Bethany Plays: SS Chapter 14 Eirika Part 2: Fiery Redheads

Now back to your regularly scheduled Marisa competency check.

Not good.

Eirika also took a hit- this will be good for L'Arachel!

Lute really hates this guy in particular.

So many cavaliers!

And these two can only go so fast.

...Natasha may want to consider moving on. But who to replace her?

Neat. Neat enough.

Tethys moves Vanessa along.

And Tana got her Door Key.

Eirika got it from the Convoy through the power of teleportation, and open the door goes!

...Yeah, good idea, next turn.

Some of these guys are dying. Admittedly, the ones who already went a round.

Defence is nice, I guess.

On the other hand, other cavaliers who have not been pre-weakened continue to survive.

Not all the Eirika hits happened.

Yay, some of them went for Amelia!

She obliges.

Natasha's coming after us- the longbowmen seem to have died down.

Perfect for Rennac to start looting!

Lute has a lot of anger to get out against the world this mission.

These two have had it with this cavalier infestation.

Door open!

L'Arachel continues the healing.

...That second archer isn't dying. Vanessa can take him. I hope.

Because he has something to prove.

Tana has a distance to catch up on. That Door Key drop was crucial.

Tethys can handle herself.

Lute continues to zap fools.

Yeah, Vanessa was just fine. 11 damage, seriously, Vanessa could take two.

Lute got this out of her imitation of Mae.

These two won't catch up. That's kinda how this map goes for the west team.

If you want to recruit Rennac with your Lord, this chest is a nice boon. 20 Gold profit! We can use this money on other things.

Lute needs to catch up to help L'Arachel.

And down goes the other archer. I know they're super-effective on you, but...

What a very L'Arachel level up!

This is going hilarious up here.

I love pushing my luck with L'Arachel, apparently.

I can't believe I'm at the point I'm rooting for a hit over a miss.

More healing EXP for L'Arachel.

This is the exact point that I notice that by leaving Rennac with the Member Card, I have massively screwed myself over. Around this point the reasons for such are going to be relevant, and I have to come up with a backup strategy.

...I think the more surprising thing about this move is that I have already reached the bottom of this hallway.

One of these days I'll kill that guy.

The Knights have started their march.

Backup strategy, go!

(...After Tana finishes this cavalier at last.)

...What do you mean, she's already down the bottom? She's giving her Iron Sword to Marisa, who is running low, I believe.

Vanessa is covering these guys.

Armour killing weapon from the armour units!

This is the funny way for these two characters to heal one another.

That's more sensible.

Rennac triggers my cunning plan!

Since his inventory is filled, he sends the Member Card over to Eirika.

And Natasha gets her stuff back.

And Tana pulls it out. She needs to go visit the Secret Shop as soon as possible.

Also the monks have been attracted to us. I don't think it really matters who they try to attack, they usually end up like this.

At least Marisa can kill these ones.

At last, Carlyle is all that is left.

Yay.

...

Remember how I mentioned Lute doesn't get Accuracy from Vanessa? Yeah, uh, this is when that's starting to hurt. Badly.

Fortunately, however, the Wind Sword uses half of Carlyle's Strength stat and hits the Resistance stat, as well as being categorically incapable of critting. Lute will be just fine.

The Wind Sword is effective on pegasus knights, but Vanessa is some kind of demigoddess and doesn't really seem to care. Also Vanessa has somehow completely stuffed his critical hit rate, don't know how. The A Support with Lute does cancel out the crit bonus for being a Swordmaster.

More Defences!

And some Shamen show up down here. I hope Natasha's nearby.

Yeah, that'll do.

Did you think this square looked suspicious? Yeah, this is where the Secret Shop is hiding! Of the three Secret Shops hiding in Sacred Stones, only one really feels hard to pick out without a guide, but admittedly, that is because I know where they all are. And also know other games with Secret Shops have some nasty ones.

