chapter 8

Artoria was silent before holding out her hand and shook hands with Sirius. Sirius felt his palm. 'It's soft and yet rough. Good, can't be having a weak, lazy king now can I? How else would I get to do the research necessary for my memory recovery spell?'

"I am Artoria Pendragon, however I am Arthur Pendragon outside, squire to Sir Kay." Sirius nodded, noting for future reference. Then he left with her to the dining room where the whole family ate dinner and went of to bed afterwards.

Artoria, sitting in her bed, slowly started to lull of to dreamland where she knew she would meet a white hair womanizer.

…

When she looked around the dream she was in she found Merlin sitting in a meadow of flowers in full bloom. "You always come up with the most beautiful dreams your majesty...." Merlin mumbled off into the distance before turning to her.

"Merlin, about that apprentice of yours..."

"Sirius?"

"Yes, why does he feel so....odd?" She couldn't exactly pinpoint the feeling but every time she looked at him or talked to him she could feel this underlining feeling that something was...missing.

Merlin grinned widely at the comment. 'She can feel it. She can feel the hole that Sirius is in reality, though it has started be filled slowly.' Then calmed down and explained to Artoria what she was feeling. "Yes he is an anomaly in stream of fate. What you are feeling is someone outside of the 'story'."

Artoria was confused by some terms Merlin use but understood somewhat, that is she understood nothing as she wasn't a mage. Merlin then changed the subject. "I will be implanting the sword in a couple of days, your destiny begins the second you pull the sword from the stone, then you will be locked in to becoming king."

Artoria had been prepped all her fifteen years of life to pull the sword and end Vortigern's rein over Britain. Whether she liked it or not, she was to bring prosperity to the realm.

Merlin watched Artoria intently and sighed at the reality of it all. Thinking back to the anomaly that was his apprentice. 'He could pull the sword, he could become king. Though then I would run the risk of him losing against Vortigern....'

Merlin shook his head and decided to let fate take its course or in this case to see what kind of holes pop up in fate because of Sirius.

…

In the morning, back in the sparring ring stood Kay, Sirius, and Ector in training tunics. Kay and Sirius were swing normal wooden swords practicing forms and the occasional spar against one another. Only difference than yesterday was this time Sirius was getting his ass handed to him by Kay.

"Ugh..." Getting dropped for the tenth time that morning by someone you had beat just a day earlier really destroyed your confidence.

Ector shook his head. "I can see that you are a true hybrid blending magecraft and swordsmanship, however your swordsmanship is falling behind the magecraft. If you want to truly blend the two together than you must perfect both."

The Ector turned his head to Kay. "You should probably seek lessons from Sirius on his reinforcement, it will help you in your battles."

Kay looked at his father, surprised. "But I am no good at magic..."

This time it was laid down Sirius who shot his hand up into the air. "Magecraft is the art of bringing out the mysteries lost to the ages with science. Magic circuits have two basic functions, one is to convert ode and or mana into prana, another is to allow you to use Greater Magic Formulae. Normal reinforcement magic is something that does not require finesse and if mastered will probably bring you to greater heights as a knight."

Ector nodded and Kay relented so the rest of the day was Sirius teaching Kay how to reinforce his body with his magic circuits. However Kay came upon a problem early on. "Sirius how do you have so much mana? Every time I activate the spell my mana burns to nothing in like fifteen minutes...."

Sirius shook his head. "I don't have that much mana in fact you have more mana than me, I simply control the flow. Though it does help that the quality of my circuits is better than others, at least that is what Vivian and Merlin told me."

Soon Kay was able to use the spell well enough that he could build upon by himself. Tomorrow would be Sirius's turn for sword lessons, Sirius also asked if he could be taught how to use a staff by Ector. To which Ector agreed though he did ask Sirius why.

"My future Mystic Code I am building will be a staff the will empower the mysteries of my spells. I'll be using Arcane and few other materials to build it."

Kay gaped at that comment. Using a divine construct as building materiel for a Mystic Code is like saying that Sirius can build better artifacts than fairies. To which Sirius replied after this whole Vortigern business was over he would travel to Ireland to go to the Land Of Shadows to be taught by Scathatch.

Ector thought the plan was sound. Sirius could potentially get taught by a god slayer, pretty good if you could get accepted. This meant that while he was gone that Artoria would only have one advisor, but this was the original plan and when Sirius came back, he would be stronger than ever.

However Sirius wasn't worried. Scathatch, if the tales are true, will teach any one she finds worthy, and it may come off as arrogant on Sirius' part but he thought by that time he would be pretty damn worthy to learn under her.

The rest of the time spent until Merlin implanted the sword was spent training or helping out the towns folk. During this time, Kay became much stronger than before, with technique and strength having a big increase.

Sirius on the other hand had his sword technique refined so that he could be fluid when he switching between magecraft and swordsmanship, he also got a basic look into staffsmanship. Artoria was the same as Sirius in the regard that her sword technique went through a upheaval with Kay and Sirius' teachings, she didn't have to learn magic though as most of her mana would be going into the sword.

…

A couple of days later...

Towns folk were whispering to one another as a line formed in front of a stone with a sword stuck in it. Merlin had come yesterday and announced that who ever drew the sword would be king of Britain and the entire population of men in the town came over to get give it a try. knights from nearby villages came to give it a try. Even some Lords and Lady's from nearby provinces.

A trio of a knight in regular plate armor, a squire, and red robed mage/knight could be seen entering the village one morning. These three were Kay, Artoria, and Sirius and they had come to officially start this journey that they would embark upon to save Britain.

After hours of waiting, just before Artoria walked up to the stone Kay stopped her. "Are you sure? Are you sure you want this 'Arthur'?" His voice rose at the name and it made Artoria think.

She had been built, made, into a person fit for governing the realm. All her life she had been trained by Merlin in leadership, politics, and other governing duties that would assault her as king. Ector trained her in the art of the sword, training her, prepping her for her eventual confrontation with Vortigern, her treacherous uncle.

Then she looked around at all the surrounding towns folk.

"Sir Arthur is going to pull the sword? If he does then I'll be his queen!"

"humph! If such a feministic squire became king then the realm would further along into ruin! Not to mention he is not even a knight! Just a squire!"

"Mommy. Are we going to get a new king?"

"Yes sweetie we will get a new righteous king, that will bring Britain back to prosperity." The mother hugged her boy tightly in her arms.

Artoria watched all of this. If she became king she would become the peoples wall that braved the rain for them, they would be her responsibility and she would never get out of the position until she either died or passed it to her children early. She would become the one to kill everyone to protect everyone.

Either way she would not be getting out it serving the people for all her life. Sirius walked just before she was about to answer Kay. "The sword will make you something not human, ageless, as in you will not die by normal causes."

He stopped for a second then his face softened with a smile. "Arthur if you do this you will do this until either you die or you have a worthy heir. Either way make sure this is your choice, as I will be backing you all the way."

The short time spent with Kay and Artoria had really brought Sirius close with them. Artoria's eating habits and spontaneous air headedness made him laugh. Kay had a blunt realist personality and yet knew when to truly be there for people close to him.

Both were loyal friends and Sirius would treat them the same they had treated him. Artoria smiled at her brother and recently made friend. She was grateful to the two of them, but this is what she wanted.

She walked up to the sword and pulled it out without fanfare. Then golden light flooded the area making Artoria no longer human. The awes and whistles filled the town at the image of their new king.

Kay looked up solemnly and shook his head in disappointment. Sirius saw that but didn't say anything, he didn't have enough information on the situation to grasp what was wrong but soon.... soon he would.