The Bright Star [Fire Emblem: Three Houses AU]

A Perfect Future (Edelgard)

She was always told that she was perfect.

Her birth had made history in the Empire and she was chosen as the long-awaited Adrestian heiress over all of her other siblings due to her bearing a Crest. It was a great honor to bear, but it really held her down.

Edelgard was taken by her uncle, Lord Volkhard, when she was nine to the Kingdom during the Insurrection of the Seven to ensure her safety during the coup. Duke Ludwig von Aegir was involving violence more than ever, and no one wanted the young perfect princess to die tragically at such a young age.

After all, her mother was already killed within the rising violence, and her father was barely alive. Most considered Edelgard too young to succeed the throne, so her father would have to hold on for awhile until she was considered old enough to inherit the throne.

Her uncle wasn't exactly the best surrogate parent to her following the three years she was in the Kingdom, but it sufficed. He allowed Edelgard to go to a ball in Fhirdiad without him one year, but she had to put on a disguise, especially because the royalty and nobility were going to be present. In addition to attending the Kingdom's masquerade with the proper mask, she brought along a facade, taking the name Anastasia.

Edelgard entered the masquerade ball, seeing Kingdom noblemen dressed in royal blue suits and the noblewomen dressed in royal blue and white dresses, all wearing masquerade masks in various colors and patterns. The nobility and royalty who attended were given priorities for service over the commoners who attended. Anastasia was not given this priority service, but it wasn't like she was able to with Volkhard's orders, no?

Edelgard went to the ballroom floor where the most of the dancing was taking place. The Kingdom noblewomen were all crowding around a young boy who looked slightly younger than her. His hair was a bright, sun yellow and with fair blue eyes.

"Look at you, I haven't seen you in awhile!" a noblewoman said to the young boy. "Prince Dimitri looks handsome tonight, doesn't he?"

The other ladies nodded in agreement.

"Well, thanks," Dimitri said awkwardly. "Thank you, Countess Galatea for saying that." He didn't seem to care for all the attention that he was getting from the ladies, but did his best to act polite.

"Do you know how to dance?" asked another lady. Edelgard didn't know much about who the lady was, but she could see that her dress did have the crest of House Dominic on it.

"Kind of," Dimitri said. "Honestly, I'm just here because my father told me to come. I'd need to practice my dancing before I'll dance in front of everyone else."

Anastasia came over to Dimitri. "I know how to dance," she said to the young prince. "I'll teach you."

Dimitri nodded. The nobleladies gasped and squealed in delight over the two trying to dance with each other.

"They're so adorable!" Margravine Gautier squealed. "Just look at them!"

"I wonder if a romance would be possible in the future for the two!" Duchess Fraldarius said.

Anastasia and Dimitri ignored the comments from the ladies and continued their attempt to dance. Anastasia was doing her best to teach Dimitri footwork while dancing, making him follow her foot patterns while she held his left hand, Dimitri's right hand holding on to her back.

"You're going to step like this, and then like this," Anastasia said to him, moving her feet in various directions. "Do you get it?"

"Sort of," Dimitri said, attempting to replicate her actions.

Baroness Dominic came over to the two. "Prince Dimitri, your father requests your presence," she said. "May you come with me?"

Dimitri let go of Anastasia's hands as he turned to the Baroness. "I'll come in a moment, go ahead and lead the way." He turned back to Anastasia. "Thank you so much for teaching me all this, I appreciate it." He placed a dagger in her hands. "Take this as a parting gift. I'm sure it'll come in hand one day. Farewell, Anastasia." He turned to leave to follow the Baroness, and that was the last time Anastasia ever saw Dimitri.

When Anastasia returned to the Empire, she was tortured in ways indescribable without clemency from the ones who tortured her. She was tied against the stone walls with warm silver, with rats crawling everywhere as she was tortured. As a parting gift of the torture she received, she obtained the Crest of Flames within her blood and as a result, her hair turned white, and her siblings were all dead.

While Edelgard and Anastasia were the same person, Anastasia was the one to die that day. The weak girl who cried and was kind and compassionate was forever dead, and Edelgard would rise in her place.

The day she escaped from the torturous underground, she knew that she had to change Fódlan with the power that she would one day inherit from her father. She would dismantle the Crest system and make it so that everyone in a House, regardless if they inherited the family's Crest or not, would inherit the throne based on their merit and by their birthright. The Church of Seiros glorified the current system, so the first thing she could do to achieve her dream in Fódlan society was to dismantle the Church.

For now, all that Edelgard could do in the current days was train, hopefully being able to use her abilities in the future to achieve her dreams. She was attending the sword seminar hosted by Professor Byleth that was during her lunch period along with the other House leaders.

Edelgard arrived at the training grounds, the other three house leaders following her shortly after. She grabbed a blade from Professor Byleth's spares and held it to the side of her. "Will you allow the other house leaders to duel each other during the lesson today?" she asked Byleth.

Byleth nodded. "I'm sure it's a battle that everyone would like to see. I'm okay with it if Claude and Dimitri are up for it."

"I am content with it," Claude said as he and Dimitri came over to grab blades.

Edelgard nodded. "Then let this be a spar of a lifetime."

A/N: Yes, Anastasia and Dimitri is a purposeful reference to Anastasia.