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DMCL Week 2024 - Promises/Letters
It's a pretty simple assignment, honestly: looking into the relationships between old historical figures. The vague term of relationships means that anything is game, honestly: famous rivalries that have plays written about them, family members that split off and became entirely new factions in neighboring countries, allies that turned the tide in what looked to be unwinnable wars. All that could make the project bad is that it's a group project, but that's okay! Lada thinks it's okay, anyway, because she's managed to get a group with all of her friends, and so it's fine.
Zima tells her that she's being too optimistic and cheerful about a silly history class project, but Lada can tell that she's in a good mood. All of them are, even if it's for different reasons. Like, Leto is just happy to sneak some snacks into a corner of the library and share all of them. Meanwhile, Istina is just happy that they got permission to study in the Garreg Mach Academy.
"I don't really get the difference," Zima says matter of factly as their little group finds some tables set out in the courtyard, while Lada sets down the giant stack of books that they've gotten from the library area proper. "It's just an old part of the school, right?"
Istina shakes her head, only to have to push back her blue hair over her shoulders again so that it's not in the way. Lada helpfully offers her a ribbon from one of her pockets. "It's technically a historical museum nowadays, just buried deep within the rest of the school," she explains, as they all make themselves comfortable, them four girls at a nice big table in the shade of an old gazebo. "They only use this place for museum exhibits, and archiving old documents. There's a lot here that you can't find back down in the main school library. Even a lot of the stones and wood are from back during the War of the Three, you know. From before Fodlan solidified into one country."
Which explains a lot of things, Lada thinks, although she doesn't say it out loud. But there's a sort of oldness to this entire area that's hard to describe, something that seems baked into the stones they've walked over on the way here and hangs from the old arches of brilliant stained glass windows. Even now, in the gazebo they sit in, she thinks she can see little markings carved into the wood here and there.
There's even some really way high up. Right there in - rafters? Do you call them rafters, up in a gazebo? - that look as though they were written in some sort of foreign script. "Almyran," Leta tells her when she asks, and hands her a graham cracker. Lada trusts her on that one, because Leta is taking an Almyran language elective.
While they break graham crackers together, Zima and Istina keep talking. "Wasn't Garreg Mach destroyed way back when during the start of the war?"
"I'm surprised that you remembered that much from our classes on that..." Istina smiles just a little bit in her teasing, which Zima can only answer with an eye roll. "It was. But King Dimitri, who managed to unite the entire country after the war, insisted that it be rebuilt properly again. He put a lot of effort into establishing a proper education system for the people; a lot of those policies ended up being the foundation for a lot of things later on." She nods over to where the pair are having crackers. "Lada... You made it into Garreg Mach because of some programs designed for working class families, right?"
Lada perks up, and hastily chews her cracker so that she can speak without her mouth full. Istina is so nice and neat, it feels embarrassing to be anything less sometimes. "That's right!"
"Don't more students than not enter because of those programs?" Leto asks, waving around a cracker. "I mean, it's not like nobility is really a thing anymore, these days." She laughs. "If it was, then I don't know if I could be in this sort of place at all!"
"Hm, that's right... Thanks to King Dimitri from back then, or at least the way things were under his rules, a lot of things managed to turn out well far later down the line." Istina leans up and over, finally plucking up one of the books from atop its massive pile. "That's why I thought it would be nice to do something based off of the relationships that made him who he was... back then. There were a lot of people he aligned with or who aligned with him that went on to become really famous, later on, or even during the war with him."
And, well, okay, maybe they all get a little bit sidetracked after that. To be fair, while it wasn't the most recent part of their curriculum that they've gone through, Lada likes to think that it stuck just a little bit back when they all went over it in class, somehow. Like the Lady Knight, Ingrid Galatea, or the man who helped pave the way for the Dusci renaissance, Dedue Morelino. That's just considering the northern part of the country; there's way more names besides that.
It makes it pretty hard to choose, honestly... King Dimitri seemed to know a lot of pretty famous people. When they start flipping through the books, sharing little tidbits that catch their eyes or tales which they recall from childhood or some popular television show or whatever it is, it turns out there's more names than anything else. Probably enough connections that their whole class could do a presentation on a different relationship, and there'd still be names left over for their teacher to talk about later on. Of course, they all have different ideas on who they should focus on.
Zima likes the idea of Emperor Edelgard, and figuring out just what complex mess was between her and the king before her death, the sort of things that they weren't able to cover in class. In contrast, Istina has more of an interest in Byleth - the person who started off as Dimitri's teacher, disappeared for years, and then emerged as a head religious figure in the end. No one ignites Leto's passions quite like those two, but she does think it'd be neat to look into the Fraldarius's whole deal with Dimitri.
And Lada.... Well. She guesses she doesn't really have any strong opinions. She has even less strong opinions than Lada. It's just, she thought it'd be nice to follow along with Istina's lead on this, and she's really glad that the caretaker for the old section of Garreg Mach signed the permission slip allowing them in. He's been here for a million years (or at least that's what the rumors say), and he's really strict. Lada thinks he's nice, however.
But you can't really write a paper on the caretaker for Garreg Mach's historical section and a long dead King, right? And maybe that'd be a little weird, she thinks, but it'd be nice. Still doesn't tell her what idea she should put her weight behind, however. If she has someone she really likes, or if one of the other's choices is most appealing.
Lada leans back in her chair, feet stretching and kicking outwards, and she looks at that little bit of Almyran scribbled up there in the gazebo's utmost ceiling.
