Chapter Two: Phantom Servant
At the sight in front of him, Danny took two steps back and regarded the small knight in front of him for a moment. It was hard to get a read on him, and Danny could feel something getting in the way of his magical senses. The sheer fact that such a thing was possible given how his magic worked was enough to prove that the knight was indeed a servant. Danny was also pretty confident he was smart enough to deduce who this knight was based on the fact he had some sort of identity concealing Noble Phantasm, surely that kind of thing was a dead giveaway. However, somehow he couldn't place which one it pointed to. Such was the power of that effect.
"I apologize." he looked at himself.
Danny had been too distracted by the relic to pay any mind to the state of his appearance and and walked into what hours earlier would have been a public place.
The knight grumbled a little, "I don't have anything on me to wipe it off. Oh well, if you don't have anything either I don't supposed it matters that much. Not like I'm going to be under inspection or anything."
"Again, apologies." Danny pulled out handkerchief and handed it over, "I wasn't expecting to summon a servant."
"Huh?" the knight took the cloth, wiping the blood off casually, "You summoned me by accident? Is that even a thing that can happen?"
"Apparently." the man looked inwardly for a moment and then tuned those same senses to the relic.
The fragments of memory he had been sifting through in the knight's era were gone, and Danny's magical crest had taken a hit. Thankfully, that probably meant he hadn't accidentally used the souls of the dead below as the hosts of that gathering hd meant to.
"Where even are we? Isn't the thing supposed to be in Japan?"
"We're in Ireland. Probably one of the furthest places on Earth from the Grail. Apparently the theories about it being to possible to summon a servant without the Grail using a strong enough relic and enough tribute are true."
"Wow. I was summoned by accident with no Grail then? I know next to nothing about magecraft; but even I know that's pretty insane." looking at the cloth, he passed it back, "Sorry about your handkerchief, but I don't suppose you'd have offered it if you cared about it."
The knight was only slightly startled when he saw that in the time he'd taken a look at the cloth his summoner had removed the blood from himself. The method was revealed when Danny took the cloth, sent some mana into it, and several runes appeared on it, and the blood was dealt with. It seemed all of the man's clothing were very minor mystic codes made to self-clean. The knight had been around plenty of magecraft, so such a minor thing was nothing impressive. Though he did deduce that the guy must get dirty a lot if he went to the trouble of getting clothes with that magic built into them. The knight pushed that aside for the moment and briefly noted the kind of place he was in. He then carefully rested the tip of his sword on the floor before placing his hands on the pommel, taking a formal stance.
The knight's shoulder armor shifted slightly as the horned helmet opened up, allowing the helmet to tun into several segments that slid down and became shoulder spikes. As this happened, wild blonde hair barely controlled by a ponytail was revealed, as was the equally wild, beautiful face of the knight. Who was a girl. One with a prideful, very slightly fanged smirk on her face.
"I am Mordred, Knight of the Round Table and proud second hound of King Arthur Pendragon."
Though it didn't show on her face, Mordred was slightly offended when Danny's expression did not change.
"Are you not surprised?"
The magus waved the idea aside, "Sorry. I am, it is just I'm not able to express emotion very well. I'm actually more than a little surprised that the Mordred of legend is a girl."
Mordred clenched her sword but didn't raise it, "I would prefer if you didn't refer to me as that."
"Why not? Is it the difference in gender bias between our eras?"
"My gender has been nothing but a pain my entire life, and yeah it's a bit of that."
Danny stroked his chin, "Fair enough..., but my nature compels me to want you to feel positive about your gender."
Mordred almost growled, "For Christ's sake I'm a knight I don't need one."
"And I won't play at being one. How about I agree that I won't treat you like a woman, but neither will I treat you as a man? I will just treat you as you with the only gender bias being the ones decency demands. I won't open doors for you, but I won't share a locker room with you either."
"Agreed."
"I reserve the right to buy you random, platonic presents though."
"Eh? I guess if you want to you can. If it's girly stuff though I'll smack you. I'm not interested in that kinda thing."
"Noted."
"Either way we're off topic. Even if you summoned me by accident, you are my summoner. Can I assume you seek the Grail as well?"
"Not especially."
