Chapter Two

Freeze Out

"There, and now just the tie," said Irisviel.

So Saber cinched up the black tie around her neck, completing the simple black modern business suit she'd been dressed in.

"Perfect!" Irisviel clapped, gushing. "You know, Saber, if it's not too bold to say, if you'd been born a man, you'd have been quite handsome indeed."

Saber managed a smile, regarding herself in the mirror and her lady charge behind her, fully understanding that Irisviel was ignorant of the kind of feelings making such a statement caused the King of Knights.

If she'd been born a man, so many things probably would have been easier.

But that was her problem, not Irisviel's.

Irisviel, however, suddenly blushed and covered her mouth, waving a hand. "Oh, please don't take that the wrong way. As a woman, you're very lovely in your own right."

Saber raised an eyebrow. "Lovely? Well, I'll admit, I've never had anyone refer to me in that way." She smoothed at a few non-existent creases in her black sleeves.

Irisviel's brilliantly red eyes widened. "Really?" And then she laughed, if nervously. "Oh, well…yes, I suppose…they wouldn't…." She lowered her gaze very apologetically.

"Oh, don't worry about it," Saber told her at once, with earnest gentility, turning away from the mirror and towards her new companion. "If I had to be honest, I'm truly flattered to hear it for once. I never really thought about it until now." And she meant that.

Somewhere inside her, there was an image of herself dressed in a frilly country gown of blue and white, her hair let loose in all its feminine beauty—the girl she would never be able to be, the girl who could look at a man and be free to love him, who could choose to concern herself with feminine things, to revel in the reality of her true sex, rather than suppress it and dwell within the cage of ideals. For some reason, Irisviel's being able to see that girl deep inside her, made Saber feel happy in some small way, as she hadn't felt in…perhaps ever.

Irisviel, for her part, perked up at this, and her smile returned. "Really? Oh, good. I'm glad." Impulsively, she took Saber's hand in both of hers and gave it a squeeze, as some unspoken sign of their having taken their first steps into their fledging, unexpected friendship successfully.

Then came the deep sound of a man clearing his throat.

"Iri."

Saber and Irisviel looked round, and Saber watched with increasing curiosity the change that came over her lady charge at the appearance of her husband in the solar. The way she bounced over to him made her seem so much like a child even as she inhabited the body of an adult woman.

"We were just trying on some clothes for Saber, since she can't withdraw into Spirit Form, and can't very well be seen in her armor on the streets of Fuyuki." Irisviel was positively beaming.

"There's something I need to discuss with you," said Kiritsugu, as if he hadn't even heard what his wife had said. No less, he spoke with such sang-froid that it gave the normally unflappable Saber an internal shiver.

She couldn't help a glower in his direction. The rationalization that such a response came from his commitment to ignore every bit of her presence—even another's reference to or mention of her—was the only reason he had responded as he did to Irisviel's words (or lack thereof) incited her anger with him all the more.

She opened her mouth.

But then Irisviel said, "Of course," and then she said kindly over her shoulder to Saber, "We'll be just a minute."

Without even giving a single look in Saber's direction, Kiritsugu swept from the room with Irisviel's arm linked with his. And, admittedly, he did respond physically to this gesture, curling his linked arm in a reflection of his wife's. Something so simply intimate that served as a puzzling indication that there was in fact a mutual attraction between these two people. That somehow, there was a loving man underneath that cold mask that only Irisviel could see.

It would remain perpetually perplexing to Saber.

Heaving a sigh, suddenly drained, she proceeded to tug off the suit she'd been given and traded them back for the clothes she wore under her armor.

It was a strange dance they danced. The moment Saber would catch sight of him, something leonine and feral would rise up within her, ready to spring, demand to be acknowledged, power and all. Yet at the same time a forbidding power radiating from him, dark and frosty, would strike her from the look he would give her when their eyes would meet.

Saber, for her part, had no qualms about putting her foot down—literally, with a hard and purposeful stomp of one leather boot—and threaten to block his path entirely if necessary. If she had to resort to tripping him with her leg, she'd do it, if it would get him to talk to her.