Chunky Blades, Battle Axes, Killers of every family, Barrier and Physic staves, Lockpicks, and all six "normal" promotion items. This place is stacked. The Killer weapons are kinda a trap, and I'm not really sure if you need the other weapons, but you may want a Lockpick (if your thief hasn't stolen one from an enemy Thief already), and those two staves are excellent. Physic, for obvious reasons, but Barrier...

This is buyable EXP for L'Arachel.

(Also, the sole cameo of Anna in Sacred Stones. In Archanea, Jugdral and Elibe, Anna appeared outside her Secret Shops and had at least one conversation about whatever was going on. This is the first game where she's just the Secret Shops.)

L'Arachel helps herself.

She can also get some conventional heals in there, too.

Natasha is doing just fine.

And continuing to do so.

Amelia lends a hand- or more accurately, goes to steal.

"Weird flex, but OK."

Carlyle is probably starting to realise he's not leaving this room.

Well, that helps.

...Wait, if this is her S Rank, that does help: +5 Hit bonus for S Ranking a weapon!

Meanwhile, a cunning plan cooks.

...

OK, you had the awesome one last time.

Aw man, she gets 1% crit?

...Wait, never mind, Eirika isn't in range. Why did I not put Eirika in range?

Now I do.

Neimi goes to pick up Natasha and Rennac. More for something to do.

They're really far back.

Now those are combat numbers you can count on. (Despite the image). I can only imagine what Amelia would be pulling if I wanted her using lances...

Wait, back up, I have a Swordslayer, don't I? I imagine Amelia doesn't have the rank for it, but...

Anyway, because I don't use specialised weaponry, we'll keep trying the Killer Lance idea.

That covered things.

"The Princess of Frelia's pawn now."

And now the mission is over. But for one thing...

L'Arachel's got some grinding to do now!

Productive grinding, too.

Also Lute got a Staff rank.

Dancer levels, healer levels, Support levels, all around good grinding!

And I finish with a 5 use Barrier staff left. Barrier gives 17 EXP a cast for 15 uses, for 255 EXP a wand. This Barrier Staff would not get me all the way to level 18 as it is (although it would if I got one more Heal opportunity, depends on how close Tethys is to her next level up), although buying another Barrier would overshoot. I usually just buy two Barrier staves anyway and do whatever level she gets.

A later run I did also got good success with the Torch strategy: Torch, as a product of EXP per Gold, is strictly a more cost-effective method of grinding, although there are several downsides: Mostly related to the fact you must do your grinding in Chapter 11, and there are a surprisingly large number of logistical hiccups associated with this fact (and one I fell for: I didn't have a Guiding Ring for L'Arachel, so she had to wait for Chapter 14 to promote anyway). Either way, Torch or Barrier, the key to a L'Arachel that kicks as much ass as she thinks she does is spamming staff uses to holy heaven. There's a reason Natasha is much worse than Marisa as a combat unit.

It is time for L'Arachel to achieve her destiny.

When L'Arachel promotes, she gets the choice of using Light tomes or Anima tomes. That's basically it, really: Classes also have slightly different promotion gains and stat caps, but even Mage Knight and Valkyrie are not different enough on these traits to give one or the other the edge.

Strictly speaking, Mage Knight is probably better, but I need someone good using Light magic, the ultimate Light tome is associated with L'Arachel, and also I prefer L'Arachel's Valkyrie sprite to her Mage Knight sprite.

Oh look, that point in HP L'Arachel could've used for an extra level.

Lute gets it instead. I kinda want L'Arachel to retire from staff uses, so Lute will be my primary healer until she gets B Staves for Physic. Then Natasha will do it again.

L'Arachel gets her B Support with Eirika, and we're done.

So is this happening concurrently or sequentially? It doesn't really matter, although we have no way of stopping it either way.

That first line tells you a surprising amount about the second before you even notice it. Notably, Ismaire is about to get some agency of her own, for once.

It seems Ismaire has pulled a fast one on Caellach.

She knew right away to protect the Sacred Stone.

And kept it on her person.

