FATE\Deus Decipit

Chapter 24: From the Desk of Aisha Alghul

11:30pm, The Alghul Villa

Aisha sat at her desk in the basement of her villa- her workshop. After she had first shown Caster, they had agreed that it would be better for him to create his own from scratch rather than use hers. While hers was well made, it was too specialized in a very specific direction -that being Necromancy- so while he may borrow it from time-to-time for necromantic purposes, he was better off elsewhere. Of course, she had certainly led him in this direction. At this point, any space she could keep from his reach was sacred. She needed as many resources as possible to ensure she could protect herself from him when the time came, and being able to make her workshop this space was the best kind of luck. From here, she was able to use all her knowledge to it's fullest potential, the box behind her being the prime example of such.

A ghostly howl, a chilling death rattle emerged from the space behind her, but she was unmoved. If anything she was relieved, and sunk deeper into her chair, satisfied. Behind her was a sigil drawn into the floor, a small line of smoke floating up from the center. There was almost no doubt, her package had been delivered.

Everything was now in motion.

The team of experts she had assembled now possessed all the information she had on Caster and the other Servants.

She had always been of the "if you want something right, do it yourself" mindset, and even now she felt a deep sense of unease, but this was entirely necessary. These were people she could trust, people who knew how to get a job done, and who weren't unfamiliar with danger. Some of them were more of a gamble than others, but if this team of experts in phantasmals and spirits could find a way to unravel a Servant, to unbind them from the material plane, then there would be no way for Caster to touch her.

Her eyes drifted to the lyre-shape on her hand, her Command Seals. These were what connected her to her Servant. Worst-case-scenario, she could always cut her hand off, and remove his magical supply. In fact...

She looked to her closet. She could easily cut off her hand, removing his magical supply, and then revive and reattach her hand with necromancy. Indeed, with Samman Quayyum in town, it was child's play. He had spent his whole life researching immortality, and part of his research was messing with soul binds; she could easily link her hand to her soul and puppet it, no different than any other limb, even after such a surgery.

She rubbed her wrist, a phantom pain severing it at the joint.

-That was a last case scenario. She still wanted to win this after all. A wristband.... an enchanted wristband that would sever her hand at her command; that was something she should invest in. Not her forte, but doable.

There were only two ways she could feasibly fail at this point. The first: the team gets slaughtered by Caster. Rider was too noble to slaughter non-combatants, Berserker wouldn't interact with them, and they should be able to handle any other Servants if they worked together- at least theoretically. No, the only danger was if Caster discovered their purpose and killed them in cold blood. He shouldn't know about them. His clairvoyance, though significant, was hardly any different than normal sight. He'll only notice what he looks for, and if he's busied himself with monitoring the other Servants, all the better. He would discover them eventually, of this there was no doubt, but that wouldn't matter so long as he didn't know their purpose.

The second, Caster discovers them and interferes with their communication. This was actually worse. In the former case, she would sever her hand and run, hoping to get far enough away that he would die of mana starvation before catching up to her, presumably without forming a new contract in the meantime. Even then, she had places she could go, and once she was safe, she could report him to the Mages' Association, and watch from the sidelines. She could try to cover up her misdeeds, but she had enough resources to get herself out of trouble if that failed. Selling her family's powerful and historied magecraft was more than enough of a bribe. Hell, she could erase an entire country off the map and get off scot-free. But if he was able to block communications, or worse, masquerade himself as her and give false orders and information, then everything was over. Her plan would've been revealed, and she would have no way of knowing. Her only allies would be turned against her, and by the time she found out, all available exits would already be closed.