Dirge 10 : Wish

The method of loci commonly known as the memory palace was a memory device adopted by the Ancient Roman and Greek cultures, used during their debates and oratorical speeches. In simple terms it was a method of memory enhancement which utilized visualization to organize and recall information.

In present times it had become a rather common affair for memoirists to use this method to a certain degree. At the moment Edward was inside his own mental palace. Sella had taught him how to develop one, to help him remember her lessons.

While at the beginning he found it rather annoying, he realized it was rather handy sometimes. He barely entered it anymore, and when he did, there was only one reason for it, as he could remember by just picturing different places of an old house that composed it.

Sella had asked him what kind of image he had picked up, but he never answered her, at least not directly.

"A good memory," was all he would say.

The house he imagined had two floors. He was currently in the living room of the first floor, which had green walls and austere white tiles on the floor. A modest set of furniture including three peach-coloured couches sat in front of a TV stand. There was a beige table next to them and a door that connected to a corridor.

"Now that I see it, no wonder mom hated it," he said to no one in particular as he walked towards the door.

He entered the corridor, and he passed the kitchen and the stairs that led to the second floor. While he could still imagine what was there, he had yet to climb them on any of his trips here.

A black-furred dog was lying in his way, and as he got closer the hound opened its eyes and looked at him.

"You said you wouldn't be back here, kid." The hound spoke, sounding rather annoyed.

"It's not like I choose when to come here."

"Don't give me that lame excuse. I am you, so I know why you keep coming," the hound said, glaring at him. "At least it's been a while since last time."

"Yeah…"

"You should just leave, kid. This isn't good for you."

The hound was right. While he didn't decide to come to this corner of his mind, he could just stay in the living room or try to wake up, but he always came to this part of the house anyway, to that door behind the hound.

Edward didn't answer and just walked past the hound.

"Sorry, Cerberus. I need to see him."

"Your choice, kid," it said as another two heads grew from the sides of the hound's neck.

"You really are a fool," the second head said with a laugh.

"Just immature." The third head corrected the second before looking at Edward with concern. "You need to let it go."

Edward didn't answer and continued walking towards the door.

"Sometimes I wonder if we did the right thing nine years ago," the third head mused.

"Who knows?" the second head answered. "Well, if we left him to die, we wouldn't be here either."

"But…"

"Shut up!" the first head roared. "Whatever that kid decides to do, we will follow him. He is our new master after all."

The other two heads nodded.

Edward opened the door and entered into what seemed to be a studio. Inside, an old man was sitting before a desk with many papers in front of him. After Edward took another step the old man noticed him and smiled.

"You have grown," the old man said.

"Hi, dad."

Gerard wanted to admit that the rumors about the queen being a monster were completely inaccurate in his eyes—fighting a monster would be far easier.

He panted in exhaustion. They had barely been fighting more than a few minutes and while he had yet to land a hit on her, he was on the verge of collapsing. He had lost count of how many times she had pierced his body with her rapier.

The crystals around his arms were hard enough to block her attacks, but she was too fast for him to even be able to react.

Lorelei looked at him with eyes full of amusement, wondering what his next move would be.

Gerard grit his teeth in frustration. He could see how she enjoyed this, and that she was playing with him, but he couldn't deny the difference in their power. She was a person able to hunt the members of the Twenty-Seven Dead Apostle Ancestors. Yet those seconds she stopped to look down on him gave the Einzbern homunculus a chance.

"Ziel erworben…" Gerard said in a whisper. "…Dauerfeuer!"

Hearing him yell, Lorelei's body moved on its own and she jumped back, barely avoiding the golden beams aimed at her.

Her eyes widened in surprise, yet such surprise only lasted a second as she looked around and found the small spheres floating around her.

"So that was it. You are quite sneaky for a homunculus, but…" she said as she dashed at him and in the blink of an eye was already in front of him. "… None of that matters if you can't fire.

She spoke with a deathly expression as her voice turned grim and her eyes lifeless.

She thrust her rapier and pierced Gerard's head before he had the chance to react. One second passed, then two, and a weird feeling began to bother her.

Then the body of Gerard began to crack like a mirror, the skin losing it color and the body its form, becoming a prison around her. Lorelei tried to move but the crystal had wrapped around her rapier. She let go of it and tried to jump out, but it was too late. A dome made of crystal had already formed around her.

Gerard allowed a sigh of relief seeing his last trick had worked. Reflecting the light of the moon allowed him to create high-quality illusions of himself, and that was enough to fool her.

But as he sighed he felt how the dome of crystal began to shake. He had reinforced it to be as hard as diamond, but with each wave of power coming from inside he could feel the magic linking the crystals slowly disappear. It was just a matter of time before she shattered the dome.

