The cool night air was a far cry from the hustle and bustle of the village around him.

Nursed in Shirou's hand was alcohol, but of a kind he was unfamiliar with. The sweetness of the drink was enough to get even his attention, never having tasted it before. Apparently, it was made from several fermented fruits that were native to the elves' original home. They had brought some when they crossed the Gate, and had farmed them thousands of years ago.

And wasn't that a revelation to behold.

Other worlds. The operation of parallel universes was one thing - parallel meant that the universe that the Kaleidoscope had access to normally followed a fairly similar path in the grand scheme of humanity. But, from what descriptions he could glean from several conversations, the original world of the elves was completely different.

It was a worrying thought as much as it was a fascinating one.

He nearly spilled his drink as a few elves bumped into him, both of them completely drunk from the look of their faces.

'Right. Party.' He mused. He'd been so caught up in his thoughts that he nearly forgot that the elves were throwing a celebration specifically for him. His actions of beating back the Imperials had apparently won him the admiration of a fair few of them. Even the previously hostile Francios had clasped his shoulder with a grin when he'd handed the Enforcer some food and a drink.

Said food was also made with a strange meat that oddly resembled a chicken leg, only, there was another bone that made it obvious that the animal had two legs in a single thigh. Strange, but it tasted good, and didn't have any poisons that he could detect. That was more than enough for him. Moreover, had the elves wanted to kill him, the magic they had would have already done so.

Shirou took another sip of his drink, mentally noting to take back some with him. Who knows what he could cook with this? He sighed in satisfaction as he idly sat around, content that despite the party being for him, he would be nothing more than a stranger in the crowd.

'Sadly,' Shirou thought wryly, 'It seems that that's going to end.' From the corner of his eye, he could see a familiar figure spot him.

"Does the guest of honor in thy lands always lounge in the shadows?" The Grand Elder approached him with a smile on her face. It had initially jarred him to see the leader of the elves join in as if she were just another of the crowd. The same went for the council that was bickering when he'd first met them.

In his experience, those in power would lord over those without power. To see a leader actively engage in several party games, entertain a bunch of children, and all-around be a normal, everyday person? Absurd. Speaking of absurd, "Just as you people seem to have the constitution of a bull? I swear, that's your fifth bottle tonight."

Indeed, one of the party games that he'd witnessed the leader of the elves participate in was a drinking game. Where Adrianne had handily beaten a large, heavyset elf through three entire bottles of the same alcohol in his hand. And Shirou could tell that that wasn't an easy feat considering the strength of the drink.

Hell, the only reason why he wasn't already drunk was because he'd both heavily diluted his own drink, and was constantly purging the alcohol in his system by flowing magical energy though his body.

He was still going to drink it though. It really was good.

Adrianne laughed at him, "Ha! The night is still yet young. My cup shall be filled twice more by the end, I swear."

"Do take care of your liver. I don't think it'll be able to handle too much more."

"The perks of being allies with the Spirits," her eyes glinted, "Is that they take my people's health seriously. My people will not have any lasting damage by the end of the night."

"Perks indeed." Shirou chuckled. Had Rin, or anyone with decent understanding of politics really, were to see him now, he'd be slapped upside the head for how casually he was talking to the Grand Elder. He was basically the representative of not just Japan, but the entirety of Earth.

To act like he was was just asking for a diplomatic incident.

But, as willingly blind as he was to said politics, he could still see the writing on the wall. Adrianne, despite her title of Grand Elder, was a lot more down to earth than any other leader he'd seen. And it wasn't just her. The entire village was like that.

"Would you mind answering a few questions of mine?" He abruptly asked, just as Adrianne took a sip of her drink. She looked toward him with a mischievous smile.

"Thou's question is already answered, is it not?" She sat down next to him, "I jest. Very well, ask."

"In my world, age matters a lot. Why is it that you don't seem to put that much stock into it?"

He could see older looking elves interact with the younger elves as if they were equals, and vice versa. There was no hierarchical structure you would expect, where elders get more respect the older they were than the younger generation.

"Oh, but we do." Adrianne looked wistfully at a particularly odd scene of one of her council playing hopscotch with a group of children. Shirou had to blink at that one, "My people live for a long time, measured in centuries, in fact. Supposing good health, our kind could live well over two thousand years."

The measure of time was a mind-boggling concept to Shirou. He couldn't imagine living that long without going insane. Just the years he himself lived was enough to give anyone grey hairs, let alone doing it for that long of a time.

