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Zelgadis expected to be flying to the ground, gently wafting under the power of his own Ray wing. Instead, he found himself caught in the gentle, but disturbingly unexpected grasp, of another power. He fought against it briefly, but quickly realized the struggle was not worth the effort. He was not really in danger, but he was subjected to forcest hat might make a less magic-knowledgeable person feel sick. As it was he felt as if he were being pulled in and outside of himself. Actually, that was a rather accurate description for someone caught in a dimensional roll.
The motion stopped leaving him standing on a jagged red rock, rather than the grassy mountain top he had expected. Beside him, collapsed on the ground, Kari lay in a graceful curve, her hands locked together as if she’d been casting some spell with everything she had.
He started to move away, but then Zelgadis expelled a short blast of breath instead of the curse really on his mind. Her interference had been irritating, but he realized he couldn’t just leave her like collapsed helplessly either. He didn’t know where he was, and chances were, she might.
The thought did not occur to him at first that they’d stepped through other dimensions until he saw a village unlike anything he’d ever seen before. Candy pink buildings, a few in soft cream, lined next to each other like tiny rows of teeth. He folded down his cowl in the face of the desert heat that beat down on him. Judging the sky, he noticed that it must be afternoon, not too far after the mid-day. He would need to either approach the little village he could see, or he would need to wait to night to determine where her spell had taken them.
He briefly considered leaving Kari there, but even as the thought crossed his mind he dismissed it. With an almost exaggerated carefulness he picked her up. She was a lot taller than Ameria, who he’d frequently enough had to bail out of situations, or even Lina. As a Chimera, he could access far greater than human strength, but she still seemed a bit heavy, and her height made carrying her under one arm impossible. He contemplated slinging her upside down over a shoulder, but then opted to just scoop her up in both arms as she was already curved that way. He slipped his head in between her locked hands, and resolutely started toward the little town.
As he got closer, he realized strange magic was at work in this dimension. Strange devices roared past him, at high speeds that usually only flight could attain, but as far as his eye could determine, these were traveling on the ground and wheels. Zelgadis, unlike most magic users, did not thumb his nose at science. Knowledge, to him, was knowledge. So he could appreciate watching the design of these devices as they traveled. At the same time, when he got closer to the small gray path they traveled, he realized their motion tended to cut him off from the dwellings or buildings he could see. The stream seemed rather unending, and crouched behind a strange green, spiky plant, he judged whether or not he could use his chimeric speed to dodge between them.
Just as he decided the timing, and he darted forward, his concentration tight, his mind controlling his every step, Kari awoke. Her soft hair slid with the slight movement of her head, falling out of the arrangement that bound it back. The problem was, as her hair slid, it threw off Zelgadis’ balance so completely that he could only blink as the grill of one of the devices began to slam into him.
A scream, from inside the vehicle pierced him as he saw it go careening off into the rocky, sandy ground that lined the road. Many of the other devices continued to hurry on their way, a few slowed down, and the others swerved around those that slowed to gawk.
Of course, none of them saw why the vehicle diverted its path so unnaturally, and luckily, none of them noticed the strange figure hovering above the road, because in this world, such things just did not happen. Deciding that air travel would be better, Zelgadis hovered faster to the small village.
“I’m sorry!” Kari said as they landed. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
Zelgadis released his hold, so that she swung to the ground. She blushed as she released her hands, and looked around. “Where are we?” She asked.
“Don’t you know? “ He asked a hair breath away from being annoyed.
“Oh...no...I...when you jumped, I forgot you could fly, and I just...I knew it was all my fault and I had to do something, and I just reached inside, and I cast a spell that I was not supposed to cast, and...”
“A dimensional roll?” He guessed.
She looked up. “Shhhhhh! Don’t even say it...it is the most forbidden magic!”
“The Elves used it to leave our world....”
“That was a dimensional fold. I didn’t have the power to do that.”
A thought crossed Zelgadis mind. “Where did you learn that spell?”
She backed away from him. “Why?”