"Didn't King Dimitri know the Almyran King?" she asks, suddenly, and she almost doesn't know why she asks it. It's just... the Almyran script looks so pretty, despite how roughly it's been cared up there. Pretty, and having lasted for who knows how long, kept everlasting thanks to the magic that goes into this place every few decades to keep it maintained so it might never fall.
Someone wrote something there, once, and now it stays forever. Or as long as people remember.
Zima braces her elbow against the table, knuckles to cheek. "Oh. Yeah. King Claude or something, right?" she says, glancing over to Istina for confirmation or correction. However, it's not Istina who speaks up, but Leto.
"That's what you know him if you live further up north," she points out with a grin, orange eyes right as this taps into old bits of trivia she probably knows - her mother travels all around, always has new things to tell her. She has way more knowledge than some people think she does. "But you know, further down south, you learn his actual name is King Khalid."
Papers flutter and flip against one another, a new book spread out in front of Istina, and she smiles a pleased little smile again. "King Khalid of Almyra, also known as Duke Claude von Riegan," she explains further, and they all lean in closer subconsciously - or maybe a little more consciously in Lada's case, as she swings back forward with the front legs of her chair clattering upon the stone beneath them. "He was infamous for a little while because while he was born and grew up in Almyra, he hid his background upon coming to Fodlan - back then, the Leicester Alliance, since this was some years before the war - to be taken in by his grandfather. That was when he took on his name as Claude, so that no one would realize where he was from."
Zima's nose wrinkles. "Sounds like a lot of work already."
"Ha ha, anything would sound like a lot of work for someone as blunt as you."
"Shut up, Leto."
Ignoring how the two of them lovingly heckle one another from opposite ends of the table, Lada leans forward as though she can read what Istina is reading. It's kind of hard, when that means reading it upside down. She gives up shortly after, looking to Istina instead. "Is that how he met King Dimitri, then?"
"That's right. Before both of them inherited their titles - in Faerghus and the Alliance respectfully - they attended almost a full year here at this very Academy." Istina looks over the stack of books before carefully prying one out from it precarious place in a tower, and then checks on the index so she can flip to the proper page. "Right - it's in this chapter. Apparently, they were known for forging a fast friendship fairly quickly attending the school, one that only got kickstarted further after surviving a bandit attack at the start of their year. Well, it was either a friendship or a rivalry..."
Leto grins over at Zima. There's a low thud from underneath the table, a hissed ouch, and Zima offers up a cocky little smirk.
"I wonder how much of it was really a rivalry," Lada muses, taking another graham cracker and snapping it up into its little sections. At the hand that extends out from her left, she absentmindedly hands over one such section. "I mean, if people couldn't even tell if they were rivals or friends. And, um.... Wasn't there a big thing about them helping each other out later? During the war?" She had this on the test they had to take back then during that part of the course, she knows it...
Fortunately, someone is there to offer help. "It was during the attempted invasion of Derdriu, five years after the war started," he says, politely settled besides Istina.
Zima waves about her free hand. "Right, I remember that - the pincer maneuver, right? Apparently the request for aid came last minute. What a pain in the ass that must have been, demanding help right at the last second."
Laughter bubbles up between Lada and Zima, and the youth there snaps his graham cracker in half. "What a way to describe it!" he says, and places half of the graham cracker around the stack of books for it to be politely picked up by the other sitting next to Istina. "Meanwhile all the scholars talk about the tactics behind that."
Pulling out more snacks from her bag, Leto nods her head. "Yeah, I remember hearing about that. All of the Empire's attention was focused on how Derdriu was holding out against their siege. They weren't expecting to be caught by an entirely different force - especially since, uuuuuh, the Alliance was kind of split on how to handle the whole war and all of that?"
"That's right." Istina grabs another book - there's now three flipped open in front of her. Which actually seems like a little too many for just one person? Lada reaches over too, and slides a book to herself. "While these days, the Alliance gets generally spoken about as joining hands with the old Faerghus Kingdom, a lot of nobles who ran it didn't actually think that there was any way to really win against the Empire. Some argued for complete neutrality, while others actively wanted to become a part of the Empire for various reasons... Apparently, while he did his best to hold the Alliance together so that no one split apart and ruined the whole thing for the whole, acting like a neutral party, Khalid as Duke Riegan held the most belief in Faerghus being the one that would ultimately pull through."
Lada nibbles on the last of her graham cracker, holding it inbetween her teeth while she accepts a packet of gummy bears from Leto and then passes along a few besides her. "I wonder just what it was that made him put so much faith into an underdog," she muses, and her eyes are drawn back up to the ceiling of the gazebo.
The bag of gummy bears rustles a little bit, hand searching through the plastic. "I wonder," he says. When Lada looks over again, she can see that all of the blue ones have been plucked out and stand in a line there along the table.
Her gaze gets drawn away from that at the sound of Leto clapping her hands together. "Hey, you know what I just remembered? Well, you know how Khalid left Fodlan right at the tail end of the war to return to Almyra, and then he became king, right? I remember it being said that him and King Dimitri exchanged letters a whole bunch after the war. You know, when he became a king too, and all that. Maybe we could make our project about the letters they exchanged?"
Sounds like a fun idea to Lada; she can already imagine the four of them putting on a whole little play where two of them play the king and the others are messengers. Something like that? Yet even as she clasps her hands together, Istina is shaking her head.
"We have a few letters written by the two of them to one another," she explains. "And they're clearly written with the mind that someone else could read them - maybe spies, for example. There's clear references to other letters that they've written, both in what modern scholars have found and in correspondence from others. For example, messenger logs have lots of dates noted for when King Dimitri sent a letter to King Khalid, or vice versa, and some of his childhood friends like Duke Sylvain Gautier mention it in private journals that have been recovered."
