Fate/stay night and Fate/zero are the property of TYPE-MOON. This story is a work of fanfiction, and the author makes no claim to these properties. Some lines of dialogue have been excerpted from the above works in their entirety in this fanfiction. They are from the translations by mirror-moon and Baka-Tsuki, respectively.
Please thank Mashadar, Kyadytim, Da-Guru and ttestagr for prereading this for me. Their contributions significantly improved this chapter. Any typographical mistakes remaining are most likely results of the author making changes at the eleventh hour and not soliciting proper feedback. Extra special thanks to ttestagr, who caught a huge, gaping hole in the plot.
Once again, I must apologize for the delay, but on a positive note, you get more story for the longer wait; this chapter is notably longer than the previous ones.
Continuation of the Dream
Part Two: Pursuing the Dream
I
Arturia walks contentedly through the grove of trees. The leaves above her filter the warm golden sunlight to a gentle light that soaks into her skin, and the soft grass underfoot encourages her easy pace. The air is rich with the scent of wildflowers and ripe fruit, and she stops to breathe it in before continuing through the trees. As she passes out of them into the fields, Arturia looks around in confusion.
She stands alone on a hill covered in corpses. The ground is sodden with the blood of the fallen, and she is the only one alive. With a grunt, she pushes herself upright, leaning heavily on her sword, and tries to catch her breath. The scent of gore clogs her nostrils, and she feels her bile rise.
With an effort, she suppresses her disgust and walks down the hill. The hands of the dead catch at her feet, and she kicks free of them, breaking into a run as she reaches the base of the hill. She swings her head around, but no matter which way she looks, the carpet of death is endless, and so she continues running.
She runs until a familiar face catches her eye. She jogs closer and drops to her knees in front of the corpse with the familiar face. It takes her some effort because of the heavy scarring, but she finally identifies it as her friend Eadwyn. She looks around, examining the other pocked and scarred faces nearby, and shakes her head in denial as she recognizes all of them: Caelin the innkeeper, his limbs twisted and his body bloated; Emma, sprawled across the ground, her hand outstretched toward Arturia; Osthryth, surrounded by the bodies of the children she cared for... Everyone she knew from that town lies around her, and beyond them more corpses dead of disease. She looks back the way she came, but she cannot see where the battlefield ends and the carpet of plague victims begin.
Resigned, she begins collecting wood from the forest to burn them. There are too many to bury, and she needs to burn them to prevent the illness from spreading. There is not enough dry wood on the forest floor, and she is forced to take greener wood. As she carries load after load of green wood to the funeral pyre, she frets over how she will start the fire.
An interminable time later, she judges she has enough wood, and she grabs the first body to drag to the pyre. Her skin crawls as blisters on the skin of the corpse burst, leaking thick, whitish-yellow fluid onto her hands. She wipes them off on the clothes of the corpse, but they are befouled as soon as she begins moving it again. Grimacing, she checks for the reassuring presence of Avalon on her belt. Its weight and length make dragging the bodies difficult, but she cannot remove it.
As soon as the last of her friends is on the pyre, she lights it. It catches easily, and she kneels to rinse her hands in the stream, then turns back to her home. However, she is met by a wall of roaring flame. Spinning around, she sees that the flames have surrounded her, and are consuming the city. She rushes into the street, searching frantically. Around her, the dying cry out for help and reach toward her, but like the boy she she has finally found, she cannot help them. She runs toward him, calling out to him, but he does not hear her and continues stumbling away from her. As he falls, she forces prana into her legs and runs harder, desperate to catch him, but he falls too fast and disappears amongst the sea of corpses.
Arturia starts awake, her eyes snapping open and darting from side to side. 'It was just a dream.' She takes a deep, slow breath in an attempt to calm her racing heart. 'Of course it was just a dream.' She dismisses it with relief. As she thinks back on it now, she wonders how she mistook it for real even when asleep. With a self-deprecating laugh, she looks around. 'It is dark.' She thought she saw a faint light fade as she woke up, but now she can see nothing at all. Arturia tries to wave a hand in front of her face to test her vision, but both arms meet resistance. She feels her heart rate begin to rise again. 'I cannot move and I cannot see... perhaps this is another nightmare.' The rationalization calms her, but as she considers it, she finds it less likely. 'No... If I were dreaming, would I not have woken when I realized it? This feels too real to be a dream.' Indeed, she can feel the grittiness of the dirt pressing against her exposed skin, the pressure of rocks and stones against her back, and the heaviness of the stagnant air near her face.
'Earth and stale air... I am underground?' She struggles with renewed fervor, feeling the air grow thicker with each breath she takes. The soil presses in against her, impeding her movements. One of her outstretched fingers touches cool metal, and she chastises herself when the spark of energy at the contact jolts her out of her burgeoning panic. 'I am a fool sometimes.' She floods her body with prana and pushes against the rocks beneath her, forcing herself through the looser soil above. Her hand closes around and she sweeps it in front of her, clearing her way to the surface. As soon as she has enough room, she gathers her legs under her and leaps upward, breaking free to the surface by force.
Arturia lands in a crouch with her hand on the hilt of her sword. She glances around quickly but sees no immediate threat. Relaxing, she stands up, beating the dirt off of her clothing as best she can. The sky is dark but clear, and although the moon is nowhere in sight, the stars provide sufficient light for her to make out the shapes around her. The gentle night breeze stirs the surface of the lake in front of her, and the motion of the water catches her eye. 'That's right!' She spins around, and looks up at the tree she slept under. 'I fell asleep there, after...' Uncomfortable with that line of thought, she looks to the sky, assessing the positions of the stars. 'It is almost morning. It was late when I fell asleep, and yet... I feel refreshed. More than I should for so few hours of sleep.'
She looks cautiously down at the hole she climbed out of. 'I was not underground when I fell asleep.' Although her memories of the previous night are indistinct, she is confident that she would remember if she had crawled into a hole in the ground. 'What happened? The ground is too dry for there to have been a storm.' The only possibility she can think of is that some passerby thought she was a corpse and buried her out of kindness, but she discards that as well after a moment of consideration. 'What passerby would stop at night to bury a stranger without taking their possessions?'
With that thought, she recalls the mass graves of the first village she stopped at yesterday. 'Perhaps they feared catching the plague from me. It would be a reasonable fear, given how quickly it seemed to spread.' That thought leads her back to the memories she was trying to avoid. Slowly she turns her back to the lake, looking toward the trees she ran through the night before.
'They are gone. If not now, then certainly by the time I return. I have to accept that.' Her chest tightens painfully, and her eyes begin to prickle. 'Perhaps I was better off as King Arthur. I was never close enough to my soldiers to feel this sort of pain.' It is far more personal, and piercing, than the pain of losing her country. She wipes her eyes and shakes off her thoughts. 'I ought to at least see that they are buried properly, and return to help care for any survivors.' The prospect of something constructive to do appeals to her, but she forces herself to analyze the situation.
