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Being dead was easier.
This wasn’t the first time that thought had crossed Robin Hood’s mind. If he was honest with himself, it appeared with increasing regularity. On its own the idea was mostly harmless, although it raised a significantly more daunting follow up question:
Were Servants even alive in the first place?
Recent developments had given him plenty of time to reflect on that question. All were wasted minutes that only opened doors to deeper confusion.
He was a Servant and didn’t that technically make him a ghost?
Back when he was for-real-alive, didn’t he treat ghosts he met with the same level of respect as the fairies?
If fairies were alive — which they definitely were and he wouldn’t dare claim otherwise least one be listening to his thoughts right now — then did that mean ghosts were living creatures to some confusing degree of being alive?
This made his Servant form alive, except he clearly remembered being cut down by that strange teenager NPC and the Saber clad in red and gold. So, was he technically dead but somehow alive at the same time?
If he died in battle but returned back to the living through unknown means, where did his Master go?
If his Master was back as a ghost, was their contract still valid in the same way that fairy contracts were immortal?
When the mental loops reached that point, Robin would realize he was wandering through a mental labyrinth so deep enough that no sunlight had ever spilled on the stone floors. He couldn’t name the imaginary plants growing on the walls, let alone use them to guide himself back home, wherever that was now.
Home stopped being Sherwood Forest a long time ago.
The forest at the bottom of the Moon Cell was like no forest he knew. The sky rippled with directionless wind while streams sparkled with starlight. The trees still grew the right way, their leaves reaching up towards the sun. He still questioned the places he couldn't see; maybe the trees wrote hidden poetry with their roots underground.
He leaned back on the knobby branch of a particularly old oak and tapped a crossbow bolt against his fingers. Plants growing poems was an overly romantic thought for a bandit on patrol. He was supposed to be watching for “Disturbances”— monsters by any other name but Disturbances was what his companion called them— not daydreaming about silly impossibilities.
Servants, alive or dead or whatever they were, shouldn’t be dreaming at all.
A gloomy figure passed under the branch. He was dressed in a jacket too heavy for the woods and armed with a sword too long for traditional game. Stones and gravel crunched under his feet as he kept away from any plants, not considering which ones would happily spring back after being stepped on.
As ridiculous as he looked, the hiker was a familiar face: Charles-Henri Sanson. Assassin, truthfully, although Robin couldn’t recall seeing him with a Master. Rogue Servants on the Moon Cell weren’t impossible, but something in Robin’s gut told him they were highly improbable.
No greetings were exchanged. Sanson probably didn’t even notice him yet; despite being an Assassin, Robin’s natural talent with stealth outclassed Sanson’s Presence Concealment. Robin twirled the bolt through his fingers. A good bandit couldn’t say no to an opportunity handed so clearly by fate.
With the flick of a finger, he popped the point off of the arrow’s shaft and let it fall to the ground below. It landed at the other man’s feet. The miss was intentional.
“Robin!”
It delighted Robin that his name came out before Sanson looked up. The man’s expression was more annoyed than scared, his eyes narrowed and his lips in a stern frown.
Not that Robin could recall ever seeing Sanson scared. There had been moments over the last few weeks when even Robin would admit to feeling shaken, like when the unexplainable creatures— the “Disturbances”— bubbled up from the waters of the Moon Cell. The Assassin always stared them down unflinchingly when Robin lacked the word to describe them.
Robin saluted Sanson with the rest of the arrow. “I’m here to report that I haven’t seen anything out of the ordinary, my good Mister Monsieur Sanson, Professor of Assassination, Sir!”
“Why are you alw…” He trailed off, shook his head, then started anew. “We need to talk.”
Sanson’s voice sounded more tired than usual. That was a new development. He didn’t appear to be injured in any way, nor actually out of breath. He was still the same Sanson that Robin had known for the past few weeks, the weariness aside.
“Is this about your wacky monster frie…” Robin stopped himself much in the same way Sanson just had. The Disturbances weren’t the other man’s friends. They were his prey, if one was to be honest about it and ignore that his gear was really poorly suited to hunting. Sanson spent hours tracking and setting traps for them.
Their skills and knowledge were uncomfortably similar. Sure, Sanson usually didn’t immediately know the right trap for each Disturbance, but he wasn’t stupid when it came to basic outdoorsmanship. He even reminded Robin of his old Master at first, although it became clear quickly that Sanson was more acquainted with forests and technology closer to the ones Robin had known in life.
A kindred outdoorsman was an intriguing thought. Robin wanted to know more.
”It is about them. I’ve come to the conclusion that this location might be secure and staying here longer is wasting time,” Sanson said, the tired tone shifting more solemn.
That wasn’t the answer Robin was expecting. He was at a loss for words. “What’d you mean!?”
If Sanson left, there was no way to learn more about the strange Assassin who used fancy words yet wanted to know the names of all the trees. Robin expected to run out of time during a Grail War, not running patrols.
“We haven’t encountered a Disturbance in several. Given my past experiences, the breach in Moon Cell might be sealed.” Sanson paused, as if to collect his thoughts. “I don’t know what your Master shared with you, but there’s worlds beyond this one. I’m not referring to the Earth on the other side of the Moon Cell, either. There’s places with dark towers on the waterfall edge of known existence. Abandoned ruins of cities that have never seen a living human. Libraries larger than your imagination, both in the number of books and the physical size of them. Disturbances can lurk anywhere.”
This strange answer still explained nothing. Robin’s heart pounded faster. ”What happens to me after you leave?”
“I won’t leave you.” Sanson lifted a hand up to Robin. A small smile crossed his face. “You’re coming with me.”