Chapter 1
The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. - Popular aphorism
It was one of the oddest dreams Rin had ever had. Some part of her sleeping mind that was still cold and rational wondered if perhaps the dream had spawned from the ritual she had been studying in minute detail before falling asleep.
Or perhaps it was because she had been looking over old legends so that she could have a clear image in her mind of the Saber she would summon soon.
Whatever the reason, she knew that she was, in fact, in a dream, no matter how visceral the experience was.
She stood in a stone structure she recognized as the pyramid of Chichen Itza in Mexico. A man in an elaborate, black breastplate and armor and dark grey cape stood before a short man flanked on either side by a line of figures in gold masks.
The man in armor, who Rin assumed was a knight of legend, held a staff of oak in one hand, a frost-covered sword on the ground next to him. Beyond him was a stone altar with a child beside it, a dark skinned, dark haired woman in Mayan ceremonial gear was held from behind by a bland looking, blonde man with a machete to her neck.
The knight stood stock still, as if held in place by something Rin could not see, and his eyes shifted from one gold masked figure to the other.
The figures conversed, and Rin had trouble understanding what was happening, not because she didn't understand English, she was fluent naturally, but because the conversation didn't entirely make sense. Rin felt that there an element or context that was missing from her perception of events.
The woman suddenly flew into a berserker rage and spun, the machete slicing open her neck as she tore out the blonde's throat. One of the gold masked figures suddenly let out a grunt of pain and another turned and poured emerald and blue light amongst her fellows.
The knight surged forward and stabbed his suddenly ice covered fingers into the short man's eyes. Blue and silver fire erupted from the short man's head and he let out a powerful, unnaturally loud scream.
Rin awoke to the sound of her alarm clock ringing in the same damn persistent and insidiously 'cheerful' manner that it did every morning.
With a groan, the young mage shifted her body enough to peek out of the cocoon of her bed and glared at the demonic, sleep-depriving device on her bed.
"Shut up!" she shouted, or rather would have shouted. The tiredness in her voice removed much of the edge from her tone. To compensate, she hurled the clock at a nearby chair with enough force to knock said chair over, the clock clattering nearby.
The alarm kept ringing.
"Come on, already?" Rin asked. "I was up late last night so just give me a few more minutes." She groaned as she rose from her bed and added, "Evil, heartless jerk."
She clicked the alarm off and let out a sigh.
"What a weird dream," she thought aloud. "Who was the man in the armor?"
Now that she was up and moving, Rin fell into her usual morning routine. She moved through the Western-style home, cleaning herself up, making breakfast, and getting dressed in her school uniform and signature long, red coat. She stopped briefly and examined herself in the hall mirror, making sure the tie on her uniform was done correctly. Her dark hair was done up in its usual style, a pair of bows creating tails to frame her face. Her blue eyes now full of energy. She was almost out of the door when she remembered.
"Oh, that's right, the pendant."
It didn't take long for her to go down into the basement of her home where her magic workshop was and retrieve the almost heart-shaped red gem and chain her father had left her. The pendant was simple and beautiful and a not-inconsiderable weapon in the hands of a mage as skilled as Rin was.
"I know it hasn't really begun just yet, but I can't be too careful, can I?"
As she made her way to school, Rin began to feel uneasy.
What's going on? she thought. It's way too quiet. I don't see a single student on the street.
As she walked into the school's courtyard she glanced around at the apparently deserted campus and said, "Well, guess it's just one of those days."
"Hey, Tohsaka!" a girl called. "You're awfully early today."
Rin let out a sigh as the situation dawned on her and said, "So that's what's going on."
As Rin approached, the girl who had called out to her left the vending machines and joined her. The fellow student had short, chestnut colored hair and yellow-brown eyes. Instead of a school uniform, she was wearing the white and black robes of an archery club uniform.
"Morning," she greeted the mage, "sure is cold today, huh?"
"Good morning, Mitzuzeri," Rin replied. Then added, "by the way, do you happen to know what time it is?"