"Anyone know what happened to all those letters?" Leto ask, tearing open a candy bar wrapper with her teeth.
"There's theories that the kings hid their letters away, but... there's no idea how, or when. If either of them hid the letters away as they came, or all at once."
While it's not exactly what she was thinking of... This is still really interesting! Lada claps her hands together. "I didn't know it was such a mystery!" she gushes, and beams over to her friend. "Istina, I didn't realize you knew so much about about this sort of thing!"
A faint pink flush gathers across Istina's pale cheeks, and she doesn't look up from the books. "When we covered the subject in class, I just thought it was interesting," she says. "So I looked into it only a little bit. It turns out there are a lot of interesting questions and mysteries from that period in time that never did get solved."
While the young man besides her doesn't pat her hand or anything like that, he does lean a little bit in her direction. "It's hardly a bad thing, to become engrossed in history or further your studies," he says reassuringly.
He's so right. "You've always been the smartest of us, and this is exactly why!" Lada announces, even though it makes Istina blush even harder, and all the moreso when Zima pets her hair just a little bit in what could be pride. "But even if it's still a huge mystery, I bet we could write a lot based off of what we already know about them! They sound like they lived a really interesting life."
"Interesting lives for interesting times," he quips next to her, and tosses the bag of gummy bears up over the stack of books, even though his friend is hardly finished with the graham cracker he's been slowly nibbling on.
With the four of them now having a more solid idea of what they want to make their project about, at least that stack of books gets slimmed down a good bit. Maybe not as much as it could be, but, well, Dimitri Blaiddyd was a pretty important king! He shows up in a lot of books, even when they're not mainly about him. Since they're looking for all the little hints and clues the can possibly get about what the relationship between the two kings were like. There's not as much information as they really want when it comes to King Khalid in contrast, b ut, well, part of that is their fault. "We thought we were going to study up on Dimitri, not the other guy," Zima grouses.
"We can always go back to the library to see what they have on Khalid, it's no big deal," Leto says, having actually already filled out a page of notes from one of the books. "And honestly we might have to. There's seriously not nearly enough when it comes to these two guys!"
"God forbid people have privacy," is the joke from Lada's left.
Patiently, Istina grabs a drink and places it far away from these nice good books that they've all been generously allowed to borrow. "We could look up some papers that have already been written on more leads," she suggests. "Because of their stations, a lot was written about the relationship between the two."
"Tch."
Hearing such a dismissive and annoyed sound from Zima of all people makes Leto laugh. "What, I thought you'd be all for any kind of shortcut, she teases.
"Hey, if we take a shortcut, then it's not as if I'm going to complain," Zima shoots back. "It's like Istina said: a million people have already written more than ten million works about these guys. I'm sure they have all the information in the world, so it'd be easier to find what books to read to find whatever would go well for our project."
"But," Leto says, the single word practically a physical poke.
Zima certainly scowls like it is, anyway. "It just feels like if we've already gone through all this trouble to get access into this fancy little museum archive whatever it is-"
"Real elegant."
"Then it feels like a cop-out to do anything less than all our own research. To not look into as much of these guys as we can, while we're allowed to come here, and all that garbage."
Istina giggles into one hand. "I think they call that a sunk cost fallacy, Zima."
But Lada gets it. At least, she thinks she gets it, just a little bit. Or maybe she gets something than what Zima is getting, but they're both going down the same road together anyway. Zima because she's stubborn and puts her all into things once she's decided on them, and Lada... Maybe Lada is thinking a little more romantically.
Thinking about coming into an entirely new land where you have to change your name, only to be welcomed by an offered palm during a bandit attack when there's no reason to trust you over anyone else. Thinking about being the one survivor who could not save a single person then, and then being the person who saves hundreds years later because someone trusted you would. Maybe.... She's thinking about so many dark things, so many moments of despair where you're never sure you'll make it, and you look and you find light.
And the light had never left, not really. Not as long as you kept your eyes trained on it.
She's not sure why she's thinking so much on this sort of thing. Probably she's actually overthinking it? But as she redoes one of the buns her hair is tied up into, she happens to look over the little stack of books to the young man opposite of her, sitting there between Istina and Leto. He's blond, too, she notices, and there's a sort of contemplative look across his face before he smiles. "Well, if that is how you feel, perhaps you should make another venture into the old library," he suggests. "Since you received permission, I am certain there are a lot of old and original texts you may find enlightening. And bear in mind... because of its age, there may be all sorts of things in little corners that you might find."
He's right, Lada thinks. He's right, even as the person on her left straightens just a little bit in his seat. His blueberry gummy bears stand untouched still, along the table's surface. "We should go look again now, while we still have a lot of daylight," she suggests, picking up some of the books that they'd put to the side. "And these need to go back too, don't they? We can't upset the caretaker who gave us permission in the first place!"
So all four of them rise up from the table, leaving it empty - even the books that will help their project are taken with them so that they don't forget anything by accident. And with that, it's just a short trek back into the library.
When they all mentioned that they were going to go into the old wing of the Academy, Lada heard from more than a few people how it's like time traveling back into the medieval ages. While all the newer buildings that were attached decades, even centuries, after Garreg Mach was first rebuilt have been allowed to have more modern upgrades... The old Garreg Mach never got those for the longest time. Even now, the caretaker in charge of this entire area seems rather reluctant about it all. Apparently it has something to do with the magic that helps keep some of the really old stuff, like the architecture and old tomes, preserved? It's gotten better in recent years, but only with solar powered batteries. Things that don't have to damage the old walls, and all that.