But Kiritsugu Emiya was like a living shadow. Nothing could touch him. She was light, and he was the darkness escaping her, skirting away into the corners, out of sight.

He would fluidly sidestep her, giving her nothing more than a scorching glance over his shoulder from his dark eyes.

Yet even as such close proximity reminded her how much shorter she was than he—she barely came up to his shoulder—she would not be dissuaded.

"Kiritsugu."

Though she didn't shout, her addressing him by name resonated in the hallway as they passed yet again in this manner as though she had. She felt she might become living thunder she was trembling with so much anger and frustration.

Yet he swept onward, keeping his back pointedly to her, refusing to even flinch her way.

Saber curled her hands into fists in the gloom of the hallway, the questions she had asked over and over echoing back to her in her head, how she had flung them at that same cold back again and again, further fueling her frustration, not just with that man, but with herself too.

"What, pray tell, is your goal in this War? What do you seek from the Grail that you would enlist my aid to win it? I need to know that, Kiritsugu, if I am to trust and give you my loyalty. What exactly do you plan to do? What are you expecting of me?"

Such practices made her feel like a childish girl chasing after some stoic rogue, filled with such a burning desire for him to just notice her. She couldn't bear exhibiting such weakness, and the way she felt it must make Kiritsugu feel about her, how he probably held her even more in contempt for it, left her positively fuming.

"What are you expecting of me?"

Nothing, apparently.

A gentle hand pressed on her rigid, shaking shoulder, and Saber turned around, surprised.

"Irisviel."

Irisviel smiled kindly for her, sympathetically even. Her crimson eyes were so gentle, it pressed in on Saber's chest, as though her heart were on the edge of breaking.

But Saber calmed herself with a deep breath. She'd learned long ago to manage sudden feelings of anxiety or hysteria—such things had been considered "womanly weaknesses" in her time, and she hadn't been able to afford to be thought of as such for so many reasons.

"Saber, would you like to meet my daughter?"

Suddenly everything negative roiling inside Saber evaporated, replaced entirely by benign and sincere curiosity. She blinked. "Your daughter?"

"Yes," said Irisviel on a laugh as she nodded. "Mine and Kiritsugu's."

That man's not only a husband but a father too? Saber was beyond incredulous, but she wouldn't insult Irisviel by expressing any kind of skepticism.

She nodded appreciatively. "Of course I would. I'd be honored."

Irisviel took her by the hand and led her down the hallway in the opposite direction of where Kiritsugu went, which was fine by Saber.

They came to a large room full of books, tables, and squashy armchairs, a warm fire crackling in the fireplace.

"Welcome to our sanctuary!" Irisivel threw her arms out rather dramatically. "To most people it might look just like a library, but Kiritsugu and I made a kind of home out of this room. We're the only ones who really use it."

"Mama?" piped a small girl's voice.

In a corner of the room clear on the other side, a small girl who belonged to that voice looked up from the pile of books she was poring over on the floor. She had a pad full of blank paper on her knees and seemed to be drawing in it. She looked just like a miniature of Irisviel, with silver hair and red eyes. Upon realizing she was no longer alone in the huge library, the girl brightened at the sight of Irisviel, hopping up to her feet to reveal her cute little outfit of a purple blouse and a white skirt. She bounded over to the two women, calling, "Mama!" and running into Irisviel's outstretched arms.

The girl was so tiny, and seemed to weigh hardly anything at all as Irisviel easily lifted her into the air and swung her around, the both of them laughing. And then Irisviel hugged the girl close, pressing her cheek against her own, nuzzling her silver hair that was just like hers.

"Hello, my love," she cooed, drawing back to look at her daughter. "You're wearing the clothes Daddy bought for you, I see."

"I'm sorry, Mama, I just couldn't wait." The girl certainly sounded sincerely sorry, but Irisviel only laughed.

"It's okay, we can show them off to him later."

The girl sucked in her breath, and her red eyes went round. "Did you get new clothes too Mama?"

"Of course." Irisviel touched her forehead to the girl's, like she was being conspiratorial with her. "Daddy takes care of his girls."

The girl beamed and giggled.

