"It could have gone worse, you know."

"How could it have possibly gone worse?!"

Archer didn't even bother to look my way as my voice echoed around the empty office space.

"Sure, we didn't kill any of them" Archer shrugged. "Couldn't have gotten away without significant mana consumption though, at the very least. That, and we don't yet know what damage Rider and the Executor did to them. Could be they used a command spell or two, giving us a significant advantage."

"And in exchange we give away the fact we are indeed working with Rider! The element of surprise is gone; a trap like that won't work again! And the police-"

"I see them" Archer had the nerve to chuckle, finally turning his gaze from the streets below to me. "Buzzing around like flies, they are. Going to be risky forcing a fight for quite a while, I bet."

"Gods… working with the Church is bad enough, but this! We're a hair's width away from having magecraft discovered! I already had people on my ass…"

"Fairly common for jobs to go tits up" Archer shrugged again. "Way of the mercenary..."

"Which is why they needed to die last night!"

"Hey, I did my best! Blame that Executor for having a shitty bounded field thing! A magical lock over a designated space?! What am I supposed to do about that from here?! Fire at the thing and break it from the outside?"

"Absolutely not!"

"And I can't leave my post, for obvious reasons. This alliance was flawed from the start. I thought we all knew this."

"That doesn't explain you failing to kill Lancer and his master as they were running away!"

"I'm not some sort of mythical Archer, master. I can't blow up half the city with a single arrow. Nor would you even allow that in the first place, I'd bet. Could I have added more firepower into those shots last night? Yeah, could have. At what cost to the city though? You said keeping this war a secret was top priority, and I haven't received any indication about that having changed."

"It hasn't."

"Exactly! Not even a guarantee that would have been enough though. Whoever Lancer is in terms of his true name, he's most definitely a proper knight, and I don't simply mean due to being one of the knight classes."

"…You know that how, Archer?"

"I've fought knights before, master. Fairly easy to tell one when I see one" Archer laughed. "Look master, you knew from the get go what you were getting with me. War of attrition is more my style than a straight brawl. Add in all the external factors and developments, and… well, this war could very well be a long one. In fact, I'd count on it if you want us to win."

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…Master?"

"Grr… I know, damnit! I know! It just drives me insane that these damn kids have so far gotten away with this disgrace of a grail war!"

"Fair enough. But worry not mas-"

Archer's eyes suddenly narrowed.

"Master, were you expecting company?"

"What? Now? No, I wasn't-"

"Then enemy" Archer nodded, manifesting his bow and preparing an arrow, aimed right for the door.

As I prepared myself for a fight, the door to the office space creaked open. The moment it did, Archer fired. Judging by the lack of a cry of pain, whoever the intruder was had been expecting such an act.

"Woah, woah, woah! Easy there, Archer. Just want to talk to your master, is all" a voice called out.

…Is that…? Oh, damnit! Why him of all people?!

"Name. Now" Archer shouted back.

"Oh, for… Come on Elise, I know you're in there with him. Can you tell Archer to stand down already?"

"…"

Silence. Archer raised a brow at me, clearly waiting for my order before firing again.

It's going to have to happen at some point. Might as well be now, Elise…

"Archer, it's fine" I finally sighed, resigning myself to the situation. "Just him though; no one else."

"…Understood."

"Wonderful! Would hate to be the first of us to die in this mess, after all" the annoying voice rang out again as the man came into view.

"As if the night couldn't have gotten worse…" I grumbled. "What do you want, Elias?"

"Elise, darling, it's been so long" Elias beamed, most irritating smirk I'd ever seen plastered across his face. "Far too long! Yet, this is the welcome I receive? I thought we had something!"

"Bullshit and you know it" I growled.

He was trying to piss me off. I knew it. He definitely knew it. But gods did I find the man to be absolutely insufferable!

"Well now, that's not very ladylike. Your mother would faint from shock if she heard such language from you."

"What do you want, Elias? Of all the people to get a spot in this from the association, it just had to be you…"

"Trust me, my dear, the feeling is very much mutual" Elias finally dropped his fake smile and pleasantries.

"This better not be a social call. If it is, you die, here and now."

"My, so... feisty this evening! Your failure last night must have really struck a nerve. To think that you would even lower yourself to working with the Church!"

"Talk once you actually do something in this war" I spat. "Where even is your servant?"

"Assassin is… occupied. Watching. Waiting. Tough opponents, by the looks of things. The servants, I mean. Can't afford to be reckless; might give the game away to the rest of the world, you know?"

"Why you-"

"I'll make my move when the time is right. Worry about yourself, princess" he sneered. "Honestly, getting you ass kicked by child spellcasters…"

"You have a death wish, Elias?"

