Viscount Jean-Jacques Francis de Wardes did not think of himself as a frivolous man.
As a Noble, he was one of few given the privilege of magic. He could slice through rock with winds that could only be found on the highest peaks in the world, and summon up a gale powerful enough to send any opponent flying. He was rich, and would be able to live his life perfectly well simply by minding his own business, sitting in his manor, and occasionally making gestures of fealty towards the King. After a few years of service he could retire with full honours and spend the rest of his days doing anything he wished. In short, he could easily live the life of a Noble without much effort.
He found the idea revolting.
There was something wrong with that. With throwing away power that begged to be used. He wasn't the kind of man who could sit still and not take advantage of his gifts, however meagre they were. Even though he chose to carefully conceal it beneath a veneer of chivalry and discipline, a part of Wardes woke up every time he entered combat. The chill that ran down his spine when he grasped a sword or summoned up a spell wasn't something that could be brought about by debauchery and sloth. No, he could only satisfy the instinct by feeding it.
It was a shame, then, that he hadn't been able to do so, or rather that he hadn't been given the chance. The nightly patrol passed uneventfully, and the Princess's visit to Germania had been almost too peaceful. He had expected some brawling and drinking among the soldiers, and perhaps a few duels arranged by the Nobles for show if nothing else, but there had been nothing. Even though he'd only stood outside to guard the chambers for most of the proceedings, even he had sensed that the meeting between Henrietta and the King had not gone as planned, or even as not planned. It had to have been the Einzberns, damn them.
Wardes wrenched his mind away from the recent memories as a familiar smell wafted through the air. As a Wind mage, Wardes occasionally took advantage of his abilities to listen in on conversations carried by the wind, or to identify someone based purely on scent. It was a rarely used power, but nonetheless one that deserved to see the light of day once in a while. A familiar, acrid smell caused Wardes to cease his downward descent, leaving him content to hover above the field, hidden by clouds he had brought for cover. He knew that scent, for he'd only recently discovered it.
The smell of rotten Magic.
The day was bright, the sun high in the sky, and it was no surprise that the students of Tristain's Magic Academy had taken advantage of the opportunity. With the cancellation of classes in honour of Her Highness' visit, the fledgling Mages celebrated their future Queen almost as much as they celebrated their free time.
Well, most of them, at any rate.
"Forget it," the fluffy, crinkled hair of his fiancé's familiar swung back and forth as he shook his head. "Listen, what you need to do is take advantage of what you've got. You're overweight, not that good at magic, and pretty empty in the personality department. She's not going to look your way until she sees something in it for her. Strut your stuff, throw some money around to make it seem like you're rich, and that girl of yours will be all over you."
"But Guiche said that flaunting one's money is like showing off a statue you didn't carve yourself," another boy said in a reedy voice. "I want her to love me, not my dad's cash."
"Guiche has no idea what he's talking about," Shinji assured him. "Look, you're what, sixteen? At this age all anyone cares about is playing around. There's nothing wrong with greasing the wheels a bit if it's all just practice for the future. You can worry about that 'love' bullshit once you hit your forties and need some kids. For now, just go wild and use every tactic you know. Show off your feathers and someone's bound to notice them."
Wardes saw the other boy (was his name Malicorne? Wardes didn't make a habit of remembering the names of unimportant people) leave, followed him for a few moments, and then drew his eyes back to Shinji. The boy reclined on a tree near the outskirts of the Academy, where most students tended not to go. A familiar, acrid smell caused Wardes to cease his downward descent, leaving him content to hover above the field, hidden by clouds he had brought for cover. The familiar, however, showed no fear as he yawned and closed his eyes, relaxing under the nice shade.
Or at least trying to. From several hundred feet in the air Wardes had missed the bags under Shinji's eyes, but someone else didn't.
"You look horrible," Louise said, panting between breaths. The walk up the hill had been fairly stressful for an unfit young girl, and it was only her innate stubbornness that had let her climb all the way up in a dress without stopping.
Shinji cracked open an eye and the lazy smile on his face immediately vanished. "So do you, but you don't see me complaining about it. What do you want, Valliere? Surely you don't want to interrupt your familiar's rest for some menial task?"
"I can and will," she panted. "But this is more important than that. If I could I'd leave you out of it, but that isn't an option."
