With the benefit of hindsight, it was simple to realize that the girl would react to my sudden magical arrival the way she had. After attempting to cover me in half-cooked eggs – I didn't even need Protection From Arrows to dodge her clumsy throw – she picked up a dollar store chef's knife and brandished it towards me, backing into the corner of the kitchen. She likely would have fled if I wasn't blocking her path out of the kitchen.

"Don't come any closer." she warned, trying to sound intimidating, but it was clear she was panicking. She cut a rather meager figure, standing as she was leaning as far away from me as she could possibly get, the knife held out in front of her with two hands in a terrible grip. Her eyes were wide behind her glasses. Long black hair fell down over a wrinkled white shirt. She didn't look very put together, certainly not like a magus intending to summon a servant. She likely hadn't intended to summon me then.

I held my hands up placatingly. "Peace, master. I won't hurt you."

The girl flinched. "Who are you? Why are you calling me that? Why are you in my… Get out of my house!"

The back of her right hand glowed threateningly as the magical red tattoo scored into her flesh flexed its authority. Her command seals looked like a narrow, pointed spear laid between a fractured wheel. She hadn't activated a command seal yet, but she was dangerously close to doing so.

I slowly began to back away. "There's no need for that, master. I'm moving." She didn't strike me as a studied magus, so I would need to explain things to her. I wouldn't be able to do that if she unintentionally used a command seal to order me to get as far away from her as possible. I needed to calm her down. That meant taking things slow.

The girl took small steps forward as I backed away, still brandishing the knife in front of her. Her back was arched back, leaning away from me even as she followed me towards the door.

"You don't know what's happening, do you?" I said slowly.

"You broke into my house. We don't have anything worth stealing, so just leave."

"I am no thief, and I did not break into your home. You called me here." I tapped a finger against the back of my right hand. "See for yourself, master."

The girl's eyes narrowed. "You really expect me to.." She trailed off as curiosity won and her eyes flicked to the back of her hand. She was so shocked she dropped the knife in her hands, letting it clatter against the floor. "What… What is this!" She began frantically rubbing at the back of her hand, seemingly trying to wipe the command seals off her skin.

"Breathe. I will explain everything, but you need to be calm."

She began backing away from me fearfully, curing in on herself. "What did you do to me? I… I'm not worth it. You should–"

"I have done nothing to you, and I don't plan to do anything. Those marks on your hand are command seals. They are a physical representation of our bond. You are my master, and I am your servant. I'm Lancer. It's good to meet you."

The girls swallowed anxiously, but she was breathing more regularly and listening to me, so I felt I was making progress.

"Master?" She said the word in an almost horrified fashion.

I shook my head, realizing where her thoughts had taken her. "Not the kind of master you're thinking of. Gotta say, things have gotten pretty exciting since the old days. These parahumans of yours are interesting. I wouldn't mind getting into some scrapes with them." The knowledge of parahumans came from my life as a regular human, not from my life as the son of Lugh. Typically, the Holy Grail would give servants whatever knowledge they'd need to operate in the time period they found themself in. I'd experienced this once before, so I knew I had received no such information this time. Maybe my bonding with another soul was the info dump? It didn't matter too much. I still knew the workings of the world.

"You're a parahuman?" The girl was losing her calm again.

"No. I'm a Heroic Spirit. The Heroic Spirit that answered your call from the Throne of Heroes. I mean you no harm. Matter of fact, it's my job to help you out now."

"What… You're not making any sense."

"Look, we can get into all the details later. Right now, what is important for you to know is that you have just summoned the spirit of a legend from history to be your servant. Based on your reaction, I'm guessing the summoning wasn't intended?"

"…What?"

"I'm going to take that as a yes. Rapid fire: You just accidentally activated a magic ritual that summoned me to your side to serve as your servant. I am not your enemy, and am instead at your service. If you want some time to think everything over, just say so and I'll give you space, but I'll stay nearby."

"Magic isn't real."

I raised an eyebrow at her. Wordlessly, I lifted up a finger and cast a rune into the air above it. I didn't activate the effect, just let the girl's jaw hang open at the sight before banishing it.

"You're a parahuman."

My head fell into my hands. "No, master, I am not a parahuman. I am a heroic spirit, and magic is real. I can teach you sometime if you want. For now, I can see we're not really getting anywhere, so I'm gonna give you a minute. If you need me, call for me. This Lancer servant is at your command."

