Bethany Plays: SS Chapter 14 Eirika Part 1: Betrayal Makes The Heart Grow Fonder

Next stop, Jehanna Hall.

...Every time.

I'm not sure where these reinforcements "go" in the narrative. Sure as hell don't join our army.

Hello, Caellach.

Here's hoping we have that kind of time.

Time for the last exclusive chapter to Eirika route. These two are big, chunky chapters.

And we start with a flashback.

This one's Eirika/Lyon solo, and it seems the two have been practicing their combat.

(Eirika has had a year of training at this point, judging by the timeline information at the start of the flashbacks.)

Eirika has been doing a good job.

I think Lyon complaining about losing is supposed to be more about his poor self-esteem, but "bested by a woman" isn't helping him.

Eirika tries to help him up-

But Lyon has a long way to measure up to the strengths of Eirika and Ephraim combined. Not even they measure up that high.

Lyon, for all his smarts, doesn't seem to realise that the job of Emperor should be taken by somebody learned, not somebody physically fit. After all, do they not tell Ephraim he shouldn't be fighting, for all his strength?

Duessel, Glen and Selena? I think they know that better than either you or your dad.

And so does Eirika. Pity about her brother, this girl would make a fine Queen.

Oh boy, now that is a line that is going to come back to haunt her.

As a matter of fact, this entire conversation- that Lyon has the potential to be something greater than he currently is- is something that will be hard to look back on.

You can save lives.

If you will.

We do not learn what "this" is. It's pretty universally agreed upon that Lyon and Eirika were a romantic pairing, but what is less agreed upon is how far along the process of getting married they happened to be when the war started. I doubt they made it to engagement, but some of these lines make me feel like it was just around the corner...

Regardless, we're entering the map around Jehanna Hall. Those battlefield features are kinda telling me this will be a map later.

This does fool Seth. Some knight.

Not dead, but captured by Grado. And, considering Caellach is in charge here, she'll probably die today.

Don't forget Lyon, too. But Caellach will definitely be setting the bar here.

L'Arachel doing a perfect impression of Ephraim. Her oblivious overconfidence carries over to when she gets a seat at the war council, apparently.

I always imagined Lyon always knew how to do that. I feel like I'm probably closer on that, even if that makes Frelia's spies look terrible. What next, gonna tell me Caellach has an axe?

Dark magic is simply magic- although one of the easier spellbooks to get one's hands on is Nosferatu, which heals you for the damage you inflict. Natasha is severely underpowered, but come the end of this map, we'll have something we can throw at Lyon.

...

Yeah, uh, that's not something you fake for this long.

Well, at the very least, that much is true.

...Can I have a little more time for Barrier grinding?

Just a bit?

Here's Queen Ismaire being confronted by our chapter boss for this mission, Carlyle. He's the last generic chapter boss we'll face, or at least the last human one. Even then, he's implied to be a pretty big deal in Jehannan culture- we just haven't dealt with Jehanna often enough to know about this guy.

Also, Queen Ismaire using a generic non-combat sprite. Doubtful she'll be joining us in battle.

Carlyle may have betrayed Jehanna, but he hasn't thrown the whole country to the dirt.

...

So what has he done it for?

(Since we're treating Carlyle as a semi-important character despite just introducing him now, we've gotta run through what he's done to be important.)

And immediately we get to see exactly where this story is headed. Well, OK, not exactly, we're going to need to hear Carlyle's side of the story for that, but damn, Ismaire, don't count your part of the job out!

YMMV on where her husband ranks here, but honestly, I don't blame her for putting Carlyle above her son. The kid ran away, hard to trust someone who you can't even call and say hello.

This is what we in the business refer to as probably the most sexist Sacred Stones ever gets.

Damn incels.

I will say that, strictly speaking, I don't think anyone begrudges the story for having Carlyle as a villain. This exact kind of treatment of women is worth portraying and makes for a chilling villain, especially if he's done something to really earn it.

The problem is with how little agency in this whole arrangement Ismaire has.

She hasn't even been replying, really.

You know most knights serve their rulers without developing crushes on them, right?

...Ah, who am I kidding, everyone in this army would gladly jump Eirika given the chance.

...Have you considered taking up knitting?

This man has sold out an entire kingdom on the whims of the smaller brain.

We can only feel gratitude that we're fairly sure the King and the Prince met their ends unrelated to this.

