Bethany Plays: SS Chapter 15 Eirika: Creepers in the Sands

We jump right into the chapter with Eirika. We haven't been given much opportunity to run around, what with being smoked out of the palace and all.

Speaking of which, Joshua in the opening skit. Don't get used to him in crowd shots. Part of this may be the developers realising Joshua's unpromoted sprite does not belong in shots like this, especially once Eirika promotes. L'Arachel gets away with it because of her pony.

I'm also not entirely sure how good it looks if Joshua is an Assassin, I've always sent him Swordmaster.

We start by checking in on our Lord.

She's not doing great.

Good suggestion, but where? We have a palace on fire, sand everywhere, and some of the strongest parts of Grado's army bearing down on us.

Eirika says as much, but in a voice that does not inspire confidence.

The battle has actually been progressing for a decent chunk of time thus far. I'm impressed they've been holding out without player power.

Oh good, Rausten is doing something. Admittedly, it's "dying", but no one was judging their competence.

It's not like this sand is helping. This is the mechanically terrifying sand.

Seth has a brief moment where he slips into tutorialising mode, and explicitly mentions a unit type that desert sand impacts more greatly.

This line isn't that much better, but it's more clearly expressed in an in-universe context. This has been your brief primer on Desert Map mechanics.

Ephraim would forgive you. Yourself, however, I'm not so sure about.

And you will prove to your soldiers that to fight is worth it.

The fact that Ephraim is coming to Eirika's rescue here is often criticised. I don't particularly mind this element of the story- the plot setup to get to this point is logically sound and has little reason to occur any other way- but it doesn't help its own case when it emphasises the "Ephraim is coming to Eirika's rescue" parts. Ephraim is way out of position in the first place, pursuing a target that was ultimately something Grado didn't need, and the fact he has to come in at the last minute is as much a criticism of his priorities as it is a heroic save.

There are two interludes where the villain takes a chat from one of their superiors. In Eirika route, we see Valter's chat with Riev.

Riev is warning Valter of reinforcements. He has not noticed the fact I don't care.

...OK, while in a real battle, this advice is probably tactically sound, Ephraim's contributions to the mechanical battle are so lacklustre even in a normal run that Riev talking him up just sounds so disproportionate.

Imagine if we had all three of the Evil Imperial Three on us at once. What an end.

Valter has, somehow, become more insanely possessive of Eirika.

Something's telling me, regardless of the outcome of this battle, Valter's sanity is not making it out of this desert alive.

All Riev cares about is that Valter kills people.

"Bound to no country", he says, but Valter was a very petty asshole about not being allowed in the Grado Imperial Three. He seems to be the only one of the Evil trio who's interested in the job because of what it can do for him politically, even.

...OK, so Caellach is using it to build his own empire, but close enough.

It's always killing the men and "claiming" the women with these psychos.

Something's telling me Riev may not think too highly of this "human race" thing he's a part of.

I had completely forgotten about that detail, and I suspect more than one of the Grado commanders has too.

Valter probably being one of them.

Right, time to play a Desert map. Honestly, Tellius was far more evil with them: Magvel's Desert map has plenty of Plains to run around on, although the Desert heavily defines the parts of the map where they appear. Plus, the high quality of the enemies we're fighting more than makes up for it.

On one end, Caellach awaits, surrounded only by a moderate shock troop. On the other, Valter sits, flanked by wyverns aplenty. Neither of them will move themselves, though, and those Forts will let them get some serious passive regen.

Valter's stats are pretty damn impressive, not going to lie, and those are the two scariest weapons he could've picked. He's a little hampered by a Luck deficit (this affects his Avoid and Dodge), and being a Wyvern Knight gives him an inherent weakness to Dragon-slaying weapons- and the game has been handing us a few.

