Jeanne awoke with the usual gasp and feeling of shock as she stared at the ceiling of her room breathing hard. Slowly her breathing calmed down and she untensed, falling fully into the mattress, as she tried her best to forget the feeling of being burned alive. She dug the heels of her palms into her eyes and groaned before rolling over to glare at the wooden floor of the house she had claimed as her own after her…. argument with Micheal almost eight months prior.
She blinked,
"There's...no way we've been in here for almost a year right? That…."
She trailed off and sat up in bed letting the thin bedsheets fall away from her furrowing her brow thinking before she stood up to go into the bathroom. She stopped in front of the mirror over the sink and looked at her reflection frowning as she saw the bags under her eyes,
"Still doesn't explain half of this crap."
She muttered to herself as she took off her sweaty pajamas and tossed them into the hamper before she stepped into the shower. As she washed herself in the luke warm water she looked at the glass and idly drew some magic circles onto it with her finger before pulsing them with mana. She huffed when nothing happened as usual but decided to enjoy the shower for a bit anyway. A while later she stepped out and wrapped a towel around herself as she dried her hair and got ready for the day.
About an hour after that she was outside her house and locking up before she went out on her morning run. She laced up her sneakers and tied her hair back into a small ponytail before she paused glancing at the house next to hers. Servants didn't need to exercise but the act of running helped calm her down and get her focused after one of her usual nights,
"Honestly after last night I should probably just run until my limbs fall off. The fact I can even have nightmares in paradise is absurd but here we are I guess…."
She grumbled as she shook her head to forget the details of her nightmare and started stretching periodically looking at the house next door to hers again where she knew Micheal lay comatose in one of the beds. Frowning she refocused on stretching as she remembered finding him laying in front of one of the doors and barely breathing two months prior. Her scream had immediately gotten both Vivian and Merlin's attention as Vivian had warped over next to her from wherever she was while Merlin quickly made a flower clone. The Faerie had quickly gotten Micheal into a bed and immediately begun examining him as Jeanne had kept mentally flashing back to how she had left the last time she had properly seen him and feeling guilt slam into her on all sides before Merlin had spoken up,
~~~~~~
"He'll be fine. Vivian knows what she's doing." Merlin had said confidently a minute or two after Vivian had carried Micheal into the house next to hers,
"Micheal is human you bastard. What the hell would some 1400 year old faerie know about humans!?" Jeanne spat venomously only for the incubus to shrug not even bothered by her anger,
"More than you would think Jeanne Alter. Let her work."
After almost an hour Vivian came back out looking grim,
"Good news and bad news. Which first."
"Bad news."
"Good News."
Jeanne gave Merlin a glare that could have punched through a solid steel wall as he only shrugged again and gave her a lopsided smile. Vivian coughed to get their attention,
"Good news is that he's alive and not any part of him is dying. That much should be obvious given where we are but more specifically he's actively taking in the ambient mana at an absurd pace which means, and here's the bad news: Wherever he is, he is burning through it like crazy."
Jeanne blinked,
"Wait- What do you mean wherever he is? How can he be here and no-"
Her eyes widened as she realized what Vivian was saying while Merlin looked at Vivian with an unspoken question,
"He's dreamwalking!? How-"
"Jeanne," Vivian interrupted her and turned to look at her grimly, "Take us exactly to where you found him."
She did and when they arrived both Vivian and Merlin had very different reactions. Merlin just sighed tiredly and massaged his temple while Vivian stiffened in place and looked around as though searching for enemies,
"Who- Who could have snuck in here and-"
"Except they did and they knew exactly who to take."
Jeanne had looked between the two of them before finally snapping,
"Either one of you explain or I am going to beat it out of Merlin."
"Hey!"
Vivian ignored Merlin as she turned to face Jeanne,
"You know alternate timelines exist correct?"
Jeanne nodded and decided to stay silent,
"The magecraft, for lack of a better word, that was used to take Micheals soul forcibly induced him into a comatose state here while his soul was pulled elsewhere. The basis for this spell has only been used a handful times with the first being over 10,000 years ago to summon someone to take down an enemy from beyond the planet. As for where Micheal was taken I don't know but I do know this based off the remains of the spell that was used here: He has to come back within the next three months."
