SS Chapter 16 Eirika: Renais's Darling

Our next objective is Castle Renais, in the middle of the map. It'll be good to be home.

The routes have well and truly converged now, and the game quietly adds Ephraim's route through Grado to Eirika route, and vice versa. You can play on some of the maps if monsters spawn, and you can also buy from their shops, but there is no other benefit. Well, it also adds another route to make sure you can reach as many shops as possible unmolested despite the increase in enemy spawns.

Time to sell anything I don't plan on using.

So long, Dark magic. There's a glitch to let any unit use Dark magic, which I'll be explaining when it becomes relevant, but I was not confident enough to pull it off, and I felt I should keep my experience pretty vanilla. Besides, I wasn't sure who was getting it- probably Natasha, but Natasha has... issues.

Unlike the rest of the stat-boosters, which I am hoarding like a dragon, the Swiftsole and Body Ring boost stats that will never go up by any other means, so you should use them as soon as you get them. The Swiftsole goes straight onto Tethys, because Dancer Boots is always the good way to go, while Lute gets the Body Ring. This will allow her to wield Thunder tomes without penalty.

Resupply of Iron Swords, go!

In other news, Tana has been getting a lot of EXP to herself, and also she has capped her Strength. 23 Strength cap is kinda crippling on Tana, but she still hits hard enough to make her enemies think twice.

Right, Metis's Tome. Like the Swiftsoles and Body Ring, this also is the only way to boost what it does, except even moreso: You want to use it as early as possible in a unit's lifespan, so they can reap the greatest benefits from an extra +5% growths. The ideal candidate for the tome is someone who is low in level and has shaky growths that could do with a little extra confidence: As tempting as it is to wait until now to grind L'Arachel up, L'Arachel can cap everything but HP/Skill/Def just fine on her own.

I picked Neimi, although Eirika herself wasn't a bad choice.

Tee hee, "maturity increased". One of these days I'll care enough to figure out why it's called that.

The twins have not been in Renais since... well, since it got conquered. Eirika visited briefly in Chapters 2-4, at least, but otherwise, our twins have been pretty hands-off when it comes to how they're handling their home country. Now, was it a smart choice? Probably, but tell that to our people.

Renais's steward, in a rare moment of sanity, is a person from Renais!

Although he's not acting in Renais's interest.

Orson also hasn't been doing a good job, but we'll talk about that more when we see it.

This is a really good title. Just my favourite kind: It's obvious what it means on first reading, but once you finish the chapter, it turns out it's talking about something else.

Oh hi, Myrrh, funny to see you here.

...Hm?

Those houses were already busted. I almost remembered otherwise too.

This is the first time we're seeing Ephraim react to Orson's betrayal, and it seems he took it hard.

Ephraim realises that someone he trusted wasn't actually doing great. Not the only time this comes up.

I'll be entirely honest, despite this dialogue being on the beaten path, I often forget they do tell us when Orson's wife died. The game is pretty explicit she is dead, but I always thought it was more up to interpretation how proportionate Orson's reaction is.

Orson really loved his wife. Considering Garcia, I wonder how much this really says about him as compared to his cohort.

Orson is... not emotionally engaged with the world anymore.

And... this man is still alive? If he died at some point of starvation, how long would it take for someone to notice? It's not like he does anything.

Even Innes's spies are no help. Although it's not like they were much help before.

It's a little difficult to indict him for this when we're not doing anything to help either.

And the people have had enough.

...Why not? The people revolting against Orson isn't the worst outcome in the world. Sure, maybe Orson's knights might get deployed (it's Orson, no guarantee), but now that you're here, any such attempts can be fended off by our cadre and no harm done, right? What, exactly, do you have to lose if a revolt happens?

Uh, guys, you do remember it's Eirika's route, right?

At any rate, we do have another spotlight scene for Ephraim, but at least when it comes to Myrrh, of course it's going through Ephraim.

Myrrh's joining the party! And about time, too.