Ayako Mitzuzeri tilted her head to one side in confusion before answering, "Yeah, I do, it's just before 7. You come early by mistake?" The brunette cracked open the can of coffee she carried and took a sip as she spoke.
"It looks like the clocks at my house were an hour fast," Rin answered. "And not just my alarm clock but the wall clocks too, and all by the same amount." She grew thoughtful and muttered, "It started after I found the pendant. Could Father be the cause of this?"
She felt a presence beside her and turned to see Mitzuzeri leaning forward and examining her closely.
"Wake up, girl," Mitzuzeri said.
Rin gave her a look and poked the girl as she asked, "Are you practicing this early again?"
"Yeah, I lost one of our best club members. I have to try to put on a decent show so that we can get more good people on our team."
"Geez, as the captain you have to think about things like that?"
"Hey, since you're here and all, why don't you come and watch us practice?"
As Mitzuzeri led Rin to the archery dojo, Rin's thoughts turned toward the day's strange events. A dream of a mysterious knight… The clocks in her house adjusting on their own… Her father's will…
Rin came back to reality as Mitzuzeri moved to retrieve her bow, and politely declined the offer to observe. Mitzuzeri looked slightly disappointed at the refusal.
"So you're really not going to watch?" she asked.
"Yeah, thank you but I'll pass," Rin said. "It looks cool and all, but I don't know a thing about it."
As she spoke, the door to the dojo opened and a girl slightly younger than herself stepped in. The newcomer wore a school uniform and had purple hair and eyes along with a magenta colored ribbon on the, to Rin, right side of her hair.
"Good morning, captain," the newcomer said with a respectful bow.
"Hey, good morning, Matou. He didn't come, huh?"
"No, ma'am. I'm sorry that I wasn't able to be of more help."
"Look, it's fine, don't worry," Mitzuzeri said with a warm smile. "If he doesn't want to do it it's no use. Besides, we can't force him."
Seeing as the conversation wasn't any of Rin's business, she decided to take the opportunity to duck out.
"I suppose I'll be going then. See you later, Mitzuzeri."
"Okay. See you later, Tohsaka."
The newcomer bowed again and said, "Thank you for visiting, Miss Tohsaka."
Rin stopped for a moment and glanced over her shoulder. "No problem. Work hard, Sakura." Then she left.
Rin made her way toward the main school building and briefly caught sight of a tall, athletic, redheaded girl walking away from the archery dojo. The girl had the bearing of someone with extraordinary confidence and complete control of her physical form.
What struck Rin as bizarre was the bronze colored circlet the girl wore, and the fact that she did not recognize the redhead.
The young mage blinked and shook herself and the girl was gone. Rin sighed. That damned alarm clock was truly a devil's tool. It had woken her up early for no reason and deprived her of that precious hour of sleep. It really was turning out to be one of those days.
She continued her trek to the main school building.
"Hey, Tohsaka! Good morning!" A voice called and Rin made a face in disgust as it continued, "Must be my lucky day, running into you like this."
Let's just get this over with.
Rin looked over her shoulder wearing a false smile and said, "Good morning, Shinji Matou. You're early today."
"Of course I am," Shinji replied. "I'm team captain, remember?" Shinji Matou was in his school uniform, his dark purple hair falling and curling to just above his ears. He was leaning against one of the pillars outside of the main doors of the school.
"A vice captain, moron," Rin muttered, her head turned enough so that Shinji couldn't spot the response. Not that it really mattered. Shinji was so self-absorbed that he probably wouldn't have noticed even if Rin had been looking straight at him.
With the formalities officially out of the way, Rin raised her hand and said blithely, "Goodbye."
This apparently knocked Shinji off-guard, because he let out a sound of surprise and said, "Hey, wait up. You should check out our morning practice."
"Thanks, but I'll pass. I don't want to get in the way of them practicing," she put extra emphasis on the word 'practicing' as a minor experiment to see if Shinji would realize that practice involved actually being in the dojo.
He didn't seem to notice. "Come on, nobody will mind," he said.