You know, I have to feel like Carlyle defecting and keeping her confined in Jehanna Hall because of his chauvinist fantasies was a huge wrench in Ismaire's plan after that, though. No way Ismaire is doing a desperate final stand with that on the line.

Caellach calls her out. There's little more Ismaire can do.

You might point out that Caellach is an axe user and Ismaire is a sword user. Even if Ismaire were armed (which she has had ample opportunity to be disarmed- that Wind Sword is technically supposed to be hers), Caellach has a counter-strategy to Swordmasters.

Ismaire starts stalling.

And Caellach prepares to renege on his deal with Carlyle. Not that I have any sympathy for him, but...

...Actually, never mind, renege away.

Lyon jumps in to Ismaire's defence.

...Vigarde? I dunno, I feel like Caellach's coming from someplace else.

That gets Lyon out of this situation.

Ismaire is running out of backup plans.

As Queens go, she died doing the right thing. It's a shame about the lack of any other "doing things" in the story, right or wrong.

Now Jehanna needs a new ruler. This is going to suck.

I mentioned earlier, when Frelia's Stone got smashed, that only two characters are ever shown smashing a Stone on-screen. I like how Caellach comments on that fact.

By the way, yes, they have destroyed their own Stone already. Renais is still protected by the infinitely complicated lock that the bracelets have been guarding (remember that plot point?)

Ismaire is still alive, although there's no saving her. She just has words for us.

Yes, the man who chopped her is going to be doing that.

Caellach has no mercy for the dying.

Except maybe to hurry them along.

Lyon is truly as soft as they say.

We do get to see the results of this, actually. Although yes, this is an excuse to have Lyon wander over in our direction unsupervised.

Good question. This is presumably her throne room, so where did Caellach take her to?

With that, Innes and L'Arachel go right to the grindstone.

So Eirika can have this conversation unsupervised.

Both Lords get to meet with Lyon for the first time post-invasion here, setting up their respective Act 3 Lyon arcs.

Lyon tries to get away from Eirika.

She is more sure than anyone that Lyon is still the same gentle man she fell in love with.

...Although that's perhaps not how I'd talk about his father to his face even if it were true.

Yeah, uh, if Lyon started talking, this story would be a lot different.

Lyon has other priorities in mind.

This is, in fact, a true sentence. Although not in the way you'd think. Really, Lyon's entire appearance in Eirika Chapter 14 is much different if you know what his deal is from having beat the game, played Ephraim route, or played any future material like Heroes. That's why Eirika route is supposed to be your first one.

Lyon tells Eirika that he cannot provide further information.

Eirika has far more trust than I would.

This is the crux of the Eirika/Lyon dynamic. Lyon is a poor soul, trying desperately to be something bigger than he is, and Eirika knows he's capable of being such a hero if he takes the right approach...

And whatever it is he's done, it seems to have gone his way.

While L'Arachel is gay for Eirika, Eirika does get to have actual romantic chemistry with a male. Surprisingly, very few of her male Support partners get the same dignity.

Lyon is going to go back to Grado and continue doing... well, whatever it was he's doing when he's not nipping at Caellach's heels.

Yeah, that feels about right.

Lyon teleports away, and L'Arachel enters the scene. I've commented on L'Arachel and Eirika's gay chemistry more than often enough, and while that is in part because I enjoy me some sapphic shipping energy and want as much of it as possible in the classic FEs, I do feel that a) the writers were intentionally putting it there and b) they were going somewhere with this. The way they write Lyon and L'Arachel into Eirika's story kinda does feel like L'Arachel is standing in the shoes of what any other story would put the romantic interest in.

Anyway, it's Ismaire's turn to be plot-relevant.

We found her, but all we can get are final words.

Her last thoughts are of her long-lost son, Joshua.

She realises, long after he left, what she did to drive him away, and wishes she could do things over again. Maybe if she had a son to rely on and not just an incel, she might've gotten a lot more done.

...

