The bars of sunlight in the Great Hall lengthened, but Jekyll's careful circuit of one of them as he paced never once passed through the sunshine, although he hardly seemed aware of his surroundings. He muttered to himself, one hand to his temple: denials, refusals and pleas for patience that never seemed to bring him away from the brink of madness.

With great effort, he seemed to be keeping his darker half suppressed in the wake of Lady Serendipity's disappearance. But Diarmuid, watching him, wondered what that actually meant when suppression rendered Jekyll nonfunctional.

Tora came up the stairs and offered Diarmuid a flatbread full of sliced meat, carrying a half-eaten one of her own. "How's he doing?"

"Thank you," said Diarmuid, accepting the snack. With Serendipity gone, it was more important than ever to eat regularly. Until she returned, the Servants would mostly be operating at near-mortal levels. "I don't think he's making very much progress beating back his beast."

With a sidelong look at Jekyll, Tora shrugged. She hadn't liked it very much when Jekyll had frightened Lady Ritsu by roaring at her to get away that morning. They'd tried to keep the children away from Jekyll, at his own desperate request, but Ritsu was hard to refuse. With Serendipity gone, she was the closest thing they had to a Master, even if she was far too young to be any kind of a commander.

"Maybe we should do more than watch. I don't like that we haven't heard from Lady Ren yet," she finally said. "We need to be looking for her, and he's making that a lot harder."

Diarmuid shifted uncomfortably, and then finished his flatbread rather than responding. Cú Chulainn had told him to stay at the castle while the Lancer dealt with Serendipity's disappearance, and the Archer Gil had also suggested they ought to wait until—

Merlin materialized next to Diarmuid. "My my my," he said vaguely and a little too loudly.

After that, without even glancing around, he strode over to Jekyll, grabbed him by the arm, and yanked out a few strands of the Assassin's blond hair. Lilac light pulsed around them and there was a flurry of movement too fast to track. Then Jekyll sprang away from Merlin, landing in a feral crouch.

Merlin, a pearly sheen outlining his form, was unmoved by whatever had occurred. He held out his palm toward Jekyll, with a handful of tiny things glinting in his palm, and said, his voice serene, "Finders keepers, Hyde?"

Diarmuid blinked, looking more closely at the crouched form. His eyes seemed green from where Diarmuid stood, and his build remained slight, but the body language was definitely not the doctor's usual, even over the past two days. Perhaps it was some sort of inbetween state.

Slowly Jekyll (or possibly Hyde) stood up, tugging off one of his gloves. Then he moved close enough to snatch the rings from Merlin's palm. As he placed one over each finger, he said, "You can bet if I find her, I'm keeping her, Petals."

Merlin smiled, a broad, strange expression in the situation. "Just what I wanted to hear." He whirled away, looking toward Diarmuid and Tora, and murmured, "Let me just catch up."

His gaze went distant for a long moment. While he was distracted, Hyde circled him, watching him like a cat stalking a bird. It made Diarmuid uncomfortable enough that he started forward to wrangle the Berserker.

Then Hyde held up a hand toward Diarmuid and said, in a voice eerily like Jekyll's, "No, no, I'm fine. Just stretching my legs. I've been so busy after all, sitting here doing nothing while Master is gone, stolen by somebody and nobody is finding her—" He coughed. "I'm fine. Stretching my legs. What are you doing, Petals?" Suddenly he was spinning a knife in one hand.

Merlin's eyes widened although he remained distracted. A black expression passed over his face. Then he shook his head and smiled as his focus returned. "How very obscene. There's a hole in what I can see," he said softly. "Ah, Gilgamesh, Jack, just the two I wanted to see."

Diarmuid glanced at the door, where Gil stood, smiling faintly as he held Jack's hand. Jack clung to his hand with both of hers, her eyes red and her posture that of an animal on the verge of fleeing. The Archer had spent a great deal of time over the past two days keeping Jack from running off into the forest to track down her 'mommy.' If Serendipity hadn't given Jack standing orders to protect Ritsu, Diarmuid doubted Gil would have managed even that much.

"What do you know?" asked Merlin quietly.

Jack narrowed her eyes at him. "Mommy's gone."

Placing a hand on Jack's head comfortingly, Gil said, "Some mongrels have the most unpleasant little talents." He bared his teeth in what might have been a smile. "I can only wonder what else we're not seeing."

"It does have shades of a trap," said Merlin, as if agreeing with Gil. "Very well. Diarmuid, where's Cú? I expected him to be in charge here."

Diarmuid dragged his gaze away from Hyde and his knife. "The Child of Light went to find Lady Serendipity. He hasn't returned since then."

Merlin's gentle smile twitched. "Did he have any leads? And while I'm asking questions, is there a reason you informed me by letter?"

"Be reasonable, Merlin," said Gil, before Diarmuid could answer. "Who would have gone to fetch you? We were all busy here. She's not dead, and she's not calling for us."

"That we know of," said Merlin shortly. "But I agree that she's not dead." He glanced at Hyde, who smiled at him nastily, and then at Diarmuid. "Very well, Diarmuid, what would you have me do?"

Diarmuid narrowed his eyes. He was the newest Servant, the least close to Lady Serendipity, and definitely the least wise. Well, except for Jack, who would never command anything, and Hyde, who he wouldn't trust with a shovel, let alone those knives. But surely Tora, at least—?

