[open]

[nevergetscredit]

After having been on the ship for a number of weeks now, Merlin was beginning to get the hang of the place. Or at least, he wasn't finding himself in completely unfamiliar places where it would take him all day to get back to somewhere he recognised quite so often.

At least now he didn't have to worry about needing to get back to his rooms so he could feed Iniss. He hoped that Tom was alright - he still wasn't sure that taking Iniss back was the best thing for Tom, but Merlin had resolved to check up on him. And if Iniss still wasn't letting Tom control his own body...well, Merlin could always cast that spell again.

One thing Merlin definitely hadn't gotten the hang of, however, was the omnicomm. Which meant that he was currently walking along the corridors of Stacy, blissfully unaware of the fact that a very public declaration of both Merlin's actions and his magical ability had recently been broadcast to the entire ship.

Comments

[everdistant_utopia]

"Yes, so you have insisted," Saber replied in an even, calm tone that masked her building frustration. "Be that as it may, I nevertheless require prana for most of my activities, and the best way to secure that is a Master."

A single armoured finger tapped her blue-etched silvery breastplate lightly. "For example, this is otherwise solid, yet it is formed entirely of prana. It is a part of me, as much a part of my own body as any other. Yet, without prana to sustain it, it will dissipate into its base form."

As if to prove her point, she willed her armour away in a brief shower of golden motes, until she was standing in her blue, gold-trimmed dress. "Because you cannot help me, I must search elsewhere... however, it does not necessarily mean that I can continue to search indefinitely. What prana I have might run out in the meanwhile. And once it does, my corporeal form itself will dissipate."

[nevergetscredit]

"And what will you do, if you can't find it?" Merlin said quietly. If she didn't find someone else, would she just try to take his magic by force?!

[everdistant_utopia]

"If I exhaust all my prana, and I am unable to to either contract with another Master or else secure some other source..." she paused for a moment of thought. "A leyline, perhaps. Though I imagine such things most likely do not exist on this odd ship."

But the big problem remained. There would have been few who would not have been genuinely repulsed at how Caster had "solved" the issue, but Saber had been offended on every level. "If not, I will disappear. It is something that can only be prevented by either a contract or else something such as a leyline."

[nevergetscredit]

"Leyline?" Merlin asked, frowning at yet another unfamiliar term. Prana, leylines...how come someone else's magic have so little connection to any magic he knew?

And what if she didn't find someone else, or this...whateverline? Could Merlin just do nothing, just to protect his secret?

[everdistant_utopia]

"A more concentrated source of mana," Saber explained. If her patience was wearing thin, nothing of it broke through her placid mask.

"I cannot access it directly, but simply remaining in its vicinity might satisfy my need for it."