"Why three months? Why not now!?"
Merlin tapped his staff on the ground where Micheal had been laying and what looked like ice blue crystalline constellations floated out of the cobblestones before shimmering out of existence. He narrowed his eyes at them clearly thinking hard before he looked at her,
"Because if he doesn't come back by then his soul is permanently severed from his body and he's stuck wherever he is forever. You have to bring him back before then."
She stiffened in place,
"Why me?"
He smiled softly at her,
"Because you're the tether for his soul."
~~~~~~
She shook her head as she pulled herself out of the almost two month old memories and frowned before starting on her run with a light jog,
The idea I could be anyones tether to their soul is absurd. Who the hell would choose me for something that important. Micheal sure as hell wouldn't. Not after our last argument.
She sped up, digging her sneakers into the cobblestones as she broke into a run. Soon she was outside the town and running through the nearby fields,
How am I supposed to even apologize to him for… losing control like that. I could have seriously hurt him and I'm somehow his tether inspite of that? Bullshit.
Jeanne came over the crest of a hill and slowed down to a walk as she wiped the sweat off her forehead with an arm before looking out over the rest of her chosen path for that morning. After walking for a few dozen meters she was about to start running again when she froze as she felt the Master-Servant bond that should have been fully severed weakly activate,
[I'm fi-. Be-... -ed somewhere…. Faerie Britain. I'll… ck soon. Don- ...rry.]
(Micheal!? MICHEAL!?)
Jeanne spun on her heel, flooded herself with mana, and sprinted back to the town. Not wanting to bother navigating the streets she jumped onto a roof and ran over the tops of the houses straight to the one Micheal was laying in. She crashed through a window, landed in a roll, and as her gaze swept the room she immediately locked onto Micheal. She ran over to him and grabbed his shoulders and calling his name as she shook him while she felt a different mana coming from him for the briefest of moments.
"What happened."
Jeanne snapped her head up to see Vivian had gotten up to the room at some point,
"He- I-," Jeanne smacked her cheeks with her hands to focus, "I somehow got a message from him over the Master-Servant bond… in spite of my end being closed and there not being any bond left after the grail war..."
Vivian quickly walked over to Micheal and held her hands out over him as golden magic circles began to flit over his body,
"You're sure you've kept your end of the bond closed and you're sure it went away after the war?"
Jeanne blinked,
"I… I shut it during the 4th Grail War. I would have noticed that if it had been opened because I would have been able to sense Micheal… right? And wouldn't the bond go away once the war ended?"
Vivian looked up at Jeanne briefly before focusing back on Micheal. She breathed in,
"I want you to try something," She said ripping open his shirt causing Jeanne to gasp in horror while Vivian swore. The Fae markings on Micheals chest had grown. There was a clear pattern now and it was a pattern she new intimately well. She stared and tried not to feel horrified and sick as she saw the markings were starting to form the shape of the dragon on her flag, "Jeanne I need you to put mana into his fae markings."
"What- WHAT IF I MAKE IT WORSE!?"
"If my guess is correct you are literally the only thing letting him hold onto his humanity wherever he is. Remember the more he uses mana the more his faerie core wakes up. So if you were the flood the core with your mana instead-"
Jeanne breathed in sharply and ran forward placing her hands on his sternum and began to pour her mana into him,
"It should slow down the activation."
Vivian finished as they watched the markings slowly but visibly recede to how they were before. After a minute Jeanne took her hands off of him and stared at his chest
Is- Did he somehow get more muscular…?
She shook her head clear as Vivian summoned more golden circles to examine him. A few minutes later she stopped examining him and tilted her head at him clearly thinking. Jeanne watched from where she was as the woman walked out of the room and downstairs. She turned to look back at Micheal and firmed her lips as she pulled the bedsheet over him, pausing as she saw the markings on his chest and torso. She shook her head and covered him completely up to his neck as she suddenly felt a truly immense amount of mana erupt out of nowhere just outside town.
