FATE\Deus Decipit

Chapter 1: The Necromancers' Meeting

9 days before the war, 10:15 pm, a mountain villa north of Athens

Aisha Alghul sat on her sofa, sipping her honey-laced herbal tea. A man stood at the bar by her kitchenette, close to the door. He was a necromancer from the East, not that you'd know that from looking at him. Equipped with sunglasses, even at this late hour, he wore a leather jacket with dark denim pants. He was the image of a biker from the American Midwest: his brown mullet, broad shoulders, and rugged, bearded jawline painted over his Japanese ethnicity to the point that she wondered if it was some kind of disguise. She eventually realized that he simply gave no thought whatsoever to his appearance, a fact that somehow made him both more and less respectable in her eyes.

Kairi Shishigou began to conclude the findings that he had been going over for some time now, "...So, in other words, it seems that your theories are correct, assuming that your sources are accurate."

He looked back down at the papers, notes and diagrams, in his calloused hands. "Though my knowledge of evocation is, admittedly, limited..."

He paused here. Evocation wasn't his strong-suit: he was a necromancer. Though it was true that evocation and necromancy overlapped in certain respects, they were completely different disciples: evocation being the calling and summoning of spirits- spiritual matter, and necromancy the manipulation of corpses- physical matter. More than that, his employer, being a necromancer herself, and from a world-renowned family no-less, certainly understood that, and yet she still acted as if his frustrations were wholly illegitimate. More than that, she hired a mercenary, a warrior mage, for a job that consisted of recon and research. Needless to say, he wasn't particularly pleased with Miss Alghul, but pay was still pay... enough pay to offset his frustrations.

"... The leylines covering about a 160 kilometre radius from Thebes are very similar to those in Fuyuki, Japan, meaning that they can probably be used for the ritual described in your notes."

A smirk crawled across her wiry lips as she noted the subtleties of the mercenary's voice. He was a compulsively honest man, an extremely rare specimen among mages, but all that meant is that there could be no doubt that she knew exactly who she was talking to.

Setting her teacup down, she stood, allowing her leopard-print lounge-wear to straighten itself against her form as she moved. The tall, slender, Turkish woman began to pace slowly around the room, towards the fourth wall made entirely of glass, reinforced both physically and visually with magecraft of course, overlooking the city of Athens below. Even at this late hour you could still make out the Acropolis, jutting out from the flat cityscape against the starless sky.

His attitude was clear to read: he was an independent type, more than willing to criticize his employer, or even quit a job if it didn't suit his interests. She could hear the tiredness in his voice and tell that he was already frustrated, and so she probably wouldn't earn more service from him without the right bait. But, that was a good thing in a way, it meant that he was motivated by more than just money, a fact that she could use to her advantage...

She stopped suddenly and turned to Kairi in a purposefully girlish manner, her long hair, normally straight but now tied in a messy bun, bobbing as she did so. She allowed their eyes to meet, as much as they could given his sunglasses, knowing that he was reading her just as she was him. Even from this distance she could make out her heterochromial eyes, emerald right and brown left, in his glasses' reflection.

Her confidence grew at the sight of her own face, "Tell me Kairi," she began, "what do you know of the Holy Grail War?"

Though confused, his interest, at least, was piqued. "It's an evocation ritual from the far east that summons familiars to fight each other for supremacy, where the winning mage is granted one wish." He responded matter-of-factly with an 'of course I know' attitude, but with a spark of intrigue all the same. "It was restricted to Fuyuki in secret for many years, before the most recent one went awry. Now mages from around the world are trying to recreate the ritual..."