Chapter One

The Waiting Lamb

Though Ilyasviel von Einzbern was small, she was never short on determination to match pace with her tall father through the thick snow that covered the mountain, forest, and the castle she had been born in. As she did so now, she was pleased with her efforts, and more so to look up at her father with glowing adoration and happiness, this man who was as dark as her mother was white, save for the paleness of his skin.

"Does Kiritsugu like the snow?" she asked him then—she would often call her father by his given name, because her mother did, and her mother was always happy when she said it, and Ilya was always happy with her father.

Kiritsugu looked at her with the smile he always gave special to her, that warm, loving smile that told Ilya without words that he would always love and protect her. "Why the interest, Ilya?"

Ilya shrugged. "Ilya just wants to know."

Kiritsugu became thoughtful, and then he laughed and said, "You know, that's actually a really hard question for Daddy to answer."

Ilya huffed. "What? How can that be a hard question? It's either 'yes' or 'no'!"

"Yes, but you see, the answer used to be 'no', but Daddy might have changed his mind," said Kiritsugu.

Ilya's red eyes grew bigger. "Kiritsugu changed his mind?"

"Yes. You see, when Daddy first came to live here, he was used to living in warm or hot places, mostly. But then he realized that the snow was a lot like Ilya's and Mommy's hair, and now he thinks he could learn to love it."

"Because it's like Mommy's and Ilya's hair?"

"Mm-hm. Because Daddy loves Ilya and Mommy very much."

The soft light in Kiritsugu's otherwise dark eyes when he said this was more than proof enough for Ilya that what he told her was sincere from the bottom of his heart. Of course, it was already one of the certainties of life for Ilya that her father loved her and her mother dearly. But she was still very happy whenever Kiritsugu assured her of it. And she adored him dearly back for it, hoping that she could always make him as happy as he had always worked to make her and her mother.

Kiritsugu chuckled, and then, with that playful look in his eye, he suddenly reached down and scooped Ilya up into his arms.

"Kiritsugu, wait, I can walk—!" But Ilya was giggling. After all, she loved it when her father scooped her up like this, quite as much as she loved it when he would perch her on his shoulders and let her ride up high, as he was doing for her now.

Kiritsugu laughed harder, and Ilya loved the sound all the more. Indeed, there were moments when she thought he might be smiling at her through some kind of tender sadness, but even so, when he laughed like this, he was infectiously happy, such that Ilya giggled even harder and called out, "Off we go, horsey!"

Ilya's father, Kiritsugu Emiya, was Japanese. Her beautiful mother, Irisviel von Einzbern, was German. Her father was human. Her mother was a homunculus.

Such things were utterly unimportant to Ilya. To her, her parents were the two people in the world who gave her what was called "love", and it was a precious thing to her. She didn't remember when she realized it, she just knew that she would always feel that way for as long as she lived, that she would always dearly love her father and mother back. Even if there were days where she would sigh over a book that her mother or father would be reading to her or that she would be reading for herself about things like "friends" and "other children", in the end when she looked between her mother and father, she was nothing but purely happy and full of love for them both.

Equally precious to her too was how much she could see her mother and father loved each other. She had been told that her parents had fallen in love over something that was rather like out of a fairy tale: her mother had been lost in the snow, hunted by wolves and almost frozen to death, because Grandfather Jubstacheit had been angry with her, and Kiritsugu had rescued her. And certainly now, whenever Ilya noticed them when they didn't realize she was watching, or didn't mind that she was, her father and mother would look at each other with great happiness to be with the other, speaking in low voices, while Kiritsugu might stroke back Irisviel's hair, and Irisviel would run her thumb over the back of his hand while she held it.

Maybe it wasn't normal for kids to be so utterly fascinated by the love shared between their parents, but Ilya wasn't exactly normal, and anyway, she didn't really care. In fact, she shared in her father's sadness that became clear to her the day he left the castle for his big trip to Japan, because her mother would have to go too, but instead of coming back, would have to part from both Ilya and Kiritsugu forever.

Just so, there was hope. Her father would be coming back soon, he'd promised her he would, and Kiritsugu had never broken a promise to her yet. That kept her smiling in the week that followed, even when she woke from that terrible nightmare about her father surrounded by a field of fire and suffering, while seven gigantic lumps came into her body, threatening to tear her apart from the inside as a big black hole opened up above her head and her father wept, crying out her and her mother's names with such raw sorrow it broke Ilya's heart to hear it, for afterward she had heard her mother's voice again, as if she were with her in spirit, as she said she would always be able to find her even if she couldn't see her anymore...