She whipped her head up and ran out from the house, head turning frantically, as she ran in the direction the mana was coming from, summoning her weapons, only to slowly came to a stop as she watched Merlin and Vivian, who was boiling with mana, yelling at each other in a language she didn't know in the practice fields just outside town.
After a minute or two of yelling she watched as Vivian's mana surged further while she seemed to blur in place then vanished. Merlin summoned a golden sword and held it up to block Vivians kick as she reappeared behind him and then used the momentum of her kick being deflected to spin in the air to clothesline Merlin at the neck with the heel of her other leg only for him to turn into flower petals which she blew apart. Vivian landed and began to walk away clearly seething before she noticed Jeanne.
Changing direction she walked over and Jeanne watched the faerie visibly calm herself down as her mana returned to a stable state. Once she got within a couple meters she folded her arms and looked pointedly at her weapons. Jeanne put away her sword and flagspear as Vivian muttered angrily in that same language before she looked her in the eyes and spoke in English,
"We're speeding up your training. You need to find, learn, and master the third form of your side of Blessed Hellfire within the next three months. On top of that you are to put as much mana as you can into Micheal and his core every morning and evening. Four months from now we need to be prepared for you and Micheal to leave Avalon."
Jeanne stiffened upright and looked up at the woman confused,
"Why- What happened?"
"….." Vivian sighed and looked away from her almost guiltily before firming her jaw and nodding to herself, "Come with me."
The faerie walked past Jeanne and seemed to be going back to where she and Micheal had entered Avalon earlier that year. Unsure about what was going on Jeanne followed her until they got to where the cave entrance was except,
"Wh- Where's the exit? We're- Are we trapped here!?"
Vivian shook her head and looked back at her,
"No. Where the entrance is changes daily but thats not why I brought you here. Merlin and I had…. an argument earlier. Which led to us fighting as you likely sensed and then saw."
"Arguing about?"
She sighed and turned around fully to face her as she folded her arms,
"About how best to break it to you, and eventually Micheal, that Avalon's time is different than the time from where you came from. Something that for Micheal has only been exacerbated given what happened to him."
Jeanne stilled and stared at the other woman as a breeze blew past them,
"Normally the time dilation is not much. A few days at best," The woman explained looking past her and into the distance, "However the dilation was extended considerably the moment you and Micheal came into Avalon. I'm ashamed to admit that Merlin noticed before I did."
"How-," Jeanne swallowed past her nerves, "How long have we been in here?"
"Merlin has a specific form of Clairvoyance. Think of it as a giant telescope that he can use to see anywhere on Earth. Its how he watched your and Micheals fight during the 4th Grail War."
Jeanne nodded. Merlin had explained as much when she and Micheal had first arrived,
"Its not 1994 or even the 20th century anymore," Vivian said tiredly, "Its the fall of 2002 and there seems to be movement within the Moonlit World for a 5th Holy Grail War."
#####
Jeanne closed her eyes and breathed in slowly as she specifically checked the mana level of her grail core as she had done every morning since Vivian had told her about the time dilation. She frowned as she saw it was less than 40% and opened her eyes holding up her hand to stare at it, moving her fingers a bit before getting up off of her bed to start her morning routine. It had been over two months within Avalon since Vivian had dropped that bombshell on her and in the time between then and now she had been training everyday almost nonstop with both Merlin and Vivian. She was still learning how fight better in hand to hand combat from Merlin but Vivian was teaching her how to commune with Blessed Hellfire to try and discover the third form she had access to.
"Luckily its similar enough to communing with my flames," She muttered as she stabbed some fried eggs with a fork as she sat at her kitchen table, "I don't think I'd be able to make as much progress as I have if I didn't already know roughly what to do."
Ever since Micheal had gotten La Rose d'Argent Noirci she had felt this itching in the back of her mind that no matter how much she scratched she couldn't make go away. It had only intensified when Micheal went into his coma as well. Yet as she communed with Blessed Hellfire she discovered more and more that the itch was actually the divine construct trying to 'talk' to her.
