SS Chapter 13 Ephraim: A Knight's Death

Ephraim's turn to visit a generic dot. Similarly to Eirika, this mission actually has a lot of weight to it in spite of that.

First order of business, Tana gets a Whip.

Well, I don't really have a reason to make her a Falco this run, but they are my main class...

I decided I was going to break tradition this run. Another benefit to this is that, in regards to the two characters I'm using on both runs, both are going to be taking opposite class routes, which is so cool it's worth not having a Falco on this file.

We're going to... wow, Magvel seems to like it's Z words for map areas. Za'albul, Zahra...

Not actually what happened, and I'm not 100% clear who is giving people this impression.

This, however, is true.

This is where Selena makes her final stand.

If you recall, Lyon sent Selena to go buy a dragonstone from a market. Seems she found it.

Eh... we see what it looks like, later, from an inventory sprite once we acquire it for ourselves. I wouldn't really say it looks like any gemstone I've ever seen.

Selena is on thin ice with her bosses, and doing anything other than exactly what she has been ordered is likely to end badly. However, she does really want to prove herself, and stopping Ephraim would be a good way to do that.

Myrrh walks right up to Selena and impolitely asks her to return the dragonstone.

The sheer courage on this girl. Without her dragonstone, she is significantly less invincible should Selena try to attack her.

Selena looks at Myrrh with recognition- which is weird, because as far as I can recall, Selena has never even met Ephraim's war party yet, let alone noticed Myrrh in it. Maybe Myrrh's got some Renais cloak or something to make it obvious she's a member of Ephraim's company?

Myrrh's trying to get out of this without a fuss. Selena's too organised for that sort of thing.

...Is Myrrh that unusual-looking? As far as I can tell, there's no reason she should look any different from a normal girl other than her wings (which are currently hidden) and maybe the fact she's flying- come to think of it, I never really imagine Myrrh flying during conversations.

This conversation's going in circles.

Myrrh breaks the loop, and starts explaining herself.

Not that we didn't know any of this.

Selena now realises Myrrh is with Ephraim. What she can do with her, she's less sure, but it's bound to be something.

Myrrh, for her part, has only just realised that the woman walking around Grado unmolested is in fact a citizen of Grado.

Great Dragon, my foot.

I assume she means specifically the capital, because Myrrh's conclusion from this observation is to ask Selena if anything weird's been going on in a very "what can you tell me about the Dark Stone" tone of question.

As opposed to, say, growing wings and being fond of sleeping by hanging upside-down from the ceiling.

As a matter of fact...

Selena does, in fact, know such a character.

Although one thing that comes to mind is, I don't think either of the two fully realise that this isn't necessarily for the reasons Myrrh thinks. It's not an intentional false trail, however, and any potential misunderstandings are cleared up immediately.

Myrrh's job is to clean up anything connected to the Dark Stone, and Vigarde's change is definitely connected.

Selena begins an impromptu investigation into the matter.

Fade to black exposition bomb, incidentally. Selena has now been updated on everything about the story so far that we are.

And she's taken it in stride.

...Or well, she's comprehended what the story means.

If Myrrh's story is true, then Vigarde is already lost.

Myrrh moves on from this depressing thought by asking about Selena's treasured possession. I imagine Selena clutched it when she got the news.

It is a treasured symbol given to her by Vigarde, and her namesake.

The fluorspar is the name given to processed fluorite. I'm getting mixed messages on what colour it is and what it looks like when actually formed, but if you suggested it's her earring, I would not be entirely surprised. Fluorspar could also be more brown-ish.

I wonder if the positions of the Imperial Three are tied to these gemstones themselves- as in, there is always an Obsidian, Sunstone and Fluorspar, rather than these gemstones being representative of Duessel, Glen and Selena's characters.

Vigarde's kindness to Selena impacted her greatly- he was kind to her when many were not.

Myrrh hits the nail on the head, as if she understands her own, similar feelings towards Ephraim.

I guess you always know how other people feel better than you know yourself- how you feel is your normal.

And she hasn't even seen what she's like when they're in the same room.

Vigarde- at least, the Vigarde he used to be- was an easy man to like.

Grado is a kingdom were mild earthquakes are considered "oh, this place is just like that". It seems the citizens don't just walk it off.

