Chapter Text
Disclaimer: We do not own the characters nor the setting of Fate Grand Order and associated Nasu-verse materials.
Co-authors: Sythe and Erimies (I’m dragging you on another merry misadventure in FGO land, Erimies! Wahahahahaha!)
Premise: Ritsuka Fujimaru takes the place of Mash at Norwich and is sent into the distant past of a Lost World, where she meets a newborn insect and takes its hand. Thousands and thousands of years later in a much changed present, Chaldea comes upon a fairyland split in twain. One half the Court of Winter, led by Queen Morgan. One half the Court of Summer, the domain of the ancient king Oberon and his Summer Queen.
Alternative title: Family-man Oberon versus the Chaldean homewreckers!
Alternative title: Rebellious Terminal Device served with divorce paper proceeds to destroy the world!
Alternative title: Ritsuka Fujimaru enters LB6 as a human and exits as a fairy queen… with angry spouse and children in tow!
Alternative title: Fairy Britain is a-stirred with infidelity scandals of Summer King Oberon with a puny foreign-import human while Queen Titania is at home taking care of kids!
Prologue: Birth of Summer
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Once upon a time, in a land far far away, a wish is made upon a distant star.
In a forest shrouded in mist, a traveler from afar meets a newborn insect and takes its hand.
-[The Heretical Notes of Suil na Firrin of the Mirror Clan - On the Unspeakable Truths of the Summer Court - To be burned and excised from history at the order of Summer King]-
The Canon of the Summer Court tells that the King and Queen of Summer emerged one day from the Autumn Woods, hand in hand, resplendent with purpose.
This is a lie.
The King of Summer emerged blind and deaf and naked. His Queen found him in the mud of the nameless woods, and there lifted him from dirt.
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…
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?
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…You…
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Who are you?
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I hear you.
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Stop… There’s no need to yell so loud.
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I-I’m not sure what’s going on but… take my hand.
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It will be alright. I’ve got you.
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What are you asking? Who am I?
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I…
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I… I can’t remember. I can’t remember who I am.
…
But that’s not important. What’s more important is… you don’t look so good. We have to do something. Or you might actually…
…
I’ve got it!
Let silver and steel be the…
…Eh… what’s the next part? I… uh… I might have forgotten…
…?!
No! It will be alright! I’ve got you! I can make up something I’m sure! How does it go… uh…
…??!!!
Emm… let’s see. Hmm… what’s around here? I can do this. It’s supposed to be simple. I’m sure of it.
Let the… let night and day be the essence.
Let heaven and earth be the foundation.
…
What do you mean you don’t think that’s how it goes? I’m sure I got the gist right. Hey, mister I don’t even know what my name is. Let’s not be party-pooping downers, okay? I’m sure it will work!
…??!!!!
Let fall the summer night
Let sleep the fair child
Hold. Hold. Hold. Hold. Hold. Repeat five times.
From the rotted earth, rise, one who calls for me.
…!
My will shall anchor thy body.
And thy sword shall create my fate.
I hereby swear.
I will be all that is good in the eternal world.
I will be the one and final truth.
I will be the light in the dark.
I will be the guide to the land of eternity.
Where you will go, I will go. Where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people. And your fate, my fate.
If thou dost accede to this will and reason, then come forth and take my hand.
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What? Why am I doing this, you say?
…
I… I don’t know. I just… Aren’t you the one who called me here? You screamed… so loud.
…
No. I’m sure I heard it. In any case. I don’t know who I am. I don’t know where I am. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. I must have forgotten. But…
…
…But I think. No, I know! I know I must have lost… something… someone… in the woods. And… I don’t want to lose anyone again.
…
I’m being silly? Well, mayhaps. But does it matter?
…
Take my hand. It will be alright. I can help you. Let me help you. I promise. It will be alright.
Thus were the King and Queen of Summer born. Hand in hand, they emerged from the woods to be greeted by the simple fairies of the Autumn Woods. These fairies had never before seen such angelic visage and took one of them to be their most ancient fae Oberon, the King of Moonlight and of the fae folks. And if he was the most ancient Oberon, so then, it went to reason that the only one who could stand by his side would be his queen, his Summer Light, his Titania.
“Oberon, King Oberon,” chattered these simple fairies, thus unknowingly giving a name to a thing that had just been born from mud.
“Titania, Queen Titania,” they chattered on, these misguided, innocent, abandoned creatures, jubilant and joyous at finally having their own monarchs, and thus enforced an identity onto the girl who had freshly lost hers.
Such as was told in the Canon of the Summer Court. But the truth is no such thing.
What is the truth?
Once upon a time in a distant past, in the Fae Era, in a forest where the forsaken and the forgotten congregated, a traveler from the land beyond the sea wandered aimlessly. Not far from her, an abominable insect slithered free from the bosom of rotted earth.
The traveler had lost her memories and therefore her purpose.
The insect was newly reborn and fragile.
Had they missed one another, they would likely have eventually perished. Or perhaps she would have perished and it would have become a pitiful moth forever chasing a shining star out of its reach.
But they met.
The traveler, acting on pure instinct and the anguish of having freshly lost and regained and then lost a dear one again, reached out her hand to the insect. This one, she felt, this one needed her. The traveler, bereft of purpose, wanted to be needed and to need more than anything else at that moment.
The insect, spurred on by the fragility of its rebirth and the new knowledge it was cursed and blessed with - knowledge of love, of beauty, of joy, things that would normally otherwise be denied from it - took her hand.
And in doing so fastened an unbreakable, unspeakable bond between them.
Thus was the traveler given purpose. Thus was the insect given salvation.
As she lifted it up from the mud and together they stepped through the woods, the lowly fairies of the Autumn Woods gifted them with identities. Oberon and Titania. The King and Queen of Summer.
And that is the gospel truth.
End Prologue
Sythe’s notes:
- The illustration is one I commissioned an artist specifically for this story. Artist’s name: Bach Lien Hoa