Yeah, this is one of the weirdest plot points ever, and this is something I don't think gets explained in any game that has dragonstones in it: they run out. Myrrh may attack 50 times total before she's useless forever.

The longest-lived sentient life on the continent.

Myrrh is happy to do it for Ephraim.

Myrrh does legitimately risk death early on in her usage, but she quickly gets better.

And at any rate, Ephraim and Myrrh have a Support. Not one I'll be getting, but...

Cutaway to check in on how Orson is doing. That green unit in his room looks rather feminine, considering this guy is a married and loyal man.

Orson's found his love.

By the way, I'm not skipping any lines of dialogue, we don't get to hear (or even see) Orson's love.

Lyon and Riev follow him into the room.

And we get to eavesdrop on the guards.

They have no idea what's going on in there, and they're right outside. Orson must have some great soundproofing, but I wonder what noises sneak out and how wild these rumours get in response. You could probably get some nasty stuff if you play telephone long enough.

Dangerous to practically anybody involved, really. But when it comes to the people of Renais, the answer is yes.

Does he need help? Probably, but I'm not entirely convinced we're getting in talking distance.

The quality of his soldiers, right here. If your only soldiers are interested only in their paychecks, you might need to reconsider your internal systems.

This feels like it's a narrative discussion of some kind, but I don't know about what. Probably the Sacred Stone and the Twins.

These are not treasures this man will get to sell. I don't think the player can sell the Twins for in-game cash.

Meanwhile, Orson is interrupted from his time with darling Monica to listen to Riev. Yeah, I'd have an annoyed "......" too.

Riev is an asshole and needles Orson about how he betrayed his homeland to get what he has. Mostly because he is Riev and he's just like that to people he doesn't respect- which is most people. He's even like this with Valter.

Orson does not feel unsatisfied with what Grado has given him. Riev's taunts would've meant something if Orson realises how hollow his victory is, but Orson genuinely believes he's got what he wanted.

Honestly, it's not like his betrayal did much to hurt us (apart from telling Grado the bracelets are the key to the Stone, which I don't think the writers seem to believe is Orson's fault, he mostly leads Eirika and Ephraim into traps they were planning on entering anyway). I kinda feel bad for the guy, and I have a very shallow pool of reasons to consider him evil, worth killing, or similar. He's not a Camus by any stretch, but he is to be pitied.

Orson even declares that, since he did what Grado asked of him, he is not required to do anything more.

Now that Eirika and Ephraim have turned to his place of residence, however... his hand is kinda forced.

Interesting he pipes up "Eirika?". Aside from leading her into Renvall, the two don't really interact, although Orson being a wholesome family man means they'd probably have some common ground if they did.

Insomuch as the man has family to punish. I'm not sure if it's depression from losing his wife or age, but Orson does not look like his relatives are active in the political scene outside of him, nor is he ever mentioned as having children.

...I hope he doesn't have kids.

I was vague about Orson's love potentially being a new girl, but nope, Riev comes right out and confirms the matter with no wiggle room: Orson has his wife back.

Riev also tries to prey on Orson's fear of losing his wife by making this threat, and while we know Grado has been seeding an effective propaganda trail to make Eirika and Ephraim come off as the kinds of people who would make good on this, Orson is also the one person loyal to Grado who would never believe it. Well, if he were still entirely there.

Orson is easily convinced, more out of fear of losing his wife again than any judgement about how realistic an outcome it would be.

Those are excellent blink frames, if not intentionally set.

Orson says his goodbyes and prepares to face us.

Although he entertains the notion he will return.

Yeah, return from Ephraim's lance? I think these two will be reuniting on the other plane.

Riev and Lyon will take an opportunity to converse.

Riev mocks Orson for believing a walking corpse like Vigarde is any substitute for the real deal.

To the face of someone who relied on that thought, once.

Lyon is uncertain on his feet and in little condition to be making any philosophical arguments on this topic.

Riev says this, and I think he's not talking to Lyon. At this point in Eirika route, while we have been told Lyon has been spotted being evil, we have yet to see any evidence, even while Eirika isn't looking.