If the whole village is in trouble, I'm not entirely sure it's money that's the bottleneck here.

Vigarde brings about a solution to the problem. I'll assume it's a permanent one, since Selena would probably see through it otherwise.

...Fado and Hayden? If they did, my estimation of them goes down several notches. I don't think Selena is claiming they did, though.

Vigarde's care for his people is his big defining trait.

Perhaps not the best job for it, but the thought was there.

I imagine Vigarde sent her on missions that reinforced this viewpoint. Someone had to do all the carrying of the supplies, after all.

It's a horrifying thought, all right.

And Myrrh's answer is perhaps not wholly accurate. The common assumption seems to be she's got the right idea, and in practice that's certainly how it feels, but when it comes to the holistic view... the argument gets a little more nuanced.

Myrrh makes the suggestion that once the Dark Stone has taken hold, the personality change is permanent. This is another idea to bookmark- this one in particular will be of great importance at one juncture in the story. Look forward to Chapter 18, it's a doozy.

Selena is going to have to come to terms with the fact Vigarde is no longer Vigarde.

Right then, Selena. Ephraim is here. Return to Vigarde or turn to Ephraim?

She chooses to take a final stand.

At no point was Myrrh really a captive of Selena here, other than the fact that Selena could probably magic her to death faster than Myrrh could run away, but this is an expression that Myrrh will be safe should she choose to leave.

Unfortunately, however, that's not the end of their story.

Selena has chosen the man she shall stand beside.

And if that man is dead, then so too is she.

Selena shooes Myrrh away before she can try convincing her otherwise.

Selena marches to the centre of this winding map and rallies her soldiers.

We sit on the outside.

We're facing the barrel end of one of the Imperial Six.

Gameplay hint: Selena still has her Bolting tome, and she will use it this time.

Lucky my Barrier staff will protect me!

...Sadly, that was in the Eirika route. We don't have a Barrier staff yet.

Our march through this place will be long and winding, and Selena sitting in the middle will get free shots with Bolting. Not much we can do there, but she only gets five shots.

The victory condition here is Rout- killing Selena early with a bold charge from Tana or Cormag won't end like you think it will.

Two villages to visit here. There'll be bandits coming at them, to make our lives harder, but fortunately, Cormag and Tana will do just fine visiting these places.

...That tile is funny. Shouldn't be too weird.

Same general, different map. Selena being a Mage Knight is representation for the new class, and probably intended as differentiation from the multiple hot GBA enemy Sages Elibe brought, but she never actually makes use of that high Movement as an enemy. So, practically, the only thing being on a horse means is that she's weak to Horseslayers.

Statwise, her numbers are less impressive than they were in Chapter 10, but she's far from an enemy we can just swallow whole. Maybe with a quick rush while she's still firing Boltings, you can handle her when she can't counterattack, but that assumes you can handle her backup.

Energy Ring over on a Troubadour, but this one drops. The Sleep is nasty, though.

Ooh, Dragonspear. This weapon is effective on dragons, as rare as those are, and also wyverns: Both the normal kind and the "actual" wyverns. Cormag should steer clear of this guy, but he'd probably love the lance for when we find Valter.

Red Gem in this guy's pocket. We don't have any armour units to worry about that Hammer, but we do have Colm, so we have an obligation to try looting.

Speedwing on Steal.

As the map starts... I was wondering where those two were coming in.

Gerik and Tethys have by far the sketchiest way of being put in Ephraim's army: Everyone was carefully written for Eirika route, and there's a bunch of good explanations for why the rest of the cast went to Grado instead for Ephraim route, but these two mercenaries Innes successfully hired before the route split happened? Scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Fortunately, this doesn't end with them fighting for Grado like Marisa got stuck doing.

Myrrh helps them out. Somewhat.

Tethys, big sister to Ewan, goes right into mother hen mode.

...Is Myrrh actually afraid? Two random merenaries showing up out of nowhere and not being sure which side they're on, I wouldn't put it past them either. Of course, we know Gerik's a softy.

...Deep down.

Gerik may like to be respected, but he has no interest in being feared.

Fortunately, Myrrh trusts them.

Unfortunately, they are of no help to her, they were hoping she'd help them.

Myrrh finds Ephraim just fine.

And flies over. Gerik and Tethys do not move from their starting positions to follow.

