End of an Era, Part 1

Lina felt guilt. It definitely wasn't over the man laying in pieces before her. After all, he was the trigger for everything.

Lina was not sure what his motivations had been, if he had simply been paid, or perhaps was an innkeeper or merchant whose property she had destroyed on the course of her adventures. She sure as hell couldn't remember ever meeting him previously. She would never forget him now, though.

Whatever his motivations had been, he had taken it upon himself to assassinate the sorcery genius Lina Inverse. He obviously knew something about her, choosing not open combat but to attack where she was truly weak—her stomach. The poison was a very nasty one, and if Lina had had even the slightest clue about it's presence there would have been no way that in a moment of fondness and generosity she would have given that innocent looking piece of meat to Gourry.

He began showing symptoms by the end of the meal. By the end of the day, it was evident that he would not recover. There was no magic cure or worldly antidote that could contain the venomous spread. No remedy could even effectively ease his suffering. And suffer he did as the poison worked it's way through his well-toned swordsman's body. The muscles that kept him alive and fighting in battle now kept him alive and in agony, slowing a poison that could not be stopped.

The shrine maiden and doctor who attended to him only told Lina about his inescapable, grim prognosis, but despite the attempt at secrecy, it was obvious that Gourry knew it too. Seeing no way she could halt the poison or even numb the pain, Lina tried to hide from feelings of uselessness by avenging Gourry. The man who poisoned her companion was just as helpless as Gourry was from the poison, he was unable to stand against an outraged master sorceress.

But just as the medicines failed Gourry, killing the man brought Lina not even the slightest ghost of relief. All that she was left with was guilt. Irrational guilt because she indirectly had been the one who trapped Gourry in such a fate, and the all too rational guilt of selfishly allowing cowardice to pull her from his side.

She didn't want to look at the shell of what her pillar, her rock, her dearest friend had been. She didn't want to helplessly watch from the sidelines as he wasted away. But most of all, she didn't want to face that her future would most definitely be without him. Lina Inverse was no coward, but the cold reality that Gourry was on the verge of being forever rendered out of her grasp gave her a fearful chill worse then any of the seemingly hopeless battles of her past had ever come close to giving her.

Gourry did not have much time left. Lina idly considered the possibility that he had passed on while she was out avenging him. In many ways, that would be easier for her, but would she be able to live with herself knowing that she had denied both of them the closure of their precious few last moments in the same world? No, it would be too cruel, too much guilt for a person to carry.

She rushed back to the temple that he lay dying in, dreading that she would only find a vacant room being cleaned in preparation for it's next unlucky inhabitant.

The moment she opened the room's door she knew he still lived. His breathing, forced and irregular, was amplified in volume by her mind. The moment she entered, he smiled a weak but genuine smile and rasped out one word, her name. Lina was amazed at how quickly he identified her with such glassy eyes.

Lina sat next to his bed and looked at him. His hair was dulled and plastered to his face with sweat, looking just as lifeless as the rest of him. His skin was too pale and looked as though it had been stretched into a too taunt state over his bones. She wondered if the slight green tinge was from the lighting, her imagination, or really there. And last were his white lips tugged into that painful looking smile.

Lina's own smile in reply was forced. She spoke in quiet tones. "Its handled, Gourry. I found the guy and made him pay. He'll never be able to do anything again, I made sure of that. So now, all we need to do is get you better. I've been thinking about where we should go to next." Lina watched his eyes come in and out of focus, straining to stay trained on her face.

"Lina," he wracked out. She was about to tell him not to speak, to conserve his strength, but he slightly moved a hand in an attempt at a gesture for her to let him continue. And continue he did, laboriously. "I always fall asleep when you talk about serious stuff. Please don't be mad... if I fall asleep again."

Lina softened her voice further. "Of course I won't be mad at you, you big silly idiot. Feel free to fall asleep now, I'll make you make it up to me later."

But it was too late. He already had.