Capítulo 32: Vol 2. Chapter 10. The Calm.
Things were quiet… too quiet…
I had been able to sleep until ten O'clock, and when I had exited my room, Mom hadn't sprung out from a corner to interrogate me.
Which was odd, seeing as the scorch marks, and broken floor boards outside my door, told me that she certainly was interested in getting to me as quickly as possible.
Neither had there been a single bounded field for me to trip, once I left my room, allowing Mom to be notified of me leaving my room.
Walking around the halls, I felt incredibly uneasy.
Soon, I reached the living room, where I felt a small bounded field having been erected.
From my observations, it was not offensive, if anything it was a supplementary type.
Hesitantly reaching for the handle, I opened the door.
Only to see Mother and 'Vivian' sitting by the dinner table, happily chatting together, and drinking tea.
The two must have heard the sound of the door creaking open, as their heads swiveled in my direction.
The two flashed me a smile, one more sly than the other.
"Good morning, sleepy head," Vivian said teasingly, while Mother took a sip of her morning tea.
"Yes… morning," I replied dryly, before sighing, and making my way over to the table.
While I pulled out a chair for myself, I sent Morgan a message. {I need context, now.}
As I sat myself next to 'Vivian', I felt Mother's gaze bore holes into me.
{I came up with a cover story, just roll with the punches, I'll fill in whatever blanks that pop up.} Morgan explained calmly, before speaking aloud.
"We were just talking about how we met," she said shyly, while raising her tea cup, in front of her face, as if to hide it.
Mom nodded. "I'm rather invested in this, after all," Mom said slyly.
Glancing at Mother, I had to physically stop myself from repeating her statement. After all, I too, was rather curious.
Glancing at Vivian, I shot her a raised brow. "How far along were you?" I probed.
Vivian tapped her finger on the table, before slightly tilting her head to the side.
"Umm, I just got done telling her about the Apostle hunt where we met," she explained, calmly.
Ah yes, the Apostle hunt…
I naturally nodded along.
"But Vivian, I'm curious, you said that you were from a branch of the Animusphere family, but from what you said earlier, you seem more apt at mystic code creation, rather than Astromancy your family is known for, is there a reason for that?" Mother probed with interest.
At Mom's question, I gave Vivian a discreet side eye.
{Vivian Animusphere, huh? Really?} I remarked dryly to Morgan, who gave a slight huff in return.
Vivian gained a pensive look, while stirring the contents of her teacup, while looking into her drink.
"I'm rather untalented with the family craft, so I was forced to find something that I was good at," she said with an air of melancholy.
Most magi families only give a single child training within magecraft, and if the firstborn is worthless, or subpar in the more affluent families, they usually end up as 'goods', be it for marrying off to a different family, to them being turned into a lab-rat.
Vivian stopped stirring her drink, before flashing a small smile to Mother. "Luckily, I turned out to be really good at runes and mystic code creation, so I'm now valued rather highly by the family, despite my… shortcomings…"
Mom instinctively reached out an arm, and grasped one of her hands, while sending Vivian a sympathetic look.
Vivian sent a small smile in return at Mom's small gesture of comfort.
{Could you not guilt trip the ever loving shit out of my Mother?} I remarked dryly to Morgan, who gave a slight laugh in return.
{Come now, I need mother-in-law to be on our side, as if we suddenly go 'missing', we can now write it off as being on a date, or some such. So hush, while I work my magic.}
I felt my brow slightly twitch at Morgan calling Mom, mother-in-law already, but I shut my mouth, and let her speak.
"But that's all in the past," she said with a small smile, before nudging me.
"And to prove how good I am, Al should show you the gun I made him!" Vivian said in an eager tone.
Mom removed her hand from Vivian, and waved away her words. "No need, I got to get a good look at it yesterday… though he told me that the crafter was a trade secret…" she said while slyly looking at me.