You tell him, Ismaire!

...

Well, so much for the show.

For what it's worth, it seems Restoration Queen had a bit of a hard time trying to fix this conversation up. They gave Ismaire one badass line in "You shall not address me by name... nor as your Queen. You do not deserve the honour" before he waxes about his romantic inclinations towards her, but after that, it's mostly replacing all of Ismaire's generic lines of input- both in this conversation and the rest of her interactions with Carlyle- with "I will never be yours", an effort that, while well-intended, gets repetitive fast. It'd honestly be a lot easier to fix him if, ironically, we got to see the situation as the Prince sees it. We need more time seeing Carlyle before he turns to Grado.

Anyway, something about a map? This sand out here is just generic stuff, it's not desert sand, thankfully. Less thankfully is the mazy path we have to navigate to get to the throne room. I always screw this up, in part because the map invites you to split your party into three, but only one of the paths makes it to the throne room- the other two fight a bunch of enemies and awkwardly realise they have to go change lanes.

This guy has a Longbow- there'll be plenty of Longbows in this corridor, but for now, he's the only one.

This door up here leads to the throne room. The side door you can see here (and a few more of its like scattered down in the south part of the map) will automatically open if you open the door in front, and vice versa.

For now, Ismaire is standing on the throne tile, while Carlyle is on the move. This will change before we get there, of course.

Carlyle is no slouch, and once he gets on that throne, his evasion will quickly rise to ridiculous levels. On top of that, he's holding a powerful sword that can attack at 1-2 range. His Crit rate is compromised if you attack at range, but that's small comfort for a few of our units. Especially our fliers: that "Wind" in the Wind Sword is the kind of Wind that does super-effective damage.

...I can't help but notice most of our lance users are fliers in this army.

At least she gets called a Queen in her description. You can get a version of Ismaire in the postgame that's actually a Swordmaster, but this one is barely on-screen long enough to need stats.

There's a Berserk staff priest up in the back here. He's pretty terrible, and he may just not use that thing to begin with. I suspect the reason is that his magic is so bad that pretty much everyone he can try to hit is so close they'll sooner kill him than any blue units.

As the map starts, we see a cutscene happen, and know it happens here. There's good information involved in this note.

Hello, Rennac. So this is where he ran off to.

Rennac violently objects to being asked to be a mercenary: He's a thief, dangit.

Is this guy even listening?

Rennac recognises how bad this is going for Grado.

And decides if they're not going to pay attention to him, he's not going to pay attention.

This is such a better job than dealing with L'Arachel. When he stopped listening to her, she made him do her bidding anyway.

There's an ominous presence on the horizon...

And her name is L'Arachel!

In all seriousness, don't open this door until you have a plan to take Rennac. Ideally, L'Arachel hasn't acted, you have a way to kill that knight, and L'Arachel can plunge into the room to get as close as possible to Rennac. Once this door is open, Rennac will head north, open the next door up, steal the two treasures, and run for the exit.

Rennac is from Carcino! Surprise, there is a resident of that nation running around: most people think of Rennac as a Rausten character, because he spends so much time hanging around L'Arachel and Dozla, but that is not the case.

Mechanically, Rennac is the first appearance of the Rogue class, a promotion of the Thief class other than Assassin. Where Assassins hone the thief's capacity for combat (ie instant kill or die), Rogues hone the thief's capacity for looting. Rennac is able to open any lock without a mechanical Lockpick! FE9 retired the Lockpick item, so it's not that impressive these days- probably why the Rogue class didn't stick around.

Tana does get her foot in the door. If I couldn't at least put a girl with a weapon on this tile, there was no catching Rennac.

Marisa kills this guy.

Both soldiers have a Door Key. You're going to need to find more elsewhere, especially if your Thief happens to have some worn Lockpicks.

...Actually, come to think of it, it might be possible to softlock this mission, depending on how many Door Keys there are.

Tethys is going to stay with Marisa, of course, but she gives Eirika a boost to get her over to L'Arachel.

Amelia, Neimi and Natasha are taking the south area.

And Lute and Vanessa are going to help Marisa.

As you might've noticed, my party of ten has been almost as fairly divided as possible- each team has three people and one healer. Once they've finished their sides, though, this will quickly stop being the case.

At the end of turn 1, Caellach will show up to put a boss on the throne.