...all because of the miracle of her mother becoming the all-powerful Holy Grail...

"Mmmm...Mama...Kiritsugu..." Ilya murmured, fighting to wake up as a voice went on calling her name.

But not the one she wanted to hear.

"Elke...stop," she moaned, as she next felt the digging prods of a blunt instrument repeatedly in her shoulder. When it became simply too much to bear though, she was forced to give in and roll over onto her back, curled up as she was, not in her own bed, but in her parents' bed, hugging one of the pillows to her as even after over a week, it still smelled of them. The book of fairy tales that her father had given to her mother as a gift, and out of which her mother would read to Ilya on many an evening, was abandoned and left open to the last page she'd been reading before nodding off.

Ilya glared up at Elke, a full homunculus, like Ilya's mother, Irisviel, but not "worthy of the honor of becoming the Vessel of the Holy Grail", so she became one of the homunculus maids instead.

Elke, unlike Irisviel, never expressed anything like emotion, which had become something of a pet peeve of Ilya's. She gave Ilya her usual look of impassivity as she said, "There we are. It's time for your bath, Miss Ilyasviel."

Ilya gave a wordless grumble and turned away, snuggling deeper into all her parents' pillows. For as long as she could remember, she had always taken baths with her mother.

But now….

"Come along, Miss Ilyasviel," Elke insisted, raising the broom she'd been using before, threatening to prod her with it again.

"Come along, Ilya! Shall we have a nice, hot bath, just you and me?" her mother invited as usual, beaming happily at her daughter, taking both hands in hers and squeezing them.

"You're not my mama," Ilya growled. "You look like her, but that's all. You aren't her. So stop trying to be." She flicked a glare Elke's way again.

Elke was unmoved. "You are under my personal care at present, Miss Ilyasviel."

Ilya huffed, sitting up in bed at last and trying to give Elke the death stare to end all death stares. "Ilya doesn't like the baths Elke gives her," she declared. "She makes the water too hot. Where's Mieke?"

"Mieke is busy with other tasks, as is Nele."

Ilya threw one of the pillows at Elke and hit her square in the face. Elke shut her eyes at the impact, but otherwise didn't flinch a muscle, completely unaffected while the pillow fell lamely to the floor.

It had been three days since Elke had returned from Japan with Mieke and Nele, bearing news that Kiritsugu had stayed behind to take care of a few things before making his return to Einzbern Castle. Such news coming from Elke made Ilya like her even less, if that was possible.

But her father had promised he would return. If he said he would be a little longer, Ilya could wait, for she knew that the wait would be over soon enough. Then she wouldn't have to deal with Elke, because Kiritsugu said he was going to take her away from here. Take her away from here and go back to Japan, where he would show her the "starbugs" (actually fireflies, but Ilya liked calling them "starbugs" since they looked like stars against the dark backdrops of night in the photos she had seen).

For a moment, she crushed the corner of another pillow in her small fist, but then relaxed when she thought of her father coming soon, any day now. So she slid off the bed, however reluctantly.

"Just you wait until Kiritsugu gets back," she grumbled as she stomped to the bathroom. "Then Elke can't boss Ilya around."

Elke followed her, her expression blank as ever. "Of course, Miss Ilyasviel."

As predicted, the water was too hot again. But at least Ilya could shut Elke out and be by herself while she took her bath. And though it was lonely without her mother taking it with her like usual, Ilya was still very good about doing everything her mother taught her on her own, including making sure to wash behind her ears. She had to be a good little girl, for both her mother and her father, despite her melancholy at their both being gone from her for the first time in her life like this making her less than keen to, since that just made her more annoyed with people like Elke.

She wanted to make her mother and her father both proud of her.

After Ilya had washed despite the uncomfortably hot water, she drew her knees up to her chest and soaked in the water a little bit longer, thinking of her mother and father. She began counting again, her mind growing increasingly more fixated on calculating how long precisely it should take Kiritsugu to come back from whatever work he had to finish before coming back.

"Elke and Mieke and Nele came back three days ago, and that was just a little over a week since Daddy left, so if he gets done today...Mommy said the plane to get to Japan takes about thirteen hours? And if something got him stuck at...what was that thing? Right, the 'airport'...and if there are…twenty-four hours in a day…hmmmm..."