All of that was already in his calculations, however. She wasn't an enemy he could imprison—this was just a way to gain some time. In the next second the dome was blown away by a green tornado around Lorelei. At the very moment she managed to blow away her prison, a golden pillar of light engulfed her from the sky, as if an angry god were reclaiming her soul.

"Verlorenen Schatz: Yggdrasil," Gerard said as he saw the light consume Lorelei.

He had concentrated the remaining spheres of crystal ready to snipe Lorelei over the dome and narrowed the light of the moon into a single point. Had he been able to use the light of the sun it would be stronger, but this should have had at least some effect on her.

It had all come down to this since the moment he deployed the first spheres. He started to walk away, as he didn't want to be nearby when Lorelei recovered. At present she wasn't someone he could defeat, and at this point it was better to retreat.

He was about to order Berserker to stop fighting when a cry made him turn back, and a strange power began to repel the large beam in front of him. The light shattered as if nothing and Lorelei stood in the middle of it, completely unscathed. If anything, the only visible change was how pissed she was compared to just seconds before.

"First the Hellhound, now you, boy…" She began with a cold voice that made Gerard blood freeze. "…You aberrations should learn your place."

Gerard had taken her too lightly. She was a being whose only equal was a Sorcerer. There was no hope for him or anyone else to even scratch her. His plan was nothing than a bad joke in her eyes, a pathetic attempt to rebel against natural order.

While these thoughts filled Gerard's mind, Lorelei, who had lost her rapier, grabbed his face and smashed it into one of the nearby trees. The impact was so swift and merciless that the young Einzbern was amazed how his head was still in one piece, instead of a broken chunk of meat.

Yet while being defeated, an unknown sentiment found a place inside his heart: frustration. He had heard her mention the Hellhound's name, so the only explanation would be that she had fought him, but he was well aware that the Hellhound was still alive, so whatever the circumstances, he was sure he had survived his fight with her.

Irritation began to replace the frustration born inside of him. If the Hellhound could survive, why not him, too?

As he felt the grip of her hand tighten around his face, he grit his teeth.

"Ziel erworben Dauerfeuer!" he yelled as beams came from under the ground and shot at Lorelei's arm. While the strength behind them was not m enough to actually hurt her, it startled her into releasing her grip.

This created an opening that would last less than a second. As crystals began to wrap around his arm, Gerard moved to punch her. The crystals began to glow as they neared the point of impact, yet his fist never reached her. She stopped him with her gauntlet, taking hold of his fist.

He didn't care and still released the beam of energy into the gauntlet.

"Járnglófar…!" he muttered.

Yet as the light left the gauntlet, Lorelei didn't even flinch. Like when she had faced the Hellhound the light dispersed, unable to touch her.

"You don't give up, I will give you that. But your destiny, along with those of your kind, is to disappear," Lorelei said in a cold voice.

Wind began to gather in her remaining hand and Gerard could see a green whirlwind growing every second. He tried to move but she had gripped his fist tightly.

Then a golden flash lit up the entire forest as Archer and Berserker crashed near them. Taken by surprise, Lorelei released Gerard, her eyes now looking at a figure covered by the golden light, unable to see his face, but she could feel the power coming from him.

"Berserker, we're leaving!" Gerard called, feeling the same pressure. He didn't know what was happening, but the power he felt from that figure was something he didn't wanted to face, at least not yet.

Berserker recovered and ran towards her Master, grabbing onto him before they fled. As they began to lose the others in the distance, Gerard watched the figure, which hadn't followed them.

Archer glared at the man clad in gold standing before him.

"I thought we would resolve our business at the end of the war, Gilgamesh."

Gilgamesh just looked at him with disdain.

"Don't speak my name so freely, mongrel," he reprimanded. "You dare to lay your hands on the woman I have chosen as my Queen?! Such an offense shall not be forgiven!"

Many golden portals opened behind him, and Archer smirked at seeing such a display as the other five dragon heads continued to levitate around him.

"It is alright for her to leave, then?"

"She likes to deny herself, but I shall reclaim her when the moment comes. But first I shall take care of the petty thief who dared to touch my treasures!"

A sword flew from the portal towards Archer's head at sonic speed. He tilted it to the right, missing the blade by a mere few inches. The blade landed some meters behind him and detonated in a blazing explosion, but Archer didn't seem to care.

"And you are supposed to be of the Archer Class?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Making a mockery of me?" Gilgamesh said with a smirk. "Let those be your last words."

Archer answered the grin as both the portals and the dragon heads shot their projectiles, and chaos ensued in the park.

