FateStay night: Across Time

5

Shirou followed king Arthur back towards the guest rooms. When they arrived at the room with the elevated area, they went up the wide stairs through the double door. It was a large square room, with a high sealing. On the left side was a long table, with enough room for at least ten people and on the right side was a huge fireplace. The fire place was at least three meters wide and two meters high with a large carpet laying in front of it. In front of the fire place stood several couches and armchairs arranged around a small round table. There was a large chandelier hanging in the middle of the room, providing light, along with several standing candelabrum along the walls.

Several paintings and tapestries decorated the room. On the left of the entry was another double door and at the end of the room was an archway leading to a huge terrace with a small garden and several marble sculptures. A male servant was maintaining a small fire in the fireplace when they entered. He looked up when he saw the king enter and bowed.
"My king. How can I be of assistance?"
"Please bring some whine for us and inform the kitchen that four more people will be joining me tonight."
"Certainly, my liege." The servant hurried of.
"Come let us talk by the fire, Shirou." Arthur motioned to the fireplace. She took a seat in a large armchair while Shirou took a seat on the couch facing her. "Tell me, where do you hail from?"
"I come from a place called Japan. It is an island nation, just like England, situated in the far east."
"The far east, you say. I heard about the tales of how Iskandar conquered many lands in his quest to find Okeanos. If your homeland is an island nation, than that must mean the sea at the other end of the world does exist." Arthur said with hint of amazement.
The doors opened and Gawain, Bedivere and Merlin entered, along with a young woman. The woman had long, curly, chestnut brown hair, baby-blue eyes and fair skin. Shirou believed her to be in her early twenties. She wore a long, purple dress, trimmed with gold.
"Ahhh, you have arrived. Come join us by the fire, my queen. Shirou, let me introduce you to my spouse, queen Guinevere."
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Emiya Shirou. Sir Gawain has already told me a little about you." She extended her hand. Shirou felt a little nervous on how to respond, so he gave her a handshake. This led too several stunned expressions.
"Hihi, you were supposed to kiss my hand." She smiled from amusement. "you are certainly not familiar with our customs." She sat herself down next to Arthur. "But no harm done. In hindsight it was a little amusing. I am looking forward to know you better."
"Yes, please tell us more about yourself. I am curious to learn more about my savior." Gawain sat himself down, as did Merlin and Bedivere.
"Well, as I said earlier, I come from the island nation of Japan in the far East. I'm seventeen years old and I live alone in my father's home."
"Alone? Don't you have any other relatives?" Bedivere asked.
"No. My father, Emiya Kiritsugu, died five years ago and I don't have any other living relatives."
"Oh, dear. The passing of someone you care about is always a tragic event. I imagine that it must have been hard for you." Guinevere said with a sympathetic tone.
"No, actually. I was lucky to have had Fuji-nee looking after me. Her full name is Fujimura Taiga and she is my guardian and someone I hold dear. Her grandfather was a close friend of my father. He takes care for all the financial aspects of the house until I am old enough. And there is Sakura as well."
"It sounds you have reliable people looking after you." Arthur commented. Someone knocked on the door. "Come in."
"Apologies for the wait, my king. I have brought the wine you have requested." The servant walked to the table and put down several copper goblets and two bottles of whine. Then he started pouring the wine. "Supper will arrive shortly."
"Thank you. You may leave now."
"Yes, my king."
Everybody took a sip from the whine. Gawain was really gulping it down, but Shirou only timidly tasted the whine.
"Is the whine not to your liking, mister Emiya?" Guinevere asked.
"No, that's not it. I've rarely tasted whine before and I'm not good at handling liquor to begin with." Shirou put his goblet back on the table.
"That is unfortunate. If I may ask, does everyone in your homeland wear similar clothes like that." Guinevere casted a curious glance at Shirou's clothes.
"Well, the materials are pretty common place. I normally wear a matching shirt, but it got torn and covered in blood after I saved sir Gawain." Shirou took his ruined school shirt from the bag. "Looks like I need to get my spare shirt when I return home."