Riev has loyalty to one authority in Magvel, and whoever that is, he is currently running around as Prince Lyon. Riev was never loyal to Vigarde, but Lyon was pulling all the strings, so obey Vigarde's orders he did. He probably advised Lyon on what they should be.

Anyway, map time, and we start by looking in on Myrrh's stats. Myrrh is obscenely powerful, even though her stats would make Eirika and Neimi blush. Her growths, you see, are massive, with growths over 100% in HP and Defence, as well as decent stuff in the rest. I suspect she's also considered an unpromoted unit internally, so any kills she gets will get her a good solid 80-100 EXP, depending on what it is she's killing (don't feed her promoted stuff, she doesn't need it until level 10-15). Her weaknesses are her low Speed and Luck, as well as her HP if you don't get a lot of +2s. The low Speed and Luck thing isn't about avoiding hits, she doesn't really need to dodgetank, but she's scared of doubles and crits, especially from Bows (she is considered a flier) and Luna tomes (they still suck, but they ignore Myrrh's Resistance and are still critty enough that Myrrh might legitimately get oneshot by one if you're not careful).

The Dragonstone is her sole weapon, rated at 16 Might (and also 15 crit!), and attacking only at range 1. All of her massive bonuses in Str/Skill/Def/Res are credited to this, and it's also considered Effective against monsters, so she'll be even more obscenely powerful on monster maps. As previously mentioned, use it 50 times and it's gone forever. If Myrrh gets hit by something at range while she has it, though, she will get the stat buffs from holding it without consuming a use.

Bantu and Tiki had infinite use dragonstones in FE1, and while they did become consumable in FE3, they used a very forgiving system of "one use lasts you several turns" (for items that had 18 uses). I don't know why Fae and Myrrh only get one to go around, but this continued on to FE11 for Bantu and Tiki before the devs finally realised this was a terrible system and made dragonstones easier to replace for FEs 12 and 13, and finally unbreakable once more in Fates. The official explanation for why they're infinite in Ylisse is that they're sold as normal rubies and diamonds by humans who don't recognise their true power, which is amazing in light of how rare they supposedly are here in Magvel.

We're sieging a castle, and we start right at the entrance. Ephraim route is still a distinct map, and has a different spawn, but all this means is that they can consider using the entrace up in the north-west, while Eirika really has no reason to do so. Even a flier will take too long to get there and cause mayhem.

Some Dark magic users down there for L'Arachel to feed on, a knight guarding a chest, and some assorted unpromoted fodder for the main army.

Here's the scary stuff. Warriors to hit us hard if they can, Heroes to be nuisances by any means necessary, and two powerful Sages.

Orson comes with an entirely new description, but his stats aren't actually that much better considering he's gained 10 levels over the Orson we had in 5x (about half of his statups were in his HP). I believe this version of Orson is an entirely different entity from the game's perspective, so the level-up I fed him has been completely ignored. He won't pose much of a challenge to us.

Funnily enough, Orson did have a Silver Sword in 5x.

Both Sages have siege tomes, in both different flavours. Interestingly, the Purge Sage is set to drop his copy. L'Arachel has her eyes on that...

One of the Heroes drops a Hero Crest, but that's less interesting unless you're using a large amount of Gerik, Joshua, Garcia, Fighter Ross, and Marisa.

One of the priests will drop his Physic, too.

We begin, as all stories do, with a dragon mauling a man.

Also, Chapter 16 is the first mission to use Sacred Stones' most beloved map theme, Truth, Despair and Hope. This will play on all maps until the final one from here on out, and I love it too.

The summary of using Myrrh fresh. Against monsters, she doesn't have this problem, so it's not a horrible suggestion to use her only once those are everywhere.

Myrrh turns into her dragon form at the start of every fight and reverts at the end. I believe the AI does not recognise her dragonstone bonuses when selecting a target, and it's neat that it sort-of ties into how Myrrh behaves in the animations.

L'Arachel finishes.

Metis's readings at work.

And then the general funnelling in to this small hallway.