However she hadn't been talking to her version as of late since she'd been seeing what she could only explain as the point of view from Micheals version. She narrowed her eyes at her eggs as she remembered what it had done the last time she communed with it. She had seen a bunch of images from Micheals Blessed Hellfire so far and none of them had made any sense to her. They ranged from him fighting a giant blonde woman who seemed to control fire and what looked like spirit hounds, talking to some little girl with white hair who seemed to like him more than a little, talking with what looked like a giant dogman in a tuxedo, and then most recently there were…. The purple things.
She shuddered in disgust as she remembered the feeling of pure…. Malice and despair that had come along with the images of the purple things. She had no idea what those purple slime things were but she knew that whatever they were had filled Micheal with a truly singular dread that she had felt even through the images that his Blessed Hellfire had sent her.
Finishing her breakfast and cleaning up, she then went next door to do what she had been doing every day for the past two months. She opened the door and went straight upstairs, her golden eyes landing on Micheal immediately as she felt all those confusing emotions and thoughts crowd her mind as they always did when she saw her former Master,
"….or current Master since apparently the Master-Servant bond never went away…."
She muttered under her breath as she shook her head clear and went over to stand at his bedside. She leaned down to open the bedside table and pulled out the notebook she had been using to document his fae markings before she pulled the bedsheet back and blew out a shaky breath doing her best to ignore his muscles as she examined the markings,
"According Vivian when I first heard him over the bond his markings hadn't fully grown in yet." She muttered as she made notes and quickly attempted to sketch out where the marks were for this morning. She glanced between the notebook and his chest to make sure they looked roughly the same before she closed the notebook with a snap and placed her hands over his chest and torso while doing her best to ignore the butterflies in her own chest as she flooded him with mana,
"Its funny," She said after a silent minute of pouring mana into him. The quiet of the room lingered as she stared at his sleeping face, "Its only when I know you can't hear or respond to me that I feel like I can be honest with myself about you. About how I feel about you… about us. About my need to get you away from me for your own safety. You just- I know you don't love me back. That much is…. Readily apparent but for me… I need distance. A lot of distance so that this love I have for you can wither and die. For your own sake."
She stared at his sleeping face and bit her lip, closing her eyes,
"You deserve someone better than me Micheal… I- I don't want to drag you down to hell with me…."
She shook her head and refocused on her work opening her eyes to watch the marks slowly recede back to where they started then pulled her hands away and made a mental note of the mana levels for her grail core before she drew in the ambient mana from Avalon as a buffer. She looked at him and leaned over to gently brush some of his hair away from his face before frowning and sitting down next to him on the bed as her fingers lingered in his hair. She stared at his sleeping face for a few seconds,
"Why is it the harder I try to push you away for your own good the universe seems determined to push us back together… I don't even know how I am going to bring you back from wherever you are and I have to figure that out alongside my third form of Blessed Hellfire, how to replace my grail core, and also how the hell to explain to you that almost a decade has passed since we got into Avalon. I also have to write that contract to make you stay away from me and find some way to get enough distance between us that I can fall out of love with you. All within the next few weeks."
She chuckled humorlessly as she withdrew her hand and found herself looking at him as the morning light came through the window and illuminated his face. She sat there for a few seconds before standing up and stretching then leaving the room, softly closing the door behind her as she went back downstairs and exited the house. As she locked up she sensed more than heard Vivian appear behind her,
"You know I've told its really fucking creepy how you can just teleport around like that right?" She said turning around to look at Vivian who smiled sheepishly as she folded her arms and looked at her, "Well? Whats on the schedule for today. I know its a day that Merlin can't make a flower clone so training with him is off the table."
"I…," Vivian started, paused, and then sighed, "I wanted… to talk to you. For a bit."
"About?"
"About the fourth grail war and…"
She trailed off and looked in the direction of where Artoria was sleeping,
"You want to know about Artoria."
Jeanne finished for her as she nodded. She blew out her cheeks and then looked at the faerie,
"I'm assuming this has some point other than just hearing me talk."