“You know why.” He gestured at himself. “I’ve had enough of your help, but that doesn’t mean I want to stay like this. Magic is the only way I will return to normal.”
“I’m not sure even that could help.” She said sweetly. “But I learned it from an Elf Magic Master.”
“An Elf Magic Master?! But there aren’t any...they left--”
“Oh...they did. But I learned it before they left the dimension....we really shouldn’t be here, you know.” She looked around. “Who knows what this world is like? I’m sure they wouldn’t like us interfering anymore in their world than we would in ours.”
Zelgadis frowned. “I’m not going to interfere. I’m just going to explore. We’re already here.”
“Zelgadis!” She pleaded as he began to leap towards one of the dwellings.
A startled scream later, and Zelgadis came out of the building as fast as he could. His cloak appeared to be ripped, and he breathed hard. “THEY KNEW WHO I AM!!! LETS GET OUT OF HERE!!!”
A squeal of something that could have been a monster or a young girl emerged seconds before Kari could confirm it was the latter that made the sound. She seemed to hold something small in her hands, and as Kari and Zel flew up (Kari dangling from his arm, still facing the wrong direction looking down), the girl aimed the box and set forth a flash of light. Instinctively, Kari threw up a shield of cloud-mist, and a protective barrier to hide them.
Down on the ground, the small girl stamped her foot. “Now no one will believe meeeeeeeee!!!!!”
“What was that about!?” Kari asked as they landed back on the top of the rocks.
“OUR OWN DIMENSION...NOW!” He ordered.
Kari sighed. “Its very tiring to do that spell. I am not even sure I can right now.”
Zelgadis tightened his grip on her arm. “Do you mean we’re stuck here?”
She flushed and started babbling. “No...I can do the spell. Its easier than traveling through time in one dimension, which was the first thing I had to do for Ceipheed to prove I was worthy-- travel through time, so I can do that spell if someone’s willing to die, but full fledged dimension travel?! I just don’t know what can happen!” She said as she started moving her hands.
“So do it.”
“We might be thrown somewhere else! Zelgadis, you can’t even imagine what sort of place we could end up! Why I’ve heard stories that--”
He lifted her off the ground slightly, to stop her chatter. “Perhaps you can imagine what will happen if you don’t.” He said it gently, but firmly.
“I can’t guarantee we’ll return..but I will try..Moon, Wind, Hear me promise ... Star.... Shadow.....”
* * *
Lina blinked at Luna. “I...passed out.” Lina stated as she sat up in the bed, struggling for some way to maintain her dignity and face in front of her sibling.
Her sister smiled, a genuine smile, and straightened up. “You’re ok?”
“I....think so. I’ve been having the strangest dream, one-man.” The genuine concern in her sisters voice relaxed Lina more than a magical calming spell. All fear vanished, and suddenly, Luna was once again the one who had all the answers to her problems, if only she were asked. “I dreamed that--”
“Wasn’t a dream.” Luna yanked the soft comforting blanket away from Lina. “Get up already.”
“How do you know what I was dreaming!” Lina objected. “I dreamed that I was this great sorceress and that I...” reality caught up with her as Luna’s ring finger came into view. The band was still there, glowing as faintly as ever. “Oh.”
Luna nodded.
Lina gasped. “You’re married!?”
Luna shrugged, and turned so Lina couldn’t see her face. “I gotta go. Traded shifts to deal with that stuff. I’m on again.”
Without further explanation, Luna exited the room, tying her apron as she went, balancing the neatly folded blanket on the other hand.
Lina frowned, as she tugged down the remaining sheets on the bed. She’d just swung her legs to an inch above the floor, and prepared to slide down and stand up, when the door swung open.
“OH...Lina, you have some explaining to do!!!” Nahga exclaimed as she stood in the door.
Behind her, Ameria attempted to poke her head in and say hi. After getting her head stuck in Nahga’s cape, eliciting an annoyed push from Nahga, Ameria ended up poking her entire head underneath the bed. As she crawled out, she said, quite politely, “I hope you’re ok, Lina?” as if nothing were strange about her rump sticking up in the air while she backed out.
