Hello all. This is my first fic in a long time and I hope that is well received. I'll try to update at least once every two weeks. If I don't then review me to do. I'm not the most motivated person around.

Disclaimer: I don't own the awsomness that is Fate nor the Zero No Tsukaima.

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Chapter 1: The Summoning

Posted: 18-11-2013

Updated: 1-12-2013

My body is made of swords

Iron is my blood and glass is my heart

I have overcome countless battlefields undefeated

Not once have I retreated

Nor once been understood

Always alone, on the hill of swords intoxicated with victory

Thus this life has no meaning…

This body was surely…

Made out of Blades

Royal Castle, Tristannia, Tristain, Halkeginia

Princess Henrietta de Tristain stood alone in her private bedchamber inside the castle, mourning the passing of her father, the late King Henry de Tristain. Though unconfirmed as of yet, there were rumors that he didn't pass on through natural causes but he was assassinated by someone. The 17-year-old knew that she has lost her one and true protector. Her father, although not always the model parent, was her pillar of strength, the man who was always there for her if his duties allowed him. She was a papa's girl, so what? She always tried hard not to disappoint him, and that was the reason that when he said it, she stopped and squashed her crush on Prince Wales all those years ago. Well sure, she still was friends with him, how could she not, they were cousins but no romantic feelings.

And now he was gone, and she knew that things are not going to go as well as in the past.

As she continued her quiet sobs, a flash of different colors appeared on her desk. When she turned around she saw a thick leather-bound book sitting there. Curiosity getting the better of her she approached the book and read the title. It read: Summoning by Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg. 'Huh, what a strange name. It's almost Germanian.' She thought.

Deciding to read it, she opened it and went to the first chapter.

Servants

Servants are Heroic Spirits made into special familiars that are bound to the Master. Pure Heroic Spirits can only be summoned by the World, and summoning even one is considered to be a miraculous occurrence. Even the Holy Grail lacks the power to summon a true Heroic Spirit, so the process is facilitated by summoning the into one of seven vessels prepared beforehand. These vessels, classes, are classified based on their primary roles. Heroic Spirits can be summoned into any "class" that reflects the abilities they had in life. While they generally appear as they were in their prime, those with some kind of curse or strong attachment to their appearance can even be summoned in the form they had just before death.

Although too powerful to be controlled by humans, the prospect of having a wish granted by the Holy Grail serves as incentive coöperate with a Master. There are also those who lack an actual wish, instead simply wishing to battle other heroes freely. They also require their masters as anchors to the world, so killing their Masters would go against their purpose. Masters also possess three Command Spells with which to force their Servant to obey their orders.

The Servant system was designed to summon only the souls of "true" heroes - benevolent, honorable, and selfless protectors of humanity and justice. Due to the corruption of the Holy Grail in the third Holy Grail War, evil spirits can be summoned. These entities can still be considered to be Heroic Spirits if they were widely worshipped, respected, or feared in life.

'So this is like summoning a familiar' Henrietta thought, although some terms were confusing. What is the Holy Grail? What are those Heroic Spirits? Are they some form of knights? Still wondering she proceeded to the next chapter.

Summoning

There are several factors that determine which Heroic Spirit the Master will summon. Performing a summoning ritual to interfere with the Greater Grail causes it to borrow the information of the main body of the Greater Grail in the Throne of Heroes. The information, the soul of highest purity of the Heroic Spirit, is taken into the container of the Class and becomes a created "copy", so to speak, of the Heroic Spirit, a Servant.

It is possible for the Grail to simply select a Servant for the Master by choosing a Heroic Spirit with good affinity with them, but they can also designate the Heroic Spirit during the summoning ritual by preparing a catalyst with ties to the Servant that they desire. If they choose a catalyst for multiple Heroic Spirits like the gates of Troy, the symbol of the Trojan War, the Heroic Spirit among the candidates that has good affinity with the Master will be chosen. The magus must choose whether to go for good compatibility, possibly loosing the gamble with a poor Servant, or to draw a specific Servant of their choice with a catalyst and possibly be ruined by bad compatibility.

While the rituals are generally specific, their main goal is to act as a precaution to create a bond with a perfect, reliable Servant. They really only require a summoning circle, even if unskilled, and a catalyst can bypass the need of chanting a spell. Doing so can create aberrations.

When summoned, Servants are imparted with knowledge of technology, culture, science, language, and terms of the era they were summoned into in order to most properly work with their Masters and blend into society. This is largely to prevent Servants from periods significantly before the era of a Grail War in question from suffering crippling culture shock which would otherwise prevent them from fulfilling their duties, and also enable them to blend in with that era's society. It is not all-encompassing, so concepts may have to still be explained to them.

Without such knowledge, a Servant's potential would be crippled. This knowledge does not just cover history but all aspects of "modern" life during the Grail War in question, to the point that Servants can find things that would have been unthinkable in their lifetimes to be mundane or even worthy of scorn. They are not granted knowledge on other Heroes through the Grail, but rather from knowledge gained within the Throne of Heroes. Witnessing traits of other Servants can allow them to deduce their true names with the knowledge even if they are from incompatible eras. Aberrations who are not part of the Throne of Heroes due to their circumstances, are able to identify those whose legends would have been known to them in life, but cannot identify the legends of later Heroic Spirits even after being directly named.

