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the-whims-of-fate · 6 years

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A Sunrise After 1001 Nights (Chapter 1)

Under normal circumstances, my confidence in my writing abilities (or lack thereof) would only really allow me to write Headcanon Posts and things like that. However, after reading a certain FilthyFateConfessions Post and some gushing in Discord over Servants who deserve the world and then some, I decided to begin writing this fanfic. As such, I thought it’d be appropriate to at least release one chapter considering what day it is. If you guys like it, hate it, or have any sort of comments to make, please send them in. In the meantime, enjoy :)

Once more, the blinding light of the Servant Summon faded. By now, you were somewhat used to it. You had summoned countless Servants throughout your time spent in Chaldea. However there was always that initial flash that caught you somewhat off guard.

Before the light faded completely, a voice called out to you, one that didn’t belong to any servant that had already occupied Chaldea.

“My name is Scheherazade.” A figure emerged from the blinding light, a rather skimpy white and blue outfit clung to her richly toned skin, while a staff with a lantern at the head was held in one hand and a sealed scroll in the other. Her words were oddly clear through the veil that covered the majority of her face. “If you but listen to my one wish, I shall serve you forever as though you were my king”.

In that moment, you were taken aback by the sight before you many times over. “What’s going on?” “King? Hardly any of the other Servants were so forward initially?” “Why does her outfit cover so little? Should I grab her a blanket or something?” These were only a few of the many questions that had begun bouncing around your head after an alarmingly short amount of time.

“You are my master, correct?”

The soft voice of the newly summoned Servant cut off your already derailed train of thought. After taking a moment to correct yourself, you addressed her, thanking the Throne of Heroes that the veil made it easier to maintain eye contact. “Yeah. Sorry about that. My name is Gudao.” Quickly taking note of the politeness in her speech, you extended your hand in greeting, attempting to follow suit. “It’s very nice to meet you.”

She hesitated initially, but after what you could only guess was her having realized the genuineness of your greeting, she returned the gesture. Immediately you could feel the warm sensation that her touch provided, yet at the same time you could feel an ever so slight trembling. “Is she afraid?” The thought had briefly crossed your mind before you realized that the handshake had begun to last slightly longer than many would probably be comfortable with.

“Anyway,” you began, finally breaking the handshake, “There’s no real need to be very formal here. I’ll explain why during the tour.”

“Tour?” Her voice conveying any confusion that her veil attempted to hide.

You nodded as you opened the door of the Summoning Room. With the mindset that it would be easier to show rather than tell, you led her into the halls of Chaldea.

To say that Scheherazade was caught off guard by all the Servants they passed was an understatement, not that this was very surprising. Chaldea was likely the first instance where more than 7 Servants were summoned at once outside of the fourteen that took part in The Great Holy Grail War, yet she had been greeted by at least that many Servants within the first ten minutes of the tour. Thankfully, she was largely welcomed with open arms by the initial greeting party of Jeanne, Marie, Nitocris, and several others. Blackbeard almost got a word in, but found himself on the receiving end of a boot to the rear from Drake before any sort of comment was made, which you made a mental note to thank her for later.

Eventually, the crowd dissipated. It was nice to see so many people welcome the Caster with such enthusiasm. Yet, despite all of that, you couldn’t help but notice the traces of discomfort that her veil failed to hide. “I take it it’s a lot to process at once, huh?”

“Yes,” Scheherazade admitted. “I’m used to seeing other Servants as enemies, but… Never did I expect them to be so welcoming of me.”

“That makes sense,” you replied. “While I admit that there are a lot of Servants here, I feel like this place has become more of a community than anything else. Granted, we have our occasional disputes from time to time, but largely everyone gets along just fine.”

The storyteller nodded. You weren’t sure how effective your words were at easing her discomfort, but you could see that at least some of the worry had departed from her expression. “Everything at its own pace, I guess.”

By now you had given everyone a rough tour of the facility, so your explanations had become somewhat streamlined over the time spent here, so with the gaps of time between rooms you decided to ask the Caster about something that had begun to nag at you since the summon.

“If you don’t mind my asking, you said you had a wish that you wanted granted. Is there by chance anything I can do to help or is this something for the Holy Grail to fulfill?”

Immediately her expression, or what you could see of it given the veil, changed from that of curiosity for the situation that she was brought into, to what you could only describe as a sense of eagerness. Like she just remembered an extremely vital piece of information. “Indeed. While I’m unsure if the Grail will be necessary for it given the circumstances, my only wish is that I may live.”

“As in reincarnation? Because while you’re certainly able to maintain your physical form for however long you want while you’re here, I’d probably need to use a Grail to fully reincarnate you.”

“Not necessarily,” she replied. “I am the author of what you may know as the One Thousand and One Nights. While the stories themselves have gained enough fame for me to become a Servant, I originally wrote them as a means to save myself and my sister from our king. And so, my only wish is that my life would be spared.”

