282CHAPTER 2:
UNWELCOME REVELATIONS
Harry was sitting with Mary in Da Vinci's office, one that had once been the ad hoc office of Dr Romani Archiman, aka Dr Roman. Roman had been the chief medical officer of Chaldea, until the sabotage wreaked by the agents of Goetia wiped out many of the senior personnel. Roman was forced to take charge, something that he didn't relish. It wasn't just because of his easygoing character, one that seemed to shirk responsibility and shy away from danger. Romani had once been in such a position of leadership before, and didn't want to again.
He had, after all, once been King Solomon.
The short version of what was a long story was that Marisbury Animusphere managed to use King Solomon as a Caster Servant to win the Holy Grail War in Fuyuki, and Solomon had wished to be reincarnated as a normal human being, to live a relatively carefree life. Unfortunately, that was never to be, for the sins of Solomon's past, the Demon Pillars whose power he had harnessed in his first life, made plans of their own, plans that would spell the end of humanity. Solomon, as Roman, had tried to help them, but it came to the point where he had to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to stop the Demon Pillars, effectively erasing himself from existence.
Only, not enough of them were destroyed. They'd dealt with four Demon Pillars who had survived. And now, it seemed like two more had escaped destruction as well.
"Now, this is more or less an advanced briefing," Da Vinci said, the genius peering at Harry and Mary from behind the desk that used to be Roman's. "While Mash, Ritsuka and Gudao are aware in broad terms what is happening, I thought I would discuss specifics with you, Harry. After all, it's your world we are going to, and any insights you would have are welcome."
Harry nodded. "Because magecraft and my world's magic are different, right?"
"Yes. Your world's magic, albeit based on studies of your body and of your spells, while considerably more flashy than most magecraft, and certainly more versatile, seems to be considerably less efficient. Magecraft works on perhaps more logical principles. As a Caster Servant myself, I am in a position to examine the manifold differences. But we're not here to do that. It's more the socio-political landscape. Your world's history seems to be extremely similar in most regards, as is the need to keep magic secret. But magical governance is vastly different. However, it seems that the Demon Pillars have been on your world for some time." Da Vinci gestured, and a holographic image of a familiar trophy appeared. "The Tri-Wizard Trophy, the very artifact that brought you into the Singularity we found you in. In truth, it's a heavily degraded Holy Grail, though I believe that the degradation was due to the interactions between two different…Portkey spells, I believe? You said that one of the Death Eaters hit it with a spell."
Harry nodded. "And you believe that that triggered something not unlike Kaleidoscope, the Second True Magic, only, it somehow brought me into a Singularity."
Da Vinci nodded. "Which should have been impossible, as it also triggered time travel. The Singularity was in the 13th Century, after all. Two True Magics for the price of one. Whether the Grail was degraded before then, or simply burned out due to such powerful magic being inadvertently used, I don't know. In truth, it was lucky that I was able to jury-rig a means of Rayshifting you back to Chaldea. It was easier than I thought. It was more like summoning a Servant, actually. However, we have also detected traces of what seem to be another Grail in this Pseudo-Singularity, suggesting two Demon Pillars, potentially. I can't say for certain, though. We didn't think any Demon Pillars survived what Solomon did, and yet we've encountered four of them in the Pseudo-Singularities. It suggests that those two regrouped in a reality removed enough from our own to make their own plans. Whether they involve reviving Goetia's own plans, or else doing something else, I can't say."
"Do you think they're working with Voldemort?"
"It's possible, but we can't rule out the possibility that they are acting through someone other than Voldemort," Da Vinci said. "The Pseudo-Singularity is centred on Britain. However, how did the Grail get turned into a rather tacky trophy, and why use that as a mere transportation device of perhaps a few metres, at least how it was originally intended? I doubt they knew the true value of the Holy Grail if they made it into a trophy."
"Maybe, but there were a bunch of government and sporting officials who might have used it as a trophy, at least in disguise. Bagman, Crouch…I mean, before he disappeared. He was acting very strange at the time. But I didn't see anything or anyone that, even in hindsight, had anything to do with the Demon Pillars or Servants."
"That's fine," Da Vinci said with a wave of her hand. "We generally need to search on the ground, as it were, for the sources of the Singularities. The Singularities have to be investigated precisely because our systems cannot discern what is happening until we have people on the scene. And, of course, there is what King Hassan has spoken of."
Mary nodded. "The Great Founder has spoken to me of the Peverells, who bested him before he grew into his powers as the first Hassan-i Sabbah. He believes Harry to be a scion of that line," she said in her soft tones.
"Yeah, I'm still coming to grips that my Invisibility Cloak came from your universe, and from the first Hassan-i Sabbah," Harry said. "Or the fact that someone actually managed to beat him. Seriously, King Hassan is a scary bastard."
