Excalibur, Caliburn and the King of Knights

[2B]

Should you want something to listen to during reading this post, look no further.
http://listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=q2krr...-_03_Grief

Arthuria simply listened, her mind wandering as she pondered upon the statement of the other. A god? A god in mortal form? Would it be possible? Then again, Heroic Spirits were possible.. But they weren’t...or at least the other wasn’t a Heroic Spirit. Or, at least there was no way of confirming if she was, or wasn’t. ”I do believe so, yes.” the woman simply replied, not diving any deeper than that into her response, as the other once more took her turn to make her voice heard.

As usual, Saber waited fully through Amaterasu’s explanation, before she offered her own, suppressed piece of mind in return. “I...I know not…” she responded, before she fell quiet, descending into her thoughts as she tried to find her own answers first. She felt that the gods had likely chosen to forsake her land, in their direst hour of need due to her failures as a king. That she herself had failed her people, had led her people to ruin. The words the King of Conquerors, Iskander had once told her echoed in her mind. You saved your people, but you never led them. You never showed them what a King should be. You abandoned your men when they lost their way. Alone and untroubled, you followed your own pretty little ideals. Thus, you are no king. “Gods...Gods are fickle things.. Never have I heard of one that would have walked among us mortals… Nor have I heard of one that would’ve granted our wishes or desires.. Gods are often..cruel.” she said, her armored arm letting out a slight clink of metal, as she squeezed her fingers into a fist, continuing her explanation. “Asking for help...praying for help..” the woman stopped, before she nearly spat out the words “Begging for help from the Gods seems to grant naught but their ridicule.. We pray for forgiveness, we pray for relief from our sins. We pray for help. Yet the gods… The gods stay silent. They do not respond to our pleads, nor do they care. We are simply something they watch, something there for their amusement.” she stated, her voice seething with emotion. Considering how well the woman had managed to conceal her feelings before, this was likely a sore spot. “Where were the gods when I pleaded for guidance? For help? Where were the gods when my country burned, when my people bled?” she said as her fists tightened up and the woman bit down onto her lower lip. “The gods forsook my people in their darkest hour. And that was all because of my failures.” It seemed that by now, Arthuria didn’t even remember the mentions about Amaterasu’s own rebirth, possibly as a human or so. The knight simply turned her back to the other, as she slowly sat down onto the ground in silence, staring down along the hill, seeing how the white spread across the landscape. Why had she been brought here? What was her purpose here? The King of Knights could feel the ever lingering doubt gnawing at her confidence as she pondered those things.

As the woman sat there, she simply listened to Amaterasu continue with her questions, and the simple request of concealing her identity. Arthuria didn’t offer any response to it, simply acknowledging within her mind that she would from now on, call Amaterasu Shiranui instead. As it was currently, the knight dwelled within somewhere deep within her mind, in a dark place that she rarely even glanced towards. Yet then came the question, whether she would have another nickname, than Saber.. “We are not people. We’re servants to our Masters, simply tools for them to use and command according to their wish.” Her tone of voice was far from the original, calm and collected one, replaced with a voice full of grief and sorrow. Regret. “We exist only to obtain the Holy Grail.” she noted quietly, before falling back into silence.

The description that Akuma described a creature instead of a being, that it was not a name, slipped completely past her as she only phased in to respond to the question about her death. “I died centuries ago, during a time that my country was being torn asunder by civil unrest. Eventually, I was slain by one of my own knights, and with it, my country fell. As I was laying there, dying, I pledged my services as a Heroic Spirit, for a chance to gain the Holy Grail.. For a chance to change everything. To make it so I never became the King. And so, I became a Heroic Spirit.” she stated with distress in her voice. By now it was clear that this wasn’t exactly a topic the knight could in her current state handle in a reasonable manner, instead causing her immense grief and crashing her usually cold and collected appearance completely in one fell swoop.

Whilst Arthuria didn’t stand up, she listened to the other’s story with some level of intrigue, wishing to know what exactly was this God here for, or why was the place like this.. “Hmn.. This place changes to things that represent you, then.” the knight muttered, slowly trying to force herself from the mess she was, back into her calm and collected shelf. After all, this was not how a knight should act.. “I would..appreciate that.. the story seems intriguing.” she stated as she tried to force her voice back into composure, yet failing at her task rather miserably, simply lowering her head into her knees. “I apologise for my rudeness, Shiranui.” she simply stated, closing her eyes. They would leave soon, Saber promised herself, as she attempted to pull herself out of the dark depths that her past had dragged her into, and that didn’t want to let her escape back into her own self once more.. The burden that weighed upon her like an anchor, which would only be relieved if she would be able to rescue her people, to stop the downfall of her country. To make it so, that it would’ve never happened.

Author’s note: This was rather interesting to write, considering I had to think of all the interactions, where Arthuria wouldn’t participate like she usually would, and instead have her mm… in a more human state, in one that someone actually had emotions, which is unlike from Arthuria, whom suppresses her emotions.