'I most likely lost the opportunity to be with my friends in their last moments because I acted on my impulse to help as many people as possible.' The self-condemnation stings, but she refuses to hide from the truth. 'If I had considered the situation more carefully, I may have avoided wasting my time on a fool's errand.' That is the truth that she must accept, a truth she will surely regret for the rest of her life. She considers it for several minutes before nodding to herself in confirmation. 'Yes,' she thinks. 'It may be that they are lost to me, but I would regret it even more if I did not do everything I could for them now.' She turns back to the lake, its waters now still and opaque in the darkness, and tries to emulate that tranquility.
She had one thought while she considered her situation that she absolutely does not want to accept. That one thing that drove her to this place in despair. She takes a deep breath and forces herself to say it aloud.
"My Britain is gone."
She nearly chokes on the words, but forces them out. She feels that if she does not then she will not be able to acknowledge them as true. However, her analysis of the information she gained the previous night leaves her with no other conclusion. Even if the scope of the plague is limited to the region she crossed the previous day, the population of her country has been dramatically reduced. Even if the Briton kings still rule, they will no longer have the manpower to fight the Saxons. The casualties from the civil war and the plague following on its heels have simply weakened the country too much.
Arturia steels herself for what she is certain to encounter, and turns back the way she came the day before. With a heavy heart, she slings Avalon over her shoulder by its belt and jogs into the trees. Dry leaves crackle against the soft loam with her footsteps, and she loses herself easily in the rhythm of running, letting her mind relax and her thoughts wander. She finds the familiar state comfortable, and it lets her forget her grief for a few minutes, until she crests a low hill, barely taller than she is.
Arturia skids to a halt, looking about herself in disbelief. Despite her skepticism, the world around her stubbornly refuses to conform to her expectations. She is certain she has only been jogging for a few minutes. 'I should not have reached open ground so soon.' Again, she struggles to recall with clarity the previous night, but even accounting for her muddled memory, she cannot believe that this is the same forest she stumbled through the night before. No matter how tired she was the previous night, a few minutes of jogging could not possibly cover the same distance as her blind running.
'This does not make sense. Was I moved and then buried? But by whom, and for what purpose? And why did I not wake when moved?' As Arturia ponders, she looks about her to get her bearings as best she can in the dark. She does not think it likely, but if she was moved any great distance then she will have difficulty retracing her steps in the dark. She chafes at wasting her time waiting for light, but she knows if she chooses the wrong direction she will be wasting her time and energy. She chews on her lip as she considers what to do, but her awareness of the time lost to indecision begins to nag at her. 'No.' She dismisses her doubts with a shake of her head. 'It is impossible that I was moved in a single night further than I traveled yesterday. Therefore, since I traveled west, my home must be somewhere to the east.'
A distant rumble from the south draws her attention. 'A storm?' Arturia frowns. 'I will have to hurry if there is a storm coming.' She tries to calculate how much bad weather would delay her, fretting at the additional delay. To her confusion, the thunder continues without pause. She looks for the flash of lightning, none appears. 'The lightning is usually seen before the thunder is heard, anyway.' After several long seconds of watching, Arturia spots a bright point of light as it appears in the distance. It moves slowly to the east, then disappears as suddenly as it appeared. A few moments later, the sound fades as well.
'I do not have time for this!' Arturia berates herself. For now, the most important thing for her to do is to return to the friends she left behind. 'Any beast or sorcerer that seeks to delay me shall regret it!' she thinks, confirming the comforting weight of her sword on her hip. Arturia aligns herself by the stars to confirm her direction and kicks off the ground, promising herself that she will waste no more time.
~~~CotD~~~
The horizon is just beginning to glow with the light of false dawn when Arturia slows to a stop again. In front of her, a dark stone strip cuts across the ground, too wide for her to leap without enhancing her strength. She approaches it carefully, frowning in confusion. When she kneels down to touch it, it is familiar to her, but she can't place-
'Asphalt-'
Recognition stabs a knife into her brain, and she stumbles backward, clutching at her head.
'-nononono!'
She knows this cannot be possible. It cannot be possible, so she refuses to accept it. Her mind rejects the evidence of her senses. No matter what, she will not allow herself to acknowledge this. Her head spins with denials, but no matter how hard she refuses it, the reality of it presses inward.
'Impossible. How could this have happened?'
She looks around wildly, searching for some evidence that she is mistaken. Instead, she falls backward as a car roars by before vanishing quickly into the night.
'An automobile.' The foreign word comes to Arturia's mind unbidden, and her vision swims as she is suddenly overcome by nausea. She rolls to her knees and retches, but her stomach is empty. After several ragged breaths, she manages to sit back, and rests her head on her knees.
'Roads and automobiles... Then this is the twentieth century, as years are measured by the Church?' It is the only explanation she can think of. Even the most outlandish of Merlin's pranks were never this creative. He would not know of the future in enough detail to replicate it. Although she often believed he had some sort of foresight, he never evidenced the ability to see clearly through millennia. Her breathing speeds up as she tries to conceptualize the difference in time.
'Is it possible I slept for a thousand years? Does such magic even exist?' Despite asking herself that, she knows it must. She slept for over a thousand years, therefore the magic must exist. She realizes she is hyperventilating and takes a deep breath. 'If I slept for so long, then it does me no good to wonder how I got here.' She tries to compose herself, but though her mind accepts her rationalization, her heart refuses to accept it.
'It seems I will not be able to return in time to bury them, after all.' She finds that thought amusing, but her laughter turns into a sob. 'It is not funny at all, so why did I laugh?' She rubs her eyes, but to her surprise, her hands come away dry. 'I am not crying?' She frowns. 'I should be crying. My friends are dead.' She takes another slow, shuddering breath.
'Is this what the people of the villages I destroyed felt? In an instant, their home and their entire life were taken away from them.' Her stomach twists at the thought. Guilt for her orders in the past weighs on her. 'They were right to say I did not understand people,' she thinks morosely. 'If I did, I could never have...' The thought dies in her head. As King, she did what was necessary to protect the country. Even if she had known the pain of losing one's entire village or town, she still would have given the same orders, unless she could find a better way to protect Britain. If she could not have, then it was better that she did not understand people.
Arturia shakes her head wildly. 'Why am I thinking about this now? I have already come to terms with that.' Her pulse pounds in her ears, momentarily drowning out her thoughts. She pushes herself to her feet as soon as her pulse subsides, but stumbles, lightheaded as soon as she straightens. She balances herself carefully, and assesses her condition. Her stomach rumbles, and she realizes that she is hungry despite the tension in her gut.