"I don't follow." But Shinji was giving her his full attention despite that.
His Master straightened, folding her arms and puffing out her chest with pride. "We," she said. "Have a mission."
"…a what?"
"A mission from Her Highness, Prince Henrietta herself."
"I don't get it."
"It will be long, difficult, and we are unlikely to be rewarded, so the honour of having served the kingdom will have to suffice instead."
Shinji groaned. "Would you please just tell me what your girlfriend wants already?"
Louise aimed a lazy kick at his head, and Shinji let his head fall to the side, avoiding it easily. His Master hissed as her foot struck solid wood, and suppressed several curse words wholly unfit for Nobles to be using. By the time she was able to stand normally again, Shinji had risen and stretched his arms, yawning loudly as he did so.
"C'mon, out with it," he said. "I want to see how you think you'll convince me to follow whatever ridiculous request your queen's given you."
"Gr… your Master's order should be enough, stupid familiar!"
"Ah," Wardes sighed from the skies. Louise hadn't changed a bit since her childhood. She was just as short tempered and irritable as ever. "Well, this is simply wonderful." Her familiar's misbehaviour was regrettable, but after meeting Shinji the previous night, Wardes wasn't surprised. No Noble would ever swear fealty to someone other than their lord without reason, and he doubted that a few familiar runes would be enough to provoke loyalty to a complete stranger.
He waited a few more minutes, listening to the childish argument below. He wasn't sure how to feel about his fiancé failing to tame her familiar, so Wardes settled for not thinking of the matter. He returned to watching the perimeter of the school grounds for any signs of unwanted activity, only occasionally sneaking glances at the two arguing teens below.
There was nothing to see, of course. It was the middle of the day, and the castle had been garrisoned by almost a hundred soldiers. There was no one stupid enough to attack such a fortress at night, let alone when the sun was up. But orders were orders. He had to keep watch and patrol because someone had attacked, less than a month before the Princess' arrival, only to almost immediately leave after realizing that they couldn't break through the Academy's enchanted walls.
"Foquet the Crumbling Dirt," Wardes said, his words lost to the wind. "I don't know who you are, but you've already irritated me simply by forcing me to waste my time like this."
Wardes glanced down and saw that the argument between Shinji and Louise had reached a climax. As the boy paused to formulate his next words, Wardes took the moment to begin his slow downwards descent. His familiar let out a rumble, and the mage absentmindedly ran a hand through its fur, placating the tired beast.
"I'm not sure," was the boy's conclusion. "This reeks. Why would that princess send you of all people on a solo journey to some far off country, on some mission so secret you won't even tell me what it is? I know you two were supposedly BFFs once, but don't you think it's fishy how she suddenly showed up here just to ask the person least qualified for this kind of job for help?"
But Louise was adamant. There was a stubborn streak in her a mile wide, matching even Shinji's belligerence. "Her Highness has her reasons," she insisted. "Perhaps she's being spied on and I'm the only one she can trust. Whatever the case, I'm not going to refuse this request. I'll get to Albion even if I have to walk!"
"That's stupid. There's a difference between being loyal and indulging in anyone's requests. You should say no and tell her you're not qualified to do whatever the hell it is she wanted from you. Besides, don't you have school? You can't just up and leave whenever you feel like it."
"No one refuses a queen's request, not even Headmaster Osmond. Besides, it's not as if we're learning anything here. It's all just the same few lessons over and over again."
Shinji frowned, but seemed to give up. "Fine, whatever. I'm not even going to try figuring out why you're so insanely devoted to that Princess of yours. But why are you trying to drag me into all of this?"
"Drag!?" Louise puffed up, her anger quickly building up. "I'm the one who had to convince her that you could be trusted, idiot! She wanted me to leave you behind!"
"Then you should. It's not like I asked to go. Why are you adding unnecessary complications? You want to go? Then go! I'm not stopping you as long as you don't involve me. Just let me stay here while you go on your little field trip."
"You're my familiar," she said firmly. "You go where I go. That's final. Besides," Louise hesitated, but pressed on. "This field trip won't kill you, and if you play your cards right it could get you into the Princess' good graces."
"…keep talking."
"Furthermore, Albion's capital has a large library, with some books on magic and history that are sure to not be found here. All the capitals have their own individual collections, each with unique knowledge. My point is that if we couldn't find any spell to break this familiar bond or send you home at the Academy, then we might be able to find it in Albion while we're there. You do want to go home, don't you?"