"And I can't help but understand why he kept the crafter hidden now," she teased with a small wink.
Rolling my eyes, I grabbed an empty cup, and filled it with some tea.
"Right…" I murmured before raising the cup up, and taking a sip.
Vivian gave a smile, before leaning sideways, and leaning her head on my shoulder.
"Right now, we are trying to go a bit incognito, as I'm sure my 'family' wouldn't take too well to the fact that we're dating behind their backs," she said bitterly, causing mother to raise a brow.
"I find that a bit hard to believe, given that my son is seen as a highly sought after bachelor, as well as the fact that it would help your family's current state, with its head having gone missing recently," Mom pointed out.
Vivian nodded her head, while glancing at Mother, before answering the statement. "While yes, Al is quite sought after," she said while gently nudging me. "My family has been keeping me under lock and key for the most part, only giving me 'clearance' to leave out on Apostle Hunts to test my mystic codes," she explained reluctantly.
"And I'm only here after agreeing to join an apostle hunt, then bribing my 'bodyguards' with their own mystic code to leave me, and only then could I travel all the way here to be with Al," Vivian said sheepishly, while rubbing the back of her head.
"So I am all but spitting in all my elders' faces to be here, so I expect some backlash, no matter what happens, even if they find out why I am here."
Mom looked at Vivian with an appraising look, before a smile wove itself onto her face.
"You seem to have it rough, but you're doing a good job with the hand you've been dealt," Mom said in a warm tone, while giving Vivian a gentle smile.
What the fuck is Morgan doing to my Mom.
Glancing at her, from the corner of my vision, I felt a bit uneasy at how easily she had wormed herself into Mother's good graces.
I've barely said a damn thing, and Mom is showing her such a look… I swear to God… If Morgan breaks Mother's heart, due to needing Vivian to 'die', as she doesn't exist, I will… I'm not sure what I'd do, but I'll think of something to do.
Not wanting to continue to allow Morgan to worm her way deeper into Mom's heart, I decided to bring up an important topic.
Fixing my gaze at Mom, I tried to look as worried as possible, while 'Vivian' used my shoulder as a pillow.
"Not to ruin the mood, but Mom, how far did you get with the church?" I probed.
Mom quickly removed her soft expression, replacing it with a scowl.
"It took me another half an hour, after I gave up on interrogating you, I was put through to some moron, who said that he had no idea about this whole situation, and that I should stop making a fuss over false allegations," she said with annoyance.
I felt my own annoyance build at her words, and furrowed my brows. "Shouldn't they be more accommodating, given the fact that we came to them first, and not the Mages Association?" I commented with a hint of annoyance lacing my voice.
Vivian nodded along to my words, and spoke up. "From what I know of them, by working with Executors, is that they tend to just throw the blame onto the dead, or those easily framed," she explained bitterly.
At Vivian's words, Mom could only sigh, while placing a hand on her face. "You're not wrong, but I expect better from them. Seeing as this is a major violation of one of the few agreements the Church has with the Mage's Association, which will cause a lot of the 'goodwill' or trust that magi have built towards the Church to vanish," Mother remarked bitterly.
Knowing that Mom was a bit frustrated, I decided to gift her with some good news.
"You recall my own phone call yesterday?" I probed carefully.
At my words, Mom removed the hand from her face, and looked at me with interest. "Yes?" She said with a hint of hope.
"I checked my email this morning, and I can confirm that she pulled through," I said with an air of smugness, before taking a small sip of my tea.
"I'll send you a copy before Vivian and I leave for the city," I said with a wink.
Mom gave a crooked smile, before widening her eyes, glancing at Vivian, and schooling her expression into a mildly strained but happy face.
"That's good, I'll be sure to make good use of that…" she thanked me with a sly undertone, before flashing a smile.
"But the two of you are going on a date?" She probed, and Morgan took instant advantage of that.
Vivian smoothly snaked her arms around my own, and pressed herself into my body.
