The tip of her finger pressed at the corner of the small box. It danced slowly on its opposite, rotating with a brush of her thumb. What an odd, mysterious little thing-- capable of impossible feats, personal disaster, or ,simply,nothing at all. A wish box. That’s what it was. Hopes and dreams that could amount to nothing at all. Drake let the box rest back on its side. Arms on the bar counter, one hand cradled the object while the other nursed her drink.. Patrons had left hours ago. Ice chimed along the side of glass.
When others left, so did she, but that felt like too long ago. Now she was the last to leave, sitting in the silence of empty bars in hopes some other excitement would take its place. It never did-- it couldn’t be it, right? The feeling never waned. Arriving in this new city should have erased this sad routine and complacency, but here she was alone again, wondering how long these ebbs and flows of a dynamic city would last before it became stagnant just like the one she had spent a near millennia in. No battles, no cause, celebrations over nothing that cycled on endlessly. Hardly the place for a servant like her.
Drake lifted her glass.Alcohol swirled. “All this time and I still don’t know what I want, so how are those guys gonna know...” Her sigh was heavy. She downed her beverage. Might as well get it over with. She pulled open the ribbon and undid the lid.
Nestled inside was something that looked like a keycard with a peculiar design. Is this what she wanted? A card? To anyone else, it would have been junk, but Drake stared with furrowed brows, trying to figure out how anyone could find these digital relics. How did they manage to find a Cipher Key...? Triggers such as these were only found in the moon’s labyrinth, but they were aeptly named, it did trigger a reaction from Drake. She sat up alert, shocked, and picked it out of the box as if were a precious jewel. The card activated with a flicker then steadied into a golden glow.
“ Wow, it still wor--?”
The bar entrance doors burst open with a shout, impatient and angry. “So it is you! Do you know how long you kept me waiting, Rider?!” A young man with bright hair, dressed in a uniform, and a floating screen hovering under his raised hand. Drake spun, eyes wide.
“ Shinji!?!” Such warmness filled her chest so fast, she erupted into a loud laughter. Shinji! Her brilliant and useless master. He stomped toward her. So angry! Why was he so angry? What a child. “T-that was you?” No way. This was from the twins.. but could it be...?
Shinji snatched the cipher key from her hand. “Of course it was, you drunk.” he retorted with a sneer, before he tapped at the screen’s seemingly magical keyboard. Her laughter trickled away as she watched him make faces Ah, she missed this. “ The cipher key had a code in it that wouldn’t activate without the touch of your servant. But you refused to open that stupid box all week. I knew it was still you, but I couldn’t hack th--” Shinji paused his work to frown at her. “-- did you drink that much already? Stop looking at me like that. Jeez, you really haven’t changed much have you? ”
Drake’s smile was too warm, too wide. Catching herself, she chuckled again, then waved at him. Her eyes squinted with that smile, instigating. “ Assuming you did and you’re no longer a man-child?”
Shinji sneered. “Shut up, Rider. Anyway--” he turned and tucked the trigger in his back pocket. His disposition changed from annoyed to concentrated. Whatever he had practiced before this meeting had been thrown into the air. Drake cocked her head to the side. This was new. “You do know Hakuno Kishinami is in this city, right?”
“Woah, what?”
“Yeah, of course you wouldn’t know.” Shinji rolled his wrist, and gestured to the cups on the counter. He did have a point-, but..
“--Pirates driiinnkkk, Shinji. Keeps you loose in a fight. No pain. So, what are we doing? Running off to go lose again? -- Ha!” Drake laughed again, but this time, Shinji’s face didn’t twist in frustration into that of a sore loser. He looked even more determined. Rather than this dream of the immature master she knew when she was first summoned, he stood firm and resolute, eyes as old as hers.
“Perhaps, but we’re going to have a proper rematch against them. You were just out of practice, that’s all. That’s why you’re weak now, too, right?” He dragged those eyes away from her and back to his screens. He tapped away at them.
“ Ah, yes...” Drake blinked, surprised. Her parameters within the city were poor. She slid from her chair. Her chest hurt now, something deeper settled there she couldn’t quell with laughs. Anticpation. Excitement. Fulfillment. Did he...?
“I can fix that.”
Francis Drake beamed. So,this was what she wanted. Her grin stretched from ear to ear. She slapped him on the shoulder.
“ Let’s give ‘em Hell, Master.”