Saber frowned. This was all very difficult to understand. The way Irisviel spoke of Kiritsugu, she might as well have been speaking about another person. On the other hand, it was possible that Irisviel had created some kind of illusion for herself about the kind of man Kiritsugu seemed to be, at least to Saber, and she'd drawn her daughter into that illusion too. It could very well be that Kiritsugu had bought them new outfits, but who was to say he hadn't had someone else secretly choose them for him, or that he'd even had someone else present these gifts to them rather than do it himself?

After all, Saber was no stranger to absent fathers. Her own father had been perplexing in his own way, highly disappointed that she hadn't been born male for a start. Yet even though she'd never had him in her life, she'd somehow felt his presence. However, that had never really been anything like comforting. More just like a hovering specter.

The only way she could see Kiritsugu as any sort of parent was being that sort of parent. There were many rooms in this castle, after all. He could've locked himself off from his daughter, and perhaps even from his wife most days, never reaching out. How could he, when he was so cold and so harsh in his sinister bearing?

Moreover, this was uncomfortably making her think of not only her own childhood, but of Mordred's life too. Saber had certainly deigned to acknowledge her as her own, perhaps because she had been so unnatural. A homunculus. Created out of a piece of magecraft that had momentarily changed Saber's sex from female to male just for the purpose of creating that life.

What a mistake, all that effort.

"I'd like you to meet a friend of mine," Irisviel went on, and she turned to Saber.

The girl followed her gaze, her little mouth opening in wonder at meeting someone new.

"This is Saber, can you say hello?" said Irisviel sweetly.

"Hello, Saber," said the girl, just as sweetly. "It's very nice to meet you."

"It's very nice to meet you too," said Saber, giving a very gentlemanly bow, even as she was wearing the blue dress she always wore beneath her armor, and the blue ribbon that tied back the decorated bun in her blonde hair.

Irisviel set the girl down on her feet at the girl's behest, and the girl proceeded to give Saber a very graceful curtsy in response to her bow.

Saber smiled. "You have a very lovely curtsy, miss."

"Thank you," said the little girl, straightening.

For a moment—but maybe it was just Saber's imagination—but it seemed like something crackled in the girl, very subtly. Nothing outward or obvious, just something in the way her silver hair lifted just a fraction.

Even so, the girl was smiling wide. "Are you going to help Mommy and Daddy with their work in Japan?"

Saber nodded. "I am."

"Good. I think with you on their side, they'll do a great job for sure. So, thank you very much for helping them!" And then Ilya bowed earnestly, and when she came up again she was still beaming cheerfully.

Saber glanced over at Irisviel.

Irisviel shook her head, covering her hand with her mouth. "It's something her father taught her, the bowing. He's from Japan, you see. There it's very much a gesture of respect, and supplication, as well as greeting and parting."

Taught her, did he? Would a man like that really take time like that with a child, regardless of whether it was his own?

There was just no understanding him.

On the other hand, it could have been another one of those things Kiritsugu might have taught her out of some mechanical sense of necessity, not because he viewed it or took it as any kind of bonding experience.

Setting that aside, Saber turned back to Ilyasviel and smiled for her again. "Of course, miss. I'll do my very best to help them. You have my promise."

The girl laughed, crimson starlight dancing in her eyes. Was she really so in awe? Was Saber really so awe-inspiring? It seemed to be the case.

Irisviel stroked back her daughter's hair proudly. "My love, why don't you go back to your drawing for a bit? Saber and I have some boring, grown-up things to discuss."

"M'kay." The girl waved to Saber one last time. "It was really nice to speak with you, Miss Saber."

"You too, miss." Saber waved back, and then the grinning, playful girl skipped back across the room to her pad of paper and piles of books on the floor.

Irisviel turned very seriously to Saber. "That's quite a declaration, Saber," she said, not without perhaps a little admiration herself. "You don't even know what it is Kiritsugu and I plan to do with the Grail."

At this, Saber simply couldn't let things pass without letting off a little of her frustration. After all—

"Forgive me, but it would appear I've yet to be informed of what that is," she said, and even then, she did her best to suppress her vexation, though she folded her arms and lost her smile.

