Ill-starred, 1

[come_to_spoil_everything]

Lara has been asleep since Risei brought her here. She weighs almost nothing, so little that Risei wonders if he put too many blankets over her. She has his, and the spare, and his coat, but hers is still drying (cleaning off the blood has taken hours) and a wet blanket does more harm than good.

He slept too, of course--he took the spare futon and moved it close enough to hers that she could maybe share in some of his warmth overnight. On top of one blanket, though, and under the other, and even with a blanket between them her feet were like ice.

The sun set hours ago, and she still hasn't woken up, and he's sitting near a lamp by the window, reading and listening to the screech of the wind. Risei looks over the edge of his book and wonders when, even if, it will be okay to open his circuits and heal her again. He hasn't since the initial panic in the snow. He hopes he hasn't done more harm than good.

Be he grits his teeth, goes back to reading, and completely misses the fat tanuki that sneaks into the room and snuggles up in Lara's blankets, its snout against her cheek.

Comments

[hikikomoe]

When Lara wakes up, she is greeted by a large pair of solid black eyes.

She blinks.

The creature blinks back. Then it nuzzles her cheek; its fur tickles, but she lacks the energy to start at it.

This is not the battlefield. She's warmer, and indoors. This is not the castle, either. Prana flows through this place, but of a vastly different sort, and though what she can see of her surroundings resembles a basement, it's no basement she knows.

She remembers breaking, and falling, and after that...nothing at all. Probability suggests she should be dead, yet she is demonstrably not.

"What," she begins, but her throat gives out before the thought is completed.

[come_to_spoil_everything]

Risei almost drops the book.

Then he notices what Lara woke up to, and the tanuki still nosing at her face, and bursts into startled laughter.

[hikikomoe]

She blinks again, frowning. The creature appears content to stay where it is, and Lara doubts she's capable of dislodging it at her current strength. "Where is this?" she asks, her throat dry. There is something familiar about that laugh, but identifying what that is requires more energy than she can spare.

[come_to_spoil_everything]

"It's, um." Risei tries again, puts the book down and close closer in case she's having difficulty seeing. "You're in the Church I told you about. Hi. I'm sorry."

[hikikomoe]

The priest. An odd heat creeps through Lara's limbs; she can't trace its cause to the blankets someone has lain over her.

Was he foolish enough to head towards the battle? Perhaps. She can assess nothing now. Her mind is too sluggish, and there are too many questions --

"Why did you apologize?"

[come_to_spoil_everything]

"Because I don't know if you want to be here," he says. He kneels next to her on the futon, checks her blankets, looks into her eyes to see if she can follow him. "You were already unconscious when I found you. But I couldn't just leave you there to die."

[hikikomoe]

She can, though not without difficulty. His response answers several questions, but not enough...she attempts to shake her head, but her head won't turn far. "Why did you come?"

[come_to_spoil_everything]

"Lady Tohsaka said that she would clear the area so that no one except the spirits--I mean the Servants--would get hurt. I don't trust her, and she didn't keep her promise. When no one came to the Church at all, I thought something awful might have happened." He shuts his eyes. "I guess I was right."

[hikikomoe]

At least he has learned now, though it seems pointless to tell him as much; he knows, and will bear the lesson in mind, even if he still refuses to heed her advice.

"The battle was meant to be private, between Caster and Lancer. How did she..."

[come_to_spoil_everything]

The back of Risei's neck heats, despite the cellar's chill. "I didn't know it was supposed to be private. I told her. I found out from Sarutobi Sasuke."

[hikikomoe]

"...I see," Lara says, then falls silent. Her chest is numb, though not precisely cold. Perhaps this will teach him not to intervene in the Grail War -- but perhaps not. "She brought another Master with her. It was -- "

fear

" -- unexpected."

[come_to_spoil_everything]

"Another Master? With another Servant, not Rider?" Forget the heat, now Risei's blood chills, and he curls his fists around his coat.

[hikikomoe]

She closes her eyes, but her recall is imperfect. She remembers acting and reacting, destroy and accelerate and enemy; the heat and friction of her circuits breaking, and disabling the pain from it...

"Yes. I believe it was Berserker."

[come_to_spoil_everything]

Risei nods. "He can't get you here," he says. "No Servant can. So don't worry."

[hikikomoe]

"I didn't engage the Servants," she says, but something else about that statement strikes her. "No Servant can come here?"

Then Caster must not know her whereabouts -- if Caster still exists in his world. Her temples begin to throb, and she abandons any efforts to regulate it. Surely Caster was victorious, but there is no way to determine that.

[come_to_spoil_everything]

"They'd have to break the bounded field down," Risei explains. "Rider brought a giant bull and did, but unless this place is attacked like that, they can't come in. Rider tried to get past it this morning again, and couldn't. Not without something like that."

[hikikomoe]

Then Rider's Noble Phantasm is indeed a beast. But she has no way of sharing that information, and no means of contacting the castle in this state. Does Grandfather know that she lives? If not...

The thought refuses to complete itself.

"Oh." Her throat aches again. "I can't recall how the battle ended."