The Fili Shield, when held in a flier's inventory, removes the unit's class weakness to Bows. This is a series staple item that skipped Tellius (Tellius only has items and skills that nullify all class weaknesses), although basically every single new continent gave it a different name. Note, however, that this item is merely held in Valter's inventory: a sufficiently fast Thief or Rogue can steal it and ruin Valter's day. (Note that Rennac cannot do this at base stats).

Caellach lost a few points in Skill and Speed, but he gained plenty in his bulk and Luck. In addition, since he's a ground unit, he actually benefits from the 2 Def and 20 Avoid that Fort is giving him. There is no question: Caellach is the scarier boss on the map. However, it is worth noting that Heroes have a class weakness to the Swordslayer weapon, and "not using Swords" doesn't protect Caellach from it- I don't think I was aware of this mechanic interaction at the time, but it's worth considering.

The Hoplon Guard, like the Fili Shield, is Magvel's representation for a recurring equipment item: The unit who holds this is immune to crits. Caellach looks scarier than he is in part because Joshua, who the game encourages you to fight him with, loses his best trick. Although, again, send a Thief or Rogue his way and he'll be vulnerable once more- not that he's that vulnerable with 14 Luck.

That is a man to be cautious of: As a Berserker, this guy can land some serious pain on your guys if he can land a hit. If you bait him into using that Hand Axe, however, he'll drop his Dragon Axe, and that is a nice weapon that will make Valter embarassed to have called this man his minion.

I don't think I've ever seen this girl use this, but don't count it out.

This Berserker stands closer to Valter, and he is holding another classic Fire Emblem item that is missing from Tellius (why are they all here?). The Devil Axe is a powerful E Rank Axe with a deadly curse: It has a [31-Luck]% chance of all the damage you were supposed to deal to the enemy be dealt to you. Absolutely devastating in player hands, although the rewards are tempting: Not only are the stats good, but this gives a massive increase in WEXP compared to any other axe (four times as much as the next-best axes, and eight times as much as a normal axe). If you want Amelia using Garm, you're probably going to want her to hit things with this.

Also there's this guy. He's holding a Guiding Ring and will only give it up with a Thief, and he's also holding an Eclipse tome. Eclipse is the Dark siege tome, and it's the representative of a Dark spell that does fractional damage. Fractional damage is different from game to game- in Sacred Stones, Eclipse halves the current HP of its target. In other games, you could see HP-to-1 or other scary stuff, but Eclipse isn't so bad here.

Embarassingly for all concerned, Eclipse is also less accurate than FE8 Luna. I've been reacting to Luna shamen with "haha, you're using Luna"- imagine that, but more.

Starting the sortie, and we can see an important point be made immediately: Valkyries (and Mage Knights) are not immune to Desert. "But they're magic units!" The lore about mages being immune to desert, where it exists, usually talks about the mage's own legs being blessed in some way- nothing said it applied to the pony. There are more reasons to promote into Sage Lute than Mage Knight Lute, but this map is a legitimate reason to go Sage.

Knights get a severe penalty to their movement in Deserts too- it makes sense, in much the same way that Cavalry getting a penalty makes sense, but the poor class doesn't deserve it! Amelia will be a difficult unit to deploy to use the Dragon Axe or Swordslayer on the bosses even if she has the Axe rank for either weapon- which I doubt.

As alluded to, Vanessa and Tana will fly over all of this crap no questions asked, although Vanessa is not actually demonstrating this right now: Most of this starting terrain is Plains.

Sage Lute loves this map.

Marisa and Natasha have designs on this side of the map.

Tana uses a Tethys boost to head south and start clearing out the enemies here. This is where Ephraim will come from, and we don't want him in any danger- or the enemies in any danger from him.

Both Colm and Rennac have been deployed, too. The game has forgotten to tutorialise the fact Desert maps are filled with rare Hidden Items before the battle, but it does come up in one of the houses. Colm and Rennac can find hidden items 100% of the time- everyone else is dependent on a [Luck +1]% chance.

