Short. Not very good, but it is readable. The idea got stuck in my head somehow and I couldn't get rid of it. Not a nice story.
I don't own Slayers.
True Desire
"Well?"
"Alive."
"Why?"
"Joy. Bliss. Release."
"What of hurt? anger? loss? resentment?"
"None."
"Go. Find out why."
"Hai, Juuou-sama."
-
Xellos appeared inside Filia's kitchen. Only this time, Filia made no response. He slowly knelt down beside the crumpled form the ex-priestess, checking to be sure her wounds weren't fatal. Satisfied, he picked her up set her down in her bed. Carefully brushing her hair out of her face with his gloved hands he asked the questions he needed answers to, "Why Filia? Why do you desire death? Have you always desired it? Is that why you continue to try and anger me? Knowing what I could do?" Sighing Xellos stood up and left, he had answers to find.
Xellos searched the ruins of the Fire Dragon King's temple. He asked the remaining dragons of the other dragon gods, black and gold. He asked lake dragons. He even went so far as to ask the reborn Valgaav, who was now exploring the world. In the end, he basacily knew how her life would have gone. He made up a report for Zelas.
-
Zelas raised a brow at her general-priest's request, report in hand, "You want to grant Filia her true desire?"
Xellosshifted nervously, "Hai, Juuou-sama, I do."
"Then go. Find a way to give it to her."
"Arigetto, Juuou-sama." The he was gone. Zelas looked down at the report in her hand and began to read:
The facts of Filia Ul Copt
Filia was born to a priest of the Fire Dragon King and an acolyte of the Air Dragon King. Her parents were fatally wounded in the War of the Monster's Fall and the recently hatched Filia watched them die. Orphaned, she was passed from relative to relative.
After the war Filia was turned over to the Temple of the Fire Dragon King to be trained as priestess. Scorned for who she was, she grew up and learned alone. Widely independent and rebellious from her time being raised unwilling by her relatives, she was often punished. Punishments ranged from being confined to her room for a day to long and painful beatings at the temple. The most common punishments for Filia were being confined to a darkend room without food and water for three days and a painful beating that lasted anywhere between 15 lashes to however much damage they could inflict upon her body in the space of an hour without killing her. She never received healings afterward like the others who received such punishment.
By the time she was sent out to find Luna Inverse, Knight of Cefied, she was blindly obedient. She had lost her sense of self, and while her elders believed her spirit beaten out of her it was still there and strong, locked deep within.
Abdicating her title as priestess came as a surprise to her elders. However, it revealed a little of her true self. Raising Valgaav was a matter of guilt and true self. Deep down she had always known the truth about her race but had had it beaten out of her too many times to be able to call that knowledge to the surface.
She desires freedom. And she knows the only she can truly gain it after everything that was beaten into her is death. The reason she has always pushed and attacked me with her mace was the hope I would finally have enough and kill her. She needs freedom, and so desires death.
Zelas finished and sighed slightly, "I wonder..."
-
Filia woke up, filled with pain. Xellos was there, watching him. "H-how?" Her voice wouldn't work.
Xellos opened his eyes and gazed at her, "Are you sure?"
Suddenly, looking into those amethyst eyes, she understood. "Yes."
Slowly, he reached his gloved hand behind her neck...
-
Years later a shadowy figure could be seen standing alone in an abandoned graveyard, staring forlornly at a single grave. After the person had left, you would be able to go up to the grave and read the name that was carved there, as well as the two scratched benigth by another:
Filia Ul Copt
Finally Free