Vivian nodded and smiled slyly,
"Yup. Come on. I know a good spot for this."
Turning on the spot she began to walk away before Jeanne could respond or ask anything causing her to jog after her eventually falling into step beside her. They walked in silence for a bit as they left the town and began to walk among the flowers and hills of Avalon for longer than she initially thought they would. Eventually they got to a tall hill, reached the top, and then Vivian turned around gesturing for her to do the same and when she did she gasped at what she saw.
Spread out below them was Avalon in its entirety. She could see the town where she and Micheal were staying, Merlins prison tower a ways off, the forest where Artoria was sleeping, and just at the edge of the horizon at the other end of a truly massive forest she somehow hadn't seen despite living here for as long as they had she thought she could the barest twinklings of gold. She looked at Vivian who had sat down amongst the flowers and was hugging her knees to her chest. The Faerie glanced up at her, smiled, and patted the ground next to her,
"This is my favorite view in all of Avalon. I'm sure you can guess why."
Jeanne nodded and silently sat down next to her stretching out her legs and leaning back onto her hands as she gazed out,
"Yeah… its beautiful… But its…."
She trailed off unsure how to say her next words when Vivian chuckled,
"Empty? Lonely?"
She nodded unsure if she should speak as Vivian sighed herself and looked out from their spot with a small smile,
"As… an Arch-Faerie I don't perceive time the same way humans do or even how Merlin does. For me it was just yesterday that myself and my five sisters carried Artoria into this place and laid her to rest. Then a couple seconds later the tower Merlin is trapped in formed out of nowhere and he was trapped inside it. A few minutes after that I sensed Morgan die. Then several hours later I sense Morgans mana again as it entered Avalon only to then meet you and Micheal."
Jeanne looked at her trying to understand the scale of what Vivian was telling her but found herself unable to even comprehend what it would be like. She turned her gaze out and she lingered on the golden glittering at the edge of the horizon.
"So…," She started and hesitated, "You want to know about the Fourth Grail War and Artoria because it happened too fast for you to notice?"
She shook her head and looked at Jeanne who for the first time in knowing the woman truly understood the difference between faeries and humans. She paused as Vivian turned her gaze away and seemed to struggle on what to say to her question,
"What I want to know Jeanne d'Arc Alter isn't any of that. I know enough about the war from what Merlin told me and from picking up on… other stuff. No… What I want to know is… Was… Was Artoria happy?"
She paused as the woman asked her that question and she thought about how to answer it,
"...I wouldn't say she was happy. No. There wasn't really anything about the war, at least from what I experienced, to be happy about."
"Did she tell you her wish for the Grail?"
Jeanne nodded and they both fell into a soft silence as a breeze blew by them and she felt Micheals Blessed Hellfire trying to talk to her. She ignored it and decided to ask,
"Vivian… What are those golden sparkles at the horizon? At the back edge of that massive forest?"
Vivian looked at her clearly surprised,
"You can see that?"
"Should I not be able to?"
Jeanne felt Micheals Blessed Hellfire increase its efforts to get her attention and she did her best to ignore it even as she heard the faint sound of metal striking metal. She looked over at Vivian who looked back clearly thinking before turning back to look out,
"What you're seeing is divine and holy energy coming off of the shore of the inner sea of the planet. You're seeing the Planets Soul."
Her mouth fell open,
"There's no way I should be able to see that. Not with who I am. What I've…. Done..."
She trailed off as she remembered something that Eleanor had said about her sins being wiped clean when she was summoned as a Servant. She looked back out at the sparkles and felt Micheals Blessed Hellfire yell at her to look at it along with that sound getting louder along with the scent of embers. She rubbed her temple with her fingers and looked at Vivian who was smiling at her,
"Let it happen… Go where you need to go. You're safe here."
Jeanne looked at the woman who nodded and she sighed, laying back onto the flowers while clasping her hands over her sternum and closing her eyes as she followed the sensation while a soft white light filled her minds eye...