And Irisviel was certainly contrite, for which Saber felt guilty at once.

"Well, I'll tell you now, if it's all right."

"It's fine, Irisviel, really. Besides, I can't exactly say anything else except that I will help you, and mean it when I say it. I forged a pact with Kiritsugu, after all." And then she added, her smile returning genuinely, in her effort to bring lightness back to the mood, "And your daughter has a face that would make anyone want to promise her anything. The whole world in fact."

Irisviel's answering and gentle smile was extremely knowing, and somehow enigmatic. "You're really quite right about that. Though speaking as her mother, I knew I wanted to promise her anything I could before she was even born."

Her expression turned inward for a moment, and Saber felt the need to respectfully lower her eyes to the carpet, knowing that Irisviel's mind had gone to contemplate something sacred: that role of motherhood that she had also observed much of in her own time.

It was strange really, as in some ways she had felt secretly privileged to have been raised to live a man's life, as men lived much more freely than women—though on the other hand, her life had been no less confined than if she'd been raised a girl, as she'd been shackled by the chains of fate, the only reason she was being raised as a man in the first place. Even so, there had been something fascinating about watching the behavior of children with their mothers, how drawn the children were to them, how close their mothers kept them.

And well, there again was Mordred, haunting her thoughts. No, she certainly had no right to uphold herself to that lofty pinnacle of what they called motherhood. Or would it be fatherhood, taking into account the context of that child's creation? Either way, it was clear to her that this radiance and purity that came from Irisviel not only came from innate innocence about her, but from her obvious, deep love for her child. This was a woman who would give her love to anyone, even a killer, because she would inevitably find something about him or her worth loving. She was just that kind of person. So it went without saying that she would give the life she had carried for nine months and given birth to an infinite amount of love. Something which had no end, and no definition of any kind, except that it was there, and it was powerfully unconditional.

For Saber, she who had felt the need to close herself from the world as a king, who was meant to protect and serve everyone, could therefore not burden herself with loving a single person.

Not Guinevere. And not Mordred.

The look Kiritsugu had given her over her shoulder in the hallway earlier flashed in her mind, as though resonating with something within herself, like light reflecting off a mirror.

Then Irisviel blinked and seemed to come out of her thoughts. But her smile was still rather enigmatic, and her red eyes were very serious, almost as though they belonged to someone far more ancient in spirit. "In any case, what I—and Kiritsugu—want most as far as the Grail War is concerned…is to use its power to save the world."

Saber knitted her brows and tilted her head to one side. "To save the world?"

"Yes. To make it a peaceful place, where no one has any reason to mourn or cry for all the pain and sorrow that it suffers from war and hatred."

"I see…."

Saber glanced over her shoulder at Irisviel's daughter back to drawing in the corner, and she took the time to consider the particular name by which Kiritsugu—and only Kiritsugu—addressed his wife: "Iri", which was clearly a pet name, a shortening of her full name.

Then she heaved a sigh, closing her eyes and working her mind again.

Even if he had no interest in speaking a word to her, something within her compelled her to press forward with trying to figure that man out.

He wants to save the world, does he? That's a rather compassionate wish for someone who comes off as being so cold, brusque, and unfeeling.

That night, Saber took sleep, even though she didn't really need to with her Master supplying her with sufficient mana. But as everyone else in the frozen castle was asleep, and the blustering, wintry wind outside and the warmth of the fire in the solar and the many books it had to offer for her to read to pass the time was all lulling in its own way, she couldn't help curling up in the cushion of the window seat and succumbing to slumber.

Unable to help herself, before falling asleep, she'd found a copy of one of the apparently many legends penned about her, an account written by someone called Mallory. Perhaps she had felt compelled to pull this from the shelf and read through it out of some sense of converging fate settling within her, as tomorrow would be their last day before departing for Japan in the East. That it was a German translation of the original text mattered little, as the Grail's power granted her the ability to read anything in any language, quite as much as she was able to speak any language. Which was helpful in the extreme, for even if she'd been introduced to an English-speaking Master, it would see that the English language had changed much since time, to such a point that to English-speakers now, the version of English with which she had grown would seem like a different language almost entirely.

