Chapter 6
Morning.
Sunlight broke through the shades of a small apartment, striping the sheets over the couple that lay in bed. Sensing the light, the man stirred, and woke with surprise, seeing the woman lying beside him.
"You're still here! I almost thought you were a ghost or something, seeing how you appeared only late at night or while I was half-asleep!"
The woman smiled, her eyes half-open. "No, I am no ghost. But I am just visiting this city for a short while, and I might not be able to meet you at the bar tonight, either."
The woman picked the garter off the bedside table and handed it to him. "I want you to wear this today. I mean on your arm under your jacket, or something," she added in response to his puzzled expression. "Not that there'd be any shame in someone seeing it—more the shame to the onlooker who judges you! And—this seems strange to ask—at midnight tonight, could you wish hard for my success? Just say, 'Good luck!', but be very serious about it."
The man thought these requests were strange but hardly unreasonable. "Yes, I can do all that. But when will I see you again?"
"I don't know. Maybe tomorrow. It has been fun," and there she said his name, but it is her secret what it was.
Afternoon.
As she escorted Irisviel home from a late lunch, Arthur reflected, troubled, on what she had learned of her friend's marriage the previous night. She made up her mind to say something.
"Irisviel, you should not remain with a man who spurns your love and dallies with another. I understand that your society now allows women to put away unfaithful husbands."
"It's okay, Arthur," Irisviel said. "Kiritsugu told me this is just a thing humans do. And I want him to be happy."
"It may be something people do, but it is not something they should do," said Arthur. "I, too, was married, and I, too, had an unfaithful spouse. I believe my queen was saddened that she could not have children. Perhaps I could have blamed myself for going through with the political marriage that put her in that situation, or welcomed her affair with Lancelot as something that would make her happy. But we had made a vow to be faithful to each other, just as my Knights had vowed to be faithful to the ideals of the Round Table, and when one was broken, the rest collapsed as well."
Irisviel looked down, her hands knotting and unknotting a section of her hair. "I never know if I'm understanding situations correctly, or missing things that would be obvious to humans, but I think it makes a difference that Kiritsugu and I have our little Ilya. When I think of her, I think about how much I love Kiritsugu, and I don't want him to leave."
"Maybe my world was just too different, or my relationship with Guinevere too unlike yours. But I ask that you at least consider what I have said, when you return home after the Grail War," Arthur replied.
Irisviel's hands froze. "Yes, after the war..." But Arthur was looking away, so Irisviel chose not to finish her thought, and continued her homeward walk.