"And yet, you spoke up for me, berating him on my behalf," Mary said. "I feared for your life, for to defy the Great Founder is to die. That he spared us both…is a miracle even the Grail cannot provide."
Suddenly, the room seemed to darken, and in a flash of cold blue fire, an imposing figure appeared. Tall, clad in dark armour, with a skull-like helmet where azure eyes glowed in the sockets. "Thy conviction and compassion weighed more heavily in mine judgement than thy foolish anger, or else I would have taken thy head then and there," King Hassan stated, being an embodiment of 'speak of the Devil and he shall appear'. His voice was every bit as dark and ominous as his appearance suggested. "I hath told thee this time and again. I despise repeating mine words to the point of weariness."
"…King Hassan," Da Vinci said with a sigh as Mary began to shiver. "For how long have you been listening?"
"Since they came here alone," King Hassan said. "A briefing about a Pseudo-Singularity, and thou would speak to these two first, rather than the Fujimaru cousins, who art more experienced Masters. Naturally, mine curiosity was piqued, just as it had when Harry's magic stirred forgotten memories of the Peverells. 'Tis fitting that he had the artifact that came from the humblest of the Peverells, the sole one I refrained from cursing. If thy destination is the world where they came from, then I will come, to retrieve my tools. The wand my Magus advisor created, and the stone that seeks advice from the dead."
"We will seek them out for you, Great Founder," Mary said quietly.
"I have no doubt that thou would say that, Serenity," King Hassan said, not unkindly. "Though thou art eager to see thine lover's home. Let that not divert thee overly much from thine path. I hath allowed thee to find happiness in one unaffected by thine body. And I too desire to meet those Harry would call friends and allies. But remember thy duty, and seek not to curry mine favour with such proclamations, regardless of their sincerity. This is not Alamut, where to see my mien is to embrace one's end, but we have a duty to humanity, whether they be of our faith or not. If it comes to choosing between tools I lost long ago and I need no longer, and confiscating the lives of our enemies, then there is no choice at all."
"Obviously," Da Vinci said. "Dealing with the source of this Pseudo-Singularity is the priority. Still, there are three main places to begin searching for clues, given your anecdotes, Harry. The first two, Diagon Alley and the Ministry of Magic, are both somewhere in London. The third, Hogwarts, is located somewhere in the Scottish Highlands. We can make those three places our starting points. Of course, explaining the presence of Magi and Servants is going to be something of a task. I'd suggest sending some of our younger Casters to Hogwarts. Alice, Medea's younger self, Illya, Miyu and Bathory could go, and I think Blavatsky could pass as a student, given her younger body. Another Caster could masquerade as a teacher. I would go myself, but this may be a long-term mission, and I am needed to administer this damned place." She sighed in irritation. "Dammit, Roman…he died to try and kill me with paperwork, I just know it."
"Speak naught of such jests," King Hassan said. "A prattling fool he may have been, but his sacrifice allowed us to deal with Goetia. To offer one's self to utter oblivion as he did was no mean feat."
"And you could stand to loosen up," Da Vinci remarked. "But that is not the point."
"There is something," Harry said. "Remember how I reacted to Hundred-Face and Cursed Arm when they came to rescue us? The Death Eaters wore skull masks themselves. Now, Mary and Hundred-Face don't need the mask, Mary because she never carved off her face, and Hundred-Face can assume any guise she wishes, but…"
"I see thine point," King Hassan rumbled. "It only makes me desire their heads all the more, as if their prior sins were not reason enough."
Da Vinci nodded. "That being said…I want you to be cautious, Harry. We still don't know who changed the Portkey on the Grail to send you to that graveyard. In addition, I find it odd that Dumbledore would keep sending you back to an abusive household. I am hoping that he is a blinkered fool or had some sort of strategy in play. So we'll try to get you as close to the Dursley household as possible, as a means to start investigating. Merlin and Medea will accompany you in order to look for any Bounded Fields and the like."
Harry nodded, albeit reluctantly. He'd had a few rows with Da Vinci about her thoughts on Dumbledore, but he knew she had a point. Dumbledore had refused to tell him time and again why he needed to go back to the Dursleys. He just hoped that Da Vinci was wrong, even though she rarely was.
"We should be on the lookout for Servants," Mary said. "Even if no Servants were seen by Harry during his lifetime does not mean they weren't there, or else won't be there now. And it is more than likely we shall encounter Servants we have not done so before. Every Singularity seems to bring forth Servants we have not encountered previously. The Great Founder and I were two in Camelot."
