Chapter 8
Luvia sat at the table, drumming her fingers on the leather-bound dossiers in front of her. Normally a model of aristocratic patience and grace, she was finding it difficult to keep still now that the night of battle was swiftly approaching. She could already feel the blood of her warrior ancestors pump a little quicker in her veins, bringing with it agitation but also a pleasant sort of excitement. Not for nothing had her family frequently been compared to the forest wolves of their homeland.
Now if only Rin would finally deign to answer her summons. Luvia had sent Emmi to fetch her over twenty minutes ago, and she knew for a fact that the other magus had neither class nor tutorial scheduled at this time. She was beginning to wonder if she should do the unthinkable and go looking herself when there was knock at the door, and the Japanese magus entered the room.
"Emmi said you wanted to see me?"
Luvia leaned forward in her seat, resting her chin on her hands as she considered the other girl. "For some time now. It is poor form to make others wait on you, especially your family head."
Rin didn't look the least bit apologetic as she crossed the room to join her. As she approached, Luvia's finely-tuned senses picked up a faint but definite scent, something sweet and savoury with just a hint of spice. "I came as soon as I could. It's hardly my fault it took Emmi a while to think of checking the kitchens."
When the blonde just stared at her, Rin sighed with a hint of exasperation. "Don't look at me like that," she said, misinterpreting the look, "I'm not trying to steal the cook's job or anything. I just miss proper gongbao jiding; most of the restaurants let the chicken simmer too long, so the taste of the chilis ends up overwhelming the peanuts."
"You cook?" asked Luvia with a raised eyebrow, trying to slot this new piece of information into her mental picture of Tohsaka Rin.
"Not in a while, since I came to London," she said with a shrug. "But I find cooking something familiar helps settle me when I've got a lot on my mind. Something about keeping the hands busy."
Luvia could appreciate that; as much as she prided herself on her razor sharp mind, there was a certain sense of satisfaction that came from creating something with one's hands. She could easily see the appeal of cooking and baking, having tried several times in the past with the amused help of the more indulgent cooks.
Of course, that had only been tolerated in her younger years; as she grew older, she had been firmly and repeatedly rebuked that it was beneath the Edelfelt heir to engage in such menial tasks. With the delicious fragrance still in the air, she couldn't help but wonder how far she might have gotten if things had been different. She briefly found herself envying Rin the freedom with which she had grown up, before remembering with a wince that said freedom had come at the cost of the girl's entire family.
Well, at least she could have the next best thing. "I see. We'll need to give you a chance to show off those culinary skills one of these evenings." She smirked in response to the startled look Rin gave her. "Unless you're afraid of falling short?"
"I'm more than up to the challenge," said Rin, "It's just… you'd want me to?" She kept her voice level, obviously trying for nonchalant, but there was the slightest touch of red in her cheeks.
Suddenly what had seemed like a simple request took on a more intimate undertone. "Of course," said Luvia, adopting a lofty tone in an effort to ignore the feeling of encroaching butterflies in her stomach, "As head, it is my obligation to personally evaluate all of our family members' skills."
"If you say so," said Rin agreeably, but that smile was just a little too knowing for Luvia's taste.
Eager for a change of subject, she cleared her throat and slid one of the dossiers across the table to her. "In any event, I called you here to inform you that we are leaving for Helsinki in two days. Here are your new passport and biography; memorize them at least enough to answer superficial questions you may be asked along the way."
Rin accepted the dossier, placing it at her side before turning to Luvia with a solemn expression. "We're really doing this, then."
"Having second thoughts?"
"No, I'm definitely coming." Judging from the way her hands unconsciously clenched into fists on the table, Luvia guessed she was thinking about Marco's abducted fiancée. Then Rin frowned before adding, "I should warn you though. If the Durnovos are anything like the Matous, then be prepared to see some pretty gruesome things in their inner sanctum."
Luvia straightened herself up. "I am the head of the Edelfelt clan. I am hardly a fragile flower." Even if hearing about the dead bodies found in Zurab's rented apartments had been admittedly upsetting. Still, feeding victims to familiars to provide additional power was not unheard of, if thankfully uncommon among modern magi. With her extensive training, she wouldn't lose her nerve over just that.