Wait, the Prince is our Joshua? I knew there was a reason Ephraim route's using him! This is a pretty cool appearance of a minor recruitable character having a major plot role later, and there are so many interesting avenues opened with this reveal. Unfortunately, this is Fire Emblem's first real experiment with the idea, and because of the nature of permadeath and Support grinding, virtually none of the game's content- with the sole exception of the Joshua vs Caellach boss dialogue- is allowed to explore any of these, so the game does its best to cram them all in this scene.

Future Fire Emblems seem to have learned the lesson "make all your important characters auto-recruits." Which support the systems they build on, but does kinda weaken what made this so cool.

To really emphasise how out of left field this reveal is, the only time Eirika and Joshua have interacted in the story thus far was when Joshua was sounding off before the big epic battle at Renvall.

If Joshua is absent, most of the stuff relevant to him is truncated out of the script. There's a few extra lines about how miserable Ismaire is Joshua didn't make it to her death-bed in his stead, mainly. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your outlook), Eirika doesn't make the connection between her son and this mercenary, and doesn't tell her he's dead.

Joshua, for his part, acknowledges he, too, was at fault for his departure.

His whole "running away from the throne" plan had a point to it. He was probably a kid when he came up with it, it makes sense it had holes.

Joshua hadn't abandoned the throne, he just took an extended leave of absence. Without telling his mother why.

...You get the feeling he might not be entirely truthful about this "planning on returning" bit?

There's so much Joshua could've done had he been here, and that's not hyperbole. The only reason Carlyle was as big a deal as he was was because Ismaire didn't have anyone else to trust instead: Joshua being on that list weakens Carlyle's power considerably, and probably gives them an extra few outs on physically getting the Sacred Stone to safety once they reach this point.

Carlyle: You… Could it be?
Joshua: Carlyle. How did this happen? You taught me how to wield a blade. You of all people…
Carlyle: You’ve returned. But now… It’s too late. It’s far too late…

Incidentally, Joshua and Carlyle do get a cryptic boss conversation that hints at this reveal.

Now is not the time for if and perhaps.

Yeah... we're feeling the pinch now.

And it is at this point that I'm getting mildly concerned by the pacing of this exposition. The Dark Stone is a plot point we're familiar with from Ephraim route, but this is its introduction to the story in Eirika route, and no attention was drawn to it while the Grado characters were running around. The obvious reason for this technically counts as the writers "cheating", although it really does bear questioning why Ismaire saw it and how she knew it was so important.

I think they did need to bring it up before Ephraim brings it with him into Eirika route and their hands are kinda tied on places to put it.

Joshua is prepared to take back his burden as Jehanna's King, now that the time has come where it is needed.

And at this point, there is something important to the gameplay that the story has decided it's time to introduce us to.

The Sacred Twin relics, legendary weapons from the Era of Heroes. It's implied that the Five Heroes wielded these, although it's less clear how, when there are ten Twins and only five Heroes.

The Sacred Twins do a really good job tying in to the people who rule the place, considering... everything.

Not liking the implication that Ismaire wasn't allowed to consider it hers while she was keeping the wrapping warm, but now it is Joshua's.

...I, less so. That may just be because Renais, Frelia and Grado haven't been talking about their Twins before they come out of storage.

And this is when Ismaire passes on.

Audhulma, the Ice Blade is the S Rank Sword, and despite the focus on how it's the iconic weapon of Jehanna's royal line, anyone with an S Rank in Swords can wield this. It's good for +5 Res when equipped, and funnily enough, it apparently has exactly the right weight that Joshua can wield it without penalty if he's a Swordmaster.

Excalibur, the Wind Blade is the other Twin, and probably the most "I'm here because I had to be somewhere" weapon of the bunch. Maybe it's supposed to be Saleh's? Either way, Excalibur is, of course, the S Rank Anima tome, good for +5 Speed- although Lute probably loses more than that from the Weight penalty.

Excalibur is also the only Magvel Regalia weapon to share a name with another Fire Emblem regalia weapon- in this case, the powerful anima spell seen in Archanea, Valentia, Nohr and Fodlan. Sometime around Awakening, they forgot this was supposed to be a regalia spell.