"You don't scare me, Elise. You've never scared me. I'm not even talking to you really. The moment you heard it was me, you casted an illusion of yourself to take your place for this. You ran first, darling. You always run first."

"I don't care who you are" Archer prepared to fire again, aiming right at Elias. "One more disparaging word about my master, and I'll shoot you regardless of her orders."

"Come now, Archer. From one mercenary to another, a word of advice: never disobey your master's orders."

"…You're a mercenary?"

"More like a wild lap dog" I spat.

"Aren't we all lap dogs to the Association" Elias laughed. "Bound by it's rules and regulations!"

"You freelancers have quite the loose leash!"

"Yet here I am, dear. Only two people managed to get a spot, and I was one of them. After all, who else would come to this magically forsaken land? Well, besides those from El-Melloi's deranged camp. We at least agree on this, yes? Any magus with ties to the Association not part of that idiotic faction is better than the alternatives, no?"

"Just. Barely…"

"I'll take it" he smirked.

"Not that this place is all that forsaken. Abundance of mana in this city, of all places… More here than my ancestral home."

"…Indeed. Why I'm here, actually. You may have agreed to work with the Church, of all people, but I know it is only temporary, and out of… desperation."

Fuck you!

"But I digress" Elias continued. "As to why there is so much mana in the air, so to speak… Seven leylines run though this city."

"...Yes, I'm already aware…"

"Of course you are! How silly of me to think otherwise!"

"Get to the point, damnit!"

"Not one of them runs through this city naturally."

"…What? What the hell is that even supposed to mean?!"

"I mean the currents have been altered. Manipulated. Pulled into place and anchored to be as they are now by some disturbingly powerful magecraft."

"Now I know you've gone crazy! You even understand what you've just said?! It simply isn't possible! No one can permanently alter the flow of a leyline!"

"And yet, someone has. To seven of them, in fact. How far off course each one is, I couldn't say. But America alone doesn't have seven leylines, so at minimum they've been pulled from either Mexico or Canada. Maybe even from further away."

"How?!"

"Pfft, beats me" he shrugged, as if he couldn't care less. "I have no clue when it comes to eastern magecraft."

"Eastern magecraft?! But that implies either the Spiral Manor or the Summit Court have-"

"Assisted in this endeavor? So it would seem, by the surface evidence. Why any of them would work with American spellcasters is beyond me. To kickstart a Holy Grail War from under the Mage's Association's nose as well…"

"Might as well be a declaration of war!"

"Indeed!"

"Have you told the Association any of this?!"

"Darling, that's not what I was hired for! I just wanted to know why the dead land for magecraft seemed to have so much mana in it. You want the Association to know, you tell them! Might want to hold off on that though, considering the mess you recently made."

"You…!"

"But who's even to say they were involved? Besides the lack of an official arbiter, what has changed from the fifth war?"

"Oh, let me think… maybe the obviously eastern Saber servant?!"

"Please! The assassin of the fifth grail war was Japanese! They can claim all they want that you can't summon eastern Heroic Spirits for a grail war, but let's be real here. It's been done. …By a Caster servant, granted, but it's been done in a 'proper' grail war already. The whole system was fucked from the beginning I bet, let alone from the third war!"

"…"

"You know it's true."

"I'm acutely aware…"

"See! Saber's master is clearly from some eastern country as well. May be an American spellcaster now, but it could very well be that one of his ancestors had the capability to manipulate the leylines and cut all ties with whatever association before setting all this up. Not like the war would have been able to start without the mana from the leylines, after all. Could very well be no involvement from either the Spiral Manor or the Summit Court. You want to risk starting a war between factions of magi on a guess? Be my guest! I'm not doing it though, thank you very much!"

"…Reasonable…" Archer muttered.

"Archer!"

"Can't fault him for doing his job to the letter, master. Just how us mercenary types work."

"I'm well aware!"

"…Damn Archer, how do you put up with her" Elias laughed. "The familial tie in action, I suppose."

…What did he say?! How did he-

"You look surprised, Elise" Elias laughed. "Gives the game away; need to work on holding a straight face, like Archer here, and that poor fool who got dragged into this shit by the grail."

"What are you-"

"Please, it's obvious who you would summon! At least to me, but that's because I know who you are. Nice bounded field, by the way. Very noticeable in its existence, but not in its effects. At least not to most. America, England… or I suppose more accurately, Ely... might as well be the same place for most Heroic Spirits. But not yours. Archer must love the boost."

"Not wrong" Archer shrugged, still aiming right at Elias with his bow.

