Land of the Blades

43. Meeting

I moved Kiyohime away, who had fall asleep using my legs as a cushion, and went for a walk to stretch a bit before relieving Cinnabar and letting him sleep a bit. That's when I realized we had another hitchhiker on the ship.

—Ah, Phosphophyllite, was it? Could you held this lantern still? I can't be expected to write in these conditions —said a "kid" with blue hair, but his voice was too deeper for what I would have expected.

—A-Andersen? What are you doing here?

—Huh? I'm here because I wanted to; why else would I be here? Now, could you hold the lantern?

This man's mind was too absorbed on his own world. I suppose it was foolish of me to expect any rationality from a shadow servant, moreover someone who had supposedly defied Franny from the moment he was summoned. I just stretched the alloy in my arm and did as he asked.

—Perfect. Now stay still.

—How long am I supposed to stay still?

—Well, the sun is about to rise, but the proper light will take some time to reach us. Around two hours.

I didn't even bother to react to what he said, I just left my hand behind and stretched it as I returned to the bridge. Cinnabar didn't said anything, but the look on his face was enough to make me feel a bit ashamed. I even started to suspected he was using his noble phantasm against me, whatever it might be. We crossed a storm later that day, but the Lunarians were able to close off their vessels, and we remained on either the bridge or the cargo hold. By the time the sky cleared a bit, we only had a few more hours of light. I was resting to be able to go through the night again, when three of the sundries jumped down and landed right in front of me. My first thought was that they had finally decided to betray us, but they weren't even carrying their bows. Instead, they had a weird instrument with lots of buttons; each made a different sound when they were pushed. Through this, they were able to communicate, albeit in very short sentences.

—If I understood correctly —I said to Bort after they had "explained" a message they wanted me to relate to him—, these three are your fans.

—Are you an idiot? —he replied.

—I'm only telling you what they told me!

—That's precisely why I am calling you an idiot! You must have heard it wrong. There is no way the Lunarians who had hunted us all this time could feel admiration for any of us!

—It. Is. True. —the box said as one of the sundries pushed its buttons very intently— We. Ad. Mire. Your. Stre. nght. And. Your. Gra. Ce.

Bort make a weird face, halfway between disgust and incredulity, and then turned and tried to get away from them. The three Sundries of course followed him, using the box to tell them how magnificent their movements were when they fought.

—Argh! I got it already! Leave me alone! —he said after a few minutes, fleeing to the cargo hold.

I couldn't help but smirk, but my enjoyment didn't last for long, as Antarc called me to the bridge.

—The compass and the other instruments of the ship had been acting weirdly for a few minutes, but the candle keeps pointing forward —he said.

I tried to call Caster using the radio, but I could only hear static. This was starting to make me feel nervous. I got out of the bridge and jumped to the Lunarian's vessel.

—I would presume your instruments have started to fail —the Prince said—, ours have too. As I told you before, there is an anomaly in this zone that has stopped us from seeking both Shirou Emiya and the Admirabilis.