County Durham. In a small forest near Elwick stood the Tourmaline Tower, a magnificent fifty-two meter structure made of stone and the mineral from which it took its name. Protected by thirty-foot walls, which formed a triangular perimeter, this isolated Magical Workshop had large mullioned windows and, on its summit, rested a large marble statue of Athena, clutching a shield and a spear made of elbaite.
The interior walls were decorated with frescoes of starry skies and the entire structure was permeated by the smell of incense. Of twenty-five rooms: eighteen were libraries, one was the bedroom, three were bathrooms, one was the kitchen, one was the dining room and the last was the observatory.
Lancer, just returned from her fight with Archer, reached the highest floor of the tower, where the observatory was located, and immediately knelt, knightly fashion, at the feet of a woman who was poring over a magic tome. She was her Master: Livia Animusphere.
Livia was a seventy-two-year-old woman with a cold beauty that immediately caught the eye. She had a thin face, marked by time, yet not ruined by it. Her eyes were blue, with a gray tint, and her long hair was silver. She was thin, of medium height, wearing an elegant black dress and a circular amethyst around her neck. She was the mistress of the Tourmaline Tower and was also the leader of the Animusphere house.
"Remove your mask, Lancer," she said after closing the book. "You know I don't like talking to people who cover their eyes."
"I apologize, my lady." She quickly removed her steel visor and remained on her knees.
"You failed, am I right?" she asked, abandoning the text on the desk.
"Archer has joined forces with Caster. I didn't see that coming... But I promise I'll find a way to kill them both—"
"Alone?"
"Master, I told you, I don't need allies to win this war. In my world, I was the best knight in the Fairy Queen's service. No one is stronger or faster than me."
"And yet you lost."
"Yes, and I regret it!" she said, embarrassed by her performance. "My only fault was that I underestimated Archer's ability to make friends. But that won't stop me! Have faith in me, Master, and I promise that you'll win the Holy Grail War!"
Livia sighed. She walked over to her Servant, who was visibly demoralized, and held out her hand. "Get up, my knight."
Lancer placed her hand on that of the Master and stood up. Livia arranged her hair, as if that Heroic Spirit were her granddaughter, and then, looking her in the eyes, said:
"That's why I advised you not to be impulsive."
"Master—!"
Livia raised her hand to silence the Servant. "Whether you're powerful or not is of no concern, because when I look into your eyes, I see a serious and courageous person, and that's what matters. Victory won't always be guaranteed, but if you remain determined, then no loss will break us. Do you understand that, my knight?"
"Yes... I think I do..." she muttered with a hint of regret.
"Do you think I'm lying to you?"
"No, no!" she exclaimed, intimidated by that penetrating gaze. "Absolutely not! It's just that... um... if you really think that way, why did you ask the other Master for help? It almost seems like you... don't trust me."
"So you chose to fight Archer just to prove that you could win on your own?"
Lancer didn't answer, but her bitter gaze nodded.
"I see..."
"I'm the best at what I do, Master. Believe it or not, it makes little difference, I'm truly the best. I cannot accept being left aside. I don't need other people to do my job."
Livia didn't say a word and left the room, stopping in front of the handrail.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to insult you, my lady—"
"You didn't. But you made me think..." She leaned against the banister, crossing her arms. "Have you ever wondered why I chose to live here? Why I chose to live isolated from the rest of the world?"
Lancer shook her head.
"Because people are disgusting. It makes little difference whether they're ordinary persons or magi, in the end they're all the same. The magus thinks they're better than the simple human in the same way that this thinks they're superior to an animal, but in the end both the former and the latter behave worse than beasts. In fact, I would go so far as to say that I would rather trust a wild beast than a member of society." She paused briefly. "In my opinion, mankind is a lost cause."
"Why?"
"Because it's the nineteenth century and we have the same flaws we had over two thousand years ago. Humanity is incapable of living in peace. Every time I notice it, I feel uncomfortable, I feel as if we were all chained to an inevitable fate... and the sad thing is that I can only notice it when I live with other people. The more I'm close to them, the more I perceive the existence of cycles that repeat themselves endlessly." She laughed bitterly. "When I was young, I was more optimistic and thought that with my abilities I would be able to not only change the world, but also live in peace with magi and humans; as I have aged, my perception of things has changed and now that I'm in my seventies I can tell you that I'm tired of humanity. I no longer have the mental strength, much less the physical one, to bear them."
Lancer listened intently; she was captivated by the older woman's words.
"So now that you know this side of me, tell me how I could choose another Servant over you? You're not only a Heroic Spirit, but also a creature that transcends humanity itself. There's no reason for me to trust one of my kind when I have you at my side." She let go of the handrail and slowly approached the Servant. "The alliance I seek to make with Miss Ashborn has nothing to do with trust. She's a means to an end, nothing more, nothing less. You have no reason to fear for your position. You are and will remain my knight."
"I understand, I'm sorry I misunderstood you. I was wrong to act impulsively—"
"This must never happen again, Lancer," she said sternly. "Never again. Otherwise, I'll sever our Contract. Am I clear?"
"Yes, my lady!" she replied with a slight bow.
"Good. Now how about you relax? You deserve a rest after all."