Ephraim pauses just before the battle starts to take Myrrh back into the company.

They have an emotional reunion to do.

And a lot of emotional baggage to sort, too.

"...But please, try not to make my job harder by running away."

This is the explanation of why Ephraim doesn't have Myrrh literally on him while he fights. FE4 has Seliph carry Lewyn around for plot dumps, but Ephraim prefers to handle those exclusively outside of fight scenes.

Selena is polite and understanding, but unfortunately, Ephraim's best will not be good enough. And Eirika's probably wouldn't be either.

Starting off, Selena stands completely stationary, so it's necessary to note that Bolting only extends as far as the highlighted square.

A little behind now, isn't he? Gerik is lumbered with a somewhat low join level and an unfavourable weapon going into a challenging map when he's on Ephraim route, making him the inverse of Cormag (complete with holding a valuable promotion item), but he's still a good unit when trained. He will be a member of the Ephraim route team.

Garcia plans to head in his direction, alongside some of my other soldiers, and Ephraim pauses to make sure he's holding some Swords that Gerik can use other than the Steel Blade.

In total, this side gets Ross, Garcia, L'Arachel, Ephraim and Tana.

This side's picking up Joshua, Cormag, Artur and Colm.

Seems a bit unbalanced, but there's more demand for EXP over on this side.

Cormag, pretending fighting an axe on a forest is going to go his way.

...Never mind.

Gerik uses Tethys to withdraw and grab his swords. I'd have him stand his ground, but the first enemies are lance users and that could end badly.

Yay, actual enemies Cormag can handle. I say as he didn't get this one.

And axemen decide to throw their axes at Colm. I'm not sure this guy wouldn't have the choice of hitting Cormag here.

One goes for Artur.

Right, let's work on these guys.

...This is certainly a Colm.

More notable about this is Cormag's new position: He's setting up shop in a bottleneck.

Joshua is going to promote. This is the Hero Crest Marisa gave us in Chapter 10, by the way, Gerik's didn't teleport over here through hitherto unmentioned inventory management mechanics.

Myrmidons get the choice in promoting into Swordmasters, who have +15 innate crit like Berserkers, or Assassins, for whom half their crits will be instant kills instead of triple damage. Assassins can also use Lockpicks, but despite being related to Thieves, cannot steal held items.

Swordmaster is just a better class in virtually every way. You give Assassin to a Myrmidon that is struggling Strength-wise, but at that point benching might be a more sensible idea.

Also, Swordmasters are cool as hell. The design definitely feels like it's going for a cultural aesthetic, but that's just been part and parcel of the Swordmaster class since they were first introduced in FE4. Plus, all the Swordmasters are distinctly Jehannan, and Jehanna is the sort of nation that would use this aesthetic- similar story with Jugdral and Elibe, who tied the look to Isaach and Sacae respectively. It wouldn't be until FE9 that this Swordmaster design was divorced from culture and beame purely Rule of Cool- and even then, Awakening and Fates used samurai Swordmasters instead.

The crazed wyvern begins her rampage.

And Tethys brings Gerik into position to start fighting.

...This could take some doing.

Especially when you're not killing cavaliers. At least he has Tethys.

Cormag having a similar issue of not being able to kill the things he's getting exclusive access to fighting.

At least he's got better numbers on this mage than I expect of Cor- hey wait, never mind, this is Tana. Who let me use Wyvern Tana and Cormag at the same time?

Pegasus Knight reinforcements down at the bottom. Also a bandit, going right for that house.

42 enemies left to kill, if I'm not careful, I'll hit the unit cap! (The GBA only allows 50 enemies to appear for one faction, and if reinforcements would tip them over, those reinforcements simply fail to materialise.)

Tana is setting up to steal the village, but also have enough Movement to get out of dodge once she's done.

Yes, she is in Selena's range! I trust Tana to handle it.

Meanwhile, Gerik works on killing some horses.

It's tough work.

Ross is mostly here as backup. He can also cross rivers, so he can take a few shortcuts if I need him to.

It won't be forever until bandits come for the house on the west side, so this lot needs to step up their game.

Come on, Joshua, not this again.

At least Joshua attracted the attention of this guy. That could've been ugly if it hit, but those are odds I'd never pretend are possible.

This guy willingly chose this.

