Chapter 6: Devotion

In which the worth is discussed.

Gilgamesh instinctively walked to the gardens, following a weak emanation of magic from the almost forgotten Master-Servant bond. In his rage, the king forgot about the fact he could just force that thing to come to him, not actively break through the bushes to scold it.

This place was Enkidu's domain. A small part of Gilgamesh felt impressed, how easily Rider gained permission to enter it whenever he liked. The rest, however, was enraged for no logical reason.

The king's anger raised even more, far above the already known limits, when he noticed his favorite lion resting under the bench. Arjuna's lowered hand drowned in the thick mane of the animal; he must had fallen asleep while petting the giant cat.

This alone made Gilgamesh want to smite his Servant with all magical orders he possessed and end this farce once and for all. But he just kept observing Rider instead, with a slightly tilted head.

Arjuna wore a short, simple kaunakes, as expected from a mere servant of the lowest status. Golden rings on his arms were the only things he kept from his original outfit. There was also something new - a pendant with a blue jewel Gilgamesh had never seen before.

It wasn't an impressive view, at least not by the king's standards. But even Gilgamesh found something charming in Rider's calm and still silhouette, like he was just a sculpture, blended carefully into the floral landscape. From this perspective Arjuna indeed looked like another treasure in the king's collection.

Why not use it then? If nothing more, it was a fitting punishment for disturbing the peace of Gilgamesh's mind. After filling Enkidu with all the bullshit about gods and humans - and invading the king's dreams with tons of even more preposterous bullshit - death seemed just too merciful. This thing should suffer first. And was there a better punishment for a man, who claims to be a hero, than crushing his ego?

After all, even submission has its limits.

The sting of magical compulsion struck Rider like a thunderbolt. He straightened up immediately and looked around in shock, expecting an explanation.

"M-my king?"

"I thought that you're pretty enough to entertain me in bed," his Master got straight to the point. "But I'm not overly fond of men's bodies, so I decided to do something about it."

The way Gilgamesh said it, in a monotone voice and with an utterly bored expression, did not bode well. Not sure, if he should feel flattered or offended, Rider sighed. That was an unique way to waste a magical command.

It was not an one-time order or permanent change, rather a new ability to switch forms at will. At Gilgamesh's will, to be precise. Arjuna could only imagine how troublesome that would be in the future, considering for example the revealing nature of male clothing in this place. He would need to dress himself carefully from now on.

"Why are you silent, mongrel? Do you have anything against it?" It wasn't simply a question, rather a challenge.

"No, it's just a shell." Arjuna answered as flatly as he could, recognizing the rules of Gilgamesh's game. What choice did he have other than keep playing along? "What is a mortal body worth for the divine among so many reincarnations? It won't change who I am."

"Oh? And what about sin?" - the king provoked, basing on informations from their shared 'dreams'. "Isn't it the thing your kind fear the most?"

"There's no sin in sincere devotion."

For a moment Gilgamesh looked confused, but it quickly switched to slight amusement.

"A proper mindset for a sacred prostitute, I see."

"Huh?" It took Arjuna a moment to match the words to his freshly acquired knowledge on local religious practices. "Oh..."

Gilgamesh laughed. Teasing Rider turned out to be much funnier than he had expected. The king snapped his fingers, activating the newly applied ability of his Servant.

Rider's body did not change much - it remained slim and muscular, just gained some significant curves in the most important places. His hair grew longer, so much that the curls were now more visible. The eyes, with thicker eyelashes, kept staring insolently at the divine face of the king, despite Arjuna's embarrassing, bare-chested state.

Gilgamesh slowly walked towards his Servant and reached out a hand to grasp a jewel hanging on his neck.

"It's damaged," he stated the obvious; the flaw on its surface remained no matter how much he polished the shard of stone with his fingertips. "This jewel has no worth."

"Yet it chooses to shine, even knowing there's no reward or any real value in that," Rider replied in a soft voice, that did not seem to change too much, only gained a bit of warmness. "It was a gift from the heart, that has been broken. Thus, its imperfection makes it perfect."

Gilgamesh said nothing, just kept playing with the pendant. He watched for a while how Rider's breasts were rising and falling in slow, deep breaths, like if he was trying hard to keep his emotions in check. Was it uneasiness, hurt pride, anger or something else entirely?

"Since you're now more pleasing to the eye, dress nicely for tonight," Gilgamesh said, when he got bored of teasing. "You'll have the honor of serving your king during supper."

With those words, he just turned around and slowly walked back to his chambers. The lion, awakened by the commotion, yawned and followed the king, lazily waving its magnificent tail.

Well, that escalated quickly, Rider thought, staring hopelessly at his own, suddenly changed but no so unfamiliar, body.

It was a part of his legend, after all. Otherwise, even with the magic from the Age of Gods, it should have been impossible to bring it out, unless some deity would waste a miracle level of magecraft for such stupid reason. So it looked like Gilgamesh, probably just on a whim, had awakened a hidden Noble Phantasm.

In Arjuna's story, this body had been created for special purposes, which manifested as unique abilities he could utilize only in this form. Honestly, Noble Phantasms of the Rider class were just insane.

Rider sighed, materializing his usual outfit of a Servant, which adapted perfectly to him, confirming that it was something deeper than just change of shape. He would have switched into spirit form instead, but Gilgamesh did not forget about blocking this ability, just to make Arjuna's existence harder.

And what was that 'dress nicely' part even about? Rider didn't like the thought of troubling Siduri with silly problems, but had no other choice.

He couldn't yet understand what Gilgamesh tried to achieve. Did the king want to break Arjuna for entertainment? Did he really believe that a hero of this caliber would snap so easily, for such ridiculous reason? If so, he made a serious mistake.

If Gilgamesh really wants to play that kind of game, Arjuna will accept the challenge.

I've seen somewhere a huge discussion, an argument even, about Arjuna never becoming a woman. Indeed, I've seen no mention of it in Mahabharata, and, in the translation I read, Brihannala was described as genderless. But outside the epic, in Padma Purana, exists a charming story about Arjuni, a truly interesting little thing about spiritual journey (it's known in some places as 'Arjuna's Wish and Its Fulfilment', if You want to check it out). The details of this 'annoying Noble Phantasm' are based on it and will be explained later.