[h2]Honda Ami[/h2]

The girl started when the bird talked--[i]birds couldn't talk, that just wasn't possible[/i]--and nearly drew her sword. It was, however, on a different lamppost--completely out of reach of an ordinary weapon. On the plus side, she hadn't lost her balance, and didn't [i]seem[/i] as perturbed as she felt; Ami had always been proud of her ability to keep calm and breathe easily no matter what was going on.

But that offer...

"Ah... do we have to kill them? Couldn't we all just... agree to some other contest of skill? Servants take mana or... something to stay around, so the loser could just... not... give any?"

[hr]

[h2]"Caster"[/h2]

"I can help with that, for the rest of the war... once we've been somewhere once, I can easily get us to it without being seen," Kezia stated, keeping to herself that there was almost nowhere in Redrock that she couldn't move to already. [i]That[/i] knowledge had to stay a secret until she had a day to move about on her own. Then she could just claim to have scouted out locations when she'd actually been checking on everyone else's progress.

It was at this point that the door opened, and Caster adopted a protective position in front of her Master. Of course, it was the nun--that girl with [i]far[/i] too much magical ability for anyone perfectly mortal. She was still a bit envious.

"Caster and Master reporting."