A/N: Thank ya�ll for reading this rather odd story of mine. And yeah� just wait to see what Emiya turns into. Also, I�ve discovered Fable. It is LOVE. owo

Chapter Fifteen

�Bath.�

�Bedroom.�

�Cup.�

�Wall.�

�Staff.�

Merlin watched Emiya carefully as he pointed at random things and let Emiya name them. The boy was fast at learning sometimes rather difficult skills, but he didn�t give up when he hit an obstacle. He had a huge problem ahead of him, leaning a language other than his own native tongue to be able to deal with the rather short tempered queen he was going to be serving.

�Want to try the kitchen?� asked Merlin.

�Kitchen? Yes,� said Emiya, smiling faintly. �Like kitchen much, yes.�

�Do you? Were you serving as a cook in that old fart�s house?�

Emiya shook his head and rubbed his arm as he looked away. Merlin had seen the damage done to him already. He had scars on his arms and legs, on his back from whips and sticks. It was no wonder that the boy had killed the man. The man probably finally hit the point where the boy could no longer take it and initiated that strange hallucination that Arturia had described to him several weeks back. He would have to look into it, but he recalled it was called a reality marble, a sort of pocket reality made from the imagination of the user to mirror their heart.

�Then, why is it you like the kitchen so much?� asked Merlin.

Emiya stayed silent for a moment while Merlin waited patiently for the boy�s gathered reply. �Ore� ah� I�liked kitchen� since child. Oto� papa and mama always in kitchen. Mama� ah� make many things and� and have� me� help her many times.�

Merlin smiled faintly and ruffled his hair affectionately. �What sort of work have you done?�

Emiya flushed faintly and rubbed his arm again, looking away. �I.. do what master say� but.. never good enough. He� tell me� to.. to weed garden and I go. He tell me� to kill cows and I go. Every time� never good enough and hit� hit hard.� He seemed to perk up suddenly and smiled brightly at Merlin. �But Arturia give me place to stay. Merlin teach me things to say. I have things to do. I am happy.�

Merlin watched him and looked ahead. The boy was humble and wanted to do things only to make others happy. If he thought about it, Arthur Pendragon could have been reborn in this little farmboy from Japan. Yes, Merlin knew where the boy was from and had picked up a little from the very small Japanese community in Hogsmeade. The people had apparently arrived through some form of time rip and had formed a community inside Hogsmeade where they could live peacefully enough. One was a girl and she lived with a rather calculating man resembling an Asian, bespeckled version of Headmaster Riddle and another, who was a twin to another fellow and they both ran a dress shop. Another pair married another young woman, who, as Merlin remembered, was the daughter of his history teacher and they ran a martial arts institute. He couldn�t remember the other fellow, but he did recall he had married one of Headmaster Riddle�s daughters and was very hyper and full of himself. All three had come and brought their language with them and Merlin had learned a few things from them while he was there as a student.

As he thought about the possibility of the boy being Arthur, both for his humble nature and his hardworking attitude, he also knew that he was wrong, for Arturia had been born from a woman named Igrane and her father was Uther Pendragon. The sword responded to her heart and Avalon with it. She was the right person he was looking for, though he felt he might have preferred Emiya to Arturia.

The kitchen wasn�t as busy as usual, the cooks taking a break. Emiya went over to the big stove and poked at it curiously. �What is it?�

�It�s a stove,� said Merlin.

Emiya blinked and looked around. �Ss-toh-vuh?�

Merlin nodded. �You cook with it, bake meals like fish and chicken.�

Emiya nodded and eyed it. �Understand.�

Merlin smiled and nodded, going around and helping Emiya learn the names of things. The cook came in and he asked if he could help her. She allowed him to help and Merlin watched with a certain amount of joy as he watched the boy cook beside the cook, chopping vegitables almost blindingly fast with so much ease. The cook watched him in awe. �How do you do that! It�s like magic!�

Emiya blinked and processed the information a moment. �Ah.. mama taught me.� He smiled sheepishly and began cutting again swiftly.

�One would think you could fight devils with those hands!� gasped the cook.

Emiya�s face turned white as he stared at the lettuce in front of him. Merlin frowned as he watched him. The boy could create that reality marble, which was an extension of imaging sorcery, a form of alchemy; therefore, he could create what he needed with his own hands and use it how he wanted. When the cook walked off for a moment, Merlin moved closer to Emiya. �You make weapons with those hands?�

Emiya nodded. �Blades� blades against things that I don�t like. Blades that kill.�

Merlin watched the young man a moment more before walking out. Emiya watched him go and his face fell even more. The older man was going to not like him now that he knew he was born to kill.

Arturia came in and Emiya�s attention jerked up to her. �Ah� Arturia?�

Arturia blinked and nodded. �Yes. Queen, if you will or your highness.�

Emiya blinked. �Arturia-o?�

Arturia glared faintly at Emiya. �Your highness or queen Arturia, Emiya.�

Emiya blushed faintly and nodded. �Y.. your highness.�

�Good. Now that you have learned that much, I wish to train you in how to use those blades you create. Merlin has informed me that my assumption was correct, that you can easily defend if you should have to,� she said.

