Marisbury Animusphere wore an amicable smile on his face, as he did most of the time, and idly sipped tea from a peach ceramic cup, "Not too bad..." A useless remark made to fit in, he had no real fondness or thoughts on such things.

The designating meeting spot his contracted magus had set up was abnormal but understandable.

An outdoor cafe, with the normal folk of London going about their days. Either idling, out with their families or busy commuting, frustrated or happy or entirely numb. A public place, where magecraft couldn't be used openly, nor could a situation devolve into a physical one. It was smart even.

Although, Marisbury would have preferred the cold metal chairs weren't so harsh on his bottom, and people of the fairer sex didn't stare at him so brazenly, the table was metal too. The sort where there were openings in between so he couldn't even rest his arms on it.

The cold, humid wind brushing past his face was welcome though.

One could argue he had better ways to utilise his time than go about hiring a magus to act as a private investigator and he would agree most of the time but not when it came to Alaric. Something didn't quite click. Manoeuvring the political landscape since he was young had taught him a few things.

Alaric von Dietrich had something to hide, and Marisbury deemed it necessary that he know, so that he could accurately ascertain how useful the man could be.

He sighed and took a glance at his pocket watch, wondering how long he would have to wait.

"This seat taken?"

He found his gaze drawn to a young woman looking to be in her late twenties. She had sharp features, calm reddish eyes behind a pair of thin glasses Marisbury noted to be Mystic Eye Killers, and a head full of bright red hair tied up into a single ponytail. She wore a merigold tinted overcoat with a white dress shirt lacking a tie underneath it and dark brown pants, accompanied by black high heels.

She was using a simple spell to make people look away and not gawk at her figure.

"No, go ahead." He gestured with his free hand. Once she sat down, Marisbury put down the cup in his hand and regarded her seriously, "So, what've you found?" Just when the Grail War had ended, he'd hired her to investigate his new partner and she'd notified him of her findings moments ago.

The woman in question, deliberated for a moment and reached into her coat to pull out a box of cigarettes with a taoist symbol on it with empty differently coloured circles around it and a lighter. She pulled out a cigarette, lit it up and placed it into her mouth, taking a single puff and slightly tilted her head, regarding Marisubry with a strange coldness in her demeanour.

Marisbury pursed his lips and held back a smile, finding her little power play to be amusing.

"I'll get straight to the point, you wanted to know what he's capable of..."

Marisbury gave a small nod.

"There's no higher connections, aside from a fondness from the Lords Trambelio and Edelfelt regarding his, frankly, astounding capabilities." She put her cigarette to her mouth, relaying the information with not a single fluctuation in her tone, "His teacher, Sancraid Phahn, possessed the ability to deploy a multi-layered, mobile, defensive Bounded Field. Alaric von Dietrich parsed this in his training under him, atop harsh combat training and very possibly can augment it."

Marisbury narrowed his eyes at that. Bounded Fields were fundamentally, separated or bound regions of space that then had properties imposed upon them via sigils and other similar methods. It was simply impossible to move them once set. This spoke volumes in regard to his skill with them.

"You seem surprised..." The woman paused and smiled gently, "He applied to be granted access to the Emiya family magic crest. If you're unaware of what it held, I'll do you a service considering the amount you're paying me." She paused for dramatic effect, "The Emiya developed Magecraft that influenced time via Bounded Fields."

The idea behind the request was plain with context, Alaric wanted to apply time bending properties to his mobile Bounded Field.

"Three months it took him to soak up everything the Department of General Fundamentals had, six months for Jewel Magecraft under both the Edelfelt and Tohsaka families, one after the other, and again three months for the Department of Curses."

"That is... monstrous talent indeed." Marisbury maintained an unperturbed expression, "We were of the belief that he'd studied for the duration of his stay at the Clock Tower." It would be prodigious in itself to master three schools within a decade, but a year? It was simply absurd.

But then again, sitting in front of him was a woman that attained the highest rank within the Clock Tower, Grand, at the young age of twenty. She then had a falling out and now ran a private company that took all sorts of odd requests, like his own.

"Your belief was wrong then. I even like him for all he's accomplished. To go for one department after the other speaks much of his ambition at the age of 12, Lord Animusphere. Do you think..." She left the rest unsaid.

  "'He couldn't possibly have remained idle for an entire decade.' Is that what you want to say?"

The woman nodded, taking another puff from her cigarette, "The latest of his studies were regarding Gradation Air before the trail went cold." Gradation Air, a spell that materialised the Caster's imagination at the expense of magical energy, largely considered useless because what was created would fade away, "With an affinity for the five great elements, and massive reserves, it almost seems a waste...But," An immensely amused smile crossed her face, "It would make no sense for a prodigy to pursue it. Add to that a penchant for freely augmenting pre-established spells and magecraft and..."

That meant there was something more to it, something they couldn't see.

"On top of the five great elements, he might possess the affinity for the Imaginary Element Nothingness. Lord Trambelio might know the truth to that."

"That would be abnormal." The irony of his own words wasn't lost on Marisbury, everything he'd heard up until now was abnormal. With the five great ones, Alaric possessed the ability to masterfully influence the Fifth Imaginary Factor, Void, that attached itself with the other four elements to actualize spells and mysteries, forming the basis of modern magecraft, allowing him to interfere with the cornerstone of all magecraft.

If he possessed Nothingness as an affinity, the element theorised to materialise that which was not meant to exist, Alaric was a monstrous magus, of an unknown level of power. Made only more terrifying by how what he'd researched for an entire decade was effectively a blank. It wouldn't be strange to think Gemcraft and Curses were mere covers for a weapon only Alaric himself knew.

He didn't need to patent it if no one other than him knew it.

How many people did Marisbury know that possessed not Five but Six elemental affinities?

"It's almost annoying to think about how the naturally genius in our world work and useless too. There's any number of possibilities, many of them unfathomable. I don't recall any magus with these affinities." The woman held back a sigh and sank into her chair, momentarily forgetting her calm demeanour.

Marisbury almost nodded involuntarily but caught himself and cleared his throat to draw the woman's attention, "Anything else?" His answer was her shaking her head in denial.

"Nothing else, a blank. You hired me to find out what he was capable of, I've done my job."

Marisbury pursed his lips and stroked his chin in thought, he almost regretted doing that but now, "A few unfortunate accidents are in order I suppose..." A thin smile tugged at his lips, "I thank you for your work, Miss Touko."

Touko only nodded and stood up, "No one has any idea what he wants. It's like there's no ambition in there... I know more than a few people that would be flaunting their research were they in the same position. I won't say anything as cheesy as a higher purpose, but he probably means no harm... I think." She walked off, one hand in her coat pocket, the other holding the cigarette to her mouth, "I expect my payment soon."

Marisbury nodded in response and stood up to take his leave too, there was much to consider, much to do, "Right about now, he should be getting chewed out by Miss Edelfelt and Miss Tohsaka." Even the faculty of the Clock Tower knew one sacred rule.

It was to never put Luviagelita Edelfelt and Rin Tohsaka in the same place at any point in time.

Marisbury walked off with his hands in his pockets, "What do you want, Alaric?"

Could he just truthfully want humanity's preservation?

Even Marisbury himself didn't.

x

That's chapter 4.

Do you have a guess about what Alaric spent that time developing?

The last two of Alaric's elemental affinities, Void/ Ether and Nothingness, are an overpowered combination on their lonesome. One materialises that which isn't possible/ shouldn't exist. The other allows him to manipulate the very foundation of magecraft. The latter is also the explanation for why he can learn so much so quickly and augment it at the same time.