I believe Assassins are members of the latter camp, so Marisa doesn't count. ~~They don't let her do any cool Thief stuff.~~

There's a Shop here, selling some high-level magic stuff, as per usual. I don't need this and I doubt you do either: if you do, you might have bigger problems. Or maybe it's just your mages that need the replacements.

L'Arachel is now online. I will be throwing her at everything I can to raise her Light rank, EXP for stats, and general badass points because I love L'Arachel. For similar reasons, although she does have a staff in case of emergencies, I would rather she not use it. If she gets an S Rank in Staves, she doesn't get one in Light.

Marisa's really getting the most out of her avoid, although even Natasha's doing just fine.

Even if she could use a few pointers hitting back.

Really, just as long as she turns out decent.

Speaking of "haha, you're using Luna".

So long, that guy in particular. Lute/Vanessa A Support has +15 Dodge, which is why this guy doesn't get any crit rate despite being a Berserker.

There's more one can do with this later.

This front is going to suck.

Might as well deal with you.

Nomads and Nomad Troopers were decent at fighting tough terrain, and Rangers seem to have inherited that when it comes to the desert. This'll help somewhat.

Although I don't like how many options this guy has.

Let's have a look and see what this man has to say.

This guy has exposition about the Grado Imperial Six.

If you don't know who these two are, you have bigger problems.

The real information this house is imparting is in these two lines: you only see how one of these events occurred per playthrough, depending on which route you played, and this is the game's way of confirming that both events happened in both routes. We won't be seeing Glen or Selena again in either route.

Eirika route doesn't know Ephraim recruited him until he shows up. This guy seems a little less well-informed on Ephraim route.

Riev did show up to say hi to Valter, but apparently this guy was watching TV when that happened. Officially, however, Riev is no longer in Grado's employ.

He hasn't stopped being our problem, though, he's just serving the real villain more directly (and presumably has been the whole time, he was just pretending to be a Grado general because his master was too.)

...Good question, but not one I'd care enough to ask.

I really don't know how I'm supposed to take this line other than it breaking the fourth wall and acknowledging this man's mechanical purpose as being a dispenser of information for the player's benefit. Maybe he's a Frelian spy (this is in line with how useful those have been thus far), but it's kind of ridiculous when he says it aloud.

It's really not. All we've really learned is that Selena/Glen (circle one) is dead, and Eirika route learns Duessel isn't serving Grado anymore. I'm sorry, but you may want to consider a different job.

It's a pretty generic face, so I can't say for sure, but there's not horrible odds this particular man happens to be Jake, Anna's boyfriend. They kinda phased him out in the newer games, because part of the appeal of Anna being around is the ability to date her, but also he was never much of a character anyway. In FE7, his job was to tell you where the shops were on a boat map.

Vanessa flies up into the corner, and finds the Silver Card. This item grants a 50% discount at all shops, including Secret Shops, to only the unit who happens to have it in their inventory. And unlike in Radiant Dawn, we get to keep this forever! It's relatively trivial to do all our shopping with this Card's bonus for the rest of the game, but it is something to keep in mind. It's also worth noting that this is the only chance to obtain one: There is a way to get a new Member Card later if you lost yours, but this is truly one of a kind.

Rennac was only heading north-east because he was supposed to find it, but Vanessa's lucky find frees Rennac up to head in a less dangerous direction for other goodies.

I don't really like how Marisa is getting exact kills on cannon fodder.

At least Natasha is finishing the job she started.

Also keeping up with her healing. Unlike L'Arachel, I do want her S Ranking Staves.

I think the desert does mean Colm is safe from those Fighters here. Tethys won't be much distraction: Colm's unarmed too.

Tana pauses the fight to go get treasures.

I suppose this is to pose a question for Ephraim route. Even then, it poses a question, rather than an answer (although Jake only posed a question about Duessel, too.)

Our first Master Seal! The Master Seal does what it does in the Tellius games: Allows any standard class to promote. In FE7, this didn't work on Thieves and Pirates (who had their own rare and expensive promotion items), but I'm told this is no longer case here in Sacred Stones. This Master Seal has a few key uses- Elysian Whip users (if you're using all three), Hero Crest users, and Colm if you're using Ross. You could also buy promotion items last map if you need those units.

