Marianne and the Forbidden Codex: A Fire Emblem Three Houses story

The Golden Deer

It was already dawn, and it was time to leave. Everyone got up and diligently prepared for that moment. Hilda, feeling unmatched laziness, carefully followed Claude's instructions. He warned everyone that the plan had undergone a slight variation: The messages she sent through emissaries were answered by all his allies, and all—except Lorenz, of course—agreed that they would meet at a particular point. The place chosen was the city of Cas Corach, on the border between the territory of the Riegan duchy and those of the Müller baronage.

Leonard didn't quite understand the purpose of choosing this location, but Marianne and the others explained that being in familiar territory and as neutral as possible was important. The southern region was infested with Imperial agents and spies, making it difficult to pull off an initiative to search for each class member individually. Eventually, the downside of the plan was that the troops that each one could mobilize were few. More than one probably arrived utterly alone.

The procession left from Derdriu was made up of the warriors we already know, a group of troops on horseback, a caravan made up of some floats, and a squad of soldiers inside. The Riegan house financed all this. Claude himself was abusing the family funds he had to manage.

The trip lasted almost two days. They stopped at one or another inn to eat and other necessities, but they necessarily had to camp furtively, trying to go unnoticed.

Cas Corach was a beautiful and fluvial city because the Pannia River crossed it, dividing the town between those Alliance territories. The architecture was less pompous than Derdriu's but no less charming. The houses were beautiful, with well-cared details, the streets were brimming with activity, and the markets were colorful enough and overflowing with products, despite the war context that the continent was going through at that time.

The place chosen for the meeting of the members of the Golden Deer House was an inn where Claude himself used to go a lot. It was passing between the capital and the border territories, where the heir to the Archduke felt better. He had secretly set up a basement where he could meet with his allies, rest alone from worry or sneak out if a sneaky enemy pursued him.

Claude went in first, something to check that everything was okay. Then Hilda and Holst entered, draped in a hooded cloak. Holst took it off to greet the manager, a frequent customer, a fan of the cider and ice-cold beer. Marianne and Leonard entered last.

"Hello, dear Reiner," Claude said, addressing the innkeeper. "Nice to see you right now. Have any of my illustrious guests arrived?"

"Hey, my friend!" exclaimed the innkeeper, cheerful and expressive. "The only person who has arrived is a young woman with white hair. When I told her that children were not allowed in my tavern, she almost killed me."

"Ah, very Lysithea," Hilda commented, giggling at the comicalness of the situation.

"Yes, it was her," the man answered with a contented and carefree air.

"That she won't listen to you again, dear friend," Claude said, punching his right shoulder. "Otherwise, this time, she will kill you."

The procession advanced, guided by Claude, to a somewhat inaccessible corner of the inn. It was noticeable that this sector was not very used, and it was not very visible to the public either. They stopped in front of a painting. Claude said that he had painted it himself. They all stared, not understanding what it was. It didn't matter.

The heir to Archduke tilted that painting a bit, in a rather strange way, in a kind of sequence. Then they would realize that the image covered a mechanism that worked like a key. The mechanism opened a secret door to reach the cellar that Claude had built.

They went down some stairs and came to that strange basement. Claude told them there would be no problem when another arrived since the innkeeper knew how to open that mechanism. They all took off their hoods when they reached the center of that room. There was Lysithea, reading a book.