"Weren't you listening to me just now? I told you: I'll pass." Rin dropped the fake friendliness since it seemed to only be encouraging him. "And besides that, I'm not all that interested in archery to begin with."
"Really, I didn't know that," Shinji said in a thoughtful tone of voice. "I always thought you were fascinated by it." His voice gained a leering quality. "That's very interesting. I thought you kept coming to watch our after school practices because you enjoyed it."
Shinji had moved into her field of view now and took a couple of steps forward so that he was within her personal space. Rin roughly jerked her arm away from his as it came too close, the action turning her gaze away from him again.
"That must mean," he continued, "you were there to watch something else. Like me?"
Rin was growing visibly annoyed. The obnoxious gnat just didn't know when to take a hint, did he?
Rin let out a breath in order to regain her composure. "Just stay away from me Matou, okay?" She whirled around to face him again and delivered her response in a cold, rational tone. "Let me be crystal clear: I'm not interested in archery in any way whatsoever, but I'm even less interested in you. Fact is: I only just now even noticed that you were at the archery range. I'm sure I won't notice you in the future."
"What did you say?!" Shinji shouted, his voice so loud that it echoed off the lockers in the building behind them. "How dare you, Tohsaka?!"
"You know what, Mr. Self-absorbed?" she continued, walking away from the enraged Matou. "You should really think about dialing it down. Just friendly advice."
While Rin was changing into inside shoes, she caught a glimpse of man standing in the shadows of one of the pillars. He was tall, well over six feet, and wore a dark, leather duster with a mantle and a matching leather hat. His was looking at Shinji with suspicious eyes, as if he could read something in the Matou that she couldn't.
As she climbed the stairs, Rin exchanged a greeting with the energetic english teacher, Miss Fujimora. When she reached the next floor she spotted a familiar figure.
Standing outside a room was a tall boy with swept back, dark hair. He seemed to sense her presence and turned his head to face her. Once he saw who it was, he jolted back slightly in surprise and blurted, "Tohsaka."
"Well," Rin said, "Student Council president, are you really patrolling the campus this early in the morning? Or is it maintenance on the club rooms?" Rin rested one hand on her hip as she reached him and spoke. "Not that I care either way. Ever the diligent student." Issei Ryuudou had regained whatever composure he'd lost from his surprise and was now standing there, his arms crossed before him, the dark eyes behind his glasses suspicious.
"And what might you have up your sleeve this morning?" he asked. "I know that you aren't in any clubs, so why are you here this early?"
"I felt like it, that's all," Rin answered in a cavalier tone. Issei grimaced.
This was pretty standard between Rin and Issei. For reasons that she had never quite been able to fathom, Issei had always been suspicious and oddly aware of her presence. No matter what she said, or how she said it, he always kept his guard up around her and analyzed everything she said.
Since his attitude toward her had never changed, and never seemed likely to, Rin had elected to be as cavalier as possible when speaking with him. He was the president of the Student Council, so she was never disrespectful toward him, and wouldn't have been even if he hadn't, but his reactions were always fairly entertaining.
Issei might have been about to respond, but the room he was standing outside opened and another student stepped out, holding one of the space heaters that the school used during the winter months.
"Okay, Issei," the boy said. "I fixed it."
"Oh," Issei said, turning around and losing his irritation. "Thanks a lot." He lifted his hand in a polite gesture and bent forward to speak to the student. "I asked for your help and you ended up doing everything. I'm very sorry, Emiya."
Rin raised her eyebrows. It was impossible to go to Homurahara High school and not know of Shirou Emiya. He had a schoolwide reputation for being helpful. If someone needed to have something fixed, or an extra pair of hands for something on school grounds, the first person they thought of was Shirou Emiya.
Shirou himself was of average height and had messy red-orange hair and golden-brown eyes. On the whole, he didn't have the kind of bearing that someone of his reputation might have had.
"It's okay," Emiya said. "Where's the next one? We don't have a lot of time."
Rin sighed as the two boys began discussing where the other broken heaters and equipment were located. Then she made her way past them and toward her classroom. She did spare one last glance for Emiya as she walked by.
