CastleYggdmillennia, Romania
July 22th, 1994
The great hall of Castle Yggdmillennia was mostly empty at this late-night hour. Lit only by a series of artful golden strip-lights along the towering marble walls, the chamber featured an ominous,massive sculpture of the World Tree, complete with suspended globes representing the nine realms. Without the normal hubbub of Yggdmillennia members and servants (and occasionally Servants) going about their daily duties, the enormous fixture seemed both beautiful and oddly oppressive, as one of the world's most forward-thinking magical institutions prepared for war.
The hall was mostly quiet now, but if one were to stand on the far end of the hall, you could hear the distant murmur of talking and the occasional clack of stone pieces against a stone board on a balcony far above.
Were you to stand on that balcony, you would see two men, sitting at an ornate chess table, discussing complex matters over a friendly game. The man in command of the Black pieces wore a strange golden mask that hid his features, and shrouded most of his body in a flowing purple cape, from which gold-clad arms would occasionally smoothly slide out to move a piece before vanishing back inside.
However, the man controlling the white pieces somehow managed to outdo even that. Clad in a military-like spotless white uniform, the man was a visual paradox. His flowing and tied-off hair was gray with age... yet his face looked youthful and full of life. Against his side was a cane, yet his movements were firm and steady with the vigor of youth. To the magically inclined, it was obvious that he had been using some arcane practices to imbue ill-gotten youth into his aged body, but discerning his true age was next to impossible.
"Your material deliveries for the latest wave of golems should be arriving exactly on schedule." White mulled over the state of the board, eying pieces one by one.
"I assume the governor was agreeable?" Black asked, hands folded while he waited for his opponent.
"He didn't really have a choice." White grinned wolfishly as he moved one of his forgotten pawns forward two squares.
"I assume his family is under our protection?" Black carefully assessed the situation, feeling out potential progressions of this move.
"Oh yes, when I told him what was at stake, he was so willing it was almost pathetic." White smirked as his opponent pondered.
"The chaos is hardly settling quickly. I fear that at this rate we may not be able to contain it in time." Black reinforced his rook with a strategically placed Knight.
"Why contain it? Let it spill out into the streets and the cities. When the Association comes they'll find themselves waist deep in angry rioters, and when the War is over Romania will beg us to return and save them." White's knight slid free of the back row, preparing for the hunt.
"Are you truly sure that allowing the country to remain in disarray is wise? The others may not fall as easily as you think. We have intercepted several of their agents establishing safehouses for the coming Enforcers throughout the country, including here. Even if that supply freighter has nothing to do with them, they are certainly not coming unprepared." Black took a conservative position, moving a pawn of his own in place to counter the aggressive move.
"They are little more than a bunch of foolish old men playing at ruling the world. But the world left them behind long ago. With what we have prepared, they will be of no matter in anything other than an immediate sense. When we defeat them here, their entire hegemony will crumble, and the world shall know that we are its future." White's knight simply pressed forwards, adopting a position that put Black's queen under threat.
"Mmm. We do have other problems." Black marched his Bishop into the bait of the Knight, preparing for the inevitable.
"The Servants? Even without a seventh I have confidence in our current repertoire. Under our command they should be more than a match for whatever uncoordinated heap they bring to the table. Gordes has every reason to be arrogant; with careful coordination between Master and Servant, even the most unassuming of Servants can become invincible. That much I saw proven during the Third War." White's trap was cleanly executed, and the Bishop was obliterated by the waiting rook.
"And what of Rider? The Paladin?" The aggressive play left Black the opening he needed to realize his own trap, and an unnoticed pawn slipped through a gap in the back line, promoting to a queen.
"I trust he will do his part, even if I am coming to regret that it was Celenike who received his Command Seals." White's knight doubled back to smash the queen, wasting precious time but neutralizing the threat.
"Speaking of Command Seals, have you seen any trace of our seventh, Archer?" The knight's retreat allowed the advance of Black's rook, eliminating a bishop.
"Unfortunately no, but I'm sure Project Apocrypha will level the playing field quite handily. Intellectual... inflexibility ensures the Association will never see it coming, even if it only shores us up to 7 instead of to 8." The rook was quickly eliminated in turn, placing a rook of White's own in a position very near to check.
"I am glad to see you have some faith in my work." Black quietly blocked the check, sacrificing precious initiative now rather than have it stolen later.
"Speaking of Project Apocrypha, how is our latest subject? I understand this one is rather promising?" White saw weakness and pressed it. The remaining bishop took up position near the edge of the board, cutting a line through the King's escape routes.
"Indeed, Subject 13 has taken better to its patron than I could have ever expected. At the current stage of development, the threat of rejection is virtually nonexistent." Black deployed a knight of his own to swat the interloping piece before it could make any more trouble.
"Good. I am tired of having my homunculi mutated into malformed husks." White's trap was set.
"Indeed. There are only so many ways to make creative use of a dead homunculus, particularly one that has been twisted like that." Black failed to notice.
"Speaking of which, remind me of the status of our more... conventional forces. We do have more than just Servants to stack up against, after all." White moved his queen in to realize his trap. Checkmate. He leaned back in his chair and grinned.
"We have a full battalion ready to deploy whenever needed, already formed into units and training to engage the Enforcers as we speak." Black barely even acknowledged his defeat, simply offering White a handshake.