The one we've got trapped hits Tethys, because she doesn't hit back.

I think the surprising thing about me confusing Tana for Cormag is that Tana is the competent one- why am I expecting Cormag to dodge things, he's never done that all game.

...Sigh.

This guy sticks around for a while.

This is about what Swordmasters do best. The casual lean back to dodge is iconic.

Selena steels herself for her fight, but since she's a Bolting turret, she instead delivers this dramatic line before-

This. Kinda takes the impact out of it a tad. Especially since it'll be a long time incoming before we get around to actually putting her on the back foot.

More pegasus knights and another bandit on the east side. The west has enough problems.

Namely, Gerik.

That'll do, I guess, but I think Speed is more of an issue right now.

Gerik presses forward.

...Why is he facing down? Either way, that's a new axe for the collection.

Ephraim takes out the cavalier in the back.

And L'Arachel gets this beautiful level, although it is missing the two key stats.

Ross decides now is the time to play the nuclear option. Couldn't very well let L'Arachel get swung at, could I?

I think the guy with the Killer Lance is the guy in the bottom-left of this shot, and Cormag would like to fiddle with him less than usual. He could take him, yeah, but it's still a Killer weapon and there's probably a lot of stuff south.

...Again?

Colm's eating well tonight!

...Artur has so many choices here for how he could help Cormag. I think I'm going to let Cormag try the fight.

Dear goddess there's a Sniper there, no wonder Tana was hanging back.

Yep, Selena has been upholding the ideals she idolised in Vigarde.

And yup, I am feeling so guilty about this.

So helpful.

Now this is Cormag when he's in his element.

...As you can tell, I rarely get Cormags who act like this.

Ross is helping Tana and Gerik here.

And here's Tana handling the Pegasus Knights. Although since they're in Javelin range, they have free range over anything I have, so I must kill her now.

OH CRAP YOU'RE AIMING AT CORMAG

This is why Tana is baiting these out. I do not want Cormag taking too many of these.

It may be the only hit he takes, but everyone else will bite his ankles off.

Right. How do I do this while pushing to the house?

Apparently, Colm is going to stab a pegasus knight.

Artur is going to make sure Cormag doesn't die unless he takes a Selena hit and several minions.

Joshua stands on this tile, which happens to be a chokepoint. No enemies will be able to reach Artur and Colm from the north until Joshua is pushed out of this area.

Cormag's heading south. Enemies won't really be able to throw things over that river, so all he's worried about is whatever is in the south and that Killer Lance knight.

...Speaking of, is he planning to move?

There's another pegasus knight right next to Selena. This is going to end badly, and Tethys, L'Arachel, Garcia and Gerik are going to stand defenceless. Only question is, how much can they take?

Garcia really doesn't get too many choices in target.

So why not weaken a target for Gerik?

And L'Arachel has a nice cubby here.

...What the hell am I doing?

...I don't think this was a good idea.

At least Tana can take this one. The two pegasus knights in the south shouldn't be too close.

YEE HAW! Swordmasters split into five copies before charging in a powerful multislice when they perform a critical hit. I think it's impossible to screenshot this fact, because the copies appear on alternate frames, although I have seen screenshots of four Swordmasters.

L'Arachel makes a friend.

Tana: "How many times are you going to try this?"

Go Cormag!

And go Gerik. Imagine being better at dodging pegasus knights than the guy without WTD.

This is going to be fun.

...That is a fair risk to be taking.

It worked.

...And nothing else.

At least Artur reached Cormag.

This is getting out of the chokepoint, but we're sneaking out of range anyway.

Now that's using Ross.

And taking out the cavalier with Ephraim.

...Garcia is standing on a forest, and that is limiting L'Arachel's options right now.

Gerik moves backwards so he can be healed by L'Arachel, and notices that he has a Talk for Ephraim. This is the sole justification for why Gerik and Tethys are here.

Gerik has found his goal!

Innes still recruited these two, that's the person behind this decision.

What's less clear is why.

Oh.

This is contrived as hell and there's no good reason they're here, but the reason provided is accepted by all involved as "yeah, Innes totally would do this if he considered the option".

Alternative suggestions would be:

• Gerik and Tethys taking leave to hunt down Marisa themselves while Ewan goes looking for Myrrh on Saleh's suggestion. Ewan doesn't seem to have any connection to Marisa outside her Ephraim route recruitment.
  