Shinji hesitated. "…yeah, I guess. Still no reason to bring me along though. You could look through the library while you're there."
"No, I won't. If you want to be free, then you have to earn it. At the very least, I need to see you try. Staying here means you're content to live as my familiar and won't even make an effort to change your situation. So come with me."
Shinji fumed. He frowned, and gave Louise one of his frequent glares. While the boy was normally relaxed and cheerful, if aggravating, it was those moments where he descended into barely restrained anger that Louise hated the most. In those moments, he felt less like a Mage or Familiar and more like a repressed criminal waiting to get his hands covered with blood. But at the same time, she felt a surge of pride run through her veins. She'd gotten to him. Provoked actual anger. For the moment, it was the best she'd be able to get.
But the moment passed, and Shinji relaxed again. "Okay," he said. "I'll be your escort, Master."
"Wonderful."
The two teens jumped in place at the sound of a new voice, and whirled to meet it. Wardes descended, jumping down from his griffin to land silently on the ground.
"W-Wardes…" Louise couldn't say anything. He'd shown up too quickly for her to prepare sliced past her guard simply through his entrance alone.
"Ah, my dear Louise. It has been a long time." Smiling gently, Wardes strode towards the paralyzed girl and scooped her up in his arms.
"W-wait," she shrieked. "There's people around!"
"Only your familiar, my dear. Worry not. Ah, you're still light as a feather."
"That's bad enough!" Blushing heavily, Louise was relieved when Wardes finally acquiesced and lowered her to the ground again. She stumbled, feeling weak at the knees all of a sudden. "D-Do you know my familiar?"
"We've had the pleasure of conversing, yes," Wardes said. What he didn't mention was said familiar's irresponsible conduct, or the smell of rot and stagnated water that emanated from the boy. It would be best not to irritate anyone. "Greetings, Matou."
"Hey," Shinji replied, hiding his shock behind closed eyes and a relaxed grin. "Guess you weren't lying about the fiancé thing. Congrats, I guess."
"Thank you."
"Anyway, since Master seems too caught up in fantasizing, I'll be the one to say it. Why are you here? Aren't you supposed to be patrolling the castle?"
"I am," replied Wardes, not offended in the least by the boy's crass tone. "But the Princess has asked me to accompany her messenger on a certain mission. It's a happy coincidence that said messenger happens to be my dear Louise."
Louise, for her part, merely put her head in her hands and tried to hide her blush.
"Oh? Well that's a relief. At least we'll be able to defend ourselves if we run into bandits or monsters." Shinji stood, stretching his limbs.
"While I'm thankful for your confidence, I'll be expecting you to help out in such an occasion," the older man replied. With one hand he patted his tiny bride on the head, and with the other clutched the handle of the wand tucked through his belt.
"…yeah, of course," Shinji said. Hell no, you lunatic, he thought.
Wardes' griffin landed beside him. "Come," the man said. "We're going now."
Shinji blinked. "Now?"
"Now."
Louise nodded. "Now."
"But-"
"Now."
Another guard cloaked in black arrived from the bottom of the hill, leading a large horse with an equally dark pelt behind him. He saw Wardes and nodded, then released the animal and walked away without a word.
"You can ride, can't you?" the Noble asked.
"Uh."
Wardes frowned. "They don't have horses where you come from?"
"Not… really?"
Wardes' frown deepened.
"I'll teach him," Louise said before her fiancé could speak. It'll only take a few minutes. Every Noble knows how to ride a horse. Isn't that right, familiar?"
Shinji hesitated, and then nodded.
Wardes turned away as the two teens resumed their bickering. He debated plugging his nose to stifle the smell or directing the winds to carry the stench of the boy far away, but did nothing.
After all, he was not a frivolous man.
Three and a half hours later, Shinji was wishing that he'd swallowed his pride and stayed behind.
The ride was bumpy, the horse bucking under him for every single step it took on the rocky, unpaved road. Shinji's stomach groaned, not from hunger but protesting the rigorous march and swaying pace it had been subjected to. The boy himself had almost collapsed onto his steed's neck, and would have fallen asleep had it not been for the horrid smell of unwashed animal. He hadn't seen anything resembling civilization for what seemed like forever. There was just an endless expanse of forests and plains. Where someone else might've seen a beautiful spring day, Shinji saw nothing of value.