“How did you two get here?” Lina groaned, looking up at Nahga, then down at Ameria. Without waiting for the answers, Lina flopped onto the bed backwards, her arms flailing out with another groan. “Don’t I get even one day off!!”
The two looked at her, and sighed in unison and then sat down next to her.
“OH HO HO...you think you could hide from me!? I know you too well, Lina Inverse!” Nahga lectured.
“We were worried about you.” Ameria added, earning a scowl from Nahga.
“Worry, about Lina?!!” Nahga argued.
“Then it was FATE! Destiny--the calling of true friends who wouldn’t let someone suffer alone!”
Lina grabbed the pillow and tried to block them out. “No...now I’m suffering with you...” She muttered.
She sat up though, something occurring to her. “Ameria, what do you mean suffer.”
“Why...your failed marriage! A maiden’s most precious ceremony, and probably your only chance and it crumbled- ummmmp” Ameria said as Nahga cast some sort of spell that left her younger sister sucking on a squid.
“Its not polite to say it that way even if it is true!” Nahga said, as Lina‘s anger began to boil.
Nahga’s next words though, made it cool right down into a superembarrassed lump of frustration. “Besides...her only chance!? I think Lina’s got quite a few admirers now...”but only temporarily, as Lina’s anger flared right back up as Nahga added “even if she has no chest, charm or char--.”
As Nahga hit the wall, Ameria got the squid out of her mouth. “OOOH....nasty....” she spat a few times (as politely as possible) and then focused on Lina. “So what are you going to do about Xellos, Zelgadis and Gourry?”
Lina sighed. “Nothing.”
“Nothing?” Ameria asked wide eyed, as Lina took her cape from the chair her sister had folded it over. She began to neatly tuck her cape around her, as Ameria tugged on her arms. “But you have to do something---”
“I am. I’m going to--” Lina started. She meant to say she was going to ask her sister how she’d ended up married to Xellos. Or at least, she meant to ask Ameria and Nahga to leave so she could think. But it didn’t matter. She didn’t get the chance.
Nahga’s eyes lit up faster than the sword of light in battle. “Say, Lina ...I know what you should do...Treasure hunting! I have a map to a Roc’s cave..!” She launched into action before Ameria could finish her second round of protesting. Grabbing Lina’s arm, Nahga ran out at a very fast top rate of speed not caring that she dragged the two younger girls along like fish on a line. “Come on Lina...we have to get there before anyone else does!”
* * *
Gourry, wandered down into the village. His head still felt quite unscrewed from his body after the pounding he’d taken, but he knew that if he ate something he would feel better. Something like a hurricane went past him, and briefly, Lina crossed his mind. She also passed his field of vision, but Gourry was not intelligent enough to decode the speed blur of black, red and yellow as Nahga carrying Lina and Ameria. Slowly he made his way into the village tavern and sat down.
“Take your order?” The waitress said. She looked vaguely familiar. He smiled at her, because that was the polite thing to do, and not because she was a rather beautiful girl. He did notice that, but what he noticed more was that she looked a lot like Lina but with a better figure.
“Take your order...” She said a little less politely as he continued to stare, and predictably, like most men, was staring at that portion of her anatomy that her sister always envied.
He blushed, and asked for a menu.
She shook her head, and pointed to the board behind her.
“Um, that’ll do.” He said nodding.
If she blinked, he couldn’t tell because her bangs hid her face. She probably didn’t, because her response was “You eat like her too.”
“Like who?” He asked completely confused.
“Lina.” Luna said as she wandered into the kitchen to carry the order back to the chef.
Gourry was still puzzling how she knew that when Luna arrived with the food. Most people might wonder how a girl that looked so normal could carry a tray so laden with the food that it must weigh three times as her. Gourry was not most people.
Gourry didn’t even realize it was strange.