"You don't have to worry about me, thanks to your magical energy I've nothing to fear."
"I'm glad to hear that, but whatever you do, don't leave the tower. No matter what happens."
Lancer nodded and left the observatory. Her heart felt lighter and she felt she could trust her elderly Master more.
Lancer had been Livia Animusphere's Servant for only five days, and not only had she already adapted to living in the Tourmaline Tower, she knew every nook and cranny of it. She remembered by heart the position of the statues representing the god Hermes; she memorized the arrangement of the various wooden furniture inside the different rooms; she even remembered the position of the objects inside them. She knew that in every library there were fifteen bookcases and a thousand books; she knew that the bedroom had a wardrobe, a long piece of furniture with a combination lock and a bedside table with three books on it; she knew that Livia's double bed always had all the pillows shifted to the right and that under it, on that side, there was a trunk with another combination lock. Every night she would inspect the building, both inside and out, and spend two to four hours making sure no one dared to set foot on her Master's territory.
It wasn't Livia who asked her to do it, she had been trained that way.
In her nation-a world now alive only in her memory—she was the best at what she did. She was the most disciplined knight and was also the one all the best soldiers wanted to emulate. Everyone considered her not only an elite cavalier, but also one of the most powerful faeries in the kingdom.
As Lancer scanned the walls, she thought back to her duel with Archer and, looking up at the sky that had stopped crying, she wondered:
'Is that really the same Baobhan Sith, or does she have something to fight for this time?'
She wanted to face her again and reveal her true intentions. It was a strange feeling. Part of her was disgusted by her enemy, but the other was somehow happy to have met a compatriot. The two of them were the only ones, in the entire Holy Grail War, to have lived under the reign of the Faerie Queen.
The only two.
"Hmm?" Lancer sensed several low-ranking Heroic Spirits approaching the walls. "It looks like this is going to be a restless night."
The Servant saw about twenty individuals in black, masked, armed with axes and crossbows, emerge from the thick forest. They were watching her in silence.
"Who are you?" she asked.
Their eyes lit up with red and they began marching towards the walls of the Tourmaline Tower.
"So be it, then."
Lancer immediately descended from the walls. She approached her enemies a little. As soon as she saw them spread out, like wolves ready to encircle their prey, she began to move so as not to allow them to surround her.
With a quick dash into the sky, she avoided the arrows fired by the enemies and then descended from above, at high speed, to thin out that small battalion. She knew it would be a long battle and she wasn't afraid.
Targeting the most isolated one, she cut off its head with a single blow; she leaped out of the way of an enemy slashing at her back, spun in the air to avoid several arrows being fired at her, and then landed in the center of the group.
"Here!"
They charged in unison, but Lancer immediately took flight, making her enemies look foolish. She spotted two opponents nocking their crossbows, and she quickly decapitated them both. She turned to see two more foes running toward her, ready to strike with their large axes, but she parried both attacks with two arms and used a kick to push a third assailant back.
Lancer leapt forward and, with impressive swiftness, dove into the enemy ranks to cut them down a bit and, when she took flight again, she left three corpses in her wake.
"You're stubborn," she commented, her eyes narrowing. "Whoever you are, you're truly tenacious. However..." She landed. "As long as I'm here, none of you will be able to penetrate the Tourmaline Tower."
With that, the girl resumed the fight.
A single Servant against fourteen enemies.
Lancer flew, dodged, struck, moved as fast as a bee, and never gave her opponents even a single, tiny opening. However, despite Lancer's undeniable and unmatched skill, those enemies continued to fight and adapt.
Lancer had noticed that.
It had taken her five minutes to kill the first six; twice as long to eliminate the next six; and at least three times as long to kill the last six.
By the time she came face to face with the last two, she had been fighting non-stop for almost thirty minutes. She wasn't tired, but she was astonished. She had never expected such strength from those low-level Heroic Spirits.
More enemies were coming. They were reinforcements. She couldn't count them, but it looked like at least thirty or forty more men in black ready to fight. Whoever was in charge, they had no intention of giving up.
"Damn...!" Lancer exclaimed. She was ready to use her Noble Phantasm. "You won't make it to the Tourmaline Tower!"
Then a light, coming down from the sky, caught her attention. She looked up and saw that the dark clouds were thinning. But she didn't see the moon.
"It's still... concealed... but where does that light come from...?"
Then, looking carefully, she saw thousands of stars emanating a brighter light than usual. She turned and saw that on a terrace of the building was Livia Animusphere, in her nightgown, with her hand raised towards the sky. She had a cold gaze, like that of a goddess who was about to judge blasphemers. With that single raised hand she was reaching out to the planets, the stars, the entire universe to use their magical energy.
Lancer realized she was in the line of fire and immediately left.
Livia lowered her hand with a decisive movement and in a few minutes the most devastating Magecraft ever created by man revealed itself. Hundreds of meteors fell from the sky. A fiery rain destroyed a significant portion of the forest and with it all the enemies who had dared to disturb Lady Animusphere's sleep.
Lancer was shocked. She had never seen such powerful magic in her entire life. She no longer knew whether to respect or fear her Master, but one thing was certain: that attack would be able to kill even a high-ranking Servant.
No enemy survived.
Livia returned to her bedroom, as if nothing had happened.