'I have not eaten for many hours. I should secure provisions. And information. I must ascertain the current year.' She frowns. 'I can... mourn later.' With practiced effort, she carefully stops thinking about the friends she left behind. It is not the first time Arturia has had to set aside grief, anger, or other emotions to focus on what must been done. As she contemplates her course of action, she hopes that, perhaps, this time will be the last.
Food is her most important goal, but she concludes that food and information will have to come together, when she finds other humans. Her spirits lift slightly as she considers her small bit of good fortune. She found a road, and if she follows it, she will certainly come to a home or settlement. She takes a step toward the road, but stops when her sword brushes against her leg. 'Carrying weapons in public was forbidden in this era,' she recalls with a frown, looking herself over. 'And whenever I was summoned, I was told my clothing was too conspicuous. Avalon, as well...'
She shakes her head to dispel her reminiscences. Irisviel and Shirou, or rather Rin, had taken very different approaches to disguising her, and she is uncertain which she would prefer to use now. "Shirou." Her breath catches in her throat. If she were to be brought to any time in the future by magic, why not Shirou's time? She cannot bear to hope for that, so she ruthlessly crushes her foolishness. 'I will not think of this again until I am certain,' she resolves. 'I am not some vapid maiden who flusters at the mere thought of reuniting with her lover.' Despite her herself, she feels her cheeks heating.
'Enough. I will have to conceal my sword, at least. Avalon... conspicuous or not, I shall not leave Avalon behind. If that brings trouble, then I shall deal with it as it comes. These clothes must serve, simply because I have no alternative. They are perhaps fine enough to pass for homemade, if old-fashioned.' She has no other choice, so she must hope so. She frowns at her clothing. 'My clothes and I will undoubtedly draw attention this dirty.' Arturia looks around thoughtfully, then begins trudging back the way she came. 'Wet clothes are a better choice than dirty clothes.'
She leaves her sword in the hole she woke in, covering it halfheartedly. Although prudence insists she make the attempt, she doubts she will have any opportunity to reclaim it. Stripping off her over-clothes, she kneels at the shore of the lake, scrubbing as much of the dirt out of the garment as she can without any proper equipment.
~~~CotD~~~
Arturia is grateful that the morning sun mitigates the chill of the air as she trudges down the road. She squeezed the water from her garment as best she could, but it was still damp enough to be felt through her tunic when she put it back on. Avalon bounces uncomfortably against her leg. She adjusted the belt so the sheath hangs vertically at her side, and belted it on before donning her outer clothing again. As long as she takes relatively short steps, it does not disrupt the drape of her clothing too much, and should not be noticeable to an observer that is not looking for it, which she has accepted as good enough.
Although she does not wish to draw too much attention from the people she may encounter, she desires even more strongly to avoid the attention of any magi in the area. Her experiences in her own time and her experiences with the Grail War warn her that magi are not to be trusted. Even Merlin, her nominal ally, was not above playing cruel pranks, and Morganna... She would be happier never to think of that witch again. Even though she knows now that Emiya Kiritsugu did not betray her, he acted without regard to her wishes. No, she will certainly be best off avoiding the notice of magi as much as possible. But because of that, she must limit her speed to the pace of a normal human. Although she is certain she would have reached something by now if she traveled at full speed, she continues to walk along the side of the road at a leisurely pace, swallowing her impatience.
A loud sound from beside her startles Arturia. She had been aware of the vehicle approaching from the sound of the engine, but she had been expecting it to pass her like the rest that she had seen that morning. However, this one slows as it draws even with her, and sounds its horn again. She stops walking and looks up. Many vehicles has slowed down for the occupants to look at her: a car driven by a young man in a suit, a smaller, rounded car driven by a plump woman, a black van with tinted windows driven by a man in a suit wearing sunglasses, and a bus whose driver had slowed and watched her carefully before accelerating away like the rest. This driver that is honking at her will be her first interaction with another human being since waking up this morning, and she is curious what the people of Britain will be like in the current time period.
The car's window nearest to her slides down smoothly, and the driver leans across the seat to address her.
"████ ██ ████ ██ █████████"
She blinks, and cocks her head to the side.
"████ ██ ████ ██ █████████"
He repeats what he said, and Arturia shakes her head and backs away from the car, fighting against a rising urge to panic. She cannot understand him. The rhythms of his speech are vaguely familiar, and some of the words sound like she should know them, but she can discern no meaning from his speech. With a confused shrug, the driver closes the window and accelerates away from her.
Arturia continues walking along the road, her head spinning. 'I am a fool!' She berates herself repeatedly. 'Of course I cannot understand the speech of this time period. Language changes; I already knew that.' She cannot forgive herself for making such an obvious mistake, but she has not choice but to accept it and move on. Whether or not she can communicate easily, she must find a way. She has no other choice, after all.
~~~CotD~~~
Arturia slumps onto the bench by the church gates, wincing as Avalon bangs against it. She stretches out her legs to keep the sheathe concealed. The sun has long since past its zenith, and she must squint against it to see the top of the steeple. The sign by the entrance is illegible to her. Many of the characters are familiar to her, but the arrangement of them has no meaning. When she had seen the church, an ancient-looking building, she had hoped that maybe there would be some indication of where she was in a language she would recognize. However, it does not surprise her that there is not. The signs on the road here were unreadable to her, and she has not been able to read anything she has seen in this town so far. Despite her best efforts, she has not been able determine her location or the current date.
'What now?' she wonders. She has already walked through most of the town, and it is obvious to her she cannot stay to rest here, much less continue to search for sustenance. She has been drawing looks from the residents, and she has noticed many whispered conversations and pointed fingers as she passed. It seems that despite her best efforts, she still stands out more than she had hoped it. Yes, it would certainly be best for her to move on. Her stomach rumbles in protest, and she groans. 'I never imagined that the King of Britain would be reduced to this.' She has considered pretending to be a deaf-mute, but her pride will not permit it yet. She thinks she would prefer to starve than beg, but she hopes that her resolution will not be tested.
Arturia rubs her temples as a large, loud group of people walks past the church on the road. It is not something she had ever thought about, but being surrounded by people speaking gibberish gives her a headache. She does not know why she expected anything good to come of visiting a church. Her experiences with the Church have never been good. In her life, they were always a remote danger, threatening her country for its heathen ways. However, it turned out that they were never a threat she had to face. The more immediate problems of the Saxons and the other Germanic invaders had occupied her full attentions for most of her reign. And during her time as a Servant, she was twice betrayed by the Church in its role as overseer of the Holy Grail War: First when Kotomine Risei allied himself with the Tohsaka family during the fourth War and conspired to make his son a Master, and then again when Kotomine Kirei, despite being the overseer, participated in the fifth War with his Servant from the previous Holy Grail War.
Despite this, she wants to believe that perhaps not all clergy are corrupt. The message of peace preached by the clergy unaware of the magical world appeals to her, but she knows that they are also unaware of the doings of the organizations they belong to. And as evidenced by Risei and his son, the holy vows are not always meaningful. While she wishes she could trust the men of the cloth at this holy place, she cannot risk it.