So they all have to be careful, looking at the things they will be in the library. They have to be sure that they don't ruin anything, or get a single book out of place. There are tales told about how strict the caretaker is about even the tiniest details.
Lada knows that. Of course she knows that. It's just...
She goes to put away one of the books, and she sees brilliant deep blue from the corner of her eye.
When she turns her head, there's no such shade anywhere in sight. Maybe she just caught the sunlight weird, with the angle of her head, crossing over a portrait of that famous archer? The knight who ended up in King Dimitri's revenue. Except it's not wholly right, because the shade of blue he has in the painting seems duller. It doesn't really matter in the end.
But there's something a little funny, over at the bookcase she looks at because of this, and Lada can't help but step closer over to it while Zima and Leto argue about where one book in particular should go. When she's closer, she realizes it's not the bookcase that's funny. It's the stone behind it, one brick somehow just a little different in coloration than all the other bricks that make up the library. And she's not supposed to mess up anything in the library, she's not, she knows that.
It's just, the book case is actually a little lighter than she thought it would be. One of the smaller ones. And the brick just slides right out. Like maybe it was always meant to be slid out.
"Lada, what are you doing?" Istina asks from behind her, and Lada jolts, because what is she doing?
Well what she's doing and has done is moved a brick, revealing a long wooden box, and in the long wooden box are dozens and dozens of letters. And on the lid of the box, there is the intermingled Crests of Blaiddyd and Riegan. There is Almyran, carved in a similar fashion to what was out there, on the ceiling of the Gazebo.
Leto knows just enough to translate. It's actually not that difficult Almyran, comparatively speaking. The same sort of beginner level that she's at. May the world catch up to the shine of your star.
And the letters inside are old. Really old. Old in a way that Lada suspects might be really hard to fake? But one thing is very very clear, as the four of them carefully work their way through the box and even tentatively open up a letter or two:
Those are unmistakably the signatures of King Dimitri and King Khalid.
"I think we just found the key to a successful project," Zima says slowly, even if she can't read the old Fodlish quite right.
"I think we just found priceless historical documents," Istina breathes.
Except that's not right, is it? Lada feels that can't be right. So while Leto is arguing with Istina about what professor would be the best to talk to about citing newly found historical documents in their papers and the project as a whole, she gets up onto her feet and exits right into the courtyard.
Someone is out there at the gazebo, sunlight falling over him as though he were a statue stuck in time. But he moves when Lada comes close enough, her shoes clacking along stone, and it's the caretaker. "Ah," he says, stirring from whatever thoughts he was lost in. "It's Miss Lada, isn't it? From the group of girls who were looking into that history project."
"Yup, that's me!" she says, looking around, but she can't see anyone else in the whole courtyard. It's just her, and him, and the table in the gazebo where two rows of gummy bears are laid out.
One is a line of deceptively cheery and deeply sour lemon bears, mostly.
Another is a line of deep blue and shockingly tart blueberry bears, mostly.
One from each line has been swapped out for another. Deep blue and bright yellow, like the sun in the sky, or stars sparkling amidst the coming evening.
She pulls her gaze away from the leftover candy as the caretaker speaks. "So, is the project going well enough? Your friends aren't with you, I've noticed. If they're still studying in the library, that's rather admirable."
"Something like that?" she says, because it's kind of true. A little? It's definitely to do with their project, she's pretty sure. "Oh, but I was hoping to find a pair of people that were out here not that long ago! I think they ended up really helping us with finding some things for our project, so I wanted to let them know, and thank them. Um, maybe you've seen them out here?"
The caretaker straightens up a little bit, really focusing on the conversation, and his hands fold behind his back. "Not besides the usual rare stray person who populates this area of the Academy, now and again," he tells her. "But why don't you describe them? Perhaps I did in the end."
Just by the way he's talking, Lada is pretty sure he hasn't seen them, and is just being polite. That's okay. It's still worth a shot. It's not as though those guys were difficult to remember, right? Just two guys, one of them with short blond hair and a pair of bright blue eyes, brighter than those gummy bears.
"Well, one of them was missing an eye, I think?"
What?
"But he had blond hair," she continues, and that's right, she knows it is- "But it was getting a little faded, I think?" Because he was getting so old. Right? Except he wasn't old, was he? Wasn't he her age, sitting there at the table with all four of them?
All five of them. There was another boy, too. Thin, and shorter than the other one, but bright green eyes that shone and curly brown hair.
"His friend had green eyes, and he was wearing glasses that were a pretty gold?" she says, but she's sounding less sure now, because she doesn't remember the glasses, does she? "And his hair was kind of curly, and he'd pulled it back into a ponytail?"
She doesn't sound certain at all. Does she sound dumb? Spacey? Lada is a little worried she does, and she looks up at the caretaker, not wanting to seem crazy, or anything, or dumb, or maybe some mysterious other thing that's worse. She's expecting maybe a scowl. Definitely a raised eyebrow. Except... The caretaker isn't looking at her at all. Instead, he's looking back over at the table. Back at the gummy bears.
Or maybe he's looking at something much farther away than them.
"Well," he says, after a pause that went on just a little too long. "I think I do know the two students you're talking about." As though she didn't just describe two older men, rather than a pair of teenagers. "I'll be sure to pass along your thanks, should I ever see them again." He finally tears his eyes away from the blue and yellow, from the Almyran scratched onto the ceiling of the gazebo. "Now then. Shall we go see how your friends are doing in the library? I'm starting to suspect trouble may be afoot."