"That was certainly a serious wound." Bedivere commented when he saw the blood stained shirt. "But according to sir Gawain your wound has already fully healed. You must posses some potent healing magic."
"Well ... no. I told you in before that I'm just an amateur Magus. Before I got here, I healed just like any other normal human. I don't know why it healed so fast."
"Speaking of magic. Can you tell me what kind of magic you posses?" Merlin looked at Shirou with curiosity. "I would like to know more about the spells you know and your magic crest."
"Well, I don't have a magic crest. Kiritsugu was my adoptive father, so I couldn't inherit his crest. Besides, he didn't want to pass it down to me even if he could. As for magic, I only know strengthening magic and Kiritsugu only thought me magic for three years."
"I see. It is pretty strange for magus to not want to pass on their crest. In this case it is, however, understandable." Merlin sounded a bit disappointed. "And strengthening magic is the only thing you can use? You really are an amateur. Can you tell me about how you were trained?"
Shirou told them what his father thought him and how he had trained for the past eight years. Everybody was listening attentively. When he finished his story, Merlin's face had grown pale and his eyes were wide from disbelief.
"Uhm...pardon me, Merlin. But judging from you expression, it seems that whatever Shirou told us was rather disturbing. We would not know because we are not Magi, so could you please explain to us what it was that shocked you so much?" Bedivere inquired worryingly.
"Disturbing would not begin to cut it! Emiya Shirou, the way you have been thought magecraft is completely wrong. A magus doesn't make a new magic circuit each time he wants to use magic. They just activate the circuits that are already present within themselves." Merlin took a big gulp of wine to calm down. "Producing a new circuit each time you want to use magic is inherently dangerous. No wonder you are so bad at magic."
"I knew performing magic was dangerous. My dad always told me that a Magus had death always right beside him." Shirou's face had gotten a bit pale after Merlin's outburst. "Practicing magic is hard after all."
"Hard? My training was hard. Your training, if one could even call it that, was literally tempting dead each time. You have been training like that for eight years!? It is nothing short of a miracle that you are still alive!" Merlin raised his voice in agitation. "Your father either had no clue of what he was doing or he was secretly hoping for you to kill yourself or something likewise! You should have looked for someone who could have thought you how to be a proper Magus."
Shirou always new that what he did was dangerous, but after that Merlin told him that he was needlessly tempting dead, he felt a bit depressed. "Well, I didn't know any other Magi besides my father. And besides, he told me that I should become a magic user, rather than a Magus. Apparently there is more happiness found in just being able to use magic than being a fully fledged Magus."
"Well, as a Magus I can not really approve of that statement, but he was not completely wrong on that part." Merlin calmed down a bit.
"In any case, let us discus the issue of helping you to return home. Perhaps you should tell us how you came here. It could help us get a better understanding of the situation." Said Arthur.
"Yes, that would indeed be useful." Shirou told them of the portals and how he arrived here by accidentally touching one. Everybody listened to Shirou's explanation with intrigue.
"Hmmm, such a thing could only have occurred through something of tremendous, magical power." Merlin pondered. "You said that you never had seen such thing before, but despite that, you seemed to know quite a lot about it. Why is that?"
"Well an acquaintance of mine had lost this notebook. I found it and wanted to return it to her the next day. Unfortunately I came into contact with the portal that night and ended up here." Shirou took the notebook from his bag and handed it to Merlin. "The first night I spend here, I had taken a look at it. It contained quite some information about the portals, although I haven't read all of it. I don't know if you can read it though."
"No need to worry about that. I know the Japanese writing too." Merlin said calmly as he started reading. His face betrayed how excited and curious he was. "That is some strange parchment. Never seen anything like this before."
"Well, it isn't parchment, but paper actually." Shirou said with a casual tone.