"Ah, mineself can see you've come to the same conclusion." The wistful smile on Adrianne's face turned slightly downwards, "My people cannot truly remember everything in their lives, impossible as it is to actually do. No, we, like many others, remember fondly the times when we were happy, while casting aside those that we despise.

"And that, mine friend, is why we of the Coan Forest loathe the Empire."

The sharp shift from warm to vitriolic would have been startling to others, "How so?" Shirou wasn't deterred. He'd seen way more violent shifts of personality with the various magi he'd interacted with in his life. That a leader likeAdrienne would be the same was no big surprise.

"For generations, the Empire has hunted us down." The Grand Elder's eyes burned with hate, "Can thou imagine, Lord Emiya? Watching thine people be butchered like cattle?" She motioned her hand towards the village, that continued on with the party none the wiser to their conversation.

"There has not been a single generation since the Empire came into being that they haven't come after us. Good men and women would never again feel the light of day. Hundreds of thousands of children would never feel the kindness of the forest Spirits, for they are naught but dead at the hands of those worms. The Empire never lets us forget.

"That is why, Lord Emiya, it is not that we don't care about our age." She sagged down. In that moment, Shirou could see not a leader, but a tired woman that had everything taken from her, "It's that we care too much for the children that we wish to make their memories of happier times all the more vivid than the evil that is undoubtedly about to come."

"Children, despite some of them being older than myself?" Shirou tried to liven up the depressive mood that had settled between the two. He hadn't meant for such a question to bring about the atmosphere, but he had made his bed. The only thing left to do was lie in it.

Thankfully, Adrienne took the joke as a lifeline to get out of the awkward hole they were in, "Indeed! In fact, little Joanne, our youngest, had her 78th birthday just a week ago!"

Shirou breathed out a laugh as well, "You might very well see me as nothing but a newborn then."

"On the contrary," The mischievous look returned to Adrienne's eye, "I would be remiss to label one such as thy own as just a babe. Why, have thou not seen the look on many a maiden's eye tonight?"

He had, in fact, noticed, "...Unfortunately."

"Ah!" The Grand Elder grinned as she held her drink up high, "It seems mine grace has found the weakness of the Spirit Loved! A young maiden!" He rolled his eyes, even as Adrienne laughed at him.

It wasn't that he didn't find any of them attractive - in fact, most, if not all, of the elves in the village were beautiful. He would have compared them to Caster, had Caster been blonde. Each of the women, and alarmingly some men, looking at him were in the category that even his highschool self would have called a beauty without a hint of embarrassment.

It was almost as if it was a fact of life.

But that itself was the problem he found in it.

They were just too perfect. He couldn't see blemishes from most of them, with some notable scars being the exceptions. He was too used to the imperfections that he'd see in a regular person from back home. Rin for example, behind the facade of ladylike grace, was terrible in the mornings.

None of the elves looking at him had even a hint of that.

They were perfect. Unnaturally so.

Adrienne was perhaps the only exception he'd seen so far. Her beauty was still unnatural, almost ethereal to him, but the sheer hatred she had projected before cemented her as someone with faults still. And it was a small comfort in a sea of stares.

"If it isn't much of an issue," He started once the two had settled into a comfortable minute of silence, "I shall be retiring for the night. Thank you for the food." He motioned to stand and leave the village, before Adrienne held up a hand

"Stop. Where are thou heading?"

"Ah, apologies." Shirou scratched the back of his head. He already knew what she was questioning him for, "I was going back through the forest to set up my camp for the night." It was something he always forgot to do with Rin. Him not telling anyone where he was going, that is.

He had more than one occasion, disappeared for months on end without anyone knowing. Moreover, it was less that he didn't want anyone to follow (after all, who wanted to spend three months on the Himalayan mountain range?), and more of that he sincerely forgot to tell anyone.

It was just one reason that he and Rin eventually broke up.

"No, that will not do." Shirou blinked as Adrienne frowned at him, before motioning for him to follow her. Seeing no other option, he trailed after her through the still rowdy elves. It was a mistake. Any time they passed by anyone, they would give a respectful nod of the head towards the Grand Elder. It wouldn't have been a problem, had they not seen him with her and immediately shake his hand with thanks streaming out their mouths.

It was Shirou's worst nightmare. Publicity.

