brainiest | ic contact.

That's what I'm planning on doing - for as long as she's here, of course.

[ ... Wait.

Hang on. ]

Yes. Friendship.

Do you not think she'll stay long?

Well, if it means Tamamo doesn't have a rival, then that's good.

I don't know how long any of us are going to stay here. I'd love to be around her as long as possible, but I don't really trust the Atroma.

[ Her nose wrinkles. ]

We're not married.

Well, I hope so, too... We have to at least stay long enough to totally crush the Atroma, right? ♥

But I never said anything about that that time!

Something like that. Or long enough that we can go home peacefully.

[ Hermione shakes her head, almost resigned. ]

You said it to Katsa, though.

I don't think that's particularly an option...

[She makes a thoughtful 'hm' noise, like she's thinking about it.]

Well, that's true.

That's what we thought about the Drabwurld, but people managed to go home there, too.

[ Hermione would be more mad if she wasn't so friendly with her Servant. ]

I'll just have to make sure she understands that we're not married at all.

I think if we don't crush them, we'll eventually just get summoned right back here. And, if I go back, then...

[... If she goes back, she'll have her records in the Moon Cell, and her very soul, deleted. That would be the end of her, permanently...]

Well, there's no point in thinking about that! I would never leave ahead of you, so there's no reason to think about such impossible things.

Aww... Well, I'll just keep trying to win you over, then!

I suppose it could work like that. The Drabwurld is my only experience of things like this, and it didn't quite work that way there.

[ Hermione would love to return to the Drabwurld - the world where she plans to die, sooner or later. Not that she plans on telling Caster that. ]

I don't think we have control over that, either, but I appreciate the sentiment.

[ And she'll ignore the rest! ]

We do have control over that, in fact. You have that control etched into your hand.

I don't think even a Command Spell would work against the Atroma.

What about Command Spells combined with the power of love!

[... honestly, by this point, she's probably just waiting for the straight man responses to these outbursts.]

But it's certainly possible. Command Spells used properly can step into the realm of true magic. At least, as long as our contract remains in effect, crossing time or worlds or anything of the sort shouldn't pose a problem.

I wonder if it really would work like that - if we'd still be connected, even if I did return to the Drabwurld.

[ Hermione ignores the outburst, thinking logically instead. ]

I never used any of Diarmuid's, and the one time I was given the power of a Command Spell I didn't really ask for anything like that.

It should. Baring special cases like a Noble Phantasm capable of undoing even high thaumaturgy, the only way it should be possible to end our contract is by use of all three Seals, or if one of us is killed. If returning to another world was all it took, all you'd need to end any contract and win the war would be to just trap one of a pair in a Reality Marble.

Ah, well. Diarmuid did... So that makes sense. It's why my contract with him wasn't active here.

[ She purses her lips, heart aching somewhat at the memory. It had hurt, knowing he'd been taken from her, but he'd come back; that was one part of the Drabwurld she had accepted. ]

It's far more complicated than I ever knew.

What did Diarmuid do?

[She sounds concerned now.]

Ah. He - um. He died.

... Oh.

[well now she just sounds awkward.]

Master, where are you right now?

[ Well, Tamamo had said it. The only way to break a contract... ]

The kitchen?

[She still tends to think of people not coming back after dying, okay. Diarmuid dying must have been awful for her, since she cared so much.

And that's why she's materializing near Hermione, waiting until Hermione notices her so she doesn't startle her, and then hugging her.]

[ Hermione isn't terribly shocked that Tamamo has come to find her, not after that revelation, and all she does is turn her body to slip her arms around her Servant. ]

It's fine. He did come back, you know.

He... came back?

[but dying is all diarmuid does]

Death wasn't... Simple in the Drabwurld. When you died for the first time you lost your shard, but you came back. After that... I'm not entirely sure what happened. I didn't meet many people that died twice.

[give him time, if anyone's gonna find out it's a lancer.]

Eh, but... Wasn't the shard a super-important thing that tied you to that world, you said?

It's what tied us to our world, like a tether. When it's gone we couldn't go home.

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