He looked up. In the clear sky there was a hint of a speck, the only sign that Louise and Wardes hadn't left him behind.
"Sure, make me sit on this stupid animal while you make out with a guy old enough to be your dad. I don't care, I'm just some dumb familiar who's here to follow orders and look sexy." Shinji raised his voice and screamed at his two travelling companions, even though he knew full well that none of them could possibly hear him from that height. "I hope you're happy! Look at me, walking bandit bait! I'm sure some brigands will be happy to ride up to me and slit my throat after finding out you're carrying all the money!"
To his surprise, there was a response.
"Defend yourself, then!" Wardes replied, his voice magically augmented so that it carried down hundreds of feet. "You are a Noble, are you not? Even a Dot Mage should be able to deal with a dozen ordinary ruffians! Or do you wish for me to protect you as well? My first duty is to my betrothed, familiar. If a fight occurs, I will always put her safety over yours."
"What if I get swarmed by like 50 guys?! Or someone who can use magic?"
"In that case, I might perhaps come down to aid you after seeing to the safety of your Master! But my dear Louise tells me that you are a proficient magus, and I am confident that you will not falsify her high opinion!"
"The hell? Isn't that just shifting the entire burden to me?"
"That is a familiar's role, and that of a Noble as well. You shouldn't be complaining about it!" Since Wardes was being forced to yell, Shinji couldn't make out any subtle nuances in the man's voice, but Louise's silence was more worrying than the threat of bandits. Shinji didn't care for her safety, but why wasn't she taking the opportunity to needle him with insults?
He didn't get the chance to find out.
They had come to a stretch of road that went through a small forest. The plains and rolling hills gave way to tall, broad leafed trees and shrubbery. Wardes' voice was muffled by the canopy, and in its place Shinji could hear the sound of the woods. The forest creatures scurrying and looking for food, a small stream happily gurgling, the deep, rhythmic footfalls of an elephant…
"…wait. That's…"
Shinji kicked his protesting horse to a stop and strained his ears, hoping that he had been mistaken. That the sound was merely his imagination instead of a far crueler reality.
A groan sounded, the sound of a large and old tree being bent to its breaking point. The various sounds disappeared one by one until only the offending noise remained. A single, unnatural disturbance to silence everything else.
He felt it, next. The ground under the horse's feet shuddered, almost shaking the inexperienced rider from his seat. Shinji's hold on the reins tightened until his hands turned white, but he dared not move. Not when he couldn't be sure of its location.
That part didn't last long.
With an almighty crash that almost unseated Shinji, a tree trunk as twice as thick as a man's arm span fell in front of the boy, blocking the road forward. At the same time a similar trunk fell a few dozen feet behind him, leaving the mass of trees on either side as the only possible escape routes. An experienced rider could've attempted to jump the barriers, but Shinji wasn't confident enough to try.
His first instinct was to call Wardes, but he quickly silenced himself before the cry for help could escape his lips. Wardes would figure out that something was wrong soon enough. There was no point in alerting his attacker. Instead…
"D-do you think that was a clever trap?" Shinji forced himself to sound confident and assured. "There's nothing special about something that even a commoner could come up with! If you're here to rob me, then give up before I destroy you with my magic, and thank me for my mercy in allowing you to escape!"
There was no response. Instead, the regular footfalls started up again, shaking the earth more with every step as they approached. Shinji's horse chose that moment to decide that its master was an idiot, and reared back. Shinji slid off its back before he could grab the reins, and the horse, once free of its rider, easily jumped the barricade and ran off.
"Damn it!" Shinji staggered to his feet, but after that he froze, unable to decide what to do.
"Nothing to say?" A voice, amplified and disguised by magic, assaulted his ear drums. "My, my, where's all that bluster about mercy you were spouting a second ago?" The dirt road under Shinji's legs cracked, and he backed up until his back was against a tree.
"Who's there!?" He yelled. "Show yourself!" His voice cracked at the end, but Shinji didn't care enough to be embarrassed about it. He was focusing more on not collapsing in fright.
"I don't think so," the voice replied. "See, I'd much rather stay hidden and watch you quake in fear. It's so wonderful to see Nobles break, to see them beg for their lives, to commoners even. I wonder, little boy, when will your pride shatter?"