If he had, he might perhaps have made the connection to Lina again.
Or not. This is Gourry Gabriev, and there’s not much he doesn’t miss. That is, there are just so few things he can catch onto without Lina’s not so patient explanations.
“You gonna marry her?” Luna asked, in the same off hand bored tone a waitress might say “Do you want a refill” when your coffee cup is still full from the last one.
Gourry chewed through the piece of roast chicken, and paused before his next bite. Not eating with Lina, he could take a bit more time with his food--no one would snatch it from him. So he’d only finished most of the chicken and a third of the other dishes in the time it took Luna to ask her question. If Lina had been there, all the food would have been gone. Of course, if she’d been there--
“Do you need more time?” Luna prompted.
Gourry had a realization. A rare event, but it happens. “YOU’RE HER SISTER!!!!” He said excitedly.
Luna looked around, noted the emptiness of the room, and then took off her apron and sat down. “Yeah.”
“You’re not what I pictured.” He said. Then he resumed eating.
“Yeah. So?” Luna prompted as she poured herself a glass of water.
“You’re not scary at all...wow Lina made me think you were some kind of monster...and seeing how she’s so scary, well, I pictured...but I mean...wow....*you’re* her sister.” He repeated, in between bits of food.
She nodded calmly, and sipped her water.
“You look alike..but not that much...I mean you’ve got a much bigger...” He paused, narrowly averting his eyes from staring at her chest again. “Say, where is Lina?”
“With friends. I’ll take that as a yes.”
“To what?”
“Don’t worry about it, Brother.” She said standing up. “But upset her, and you’ll see why she says I’m scary...”She delivered that threat in the same offhand tone as she said” And here’s the check.”
Gourry blinked. He had the familiar feeling that he’d missed something. “Ano, Luna-sama, what are you talking about?”
Luna smiled a smile more intense than a cat licking cream. A smile that rivaled those of Xellos. “Nothing. Call me Luna-Onne-sama, okay? She’s at the Mountain...”
She turned and walked away with the empty trays of food.
By the time she came out with a damp rag to wipe the table down , the room was empty.
She paused by the window, looking out at the mountains rising up in the distance, a tiny fleck of gold and blue rapidly traveling up its surface. She smiled warmly at the sight until a cold breeze tickled her skin and she turned around fast. For a second the quiet in the restaurant grew thicker until she could feel it, as she stared at the intruder. The sound of water dripping from the rag she held broke the pause, her hand unclenching from the tortured piece of cloth, wrung dry of the small amount of moisture it had held seconds before.
“Xellos.” She said as she looked at the demon in front of her.
“AH!!! The sister of the incomparable Lina Inverse...” He said bowing politely. “I should not have underestimated you earlier..but I won’t again.”
“You always did...” She commented as she retied her apron. “Wasn’t the first time...and you said the same thing then too.”
A rare thing happened. Xellos had no response to that comment, no flip pithy observation, or even the amused smile, he bestowed so frequently on his victims, er, friends. Firia might have made him lose his cool with extreme irritation, Ameria might have made him giggle, Lina might have blown him away, but Luna stunned him completely.
“You knew me before?!” He asked, his eyes opening, as he became serious.
“You could say that.” She replied “Enough to marry you anyway. Shift’s over. Gotta get to my next job.” She said and walked out, without any visible effort, into a dimensional shift.
Xellos might have gone after her. He might have asked her to explain. As it was, he didn’t even have a chance to move. A trail of smoke flitted across his vision. Without turning, he knew what summoned him.
“I’m working on it.” He said calmly.
“Working is not results. I said I wanted results.” Her voice was not so calm. Threats danced in every word.
“I met someone from my past.” He said conversationally.
A soft sound of surprise sent another puff of smoke his way. “Indeed. Do you know who it was?” For the first time, he heard uncertainty in that iron voice.
“No.” He replied, being less than candid about what it was he did know.
“Good. You have no past. Except the pain of when you became what you are, and you will have no future except the pain of that experience ending if you do not hurry. They are nearing the cave where the Giga sleeps.”
