Chapter 8: Servant
A few days later, a knock came on the door of my quarters.
It was early morning, with the sun barely peeking over the horizon. I threw a robe around myself to cover my state of undress and slid open the thin door.
He was a man with messy brown hair, wearing the garb of a Hoshidan monk. His face showed a mischievous amusement with life, his eyes seeming closed as though he never needed to see something in order to make fun of it.
"My, but you servants do get up early, don't you?" he said, his smile not fading. "I'm sure if I was forced to wake up so early, I simply wouldn't be able to cope."
"H-hello..."
"Ah, wait, this can't be right. I came all this way and this early to meet the legendary servant of Shirasagi, and he's not even dressed."
"Uh..." I had received a lot of scorn from the other castle workers when the rumours about what had happened in the meeting had spread. It seemed nobles and servants alike loved to flap their lips.
"S-sorry," I told him. "I was about to get a shower."
"Oh, an excellent idea! I suppose the princess can wait, then! I do suppose you will want to wash those greasy locks before you meet with the princess."
I fingered up my greasy hair consciously. "Princess Hinoka," I asked, realising who this must be.
"Oh, you figured out who I am without my telling you!" Azama, one of Princess Hinoka's two retainers, said, actually sounding somewhat surprised. "Perhaps there's hope for you yet."
He cracked open an eye slightly, and peered into my room, where I had yet to fold up my futon or organise my clothes.
"Or perhaps not."
...
After a quick shower and putting on my formal clothes, I followed Azama to the Royal Wing of the castle. To my great surprise and embarrassment, the meeting was apparently to take place in Princess Hinoka's personal chambers. Fortunately, there was a reception area before her actual bedroom, but being in a noble's private rooms made me scared beyond reason.
The reception room was occupied by a low table, and as I kneeled on a cushion, I took a moment to look around the room.
A weapons rack stood on one wall, across from a window overlooking the gardens. Most of the weapons were naginata – long and fierce blades attached to even longer poles, though one of them was broken.
There were pictures too, and what appeared to be a poem written in the traditional Hoshidan language – illegible to me, and only taught to nobles as it had been mostly replaced by the common tongue. The paintings were more interesting though.
They depicted Hinoka's family and friends. Two were framed, and sat on what looked to be a ceremonial altar. One was a picture of a young child, still a baby, though its eyes were red and its hair, just starting to grow, was an ethereal silver. The other was of King Sumeragi, a man I had seen on many pictures throughout the castle.
Princess Hinoka entered, and Azama bowed to her then left.
"My lady..." I began, but Hinoka interrupted.
"No need for that nonsense here. Call me Hinoka for now."
I nodded, reluctantly, and she continued.
"I won't keep you long," she promised. "It's just... After I saw you the other day, I've had this nagging feeling that I'd met you before."
"Um... I was at Mister Phoros's farm." I told her.
"Hm..." she thought on this for a few moments, then nodded with understanding. "Of course. I remember now."
Hinoka didn't seem willing to say anything else, instead seeming thoughtful, so I spoke up.
"D-did you find Set- um, who you were looking for?"
"You knew I was looking for Setsuna?" Hinoka frowned, picking up on my slip of the tongue.
"Uh..." I cursed inwardly. "I-I mean... She's your retainer, and..."
"Her reputation precedes her," Hinoka finished with a grimace. "Still, I'm sorry I was so suspicious of you. With Nohrian brigands constantly trying to find their way across the border..."
"It's fine," I replied.
"Thanks for your work though," Hinoka said. "I'll have Azama escort you back to your duties, if you want."
I stood, taking that as a cue to leave, "Thanks. I know the way back though."
...
Maybe if I had accepted Azama's escort I wouldn't have been approached by the next person to have suspicions about my identity.
"Hold."
The voice seemed to come from nowhere at first, but then I was enveloped in shadow, and when it cleared, a red-haired ninja stood, his arms crossed. Elbow blades stuck out, making him seem bigger, and his scarred eye gave him a frightful look.
"You may have fooled Queen Mikoto, but don't think you're about to get away with anything and everything."
I wanted to look away from the mangled mess that was his eye, but his face yielded no mercy. Looking to his other eye felt a mistake, for it was red and piercing. The lower half of his face was a black canvas of mask, and each strand of his hair only seemed to point back to those hideous scars.
Still, I looked at him, nonplussed. I'd had similar remarks from my colleagues, many of whom had been friendly with me before, and I had no reply to offer them.
"Hmph, not going to say anything? Fine. Just know that you're being watched."
I wondered, as I had when many of my superiors made similar comments, why Saizo would bother to tell me I was under such scrutiny. Had I actually been planning on making a move against the Hoshidan crown, I was much less likely to be discovered with the knowledge that my every move was being watched.
"I... I only want to help Princess Azura."
"Azura?" Saizo glared at me. "I should have suspected you Nohrians would stick together."
"I'm not..." I began, but the ninja interrupted.
