7
"We have no way of knowing at all whose going to, in this moment conjure... these people? Around the world?" The light blue-eyed woman asked, sitting on the third step of the staircase. Her sentence got cut as she was distracted by her Uncle Charles yelling, his long hair back in a low ponytail at the base of his neck.
"Do it Kei!" Charles wasn't sure what the hesistation was! "Get the mana flowin'! Let's go!"
"No. No tellin'." Owen whispered to her, his red hair the same as his her's, unlike his father's which was more a brownish, sitting close aside her; his left leg against her right.
He'd chosen to have her sit on the left of him. She wanted to stay in the room to watch, and they all agreed that she should, but the more seasoned ones were concerned since she'd just had her circuitry opened, that she should shield herself.
Owen decided to be the physical shield; sitting aside her to have someone to anchor herself on, but what the wizards in the room were more concerned about was her mana.
This experience would be a hell of an experience! For the first 'larger-scale' spells that she'd ever seen cast, this was coming into the world of magic with a bang.
Heather kept gulping, feeling a strange electricity fizzling under her skin, it was making her stomach queezy and her brain fuzz. It was the same feeling after she'd woken inside the guest house, uneven in step, like she'd just waded through the ocean and her equilibrium was upside-down, her body on a fishing boat.
It was how her body had become after waking from watching those blue glowing circuits running across the whole sky in her head, in her recurring dream. The Tohsaka lineage made everything not as black anymore, the magic alighted the trees around her, and even though they were still a deep gray, she was finally able to establish their forms rather than just feeling that rough bark and understanding as she ran and smashed into them blindly, that they were there.
So haphazard she'd run, and slam into their trunks; their thick branches, they would smack her down, full force, as they were solid and she, a mere rabbit in comparison to the oaks.
And the bog she kept running through? She finally got to recognize it as it was: A swamp. The lines in the sky reflected off the water around her ankles, legs coated thick in mud, but it was a foul smelling, decrepit, sometimes knees deep, watery area.
Aside, the night terror becoming alight for her more than she'd ever had, this was throwing her off as well; historical just in itself seeing a human being coming back to life from the dead! In a sense, this was necromancy!
The doctor that she was now had been taught all the truth in medicine that the world had to give. Studied book after book, test after test, held the human brain and heart preserved in her hands, was taught the lifespan and functionality of each part, down to such an exactness that she knew how long a body could go on without a single new pump of blood, the time limit of how long the body could operate after the mind shuts off.
So, out of pure curiosity, and the fact that she was trying her hardest to be as brave as she could be, Heather stayed clutched to Owen, knuckles white, lips dry. They'd mentioned this was something that maybe she'd only see a few more times in her lifetime, over the next month, then that would be it.
She was calling the baloney on this hours earlier, but now, as her other uncle and cousin appeared, as Kei had showed her water manipulation (the Casey magic), and opened a tackle box filled to the top-most edge with Mama Rin's gems?
None of this was fake.
Heather Casey shivered inside her own skin.
Somehow she felt now, she understood the lying Kei and her father did. She got why her father wanted to keep her away from this, and while it was chivalrious in Ebisu's attempt, as he probably just wanted her to have a normal life, she gathered with every fiber that without Keitaro burning the Tohsaka-Casey shield on her arm, the back pain, muscle soreness, inability to walk upright, her so out-of-it and weak that she plummeted to the floor, head and body crashing like a deadweight... those issues would of continued until she was as if she had a serious disease; it would of handicapped her. And because of this, and Kei's insight into this highly unknown otherworld he lived in, he saved her.
Kei saved her.
As her father had tried to 'save' her... he'd failed, without knowing he'd failed. But at the same time, she hadn't told him what was happening to her physically, being stubborn, wanting to call the Scot doctor first. She just didn't want to worry him if it was something she could solve on her own! He had enough worries with Pops aging and being sick, and his personal issue of a bad leg, having to use a cane!
So, what would come of this?
When she has to face her father?
When she has to tell him that his point of saving her was done, and now it was Kei, this once dark entity of a man, that had truly saved her from her own body? That she knew would be the one teaching her, training her.
It was as if she was first entering college again with her Uncle Kei and magic. He'd mentioned studies.
Studies.
