Land of the Blades

27. Exchange

This visibly frustrated Franny, who instead tried to push her downward and actually managed to make the floor behind Phos break after so much stress, but that started a chain reaction, and soon the already damaged ship started to break into pieces. She tried to grab Rider, but the floor broke right between both of them and pushed Franny against the railing, while Rider fell into the ocean. The part where I was also started to fall apart, and as it collapsed I saw Franny retreating, throwing a glare back at me before entering her sunspot-like portal.

—I'll look for another opportunity to talk, wait for me —she said, before disappearing.

The floor around me broke and turned into gold dust as I was falling, and soon feel myself reaching my terminal velocity. The chains that have been holding me also vanished, but I was still unable to move even an inch, so I wasn't even able to control my fall. I was pondering whether my body would be resistant enough to survive the impact, when I remembered that shooting Cadalbolg had most likely left my body full of micro-fissures. At least breaking into pieces at contact with the ocean would be better than drowning on it and get lost forever. I closed my eyes and waited for the inevitable.

—SHIROU!!! —I heard and came back to me, Phos was falling right behind me, trying to get to me.

She made me remember, I couldn't give up just yet. I forced my arm to move towards her and she grabbed it. We pulled toward each other and ended up hugging, with her facing towards the ocean.

—How much time do we have? —I asked.

—N-not much.

—That's enough.

I spun us so we both were seeing the water approaching, and extended my arm once more. I thought I didn't had any energy left in my body, but still forced myself to project Rho Aias, adding as many layers as I could. My arm started cracking. Phos then extended her arm towards the shield and like when we were protecting everyone, she made supports between us and the shield.

—I'll protect you —she softly murmured, as her alloy started covering me.

We hit the water a second after that, and we hit it hard. I could feel that every joint of my body had broken or at least cracked very badly, buy Phos's gold kept me in one piece instead of spreading all over the ocean floor. The last thing I saw as we were sinking was the familiar whale-like silhouette of Livy approaching us.

When I opened my eyes again, I found myself staring at the sky. I had regained a bit of my strength, so I could move my neck a bit, as well as my fingers and toes, but everything else was still immobilized by the embrace of Phos' alloy. She was still unconscious, her face a bit too close to mine. By the way we were moving and what I could feel about the surface we were laying in, I deducted we were traveling on Livy's back.

—I'm sorry... —I heard someone murmur, and turned my head as much as I could to find who else was there.

It was Caster, holding between her arms the shattered body of Rider. She was missing anything below her navel. What remained of her was turning into golden dust too.

—I'm so sorry, I... —Caster kept saying.

Rider raised her only arm and touched Caster's cheek.

—Don't ... cry, my... goddess —Rider said in a different voice than her usual, but it somehow sound familiar to me.

Caster held her tightly until she vanished entirely.

Phos only awoke and let go of me when we returned into the island a few minutes later. Everyone was on the beach already preparing to go search for us into the ocean. Caster got off of Livy on her own and kept glaring at the ocean, but Phos and I required some help to get down. Livy's warrior form started to vanish in a cloud of mist, and soon her slug form was perched on my shoulder.

Adamant stood in front of us.

—I'm glad you were able to return safely. —He said, his expression was... somewhat different.

—Sensei, I... —Phos said, but was unable to say anything more, as she started to bawl her eyes.

Adamant hugged her and patted her head, attempting to calm Phos.

—I hate to interrupt such emotional scene —Caster said after some time, finally looking at us—, but Franny cut off my supply of mana, so I will most likely disappear if I don't make a contract with anyone else.

—What? —Most of the gems yelled.

—Well, we are technically dead already, so there is a price to pay for us to keep existing as we are. That doesn't include the energy we need to be able to use our Noble Phantasm and such, which has to come from somewhere. Without a supply of mana provided by our "Master", us Servants would disappear.

—Then, why has Shirou stayed so long? Is he still being feed by that person? —The other gem inside of Ghost spoke through her lips.

—No, the Archer class Servants has a skill that allows them to survive for low periods of time without resupplying energy. As long as he doesn't do anything too extravagant, he should be fine with the energy he gets from the sun —Caster said, making me remember that time I "froze" after using Gae Bolg as an arrow, and how I had being unable to move just before.

—On the other side —she continued—, Casters like me can't go more than a few hours without mana. I can't help to feel a bit jealous of you, Shero.

The gems started to ask questions about the whole process, and Caster had to explain it to them, not as grandiosely as before as the lack of mana had left her feeling light headed. The volunteer wouldn't be affected too much, and would only feel a bit tired if she ever had to use a lot of energy in a short time, and they would get three command seals that would allow them to give an order that Caster couldn't refuse. She only needed a small fragment of their bodies to make the pact.

Bort fearlessly volunteered, but Caster said they weren't compatible and she would receive a very low input. I suspect she didn't want to give her those three absolute orders to Bort. Ultimately, it was decide Dia would become her master, despite Bort's objections. Caster was very happy after receiving a tiny shard of Dia because —Diamonds are a woman's best friend.

Dia and Caster still had to say an oath to each other, but after that the pact was done, and we all returned to home, as the sun was starting to set. Phos kept holding Adamant all the way to the school, where everyone branched out to their respective rooms. Phos, Ghost, and I, however, ended up in the library, again with Shiro the puppy and Livy tagging along. We had been there just a couple of hours before, but many things had changed since then.

I looked at the window and saw my reflection on it, watching directly at my own eyes. I had never thought about it, but almost everyone else had irises who matched their hairs, as that was the natural color of their body without the white-ish powder. Phos was an exception as she had received Lapis' eyes after she had lost her former ones. However, from the moment in which they found me I had always had these eyes with teal irises, despite the rest of me being metallic gray.

—Phos, I think I have your eyes...