"HUH?"
"If you are after the Grail I'm sorry to disappoint you, but there's no Grail War on as far as I know."
"That's... that's insane. I mean... you did summon me without a grail; but servants are meant to fight in a contest for the Grail! What point is there for me to even be here? The number one rule of servants is to not interfere in this era!"
"Well, I just got done stopping a cabal of magi from using a blood rite to summon a Knight of the Round to use in a war against the Mages' Association, and there are more sects of them. Is fighting to stop heroes of legend from being used for evil a good enough cause?"
"That blood on you was from people that were intending to use me to wage a war I'm not supposed to fight in? For some power play?"
"You or another Knight of the Round. They don't even have a good reason. I don't know about other sects for sure, but this one they are aligned with was just against the progressive movement in the Association. To put it simply, they were going to war for the sake of obsolete traditions that have been destroying magic for generations."
"What was their catalyst? I want to know how big a mistake they made."
"A chunk of the Round Table, apparently the place you sat at it."
"Mother fuckers. A piece of the Round Table could have gotten any of us. Even King Arthur!" Mordred slammed the point of her sword into the floor in frustration, "If you're being honest, you have my sword. The rest of them will have it too! Straight up their asses! Pieces of shit, putting that kind of shame on me is one thing; but trying to twist the Knights of the Round to fight for garbage like that!"
"Even without the Grail itself up for grabs? I don't know if they mean to force a full on Grail War or not, but the Grail itself shouldn't be charged up enough to grant wishes or host one. We can't expect a reward or any intervention from it, if it can even do that kind of thing."
"Kicking their asses is plenty reward. If they do figure out how to make the Grail into a winner's purse that'll just be a nice bonus. I'll do what the others couldn't and bring a Grail back to Arthur."
Though he face didn't reveal it, Danny was perplexed. Why was the traitor knight, the one that betrayed and killed King Arthur, talking about bringing the spoils of a Grail War back to her King? Come to think of it, she'd introduced herself as a loyal Knight of the Round Table would have. That and the memory fragment in the relic had been of Mordred admiring King Arthur with almost pious devotion. This summoning didn't make any sense. Mordred should not have bee recorded in the Throne of Heroes until her death after betraying Arthur. Yet he'd summoned a Mordred still loyal to her king? Then again, a Grail hadn't been involved...
Mordred suddenly whipped around, looking behind her at a balcony. There was only a flash of black cloth through a doorway to be seen, and the knight was immediately taken off her feet and carried over ten feet by a tackle from her master before she could pursue. A moment later, she heard a crash where they had been standing and looked back. An chandelier had fallen right where they had been standing. She wouldn't have been hurt at all by such a thing, but would have been open to a follow-up attack at least. She didn't know if Danny would have fared as well. The man had dragged the heavily armored knight out of the way and well across the room though, so he was clearly capable of some feats of strength.
She stood, and her master was up before she could help him up, "Thanks, Master."
"Just call me, Danny."
"We have to move. I sensed a servant right before that happened and I can barely still sense it. It's getting away."
"Careful."
"It had to rely on such pitiful trickery to attack, it's probably weak." Mordred started for the stairs.
"The thing is... this room didn't have a chandelier in it until now."
Mordred stopped partway up, "Huh?"
Earlier in the day at the cusp of evening, a beautiful woman of no older than twenty-five sat alone with her head in her hands in the dressing room of the opera house. Another casting gone awry, with her not getting a part in the upcoming performance. It wasn't a large ego that told her that she deserved better. It was simple fact. Danielle Crown was a fantastic singer by all accounts, with every review of her performances from other places being overwhelming positive. She'd never been in anything that failed to earn the equivalent of at least nine out of ten. Such was her skill that some reviews had gone so far as to claim she alone brought the score up six points.
So why hadn't she gotten a part since she relocated? It wasn't a mystery. Danielle had figured out why. The flowers sitting in the trash bin next to her and the note on the table soaked in her tears had been the giveaway. 'Thank you for last night' in the same handwriting as one of her long time secret admirers. There was no mistaken it as the same, because that secret admirer was closer to a more than just borderline stalker. The last night be thanked for? A huge mistake she'd made in drinking with her closet friend Marisa's fiancee. Who also happened to be the director's brother.