"Good, and your golems?" White accepted, and the game was officially concluded.
"You don't need to worry about them. I shall see to it that only the finest creations set foot on the battlefield." Black quickly realized that a rematch was probably off the table, the game was really only a distraction anyway.
"See to it that you don't let your perfectionism blind you. Quantity has a quality all of its own." White warned.
"...We can agree to disagree there. I am sure you will find my methods beyond comparison once we put them into practice." Black was certainly not going to debase himself to some un-artisanal sweatshop.
"I understand that we have new intelligence from our agents abroad about who the Association may be sending to join us?" White asked.
"You are correct. While the exact Servants in question are more uncertain, I believe we can both rest easy with knowledge of at least some of our enemies," Black answered.
"Well, go on then, tell me your thoughts on them," White prompted.
"Very well. You have a more firm understanding of this era than I, but to my appraisal, Tohsaka and the Emiyas are likely our greatest concern among the Masters," Black elaborated.
"Oh ho, that is unexpected. No thought for the Freelancer or the usurper, Velvet?" White queried.
"Said freelancer is little more than a directionless loose cannon with no drive of his own, and from what you have revealed to me, Velvet is little more than a child playing at war. One who stole his position as Master from a more capable elder. A handicap more than a Master, and considering we know that he summoned Iskandar as Rider thanks to the latter declaring his presence, the role of Servant and Master there will most likely be wholly reversed... just like in my case," Black stated.
"Fair. The Olizar child, Lucius, is... dangerous, but ultimately his young age has me expecting foolishness from him. As for 'Comrade' Zebriny... 'Red Menace' says all that matters. But really, do tell me what you think of the others," White mused.
"Tohsaka is worthy of note for his status as a Great Family member alone, and his specialty in Gemcraft makes him of particular note to me... as is his claim to the Grail," Black continued.
"Right. The Emiyas?" White asked. "I remember you having concerns about their... merger in recent days."
"Indeed," Black answered. "While the Magus Killer himself does seem to be the Master between the two of them, he specializes in underhanded tactics; bombings, use of firearms, killing unsuspecting targets while they are asleep or at home, and the like. These are the tactics of one who cannot hope to match his foes in a direct confrontation, unorthodox penetration of magical defenses or not. I am more concerned about his consort, the Einzbern."
"The last Einzbern from what I can tell, or close to it. Terrible tragedy that befell them, couldn't have happened to a nicer family." White didn't seem particularly sympathetic. "That she fled them the night before the disaster may seem portentous, but considering her nature of a homunculus... I think you may be overestimating her capacity for violence. Even as an Einzbern homunculus, I doubt she will be serving as anything more than a living weapon for her husband."
"I fear you may be too quick to write off her involvement in the matter. Innocent faces can hide a vicious nature, and her nature also grants incredible magical capacity with which enhance said viciousness," Black warned. "We can only be thankful that the Grail chose her husband over her, or whatever Servant the pair summoned would doubtlessly have near limitless power to call upon."
"If it is a bit of luck on our part, then I am happy to call fortune our ally," White concluded. "Now, have we heard anything back about the last one? That is only six magi coming our way."
"Yes, actually. It appears that we will be facing two parts of the Einzbern legacy," Black explained. "Some foundling child of theirs who was supposedly rebuilt into an inhuman killing machine employed to resolve their problems in the wider world. If the stories are accurate, the Master might be just as dangerous as the Servant."
"Bah, nothing but absurdities!" White exclaimed. "No living human can match the power of a Heroic Spirit, no matter how many butcheries the Einzberns performed! That much was thoroughly proven in the last war."
"Callous, but likely correct," Black observed. "Regardless, there are some other non-Association persons of interest who seem to be headed our way as well."
"Oh, this wouldn't be about that silly scientist, would it?" White chuckled.
"Indeed," Black continued. "Dr. Masters is a difficult man to track, but our sources suggest that he has been headed to Romania by train for the last month, when you filter out the red herrings he left."
"What, do you think he is coming here in hopes of finding asylum?" White snarked.
"Quite possibly." Black evidently didn't catch on. "But ultimately it is of little matter why he came here, as the man himself is of little matter. The problem is that he is the only other thing in the world that draws as much of the Association's ire as we do. Him being anywhere in Romania magnifies the degree of response the Association is liable to send."
"Bah, it's hardly worth the worry. Nothing extra they could send could compare to the power of a Servant! And regarding Masters, what is he liable to do? Peer review us to death? Short of Servant Summoning and taking our Seventh from us, there's hardly much he could do that would matter." White waved the matter off.
"Your confidence is admirable, if perhaps misplaced. There is still a great deal against us in this," Black warned.
"Oh yes, we've had to endure much over these past 50 years." White rose to his feet. "But I believe that we are on the cusp of revolution. A new age! A victory here will annihilate the Association's legitimacy and break the Great Families once and for all, leaving us as the inheritors of this world. Aquainus spoke of the mythical city on a hill: soon that city will be a reality, and we shall be crowned its kings!"
White slowly walked to the balcony railing, looking out over the hall below as he concluded.
"...But, if the Grail holds true, we will be better than kings. With the power harnessing its wishcraft will bring, we will be gods."
