IV – The Void

A few days passed since the last run-in with Lancer, and Atosaki was gradually getting better and regaining strength. The sudden onset of illness could have been attributed to one of many things, perhaps airborne bacteria or from staying out too long in the cold. After a few queasy up-ended meals, she suspected that someone sick sneezed on her food without telling her. At the very least she ate more as she recovered, probably created by her previous inability to eat anything without heading off to the bathroom in a minute or two.

She didn't stop to think about last night, or the night before that, mostly for the sake of her sanity. Maybe she was going insane, but one of her therapists had informed her that one was only truly insane when they stopped considering the notion of insanity, like if she really truly began to believe she was Joan of Arc without question. Then again, she couldn't dispute that Lancer was real, that some form of magic was real, and that for a moment she came into contact with a world she never knew even existed.

Poking her head outside, Atosaki made sure to wear a heavier duffle coat and a scarf so as to negate the possibility of a cold. The sun was at the pinnacle of its journey in the sky, shedding light which, like with the other wispy clouds in the sky, brightened the mist of her warm exhales. Even though it was growing increasingly wintry, Atosaki sat on the porch, listening to the hum of traffic from far away.

It seemed that all these incidents took place at night. That was probably when Lancer and other magical superhuman beings went on the move. She would take greater precaution in the evening, probably lock up extra tight and hide in bed. If only she knew how to set up a magic barrier or something to keep out intruders.

One half of her hoped that she never saw Lancer ever again, that she could move past the strange experiences like nothing ever happened. The other half, however, didn't want to. She wanted to meet him again and have him tell her about magic and powers and even himself. With that desire, she kept looking back, unable to advance, overly intrigued. She opened a door that she could not close.

When night fell at last, Atosaki closed the blinds and went into her parent's bedroom where the lights could be brightened or dimmed. Ever since their disappearance, Atosaki hadn't touched their belongings. Everything was where it was before they left, like it waited for them to return. She sighed, sitting on their bed, her expression vacant, eyes roving around restlessly before settling on the nightstand and its partially opened drawer.

Atosaki went to close it, but seeing something twinkle inside she pulled it out more to check what it was. Upon reaching in, a red-hot pain ran from the fingertips of her hand all the way up her arm, and she instinctively reeled backwards, dragging out whatever burned her as well.

A small leather-bound diary flopped on the carpet, a light blue crystal jutting out from its cover. Curious and perturbed at once, Atosaki retrieved it to check it and peruse its contents. All but one page had been ripped out, and the ink, though relatively fresh, was smudged as if written hastily. She could not make out the date, but there were a few sentences which stood out.

"…Elemental Affinity change, test failure… U-uh, resulting… blight, worsened… treatment in America."

Elemental Affinity? Blight? What did that have to with treatment, which Atosaki assumed referred to her mother's cancer treatment in America. Almost everything else on the page was illegible, but when she turned it over she found a note written in darker, hard-pressed ink.

"On return: remove the seal… and tell her."

Atosaki could only wonder if this concerned her, who wrote this and what they were talking about. A creeping suspicion dawned on her, that this all had to do with magic or magecraft or whatever it was, and there was something being kept secret by her parents. She hoped these things weren't written by her mother or father, but it didn't make much sense for the diary to belong to anyone else.

She turned it over and prodded at the crystal stuck fast on the cover, the surface of which glowed with an aquamarine hue and felt almost warm to the touch. How it got there was anyone's guess, yet Atosaki somehow suspected that what happened earlier had something to do with it.

To Atosaki's surprise, a few seconds later the crystal began to melt, becoming what looked like a lump of clay before finally disappearing, as if evaporated. Just as she was about to open the diary again, an odd tremor ran through the air, like the sensation right before an earthquake. Like the very atmosphere was quaking instead of the ground. The lightbulbs above suddenly exploded, loudly, in a shower of sparks. Everything went dark save for the shafts of moonlight flooding in from between the window shutters.

A suppressed scream escaped Atosaki's lips as strange silhouettes began to rise up out of the floor. They appeared to be zombies of sorts holding rigid weapons, but once Atosaki ran to open the blinds she saw that they were actually distorted skeletons, humanlike but not, their skulls replaced by a pair of gaping jaws.

"Not again…" Atosaki groaned, inching towards the door. The horde of skeletons watched her without eyes, rotating in sync with her movements, going still when she did. And then she bolted out of the bedroom and into the hallway, blindly turning corners until she was almost out the door.

More skeletons rose up from the front yard, stopping her dead in her tracks on the porch. Atosaki's chest rose and fell erratically as she searched for a way out. She considered jumping the side railing when a voice cut through the silence.

"My, my. What a careless little Master you are."

A cloaked woman materialized out of nowhere and float over the skeletons, her eyes obscured by a hood but a wicked grin showing all the same. Atosaki paled, unable to speak.

"Let me count your mistakes," the woman continued in an amused drawl. "No defense. Unchecked mana spikes. Your Servant being so active in these parts… How quaint. It was really only a matter of time before I found you. Is he even home at the moment? I was expecting a good fight."

A million questions jumped up on Atosaki's lips, but she decided against asking them. She had the feeling that anything she said was going to be used against her.