“I know.” He said. He bowed without turning around. The beastmaster was already gone, but he knew that too.
The emotion he experienced confused him, tore him into momentary indecision. For a second, he looked down at his hand as a band appeared there, of trapezoids formed of a thin blue design. A trail of smoke appeared, around his finger, covering the band and he disappeared to the mountain, dismissing the memories that tickled at him.
* * *
“Wait...how is it that Luna and Xellos were married?” A young girl asks.
You frown, wondering how small children got into your tavern. A particularly sneaky set of boys are attempting to drain a mug of ale you’d sent to another customer. A quick sling on your part sends the ale mug down to a semi-conscious gawky man at the other end, leaving two mugs of water for the boys. The place, already full before is now packed with customers and others who usually walk by your tavern with their nose in the air.
Stories have a way of gathering listeners, you suppose and sigh. At least you’ve been doing a hefty business.
“Come on Old man, tell us...what’s the deal with Luna and Xellos?” A young man pleads as he tugs the old man’s sleeves.
“Oh that....” The old man coughs. “It gets the story out of sequence, because that happened about a thousand or so years before what I was telling you about. And its not really *part* of this story...at least, he didn’t tell me about that....I’m not sure She ever told him all of that anyway.....didn’t matter, when they got married again and all...besides, I’m telling you how Lina had a child. Don’t interrupt!” He growls. “I’m telling a story, I’m not testifying so don’t cross examine me..stop asking so many pesky questions.”
“Yes hush, children..SO..old man, In the story, what happened to Lina and Gourry....did he catch up to her!?” A woman gushes. “Did she realize she was meant to be with him!? So its his child!?”
“Him...NO WAY!” A portly woman with two kids under each arm explodes. “Lina doesn’t belong with that twit...NO...Zelgadis, the poor boy, that’s who she needs to be by her side! He’d make a fine father.”
“ICK...A Chimera! Ma, if I brought a monster like that home...you’d go fireball on me.” A teenage girl protests.
“You’re not bringing anyone home until you are 16!” A man said, who looked enough like the girl to be her father. She wasn’t a very attractive girl, as a result of the resemblance. As such, it was a good bet she wouldn’t be bringing anyone home with her even if she was past 16, unless she met someone far less shallow than the people in the village.
You sigh. You didn’t know you were running a family feed show here...so much for your nice quiet bar, a slow evening with the even slower citizens of the village.
“A pretty face will only break your heart. You need a man to take care of you.....believe me, your mother knows.” ‘Mother; the large woman, says. “A homely husband is a good husband.”
The girl makes a face like someone eating live worms, while “Father” suddenly becomes redder than the drunk at the end of the bar. “What was that Mylene?!” He shouts.
You turn back to the old man who is continuing the story despite your lack of attention. The conversation makes you think. Secretly, you’d been hoping Lina would be paired up with Xellos. But now he’s married to her sister...so such a pairing would be awkward in itself, not to mention anything else that would make a romance between the two an uneasy proposition. Still you’d always liked Xellos’s irreverent attitude toward life, and he was powerful enough to stand up to Lina. Gourry was such a pushover that he didn’t challenge Lina the way she craved to be challenged. At least, that’s how you saw it. Course, you could make a case for Zelgadis too. Only, in that case, the good would be the other direction. Zelgadis took himself too seriously, and swam so much in angst he could win the world record for it. Lina’s wackiness would pull him away from that. If anything, she could help him find a way to make him live with his condition, rather than view it as a problem in need of a cure.
Course, Ameria’s relentless upbeat perkiness could do that for Zelgadis if she were not so fanatically extreme about justice. But you dismiss her because she’s somehow too young to experience love, other than as a crush. Nahga on the other hand, seems too likely to fall in lust, which doesn’t last any longer than two weeks to three weeks. Kari...well, you can’t get a good feel about her. The others you’d heard about in stories before, but this girl, she was a new element that you couldn’t judge too well. So far it sounds as if she’s gotten attached to Zelgadis. He doesn’t seem to return the sentiment, any more than he had with Ameria.
