#to di thuy and ong ngoai - i still love you both lots too

[writer-and-artist27]

[Image Description: Four screenshots from Fate/Grand Order showing in order, (1) the Bond Level Up screen for Lancer Ereshkigal, where her Bond Level has gone up from 9 to 10; (2) the “Craft Essence Extracted” screen that shows Ereshkigal's Max Bond Craft Essence of “Flowers Blooming in the Underworld”; (3) a screenshot of Ereshkigal’s Servant card, with emphasis on all 10 of her bond diamonds in the level screen being filled and about to be enhanced to Bond 11; and (4) a “Bond Level Limit Released” screen that shows Ereshkigal’s Bond Level limit being broken to reach Level 11. End Description.]

Back on Christmas Eve 2019, Ereshkigal surprised me on a single ticket pull. I was still a new player back then, barely having any 5 star Servants, so for my first 5 star Lancer to be Ere-chan...

Well. There's a lot I'm grateful to her for. For holding me up through Camelot and so on. Getting me through Part 1.5. Letting me bond with her when things could be scary and downright mind-breaking in Part 2.

Thankie, Ere-chan. Thankie for staying.

This story is for you. Song and all.

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Ereshkigal could hardly remember a moment before her time as Vy's Servant where she could feel the sunlight. For all of her life as the Queen of Kur, the ruler of the Underworld, she had only seen souls and darkness.

So many cages made, so many dead to house for eternal rest.

So many who couldn't talk to her. Even with her authority as the Goddess of the Underworld, Irkalla.

It was her duty, of course. Watching over the dead. Being lonely was a mere byproduct she couldn't complain about.

It was why it was so out of place and unexpected to witness the flower she knew as Vy summon her to the original Chaldea three years ago, surprised tears in her eyes and hands clasped in front of her chest. Ereshkigal knew from those teary brown eyes behind her glasses that this Master was different from the other humans. Was it the brightness of her soul that made the sun feel pale in spite of its warmth? Or the faint sensation that she was a little lonely too, just like her? In spite of all the company she kept and the warm smile she kept painting onto her face, whether naturally or by force? What was it really? Ereshkigal was still unsure as to what compelled her to answer the girl's call in the end.

The flower of her Command Seals — the lotus flower that kept them together — seemed all the more dim in the face of how much respect and kindness the little mousy Chaldean Master kept giving.

It was odd enough seeing the Caster version of Uruk's own Gilgamesh demure in the face of Vy pouting and firmly telling him "no" when it came to berating with his younger child form, but to see even Ishtar — her own sister Inanna — grow affectionate towards the young Master was a different kind of sensation.

It was only with the advent of Ashtart's kidnapping that Ereshkigal decided.

Chaldea could only be warm when Vy was in it.

Not even the bright rainbow flame of a Bond Chalice meant much in the face of the red lotus petals on the back of Vy's left hand as she offered it to Ereshkigal with the same smile.

The calm of her vessel's heart was immediately disrupted at the sight of the thing, skipping some as Ereshkigal raked her eyes over Vy's figure. For a moment, she could have sworn there was a slightly taller, somewhat plumper dark-haired woman behind the Chaldean Master, giggling and wrapping her arms around the younger woman from behind, but a blink had her disappear as quickly as Ereshkigal noticed through her vessel's eyes.

Could that have been—?

Vy's precious family was still wandering the world somewhere after the Foreign God's Bleaching. Whether dead or in a state of half-being, half-living, no one in the Wandering Sea was truly sure. The entire state of Proper Human History itself was in peril, after all.

But Vy murmured sometimes. Saying, "cảm ơn, Dí Thúy,"* and "Bé Vy con thương Ông Ngoại,"** when she thought Mash and the others weren't looking.

Only Ereshkigal and some others could really see the transparent hands patting Vy's head when the lights were out. Pale lips pressing kisses to the girl's hair when she was asleep in time to the occasional tapping of a Buddhist gong. Irkalla had a feeling not even that Egyptian pharaoh Nitocris could talk to them, though. And if she was right about who was there, especially with the Holy Grails augmenting her powers—

"Ere-chan?"

Irkalla startled. Vy, her little grape — no, her flower — was blinking owlishly at her again, her hands gloriously warm against Ereshkigal's own cold ones as she reached over to take them in her grasp, squeezing the bright gold Bond Chalice between them. "Are you okay, Ere-chan?"

This time, the goddess could clearly see the faint outline of the woman from before, standing behind Vy with a soft smile, and Irkalla nodded. "That is my line, my flower."

Do not worry, Thúy Duong. Ereshkigal thought to herself, reaching over to pull the Chaldean Master into a tight hug before she could say anything else. Your baby girl of a niece will be safe within Chaldea and my Kur. I swear upon it — she won't join you that quickly.

The woman standing behind Vy smiled brighter and with a mouthed "Thank you", turned back into the heart shape that made up her soul as she flew back to what laid beyond Irkalla's Underworld to join her father waiting there.

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*Cảm ơn, Dí Thúy = Thank you, Aunt Thúy

**Bé Vy con thương Ông Ngoại = Baby Vy still loves Grandpa