[h2][center]Kazamyr Silvestrov[/center][/h2]
"Ah-ah-ah!" Kazamyr held up a finger at the mention of the alliance. "I may have been the enabler there, the one who laid the terms, but the initial suggestion came from that girl, the Master of Assassin. I'd have been perfectly happy to wipe out both her and her Servant, had she not made the plea that we should talk instead of fight."

Throwing on a coat, he headed for the door, switching to their telepathic link rather than talking out loud. [i]"But then, your very claim that I suggested the alliance should tell you how I mean to use it, no? Even if it was her idea to begin with, it has become mine, a tool in my arsenal."[/i] It was notable, as he strode silently out of the apartment, that he no longer accompanied his words with gestures. After all, only Rider could hear him, and a man gesturing without speaking would look quite suspicious indeed. 

[i]"The most difficult thing about this war is that there are several sides, none of which can fully control the other. Yet as you've admitted yourself, we're not strong enough to defeat them all with mere brute force. Our only hope lies in influencing the other sides into a situation that favors us."[/i] Once Rider was through the door, in spirit form or otherwise, Kazamyr closed it behind him and strode down the hallway, turning to make his way down the staircase to the ground floor. [i]"And so, what better opportunity than this? You saw Assassin's Master: she's naive, without the proper ruthlessness needed to succeed in this war. Left to her own devices, chances are she'd have tried to lay low and hide, until a side like ours cornered her and crushed her like a bug. Useless to us, in short."[/i] One floor, two floors, and then he was down at street level, heading for the door. [i]"But now? We can point her at things, drag her with us into fights. We direct Assassin's power, which her Master would have wasted so, towards our mutual enemies. I'll wager she'll get taken out somewhere along the line— but by the time she does, her actions will have shifted the board into a position more advantageous for us. We'll have influenced a Servant's impact on the war, and turned it to our benefit..."[/i]

He strode out the door, into the warm morning outside. The sun was up, now, no longer orange-red but shifting into its natural yellow. [i]"And at what cost? Normally such an arrangement would see us manipulated in turn, but that girl?[/i] Pah! [i]She's no conniving magus, and Assassin doesn't seem like a schemer to me. So long as we're not stupid about it, we should be able to influence their strategy without compromising ours."[/i]

Smiling to himself, he carried on down the street at a brisk pace, heading towards a quaint little corner café he'd scouted out a few days prior. [i]That feeds into our larger goals, too. Lancer might be a difficult opponent in a straight fight, but if we can find Archer and Saber, then we can try to set them against her. As for Caster, she'll likely prove even better at influencing events than we are, so rather than trying to beat her at her own game I say we locate her and crush her as soon as possible. Against superior force, we strike with cunning, and against superior cunning, we strike with force."[/i]

[@King Cosmos]