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Lancelot was not comfortable with being away from the one he served. He never had been. He hated being sent away from his king when things needed to get done and even now, a small task a few rooms away seemed like too much distance. At least this time it was for something worth his time. The girl. Sakura. His master had called her Sakura. Lancelot had caught flashes of a young, purple-haired girl in his memory when he’d said her name.
It was a simple thing to sweep the rest of the room for her, and then the one above it. Spirit form was good for sweep-searches. He dragged another breath into his body, knowing it would come out as a shuddering sob to echo Kariya’s own if he wasn’t careful. He had cried enough. Now he had a job to do. All of his concentration went into finding her. Though, once he peered into the basement room next to the workshop, it wasn’t hard.
The pit in the floor was deep. And the mound in the middle did not look supported by anything. The child would be there. He could taste the faint strains of her mana on the stale air. She was here. And she was frightened. He wasted no time and spared no thought for his own disgust as he stepped into the pit. The horrible grubs were crushed under his boots and with each step the mana stored in the familiars released into his own submaterial form. Mana from fear. From torture.
It tasted of his own Master. And of this girl. He hoped he never had to know this dreadful mix again.
Lancelot had never been a coward. His job, such as it was, was to bring this girl back to his master. He would do it as well as he was able. Without flinching, he shoved his hand into the center of the mass of writhing worms. They wriggled against him, trying to find something to latch on and feed on, but none found purchase on his armor.
Finally, an arm. He’d found an arm. It was attached to a shoulder and an unresponsive torso. He slid a hand underneath her shoulders, and the other under her knees and lifted.
The movement dumped hundreds, perhaps thousands of crest worms of all sizes off of her. It uncovered her face. Her skin. Her disgustingly small amount of clothing. Lancelot forced himself to focus on her and her alone instead of the burning anger in his heart for what had been done to this little girl. He cradled her in one arm, cleared bugs with the other, and began to walk.
Her face was free of bugs by the time he hit the rim of the pit and freed them both of its horrors. She stared up at him. No recognition of another passed through her eyes. No gratitude. No disgust. Just blank.
Lancelot didn’t have time to worry. He merely clutched her closer, removed a few more of the leaching grubs, and strode towards the door. This child did not know him. She knew Kariya. So that was where he would bring her. He snatched a bundle of fabric off the ground as he moved, and prayed that it was the rest of her clothing. He continued to brush them off of her, and got almost all of them off before he managed to get out of the room. It was a fruitless effort. He knew that it was. He knew that there would be at least one worm somewhere inside of her though he prayed he was wrong.
Slowly she began to come aware, he watched her blink slowly at him for a moment, and then realize that this wasn’t a person holding her. Her delicate face formed a frown just as they walked into the workshop.
For a heartbeat, it looked as if Kariya was going to jump up out of the chair to pull the child to him sooner. Only a shake of Lancelot’s head stopped him. Instead, he strode over and gently set the child into Kariya’s lap before depositing the bundle of clothing next to him on the table.
“Sakura! Are you alright?” His Master wasted no time in gathering the girl into his arms and holding her there, grimacing as he gently removed the last two worms that Lancelot had not caught. The servant wasted absolutely no time in crushing them out of existence under his heel.
“It pulled me out early.” The girl’s quiet voice came with no expectation. Her words simply existed like fact. There was very little else there, at least for the time being.
“You’re never going back again.” Kariya’s voice held certainty in it. Such conviction that it would have convinced anyone. He glanced up at his servant for a moment and motioned mentally over towards the other chair in the workshop, where a sweatshirt had been draped over the back.
It was blue-grey, with a white stripe along the arms and sides. Without a doubt, it was his Master’s. He moved to fetch it immediately. He’d seen situations like this before. War affected everyone and children were never immune to life’s horrors. The best thing they could do for her was to be patient. He knelt down in front of her and did his best to calm the smoke away so that she could see. Lancelot held the sweatshirt out for her, and for Kariya. Perhaps being at eye level would make him less intimidating for her.
“Sakura, this is Sir Lancelot. He’s a Berserker class servant and he’s here to help me. He’s going to protect us from now on. No more worms, no more training if you don’t want to, no more Grandfather. I promise. Berserker took care of it.” Kariya gently tugged the sweatshirt over Sakura’s head and fussed with it until it was sitting on her frame like an overlarge dress. It blessedly covered everything from her wrists to her knees, and some part of her seemed to soften and relax once he gathered her back into his arms.
She regarded Lancelot, looking him up and down for a moment before glancing back at Kariya. “It is your familiar?”
“He’s my partner. We’re going to work together to do our job.” Kariya insisted, hoisting the little girl into his arms and moving to stand. He wasn’t strong enough. Not really. And Lancelot reached to help support him. Just as he always did. All it really took was a little bit of a pull and some stabilization and he was back on two feet with the girl curled over his shoulder. “And part of that job is going to be to take care of you.”