Dragons' Blood

Chapter 3: The Deadlands

Thoughts done in italics.

Projected, artificially modified speech in bold, imagine Kirk Thornton's Igor from Persona 5.

Corrin and Saber had expected to arrive near a lush verdant forest, their location prior to entering the wolves' den. Instead, the Master and Servant pair arrived at an enclosed room of a structure made of wood and stone. Instinctively, Saber stepped in front of Corrin, her black blade in hand.

"We were mistaken to assume those portals were simple two-way passages," the pale blonde stated, her yellow eyes darting around the dark room.

"No," a distant voice, deep and inhuman, unknown to the pair replied, "you were correct, but these portals can be easily tampered with."

"Who said that?" Corrin stood back-to-back with Saber and sharpening his focus to sense the magic nearby, his hand reaching for the scabbard of an iron blade.

"I did. Now, hurry along, there's no time to spare," the eerie voice replied, causing a faint glow in the room that directed the new arrivals to somewhere else.

Both Master and Servant stared at the direction the sound came from, finding nothing but an open passage that lead to an inconspicuous wooden door. Warily, the pair took hesitant steps towards the source of the sound, glancing to the sides with every footfall.

"No need to be so cautious," the disembodied voice spoke in an amused tone, "I wouldn't bring you here if I intended to kill you, that would be much too messy, in my home no less."

"Funny way of showing it," Corrin replied, clutching his sword arm which was beginning to twitch uncomfortably, "seeing as you didn't come to greet us personally."

"I can only speak for myself, Prince," the voice replied, her amusement showing in her tone, "most people don't take kindly to the unexpected change in scenery."

"Most people are quite reasonable then, Magus," the King of Knights clicked her tongue in reply, "and you bringing us here would just make it easier to get rid of us if you've hidden this place..."

Saber made the first move, moving the door ever so slightly, anticipating a very likely trap awaiting them at the other side. The blonde Servant made quick eagle-eyed glances at her surroundings and found nothing out of the ordinary.

"But one can never tell with mages." the thought crossed Saber's mind as she stepped forward, sword firmly in hand, "It is safe to proceed, Master."

Corrin nodded and followed his Servant into the dim room with only a small, barely lit fireplace for lighting. Inside were books arranged in towering stacks and several dozens more in shelves on the walls, and at the room's center was an ornate chair facing away from the entrance.

"How did you know that I was royalty?" The princeling asked, feeling more uneasy about the situation, still looking around for the person who spoke to them earlier, "This seems too convenient for you, doesn't it?"

"You summoned this Servant, correct?" a younger, more feminine voice answered, surprising the pair, "Only the blood of royalty could activate the Dragon Vein needed to provide the necessary power for the ritual."

"So you know of it," the blonde said, eyeing the chair with suspicion as she recognized some of the odd symbols from Merlin's tutelage, "the means to summon a Heroic Spirit."

"Yes, the place you are in was where it was first utilized in this world after all,' the voice replied, a malefic aura emanating from behind the chair and causing the fireplace to flicker on and off, "that was little over a millennia ago if memory serves correctly."

"Would you mind showing yourself?" Corrin requested, his sword arm grabbing onto the hilt of his weapon, "It's difficult to trust someone you can't see."

"Very well," the voice replied, orbs of flame now flying from the fireplace and towards several unlit candles around the room, "I will humor your request."

As the room was illuminated by the unnatural flames, the young prince finally caught a glimpse of who he assumed was the owner of the mysterious voice.

"Not quite what you were expecting?" the young almost child like voice asked the half-dragon boy, no longer possessing the inhuman quality it had earlier, "I am Nyx, master of these lands."

"Much...younger than I was expecting," the princeling admitted with a nod, "are you an apprentice of some sort?"

"No, her magic is the real deal," Saber countered, "she's hiding her aura well, but she possesses far more power than an ordinary sorcerer should have."

"Perceptive, aren't you, your Highness?" the magician said with a wry grin, "I was told you'd be able to see this much at the very least."

"Saber?" Corrin threw his Servant a confused look, relaxing his stance as he realized how powerless he was to affect the current situation.

"Speak, girl, who spoke to you of me and why should I not cut you down?" the pale blonde demanded, losing her patience as she pointed her sword at the unarmed mage.

"Saber, stand down!" the prince ordered, causing an invisible force to hold the Servant back.

"Nggh, fool, she's far more dangerous than you think!" the King of Knights growled.

Before the situation could escalate further, the mage let out a sigh and shifted her gaze to the Nohrian prince.

"Calm yourself, princeling, you're going to need all your Command Seals for what's to come, we can't have you wasting any of them now, can we?" Nyx explained, harmlessly dissipating her arcane aura, "The war to come will consume both Nohr and Hoshido if no one intervenes and both sides have some very ugly weapons lined up."

"War is always ugly, how is this any different?" Saber pointed out, begrudgingly lowering her blade lest her Master does something foolish.

"This one will have no winners," the mage said matter-of-factly, "this will end with nothing less than this land being torn asunder and the death of everything in it."

"That's quite the claim you're making," the long-eared prince added, "I hope you have more evidence than this."

The younger looking girl stared at the Master before heading to the room's exit, her back facing the pair, and through the almost transparent cloth of her garb, revealed an intricate brand not unlike Corrin's own brand as a Master.

"You want proof?" Nyx asked without facing her 'guests', "The first Servant, a Caster, was summoned in this village, soon after that, I became her apprentice."

"We killed everyone here."

Chapters are gonna be shorter from now because each will just focus on one particular place rather than a back and forth like the intro stuff.