Chapter 2
"Thanks again for keeping an eye out on Fuyuki while I'm gone, Shirou. It's a big relief knowing that you and Rider have a handle on things here while I'm abroad."
"It's no trouble at all, Tohsaka. If anything, it's good to know that anything I need to do comes with the Second Owner's seal of approval."
"Hey now -"
"A Hero of Justice must take swift action," said Rider evenly, "on occasion even of the dramatic and eye-catching kind."
"Don't say that so lightly! I've just gotten raked over the coals by the Magus Association for "breaches in secrecy", I'm not eager to go through it all again." Rin glared at the Servant, looking in vain for even a ghost of the smirk she felt sure was hidden in the woman's carefully blank expression. To her left, Sakura raised a hand to her mouth, probably to hide her smile.
The rays of the afternoon sun filtered lazily through the windows of the Emiya household's dining room, where all four survivors of the Fifth Holy Grail War were currently seated around the table admiring Sakura's latest experiment with Western-style baking. Rin wasn't that familiar with European desserts, but even she could see the effort that had gone into what her sister proudly informed her was a linzertorte. The pastry's crust was a glorious golden-brown, with a layer of redcurrant jam covered by the delicate lattice of dough strips that characterized the dish. The light, fruity smell was balanced by the heavier, earthy aroma of black coffee wafting from a pot.
An avowed tea-drinker, Rin sniffed the coffee in her cup suspiciously before taking a small sip. Not bad, if not precisely to her taste, and somehow appropriate. The underlying bitterness of the liquid reflected the nasty twist in her gut whenever she thought of that disastrous bargain she'd been forced into with Edelfelt. No, now wasn't the time to focus on that; she would worry about it later. Right now she wanted to enjoy what might be the last unencumbered time she could spend with her loved ones.
"But I'm surprised you're leaving for London so soon, Tohsaka," Shirou's cheerful voice dragged her from her thoughts, "I thought you still had a little while before you had to report in to the Clocktower."
"Well, something unexpected came up so I need to head to Europe a little earlier." Finland rather than London, but they didn't need to know that. Edelfelt had had the arrogance to present her with a pre-booked ticket to Turku before taking her leave the other day. As if Rin's surrender had been a foregone conclusion, a mere formality in whatever blackhearted scheme the blonde was planning -
"Neesan, are you alright? You're, uh, gripping that cup rather hard."
"Just thinking about an acquaintance of mine." She forced herself to relax, using a fork to dig into her satisfyingly crumbly slice of torte. "But while I'm there, did you want me to keep up a travelogue? After all, you two are going to have to start planning your honeymoon sooner or later." She grinned impishly as the two younger teenagers blushed furiously. As Shirou began babbling nervously about finishing studies, she allowed herself a small sigh of relief. She felt much more in her element teasing them than worrying about her own future.
"Well, don't you lovebirds leave it for too long. The sooner Sakura becomes an Emiya, the better." She had intended a joking tone, but that last sentiment had come out much firmer than she had intended. But lost in thought, Rin failed to notice the strange looks being directed her way. "Also," she mused, more to herself than anyone else, "If anyone asks if you're related to the Tohsaka family, you should probably deny it."
Realization set in when she saw Sakura's face crumple, her eyes threatening to spill with tears, before her sister quickly covered it up with that practiced smile of hers, the one that was just a little too brittle around the brow. "I... I understand. I'm tainted by Matou magic; it's natural that Neesan wouldn't want to be associated with me -"
Rin flew up from her seat and threw her arms around her sister, wrapping her in a tight embrace. "Oh Sakura, I'm so sorry. I didn't stop to think how that would sound. You have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. I'm so proud of you, I want to shout it from the rooftops that you're my sister." Sakura hiccuped and burrowed her face into her shoulder, but at least she seemed to be calming down a little. Distantly she noted that Shirou's furrowed brow had given way to a relieved smile, while the subtle tension in Rider's frame subsided. Rin continued patting her sister's hair soothingly as she murmured, "I'm sorry, I'm so clumsy about these things. If anything, you're the one better off not being associated with me. Safer."
Sakura lifted her head to look her in the eyes. "Are you in some sort of trouble, Neesan?"
"Just Clocktower politics, nothing I can't handle. Worry about the sports festival instead, you know Mitsuzuri is counting on you to help with the demonstrations."