Eventually, the Grand Elder seemed to have found what she was looking for, as she stopped to talk to a younger elf, motioning at him several times. He was still a distance away, and the crowd was just a bit too thick so he couldn't hear what it was they were talking about.

It didn't matter, though, as the both of them approached Shirou after the man had managed to unentangle himself from the crowd around him, "Lord Emiya, meet Tuka Luna Marceau. You might be familiar with her father, Ranger Hodor Marceau."

"A pleasure, Lord Emiya." Tuka did a small curtsy.

"Likewise, Miss Marceau." The elf took a lot from her father, both having the same shade of hair, as well as the same colored eyes. It was something that he had noticed as well, spending time looking at the people of the village - the one way to really separate families was their shade of hair and eyes.

"Good. Here, take this." After the two had greeted one another, Adrienne handed Shirou a key, one that was bulky enough to not fit neatly anywhere on his person, "Miss Tuka shall lead thee to thine accommodations for the night."

"Pardon?" Shriou blinked in confusion as Adrienne glared at him.

"Does thou think that I would let the guest of honor sleep on the forest floor? Contracted as we may be to the forest Spirits, they a good night's rest make not!"

It was late into the night when the two of them headed out to the guest house, mostly because Shirou had tried to argue that he didn't need a room for the night. The Grand Elder didn't budge, and glared at him till he relented.

Let it not be said that Adrienne Valliere, for all her delicate looks, did not have a spine.

Defeated, Shirou let Tuka lead him through the maze of the celebration, and as the sounds of the villagers faded into the night, he could see a building off in the distance, "That's the place?"

"A-ah! Yes!" Tuka Luna Marcaeu had been silent the entire time, even as she looked back towards him in nervousness. He honestly couldn't blame her. Being alone, in the dark, with a man that had apparently been the celebration's guest?

That was just a recipe for disaster waiting to implode.

It took another five minutes to reach the building. And, due to the darkness of the night, Shirou could only now see it in its entirety. Similar to some homes in the main village, this one was carved out of a tree. He would hazard to say that the floor area was that of a studio apartment, judging from the outside.

Of course, there was one thing that stood out to him.

It was a mess.

The wood was rotting. The door only had one hinge, and even that was barely sticking on. The roof had a hole through it, and had Shirou looked through it, he would have probably seen the entirety of the inside.

"This is…" He started, unsure of what to make of the place. It was one thing to offer a place to sleep, but this? Even Luvia, with her expensive tastes, would've taken the outside!

Tuka waved her hands in a flurry of panic, "AH! I'm sorry! I'll get on to repairing it immediately!" With that, she turned and ran right in front of the building.

"You don't have t-" His words were cut off as Tuka started chanting. He watched with wide eyes as the entire building almost came alive. He watched as the rotted wood slowly drew back into itself, giving way to new bark. The various holes in the walls stitched themselves shut, even the one on the roof. He watched as a set of lanterns lit themselves next to a newly cobbled path, all while a garden of flowers slowly planted itself in front of him.

By the end of it, he was now looking at an entirely different home from before. Now, it looked to be the warmest, most inviting place he'd seen in a while.

"I'm sorry it took so long." Tuka sighed in exertion, as a bead of sweat ran down her head, "Welcome to the guest house. Apologies for earlier - this place hadn't been used for a while, so Lady Valliere asked me to fix it up." Surprisingly, the elf was a lot more relaxed after all that, despite the obvious effort she had put in.

Shiru nodded dumbly, continuing to stare at the building.

He hadn't seen such use of magecraft in his entire career. Sure, there were times when he'd witnessed a mage create a fortress from the ground up in a matter of minutes, but this was different. The brand of magecraft used was as foreign as the Translation Spell they had used on him.

Spirit magic - for that was they called it - was of a completely different spectrum of magecraft that had the potential of uprooting the entire system he was used to. All because of one, worrying thing.

He knew that he had to report this to Zelretch. To the Clock Tower should they continue to employ him. How much, then, would the magi of his world ruin this one once they saw all this?

It was a question that haunted Shirou even as he bid goodbye to Tuka and retired for the night.

A/N: If you like what I do and want to support me, check out my P-atreon at P-atreon•com(slash)Almistyor.

Thank you to my newest patrons as well: Don Betawolf, and brutalcrab.

And a special thanks to: Oliver vazquez, and brutalcrab . Your support really does help, so thank you.