Whoops. She smiles, sheepish.
"Okay, Mister Seteth."
Zima tells her that she's being too optimistic and cheerful about a silly history class project, but Lada can tell that she's in a good mood. All of them are, even if it's for different reasons. Like, Leto is just happy to sneak some snacks into a corner of the library and share all of them. Meanwhile, Istina is just happy that they got permission to study in the Garreg Mach Academy.
"I don't really get the difference," Zima says matter of factly as their little group finds some tables set out in the courtyard, while Lada sets down the giant stack of books that they've gotten from the library area proper. "It's just an old part of the school, right?"
Istina shakes her head, only to have to push back her blue hair over her shoulders again so that it's not in the way. Lada helpfully offers her a ribbon from one of her pockets. "It's technically a historical museum nowadays, just buried deep within the rest of the school," she explains, as they all make themselves comfortable, them four girls at a nice big table in the shade of an old gazebo. "They only use this place for museum exhibits, and archiving old documents. There's a lot here that you can't find back down in the main school library. Even a lot of the stones and wood are from back during the War of the Three, you know. From before Fodlan solidified into one country."
Which explains a lot of things, Lada thinks, although she doesn't say it out loud. But there's a sort of oldness to this entire area that's hard to describe, something that seems baked into the stones they've walked over on the way here and hangs from the old arches of brilliant stained glass windows. Even now, in the gazebo they sit in, she thinks she can see little markings carved into the wood here and there.
There's even some really way high up. Right there in - rafters? Do you call them rafters, up in a gazebo? - that look as though they were written in some sort of foreign script. "Almyran," Leta tells her when she asks, and hands her a graham cracker. Lada trusts her on that one, because Leta is taking an Almyran language elective.
While they break graham crackers together, Zima and Istina keep talking. "Wasn't Garreg Mach destroyed way back when during the start of the war?"
"I'm surprised that you remembered that much from our classes on that..." Istina smiles just a little bit in her teasing, which Zima can only answer with an eye roll. "It was. But King Dimitri, who managed to unite the entire country after the war, insisted that it be rebuilt properly again. He put a lot of effort into establishing a proper education system for the people; a lot of those policies ended up being the foundation for a lot of things later on." She nods over to where the pair are having crackers. "Lada... You made it into Garreg Mach because of some programs designed for working class families, right?"
Lada perks up, and hastily chews her cracker so that she can speak without her mouth full. Istina is so nice and neat, it feels embarrassing to be anything less sometimes. "That's right!"
"Don't more students than not enter because of those programs?" Leto asks, waving around a cracker. "I mean, it's not like nobility is really a thing anymore, these days." She laughs. "If it was, then I don't know if I could be in this sort of place at all!"
"Hm, that's right... Thanks to King Dimitri from back then, or at least the way things were under his rules, a lot of things managed to turn out well far later down the line." Istina leans up and over, finally plucking up one of the books from atop its massive pile. "That's why I thought it would be nice to do something based off of the relationships that made him who he was... back then. There were a lot of people he aligned with or who aligned with him that went on to become really famous, later on, or even during the war with him."
And, well, okay, maybe they all get a little bit sidetracked after that. To be fair, while it wasn't the most recent part of their curriculum that they've gone through, Lada likes to think that it stuck just a little bit back when they all went over it in class, somehow. Like the Lady Knight, Ingrid Galatea, or the man who helped pave the way for the Dusci renaissance, Dedue Morelino. That's just considering the northern part of the country; there's way more names besides that.
It makes it pretty hard to choose, honestly... King Dimitri seemed to know a lot of pretty famous people. When they start flipping through the books, sharing little tidbits that catch their eyes or tales which they recall from childhood or some popular television show or whatever it is, it turns out there's more names than anything else. Probably enough connections that their whole class could do a presentation on a different relationship, and there'd still be names left over for their teacher to talk about later on. Of course, they all have different ideas on who they should focus on.
Zima likes the idea of Emperor Edelgard, and figuring out just what complex mess was between her and the king before her death, the sort of things that they weren't able to cover in class. In contrast, Istina has more of an interest in Byleth - the person who started off as Dimitri's teacher, disappeared for years, and then emerged as a head religious figure in the end. No one ignites Leto's passions quite like those two, but she does think it'd be neat to look into the Fraldarius's whole deal with Dimitri.
And Lada.... Well. She guesses she doesn't really have any strong opinions. She has even less strong opinions than Lada. It's just, she thought it'd be nice to follow along with Istina's lead on this, and she's really glad that the caretaker for the old section of Garreg Mach signed the permission slip allowing them in. He's been here for a million years (or at least that's what the rumors say), and he's really strict. Lada thinks he's nice, however.
But you can't really write a paper on the caretaker for Garreg Mach's historical section and a long dead King, right? And maybe that'd be a little weird, she thinks, but it'd be nice. Still doesn't tell her what idea she should put her weight behind, however. If she has someone she really likes, or if one of the other's choices is most appealing.
Lada leans back in her chair, feet stretching and kicking outwards, and she looks at that little bit of Almyran scribbled up there in the gazebo's utmost ceiling.
"Didn't King Dimitri know the Almyran King?" she asks, suddenly, and she almost doesn't know why she asks it. It's just... the Almyran script looks so pretty, despite how roughly it's been cared up there. Pretty, and having lasted for who knows how long, kept everlasting thanks to the magic that goes into this place every few decades to keep it maintained so it might never fall.