What great timing! Just as Tana has come to bail them out, the cavalry has arrived to be bailed out!

It's none other than big bro Ephraim!

And he quickly names his new companions, since this is Eirika route and we haven't met... well, one of them yet.

You may recognise Duessel from Chapter 3 or 9- I genuinely don't think he's shown up any more recently in Eirika route. If you do recognise him as a former Grado general, what he's doing defecting is a question unto itself- one I think Eirika route leaves for Ephraim route.

Knoll acts mysterious in the corner, but let's be honest, he's Knoll. He does mention his connection to Lyon and acts on that- which, since Eirika route doesn't know he's the villain yet, works as a lovely bit of misdirection while they're at it.

Good suggestion. Duessel is not a good class to cross the desert, while Knoll is a bad unit that needs babysitting right now. Ephraim can handle himself, but he's also Ephraim.

The two strong tacticians he's heard of before: Joshua and L'Arachel are also in the important group (well, Joshua is about to be kicked out because permadeath), but Ephraim hasn't met either of them in Eirika route, so he'd have no reason to prepare to meet them.

Anyway, they spawn at the start of Enemy Phase, so we have to sit through that before we can say hi. Fortunately, nothing is in range of them.

Some very bulky level ups this turn.

Hammer of justice!

So long to that guy, give us lunch money.

These mages are going to be annoying for Colm- they won't be hampered by the desert.

Ow. Neimi's going to leave him alive.

And some pegasi spawn up here. This is why Vanessa finding the Silver Card was a stroke of luck: Even a Rennac who isn't banned is going to struggle to exist up here to dig it up, and annoyingly, the Silver Card is really tucked in to this corner- so he'll struggle to dig it up and walk back to safety.

What a hatchet job.

It's so Eirika can move slightly forward.

L'Arachel gets an extra square of movement because the fortress costs less movement to enter than the desert sand.

Look how far Lute moved to reach Neimi. This also gets her the benefit of getting away from those pegasus knights.

Vanessa also wants to withdraw: there'll be more appearing over the oasis, and these girls are going to come to me.

Rennac is safe here.

...Why does he have a Steel Lance, I thought I looted him? Ephraim joins with some additional level ups- the game gives your non-recruited Lord six free level ups, up to a maximum of level 15. Since the Lord's promotion is coming soon, this is a huge help in keeping them viable.

Duessel and Knoll join basically as they do on Ephraim route, with all their stuff. They will be surrendering this at the first opportunity, but that won't be for a while.

(Cormag and Duessel got two free levels on this route over their appearances in Ephraim route, if you're counting. Knoll apparently gets a "free level" on both routes, however this works.)

Everyone files north, because there's going to be a boatload of reinforcements in this south-west area later. I'll be set up by the time they appear, but these three need a head start pushing through the desert and into safety (while not going high enough to bother Caellach).

Also, Ephraim has a pair of conversations:

Ephraim: Eirika!
Eirika: Brother? Is that really you? You’re not some phantom, are you?
Ephraim: No, it’s really me. Hold. Enemies approach.
(Ephraim leaves)
Eirika: …Ephraim. Even when we were children, you were always there to protect me.

Innes: It’s been a long time, Ephraim.
Ephraim: Innes, is that you?
Innes: You arrived sooner than I’d expected. Eirika is safe. You’ve no need to worry.
Ephraim: I’ve heard that you’ve been watching over Eirika. I should like to offer you my gratitude.
Innes: It’s not necessary. Besides, there’s still a war to be won. We can’t rest easy till every last Grado soldier’s been defeated.
Ephraim: You’re right. Let’s go!

It would be nice if they were a little less infantilising, considering this is the Eirika power route and all...

Speaking of Caellach, this side is doing just fine, actually.