"Yes, we were afraid of having to cancel it, due to Al needing to keep you in the dark, but seeing as you are now within the know, it shouldn't be a problem," she said with a smile.
Mom gave Vivian a dubious smile, before shaking her head. "You make it sound as if I would have done something reprehensible if I had accidentally discovered the two of you," she remarked with amusement.
At Mother's words, Vivian gave a slight chuckle, before tugging my arm. "It was more that this big oaf was mortified of the interrogation that would ensue," she teased.
I feel like I am being belittled for Morgan's betterment…
Sighing to herself, she leaned her head on my arm again. "Which is why I came here this morning, hoping to take some of the heat off Al," she remarked amusedly.
Mom's approval rating of Morgan, or rather Vivian, seemed to go off the charts, as she gave her, hopefully, soon-to-be daughter-in-law a wide smile.
"Well aren't you just the kindest," Mother cooed, before tapping her chin. "Is there anything you could want in turn for taking part in this 'interrogation', as you so affectionately called it?" Mother probed, causing Vivian to hum.
"Al hasn't spoken too much on his younger years, probably out of some sense of embarrassment, so I might as well ask you for some juicy details," Vivian intoned conspiratorially, causing Mother to flash her a sly smile.
I felt a slight shiver run down my spine.
"Oho… You just so happened to ask me at an opportune moment, as I just so happen to have an album full of Alistair's baby photos," Mom said in a deceptively kind voice. Despite her words being closer to that of a torture sentence for myself.
My head snapped towards Vivian, who wore a sly look.
{Morgan, you filthy Bitch! You were aiming for this from the start! Weren't you?}
I received a snort of amusement though our Servant bond from her end. {I will pretend that you called me a Witch… and for the record, yes, yes I was.} She intoned smugly.
"Why I would love to have a look."
~~Fate/False Order~~
"Hmm, the seamstresses here seem quite talented," Morgan mused while fingering the silky fabric of a Kimono on display.
She had reverted to her original appearance, once we were a ways away from my house. Only placing an illusion on the two of us, to look like a Japanese couple.
"Yes," I replied dryly, from my seated position, in one of the many seats, meant for uninterested men that had been dragged in here.
Morgan turned her head around to gaze at me, before clicking her tongue. "You seem to be annoyed about something?" She commented dryly, only for me to give a small nod.
"It has something to do with my dignity being ripped to shreds, again, just like yesterday," I remarked with a hint of annoyance.
Morgan merely huffed good naturedly, before letting go of the fabric, and walking over to me.
"Come now, look on the bright side," she said, while extending a hand out for me to grab.
Clasping it, she pulled me out of my seat, causing me to stand up. "Your Mother is happy, and more than willing to let us have some privacy, and won't go snooping around in our private matters," she explained gently.
I hated how she had a point, but I felt that my dignity was a rather steep price to pay for such a thing… but given the fact that it had recently been through a grinder, I suppose it wasn't all that big a trade off.
"Fine, I'll manage," I said with a hint of resignation.
Morgan gave my shoulder a reassuring pat, before returning to look at some other fabrics.
Leaning deeper into the chair, I released a sigh. "Anything you like," I asked in an uninterested tone.
Morgan tugged at some blue fabric, as if studying it. "Not really, the style of clothing is a bit too… elaborate, to put it kindly, for my tastes," she explained calmly, while studying another Kimono… or was it a Yukata… same same, probably.
Scratching my chin, I looked at Morgan with some confusion. "If you don't care for it, then why are we even in such a store?" I probed with interest.
Morgan gave a small sigh, releasing the clothes she was studying, before glancing at me.
"It's just relaxing to do something so mundane… especially since I can't recall the last time I did such a thing," she explained calmly.
"I'm fairly confident that you had a fair amount of seamstresses at your beck and call, when you lived under Lot's roof," I said with confusion, while raising a brow.