"I didn't know you came to school this early," Shirou said to her as she moved down the hall.
She glanced back again, to see Shirou and Issei moving back into the room with the heater.
"Was that his way of trying to say hello?" she asked herself.
On the whole, Rin's day passed much like any other. The real challenge was going to begin that night, when she would summon her Servant.
Chapter 2
I am the bone of my sword… - Fate/Stay Night
Rin came home to find the voicemail button on her phone blinking. Her eyes narrowed and she resignedly pressed the button, already certain what the message would contain.
"You have ONE message," the phone said."Recorded: JANUARY 31ST at 3:21 pm."
"Rin, it's me," the recorded voice of Kirei Kotumine said. "As I'm sure you're aware the deadline for entry is tomorrow. I'd advise you to hurry and decide immediately. Only two slots remain. They are the Archer and Saber classes. Their Masters must be chosen without delay. Summon your Servant and establish your Command Seals immediately. Of course, if you are not participating in the Holy Grail war, that is a different matter. If you value your life, seek shelter with the-" Rin shut off the recording.
"Huh. You don't tell me what I have to do," she told the phone.
Rin changed out of her school uniform and into a red blouse and black skirt with black stockings. Then she spent the next several hours preparing and perfecting the summoning ritual. Once night had fallen and the hour drew near, she shoved books and materials out of the way and hauled the stone worktable in the center of her basement workshop aside to reveal a ritual circle that had been hidden beneath it.
"Preparations ready," she told herself and checked a clock set on the table. "Time is perfect." She held her wrist with one hand and focused inside at the flow of mana in her body. "Wavelength ideal. By performing the summoning at 2 am, when my mana is at its peak, I'll get Saber even without a catalyst."
There were two ways for a Master to summon a Servant in the opening stage of the Holy Grail War.
Traditionally, a Master would perform the summoning ritual while incorporating an object, called a catalyst, that was central and significant to the heroic spirit the Master wished to summon. An object such as a piece of the armor the hero wore, or a part of their most iconic weapon was the best kind of catalyst but, so long as the object had a significant connection to the spirit in question, theoretically any object could do.
The second approach was trickier. A Master could summon a Servant without a catalyst to use as a focus. What the ritual would use instead was the mage herself as the catalyst. The magic would analyze the mage in question and seek out a Servant that could fulfill one of the missing slots and resonate with the Master on a personal level. While this could, in theory, summon a Servant that the mage would get along with, it also meant that the mage would be summoning a Servant completely blind, without any clue as to who would get selected.
"Just you watch," she spoke to the room. Rin opened her hand and examined the gems she had there. That collection of stones was a not-so-modest horde of potential magical energy. It was enough power to do a fairly impressive number of magical feats, if the mage knew what she was doing.
It was enough, more than enough, power to pull the strongest card.
"For the elements: silver and iron. The foundation: stone and the archduke of pacts. And, for my great master Shvinorg." The gems melted in Rin's right hand and splashed into the circle. The liquid glowed with a blue-green light and began to move on its own, filling in the red lines of the ritual spell. "Close the four gates. Come forth from the crown and follow the forked road leading to the kingdom."The circle had been completely illuminated by the green light of Rin's melted gems. More liquid seeped from the mage's closed hand, the drips causing the light to ripple and brighten as she continued to incant. "Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Repeat five times, but when each is filled, destroy it."The green light shifted in a bright orange glow, like the sun as it began to rise. "Set."
"Heed my words. My will creates your body, and your sword creates my destiny. If you heed the Grail's call, and obey my will and reason then answer me. I hereby swear that I shall be all the good in the world. That I shall defeat all evil in the world." The circle's light turned red and waves of power rippled from the spell around her, casting sparks like distant stars drifting through the room. "Seventh heaven clad in the great words of power. From the binding circle, thou guardian of the scales!" The spell coalesced into a circle of crackling red and let out a gust of wind that scattered loose paper into the four corners of the chamber.
Smoke cleared and Rin found herself kneeling on the ground, feeling tired, but filled with ecstatic energy at the same time. She laughed and looked at her right hand, which now bore the crimson stigmatus of Command Seals, marking her as a Master in the 5th Holy Grail War.