And compliments to Carlyle.

Carlyle is still somewhat hesitant. I'd say he hasn't abandoned his morals wholly, but I don't get that vibe from him.

Caellach is fantasizing about the day he becomes King of something. Jehanna seems as good a place as any, although he would fancy some alternatives.

Carlyle abandons the entirety of Jehanna's legacy to Caellach and the invading Grado Empire, all for a woman who's thoroughly disgusted with him.

Yeah, somehow I don't feel like he gets a happy ending no matter what happens.

Caellach was happy to give him the queen earlier, but something came up.

So he's switching to a hostage gambit. Well, sorta.

Surprisingly, this is not an "I am altering the deal" situation. Although Caellach would do that for any reason he'd feel like.

Caellach needs her help for something. Each nation has its own take on "security on the Sacred Stone", and clearly Ismaire went for the personal touch.

Carlyle continues to stay single-minded on that obsession of his.

Probably one of Caellach's few positive traits when compared to Valter.

Not that he's... much better than Valter.

And also he'll probably be dead. Same thing in his eyes, I guess.

It's funny but also depressing how Carlyle says this and it is blatantly obvious to all involved that, while this is literal, he doesn't mean it as such.

Caellach rolls his eyes at a traitor's bravado.

...

Yeah, Caellach is totally axing him in the back later.

Caellach grabs Ismaire and runs off. As mentioned, Restoration Queen added a bunch of lines where Ismaire interjects "I'm not yours!" to Carlyle's assertions, but she otherwise expresses no interest in the hostage gambit she just got used as a part of or Caellach's interest in destroying Jehanna's most important national treasure. You can see the effort, but the original's issues burst at the seams.

Meanwhile, here's Lyon.

What a relief, he's doing the right thing. Wondering why he's not actually acting, but who knows.

...Well, that explains a lot. And raises as many questions as it answered.

Caellach has some idea what's going on, and reasons this'll pass in time.

Caellach drags Lyon off to go Sacred Stone hunting, and some reinforcements appear to guard Carlyle in the throne room.

Anyway, back to combat, Tana finds herself on the happy side of an unfortunate reaver user.

Mine now.

His friend is no less fortunate for having the WTA.

And these two were hopeless.

There goes Rennac. He'll be slowed down by opening those chests, but still. Gotta get him soon.

And we start by taking out the one guy who chose to attack in range.

...Doesn't he have a friend?

That's a good final level. Eirika'll be sitting out of the next three maps (counting this one), but she'll be sitting pretty on her comeback.

L'Arachel can probably get in range of Rennac next turn, but there'll be enemies coming out of that door.

Fortunately, Tana can counter some.

Lute opens the middle door.

Chest Key! Rennac will be doing the looting, rather than Colm, but anyone who can pitch in is welcome.

I mean, just look at his combat stats from the last shot. I'm impressed he got a hit rate.

Marisa's turn to promote. She's the only character who needs a Hero Crest on this route.

Like Joshua, her choices are between Assassin and Swordmaster. Female Swordmasters always look really cool in GBA.

But I went for the Assassin this time.

She... really wasn't impressing. Plus, it means I don't need to bring a male Thief each time I need to open treasure chests: Marisa can now open chests. No stealing items, though.

This front is still just getting to the door.

These lance still frames never stop being glorious. Until, well, I suppose her promotion.

The inventory snafu this side is dealing with.

Also, spoilers on which of Amelia's promotions I'm picking.

Killing Edge! It's amazing, how not scary this weapon is. Sure, if he triggers, he can get almost half Tana's health, but it's not like anyone else up here has numbers that big.

A Hero Crest to replace the one Marisa used! We'll sell this one for cash I won't spend.

Even promoted, Marisa is continuing to disappoint.

Assassin normal attack animation. This pose, I swear.

Eirika also took a hit. I think this is actually one of the shamen who's supposed to be shooting at Marisa.

Don't worry, Marisa does dodge things.

Tana having no such surprises.

This could not get any worse.

I was wrong.

This, uh, will get exciting.

L'Arachel says it's time for the Javelin.

So many mages!

Amelia plunges right in.

Wow, Lute relaly impressing.

Also, that level might have been solely from Heals, I don't think I've had Sage Lute fight much.

Marisa opens the box and finds a Guiding Ring. This will be L'Arachel's in due time.