Eventually she got tired of going over numbers in her head, over and over. She huffed, a little drained, and leaned her head back against the porcelain edge of the tub. And she remembered that she too had a promise to keep to her father, that she would be strong and last until he came home, even if she got lonely. Truth be told, she hadn't known what it meant to feel lonely until now, and now that she was feeling it, she knew she never wanted to feel it again: it was like a darkness that settled inside the heart, and consumed it slowly from within.

Even so, her eyes started to sting with tears. Resolved to hold back, she sucked in a sudden, large gulp of air, and, pinching her nose between her thumb and forefinger, submerged underneath the hot, hot water. Locked underneath it, everything felt just a little bit easier to bear, like she'd sealed herself away into a separate dimension of tranquility.

She carried this feeling with her after she reemerged from the bath and let Elke dry her off, harsh and impersonal as she was about it with the towel. And it stayed with her as the hours of the end of the day followed with her being presented before Elder Acht, as she was every evening. Ilya wasn't sure if he felt like he had to because her parents were gone, or if it had something to do with that greedy look he would get in his otherwise cold, flat, squinted eyes, but it was times like these she needed feelings like the calm she had now, the reassurance that her father was coming for her, like the knight who comes for the princess imprisoned in the evil tower.

"I suppose you would care to know of any news of your...father?" Elder Acht asked her as usual as he observed her once more from where he stood at the altar in the Summoning Chamber, going over the words of a very old book, this place where Kiritsugu and Irisviel had summoned the woman in blue, the Saber-Class Servant for what was called the Holy Grail War.

Ilya swallowed, telling herself to be brave, while at the same time her tiny heart began to pound for that heavy few seconds with both fear and excitement at what Acht would say next.

Unable to speak, she swallowed hard and gave a meek little nod.

Acht surveyed her icily, narrowing his eyes even more, before he turned unconcernedly back to going over the book. "There is still no word of him, child. But we shall be patient and wait another day."

Though Ilya let out the breath she'd been holding, she couldn't help the spark of something following that. Something that made her prickly and impatient.

Though Elder Acht often frightened her, in the past week or so, she had had to learn to cohabitate with him in this castle, even with it being so vast. And even with Acht only seeing her maybe once a day for a few minutes, if that. That being the case, she had done her best thus far to emulate her mother's manner in dealing with him, acting as elegant as a proper lady, but not without being...firm? Was that the word? Not without being firm where her own opinions were concerned.

She cleared her throat.

Acht raised his eyebrows at her, looking just a little irked that she was still here after he'd clearly dismissed her for the evening.

"Grandfather," she began, "you don't like Kiritsugu...do you?"

Acht raised his eyebrows at her, but not as though he were affronted or anything. Just curious she would ask such a thing, and mildly so. Then he turned back to the book and said with equal indifference: "That is irrelevant, child."

Ilya twisted her fingers faster, gulped, puffing out her chest before finally asking: "But...you wouldn't...keep him away from me, would you?"

"Of course not," said Acht at once, not looking up from the book as he got that pinched expression again.

But Ilya didn't care this time. She felt suddenly much lighter. After all, Grandfather Acht might have been scary, but he had never lied to her. She had no reason to believe he ever would.

In this moment, all of Ilya's certainty that her father was going to return home soon was strengthened such that she actually felt her stomach attempt a flip of giddiness. Giving Elder Acht a hasty, customary curtsy before taking her leave, she flounced up to her own room, crowded with all of her many toys and books. All of them were gifts from Kiritsugu, since he was able to access the world beyond the castle and buy such treasures. But it wasn't the treasures themselves that made them treasures, it was that Kiritsugu had given them to her, while he'd smiled at her with that smile that was special just for her, that smile that hoped that the gift he was presenting her with would make her happy.

That was what made them all precious to her. So if she had to choose between any one of these stuffed bears or stuffed cats, or beautifully crafted books or wind-ups or music boxes (no dolls, Ilya had always insisted), and her father, she would always pick her father, just as he was to her.

Ilya sat on the floor, surrounding herself with these treasures, picking up each plushy and hugging it close, like a prayer for Kiritsugu's safe return. She got to her special toy lamb Klara last—special because Klara was the first plush toy Kiritsugu had bought her. The lamb was showing her age even now, how many times her mother had carefully worked to patch her up with needle and thread. Ilya squeezed her extra tight nonetheless.

"See how patient Ilya is, how brave?" Ilya whispered in that lamb's ear, the ear her parents would always laughingly tell her she used to chew as an infant. "Ilya will keep going, until you come home…Daddy…."

