A Different Fate - [Rewrite]

Chapter 7:Child's requests

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Every evening, after Illya had been put to bed, Arturia went back to the living room, where Gilgamesh was on one of the couches, and she read aloud from various books.

After the night in which the girl had come up asking about her parents, however, the routine changed. The two adults accompanied the child to her room, Arturia helped her to bed and read a story to her – usually a novel, because Illya seemed to favour them. As soon as she fell asleep, the former Servants left and went back to their normal evenings.

After a while, Gilgamesh stopped going to the girl's bedroom – he couldn't care less about the fairy tales Arturia was sometimes persuaded to read for Illya, therefore he simply waited in the living room for the woman to join him and read aloud.

One evening though, she did not come. The King of Heroes was not a person who tolerated being kept waiting. When too much time had passed, he stood up from the couch. Annoyed at having had to wait and then having to look for her, too, he went to search for her in her rooms. She was not there though, therefore, even more annoyed, he went to the library, only to come out empty handed again.

Quite irritated, he could think of only another place: Illya's bedroom. He went there, opening the door without hesitation.

And he froze.

Arturia was on the girl's bed, next to her, with her hand gently held in the child's smaller grasp, and both were breathing evenly, fast asleep. But that sight was not what had made the King of Heroes freeze.

It was Arturia's expression. It was a very, very unusual one… relaxed and peaceful.

She never had such an expression when she was awake.

Very quietly, Gilgamesh closed the door of the room again. He most certainly would not try to go in – he knew that the King of Knights's senses were sharp, and he had no wish to have an invisible Excalibur pointed at his throat. He had heard from the servants that it had happened to one of the butlers when he had tried to wake her up one morning… she had almost beheaded him.

Even though Gilgamesh knew that it would take more than that to do him some real harm, he still did not wish to… disturb her in her sleep.

He realized that he wasn't annoyed at having been kept waiting earlier… not anymore.

That thought was, to some extent… unsettling. When had that stubborn woman begun to hold that much power over him?

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Arturia was the one whose voice was heard the most around the castle. She read and studied all the lessons together with Illya – the child loved to listen –, she explained the things that weren't clear both during the lessons and during sparring time, she read the little girl stories in the evenings, she read aloud from books at night… In short, she did a lot of talking.

The problem was that Arturia was now a human… and as such, she could become sick. She was a very strong woman, though, therefore it was highly unlikely it would happen… but something was bound to happen.

And it did. By talking so much, Arturia ended up losing her voice completely for a few days.

The homunculi who served in the castle were all quite proficient in healing magic, but there was nothing that could be done. Arturia received instructions to rest for some time in her rooms, and Illya was dismayed at finding out that she wasn't even allowed to spend time with her beloved tutor.