• Innes is sending these two not to protect Ephraim, but Tana. It wouldn't be out of character for him, but like hell he's admitting it to anybody involved.

This is also true both in-universe and out.

I hate having L'Arachel on low HP. She can't heal herself, and she desperately needs the healing EXP.

The mage lives to see another thunderbolt.

Also, a pegasus knight found Artur over on this side. She did not prove the stereotypes about pegasus knights.

The bandits that are supposed to go for the Talisman village are drawn to the other. This is bad: I wanted Gerik killing them.

Eventually he'll die.

Garcia taking a pegasus knight for the team.

As does Colm, since he's holding a big boy sword.

THAT WAS ACTUALLY REALLY CLOSE!

If you're wondering, yes, the pirate will burn the house too.

And here Cormag is with few plans to deal with this situation.

...That is certainly a choice. I think I just wanted to get the bandits going back towards Gerik.

And I'm going to go through a whole lot more to get out.

...Yeah, sure, I'm doing that.

Why are both the prizes things that would help with dealing with Selena had we already possessed them?

That was a gamble that didn't pay off.

At least Colm will be more dodgy this turn.

Joshua is doing just fine, for his part. There's not a lot left in his area- those shamen don't move, I don't think.

This is the Speedwing guy. It is critical that the right side not attract his attention.

So this is about as far as Gerik goes.

There's the Speed.

Fortunately, this whole "hanging back" thing is also good for L'Arachel.

...I haven't been counting, I assume Selena is out of Boltings?

Never mind, she's good either way.

Who needs bridges?

At least the mage can't reach Tana from here!

...Why is Tana turned around again?

Yeah, now that he's using a normal sword rather than a big lunker like the Armourslayer, Colm can dodge things again.

Hello Dragonspear guy.

The bandits are moving back over near Gerik's side, this is good news.

Assuming I can get them to not kill themselves on not-Gerik people.

The secret to putting Cormag in range of archers is that his high Defence mitigates a lot of the danger of a physical weapon, so he can chew on a hit fine.

Which is good, because this hit was scarier.

He would also have died if he hadn't dodged that, because of this attack.

Fortunately, Colm took the Bolting. I'm fairly sure she's done now.

Right, the plan down here gets very convoluted, especially since Cormag needs to run and hide.

Yep, Selena is out of Boltings.

Colm cleaning up over here.

...This is definitely a Colm.

One of these guys is going down now.

Oh hey, another Killer Lance!

L'Arachel has an idea.

I don't show it, for some reason, but Gerik has pushed down and killed the second brigand. Not sure what the next step is to deal with the mage, but...

Whatever's going on over here, Cormag needs to withdraw.

Proof that Gerik killed the bandit. Ross is just preparing for whatever I need him for.

Joshua is finishing up with these guys.

Now this is a cunning plan in action. Artur is big enough to pick up Colm.

Which is good, because Tana can fly over and drop him on the other side of the river. Don't forget the Red Gem the Great Knight drops!

OH COME ON

Yoink.

A bunch of guys go for Ephraim. He Ephraims them.

And we have Speedwings to worry about.

It would be nice if Colm could get closer, but he'd probably not kill the target.

Right, Tana needs this.

And, er, Cormag still needs his healing.

Nerves of steel, this one.

Tana bails him out. I think she isn't actually blocking the mage, he just can't reach.

Our friend the 33/4 mage is getting some new friends.

And Gerik backs off from the Speedwings guy.

Yeah, that's Colm.

Oh, you were a problem too?

Fortunately, Tana eats mages for lunch.

So long, my friend. That Hatchet is killing you on the spot.

At this point, continuing to attract his attention will be easiest.

For a Luna Shaman, that's some scary numbers.

Oh yeah, he has a Hand Axe anyway.

Yoink!

...I miss the universe where Tana can just make this guy spontaneously drop to the ground.

Killer Lance fishing it is.

Joshua takes out the other guy.

Finally, Cormag is healed.

Poor Tethys is going to take a while to get to the power level she has in Eirika route. And this is the route she needs the buffs!

At least L'Arachel can run healing. Wait, when did she have a Vulnerary?

Lining up along the shore...

Thanks for not going for Cormag!

