VIII.
Louise was running now. Any plan she had been making, any ideas she had thought up to turn the situation in her favor had all evaporated just as quickly and suddenly as the Archer Servants. Faced with the crushing indifference of Madame Fenix in the face of Leo's death, and the horrible efficiency with which Lancer carried out the orders of execution, the young Saint-Hermine could think to do nothing but to extricate herself from that awful place as swiftly as possible.
She was running faster than she ever recalled, her already exhausted body screaming for her to stop, each breath was like a jagged piece of glass sliding down her throat, but she dared not stop. She had to get as far away as possible, as fast as possible. She would only have so much time to save Rider as well, and she wanted to have as much of a buffer between her and her new foe as she could get. As if to signify that the distance she had covered was enough, Louise's overburdened legs collapsed out from under her, sending the mage tumbling along the dusty tunnel floor.
More by willpower than anything else, Louise stretched out her left hand, the command seal on it already glowing faintly in response to her intention. With a dry and raspy voice that was more breath than word she called out, "By this command seal I order you, my Servant, come to me."
The seal glowed a brilliant red and Louise felt a stinging burn as her skin singed from the first part of her seal disappearing. There was a snapping noise accompanied by a bright flash of light and Rider tumbled to the ground in front of Louise. The chevalier let out a surprised gasp, as though he had been holding his breath at the moment of transportation.
"Master? How? I-"
"An educated guess." Louise cut off her confused Servant, her words quiet and drawn. "The command seal is an unbreakable order, and impossibility for a Servant to ignore. I figured it was worth a shot to use it to summon you to me."
"And if it had not worked and I'd remained fixed to the spot where I was?" Rider asked with a worried curiosity.
"Then I would not have too much to worry about being out a command seal since I would also be out a Servant."
Rider let out a burst of raucous laughter, his relieved amusement echoing down the stone corridors. "Ha! You really are my Master. Now then, as you have so capably evacuated me from that rather desperate situation, perhaps you would like for me to complete our departure? You do appear to be a bit out of breath." Rider extended a hand to the still collapsed Louise.
"I think I would like that very much, thank you."
Lancer's legion of mind-wiped citizens were still milling about and patrolling the tunnels above, ever watchful for anyone their altered minds would consider a "heretic," locked into the mindset of the Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre as they were by the Servant's power. A small gaggle of these individuals were patrolling a particular tunnel when they heard a strange noise building from just around the next bend, a noise that implied the harried movement of something large, swift, and most importantly, four-legged.
"Stand aside you dogs! Or be crushed beneath our advance!" Rider, with Louise positioned on the saddle in front of him, was barreling down the tunnel astride the ever reliable post horse generated by his noble phantasm. Even in their deluded state the citizenry had enough sense of self-preservation to remove themselves from the massive animal's path, many of them smashed up against the stone walls in hopes that they would avoid an excruciating and pitiful death beneath the beast's hooves.
Unlike the armored soldier phantasmals the pair had encountered before, the followers of this particular Servant were ill-equipped to face an opponent of Rider's caliber, which afforded him and his Master a surprisingly easy escape. Despite the simplicity of it though, neither could shake a feeling of apprehension that Lancer herself had not yet appeared to pursue them, the intrusive thought that she may appear waiting around any corner eating away at both Master and Servant simultaneously.
"Rider, about what happened with Leo and the Archers..." Despite the heavy crashing sound of the horse's hurried steps and the occasional sound of panicked peasants, Louise felt compelled to fill the oppressive silence between her and Rider.
"Master, you did everything right." Rider was focused on navigating the tight winding confines of their current surroundings, but he could also sense Louise's unease.
"But if I had done things differently Leo might-"
"Still be alive and just as set on killing us as he was. Because of how things played out, he is dead, and we are alive. He was our opponent in a battle where death is a common end for many of the participants. Do not mistake any of that. You did everything right, and our position has actually improved."
"Then why do I feel this way?" Louise asked the mumbled question more to herself than her Servant. Perhaps Rider understood that as he refrained from answering.
The mounted duo had now burst past the gate that acted as a barrier between the public areas and closed off tunnels, a sign that they had only a short distance left to cover before they were safely out of Lancer's territory. However the tunnels were now quite too narrow to easily traverse on horseback, and the Master and Servant were forced to dismount. Louise was aware enough, despite her current state of detachment, that she made ready to cast a forget-me spell on the security guards they were about to inevitably pass. However as they ascended the stairs to the entrance building where they had initially found the patrolmen incapacitated, they now found it completely deserted. Neither felt comfortable enough spending any amount of time lingering in the area to investigate and immediately headed out into the street.
Louise found herself back beneath the open sky after what had felt like an eternity lost in the winding tunnels below. The rain from before had passed, puddles of varying depth, and the sound of water slowly dripping off nearby trees and roofs the only sign of the torrents that had been pouring down earlier.
Rider once more summoned the post horse and offered his hand to Louise in order to help her remount. "Come, Master. Let's return to Grimaud's."
Zoe's concerns had first been aroused when his brother had not responded at the time of the agreed upon check-in. It was wholly possible that Leo was too occupied with the task of killing Louise and her Servant to respond to Zoe's magical correspondence, but if that were the case he was a little hurt. It was bad enough he was being left out of the satisfaction of ending a Saint-Hermine life, despite his brother's promise that he, Zoe, would get the honor of killing Camille as repayment. The de Franchis were prudent and accounted for all possible variables. On the off chance that Louise survived the encounter it would be unwise to let her be fully aware of the dual nature of both the Servants and Masters.
Zoe's musing on this particular subject had come to an end though, and his concerns were elevated further when he had received a short, and surprisingly garbled, telepathic message from Rouge.
