38. Creatures of Luck and Darkness

As they traipsed across the campus one more time, Merlin stubbornly maintained his clasp on Ren's hand. She didn't hate it, but just so it wouldn't go to his head she made a couple of token efforts to free herself anyhow. He breezily ignored them, only glancing over her head to where Hyde scowled at him.

Ren noticed the tension between them, but it didn't seem any different to her than the tension between Cú and Hyde, and only mildly different than the tension between Astolfo and Hyde. Berserkers were supposed to be a challenge to manage and she accepted Hyde's possessiveness as the price of his strength. As long as he wanted to please her, she could handle him.

"It's such a nice evening, in such a pleasant environment," Merlin announced. "We ought to enjoy it. Who knows when we'll have such a chance again, back in that crumbling Summoner's Castle?"

"We're not staying," said Ren, bristling. Then she sagged. "Unless we break Ritsu free of her delusion and she wants to stay. I don't know what to do then."

Hyde shrugged, his hands in his pockets. "Don't give her the choice. You want to go back, so she goes back. She's small. Any of us can carry her."

"This isn't a healthy world for little Miss Ritsu to stay in," said Merlin decisively.

"Yeah, but neither is her own," said Ren darkly. She looked around and spotted a bench along the quad. The open space had emptied of most of its occupants as dinnertime approached, and a light wind stirred piles of red and golden leaves. "Let's actually sit down for a minute and get this hammered out so we have a plan when we see her."

Merlin beamed at her. "I did say we ought to enjoy the evening." He towed her to the bench, seated himself and held out his arms to her. She ignored the invitation and sat at the other end of the bench, leaving space for a third between them. But Hyde crouched at her feet where she could put her hand in his hair again, while Astolfo flopped on the ground. The Rider put his arms under his head and one leg up in the air, leaving anybody inclined to be curious with no question as to what he wore under his armored tunic.

Instead of looking, Ren gathered her thoughts. "The other Master told me Ritsu's world is shredding apart—"

"Yes," said Merlin calmly. "Looking at the overall structure of worlds isn't my niche, but since coming here, I've applied the technique."

"And you think we should take her back to that?" Ren asked, daring to hope he had a good reason, an answer to the indecision gnawing at her.

"I'm not going to make that decision for you, Master." Merlin's voice was bland. "But here in the world of the Raven Tower she would be much less than she could be in her own world of Summoner's Castles. And there are mysteries there we have yet to solve."

"She's lucky," argued Ren. "What if being taken by this world is her luck saving her from an unavoidable doom?"

"You think her luck means nothing bad ever happens to her?" asked Hyde darkly.

Astolfo said idly, "I'm lucky," and lifted his other leg out of the way just as Hyde kicked at him. "But trying to predict luck is kind of a waste of time. You just have to live your life and trust that it'll all work out in the end as long as you try your best!" He cast his gaze over Ren's shoulder and added, "Hi, Flat!"

Ren glanced back to see the blonde young man who'd been troubling Jack strolling behind the bench, his arms clasped behind his head in an exaggerated display of innocence. "Oh, hi there, interesting strangers from another world."

In an amused voice, Merlin said, "You might as well join us, young man. I can tell you have something you want to say."

In a flash, Flat had insinuated himself on the bench between Ren and Merlin, his face aglow. "Thank you, interesting strangers! I thought your conversation about luck was very interesting!"

Astolfo toed Flat's shin. "You're lucky too."

Flat looked surprised. "Me? No, no. But I wrote a paper on luck once." He looked proud. "It got a failing mark. Well, I for incomprehensible, but basically that's a fail."

"So she should listen to you why?" asked Hyde nastily. He hadn't liked Flat's seating choice.

Flat shrugged. "Well, it did get the Master of Raven Tower to come out of his study to hit me on the head and they say he hasn't done that in thirty years. And now he's my personal mentor."

"So what do you think? Is luck a form of divide guidance?" Merlin asked with an indulgent note in his voice.

The young man scratched his chin. "Depends. There's lots of different things people call luck. Divine protection, for example, which might react to whatever happens to keep the blessed one safe. And then there's destiny, which nobody here likes to talk about, and which I admit seems pretty random, but definitely exists. Destiny doesn't care if you get hurt as long as the ultimate goal is achieved."

Merlin nodded, a distant look in his eyes. "As a sometimes-agent of destiny, I can confirm that's certainly true."

Flat gave Merlin a curious look, but happily accepted his gesture to go on. "Then there's kind of varying degrees of what I call true luck. Mechanical luck, really. There's no goal, and no guiding hand, just a mechanistic manipulation of immediate events to produce the most wholesome outcome for the bearer. Some luck is focused on immediate consequences without any ability to predict long-term consequences. Other kinds of luck can sort of… evaluate the parameters of its bearer and algorithmically choose to improve those even if there's a short-term penalty."

"Oh my god," muttered Hyde and buried his head against Ren's leg, covering his ears with his arms.

Flat didn't notice, caught up in the excitement of his explanation. "It can get really tangled. There's also, oh, micro time jumps and intuitive divination. And luck's hereditary, too, just like magic circuits. I really think a lot of more complex spells involve directed luck algorithms." Suddenly he slumped hard, dropping his hands between his legs. "Everybody hates that idea, though."

Merlin patted Flat on the head and cocked an eyebrow at Ren over his curved back. "Do you feel as if you have a better grasp of Ritsu's situation now?"

"No," said Ren crossly. "I feel like a potential shortcut was snatched away from me." She twisted her hand in Hyde's hair. "I'm not afraid of losing. I'm not even afraid of dying if it accomplishes something. The problem is that I have no idea who to fight to fix something shattered beyond repair."

"What about that guy you summoned me to help with? The one who's hosting the wolfie?" asked Astolfo. "You'll probably still have to fight him." He sat up and tickled Flat under the chin until the young man looked up again.

Ren opened her mouth to point out how unhelpful that was, and then stopped, thinking. Her magic theory was weak, but one of the core elements of the stories she knew was that the object that enabled the summoning of Servants, known as a Holy Grail, was a wish-granting artifact. While it wasn't the original Holy Grail of legend, it was a crucible that channeled immense power and then gathered it back up again. Once the cup brimmed over, it could be used to create miracles.

She thought about Artoria Alter within Tora, and Lobo with Lord Kirri. There were more like that, no doubt about it. And why?

Slowly, Ren said, "What if somebody else is also trying to harvest energy from Ritsu's world, via the Grail War structure? That could explain why the Sovereign Servants are possessing their Masters: to process energy from Ritsu's world—"

Astolfo interrupted, "That's such an awkward name for a world. Call it Kintsugi."

Ren caught her breath as she drew the parallel between the tattered world and a broken bowl mended with gold.

Merlin bestowed a happy smile on Astolfo. "Well done."

But Hyde snorted. "That's optimistic. Usually something shatters, it's trash."

"We have to do our best," Astolfo responded cheerfully.

"It's a good name," agreed Ren. "It's a reminder. And I think if we can find the Holy Grail behind the Sovereign summons, we can use that as the gold."

"This is all so confusing," said Flat happily. "I'm glad I came along and totally accidentally overheard you."

Ren, far more interested in Merlin's thoughts on her theory, mostly ignored this. "Well? What do you think?"

Merlin gave her a gentle smile and she could instantly tell he had quibbles. But all he said was, "A solid idea. Shall we go find Ritsu now and tell her the good news?"

She could tell he had quibbles, but Ren was so exhilarated by having a goal and even more importantly a vision of a world mended with gold that she jumped right to her feet. "Yes, lets!"