"Save it. Nohrian, Nestrian, Izumite. It does matter. You could even truly be a Hoshidan. All I know is that Queen Mikoto lied about your duties. I don't know why she would tell such an obvious lie, nor do I care. There's something going on here, and it's being investigated. Sooner or later... Your time here is limited."
Saizo left me, disappearing as quickly as he'd appeared. Looking around yielded no sign of him, but as I made my way back to the kitchens, I swore I felt every shadow staring at me.
...
I barely needed Saizo's threat. My ruin was no fault of his, though it came a mere week after he had said those words.
In the central gardens of the castle stood a proud fountain. Water erupted from the centre, then cascaded in a wide circle to the middle ring of water, where it was streamed to the outer ring, which would periodically jet the water through the cascade and into the fountain's centre.
It had been designed by Yukimura, apparently, but recently the outer jets had been unsynchronised. Personally, I enjoyed the way the water would seem to shudder its way lopsidedly into the centre. It made it more random, and more fun to guess when enough water was actually in the centre for the volcanic spray.
However, my duty was to take the scrolls and take them to the magic guild in the city, who would rewrite the runes which ran the fountain. I couldn't pretend to understand the mechanics – they had not been explained to me, and I doubted my ability to understand even if they had.
The scrolls were between cracks in the stone, where they would not get too wet or easily damaged. They were made of a tougher material than paper, and more water-resistant too.
They felt almost greasy in my fingers, like the greaseproof paper I had used for baking in my own world. The runes on them were indecipherable... Until I truly examined them.
The letters were similar to Japanese, though they were more cursive and the lines were similar to no Japanese text I had seen. Not that I understood Japanese. Japanese characters had always looked like random shapes and scribbles to me, but if my experience reading the books of Valla meant anything, it was that somehow, I knew what the letters meant.
This one, it meant "water". Combined with that letter, it was "fountain". There, that was "up" and another to mean "down".
Except... I could also see the problem. The "up" characters were smudged on some of them. Surely, that would be a simple fix?
No, it wouldn't. There were many problems with this fountain.
When the wind blew too hard, the fountain would miss the centre and splash against the castle walls and over the flower beds. The flowers would often drown in the deluge. There was no anchoring in the spells. With an anchoring spell, the water would be forced to return to the fountain.
If anything fell in the fountain, that was another problem. A nearby tree often shed its leaves in this direction, and leaves in the fountain confused the magic scrolls such that they began flinging the fountain's contents any which way. Harmless in the case of leaves, but more solid objects flung at the castle windows or passers-by...
A shielding spell, perhaps? Aimed inwards, trapping things in rather than out?
That was doable. It only needed a couple of interlocking spells.
That anchoring spell would be the problem. With water gravitating towards the centre of the fountain, the jet spells' power would be greatly reduced. A solution? Increase the launch power.
I pulled the last scroll free, and took them to my room, rather than the magic guild.
I still visited the magic guild, but only to borrow one of their pens. Writing a magical scroll required a specific ink and quill.
My improvements to the fountain worked perfectly... For all of 2 seconds.
The water jets exploded furiously each time they were due to run. The water crashed against the shield, and broke it, then the next jets did worse. Holes were punched through stone, glass, wood... The garden was in shambles.
I removed the scrolls hurriedly, determined to stop their devastation, but the damage was already plain to see.
Guards came to investigate the noise mere moments before I wrenched the last scroll out.
They stared at the ruined garden, then to me.
I held the bundle of sodden papers and looked back at them.
One raised his naginata at me, and I dropped the papers. Anankos's gift was in my hand then, scanning the threat, but the red dot on the map behind my location made me turn.
Saizo held a throwing star to my throat, but his other hand went lower. Bemused, I watched his hand enter the gaping hole in my torso, where the water's power had shot a hole straight through me.
"Not Hoshidan," Saizo muttered. "Nor even human."
...
A part of me preferred the cell I had been given over the sleeping quarters of the servants. A small part, yes, but that part of me was not without reason.
The lack of technological or otherwise Earth amenities was not a fact lost on me. I had dreadfully missed talking to friends on the internet or playing games on my laptop. Even my lack of a 3DS to play and tire my mind at night had been an issue which still irked me.
Knowing I was in a prison made those losses make a little more sense. I didn't know much about life in prisons back home, but at the very least that small part of my mind thought that prisoners were unlikely to receive such creature comforts.
Even the unwashed and broken bucket made more sense in this situation than the primitive privy of the palace.
Still, I retched once more at the smell of it. I didn't have the best sense of smell; often I failed to smell things right beneath my nose, but this smell was a different sort.
The few times I had dared to use it so far, I had been sure to hold my hands over my nose, standing to ensure I was as far as possible from it. Otherwise I did my business in the other corner, which didn't smell half so bad, for that bucket engulfed the entire dungeon.
I sat as I always did, with my body pressed against the bars of the cell. It was furthest from those corners here, though it helped little. Perhaps in some ways, the constant reminder of the metal on my flesh was worse, making where I was that much more real.
Another small part of me had once likened these prison bars to my childhood. At primary school, where I had been bullied and friendless, that had seemed a prison at times too – we would even have to line up neatly for the teachers to count at the end of break times. I had spent most playtimes out by the front of the school, at the very edge of the yard, holding to and looking through the green metal fence.