"You're not scaring me!" Shinji protested, knowing it was a lie, but denying that truth to his conscious mind. "I'd say you have a different reason for staying out of my sight. You don't want me to destroy you, so you're just bluffing and hoping you'll get me surrender instead of destroying this entire forest in pursuit of the one who dared to attack me!"
"If you could do anything, you would have done it by now. No, you're all bark, no bite. I see that now. Maybe you're so weak you can't even fight an ordinary human, so you're relying on that title of yours to serve as a shield. Too bad, but I'm a mage as well, and I'm certainly much more skilled than you."
"Y-you're bluffing?"
"Hehehe… So that's how it is, huh? Well then, how about this, mister Noble? In a few seconds, I'll show you just how much I'm bluffing, but since I'm merciful, I'll give you a chance to escape me. Run."
He ran.
Shinji was an athletic person, even if said athleticism was more for the sake of attracting girls than it was for keeping himself in shape. His arms were toned from years of archery, and his legs were similarly muscled from all the times he'd showed up to try and woo the girls from the track team. His efforts had been less than successful, but as a side effect he found that running wasn't nearly as difficult as he'd expected it to be, even through a forest full of trees and uneven ground.
Of course, running wasn't the same as escaping. Shinji ducked under a low hanging branch and leapt forward over a small stream, landing awkwardly as a heavy thud from behind broke his attention. He managed to keep his footing and continued for a few feet before skipping over a cluster of roots, inadvertently pushing his face through another branch that he'd missed. Sputtering, he risked a backwards glance.
A giant hand reached out of the darkness to grab him.
Shinji tripped, fell, and rolled forward into a heap. At the same time, the hand pushed past, just barely missing him. Whoever was manipulating the limb formed a fist and raised it, and Shinji had scarcely rolled out of the way when it came down, smashing the ground and sending bits of earth flying in every direction.
Shinji tasted dirt, his ears ringing and balance shot. He stumbled to his knees, coughing and spitting out the offending taste. When he turned back, though, all thoughts of cleanliness left the building.
He couldn't say that it was something he'd never seen before. The golem stood as much as 30 feet, and it was entirely composed of earth. He saw some rocks here and there, crushed into a form that would let them flow around each other. The hand that had sought to grab him shone with a metallic sheen, and the other was raised, ready to move at a moment's notice. He'd witnessed the sight before, weeks earlier, but then it had been for a brief moment, from a few hundred feet away, while its back was turned to him.
The golem had no head. Instead, a person wrapped in a dark cloak (not to be mistaken for the several other people wearing dark cloaks that Shinji had recently met) sat on one shoulder. Their face was completely hidden, but they spared no effort to keep silent.
"Hm. Not a very good performance. Didn't you say that you were a Noble? I didn't see any magic there, so perhaps you're simply bad at casting spells. Then again… you were yelling about being a familiar, so perhaps it was a lie and you're simply a commoner who doesn't know his place. My, my, don't you know that pretending to be a mage can be punished by death, little liar?"
It stood, towering over him as the girl perched on its shoulder laughed.
The hood fell back, revealing a familiar white and red face.
"Is this it?" Illyasviel von Einzbern asked. "That's pathetic. So this is what the Makiri have been reduced to. Your family was powerful, once, but their latest heir doesn't even possess functioning magic circuits. I can't say I'm disappointed, but I'm sure my grandfather would be. He told me that Zouken Makiri was one of his greatest allies and enemies, but all I see here is a pathetic boy grovelling for his life."
"I… R-Rider, save me," Shinji whispered. He was on the ground, so he rolled onto his back and scrambled to get away from his enemy. His hands were sliced open on the sharp shards underneath, but he didn't care. He had to get away. Get away so Rider would come and save him and kill his enemy and-
"I wasn't finished!"
He screamed as the air around his body suddenly burst into flames. His lungs were aflame. His eyes were aflame. His ears, his lips, all of the water in Shinji's body had dried up in an instant. Nothing remained. Just a broken husk of carbon and waste products.
"As I was saying…"
Shinji sucked in a breath, choking on the dryness of his mouth, but still drawing in fresh air. His skin was covered in burns, but he was alive. He could see! He could hear! He… could still die.
