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Server lock: The entire point of this story is to be fluff and slice of life. Sure, there will be some action down the line, but that's not the focal point. Is it wrong for it to be anything more than what it is? In this world line, your first theory was correct. She could leave whenever she wanted to, but she didn't have a reason to until she stumbled upon Shirou. And yes, Gilgamesh has a mom, but since when has that ever stopped Tiamat?

Chapter 4: Magi

Makiri Zolgen, otherwise known as Matou Zouken, was freaking out. When that… that thing picked up one of his crest worms, he almost had a panic attack. He immediately went to the Matou library to do research and what he saw…

Tiamat, the primordial mother. The primordial mother was in Fuyuki and she knew about him. Zouken was many things, but stupid wasn't one of them. As soon as Tiamat caught wind of his operation…

No, I can't leave, Zouken thought. If he left, then the grail would be lost. He needed to stay behind and grow stronger. He looked up at the worm pit and smirked as he saw Sakura's broken expression. Things were going well, but he might need to step things up a bit.

Sella was confused. Ever since Kiritsugu and Irisviel left, she had been exclusively assigned to watch over Illya, but now Acht was reassigning her.

"What is it you need?" Sella asked, kneeling before the old man.

"Kiritsugu has died," Acht said, his voice lacking any emotion at all. Stella looked up, confused. Kiritsugu was more than a competent magus and assassin. How could he have died?

"And Lady Irisviel?" Sella asked.

"Dead too," Acht shook his head. Sella lowered her gaze. She silently grieved for the homunculus, but she didn't allow it to show in front of the patriarch. "I need you to go to Fuyuki and retrieve Avalon."

"Of course," Sella nodded. She still had her doubts, but she didn't have a choice in the matter.

"Your belongings have already been prepared. I expect you to leave immediately," Acht nodded.

"Can I say goodbye to Lady Illyasviel?" Sella looked up to look at Acht.

"You may not. Collecting Avalon is more important," Acht replied almost immediately. Sella bit back a few choice words.

"Your will shall be done," Sella stood up and left. She gritted her teeth as she did. Acht may have made her, but she was only loyal to Illya.

Tiamat smiled as she watched Shirou cook. He had been making a lot of progress in the past week and was well on his way to making meals that would make any human bow to. She was so proud.

Should I… Tiamat shook her head. She knew Shirou was capable of magecraft, but the question was if Tiamat wanted to awaken his circuits now. He was so young… but… he needed to be able to protect himself. Even if Tiamat would be by his side for the rest of his life, it would still put her mind at ease.

"Mama, dinner time!" Shirou called. Tiamat's smile widened as she floated over to the kitchen table.

"What did you make, darling?" Tiamat asked.

"I made curry!" Shirou chirped excitedly. He waddled over to grab the cookbook Tiamat bought him and opened it to one of the pages. It looked identical to the food on the table. "I think I did a good job."

"I know you did," Tiamat put a hand on the young boy's head and started to rub it gently. Shirou beamed at the praise.

"C'mon! Try it!" Shirou darted over to sit down. Tiamat floated to her seat across from Shirou and sat down as well. She clasped her hands together. It was a human tradition, but she wanted Shirou to learn it too. The boy mimicked her movements before going for his chopsticks.

As the two ate, Tiamat looked at Shirou. She knew that she needed to open Shirou's circuits. The world was cruel and unforgiving and as much as Tiamat wanted to be at Shirou's side for the rest of his life, she knew that there would be times they would be apart. For those few times, the boy had to be able to protect himself.

Tiamat's first thought was to dip him in her Primordial Sea. If she did that, she would be able to modify Shirou and make him stronger. Not to mention she could extend the boy's annoyingly short lifespan. But… Shirou had only been with her for about a week. She didn't want to do anything that might scare the young boy. Maybe in a year or two she would dip him into her sea.

"Shirou, would you like to learn magic?" Tiamat asked. She wanted to approach this subject carefully, but this was the only way she knew how.

"Magic?" Shirou echoed. Tiamat could see the light shine in his eyes as he tried and failed to hide his excitement. "Is that how you float and read minds?"

"It is a part of the reason," Tiamat admitted.

"Can I please learn magic, then?" Shirou's pupils seemed to dilate as he replicated the gaze of a baby dragon begging for food.

How can I possibly say no to that face? Tiamat thought to herself. She was lucky Shirou couldn't read her mind… yet.

"Of course. Finish your food, first," Tiamat said gently.

"Yay!" Shirou said before beginning to wolf down his food.

Shirou was filled with apprehension. He was excited, but he felt himself shaking too. He didn't know how big of a deal this was, but he knew that Tiamat's serious expression unnerved him.

"Shirou, this will hurt. Are you okay with that?" Tiamat asked as she floated down into a sitting position. She tapped the ground twice, gesturing for Shirou to sit. Shirou sat down and Tiamat smiled before rubbing Shirou's head softly. "The other way, dear."

"Ah! Sorry!" Shirou's face turned red as he turned around. There was no way for him to know, but he couldn't help the wave of embarrassment flow throughout his body.

"It's okay. You're doing great," Tiamat assured Shirou.

"But… I haven't done anything yet," Shirou mumbled.

"You're here, and that's enough to make me happy," Tiamat replied. Shirou felt a warmth stem from his chest and spread throughout the rest of his body. His tense muscles instantly started to relax.