Even so, this had been a mistake, picking up and flicking through this text, as doing this would only end up giving her fitful dreams about Guinevere, and Lancelot, and Mordred. Then everything had morphed into what appeared to be an island in southern waters, alight with blazing flames and running rampant with Dead Apostles.

And in the midst of it stood a small boy, staring in disbelief, shaking and crying at the horror around him, his hair and eyes dark as midnight…the set of his shoulders familiar even as he was so young and being that he was someone Saber knew she had never met in her previous life as Arturia….

And then she'd awoken from these vivid, troubling visions and feeling as if where she was now was the dream. Things still seemed a bit unreal, having leapt here from that hilltop of death and despair. All the while, her mind reeled from the scene of that boy sobbing for his life in that sea of flames, and at the same time it echoed with Kiritsugu Emiya's voice as it had called to her, drawn her into the pact that had been forged between them.

She had a sneaky suspicion that that boy and Kiritsugu Emiya were one in the same. At least, to believe that he might have some trauma like that buried deep in his past would make his stoic bearing, and that wish of his, more understandable. But she would never know for sure unless she asked, and she was no so insensitive as to bring up something that was undoubtedly painful, even for someone like him.

She wanted to believe that perhaps in the moment that he had summoned her, the two of them had been equal souls who would have been able to speak to each other as kindreds. She still wanted to believe that. That he did in fact just had something broken inside him that kept him from accepting and acknowledging her beyond what was required of him as a Master.

Her jade green eyes drifted over to the quiet window, how sunlit and bright it was. The storm from the night before had cleared. Forcing herself into a sitting position, she felt herself appreciate the crystalline beauty of the winter outside, the forest.

She smiled.

Then there came a knock, and she rose from the window seat. "Come in."

And it was Irisviel who came in, bearing a tea tray. "I thought I'd make us something hot to drink, and then the two of us could chat freely."

"Yes, thank you, that sounds lovely," said Saber gratefully.

Irisviel set the tray on the little round table, and there was the clink of china as she began to set out the tea things.

The sound of laughter caught Saber's keen ear, and she followed it to its source out of the window, and below she caught sight of Irisviel and Kiritsugu's daughter, dressed in a purple coat and hat and wearing little boots. And there walking with her was Kiritsugu, dressed in a long black coat.

Yet somehow, he was anything but the grim specter Saber had first met.

He seemed to be pointing things out to his and Irisviel's daughter in the trees around them. He even got down on one knee at one point and put his hand on her shoulder as he appeared to be explaining something to her. Then the little girl seemed to throw a fit over something that probably wasn't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, and Kiritsugu waved a hand, completely contrite, before he scooped the girl up in his arms and perched her, giggling, on his shoulders.

And he…he was smiling. Really smiling.

Smiling as he capered into the forest with his daughter on his shoulders, playing the horse, as Saber herself had seen so many fathers in so many villages do for their sons and daughters in her life before…and she recalled the pang she used to feel when she'd watched those fathers and their children, as she felt it now, that she could've had a moment like that, even once, with her own father.

So…he really could be like that? Was she right then in conjecturing instead that everything he'd presented to her had been a mask, because that would make Irisviel's affection for him so much more logical in so many ways.

More than that, but again, this wouldn't be the first time she'd watched someone compartmentalize aspects of their personality for certain people and or situations. She supposed, she herself was guilty of that sort of thing.

She put her hand to the window, watching the father and daughter playing together with growing fascination, as though she had found a whisper of paradise in observing this simple moment of tenderness.

"What's got your attention out there, Saber?" Irisviel asked.

Saber ran the pad of her thumb over her sleeve as she stood with her arms folded. "It's interesting: your daughter and Kiritsugu are playing outside."

Irisviel made a sound of interest as she finished setting out the tea and drifted over to the window to see. A wistful and nostalgic smile touched her lips when she looked out with Saber, as if she seemed to be pondering something very fond. Perhaps that very thing was the act of her husband and daughter playing together.

"Are you surprised?" she asked quietly, almost amused.

Saber stared at her, and then knitted her brow as her confusion increased. "I was under the impression…that my Master had a colder heart than he's showing now."