At the same time inside the Church, Kirei sighed while massaging his forehead. When the King of Heroes expressed his boredom, he never expected to narrate a couple of the battles that were happening at night, and that they would lead to such events.

"I can't really blame anyone besides myself."

"Well, aren't you intruding a little too much for a simple supervisor." A female voice spoke from behind him.

"Caster, is it?" Kirei said with a smirk.

"Oh? It seems you do your work properly."

"Of course I do, Kirei said with a laugh. "If not, there would be problems for that school you destroyed earlier."

"Oh, but compared to what's happening in the park, mine was just a child's game."

"I can't deny that …" Kirei said, turning and facing the enchantress who finished materializing. "…So to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?"

"That golden warrior came from here, didn't he?" Caster asked, smirking.

Kirei's smile faded for a second. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't be so shy, priest, I'm just saying that the existence of the eighth one isn't a secret anymore."

His expression turned serious. It was true that after such a display, trying to hide Gilgamesh's existence would be more troublesome than it was worth.

"So what are you going to do with that information?"

"Nothing for now, but I would like for you to keep your eyes off me for the time being."

"That is quite the bargain. You could just kill me if you are worried about me bothering your plans."

Caster just laughed.

"True, but I still don't know what relationship you have with the Golden Servant. As far as I know, you could be the Master, or an ally of his. In that case, if I tried anything I could get myself killed instead."

"So cautious, do I give such a distrustful image?"

"Of course you do. I don't need magic to see how rotten your soul is."

With those words she disappeared, and after making sure she was gone, Kirei began to laugh loudly.

"You are wrong, Caster… I didn't have a soul to begin with."

Morning came as the rays of the sun began to enter the room, and Edward felt himself being shaken by a strange force. The moment he opened his eyes, he saw a very concerned Saber looking at him.

"And you're telling me my wake-up calls are bad?" he said with a yawn.

Saber retreated a little as she got off the bed, yet that expression of concern was still there.

"But…" Her expression and her voice were beginning to confuse him, and she spoke with a broken voice: "…You are crying."

In that moment he touched his face and realized it was wet.

"I see," he said, rather indifferently.

He always woke up like that whenever he had such a dream. No, it would be wrong to call it a dream, as he really wasn't sure what those conversations he had with his biological father were. They would always speak about what he did in between each of the visits, but each conversation would end with his father saying the same thing.

"You shouldn't keep coming here."

As he continued to think things over, he didn't notice that Saber got closer to him and began to wipe his tears.

"A bad dream?" she asked him.

"No…" he said with a smile as he finished wiping away the tears. "…Just an old memory."

He stretched a little and left the room while putting his black glove on his left hand. Though he slept without it, he had gotten accustomed to wearing it whenever he was awake. Not so much to conceal his arm, but more because it was a gift from Ciel.

As he was about to enter the living room, he felt a pair of arms circle around his neck.

"Ed… food…" a sleepy Taiga said as she clung on to him.

"Hey sis… you're heavy..."

The only answer he got was a smack on the head.

"Don't be rude!"

"Sorry, sorry."

He dragged her into the living room and saw Sella already in the kitchen, starting to wonder if she ever slept, or just slept there to get in earlier than him.

"So you have another sister, Praetor?" Saber said while walking next to him.

"Oh, no, she is more like a sentimental sibling," Edward explained before being startled by her. "When… when did you get there?"

"I left the room with you, Praetor," Saber said, raising an eyebrow.

Edward nodded to himself before feeling an ominous aura behind him and being trapped in a deadly neck-lock.

"Ed…" Taiga said with a smile and a sweet voice. "…Would you care to explain to me who this lovely girl is?"

"Sis… Sis… I give…" he blurted out, but his words fell on deaf ears as Taiga tightened her grip around his neck.

"Big sis can't hear you!"

"Praetor… are… are you alright?" Saber asked, worried about seeing the color fade from her Master's face.

"Please stop that, Taiga-san!" Sella yelled, coming out of the kitchen.

"Ohh alright, Sella," Taiga said, releasing him. "Is breakfast ready?"

"Yes. Please take a seat," Sella answered automatically.

Taiga obeyed but just as she sat, she pushed away from the table.

"That's not it!" she yelled. "Why is this foreign girl here?!"

"Stop screaming first thing in the morning, stupid Taiga!" Ilya scolded as she entered the living room along with Liz, who seemed completely asleep, and yet at the same time, suprisingly, managed to walk properly.

"But Ilya-chan, I thought you would be the angriest. After all, you lov-" She didn't get to finish as Ilya covered Taiga's mouth with her hands.

"Stop talking nonsense!"

