Fate/Broken Tree 1 (Patreon)

Fate/Broken Tree - or ‘When Mediocrity, mixed with Meta Knowledge and Determination, leads to Greatness’ (Fate/Apocrypha, Caules!SI)

Being born in mediocrity can be, indeed, a tragedy in the world of magic.

It’s not as uncommon as many would like for it to be in the Nasuverse, but my circumstances in this second life keeps me stuck in a rather bad spot: the Forvedge family is one known for its declining potential for a while.

When my older sister, Fiore, was born, many were singing praise at the excellent magic circuits she was born with. Father and mother would have made her their only child and heiress to the family but… Well, someone botched stuff at her birth.

I am quite unsure, both in lore-related business and current knowledge what and who fucked up, but the truth remains one and the same- Fiore was born without the means to move her legs.

She was stuck in a wheelchair, and thus that burned away a chance.

Now, had my new parents been normal humans, I would have seen them burn away their riches through lottery tickets. After all, what sort of idiot just gets a new child just a year later and expects them to have the same unique rare magic circuits my sister was blessed with?

My parents. Yes, I know a rhetorical question dictates a rhetorical answer. But one can never be too sure nowadays with the kind of people in Clocktower. So, I was reborn in the body of Caules Forvedge, and, despite a tumultuous start in my education, I was glad that I could actually rely on Fiore.

I don’t know why this time around Fiore helped her ‘beloved little brother’, but I have a good feeling that it had to do with the kind of approach the original Caules had with his sister.

I didn’t do much beyond being a restrained but still playful and kind sibling around the girl. She was so upset that she couldn’t do many things I could, but as I started to train my body enough to hold her, I managed to give Fiore something to look forward to.

The various trips in the garden would previously irritate her as the beautiful scenery saw her restrained from enjoying it. Thus, as I started to carry her on my back and run around despite our parents lamenting on how ‘unbecoming’ of a behavior it was… Well, she loved it.

She loved it so much that she kind of sent a few snot-nosed pricks from our classes to be healed after trying to do shit with me. I would have easily dealt with the bunch of morons myself, but she wanted to ‘raise a point’.

Luckily for us both, no one learned the truth. After all, the pricks were from upper families, and they would have been shamed to spread about how their kids got ‘outmagicked’ by a girl in a wheelchair.

As we both reached 16 and 15 respectively, our life situation changed entirely as our parents took us to talk and mentioned some ‘difficult plans’ they would soon enact in regard to our family’s ‘better future’.

My sister, at this point rather experienced with the family’s magecraft, was not sure what this meant considering that politics wasn’t her thing, while I found this to be a confirmation of something I had already known for a while.

I was not in the ‘original’ Fate timeline, but in the Apocrypha one. Thus, I was not to be left a side character with my sister, but claimed by the main antagonistic group that was going to cause a storm in Romania. The Great Holy Grail War was upon us- three years from now, and this meant many shifts to my current lifestyle.

After all, I didn’t exactly keep the same route the original Caules took.

Not only in terms of my family, but also in terms of social connection. I still undertook education to foster my skills in Electronic Magecraft, focusing on trying to master it to a level close enough to Dr. Heartless’ brand of understanding of such a topic. And as I was deep in my studies, a relationship blossomed.

Such was the main topic broached by Fiore as we snuck in her room and I helped her remove her socks and shoes, so she could rest on her bed. Our parents told us the ‘plan’, we both ‘wholeheartedly accepted it’, we also decided to talk shit about it away from their ears, and now we were contemplating the ‘juiciest’ trouble for me to face.

“Have you told your fiance that we will leave for a long time?”

The question stirred my lips as I kept my gaze aimed at the task at hand, freeing one of her feet and carefully using a towel to dry the sweat.

“I have told her that our parents may have gone insane, are planning to betray the association and we are tagging along to see the dumpster fire.”

I have to be honest here and come out to the public- I may have a most salacious and depraved relationship with a classmate. The fiance that Fiore was talking about was someone that she didn’t expect ‘someone like me’ to accept as a girlfriend.

Truth be told, I wouldn’t have ever envisioned getting together with Yvette Lehrman considering the brand of insanity she carries and the fact she could be such a brat when needed.

But… she got me pissed off one too many times once, and due to puberty being a bitch I may have taken things a bit ‘too far’ in the act ‘correcting her’. Taking her to her room after a steamy kiss to prove that ‘I was going to show her I was a man’, she pretty much hurled herself at me at the chance of getting fucked.

I knew she was a bit of an attention-seeking whore, but I think I put a leash on her as I claimed her v-card that day. The ensuing ‘dates’ further cemented who was boss despite her tendency to jump my pants when she felt ‘too lonely’.

The good news in that development was that she was keeping herself on birth control for the time being and that her craving for drama had severely diminished while we were dealing with classes.

The bad news was that I knew I had coerced a closeted perv to become my willing cocksleeve due to how nympho she behaved toward me. The fact that everyone just ‘cheered her to go on’ as they thought she was just being a romantic girl actually made her quite ruthless in bed. A good dicking would fix it, but she could be so… so intense.

At least I can keep her at bay with the sex toy I got her. She is just endless at times…

The brunette groaned at the ruthless summary, but she nodded in agreement. “The Grail does indeed bear a degree of trickery that I am not that pleased with. Then again, they took a stupid gamble by trying to birth you a better heir than me.”

In the original timeline of Apocrypha, that would have been a jab at me, but I could tell it was aimed at someone else. I was just caught in the crossfire due to that fuckery.

“Their loss,” I hummed, as I finished with the chore and rested beside her. “So, what’s your plan?”

Fiore blinked at the ceiling. “My plan? Don’t you have one for the both of us?”

“Sister, we are together in this. I wouldn’t deny you your right to offer your opinion.”

Nodding at my words and then smiling, the girl glanced at me. “How about we just sabotage this mess to make our claims of having been ‘brainwashed’ more believable.”

“That’s a good way to start, but to understand the first week is to study the situation.”

The girl nodded in agreement. “Then we attack the most troublesome. Not the strongest-”

“The one that could be the most meddlesome in the long-run, yes.”

“Caul, don’t interrupt me,” She huffed and pouted. “Still, once we do that, then we have to get ourselves ready for the war… do you think we can beat them?”

“Obviously.”

“Caul, I mean it. I like it when you are cheering me but-” She bit her lip, pausing for a moment. “But I need a bitter pill. Can we make it alive?”

“Do you want to make it alive?” I asked back, making her scoff. “If you are not motivated yourself, then uncertainty will make you feel. Steel your resolve, prepare for setbacks and ‘enjoy the ride’ as the yanks say.”

The girl snorted, then leaned on my shoulder.

…

“Do you think New York is that good?”

That’s an odd turn for the conversation but I nodded. She had a lot to think about in regard to the Grail. While my sister was far smarter than her original self would have been, I knew Fiore was tempted by the Wishcraft. The idea of being given working legs was alluring, but the ramifications weighed heavily inside her mind.

Trifas was just going to be tedious…

And that’s ignoring the fact I have yet to see what Servant I could get as my Berserker…

—---------d-d-d-d—------

AN

Caules!SI may think he has everything under control, but he doesn’t know that his sister, as suspected, does have some plans on her own… in regard to him. Also, this happens three years before Fate Apocrypha proper. There will be a build up as Darnic isn’t exactly a ‘plan-rusher’ when it comes to big stuff like this affair.