-"Zoe, I fear things may be turning..."- Was all the Servant had said.
Zoe was not sure how it was possible for magically based telepathic messages to be cut off or interfered with, but that was hardly important. What was important was that it was quite possible his Servants and, more critically, his brother were likely in danger. With this thought in mind he started heading for the last place Leo had checked in from.
Zoe's concerns had turned to full on panic and bewildered disbelief when the searing pain had started to burn its way across the back of his hand. Zoe, tears streaming down his face from the agony, watched in horror as his command seals literally burned away, the back of his hand a red conflagration where the all-important marks had once been.
As the command seals finished departing and the pain faded, Zoe's tears of physical distress turned to those of emotional anguish. The disappearance of his mark of Masterhood, Rouge's distressed words, and the absence of Leo's own made the truth painfully clear.
"No. No no no. No no no no no no NO NO NO NO NO!" Zoe was on the ground clutching his still smoking hand. "You bitch. You harlot! You monster! Louise Saint-Hermine! It wasn't enough that your family had to take any pride or honor we might have had? No, you had to take my brother from me too?! Well, you'll see! I may not have my Servants anymore, but that doesn't mean I lack the tools to take things from you too. I'll take everything. Everything you hold dear! And then, only then, will I allow you the sweet release of death." Zoe rose from the tunnel floor, his face a twisted mess of the despair he was feeling. As he turned to leave he suddenly found his path blocked by an imposing, cloaked figure standing in the path before him. "Who-?"
His words were cut short as the individual lunged at him, a gloved hand emerged from the flowing folds of the deep azure cape and took hold of the alarmed mage, slamming him into a nearby wall, the impact causing the many decorative bones to scatter around him. "You spoke of killing Madame Saint-Hermine, yes?" The man spoke with a low, powerful voice.
"And if I did, what business is it of yours?" Zoe responded, his raging emotions prevented him from fully comprehending any possible danger he was currently in.
"Unfortunately that would be very inconvenient for my Master, as he has grown quite attached to her. And, little as I care for his flights of fancy and planned romances, his being inconvenienced is also terribly inconvenient for me."
"Yeah!? And who are you?" Zoe's anguish had quickly turned into rage.
A playful smile appeared on the face of Zoe's assailant as he responded. "Today, your murderer. Tomorrow, the victor of this Grail War. But for the brief time formality stands between us, you may call me... Saber."
Zoe's eyes widened with confusion and horror as the Servant known as Lord Wilmore drove his sword into the mage's chest, the blade passing completely through his body and shattering several of the skulls inlaid in the wall behind him. The playful de Franchi died too quickly to utter any sort of response to Saber's words or actions. The Servant withdrew his sword from his victim's body, letting the corpse fall miserably to the ground. Saber cleaned his blade and turned to leave, having already forgotten nearly everything about the man whose life he had just taken.
Maria Badeaux had spent the better part of her time in the catacombs being lost and cursing to herself about being lost. She had at first chosen to ignore the forced metal gate, wanting to make sure to check the standard tourist path before entering the less directed tunnels that lay beyond. Having, as she expected, found nothing down the public path, she had doubled back to the only place she was likely to find the people she was attempting to tail.
And that was where everything had gone wrong. The closed off sections of the estuary were far more winding and confusing than she had given them credit for. Maria had almost immediately lost her way and had yet to find any sign of Louise or her mystery companions. She knew she was hopelessly lost and alone, but the unending skeletal faces of the past, their eyeless sockets ever staring at her, made her feel as though she were being constantly watched. That was until the sound of shouting had caught her ear.
Doing her best to keep her footsteps quiet, the Juge hurried up the path straight ahead of her in the direction of where the yelling was coming from. She reached a juncture and, around the bend to her right where the voice had originated from, the sound of impassioned screaming had been replaced by heated conversation. Maria peeked around the corner, intending to get a better look at the participants, and almost immediately regretted it. She was able to recognize one of the individuals Louise had entered the underground with, but she did not recognize the man who had just run them through with a sword.
The Juge didn't fully understand why, but everything inside her was screaming to run away from the cloaked man as fast as possible. There was something about him that filled her with an overwhelming sense of dread. She had always held her duty as an arbiter of the law and the responsibility that entailed above her own feelings and even personal safety, but even now as she was watching someone be murdered right before her very eyes, she could not even bring herself to move, let alone intervene. Despite her paralysis though, not a single detail of what was happening escaped her. Even with how low his voice was, she could still clearly hear his threatening words, even if their meaning was lost on her.
"Today, your murderer. Tomorrow, the victor of this Grail War. But for the brief time formality stands between us, you may call me, Saber." He said, punctuating his words with the sickly sound of the sword coming loose from his victim. He stood for a moment over the corpse, as he wiped the blood from his blade with a cloth that he had produced from some unseen pocket. His weapon clean, he placed it back in its sheath and turned to go. Before Maria could feel any relief at his parting though, he stopped with his back to her, and spoke as if to no one. "I don't know who you work for, if anyone, but my advice to you would be this: the Holy Grail War is no place for someone like you. Leave it, and all the misery it entails, behind you." With those words he was gone, his passage too quick and too sudden for the Juge to perceive. She was alone now, the man whose presence had instilled so much dread in her was gone, but the feelings of mutual terror and awe remained. It was several more minutes before Maria felt like she could move again, and once she had recovered, the only thing she did was turn to leave that dreadful place behind, not even sparing a thought for the poor dead individual she was abandoning in the crypt.
With Saber and now Maria having left him forgotten, the only gazes that fell on Zoe de Franchi were those of the myriad dead whom he was now one of.