Immediately you paused. There you stood, in the middle of the hall with the realization of the potential wounds you opened up, and towards a newly summoned Servant no less. Scheherazade had only taken a couple steps before turning around, realizing that you had stopped.

“I’m really sorry,” you blurted out. “I should be used to talking to Servants by now, but here I am asking about things I have no right to pry into.”

Your eyes had closed as though to anticipate anything from hurt or anger in her reply, but a warm hand on your shoulder prompted you to open them. The storyteller was standing before you, the veil on her face faintly outlining a smile. “Do not worry. You’re my master. It is only fair to want to know more about me, even if the details aren’t very cheerful.”

Her words sent waves of reassurance through you, as if to replace any sort of lingering guilt within you. “Alright. Let’s continue then. The only two places that should be left are the newly appointed ‘Media Room’, aka ‘Doctor Romani’s Netflix Hideaway’, and my own room.”

Not even thirty feet away from the Media Room, a booming voice erupted from within. “Come now, Goldy!!! Why must you be such a poor sport?!?”

“As I have told you before, the matter lies in that your controller has a much different arrangement than my own. As such, it can hardly be called a fair competition with you using that hulking thing in your lap to control your character while I am forced to use a common remote.”

Hearing the two Servant’s bicker in the nearby room made it plainly obvious who was present within, but realizing the potential powderkeg that their unattended interactions tended to become, you quickened your pace. “I know I said he could use my console during his times off, but why did he have to play with Gilgamesh of all people?”

Sure enough, when you opened the door, there sat Iskandar and Gilgamesh, mid-argument, their forms silhouetted by the light of the TV Screen. “Geez you two. At the very least you could’ve turned on the lights” you interrupted, desperate to say something, anything, to momentarily distract them from their competitive streaks. As you flipped the switch, both the light in the room and the metaphorical light bulb above their heads lit up.

“Young Gudao!!!” the King of Conquerors exclaimed excitedly. “Join us. We just finished a match in this Street Fighter game that that Romani fellow recommended. Besides, Goldy doesn’t sound like he wants to play much more anyway.”

Gilgamesh scoffed. “This controller of mine has too many small buttons. Not only does this fool have a larger controller, but the buttons are arranged much more conveniently.”

“You don’t say,” you began, the sarcasm in your voice almost tangible. “Even in a closed room, the two of you have an uncanny ability to make your presences known. I’m just glad I got here before weapons were drawn...”

“Come now,” Iskandar reassured. “We would never have gone that far.” You could only shake your head at this, knowing full well that they definitely would have.

Keeping in mind that the two of these heroes could bring down the entirety of Chaldea if they fought, you decided that the best course of action would be to at least try to sort this out. With a somewhat exasperated sigh, you turned to the Archer. “Gilgamesh, you’re right that Iskandar’s controller makes the game easier for him, but look at him.” You gestured to his hulking frame and massive hands. “With his strength, he would crush a regular controller accidentally, and Waiver can vouch for me on that.”

The King of Heroes scoffed. He was pleased to hear that someone else agreed that he was right, but the fact that his master had also justified the actions of the other Servant left him feeling as though the words were empty. Meanwhile Iskandar let out a light chuckle at the last remark, likely thinking back to a situation similar to the one that you had just described.

“Here,” you began, taking the controller that Gilgamesh had set to the side. Immediately, you brought the game to the character select screen and put his cursor onto the Random Character Selection. “Both of you keep your characters set to ‘Random’. That way, no one knows the controls for or gets overly familiar with one character.”

“I suppose that works.”

“Very well. I can agree to those terms. By the way master. That woman by the doorway. How long does she intend to stay there?”

Turning around, you saw that Scheherazade had followed you to the room, but instead of entering, she had partially hidden herself, minus her head peeking out from the doorframe. “Um… Scheherazade? You can come in if you want.”

“Indeed!!! Please, join us!!!”

Hesitantly, Scheherazade moved out of her makeshift hiding spot and entered the room. However, after shuffling about three feet past the doorway, she stopped, her uneasiness clearly portrayed despite the veil.

“Actually, I just summoned her not too long ago and I thought I’d give her a small tour. Do you mind if we...”

“Ah, of course!!! Please, carry on. There will be plenty of time for games like these later. In the meantime, should you run into Waiver, ask if he’d stop by. We didn’t make much progress in our last game of Admirable Conquests and I was thinking it’d be good to make up for lost ground.”

“Hmph. Such is the way of the conqueror, I suppose,” Gilgamesh chuckled, his amusement in Iskandar’s behavior obvious.

“But of course!!!”