"Hmm, cat got your tongue?" The woman chuckled lightly. "No matter, I like it simple. A shame though, you seemed to have had potential. Ah well. Goodbye, little Master."

Pools of bright violet energy formed in the air around the woman and hummed lightly, glowing bright. She smiled at Atosaki, who realized what was coming next. The girl couldn't even move before the energy beams fired and met the target, an explosion tearing through the front portion of the Western-style home.

A pillar of smoke billowed upward, gradually dispersing and revealing an intricate crystal formation where the girl should have been. The spikes of turquoise rock shortly fell to the smoldering ground in liquidy clumps, fading at Atosaki's feet as she watched in shock.

"Wh-what…?"

"Crystallized… ether?" The spellcaster frowned. "I see, you have an affinity for the Void. Quite more common in the Age of the Gods, but I suppose magi like you pop up from time to time… Combined with Earth to materialize as crystal… very nice, though you lack training…"

"What are you talking about?" Atosaki demanded, irked by the woman's nonsensical musings.

"Oh, nothing. But perhaps I might interest you in a temporary alliance. You've seen what I can do, and your skills would make for an excellent prana conductor. Or a human shield."

"Hey. Hands off, Caster."

Atosaki watched the energy vortexes around the woman faded, and she maneuvered to avoid the spear which flew straight through the space she had previously occupied. A familiar blue-outfitted spearman leapt from the rooftop to retrieve his weapon.

The girl's eyes widened. "L-Lancer?"

He ignored her for the moment and turned to the woman glaring at him.

"I think you've got the wrong idea, Caster," said Lancer. "This is my fallback and I don't like you making a mess of things around here."

She looked confused. "Fallback? So this girl isn't your Master after all?"

"Let's just say I'm making use of her for the time being. If you want to get rid of my resources, I'll be sure to get rid of yours."

"Oh, is that a threat? Hm, I will say you have good taste… Too bad, I would have liked to teach her a thing or two." The Caster woman waved a hand, allowing the skeleton army beneath her disappear. "Seeing as your Master remains hidden in the shadows and I'm feeling generous, I think I can let this one go. The girl seems clueless enough. Keep an eye on her though, she's a rare one, wouldn't want her getting stolen by another Servant."

With that, the hooded woman vanished into the night sky, leaving behind no trace of herself save for the destruction inflicted on Atosaki's house.

"Dammit, I was supposed to sell this!" Atosaki cried about the damage. She turned to Lancer accusingly. "What. The. Hell was that about? How many near-death experiences does one person need in a week? This… never would have happened if it weren't for you, Lancer! Can't you just leave me alone?!"

Lancer raised an eyebrow at her. Atosaki opened and closed her mouth helplessly, looking between him and the wrecked portion of her house. She sank down on the turf and sighed, her head cradled in her hands.

"Sorry, sorry, I know it's not your fault. Just… this keeps happening, these crazy things. And m-magic… I never knew. I think I'm gonna go insane. Someone help me."

As Atosaki bit back her anguish, she felt a hand on top of her head and she raised her eyes to see Lancer's sympathetic expression.

"Look kid, I won't fault you for blaming me. Heck, if it makes you feel better blame me all you want. But unfortunately you're already up to your knees in this mess and it's up to you how you get out of it."

"Y-yeah," Atosaki said quietly, averting her eyes. "I just… don't have any idea what I'm doing. Am I… supposed to learn to control these… these powers? Will that keep me safe? I…"

"Sorry, don't have the answer to that. You've got a stopper of sorts on your magic, so I can't say what you're capable of either. You've got something though." Lancer sighed and knelt at the girl's side. "Tell you what, let's make a deal. I can keep watch around these parts if you give me a place to crash. I hate where I'm stationed right now."

After a moment she nodded her head, not about to argue. "Alright. But are you sure you want to stay here? I mean, look at this…"

Lancer glanced over at the house, which he could admit looked like a bomb hit it. He turned back and grinned a bit at the girl. "Don't worry, I'll clean it up. Had to do it over at that school the other night."

"…So it was you," Atosaki murmured, though Lancer didn't hear. Or perhaps he pretended not to hear.

"Leave this to me. Go get some rest or something."

Atosaki looked at the ground and stood slowly, knees balking suddenly and forcing Lancer to catch her.

"H-hey," he uttered as he supported her by the shoulders.

"It's alright," she said, face blank. "I think I can stand or fall on my own."

The girl righted herself without looking at him before walking around the side of the house, probably to use a backdoor since the front was unusable. Lancer watched her disappear around the corner, thinking back to the abilities she displayed when facing Caster and what he observed in the past week.

"Materialized nothingness, huh. Not sure anything good can come of that… Guess I'll get to see soon enough—"

"Lancer."

He found Atosaki had returned, carrying a broom and a plastic dustpan. She held them out to him.

"E-eh…?"

"I thought you might need these," she said, completely serious. When he accepted them, she smiled. "Okay then, I'll see you in the morning. Goodnight."

Lancer stared at her as she left, and then the simple cleaning implements and then the smoking, burning wreckage. Very helpful.

"…Interesting girl, aren't ya."

A/N: Oh wow, thank you guys for following this story and giving it support. I kind of lost my muse for a while, but I'm back on it. Hopefully you'll continue reading! Oh, and if you could, please leave a review! I seriously love hearing from you. ^^