even if he had decided it was more important to know who among the living were among the conspirators, he still wished he could have learned more of the truth.

And then...and then Edelgard dropped one more bombshell on Dimitri. That caused his eye to widen and his jaw to drop in pure, undiluted shock. "The Crest of Flames!?" Fortunately, he kept his voice down as he expressed his surprise. "By the goddess...that's -- that's insanity..." He had already known that the Church possessed the Crest of Flames and the ability to access it, given what he knew about Byleth's past. But to think that Edelgard herself had access to it, too...

Dimitri took a deep breath to compose himself. "I knew there was something different about you from the moment we met at Garreg Mach. I had noticed the change in your hair, and in your overall demeanor. But, the Crest of Flames..." He ended up trailing off there, unsure how to finish that thought. Instead, he moved on to another.

"I take it that was not always the case. Something happened between your departure from Faerghus and your arrival at Garreg Mach." It was the only way to explain the change. Dimitri knew that Edelgard wasn't the only person to possess two Crests -- Lysithea had been unable to hide both of hers, after all, even if he never learned her story. So it stood to reason that Edelgard would have something similar in her past.

[flame_emperor]

"The donations would have stopped shortly before the Insurrection of the Seven." Edelgard notes. "Arundel—that is, Thales—was the real orchestrator of that conflict. Aside from my father, of course." Ionius' ambition had exceeded his ability, but if his opponent had merely been Ludwig von Aegir, he might have stood more of a chance. But with Thales masquerading as Lord Arundel and uniting the other lords of the Great Houses using Ludwig as his puppet, even from the Kingdom...Ionius was swiftly and decisively outmaneuvered.

"The Insurrection was the culmination of Thales' plan to coil himself around the heart of the Empire, to gain access to its resources and troops. His people hold much hatred for the Goddess, and see themselves as the only true inheritors to Fódlan. All who dwell under its skies are merely beasts to be exterminated so they can take what they see as their rightful place, and the Empire was to be the means by which Thales accomplished this. But he has always been arrogant and oversure of himself. I am not surprised when he took to the field personally he found himself overextended and cut off, especially by Claude." If only it would be so easy when it came time for Edelgard to end her Thales' life.

"If I had any answers to share with you I would, but I've told you all I know. Thales has always been careful not to let slip more than was necessary." Why they hate the Goddess so, how long have they dwelled beneath Fódlan, and what drove them there, and how they could possibly wield such powerful devices as the spears of light that created the Valley of Torment, and destroyed Arianrhrod. "Even without Thales' leadership, they possess technology far beyond our own. That will make their survivors dangerous, especially if you must meet them on their home ground."

And beyond that... "Yes. The Crest of Flames was implanted within me after I returned to the Empire. It was not by choice. Thales provided the former Prime Minister with everything he would need to forge a perfect Emperor, a weapon of conquest that Ludwig believed would be used to restore the Empire to its ancient glory." And who would be dead before their fourtieth year, leaving the von Aegir family perfectly positioned to take control of the Empire, and Thales had been perfectly content to let that little man think that. "And thanks to Imperial tradition, my father had left plenty of progeny for them to make that Emperor. Eleven children, of whom I was the third-youngest."

She takes a deep breath, closes her eyes for a moment. "I was the success. It did not come without cost." And that's all she's going to say about that.

[asaviorshand]

Dimitri listened, and nodded at a few points as he listened. It was as he had suspected and Byleth had implied, then -- they were involved in the Insurrection of the Seven, just as they probably were the Tragedy of Duscur. And they've been pulling strings behind the scenes for a long time. How long, though, he can only guess.

"I understand. And I thank you for telling me all of this. When I have the opportunity to return home, I will ensure they meet their reckoning with nothing held back. That is a promise." Even if the Edelgard here comes from an alternate timeline to the one he knows, he can tell how much she detests the Agarthans. It might do her well to know that they would be dealt with, no matter who Byleth sides with and leads to victory in the end. And while Dimitri has abandoned his pursuit of revenge, he still wants to deal with them to ensure that no one has to suffer the way he did. They would cause no more insurrections or assassinations, and ruin anyone else's lives.

When Edelgard relayed her experiences with having the Crest of Flames implanted, Dimitri's expression changed. He had heard that Edelgard had siblings, but she was the only one still alive. He hadn't known what killed them. Now...while he didn't know the details of what they suffered, it wasn't hard to see that they did in fact suffer.