* * *
Luna collapsed against the bed in the room she counted as hers. She pushed back her hair, and shut her eyes tight. As much use as magic was, there was no comfort it could give her in her current situation.
Legends were legends, and prophecies were prophecies, and words from Gods were not to be ignored--except when they were lies. She sighed as she looked at the tiny band on her hand. She missed him. Luna was a simple person, for all that she knew more magic than any other human in the world. She’d learned spells easily, the way some people remember recipes. And she was good at it. So good, that she’d never needed to cast something like the Giga Slave. She often wondered why the one who cast that spell turned out to be her sister?
Luna frowned as she turned over the small clues she’d gathered. The legend of the Giga child was old, it seemed to have lasted for centuries. Of course, when time travel is possible, what is genuinely old and what is not can be a tricky question. She knew, because she’d traveled to the past herself. And when she had, there hadn’t been this legend. So when did it develop, and more importantly, who manufactured it? Because although she wasn’t exactly on personal speaking terms with L-Sama, she knew a hoax when she saw it. The question was, why was someone making all this up? Why did someone want the Mazokou and the Dragons to focus on Lina, and to focus on courting her (of all things?).
At times like this, Luna wished she didn’t work alone so she could talk the situation over with someone. Kari, for all she meant well, was really the sort to get overly involved with whatever she did and mess it up. Ran in her family, Luna supposed, or at least, the human half of it. The Sneaky side probably had more sensible genes. Of course, Kari virtually never appeared in her serpent form, and actually seemed ashamed of being a hybrid creature rather than fully human.
So was someone playing with her younger sister? And for what purpose?
Far off, in another dimension, a group of strange lights and shadows blended. “So far she does not seem to have chosen a mate.” Voices, or rather tones, pure and full of harmony rang out.
“Stubborn humans...I told you this would not work.”
“I still think its wrong to use her like this. She saved our people on Mypross.” A higher pitched voice complained.
“And destroyed that Orihalcon-plated destruction weapon of ours. She really is remarkable.” A second voice observed.
A third voice asked. “Remarkable yes, but is she the one we want to use?”
“We must choose someone.” The first explained. “The alternative is unthinkable.”
“And let's face it, he’s entirely too stupid, but he is the only one left carrying our genes. He is our last link to our home dimension. Unless he passes that on, and to someone with more magical talent, we will never get out of this nonexistence we trapped ourselves in.”
“Bright idea prime, to move us to this dimension.” A chorus of voices grew angry and intense.
“Hey, the brochure made it look great!” Prime defends himself. “Besides, elves, he’s not our ONLY link...there's the Priestess! We will have bodies once again. And if we can get Lina’s magic-using genes, those bodies will be powerful enough to last. We just have to give her a little more time.”
“And the Mazokou?”
“They bought the story, and won’t harm her as long as they think the prophecy is true.”
“But what if she falls in love with that Mazokou?”
“And why did you tell the Mazokou this story as well as the Dragons?”
If a ball of light can laugh, then the shimmering waves were its laughter.
“Consider the Mazokou just a match to light the fire we want. When it's lit, he’ll disappear. He is a mere catalyst for the relationship we want.”
“But the Light Holder wasn’t jealous, or at least, he didn’t seem it...The stone one seemed more upset. And the Mazokou may not disappear so easily.”
“Oh really?” The light shimmered and became a puff of smoke. “I think he will disappear as easily as we want.”
The others seemed surprised. “How did you learn that Prime?”
A white light appeared, and rolled downwards becoming bigger. Prime shimmered and turned into a purple mist “Can thank our old friend Raudy for that one. It's the snow ball effect. One small event back in time changes many things...”
“But what did you do Prime!?” The others splintered into disco like lights, vibrating wildly.
Prime flashed in bright purple blasts, slowly. “Ah...That is a secret.”