19. Cú's Work Is Interrupted

Ren spent what felt like an hour brushing Jack's hair, settling into a rhythm of brushing and rebrushing that relaxed her almost as much as the nap she didn't take. Meanwhile, Jack melted under the attention, becoming as limp and happy as a cat in a sunbeam.

After a time of her thoughts simply freewheeling, Ren started thinking about what she needed to do next. Gather intel from Cú, Merlin and hopefully Tora, of course. Make sure the villagers knew of their victory. There'd be more cooking to do, unless grateful villagers offered to feed them. Somehow she doubted that, though.

Ren also wanted to get more self-defense training, although she wasn't confident that Merlin's approach suited her. She wondered why she couldn't use magic like Ritsu apparently could. Something that kept her out of close quarters certainly seemed more useful than chasing people around with a sword.

But she knew why, didn't she? It had to be the same reason she didn't have Magical Paths. She wasn't particularly suited to be here. It was even possible that it was some kind of cosmic accident. Her first victory had been lucky. No, not even luck: coincidence, and much more to do with Artoria fixating on Merlin than anything she'd done. She'd end up dead soon enough.

At this point, Ren's brushing slowed and then stopped as she recognized the direction of her thoughts. Then she attached a red ribbon to Jack's hair, gave the drowsing child a hug, and stood up.

"Mommy?" Jack said, lifting her head.

Touching Jack's hair again, Ren said, "All done for now. Still starving?"

Jack shook her head. "Nuh-uh, but we're not full, either. More?"

"Later," Ren promised. "I have something else that needs taking care of. But you can sleep in my bed, if you like. I'll tuck you in."

Jack's whole face lit up. "Oh, yes please." She scrambled into the pile of blankets and poked her head out.

Ren tucked her in and gave her a kiss on the forehead, keeping her attitude light and cheerful despite the black thoughts pinwheeling through her mind. Then she left the Great Hall and leaned against the corridor wall, rubbing her head.

"Merlin?" she said aloud, hopefully.

A door down the corridor opened and Merlin's shaggy white head poked out. "Ah!" he said, before frowning and repeating, "Ah," in a very different voice. Then he came out and closed the door behind him, joining Ren. "I set up a Bounded Field in Tora's room, which apparently kept out the portal leakage as well as keeping her little familiars in."

"That black lizard?" Ren asked, tensely.

"Yes," said Merlin cheerfully. He took her by the elbow. "Don't stand there, Ren. Let's walk. Tora has a handful of night lizards, according to Ritsu. Mostly harmless, but I didn't want Jack deciding they'd be a good snack."

Ren shook her head rapidly, letting Merlin pull her along to the stairs down and out of the pooling negative aura. "Could you set up a Bounded Field around the portal that would contain this miasma?"

Merlin considered the idea. "I could, of course. But it seems like that would be turning off an early warning system. Letting the power build up too much would lead directly to a bad end, I'm sure."

As they reached the bottom of the stairs, Cú poked his head out of the kitchen. "Good. You two can deal with that while I work on prepping my pig."

Ren blinked and pulled away from Merlin to go look in the kitchen, where a headless pig occupied the stone table. It wasn't an enormous beast but it probably weighed more than a grown man, even without its head. Several runes had been burned into its hide and Cú himself had blood all over his hands and spattered on his bare chest.

"That's a whole pig," Ren said blankly, and then, "How are we going to eat a whole pig before it goes bad?"

Cú said cheerfully, "Aw, if it comes to that, there's a cool room under the pantry, and a smokehouse outside the keep. But I don't think it will. Jack and I can eat a lot, and I'm thinking you'll have another mouth to feed soon? Or rather two, since I'm sure Tora will be starving when she wakes up."

"I've resolved some of the recharge latency," said Merlin, inspecting the pig. "But good food will certainly help."

Ren frowned. This seemed bad somehow, but she couldn't see exactly how.

Then Merlin turned around and made as if to shove her again. This time, she saw it coming and stepped backward, shaking her head and feeling the miasma once again recede.

"Good, good," said Merlin. "Let's go resolve this before it gets worse, okay?"

"Yeah…" said Ren, leaving the kitchen. "But we can't do this every day. It's too much, too quickly."

"Can't?" asked Merlin, a note of challenge in his voice as he quirked an eyebrow.

Ren narrowed her eyes, thinking. I can't did sound a lot like a plan to simply give up when things became tough. Would she do that?

Miasma aside, no, she damn well wouldn't. But if she ended up summoning more Servants than she could manage, her refusal to give up would lead her places she'd much rather not go.

Carefully, she said, "We need to prioritize fixing the portal, or I'm going to have to make some rash decisions you definitely won't like."

Merlin chuckled. "Better." He looked into the portal room, where the blue lines of magic along the walls flickered. "This room already had a Bounded Field, you see. But it's a lot of work to understand all the different magical structures here. Maybe you could focus your prayers on another Caster? That would allow me to focus on more important things."

"Somehow I'm certain what you consider important and what I consider important don't overlap much," grumbled Ren. "But I'll keep it in mind." She curled her fingers into fists and then opened them, studying her hands. The nick at the base of each thumb was all but invisible, but her palms were bruised, rough and reddened from all she'd done the past two days.

"Let me see," said Merlin, and took both her hands in his. Then he closed his hands around hers, as if they were praying together and a silken coolness entangled itself between her fingers. When he released her, her hands were clean and healed. "That I won't do again if we must keep doing this, or you'll end up with a permanent wound."