The stalker's notes about keeping her all to himself had taken on a whole new meaning that morning as she read that thank you. If the guy were slightly less possessive, Danielle would worry that he would use his position in a more dire way going forward, letting her get parts and threatening to reveal they had slept together if she didn't keep doing so. The stigma of 'sleeping with the director's brother for parts' would hurt her more than any mark on his reputation would hurt him. Even if she hadn't slept with him in the time missing out of her memory all he had to do was make the claim. Andel Marlow was untouchable.
"Why does this keep happening?"
This was the third time someone she'd slightly fancied had turned out to be a psychopath and the second to put her career in danger. Andel had been nothing but a gentleman, and by the measure of most was a decent man for a magus. He didn't even look down on her for being from a dead lineage of magi and had claimed to be holding off his arranged marriage to Marisa out of respect for the natural desire to marry for love. He was a good man... or so she'd thought before she'd gotten far too drunk that night. Maybe she just had terrible taste in men.
Danielle wiped her tears away and took a deep breath. Maybe like the other times-
"Dani are you in here?" a familiar voice at the door pulled Dani's attention to it as Marisa entered the room, "Oh, sweetie. You didn't get a part again? This doesn't make any sense! You're miles better than I am!"
"I-It happens."
Marisa walked over and embraced her friend, mistaking the reason for her tears. Dani was in pieces inside for another reason, as she knew she had to tell her friend what had happened. Not that Marisa was in love with the guy. Even though he'd claimed to have paused the proceedings to give her the chance to and apparently been just going through the motions with his overtures towards her, they hadn't really worked. Marisa had bragged about how much work he'd been putting in, but occasionaly spilled that she still didn't feel anything.
It had always made Dani feel bad about being happy about that. The truth of the matter was that while Dani had crushed a bit on Andel at first, it was just a passing thing. Long gone over the year and a half he'd been in their lives. The truth was... Dani had real feelings for Marisa since they'd met around eight years ago. Sadly, she'd never given any hints of reciprocated.
"Mari... I'm not crying about the part."
"Oh?" Marisa pulled away from the hug, "Is it the stalker again?"
The woman stood up and spotted the flowers in the usual trash can.
"The bastard. What creepy nonsense did he put in the note this time?"
"Mari... did Andel even tell you about the meet-up at the bar after the meeting?"
"The what? What are you talking about Andel?" Marisa was not a fool, and went for the note on the table before Dani could stop her, "This... is Andel's handwriting."
"And the stalker's."
"'Last night'?"
"I don't know... he said he invited you to the bar and you were running late. So we just started drinking without you."
"You slept... with my fiancee?"
"I don't know! I swear I didn't have enough to not remember..., but I dunno what happened after about hour in."
Marisa knelt in front of her friend... trusting her completely, "You think that he drugged you? I mean, if he's nutty enough to stalk you while getting ready to marry me who knows what lengths he'd go to."
"I don't know."
Dani fought back her tears, emboldened by her friend taking her side. In hindsight, she would later wonder why she was surprised. Even when things went horribly wrong in her life everything just seemed to work itself out, always into her favor. The previous two times she'd been harassed in a similar way the guy always met a horrible end. The last was killed by a billboard randomly falling on him for crying out loud.
Marisa grabbed her hands, "Listen. We can figure this out. That bastard's headed to some meeting in the basement with his magus club, but after he leaves that bounded field we can let him have it. I'm calling off the wedding and telling my family what he did. This won't stand."
"Thank god."
"Hell, my father might have him killed. You know how he is. If not, I'll have him killed. Nobody does that to my Dani."
Dani hugged her, "I'm so glad you believe me. I would never do anything to hurt you. Not on purpose."
"I know." Marisa hugged her back, "After this... I think I'm done trying to live up to what my father expects of me."
"What do you mean?"
Marisa pulled out of the embrace, "I mean... I've been living a lie."
Something in Dani tensed... something in her very being knew something was awry. There was something... not quite right in Marisa's eyes. Again... again everything was working out for her. Everything was twisting, even if it lead her through a horrible path it always ended up this way. With Dani getting everything she wanted.