"Well…I can see why you might think that." Irisviel sounded like she might laugh, but there was also a whisper of the adoration she clearly held in her heart for her husband. Saber realized it was another part of what made Irisviel seem to glow with such a soft, innate incandescence.

Saber studied her a moment longer before turning back to the window, and something contrite rose up within her. "If that is Kiritsugu's true self…then I am afraid…I must have gravely offended him when we first met." That could be the only explanation, when it came down to it.

Irisviel made something like a snigger, which was strange coming out of someone as elegant as her, but no less genuine somehow.

The furrow in Saber's brow deepened. "Irisviel," she said, rather admonishingly, "you really don't have to laugh at me."

"I'm sorry," said Irisviel as she finished pouring them both tea, and she did sound it. "I was wondering…if you were still concerned with our reaction when you were summoned."

"Yes, a bit," Saber admitted with a sigh, looking away. "True, I did pretend to be a man during my original life, but there was no need for you two to be so shocked when you saw me."

Irisviel took a seat at the table and leaned on her elbows. "I'm so sorry," she repeated, "but…we just couldn't help it: your legend—King Arthur's legend—is quite famous."

Saber's eyes flicked toward the Mallory books tucked back in with the other books on the shelf. She was probably being overly sensitive, for indeed the account—and other accounts besides, including history itself—portrayed her as a man. On the other hand, she hadn't really thought about such books as being particularly well-known, though that might have just slipped her mind during that in-pouring of so much information about modern times via the Grail as she'd been transported here.

She considered Irisviel's bright red eyes with her keen green ones, and then looked sadly out of the window again. "Well if that's the case…do you think then…that he underestimates me…because I am a woman?" Saber swallowed the bitterness that those words evoked within her. She hated asking that question, because it was such a stupid thing, after everything she had been through, to have this still be a problem for her to face.

Memories flickered in her mind, how she'd worked the muscles in her body until they were screaming, until her limbs and abdomen were sore, like they were on fire. Even when she'd reach that point, she'd go on working. Even when she having her damn monthly bleeding, she'd still push through, even when it had driven her to nausea and vomiting. It had never been enough to simply work herself to the bone, Sir Kay and all of the other young boys around her had been working to that standard. No, she'd had to work far harder even than that, so much that there were many times she'd collapsed, and woken up to Sir Ector's concerned and admonishing expression.

"Must you push yourself so, Arturia? You want so much to do your destiny proud, but you are still only human. The sex is irrelevant."

"But if I'm to become king," young Arturia croaked, "I have to be more than human, don't I? If I am to be the kind of protector that Britain deserves?"

Sir Ector sighed heavily. "I suppose so."

"Then you are absolutely right, my lord. The sex is irrelevant. I have to be more than a man or a woman. I have to be more than both…."

Saber clenched her fists at her side.

But then Irisviel said at once: "No, that isn't it at all." And then her tone became meek, apologetic. "That is, if he is upset as you think he is, I'm sure that it's for another reason."

"Such as?" Saber turned sharply from the window.

"I believe he is upset," Irisviel went on quite calmly, "with the people who were around you: the selfish ones, the ones cruel enough, and uncaring enough, to thrust the role of king upon an innocent little girl."

This did nothing to ease Saber's sense of displeasure with her Master however. She glared back out of the window, her eyes following that man and his daughter as they wound their way through the forest at a playful trot, with Kiritsugu still playing horse for the girl. "It was inevitable that would happen. I had resigned myself to that fate…when I drew forth the Sword in the Stone."

"I believe that is what upsets him more than anything else…your resignation to your fate," Irisviel admitted solemnly, stirring milk into her own tea with her same calm demeanor.

"Then he forgets his place," said Saber, letting some of her building vexation with her Master surface against her better judgement, her body rigid and full of frosty bitterness. "He hasn't the right…to judge those of my time."

Irisviel sighed, sounding unusually defeated. "And that is why he says nothing about it to you." And then she added, more as if to herself than to Saber, "It would seem that Kiritsugu Emiya, and the hero Arturia, will never get along. He must have resigned himself to that fact."