"Sis, she's an acquaintance of Miss Ciel, so calm down," Edward said as he recovered from the choke-hold earlier.

"Hrm, that woman…" Taiga drawled suspiciously as she pushed Ilya away. "…Now that I think about it, why am I here?"

'You realized the most important question just now?' was what all present, except Liz, thought.

"Who knows?" Ilya answered as she helped Edward rearrange the table and sit. "You called me, but I found you sleeping in the classroom. You hadn't woken up by the time Onii-chan came to pick me up, and we decided to bring you over."

"Eh? Is… is that so?" Taiga said with a little fear and embarrassment.

"You understand, Taiga?" Ilya continued while looking down on her, and the others could see Taiga shrink with every word. "My dear brother looked after you and for thanks, you almost choke him to death."

By the time she was done, Taiga was already prostrated dogeza-style in front the Hellhound. He just sighed as he finished eating.

"Sis, doing what she pleases is rather common, so saying anything would be a waste of time."

"You spoil her too much!" Ilya protested.

"Well I spoil you too, so it's fair, right?" he said, scratching his head.

Ilya blushed at that statement as she mumbled something he didn't catch.

"Well I'm off to work," he said as he stood up and went back to his room to change clothes.

He returned to the living room after a few minutes.

"Saber, let's go."

"Excuse me?" Saber asked.

"Come with me," he said rather seriously.

She gave thanks for the food before she followed him out the house.

"So what's wrong, Praetor?" she asked him outside.

"Mentioning Miss Ciel makes me remember that I have to meet with someone I really dislike."

"Now that you mention it, who is this Miss Ciel?"

"Well, she's kind of like my stepmother, along with my teacher," he said while remembering. "She took me many places when I was young; it was during one of those trips that people began to call me Hellhound."

At that, Saber began to remember that strange vision she had last night about her Master in a pool of blood, surrounded by corpses. If this was part of what he was talking about, she wondered why that woman didn't help him, or do something to stop him from reaching such a point. That image of seeing her Master sitting there, asking for forgiveness, made her chest hurt.

"Also, Saber, this is something I should have asked earlier… but what is your wish for the Grail?"

"I don't desire anything. I had a complicated life and I have some regrets, but I'm satisfied with how everything ended."

"Is that so? You called me weird yesterday, but you are also a weird Servant."

"That's better, then," she said with a smile. "We match, don't we? On that note, what is your wish?"

Edward seemed to think for a few seconds as they continued to walk down the road.

"Well, I don't think I have a wish either. There was something I wanted, but that wish can't be granted, so there is no point in seeking it."

"Something you want?"

"What has been lost can never return, Saber. Even a so-called miracle can't change that rule," Edward said as he began to walk faster.

Saber stood still as she understood his words. He longed to regain something—or someone, someone he had lost in the past, but didn't express it, believing such a wish was wrong.

"You say there is no point in seeking it," she said in a whisper, "but then why do you keep making that sad expression, Master? Just… just how much have you lost?"

Sakura put down the phone situated in the living room of her house. The director of the school had told her that because of a problem, classes had been suspended indefinitely. This was no news for her; she kind of expected something like that after the battle with her sister.

"He saved her…" she muttered to herself. She couldn't understand the reason why he would interfere, since she hadn't been doing anything wrong.

She wanted revenge and her sister deserved to be punished, so why would he get in her way?

"Why? Why…? …I don't understand…" she continued to murmur before a realization hit her. "So this is also part of her doing? That crimson Saber is tricking him, right?"

A smile spread slowly over her face. Caster observed this using her dragons, but decided not to intervene for now. The leash on her Master was still there, and the lies she had told her were slowly becoming her only truth.

Of course, she wasn't the only one watching Sakura. Zouken was also there, trying to predict what would happen next. He was well aware of the manipulation Caster had used on Sakura, and as it made her fight harder and win, he didn't care what she did. Yet he couldn't lower his guard. He noticed that each of her schemes tried to loose the collar he had put around the neck of his own 'granddaughter.'

That was something he couldn't allow. He had invested too much time in her to let someone else take her away, but he wasn't foolish enough to try to oppose her. So for now he would remain a spectator.

Sakura went still for a second, wondering what she should do. She decided to go to work. At least then she could feel a little of peace of mind.

The doors of the church opened wide, revealing the priest in charge standing before the altar. Anyone knowing said priest would find that scene disturbing. Actually, anybody would, that being the reason not many people attended the church.

Kirei turned, seeing the Hellhound and his Saber at the entrance.

"Well the visitors keep coming. It has been a long time, Hellhound."

"Kirei…" Edward growled while glaring at the priest.