She had already done so much of that in the real world, so had Kei himself.
What he'd done by burning that symbol on her arm, left with no pain, it could not do for her what any modern medical science, hospitalization, or drug could do. It cured her struggle in less than a few hours. It was miracle, a damn scary and frightful miracle, but one all in the same. She wondered if somehow she could learn and grow into the magical world and apply what she learned to modern medicine. Was that even possible?
She had so many internal questions to ask herself, because what would steps towards this mean? Into this world?
She'd asked David if she was honest, because sometimes she had to hear it for herself because she'd known her whole life lying and secrets were floating all around her, none of it being voiced by either of the twins; Ebisu and Keitaro kept their mouths clamped.
And David. Poor loving, kind David.
He was wrong about her grandmother's necklace. Not entirely wrong, but half-wrong.
Perhaps her father seen it as a keepsake, and so had she without knowing any better, but now knowing the history, knowing that her grandmother had had the gem shaved in half again to remake a necklace for Emiya?
As soon as the symbols started showing on the hand... how Kei then must of known the necklace was no longer a heirloom, the gravity of his understanding in the chance that it held to get Shirou Emiya up from the grave.
Everything rested on that crimson jewel swinging in Kei's right hand.
"Here take it!" Charles pushed and there was a wind inside the house.
Heather felt a snap of heat, her heart sped.
"Calm. It's okay." Owen hushed. "Dad is giving him a boost. Mana is matter you cannot physically see. But you can feel it right Heath?" He squeezed her hand as he held it.
She nodded, face white.
The conjugation spell was tricky (as the older two mages described), Kei looked weak on the ground by the chalk-drawn symbol. It started to glow red as his eyes were squeezed shut, focusing on the image in his head of Shirou Emiya.
No one wizard had ever perfected it, so difficult that little outlier nuances always occurred. Some were manageable that were physical the elders conveyed, such as the color of the heroic spirit's hair being incorrect, their armor being wrong (as in too modern, as the conjurer would have no idea what the armor of the hero actually looked like, completely unable to envision it, which meant that the servant would personally have to take some time getting used to whatever they appeared in, as it wasn't what they were accustomed to), even things such as height and age sometimes couldn't be controlled.
Heather gasped when she heard 'age'. Surely, The Grail, this intelligent item, would know better than to allow a spirit of a person who is dead, to come back alive to fight in it's war as a tiny boy or girl!
But Keitaro and Charles shook thier heads at her. That wasn't up to The Grail; that was up to them, as magicians, as mages, wizards, sages, warlocks; whatever people over the centuries wanted to call them.
Heather almost dropped the last of her caramel donut on the floor hearing that!
She swallowed on the staircase, she felt her cousin's hand lace tighter with hers as the pulsing of energy in the air was making her sick.
"It's a gamble." He was more firm in his words than her. "But, the hero has to accept as well." He didn't want to tell her that he'd never seen his father share that much mana with Kei before, that this was getting reckless.
"What?"
"Yea." Owen nodded. "If Kei can get it open, the portal will only last a short time, but the spirit can decline." He swallowed now in return. "I'm scared." He admitted to that at least. He wanted her to not feel alone in her fear, but he didn't want to alert her that perhaps the elders didn't quite know what they were doing.
"Because our odds are shit?" Heather seen him nod and look over, panting, she closed her eyes before doing the same. Breathed. "Me too."
He smiled the best he knew how at the back of her head worried for her as that red wavy hair whoosed around her face, his only the bangs. Surges unlike anything they'd ever felt before were coming from that circle. The way the electricity sizzled and crackled under the skin was an experience all on its own, aside from the sight they'd see.
It was Owen's first conjuration experience as well.
They both held each other close; it was almost like no time had passed since the last time they saw each other. Eight years hadn't felt like eight years at all. This trial in thier lives, bonded them in something unique: This war, watching this portal cut the space and time continuum to open a gate to the nether.
They'd looked at the symbols on each other's hands while they picked a place in the cottage to sit for the event, as Kei was getting down on his knees closest to the outer edge of the circle he'd drawn on the floor. He'd been sitting there for awhile, quiet, obviously concentrating, focusing his mind.
He'd explained that he wanted Emiya to be exactly how he remembered him when he was high school, sitting across the table, maybe up to 6 or 7 years past, but no more than that.