###
She felt herself softly land onto stone flooring as the steady sound of a blacksmiths hammer rang out to her left. She opened her eyes and sucked in a breath as she saw she was standing in what was clearly a forge then whirled in place her eyes eventually landing on a man bent over an anvil. From her angle she could see he had slightly pointed ears, white blue hair, and enough mana coming off of him that she knew on instinct she'd might not win if it came to blows. She slowly stepped back and got a better view of the room noticing that while it was clearly a blacksmiths forge something about it felt off compared to the forges she remembered from 15th century France as well as the two that she had seen Micheal use.
Her gaze snapped to a door as it opened and a short stocky man with bulging muscles, a wirey black beard and piercing black eyes walked in. Her gaze went back to the man with the pointed ears and she watched as he extended a finger out of which a blue bubble formed and she blinked when she saw that it was filled with English. She walked around so she could read it,
[Thanks again for letting me use your forge. It honestly feels nice to make stuff with my own two hands again.]
The stocky man nodded and held out his hand at which point the man pulled what he was working on off the anvil and handed it to him. Jeanne's mouth fell open as she saw him rub a thumb over shimmering blue-white chainmaile and grunted approvingly at which point the other man fistpumped and Jeanne got her first good look at...
"...Micheal?"
She had moved right in front of him to stare into his face as she watched a faerie version of Micheal Lafaire grin happily. His face was identical but he seemed leaner, more wiry, to say nothing of the mana pouring off of him almost constantly as well as the more Faerie-esque features. Her hand was halfway up to pull one the tips of one of his ears when he popped out another bubble which she had to step back to read,
[I just wish I could make something for her…. Would you happen to have any ideas gramps? I've told you about her right?]
The shorter man nodded, clearly exasperated, and rolled his eyes before placing the chainmaile on a nearby bench and making a motion with his hand like he was unholstering a gun from his hip. Micheal blinked and summoned his version of Blessed Hellfire while at the same time Jeanne felt her own version respond in kind as it appeared in her own hand. Both versions pulsed with mana at the same steady rate as though they were tied together.
The stocky man patted a nearby workbench and then went into a back room while Micheal placed the construct on the surface before leaning back against it and frowning. Jeanne walked up closer to him and waved her hand in front of his face, snapped her fingers in his ears, and even yelled his name only for him to not even notice her. She pouted and was about to open the Master-servant bond to give him an earful when the stocky man came back out holding a pair of half crafted black gauntlets. She watched along with Micheal as he took the gauntlets over to an anvil and began to hammer them at a speed that astonished her.
Before long what had been two gauntlets were now what looked like oblong pieces of metal that would wrap around your arm. He walked over and placed the modified gauntlets to the right of Micheals Blessed Hellfire. Micheal tilted his head, clearly curious, and was about to move his pistol more to be between the gauntlets when the stocky man grabbed his hand and shook his head before looking directly at Jeanne who stiffened in place.
How… Can he see me?
She pointed at herself with a finger and if she hadn't been watching him she wouldn't have seen him nod. She firmed her lips and placed her version of Blessed Hellfire to the right of the Gauntlets on the bench followed by both pistols starting to glow as Micheal's jaw fell open before he looked around the room frantically as though searching for something. The man smacked him on the shoulder and made a motion with his hands of placing his hands over the pistol.
Her Master frowned but did as he instructed pouring mana into his version of the pistol which caused the glow to darken into hellfire which flowed out and into both gauntlets as well as her own version. Slowly the gauntlets twisted and molded themselves into a shape that Jeanne didn't recognize but looked like it might fit over her own armor. Eventually they stopped glowing and her Master stopped putting mana into them as he tilted his head at them while Jeanne went to pick up her pistol right as he moved to touch a gauntlet. The second she touched her pistol however the modified gauntlets glowed a fiery red before dissolving and flowing into her Blessed Hellfire.
Micheal seemed too stunned to speak but he looked around more, seemingly more sure than before. He hesitantly extended a finger,
[….Jeanne?]