Saber stared at her again, even as Irisviel had enigmatically withdrawn into herself, taking a long sip of tea. Turning to look outside once more, she could see Kiritsugu walking back to the castle with his and Irisviel's daughter still on his shoulders. She watched him stop and kneel down and set the little girl on her feet.

Then he looked up at her and pulled her into his arms, hugging her very tightly.

Saber felt an inexplicable and tight lump in her throat, watching this, and she swallowed hard, turning away and facing Irisviel so suddenly that it caught Irisviel by surprise.

"His goal is to use the Grail to save the world. That is his wish, correct?"

"Yes…but you must understand that I get my beliefs directly from him."

"I think it's noble, what you and Kiritsugu are trying to do," Saber commended Irisviel sincerely, in spite of Irisviel's strangely sober admission. "Something to be proud of. And by the pride of my sword, I will see you through it to the end."

Irisviel blinked as though genuinely taken aback, though Saber couldn't think why. After all, it was suddenly clear to her that Kiritsugu trusted Saber with his wife's life and safety. Rather than view it as a kind of abandonment on his part, she considered it the only way he might acknowledge her ability, that he was confident that Saber could protect the woman whom—for all of his attitude towards her given the way he seemed to really act around his daughter—he must sincerely love.

Even if he wasn't one to outwardly show it.

And then Irisviel smiled, though Saber couldn't help noticing with a little unease that there was something…a little sad about it.

She tried one more time.

Her footsteps echoed down the hall as she anticipated his approach from the other direction, where he'd just come in from playing with his daughter. And then they rounded the corner, the daughter clinging to her father's hand with both of hers, staring up at him with what was unmistakably adoration. But mixed with it was a pinch of concern, as Kiritsugu had his eyes averted, lowered to the carpet. It was the look of a daughter who could see her father had something heavy on his mind, and she could only think to make things easier for him by clutching onto his hand with hers.

Saber didn't miss the way Kiritsugu was squeezing back, as though clinging for dear life.

Her mind flashed back to Mordred, and how she, Saber, had turned from her.

This man was turning from his own child for a different reason, and Saber couldn't help indulging in a moment of self-loathing for it, for comparatively speaking, Kiritsugu was coming out the nobler for it.

For it was clear that his daughter was indeed precious to him.

And then…he looked up, sensing her near at the opposite end of the hall, and he stopped.

The girl stopped too, and followed his gaze to where he was looking at Saber. His eyes hardened into black ice, while the girl's lit up.

"Daddy, it's Saber," she piped up.

Kiritsugu's frown deepened, and he seemed to grip his daughter's hands more tightly, as though he had a desire to shield her from Saber. Something in the gesture bespoke of a man who would be torn between something so simple as being able to bring the world salvation with a wish, and murdering it for his child's sake. Yet at the same time, she could not deny that his clear conviction to the former was indeed strong.

Anyone could see that.

Even so, Saber set her jaw, returning his frown unflinchingly with one of her own.

But then, Kiritsugu turned and knelt down to look his daughter in the eye, his face softening for her like it did when they'd been playing outside. He whispered something in her ear, and the girl gasped with excitement before giving him a swift kiss on the cheek and bouncing off ahead down the hallway, giving Saber a friendly wave before sprinting away into the dark.

Then Kiritsugu rose, his frown back, as he stared at Saber for what felt like an eternity. And then…he nodded once before turning and disappearing down the opposite end of the corridor.

Saber stared back after him, and then let out a breath she didn't realize until then she'd been holding. "So…that's how it's going to be…is it?" She huffed, squaring her shoulders. "Fine. Two can play at that game."

She turned with a sharp snap on her heel and marched back down the way she came, back to where Irisviel was no doubt fawning over her daughter as she sat prattling in her lap.

He might have become a sharp thorn digging under her fingernail, but he would be a more than capable Master. She supposed…in the end…that was the best she could hope for. If, in the end, their partnership won them the Grail, who was she to complain? And even if she could hardly stand him, any more than it appeared he could her, she could at least find it in herself to respect him.

For now.

Regardless, she'd be damned if she let this make her lose sight of things. Not even Kiritsugu Emiya's iron will would change that.