Kiritsugu had never broken a promise to her. Ilya had been under the watch of him and her mother her entire life, loving and caring for her, and doing everything he could to make her happy beyond buying her toys. He gave her his time, even when he looked sad or tired. Ilya couldn't remember when she started to pick up on that about her father, but she knew that eventually she had come to her own personal conclusion that as much as Kiritsugu wanted to love and protect her, Ilya wanted to do the same for him. In that way, she felt she could be even stronger, someone who could face her fearsome grandfather without trembling in the knees. That and Kiritsugu had always told her that he believed in her strength, because she was her mother's daughter.

How could Ilya not look between her mother and her father with just a little sense of awe? After all, as her mother had explained to her, gently and softly while stroking her hair reassuringly:

"There will come a time when Mama will have to go away, for a very long time. She will become what is called the Holy Grail, and Daddy will protect her until she does. Then she and Daddy will be able to save the world from sadness. After that, even if Ilya doesn't see Mama for a very long time, she'll always be by her side."

Ilya felt a warm glow within her as she sank back into these memories while hugging Klara close, burying her face in the lamb's woolliness, not caring a bit that she hadn't entirely understood all that her mother had told her. But though this glow was happy, it was a sad kind of happy. She really couldn't explain it.

Even so, she refused to cry. She had no reason to, because her mama was still with her. She had heard her voice so clearly, in the aftermath of that horrible nightmare about the fire and the black hole and the seven gigantic lumps tearing her apart from within while her father cried...

"…It's okay…Daddy's doing the best he can for you. He'll make certain that our prayers are realized, so you'll never have to be scared again, Ilyasviel…."

A knock on her bedroom door jarred Ilya out of her meandering rumination, and Elke poked her head in to tell her that it was time for bed.

Elke, being Elke, tucked her into the bed in her own room, and Ilya, being Ilya, waited until the homunculus maid had left before sneaking out of her room and tucking herself into her parents' bed with Klara clutched in her arms, even with the room's fireplace unlit.

She cocooned herself in the covers, wrapping herself up once more in the comfort of the place she would run to in the middle of the night after so many nightmares, especially the ones about Lord Justeaze, about whom her mother would never speak, but Elke would without hesitation, telling Ilya simply, "She is the mother of us all, child."

But, as had been happening of late, Ilya was restless and fitful again in trying to get to sleep. Her heart kept beating too fast as she imagined, in an effort to ease her impatience, that the pillows she was hugging were her mother and father instead, and that they had their warm arms around her again, for this only served to be more aware of how keenly and sharply she missed them. She came close to tears again as she thought of their soft voices close to her ear, her father weaving a story for her that took her away from the gloom of Einzbern Castle, while her mother hummed a sweet lullaby. Again, with an effort, she willed her tears back, falling at last into an exhausted slumber.

There she found herself trudging through open snow, bundled up in her purple coat and fur hat that was like her mother's white coat and hat. She seemed to have lost her way from the castle, and was starting to worry she wouldn't find it before dark.

But then a voice called out to her:

"Ilya!"

Ilya turned around...and there he was...in his long black coat and wearing the smile he always gave her special.

Everything inside Ilya swelled with great happiness, glowing so brightly she could swear to lighting up like a lamp. With a great burst of joy, she broke into a run, going as fast her little legs could carry her through the thick snow.

"Daddy! Daddy!"

She fell into his waiting arms, laughing and catching her breath. She gulped what air she could and looked up at him, beaming at how he was just as he was before he left, as she had always known him.

"Welcome home, Daddy!" she greeted euphorically.

"Ah yes, thank you, Ilya. I'm sorry I took so long, but I'm here now." Kiritsugu affectionately touched her cheek. "My Ilya."

Ilya in turn reached up and touched his face with both her tiny hands. "Daddy. I knew you'd come back. See how patient and strong Ilya was?"

Kiritsugu's smile turned just a little sad, but even so, it was clear he was happy. And then he pulled Ilya into his arms, hugging her close.

Ilya felt even warmer, wrapped up against her father, surrounded by that leather smell of him. As she burrowed into his coat so full of his smell, she felt even brighter with happiness. Though she knew the two of them were both sharing in sadness over the loss of her mother, the two of them had found each other again, and for Ilya, she could feel what a powerful and precious shield her father's love was for her, and that it made this grief easier to bear for both of them.

"Now we'll never part again, will we Daddy?" she asked her father, her voice muffled.

Kiritsugu hugged her tighter, petting back her silver hair that was just like her mother's. "Daddy will always be with you, no matter what happens now, Ilya." He heaved a great sigh, as though relieved.