She stared at the bubble before firming her lips as Micheal moved to stand centrally in the room to look at everything with narrowed eyes while she felt herself start to be pulled back. She stood in front of him and felt her alarm bells start to scream at her from their proximity to each other as she stood on her toes to quickly kiss his cheek before pulling away,
"Come back home soon… Okay?"
She whispered and watched with a smile as the room began to dissolve into light as Micheals eyes widened and his hand shot up to his cheek while she felt guilt and shame slam into her for doing what she just did.
Here I am trying to put distance between us and yet…
Leading him on like the whore you are.
###
She opened her eyes and found herself laying back down in her room in Avalon, the last thing the Other said still ringing in her head. She sat up in her bed and looked around the room feeling groggily before her eyes locked onto the additional armor she had seen the man smith in her not-dream sitting on her bedside table. She stared at them for a few seconds before leaning over and hesitantly poking one only for nothing to happen. She frowned and summoned her version of Blessed Hellfire into her hand and watched as the gauntlets dissolved into hellfire that then flowed into the pistol.
She grinned, focused on the third form she had just acquired and watched as the pistol dissolved into embers that then flowed around her arms encasing them in additional steel. She looked at them more closely and noticed that the finger armor over her index and middle fingers seemed reinforced and spiked as well as the fact that the additional metal didn't seem to add any weight to her arms.
"Are they armored brass knuckles…?"
She muttered to herself as she got out of bed and slid into her hand to hand combat stance in the middle of her room. She bounced on her feet a bit before throwing a single jab and blowing a hole through the opposite wall. She froze, eyes wide, and looked at her left gauntlet seeing smoke drifting from a part that she hadn't noticed before that seemed to be reinforced additional steel sitting just along the outside of her arm. She checked the other gauntlet and saw the other one had the same bulge running along it as well. Her grin came back with an almost feral edge before she equipped the rest of her armor, quickly went downstairs, and got outside to jog to the training fields.
She got to the training fields and frowned seeing that no one was there. She was about to yell out when flower petals began rushing by her to form the shape of her sparring partner for the past 11 or so months. She grinned and settled into her stance once again,
"This time I'm winning incubus."
Merlin raised his eyebrows as his purple eyes flicked to her gauntlets before he smiled and summoned his sword as he settled into his own stance,
"For someone who's been asleep for the past four days you seem awfully ready for a fight."
Jeanne blinked and then glared at the Mage of Flowers,
"I'll get my answer to that and more once I've put a hole through your center-mass."
Merlin chuckled and tensed as Jeanne let out a long slow breath before she jabbed forward and shot a condensed hellfire slug at the man from the shot-gauntlet on her left arm.
###
"You got him to use his sword?" Artoria asked eyes wide, "Jeanne thats incredible!"
Jeanne smiled and preened a bit under the praise as she leaned back against the plinth sighing a bit as she looked out across the flowers. Artoria folded her hands in her lap and did the same as they sat in silence for a few minutes.
"Jeanne?"
"hm?"
"How… long do you think you'll stay in Avalon?"
Jeanne frowned and sat up doing the mental math,
"I somehow need to pull Micheal back within the next two weeks. What happens after that I can't seem to get a straight answer out of Merlin or Vivian."
"I wish I could see you off… not as King but as your friend."
Jeanne glanced at Artoria out of the corner of her eye seeing her face fall into a glare. She looked forward again and had opened her mouth to speak when a wave of mana blew past her making her eyes go wide, mana that she knew intimately well,
"Artoria. I need-"
"Go! I'll be fine. Go save him!"
Jeanne nodded and had turned around to leave filling herself with mana when she heard behind her,
"Thank you for talking with me all this time. Good luck... and stay safe…"
Jeanne whirled around in her spot as she swore she heard Artoria speak for real. Her eyes focused on the sleeping king who hadn't moved a millimeter in the past year. She opened her mouth right as a second more concentrated wave of mana blew past her. She firmed her lips and sprinted away using her own mana to run faster. She got back to the town and quickly ran over the rooftops again to the house Micheal was in, deciding to just crash through the window again instead of taking the time to open the door. She dispersed her momentum with a roll and quickly ran over to Micheal who she saw was sweating profusely as his face was twisted into a grimace. She glanced down at his markings and felt dread seeing how well defined they were as well as the richness of the color of them,
She quickly dumped as much mana into him as she could spare as Vivian warped into the room immediately running over to scan him. Jeanne grit her teeth as another wave of mana surged off of her Master. Vivian started speaking in that unknown language and suddenly she felt as though Avalon had shrunk itself around them as a bounded field that enveloped them.