Marisa fidgeted, but didn't blush as one normally would when confessing, "Dani, I'm in love with you."
"Marisa... you-"
"I know it's weird for two girls to love each other, but isn't it becoming more and more acceptable anyway? It's not that weird anymore. If you could maybe just... try it out?"
"Mari... I...," Dani was deeply torn, "I love you too. There's no trying it out. I've loved you for years."
Marisa practically tackled her, "Oh my god! I should have just said something years ago then! I could have saved you all this pain."
Marisa being so close made something stir inside Dani. Even though she'd been through a nightmare with Andel, part of the woman knew she could drown it away with the help of the woman she loved.
Almost on cue, Marisa's hug became more caressing, "You know... weren't you a virgin? We can figure out if he's just bluffing or not pretty easily. All we need to do is a little inspection. If you know what I mean."
Dani pushed her away gently, "I think that would be going too fast, don't you?"
Hands went up her thighs, Marisa's, "I don't think so."
As she fully realized what was happening, again, Dani wanted to stop. She knew something was wrong... that something had been wrong with her for years... that going through with this was no better than what Andel had pulled. She didn't need any inspection. Now that she knew her strange curse was in effect again Dani also knew she was still a virgin. Not because she remembered, but because that was how she wanted it and everything always went how she wanted it in the end. If she just rode this out she'd probably own the opera house by the morning or be the permanent star of the place. What was wrong with her? Why did these things keep happening like this?
She didn't stop though, and just let Marisa do what she wanted her to do with her hands.
"Oh, there we go..." Marisa beamed, "He didn't get his way! Now... now I can have mine."
It was then that Dani found her resolve, shoving her friend to the ground, "Stop!"
Unbeknownst to both of them, through sheer coincidence, Marisa hit the ground the same moment Andel Marlow's decapitated body did. In the next few moments, Dapper Danny would have completely massacred the entire summoning ritual in the basement, ruining it before it could begin.
"Dani?"
"I'm... I'm dealing with a sexual assault here you know?" Dani grasped at the totally logical way to defuse the screwy situation, "He nearly raped me for crying out loud. He was probably going to trick me into thinking we did sleep together so he could. I don't even remember how I escaped that situation last night!"
"Oh, Dani... I'm so sorry I don't know what came over me... I just wanted to make you forget that... I thought I could make you forget that."
"There's nothing I want more than to forget all of this!"
Something moving in the mirror caught Dani's attention... and it was then that she saw her reflection... no it wasn't her. It looked like her, but Danielle Crown herself wasn't wearing an elaborate dress or a long out of fashion hair-style. The woman in the mirror was like a version of her from the 1800s. And had an intricate rune resembling a rose split into three parts on the back of her hand.
Marisa didn't seem to notice, "You know what? To hell with his meeting! I'm going down there right now and telling him off in front of his little club!"
Dani was too entranced by the figure in the mirror to stop her and simply moved the hand that was marked in the reflection, which in tuner moved the reflection as if it really were her. When she looked at the actual hand, so did the reflection. However, it was only Dani that gasped at the sight onf the mark actually being on her hand.
The reflection raised her head as Marisa closed the door behind her and it spoke in Dani's voice. Literally her voice, as the words came out of her own mouth.
"Caster class servant, Catherine Daae. Are you my master?"
Next Chapter: A Night at the Opera
Author's Note: And there we have it. Sorry about the long delay. I fell and hurt my wrist the very day after I posted the prior chapter and after that got really busy at work. Ugh. Anyway, this chapter we've seen Mordred is actually summoned from before the incident that made her betray her king, so for anyone playing Fate Grand Order this is sort of like a "Mordred Lily" despite being pretty much the same age. Mordred before she became the villain of the legend. That has some implications for the future. Also, we see the appearance of a woman who practically has the same name as Danny and seems to have some sort of monkey's paw like curse on her? And she's unwittingly summoned the female protagonist of the Phantom of the Opera shortly before a Phantom-like servant attacks Danny and Mordred. What will happen in this clash of accidental masters with effectively identical names? Why do they have the same name? If Danielle summoned Catherine, who summoned the Phantom of the Opera who attacked our heroes? All this and more are to come!