"Is Daddy happy like Ilya is?"

"Yes. He's very happy. And we'll have nothing but happy and peaceful days from now on. Always…."

But when Ilya opened her eyes and lifted her head, she was alone again, wrapped up in the blankets and sheets on her parents' bed, her face once more buried in the pillows.

Even so, she couldn't help a bubbling inside of her. That moment in the dream she'd just had, that moment she'd been thinking of for what seemed like forever now, of being reunited with her father—it felt so close now, so close she could taste it.

Today was the day he would come home at last. She was sure of it.

"You are certainly a smiler today, Miss Ilyasviel," Elke observed flatly.

But not even Elke could ruin Ilya's mood this morning, as she stood at the window of her parents' bedroom, clutching Klara under her arm, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"Of course I am. Kiritsugu's coming home today," Ilya announced without a doubt in her mind.

When Elke gave her a look that was actually disapproving, Ilya stuck her tongue out at her.

Which prompted Elke to shake her head and say, "I think it's time we got you dressed now, wouldn't you agree, Miss Ilyasviel?"

"Ugh, fine," said Ilya dismissively, content to endure it, for she felt in her very heart that this was the last time she would have to, so she was willing.

After Elke dressed her and then Nele fed her some breakfast, Ilya skipped off to go play with her toys in her own room, prattling a made-up song under her breath, one that made no sense but sprang purely from how happily anticipatory she was.

This was the last day she had to be patient! She could hardly stand it, but even so, she did her best to contain herself, and occupied herself with pulling out all of her plush toys for a mock picnic on her bedroom floor, imagining that she her father would very soon be having real picnics outside on a lovely day in the warm seasons of spring or summer, in that land they called Japan. And then they would have a treat of ice cream while watching the exploding, colored lights called fireworks, before playing a game of catching starbugs in their hands and then setting them free, watching their soft, beautiful lights in the dark….

Meanwhile, the day wore on, the frozen barrier around the castle actually kicking up into another frenzied storm.

I hope Kiritsugu will be able to see okay in this, Ilya thought, setting aside the rabbit she'd been pretending was talking to all of them and hopping over to the window—a trip she was making with increasing frequency in spite of her effort at self-control. Yet with the world turning whiter and whiter with how thick and fast the windy snow was falling, Ilya was finally forced to make the decision to approach Grandfather Acht of her own volition, to ask that he might, just this once, hold back the storm in spite of his mood today, so that her father wouldn't get lost while he tried to find his way back to the castle.

Just in case.

Yet when she arrived at her grandfather's study, the door to it opened before she even had a chance to knock, and there stood Elke, her red eyes as empty as ever, blinking and unmoved at the appearance of Ilya on the threshold.

"What is it, Elke?" Acht called indifferently from within.

"It is Miss Ilyasviel," Elke replied blankly.

"Ah, well then, that saves you the trouble of fetching her," said Acht. "Please, have her come in."

Bemused, but glad at least to have gained a requested audience with her grandfather, Ilya followed Elke into the study. Yet she couldn't help feeling the air get a little thicker when Elke shut the door behind them.

Acht, who stood at the window, surrounded as he was by his myriad of private books, with his hands clasped behind his back, turned to Ilya with his usual coldness. Yet he was being strangely more welcoming than usual.

"Hello, child," he greeted. "What brings you to my study?"

But Ilya found she wasn't to be distracted by the question. "Why were you going to fetch me, Grandfather?" And then her heart skipped a beat and she gasped. "Kiritsugu…he's back! He's back, isn't he?" She lurched forward, thinking perhaps he was still outside making his way to the front door, that Acht had just seen him arrive from his study window, and she wanted to have a look for herself, naturally.

Elke, however, held her back with a firm hand on her shoulder.

Ilya looked up at her, a little more confused, and then appealed to her grandfather, who was shaking his head with that pinched expression he always saved just for any mention of Kiritsugu it seemed.

"I am afraid not, child," he said. "In fact, that is the reason I was going to have Elke fetch you. I have just been informed that your father will not return here."

Ilya frowned. "What do you…mean? What's wrong? Has something…bad happened to him?"

"On the contrary, he has merely decided to betray us. And you."

"Be…tray…me…?"

"Some days ago, he abandoned your mother, leaving her in the hands of our enemies in the Grail War…and then he made an attempt to destroy the Holy Grail."