"...I'm sorry. I can only imagine what you must have experienced." And yet, it wasn't too difficult to understand how she might have felt. Both Edelgard and Dimitri were sole survivors of horrific experiences that shaped them going forward. That much he could relate to.

"I'm starting to understand where you were coming from during the war. Why you hated the Crest system so much you were willing to tear it down, no matter the cost. It wouldn't surprise me if you told me that focus is what kept you alive." Again, Dimitri was leaning on his own experiences. He knew better than anyone the degree of willpower a clear, defined goal and enough hatred could confer upon a person. He still would not condone Edelgard's methods, but he could at least understand where she was coming from. And he could use that understanding to prevent a similar tragedy from ever playing out again.

[flame_emperor]

"Of course." Edelgard replies. "I'm pleased to be of assistance in this matter." After everything the Agarthans have done, they cannot be left to recover in darkness if Dimitri's Fódlan—if any version of Fódlan—is to know peace, or have the chance to grow past the control of the Immaculate One. Revenge or no, it is simply necessary. Even with Thales and her counterpart dead, it's only a matter of time before someone steps in to fill their leader's void, and start again. To create a new Flame Emperor, one more loyal to the cause. And then the Tragedy of the Houses of Ordelia and Hresvelg are sure to be repeated.

She nods again simply. "Thank you." For a moment she hesitates. "I am sorry as well. For your father and step-mother." She was not responsible for the Tragedy of Duscur, but they are the words she would have uttered, or put into a letter, if she had been able to all those years ago, if the memory of her time with Dimitri had not been taken from her. The grieving she could not join him in. "I wish I had been able to tell you that at the time."

In many ways, Edelgard was the opposite of Dimitri. He had been driven forward by the voices of the dead urging him on, to wreak bloody vengeance on those who had wronged them, real or imagined. The Tempest King had never escaped that, while the Savior King in front of her did, and found a measure of peace.

It was not the voices of her dead siblings that drove Edelgard on. It was the deafening silence. All the words never said. All the experiences she might have shared with them that would never be. Only silence, forevermore.

"May I ask you something, Dimitri?" She asks, raising her cup. "You know I think, that in my world many of the Blue Lions, and Golden Deer, followed me into my revolution." Mostly because of Byleth, but they all became trusted members of the Black Eagle Strike Force, no matter their origin or background. "I may not have been close with all of them, but I know their stories. Why they elected to stay with the Empire and fight for my new world. When you have purged Those Who Slither from your Fódlan and settled into your role as king, what becomes of the Crest system?" The church still exists in his world, with Byleth having taken Seiros' place as Archbishop. A truly incomprehensible development to her, but Dimitri's Byleth was far enough removed from her own, especially by the difference in gender, that she could separate him, from her. Like they were simply talking about two different people who happened to share the same name. In a very real way, that's still true. "Do you believe your Byleth will work with you to eliminate it?"

[asaviorshand]

When Edelgard offered her condolences, Dimitri had to close his eye and take a deep breath to avoid bursting into tears of relief. Just hearing her say those words helped to wash away any lingering doubt he previously had -- he now knew beyond a doubt that she was innocent in the affair. He felt like he could truly close that chapter of his life. "That means a lot to me. Thank you."

At least he was able to maintain his composure enough to listen to Edelgard's question. He, too, had found that many students from the other houses joined his cause, and while they were likewise there for Byleth first and foremost, they also helped him in his cause and he tried to learn what he could about them, as well. "The Crests themselves are...well, I lack the ability to simply make them cease to exist. And they have utility -- such as how invaluable the Crest of Gautier has been in protecting our northern border from incursions from Sreng. But the prestige they grant...I do wish to do away with that. I want people to be rewarded for what they do, not who they are."

Dimitri locked his eye with Edelgard's. There was a sense of purpose within his gaze. "I will move power away from the aristocracy and toward the people. I am tired of watching the strong trample upon the weak, and thus will give the weak what they need to balance the scales. I want commoners to participate in politics. They should have the ability to seek redress for their woes, regardless of who or what is responsible for them. I want to ensure their voices will be heard, and that their will shall have influence." He then closed his eye again briefly, before opening it and adding, "And I have no doubt that the Byleth of my world will work together with me to achieve that goal. I would move mountains for him, and I know he would return the favor."