"Paper? I hast never seen anything like this. No doubt such a fine material must be quite expensive. That person must be wealthy to afford such a fine writing material. Truly amazing, I did not know that there existed writing material of this high quality." But as he read it further, his expression started to show signs of suspicion.
"Not really. It is very common and cheap where I come from." Shirou smiled somewhat nervously from Merlin's exited reaction. Not so surprising. Paper is a real luxury in this time. Do they have paper in this time? Shirou didn't know for sure.
"It seems that your country is a very advanced nation." Arthur and the others were no less impressed than Merlin. "Maybe I should consider forming an alliance with your homeland. England could really benefit from it"
"I think you should not be so hasty, king Arthur." Merlin looked Shirou in the eyes with an imperceptible expression. "There is something I would like to clarify first."
"What do you mean, Merlin" Gawain was looking from Merlin to Shirou. "Is there something wrong?"
"Not necessarily wrong, but I feel Shirou has not been completely honest with us." Merlin declared flatly. "Emiya Shirou, you said that you came from a land in the far east, which was the truth. But! You have withheld something important regarding you origins haven't you?" Everyone now looked at Shirou in bewilderment. Shirou began fidgeting nervously.
"What do you mean, Merlin?" Surprise was mixed in Arthur's usually calm voice. "Are you saying that Shirou has deceived us?"
"Not necessarily deceived, but he did not tell us everything. What I discovered from reading this, is that Emiya Shirou is not from this time. When I read through this book, I noticed the dates written by each entry. These dates span across approximately eight years, from February 1994 to January 2002."
The room went silent. Bewilderment made place for disbelief. Shirou sighed. Now he had no choice but to tell them.
"Shirou, could you please explain what the meaning is of this?" Artur asked with an incredulous tone.
"Well, I … I wasn't sure if I should have told you this. I mean, being transported to the other side of the world is already hard to believe, is it not? sigh Would you have believed me if I told you?"
"Hmm, there is some truth to your words. You were not entirely wrong about keeping this fact hidden." Arthur nodded in understanding. "Indeed, claiming that you came from the future would only have served to invite suspicion and doubt. People would probably question your sanity."
"This is incredible. What year did you say he came from?" Gawain's was trying to restrain his excitement. He was looking at Shirou intensely, which made him feel a bit nervous because of it. "Being saved by a man from another age. That is quite a saga." Gawain took a sip of wine.
"I'm from the year 2004." Everybody in the room fell silent as this fact sank in. The silence was disturbed when somebody knocked on the door and entered. It was the servant.
"Supper is ready, my king." A bunch of servants entered carrying pots, plates and dishes.
"Ah, good. Why don't we discuss this further at the table." Arthur took her goblet and went to the table. Everybody followed suit. Guinevere and Arthur sat at the head of the table. Merlin sat between Guinevere and Bedivere. Shirou wanted to sit down next to Bedivere, but Bedivere stopped him.
"You are the king's honored guest. Your place is at the king's right side." Bedivere explained with a polite tone. Shirou looked from Bedivere to Arthur. The king nodded in confirmation so Shirou sat down between Gawain and Arthur, as the servants placed the food on the table. It consisted of mainly of raw vegetables with vinegar, roasted meat and poultry. Merlin was reading the notebook while the table was being set.
"So Shirou, you came here through that strange portal, right? Could you tell me where it is located?" Merlin asked. "If I know the general location, I could send some familiars to find it."
"Well, It is a few hours walking through the forest from where the ambush took place." Shirou was happy that Merlin said that he would try and find it. Hopefully he could soon return home.
"Hmmm. Sir Gawain could you mark the spot on a map where the ambush took place?"
"That should not be a problem. I will stop by your tower later and show it to you."
"May I suggest that we eat now. The food would turn cold otherwise."
"A good idea, my queen." Arthur said in approval. "Enjoy the meal everybody."
Shirou looked around for tableware, but he found only a knife besides his plate, there was nothing else. Everybody was grabbing food from the dishes with their bare hands. They used the knife only to cut the meat. Suddenly Gawain put some vegetables and a slice of meat on Shirou's plate.