"I don't just mean violence. I mean… well, twisted things. Vile things. Especially since Clémence's sorcerous trait is Malleability."
Rin looked intently at her, as if willing her to understand what she meant so that she wouldn't have to voice it.
Much as Luvia would have liked to indulge her and leave it at that, a warning this vague hardly gave her anything useful. "You will need to be clearer," she said.
Rin visibly turned tense and rather pale, her gaze shadowed and her lips set in a grim line, and for a moment Luvia feared that the other girl had fallen ill. Then she took a deep breath and steeled herself.
"Do you know anything about Crest Worms?"
When Luvia shook her head, Rin continued, "The Matou family uses a unique sort of Magic Crest, if you can call it that. It is made up of parasitic worms that merge with the host's nerves and circuits." Rin spoke in the clipped, detached tone of the professional magus, but Luvia could easily hear the tremor beneath it, how close her voice was to breaking. "The Matou don't teach magic by training the mind. They use the Crest Worms to impress it on the body."
"That's absurd," said Luvia uneasily, confronted with the revolting image of magic circuits made up of crawling parasites. "It would be unbearably painful."
"The host is further trained…" Rin looked like she was about to vomit, before she swallowed hard and continued, "further trained through exposure to Matou Zouken's worm familiars. Worms that devour human energy."
I can't really discuss my feelings about father with Sakura, not after what he did to her. Some very unpleasant pieces were beginning to click into place. "Wouldn't that kill the host?" Luvia asked softly.
"Supposedly so, if the host is male. But if the host is female, they instead violate… " Rin trailed off as a shudder overcame her, her hands clutching at the edge of the table.
Luvia hesitated in the face of the implied atrocity, before reaching over and gently but firmly grabbing Rin by the shoulders. She pivoted the other girl to face her. "Rin, tell me what happened in Fuyuki. All of it."
"It doesn't matter," said Rin with a shake of the head, "It's in the past. We have enough to focus on right now." She tried to yank herself back, but Luvia had been expecting it and tightened her grip to keep her in place.
"I need to know what threats the Durnovos might have in store for us. Anything you can tell me about their Makiri cousins could be useful." Then she added gently, "and you need to drain this poison from your soul. It's eating away at you."
Rin stared at her for a long moment, as if searching for something in Luvia's eyes, before giving a reluctant nod. Satisfied that she wasn't going to pull away again, the blonde sat back as Rin folded her hands in front of her and gave a deep sigh.
"I guess to explain things," she said a bit shakily, "I need to go back to the Third Holy Grail War. Are you familiar with the name Angra Mainyu?
More than once over the next hour, Luvia regretted opening what seemed like an endless Pandora's box of horrors. Each new bit of Rin's story was more dreadful and stomach-churning than the last, as it became clear that the fifth appearance of the Grail had not been so much a war as a disaster. One that had come perilously close to ending in calamity.
Rin began tentatively at first, as if the subject of the War was sharp glass and even venturing near it meant cutting herself. But soon enough the dam had burst, and the other girl's pained voice almost stumbled over itself as she let everything out. The Einzbern's attempt to cheat the Grail system by summoning an aberrant class of servant. The absorption of its tainted nature into the Grail, transforming the prize into a poisoned chalice of lies and corruption.
With clear reluctance, she turned to Matou Zouken's obsession with extending his unholy life at any cost. His willful corruption of her innocent sister into the Black Grail through years of constant torture, violations, humiliations; allowing her to develop hope through her attachment to Emiya, only to then use it as a tool to break her will. Rin wrung her hands as she spoke of her own willful blindness to Sakura's suffering, her refusal to defy her family's pact and do something even as she saw the way the Matou magic was tainting her. Did you know she used to have black hair and blue eyes, like me?
The emergence of the Shadow, the manifestation of the dark god growing within the Grail, and its terrible hunger for servants and human souls alike. Matou Shinji, who should have protected Sakura but instead joined in on her abuse, commanding her own servant to help take her hostage in a jealous attempt on Emiya's life. Learning from the false priest that not only had Sakura been repeatedly violated and tortured, but that the Crest Worms could not be removed without killing her.