"While thine words are obvious, thine conclusion is not," King Hassan rumbled. "Servants unknown to our minds pose an unknown threat to our persons. However, a number of the Servants present in Chaldea have fought in Grail Wars before, and retain vestiges of memory. We only have a few of the Servants who fought in the Great Holy Grail War in Romania. Maybe some have been called forth there. And there may be Heroic Spirits unique to Harry's world. To speculate needlessly, though, is to tarry overly long. And as the detective is fond of proclaiming, 'tis a mistake to theorise ahead of the facts."
"It still helps to have hypotheses, though, and to eliminate or modify them as facts arrive, no matter what Holmes claims," Da Vinci said. "You're correct, though. Unknown Servants will pose a risk, as they always do. We might luck out and find some who were in the Great Holy Grail War, true, and Jeanne, Mordred and Atalanta have been something of a help in learning of those Servants. But as King Hassan has rightly pointed out, there may be Heroic Spirits unique to Harry's world, particularly to their magical society. I'll need researchers on the ground as well to read up on the folklore of magical society, particularly Magical Britain. I'll go and talk to Waver on other strategies. Anyway, I need to pick your brains about various locations and people of interest, Harry…"
After a rather gruelling grilling from one of history's greatest geniuses, Harry just wanted to have dinner and head to bed. A proper briefing would take place tomorrow. Still, he had to admit to feeling ambivalent about heading back to his homeworld after all this time.
True, he was homesick. He wanted to see his friends, make sure they were all right, and put paid to Voldemort for once and for all. And yet…it didn't quite feel like home anymore.
Harry was pretty sure he knew why. At Hogwarts, his fame was a double-edged sword. True, he'd gained friends, even those that saw past the Boy Who Lived myth that sprang up around him, but…here…he felt more at ease, ironically enough. Despite being surrounded on all sides by famed heroes and infamous figures from history and myth…he felt more welcome here, because he wasn't famous, at least in this world. In fact, it felt like home.
As he and Mary entered the cafeteria, he saw the tall and buxom figure of Medusa, looking put out as her older (despite looking to be in their mid-teens at the oldest) sisters Euryale and Stheno teased her, their friend, the Minotaur Asterios, looking on placidly. The cat-eared huntress Atalanta smiled as her adopted daughters, Jack the Ripper, a young girl with silvery hair and golden eyes, and Alice, a lilac-haired girl in Victorian dress who was actually a living story book, ate their meals. The buxom figure of Francis Drake was engaged in a drinking contest with the scruffy-looking Blackbeard, while the diminutive form of Mary Read and the tall and buxom form of Anne Bonny looked on in exasperation. And a girl who looked like a more buxom form of Arturia, but who was really the Emperor Nero, was arguing with Tamamo-no-Mae, a kimono-clad woman with fox ears and a tail.
Hogwarts had felt more like a home than the Dursleys did, true, but there were expectations made of him there. And while Chaldea was more dangerous than Hogwarts, what with the missions to save the world, he wasn't the one people relied on most. Even as a Master, he was just one amongst many. And that actually helped.
He watched as Gudao Fujimaru walked in. He was one of the Fujimaru cousins who were the only two surviving Masters of Chaldea, the others either dead, or in emergency cryosuspension. It wasn't until more were found amongst the staff of Chaldea, and Harry was retrieved from Camelot, that they could field more. The dark-haired, earnest-looking Japanese was like him in many ways, if a bit more dorky.
Next to him was Mash Kyrielight, a genetically-engineered and magically-enhanced human designed to become a Demi-Servant. Although dressed in what looked like a lab uniform, her violet eyes behind glasses, the pale-skinned and lavender-haired teenager had the power and abilities of Sir Galahad, being able to materialise a rather skimpy-looking armour and a massive shield, Lord Camelot. She would have died before long, had it not been for the intervention of 'Fou', a creature that looked vaguely like a small, fluffy dog with pale white fur, but was really a Phantasmal Beast known as Cath Pulug. Now, she theoretically had a normal human lifespan. Theoretically. She was now about his age, eighteen.
Harry smiled at the two, remembering when they came to help him in that damned dungeon underneath the fort. Even though he was suspicious of them for coming along with Cursed Arm, what with the Death Eater-like mask, they proved themselves to be allies, no, friends. Here, while not everyone liked him, he still felt welcome.
His world may have been where he was born, but Chaldea would be his home.
Still, he'd be heading back before long, and with his friends by his side, as well as his lover. Even if Chaldea was his home now, he wanted to make sure everyone he cared about was safe. Because he knew that, even without Voldemort, they weren't, not with the Pseudo-Singularity squatting on top of them…
CHAPTER 2 ANNOTATIONS:
So, we've had Da Vinci give a briefing, and Harry's feelings on what is his new home. And King Hassan was responsible for the Deathly Hallows? Yipes.
No numbered annotations this time.