"No need to be timid, my friend. Eat to your hearth's content." Gawain said with a smile. Judging from how Gawain was chomping down the food, it must be pretty good despite it's simplicity. The others were eating at a steady pace.
"Itadakimasu." Shirou said, provoking some curious glances from the others. He took the chopsticks he made earlier from his pocket. He held down the meat with the sticks, while he cut it. Shirou found the meat rather tough to cut. He took some porridge along with the a piece of meat and put it in his mouth. The food wasn't really tasty. Especially the meat. It had definitely been roasted for too long. It isn't really polite to criticize someone else's cooking, so Shirou kept it to himself.
"So that's what those sticks were for." Bedivere smiled in understanding. He had been wondering why Shirou had made them. "Does everybody use sticks to eat in your country?"
"Yes, they are the traditional cutlery of my homeland."
"It looks an effective way to eat. Definitely much cleaner then eating with ones bare hands." Arthur looked at the chopsticks with interest. "Can I try them?"
"Sure. Here you go." Shirou handed the chopsticks over to Arthur and showed her the proper way to hold them. When Shirou touched Arthur's hand, he couldn't help but notice their smooth softness. Arthur got used to them rather fast, must be because of her warrior skills. After eating a few bites, Arthur returned them to Shirou.
"It most certainly is a clean way of eating, maybe I should consider to teach it to my people." They finished the meal a short while later.
"So, Shirou. How was the food?" Gawain's asked with a slightly hopeful tone.
"It was, hmmm … different from what I'm used to." Gawain nodded, though he seemed to have expected a better answer.
"Now, back to the issue at hand. There is something else I want to ask you." Merlin said with a dead serious tone and a dubious expression. "The creation of these portals could only have occurred through the use of an enormous amount of magical energy. This book confirms my theory. According to this book, these portals were caused by something called the Holy Grail War. Do you know anything about that?" A heavy silence fell when Merlin mentioned the Holy Grail.
"The Holy Grail? What do you mean by that? Are you saying that the Holy Grail is located in Shirou's country" For the first time since Shirou got here, Arthur had lost some of her usual demeanor. Shirou wasn't that surprised. The legend of king Arthur did mention that the king searched for the Holy Grail, or more accurately had ordered the search for it. Shirou subsequently told them what little he knew about it. About the servants and their masters participating in the ritual called the Holy Grail War, in order to obtain the omnipotent wish granting device.
"So, seven Magi summon seven Servants, souls of great heroes, to fight over the possession of the Holy Grail." Arthur repeated softly. This news was obviously both worrying and intriguing to her.
"This is truly remarkable. This means that if we would go through that portal, we would have a chance to obtain the Holy Grail!" Gawain smiled. "What do you say, my king?."
"I am not sure. The prospect of obtaining the Grail is tempting. If it was present in our own time, I would have brought to Camelot. However, since it is not, it would be best to leave it be. For now, we should do well to keep this a secret. If our enemies would learn of this, they might attempt to travel to Shirou's time in order to obtain the Grail for their own benefit." Gawain, Bedivere and Merlin agreed with the king's assessment.
"At any rate. Based on what we have learned today, I think we could help Shirou return home. However I suggest that we look for a way to seal this portal on our side as well." Merlin urged. "I will send out familiars to look for the portals location, but from what I could garner from this book, it seems it could take several days before it opens again."
"That is probably the best course of action. Well then, Shirou. It seems that you will be staying here for a while. Do you have any idea about what you want to do while you remain here?"
"I don't know, but I think I will take up Merlin's offer to teach me."
"Splendid! Tomorrow afternoon would be a good time." Merlin smiled cordial. "Uhhm. If you don't mind, I will return the book when I finished it."
"No, it's alright. As long as I can return it to Tohsaka." Shirou scratched his cheek.
"Alright. I will see you tomorrow then. Good night to all of you." Merlin stood up and left. A moment later, the servants returned to clean the table.
