An Immodest Proposal

[crimson_war_demon]

Thus far, Lancer has had little occasion to speak with Lord Matou. His main duty now is to accompany her Ladyship, and assist her in her efforts, and he hopes he's performed satisfactorily in that regard. Now, however, he kneels in seiza before her Ladyship and Lord Matou both, and finds it easier to lower his eyes to the ground than to raise them. Should he look up, he would see Lord Matou all too clearly, and -- no, it is ungracious for him to think such things, and likely even dishonorable. Nevertheless a strange itch crawls up his spine; the sensation is not unlike what a cat might feel, were its fur brushed the wrong way.

"My lord," he begins, "and your Ladyship. Kamanosuke has delivered valuable information about the Lady Tohsaka, but there is a more pressing matter than that. While by the river, I encountered the Servant Saber -- a Western woman, though I cannot venture any other guesses as to her identity. She is as fast as I am, at least, and wields an unusually thin blade, and parried my blows well with it. After several passes, she offered an alliance. Of course," he adds quickly, lest they receive the wrong impression, "I would never presume to make such a decision in place of my Master, and told her as much! However, I gave her my word that I would convey her message to you, for my lord and her Ladyship to do with as they please."

He lowers his head, braces himself for reproach. "Lady Saber has proposed that I meet her tomorrow with our answer, whatever that answer may be."

Comments

[chanson_de_maupin]

The messenger instantly takes to his knees. "I have run far under cover of darkness to bring you an urgent plea for aid," he begins, hands raised in a pose of supplication. "Saber, the renowned, she whose blade splits the sky and whose tread shakes the earth, has bid me seek the house of Lancer to know his Master's answer. Will the warrior of the shining spear join his hand to hers, and fight at her side as her brother?"

[worms_armageddon]

It takes her a moment to remember that he must mean her -- she does not feel very much like a Master, barefoot in the dark. "Yes," she says, and it comes so much more easily to her tongue than it did when she was facing her grandfather. "Yes, he -- he will."

[chanson_de_maupin]

He smiles, lowering his hands. "Then she would bid me speak with Lancer, and explain the design that she has devised for those wing-footed messengers whose eyes are our enemies'. These grounds are warded against such spies, are they not? We speak as privately here as we would behind thick fortress walls?"

[worms_armageddon]

"We do," she says, a little doubtfully; those thick fortress walls also house her grandfather, and she is not entirely certain of his perspective on this alliance yet. "I... can call Lancer forth, yes, if you want to speak with him."

[chanson_de_maupin]

"Do so, my lady, that we might prepare for the field of battle."

[worms_armageddon]

She flushes slightly at my lady, even as she turns back to the door and calls, as softly as she can, "Lancer. Lancer, are you -- will you come here?"

[crimson_war_demon]

"I am, as always, at your Ladyship's service," he says, takes form beside her. He is in his warrior's dress, but his spear is strapped to his back, and there seems to be no reason to draw it yet.

A small nod to her Ladyship, and then he turns to this messenger. "What news do you bring, sir?"

[chanson_de_maupin]

"I bring word that Saber's Master has agreed to join hands with you--and of a stratagem to throw off those prying minions who await tomorrow's meeting. Saber will pretend to refuse you, and begin a duel with you, but then she will produce a hero as she has produced me--a hero who will pretend to be a Servant. She will claim the right to slay this hero, and you will flee as though the Furies were at your heels. If your honor dictates that you not be seen in fleeing, you may rescue your Master or Saber's from the field." Still on his knees, he looks up imploringly at Lancer. "Is this an acceptable ruse?"

[crimson_war_demon]

Lancer should have no trouble understanding the man's words. The Grail has, after all, allowed them to speak and understand the same tongue. But something about this message strikes his ears as utterly foreign, and he's certain that he must have misunderstood some of its content. He frowns.

"Lady Saber has crafted an impressive ruse," he says, "but -- she wishes to duel a false Servant in my place?"

[chanson_de_maupin]

"She thinks it unwise to reveal that you have agreed to an alliance before you're called to face a real Servant; the sham battle permits you to break from your duel before one of you must fall to the other." He tilts his head as though listening to a distant voice. "She is willing to give you a wound to force your retreat, but she prefers to confound her watchers as Dionysos did Agave--with a false enemy to tear apart."

[crimson_war_demon]

His frown deepens. "I see the wisdom in concealing our alliance, and in not revealing our abilities to our opponents." And doubtless their watchers will be confounded, if he's struggling now to make sense of it all. "But need this feint be so elaborate?"