You nodded, offering a final wave as you exited the room. As you left, Scheherazade followed, her pace quickening. The last place left on the tour was your room, a fact that seemed to fill her with what you could only guess was relief. “Is everything okay? I understand not being comfortable around Gilgamesh. To be honest, none of us are a hundred percent comfortable around him, with the exception of Enkidu of course, but...”

“I’m sorry,” she began. “I should have told you earlier.” After taking a moment to fully compose herself, she continued. “Remember how I said that my stories were a means to save me and my sister? Well, I believe that has caused a warryness of kingly figures to be imprinted upon me as a Servant.”

Thinking about it now, that was probably the most likely explanation. Many Servants tend to hold closely to the behaviors portrayed in their legend, so something like that wouldn’t be too far fetched. Hoping to put her at ease to an extent, you began to put your thoughts to words. “If that’s the case, then maybe it’s just a matter of getting used to them, and even if it isn’t, there are plenty of non-kingly Servants here at Chaldea.”

Scheherazade nodded. You could tell, while not completely put at ease by your words, she at least saw the intention behind them. The rest of the walk was relatively quiet, with the exception of the occasional Servant stopping to greet them. When the two of you entered the empty dorm, the storyteller breathed what you could only guess was a sigh of relief.

“Note to self,” you began in a somewhat joking manner. “Find a way to make that tour either shorter or more interesting.”

“Oh, no. The tour was fine, Master,” Scheherazade began, her tone becoming increasingly apologetic. “It’s just that...” She paused for a moment, as though trying to find the right words. “Are you familiar with the saying ‘the right person for the right place’?”

You thought for a moment, then nodded, having heard similar phrases in the past and ultimately understanding this one’s meaning by comparison.

“Well… A warrior belongs on the battlefield. However, I believe that the bedside of my king, or in this case, the one to whom I am pledged is...”

In the resulting silence, you took a moment to think over her words, using all your willpower to avoid focusing on any sort of implications that may have arisen from her statement. “If you believe that this is the best place for you to be, then I can work with that. Bedivere was originally using the guest bed, but I don’t think he’d mind staying with the rest of the Knights of The Round Table. I do have a couple requests though.”

“Of course,” the Caster replied, taking a seat on the bed opposite of you. Her voice betrayed a hint of excitement at the news.

“The first request, I’m afraid, is somewhat non-negotiable,” you began. “I intended to bring this up during the tour, but I got understandably distracted. The thing is that all Servants are required to spend at least a bit of time on missions on the field. It’s something of a fairness measure in order to avoid favoritism.”

Scheherazade’s excitement began to shift into a look of worry, but you wouldn’t let it stay that way for long.

“However, given your circumstances, I will do everything in my power to make sure that you don’t have to lift so much as a finger. The “system” requires you to be present at these battles, but if I put together a suitable group to manage the combat, you can stay with me at the rear. We also have a system in place for strengthening Servants, so should that even prove to be not enough, you’ll be able to hold your own more effectively. Then once that’s done, you’ll never have to go on another mission for however long our contract binds us.”

The storyteller, while not completely reassured, visibly displayed an at least partial alleviation of her worry. “I am your Servant. As such, if you believe that this is the best course of action, and as long as you do not seek to kill me, then I will follow you… my king.”

That last part was just barely a whisper, but you could still grasp its meaning. However, you chose to put that thought to the side for the time being, as there was one more thing you wished to ask her.

“My second and final request should be a bit easier. While I have agreed that you can stay with me here, I don’t want you to isolate yourself. It doesn’t have to be much, but please spend some time out and about around Chaldea. Like I said earlier, this place has become more of a community than I think many would’ve thought it could, and I think you might grow to like it if you gave yourself the chance to.”

Scheherazade nodded. It was easy for her to see that this wasn’t a formality or a requirement for her. Rather, her master was looking out for her own well being. “Very well.”

Satisfied with her reply, you laid back in your bed. However, it wasn’t long before you realized that you had made a crucial error. “Oh crap!! I need to find Bedivere. I mean, I feel like he’d understand, but if he had come back before I explained the situation to him, I can only imagine how rude he would’ve thought all of this was.” You leapt from your bed to the door with surprising speed, but stopped just as quickly when you remembered your guest.

Before you could get a word out, Scheherazade spoke, as if anticipating your intentions. “Go ahead. I’d like to take a bit to better acclimate myself to this place, especially if I wish to stay here.” You wanted to argue with her, but you quickly remembered the rush you were in and left the Caster to her own devices.

With a moment of peace now hers, Scheherazade began to look through her scrolls to find a suitable story for her new master. As she did this, she offered a silent prayer in thanks to whatever deity was listening for her newfound circumstances and for her kind new Master.

Meanwhile, Ishtar, who just happened to be a couple rooms away at the time, let out a quiet sneeze.

#Fate series #Fate Grand Order #Scheherazade #A Sunrise After 1001 Nights #Admin's Crappy Writing

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