A Different Fate - [Rewrite]

Chapter 9:Discoveries

A/N: some of the things that are said in this chapter about the Grail are completely NOT true in canon. But they are needed for this fic. Thanks for reading!

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After the argument, contrary to what they both had expected, the relationship between Gilgamesh and Arturia had become more… relaxed.

When they thought about it, they acknowledged that it actually made sense. They had told each other what they truly thought, and by doing that, they had created a deep connection between them. And that allowed them to be more comfortable in each other's presence.

That showed especially in the evenings, when Arturia usually took a book from the library and read aloud for them both in the living room.

She had decided it was best to know more about the Holy Grail War, and therefore had begun to read aloud quite a few historical books. From those, they had discovered that only after the chaotic Second War the Church, deciding to give the conflict some semblance of rightness, had introduced a few precise rules.

Other much more shocking pieces of information came up… things Arturia had not been aware of. She discovered, to her dismay, that in order to complete the summoning ritual of the Grail all seven Servants were supposed to die… and that was the actual reason the Command Spells existed in the first place, so that the Masters could force their Servants to commit suicide.

That went against everything they had known previously… According to what they had thought to be true, a couple formed by a Master and a Servant was supposed to win the war, and each of them would be able to make a wish on the Grail.

The King of Knights was not exactly livid, but she wasn't happy in discovering that she had merely been a pawn, and that she had never had any hope of winning the Grail from the very beginning. That was when Gilgamesh spoke up.

"I found out about the real rules of the war… and that was part of the reason I accepted to change Master." He played with his ever-present wine glass. "I knew that Tokiomi would sacrifice me in the end."

Arturia raised an eyebrow at him. Snide remarks were not her type of thing, but this time she could not stop herself.

"And you don't suppose that in the end Kirei would have killed you as well, do you?"

He retorted, "I had been analysing the mongrel long enough to understand what his true priorities were."

Such little exchanges of sarcasm became increasingly common between them.

After having read about the Second War, Arturia looked for books about the Third War… and was surprised to find out that there were very few, and all very vaguely detailed. It was strange… especially because the shelves with those books were almost empty. The woman was suspicious, mainly because she knew that Jubstacheit von Einzbern had seen her often go to the library to consult historical books… but she had no reason to ask questions about the apparent absence of some books.

A few days after finding out about the required death of the Servants, Arturia was reading yet another book of Magecraft with Illya when she made a startling discovery.

According to the lessons they were going through in that moment, if a magical object released energy after having supposedly been destroyed, it meant that the process had been imperfect – and the latent energy would remain inside the item.

That could mean…

Arturia avoided talking about her suspicions in front of the girl, and waited until she went to sleep that evening before bringing up the subject with Gilgamesh. She wouldn't have talked to him if he hadn't been the only one to know what she was talking about.