"Hey, Gramps!"
The voice of a young girl startles Arturia out of her thoughts, but she does not immediately understand why. There have been many children in this town shouting and speaking loudly in their excitement.
"Graaaaaamps, where'd you go?"
With the second call, Arturia leaps to her feet. Although she does not recognize the voice, nor know who the girl is calling for, she desperately casts about, searching for the speaker.
'I can understand her!'
It is difficult, and takes effort, but she can definitely comprehend the meaning of the words that one person is saying.
'Japanese. She is speaking Japanese!' Recognition of the language comes slowly, but as soon as it does, she climbs onto the bench to scan the crowd. Now that she knows what she is looking for, she quickly catches a glimpse of an Asian girl with brown hair fighting her through the people around her and looking around, presumably for her grandfather. Without a second thought, Arturia rushes into the crowd of people, struggling to keep track of the girl speaking Japanese.
'I have to follow her,' she thinks, somewhat desperately. 'this is too unlikely of an opportunity for me to lose it!' Despite Arturia's best efforts, the distance between the girl and herself grows. She is, to Arturia's eye, more experienced at moving through tightly-packed people, and Arturia elbows harder through the crowd. However, the gap continues to widen.
Arturia struggles to bring to mind the details of a language she has not spoken in years. Japanese was never her native language, and despite the Grail system imparting a certain fluency with it to her, she cannot speak it effortlessly anymore. Fortunately, the words she seeks are simple, and she is able to recall them before the girl she is following escapes from earshot.
"Wait!" Arturia calls in Japanese, stumbling over the word. "Please wait!" It flows more smoothly the second time, and she finds everything she knows of the language beginning to surface in her mind.
The girl stops moving and swings her head around. Although Arturia can only glimpse her face in profile, she seems confused. However, the delay is enough for Arturia to reach her. She slows to a stop as she draws abreast of her quarry and clears her throat to draw the Asian girl's attention. Arturia notes that her eyes, widened by surprise, are brown to match her hair.
"Excuse me," Arturia says, inclining her head slightly.
"Eh?" The girl spins to face her, jumping slightly. "You speak Japanese?" She points at Arturia, and her startled exclamation draws stares from the crowd.
"I speak Japanese," she responds. "Is that strange? People are staring."
"Ah!" The girl looks around quickly and lowers her voice. "No, it's not strange at all!" she protests, then groans. "No, obviously it's strange. Nobody else here speaks Japanese except my grandfather. You speak fluently for a foreigner! Hey, can you help me find him? My grandfather, that is!"
Arturia grimaces as she tries to make sense of the fast-talking girl's barrage of words. "I... only speak Japanese," she admits unhappily, "and I was hoping you could help me, actually."
"Why do you only speak Japanese? Aren't you from around here? And yeah, I can help you!" The girl visibly puffs with pride. "Gramps is always saying we should help people in need, but this is the first chance I've had to really help someone!"
"My circumstances are complicated, but I am seeking to return to Japan," Arturia says slowly, picking her words with care. If she is in the time she hopes she is, then returning to Japan is her ultimate goal. Furthermore, it is the only language of this time that she can communicate in. "However, I am lost. Can you tell me where I am?"
Arturia feels an irrational stab of guilt when the girl deflates. "We're in an area called Cornwall, I think, but I don't know what this village is called. I'm sorry!" she apologizes quickly. "I wasn't really paying that much attention when Gramps told me where we were going. All these towns have been so boring!" She pouts, clearly recalling earlier parts of the trip, then brightens. "Hey, I bet my grandfather would be able to help you! He'd know where this is, at least. Besides, it's really boring having nobody to talk to. I thought I was good at English, but even though I'm going into high school next year, I can't understand these people at all!" She grabs Arturia's hand without waiting for a response and pulls her toward a side street. "Come on, I bet he's over here! I searched over there already."
Arturia is unable to resist as the girl happily drags her on a tour of the town. She quickly deduces that the girl has already been around the town once with her missing grandfather she she is bombarded with descriptions of the town sights, prefaced with "Gramps said..." and similar phrases. Although Arturia makes no effort to conceal her lack of interest in the impromptu tour, her companion continues to ignore it. 'Or rather,' Arturia thinks with a shake of her head as the girl bounces in place as she talks, 'it is as if she has not even noticed. She certainly has given no indication of noticing that my attire is unusual.' Still, Arturia cannot bring herself to be angry. 'Certainly if I was not so concerned with my situation, I would be be considerably more excited to have encountered someone I can communicate with, even if she is only interested in communicating about trivial things.' Even at the best of times, Arturia would find discussion of the evolution of the architectural styles of a town boring. 'What use could it be to anyone to know what foreign styles influenced the construction of new buildings in each section of town as it was built?' she thinks with frustration, then immediately feels guilty for thinking ill of the girl's enthusiasm. 'That is untrue, regardless,' she chastises herself. 'The buildings tell the history of the place.'
Even though she tried to be patient with the girl, Arturia's sense of urgency continued to mount, spurred on by the girl's own lack of concern. When a quick glance at the sky showed her that the sun was nearing the horizon, she felt her teeth beginning to grind.
"Are we not supposed to be looking for your grandfather?" she snaps, finally.
"Huh?" The girl looks at Arturia with a quizzical expression. "Why would we do that? It's almost seven, and he told me to meet him at the hotel for dinner if we got separated. I stopped looking for him when I found you," she admits with a wide smile. "You're more fun than he is!"
Arturia sighs. "I see. Unfortunately, I do not share your appreciation for..." She waves her hand to encompass the town. "I was hoping to acquire information in order to expedite my return to Japan. You said your grandfather could help me, and I was planning to assist you in your search." She stops herself and swallows her displeasure. This child is not one of her knights, but a girl on vacation with her family. Taking her frustration out on the girl is behavior unbecoming of her, and she feels herself flush with shame. "I am sorry. I am finding this situation to be stressful, but that is not your fault. If you do not mind, could we return to the hotel to wait for your grandfather?"
To her surprise, the girl suddenly bows deeply to her. "I'm the one who should apologize," she says, still bent at the waist and disregarding the stares of the people around her. "I knew you were in a bad situation, but I didn't really think about it and I just dragged you around."
She straightens abruptly and turns away, scratching her head. "Geeze, I really screwed up," she mutters. "Gramps is right, I gotta pay more attention to other people." The girl turns back to Arturia, smiling again, but this time Arturia can tell without trying that it is forced.
"Come on. Let's go back." She holds out a hand toward Arturia. Arturia reaches out slowly to take it, but the girl huffs in impatience and grabs her hand. Arturia permits herself to be lead down the street, smiling slightly. 'She is a good, forthright child. Her heart was certainly in the right place; she was trying to entertain me until-'
Arturia stops walking, and the girl holding her hand stops abruptly when she realizes Arturia is no longer moving. She gives a tug, but when Arturia fails to budge, she turns around.