With that, I astralized. I heard the girl gasp as my body shimmered into nothingness in front of her. Despite my words, I didn't go far. I'd dropped a lot on her in a very short time, and wanted to make sure she was okay. I also still hadn't gotten her name, so hopefully I'd be able to figure out who she was soon.

I knew from the memories of the CYOA that I was in Worm, but I hadn't expected to be summoned here. I thought I would just appear somewhere in the world, but, in hindsight, it makes sense that I was summoned. I wouldn't have been able to maintain myself without a source of mana, and I was not going to go sucking souls out like that bitch from the temple. I'd died a couple times now, and death was preferable to sinking to that level of depravity.

The girl stared into the space I was standing in dumbly. She reached down and pinched her leg. She just stood there for a while. I kept an eye on her while I explored the house.

It was small and sparsely furnished. What pieces of furniture and decorations were present all looked years old, as if the interior of the home hadn't been updated or altered for some time now. There were several bookshelves stocked full of everything you could hope for – fiction, histories, texts on various mythologies. I found a single picture. It showed a small child I guessed to be my master with her mother and father behind her. It was a cute picture, but something about it was rubbing me the wrong way.

I sensed a figure approaching the house and went on guard. I didn't expect a teenage girl like my master to have enemies, but it was always better to be safe than sorry. I flowed through the door in my astral state and relaxed slightly. Walking up the driveway was an older, more bald version of the father in the picture I'd just seen. This wasn't an enemy. Granted, parahumans in this world could possibly take other forms, but I didn't detect any deception from the man.

He looked worn down, his head and shoulders hung low. As if going through tedious motions, he let himself into the house and walked into the living room.

"Dad!" my master cried, surprised as he set his keys in a bowl.

"Taylor," he greeted in turn, frowning when he looked at the ground at my master's feet. "What happened?" There was a mess of gooey eggs and trampled bits of vegetables and meat on the floor of the kitchen from when I'd been struck by food.

"I burned my hand while I was cooking and spilled everything." Taylor said quickly, holding her right hand. There was a white wrapping around it that wasn't there before. She must have covered her command seals while I was exploring the house.

Wait…

Depressed father. House that doesn't seem to have been touched in years. A missing mother. The name Taylor.

This was certainly unexpected.

X

Dad reheated some left over pasta while Taylor cleaned up the remnants of the scramble she'd been making. They ate together, trading the same questions they always did. How was your day? Did anything interesting happen?

Like usual, neither of them really said anything to each other. Dad was the same as he'd been since mom died. He went through the motions and put in the effort to show he cared about her before retreating upstairs to go to sleep. It was a well-practiced dance that Taylor had long since grown used to. It normally bothered her, dad's unwillingness to put any actual effort into their relationship, but tonight, she welcomed it, counting down the seconds until he left her alone.

When dad went upstairs, Taylor descended to the basement, shutting the door tight behind her. Dad never came to the basement anymore. He used to work on projects down here, but those also stopped when mom died. The only evidence dad ever was in the basement were the tools he'd left strewn about. Taylor had often fantasized about unlocking her powers as a tinker and using those tools to create inventions she could use to be a hero. Those dreams were all she had these days. At least, they were.

Taylor unwound the gauze from her right hand, half fearful and half hopeful. A short, relieved laugh slipped past her lips as she saw the red symbol still affixed to her hand. It was the same as when she'd covered it to hide it from dad. A thin, pointed spear in the center, bisecting a split wheel symmetrically. Taylor took a deep breath, holding her fist closed tight. She lifted her hand and willed her projection to appear.

Her eyebrows narrowed in confusion when nothing happened. She pursed her lips, and touched the symbol on the back of her hand with her finger, seeing if she maybe had to make physical contact with it to summon her master projection. Still, nothing happened.

"Appear." Taylor said aloud, seeing if vocalizing her intent would work. It didn't. She remembered she'd said something when he appeared the first time. Maybe she should try that?

"Let silver and essence…bring forth the…scales of balance and…heaven?" Taylor's shoulders slumped. She turned a bucket upside down and sat atop it, cradling her face with her hands.

Of course. Of course she gets a master power that summons a projection after a ridiculously long, needlessly complicated phrase. To top it all off, she couldn't even remember the words correctly! She was the only parahuman in existence with a power she couldn't use because she'd forgotten the words to use it!

"Why couldn't I have been a tinker instead? You don't have to memorize stupid speeches to be a tinker."

"A girl thought her servant a phony."