"This is really boring," Illyasviel said. The girl played with her hair while the giant carrying her took a slow, shuddering step forward. "Berserker, toy with him a little bit, but don't break him."
The stone slab of a sword lunged towards Shinji's face, and on instinct he raised a hand to futilely defend himself.
The blade stopped inches from his body, but the shockwave of the slash continued, snapping the bones in Shinji's forearm and throwing the boy farther down the hallway, through the broken pieces of several windows. The wind screamed through the remains of the glass, bringing cold October air into the once closed building.
It hurt quite a bit, but the fledgling magus retained enough of his mind to recognize the development as a good thing. Anything that got him farther away from that monster could only be a positive. He stumbled to his feet, reaching into his charred uniform and pulling out his Book of the False Attendant with his good hand.
But it, too, was burnt. When he opened it, the spine cracked audibly and several pages fell out. Some were only ash, and others had been fused together by the intense heat. It was almost unreadable, not that he'd understood any of the script in the first place.
"It won't work," Illya said as Berserker carried her closer. "That's an interesting toy. I have to hand it to Zouken, even as a husk he still understands command seals more than anyone else. So he's even figured out how to transfer them to a non-living object… but regardless, it's plain to see what this represents. Your Servant is dying, Makiri. And in the Holy Grail War, that means you're dead as well."
Shinji stared, numb, at the book. It had failed him. Rider had failed him, again. An emotion flared up in him that wasn't fear. What gave her the right? What gave his tool the right to lose?!
"Anyway, I've had my fun," Illya giggled. "Now let's make this interesting. How about this? I'll give you options! You can fight here and die, or you can jump off and maybe survive the several hundred feet you'll fall! If you make it, I'll promise to let you live. Or you can just be boring, run down that hall, and hope that when Berserker smashes you it'll be your head he squashes and not something else. How about it?"
Shinji's mind was blank. The pain shut out every thought he dared to form, leaving only the most basic instincts to control his body. He heard only the beating of his own heart, wishing frantically to live, and the high, mocking laughter of Illya, with Berserker's rumble as background noise. He wanted to live. He wanted to live. He didn't want to die.
Somewhere, in his broken mind, he heard the choice Illya had given him. Fight, run, or take a leap of faith off the edge of the building.
He looked down. The busy street below was rife with lights and people. Perhaps someone would catch him even from such a height. Maybe the air resistance would miraculously slow him down enough for his body to survive. Perhaps by sacrificing his legs and lower body, his brain wouldn't be torn apart by the impact.
Berserker stood before him. The unbeatable Servant that could lay low even Saber herself. Rider was gone, and the book in his arms was burning up more every second. Even if he could get some magecraft out of it, there was no guarantee it would do anything to Illya or Berserker, it would be like relying on a slot machine with only a single coin.
He ran.
His arm flopped, limp at his side. The burnt book was safely stowed in his charred jacket. Blood and bone ground against the floor and shards of glass found their way into his body with every frantic step. He might've been screaming, but he couldn't tell.
A half dozen steps, and he felt Berserker's blade rushing to meet the back of his head.
Yes, he had chosen the only path that guaranteed death, so it was a logical consequence of his actions. Shinji wasn't surprised. In the infinite moment between life and death, he mourned his own cowardice. Unable to risk his life, he had taken the most sure option like a coward not afraid of failure, but fearing the tiny possibility of victory. He could have attacked, almost certainly dying but grasping for the hope that might not even have existed. He could have jumped, betting his life on pure chance. But he had run, knowing that it was impossible to escape Berserker, and that he would certainly be killed.
That was why. That was why Matou Shinji could never be a magus. It wasn't his lack of circuits, his unbecoming attitude, or abandonment by his grandfather. From the beginning, he had lacked the mentality needed for one who walked with death. Seeking to become someone who risked his soul every day of his life, yet unable to bet on himself when the time came. Such a magus could not exist. Illyasviel was merely the personification of that law and Berserker was his punishment for disregarding it.
Then a rotating rhombus opened in front of him, and Shinji was swallowed up without a sound.
"Well?"
Shinji blinked. The golem was still standing in front of him, and there was a woman perched on its shoulder. He didn't miss that her hair was a strange shade of green, or that the golem, while bigger than Berserker, was nowhere near as fast. He saw the faintest hint of a frown on the woman's face.
"Fuck you," he said.