Amelia starts axing for Axe rank.

Myrrh finds something she can chew on.

Myrrh's level up screens in a nutshell.

A lot of units want to train their off-weapons.

And Myrrh has no fear of your puny "thunder magic". Come back in Radiant Dawn.

Imagine being doubled by Myrrh.

...And yet, somehow they do damage.

L'Arachel prepares to deal with the shamen.

You guys are pathetic.

Shine on.

Tana has wandered into Bolting range. She is no more afraid of it than her Ephraim route counterpart.

Blast.

Enemy reinforcements! And they're all Great Knights! And that one cavalier.

Even if it wasn't for that one guy, Myrrh gets a lot of cuts and scrapes levelling up.

Right, you need to go.

And Amelia and Neimi take point against the Warriors.

With Tana blocking the backline.

Neimi does just fine.

Although her level up screens aren't as great as I was promised.

All right, time to consider preparing for that.

Purge guy has spotted Eirika! It's debatable if she has seen him.

And a Physic for someone Neimi didn't kill.

Enough out of you, buster.

...I look at this inventory and suddenly consider my options.

First thing's first, this guy does need to go.

Amelia sets up here.

And I generally start cleaning out the warriors.

It's bulk.

There's a druid over here.

Vanessa and Lute drew Great Knight duty. This may not be a bad time to use Devil Axe Amelia.

Neimi has been drawing the enemy attention.

Including the Bolting Sage...

And the Purge Sage.

Also this guy.

Marisa's grabbing the chest over here.

She had to fish for a crit to kill this guy. As opposed to every other unit.

Defensive line, form up!

And now for the nightmare that is this front. Although I notice four blue units and a dancer to five red units.

L'Arachel gets Skill, which is decent enough, but still. She could be better.

Told you I had enough hands.

Got a Hero Crest that's going straight to resale, and a Purge tome. This is the only place to acquire Purge in the main story, and L'Arachel is drooling.

Remember what I said about Myrrh being scared of Luna tomes? Yeah, I think that's the most terrifying numbers a Luna user has ever gotten against one of my units. Still on the unhappy side of True Hit, but to a unit losing more than three quarters of their health without a crit...

Here are some more reassuring numbers.

...Hey yeah, I just completely skipped past the fact a Thief spawned and tried to get Marisa's loot. He's gone now.

And he gave Myrrh a balanced diet.

Right, no more terrifying Myrrh.

Continuing to tick up.

Yay?

Amelia might appreciate it later.

Tethys sends Rennac up. There's a Thief coming in on this side, too.

L'Arachel heals someone! All the people I want healing are off on their own adventures.

Amelia, meanwhile, coniders her numbers against Orson. This is in range of Neimi's Support, and what pleasant numbers.

Tana takes out the other priest, to be sure.

And Vanessa prepares for a horde of great knights.

They pop like EXP pinatas.

And Vanessa's working on her HP as normal. Well, normal for Vanessa, not sure what my Vanessa's been doing unpromoted.

This one isn't even worth the armour he bears.

That's my Vanessa.

Orson engages Amelia with WTA over 1-2 range, and continues to harbour his delusions of success.

Both in the "he thinks he can win this fight" and the "he thinks winning this fight will make him happy" senses.

Even with a massive increase in Hit, he doesn't manage to hit Amelia.

And Amelia gets him both times.

Money! Not much of it, though.

A soldier of Grado started it, but really, I think Neimi is a surprisingly good choice to end this fight with. A citizen of Renais finally deals with the man who has been terrorising it all of Act 2. The people's revolt has come!

He dies with his wife in mind, just as he lived. Sometimes... you just have to move on.

I'll take those stats.

Eirika: Why would you betray us?
Orson: …Princess Eirika. If anyone could understand my feelings it might be you. For the one I love… I betrayed everything. My country, my lord and master… Everything…

Orson: Prince Ephraim… You never did know when to quit. Renais is already lost. It’s too late…
Ephraim: Orson… You will move from that place. That is my father’s seat. It is his throne… You’ve no right to sit there.