Taylor leapt off the bucket she'd been sitting on, whipping around to face the man shimmering into being behind her. He was laying flat on the only table in the basement, looking up at the ceiling. He continued speaking, ignoring her surprise.

"Despite her world's state, so loony.

Deep in denial,

To skirt fear that's primal,

She doubts his very humanity."

His head rolled to the side as he turned to look at her. "Didn't I tell you, master? I'm not a parahuman. I'm not some feeble creation of one either. I'm the real deal. I'm what all of them are pretending to be. Alexandria? Myrdin? I didn't take someone else's name to make myself feel special."

"You didn't come when I commanded!" Taylor said.

He smirked. "I may be a servant, but I'm not a lap dog." He paused for a moment, and chuckled at some joke Taylor wasn't privy to. "I'm here to help, but I'm not going to let you make me a slave. My last master was… Well, the less said about that coward the better. All that's really important for you to know is that I haven't had the best experience with masters. I'm hoping you and I work out well. I've seen what masters and servants with strong bonds can do, and I think it would be great if you and I were like that."

Taylor's eyes were narrow as she regarded the lazing man. Clearly, her power was a strange one. Was her power sentient? How did that even work? And if he was sentient, how was she supposed to control him? Did she even want to control a sentient being?

The man sighed as he swung his legs over the side of the table. "I can tell you're thinking about this too much, master. Let me square some things away. I am not some projection created by a parahuman power. I am a Heroic Spirit."

"You said that before. You said you're a hero from history."

He smirked at her. "You're a sharp one. Good. I'd hate for my master to be a dullard."

"If you're a hero from history, would I know you? I don't remember anyone called Lancer being particularly prominent."

Lancer chuckled. "Lancer isn't my true name. It's kind of like one of your cape's alternate personas. Heroic Spirits are typically summoned to fight each other, and knowing your opponent's true name gives you a distinct advantage, so we go by the class we were summoned as."

"Class?"

"We can cover that later if you want, but it's not overly important. I'm a lancer because of my spear. That's all you really need to know."

Taylor accepted that easily. There were other things she wanted to know more, things that seemed more pressing.

"You said you're summoned to fight each other. Will we have to fight others like you?"

Lancer shrugged. "I can't say for sure, but I don't think so. My summoning here was strange before a girl who didn't even know magic was real accidentally summoned me. I think it's safe to say we won't have to fight any other Heroic Spirits. Shame though it may be."

Taylor was surprised to hear Lancer sound genuinely regretful he wouldn't get to fight any other Heroic Spirits. Taylor was still a little skeptical about all this, but getting more information from him couldn't hurt.

"If Lancer is your cape name, what's your real name?"

He smirked at her. "I think I'm gonna let you guess for a bit. When you go to sleep tonight, you'll probably end up dreaming about one of my memories, so be prepared for that. I want to see if you can piece together who I am just by seeing a glimpse at what I've done."

"You're going to break into my dreams? That's impossible." Taylor said, unconsciously taking a step backwards. She really didn't like the idea of someone being in her head.

"Why is it impossible?"

"Telepathy is impossible. You can't connect brains with powers like that."

"Again, there is no power at play here. This is all magic. Secondly," 'You're wrong.'

Taylor jolted. Lancer's lips hadn't moved, but she'd heard his voice all the same. It was like someone had spoken directly into her brain.

"How did you do that!" she demanded.

"I told you, you're my master and I'm your servant. We're connected by a contract now. That contract lets us do a lot for each other. It also lets us communicate with each other without speaking. Just think hard at me and it'll work."

"How long have you been in my head?" If he'd been looking through her memories the entire time she'd been eating dinner with dad, then–

"I can't read your mind if that's what you're worried about. I can send you messages, and you can send them to me, but they have to be intentional. The only exception is those dreams I told you about. And it doesn't work both ways. You'll see into my past, but I won't be able to look into yours."

Taylor narrowed her eyes. Think at him hard? How was she supposed to do that? And what kind of instructions were those anyway?

'Do you hear me?'

Lancer smirked. 'Loud and clear, master. You pick things up fast.'

"This is weird." Taylor said aloud, trying to wrap her head around everything that was happening.

"If you want to sleep on it, go ahead. I'll make sure nothing happens to the house while you're asleep. I doubt you've got enemies, but it never hurts to be cautious."

Taylor pursed her lips as her mind drifted to more mundane concerns. "Dad will get suspicious if some random guy appears and starts living in our house."

