Update 60
Mortifer
Embrace your inner lunatic. Fun times guaranteed.
- Location
- Under a rock.
[X] See what Kingsley has to say, at least.
"Right, what's this proposal?" Musashi asked. "Because I want Alexander dead, but I can promise you right now, I'm not gonna try to convince my allies to stay off your back."
"I wouldn't expect you to." Kingsley replied. "The agreement I propose is simply a matter of… An exchange of information, and an understanding of our actions against the vampire."
"Fair enough." Musashi shrugged. "Let's start with that part. What are you doing, to find him?"
"You must have noticed the evacuated areas, if you are investigating them." Kingsley replied.
Musashi nodded.
"That was the beginning of the plan." Kingsley replied. "It is, admittedly, not much more than that. I had only become aware of the presence of a vampire shortly before the War began, and I had not the time to arrange for proper vampire hunting tools."
"How did you find out?" Musashi asked.
"That, I am afraid, is a secret I must keep." Kingley replied.
Which, in itself, said a lot. Either Kingsley had some method of determining information that could be used against Musashi, or she wanted Musashi to think she had such a method.
Given that Humbaba had caught Avenger off guard and Saber had been convinced that Elspeth was her Master, Musashi was going to go with the latter.
"The intent is to box Alexander in." Kingsley decided to continue. A Bounded Field is being prepared to ensure he cannot leave the evacuated area. I will have a request here, that this Barrier is not interfered with."
"We'll see." Musashi replied. "Maybe an ally of mine will look at it and realise you've hidden your secret murder-all-servants spell into it."
"Acceptable." Kingsley replied. "I have no intent to complicate the spell, so it being observed is of no issue to me."
Musashi didn't know if that could be trusted, but she could hardly say anything to find out more, could she?
"Until I am able to complete the barrier, my men are roaming the streets." Kingsley continued. "The major concern with the vampire is that he will escape before the barrier is complete. Moreover, as the area has been evacuated, there is a concern that he will be motivated to leave to find more victims."
"So you're sending him more victims." Musashi realised.
Kingsley nodded.
That…
Made perfect sense as a tactic, Musashi supposed. Make sure that the vampire doesn't have more motivation to run. It was kind of blatant, but if the soldiers made sure to injure the vampire while they were at it, and if Kingsley made sure they had some way to hurt the vampire without him just shrugging it off, then it could work.
But it was cold. It was a sacrifice which Kingsley spoke of casually.
"Of course, there is the risk that the vampire simply runs to ensure he is not found." Kingsley continued. "In that case, there are two possibilities. In the first, he flees the city, and is no longer my problem."
"Oh?" Musashi interrupted. "You'd be alright letting him go?"
"In that case, I simply have to send word to the Clocktower." Kingsley explained. "They will be furious with me, naturally, but a vampire in Britain? This vampire, of all vampires?"
"What makes Alexander so special?" Musashi asked.
"He has already evaded the Clocktower once." Kingsley replied. "I will explain more when it isn't interrupting my point, but if the Clocktower was to receive confirmation that he is alive, they will be motivated to kill him before word spreads. It would be quite an embarrassment to hear that a vampire executed in the heart of London is still alive."
...Alright, that checked out.
"To continue, the first possibility is that he flees the city." Kingsley continued. "I believe this to be unlikely, as he must be aware of the stakes, if the Clocktower is hunting him. The second possibility is that he tries to win the Grail War. In that circumstance, he will need resources. A ley line to leech from."
"...And all of the ley lines were evacuated, weren't they?" Musashi remembered.
Kingsley nodded.
"If he flees, I simply build the barrier elsewhere." Kingsley continued. "The power he could get from blood cannot compare to a ley line. Not unless he turns every corpse into a Dead, and has each one seek more blood. If he resorts to that little subtlety, either my soldiers will find him, or my Servants."
...Right, then. The plan seemed to work out alright.
"What of your people, Musashi?" Kingsley asked. "What was the plan you had, for dealing with him?"
"Pray." Musashi replied.
Kingsley seemed to consider that for a moment.
"No plan at all, then." She mused, "Simply searching, as I presume you were when you found me?"
"Basically." Musashi replied.
"Such endeavours are more difficult for me." Kingsley explained. "Your side has more Servants than mine, after all. With that in mind, perhaps a form of agreement could be forged?"
"Depends." Musashi replied. "What do you want?"