Colm finds the first treasure in this area, the Silence staff. For when you don't see eye-to-eye with an enemy mage.

...Hold on, do these work on monsters? All three of the Staves, really, but Silence especially- is Mogall magic the same as human magic?

Tana stops in this house while flying around.

Remember how I said there was no before-battle clue about all the hidden items lying around?

There is still a clue, it's just in here. Where they are and how many there are, though, you're on your own.

He is correct: There is a copy of Metis's Tome in the sands. What's Metis's Tome and why do I care? We'll see. But you want to find it.

(There is only a single copy of Metis's Tome in the game.)

More of our army being unbelievably competent.

And L'Arachel making the enemy wyvern division look pathetic.

Vanessa's weirdly high defence coming in handy.

Told you there were a bunch of these. Vanessa is going to have fun up here.

Speaking of fun, this pegasus will harass the Caellach strike squad if I let her.

I say this as if the Caellach strike squad is well prepared to strike Caellach.

Colm dives in and picks up the Warp staff he is standing on. This powerful staff sat out Tellius, but it gives you the ability to teleport an adjacent unit into the distance. In this game, you can only send a unit to a tile that fits three crtieria: A) is visible in Fog of War, B) the teleported unit can traverse it under normal circumstances and C) is Mag/2 squares away. There are some games that omit that C requirement, mainly.

This is a favourite staff of people who want to beat the game as fast as possible, obviously, but I never wind up using it.

Tethys gets Colm to back up.

Technically, we first heard it with Selena, but I think it's time to introduce Sacred Stone's boss theme for faced bosses, Powerful Foe. I dunno why, it really feels like a Caellach theme.

Marisa, with a powerful sword and Tethys Support, is doing... well, I can't say this is bad damage (and also she's got a wonderful hit/avoid rate), but this is tough work.

Kill anything with a Javelin!

Vanessa's weirdly high Defence gets even weirdly higher.

Fire Emblem usually has an item called the Boots, which gives movement when used, as a rare item you only get one of. Sacred Stones is weird in that not only have they been renamed to the Swiftsoles for no real reason (well, it might be to make it make sense that it's special), and you can also acquire as many as you feel like. To be fair, it's a postgame thing- randomly, enemies drop them in the bonus dungeon. It's just that people found a (surprisingly easy) RNG manip to get an easy drop on the first floor.

Everyone single-file into the side corner!

Amelia's getting some actual distance now!

Rennac needs to head east for the next treasures, which is annoying, but I can handle those wyverns now.

...Where is Lute going and why?

Tana is going down here, to pincer that southern force between her and Amelia.

Caellach is healing from the fort, not a hitherto unseen Elixir.

Amelia is doing just fine.

Not that Tana is far behind. Wow, their Atk is nearly equal despite the weapon disparity.

Vanessa is handling the pegasi just fine.

L'Arachel has triggered her crit bone. When there's rings of power around her magic orb, that's a crit. It's... the only thing about the animation that changes.

More Avoid and more... Defence?

Poor guy.

Amelia profited greatly from his failure.

Caellach throws his axe at Tethys. Preferable to Colm.

Yo.

I always hate when an enemy is one tile out of range.

Natasha's planning on helping. Not sure why she's up here: I think you can stand on that skeleton.

So long, Lightning tome!

It does secure Marisa the kill.

Don't take it too hard.

Joshua: Caellach.
Caellach: Hey! If it isn’t Joshua. It’s been a long time. Have you been well?
Joshua: I’ve been all right. Still working as a mercenary. When did you get all proper and join the Grado army?
Caellach: Didn’t I tell you? I wasn’t about to waste my life as a nameless soldier. Still, I think back on those days a lot lately… My axe and your sword… The two of us were a deadly pair, eh?
Joshua: ……
Caellach: By the way… I know all about you, Joshua. Who you really are I mean. The prince of Jehanna, huh? When did you plan on sharing the wealth, you sneaky dog?
Joshua: Listen… You can’t reduce a nation to loot waiting to be divided. And more importantly, I made a vow to my mother. I’m going to succeed her as ruler of my homeland. Hey Caellach… You’re the one who killed my mother, aren’t you?
Caellach: Yeah… Sorry ’bout that. Things happen, you know? C’mon, Joshua, don’t hate me. This is war. There’s nothing you can do about it. Besides, grudges get in the way of work, right?
Joshua: That’s true. It’s as you say. Listen Caellach… I’ve got to kill you now. Don’t hold it against me.
Caellach: You arrogant… You haven’t changed a bit! I’ve always wanted to show you who’s better, Joshua. And I’m even stronger than I used to be. I’m gonna wipe that smug look off your face for good!