With a hard glint in her eye, Rin recounted her terrible conviction to kill her sister. What choice did she have, when letting her live would let the Shadow grow and consume all of Fuyuki? She had a duty as Second Owner. Surely even Emiya would understand. But Emiya refused to understand; he had fallen hard for Sakura, and he would not sacrifice her.
The terrible nights that followed; the desperate bid to reach an agreement with Illyasviel von Einzbern, which had ended in disaster. The loss of Saber and Berserker to the Shadow, and their reappearance as nightmarish, twisted versions of themselves. Losing her Archer and agreeing to having his arm transplanted onto Emiya, despite knowing how dangerous it was, how it risked consuming his body and mind entirely. Hah, it shouldn't even have been possible to graft a stranger's arm on Emiya's body like that, but what about the damned War had made any sense?
Then finally, Rin recounted the terrifying slide towards the birth of Angra Mainyu as Sakura gave up hope and spun out of control. Her own frantic work with Emiya and Ilya to recreate the Jewelled Blade of Zelretch, the treasure of the Tohsaka clan, as the only weapon that could stand up to the terrible power that Sakura could call from the Greater Grail. And the desperate fight under the Ryudou temple, where Rin found that at the last minute, even with everything riding on her, she could not bring herself to kill her sister.
It ultimately worked out, yes, but… what if? What if? Rin still had nightmares about what might have happened if Sakura hadn't had such inner reserves of strength, if Rider had been unwilling to ally with her master's erstwhile enemies, if Emiya hadn't been able to trace Rule Breaker. If All the World's Evils had been born.
Luvia had stopped interjecting early on, and could only stare at Rin in shocked horror as she continued her dreadful account. She could see the mental scars all over the girl, from the way she occasionally touched her Magic Crest with a haunted look, to her brow increasingly heavy with guilt and regret.
But she could also see Rin's strength, how she bore that terrible weight and yet moved forward with determination and dignity.
Rin sat quietly for a moment, her redden eyes downcast as if contemplating the wood of the table, before looking across at the blonde with uncharacteristic hesitation. "I can understand if you want me to leave, after hearing all that – "
As a magus of proper breeding, Luvia had had impressed upon her from an early age the importance of cautious consideration, of thinking through consequences before taking action. Throwing all that aside in favour of impulse, she rose from her seat and enveloped Rin in a hug. She felt the girl stiffen, then tentatively return the embrace.
"I'm proud of you," said Luvia, backing away just far enough to look Rin in the eyes. "Yes, you made mistakes, but none of us are perfect. Not even myself," she said with a smile, earning herself a shaky laugh from the other girl. "And together, you all managed to stop an apocalypse by the skin of your teeth. Give yourself a little credit, hmm?"
Rin briefly passed a hand over her eyes to wipe away the tears that had begun to form, then gave the blonde a grateful smile. "Maybe you're right." They stayed together like that for a long moment, neither wanting to be the first to break away, before Rin's embarrassment won out and she gently extracted herself to resume her seat.
"I'm, ah, still not entirely clear on where you want Mikael and I positioned after we breach the north wall. Could we go over the battle plan again?"
The Japanese magus had resumed her mask of confidence, appearing once again to be all business, but Luvia had grown close enough to her to notice the nervous tapping of her fingers on the table, the subtle pleading in those brilliant aquamarine eyes.
Don't leave me alone.
"Of course," she said smoothly, pulling the well-worn plans and sidling over next to the other girl. "We must be sure that you understand the plan down to the last detail. There will be no room for error once the strike begins."
Focusing on the upcoming conflict, and challenges that she could do something about rather than regret at leisure, seemed to do wonders for Rin's state. Fairly soon there was true confidence in her voice again as she verified various aspects of the strategy, pleased with her own contributions. Enough that she failed to notice the troubled look on Luvia's face, or the gears that were swiftly turning in the blonde magus' mind.
From her vantage point between the boughs of a silvery birch tree, Luvia focused the binoculars and observed the Durnovo manor raised on the hill in the distance. It was half-hidden behind iron gates and thick woods, but she could still appreciate the fine example of Petrine Baroque architecture, the contrasting red-brick and white stone and high flat windows. But while the house was beautiful, it felt solitary and somehow rather sinister; or perhaps that was just because she knew what lurked inside and, more importantly, beneath.