He glanced at the human woman and noticed how her own eyes were red and tired, and how she looked down at the ground rather than at anybody in particular. Although she wasn't close to Serendipity like Jack and Hyde were, she'd revealed to Diarmuid just how much she'd drawn on Serendipity as a source of hope for the future.

Suddenly he understood why Merlin wanted him to make decisions. It was because he was the least close to their summoner. He liked her well enough, and he understood her goals and agenda, but the emotional impact of her disappearance had been curiosity and worry rather than panic. He could still pursue her plans, even if he never saw her again.

On the other hand, although it may not have started that way, Hyde, Merlin and even Cú all served the woman, not her cause. And, in serving the woman, they might sacrifice her interests. But still… "Can you find our Master? Without her for magical energy replenishment, we're far more limited in accomplishing her aims."

The smile that curved Merlin's mouth made Diarmuid uneasy, as if he'd walked into a trap. "Yes, I'll work on that. Perhaps an acquaintance of mine will be able to help as well." He tapped his staff on the flagstones. "Avenger! Come forth."

A dry voice from the shadows near the ceiling corner nearest Diarmuid said, "I'm here, magus." He stepped back, looking up warily as a Servant formed from the darkness and descended to the floor. He wore a black cloak and a black hat, and radiated such a violent aura that Diarmuid found himself instinctively glancing at Hyde to compare them.

Hyde's eyes were fully red and he stared at Avenger like it was hate at first sight, twisting his knife around his hand even faster. Softly, as if to himself, he said, "What're you doing, Petals? What are you playing at? We don't want him, no we don't. He's bad news."

Avenger, meanwhile, ignored Hyde completely. Flatly he said, "I can't tell you more than you can already see about the girl's disappearance, but I've been investigating some other interesting details. If I find her along the way, I'll do something about it."

"How is he still here, Petals?" demanded Hyde, more loudly, his voice a rasp instead of Jekyll's modulated cadences.

Merlin gave Hyde a gentle smile. "It seemed like a shame to let him fade away before he could be useful, so I've helped him remain, yes."

Hyde paced toward Avenger. "I don't like it. He's not our Master's Servant. If he finds her, he could do all sorts of things to her." His gaze went distant and he paused midstep, as if considering the vast list. "All sorts of bad things… and fun things… and…" His gaze snapped back to Avenger. "I don't like it."

The Avenger worked on lighting a cigarette, without acknowledging Hyde in the slightest, which Diarmuid considered foolhardy in the extreme. No matter how powerful Avenger was—and Diarmuid knew from basic Grail knowledge that Avengers were never weak—it was never wise to ignore a pissed off Berserker, especially one who had at least partially defeated an enraged Cú Chulainn.

Then Avenger said, without looking up from his cigarette, "Call off your dog, Merlin, or else all the trouble you went to in unleashing him will be wasted."

Merlin said, "You might be—" and Hyde jumped toward the Avenger. Avenger moved at almost the exact same instant, flickering to the other side of the Great Hall. "—be surprised," finished Merlin. "Hyde, weren't you going to go find Serendipity?"

Avenger relit his cigarette while Hyde frowned. When he spoke it was in the Jekyll-like voice once more. "I'll get around to it. But some of us have to be careful with our magical energy." The smile that cracked across his face was chilling. "There's only so many ways we can get it back."

Gil said brightly, "That reminds me, I'm supposed to be babysitting. Come on, Jack! I'm sure Merlin will find Ren for us!"

"Are you?" muttered Merlin, in a voice Diarmuid wasn't meant to overhear. Then, more loudly, he said, "Avenger and I will get to work, too. If I don't find her sooner, I'll check in after a couple days, Diarmuid. But I'm sure you'll be just fine managing this crew. Heheh. Better you than me!" He bowed and dematerialized. Avenger left at the same time, the same way he arrived.

Diarmuid realized they were back in the same situation they'd been in before: a holding pattern, fortifying a castle and supervising a psychopath while waiting for those with more initiative to return from having all the fun. "Next time Merlin comes back, I think it's my turn to go out looking for trouble."

"Go now," suggested Hyde, grinning nastily. "I'm sure everything will be just fine here without you."

Tora finally dragged her gaze up from the floor, her eyes glinting gold. "The promise to nail your hands to the floor still stands, Berserker."

"You," said Hyde, scowling. "Why are you still here? God, you were annoying last time."

"The real question is why are you still here?"

"'Cause Petals doesn't want me to be," said Hyde. He threw himself into one of the dining chairs and started to clean his nails. "So I'll stick around here until I figure out where she is." He smiled at his knife. "Or until I get bored."

"No bloodshed of humans," said Tora insistently, and her voice was a strange mix of regal command and worried village defender.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," said Hyde dismissively. "Sure, whatever."

Diarmuid recalled that Tora had a mostly domant demi-Servant bound to her. He'd almost forgotten about that because as competent as she was, Tora still fell directly into the category of 'people to be protected' for him. But if even a hint of her presence could keep Hyde under control, Diarmuid was really looking forward to meeting her. Maybe she'd spar with him.

But that didn't seem likely to happen now. Sighing at the burden of responsibility, Diarmuid said, "If you'll keep an eye on him, I'll get back to the fortifications."

Tora nodded absently, her gaze fixed on a Berserker determinedly ignoring her, so Diarmuid went back to work.