Someone wrote something there, once, and now it stays forever. Or as long as people remember.
Zima braces her elbow against the table, knuckles to cheek. "Oh. Yeah. King Claude or something, right?" she says, glancing over to Istina for confirmation or correction. However, it's not Istina who speaks up, but Leto.
"That's what you know him if you live further up north," she points out with a grin, orange eyes right as this taps into old bits of trivia she probably knows - her mother travels all around, always has new things to tell her. She has way more knowledge than some people think she does. "But you know, further down south, you learn his actual name is King Khalid."
Papers flutter and flip against one another, a new book spread out in front of Istina, and she smiles a pleased little smile again. "King Khalid of Almyra, also known as Duke Claude von Riegan," she explains further, and they all lean in closer subconsciously - or maybe a little more consciously in Lada's case, as she swings back forward with the front legs of her chair clattering upon the stone beneath them. "He was infamous for a little while because while he was born and grew up in Almyra, he hid his background upon coming to Fodlan - back then, the Leicester Alliance, since this was some years before the war - to be taken in by his grandfather. That was when he took on his name as Claude, so that no one would realize where he was from."
Zima's nose wrinkles. "Sounds like a lot of work already."
"Ha ha, anything would sound like a lot of work for someone as blunt as you."
"Shut up, Leto."
Ignoring how the two of them lovingly heckle one another from opposite ends of the table, Lada leans forward as though she can read what Istina is reading. It's kind of hard, when that means reading it upside down. She gives up shortly after, looking to Istina instead. "Is that how he met King Dimitri, then?"
"That's right. Before both of them inherited their titles - in Faerghus and the Alliance respectfully - they attended almost a full year here at this very Academy." Istina looks over the stack of books before carefully prying one out from it precarious place in a tower, and then checks on the index so she can flip to the proper page. "Right - it's in this chapter. Apparently, they were known for forging a fast friendship fairly quickly attending the school, one that only got kickstarted further after surviving a bandit attack at the start of their year. Well, it was either a friendship or a rivalry..."
Leto grins over at Zima. There's a low thud from underneath the table, a hissed ouch, and Zima offers up a cocky little smirk.
"I wonder how much of it was really a rivalry," Lada muses, taking another graham cracker and snapping it up into its little sections. At the hand that extends out from her left, she absentmindedly hands over one such section. "I mean, if people couldn't even tell if they were rivals or friends. And, um.... Wasn't there a big thing about them helping each other out later? During the war?" She had this on the test they had to take back then during that part of the course, she knows it...
Fortunately, someone is there to offer help. "It was during the attempted invasion of Derdriu, five years after the war started," he says, politely settled besides Istina.
Zima waves about her free hand. "Right, I remember that - the pincer maneuver, right? Apparently the request for aid came last minute. What a pain in the ass that must have been, demanding help right at the last second."
Laughter bubbles up between Lada and Zima, and the youth there snaps his graham cracker in half. "What a way to describe it!" he says, and places half of the graham cracker around the stack of books for it to be politely picked up by the other sitting next to Istina. "Meanwhile all the scholars talk about the tactics behind that."
Pulling out more snacks from her bag, Leto nods her head. "Yeah, I remember hearing about that. All of the Empire's attention was focused on how Derdriu was holding out against their siege. They weren't expecting to be caught by an entirely different force - especially since, uuuuuh, the Alliance was kind of split on how to handle the whole war and all of that?"
"That's right." Istina grabs another book - there's now three flipped open in front of her. Which actually seems like a little too many for just one person? Lada reaches over too, and slides a book to herself. "While these days, the Alliance gets generally spoken about as joining hands with the old Faerghus Kingdom, a lot of nobles who ran it didn't actually think that there was any way to really win against the Empire. Some argued for complete neutrality, while others actively wanted to become a part of the Empire for various reasons... Apparently, while he did his best to hold the Alliance together so that no one split apart and ruined the whole thing for the whole, acting like a neutral party, Khalid as Duke Riegan held the most belief in Faerghus being the one that would ultimately pull through."
Lada nibbles on the last of her graham cracker, holding it inbetween her teeth while she accepts a packet of gummy bears from Leto and then passes along a few besides her. "I wonder just what it was that made him put so much faith into an underdog," she muses, and her eyes are drawn back up to the ceiling of the gazebo.
The bag of gummy bears rustles a little bit, hand searching through the plastic. "I wonder," he says. When Lada looks over again, she can see that all of the blue ones have been plucked out and stand in a line there along the table.
Her gaze gets drawn away from that at the sound of Leto clapping her hands together. "Hey, you know what I just remembered? Well, you know how Khalid left Fodlan right at the tail end of the war to return to Almyra, and then he became king, right? I remember it being said that him and King Dimitri exchanged letters a whole bunch after the war. You know, when he became a king too, and all that. Maybe we could make our project about the letters they exchanged?"
Sounds like a fun idea to Lada; she can already imagine the four of them putting on a whole little play where two of them play the king and the others are messengers. Something like that? Yet even as she clasps her hands together, Istina is shaking her head.
"We have a few letters written by the two of them to one another," she explains. "And they're clearly written with the mind that someone else could read them - maybe spies, for example. There's clear references to other letters that they've written, both in what modern scholars have found and in correspondence from others. For example, messenger logs have lots of dates noted for when King Dimitri sent a letter to King Khalid, or vice versa, and some of his childhood friends like Duke Sylvain Gautier mention it in private journals that have been recovered."