"That was flawless! I know I drew the most powerful card there is!"
Rin looked around in jubilation, and realized that something was wrong. There was no Servant.
Before she could even process the irregularity, there was an enormous CRASH from above her.
Rin lurched into the stairwell and ran up with a cry of, "Why?!"
It didn't take her long to reach the sitting room, the location of the rukus. The door, probably because of the crash, was stuck.
"Damn, stupid door! Get... Damnit!" she shouted and managed to knock the door completely out of its frame and gain access to the room.
Most of the furniture from the center of the room had been apparently forced into one point and then either blasted away or partially crushed by the figure resting as nobly as a king on his throne.
The figure wore black pants and boots with bands of leather and metal running along and down the articles as well as a tight, black and white, unitard style of armor from his neck to his waist. A wide band of red was wrapped around his waist and draped down behind him almost like a skirt. A similar red jacket was draped over his shoulders and down his arms, stopping just below his armpits. His hair was white, but clearly not as a result of age. His white hair struck Rin as a consequence of events rather than the progression of time.
The man opened his dark eyes and there was a briefest flash of surprise in them, before shifting into overwhelming confidence. He looked her over with only one eye open and a smile spread across his lips.
Rin stood there in surprise for a moment, before becoming annoyed at the man's cavalier bearing. Her eyes shifted to the grandfather clocked resting off-kilter behind the man and realization made her gasp in surprise.
Wait, all the clocks were running an hour early when I got up this morning, she thought. Which means it's now 1 am not 2 am.
"I did it again!" she complained, grabbing her hair in pure frustration. "Well, what's done is done, I guess." She dropped to her knees. "Why did you give me this task, Father?" She let out a grunt of annoyance before turning to face the stranger. "Oh, all right. What are you?"
The man animated at the question. "That's the first thing you say to me? Well, well, well, looks like I was summoned by quite the Master. No, wait. I must've drawn the shortest straw."
Rin rose to her feet and regarded the Servant warily. "Just to be perfectly clear, whoever you are, you're my Servant, correct?"
"And am I to presume that you are my Master? You weren't present when I emerged from the summoning."
"Don't tell me you expected your Master to be sitting here waiting for you to give you a warm welcome? Give me a break, you're not a baby." She sighed and continued, "All right, fine. Just answer my question, okay? You really are my Servant, right? Just mine and no one else's. Is that correct? Master/Servant relationships should be clearly laid out right off the bat."
"Of course," the Servant replied. "I completely agree with that opinion. However, where's the evidence that you're really my Master and not some imposter?"
"Right here," Rin replied, presenting her Command Seals to the man. "This is all the proof you need that I am your Master."
The man's eyes widened, as if surprised by Rin's move. Then he let out a sigh.
"Oh, dear. Do you really mean that, little miss? That's not what I want to see. That token on your hand is meaningless. What I want see is if you're someone who is worthy of my loyalty."
"Excuse me?" Rin asked, not impressed with the frankly childish display from the Servant. "I'm not good enough to be your Master?"
He stepped up to her and loomed before the mage. "I'm completely dissatisfied, but I'll acknowledge you as my Master. But, only on one condition: In the war to come, I will not obey your commands. I will decide how I battle. You don't object to that, do you?"
Rin stood there, her hands clenched in near silent fury, as the Servant stepped away from her back toward his impromptu throne. "I see," she said through teeth she fought not to grind together. "You will grudgingly acknowledge me, but refuse to listen to my tactical opinions. How can that be? You are my Servant, are you not?"
"Yes, but in form only. So, I will obey you in form only. Oh, and I'll be calling my own shots. Until this Holy Grail war ends, I suggest that you sit tight down in some cellar. If you do that, even a novice like you should be able to stay alive." Rin's hands began shaking with anger that was barely controlled. The man noticed. "Oh, have I made you angry? Well, I've great respect for your office. After all, I was summoned here to win a great victory for my Master. My victory will be your victory. And I'll pass on any fruits of battle to you. I'm sure that's acceptable. So, just leave everything to me now and see to your own safety and well-being. I don't expect anything from you."
