Chapter Text
"You are so impressive, Mash. I am so glad you came with me on this mission."
Gudako WishStone stood beside her co-worker – or, no, the demi-servant Mash Kyrielight - as she helped to fortify the portal to Shiva, which would serve as both base camp, communication hub, and summoning rite grounds. The young girl's hands stilled for a moment, before she resumed carefully laying out the powder that she used to create the portal.
"You praise me too much, senpai," the younger girl said very quietly. "If you look at it objectively, the likes of Cu- Caster are much more impressive. I do not even have proper use of my Noble Phantasm." The demi-servant watched her weapon intently as she ran her fingers over the runes, using part of her Noble Phantasm to create the summoning circle. "Besides, senpai… no, Master... I know you saved me." Her bangs covered most of her face, but the memory of the pain she must have felt while crushed under burning rubble mirrored on what the Master Candidate could see.
Feeling somewhat flustered, Gudako lifted her gaze and looked around. The city was in ruins, and it felt like hours had passed without daylight to appear. Fires seemed to burn perpetually all around them, turning the sky a threatening orange-red, accentuated with billowing grey smoke.
The young Master frowned deeply, looking at the crest seal on her right hand. "Not only are you my kouhai, Mash, but… well, I like you. I thought you were... and... and I didn't want you to be alone as you slowly..." She ruffled her hair. "UGH, I don't know. I can’t remember it all. But I just did what had to be done. I couldn’t leave you just lying there.” She huffed. "And right now, all I really would like to do is to get us out of here..."
The Demi-Servant flicked a gaze at her new Master, then stood, holding her hand out over her shield, finishing the invocation. "I think we are stable now, Master. Trying to initiate contact to Chaldea. Doctor, can you hear us?"
"We hear you," a very feminine voice replied, blue static flickering in the hologram, "but I can't see much of where you are..."
The Shielder frowned at her Master, then tilted her head curiously. "Is that you, da Vinci-san?"
"It's me! Hello, Mash!"
"Where’s Doctor Roman?"
"Running around like his hair is on fire," the mildly amused reply came. "He is really doing his best to gather the remaining team members up and organising help for everyone. I said I would step in to help him for now."
As the Master stared into the blue static, she frowned a bit. If she squinted, she could almost make out a face... or a body... or... no. It was just static. The hologram seemed unable to form into an image of their conversation partner. Also... da Vinci...? The name seemed familiar, however-
Gudako felt her jaw crack as she stuffed her fist into her mouth, yawning.
"Master, that Caster-Servant said that this place should be alright for a bit of rest. Maybe you'd like to sleep a while?"
Gudako smiled tiredly. "You're working so hard, Mash, I can't just laze about."
The grey-purple haired girl smiled gently. "Master, it is alright. Look, Olga-Marie-san already drifted off."
Both girls turned to look at the exhausted Director of Chaldea. They had found her, scared and desperate, just before their first few battles. A competent mage, she was not a Master candidate herself, but one would not have known it by her demeanour – or the aura of mana surrounding her. She still was the head of Chaldea, and she would let anyone know who doubted it. Further, she was the head of the powerful Animusphere family; one of the big ten families of the Mage Tower.
However, right now, she was just a sleeping young woman, and Gudako felt a surge of protectiveness. ... and a surge of vertigo, too.
Arms slipped around her shoulders from behind, as Mash caught her tumbling form. "Sen- I mean, Master! Please... just rest for a bit. I can keep watch. I... I need you to be rested, Master."
"Little Lady's right, you know?"
Drowsily the auburn-haired girl turned her head and saw the hooded Caster return to them, holding his arms wrapped around the staff balanced over his neck. "You're a Master. She is your Servant. She will watch while you sleep. That is how it should be. But..." The girls saw a smile beam under the hooded shadows, as he reached into his sleeve and pulled something out which he flicked into the air. Barking something in a language Gudako didn't know, the chips of wood exploded into golden dust, blowing in a circular pattern around them. "Not as good as a bounded field, but this will give us a small edge, just in case. Now. Rest." The smile vanished, and he turned to leave.
Mash gently laid her senpai down, and by the time she had gently rested her head on the hard ground, sleep had already taken the accidental master.
Nightmares of Chaldea under attack chased Gudako through fitful sleep. Over and over she rushed to the scattered Sarcophagus’, again and again she found the crushed and dying body of Mash. Sometimes she was too late. Sometimes she reached her in time. Sometimes the young mage was crushed as she tried to reach her kouhai. Finally, her dreams lifted their grasp on her and she coasted into wakefulness.
"... and we need to set up a Lay Line Terminal still."
Gudako opened her eyes, struggling to sit up. Near her was a conversation, she could make out the words if she focused, but her brain seemed to cling to the fog of sleep stubbornly. Waking up wasn’t one of her strong points to start with, but sleeping on the hard ground, and not having gotten enough rest… "M...Mash?" She scrabbled at the ground, finding her hands slowly agreeing to offer enough support to at least lift her torso.