"Anyone know what happened to all those letters?" Leto ask, tearing open a candy bar wrapper with her teeth.
"There's theories that the kings hid their letters away, but... there's no idea how, or when. If either of them hid the letters away as they came, or all at once."
While it's not exactly what she was thinking of... This is still really interesting! Lada claps her hands together. "I didn't know it was such a mystery!" she gushes, and beams over to her friend. "Istina, I didn't realize you knew so much about about this sort of thing!"
A faint pink flush gathers across Istina's pale cheeks, and she doesn't look up from the books. "When we covered the subject in class, I just thought it was interesting," she says. "So I looked into it only a little bit. It turns out there are a lot of interesting questions and mysteries from that period in time that never did get solved."
While the young man besides her doesn't pat her hand or anything like that, he does lean a little bit in her direction. "It's hardly a bad thing, to become engrossed in history or further your studies," he says reassuringly.
He's so right. "You've always been the smartest of us, and this is exactly why!" Lada announces, even though it makes Istina blush even harder, and all the moreso when Zima pets her hair just a little bit in what could be pride. "But even if it's still a huge mystery, I bet we could write a lot based off of what we already know about them! They sound like they lived a really interesting life."
"Interesting lives for interesting times," he quips next to her, and tosses the bag of gummy bears up over the stack of books, even though his friend is hardly finished with the graham cracker he's been slowly nibbling on.
With the four of them now having a more solid idea of what they want to make their project about, at least that stack of books gets slimmed down a good bit. Maybe not as much as it could be, but, well, Dimitri Blaiddyd was a pretty important king! He shows up in a lot of books, even when they're not mainly about him. Since they're looking for all the little hints and clues the can possibly get about what the relationship between the two kings were like. There's not as much information as they really want when it comes to King Khalid in contrast, b ut, well, part of that is their fault. "We thought we were going to study up on Dimitri, not the other guy," Zima grouses.
"We can always go back to the library to see what they have on Khalid, it's no big deal," Leto says, having actually already filled out a page of notes from one of the books. "And honestly we might have to. There's seriously not nearly enough when it comes to these two guys!"
"God forbid people have privacy," is the joke from Lada's left.
Patiently, Istina grabs a drink and places it far away from these nice good books that they've all been generously allowed to borrow. "We could look up some papers that have already been written on more leads," she suggests. "Because of their stations, a lot was written about the relationship between the two."
"Tch."
Hearing such a dismissive and annoyed sound from Zima of all people makes Leto laugh. "What, I thought you'd be all for any kind of shortcut, she teases.
"Hey, if we take a shortcut, then it's not as if I'm going to complain," Zima shoots back. "It's like Istina said: a million people have already written more than ten million works about these guys. I'm sure they have all the information in the world, so it'd be easier to find what books to read to find whatever would go well for our project."
"But," Leto says, the single word practically a physical poke.
Zima certainly scowls like it is, anyway. "It just feels like if we've already gone through all this trouble to get access into this fancy little museum archive whatever it is-"
"Real elegant."
"Then it feels like a cop-out to do anything less than all our own research. To not look into as much of these guys as we can, while we're allowed to come here, and all that garbage."
Istina giggles into one hand. "I think they call that a sunk cost fallacy, Zima."
But Lada gets it. At least, she thinks she gets it, just a little bit. Or maybe she gets something than what Zima is getting, but they're both going down the same road together anyway. Zima because she's stubborn and puts her all into things once she's decided on them, and Lada... Maybe Lada is thinking a little more romantically.
Thinking about coming into an entirely new land where you have to change your name, only to be welcomed by an offered palm during a bandit attack when there's no reason to trust you over anyone else. Thinking about being the one survivor who could not save a single person then, and then being the person who saves hundreds years later because someone trusted you would. Maybe.... She's thinking about so many dark things, so many moments of despair where you're never sure you'll make it, and you look and you find light.
And the light had never left, not really. Not as long as you kept your eyes trained on it.
She's not sure why she's thinking so much on this sort of thing. Probably she's actually overthinking it? But as she redoes one of the buns her hair is tied up into, she happens to look over the little stack of books to the young man opposite of her, sitting there between Istina and Leto. He's blond, too, she notices, and there's a sort of contemplative look across his face before he smiles. "Well, if that is how you feel, perhaps you should make another venture into the old library," he suggests. "Since you received permission, I am certain there are a lot of old and original texts you may find enlightening. And bear in mind... because of its age, there may be all sorts of things in little corners that you might find."
He's right, Lada thinks. He's right, even as the person on her left straightens just a little bit in his seat. His blueberry gummy bears stand untouched still, along the table's surface. "We should go look again now, while we still have a lot of daylight," she suggests, picking up some of the books that they'd put to the side. "And these need to go back too, don't they? We can't upset the caretaker who gave us permission in the first place!"
So all four of them rise up from the table, leaving it empty - even the books that will help their project are taken with them so that they don't forget anything by accident. And with that, it's just a short trek back into the library.
When they all mentioned that they were going to go into the old wing of the Academy, Lada heard from more than a few people how it's like time traveling back into the medieval ages. While all the newer buildings that were attached decades, even centuries, after Garreg Mach was first rebuilt have been allowed to have more modern upgrades... The old Garreg Mach never got those for the longest time. Even now, the caretaker in charge of this entire area seems rather reluctant about it all. Apparently it has something to do with the magic that helps keep some of the really old stuff, like the architecture and old tomes, preserved? It's gotten better in recent years, but only with solar powered batteries. Things that don't have to damage the old walls, and all that.