Orson: Seth… So you’ve come, have you?
Seth: Sir Orson.
Orson: You’re an impressive knight, Seth. You would sacrifice your life for king and country. Not even a moment’s pause. It’s a pitiful, unrewarding life, through and through.
Seth: It is my charge. It is my hope. Sir Orson… Prepare yourself.

Forde: Sir Orson… Why did you have to betray us? Your departed wife is weeping in shame.
Orson: You’re wrong, Forde. My wife is happy. We are so very happy.

Kyle: Sir Orson! You betrayed your master, Prince Ephraim, to Grado. Have you forgotten what is means to be a knight?
Orson: Kyle… You know nothing… I am happy now.

Orson has the largest number of boss conversations, but really, he doesn't seem to get a lot of characterisation out of them. If anything, I think we learned more about Ephraim- and doing a little set up for Eirika's Lyon arc- than we did Orson. Funny that he accuses Seth of his own sin. He's right, but he's still a complete hypocrite.

I also rather like the fact that Orson still addresses Forde and Kyle by name. He hasn't changed much since his days of being a good man. Only his objectives have.

Tethys is going to keep up her dancer grinding for a few turns while I grind Supports.

And finish off these guys.

...Wait, what?

Welcome to Sacred Stones on Normal!

So long, "stronger" guy!

Vanessa pops the EXP pinata.

More selling fodder!

That, I can use. Later, of course.

...Actually, I don't think I did do Support grinding. I have a good reason- I'll need to do more of it later, and I don't need any new ranks I don't already have in a hurry.

We have seized our homeland! Why isn't Eirika in this scene?

There's one last thing we should see...

Monica.

She... seems to not be entirely aware of what's going on.

I feel like we're supposed to read this as Eirika and Ephraim recognising Monica- presumably, Orson showed off how much he loved his wife in person on at least one occasion.

We never get to see what Monica looks like. She's been dead for six months before Grado reanimated her to pay off Orson's betrayal. Your imaginations will do a better job than IS will ever do while maintaining the desired age rating of this game. Although some artists have done well.

Whatever it is Monica looks like, we're definitely supposed to not consider it pretty.

The plan was repugnant on several moral and ethical standards had the corpse still been fresh. As she is now? Orson has probably discovered some new and exciting diseases to maybe get killed by.

Let's go outside and settle our stomachs.

Vigarde was kind of a puppet for Lyon, and as we saw once in Ephraim route, he does suffer from a limited selection of dialogue options from time to time. They seem to have only programmed one line into Monica.

It says a lot about Orson's frame of mind that he found satisfaction in this.

Somebody has to dispose of the corpse. Again.

...He was happy. And nobody else.

Anyway, let's do our own housekeeping.

The castle is perfectly fine.

The kingdom is not.

It will be a long pathway to setting our kingdom to rights.

A pathway Ephraim knows will be much longer than it needed to be for him. Ephraim chose not to help Renais, instead striking against Grado directly. I think he's talking about the first time, before the game started, although Ephraim route is also a good comparison. Ultimately, why didn't Ephraim go to Renais and liberate it before going to Grado, in-universe? The man likes to win by seizing the enemy objective above all else...

Seth has come for quite possibly his best advisory job in the game.

Do you hear the people cheer?

Yeah, they're not cheering for Ephraim. They're cheering against Orson.

Ephraim has done jack and squat to prove that he'll be any better a King than Orson was, and his first order of business being to go run off and fight Lyon some more is not going to help that impression.

This moment is a scene I quote often. In Chapter 18 of Three Houses' Azure Moon route, Dimitri finally returns to liberate his homeland's capital from its tyrant ruler. Dimitri is more active about discarding the people of Faerghus before making this decision and Cornelia is a more cruel tyrant, establishing direct harm on Faerghus's people while Orson made do with merely being neglectful. When Dimitri's liberation is successful, the people begin cheering.