"Oh, don't worry. I don't need to eat or sleep or any of those pesky concerns humans have. Technically, I'm dead. The only reason I can manifest at all is because of our contract. You're supplying me with the mana I need to exist. I can spend the whole day astralized if I have to."

"Astralized? Wait, what's mana?" Lancer was throwing out too many new terms she'd never heard rapid fire.

"Servants can turn immaterial to hide from sight or move quickly. Mana is magical energy."

So he could phase through his surroundings? That was useful. She could… Magical energy?

"I have magical energy?" Taylor asked breathlessly.

Lancer shrugged. "I wouldn't be here right now if you didn't. Your mana is what is sustaining me. You must have a lot to not feel even a slight drain on your reserves keeping me active. Or maybe something is helping you to carry the load. I'm not sure. I'll look into it while you're asleep."

"I can do magic?" Taylor said hesitantly, hopefully, letting Lancer's other words flow in one ear and out the other. If Lancer wasn't really her power, then she didn't have a power, but magic… Her dad was obsessed with magic and fantasy when he was younger and got her into it. She wasn't as much of a nerd as he was, but she'd be lying if she said she didn't like the idea of flying around on a magic broom. She'd always wanted to fly.

Lancer raised an eyebrow at her. "I already said I'd teach you if you wanted, didn't I? It'll have to wait though. I can't stomach a master of mine being so inept with a knife. I admire your spunk, but when you were threatening me in the kitchen it looked like a particularly enthusiastic chicken could have beat you. We're doing physical and martial training first. Once you're not liable to hurt yourself more than your opponent, I'll show you some runecraft."

"Runecraft?"

"A magecraft from the age of gods, and the only form I'm really good with. I can manage some tricks with other branches of magecraft, but I'm only confident in calling myself good with runecraft."

"Age of gods?"

"You know what? This exposition dump has gone on a little too long. You already have enough to mull over, and I don't want to bombard you with anything else right now. Go ahead and sleep on everything. When I'm still here in the morning and you convince yourself that I'm real and telling the truth, we'll pick this back up. Sound good?"

Taylor frowned. She wanted to keep grilling Lancer for more information, but she could see his logic. Besides, if he was telling the truth, it wasn't like he was going anywhere. And he'd been surprisingly forthright about everything. The telepathy thing was still a little unsettling, but he hadn't tried to hide it. If he really wanted to take over her mind, he wouldn't have warned her he was trying it.

…Unless his telling her he was doing it somehow made it easier to take over her mind?

Okay, now she was just being paranoid. That was a symptom of not sleeping enough, right? She hadn't gotten a lot of sleep this week thanks to having to redo assignments she'd already done after the trio stole or destroyed them.

Taylor forced thoughts of the trio from her mind. For the first time since Emma's betrayal, she felt something resembling excitement for something. If Lancer could really teach her things… She could be a hero.

"Get some sleep, master. I'll be around when you wake up. Call me through our connection if you need me." Lancer said, fading away a moment later.

Taylor stared at the space he vanished from for a moment longer before she stood and went upstairs. She showered quickly and got changed into some comfortable clothes to sleep in. It took her a while to fall asleep. Her mind was abuzz with thoughts of magic and heroes of old. She wracked her brain trying to think of a blue-haired man with a red spear, but she was unable to think of anyone that matched Lancer's description. Maybe he was a minor hero from Europe she hadn't heard of?

Sleep claimed her.

X

A man with blue hair struggled to breathe. Three long spears were driven through his body. Blood seeped from innumerable wounds across his body. He had been fighting for hours, facing an unending force. He was alone now, his allies lay dead.

The man coughed weakly, a glob of blood spitting from his mouth. He knew his time had come, but he would not die on his knees. He would die on his feet, as a warrior.

The man forced himself up to a rock. He growled in agony as he wound himself around the rock, tying himself upright. A raven cawed as it hopped towards him. It pecked at his exposed innards, then tripped over them when it went to hop again.

The man threw his head back and laughed. With a laugh on his lips, he passed from this world.

No man dared to touch the laughing face of the fallen warrior for three days and three nights. A man approached, attempting to steal the warrior's sword as a trophy. The warrior's grip was so tight that his sword was not taken from him even in death. The warrior's tendon was severed, and the sword fell, taking the hand of the would-be thief with it.

X

Taylor sat bolt upright in her bed with a gasp. She was sweating and breathing heavily. Her eyes were wide, her hair tousled.

"Cu Chulainn." she said, her voice a disbelieving whisper.