We cut away to somewhere else in the castle to continue this conversation. Joshua talks a lot about his role in the story here before some generic soldier comes up and brings the plot back- I mention this now because I'm told, if Joshua weren't alive, that soldier would apparently barge in to where Ismaire died and deliver the news there. Glad he decided to wait for Joshua to get a load off his back first in this timeline.

Joshua states what exactly he did, although it's nothing we didn't already know/figure out on our own.

He had a bright idea and tried it. The enthusiasm was there, but there's a reason most princes don't do this other than pure decadence.

Joshua thought things were going so well, too!

I doubt it. Unless you felt that your mother had sunk so deeply into dotting the "i"s and crossing the "t"s that she's lost her interest in actually engaging with the needs of the people she's governing- which, admittedly, is something a child Joshua is more likely to see than an adult one.

Fortunately, his journey was not in vain. He did learn things.

I think he spent some of this time as a mercenary in Jehanna proper. Wonder how representative of Jehanna the mercenary population is: They are famous for them.

This always was the problem here: Joshua had a point, it was a matter of whether that point was worth it.

Joshua will do what Ismaire would do in his place.

Hey, you didn't throw in a gratuitous reference to gambling, but I trusted you to say something like this when push comes to shove.

...Seems a bit late for that.

We're well and truly sunk into this now. Well, on a normal run that uses Joshua. If you didn't want to (like this run didn't), there's no reason Joshua couldn't stay in Jehanna.

Eirika, Ephraim, Innes, Tana, L'Arachel and Joshua, all the rulers of the continent! One of the big things Fire Emblem fails at when it comes to trying to sell stories of common people getting a greater voice is that it keeps setting up badass "all the awesome royal people team up and be badass together" setups. Even Tellius and Fodlan have an element to this- I'd say Crests and Relics make it stronger in Fodlan, whereas Tellius units are pretty indistinguishable after training.

The five rulers of the five Sacred Stone nations, now isn't that tempting...

This is about where the two branches of Joshua's mortal status converge: With the whole palace on fire.

...How?

Well, what do you know? Caellach was up to something dastardly and cunning while he was busy not being the boss of the map. Come to think of it, this really sells Caellach as a villain: Not only is this the castle he used to swear allegiance to and now holds resentment for, so burning it is powerful symbolism, but this adds a layer of cold-hearted cunning to his pragmatic ruthlessness. Caellach is quietly one of the cooler villains in the game.

This fire either kills us without the need to fight us or forces us into an unfavourable position on the backfoot.

We'll take the latter option.

Although Ismaire did just get an impromptu cremation.

So now we're outside. In the middle of the desert. And Caellach is still unaccounted for.

Don't worry, everyone made it out through the power of plot armour. Maybe we lost a few generics, but Fire Emblem is never so cruel as to kill a party member without it being your fault somehow.

L'Arachel's confidence translates to her understanding of tactics, and she assumes success purely because we have not been killed by the "fire" part.

Innes recognises the true trap the fire caused, and that we are right now in the middle of a massive enemy ambush.

...Or rather, Innes is even better at tactics than I gave him credit for and has predicted Caellach's extra trap, rather than having spotted it when it happened. It would be nice if someone spotted the oiled curtains, but who knows whether anyone was even in the area.

Practice. And a lot of time looking down the bottom of the barrel.

But he's right. We're being ambushed.

By two members of the Imperial Six.

They really have pulled out all the stops to win.

It's Valter and Caellach. I don't think they care. Besides, Ephraim is about to strike, and he's got plot armour of his own.

In a desert map?

Seth is a lot more pessimistic about our odds. Come to think of it, this is the first time Eirika route fights a member of the Imperial Six. Pablo, Aias and Carlyle are promoted units of high power, but lore-wise, we don't have much reason to think any of them (apart from maybe Carlyle) stack up to the likes of Duessel, Glen and Selena.

Let alone the ones like Caellach, Riev and Valter that will cheat by any means necessary.