Chương 10: 10. Ren Insists
Ren stared fiercely at Merlin. He smiled, but his eyes glittered, hard and angry. She didn't care. "Whatever happened to 'Masters don't sit on the sidelines?'" she demanded.
"I was trying to protect little Miss Ritsu—" began Merlin.
But before Ren could cut him off, Ritsu wailed, "I don't understand any of this! What happened to my sister? Why did you tell me we could stop the fight and then tell Mr. Cú to attack her?" Her foxette chittered and then used Cú as a ladder up to Ritsu's shoulder.
"Sister…" muttered Cú, still crouched in front of Ren, his head down.
Ren blew out her breath, swallowing her desire to yell at Merlin more. She put her hand on Ritsu's head and said, "I'm pretty sure whatever we do to the Saber spirit possessing her, your sister will be fine."
"How can you know that?" asked Ritsu, her big brown eyes fixed on Ren.
Ren hesitated, searching the field of stories in her mind, and couldn't find an answer. "I just… do. Come on, it'll be okay. I really think we'll be able to save her somehow."
Cú raised his head, his ruby eyes piercing. "Who are you, my lady? How do you have such information?"
"I'm here to help," Ren said firmly, but her confidence withered at the intensity of Cú's stare. Doubt began to gnaw at her and her fingers curled into the pockets on her skirt. She didn't care that much where she'd come from, or who she'd been; wondering about all that had faded against the spectacular map she'd fallen into. She had something to do, people who needed her, and she wanted so badly to help. But so much of what she knew felt like… instinct. Like falling well.
"I'm me," she said finally. "And I think what I do is going to be a lot more important than where I came from."
"Oh yes, very true," said Merlin amiably. "For example, here, you wasted two Command Seals and accomplished nothing more than gambling with young Miss Ritsu's life."
Ren's spine stiffened. "I didn't waste anything. The fact that Artoria Alter survived Cú's Gáe Bolg proved something."
"And what was that?" demanded Merlin.
She stared at him, and then slowly smiled as she realized he truly didn't know. "You said I was lucky, but Miss Ritsu here is very, very lucky, don't you think?"
Merlin blinked at Ren's expression before his eyebrows drew together. He murmured, "The power to change fate itself…." He reached out a finger toward the highly magical foxette on Ritsu's shoulder, and then jerked it away as the little creature snapped razor-sharp teeth at him.
"I am lucky sometimes," said Ritsu with a little sniffle. "And I'm so glad Mr. Cú missed. But if I was that lucky, don't you think I'd have a better familiar than this guy?"
Cú rose to his feet, favoring one leg as he scowled at the foxette. "Lucky girl summons lucky beast, shares that luck, and I miss. Of course. That's my luck." He gave Merlin a dark look. "You didn't help. What do you mean, I always miss?"
"You've never defeated Artoria with Gáe Bolg," said Merlin, blithely ignoring the look of frustrated puzzlement that passed over Cú's face. "Although I've never seen you miss even when backed by a Command Seal."
He studied Ritsu for a moment longer before raising an irritated gaze to Ren again. "You guessed this fate-changing gift and then you spent a Seal to test it?" She opened her mouth to explain and he held up his hand. "No, no, I'll accept that. You got something you wanted, I suppose. So you only wasted one Seal."
<Never keep me from a battle.> She'd flung that mental command at him as the foxette's light had glowed around her. Ren met his lavender gaze unflinchingly. "Did I?"
Merlin moved closer to her, his hair flaring into a rainbow around him. The colored light obscured Ritsu, Cú, the shattered fortress, everything but him. Ren felt as if she drifted like a balloon: light, unrestrained and giddy. The mage leaned his head against hers and the sweet, relaxing scent of lilac and jasmine crept into her nose.
"You did," he whispered. "Is it keeping you from a battle if you don't know the battle is happening? If you get lost on your way there? If you're attending to some other task? I don't think so."
Ren blinked and shook her head as Merlin's soft voice threaded its way into her mind. She put her hands on his chest to shove him away, but got no further than leaning into his hard chest.
"You said I couldn't sit on the sidelines," she muttered, staring at her hands. Then she glanced up and added fiercely, "Besides, that was a mess and it would have been a lot less of one if you'd had me to coordinate what everybody else was doing. Strategy is important."
Cú's chuckle broke through Merlin's dreamscape and the rainbow space faded away. Ren stumbled as she realized the frowning mage hadn't moved from where he stood before. Her fingers still remembered his warmth, though.
���Your magus doesn't believe in other people's strategies, my lady." Cú once again rescued her from falling on her face, and she moved her tingling fingers to his arm. "Hey, can we try out that hair-brushing thing? I'd like to be healed by the time Artoria is."
"Yes, of course," said Ren quickly, pushing herself away from the Lancer. "How long do you think we have before she tries again?"
"A day. Maybe two at the outside," said Merlin distantly. "Ritsu, would you and your foxette do some work with me while Ren attends to Cú?"
Ritsu wiped at her eyes, leaving dirty marks behind. "Will you answer more questions? Without trying to confuse me?"
Merlin hesitated, his gaze dropping to the foxette. "…As much as I can, yes."
Suddenly nervous, Ren said, "You know you can't trust him, Ritsu. And I need you to show me where your brushes and stuff are. I've never done this before."
"They're next to my blankets," said Ritsu. "It's easy work. I want to stay up here. I have to know more, Ren."
"So do I," muttered Ren under her breath. "Fine." She glanced at Cú out of the corner of her eye, and then walked back into the fortress.
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