"What's the holdup?"
Arturia looks at her, licking her lips unconsciously.
"It could be that I am misremembering, but is it possible, perhaps, that you mentioned dinner?"
~~~CotD~~~
"Your grandfather is late," Arturia complains, trying to keep any note of accusation out of her voice.
"Yeah, he is," the girl sitting next to her agrees. "I'm going to let 'em have it whenever he shows up."
Arturia shakes her head and looks around again. She and her tour guide are sitting on a sofa in the lobby of the hotel the Japanese girl is staying at with her grandfather. Although she has studied it already, watching the people moving about still provides her with something to do. Arturia is aware that she does not have much to compare it to, but the room seems very well-appointed for a hotel in a relatively small town. 'Of course, it is nowhere near the standards of the places Irisviel saw fit to hire rooms from. However, it does have a very lavish lobby. Perhaps this is an important stop on a major travel route.' She glances back at the girl sitting next to her, who is swinging her legs and staring at the ceiling, and decides that even an inane conversation is better than risking letting the girl get bored. Given what she has observed of the girl's attention span, Arturia does not believe her patience will last much longer.
"Do you know why this hotel is disproportionately large, given the size of the surrounding town?"
The girl stops swinging her legs and nods. "Yeah, tourism is a major business in Cornwall. Hotels like this bring in a lot of money, and bring people with money to burn into the town. This town actually has three hotels, despite only having a population of a few thousand people. Of course, we're staying at the nicest one."
"Of course," Arturia agrees neutrally, with a slightly raised eyebrow. "You seem quite knowledgeable about this topic."
"Does it really seem that way?" the girl says excitedly, leaning toward her. "That's cool. I'm just repeating what Gramps told me. He's in the real estate business back home, so he actually does know about this stuff. It's like the architecture. He tells me all about it, and he gets a bit annoyed if I don't pay attention, so I have to remember it." She laughs.
"I see. That certainly sounds difficult." Arturia says sympathetically. Memories of training under Sir Ector and listening to lectures by Merlin provide her with ample basis for empathy. She shudders in recollection of the scoldings she would receive if she failed to recall a lesson.
"Eh? It's not so bad." She waves her hand dismissively. "I don't mind the lessons in economics, even if I don't really understand it. He's trying to teach me the things he has learned through experience because he cares, right? So even if I don't have any interest, I appreciate it."
"I see." Arturia nods to herself. "That is a very mature attitude." She finds herself raising her opinion of the girl. 'Although she seemed unreliable at first, she is more thoughtful and considerate than she let on, and I do not dislike her honesty.'
"What time did you say your grandfather would get here?" Arturia asks after a few minutes of silence, glancing at the large clock over the entrance to the lobby.
"Half an hour ago," her companion responds morosely, rubbing her stomach. "I'm hungry."
"I as well," Arturia admits quietly.
"You know," the brown-haired girl says slowly, "I don't think I ever got your name. I'm-"
"Tai-chan!"
The girl bounces to her feet. "That's Gramps! Come on, let's go eat!" She runs across the lobby toward an older Asian, shorter than her and with close-cropped grey hair. "You're late!" she shrieks as she charges toward him.
Arturia follows at a more sedate pace, mindful of the uniformed employees glowering at the running girl.
"This is your grandfather, I presume, Tai-san?" she asks when she catches up, stumbling briefly over honorific.
"Yup!" The girl, Tai, beams at her. "But just "chan" is fine. We're friends, after all!" She gestures to the man standing next to each other. "This is my grandfather." She turns to Arturia. "Gramps, meet my new friend..." She trails off, frowning. "You never told me your name!"
"You ran away before I could." Arturia responds, smiling at the girl's consternation. "I am Arturia."
"Right! Gramps, meet my new friend, Arturia-chan." Tai nods to herself in clear satisfaction. "Now that we've all been introduced, can we please go get something for dinner? I'm starving!"
The old man looks between Arturia and his granddaughter. "Will your friend be joining us for dinner?"
"Of course she will!" the girl answers with a smile.
"I could not impose," Arturia protests. "I simply wanted to meet you to ask you a few questions."
"Oh, that's right!" the Asian girl exclaims, "she needs your help. She's gotten separated from her friends or something, and since she doesn't speak English, when she heard me looking for you, she asked me for help." She looks pleadingly at her grandfather. "You can help her, right?"
"It would be enough to know where I am, and where I might find people who speak Japanese who could help me get back there," Arturia interjects. "I do not wish to trouble you."
"Hmm." The old man frowns thoughtfully and is silent for several minutes. Arturia waits patiently, while Tai shifts anxiously on her feet. "Let's go to dinner," he says, finally. "You're both hungry since I was late, right?"
Arturia opens her mouth to protest, but he cuts her off, holding up his hand. "Consider it my thanks for accompanying my granddaughter this afternoon. Besides, I think Tai-chan will explode if we delay her meal any longer," he says with a smile.
The girl nods, bouncing on her heels. "Can we have fish and chips again? Please?"
Her grandfather grimaces slightly, but nods.
"Thanks!" She darts forward and hugs her grandfather. "You're the best, Gramps!" She backs away abruptly, looking sheepish. "Uh, sorry." She spins to face Arturia. "You ever had fish and chips?" When Arturia shakes her head, she grins. "You're in for a treat, then. It's great! The British really know how to cook. Fried fish, fried potatoes, fried sauce..." She trails off and swallows loudly. "Wait a minute..." she mutters with a puzzled expression.
Arturia looks over the girl's shoulder at her grandfather, but he just shrugs helplessly and waves them out the door, so she follows the drooling girl outside, comforting herself with the thought that no matter how bad this food is, it cannot be as bad as some of the things she has eaten.
"Same place as last time!" Tai declares. "I'll save us some seats!" Without waiting for a response, she runs ahead to a storefront almost out of sight. She looks back impatiently at her grandfather and Arturia before disappearing through the doors. Her grandfather sighs.
"I must thank you again for keeping her company," he says quietly without looking at Arturia. "This is the most cheerful I have seen her since we left Japan."
"It is I who should be thanking you," Arturia responds. "I have enjoyed her company, and she offered to help me with nothing to gain from it. And now you are even treating me to dinner." She pauses. "It embarrasses me that I must impose further on your generosity, but I must ask your assistance."
The man walking beside her dismisses her concerns with a wave of his hand. "We can talk of serious matters after we have eaten. It would be inhospitable of me to do otherwise. Come," he says gravely, "our dinner awaits."