Her sister frowned, then gently took Rin's hands in hers. "You don't have to do everything by yourself anymore, you know. You can tell us, we're family."
Rin's first instinct was to deflect, to find some way to change the subject. But she'd already made her sister feel unwanted once today, and she was bound to see it as a further rejection. Besides, that earnest face and kind eyes... ugh, can't say no. She reluctantly leaned back and sipped her coffee, crinkling her nose at both the taste and the unwanted subject. "Are you familiar with the name Edelfelt?"
"Umm, vaguely. .. it's been a long time. One of the old magus families, right?"
"Yep. They consider themselves the Tohsaka's rivals in jewel magecraft. Also, they've traditionally hated us. A lot. For a whole litany of alleged wrongs."
"Of which you are of course wholly innocent." Rider deadpanned. Rin didn't deign answer that, instead contenting herself with tossing a lock of hair back over her shoulder. "Hmph. Those opportunists would label anything as a personal affront if it meant they could justify extracting a pound of flesh for it."
"So what did you do to make them angry, Tohsaka?"
"Really, now even Emiya-kun thinks the worst of me? How cruel the sting of accusation, and after all the hard work I've put in for all of you."
"Neesan, stop changing the subject."
"Tch, fine. I'll make it brief then." While Rin usually enjoyed an opportunity for a teaching moment – okay, to show off her knowledge, if she were honest with herself – she was still burning with rage and humiliation from the other night. She didn't want to relive it any more than necessary. "As even Emiya-kun knows, Magic Crests are formed from magic circuits to pass magical knowledge and spells from one generation to the next. In many ways, you could say the Crest is the family. It so happens that our great-grandmother was an Edelfelt, who married our great-grandfather without her clan's permission. As far as they are concerned, our inheritance of her Crest is thus a theft."
While Sakura looked suitably grim at this news, Shirou mostly looked confused. "Huh. But you can't detach a Crest once it's implanted, right? So they want you to pay them?"
Rin sighed and rubbed her forehead, cursing Emiya Kiritsugu – not for the first or, probably, last time – for neglecting to teach his son even the basics of magus society. "No, Shirou, it's not just a matter of money or secrets. The price for an insult of that magnitude is death."
"What? But wait, aren't you guys relatives? They wouldn't -" he turned to his girlfriend for support, then quietly closed his mouth when he saw her tense expression. Of course, reflected Rin bitterly, Sakura more than most would know just what a magus was willing to do, even to their closest kin, in the name of magecraft.
She coughed lightly and set her coffee down. "Since the vendetta involves the Tohsaka family, the debt needs to be paid by the Tohsaka family. Whatever else it caused, being a Matou at least puts you out from under that umbrella. Marrying Emiya-kun makes it even clearer, so - "
"We won't leave you to fight them alone, Tohsaka," interrupted Shirou fiercely, reaching for the hand of an equally determined Sakura. "I may not have Archer's arm anymore, but I can still Project his swords, and whatever else we might need."
"Thank you, but -"
"Were you really planning on telling us nothing, so that the enemy caught us by surprise?" Rider's tone was stern and disapproving.
"I'm not finished -"
"I've already lost so much, I'm not going to give up anybody else without a fight. That includes you, Neesan. So don't try to stop -"
"There won't be a fight!" Rin yelled, slamming a palm down on the table. The forks and plates clattered in the sudden silence as she took a deep breath to steady herself. "There won't be a fight. I've already reached an arrangement with the Edelfelt head."
"... you're handing yourself over...?"
"No, no, not to be killed." Although that might have been kinder, she thought to herself. She forced herself to look nonchalant as she continued. "I've agreed to having the Tohsaka clan become a branch family of the Edelfelts."
"Neesan, you didn't...!" Once again, Sakura immediately grasped the situation, and the nature of the sacrifice her sister was making. "But you owe a duty to the family -"
"I don't care!" she said hotly, "You've already given up so much for the Tohsaka name, I'm not going to let it continue. Besides," she grumbled, "I've already given my word, so it's a done deal."
Rin was startled when when Sakura rushed forward to engulf her in a hug so tight it was almost painful. "Thank you, Neesan. I know it's selfish of me, but thank you."
"There's nothing selfish about wanting peace after everything you've been through," she said, biting back tears. The sisters held each other for a few moments, feeling a lifetime of estrangement and hard feelings ebb away further, before they separated and resumed their seats a little awkwardly.
