The swirl of light faded, and the young woman spoke from where she knelt. "I am...Servant Assassin. Are you-" she looked up and hesitated, glancing between the two men before her. "Are you...my Master?"

"I summoned you. I am your Master, for now," said Leo, displaying the Command Seal that had just appeared on his hand.

"Then, the contract is complete."

"Until we can transfer it, that is," said Leo's Master. The man stepped forward, observing the still-kneeling Assassin. "Which Heroic Spirit are you, and what are your skills?"

"I am called Azura. I am an assassin, and I sing. That is all."

"Master," said Leo. "There's no need to trouble yourself. She's from my legend. I fought beside her. I already know her skills and abilities."

"Hmph. I'll expect a full account of her capabilities, Caster. She had better be useful."

Leo waited until his Master's back was turned. Then, he said, "I know you don't have a high regard for me. I know you would replace me, if you could. So I've prepared a strategy by which you will not have to deal with me for the rest of the war."

His Master kept his back turned. "What might that be?"

"It's rather simple. Assassin is the catalyst for that plan, one might say. A Servant that can't be directly tracked to you...which will allow you to kill him."

The man was dead before Leo's first Command Seal faded.

Azura glanced at her bloody dagger. "Was this wise, Leo?"

"Wisdom didn't factor into that decision. Do you see this 'workshop' of his?"

Azura followed his gaze and gasped. "Those are..."

Leo scowled. "That dastard had been using them as magical batteries to power his designs. What's more, his mana drain system is so...so inefficient that he could have gathered more from training his own potential. Kidnapping innocent children and stealing their lives...he was worse than Iago. Iago was a dastard himself, but he wasn't lazy, and he wasn't such a coward."

"So, then. What will you do now?" asked Azura. "Now that your Master is dead, you don't have a contract. If you fade, you won't be able to save any of them."

"Azura, I though you trusted my judgement more than that."

"It was not your judgement that I questioned."

"Fair enough." Leo stepped over to the stasis chambers set in the wall. "Right now, though, we don't need to save all of them. Just one." He summoned a tome to his hand. "Fire!"

The glass shattered, and the contents of the tank flowed through the break. He caught the girl as she fell. Carrying her to a table, he laid her down carefully and looked to Azura. "There's not much time. Can you use your song?"

Azura frowned. "I can try, but I doubt it will be of much use. I seem to have been summoned without my pendant."

"I see." Leo reached into his pocket. "Then, it is fortunate that I held on to this."

Azura gasped. "Leo, how..."

"I found it in the throne room after the battle." He could not bring himself to meet her eyes. "It was the only thing left when you disappeared. I had meant to give it to Shigure, when he came of age...but it seems that I never took the chance." He forced himself to look her in the eyes.

They were unreadable, even for him.

Leo bowed his head. "I'm sorry." Her hand slipped into his, grasping the pendant.

"Don't be," she whispered. "If I had been wiser, I might have asked you to do so myself. I never wished this burden on my son."

Leo took a deep breath. "Then, can you-no, will you use it?"

She hung the pendant around her neck. The crystal began to glow, sending flickers of familiar light around the room. Then, she sang.

You are an ocean of waves, destined to seek
Life beyond the shore just out of reach.
Yet may the tides ever change, flowing with time
To the path, yours to climb.

The blue glow seemed to settle over the girl's features, color returning to her face as it faded. She began to breathe. Azura stepped back from the table, looking spent, somehow. "It seems that I will have to conserve the use of my song," she said. "It's a greater drain on my strength in this class."

"I'll keep that in mind." Leo took a pair of old tomes from a nearby table and propped the girl's feet atop them.

Azura tilted her head. "Do you have a plan?"

Leo nodded. "It's a gamble, but I think it will work." He frowned. "She'll need water when she wakes up. There's a kitchen through that door. The drinking water is the smaller tap by the sink."

Azura nodded and ducked out, leaving Leo to study the form of the prone girl. That fool, he thought. He didn't even bother to keep them healthy. The girl looked malnourished, her arms and legs painfully slim. Leo reached out and closed his hand around hers. "I'll keep you safe," he whispered. "I promise."

Azura returned as the girl began to stir.