Joshua and Caellach have such a cool dynamic in one (well, two) conversations. As much as I wish we got more Prince Joshua, I also wish we got more of this phase of Joshua's life. Although I suppose there wouldn't be much more to it.

Prince Joshua is also nice and badass about his job. He'll be a good King once he gets back home.

Strength!

Hoplon Guard! I know where this is going.

Marisa has to go now. The pegasus knights really shouldn't come this way.

The boys will hide in here.

How the tides have turned.

Although I wish this front was going faster.

So long, you lot!

Tana's given up on the pincer plan: Everyone wants the kills here.

Oh hey, there are pegasi coming this way.

Say hello to Eclipse.

Suffice it to say this is not because L'Arachel has WTA.

Ow. Stings slightly.

Yeah, at this point, L'Arachel is a goddess unit.

And she only gets better. Note that her Support with Eirika doesn't give her any extra Avoid.

Also this guy continuing to be this guy.

There's reinforcements from these fortresses. Also we're starting to think about Valter's wyvern contingent.

Colm found a Wyrmslayer! This isn't so great for Wyverns, but there are other targets...

Time to start picking out these guys.

So long, this guy in particular.

There are so few guys here now.

There you are, Metis's Tome! It'll be some time before we use it, but this item can be used to increase the growth rates of a unit by 5% (additive). Unfortunately, our guys are mostly past this, although there are a few candidates.

Oneshot!

And Marisa gets a stabbing in.

...So does she.

L'Arachel continues to show off.

Dang. I suppose she's good enough.

That could've been scary.

Ow. Actually, yeah, Eclipse would've made this a kill.

These healers have really just been hiding in the corner.

So long, that guy. Although ow, Neimi.

Lute helps out a lot.

I am not taking that shaman seriously. Also the Berserker, I think he moves.

OK, you need to stop hanging over my shoulder.

L'Arachel is going to show her stuff.

Amelia's going for these reinforcements.

It would be funny as hell if this backfires (I'm not sure if backfires are independent of hit rate) but dodging is good too.

...Hey, wait a second, L'Arachel doesn't have a Support, and even if she did, Eirika/L'Arachel doesn't give Dodge. L'Arachel is stuffing his crit rate entirely on her Luck.

Yoink.

Please just stop embarassing yourself.

At least these ones are building Tana up. That's her Strength cap.

Shamen! Natasha's turn to play defence.

And an entire encroaching horde from the west. This is where Ephraim going into hiding comes into play.

One more, and...

...Well, that is a plan.

All three of the cavalry are standing on this. And yes, they were rolling chances to find it. Thanks, Colm.

Your turn, bastard.

Valter continues to be a complete and utter creep, although it's nice that it's gender neutral for now. Granted, I doubt they'd make a separate line for male vs female encounters- they still don't go out of their way for stuff like that.

Valter died the way he lived: getting thoroughly abused by the RNG and the weapon choice. Seth and Glen spit on your grave.

Valter: What now, Cormag? Have you betrayed your oaths and your emperor?
Cormag: I have. I can no longer serve Grado. But I must know the truth, Valter, and you will tell me. You’re the one who murdered my brother, aren’t you?
Valter: …Hmph. No reason for lies, seeing as you’re nothing but a traitor. You’re right, Cormag! I was the one who cut your brother down. He was just like you, a weak, pitiful fool.
Cormag: …… Ha…Ha ha ha…
Valter: Why do you laugh, dolt?
Cormag: How can I not? I’ve dreamt of revenge, chased it for days… And now it’s here before me. Oh, Valter… Your death will be slow and agonizing.

