章 15: 15. Ren Has A Plan
Since they didn't yet have enough chairs, they all sat on the kitchen floor to eat.
"Pretty good cooking, my lady," said Cú, leaning back against the table leg as he finished his fourth rabbit pancake. Jack had already eaten six, while Ritsu worked on her third, feeding bits of pancake to her foxette. Ren had limited herself to two, confident that everybody there except Merlin needed the energy more.
Merlin himself had also taken only two, but he'd had a small bite of one and then stopped, leaning his chin on one hand as he watched everybody else enjoy their food. When at last every other pancake and piece of rabbit had been devoured, Cú cast his gaze over Merlin's uneaten portion. "Are you just going to waste that?"
"Hmm? Oh, this? I'm afraid Miss Ritsu's pancakes just don't appeal to me. But you all liked them quite a bit, and that was nice. Everybody's satisfied now… well, except for Ren." Merlin cupped his hand to his ear. "I'm pretty sure her stomach's still growling."
Ren jumped and looked around guiltily. Her stomach wasn't growling at all, but she wasn't exactly full, either. "I'm fine."
Cú gave her a narrow look. <Don't be stupid,> his gaze seemed to say, and Ren flushed. "Look, if Merlin doesn't want his, I'll totally eat them. But I'm fine no matter what."
"Let's hear your plan first," said Merlin. "I bet you'll enjoy them more after you've gotten that off your chest."
Ren hesitated and then squared her shoulders. "I'd like Cú and Ritsu to defend the fortress. If the enemy manages to seal the portal, we lose, so we can't let that happen. Meanwhile, Jack, Merlin and I will bring down Artoria." She allowed herself only the briefest look at Cú's expression, and couldn't determine his reaction at all.
But it didn't matter. She'd made her decision. If they could win, she'd have opportunities to field him properly later. She just hoped—
"How are we going to do that?" asked Merlin, and Ren forced herself to focus.
"Top level overview: I'll distract her while you disable her magic and Jack delivers a killing blow."
"Distract her," said Merlin flatly. "How?"
Ren scowled. "I'm going to walk into their camp and talk to her."
After staring at her for a moment, Merlin said, "Hey, Lancer, I don't think our lady wants these pancakes after all. Do you?"
"Ah…" said Cú, sounding conflicted. "I wanna say yes, but it's you offering, you know? Besides, she clearly needs more food if she's coming up with a plan like that."
"You haven't even heard the details yet," said Ren sharply.
"What details are going to sell me on you just surrendering to your enemy?" asked the magus sweetly.
"Hey, you're the one who started teaching me to defend myself by telling me to attack you."
"Yes, because you were terrible at it," Merlin said patiently.
Cú sighed. "What are these details, my lady?"
Ren looked around at everybody. Jack had her arms clasped around her knees, watching her with those intense green eyes, while Ritsu held her foxette to her chest like it was her baby. Merlin still lounged on one side, while Cú had straightened from his comfortable position against the table leg.
Ren held up her hand with the Command Seals. While she'd used two earlier in the day, she still had the remnants of them, as well as the third one. "Tora's supposed to capture Summoners, not kill them. I'm pretty sure she'll talk to me if I show up alone."
"Did she seem particularly chatty before when she almost Excalibur Morgan'd you?" asked Merlin.
"Yes, actually," said Ren, and Merlin's brow furrowed. "She told me exactly what she was going to do and why. I didn't even have to ask. In her own territory, with me at her mercy? She'll absolutely respond if I want to talk. If nothing else, she'll want to know why I'm there."
"She'll be ready for the obvious trap," pointed out C��, but thoughtfully.
Ren nodded. "That's why we have one. After she's focused on me, Merlin goes for that mirror you mentioned. It must be important, right? She probably won't want him to have it. So I distract her, Merlin goes for the mirror while she's focused on me, but he fumbles it. She gets distracted by Merlin, but I'm still a distraction. When her attention is split between us… Jack strikes. Even if she anticipates that, she'll be expecting Cú, not an Assassin with Presence Concealment."
Merlin and Cú were both quiet a moment. Then, his gaze faraway, Merlin held out one of the two pancake rolls to her. She accepted it, quite pleased. "Not as terrible a plan as you thought?"
"No, it's awful," said Merlin distantly. "But given what you have to work with, it's… definitely at least a plan." His gaze snapped back to her as she stuck her tongue out at him, and something glinted in his lavender eyes.
"It's dishonorable," said Cú, but without rancor. ��But sometimes that's what it takes."
