I've always wanted to write a Grail War.
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01/Awakening
Mari Nakamura
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Darkness. I can feel mana moving on my skin. This place is the summit of the world, and I will stand atop it. I can dimly see the white tops of the clouds, and, in the breaks between them, the vast blackness of the ocean.
The sun flashes by in an instant, and, rather than enjoy the view, I use the light to plan my next handhold. I am higher than man was ever meant to go.
The volcanic stone rakes my skin. The bone-chilling cold is punctuated only by flares of intense heat. The air is thin, and I gasp desperately as I continue. I make my way by faint starlight and the occasional flash of the sun, setting everything aside. Nothing matters but the climb.
As I ascend, I can feel the mana increase. It permeates the rocks and air. Despite the seething tides of mana, nothing lives here or in the crater beneath.
Eventually, I arrive.
I fling one arm and then the other over the edge and drag myself up, ignoring my muscles's adamant screaming and the sharp rock scraping my torso.
There are minutes still before his return, and so I collapse on the ground, breathing ragged, body slick with sweat.
I allow myself three seconds of blissful paralysis, and then I begin to work.
---
"Kimi to~"
FUCK
THAT'S LOUD
IT'S SO FUCKING EARLY
FUCK
The digital clock on my nightstand blinks red. It's 1:28 AM. I rip my headphones out of my ears and throw them across the room. I figured that long nights of studying at Clock Tower would keep me awake, but I hadn't counted on jet lag. Caster?
<Here.>
Does the Grail System give you my dreams too?
<I can go to sleep and leave you defenseless if you really want me to find out.>
Smartass. A dab of ointment (wish I could afford a proper broom) and I'm off, out the second story window. I went to bed dressed. A kick off the windowsill sends me over the stone back wall and onto the street. I land on the sidewalk, and Caster shimmers into view. He's a tall, dark, muscular man, wearing only a loincloth. If he hadn't been wearing it when I summoned him, I'd think he wore it just to fuck with me. I can't afford to get distracted; I'm plugged into the leylines already (the American system has its benefits) but I still need a domain. I'm not staying with my parents.
I glide over intersections, past the golf course and through downtown proper, hardly touching the ground. Caster follows silently. By the time the ointment wears off, I'm almost at my destination, although I'm on the wrong side of the freeway. The underpasses are dark. It's not that I'm concerned about mundane threats, but I'd lay traps there, if I had prana to spare... Caster- Can you get me across?
I expected a levitation spell or some sort of temporary construct, but Caster scoops me up, unceremoniously slings me over his shoulder, and leaps over.
Good thing I wore pants.
I jump off a second before he lands, pouring prana into my legs to withstand the impact. I'd really rather not spend any, but I have to keep a strong front up.
"Not even a thank you?"
"I can thank you if you want."
He pauses for a second, deliberately.
"I most certainly do."
I can't read his face.
"Thanks."
We haven't spoken much. He's got a sharp tongue, and I refuse to stoop to his level. If everything had gone according to plan, I wouldn't be speaking with him at all. Don't get me wrong; teamwork is great, but I don't like having a giant flashing mana reservoir right next to me. Ideally, I would have just laid low, masked my prana signature, and used Command Seals in case I got attacked.
Oh well.
Anyway, I'm here. Single-story houses line a long street capped by a cul-de-sac. This neighborhood is where my best friend lived. We used to go over to her house after school to listen to music and talk about nothing important. It wasn't ever really high-class, but neither of us were really into anything outdoor anyway.Now, years later, not a single house is lit and the lawns are patchyand uncut. The road is cracked and covered in puddles. Only half of the sodium yellow streetlights work, and those that do are spaced far enough apart that anybody without magecraft to back them up might feel uncomfortable.
Yeah... I'm pretty sure she's gone.
Lucky me. I need to pull as much off the leylines as I can get, and she had the only basement I've ever seen here in California.
It might just be thefact that I'm a young woman alone at night, but I could swear somebody is watching me.
I keep my face composed, posture steady. Nothing out of the ordinary. <Caster?>
<Yes? I don't sense any prana, if that's what you're wondering.>
<Pretty big loophole, there.>
<You're perfectly safe. If you die, I lose my chance at the Grail.>
That's reassuring. I walk up the cracked concrete driveway to the single car garage.
"Anyone there?"
Nobody answers. Caster hasn't actually answered my question.
Some kind of projectile snaps through the air an inch from my ear and rips through the metal garage door like paper.
The war hasn't started, but only an idiot would assume that, with a wish on the line, anyone wouldn't play dirty. You'd have to be an even bigger idiot to assume that magi, for all their high and mighty status, wouldn't fight just as dirty as anyone else.
I activate my circuits/
sixfold symmetry spiral
my heart freezes. tendrils of cold creep swiftly through my blood vessels.
my mouth is dry with cold and my eyeballs crystallize
/and encant an aria.
"Niefl."
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Originally Posted by Seika
