fate/first order derivative

Part III.1

> continue: iteration 29, day 4, early night

"Good evening, Master of Saber." Caster appears in a flurry of purple butterflies. She floats above the courtyard of Ryuudo Temple, her cloak spread wide like a pair of bat wings. "How kind of you to respond to my summons at this late hour. I'll try not to take up too much of your time... or of your life.

"Nothing to say? That's a pity. I do enjoy it when my prey struggles. Now -- give up your Mana Circuits to me, and..."

She pauses and narrows her eyes. "... and you're not a Master, are you."

"Yeah, not so much." I sigh and drop the disguise gem. I'd told Rin there's no way I'd be able to pass myself off as Shirou for long. Still, I guess it at least got me through the front door. "Sorry."

> why are you apologizing

I'm Japanese. Apologizing is my default reaction to everything.

"Tsch." Caster sneers and crooks a finger. All at once, I'm wrapped up tight in a cocoon of invisible threads, my arms bound at my sides. Yeah. Kinda figured that's how she'd react.

"So, obviously, if you're here, the real Master must have spotted my little trap." She alights on the ground, her cloak folding in around her. "I imagine he and Saber must be on their way up here now. Probably with that little harridan and her Archer in tow."

"Something like that."

She growls and snaps her fingers. A squad of skeleton-looking things -- only with these big mouths like lampreys instead of skulls -- rise out of the ground. "Reinforce the main gate." They go tromping off.

She turns back to me. "And I doubt they told you anything about their offensive plans, since they assumed I would be capable of extracting that information from you."

"Bingo."

"Barely any mana or Magic Circuits to speak of." Caster glares at me like I'm something unpleasant she just scraped off her shoe. "What an insult. You're not even worth draining." A nasty-looking ring of glyphs materializes above her head, angled down straight at me.

"Hey, woah, wait! Wait!" I'd raise my hands, but... y'know. "I know how this looks, but believe it or not... they sent me ahead as a messenger."

She snorts. "Is that what they told you to make you come up here? I hate to break it to you, boy, but your masters must not put a very high value on your life."

"Okay, one, I prefer the term clients, thanks," I say. Though that doesn't really take the sting of truth out of her words. I still can't believe I let Rin talk me into this. "And two, I'm serious. They really do want to talk. Specifically, they want to know if you're open to the possibility of an alliance."

Caster pauses. The glowing circle of death vanishes. "... I'm listening."

"First things first." I wriggle a little inside of my invisible bonds. Dammit. Why would anyone make magic threads that chafe? "All the coma cases and mana draining going on down in the city. Is that you?"

"No, the life force of an entire population just happens to be flowing directly into my fortress." I can't see her eyes beneath the hood right now, but I get the distinct impression that she's rolling them. "What do you think?"

"Hey, I just wanted to confirm." I hesitate. "Could you... y'know... not do that?"

She looks at me and starts laughing.

I just kind of... hang there, awkwardly. Fuck. I hate it when this happens, you know? When I say something funny seriously and everyone starts laughing and I have no idea why. It seems to keep happening, too.