Morgan paused for a few seconds, before sighing and walking back to me. As she reached my spot, she conjured a small chair next to mine, and sat herself down.
"You have been seeing my memories in your sleep," she stated, more than asking, causing me to nod. "How much have you seen?"
Recalling what I had seen, just a scant few hours ago, I gave an honest answer. "I've only recently started to see your memories, and just last night, I watched as you witnessed Artoria pulling Caliburn out from the stone," I stated matter of factly.
Morgan gave a small hum. "I see… so you've not seen too much," she mused, before shaking her head. "Well, given what you know about me, when, and how do you think I died?" She asked calmly.
I felt the mood around us dampen at her question, and I felt a small frown mar my face.
From my understanding, Morgan was no longer human after some point in her life, as she should have 'ascended' somehow into a proper high-class Fairy somehow.
So Morgan was for all state and purpose, a true Fairy, an A-Ray, a Great Mother or an Elemental, if I wanted to put it crudely. Realistically speaking, she should still be alive, as they don't really have an estimated lifespan, as none, to my knowledge, has died due to old age.
Meaning that to have died, she should have died in combat, or something similar.
Rubbing my chin, I gave Morgan an unsure look. "I'll assume you died some time after encountering Charlemagne, as that is the last 'reliable' record of your appearance. But on how, I am unsure, as I don't think there were a lot of things capable of killing you, during that time."
Morgan gave a halfhearted shrug. "Calling what I did as living, would be a stretch, so I'll say that I existed until the sixteenth century. And I killed myself."
There was a small awkward pause, as I slowly turned my head to face Morgan.
"Why?" The question slipped out reflexively, and Morgan only gave a tired sigh.
"What classes do you think I can be summoned under?" She flat out ignored my question, in favor of her own.
I gave her a confused look, before answering. "I can't think of anything other than Caster… Assassin too, perhaps?" I answered hesitantly.
"Berserker," Morgan remarked with disgust, and I felt my thought processes stop. The only Berserker variant I knew of Morgan, came from Grand Order, and I think she was some singularity variant, like Lancer Artoria, so this made little sense to me.
"Berserker?" I repeated questioningly.
"In both of the two classes you mentioned, I always have the 'double summon' ability for the Berserker class… And when I am summoned as a Berserker, I have the same skill, but for Caster," she explained patiently.
"Why?" I repeated my question from earlier, and I could see her form almost slump against the chair.
"As you may, or may not know, Vivian and I are two sides of the same coin," she started off bitterly.
"By that, I mean that my entire existence is thanks to her discarding the 'tainted' part of herself, which one day grew in sentience, and wormed itself into Igraine."
There was a slight pause, before she continued. "Thanks to us essentially being the same person, Gaia saw us as one person, but split in two… So it tried to 'meld' us back into a single entity," she explained tiredly.
"It started off small, I'd see Vivian's memories and the like when I went to sleep," she remarked whimsically. "Until one day, I noticed that my thoughts were a mess, and all over the place…"
"It was only when I started thinking, and daydreaming about romantic things with Merlin, whom I despised, that I connected the dots… Vivian's thoughts were transmitting themselves into my head, in a one way link," her undertone of bitterness was unmistakable.
Morgan raised a hand, and clutched it at the side of her head, crumpling her veil.
"I couldn't trust my own mind, as I couldn't know where my own thoughts started, nor where Vivian's thoughts ended…" she said almost fearfully.
"The first few years, I acted erratically, being whimsical in one moment, then kidnapping some peasant for experimentation, the next… I wasn't sure whose thoughts it was that dictated my actions, if they were the true me or Vivian's, causing me to have an identity crisis."
Morgan shook her head, as if trying to shake away the memories.
"It was only when I caught on to the fact that Vivian would never do anything considered evil, or vile, that I concluded that I could only trust the voice in my head that would do evil things, causing me to disregard the majority of my thoughts, and any morals that I had left."