Had that fence been meant to keep the children in, or strangers out? Most often it had felt like it was designed to keep me in. I had known how to open it, as it was rarely locked, but still I had never left.
That comparison had been crushed inside me though.
This was nothing like that. Perhaps I could still escape if I wanted to, but I had nowhere to go, and it would be more than a few angry teachers or my frightened mother to answer to.
I broke down for a few hours again. Don't think of her... It was too hard. Don't think of her...
...
My situation was unchanged.
The torches down here were different to the ones in the palace. These ones never went out, and seemed to not need changing so much.
The prisoner in the cell opposite mine had let me know that the lights never went out due to ancient spell works. The constant light was to make prisoners more uncomfortable, as it made sleep harder and the passage of time harder to tell. It also let guards keep an easier eye on us when they walked through.
The guards were given special nose plugs in their helmets, the same prisoner had also informed me, so that they didn't have to smell anything.
Unfortunately, that had been the last thing he said to me, as he'd been talking when a guard was present. The guard let him know what I was, and thereafter he seemed to have forgotten about my existence.
I didn't know what he was in here for, but I supposed it must have been something fairly minor, as the guards were kind enough to him when they came with the rations of food. His meals were bigger than mine, and more frequent, but just as irregular.
They kept the meals irregular to help with that mystery of how much time had passed. More fool them, though.
The tactical touchscreen device Anankos had given me (I'd named it Jake once, then thought that was silly but the name had stuck) was a wellspring of knowledge, not just strategic data.
In this dungeon, the second most valuable piece of information Jake gave me was the time, in 24 hours. But by far even better was the world map.
I had zoomed in on a part of Nohr, and had been following the movements of several blue dots. If those dots were what I thought they were...
"Is your hand interesting?" a voice asked.
I looked up, and saw Yukimura. He wore a nose plug, making his voice more nasal and difficult to place, and scowled down at me through his glasses and the bars.
Dimly, I was aware of my neighbouring prisoners' eyes on me as I stood up to face him.
"I thought I should at least congratulate you on your attempt to improve my fountain design," Yukimura began. "Although I'm having dreadful nightmares dealing with the repairs for all you destroyed."
I looked away. Why had I fiddled with the spells? I was no mage, and even if I could understand the language it was still a foreign one.
"And congratulations are in order for your guesswork, I suppose," he smirked at my dull blink to that. "Our scouts did indeed report signs of life in Nohr's Northern Fortress."
Oh, now I understood. At the meeting with Queen Mikoto and Princess Azura, I had told them about the Northern Fortress where Princess Corrin was held. But there was more I told them, and I saw something now in Yukimura's eyes.
"Captured?" I croaked. My voice hoarse from lack of use. "Kaze and Rinkah?"
Yukimura frowned at me, though now his face showed more surprise and curiosity than anger. Was I not supposed to know the scouts' names? I couldn't remember. I had suggested sending somebody fleet of foot and somebody strong to back them up, and perhaps that one of the two could be from a region of questionable loyalty. Giving somebody like that a mission of importance could show trust and thus improve their further loyalty.
And if, by chance, I was wrong and the mission was a waste of time, the two could become friendly enough to strengthen the army with their bond.
"And if," I had said, "The worst should be true? If perhaps I am your enemy and this is some trap? Well... Then you'll know, won't you?"
I had let Queen Mikoto weigh my words, and my life, but it seemed she had chosen to place her trust in me.
Still, Yukimura's anger was back, and I knew what had happened.
So far, with the few major moves I'd made in this world, I'd only been following the script of the game, and even then, a pre-script. We weren't even on Chapter One so the events I'd set in motion were only events that happened anyway, but in the game due to luck.
That had been an idea I'd had instantaneously upon first viewing Jake at the Bottomless Canyon, but my idea had worked.
I had enough clout now for my next move, even if Yukimura would hate me for it.
Could I make that move? Did I have the courage? I never would have back home, but I no longer had a home. Perhaps it was my hunger from prison food and nausea from the smell, or my fear of all, but something emboldened me well enough.
Yukimura opened his mouth to say something further, but I beat him to it.
"Does Queen Mikoto know I am here?" then without waiting for an answer, "Tell her, and tell her why. Tell her I wish to be retainer to Princess Azura."
If he was surprised by my uncharacteristic outburst, Yukimura hid it well with a sneer, "And why should I deliver any messages from a chained monster to the Queen?"
"Because," I said, and took a huge risk, "Arete wept for Cadros."
...
Author's Note:
I'm going through editing chapters, and some of the Author's Notes are no longer relevant. I'll leave the relevant parts here:
At the time, I was quite happy with the fountain and prison scenes. I still think they serve a purpose, but I'm definitely no longer particularly proud of them.
If you're interested in where this fits into the timeline of the real Fates plot, at this point it should be fairly clear that we're around Chapter 1 (Nohr) or Chapter 2 (Gift of Ganglari) - given Kaze and Rinkah's presence in Nohr.