Heroic Spirits summoned are place into one of seven classes. The seven standard classes are Saber, Lancer, Archer, Rider, Caster, Assassin, and Berserker. According to the testimony of Rin Tohsaka, servant classes are changed between each war, so other classes, such as Avenger created by the Einzberns in the Third Holy Grail War, can also be summoned. The Three Knight classes are the only Servants who will definitely be summoned according to the framework of the Holy Grail War, allowing for variation in the rest of the classes. More than one version of the same class cannot be summoned, even if all the Masters were to use the variation in the summoning chant to get a Berserker-class Servant. The classes most commonly known are below:

Saber: Servants placed within this class are agile and powerful melee warriors. It is commonly assumed to be the best class overall, with high ratings in all categories. It is one of the three Knight classes, together with Lancer and Archer and also possesses the Riding skill like the Rider class.

Lancer: Servants placed within this class are very agile and skilled with long-range melee weapons, such as spears, lances, etc. It is one of the three Knight classes, together with Archer and Saber.

Archer: Servants placed within this class are usually proficient with projectiles and can survive longer without a Master nearby, thanks to their special ability Independent Action; the strongest Archers can be difficult to control at times, in fact, due to their near-total independence from their "Masters". It is one of the three Knight classes, together with Lancer and Saber.

Rider: Servants placed within this class place emphasis upon speed and powerful Noble Phantasms, which often include their mounts. Their special skill is Riding, which allows them to fully utilize abilities of their mounts (which can range from simple horses to mechanical vehicles to divine or supernatural creatures.).

Caster: Servants placed within this class are adept in magecraft and have a special ability akin to Reality Marble, called Territory Creation, which alters or creates space around them to enhance their sorcery.

Assassin: Servants placed within this class are always, as a rule, one of the 19 Hassan i Sabbah, the leaders of the clan of the Hashshashins who passed their name down. This rule comes from how the word "assassin" itself finds its etymological roots in that clan. The Assassins' special ability is Presence Concealment, which allows them to remain undetected. Offset by their stealth is their weak combat skills. Due to this, Assassins often target Masters instead of Servants.

Berserker: Servants placed within this class are always heroes who have gone berserk in their lifetime. This trait allows them to use the special ability Mad Enhancement, which trades their consciousness (i.e. sanity) for a large power boost. Most Masters are incapable of controlling their Servant once Mad Enhancement has been activated, which eventually results in their death.

At the end of the chapter were illustrations of a magic circle and seven people, who she guessed were the servant classes. A knight in full armor holding a long sword, Saber. A knight with lighter armor and a long lance, Lancer. A woman with light armor holding a bow at the ready, Archer. An armored man riding a chariot, Rider. An old man with long flowing robes and a staff, Caster. A pale man wearing a skull mask and wielding two daggers, Assassin. And a man who resembled a beast with chains absorbed in madness, Berserker.

Forgetting her grief, she continued the book engrossed by its contents. She didn't notice the passage of time. She didn't even notice the maids that brought her food and left. And finally at the late hours of night she completed it.

Her first thought was 'This is amazing. If I can manage to summon a Servant I could have an unbeatable warrior at my side. A warrior that if what the book said was true would be able to protect me even better than my father ever could.' The question that appeared almost immediately at her head though was how could she possibly accomplish that, since she was certain that there was no Holy Grail anywhere on this world. And since there was no Grail, there is no Grail War. And if there is no Grail War, there couldn't be any Servants.

As if someone heard her thoughts, another bright flash appeared and something else dropped on her desk. This one was a letter. She examined the letter and finding it safe she opened it. From inside dropped three objects. The first was a parchment that read "READ FIRST" the second was a big red ruby necklace with a chain attached and the final was an other letter. Deciding to see what was this all about she opened the parchment and read:

To whom it may concern

My name is of no importance but what I have to say is. I placed an enchantment on the book when I sent it so that it may appear in front of someone with a great need but at the same time of pure heart. Also I had this letter prepared to appear the moment that you finished the book. I can say that you must be thinking things like, "There could be no way to summon a Servant without a Grail" or something like that. Let me correct you. There is one Servant that you could summon at this time. I must warn you though, that the process will be taxing and if you don't have the magic required the ritual will kill you. I have sent the proper catalyst with this letter, the necklace. When the servant appears I want you to give him the second letter.

Good Luck

Henrietta was speechless. How can someone possibly summon a Servant without the Grail. From what she read it should be impossible. But she wanted so much to do it, to have such a great protector at her side. There is the risk that it would backfire on her though. She knew this was a big decision that she couldn't possible make on her own.