The woman shifted imperceptibly. Her next words were quiet, almost imperceptible, but all the more sinister for that. "What did you say?"
Shinji pushed himself up, rising to his feet. He brushed some dust off his pants casually, as if not caring about the giant golem and expert mage in front of him. "I said fuck you," he repeated. He shook his head, then raked a hand through his hair, pulling out all the dirt and leaves while simultaneously pushing it back, leaving his forehead bare.
"You were doing just fine earlier, but you lost it," he continued. "For a moment, I was almost nervous before I remembered who you were. But this world isn't anything special if you think the threat of dying is enough to scare me, especially from a petty thief who couldn't even break into an academy of brats."
He whipped out the charred book, holding it open with a single hand. "A magus walks with death, idiot. You think you were clever by trapping me here? All you've done is deliver yourself straight into my hands, Fouquet the Crumbling Dirt!"
Fouquet barked out a command, and the golem raised its fist to try and smash Shinji. Or at least it tried to. But it couldn't move.
"When did you-?" Black shadows had burst from the ground, wrapping themselves around the golem's arm, anchoring it to the earth. Despite the golem's size, it was powerless to shift so many of them at once, so quickly. During his speech, Shinji had summoned a dozen separate amorphous limbs, each one preventing movement.
Shinji ran. Not away, or to the sides, but forward. He jumped, clambering onto the golem's trapped hand. A few steps brought him halfway across its arm and that much closer to Fouquet, who stood up, growling unheard curses. She reached into the folds of her robe with one hand, presumably to draw her wand.
The golem raised its other, less restrained hand. Only a few shadows bound it, and it easily ripped free of them as it awkwardly swiped at Shinji, who ducked to avoid it. At the same time, the arm stopped at the shoulder, just in front of Fouquet, anchoring itself to its own shoulder to prevent Shinji from getting through. The golem tried to stand once more, and with a groan the fingers of the hand that had been secured to the ground began to fall apart one by one as Fouquet released the power holding them together. Unbalanced, with only one arm and that one half swallowed by its own body, the golem waddled to its feet, barely able to stay up.
Shinji stared for a moment at the solid wall of stone that had appeared in front of him, nodded, and then turned and ran.
He jumped off the crumbling arm, landed on the ground poorly, turned it into an impromptu roll, and somehow managed to get to his feet in the same motion, breaking into a more even run.
There was no fighting Fouquet. Shinji's offensive abilities were inadequate, and he possessed no weapon with which to kill someone who could probably summon up a storm of earthen blades with little effort. So in the end, it all came back to running. Fouquet was an Earth mage, that was clear enough, and a skilled one at that, judging from the size of the golem and the finesse with which she moved it. It was highly probably that she was detecting his presence through vibrations in the earth, which explained how she could still know where he was even without line of sight.
So Shinji jumped after distancing himself from the flailing thief. He picked a suitably tree and took a leap, grabbing onto a low hanging branch and pulling himself up with a grunt. Suddenly he was grateful for all the practice his arms had had pulling a bow. He quickly made his way up until he was as far up the tree as he could go without it bending. Then he grabbed the nearest branches and pulled them towards his body, hoping that the leaves would hide his distinctive cloak well enough that Fouquet wouldn't spot him from below.
He was entirely unprepared for a hand to grab the back of his cloak from above, yanking him from his perch.
"What the-"
"Quiet." A strained voice spoke from above.
Shinji shut up. Perhaps it was the fact that he was flying through the air at several miles an hour being held up only by something yanking on his hood, or the recent stress of attacking a powerful mage in what was little more than a bluff, but he felt less inclined to speak than he usually did. The person holding him up rose, lifting Shinji above the tree tops of the forest. He saw a sea of green before the man carrying him grunted, and a strap of leather descended to hang in front of Shinji. "Climb," the man said. The boy grabbed on pulled himself up, spending the last of his adrenaline fueled strength to clamber onto the back of what he now recognized as Wardes' griffin. The animal growled at the added weight, but was quickly quieted when the man gave it a few firm pats.
For a few minutes the only sound that could be heard was the rhythmic flapping of the griffin's wings as it carried Wardes and Shinji away from the forest and the no doubt angry thief trapped within. Wardes panted slightly from the previous exertion, and Shinji panted even more. They flew several circles above the small forest before they ascended again, this time plunging into the clouds.