Rin couldn't contain it any longer. This self-absorbed, condescending, arrogant, bastard had gone so far over the line that he was on another continent by now.
"SHUT UP, ALREADY!" she screamed. "Fine, you asked for it! I'll show you who's Master!" She began to incant, calling upon the power granted to her by the Holy Grail.
The Servant looked extremely alarmed at her outburst. "What? Wait!"
"No, I won't!" Rin said with a stomp of her foot. "You despicable ingrate!" She continued to incant.
The Servant rose in rising alarm. "What are you doing? Are you crazy? Wasting a Command Seal on something like this?"
Rin finished her incantation and added, "Silence! Listen, you are my goddamn Servant. That means absolute obedience. You'll do everything I say!" Crimson light pulsed out in a ring from Rin's raised hand, and the Servant raised his arms in an instinctive, defensive gesture. As the light reached him, his body glowed for the briefest moment and he crouched in a gesture not quite unlike a bow.
The outermost crescent marking of Rin's stigmatus dulled to the point of near invisibility as the command was fulfilled.
Now it was the Servant's turn to grow angry.
"Ugh, are you really that stupid?! I can't believe you wasted a Command Seal on that!"
Rin's anger evaporated, leaving behind embarrassment that colored her cheeks pink.
"L-let's take this elsewhere. Come with me." she said and led the Servant into her father's, now her own, study.
The room was large and had a floor-to-ceiling window as a wall behind the desk. A low table sat perpendicular to the desk, with a pair of couches with side tables on either side. The wall opposite the desk was made of a massive bookshelf. A stair led up to an upper section of the study that wrapped around the periphery of the room. The walls of this upper section were wrapped with more bookshelves. Archer tapped a finger against a device on the lower bookshelf, causing the suspended part of the device to swing ever so slightly.
Now that everyone involved had regained most of their composure, they began to discuss the situation again.
"Well, Master," the Servant said from his position in front of one of the bookshelves. "I think I now have a pretty good idea of who you are. But, just to be clear, you do realize how precious Command Seals are, don't you?"
Rin turned her head away in annoyance. She was sitting on one of the couches in the room, her legs bent before her and her arms wrapped around them. "What's that superior tone? Absolute obedience to what I say, my ass." In a louder voice, "They symbolize our power to compel our Servants up to three times. Of course I know that."
The Servant sighed. "Listen to me," he said in a calm and not unkind voice. "Command Seals compel a Servant to perform a specific action. For example: I am totally incapable of teleporting away from this place, however, if you order via Command Seal it would use both our mana to make the teleport possible. The three Seals are the crystallization of High Magic overcoming the limits of flesh and blood. Oh, well, I suppose that number has been reduced to two now."
"I know all that, so what?" Rin responded defensively, her cheeks coloring with a blush. She lifted her knees and hid her face slightly with them. "I still have two Command Seals I can use. Besides, the first Seal worked. I didn't waste it."
"I must admit, I miscalculated a bit. With vaguely worded orders, Command Seals are less effective. Which is exactly what happened with your order earlier. Even a hundred Command Seals could not cause true, absolute obedience in all words and actions."
"Then you're saying the Command Seal I used on you earlier was pointless?"
"Yes, normally that would be the case. However, it would seem that your skill as a mage is extraordinary."
"Are you flattering me?"
"No, that's what I miscalculated. Since your order, I've felt a powerful compulsion to obey you. Very annoying."
Rin rose in surprise. "Wait, um, what are you saying?"
"I take back what I said, Master. You may be young in years, but you're really an outstanding mage. I made a mistake in looking down on you as just a helpless child and trying to keep you from fighting." The Servant put his hand to his heart and bowed respectfully, much like a knight of legend. "I apologize to you for that."
"Then you acknowledge me as your Master even without me using a Command Seal?"
"Of course I do. I had just been summoned and was not fully acclimated. But we are now fully connected. As a powerful mage, you can sense the bond between us through our pact."