She also kills a man.

Vanessa staying in Lute's range but not the Longbowman's. That's a tough job.

She also found a guy to harass in the north.

Amelia: "Did you see any mages?"

Not all of them can attack her at 2 range. The unfortunate saps who couldn't feed themselves to her.

Disappointing, but it's time for her to promote.

This is at two range, so the guy dies. The square that a Longbowman needs to shoot at Lute at 3 range is currently occupied by a guy who doesn't have a Longbow, so he has to make do. These guys don't have any planning instincts.

This guy noticed his damage number was greater than zero and tried anyway.

L'Arachel probably shouldn't have stood here, but Tana does have a Javelin.

Means the two in the back aren't her problem.

Another awesome level.

That is officially going to be my problem if L'Arachel doesn't make it this turn. The Hammerne staff fully restores a weapon to full durability- and there are actually two in this game (aside from the obvious of Ephraim route having one too). I'm sure they don't work on each other, though- which is weird, because of the way the postgame works, surely you might as well let the player infinite Hammerne?

Right, time to smash.

Got you cornered now!

Rennac: "...Someone bail me out. Now."

L'Arachel is not really under the impression Rennac's prior employment has been in any way interrupted: Rennac has just been taking an extended leave of being misplaced.

Rennac tries to explain he's got a new job.

L'Arachel fails to notice.

I do have to wonder who did the hiring of Rennac. I feel like it wasn't L'Arachel, which is why L'Arachel fundamentally misunderstands Rennac's job.

They made it to Renais at some point? I suppose that was Chapter 4. Explains why he leaves in Chapter 9, but is less active in 4.

L'Arachel has paid the man.

But L'Arachel and Rennac disagree on the definition of adequate wages. For a job that requires working for L'Arachel, Rennac probably wants a raise on those grounds.

...Rausten is a fairly isolated nation: At no point do we hear about characters who have casually visited Rausten, and L'Arachel's entire characterisation is based around her having never left the house before. I have to wonder exactly how much of an allowance L'Arachel has: Mansel did give her 5K earlier.

L'Arachel does not want for coin, in either sense of the word, and she imposes that on anyone who shares her company.

As childish as L'Arachel is, this is almost comically childish out of Rennac in turn.

L'Arachel has already checked out of this conversation, believing she has won her way.

Good question. There was no way he knew what he was signing up for, but I have to wonder what the want ad he answered looked like. Just how badly has Rennac's life spiralled out of his control?

Rennac can also be recruited with your Lord, but since he's joining L'Arachel's company anyway, it's not like this alternative arrangement suits him much better.

Rennac: Hey, that’s a comely lass. Think I’ll have a few words… Wait. Er, haven’t I met you before?
Eirika: You… You were traveling with L’Arachel before, weren’t you?
Rennac: Oh, yeah… Renais… I’ve got to get-
Eirika: L’Arachel is traveling with us. Should I let her know you’re here?
Rennac: Uh, no! Wait a moment! You… You don’t have to bother her. Actually I wanted to ask you something. How would you like to hire me? The name’s Rennac. I’m a world-class thief, and proud of it. A man of many talents. Lockpicks are for amateurs. I can pick chests and doors with my bare hands. And I’m better with a blade than most swordsmen.
Eirika: Uh…
Rennac: I’m a useful fellow to have around. And cheap, too! Only 9,980 gold! Well, what do you think?
Eirika: 9,980 gold?
[Prompt to decide whether to pay]
Eirika: Fine. I’ll pay the 9,980 gold.
Rennac: Very good! You know a bargain when you see one, don’t you? Not at all like a certain pious princess I know.
Eirika: Were you speaking of L’Arachel?
Rennac: Uh, no… Idle chitchat about that lass is bound to land me in hot water. Right, then! You’re my new boss. Point out any doors or chests, and get out of my way!

Rennac does walk away from the deal 10K richer, however, which considering an earlier comment about how much war funds Mansel gives his daughter, is probably covering all the wages L'Arachel has failed to pay and will continue to fail to pay for the foreseeable future.

Meanwhile, I'm reading the dialogue and Rennac picks locks with his bare hands? Damn, I want to give him a raise! His comment about his swordwork is hot air, though, although I'm sure he might be giving Marisa a run for her money.

