Fanfiction had lied to me. Brockton Bay was supposed to explode every night. I was expecting I'd be able to throw down with some overzealous cape attacking a warehouse or something while Taylor was asleep. Instead, nothing happened. There were no attacks. I saw a few very blatant gang-bangers while I zipped around the city in my astral state, but none of them seemed like they'd make for good opponents. The majority of them didn't even have real weapons. The most common armaments I saw were baseball bats and lead pipes. Wasn't Worm supposed to be a hell world? Where was the challenge I was promised?

I spent some time looking around for any grail-like entity that might be contributing to the mana flow necessary to sustain me, but the only mana I felt came from Taylor. Her circuits must be on an entirely separate level if she could maintain me on her own.

I was back in the Hebert household before the sun rose, containing my disappointment at not finding anything interesting during my nightly stroll. If nothing else, I was able to better familiarize myself with the city. That would be valuable when I found someone who would actually offer me a challenge.

Taylor and Danny Hebert were seated across from each other at the kitchen table munching on toast and yogurt. They were making small talk about work and school, but neither of them were really saying anything of import, so I tuned their conversation out, content to sit and wait for them to be done.

A short while after I arrived, Danny stood up and grabbed his coat, saying a brief goodbye before leaving the house. Taylor hung her head and sat slumped in her seat at the table. I was confused. Taylor clearly wasn't getting ready for school, so it was the weekend, right? Why was he going to work?

"Does your father usually work the weekends?" I asked, materializing across the table from Taylor, leaning back into the counter.

Taylor jolted in her seat, but she controlled herself quickly. She seemed happy to see me. Her mood had improved with my appearance, banishing the melancholy left by Danny's departure.

"You're Cu Chulainn." Taylor said, ignoring my question.

I raised an eyebrow. "My master has heard of me? I'm honored."

"My mom was an English professor. She read me a translated copy of The Tain when I was younger. Are you really a demigod?"

"The son of Lugh. At your service, master." I said, bowing dramatically.

Taylor pursed her lips. "You said you were a hero from history, but I thought you were just a story. Did you actually live? Are gods actually real?"

"I'm unsure of the current state of things due to the existence of parahumans, but the gods were certainly real in my time. I take it that you believe me then?"

Taylor nodded slowly, her smile dimming. "I… I saw you in my dreams. I watched you die."

I winced. "Sorry about that, master. If I could control it, I would've shown you one of the less dreary memories."

"Don't apologize. It's not your fault." An awkward silence descended as she stopped speaking.

Rather than let the awkward tension thicken, I broke it. "So, master, there are a few more topics we need to discuss if you're up for it."

Taylor nodded, sitting up. "Is this about me learning magic? Also, you don't have to call me master."

I smirked. "Sure thing, master. I like your enthusiasm for learning magecraft, but this isn't about that. Remember, physical and martial training first. The main thing I wanted to speak to you about were the marks on your hand."

Taylor's eyes fell to her command seals. "The tattoo?"

"They aren't… Well, if it helps you to think of it as a magical tattoo, I won't contradict you. I told you those were a physical manifestation of our contract, but I didn't tell you exactly what they were out of fear of you using them wantonly. You're more calm now, so I'm not concerned about you using them the moment you hear what they can do. Those are called command seals. Each master who summons a servant is granted three of them."

"What do they do?"

"They're called command seals because that is their purpose. A master may expend a command seal to give an absolute order to their servant. If you expend a command seal, I will be unable to resist the command you give me."

Taylor was looking at the back of her hand in a new light. She looked almost afraid of the marks on the back of her hand. "I… I won't do that to you, Cu."

I felt myself let out a relieved breath. That was unexpected. It seemed I still had some issues after… That.

"I appreciate that, master, but there are circumstances where their use is advisable. If you order me to do something I want to do, the command seal will add its power to mine, and I will be able to do far more than I could otherwise. That being said, please ask me before using them. I am not overly fond of command seals due to some unpleasant experiences with them. My last master used them to order me to kill myself among other things." Fuck Kotomine Kirei.

Taylor was pale, her mouth opening and closing as she tried to find words. "I promise, Cu, I won't do that."

"Once more, you have my thanks, master. Also, just call me Lancer. I doubt that any other servants have been summoned, but it would still be better for me to be unknown for now. Until I am confident you are strong enough to defend yourself, revealing the fact that you are the master of Cu Chulainn will only serve to paint a target on your back."

"Would people try to kill me?"

"It's very likely, yes." I said, unwilling to sugar-coat anything. She needed to know the risks associated with being a master. "If they realized that killing you would cause me to lose my mana supply and therefore my grip on the living world, they would target you. You're a lot easier to kill than I am. Even after I'm through training you, you still won't be able to match me."

"Oh… But I'll be able to use magic, right? I… I want to be a hero."

"Don't worry, master. When I'm through with you, you'll be able to go toe-to-toe with parahumans, and I'll deal with anyone who still outclasses you."

"When will you start teaching me?"

"Eager, are you?"

"It's winter break. I don't have to go to school for two weeks and dad will be working most of the time. This is the perfect chance to start!"