"So…" Wardes recovered first. "A magus walks with death?"
"Yeah," Shinji replied.
"A bit morbid, isn't it?"
"Yup."
"You weren't planning on coming out of that alive, were you?"
"Was," Shinji gasped, deciding to stick to one word answers until he got his breath back.
"Well, I'll have to revise my opinion of you in that case. I'd put down 'Survivor' earlier, but I might be exchanging it for 'Reckless' very soon. You do realize that Fouquet the Crumbling Dirt is known to be a Triangle or Square mage, right? Attacking her head on… that's not something most would call wise."
Shinji glared at the back of the man's head. "Had to," he said. The boy took a deep breath before speaking again. "Running away was pointless. She was locked on. Can't fly, unlike some people."
"I never said that I don't consider it wise," Wardes said. "It was a solid tactic, and I didn't expect something with that level of complexity from a student."
Shinji was silent for a moment. "Why did you wait so long to save me?" he asked. "You were there for at least half of it, I'm sure, but you only did something when I managed to get away on my own."
"Heh. Caught me," Wardes admitted, chuckling slightly. Shinji stiffened behind him. It was as good as an admission.
"Why?" he growled.
"Think of it as a test," Wardes said. "I'll be honest, familiar. The only reason you came along with us is because my dear Louise insisted we bring you. If I had my way, you'd have been left behind in that academy to play your little court games with the rest of the students. I've only met you once, but I can already tell how much of a handful you are. Disrespecting your superiors, insulting your mistress, and speaking in such a crude tongue, all while claiming to be as Noble as I… such behavior would lead to your death in other countries, and it's certainly not something we admire here. So I tested you to see if you'd be of any use. Fouquet's attack was a lucky coincidence. I had originally planned on having a little duel with you, but this served just as well to tell me how good you are at surviving on a battlefield. Perhaps I would have intervened if it was to save your life, since Louise seems very attached to you despite your horrible attitude, but first and foremost, I wished to see how you would act in a situation like that."
Shinji was silent for a long time. When he spoke again his tone was even and measured, with all traces of emotion scrubbed out.
"Did I pass your test?"
"Flying colours."
They flew through a cloud and came out slightly damp, and Shinji spotted a rainbow out of the corner of his eye. He chanced a glance down and, upon seeing only faintly visible land, quickly looked up again.
"When are we landing?" he asked, slightly nervous.
"Now," Wardes said, and steered the griffin into a steep dive that would put any roller coaster to shame.
As a small mercy, Shinji's scream was almost drowned out by the air rushing past them as they descended abruptly. Wardes, however, still had to put up with the shrill noise right behind his ear canal. He would've believed it if Shinji later told him it had been on purpose.
As they neared the ground, their destination became visible. A small, brightly coloured figure sat on a fallen log in a plain, surrounded by large rocks of varying sizes, with a lowered pit in the center. It might've once been a camp fire, but it had obviously not been used for months. There was another figure sitting across from Louise, yet another of the black cloaked people Shinji had been seeing all day.
"Wardes!" As they touched the ground, Louise rushed forward, worry clearly spelt out on her face. "Are you okay? Did anything happen?"
"I am fine, my dear," the older man said. He swept the hat off his head and smiled as he jumped off the griffin and landed elegantly on the ground. Louise threw her arms around his middle, and he patted her head gently. Shinji, meanwhile, all but collapsed to the ground, moaning something unintelligible.
"Is… um, is he okay?" Louise asked when she finally spotted her familiar.
Wardes glanced at Shinji. "He'll live," he said. "I'm more worried about you. Are you all right? Were there any problems? Perhaps I should've left you more than one wind double for protection…"
He looked at the cloaked figure sitting on one of the rocks. "Well, at least it's fine. Perhaps my worries were unfounded."
"Well, about that," Louise released her hold on Wardes and took a step back. "See, that's not… well, could you explain please, Sir?" Her voice got quieter as she spoke, until her last words were barely a whisper. It was only then that Wardes noticed how pale she was, and how much she was shaking as she spoke.
The figure heard Louise's words. It raised its head, letting its hood fall back.
White hair and red eyes. It could be no one else.
"Greetings," the man said. "My apologies for destroying your double. I am Gerecht von Einzbern. I'm here to accompany you on your journey."