Arturia follows him into the building. As soon as she walks through the door, she is assailed by a strong odor of fried fish and her mouth waters. She swallows surreptitiously and looks around curiously as her companion leads her to a table to join his granddaughter. Despite the overpowering smell, the interior is clean and well-appointed. Tai's grandfather converses briefly with an employee near the door, who frowns at Arturia, but leads them to Tai. The table Tai is waiting at is set with cloth napkins and has a wide variety of condiments set out, more than she can easily identify.
"I ordered already," the girl announces proudly. "I didn't know what Arturia-chan wanted to drink, though, so I just asked for water. I hope that's okay?"
Arturia nods as she sits down, noting with trepidation the other girl's disappointed expression. However, she quickly perks up and begins describing the food that is served in this place. Arturia smooths her clothing over Avalon and listens with half an ear as she thinks. 'Her grandfather's request to wait until after the meal is an opportunity I should not pass up. I will have to explain my situation carefully to avoid worrying her unduly. He will likely be able to pick up on my intentions, but I don't think- did she just say the fish is coated in batter before being fried?' She licks her lips.
"Hey, Arturia-chan, how long have you been in the country that you haven't had fish and chips yet? It's a crime! Fish and chips is a traditional food of the British people!"
"I have been here for a while, but since I do not speak the language..." Arturia trails off.
"I see, I see. That's a shame, but at least you can remedy it! Look, food's here!"
Looking around, Arturia spots a young man in a uniform is walking toward their table carrying a tray with several plates of food and assorted drinks. He briskly sets out a plate and drink in front of each of them before hurrying to another table, but when neither of her companions seems offended by his haste, she accepts it. She cannot identify Tai's drink, but her grandfather also has water. 'At least I have not committed some faux pas by not requesting something more elaborate to drink.' She glances at the others as they begin eating to ascertain what appropriate dining etiquette is. However, while the older man has slipped the breaded fish out of its paper wrapping and is addressing it slowly with the silverware, his granddaughter has simply picked up the entire package by the paper in order to tear into it with her teeth. Arturia is somewhat taken aback by the gusto with which the girl is assaulting her meal. She eyes the grease coating the girl's fingers with distaste. 'I would rather keep my hands clean,' she thinks as she picks up her fork and knife.
"Mnnnng!" Tai protests through a mouthful of food, but quails under the combined glares of her grandfather and Arturia.
"Don't talk with your mouth full," he chides her. "It's embarrassing."
She nods and swallows with an audible gulp. "Arturia-chan!" she scolds as soon as her mouth is free, using the same tone her as her grandfather, "I'll forgive Gramps for it on account of his age, but fish and chips is finger food. You can't eat it with a fork!"
Arturia looks at the food on her plate, then at the oil running down the fingers of the girl across the table from her, and pointedly cuts a bite-size piece of breaded fish, forks it, and slowly lifts it to her mouth.
"Hah!" The old man barks a laugh, startling Arturia, and elbows his granddaughter. "Looks like she's not the pushover you thought she'd be, huh?" He nods approvingly at Arturia. "Well, go ahead try it so you can let her know what you think."
Arturia tries the fish, and does not bother to suppress her grimace. The fish is not bad, and the outer crust of the breading is crisp and tasty, but the inner layer of the batter is still soft and custard-textured, and squirts around her teeth as she bites down. She chews rapidly and swallows, washing it down with a large gulp of water. 'This is terrible. I have eaten better meals in war camps.' She looks across the table at her companions with a betrayed expression. 'Still, I am hungry, and it would be rude to reject food freely given. And... I have had worse.'
The old man just laughs again. "I keep telling her that the fish in this restaurant is awful, but she doesn't believe me."
His granddaughter pouts. "But I love the way it squishes around in my mouth. It's like eating fish with pudding!"
"And I keep telling you that the batter is supposed to be crispy the whole way through, like it was in the first restaurant we had it in."
'Fish and pudding?' Arturia attempts to imagine such a culinary atrocity, drops her silverware to her plate with a clatter.
"Arturia-chan, was it?" She nods. "You don't have to force yourself if you don't like it. The chips are good, though."
Arturia shakes her head. "The texture was... somewhat unexpected, but it is edible. Besides," she continues, her voice dark, "I have eaten worse." With great determination, she cuts another bite from the slab of breaded fish. Now that she is prepared for it, the semi-liquid batter is tolerable. Mechanically, she works her way through the fish before turning her attention to the golden-brown objects that accompanied it.
An experimental nibble reveals the crisp outer crust to be thin, covering a center of warm potato. The flavor is not strong, but she finds the simplicity comforting after the ordeal of the fish, and applies herself to the rest of them with relish. Arturia swallows the last bite with a sigh of satisfaction and leans back in her chair to find her companions watching her with bemused expressions. She blushes.
"They were very good," she says.
"They must have been," agrees Tai's grandfather with a smile.
Tai licks absently at the oil on her fingers. "By the way, Arturia-chan, are you staying nearby?"
"Ah..." The sudden question catches Arturia off guard. "Not exactly."
"Oh, that's too bad," the girl frowns. "I was hoping we could play tomorrow, too." She licks her fingers again, then glares at them and attempts to wipe them clean on her napkin. However, the cloth is already covered in grease, and she achieves nothing more than smearing her hands more evenly. With a grunt, she stands up. "I'm going to freshen up!" she declares firmly, and marches toward the back of the eatery.
As soon as Tai is out of earshot, the smile disappears from her grandfather's face. "So, where exactly are you staying?"
Arturia winces. She anticipated this question, but could not come up with an answer she felt was satisfactory. Instead, she has to make do with the unadorned truth. "At the moment, I have no lodgings."
"I see." The face of the man across the table from her creases in thought. "Your clothing is somewhat unusual, although Tai-chan doesn't seem to think it's out of place."
"It is all I have," she answers. She expected this question also. "However, she did say it was a pretty dress."
"And I am sure it was at one time, although it has clearly seen better days," he agrees, frowning. "I understand if you don't feel comfortable talking about what happened," he continues in a gentler voice, "but is there anything else you'd like to tell me? Who were you traveling with?"
With a flash of indignation, Arturia realizes that he is treating her like a lost, and possibly traumatized, child. Uncomfortably, she realizes that is how she must appear. "I was hoping you could help me locate a means of transportation back to Japan," she says, somewhat stiffly. "I do not speak English, so when I heard your granddaughter speaking Japanese, I approached her. She said you might be able to help me. And I was traveling alone."
"She does have a lot of faith in me," he says with a sigh, but Arturia does not think he sounds unhappy about that. "You don't have your luggage, so I suppose it's too much to hope you have your passport or any identification?"
'Passport?' Arturia shakes her head. 'Whatever that is, I do not have it. I hope it is not important,' she thinks with concern.