[come_to_spoil_everything]

"I don't know either," Risei says. "Rider told me this morning that Lancer is dead. That's all I know."

[hikikomoe]

"I see." But that tells her nothing about the status of the others, though presumably Chiyo Tohsaka is still alive.

[come_to_spoil_everything]

The tanuki fidgets, paws at Lara's blankets one more time, then trudles over to Risei's lap instead. He pets it between the ears, can't help grinding his teeth a little. "I don't want something like this to happen again."

[hikikomoe]

"Then you plan to keep intervening."

[come_to_spoil_everything]

"I don't know," he sighs. "I'm here to understand what you magi are doing. I guess that requires me to intervene."

[hikikomoe]

"What do you wish to understand?" She is able to lift her head, though only by several centimeters. "You know about the Masters, and the Servants, and the Grail. And you know the conflict will not end until one Master and Servant are left."

[come_to_spoil_everything]

He stops holding the tanuki, and looks Lara in the eyes. "A wish. They're all doing this for a wish. All this sorcery and betrayal and destruction--for a wish. What do they want? What do they want so much that they'll destroy this town and twist this Grail for it?"

[hikikomoe]

"People have gone to greater lengths for smaller wishes," she says. "A town means little, when compared to what the Grail could grant."

[come_to_spoil_everything]

"Then I know enough that I'll have to interfere." Risei knows what that kind of ambition means, for people, magi, nations, even the Church itself in its moments of unkindness. "I should call the Executors now. I can't stop this alone."

[hikikomoe]

Lara recalls Grandfather's words on the subject, when she brought up that threat -- and seals off the rest of that memory. He is foolish, but not an enemy, she reminds herself. He carried her from the snow, and brought her out of the cold. As she scans her body again, traces of his magic appear, struggling to knit together broken chains of spells. No. He can't be her enemy. Unless he plans to hold her hostage, but such a course of action feels wrong for him; she's almost taken aback by the vehemence with which she discards the proposal.

But he is on a fool's errand, and nothing but his death awaits him on this path, though it may not be by her hand.

"They won't arrive in time," she says. "And if they did, it would change nothing. No Executor is powerful enough to face a Servant. The Grail system has already been activated. It can't be stopped."

[come_to_spoil_everything]

"It can if no one wins," he says. "It can if you all withdraw, and leave."

[hikikomoe]

At that, she can do nothing but stare.

[come_to_spoil_everything]

He laughs, even more startled than earlier. "All right, I know how naive that sounds. But it's true. Even if they won't do it, they can."

[hikikomoe]

"In theory."

[come_to_spoil_everything]

"Well, what would you advise?"

[hikikomoe]

"I did advise you," she points out. "You didn't take it."

[come_to_spoil_everything]

"Guess not," he murmurs. The tanuki, dissatisfied at the lack of attention, yips.

He looks down to Lara instead, and can't imagine her standing, or speaking above a whisper.

"I can't leave, now," he says. "Not with you like this."

[hikikomoe]

Again, she stares, but the sensation is somewhat different: a strange prickling in her throat. Slowly, she curls her fists around the top of the blanket and tugs it up to her chin.

"Why?" she asks again, and feels foolish for it. She has done nothing but ask that since she woke up.

[come_to_spoil_everything]

Her hand is so pale against the black of his coat, so thin compared to the dark starch of the blanket, and her eyes are so bright.

"You're hurt," he says, "and I can help you. And I want to."

[hikikomoe]

"You are very confusing."

[come_to_spoil_everything]

"I guess so." He smiles. "But I'm staying."

[hikikomoe]

"Then it seems I can do nothing further to dissuade you."

[come_to_spoil_everything]

He shakes his head. "But will you stay with me? At least until you're stable."

[hikikomoe]

"I -- "

She hesitates. She should notify Grandfather. She should return to the castle and serve as Caster's Master once more. She should do what she said she would at the beginning of this war, for the sake of the Einzbern family.

She should have died in that battle, in defense of the family's wish. She would have, had it not been for him. The knowledge isn't new, she supposes, but organizing it in this manner speeds up some of her systems and slows others. Her circulatory system pumps enough blood to bring sweat to her palms, but her kinesthetic responses are sluggish and stiff, and an action as small as clenching her fists takes twice the time it should. Lara threw herself away in that battle, and now what more does she have to give?

"I'll stay," she says at last. "There's a good source of prana here. Perhaps it will make recovery easier."

[come_to_spoil_everything]

He beams, relieved, and his heart pounds. "Good. And I'll do everything I can for you, all right?"

[hikikomoe]

She nods, though somewhat uncertainly. "...do you have any books?"

[come_to_spoil_everything]

"Yes!" He doesn't mean to jump up so suddenly, and definitely doesn't mean to startle her or the tanuki, but "there are a few books here. I'll go get everything we have and bring them down, all right?" He remembers, and adds, an afterthought, "A lot of them are bibles, though. Is that okay?"

[hikikomoe]

"It is not unexpected. And I haven't yet read the entire Bible."

[come_to_spoil_everything]

He grins at her, one more time, and says "I'll be right back" on the way out the door and up the stairs.