"Thank you…" Shirou whispered. He didn't know what his life was like before Tiamat adopted him, but he knew that he would rather be here. "I'm ready."

"Alright, honey. I'll try to make it as painless as possible, okay?" Tiamat cooed. Shirou felt a gust of wind brush upwards against his skin. His shirt then flew off his body and the cold air touched his bare chest. As he started to shiver, he felt his mother's warm hand place itself gently upon his back. Warmth spread through his body once more and the boy took a deep breath.

Shirou then instantly felt a jolt of pain and gritted his teeth. The pain was sharp and quick. He felt something tear throughout his body quickly as he flinched in response. As he squeezed his eyes shut, an image flashed in his head. It was an egg hatching. Shirou was perplexed at the image. Why was he seeing this?

Rebirth, His mind supplied. Yes, that made sense. When Tiamat held the boy on that fiery night, he was reborn from the ashes of those cursed flames.

"Stay still, Shirou. It's almost over," Shirou heard Tiamat's voice in his head. Even if Tiamat's warmth wasn't there, Shirou wouldn't have minded. The pain was nothing compared to the fire. After the initial shock of pain, it almost completely went away.

"There. It's done," Tiamat said. As soon as she removed her hand, Shirou felt a wave of exhaustion wash over him.

"Mama… I'm… I'm tired," Shirou muttered. His body was swaying back and forth, and Shirou had to force himself to stay awake.

"Rest, my child," Shirou felt a gentle pair of hands pull him down into something soft. When he looked up, he saw Tiamat smiling down at him. The butterflies in her eyes seemed to be flapping their wings as she rested a gentle hand on his head. "You did wonderful."

"Thank you," Shirou whispered. The pain was long forgotten as he fell into a blissful sleep.

Tiamat had a small smile on her face as she finished tucking Shirou into bed. The litany of things she had worried about never came to pass during the boy's awakening. As she brushed the back of her hand on the boy's face, she decided to peer into the boy to find his element and origin.

Creation, a fine origin, Tiamat thought to herself. She did not know what was normal for humans, but his element perplexed her. Imaginary Numbers… has my presence influenced his element somehow?

Tiamat was under no misconception about her power and influence. Something like that could have easily happened. She was thankful that his origin did not seem to be affected. Shirou was her child, not clay that could be sculpted and played with.

"I wonder if there are any books about magecraft," Tiamat thought to herself. She was never taught magecraft or the intricacies of the craft. Those things came naturally to her. She knew she could teach Shirou to an extent, but she didn't have experience with beings that had to learn magecraft from the ground up.

With the night's activities decided, Tiamat stood up and floated out of the room, gently closing the door behind her.

Tohsaka Rin was not having a good start to her day. She had passed out while reading an introductory book on magecraft and when she woke up, the book was gone. She went to check the library of the Tohsaka Estate, only to see several other books missing.

"Goddammit!" One could argue that a child her age shouldn't know such language, but Rin was well read. It didn't help that she heard her father curse multiple times throughout her life. As Rin stormed to the kitchen, she saw Kirei sitting at the table with an infuriating smirk.

"Ever heard of knocking?" Rin asked with a pout on her face. Even if Kirei was her legal guardian, she didn't like having him around. There was something… multiple somethings about him that put the young girl on edge.

"I have not. Please enlighten me," Kirei replied as he sipped his tea. Rin just huffed and sat down as far away as she could from him.

"What do you want?" Rin asked. She didn't dare make herself something until the man left.

"I wanted to inform you that a being that is magical in nature has made a home out of Fuyuki," Kirei's smile faded behind his teacup. That was odd. Kirei almost never frowned. It was always that infuriating smirk that he had plastered on his face.

"Well why haven't you informed me earlier?" Rin asked. "I am the Second Owner, after all."

"This creature is much stronger than you or me. Neither of us can do anything about it, even if we wanted to," Kirei set down his teacup and looked down at it before shifting his gaze to look at Rin. "We don't know what its goals are. It can be extremely dangerous."

"What does it look like?" Rin asked.

"I don't know," Kirei shook his head. "All I know is that it's here and it has no intentions of moving for the foreseeable future."

"Well that's just great," Rin threw her arms in the air. If she didn't have enough things to worry about. School was starting soon and now she had to look out for something that could probably kill her in a thought while she walked home from school.

"Well, I think I should take my leave," Kirei stood up, leaving his half-empty cup on the table. "Rin, would you be a dear and clean this up for me?"

"I hate you," Rin muttered. Kirei's frown twitched.

"Is there anything else you need before I go?" Kirei asked.

"Yeah," Rin glared at the priest. "Where the hell did my books go?"

"Books?" Kirei asked.

"Yeah. I woke up and a bunch of books were missing from the Tohsaka library," Rin explained with an irritated tone in her voice. "I'm asking you. Where are they?"

In an instant, Kirei's smirk had returned.

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

Thank you all for reading! There's Shirou's element and origin confirmed. Though do keep in mind that most of Shirou's problems will be solved by "a frankly unnecessary amount of dragons." With that being said, please do consider leaving a review! I would love to read and reply to your thoughts. Also please join my Discord! I would love to talk to you all and answer all your questions! I talk a lot about my thought process while writing, so if you're interested in that, do consider joining. The url is discord . gg (forego the spaces) followed by a slash and CpVs7R8KXz. Unfortunately you'll have to type the rest of the url in manually because I'm not allowed to post links. Thank you for reading and I'll catch you on the flipside.