"Hm. In that case, we can start today, but that leads me into the second thing I wanted to talk to you about."

Taylor looked uncertain. "You don't think I'm good enough to learn?"

"Did I say that? No. I wouldn't have accepted you as my master if I thought you were pathetic. I'm referring to your father. Are you planning to tell him about me?" I asked, watching Taylor closely.

She froze, her eyebrows furrowing as she stared at me challengingly. "No. I don't want him to worry. Why? Are you saying you'll tell him?"

"You are my master, not your father. I'll stick by you no matter what you choose, and I am the last person you should listen to preach about how to care for your family. Having said that, be warned that if he discovers either me or the new skills I plan to teach you on his own, he will likely resent you. It may damage your relationship beyond repair. Alternatively, an enemy may discover who you are and attack him to hurt you. Like you're weaker than me, he will be weaker than you. Are you willing to risk that?"

Taylor was silent. She looked down at the table, frowning. "He won't find out, and I won't let him get hurt." She said resolutely.

"Alright. I won't press the issue further. If you change your mind and want to tell him, I'll help you tell him the story." I wasn't exactly thrilled with Taylor's decision not to tell her father about all of this, but I couldn't find it in myself to be disappointed either. I knew Taylor's potential. If she dedicated herself to my training like she did to her Skitter persona, she would go far. I'd like for her to have a better relationship with her father, but I wasn't going to jeopardize my relationship with my master over it. She could make her own decisions. I would only go against those decisions when they were actively stupid. For now, hiding me from her father wasn't actively stupid.

"Can we start training now?" Taylor asked, anxious. She seemed equal parts excited to get started and desperate to change the subject.

I pushed off the counter and walked around the table. "Turn around and kneel on the ground. I'm going to place my hand on your back and take a look at your magic circuits."

Taylor tilted her head in confusion as I approached, but she stood up and turned around. "What's a magic circuit?"

"Think of it like a magic battery. The number of circuits a mage has and the quality of those circuits determines how strong you can become. The more the better. I'll give you a more in-depth explanation when we start working on magecraft. For now, I'm just going to open your circuits up and make sure you're not taxing them by sustaining me. That would be bad for you."

Taylor knelt, and I knelt behind her, placing my palm against her back and closing my eyes. Alright, let's see what we've…

I was expecting channels of magic connected to several nexus points. Instead, I was blinded by a single presence that glowed like a sun. I pulled my hand off of Taylor's back, shocked.

"Is something wrong?" Taylor asked, looking over her shoulder at me, frowning.

I didn't answer her. I placed my hand against her back again to confirm what I'd seen the first time. Once more, I was blinded by a single, oppressive beacon spewing mana.

"You have a magic core." I said, unbelieving despite the fact I had just confirmed it.

"A what? Is that bad?" Taylor was intently staring at me, growing more uneasy as she took in my shock.

"If a magic circuit is a magical battery, a magic core is a nuclear reactor. You're generating enough mana to sustain me and you still have more leftover than my previous master."

"So…that's a good thing?" Taylor sounded excited.

"You're definitely going to be an interesting master. I've changed my mind about your training. I'm going to show you runecraft concurrently with your physical training. It would be a waste of your potential to do otherwise. We'll need to find a way to get you a weapon too. The two people that come to mind when I think of magic cores are Arturia and Siegfried. Both of them channeled their power into their swords and were able to do incredible damage even in life."

"I recognize Siegfried's name, but who is Arturia?"

"Arturia Pendragon. She went by Arthur in life. Nice girl. Good fighter. I wish we'd had more time to face each other."

Taylor blinked. "King Arthur is a girl?"

"She wouldn't have been crowned king as a girl, so she hid the fact that she was a woman. Anyway, that's not important. I need to get your stamina and strength up so you can handle more intensive training. I found an abandoned warehouse while I was looking around the city last night that we can use to train. It's isolated and there wasn't any evidence of gang activity around it. I set up a bounded field around it to protect it further. You're going to run all the way there. Once you're exhausted, your actual training will start."

"What's a bounded field?"

"I'll tell you when we start on runecraft. Now go get changed into something you can exercise in. We're leaving in three minutes. Move!"

Taylor made a squawking sound as she scrambled out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

Gae Bolg materialized in my hand as she disappeared. I laid it across my shoulders and began rotating my shoulders to stretch out. Scathath had been a great teacher for me. I likely wouldn't use her more…extreme methods, but I planned to follow her example to whip Taylor into shape.

Two weeks wasn't enough time to get her ready for combat, but it was enough time to get her in something resembling fighting shape. In canon, she didn't start running until after the locker. If this was her winter break, that meant her locker was likely filled with garbage right now, meaning Taylor hadn't been exercising before now. I'd need to get her in shape quickly so we could move on to combat and runecraft.

I also needed to stop by the school one of these nights to clear out her locker. Canon wasn't happening. I wasn't going to let my master be subjected to that vile 'prank' just to keep things on the correct narrative tracks.

Prepare yourself, Earth Bet. Ireland's Child of Light is here to stay.