"I didn't think so. That's a problem, but not an insurmountable one." He rubs his temples. "I'm not sure what your parents were thinking, letting you travel abroad by yourself." He sighs again. "Well, Tai-chan would be sad if I said I couldn't help you, and she certainly seems to enjoy your company." He nods slowly, as if confirming something to himself. "If you don't mind waiting a few days, we can take you back to Japan with us."
Arturia blinks, stunned. "Take me back to Japan?" She had not even considered that he might offer such a neat solution to her dilemma. 'It would be quite convenient, and I do not mind waiting a few days, but that is a terrible imposition. I could not ask him to do so much.'
"It would be irresponsible of me to leave you alone," he continues firmly. "Besides, I suspect you would find getting out of the country with no money or papers to be more of an obstacle than you thought."
Arturia shakes her head slowly. "I still have no papers, and I cannot possibly repay you for this. I appreciate your offer, but I cannot accept."
To her surprise, he laughs at her objection. "You can repay me by accompanying my granddaughter for the rest of our stay in this country. Although it pains me to admit it, this old man is not very exciting company for a teenage girl. If you still feel you owe me a debt, you can repay it by helping someone else in the future."
"I understand," Arturia nods resolutely. "I shall accompany your granddaughter to the best of my ability."
He smiles at her serious tone. "That's settled, then. For your first assignment as my granddaughter's companion, please go find out what's taking her so long to wash her hands."
Arturia starts to rise, but he waves her back into her seat. "Never mind, here she comes."
"Sorry about that!" the girl apologizes cheerfully. "They were out of soap, so I had to kidnap an employee and drag her into the bathroom so I could point to the dispenser to make myself understood. What were you talking about?"
"Your grandfather offered his assistance in my efforts to return to Japan. He is very generous, and very helpful," Arturia answers sincerely.
"I'm going to go pay for dinner," the man in question interrupts, standing. "I'll meet you outside."
"Okay!" his granddaughter chirps, seizing Arturia's hand and yanking her out of her chair. "I knew Gramps would be able to help you!"
Arturia stumbles to her feet and pulls her hand free, pointedly walking out the door at her own pace and ignoring the impatient girl next to her "There is no hurry; we must wait for your grandfather."
"Yeah, but I want to hear how he's going to help you get back to Japan!" Tai protests. "Is he going to pack you in a box and mail you back? Or maybe charter a private jet?"
"Ah, about that..." Arturia shifts uncomfortably. "He has invited me to travel with you for the remainder of your trip, after which I will return to Japan with you. Please forgive my intrusion."
"Really?" The girl bounces happily. "That's great! It'll be just like having a a sister! I've always wanted a sister." Apparently unable to contain herself any longer, she pulls Arturia in a crushing hug. "This is going to be so much fun," she squeals.
Arturia stiffens at the sudden contact, and winces, feeling her ribs creak. 'I do not know why I expected her to be upset. She certainly is taking the news much better than I feared. I suppose the grandfather would know the granddaughter better than I would.' With a sigh, she extracts herself from Tai's embrace. "I do not think even the most unobservant of people would mistake us for siblings."
"Huh?" Tai taps her chin with a puzzled expression. She looks Arturia up and down, taking in the fair skin, blond hair, and green eyes. "I guess you're right." She looks dejected for a moment, then brightens. "We can be cousins, though!"
"Indeed you can," her grandfather agrees from behind Arturia. "It looks like you'll be my granddaughter as well for the next few days, Arturia-chan," he says cheerfully as he walks past them, leading the way back to the hotel. "Please take good care of me."
"Yes," Arturia nods, following after him. "Since we will be traveling together, might I ask your name?"
"There's no need to be so formal," he protests, chuckling.
"Yeah," Tai pipes up, "You can just call him 'Gramps' like I do."
"Hmm," Arturia considers it. "Gramps." She pauses. "No, that won't do. I shall call you Grandfather. That seems much more appropriate."
"Aha." He nods with satisfaction. "At least one of my granddaughters is properly respectful, even if she is only temporary."
"Hey, Gramps!" his real granddaughter protests. "When am I ever disrespectful? Huh, Gramps? Answer me!"
"I could not imagine you ever being disrespectful, Tai-chan. You must be imagining things."
"And don't you forget it!" she says happily.
"Of course." He looks between his granddaughter and Arturia. "Would you like an opportunity to prove what an obedient, respectful granddaughter you are?"
"Bring it on, Gramps. I'll show you that I'm the best granddaughter in the world."
"Very well, then. Arturia-chan seems to have lost her luggage. Why don't you run ahead and see if you can pick out something for her to borrow for tomorrow? She's about your size, but you're a tiny bit taller, maybe a centimeter, so keep that in mind. We'll meet you upstairs."
"Yes, sir!" She waves an exaggerated salute and runs ahead toward the hotel.
"This is as much for our benefit as for yours," he explains before Arturia can protest. She looks at him, curious, and is surprised to see a serious expression on his face. "Tai-chan was just being overenthusiastic when she adopted you, but I was not. You will have to actually pretend to be my granddaughter when we leave the country. The less attention we draw, the easier it will be. To further that effort, I will be acquiring you some more clothing and luggage when we return to London tomorrow." He holds up a hand to forestall her protests. "I understand that you are not entirely comfortable with charity, and if it makes you feel better, I will discuss repayment with your family when we return to Japan."
Arturia fidgets uncomfortably as they walk down the road. Finally, she sighs, and stops walking. "I have no family," she states bluntly, observing her companion carefully. When he does not react, she nods. 'As I suspected, he already deduced that.' She resumes walking. "Accepting further charity chafes my pride, but as you said, it is a necessity. As you have very generously offered your assistance and asked nothing in return, I will gratefully accept... Grandfather."
"I see." His voice from behind her is somber. "I will not pry into your past any further unless it becomes necessary. However, please listen to this old man talk to himself while we walk back to the hotel."
Arturia nods without looking back, respecting his privacy.
"A few months ago, my daughter-in-law was killed in an accident. The details are not important right now, but it was an unexpected loss. After the funeral, my son asked to step down from the leadership of the family business temporarily, so he could spend more time with his daughter. However, the transition could not be made quickly, and his daughter was becoming increasingly depressed. She had always been much closer to her mother than the rest of her family. While my son worked on taking care of the formalities, he asked that I take my granddaughter on a trip to give her some distance from her pain. While that may have worked, I had not seen her smile until earlier today, when she came home with a stray foreign-looking girl that only spoke Japanese, and was willing to follow her around a town and listen to her talk about nonsense."
Arturia stops walking at the entrance to the hotel, waiting for him to continue.
"I have no right to ask this of you, but it might help my granddaughter to know that she is not the only girl her age to have lost a member of her family."
Arturia turns around, shaking her head. "If you think it would be of use for me to do so, then it would be my pleasure to help. It is a minor thing compared to the aid you are giving me."
He smiles at her, eyes crinkling. "It would be okay if you acted your age, you know. Consider it a vacation, just for a few days. You certainly seem like you could use one."