"Destroy the…Holy Grail?" Ilya shook her head, feeling like she had water in her ears. "No, that doesn't sound right. Daddy would never abandon Mama. Daddy loves Mama. He was going to protect her so she could become the Grail. Mama said Daddy needs the Grail. Why would he hurt Mama and destroy the Grail?"

"Because he is a liar and a coward." Acht's eyes flicked toward the window, his emerging glare matching its iciness. "He has chosen to turn against us, and…not to come back for you." He turned his glare on Ilya, as though it were all her fault this was happening.

None of this made any kind of sense to Ilya. Actually, this sounded like the kind of stupid lie—not even a lie but a fib—that she would've told to get out of trouble with her parents, like the time she tried to fib about breaking one of the Einzberns' priceless vases. Certainly, when she'd thrown her tantrums, Kiritsugu could be strict, and she'd learned quickly to toe the line with him unless she'd get really upset for whatever reason.

But her father had never been cruel to her. He had never hurt her in any way, never even had to raise a hand to her. This…thing…that Grandfather Acht was telling her about her father…couldn't possibly be true.

Although she had always been given to believe that neither her father nor Acht had ever had any reason to lie to her…Ilya knew then, in this moment, that if she had to choose a person to truly put her faith in…

…it would always be her father.

Which made her conviction in her next action all the stronger.

And for the first time in her life, Ilya felt something resolute grow within her, and she felt far braver than she ever had before.

Defiantly, she lifted her small chin, and fixing Acht's pale eyes with her bright red ones, her tiny fists clenching at her sides, she said, "You're lying. I don't believe you."

Acht narrowed his own eyes. "Then you are a fool. Quite as much as your mother was."

Ilya forgot to breathe, just for a second, as the sensation of something sharp running through her very heart overwhelmed her. Her eyes went wide, and her whole vision became as red as the irises of those eyes. Gritting her teeth and meeting Acht's glare with one of her own, she proclaimed, "No. Stop it. You're lying. Mama's not a fool. I won't believe you. You never liked Daddy. Now you're trying to tell me stupid lies about him."

"The sooner you come to grips with the truth of your father's betrayal, the better it will be for you." Acht tucked his hands into the enormous sleeves of his robes. "Your father has abandoned you and your mother both. He destroyed the Lesser Grail with his Saber-Class Servant. But having failed to destroy the Greater Grail, he has gone into hiding, full of cowardly shame, and now leaves you to follow your mother's fate."

"Stop it!" Ilya snapped, actually starting to crouch as though she were going to spring at her grandfather, something hot licking within her heart, something that filled her with a growing desperation to tear at the air around her.

Anger. True anger. Volatile, virulent anger.

And then Acht actually raised his voice. "Enough with this foolishness, Ilyasviel!"

"No!" Ilya shouted, waving her fists in the air and stamping her feet. "You stop lying to me and tell me the truth!"

"ENOUGH!"

"NO!"

Something blunt collided with the side of Ilya's face, along with a sharp pain that cracked through her jaw and sent stars exploding across her field of vision, even as everything went momentarily black.

Shocked, Ilya staggered back, clutching her cheek, blinking hugely and bewilderedly as she looked up at Elke, who had a hand raised, her eyes as blank as ever.

"Shall I again, Elder?" she asked.

"Only if she does not cease this behavior," said Acht, cold as ever.

And then Ilya understood. She'd been slapped. Elke had…slapped her. Hurt her. No one had ever done such a thing to her.

As she realized this, a gaping hole opened up inside of her, and she thought desperately of her parents again, how happy they had always made her.

All gone…all gone….

"Mommy…Daddy…."

Her cheek still throbbed where Elke had struck her.

Ilya latched onto this, anger for what was happening her only defense left to her. That, and faith in her father that she swore would remain unshaken.

It could not be.

She would never believe her father would abandon her, that he would abandon her mother. She would never let people like Grandfather Acht and Elke take that faith away from her.

Slowly, she stood, glaring at master and homunculus, even as she knew her cheek was still bright red from Elke's smack.

"When Kiritsugu gets back, you'll be sorry," she growled. "You'll be sorry you ever hurt me. He'll make all of you pay."

But even as she said this, even as she turned and tore from the study without permission, the seed of something dark was sown within her and beginning to grow. And even with her continued faith in the man she loved and adored as her father, she was teetering on the edge of weeping for fear of what might come next, even as she had no way of truly knowing what pain was still in store for her, as her childhood would be stripped away from her forever.

For now, Ilya could still believe in the love her mother and father had taught her.