"And you were surprised that leylines could have their flow manipulated, yet here you are, tricking the planet itself with your illusions! Even if it is only just this small area here… very impressive. No wonder you can't fight though; quite taxing, I'd imagine. Good thing this place had a fresh leyline for you to hook the thing up to, huh? Otherwise, there's simply no way someone of your caliber would be able to keep the thing powered!"

As was the normal case whenever I had to deal with Elias, much to my annoyance, I found myself with nothing to say in response.

"And summoning a direct ancestor of your bloodline? Never heard of any magus doing such a thing before for a Holy Grail War! Then again, probably unlikely other magi could do so, all things considered…"

"Now-" I protested.

"Alas, I've said my piece" he smirked, turning to leave. "A chore dealing with you as always, Miss Elise Angeline Wake. Oh, and don't die before our next meeting; wish to feel the joy of killing you myself!"

With an insincere bow, Elias stepped into the shadow of a nearby chair. Soon as he did so, he vanished, sinking down into the shadow. An uneasy silence came to quickly fill the air around me. Everything Elias had just said… everything he knew… and how he acted…!

"…Well" Archer commented, breaking the silence and dispelling his bow. "That would explain why I didn't see him approach the building."

"...He's a dangerous man, Archer. Loath as I am to admit he has any talent at all in magecraft…"

"Knows who I am as well, by the sounds of things. As well as your most powerful magecraft."

"…Unlikely as it is, if you ever do happen to spot him…"

"Kill on sight?"

"Don't even care if people see it. I'll deal with the clean-up myself if I have to."

"You must really want him dead then" Archer laughed slightly, returning to his previous position by the window.

"More than you could possibly know…" I growled, dispelling the illusion of myself.

A/N - IMPORTANT DISUCSSION ON EASTER MAGECRAFT BELOW; NO TL/DR, SORRY IN ADVANCE

So, here we are! Introduction of Assassin's master, and the identity of Archer, provided you can suss it out xD

Hope this makes up for the dead week. Now, on to the reviews!

To answer the first question... Eastern magecraft, not Western Magecraft.

Now, for my mess of an explanation...

First off, let me say I could be very wrong on, like, everything about this. I've been very hard pressed to find anything specific about FATE's Easter Magecraft system. My knowledge of 'official' FATE stands at the 3 routes of the OG VN, FATE Zero, and FATE Apocrypha. Far as I recall, Eastern Magecraft is never used anywhere in those works. I'm flying by on whatever I can pull from wikis, discussion boards... you get the picture.

So, Philosophy Keys... Yes, they are what Easter Magecraft magi have, rather than Magic Crest. Thing is... according to what I can find out about them, they, in essence, are just Magic Crests... I shit you not, the description I have of them is "key-shaped crest on the skin". If that doesn't just sound like a god damn Magic Crest, then I'm sorry, but that's what I pictured: just a Magic Crest with a specific shape. Like, Eastern Magecraft even shares the same 'fundamentals' (whatever that means) of Wester Magecraft (Thaumaturgy in this case) and the requirement of magic circuits, according to everything I can find on it. It really just sounded to me like Type-Moon was grasping at straws, trying to make it sound different from a Magic Crest, when in function it sure as shit doesn't sound any different!

Now, Philosophy Magecraft... It is one form of Eastern Magecraft, and by what I've gathered, fairly specific to China. Again, could be wrong, but I only ever see Philosophy Magecraft specifically come up with either the Spiral Manor (think China's Mage's Association; weaker but with "probably" more numbers to their ranks, not that any hard numbers are actually given...), or the Summit Court (group of what seems to be ten... Xian? I don't know what the term means, and by the one ex-member character I happened to find a bit about, they're sort of like... divine spirits? Celestials? There is so little on this, and the only reason I'm thinking along this line is because that one character, Wuzhiqi, is said to be a prototype of Sun Wukong, and apparently knew AND fought both Yu Mei-ren (a fucking True Ancestor...) and Xiang Yu, for those of you who know FGO, but if it's the Xiang Yu from Pan-Human History or the Lostbelt version I don't know; assuming PHH version to be most likely though).

Japan, naturally, has it's own association (really, it seems to have several associations, based on what I read, not that any are given a name...) and form of magecraft. Because of course it does... I'm not touching this, so I didn't bother to try digging any further on it.

