Principle of magic.
Disclaimer I don't own the fate series.
Chapter 20
Pride before the fall
The noises made by people faded slowly as they walked out of the bustling street and into a side alley.
The sun, soaring high above the clouds bathed them in its radiance, their braw glistening with drops of sweat , their long shadows stretching across the buildings.
They stopped for a short moment in front of a street lamp, his eyes focusing on a small missing poster, a young boy of no more than eight who according to the poster was missing since a few months back.
His face morphed into a dark scowl before returning to it's carefully neutral expression, his eyes glistening in the light.
"You are avoiding the topic" his companion said, breaking the silence.
He turned to face her, her long auburn hair was fluttering in the wind encircling her angular face.
"I am not avoiding it" he said finally "The preparations are nearly complete, a few months at most and everything will be ready"
"You are conflicted" the woman said , it was not a question.
He nodded reluctantly "A little bit, he is going to get hurt, a lot"
With a single step she was standing in front of him, so close he could feel her breath on his face "W-Julius" she started "We both had to make a lot of sacrifices, but we both know that this is for the best"
He nodded "I know" he admitted "I am not bailing on that, hopefully one day he will realize it was for his own good as well"
She smiled softly at him "It will all work out"
He smiled back "That I don't doubt Sera , not at all"
Taking a seat in front of the wheel, Corvus fastened his seatbelt and with a sigh turned on the engine.
Besides him, a black briefcase on her knees Rin relaxed into the chair.
Above them, the gray skies of London were slowly turning brighter as the sun slowly came out of the clouds, sending golden rays to reflect from the shining from rain pavement.
"So Corvus" Rin asked as they drove out of the airport parking lot "Why have we returned to England? Are we really going to try and create the 'source' " she emphasized the quotes, she found the name Corvus gave the infinite battery a little bit too haughty "Right under the inner circle's noses? Surely it would be safer in the base?"
Corvus sent her a glance before returning his attention to the road "First, we're not going to attempt it but in fact actually make it" he said causing her to roll her eyes.
"Secondly, the base doesn't have the same level of prana signature dampening that the workshop here has, the last thing I need is for any one of them found out about the project and it's funding even less" he grinned at this last one.
She snorted "No, It's better if they stay ignorant of all this" she said, as she opened the compartment and taking a disk out of there putting it in the cd reader.
A moment later the sounds of Leonard Choen washed over them.
The rest of the trip the two sang along as they enjoyed the short respite they had.
They walked into the workshop, first him then her, holding the black briefcase.
Putting it on one of the tables she carefully undid the clasps, opening the cover and revealing the contents.
Their, orderly and carefully lay two closed packages, hiding the items that the two of them looked for.
One of the packages held the shards of the grail while the other one held the long black dagger.
Gingerly, Rin took out the shards and turning to were Corvus was activating one of the many runic arrays nestled in the floor.
The symbols shined and sparkled as they generated a shimmering boundary which Rin passed without a problem.
Carefully she unpacked the package and placed the shards together on a small pedestal raised in the middle of the array.
They looked so unassuming that she had a hard time believing they were a part of one of the most dangerous and coveted artifacts in the whole world.
She turned around to face Corvus who handed her the dagger which she took carefully out of his hands, and her prana flashed as she activated her mystic eyes as she turned back toward the shards.
And there it was, the shimmering dark form of the darkness that took residence inside of the old grail.
She shivered as she looked at it, the thing reeked of malice and contempt, and a hunger so great she felt that if it could the darkness would've swallowed the world itself.
Yet it was not sentient, whatever part of the darkness that it was it was not sentient and she took comfort in that, she wouldn't have wanted to face the whole thing.
Vowing to dismantle the grail when she got the chance she steeled her nerves and approached the pedestal rising the dagger, and with a single swing she slashed the darkness.
The darkness shimmered , ripples appearing all over it as it slowly started to fade.
Rin had some difficulty to believe that was it, after all the work to obtain both the mystic eyes and the mystic code it was over so easily? Not that she was complaining but it was rather anticlimactic.
Suddenly the blade in her hands shuddered, deep cracks appearing all over it before it broke into tiny specks.
The barrier around her vanished and Corvus stepped closer, his eyes carefully focused on the shards.
"That was rather anticlimactic won't you agree?" He asked as he carefully scooped half of the shards from the pedestal.
Rin nodded, taking the rest and walking toward the opposite direction where a work table with different screens and tools lay about.
She turned one of them on, placing one of the shards on a small platform, she had some things she wanted to try on them.
The screen lit up as strings of numbers started running on it, but Rin paid them no attention, opting instead to walk to where Corvus was carefully arranging the shards into a circular hatch.
With care he closed the lid and moved back, putting his hand on a small panel near it.
His prana flared and the hatch rattled for a moment before it stilled again.
Rin walked closer and watched as Corvus opened the hatch again, taking out a black and white disk, made of the shards.
"Did it work?" Rin asked.