Heather Casey gathered that her half-Japanese uncle then, was shooting for an exact time in the spirit's life. A time when the body was in it's prime, adult. He was trying to not let an age limitation ruin chances at getting at The Grail. A younger Shirou meant more 'able', especially since this specific person died at old age, unlike many heroes who died younger due to leading reckless lives.
Undoubtedly, her uncle was taking on the largest burden for a hero conjuring that any mage could. A fully lived life, meant more mana. Charles was outside the circle with his arms spread out, ready to give him even more, if any extra if he needed it, he was panting and wheezing as if he was running a triathalon.
"Kei." He choked. "Do it damn it."
Owen looked at his wrist, as Heather turned it in her hands, eyes swirled in awe and fear, touching at, seeing if his was raised and bumpy, her doctoral roots coming out. It wasn't, it was flat like hers, much like a tattoo. He had a half infinity, an eight pointed star, and a goblet shaped symbol that went down his wrist. The stem of it long and swirled.
Heather had been told by Charles they were Command Seals. That each one was a 'hell or high water' call, where the heroic spirit would listen to it no matter what it was.
You only had three. Then, once you were out, you were out, and not just out as in out-out, you were out of the war as a mage, and unluckily for you, your heroic spirit, if it didn't bond with another wizard, then it lifted away like on swift wind, disappearing after a few days without a mana pump (a mage) to keep it in this present world.
Heather figured they could always make a pact with servant of someone else? Couldn't they do that to, other mage's could though? If they lost one?
Hooking to another mage.
That was something that scared her. So, Shirou Emiya could be stolen from them if Kei is stupid and uses all the seals. But, Charles had reititerated that he could be stolen from Kei in other ways. If a stronger mage got ahold of him with the intent of stealing heroic spirits, or if a heroic spirit was strong enough to steal another spirit (he mentioned the Caster class), then it would be over, but he doubted Shirou Emiya would let that happen. He was too intuitive.
That was just another gamble in this huge game of war that they were playing.
Three knight classes were to be summoned: Saber, Lancer and Archer, and four Calvary classes: Rider, Caster, Assassin, and Berserker.
But The Holy Grail was broken, Charles had said himself that more than 15 mages that he knew of, had symbols on them, what did that mean?
After 7 were summoned, the war then, would it begin? Or not?
These spirits would be fighting, and dying; dying all over again. Dying a physical, very human and very real death. Surely, the servant knew that upon acceptance of the deed, but that was another thing that bothered Heather.
As a medical professional, it was her duty and right to try to save people, to help them survive, to live, and soon she had a feeling she was going to be surrounded by nothing but death. These spirits after they died, would go back to the hellscape they're stuck on, to the place where they took their last breath for the first time.
No way did she want to control someone. That alone was too much for her to bare. The thought of telling someone what to do as an adult, commanding and ordering them around like cannon fodder, struck a chord. Her uncles had said they were 'servants', that word set a crunch to her lip, a shiver.
Even if they were dead, they were still people! They'd lived, they'd laughed, they'd danced and sang. They were children once, little boys and little girls!
"Keitaro Casey!" Charles wailed.
"Charles!" Heather suddenly yelled through the wind inside the cottage, trying to stand. Neither were sure how much they'd need to summon him! To open this! She was frightened and aghast, her uncle looked as if he'd fall.
"NO!" Owen lashed her back down.
"Le'GO!" She tried to push Owen back a little, concerned for her uncle's health. He looked weak! "Charles!"
She watched her Uncle Kei his arms out wide too; one hand with Mama Rin's necklace rapidly slamming around. Supposedly, what had to be said was nothing specific, but whatever it was it had to deeply harken on a the hero's specific moral code. Which was why mages who were chosen by The Grail, had to concentrate on what exactly they'd say, study on the hero they wanted to try for.
But 'try' was the main word. It could fail.
"Kei! Charles is goin' to pass out! DO IT NOW! HE CAN'T GIVE YOU ANYMORE!" Owen screamed for Heather, his thoughts aligning with her, worried for his father, but not wanting her to run across the ritual, unsure what that portal might do to the unsuspecting bystander. He was holding her by the waist.
