Bone of my Bow

Chapter 10

  "Yumiko, he was a Servant. You knew this was going to happen." Rin said softly while rubbing my back as I cried. "I didn't think you got this attached."

  'It didn't have to happen like this.' I signed while sniffling. 'It didn't....' My shoulders shook, and Rin was trying her best to comfort me. Emiya and Saber were in the next room, tending to the boy's wounds.

  "He's not actually dead permanently. He's just gone from here." Her words were meant to console, but they only made my heart hurt more. I was glad Archer wasn't dead in the sense of how humans died, but that meant he was somewhere far out of reach. I couldn't hear him, he couldn't hear me, and there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it.

  And the other problem at hand was I couldn't tell Rin why I was crying so hard. I couldn't tell her that I was in love with Archer. Not because he was a Servant and not because he was a Heroic Spirit....but because he was actually Emiya's future self.

  That 17-year-old boy in the other room, at some point in the future, will sell his afterlife and become Archer. They already knew that, but I couldn't expose the relationship between Archer and I when the present Emiya and Rin were head over heels for each other.

  Why did this have to be so complicated?

  But I also was aware Rin wanted to ask me a question that she was holding off until I was composed. I knew because of the look in her eyes now that she knew Archer was Emiya.

  She wanted to know why the pact had been formed with me. Servants weren't summoned at random, there was something that connected them to their Master. It had been Archer because of the pendent he still had from Rin, just like Emiya had gotten Saber because of her scabbard saving his life. We'd thought this entire time that Archer had crashed into our house because of the mess-up with me being over the circle as well, but know that we knew his true identity, we knew that wasn't the case.

  So nothing pointed to why the pact hadn't formed with Rin. Everything else screamed that Rin was supposed to be his Master due to their bond. And it wasn't like we could ask Archer himself....

  However, even if Rin asked me, I didn't have an answer. I didn't know why the pact had formed with me instead. Even knowing what I did now, I couldn't figure it out. Not a damn thing explained why I was chosen.

✧☾✧

  "Yumiko?" I barely looked over my shoulder to see Saber standing there. "Would you mind if I had a seat?" She questioned, and I waved my hand to the empty spot next to me "Thank you." She was graceful in sitting down.

  It was quiet for a moment, and I could feel the tension in the air. Just like Rin, Saber had questions. It looked like Saber was more willing to ask, though.

  "Not many Masters would mourn a Servant, especially not the way you are." She said softly. "I didn't take Archer to be one to form such a strong bond, either." I looked at her from the corner of my eye, and she noticed. "I'll get to the point, then. How did you come to be Archer's Master?"

  I sighed while looking back out over the yard.

  "I don't mean to be callous, but I can't find the connection between the two of you. Rin did the incantation, her pendant was the catalyst, and Archer is the Heroic Spirit of Emiya. Even though you both were over the circle, it still should have been Rin."

  Tapping my head, I then waved my hand to gesture that I know. I was well aware it should have been Rin. Saber didn't know sign language, though, so it was practically playing charades trying to communicate with her.