"I seek to encourage you to hunt the vampire." Kingsley replied. "And with that in mind, if you are willing to have your Servants and their followers search for him, I can have word sent to allow you to search the evacuated areas in peace."
"Wasn't your plan to seal him in and then forget about him?" Musashi asked. "Doesn't this just give you a potential way to save your time and energy?"
Now that Musashi thought about, it might be smart to tell Mia's gang to move, if Kingsley was planning on sealing them in.
"It was." Kingsley admitted. "Are you going to trust in my plan, and not take action yourself?"
...Damn it.
"Dunno." Musashi shrugged. "I mean, I want to stab him, but we'll see."
"If you do decide to further hunt the vampire, I have some information on his abilities you may prefer to know." Kingsley stated. "But before that, I want information from you."
"On him?" Musashi asked. "Sure. He probably has illusion stuff independent of her Servant and he probably has some items left over from Caster. I think he had Caster's stick that he was using to raise the dead?"
"We can prepare better for possible gifts of Caster if I know who he is." Kingsley demanded. "A name, if you would?"
"Loki."
Kingsley actually seemed shocked at that. She paled significantly, too.
"I see…" Kingsley muttered. "It is fortunate, then, that he died as soon as he did."
"Satisfied?" Musashi asked. "Right, what should I know?"
"The vampire's ability to survive." Kingsley replied. "When last he opposed the Clocktower, he had been executed. He was captured without a fight, and died screaming that it was not over. After this, under the watchful eye of the Clocktower and with the ire of the King of England, the vampire was able to escape."
"So he's got some nonsensical survival ability?" Musashi asked. "Or some kind of… Resurrection trait?"
Kingsley nodded, as she poured a kettle into her teacup.
"I suspect that it is some form of ritual." Kingsley explained. "He had an army prepared when he was found, but surrendered when he realised that royalty had come to pay attention to him. Strange, for someone who would then go on to insist that he was not done when being killed."
"So if he's not fighting, he's probably gonna survive." Musashi mused. "That is… Extremely frustrating."
Hm…
"How sure are you in this information?" Musashi asked. "I mean, you said a King knew of him? How is this not common knowledge, then?"
"The Mage's Association took many steps to erase the circumstances surrounding the vampire." Kingsley replied. "Last I heard, the most common surviving tale says he was executed in Edinburgh instead of London, for instance."
Hm. Interesting to know.
"Is there anything else?" Musashi asked.
"Does your group happen to contain anyone with strong enough religious will to use it as a source of power?" Kingsley asked.
Musashi shrugged.
"Then I suspect not." The old woman concluded. "In which case, I believe our business is done."
"I'll run it by my allies, searching for Alexander." Musashi said. "And I do believe there is the chance that they'll want to confirm your barrier is safe for us."
"So be it." Kingsley accepted. "Farewell, Musashi."
The mirror faded away, until it showed only Musashi's reflection.
Musashi got off her rock, and started making her way out the cave. It didn't take long to get out, and the moment she did, she heard a buzz.
"How did it go?" Nameless's voice echoed. Her insect, a big and gross looking thing, came to a rest on Musashi's shoulder.
"Decently, I think." Musashi noted. "Found out a bit about Kingsley and Alexander. How much did you hear?"
"Everything." Nameless replied.
Ah. So she had heard what Kingsley said about the last Grail War? About what was almost definitely Nameless's origin?
"I'll make preparations to observe the barrier as it is set up." Nameless went on a completely different topic than the one Musashi was thinking of. "Kingsley would have to be there in person to set it up, but I'll have to be there in person to really examine the spell. Not at the same place as her, but at an area where the barrier's edge would be."
"I'll be there.' Musashi promised. "Bodyguard."
"Thank you." Nameless replied. "I… Could kill her then, if we are sure we can kill Alexander."
"I get the feeling that she's going to be careful with it, if she has to be there in person." Musashi replied. "I wouldn't bet on that."
"Perhaps." Nameless mused. "She does appear to be careless in her old age. The spell on the mirror wasn't even encrypted."
"What do you mean?" Musashi asked.
"I know where she is." Nameless replied. "The connection in the spell was open enough that I just needed to latch onto it."
"Great!" Musashi chirped. "Where is she?"
"Underground."
"...Yeah alright, that makes sense." Musashi mused." What with the tunnel. Guess she has a system going down then."
"Almost definitely." Nameless agreed. "There's plenty of room to act without observation underground. It may be where all the prisoners Mia is looking for are, too. Or the Grail."