And this guy keeps going for Tethys.

Right, you're going down.

(Strength and Speed!)

...This'll make me feel better, I guess.

Also, this guy is no longer my problem.

Cormag shoots in to start on the guys surrounding Selena.

Joshua attracts the last pirate's attention. Not sure who's getting him.

Garcia ate a mage this time.

As did Colm- this one's the one with the Speedwings.

This guy, on the other hand, can be safely ignored.

Right, you go down.

Same with you.

Now then, this is where things get a little... strange.

Selena does have proper boss dialogues with Ephraim and Duessel, but the game recognises that her triggering them on Bolting would be anti-climactic, so rather than tying them to fights, they are instead tied to Ephraim or Duessel crossing a bridge onto her island.

Ephraim asks Selena to make the rational decision.

Selena has chosen not to.

She upholds the spirit of Vigarde's efforts above the letter of what's going on in Grado now.

Selena represents the Camus archetype for Sacred Stones, and as Camuses go, she's as textbook as they come. Fortunately, Ephraim does at least challenge the idea of her throwing her life away for something as intangible as loyalty to a dead man, but Selena will be missed.

Knighthood and loyalty to your Lord only takes you so far. There's a reason we don't have them around anymore.

You know, the second Dimitri-route slot is still open!

Now, see, this is one thing if Selena taking up arms against Ephraim was her way of committing suicide by opposing army and being reunited with the Vigarde she knew. But apparently she does at least plan on doing Evil Vigarde's dirty work.

Truly, there is nothing in this world more humourous than a knight.

Duessel: Well met, Selena.
Selena: General Duessel… I must offer you my apologies. I called you a traitor, but I was mistaken. Your loyalty never wavered, not for an instant.
Duessel: ……
Selena: And yet you must know that I have no intention of withdrawing. So let us not waste words. Let us settle this with steel, my friend.
Duessel: That’s how it is to be, then? One of us dies by the other’s hands?
Selena: Yes. It’s the path I’ve chosen. I have no regrets.
Duessel: I see… Well. I, too, must follow the path that I have chosen.
Selena: Very well.

Kindly leave Duessel out of your problems, Selena. He's brave enough taking our side as it is.

Last one of these goes down.

And Selena challenges Ephraim.

Ephraim only mostly finishes her off.

Well then... there were some choices for who should get the final blow. This was certainly one of them.

Good night, General Selena. You made a fine final stand. Shame no one wanted you to win.

Cormag appreciates the decent level up.

L'Arachel got her Mag/Speed on one final level.

And Cormag quickly rushes over for one final level up off this guy. He'll promote next map, and he might even be decent.

Gerik finishes.

Myrrh is probably the one most hurt by Selena's fall. Not only is she the most naturally empathetic of the non-killable cast, but it was her words that set Selena on this path.

At least we have recovered Myrrh's dragonstone, as Selena promised.

If only recovering it didn't cost one of Grado's finest generals their sanity and life.

Sometimes, the answer is "there are no winners in war".

When it comes to Selena, it's difficult to say that for sure. Wars fought on political ideologies, sure, there are people who throw their lives down because the alternative scares them far more.

Wars fought over magic and demon lords, though? Harder to justify.

You cannot say Ephraim did not try as hard as he could.

She was a stationary boss, we could walk away. Maybe if we killed Vigarde first, we could reopen negotations, or maybe convince Colm that Myrrh's dragonstone is an item and not a weapon and can thus be stolen (or, failing that, use a Berserk staff on him to make him forget).

Selena took hers to her grave.

As do we, Myrrh.

I'd have liked a Mage Knight...

And, considering she's the Great Dragon, she probably wouldn't be wrong to think she had good odds.

To hear Dara tell the story, it's unthinkable to think Myrrh could fail.

As many as the wicked can convince will make good human shields. And they have all sorts of lovely means of coercing that.

Take each battle as it comes and always strive to disable our foes where possible.

And, in turn, Ephraim continues to focus primarily on the root cause behind this war. He is not interested in making Grado, Vigarde or anyone in particular pay for throwing Selena's life away. He is focused on finding out what drove Selena to that point in the first place, and making sure it can't work its magic on anyone else- and I'm sure he's thinking of Lyon in particular.

Next time: We find out what's really sitting on Grado's throne.