Kei was the most perfect person to call upon Emiya. He'd been set, trying to find him out for years, to discover more of who he was.
No other mage would be able to capture this hero's inner essence than him, he'd written it down, gotten words to a science of what exactly the man would want to hear.
Kei began whispering, as silent as a person could get, nearly falling over himself. "I call to you; send my voice on air. A message in the wind, listen if you care. I know you; hero of many sword, friend of Rin, forever-more. A burden has came, we cannot grasp. Give us your hand, let the unlimited blades, hands clasp. I have the necklace which I know you share, come hither to this world, your advice we need here. Fight for me, in this war, be my shield, protect and seek the truth."
The circle on the floor shot up a wave of red light, much taller and brighter.
"It's... it's..." Owen's mouth dropped.
"You're death be it was uncouth, the noose around your neck. It choked you of your life, but now I give you chance to be reborn. Become the bone. Come and stand. Shirou Emiya, I ask you, as Keitaro Casey, resolve this blight."
Suddenly every single item that was out on a shelf in Kei's cottage got sucked to the floor like a tornado, some flower pots busted, shards of glass slammed into the walls, curtains ripped from their poles, a wooden chair split and swung it's remnants in a circular motion.
And in the center of the eye like a monsoon, out of the hardwood floor, as the items inside the house spun, destroying the furniture, the interior walls, ripping wallpaper off, tearing out celing tiles... a tuft of red hair puffed out of nowhere.
Dead in the center.
A face with eyes closed emerged, and everyone froze.
Charles and Kei as if a ghost.
Heather could not feel breath.
Owen's throat squeaked.
The silhouette spun slow and circular in a corkscrew, rising.
Red.
A coat flared out, the wind so heavy it spun the longer portion of the cape around him.
The hair was not red. It was peppered with some gray.
The jeans were black, covered in thick deep leather straps and buckles, military.
The whole figure was soon there, and the back arched and it floated above the ground, arms back as if possessed.
A deep tone, unlike any other they'd heard, sounded, a whining growl, partial human partial spirit.
"I accept."
In a blink everything in the house slammed into the ground. Things that weren't broken yet, they were broken now, as if some strings had grabbed them and forced them downwards. A china cabinet slammed down, all the ceramics inside spewing across the floor.
The tone was mildly sarcastic. The form crossed it's arms. "Ah. This happened last time." The man's voice was a normal voice now, the airy spirit timbre gone. It turned to the two older men panting on the ground, Kei laying, face gawking up.
"Emiya."
"Keitaro Casey. Much older." He shot air out of his nose, not snide, but more teasing. "You remind me of my father Kiritsugu."
Kei said nothing, just sweated, palms on the floor spread.
Emiya came over to pick him up, hoisting him up by an arm under his shoulders to sit his wheezing form down on the over-turned couch. It wasn't a comfortable spot, but it was somewhere to sit.
"What the hell?" Shirou said. He didn't look angry, just confused.
"The Grail."
"Obviously. This..." He did a hand wave around his body, swishing the coat-cape after he sat the man down. "is once again it's doing." A sigh.
Charles sat up on his knees, groaning in pain. "So, you're him?"
"Who else would I be?" Shirou plopped down to sit on the edge of the overturned couch, but not before giving Charles a hand as well, helping him up to sit on the upside-down sofa by Kei.
Heather and Owen remained silent.
"I'm Charles, relation to Kei." He didn't move much, he seemed as if in pain.
Heather wanted to lunge out and immediately start working on him, like a medic in a war, her instinct was to do so, but the sight before her kept her at bay.
"And the kids?"
"Heather, Tohsaka's granddaughter and my boy, Owen."
Emiya turned in his seat, putting an arm over the back of the couch. "Hi." The tone was unenthused.
Heather almost fainted as those clear, 100% bright hazel human eyes looked her up and down once, then looked the other over.
Kei, slits for eyes watched her.
She backed against the wall, but did not run.
Shaky. She was shaky. But she was still here. He smirked. Yet again, she was a blend of both him and his brother, as much as he despised him, she was the epitome of their combination.
Somehow, Emiya noticed as well. He abruptly stood, his boots cluncking on the floor over to the newest mage. "You are a Tohsaka." He looked the frozen woman up and down. "A few freckles. Got red hair mh? That's not Rin at all, that's Bart."