"Maybe both?" Musashi proposed. "...Though Spartacus disagrees. Avenger's the paranoid type, better for her to stick near the Grail and away from the prisoners."
"Perhaps there are tunnels which do not connect." Nameless proposed. "Or… No, I suppose it would be possible to store them on the surface. They would be mundane people with no ability to resist mental compulsions, after all."
Wait.
Oh, no, damn it! Musashi had completely forgotten to consider that! The prisoners were probably all hypnotised and under binding contracts!
Ugh, now Musashi was gonna have to tell that to Mia, so Mia didn't go up and cheerfully untie them all and then get stabbed. She would be so upset to be stabbed. Maybe die but she was a Spartacus so she should be able to survive.
Elspeth managed to survive a stabbing from The Other Saber for like ages without getting healed, surely a regular human wouldn't be able to hurt Mia that much.
Hm.
"Right, home time." Musashi decided. "...After I go back to the gang to pick up my dirty, burnable clothes so I can wash them."
"I'll be waiting." Nameless noted, as the insect started to fall apart. "Oh, Elspeth got healed, by the way. She seems frustrated about something, but I keep noticing her stretching in ways which would have been bad for her with the wound. She's enjoying being healed, it looks like."
"Good to hear." Musashi nodded. "...Is it really getting late? Surprisingly dark out. Must've lost track of time at some point…"
"I'll tell the others about what happened." Nameless noted. "I'm sure they'll want to hear how you spoke with Gabr-"
The insect fell apart.
Musashi stared for a moment, and sighed.
Damn it! She nearly heard someone say Kingsley's first name! Musashi was so close to confirming if it was Gabriella or Gabrielle, and now she had to wait for it to come up naturally again!
Trying not to pout too hard in case some of Nameless's not-talking bugs were watching, Musashi headed towards the gang hideout in the library.
As long as Musashi just acted like she remembered every name it would be fine. Should be easy, she hadn't forgotten anyone's except Kingsl-
...Actually, did Elspeth and Mia have last names?
Drat.
Upon returning to base, who does Musashi run into first?
[X] Tomoe, sitting at a table, a pen in her hand. She was… Writing a script?
[X] Humbaba, sprawled across the couch, staring lazily at the roof.
"Right, what's this proposal?" Musashi asked. "Because I want Alexander dead, but I can promise you right now, I'm not gonna try to convince my allies to stay off your back."
"I wouldn't expect you to." Kingsley replied. "The agreement I propose is simply a matter of… An exchange of information, and an understanding of our actions against the vampire."
"Fair enough." Musashi shrugged. "Let's start with that part. What are you doing, to find him?"
"You must have noticed the evacuated areas, if you are investigating them." Kingsley replied.
Musashi nodded.
"That was the beginning of the plan." Kingsley replied. "It is, admittedly, not much more than that. I had only become aware of the presence of a vampire shortly before the War began, and I had not the time to arrange for proper vampire hunting tools."
"How did you find out?" Musashi asked.
"That, I am afraid, is a secret I must keep." Kingley replied.
Which, in itself, said a lot. Either Kingsley had some method of determining information that could be used against Musashi, or she wanted Musashi to think she had such a method.
Given that Humbaba had caught Avenger off guard and Saber had been convinced that Elspeth was her Master, Musashi was going to go with the latter.
"The intent is to box Alexander in." Kingsley decided to continue. A Bounded Field is being prepared to ensure he cannot leave the evacuated area. I will have a request here, that this Barrier is not interfered with."
"We'll see." Musashi replied. "Maybe an ally of mine will look at it and realise you've hidden your secret murder-all-servants spell into it."
"Acceptable." Kingsley replied. "I have no intent to complicate the spell, so it being observed is of no issue to me."
Musashi didn't know if that could be trusted, but she could hardly say anything to find out more, could she?
"Until I am able to complete the barrier, my men are roaming the streets." Kingsley continued. "The major concern with the vampire is that he will escape before the barrier is complete. Moreover, as the area has been evacuated, there is a concern that he will be motivated to leave to find more victims."
"So you're sending him more victims." Musashi realised.
Kingsley nodded.
That…
Made perfect sense as a tactic, Musashi supposed. Make sure that the vampire doesn't have more motivation to run. It was kind of blatant, but if the soldiers made sure to injure the vampire while they were at it, and if Kingsley made sure they had some way to hurt the vampire without him just shrugging it off, then it could work.