Sighing tiredly, Morgan continued. "But that didn't stop me from behaving erratically, and doing things that were out of character for me, from time to time… as the voices were just too hard to ignore."
"As I got older, Gaia started to turn me more, and more into a copy of Vivian. Giving me Fae blood, more mana and a stronger physique," she said while idly playing with a lock of her hair.
A slight chuckle escaped her, which was a bit odd, but I remained quiet, allowing her to get this off of her chest.
"The only good that ever came from us being connected, was that I managed to find out that Vivian was slightly taking on some of my qualities… causing her to get progressively unhappy with how unfaithful Merlin was with her," a small chuckle escaped her lips at this.
"It was a perfect opportunity that fell into my lap… one to make both Vivian, and Merlin pay, as well as screw over Artoria," she said with glee.
"So I whispered into her ear, convincing her that she could keep Merlin all to herself, as long as she kept him in Avalon… which is where I get my Noble Phantasm from, 'Prison Of Avalon'. Which I named 'Garden', to make her think it was not something so dark," she said smugly.
"All it took was stimulating her jealousy, and she locked Merlin up in a cage, causing Artoria to lose her backing, and leaving her vulnerable to Mordred's rebellion," she said with an air of pride.
"After the events of Camlann, I was stuck in Avalon, together with an upset 'twin', a bitter incubus and my sleeping little sister," this time, she sounded less smug.
"And with the Age of Gods coming to an end, Gaia had problems with forcibly combining me and Vivian… but I was still turned into something that wasn't quite an A-Ray, but not exactly human as well. Causing me to be stuck in what amounted to limbo for myself, for nearly a millennia."
Taking in a deep breath, she reached the end of her little impromptu history lesson.
"After so many years, Gaia had finally 'synched' us enough, for us to rejoin as one person… but only one of us would remain, while the other would die," she explained clinically.
"And seeing how poorly Vivian was taking becoming less then 'good', in her opinion, I took the chance to end it all, giving me sweet release from the voices, and allowing me to have the last laugh, by allowing all those I hated to live in regret and bitterness in Avalon… turning a utopia, into a dystopia for all those living there," she said with happiness.
Morgan didn't continue to speak, seemingly bathing in the satisfaction of bringing misery to all those she hated.
"So… from my understanding, your Ruler variant is the version of you, right after you 'combined' with Vivian, dying with no regrets, and fulfilling any wish you had, by granting misery to those who spurned you… Right?" I asked, causing Morgan to nod happily.
"Yes, that is the working theory," she said happily, before continuing. "But going back to the reason I brought this topic up. The reason I enjoy doing these small things is due to me finally being able to enjoy it, with a clear and sound mind… which is something I only experienced when I was a girl," she remarked happily.
There was a slight silence after Morgan's words, one which neither of us chose to fill, as we looked at one another.
Pursing my lips, I felt like I was being pressured to be nicer to her, given what she had just told me… despite her having made my life a smidge harder not too long ago.
She had basically thrown a sob story into my face, and I felt obligated to improve her day, or mood at least.
Pushing myself up from the seat, I extended a hand to Morgan, who just looked at it hesitantly.
"I wasn't planning on it, but…" I felt some hesitance before finishing my statement. "Would you like to go on a proper date?"
Morgan didn't seem to react, so I continued. "No war stuff, no magecraft, just the two of us having a bit of fun?" I pressed on.
A second passed.
Then another.
Before Morgan placed her hand in mine.
"I…" her tone was more confused, than unsure.
Another small pause.
"I'd be happy to try," she accepted in a confused, but happy tone.
Having her acceptance, I pulled her up to her feet.
"Then let's go."
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114 Hours, 22 Minutes And 23 Seconds Until Zero
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A/N
Welcome back, my reader Overlords, please add this to your library and give me some comments, stones and Reviews, as it would be much appreciated.
A bit late on the update, I know... just be happy, please >.<
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