In Times Flow

Good- Bye, Father:

He's gone.

Byleth's throat is sore, she's never screamed before. But it helps. It eased the feeling of pain for a moment as she trashed everything that was on her desk. Papers, quills, and ink scattered the floor.

The chaos, it does little to help the pain but for a second it helps the rage she feels.

But it changes nothing.

Her Father is dead. Today... He's going to join her Mother, buried in the ground.

Byleth hasn't left her room in the past two days, there have been knocks at her door. Begging, apologies, condolences. She hates it. But... She can't stay in here forever, and... This is her last chance to see her Father.

Flayn slid a letter from underneath her door, telling her everything. That today was the day that he was to be buried.

Father...

This was her last chance to see him.

Her hair is matted, and her eyes are puffy, she observes this in her mirror as she dresses for his funeral.

She walks silently to the graveyard, there is an audience gathered there already. Mainly knights, and a few students, she recognizes that her whole class has come and Leonie from the Golden Deer.

"Lady Byleth..." Alois calls out and a path is immediately made for her to get to the front, their eyes burning into her. She wants nothing more than to just crawl back to her room and grieve. But... She has to say good- bye to her Father.

Byleth stands besides Uncle and Flayn, Grandmother's gaze is on her as she commences with the ceremony. Offering her Father's soul to the Goddess...

Sothis.

She hasn't said a word.

Her Father... His casket is slowly lowered into the earth.

She finally understands what Grandmother had meant when she had said she didn't want to leave Sitri in the cold hard ground.

Byleth did however find solace in the fact that he would be in close proximity to her Mother, after twenty long years they finally returned to one another.

Grandmother is still speaking, offering her Father to a god who was unable to save him...

Sothis had called it fate.

Was there really such a thing?

...

Byleth didn't return to her room.

She managed to slip past everyone without being bombarded, as she made her way to her room something her Father had told her moons ago struck her.

If he dies, search his room.

There was something for her hidden. She isn't sure why it was hidden. It left an air of mystery to whatever it was.

But...

She wasn't certain if she was ready for it, to accept the fact that he's...

Byleth holds her hand on the doorknob then slowly opens the room.

It's exactly the same, her Father's smell of grass and Almyran pine needles. Dust has yet to settle in the room, it remains untouched as though he is out at a tavern at the moment and is going to come stumbling in at any moment.

The tears sting at Byleth's eyes when it dawns on her that it is not going to happen. He's gone.

"So, this is where your Father lived..." Sothis murmurs. This is the first time she has spoken to Byleth in days "Are you still crying?" she questions then falls silent for a moment "Turning back the hands of time was not enough, you must accept what has come to pass as fate".