So they all have to be careful, looking at the things they will be in the library. They have to be sure that they don't ruin anything, or get a single book out of place. There are tales told about how strict the caretaker is about even the tiniest details.
Lada knows that. Of course she knows that. It's just...
She goes to put away one of the books, and she sees brilliant deep blue from the corner of her eye.
When she turns her head, there's no such shade anywhere in sight. Maybe she just caught the sunlight weird, with the angle of her head, crossing over a portrait of that famous archer? The knight who ended up in King Dimitri's revenue. Except it's not wholly right, because the shade of blue he has in the painting seems duller. It doesn't really matter in the end.
But there's something a little funny, over at the bookcase she looks at because of this, and Lada can't help but step closer over to it while Zima and Leto argue about where one book in particular should go. When she's closer, she realizes it's not the bookcase that's funny. It's the stone behind it, one brick somehow just a little different in coloration than all the other bricks that make up the library. And she's not supposed to mess up anything in the library, she's not, she knows that.
It's just, the book case is actually a little lighter than she thought it would be. One of the smaller ones. And the brick just slides right out. Like maybe it was always meant to be slid out.
"Lada, what are you doing?" Istina asks from behind her, and Lada jolts, because what is she doing?
Well what she's doing and has done is moved a brick, revealing a long wooden box, and in the long wooden box are dozens and dozens of letters. And on the lid of the box, there is the intermingled Crests of Blaiddyd and Riegan. There is Almyran, carved in a similar fashion to what was out there, on the ceiling of the Gazebo.
Leto knows just enough to translate. It's actually not that difficult Almyran, comparatively speaking. The same sort of beginner level that she's at. May the world catch up to the shine of your star.
And the letters inside are old. Really old. Old in a way that Lada suspects might be really hard to fake? But one thing is very very clear, as the four of them carefully work their way through the box and even tentatively open up a letter or two:
Those are unmistakably the signatures of King Dimitri and King Khalid.
"I think we just found the key to a successful project," Zima says slowly, even if she can't read the old Fodlish quite right.
"I think we just found priceless historical documents," Istina breathes.
Except that's not right, is it? Lada feels that can't be right. So while Leto is arguing with Istina about what professor would be the best to talk to about citing newly found historical documents in their papers and the project as a whole, she gets up onto her feet and exits right into the courtyard.
Someone is out there at the gazebo, sunlight falling over him as though he were a statue stuck in time. But he moves when Lada comes close enough, her shoes clacking along stone, and it's the caretaker. "Ah," he says, stirring from whatever thoughts he was lost in. "It's Miss Lada, isn't it? From the group of girls who were looking into that history project."
"Yup, that's me!" she says, looking around, but she can't see anyone else in the whole courtyard. It's just her, and him, and the table in the gazebo where two rows of gummy bears are laid out.
One is a line of deceptively cheery and deeply sour lemon bears, mostly.
Another is a line of deep blue and shockingly tart blueberry bears, mostly.
One from each line has been swapped out for another. Deep blue and bright yellow, like the sun in the sky, or stars sparkling amidst the coming evening.
She pulls her gaze away from the leftover candy as the caretaker speaks. "So, is the project going well enough? Your friends aren't with you, I've noticed. If they're still studying in the library, that's rather admirable."
"Something like that?" she says, because it's kind of true. A little? It's definitely to do with their project, she's pretty sure. "Oh, but I was hoping to find a pair of people that were out here not that long ago! I think they ended up really helping us with finding some things for our project, so I wanted to let them know, and thank them. Um, maybe you've seen them out here?"
The caretaker straightens up a little bit, really focusing on the conversation, and his hands fold behind his back. "Not besides the usual rare stray person who populates this area of the Academy, now and again," he tells her. "But why don't you describe them? Perhaps I did in the end."
Just by the way he's talking, Lada is pretty sure he hasn't seen them, and is just being polite. That's okay. It's still worth a shot. It's not as though those guys were difficult to remember, right? Just two guys, one of them with short blond hair and a pair of bright blue eyes, brighter than those gummy bears.
"Well, one of them was missing an eye, I think?"
What?
"But he had blond hair," she continues, and that's right, she knows it is- "But it was getting a little faded, I think?" Because he was getting so old. Right? Except he wasn't old, was he? Wasn't he her age, sitting there at the table with all four of them?
All five of them. There was another boy, too. Thin, and shorter than the other one, but bright green eyes that shone and curly brown hair.
"His friend had green eyes, and he was wearing glasses that were a pretty gold?" she says, but she's sounding less sure now, because she doesn't remember the glasses, does she? "And his hair was kind of curly, and he'd pulled it back into a ponytail?"
She doesn't sound certain at all. Does she sound dumb? Spacey? Lada is a little worried she does, and she looks up at the caretaker, not wanting to seem crazy, or anything, or dumb, or maybe some mysterious other thing that's worse. She's expecting maybe a scowl. Definitely a raised eyebrow. Except... The caretaker isn't looking at her at all. Instead, he's looking back over at the table. Back at the gummy bears.
Or maybe he's looking at something much farther away than them.
"Well," he says, after a pause that went on just a little too long. "I think I do know the two students you're talking about." As though she didn't just describe two older men, rather than a pair of teenagers. "I'll be sure to pass along your thanks, should I ever see them again." He finally tears his eyes away from the blue and yellow, from the Almyran scratched onto the ceiling of the gazebo. "Now then. Shall we go see how your friends are doing in the library? I'm starting to suspect trouble may be afoot."
Whoops. She smiles, sheepish.
"Okay, Mister Seteth."