In a Maze of Boxes

[old_man_acht]

The Grail War has kindled quickly, and so it is for the best that Acht has thought better of ordering his father's documents shipped via train. Airplanes strike him as a highly unreliable mode of transportation, but this much he can say for them: They're fast.

He is at present bent over a stack of documents, hands closed in cotton gloves to preserve the paper, searching for that queer code of slashes that is Rider's native language. All around him, leather-cased chests and cardboard boxes lie waiting to be cracked open.

Acht would curse his father's prolific note-taking, were he not convinced that it will be the Einzberns' salvation.

Comments

[37thstrategem]

"--in anticipation of the siege, I would like to evaluate the contents of the vaults. And appropriate some, with your permission."

[old_man_acht]

"All of my resources are yours to appropriate. Are you seeking anything in particular?"

[37thstrategem]

"As I said, any person on the field of battle other than myself or my Master can be considered an enemy," Caster says, with some amusement. "Nevertheless, I anticipate that though I will be besieging him, I may find myself likewise besieged."

[old_man_acht]

"And you require weapons." Venturing, "Weapons that do not at first glance appear to be weapons?"

[37thstrategem]

"Weapons are of little use to a man with no skill to wield them." Caster smiles. "And of all the arts I have mastered, I cannot claim proficiency with many that I have not already in my armaments. I merely require light."

[old_man_acht]

"If you can find it in the vaults, you're welcome to it."

[37thstrategem]

Caster nods, and bows, fan in hand as he fades. "I appreciate your indulgence."

[old_man_acht]

Hardly indulgence, he thinks, studying the page once more before retrieving a small prana-imbued ceramic egg from his desk drawer. He'll fold it into Lara's hand, he thinks, and she need never know whence it came.