But it was cold. It was a sacrifice which Kingsley spoke of casually.
"Of course, there is the risk that the vampire simply runs to ensure he is not found." Kingsley continued. "In that case, there are two possibilities. In the first, he flees the city, and is no longer my problem."
"Oh?" Musashi interrupted. "You'd be alright letting him go?"
"In that case, I simply have to send word to the Clocktower." Kingsley explained. "They will be furious with me, naturally, but a vampire in Britain? This vampire, of all vampires?"
"What makes Alexander so special?" Musashi asked.
"He has already evaded the Clocktower once." Kingsley replied. "I will explain more when it isn't interrupting my point, but if the Clocktower was to receive confirmation that he is alive, they will be motivated to kill him before word spreads. It would be quite an embarrassment to hear that a vampire executed in the heart of London is still alive."
...Alright, that checked out.
"To continue, the first possibility is that he flees the city." Kingsley continued. "I believe this to be unlikely, as he must be aware of the stakes, if the Clocktower is hunting him. The second possibility is that he tries to win the Grail War. In that circumstance, he will need resources. A ley line to leech from."
"...And all of the ley lines were evacuated, weren't they?" Musashi remembered.
Kingsley nodded.
"If he flees, I simply build the barrier elsewhere." Kingsley continued. "The power he could get from blood cannot compare to a ley line. Not unless he turns every corpse into a Dead, and has each one seek more blood. If he resorts to that little subtlety, either my soldiers will find him, or my Servants."
...Right, then. The plan seemed to work out alright.
"What of your people, Musashi?" Kingsley asked. "What was the plan you had, for dealing with him?"
"Pray." Musashi replied.
Kingsley seemed to consider that for a moment.
"No plan at all, then." She mused, "Simply searching, as I presume you were when you found me?"
"Basically." Musashi replied.
"Such endeavours are more difficult for me." Kingsley explained. "Your side has more Servants than mine, after all. With that in mind, perhaps a form of agreement could be forged?"
"Depends." Musashi replied. "What do you want?"
"I seek to encourage you to hunt the vampire." Kingsley replied. "And with that in mind, if you are willing to have your Servants and their followers search for him, I can have word sent to allow you to search the evacuated areas in peace."
"Wasn't your plan to seal him in and then forget about him?" Musashi asked. "Doesn't this just give you a potential way to save your time and energy?"
Now that Musashi thought about, it might be smart to tell Mia's gang to move, if Kingsley was planning on sealing them in.
"It was." Kingsley admitted. "Are you going to trust in my plan, and not take action yourself?"
...Damn it.
"Dunno." Musashi shrugged. "I mean, I want to stab him, but we'll see."
"If you do decide to further hunt the vampire, I have some information on his abilities you may prefer to know." Kingsley stated. "But before that, I want information from you."
"On him?" Musashi asked. "Sure. He probably has illusion stuff independent of her Servant and he probably has some items left over from Caster. I think he had Caster's stick that he was using to raise the dead?"
"We can prepare better for possible gifts of Caster if I know who he is." Kingsley demanded. "A name, if you would?"
"Loki."
Kingsley actually seemed shocked at that. She paled significantly, too.
"I see…" Kingsley muttered. "It is fortunate, then, that he died as soon as he did."
"Satisfied?" Musashi asked. "Right, what should I know?"
"The vampire's ability to survive." Kingsley replied. "When last he opposed the Clocktower, he had been executed. He was captured without a fight, and died screaming that it was not over. After this, under the watchful eye of the Clocktower and with the ire of the King of England, the vampire was able to escape."
"So he's got some nonsensical survival ability?" Musashi asked. "Or some kind of… Resurrection trait?"
Kingsley nodded, as she poured a kettle into her teacup.
"I suspect that it is some form of ritual." Kingsley explained. "He had an army prepared when he was found, but surrendered when he realised that royalty had come to pay attention to him. Strange, for someone who would then go on to insist that he was not done when being killed."
"So if he's not fighting, he's probably gonna survive." Musashi mused. "That is… Extremely frustrating."
Hm…
"How sure are you in this information?" Musashi asked. "I mean, you said a King knew of him? How is this not common knowledge, then?"
"The Mage's Association took many steps to erase the circumstances surrounding the vampire." Kingsley replied. "Last I heard, the most common surviving tale says he was executed in Edinburgh instead of London, for instance."