He smoothed his jacket back to expose a dark, white-lined, thin breastplate underneath that was turtle-necked. "I'm real, not just an image." He pointed to his chest.
Heather shook but held up her wrist, the hazel eyes of the man were incredibly soft. Her fingers extended, and the index was the first to land.
The armor was just a very thick metal-woven fabric.
Instantly she laid another.
Then he laid his neck over, grabbing those two fingers and she jolted at the touch.
"Feel my heart." He put the fingers down on his neck.
She instantly felt it. A strong beat, pulsing a little fast itself.
He put two of his fingers on her neck as well. "See."
"I'm... not that much younger...than... than you." She squeaked out of not knowing what to say to the man.
"Wh... ?" He crooked his eyebrows. He turned, their touches ending. "How old do I appear?" He was speaking to Kei over his shoulder.
"Mirror." Charles pointed now standing, coughing a bit.
Shirou clunked over.
A 'WHAT.' Was heard in the bathroom.
Kei actually chuckled.
"Why?" Emiya came out. "I'm about 37. How'd you manage that?"
"Lots of concentration." He got him a little younger than he wanted, but that was fine as all the experience came with the hero no matter the age.
"Pun on bein' old 'er what kid? Not want me all gray?" Shirou jokingly ran fingers through his mop-top.
Kei Casey was by far not a kid, but he just smirked at the man.
Emiya was just as he remembered him, it brought him a good, warm deja vu. He had the same laid-back, semi-sarcastic personality. He was a kind person, a bit brash around the edges, and the best was that he looked almost similar to how he had that night he'd been shown the Unlimited Blades so long ago in the past now. He mustn't of changed a lot in look from his mid-thirties to forties.
Shirou came over to Kei, and held his hand down and Keitaro took it to stand. "We've got a lot of talking to do."
"I know. Let's head back."
"Back?" Shirou squinted.
"Dad. You want to see him?"
"Ah, old hm?"
"Very."
Charles cut in. "We can take a few vehicles. I rented an SUV."
"I'll go with him." Shirou grappled Kei's shoulder and shook him around some, like a father would do a son. It was odd because Emiya appeared younger than him, even though he was older than the Casey men. "I'm Kei's servant after all. I'm sure all of you are filled in on what's happening already. I want to be filled in too before I make any decisions on a course of action."
"So that's that then?"
"What?" Emiya turned to Charles.
"There's a circle of protection around the whole Casey property there right?"
Kei nodded. "I've re-instated it recently, it's stronger than here." He smirked then looked to Heather. "Do you feel it?"
Somehow she knew what he was talking about. She found her voice. "It's a feeling of protection that washes over you." She cleared her throat by swallowing a few times, eyes not jutting around at all the broken things in the house. "I'd always felt it since I was little." So, that was why she felt comfort at the main home, the guest house and also at Kei's cottage, but not at her family home.
Somehow, even though she grew up there, it felt vacant to her in heart.
It did not have a circle of protection on it because Ebisu, her father, was not a mage.
She'd felt those things that early on.
"Always meant to be a mage then." Shirou commented. "The Casey farm, that'll be our base."
"What?" Heather walked over. Her father. Everyone knew except the newest person in the room.
"What?" Emiya said back, arms crossed.
"Her father." Charles blurted, shaking hair out of his ponytail, looking at his son who was ready to go, silently standing by the door frame.
"Ebisu?" The hero squinted an eyebrow. He got it suddenly, remembering how the kid almost reeled over his death bed seeing the swords floating above his head, then as he came back up onto the porch, he had pretty much molded with one of the pillars, almost it seemed in an effort to disappear after seeing Unlimited Blade Works. "Ah. Still afraid of magic?"
No response from any of them.
That was enough for Shirou to grasp. Yes. The answer was yes.
"He used to do some basics, but not for a long time now." Kei spoke of his erstranged brother.
"Used to?"
"Mhm. He stopped shortly after Heather was born."
"No matter. Let's go." Charles had his hair tied back again. "Kei get your car."
Heather's heart was in her chest.
Her father had done... magic?
There was no avoiding her father now!
She would face it and he would have to know full-well that it was Kei that had saved her.