"Oh, Master!" The demi-servant knelt, pulling the other girl's hand on her shoulder to help her to stand. "Did you get some rest?" she asked quietly.
The young Master barely had the chance to nod before an icy voice cut in.
"Oh, good, you finally had enough of laying around," the Director of Chaldea grumbled. "Make yourself useful, then. We need to get this base camp fully functional. Mash did a good enough job with the communication link so far, but we didn't come to this lay line without reason." She turned to Mash, whom she had been speaking with before. "Lay down your shield right here... now, watch closely. This is simple enough, but needs to be done precisely like... this..."
The young Master Candidate stood a few steps behind Mash, both of them observing the simple ritual to link their base with the Lay Line into a Terminal.
"Oooh! This looks like the experimental summoning chamber back at Chaldea!"
"The correct assumption is the other way around, Mash," Olga-Marie said sternly, "the summoning chamber looks just like a Lay Line Terminal. Because... well, because that is what it is, only larger." She stepped back from the shield. "You can pick it up now, this is stable."
"Good job, Mash," Gudako said with a smile.
"Thank you, S- Master," she girl replied, letting her bangs fall over her eyes some more. Like a blue hologram, her shield seemed to leave an after-image where the ritual had taken place, showing the Lay Line Terminal.
"Now, you there, Candidate. Get over here." Olga-Marie handed Gudako a small pouch from her belt. "Take these and we will train summoning. ... well, don't stand there, gawking! Take three of these quartz crystals!"
Gudako fumbled the bag open, not wanting to be the target of more of the Director's ire.
"Using the hand of your command seal, crush the quartz into fragments and cast them into the summoning terminal. Then stand back and channel carefully to stabilise the matrix..."
The master frowned, trying to recall the training she has had on these topics. She was from a minor mage family, and she had tried to catch up to everyone else, but her potential simply wasn't the greatest. The terminal struggled under the fluctuating mana and even someone from the minor house WishStone knew that without a catalyst, pulling what one was seeking from the stream was just dumb luck.
Dumb luck struck.
A golden shimmering Lancer card seemingly appeared and Gudako snatched it from the terminal without much thought. The moment her hand made contact, the magic crest on her hand reacted with a warm tingle.
A girl in a very frilly black-and-white dress stepped forward from the fog of the summoning. Her pink hair seemed to have very elaborate horn-like decorations and behind her swayed what appeared to be a tail. Maybe she tried to cosplay a demon?
"Are you my new manager? Please take care of me from now on, okay?" She skipped off the terminal platform and struck a cheeky pose before the other three girls. "Do you have a venue in mind already?"
"Per...form… ance?" Mash gave her Master and the Director in turn a puzzled look.
The blue hologram of their Chaldea communication flickered to a semblance of life. Doctor Romani's voice sounded close to panic. "MASH! WISHSTONE! THERE IS A NEW POWERFUL READING RIGHT NEAR YOU!"
"At least the transmission comes across clearer now," Olga-Marie muttered, crossing her arms.
"Of course, it is powerful," the new girl quipped, "I am the one and only super-star idol Elisabeth Báthory, the ever-popular Blood Countess!"
"O-Oh... you managed to summon? Out there?!"
"Of course we have, Romani. Are you stupid?" The Director's patience had vanished yet again and she stomped in front of the hologram, her face a thunderhead. "We are stranded in this singularity and chances are we will have to resolve it ourselves. Mash is a fine demi-Servant, and Caster is helping us, but we will need more manpower to actually survive this. So, we set up the terminal at this lay line."
Master and Demi-Servant moved away from the shouting match, turning to the new girl. She stood, one hand on her side-tilted hip, a calm smile on her face.
"So, uhm, you are a Lancer, then?" Gudako remembered the card she had touched, or had imagined touching, just before the girl had appeared.
"That's right, Manager!" Elisabeth stretched her arm out to one side and materialised a spear looking a lot like a microphone stand. "This is my weapon, the Sárkány Csont Lándzsa!" She saw the blank faces before her, frowned for a moment and said, "Oh, sorry, Dragon Bone Lance, I think you would say here?" She twirled it happily around her fingers before making it vanish again. "So, what is going on here? I’ve not been summoned into a grail war in a long time! Hey, you, plain girl, tell me where I am!" She pulled Mash aside and started happily chatting with her.
Gudako watched for a few more moments, then steeled herself and returned to the Director. She had a gut feeling she should get to know the leaders of Chaldea and chances were that the Director would play a very vital part in her near and coming future, after all.
She cast one last glance at her Servants. Without a connection to Shiva and Chaldea, these two Servants now fully depended on her mana… she hoped she would be able to last long enough in the coming battles.