A Twist of Fate (Fate Zero & Fate Stay/Night:UBW)

Prologue

She kept her head bowed. Even chancing a glimpse seared the edges of her vision. To stare the holy light in the face would blind her.

"Blood of my blood and flesh of my flesh. You whom I have known before I knitted you in your mother's womb."

The girl didn't answer. Wiser, she thought, to listen before speaking.

"Wise indeed, my child."

Father? mused Avantina.

A hand laid itself upon her head, and from it Avantinafelt the warmth and weight of the Sun condensed into five featherlight fingers.

"A task has been entrusted to you, my child, and with it, two people to prepare you for the journey that lies ahead."
"How will I know them?"
"Is tú mo rogha. From her, you will hear them; to him, you will speak them."

Avantinaheld onto the words, some tool or treasure whose value was yet unknown to her.

"And if I fail?"

He chuckled.

"Don't."

Fuyuki City, Japan.
Avantina patted around for her cellphone; her blind grabbing ended up sliding it off the bedside table. She groaned, reaching for the device and pressing buttons. Any button. To stop the noise. To stop that damn ringing. A faceful of white light blinded her instead.

Not the alarm then.

She gripped her head, forcing herself to get up. Cryptic words slipped in between the noise.

"Is tú mo rogha."

It jolted her to vigilance. Where had she heard that before? A dream?

A vision, answered her soul. But she didn't hear it.

The minute hand of a wall clock struck six and all the world seemed frozen in the uneventful quiet dark of four-thirty on a Wednesday morning. But intuition told Avantina that time was already ticking away to something that would turn her whole life upside down.

Avantina touched the weathered cover of her bible.

I still don't understand.

But she held onto those words, her faith a small, determined step into the depths of the unknown.

Is tú mo rogha.

The faint ringing stopped.

"Is tú mo rogha."

Author's Note: 'Is tú mo rogha' is Irish for 'You are my chosen one'.