AN: I do not own The Slayers, I just play in the sandbox.
The branches of the juniper tree hit him reprovingly as he walked through the narrowing path. Gourry took each blow stoically. He deserved the pain. There was no use debating it. He was in the wrong, and it seemed as if even the woods knew it and was punishing him for it. Chasing the village lunatic and encouraging her delusions was the last thing he should be doing. But still, every evening he abandoned his wife and chased her down to join her in her world.
But tonight Gourry felt unusually desperate to see her. He had heard some horrible rumors from his customers. Rumors that her sister had found someone to marry her off to. Rumors that her sister was keeping her under lock and key until the wedding tomorrow. Gourry knew better than to ask her fearsome sister to see her. He knew exactly what the answer would be. But the thought that Lina would be gone without him even having the chance to say good bye was too crushing.
The blacksmith took a deep, steadying breath as his emotions threatened to consume him. He just didn't know what he would do if he didn't have to look forward to seeing her and being embroiled in her fantastic adventures every evening. It was the only thing that made his life tolerable. He simply couldn't imagine life without her.
But then he heard her voice yelling from up ahead, "Say things like that and I'll see that you regret it!"
Gourry smiled in relief even as his palms became sweaty. Lina had gotten away. Or better, the rumors were completely wrong, and she wasn't getting married and hadn't been locked up in the first place. He could see her, even if it was for this one last time. He walked in the direction of her voice and soon found her staring down a rock formation. "Need a hand?" he asked.
She turned and saw him, "Where have you been?" she cried, her hands held in front of her, caught midway in the strange dance she did when she claimed to be spell casting.
"Got held up." He said. He'd learned to be sparse on details until she gave him enough information to figure out which of the monsters she was currently fighting.
"That's no excuse!" she said as she rounded on him, hands on her hips, "You knew we were heading to Mane and…"
"Oh, was that where we were headed?" he asked as he scratched his head. "I forgot."
"Idiot!" she said as she slapped him. "I guess you also forgot who it is we're fighting."
"I could do with a recap."
She groaned in frustration, "Dynast. He has men everywhere in the city. They've taken over. We have to be very careful, they'll lock us up on the slightest pre-text."
"But how do you know they've taken over?" Gourry asked.
"His men were following me in the village. They thought I didn't see them, but I did."
Gourry smiled sadly as he deliberated between joining her in her fantasy and injecting some reality into the situation. Considering it might be the last time he saw he, a wiser course would have been to just join with her. But he desperately wanted to talk about what would happen tomorrow. If he could get her to a lucid point (and sometimes he could), well, there was so much he had to tell her. "Could that have been the merchant?"
Lina looked confused, "Merchant?"
"I heard a rumor. Your family arranged for you to marry a merchant."
Lina tsked. "It's all part of the plot! They're trying to distract me with a wedding to keep me from exposing them."
Gourry bit his lip, and wondered if Lina would be lucid enough to go through with the wedding. Her family was getting desperate to have her off their hands. She'd embarrassed them numerous times by calling out prominent town officials as being in league with demons. She'd even accused the mayor of being in a plot to assassinate the king! The only reason Lina hadn't been confined and left to rot in a jail somewhere was because of the influence of her sister, who had married the mayor. But even that was starting to wane as Lina kept accusing more and more people of being in league with demons and out to destroy her. And while Lina was harmless, people were scared to visit her parents' store and business was suffering. How they had ever managed to find someone willing to marry her was mystifying. Gourry had heard he was from out of town.
He smiled and reached out to run a hand through her hair, enjoying its softness and slight curl, "Good. I don't exactly want you marrying anyone."
She looked up at him, her eyes shining with anxiety as a blush took over her face. He pulled his hand back as what he was doing sank in, burning him. On the one hand it was an innocent gesture, but he imbued it with an affection he never showed his wife. But worse in his mind, he was feeding Lina's delusions! If she didn't go through with the ceremony in the morning her sister was bound to make sure his business was run into the ground.
