And another summoning

[king_of_flames]

Who: Roy Mustang, Cornelia li Britannia, and Lina Inverse
What: Roy is summoning the sixth Servant for the Holy Grail War.
Where: Poemond
When: Late at night on February 12

It was well past midnight, and by this time, Roy would usually be asleep so he would awaken bright and early the following morning. However, circumstance led him down a different route tonight, and so he was deep in the castle dungeon, in a room closed off from the rest of the castle.

In this room, Roy was putting the finishing touches on an array on the floor. To anyone who had no knowledge of arcane lore, this would look like a transmutation circle -- especially since the one drawing it was an alchemist. But anyone familiar with summoning magic would recognize it as a summoning circle.

Roy took one last look at the notes laid out on the floor and determined the array to be complete. Taking the Clair Bible fragments out of his pocket, he placed them in the center of the array before turning to the other occupant of the room.

"Preparation's complete. I can start as soon as we verify the coast is clear."

Comments

[queen_sacrifice]

Might have wanted to warn Cornelia too because she's already withdrawn her sword, the tip pointed straight towards the other woman.

"What did you do to him!?"

[king_of_flames]

"Stop!"

Surprisingly, that call came from Roy himself. The pain was beginning to subside, and he pulled off his left glove. He raised his left hand, back toward the others. There was now some strange marking emblazoned on it.

"This is a Command Spell. Masters get these to enforce control over their Servants."

[pink_dragon_spooker]

As Cornelia drew her blade, Caster began to stammer, about to try and explain - thankfully, Roy interrupted and explained on his own.

Stepping back, she elaborated, "He gets three. Each works only once, and can either force me to follow a command, or grant me a significant, if short, boost in power. Problem is, if he runs out, I get the right to end the summoning contract."

[queen_sacrifice]

"Roy?"

When he tells her to stop, it takes her by surprise, as realization of the situation draws in on her. Normally it was easy for her to keep her emotions locked behind walls and walls of impenetrable ice, but the man in pain while in a situation that made her all too uncomfortable made her forget all of that. She doesn't lower her blade though, keeping a trained gaze on the spirit before her as he explains.

It's only when Caster backs down does she sheathe her sword once again. Yet, she can't bring herself to face the man out of embarrassment.

"I understand." Hurt her man again, Caster, and she'll cut you down. "You can't survive without a Master, so what point would it be cut the contract? You do want the Grail for your own, don't you?"

[king_of_flames]

Roy breathed a sigh of relief. He was glad that that cleared everything up. Still, that was a surprise -- but also not an unpleasant one as far as he was concerned. If Cornelia acted so quickly in his defense, it meant there was still some hope.

"After using the third Command Spell, the prana transfer is severed. She'd need to find a new Master to continue existing in this world when that happens. In past Holy Grail Wars, Servants have occasionally been known to kill their Masters after the third Command Spell was used so they could form a contract with another."

[pink_dragon_spooker]

"Not that I'd waste my time with something like that. There's other ways to get prana. Less convenient, but sufficient."

[queen_sacrifice]

"Excellent, because the last thing I would tolerate is some fool thinking they can lay harm on this man."

With that, she waves her hand as she heads for the nearest door. "Take care of him and I'll reward you as such." She can bribe her with food, can't she? With this settled in her mind, she sees little reason to stick around.

[king_of_flames]

Roy fought back the urge to grin. Such an act showed that there was still some hope after all.

"Can't do much better than that."

[pink_dragon_spooker]

"This is going to be a very, very interesting Grail War for me, isn't it?"