Gilbert, Dimitri's equivalent to Seth, repeats a line he has been repeating the whole route: That the people need their King and are cheering that He has returned. This is the last thing that Dimitri needs to hear, and the latest in a long line of general enabling behaviours that Gilbert is responsible for in his role as Dimitri's babysitter-in-chief. And considering how powerful and memorable this moment was in this game (and Dimitri being a descendant of Ephraim when it comes to writing and character), I expect the developers did this deliberately: they understand that Dimitri is an inadequate ruler and his advisors aren't helping. The fact that Dimitri is ultimately required to be successful in the narrative hinders their message, but it is no less potent when delivered properly by Seth to Ephraim.

If anything, Restoration Queen hammers this lesson home further, by having Ephraim realise how bad a King he has been and how his temperament will only make this problem worse. This is the start of him reflecting on how Eirika will be a better Queen than he'll ever be and preparing for his abdication.

This isn't where the canon game goes, even on Eirika route: We're sticking with good old-fashioned right to male rulers. Sacred Stones isn't interested in dismantling the monarchy.

Back to the throne room.

It's time we opened the path to the Sacred Stone.

Infinitely complicated lock.

And that is the key.

Only Eirika, Ephraim and Seth enter this room.

Sacred Stone acquired for team Eirika. I find it interesting that there isn't some dramatic indication of such in any mechanical way. You'd think, for something as important as the thing the game is named after, there'd be some dramatic flair. Probably a product of the game's side-project status.

Well, this and Rausten's stone, but good to have multiple.

We need this thing. At all costs.

On exposure to the Sacred Stone, the bracelets begin to react. This doesn't seem to be connected to anything narratively, although it's a good reason to never tell these two what the bracelets can do until the time is right. Not that we're ever justifying that.

This moment is mechanical in nature:

It's plot promotion time!

I believe these are the only plot promotions in the series the player has the option of turning down. If you do so, you acquire the twin's bracelet as an inventory item and may use it as you would any other promotion item when you change your mind.

Pony! The Lords of Sacred Stones do not change in their basic design, they merely ride a horse into battle. It's not exactly like new designs are easy to portray on the GBA.

Hells to the yes. Eirika is now a queen among queens- and this also gives her movement parity with L'Arachel, while she's at it.

I'm of two minds about doing this on the All Girls run. Usually, I don't, but you know what, it's not technically going out of our way to do anything...

Horsie for Ephraim, as well. There's a general sense in the Three Houses fandom that Dimitri was kinda building to a promotion that put him on a horse- he has a talent for Riding and he is the only Lord to not represent one of the three FE Movement Types (Edelgard being an Armour and Claude being a Flier). I'm not sure if the decision to keep him on foot was to distance him from Ephraim or to bring him closer- although he ultimately does get a horse, Ephraim is far more famous as an infantry Lord, not the least because infantry lance users are so few and far between. It may also have simply been the fact that Dimitri's story, as told in the final game, makes Dimitri pretty incapable of caring for a horse to the necessary extent to bring it into battle.

...That's almost usable. Never let it be said Ephraim's skill is without merit.

Fire Emblem promotions are always so weird, especially when they have to do them in the plot. Awakening let Chrom promote as a normal unit, but they brought "plot promotions" back for Three Houses- with that said, they're not really "plot promotions" in most instances, merely the game deciding to unlock a new Class for your Lords separately from the game's dedicated Class system. With the exception of Byleth's promotion to Enlightened One, which is an enigma in-universe that everyone is mildly intimidated by regardless of whether they consider it a net good thing.

I think Ephraim is still like this. He understands the gravity of the job of King, but his mind just doesn't work in a way that encourages him to practice the necessary skills to succeed on that battlefield.

Considering Hayden described the man as a firebrand in his youth, I think Fado understood Ephraim better than Ephraim ever knew.

Ephraim is starting to learn, though.

As much as I wish Eirika was the one being plot-relevant right now.

Eirika reassures him about Fado, but I'm not really sure how point A connects to B here.

Seth is a bit more certain on how to explain this thought.

One more thing, while we're in here...

Despite asking Eirika and Ephraim to follow him, he fetches the Twins and walks back on his own.

