Late to Church

[old_man_acht]

The boundary around the church feels spun-glass fragile, but still there is power enough here to make Acht's teeth ache. This has been rebuilt after being broken, he thinks as he picks his way carefully over the sleet-strewn ice, and the rubble nearer to the church only serves to confirm his suspicions.

He keeps to the shelter of the trees, his hands clenched in his pockets. The cold is almost unbearable, but for Lara's sake, he will bear it and watch.

This is the place. He has only to remember the priest's stricken face in the headlamps of his car to know that this is the place.

Comments

[come_to_spoil_everything]

"Lara!" Risei charges in through the open door, throws down his overshirt and nearly skids on the floor to her side. "Mr. Einzbern, you can't take her, she's barely alive--"

[old_man_acht]

The interruption shocks Acht out of his ire. When he meets Risei's eyes, his own are cold. "But you could take her, when she was closer to death than this."

[come_to_spoil_everything]

"And I've been healing her ever since." Risei glowers: it may be hard to deal with the cold in the old man's eyes, but Risei's stared him down before and won't back down now. "I don't use my magic to leave people to die."

[old_man_acht]

"You use it to spirit them away from those who would heal them and protect them, because you believe that you can do it better."

[come_to_spoil_everything]

"Yes," Risei says. "I do believe that."

[old_man_acht]

"You hope to win her loyalty with her gratitude--and then what? And then to end the war with her at your side?"

[come_to_spoil_everything]

Risei knows he's being insulted, that Acht, like all magi, can only see acts of kindness as self-serving. He remembers Katya and her duplicity, Kirsikka and her bargaining, Lara's fear of him from the start.

How long has Acht lived with all that contempt and constant fear?

Risei shuts his eyes, and when he opens them again he's looking down to to Lara, the futon, the books, the heap of blankets.

"I hope to end the war," he says, truthfully, "and I want her to be safe. She doesn't have to be at my side to be safe, and if she wants you to take her home I won't stop you. But I do believe I can help her more here, and it's because I've seen you hurt and kill and send her to die."

[old_man_acht]

More than anything else that remains to him in this world--more even than his hope of the Grail--Acht believes in Larasviel's loyalty to her family. He has written the coding in her heart, and he knows every sigil and syllable; he knows what she will choose, when she is made to choose. Therefore, he speaks with the certainty of a man repossessing stolen property when he says, "Then let her decide whether she will go with me to the Einzbern base, or stay here. I will abide by her choice."

[hikikomoe]

Grandfather offers her a choice now, when he began this war by threatening to modify her will. Then what choice is this?

Lara keeps her eyes closed, refuses to look at either of them. This, however, forces her to turn her senses inward. To the inscriptions at the deepest levels of her consciousness, written in an Einzbern hand; to the pathways of her Circuit, set down generations before she was created; to the memories she has borrowed from her predecessors. None of her predecessors could conceive of a choice like this. There would be no choice. There is only what they are, and what they must do.

She has said, from the first, that she knows why she was created.

"I will return," she says, eyes still shut, voice lifeless.

[come_to_spoil_everything]

He's prepared for that answer. That doesn't mean he wants to hear it.

It takes a few breaths for him to feel steady enough to nod, then speak. "All right. I'll help carry you out. Where did you park the car, Mr. Einzbern?" His voice gets less shaky with every word he says, but the tightness in his chest doesn't abate. "If I'm carrying her, could you take the books?"

[old_man_acht]

"I will," he agrees. He knows that he has won, and for the first time, it feels like a victory. He can afford some small magnanimity. "The car is near the road. Screened by a stand of maples. My driver will be waiting." And probably warmer than I am, after a day of surveillance.

[come_to_spoil_everything]

Risei nods, and stoops to shoo the tanuki out of the blanket nest and help Lara up. It takes more strength to look her in the eyes than it does to lift her up, but he does both, and manages to smile. He rearranges the coat around her shoulders, ignores his, and settles her into his arms.

"You probably have a much warner room there than here," he says, quietly. "And I know the wards are stronger. From experience, I mean,"

[hikikomoe]

"...thank you," she says, her head nestled against his chest. "For bringing me here."

[come_to_spoil_everything]

A little color and heat seep into Risei's cheeks. "You're welcome" he says, holding her a little tighter. "And you're welcome here. My offer still stands, okay?"

When she nods, he carries her to the door, and waits for Acht.

[old_man_acht]

Having gathered up an armful of books, he comes to follow Risei up the stairs. The tanuki trots curiously at his heels.

It would do no good (and perhaps no little harm) to warn Lara against accepting Risei's offer. She knows it well enough.

[come_to_spoil_everything]

With all the warmth of hope and hard work gone, the chill air hits Risei's shoulders as soon as they make it outside. He ignores it, and walks Acht out through the postcrypt door, assuming that's the way Acht came in in the first place. "And that offer extends to you too, Mr. Einzbern. If you need sanctuary, come here. We can talk. We can all talk."

[old_man_acht]

Acht can only chuckle at that. "The Matous and Tohsakas finished talking a hundred years before you were born, boy."

[come_to_spoil_everything]

"And they wouldn't come to the Church to talk unless they were serious about talking. I know. And I know how naive I sound. But I wouldn't have come to Fuyuki if a magus hadn't been brave and repentant enough to expose you and your war. It's rare, but it happens, and all I can do is hope that it happens again and make myself available."

[old_man_acht]

The Bibles are heavy in Acht's arms. The stairs are steep, and the light is behind them. "We are too old for repentance."

[come_to_spoil_everything]

Risei sighs, shakes his head lightly as he carries Lara toward the car. "Hearken unto me, ye stouthearted, that are far from righteousness: I bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry."