Chapter One - Spirits of the Past
Most mages have at least heard of the Holy Grail War. A battle that has been raging for over 200 years that culminates every 60 years or so in a monstrous conflict between seven legendary heroes and monster from history and all to true myths, each acting as a servant for separate masters, with only one survivor. These battles are fairly well known, but the under work behind these events often go unnoticed. The War of Twin Crowns, the True Cross War, in these sub-wars mages less powerful mages either volunteer or are selected at random and are also given famous heroes to assist them. Each of these are vital for the Holy Grail War to function, but the most important of them all is the War of Destinies. Ten years before every Grail War there is a smaller battle is waged, one designed solely to provide power to the Spear of Destiny. Once activated it pierces the barrier stopping the grail from normally entering our world and shines a small part of it onto whomever used it. What this means we don't know … but we are all willing to die to find out.
...
"Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Let this chalice be filled to overflowing five times before breaking away." The young girl sang out in a mad eyed dance, the already full plastic cup in her hand dripping all over her as she continued to pour pigs blood into it. "Let this iron mix with mine and create your shape. Let this earth mix with us to create your shell. Let this voice mix with us to give you breath again. Let it be declared now; your shape shall server me, your shell shall crush the ground before you, and your breath shall command the world. Our fates knot into one and become the spear to lead our charge. Submit to the beckoning of the Spear of Destiny."
The girl tipped the blood from the cup onto her head.
"Answer if you shall submit to my will as it is true. Swear an oath on my body as an alter to your form; and bring forth the true abyss of heavens light. From the seven heavens I call to you; my restraint, my protector, my holy balance, and let me call you SERVANT!"
The world went quiet for a moment before the loud hum of crickets began rising into the night air. Opening her eyes the girl looked around to see her servant … but there was no one.
"Crap." She swore to herself. "Did I mess it up again?"
Walking over to the nearby tree she knelt down to examine the small notebook she had propped open against it. Reading over the incantation again she scratched her head. Everything was right, she'd even remembered to pour it out over herself at the right time without missing a single line. So what went wrong?
Suddenly something glimmered past her right side. Stepping back her finger was already twinkling in the moon light as the sapphire gem it had become caught the tiny silver streaks. Looking down she saw that the glimmer had come from a small butterfly made out of a tin can that was hanging from the tree. In unexpected amazement she began reaching out towards the little tin insect trying to figure out where it had come from.
"I wouldn't touch it." Whispered a voice right next to her ear.
Jumping back in surprise and turning around as she did she found both her hip and right hand caught in an off kilter waltz and face to face with the source of her surprise. There he stood dressed like a cross between a stereotypical pirate and a belly dancer. His clothes had so many ruffles it was hard to see any movement he made and the bright yellows, oranges and black that covered him caused his entire attire to look stunningly intricate, yet painful on the eyes. His face looked vaguely Indian, and his immaculately cared for mustache had an almost comical appearance.
"Woah." He steadied in an accent that was so broad it was almost non-existent. "Don't want you falling back into the thing."
"Who are you and where did you come from?" She asked to the smiling stranger. "And what's wrong with that butterfly?"
"Hmmm," He pondered "Best answer those in reverse I think." Lifting her back to her feet he bent down and picked a stick off of the ground. Standing next to him the girl watched as he threw the stick at the metal art piece. It curved perfectly through the air and knocked into the butterfly. It happened faster than the eye could follow. As soon as the two met the wings of the butterfly snapped closed and sent the pair twirling as the stick cleanly snapped in two.
"It's a trap. If your finger or hair had gotten stuck between those wings you'd have lost your hand or most of your skull." Explained the man.
"Wait, what? Where did it come from?" She asked, bringing her sparkling finger up and ready to attack.
"Hmmm? If you keep piling on questions we'll be here forever. I made it as a way of showing off my skills." He smiled warmly at her as if he'd just shown her his grandma's classic cookie recipe. "And as for your original questions, you summoned me here to be your servant."
"No way!" She explained, a huge smile pulling across her face.
"That's right." He announced, puffing out his already puffed up chest. "I am your servant, summoned here to do battle with others like me in this War of Destinies. I am the servant of a thousand shadows, true name lost to history because it was never discovered in life, I am Assassin."
The combination of the frilly shirt and over the top introduction was almost all she could take. The girl farted out a laugh from the sides of her mouth as she did everything she could to calm down. Red faced, Assassin sat down where he stood and started playing with the grass as he waited for her to stop. She continued for a second before letting the last laugh out in a sigh.
"Woooh, okay so your Assassin then. So what's your name?"
Getting even more embarrassed the man looked away from her.
"Weren't you listen to what I just said? My true name wouldn't mean anything to you since no one ever found me out in real life. That's once of the key rules for qualifying for the Assassin class."
"Oh yeah, sorry that's my bad." She knocked herself on the head as she apologized.
"No need to worry. For now you can just call me Assassin or Edward, whichever you prefer."
"Edward huh? Sounds very pompous and English to me. What were you? A pirate against the British navy or something?" She asked, raking her brain for any famous pirates.
"I've never been to England. That's just the name the pope gave me after we met." He beaming and showing obvious pride in the story.
"Do you have any titles? Like King of Knights or something?"
"Information is valuable my little master, so I'll share my titles if you share yours first." He answered. A sudden hardness coming into his eyes as he spoke.
"I'm Mickey Gail." She replied, not liking his sudden shift in tone.
"In that case I'd be happy to share my titles with you." He smiled back to her, his sudden change in demeanour almost giving her whiplash. "I'm the Prince of the shifting kingdom, the twin with no brothers, and the first of my people." Bowing deeply he introduced himself properly "Price Edward of Little Egypt and first of the Romani, here to serve as you as best I can." He looked up and into her eyes revealing the set of glistening white teeth he held inside of a Cheshire cat like grin. "My little Princess."
…
Jynx was lying on the bed sized, apple green rug in her bedroom paging through the tattered journal she'd picked up the week before. It was old, starting in July of 1935, and was filled with symbols and magic incantations but the biggest chunk was taken up with one main summoning ritual. Interested she'd decided to try it out and now, poof, she was stuck with him.
"What's wrong. Are you angry with me again?" Asked a deep, reverberating, male voice from up on her bed.
"Dude, you've been here for six and half days and this is the fourth time." She answered back, a combination of exhaustion and annoyance in her voice.
The man behind the voice popped his head out from the bed. He was a giant, nearly eight feet tall, and his voice carried a very wavy drawl that went up and down in pitch as he spoke. He wore nothing except for a large animal skin clothe he wore like a cloak to keep his decency and the beautiful pattern of gold and white body paint that formed a stunning, flower like mosaic over his chest and legs. On the few parts of bare skin he had there was a bizarre effect. His skin looked like it had been burned charcoal black, with bits of flesh peeling back and made it look like he had scales or feathers.
Every time Jynx saw him up close like this she got embarrassed. He was pretty attractive and she'd never even had a boyfriend, let alone a guy in her bed before. Looking at herself in the mirror as she thought about her own appearance. She was twenty-six, with thick librarian glasses, from reading the literal wall of books she kept in the four bookshelves that dominated one side of the room, waist length black hair with blue tips, and a face that looked like it had never lost it's baby fat. She was wearing one of the sixty or so almost identical black dresses she had and the usual silver triquetra necklace that she wore low on the dresses neckline.
His voice suddenly jolted her back to reality.
"What do you expect me to do? Your gone all day for 'work' and you won't let me go hunting for my own food." He complained.
"You did that Thursday, remember? And you still ate EVERYTHING I'd bought for dinner!"
"At least you don't have to clean out the cupboard any more." He smiled, slinking back into the bed.
"Oh no you don't." Jynx warned as she stood up and started pulling him out of bed. As she did she felt her hands empty as the man disappeared. "Oh now you change back into spirit form. Gods dammit Berserker you don't even need to eat!"
"But I hunted down and caught that food myself, so it would be disrespectful not to eat it." He whispered back to her telepathically.
"You hunted it out of my fridge after I'd gone and gotten it from the store myself!" She shouted out at the nothing around her, suddenly thankful that her house mates had a shift at work tonight.
"Stop worrying about it master. We've got bigger things to worry about."
"Really dude, like what?" She rolled her eyes at his obvious attempt at changing the topic.
"Just that we only have two more days to get ready for the six homicidal legendary heroes that are coming to murder us both." He answered non-nonchalantly.
"Well I'm not a mage, so what do you expect me to do? Ask them really nicely to go away?" Her response was sarcastic but she honestly wasn't sure what she was going to do. She had a huge disadvantage in the fact that she couldn't even pretend to cast a spell if she wanted to, when her opponents should all be able to shoot out fireballs and lightning bolts. She'd even tried buying a gun but she still had another twenty-two days till the licenses waiting period was over.
"Don't worry about it. You've got the strongest servant in this war, none of the others stand a chance." His smile was infectious and Jynx couldn't help but smile with him. "Now come on, lets go out for dinner."
"Are you paying?" She asked skeptically.
"So long as you don't mind fish."
"Dude, that's my favourite." She cheered him on.
"Then you'll love catching it with me." He answered, already out of the room before Jynx could answer. She slumped her shoulders as she walked over to slip on her Ugg Boots.
"I hate you Berserker."
…
"How are you progressing, Caster?" Asked the man's voice.
"It will take another four vassals to complete. Estimated time after that is five days." Answered a robotic woman's voice.
"I'll be back with the women before morning."
"I shall begin the preparations."
…
"You need to get better control your servant."
Austin kept his head bowed as his sister continued to reprimand him. Rachael was an awful creature, having sold her soul off years ago in exchange for an amazing amount of magical power. Now she was less of a person and more of a snarling dog, and he hated her. Realizing that she had stopped he chanced a glance up at her. Her lidless purple eyes met his and carried a sever threat.
"He is difficult," He ventured to say. When no punishment came he grew brave enough to continue. "I'm kind surprised that he didn't appear as a Berserker actually."
This time the hits came quickly. A hand that was as hard and cold as stone struck him across the cheek and knocked him off of his feet. Looking back up at Rachael he tried searching for answers on her frozen expression of disgust. Her eyes bored down on him, cutting through every part of himself wanted respect and replaced them with fear.
"You were the one so useless that you summoned him improperly." She hissed at him as a heeled foot began stabbing into his stomach. "You had to say five extra lines to summon him as Berserker but you screwed it up. Now we're left with a mad king that's as likely to attack us as our enemies."
The rain off kicks began, one after another hitting him just hard enough to draw blood.
"I'm sorry sister, but we have not lost yet." Austin cried out as the taste of blood started to tingle in his mouth. The kicks paused. Uncurling from his fetal position he looked up towards his sister. "He is insane but we can use that to our advantage. With your magic we'll be able to ..." His words cut out abruptly as the lashing unexpectedly continued. The first kick hitting him square in the stomach and forcing him to cough up a small amount of blood.
"You presume to use my powers! You insolent, insignificant, indignant, insect! I should have been the one chosen by the spear to begin with, but your disgusting form won out instead? USELESS!" A final kick hit Austin directly on the temple. The world went out of focus as he heard Rachael begin walking away. He heard her stop as she was about to exit the candle lit prison cell. "Use Lancer to leave this cell. If you can display at least the minimum of control over him I will consider providing him with some of magical energy."
Austin could help himself from laughing.
"Yes sister, Lancer and I will escape this stupid cement box and rejoin you on the outside."
"Good" She replied "Because I will be visiting again tomorrow, and if you're still her I'll kill you and take command of him myself." Without another word to him she signaled to the guard outside of the cell to open up.
With the roll of the door and the slowly quieting tap of shoes Austin was alone again. The wind came in from the window and gently extinguished the candle. Laying down in the darkest corner he could he wondered how he would escape.
"Do we make our leave tonight, unwashed child." Rang a familiar giggling voice.
"That's right King Kong."
Before the words had left his lips a small spear sang through the air and embedded itself into the wall an inch way from Austin's mouth. This he didn't flinch at.
"To imply my rank is worth anything below the King of all men is inexcusable! I must seek retribution!"
The form of a small man began materializing inside of the cell. No taller than the average woman his hair fell down in long, brown dreadlocks that reached his knees, matted, red cape and stained, white tunic hide the man's noble status. The only indication of his place was the simple, golden circlet he wore upon his head denoting him as a king. The moment the man appeared he doubled over in pain and held his head.
"Grrrrahhh!" He shouted out in frustration as he began banging his head into cell wall.
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.
The head splitting blows continued. One after the other shaking the entire cell.
"I apologize my King of men." Austin recited, barely even conscious of the words. As if a switch had been flipped in the man's brain he stopped and looked over to Austin.
"My thanks for your loyalty my subject. What request would you ask of your king this day?" His attitude seemed to have reversed. From openly hostile to warmly cordial in a matter of moments.
"King you have killed your hundreds of thousands so I ask you know, so this task should be so simple it were a triviality for one such as you."
"I shall judge that mineself."
"Please my king, help me escape from this disgusting building so that we can find you a throne worthy of your status."
"Is that all you wish from your Master my slave?" Lancer asked nodding Austin as he began thinking through what he should do next. "Very well. I shall free you from these bindings in exchange for a simple price after we have made our leave." Lancers eyes narrowed as he studied his master.
"Any price is a small one if it is what you want my lord." Austin replied, trying as hard as he could to hide his anger. No one can demand anything from him and get away with it. Not his sister, not his father, not some mad king from centuries past, but he was happy enough with following orders for me. He had all the time he needed to pay all of them back, he just had to wait a little longer, just until he can be touched by the pure light of heaven.