Arthur looked outside the window. It was already getting late. The moon and stars were already shining brightly. "We should get some sleep too."
Everybody started to rise from their seats. "Sir Bedivere, would you escort Shirou to his chambers for tonight."
"Of course, my king. Emiya Shirou, if you would follow me."
" I don't think that would be necessary. I mean, it is just across the hall." Bedivere lifted an eyebrow and looked questioningly to his king.
"Hmmm. Very well, Shirou. I guess you wouldn't get lost when your chambers are so near." Arthur nodded. "I will have a servant bring you some clothes tomorrow. That way you should draw less attention."
"That would indeed be helpful. Thank you." Shirou smiled in appreciation. "I bid you good night then." Shirou stood up and left.
"What do you think, my king." Bedivere was frowning while he pondered about the recent revelations. "This talk about time travel, the Holy Grail War ..."
"It was an interesting story. And while I had some trouble taking it all in, I don't believe he was lying." Arthur admitted. "I like him. I don't really know why, but I feel some sort of connection with him. Like a feeling of kinship. I don't know how else to describe it." Everybody was looking at the king with wonder.
"In any case, the young man sure has courage. He took that bolt which was meant for me without hesitation." Gawain pounded his fist on his hearth. "It was an act of pure selflessness, worthy of a knight. He has earned my approval." Arthur and the others could only agree with that.
"Well then. I think it is about time we all went to sleep. Would you not agree, my king." Guinevere covered a small yawn with her hand.
"Indeed. Sir Gawain, Sir Bedivere. I bid you good night." Arthur and Guinevere stood up and exited to the double door on the left side of the room. Bedivere too left the room. Gawain remained behind for a while longer to finish his drink, when he noticed one of the servants crouching by the fireplace.
"What are you doing over there?" Gawain asked, startling the servant. It was the servant that brought the whine earlier. He looked up at Gawain in surprise.
"Nothing, Sir Gawain. I had dropped this lucky charm, my daughter made for me, when I was serving the whine." He held up a small stone with a rune on it, hanging from a leather string with beads.
Gawain stared at it for a moment. "Ohh, that is all? Sorry for startling you."
"No harm done, sir." The servant put the charm around his neck and returned to cleaning the table.
Meanwhile in the ruined fortress, deep inside the basement, two persons were standing over a pedestal with a magic circle engraved in it. A rune symbol was inscribed at the center of the circle. The same rune as the one on the servant's necklace.
"What do you think, my son. Using those charms to communicate and to listen in on conversations was a good idea. Even if I say so myself." One of the two said. It was a woman, dressed in night blue robes. Her name was Morgan Le Fay, King Arthur's sister.
"Indeed it was, mother." The other person replied with a slightly annoyed tone. A knight of small stature, covered in heavy silver-white armor, decorated with red markings. It had a matching helmet with two long, dark-gray horns, giving the knight the appearance of a silver demon. "That was an interesting conversation my father had. Mother, what doth thou think?"
"Now we know what that strange fog is." Morgan tapped her finger on her cheek.
"You mean the one that you found in the small cave, under the ruined watchtower?" Mordred looked at his mother. "Indeed it is interesting. Though I don't think we have any use in traveling to the future."
"I am not so sure of that, my son. The part about a Holy Grail was certainly interesting. That is worth investigating." Mordred sank into thought. Indeed, he had not considered the possibilities an artifact like the Holy Grail could offer. It was so obvious.
"We should invite this Emiya Shirou over for a conversation, would you not say, my son." Morgan smiled wickedly. "If we can get this Grail in our possession, we could use it to seize the throne and destroy the king and her knights.
"He must be the one who foiled Giraud's ambush. I will inquire him about what he knows. Afterwards we can discus of how we can get our hands on him." Mordred left the chamber with an euphoric feeling. An omni-potent wish granting device! His mother would of course wish for king Arthur's destruction, but Mordred however had a different wish in mind. And he would see it granted.