Her lips curled upward in a hunter's grin, revealing a flash of white teeth that held just a hint of cruelty in the fading sunlight. The journey here had been too long for her taste and irredeemably dull , from the drab cargo jet that they had taken to Helsinki (a necessary obfuscation, but not one that she cared to repeat anytime soon), on shipboard to Vyborg along the gulf, and finally down the forested coastline towards the northern edge of St. Petersburg. But it had all been worth it to stand here on the eve of battle, to lead the decisive assault that would recover her family's stolen treasure.
Seeing little activity – no doubt the bulk of her prey were lying in wait in the extensive passageways reported to have been excavated beneath the estate – she put aside the binoculars and walked down towards the makeshift camp, where the largest part of the combined Edelfelt and Vendramin forces had assembled. The earlier rush of activity had ebbed into a quiet but keen tension, as the retainers assembled into their teams and performed last-minute verifications of their equipment.
She couldn't immediately see Jacopo, but she knew he would be moving somewhere along the ranks, giving final instructions to the grim dark-garbed mercenaries he had brought with him from Italy. No matter, he had already agreed to the small revision to the plan that she had put to him earlier in the day. Now she just had to track down the two magi concerned.
Luvia eventually spotted Rin and Marco standing together by the vehicles, discussing something in low voices. She pushed aside an irrational flicker of irritation at the sight – do they really need to stand quite so close together? – and strode confidently towards them.
"There has been an unexpected wrinkle that I need the two of you to take care of," she said with forced nonchalance as she approached.
"What's going on?" Rin said with a frown.
"We received word just now that a summoning ritual is being conducted in Irinovka, about an hour's drive away. According to our intelligence, it is being overseen by none other than Rogday Durnovo himself." Marco's countenance noticeably darkened at the news. Good, she thought to herself, he at least should be easily convinced.
"As it appears that the lion's share of the Durnovos' forces are still holed up in the manor, we will still need most of our manpower here. This situation is best approached by means of a small infiltration team led by capable magi. Since the two of you performed adequately on your last joint mission," she paused and regarded them with just enough skepticism to seem natural, "consider yourselves volunteered. Nylund will fill you in on the details."
"Wait, are you sure about this intelligence? It seems too convenient that we're learning this only at the eleventh hour." Rin looked set to argue.
"This is an order," Luvia snapped, turning abruptly away. That was hardly going to satisfy the Japanese magus, but with any luck, stoking her irritation would distract her from that train of thought.
As Luvia walked back towards the main grounds, she saw Mikael standing a little distance away. He was savouring a cigarette, watching the curling smoke with the relaxed, contented air of a hunting beast waiting for night. He looked around at the sound of her footsteps, then nodded to her as she approached.
"Are you sure about this?" he asked, "she's definitely an asset in a fight."
Luvia nodded curtly. "Yes. Jacopo wants his heir out of the line of fire so that even if this operation fails, his line will not be entirely obliterated. Even if we are sending him away from the front line, he still needs to be accompanied by a competent bodyguard."
"That hardly justifies losing one of our hardest hitters from an assault this risky." He took a long drag from his cigarette. "What are you really up to?"
She sighed impatiently. "Keep being so sharp and you are sure to cut yourself." She tilted her head upwards to contemplate the darkening sky, steadfastly ignoring the look she knew Mikael was giving her.
How could she explain to him that after hearing Rin's horrific account of the War, she wanted to do her utmost to protect the girl from further horrors? If the Durnovos had anything similar to the Matou's Crest Worms… It wasn't that she thought that Rin was too fragile. It was more that it had hurt seeing her like that, the pain and guilt written all over her face. She never wanted to see that expression on Rin again, much less be the cause of it.
She heard a heavy sigh behind her, and the rustling of cloth. "The two of you really are too much alike. Here, let me give you this." She turned as Mikael closed the distance and placed something in her hands, an object about the length of her forearm, tightly wrapped in red cloth. "Rin told me to give this to you once it was too late for you to refuse it."
Luvia curiously turned the object over in her hands. It was fairly heavy, and felt hard as rock under its fabric covering. As she examined it, she found a small piece of yellow paper carefully tucked into the wrapping. Extracting it with nimble fingers, she unfolded it and read the Japanese script.