Not so fun being on the other side of it now, is it, Valter? Considering his Supports mostly follow the more mellow Ephraim route version of him, I assume killing the man and hanging his head from the gates of Grado Keep gets all this adrenaline out of his system and allows him to move on from his boar phase. Which is more than Dimitri gets to say.

I mean, does Tana even need this, considering how well she dodges the arrows that are super-effective?

I finally got sick of this guy.

Yay, Magic! That Avoid is creeping higher and higher.

Neimi would like to axe this lot to go away.

Lute heads north and picks up the Killer Bow from this area. This is one goodie I don't really mind missing, but since I'm in the area...

Neimi's buffing her Support numbers.

...As if she needs them.

Natasha is doing just fine against the shamen.

And annoyingly, there's a lot of targets left alive here.

Right, so Natasha stands here to take on all those east shamen.

While Marisa goes back and deals with this trickle.

Much better.

So long, baby version of L'Arachel.

Behind Valter is an Eclipse tome for our own. Even if we wanted to use it, we have a bit of a problem with Dark users.

Amelia expresses severe angre with this paladin in particular.

While Lute and Neimi start on the mages.

The fact mages can hit at 1 range is so annoying when it comes to spacing Neimi. This is why bows suck.

Natasha is doing just fine.

Oh, by the way, the entrance to Jehanna Hall is a Gate tile, and thus grants a lot of excellent stats and passive regen to whoever's sitting on it. Queen Natasha is prepared to take on this last guy!

Which is good, because he's just out of range of Marisa.

Then it's just housekeeping, then.

So long, Imperial ambush.

Time to pretend like the cavalry did anything to help.

Oh yeah, and reuniting the twins, that's important too.

Ephraim brought presents! And here I am with nothing to give back...

Oh yeah, right. Both Eirika and Ephraim routes can use both the Grado and Jehanna Twins, with the pair your route doesn't get coming with the other twin.

Fire Emblem Heroes would introduce alts of Eirika using Gleipnir and Ephraim using Garm, I suspect to deliberately mock this line.

Here in Sacred Stones proper, though, Garm requires other hands. In the All Girls run, Garm is Amelia only if she promoted into an armoured tier 2 unit, and Gleipnir is gathering dust.

Eirika notices that, since Ephraim has seized the Twins, that must mean he's actually done something about Grado Keep itself.

He conquered the keep, all right. But the outcome doesn't seem to have been promising.

L'Arachel suggests we organise a full-on meeting to gather all our new information in one place. Ephraim, too, needs to be debriefed.

Into the convoy with ye!

I love how the game specifies this meeting is taking place in that fortress in particular.

This could mean any of the suite of new recruits to Eirika route since Ephraim last met up with Eirika's party, but he specifically means L'Arachel. At this point, Ephraim and L'Arachel have never met on Eirika route.

L'Arachel pipes up with her name. Ephraim already knows Innes well.

Ephraim starts with what's been going on in Grado.

Namely, the war with Grado has been definitively won. Not only has defeating Vigarde won us the Twins, but the people of Grado now no longer have any reason to attack us. That's not to say the message has got out, but Grado is no longer our enemy.

Innes notices the fact this is not as comforting as it sounds.

Duessel brought it up, too, but Knoll explained what it does.

...And Ephraim doesn't go into the specifics of what we know from Ephraim route. Part of this is the game hedging its bets slightly so as to keep up the "Lyon is a villain" reveal.

Because the way Ephraim describes these events without specifying Lyon's role in them is clear and blatant lying by omission.

Ephraim kept the moment suitably dramatic.

The drama being, of course, because Ephraim is still reeling from the surprise himself.