"Whats going on!?"
She yelled as another wave burst off of Micheal only to be stopped by the field. She watched as Vivian summoned those golden circles only for her to freeze as they flickered in the air over him before turning ice blue and then breaking apart into fragments that quickly arranged themselves into English,
(-Pour more mana into him. I am doing everything I can on my side to stabilize him. If this works he will remain human for the rest of his life.-)
Jeanne stared at the floating words and then at Vivian who seemed to be at war with herself before she swore in English and looked at her,
"I know what she's trying to do. Dump everything into him at the exact moment I tell you to."
Jeanne's gaze flicked between Vivian and the floating words,
"Who- What-"
The words broke apart and rearranged themselves,
(-Glad to see you understand. Servant with the white hair and yellow eyes. You are the key to getting Micheal back to your side of this. Put everything into him when given the signal.-)
"I won't ask how you're seeing into this Avalon, Morgan-"
Jeanne stiffened as Vivian spoke and her golden eyes narrowed at the letters with barely concealed anger,
"but-
(-We can talk later if you want. I need to focus on dissolving his core and you need to account for the time it takes to verbally tell the woman opposite you to start the process. Microseconds count here.-)
The words morphed into ambient mana and Vivian huffed,
"Even across timelines she's the same. Okay Jeanne Alter. You understand right?"
Jeanne nodded and squinted her eyes as another wave came off of Micheal. The air inside the bounded field was smothering in the amount of mana within it and she still didn't know what was going on. So she waited as seconds ticked by until,
"NOW!"
Jeanne dumped everything she had into Micheal. She felt her grail core start to empty and grit her teeth as she pushed more mana into him. She watched as the fae markings seemed to heat from the inside out while smoke came off of his chest. She began to panic, worrying that she was burning him from the inside out,
"Keep going! DO NOT STOP FOR ANYTHING."
Vivian yelled as she wrapped Micheal in golden light. She ground her teeth together and shunted everything else she had even the mana keeping her physical body intact as she felt her grail core dissolve within her. The fae markings slowly burned away off his skin like ignited paper while at the same time the mana inside the bounded field rushed past her and flowed back into him causing the glow Vivian had put on him to almost settle itself around him.
She felt herself start to unravel as she began to use the mana holding herself together and stared at her Master willing his eyes to open.
Micheal shot awake with a gasp of air as he snapped upright and began to breath rapidly as he looked around the room in a blind panic. Jeanne stopped the flow of mana then collapsed to her knees beside the bed as she immediately felt the absence of her grail core. She quickly drew in the mana of Avalon and felt herself stabilize as she closed her eyes determined not to look at Micheal. She closed her eyes, willing him to be the same Micheal that left, because if he wasn't-
If Morgan le Fay had done anything to him-
A coughing sound came from her left,
"Fucking hells… Why does dying have to be so fucking painful every god damned time…."
She choked back a sob, got up, and ran out of the room before he could call her back or ask her to come back.
He's back.
He's really back.
He still won't love you.
I don't care. I just want him to be safe and he's safe now. Thats all I care about right now.
She ran out of the house, happy tears streaming from her eyes as she felt the vice around her heart ease open a bit. She opened the front door and almost ran right into Merlin only to quickly fire hellfire jet out from her hip to dodge around him and keep running. She eventually found herself back at the plinth with Artoria panting from exertion. She remembered that she didn't have an internal source of mana anymore and quickly pulled in mana as she stood upright.
She walked over to the sleeping king, dispelled her gauntlet, and gently placed her hand on the Kings shoulder as she smiled through her still running tears,
"He's back Artoria… He's safe."