She called a maid and told her to summon Captain Agnes Chevalier de Milan of the Musketeer Squadron, who was the closest thing to a best friend that she had. Agnes is the Captain of a special, all women, unit within the Tristainian Military, called the Musketeer Squadron, that the Princess founded a couple of years back. Agnes is a young girl that she found more than ten years ago, when the Princess herself was a little girl. Agnes was the survivor of a village that was burned down by some fire mages, some fire mages whom she had sworn revenge. Henrietta gained her undying loyalty when she promised her to help her with her revenge, helping her with uncovering the names of the people responsible.

When Agnes arrived a good half-hour later she bowed in front of her and said "Your Highness"

"Rise Agnes." Said Henrietta. "I need your counsel about an issue that has arisen."

"Your Highness, if it is about your father I must say that there are still no evid-" begun Agnes but the Princess cut her of before she could continue.

"No, it's not about my father but with something else that came up." She continued to explain to her the whole situation.

"I see," she said after a while. "so you have doubts that you're powerful enough to proceed. Permission to speak freely?"

"Granted"

"Your Majesty"she begun "you must be the most powerful mage at the time in the country. Granted you are still only a triangle mage but you make up for it in raw power. If there is a mage in the whole of Halkeginia that can pull the summoning, well that's you." She concluded.

"Thank you, Agnes, sometimes I don't know what I'd have done without you." Said the Princess at her friend with a smile at her words. "So shall we go to begin the ritual?"

"Your Majesty, don't you think that it's a good idea to inform your mother about it?" asked the Guard Captain with a little hesitation.

"No Agnes. If the Queen knew of my actions she'd try to stop them." replied the Princess with a sigh. "She must realize that I'm not some little girl anymore. No this is something that I must do without the Queen's approval. Are you with me?"

"Always your Majesty."

"So this is the catalyst, you said?" Asked Agnes. The pair of Princess and Captain have moved at the basement of the Royal Castle, in a special room that is used to do rituals of different kinds.

"Yes, the note mentions that it's part of the legend of the heroic spirit that we're trying to summon. What I'm more worried about is the compatibility. What I want is a guardian and someone that will help me change this world into a peaceful one. What if the one I end up summoning doesn't want anything to do with that?" said Henrietta with a hint of doubt entering her voice, showing her inner fears.

"I am sure your Majesty that when the Servant appears he will want to listen to your ideals." replied Agnes kindly. At the moment she was on the floor using silver dust to draw the magic circle required for the ritual. "That man or woman was a hero so I'm certain that he has some ideals of his or her own. At the very least your ideals must be a bit compatible."

When she completed her task she turned to Henrietta."Ok done. But is a simple ritual like this enough to summon a Heroic Spirit?"

"Surprisingly yes. Summoning a Servant doesn't require an elaborate evocation. Just a lot of power to do the Summoning. Usually an artifact called the Holy Grail would do the Summoning in a Holy Grail War, but in this case with no such war going on we just need vast magical power. As a Master my only job after that is to anchor the Heroic Spirit to this world once it appears, and give it enough energy for it to take physical form. This should be enough. Agnes, place the catalyst on the Altar. Our preparations should be then complete." Said Henrietta and as Agnes moved to place the necklace at the Altar.

The only thing left now was the chanting. As Agnes moved to the side, Henrietta commenced.

"Silver and iron to the origin. Gem and the archduke of contracts to the cornerstone. The ancestor is my great master Schweinorg.

The alighted wind becomes a wall. The gates in the four directions close, coming from the crown, the three-forked road that leads to the kingdom circulate.

Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill).

Repeat every five times.

Simply, shatter once filled."

The circle lit up in pale blue light and Henrietta cast her right hand forward

"――――I announce.

Your self is under me, my fate is in your sword.

In accordance with the approach of the Holy Grail, if you abide by this feeling, this reason, then answer."

The wind picked up and everyone inside the castle felt the massive buildup of energy.

"Here is my oath. I am the one who becomes all the good of the world of the dead, I am the one who lays out all the evil of the world of the dead.

You, seven heavens clad in three words of power, arrive from the ring of deterrence, O keeper of the balance ―――！"

The energy reached its peak and the light of the circle became blinding. The wind got so fierce that snuffed out the torches on the walls. Now the only light came from the full moon outside and the circle. Then it suddenly ended. Now all you could see was smoke and a figure rising from inside. At the same time the Princess felt a small pain on her right hand, but paid it no mind as the figure began talking.

"Servant Archer. Anata ga watashi no Master ka?"

A/N: After some reviews and pm I got, I realized that I made Agnes very informal and out of character. For that I apologize. I have corrected a lot of mistakes in this update. Also there will be some changes in some details of the ZnT characters. Nothing major but I am posting it now so that there won't be an confusion later. First it's the character ages.

Shirou/Archer:28

Henrietta:23

Agnes:23

Louise:18

Saito:19

Tiffa:20

Siesta:18

Tabbitha:17

Any other character that comes up I'll post his age at the end of the chapter that he/she appears.

The other difference is that there was never any Wales/Henrietta romance in the past. This won't affect the story cause when the time comes for the letter mission there will be a reason to go to Wales, just it won't be for a love letter. I won't say any more cause it'll spoil the story.

If I add any more changes from the ZnT Universe I'll let you know in A/N at the bottom of the chapter at the time.

Till then, Ja Ne!