"How so?" Ren asked, eyeing him warily as he pulled his sword out of his staff.

"This sword, being what it is, both inflicts an injury on your body and also alters your Origin. Now, such a small alteration wouldn't normally be permanent. But Avalon could be said to work by enhancing your Origin." He smiled charmingly. "Shenanigans might result from the combination."

She closed her fingers over her palm as he reached for her hand. "Why did you do it this time, then?"

"Because what I wanted to do was kiss the red away and that would have taken longer. Have you changed your mind about doing this?" He touched the back of her hand, but didn't take it.

Blinking at his offhand explanation, Ren instinctively moved her hand to his. He lifted it, turned it palm up, and re-opened the nick she'd used the day before, all in the space of a moment.

"Go on, then. Remember how useful another Caster would be!"

Ren shook her head violently again, half to disperse the miasma and half to throw off her reaction to Merlin's teasing. Then she turned and moved close to the portal and spent another moment trying to center herself.

"Focus, Ren," came Merlin's voice, immediately distracting her again. Grimacing, she held her palm over the darkly swirling portal and let the first few drops of blood splash in.

Merlin wanted a Caster, or at least somebody who could do the work of understanding and repairing the portal room. Ren thought it might be nice to get somebody who could repair the whole fortress.

She kept wondering what Merlin's lips on her palms would have felt like, and getting angry that he'd teased her like that now. Didn't she have enough to think about?

She needed somebody thoughtful. Somebody genuinely kind. Somebody she could talk to.

How dare Merlin make jokes like that? Between his teasing and the way he kept trying to manage and manipulate her, she could slap his face.

But she had to focus, focus. The energy of the portal needed to be channeled into a Servant. She needed to calm her tempestuous thoughts and focus.

The final drop of blood dripped into the portal and night-colored light streamed out, catching Ren by surprise. She hadn't thought it had been so many. She'd been so distracted…

The light coalesced into a man's form. Slender, with golden hair. Unarmed.

He glanced down at his gloved hands, and then at his surroundings, before focusing on Ren. Then, in a gentle voice he said, "I believe introductions are in order, Miss?"

"I'm Serendipity," Ren said slowly, and then stopped. She stared at him, at his delicate, attractive features; his neat, ordinary clothing. No story bubble drifted forward. She almost disbelieved he was a Servant. He certainly didn't have the presence Cú and Jack had.

But as he waited for her to continue, his weight shifted and features she'd seen as delicate became sharp. "Nothing?" he said, and his previously cultured voice was a gleeful rasp.

"Ren!" said Merlin behind her. "Get—"

The warning came too late as the Servant sprang forward, throwing his full weight onto Ren. She stumbled back and then crashed into the ground, her head banging against the wall. The Servant was on top of her, his hands closing around her neck and an unholy grin stretching across his face.

As his thumbs pressed into her throat, she knew, she knew who he was. Terror made everything clear. Once again, she'd failed to specify heroic or even not a serial killer. And now she might die for it.

Clawing at his hands, she gasped voicelessly, "Hyde. You're Hyde. Jekyll and Hyde."

Hyde's grin widened. "Hee hee hee." Then his fingers loosened. "You recognized me first, Master. I'll take you." His hands moved down to her chest and he licked up her cheek to her ear. Just as his teeth brushed her earlobe, his weight against her lessened and vanished as Cú and Merlin hauled him off her.

He cackled again as they pulled him away. "Hee hee hah hah hee. Me first!" He made a convulsive effort to escape the other two, and then craned his head to see who held him. "Who are these shiny heroes?"

"Jekyll," croaked Ren, rubbing her throat and wishing she had recovered her Command Seals already.

"Hah! Him! But it's me you wanted, Master," crowed Hyde. "Find my knife and I'll kill these two for you."

"Yeah, this guy was a mistake," said Cú. "You want I should toss him back, my lady?"

"No," said Ren, forcing herself to her feet. "But we definitely need to fix the portal."

She stood in front of the wild-eyed blond Servant, and he leaned forward against the holds on his arms, pulling himself into an agonizing position as if it were nothing at all.

"Hi there, Serendipity," he whispered.

She remained quiet and still, merely looking at him, focusing on his eyes and her own breathing.

"Come on, come on, come on," said Hyde. "Make them let me go and let's go kill something. You want to do that, right? It'll be fun. I'll make you a garland of guts for your hair."

Again, Ren only breathed quietly. And after a moment, Hyde grumbled, "Fine. Fine. But don't forget, you chose me." His pupils dilated abruptly and he gasped for breath. "Oh, thank God," said Jekyll, in that cultured voice from before.

"Let him go," instructed Ren.

Merlin loosened his grip and Cú reluctantly followed suit. Jekyll spent a few seconds catching his breath and smoothing his clothes. Then he glanced at Ren with a wry little smile. "You have unusual survival instincts."

Ren blinked. "Not from my perspective."

Jekyll glanced down, straightening his gloves. Meditatively, he said, "You've bound him much more strongly than I, in any case."

"That's… good, isn't it?" Ren frowned at the tone of Jekyll's voice. From what she knew of him, she thought such a result should have made him happier.

He glanced up at her and then brushed his gloved thumb across where his other self had licked her. "Is it? We'll certainly find out."