Hm. Interesting to know.
"Is there anything else?" Musashi asked.
"Does your group happen to contain anyone with strong enough religious will to use it as a source of power?" Kingsley asked.
Musashi shrugged.
"Then I suspect not." The old woman concluded. "In which case, I believe our business is done."
"I'll run it by my allies, searching for Alexander." Musashi said. "And I do believe there is the chance that they'll want to confirm your barrier is safe for us."
"So be it." Kingsley accepted. "Farewell, Musashi."
The mirror faded away, until it showed only Musashi's reflection.
Musashi got off her rock, and started making her way out the cave. It didn't take long to get out, and the moment she did, she heard a buzz.
"How did it go?" Nameless's voice echoed. Her insect, a big and gross looking thing, came to a rest on Musashi's shoulder.
"Decently, I think." Musashi noted. "Found out a bit about Kingsley and Alexander. How much did you hear?"
"Everything." Nameless replied.
Ah. So she had heard what Kingsley said about the last Grail War? About what was almost definitely Nameless's origin?
"I'll make preparations to observe the barrier as it is set up." Nameless went on a completely different topic than the one Musashi was thinking of. "Kingsley would have to be there in person to set it up, but I'll have to be there in person to really examine the spell. Not at the same place as her, but at an area where the barrier's edge would be."
"I'll be there.' Musashi promised. "Bodyguard."
"Thank you." Nameless replied. "I… Could kill her then, if we are sure we can kill Alexander."
"I get the feeling that she's going to be careful with it, if she has to be there in person." Musashi replied. "I wouldn't bet on that."
"Perhaps." Nameless mused. "She does appear to be careless in her old age. The spell on the mirror wasn't even encrypted."
"What do you mean?" Musashi asked.
"I know where she is." Nameless replied. "The connection in the spell was open enough that I just needed to latch onto it."
"Great!" Musashi chirped. "Where is she?"
"Underground."
"...Yeah alright, that makes sense." Musashi mused." What with the tunnel. Guess she has a system going down then."
"Almost definitely." Nameless agreed. "There's plenty of room to act without observation underground. It may be where all the prisoners Mia is looking for are, too. Or the Grail."
"Maybe both?" Musashi proposed. "...Though Spartacus disagrees. Avenger's the paranoid type, better for her to stick near the Grail and away from the prisoners."
"Perhaps there are tunnels which do not connect." Nameless proposed. "Or… No, I suppose it would be possible to store them on the surface. They would be mundane people with no ability to resist mental compulsions, after all."
Wait.
Oh, no, damn it! Musashi had completely forgotten to consider that! The prisoners were probably all hypnotised and under binding contracts!
Ugh, now Musashi was gonna have to tell that to Mia, so Mia didn't go up and cheerfully untie them all and then get stabbed. She would be so upset to be stabbed. Maybe die but she was a Spartacus so she should be able to survive.
Elspeth managed to survive a stabbing from The Other Saber for like ages without getting healed, surely a regular human wouldn't be able to hurt Mia that much.
Hm.
"Right, home time." Musashi decided. "...After I go back to the gang to pick up my dirty, burnable clothes so I can wash them."
"I'll be waiting." Nameless noted, as the insect started to fall apart. "Oh, Elspeth got healed, by the way. She seems frustrated about something, but I keep noticing her stretching in ways which would have been bad for her with the wound. She's enjoying being healed, it looks like."
"Good to hear." Musashi nodded. "...Is it really getting late? Surprisingly dark out. Must've lost track of time at some point…"
"I'll tell the others about what happened." Nameless noted. "I'm sure they'll want to hear how you spoke with Gabr-"
The insect fell apart.
Musashi stared for a moment, and sighed.
Damn it! She nearly heard someone say Kingsley's first name! Musashi was so close to confirming if it was Gabriella or Gabrielle, and now she had to wait for it to come up naturally again!
Trying not to pout too hard in case some of Nameless's not-talking bugs were watching, Musashi headed towards the gang hideout in the library.
As long as Musashi just acted like she remembered every name it would be fine. Should be easy, she hadn't forgotten anyone's except Kingsl-
...Actually, did Elspeth and Mia have last names?
Drat.
Upon returning to base, who does Musashi run into first?
[X] Tomoe, sitting at a table, a pen in her hand. She was… Writing a script?
[X] Humbaba, sprawled across the couch, staring lazily at the roof.