The Spear and Hammerne he stole before we could get to him are still in his inventory, as is this curious item he acquired on his own. The Member Card is our key to gaining access to Secret Shops, stores that appear only during combat in out-of-the-way areas, and it must be present in the inventory of the would-be customer. Secret Shops are otherwise indistinguishable from normal tiles, although if you see a dead end with seemingly no purpose, that might be a good place to poke around.

Sacred Stones does not allow you to visit Secret Shops on the world map during the main story, even if you found it in the mission proper. It does, however, allow it (only to the unit holding the Member Card as usual) in the postgame.

Everything gets dumped into the convoy. I have no idea why I let him keep the Member Card. That was dumb of me.

Now that Natasha is using her animations again, we get to see her healing again.

At any rate, it's Amelia's turn to promote.

Cavaliers may promote into Paladins, who have 8 Move, or Great Knights, who have 6 Move, Axes, and for some reason are considered Armour units for the purposes of anti-armour weaponry. It says a lot about Axes that this decision is a contest for any unit.

(Cavaliers have 7 move.)

Had Amelia promoted into a Knight, you would be presented with these choices. Both classes have weapon triangle control, so your decision is whether to put her on a horse or to give her Great Shield, a class skill that gives a Level% chance to completely nullify an enemy attack.

If you made Amelia a Knight, you planned to make her a General anyway. The class animations are the coolest in the game by far, at least in comparison to accessibility. (Unlike the Elibe games, Sacred Stones has no prepromoted General unit, at least not in the main story.)

We're going with Great Knight Amelia. The narrative pull of her adopting Duessel's class makes me fond of this as it is, but this is also the only way the All-Girls run has any access to the game's Axes, and it's nice to not have everyone using the same weapon types.

Speaking of Amelia adopting Duessel's class, the Great Knight also has the interesting downside of having a lot of overlap in terms of what characters can wear its armour. Duessel, Amelia and Forde all wear red armour, and while not indistinguishable, it is hard to tell apart at a glance. Kyle and Gilliam's green armour isn't much better, either.

"So what is Amelia good at?"
"Yes."

Neimi switches her to the Hatchet, so she can start axing people for WEXP.

Speaking of switches, Lute takes the Chest Key.

Vanessa's going over here.

I think it's less "Lute wants the Chest Key" and more "Vanessa wants the Door Key drop."

There's reinforcements down here for Marisa to fight.

L'Arachel, in danger? Don't make me laugh.

This is Amelia in every class.

And one of them tried out Neimi, because Amelia was just that terrifying.

Amelia charges forward for more axing.

Natasha's going up, which'll get her some combat with those archers. This is a positive for her, honestly.

Not sure where Marisa's going by this point.

At least Tethys is enjoying it.

This is going to be fun for Vanessa. Let's not and say we did.

...Vanessa can't go forward and out of range. Damn.

Hang back it is.

L'Arachel pulls back for healing duty. We don't really have much forward progress to make here.

And Tana should be making that progress anyway.

Rennac's going down to open chests.

And Eirika's just here for L'Arachel Support.

What's the point of all that armour if you don't get hit?

Only slightly better.

This turn is full of all the pathetic enemies.

Reinforcements have arrived!

Not sure what Rennac's plan is here.

Vanessa goes right past the Sniper.

Lute isn't coming up to help yet, though.

This guy has an Axereaver, which makes him fodder for Neimi's sword.

Freeing Amelia to open the door and fight these guys.

...Wait, can that Merc hit Lute?

Yup. Dang. Ah well.

Natasha finishes this one.

And Marisa works on opening this wall. Now that the south side is finishing up, everyone is going to have to come this way.

Tana is the only person doing any combat in the north, and soon, this will be where all the enemies are.

L'Arachel does want to get shot at for some spare EXP.

So long, little man.

All the cavaliers are coming this way, frustratingly.

Of course she got hit.

Amelia and Neimi choose to go this way. North is probably the faster way, but there's a bunch of cavaliers in the south they could try and divert...

More Longbow guys.

And now Lute deals with that chunky Sniper boy.

...And also some of the guards who have 1-2 weapons.

Dangit, just off...

Marisa finishes the wall.

And Rennac has a place to hide.

That is a wall.

Hello, Door Key. This guy is over near Tana, and without him, I have no real plan to get into the main throne room area where Carlyle is. I probably should've thought that through better.