"What will happen to Tora?" demanded Ritsu abruptly. "You're sure she'll be all right?"
Slowly Ren shook her head. "I think so, but I don't know what will happen after we defeat her Servant form."
Merlin said gently, "But Ritsu, I can promise that Tora won't be all right if she's never defeated. You know that, I think. You spoke yourself of defeating her, did you not?"
Ritsu's voice was small. "Yeah. I just thought it'd be… different, somehow."
"You and me, little miss," said Cú, and Ren knew that although he accepted her plan, he still craved a more successful rematch with the Saber.
"Jack, what do you think?" asked Merlin.
Jack's thin shoulders moved. "Mommy's plan is Mommy's plan."
Her answer apparently dissatisfied Merlin, because he frowned as his gaze went far away again.
Then Jack added, "Tonight?"
Merlin shook his head firmly. "No. Showing up in the dark would instantly put her on the defensive."
"We're better at killing people in the dark," Jack warned.
"Yes, but Seren—Mommy's a lot more likely to die before you get the chance, child." Merlin finally looked at Ren again. "You could try one more summon first. I can enable that much."
Ren had already considered that. "I'm not ready, and I don't think a new Servant would be ready either, not in the timeframe we have. I was thinking… dawn? Before Artoria has fully regenerated."
Merlin passed the other pancake roll to Ren and then rolled onto his back. "This plan… It might work against some other Heroic Spirit. But against Artoria… especially in this form… I don't think you should count on mercy."
Ren chewed and swallowed a bite of the pancake roll and rose to her feet. She moved so she looked down at Merlin. His eyes had closed, his long lashes resting on his cheeks. A pang of compassion shot through her. "Is it hard for you to work against her?"
His eyes flew open, an odd expression making his mouth twist. "I? Not at all. In any case, that's hardly the sweet girl I trained."
Ren's eyes narrowed. "Because I could also swap you and Cú."
"No," said Merlin decisively, sitting up. "That would lead to your death. At least I have a chance of getting you out alive." He sprang to his feet and added in response to Cú's chuckle, "You're amused, Hound?"
"I never heard the Magus of Flowers was such a stick in the mud," teased Cú.
Merlin grinned wryly. "Definitely Serendipity's fault." Before Ren could demand an explanation, the magus clapped his hands. "My one requirement is that you go to bed now, young lady. Sleep is not optional for Masters in your position. And remember, I'll know if you're faking."
Ren blinked at him. "Now?"
"Now. You saw the bed upstairs. It's yours. I'll be along in a few minutes to make sure you haven't run off."
Ren, unclear how her great planning had ended up with her being sent to bed immediately after dinner, nonetheless did as she was bid. When Merlin arrived, she was seated on the wooden bed, bouncing experimentally. The mattress was blackened in places, but the straw within seemed clean and it smelled sweet and fresh, just like the assorted blankets. "Better than the floor," she said. "I'll have to thank Cú."
"Eheheh, I'm sure he'll appreciate that."
Narrowing her eyes, remembering fragments of story about Merlin's origins, Ren said, "You're not going to do anything perverted to me while I'm asleep, are you?"
He laughed, his eyes crinkling. "Not while you're asleep, no. What would be the fun in that? And I'll make sure nobody else does anything either."
Ren thought about that. "Do I need to define perverted for you, just to be sure?"
Crouching down so he was at her eye-level, Merlin said, "You could. It might get embarrassing, revealing all the things you've thought of but definitely don't want me to do." He paused, watching with interest as she blushed. "Or you could simply trust that I really, truly want to both keep you alive and remain near you. Disturbing your sleep would be pleasant but," he sighed, "short-sighted."
Ren couldn't seem to stop blushing, which provided incentive for her to stretch out and pull the blankets up to her chin. "All right," she said… or squeaked, really, before rolling over to face the giant hearth instead of the mage. Sooner than she imagined possible, her eyes began drifting closed, and soon she was deeply asleep.
Merlin leaned against a wall, watching her relax into slumber. He felt Cú, dematerialized, drift past and begin a patrol of the broken ramparts. Jack came by without her knives and, ignoring him, went around the bed to peer into Serendipity's face. She knelt there for a long moment before once again leaving on business of her own. A little bit later, Merlin felt Ritsu slip into dreams in her nest in the portal room.
Sighing, the mage leaned his head back against the wall. "Oh, Cath Palug," he murmured. "So long in that tower and I haven't learned a thing." Then he began to carefully and invisibly explore the dreams of the strange girl he'd named Serendipity.
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