This one is even further from completion, so it could seriously harm your magic circuits. Use it carelessly and I'll kill you.
Her mouth was dry as she carefully removed the cloth, revealing a shining blade made of solid crystal. Ten brilliant gems glittered in the hilt, reflecting all the myriad colours of the rainbow. "The Jeweled Blade of Zelretch," she whispered to herself as she watched the way the light played across the dagger's surface. The Tohsaka's coveted family treasure, a tool that allowed its wielder to use the Second Magic to draw mana from infinite worlds. And Rin had given it to her, the head of the Edelfelt clan, their most bitter rivals.
She looked on in wonder for a moment, then used some of the red wrappings to strap it firmly to her hip. Despite its cold surface, the dagger made her feel warm, as it Rin were here with her after all.
"Mikael, send out the signal, " she said, her head raised high as she glared at the Durnovo manor in the distance. "Now we face our fate, whatever that turns out to be."
The world glimmered in shades of purple and blue, giving an otherworldy cast even to something as mundane as the backseat of a car. Of course the scene looked rather odd anyway from her unusual perspective on the floor, peering out from under the vinyl and metal of the bottom of the driver's seat. From here, her targets were mostly giant boots and disembodied voices, but that was ideal for her purposes.
"It's a pity we're missing the action," said a female voice that she distantly recognized as belonging to one of Nylund's subordinates, although it sounded somewhat distorted as it filtered down to her.
"Protecting the client is imperative," someone nearby – perhaps the front passenger seat? – replied. "I don't enjoy babysitting any more than you do. But imagine we turned around to join in, and the young idiot managed to get himself shot or something. Would you want to be the one to tell Miss Luvia?"
The first voice grumbled, but she didn't pay any heed. She had heard enough.
Rin cut her connection to the amethyst owl she had secreted in the back of Nylund's car, her natural senses coming back to her as her consciousness returned to her body. The feel of the leather seat under her, the steady vibration of the moving vehicle, the faint scent of gun oil in the air… she blinked her eyes open, once, twice, then heaved herself up. "I knew it," she snarled, before cursing angrily and colourfully in Japanese.
"Rin?" asked Marco, looking at her in alarm from the other back passenger seat.
"She lied to me," said Rin indignantly. "She lied to me!"
Turning to meet the shadow magus' confused stare, she threw up her hands in aggravation. "There is no side ritual," she explained. "This is a wild goose chase meant to keep us away from the battle. To keep us safe."
"That can't happen," said Marco firmly, clenching his fists against his upper thighs. "I swore that I would save Clémence. She's waiting for me, and I won't let her down."
Rin tapped on the side of the driver's seat and leaned forward. "Turn this car around," she said in clipped Finnish. "We are going to the Durnovo house."
"I can't –" protested the man.
"That is an order," she said coldly, with all the ice of a northern winter. The driver hesitated, but complied after she fixed him with her fiercest glare.
You idiot, thought Rin as she looked out the window at terrain that wasn't passing by nearly fast enough. Don't you dare die on me or I'll never forgive you.
Author's notes:
DschingisKhan: And there's the spill about the Fifth War, in all its traumatizing glory. I'm not sure I got the appropriate balance between glancing over it so that readers aren't faced with too much repetition of things they already know, while still having enough detail to put across just how over-the-top horrible Heaven's Feel can be. Hopefully it was still fun to read.
And Zelretch is pleased that somebody caught on so quickly to his plans! After so many universes where these two are at each other's throats, can you blame him for giving them a little nudge towards other possibilities?
omaomae: That's an interesting insight about the male gaze that permeates most of the works in the Nasuverse; you've put your thumb on something I've often felt, but never been able to put words to. It makes me wonder what Fate Prototype, with Ayaka as the protagonist, would have been like if it had ever been finished.
Rin is always fun to write; all the contradictions in her personality somehow work together to form a really interesting gestalt. Adding in good ol' Luvia only makes it all that much better.
As always, thank you for the delightful reviews!
sen: Thank you for following along and for the comments. I'm glad you're still enjoying the fic despite the way I keep dragging my heels on new chapters. Fortunately the end is slowly creeping into sight!