Rin closed her eyes and let her awareness extend, sensing the connection and the flow of mana from Master to Servant, the symbiotic connection that marked the companions of the Holy Grail War.
"Yes," Rin said. "Our pact. Oh, that's right. Servants are summoned by the Holy Grail but it's not the Grail that anchors them to this world."
"Right, a Master's power does. As you know, Servants need mana from their Masters to stay in this world. My mana feed from you is satisfactory. No doubt, you are a first rate mage."
Rin blushed at the compliment, but then regained her composure and crossed her arms before looking away.
"It's too late to score points with silly flattery," she told the Servant. Then something dawned on her that the excitement from before had completely driven from her mind and she turned to face the Servant again. "Wait, you aren't a Saber?"
"I hate to disappoint, but I have no sword."
"Which means that you're the Archer. Boy did I blow it. I used all those gems and still didn't get the Saber."
"To bad for you I'm not the Saber."
"Well, it was an awfully painful blunder to be sure. But I'm completely to blame." It was just then that she felt something off about the room and she turned to face the Archer again.
He'd crossed his arms and closed his eyes as Rin spoke. He opened one eye and said, "I will make you rue those words. Apologize all you want, I won't forgive you."
Rin looked at the Servant for a moment, before the intent behind his words clicked and she felt like an incredible fool. How stupid could she be? Her Servant was standing right there and she had basically just told him that he was worthless to her.
Rather than apologize, she took a different tact. She smiled and skipped until she was within his field of view. "Very well, just see to it that I regret my words, Archer. When you do, I'll be willing to apologize to you."
Archer smiled. "Good. Just don't forget, Master."
As they stood there, the promise struck, Rin suddenly felt a flash of agony on the back of her left hand. It was so sudden and so intense that she let out a small shout of pain and collapsed onto the floor before Archer.
"Master?" he asked. "What's wrong?"
"My- my hand," she gasped as the pain grew even more intense. It felt as though molten lead was being poured onto the limb.
She grasped her left wrist with her other hand and watched as bright blue light began to run across her hand. Where the light moved, her hand burned the most. The stream of energy twisted and curled and formed a perfect circle and then criss-crossed until a pentacle formed, each tip of the star meeting with the outer circle.
As the pentacle finished forming, it shone with silver white light and another person materialized by the window.
Archer reacted instantly, moving to cover Rin with his form. "Who are you?" he demanded.
The new figure was male, and stood well over six feet tall. He had definite muscle across his body, like someone who ran marathons on a very frequent basis while still being able to bench press a considerable amount as well. He wore black pants and hiking boots, as well as a dark t-shirt. He also wore a long, black, leather duster with a matching leather hat.
In his right hand was a quarterstaff made of oak with runes and sigils carved into the wood. Each of his fingers bore interwoven, triple band rings of silver and Rin caught sight of a bracelet on his left wrist made of multiple metals in the shape of medieval-style shields. His left hand was also covered with faded burn scars.
His eyes were dark, and sunken in a state of too-little sleep, but his jaw was strong and suggested an air of strength or stubbornness.
Rin recognized him. The outfit was different, as was the staff, but this was clearly the man she had dreamed of the night before. She had also seen him outside of the school after her dismissal of Shinji Matou.
The stranger examined the room and its occupants before letting out a heavy sigh.
"Hell's bells," the man complained. "I can't ever get a break, can I?"
"Who are you?" Archer demanded again.
The stranger paused before answering and Rin felt something pass over her. It was energy of some kind. It wasn't hostile, but curious.
"Harry Dresden," the stranger answered. "And what are you?"
"I am called Archer," the heroic spirit replied, wisely keeping his identity secret from a potential Servant.
"Oh, great, another superhero knock off," Harry Dresden replied and turned his gaze on Rin. "So you called me to fight in this 'war'?"
"You're a Servant?" Rin asked, getting up on her hands and knees. Why would an enemy Servant be so free with his name?
The man shrugged. "You tell me. As of right now I don't have a clue what's going on here."