Shirou squeezed Sakura's hand reassuringly, then looked across at Rin. "So this is the unexpected thing that's making you leave early?"
"Unfortunately, yes. They're making me swear my new loyalties in a ceremony at the Edelfelt ancestral home. Officially, it's a formal way of welcoming us to the family, and making introductions between relations. Practically, it's a way of pinning me down in front of witnesses so there's no way I can weasel out of the agreement afterwards. You can be sure that Edelfelt's invited a whole cast from the Magus Association and the Church and god knows who else to watch her new performing monkey." Her eyes flashed with irritation. "Scripted vows, of course. At least she didn't send me a dress code; I wouldn't have put it beyond that harridan."
As Rin warmed up to her rant, her family and friends exchanged looks of fond amusement. For all her years perfecting the image of the composed and aloof school idol, she never could tolerate rivals with much grace.
"- it's in Finnish, of course. Wouldn't she find it just so amusing to hear me stumble through it like a kindergartner in front of everyone? Hah, she won't get that satisfaction. A magus must be proficient in languages, after all. If I could master German and Latin, I can master Finnish too."
"But isn't Finnish supposed to be one of the hardest languages to learn for a non-native?" observed Rider.
"I don't care. If I have to spend the rest of my life under the Edelfelt's boot, I at least want to know what they're saying. Anyway, if that blonde sow could learn Japanese, I can definitely learn Finnish."
"Well, it's nice to see Tohsaka hasn't lost her competitive edge," said Shirou amiably. Rin glared at him, then over at Sakura, who wasn't even attempting to hide her soft laughter.
"Hmph. Edelfelt might think she's clipped my wings, but there are other ways to fight beyond the direct approach. You just wait and see."
Halfway across the world, Luvia Edelfelt looked at the stack of reports neatly piled on her desk and heaved a sigh. She had just finished breakfast, and already several additional missives had arrived from the family retainers, each requiring her attention and approval. It was easily one of her least favourite tasks that she had inherited from her father after he had abdicated his position as head of the family.
Although her parents' marriage had been arranged in the best magus tradition, there was no doubt that her father had been passionately devoted to her. So much that her early death had hit the man hard, and he had never fully recovered. He drifted through life, both as head of the clan and her remaining parent, fulfilling his obligations in a distant and distracted sort of way. Perhaps it had been inevitable that when his rusted heart finally opened up to another, he would go completely overboard and elope with her. What was it with her kin and their terrible judgment in matters of the heart?
Luvia had rather liked Venla, her father's new chauffeur and personal assistant, when she had joined the household following her predecessor's retirement. She was cheerful and resilient even in the face of the Edelfelt house's endless unspoken rules and expectations. At first she had even appreciated how her gentle ribbing and informal speech gradually drew her father out of his shell. The rest of the family had not been so accepting of their budding romance.
There had been a lot of hard words, and even harder actions. The result was that her father had abandoned his responsibilities in favour of disappearing somewhere in northern Asia with his new wife, while Luvia grappled with her sudden promotion as the new head and a most unwelcome pang in her heart. That didn't stop her from opening his occasional letters, decorated with faded postmarks from around the world, even if she never responded to them. She had a responsibility to keep an eye on him after all, to ensure his safety, even if she could never forgive him.
No matter, she thought to herself fiercely; she had been properly born and raised for this role. Let the family discontents grumble about her youth and naivete, she would show them that she had things well in hand. And as the accomplished and dignified head of the great Edelfelt family, she would marry a suitable gentlemen of proper lineage and upbringing. Even if that wasn't to her own preferences.
She pushed down a gnawing sense of discontent, instead reaching for the next document with grace and efficiency. Or at least she had intended to, when she suffered a sudden and violent sneezing fit. Papers flew and tea cups were spilled in a most ungraceful manner.
"Are you all right, Miss Luvia?"
The blonde wiped her face sheepishly with her handkerchief before turning to her maid. "Quite all right, Emmi." She frowned as she began righting the items on the desk. "That's funny, I don't feel like I'm coming down with a cold. Maybe fetch some of the red rooibos blend; I'll need to fortify myself for the next few days in any event."
"Very good, miss."
Author's note: It's just not Fate/Stay Night without at least a bit of food porn.
Luvia, the Edelfelts in general, and the Clocktower are criminally underdeveloped in official Type Moon material, unfortunately necessitating the use of OCs to move things along. I'll try to keep them to a minimum.