Lyon is the bad guy. This is the "formal reveal", but Eirika route is going to keep playing the tension somewhat. Then again, Ephraim route is in a similar boat: it's clear that the man walking around in Lyon's body is the villain, but it's still not quite clear who that man is.

Innes didn't doubt it for a moment, because he's been suspicious of Grado for far longer than the setting suggests he should be.

Eirika doubts the reveal as a matter of course.

Declaring brutal, unthinking war is not in Lyon's nature.

And Eirika mentions something not even L'Arachel knows: Eirika saw Lyon in person.

Brief mention of what Eirika is doing here and why to bring Ephraim up to speed...

And now for discussing Lyon.

Eirika says, and this is something the story agrees with, that Lyon was not acting any different from usual in the Jehanna scene, other than being unnecessarily cagey.

This is a genuine surprise. Since Lyon appears in both routes on other sides of the continent, the only way this works is with his teleportation.

I wonder who he visited first.

Ephraim explains that his encounter with Lyon was... not only not Lyon, but barely felt like it was a human like any other.

Eirika cannot believe it.

But that's the Lyon Ephraim saw, and there's no way to deny it.

For now, the plan is to pretend that Lyon is not the big bad villain in charge. We'll see how well that works out later.

I cannot let the comparison to Dimitri go unmentioned. Dimitri sees no problem with assuming Edelgard made far more drastic machinations from a young age- the things that happened while Edelgard was 13 actually happened, while Lyon merely claims to have planned horrible things to happen later on.

...Now I say it out loud, I wonder if that was an intentional call-back, or it just happened by chance because Fodlan's setting requires everyone to be so young for the school setting.

Ephraim makes the observation that will help him maintain this fragile hold on Lyon's innocence.

The theory that there is indeed someone else at the wheel in Lyon's head.

Innes tells both of them to snap out of it.

Regardless of whether it's Lyon's doing or not, his actions still threaten the state of the world, and we still have to do something about that.

Well, later.

...You felt the Dark Stone's aura? I guess you are more attuned to the Sacred Stones than everyone else.

I wonder if that, perhaps, partially explains her looser hold on her sanity?

We can't take on Lyon- or, more accurately, we can't take on Lyon without also taking on the Dark Stone, and we can't deal with that on our own.

We need a counter-strategy.

This story is going to be fairly uncritical about using the same solution legendary heroes once did, but unlike usual, there is a bit of a reason for it in-universe: L'Arachel came up with the idea, and L'Arachel as a character is disproportionately enamoured with the idea of emulating mythological figures. Of course L'Arachel would suggest doing what Grado did as opposed to coming up with a solution of our own.

Innes will have no part in such a foolish plan.

...Not actually much of a counterargument. Admittedly, it's an Ephraim argument.

We do have something a bit more concrete, though- Lyon has been doing a thorough job smashing Stones. Why would he do that, then, unless he had something to gain?

And, of course, if the Stones have been smashed...

Renais's Stone is still unaccounted for on either side.

L'Arachel's comment here says that a single Sacred Stone will help us oppose the Demon King. There isn't really any proof for that assertion: The heroes used five, and with three smashed, it's not clear how much of a hold the other two have.

The only stones we haven't seen smashed are Renais and Rausten.

Ephraim says Renais's stone is almost certainly still around.

The Stone is guarded by an "infinitely complex lock", and while we haven't heard many attempts to seize the bracelets during Act 2, we also have heard no evidence Lyon or Riev have picked this lock, so it stands to reason it's still up.

Ephraim states the obvious: Regardless of whether the Stone is still safe, we have to verify which outcome it is.

And so, it is finally time to return and liberate our home.

And, at the end of all that planning phase, we get a brief moment between Saleh and Myrrh, who are kept apart on both routes.

Myrrh is safe and well, despite her best efforts.

Myrrh offers an apology to Saleh for all the worrying he's done. Most of it offscreen on both routes. I suspect being kicked out of Chapter 6 didn't help.