Back on Philosophy Magecraft though... as to what it can and can't do, or how it works, I've yet to find any real details on that. Everything I've found has either been fan speculation on discussion boards, or that it's "just as wide and varied as Western Magecraft" according to multiple wikis. Real helpful shit, yeah? In my eyes, unless someone can show me 'official' or 'canonic' statements otherwise, I'm viewing this as a fucking cop out. I'm sorry, but if every wiki, in English, that I can find for FATE can't give even the slightest details as to how Philosophy Magecraft is different from Western Magecraft (which in of itself has variants, for fucks sake... but I'm assuming Thaumaturgy, because that seems to be the underlying constant for comparisons...), then I don't know how to really differentiate it from 'Western Magecraft'. I'm not a philosopher; nowhere near smart or skilled enough to write a child character casting spells based on deep fucking philosophical thought! I'm trying to play with Yin-Yang aspects for my 'Eastern Magecraft' (which I will go into details with later in the story, I promise), but if it just comes off as Western Magecraft, then I'm sorry. That's my bad, but with no basis to pull from, that's all I can really do. If anyone can point me to solid info on Philosophy Magecraft, the please! I'd welcome it so, so much! Otherwise... hope it's at least tolerable.

Finally, on to the incompatibility between Easter and Western... That's true, but also maybe not true...? Go figure with FATE; I've come to just expect this shit to be my answer now... Many people in discussion boards and the like say that (in fact, make that nearly everyone). Yet, the wikis I've come across paint a slightly different, and very confusing, story...

See, wikis typically have the different types of magecraft and the different Associations and Organizations as different pages. Makes sense for organization. Yet, the info from one page to another... differs, and I'm not sure why! When reading about the Mage's Association (the one we're all most familiar with), the wikis say variations of the same, following thing: the Association has deemed the philosophies of magecraft from the Far East as incompatible with it's teaching, and both schools in turn reject the Association. But see the difference from what the wikis say to what is usually said by fans of the FATE IP? The ASSOCIATION DEEMS THE TEACHING INCOMPATIBLE, not that the practices of the different forms of magecraft are inherently incompatible. So, like, it could just be more magi political bullshit, and not that it's actually impossible for magi to perform magecraft from both (or all) forms of magecraft.

But that's ONLY on the pages for the Mage's Association! When on the pages for groups like the Spiral Manor or the Summit Court, the pages say variations of the following: their Philosophy Magecraft (note the specifics here; not a blanket 'Easter Magecraft') is fundamentally incompatible with the teaching of Western Magecraft (again, note how they specifically say Western Magecraft; not Thaumaturgy, or a specific form of Western Magecraft, but the blanket grouping of all Western Magecraft). Also note how it didn't say the groups, or associations, SAY it's incompatible; just that the forms of magecraft ARE incompatible.

It's like... EVERY DIFFERENT SOURCE AND WEBPAGE says different shit from one another as to how the fuck all this works! I, too, was originally of the thought that the forms of magecraft were inherently incompatible at the magecraft level. But since I've started working on this here... I don't fucking know anymore! And it drives me INSANE! I know the joke is that FATE is BS levels of stupid complicated to make sense of (and ultimately just doesn't make sense AT ALL anyways), but... this is so fucking ridiculous at this point that I... well... how can anyone honestly try to argue against the notion that FATE has, from the beginning, worked off the idea of "If it's cool and we want to do it, we're gonna do it! Lore? What lore? Fuck the lore! No one cares about that shit anyways!"

So, as to why Johnathan explains shit the way he does to Nathan... who knows xD

Maybe Johnathan doesn't really understand the basis of his magecraft; his only other peers growing up as a magus were Sortiara and Zachary, who are both practitioners of different forms of magecraft from him. Maybe he does know, but is trying to explain it in a way that won't confuse Nathan, considering Nathan only has an idea of the terminology of Western Magecraft. Maybe Johnathan is trying to prevent Nathan from learning more about his form of magecraft, at least from him. From Nathan's viewpoint, perhaps you got the impression that the kids aren't all that... bright... and in a lot of ways, they aren't, perhaps. But they are still magi (well, spellcasters, but... same thing, really...), and Nathan's viewpoint is a very... skewed viewpoint, lets say xD

But, y'know… the more I dig into the lore and workings of the FATE IP... it all just feels like one, giant cop out. Every 'rule' seems to have been broken, have a contradiction, or just isn't defined in any meaningful way that if any of you beautiful bastards reading this can make sense of it all and get all the rules working and defined, then... well, why the fuck aren't YOU writing this shit?!

LOL xD

…Would probably do better than me in that case, and I definitely don't consider this a bad attempt (any more, at least), for a first foray into writing.

Anyways, hope this... helps? Answers some questions? Maybe it just made a whole bunch of new ones. If so, then fuck it. Sorry, but also, fuck it!

To anyone who actually read all of my explanation/findings/rant... thank you!

As always, thanks to all you readers who have stuck around to this point! See y'all in the next post xD