Emiya blinked a moment. Merlin had told her that he was a defender? Emiya straightened a bit more and smiled faintly, bowing to her. �I will.. do what every Queen Arturia.. has me do.�

Arturia nodded. �Good. Do you pledge yourself to me?�

Emiya look up and saw her hand extended a seal ring on her finger. �Kiss the seal so I will know that you pledge yourself to whatever purpose I use you for.�

Emiya once more stared up at her and then the seal. He then too her hand and kissed the seal ring. His cheeks burned hotly as he moved his lips away from her hand, though his hand lingered on hers. It was so much smaller than his and wasn�t soft, but calloused by sword practice and battles. �I� will do whatever Arturia asks.�

Arturia gazed at him and nodded. �Then, follow me and I shall personally train you.� She took his hand and pulled him along swiftly. They went out the main doors and to the training grounds which was brown where the snow had been kicked off of the ground. She picked up a practice sword and looked to him. �I will teach you sword play and the art of killing. I will use you to whatever end this creates, though with your ability to make blades without needing them on you would make you a perfect assassin. I may have need of such a thing in the future.�

Emiya took it all in and tried to process it. �Assashin?�

�An assassin. A person who kills without a word and does so even when the man�s back is turned to him. You will kill those who I command you to kill and you will learn the ways of staying silent and hiding as well so you might live longer,� said Arturia. �There are always people out there who might target me, and I will need use of such a person in my ranks that I can rely upon to do whatever I need done. Do you swear to do this?�

Emiya didn�t like killing. It made his body numb and his heart pound in an unpleasant fashion. However, Arturia made his heart pound in a pleasant fashion and made his body hot and strange. He knew he wanted to bed her, but doing so was impossible, for she was a queen and he had become her servant. He nodded to her and set himself ready to do whatever she asked of him. He only hoped that she would not force him to kill those who did not deserve it, that she was as he felt she was, a just queen despite her chilly nature.

Arturia saw his acknowledgement and nodded to him. �Then, we will begin. First, make your blades.�

Emiya looked down at his hands. He had never consciously made the blades before, but made them come to him when he needed. He closed his eyes and thought about wanting to kill that man who beat him. He had needed blades then that would hurt him, blades that were strong and would not break easily, for the man could fight and had strong weapons himself. Two curved blades came from Emiya�s hands, both forming from a green grid like pattern and fleshing out into one silvery blade and one black blade.

Arturia eyed them. �Very nice. Do you name them? Blades sometimes need names, you know.�

Emiya thought about it. �Kansho� and Bakuya. From an old legend.�

Arturia nodded. �Good. Remember them, for it might make it easier for you later to call them forth. Such as my Excalibur. Should I not have it with me, I can call it and it will come to me.�

Emiya nodded and gripped the blades in his hands. Arturia held up the practice sword with one hand, as though it weighed nothing. Emiya watched her a moment. When she nodded to him, practice began.

She took the message from the messenger and broke the seal on it. It was an invitation to Ulster to witness the christening of Conochbar�s heir. Really, it was an excuse to throw a party and little else, but Arturia didn�t mind. She was growing a little tired from both dealing with Camelot and the training of Emiya. In the months he had stayed at Camelot, he had grown a little. His body was stronger looking and his weight had come back a bit, filling out the skinny frame he had when he had arrived. Arturia wondered if she should leave him alone there or take him with her to Camelot, but decided the former was a better idea and set off to make arrangements for a small group of men to follow her to Ulster and for Bedivere to serve as steward alongside Merlin while she was away.

She gave the messenger a reply to Conochbar and then set off to arrange the many things she must do in order for her to leave Camelot safe while she was gone. As she left to attend to these matters, she began to wonder if the man Cuchulainn would be there. She wondered if he might be married to that woman he had wanted or be free still. She also wanted to know what the man looked like, for she was still confused as to why they referred to him as though he were just becoming a man instead of the man she had met before on the battlefield, who was a few decades older than that.

Emiya listened in on Arturia�s conversation with Bedivere and Merlin, frowning deeply. If he was to be her personal assassin and servant, shouldn�t he be with her? Emiya blushed faintly and looked down. Of course she wouldn�t need him, for she was far more capable than he in fighting, though he did finally manage to get past her defenses. He had taken up archery as well, in order to be able to take out a target from afar and thus keep himself safer should he have to kill someone. He had successfully learned how to create a bow and started improvising on different types of swords to use with it as she taught him the art of archery.

When she walked away from Bedivere, Emiya saw the look on Arturia�s face as she looked at the note once more. Her face was aglow with something he could not name. Delight, perhaps? Who was going to be there that she wanted to see so much? Who was going to be there that made her cheeks flush and her gaze wander? It made Emiya�s heart sink to think she wanted a man other than him, but knew deep down she didn�t want him in the first place. To her, he was a boy, not a man. He was a child to her and she was raising him to be form fitted into something she needed, not something she felt he would be excellent in.

As she passed by the place where he was hiding, she stopped and put the letter away in her bodice. �I wonder,� she muttered, �I wonder if he is married now.�

So it was a man! Jealousy flared to life inside Emiya�s heart. What man could she possibly want?! Emiya calmed himself and rubbed his face. She walked away as he moved deeper into the shadows. He would be her eyes. He would be her eyes, her ears and her hands. He would do whatever she wanted, be it kill someone or save someone. If she would look at him, acknowledge him, he was happy. If she would look at him and bid him to do something, he was happy. He was her tool, so he felt he might as well enjoy that role to its fullest. Being her tool would give him the advantage of living in her room, being close at hand for when he was needed. Protecting her when she couldn�t protect herself. She may have been the sword, but what was a sword without a scabbard to carry it and keep it safe?