Arturia watches, flabbergasted, as he walks toward the doors. 'I could use a vacation? Do I look that worn down?' She examines her reflection in the hotel's window as best she can, but she can see nothing that looks to her like it indicates the necessity of a vacation. However, her reflection appears younger than she realized. 'I am acting my age!' she protests to herself. 'It is not my fault that my aging was halted!'
Looking back at the stationary Arturia, her benefactor continues, "I'll be up once I see about hiring another room for the night. No need to wait down here for me. You can go up and join Tai-chan. It's the third floor, second door on the right."
With a nod, Arturia dismisses her concerns about her appearance and follows him in. She heads for the stairwell as he walks to the desk. As she climbs the stairs, she hears him addressing the person waiting there in the language she cannot understand, but now can identify as English.
~~~CotD~~~
Arturia moans with relief as the hot water of the in-suite shower washes over her. Rivulets of hot water ease the tension in her muscles and rinse away some of the accumulated grime from her skin. Of the many conveniences the future has to offer, hot running water is the one she thinks she missed the most. Although she cannot enjoy a long soak here, as there is no proper tub, she is grateful to be able to clean herself thoroughly.
'To ask for any more than this would be unforgivably greedy,' she thinks as she pours a generous quantity of shampoo into her hands and begins working it into her hair. Fortunately for her, the hotel provides basic hygiene necessities to all guests. Between the hotel's accommodations, the clothing her new friend lent her that is lying carefully folded in the dresser in the main room, and a large shirt her friend's grandfather had thoughtfully brought from the hotel's guest shop for her to sleep in, her needs have been provided for. His timely arrival in the hotel room had also saved her from his granddaughter's enthusiasm. The girl had somehow interpreted his suggestion that she find something to let Arturia borrow as permission to make her try on anything and everything that came to hand. Arturia had refused, of course, pointing out that she was too dirty to try on clean clothes. The enthusiastic girl had wilted at that, but it did not stop her from forcing Arturia to stand in place with her arms outstretched while she held clothes up to Arturia for inspection. Arturia had expressed her wish to retire as soon as Tai picked out a shirt that would fit, and a pair of pants that would not drag under Arturia's heels. However, Tai protested the loss of her model and chased her about the room, trying to catch her and force her into holding still so she could visualize her in one of the frilliest dresses Arturia had ever seen.
Fortunately for Arturia's dignity, the enthusiastic girl's grandfather had arrived with the key to another room on the same floor and an oversized T-shirt and brought his granddaughter to heel.
"Tai-chan, sit down and stop chasing Arturia-chan around the room. It's too small for roughhousing, and you'll break something," he scolded as he closed the door.
"Yes, Gramps," the girl sighed, dramatically collapsing onto one of the beds.
"At least you two are having fun," he said, drawing a betrayed look from Arturia. "Did you at least find something for her to wear tomorrow before you started playing?"
"Yup!" The girl popped upright. "I was just trying to see if that dress I got for my birthday last year would fit her while we waited for you. I brought it because Mom always said I should bring something formal with me when traveling, just in case." She fell silent, and Arturia looked between Tai and her grandfather, feeling increasingly like she was intruding. However, the girl continued cheerfully. "I didn't think it looked that good on me, but I wanted to see how it looked on Arturia-chan!"
"Is that so?" He looked at Arturia with an unreadable expression. "This is for you to sleep in, Arturia-chan." He tossed her the shirt, and held up a key, attached to a large tag. "This is the key to what was going to be your room, but if you two would like, I could stay in the new room and let the two of you play dress-up and braid each others' hair, or whatever it is teenage girls do before going to bed on vacation."
"Really, Gramps?" Tai said, and Arturia almost thought that she could see the girl's eyes sparkling. "That'd be-"
"-too much of an imposition," Arturia cut in smoothly. "I could not possibly separate the two of you."
"It would be no trouble at all!" His protest confirmed Arturia's suspicion.
'He is teasing me!' she thought with some annoyance, but the further realization that he was testing her kept her from making any angry retort. Instead, she smiled, aware that it would be obviously fake, and reached out to take the key from his hand. "Thank you for your very generous offer, but I would like to go to bed early tonight. Perhaps another time." She left the room quickly, ignoring Tai's whined protest.
"But you'd look so adorable in pink!"
"I understand your aversion to pink, but do you even know where you're going?" The man's voice from behind her is amused. She shook her head, and he chuckled. "Down the hall, first right, and it's the first door on your left. Don't stay up too late. One of us will come knock when we're ready to go down for breakfast, or if you're not in your room we'll meet you downstairs."
The door closed with a thump.
Arturia shakes her head at her recollection of her hasty exit as she finishes rinsing her hair. In the time since the last Holy Grail War, she had forgotten just how good it felt to have clean hair. However, the rest of her body feels even dirtier by comparison. She quickly works the soap provided by the hotel into a lather with the washcloth that was hanging by the shower. Arturia scrubs vigorously at her face until her skin feels raw and tender before immersing her head again in the painfully hot water to rinse the soap away. Without waiting, she moves on to washing her body.
Arturia notes with a frown how much dirt is rinsing away with the soap. 'I had not realized how much grime I had accumulated,' she thinks with distaste. 'How long has it been since I last bathed?' She calculates backward as she scours her legs. The accumulated dirt behind her knees washes away slowly. 'Not today, obviously, and then not yesterday, either... I was too busy... The day before... No, not then either.' She sighs. 'I suppose it really has been that long.' The awareness disgusts her. 'How did I ever become reaccustomed to such low standards of cleanliness?' she wonders as she rinses the cloth, and watches the dirty water spiral down the drain. Sighing, she sits down to wash her feet. Compared to the rest of her body, her feet are even worse, and the dirt packed beneath her toenails comes free only slowly. 'Some of this dirt is probably a week old. Or perhaps over a thousand years old.'
Arturia feels suddenly dizzy. 'A thousand years... no, more. This time yesterday I was worrying about whether I would make it back home in time to see my friends before they died.' She leans back against the wall of the shower to keep her balance. 'Now I am here, and they are lost to me.' Her dizziness is abruptly replaced by overwhelming exhaustion. 'Why am I here? Why am I still alive? There must be some reason.' The questions she put off earlier return to haunt her, and to her embarrassment, she finds her eyes burning.
'I miss them! I want to see them again!' These thoughts overwhelm her. 'Why is separation so painful? Even though I knew I would be separated from them eventually, it was still too sudden!' She does not want to accept it. She was happy and content with her life, and she bitterly resents the way it was abruptly torn from her. 'When did I become so attached?' Unable to hold back any longer, Arturia hides her tears under the flowing water and weeps freely.
As should now be apparent, this story has moved onto a new arc. The first four chapters were a prologue; the story is now into the main body. I hope you continue to enjoy it.