The Sacred Twins of Renais are the odd Twins out. There are eight weapon types in Magvel and ten Twins, so while Jehanna, Grado, Frelia and Rausten take on the job of having the S Rank weapons of each type, Renais's Twins are used as ultimate weapons for the Lords.

Ephraim does not recognise the spear. If you told me the Twins were a late addition purely to add Magvel Regalia weapons for S Ranks, I would believe you.

The Flame Lance, Siegmund is slightly stronger but slightly less accurate a weapon than the S Rank Lance everyone else gets, but gives an impressive buff of +5 Strength. I'm not sure why Ephraim gets Strength, but it is worth mentioning that Tana can't use this, as much as I really wish she could. It'll be gathering dust for us.

Eirika, of course, getting her Twin second despite being the Lord.

The Thunder Blade, Sieglinde, is slightly weaker but more accurate than Audhulma. The Strength bonus Eirika gets instead of a Resistance bonus makes up for it, though. This weapon will be a great boon to a struggling Eirika in addition to sweetening an excellently performing one.

A lot of fans like to read into the naming of these weapons as a hint towards Eirika/Ephraim shipping (both with approval by the ship's fans and disgust by the ship's detractors), since Siegmund and Sieglinde were Norse figures that were twins that, after being separated at birth, entered an incestuous relationship. I think this is only in one version of their story- Siegmund and Signy (of which the Norse had several Signys) were not solely featured as incestuous, and in some versions of their story seemed to be raised as twins proper. And also as not the only siblings in the family. Besides, it's not like Fire Emblem hits it out of the park when it comes to why they've chosen their Regalia names: Ragnelle and Ettarde are women whose stories are associated with love, choice and spurned interest. Although Tellius features these in non-zero amounts, I would not describe their stories as being good allusions to be referenced by the Regalia.

Such is the most we get about the nature of the Sacred Twins. Yeah, these probably were grafted on at the last minute.

Eirika readies herself to set aside her pacifist sword and draw the sword of "sometimes, the problem really needs to be solved".

The world cannot be peaceful again until Lyon is stopped.

The twins come out, and apparently we just dropped another throne on it. Whoops.

We confirm what's going on with our permadeath-proof crew. I think the extra throne is gone now, must've been a lucky transitional shot.

With one Sacred Stone at hand, our odds seem that much greater.

Innes observes we're out of backup plans.

L'Arachel bonks him and states they have a spare: Rausten is as yet unsullied by Grado or our army, since Riev is too busy evil cackling and we're too busy being too late to the other three Stones.

Two is better than zero.

With that, L'Arachel suggests our next port of call be Rausten. A good choice, too, since there's a place in Rausten that's likely to be our final battle arena.

It'll be such a nice place to visit. Sorry about the mess we're leaving in Renais. Maybe we can abandon a few of the boys?

I have absolutely no idea what the non-gay explanation for this line is. She's got some mad game.

Fire Emblem's two most interesting stories, Tellius and Fodlan, attack the idea of the monarchy and discuss the possibility of a world without nobles. This is unusual in Fire Emblem- even Tellius is very hesitant about it and prefers to be about other themes mostly- and this chapter is either the most subversive Sacred Stones gets or the most blatantly monarchistic, depending on how self-aware you think the writers were being. As a narrative, Sacred Stones is saved by how well the theme the game does explore is done- that being the subject of Lyon. Nevertheless, one of the most powerful impacts Edelgard leaves is that analysing any Lord that came before her comes with the quiet realisation that they just tacitly accept nobility, and all of the harms the system causes. Eirika and Ephraim are likely to agree with Edelgard if the subject gets raised, but as far as this game is concerned, that's a problem for a few centuries on. When discussing medieval and/or sword-and-sorcery stories, it's important to remember that the Renaissance didn't "just happen"- the people fought hard for it, and just because we've (theoretically) moved past that doesn't mean we should forget about why. Ephraim is a terrible King, and it is the mark of a bad system of government that we cannot take him off the seat and choose someone else.