[chanson_de_maupin]

"Saber's Master wishes her enemies to see her strong. To do so, she must make another Servant look weak--and if it will not be you, it must be a false one."

[crimson_war_demon]

"Then why does she not display her true strength?" He shifts the position of the spear on his back, settles it more securely between his shoulderblades. "No, I think I see; in a contest such as this, little good comes of revealing one's true power true freely. But what sort of battle is it, where neither warrior displays their strength or skill?" He shakes his head. "I am no stranger to war, but the means by which this one is conducted are strange indeed."

[chanson_de_maupin]

"I have seen many battles," says the messenger, "and many defeats, and many victories. I have brought word to allies and commanders, kings and generals, across the burning sands and the high mountains. Who can know how the war would have turned, if I had been made to mistake an enemy's strength?"

[crimson_war_demon]

The messenger makes a fair point, and Lancer inclines his head to acknowledge as much. And strength, as he knows, is a deceptive quality. Who would have thought that the Fool of Owari could take Imagawa Yoshimoto's head with only three thousand men, or that he himself could have withstood Lord Ieyasu's campaign at Osaka for as long as he did? "Forgive me, sir. I am unused to this kind of campaign, I admit. As Lady Saber has judged, I cannot flee the scene of battle so easily, even if the battle is a false one, but it is just to acknowledge her right to slay something that she herself created."

Even speaking the sentence causes him confusion.

[chanson_de_maupin]

"Her Master will urge her to destroy you first before attending to the interloper, but she will ignore the direction. If you will not permit yourself to flee, would you withdraw to save your own Master from certain death at another Master's cruel hands?" He glances at Kaede, so frail beside her Servant; a chill breeze would cut her to ribbons, and Kirsikka is a wind from the North.

[crimson_war_demon]

"My Master's life is of the utmost importance!" Lancer shifts, blocks her Ladyship from this messenger's impertinent stare. The air around his spear heats, enough that he feels the warmth of its haft through his clothes, and should this spirit venture one step closer, he'll draw it without regret. "If Saber's Master thinks to threaten it -- "

The rest of the messenger's words come to him then, and he pauses. "But Saber's Master does not truly mean to harm her Ladyship? You will forgive my suspicion, but when a warrior hears a threat made to his master's life, he must dispatch that threat regardless of its severity."

[chanson_de_maupin]

Again, that listening look. "You have her word that, should your Master come to any harm, Saber will avenge it herself, although the avenging destroys her. She cannot bear harm to the weak."

[crimson_war_demon]

Lancer's mouth hardens. "You ask how the war might have turned, had you misjudged an enemy's strength? Think of this in a similar light, then, and do not be so quick to call my Master weak. However, whatever her strength may be, should this other Master harm her, even the Lady Saber's vengeance will not be enough to reverse that harm. I must have her word that my Master is not being lured into an assassin's embrace."

[chanson_de_maupin]

The Messenger flickers like a guttering candle--a blink, a breath, and Saber stands in his place with her hand on her hip and her hair loose about her shoulders. "Never trust a messenger to do a hero's work," she says tartly. "You have my word, Lancer. I'll throw myself on any blade turned against your Master, and I'll do it gladly--if you'll swear to protect mine in kind."

[crimson_war_demon]

"I shall," he says, and bows to her. There is nothing shifting about his stance, nothing hidden in his eyes, nothing ambiguous or shadowed in his aura: if that cannot prove the sincerity of his oath, nothing can. "This war is meant to pit Servant against Servant. To strike against one who has no defense to call their own but flesh and magecraft -- it would be as cowardly as slaying a child."

[chanson_de_maupin]

"Don't let my Master hear you say that, or you'll find out just how defenseless she is."

Saber turns, studying the grounds and committing them to memory. "Now, I gather you're not fond of the plan."

[crimson_war_demon]

"I understand why you wish to hide our alliance from the others. And this false Servant is not unlike a scout's false report of a mysterious force to the east, so the army in question will not think to fortify the west instead. But it is not how I am accustomed to fighting."

[chanson_de_maupin]

"And I'm not accustomed to command," she admits. "We'll conceal our own identities the better if we fight in ways we're not accustomed to fighting."

[crimson_war_demon]

He can't dispute the truth of her argument, but it still sits uneasily within him, like a mouthful of stagnant air. "Do you not find such rules of engagement strange?"