Corvus nodded "It doesn't look like anything changed about the shards, we can start the rune scribing"
Rin nodded as she activated her mystic eyes and looked at the disk, when she looked at it carefully she thought she could see spots of prana inside.
Is it a residue of the work Corvus did? She wasn't sure but she promised herself to research it after they finish their work here.
Corvus turned to her "Are you ready?" He asked her, his voice was calm but she could see the excitement he was hiding.
"I was born ready" she quipped.
He snorted but stepped toward the work station where their previous experiments failed.
Rin opened the compartment where the camera was and gingerly took it out and placed it on it's mount.
She activated the camera, the small red light blinking signaling the beginning of the recording.
"Today's experiment" she started "Will hopefully be the final one" she took a deep breath "With the acquired material from the grail, the experiment will hopefully end in success"
She smiled at the camera "The time is five and three minutes pm, fixed"
Corvus put on his visor like goggles as he checked the safety measures one last time "All safety measures are active" he breathed deeply "Beginning procedure"
The pen like tools levitated as he carefully started inscribing the symbols
"First rune inscribed" he said.
"No change in subatomic structure" Rin said as she watched the man work with fascination in her eyes, the tools making the delicate symbols so precisely and neatly that one would think it was machine made.
"Second rune complete" the man announced.
"No change detected" she said.
She found herself watching him, his careful rune work, the delicate weaves of prana he used, so thin that it was a wonder they could hold anything at all.
"Third rune done" he said his tone carefully guarded, he refused to let himself hope.
"No structural change detected" she said as she followed the tools engraving before her thoughts returned back to the man, she could hardly believe that just a short time ago they blackmailed each other, to think that they would be working on something so monumental together, without the fear of backstabbing.
"Fourth rune complete" his voice rang.
"No change in structural composition detected" she said excitedly, that did not happen before, the fourth rune was always where the damage begun.
She focused her mystic eyes on the delicate looking piece of metal that he was working on and her breath hitched, it was beautiful!
The prana flowing from the world into the seals was interacting with the subatomic structure and instead of breaking it the structure was adapting!
"Adapting" she muttered that was something to remember.
"Fifth rune complete" Corvus now sounded excited, hopeful even.
"No structural damage detected" she said barely believing her own ears, it was working!
On and on it went, rune after rune, Semitic symbol after Semitic symbol, Asian and Native American symbols all joined in a beautiful dance of structure on the small disk.
"Final rune" Corvus said his voice like his eyes blazing "Complete".
A wave of energy erupted from the disk which now floated a few inches from the pedestal, and it was pulsing with energy.
Corvus started laughing, a disbelieving laugh a laugh to release all the pent-up tension and quickly she joined him the two laughing like maniacs.
Suddenly Corvus turned around and with two quick steps reached her.
Before she had any chance to discern his intentions he lifted her and spun her once, twice and thrice all the while laughing like a madman.
"We did it Rin!" He screamed as he spun her again and to her surprise she found herself relaxing into his hold, it was nice.
Finally after a few more minutes he finally put her back on the ground, a smile so radiant she couldn't help but blush.
"We did it" he said again "And it would all be for not without you" he beamed at her.
She didn't know what went over her but she reached him and taking his face in her hands she kissed him.
At first he froze in surprise, but a moment later he allowed himself to melt into the moment.
When they separated they were both breathless.
Realizing what she just did Rin felt her cheeks redden, quickly she turned around to hide the blush only to notice that the camera was still working.
Feeling the blush creeping into her ears she quickly said "The time is eleven and thirty seven minutes, project successful" before she quickly turned it off.
She turned slowly back to Corvus only to see him watching her intently his gaze unblinking.
When she turned his braw creased "Rin" he said and his voice was soft, gentle "I.." he trailed off unable to find the words, it has been so long since he was able to freely say what he wanted, to bare his feelings to someone.
She smiled at him softly "I am sorry" she mumbled "I don't know what came over me"
"You have" he coughed "nothing to apologize for, it was..nice" he said as he tried to fight his blush down.
At the ridiculous situation she giggled and he quickly joined her and their laughter returned in full force.
"So" she asked "What now?"
He smiled again "Now we go celebrate in a good restaurant" he said "We will have time to decide about this" he didn't explain what this did he mean and there was no need to "I am not letting you go so easily"
She laughed out loud as she nodded "That sounds like a plan" she said.
He nodded "Lead on then team leader" he said as he started to tidy the place up, putting the disk into a small safe.
When they returned all mirth and laugh they found an unassuming letter on the doorstep and Corvus froze.
Carefully he lifted the envelope and with a trembling hand he opened it, Rin looking at it's context from over his shoulder.
"Corvus Alstreim
You have been summoned before the circle, don't delay, don't wait for the will of the circle is to be obeyed.The council shall meet you at noon of the morrow"
The letter was not signed but there was no need for it.
"Corvus?" Rin asked seeing his distress "What?"
He turned to look at her "This is a summons Rin, a formal one" seeing the confusion in her eyes he added "This is a summon for judgement"
End of chapter 20
An: I have been waiting for this chapter for so long.