But then he was also terrified of what could happen when Lina's intended husband found out just how sick she was. Her family might have been anxious to have her out of their hair, but he enjoyed her delusions. When most people looked at him they saw the cowardly and timid blacksmith. He didn't understand how she could look at him and see a brave, heroic figure, but she did. And he loved it. He also loved the world she would draw him into, where epic battles between good and evil were waged. It made his world interesting.
"So, what's the plan?" he asked as he decided that, as this would be their last night together, he'd better make sure they had the best adventure yet.
She shrugged, "I'll figure that out as we go along."
"Glad some things never change." He said, "So how…"
She put her arm up to stop him, and then he heard it. A rustling of tree branches. "Amelia! Get down from that tree before you break your neck!" Lina yelled.
The leaves rustled, and Gourry could barely discern a young woman sitting in the branches, "Caught me." She said.
Slowly Amelia climbed down from the tree, a book under her arm. Lina had caught her reading in the tree several years ago and declared that she was a warrior princess. The idea seemed to appeal to the scribe's daughter, and rather than dismissing Lina as insane, she was just as drawn into her world as he was.
Moreover, Amelia seemed to help Lina expand on the world. The ungainly and shy young woman loved the idea of being a warrior princess just as much as Gourry loved being a legendary hero. But while Gourry followed Lina's lead, Amelia helped Lina to create the world.
"Who are we fighting today?" Amelia asked.
"Dynast's minions have infiltrated the city!" Lina declared.
"Then we must rid the town of this menace!"
"Wait, where's Zel?" Lina asked.
"At his inn. Remember, Miss Lina? He didn't want to be seen in the nice part of town. He didn't want to scare people."
"Right! Let's go find him. We're going to need his help."
Lina and Amelia continued in this vein as they walked through the forest. At one point Lina suddenly pivoted around, brought her hands up and pulled one back, "FLARE ARROW!" She yelled.
Gourry wondered what sort of light show Lina saw when she did this. All he saw was Lina doing some strange dance, but Lina was convinced magical energy sprang from her hands and destroyed evil creatures when she did it.
"Yay, Miss Lina! You nabbed that redcap!" Amelia cried.
Gourry had no idea what a redcap was or what made Amelia decide that that was what Lina had seen, but Lina seemed satisfied with her assessment. Gourry scanned the forest, "Yeah, I don't sense anything."
"Let's get going then, but keep your eyes peeled." Lina said.
Eventually they came to a cave hidden by some dense shrubbery. Gourry would never have guessed it was there, but he and Lina had accidentally found it while "hiding" from some berserkers. And they had also found that the cave housed a lonely occupant.
"Zel!" Lina yelled as she barged in, "What are you doing here? Dynast Grousherra has taken over the castle and we need every hand we can get!"
"Sorry," Zel said as he brushed the few wispy strands of his hair back, fully exposing the strange, black warts that grew all over his face. As an adolescent he had developed a bizarre skin condition that had turned his skin blue and caused him to break out in huge warts. He had banished himself from the village and lived as a hermit in the cave all alone for a few years until they had found him. He was baffled when Lina looked at him and saw a chimera on a mission to regain his human body. He was also initially very resistant to joining Lina's antics, but eventually came around. Like Gourry and Amelia, he found Lina's world irresistible.
"Right then, we're off!" Lina said as she set forth, stopping in her tracks when a fifth person came into view. Gourry's heart sank as Lina stiffened to attention. "Sis."
Luna glared at her younger sister, "That's enough of this." She said, and then she favored the rest of the group with a glare, "And all of you, encouraging her!"
Luna grabbed Lina by the arm and started to drag her back towards to town. "Wait," Gourry said, "Is it true? Is she getting married tomorrow?"
"What?" Amelia and Zel yelled.
"Yes." Luna said.
Gourry felt his heart sink, "Please, just this one night. Let us say goodbye."
Luna turned around, "Your wife is waiting for you at home and I'm sure she would like it if you just paid her a quarter of the attention you pay my sister. And if the merchant isn't satisfied that she is a bride tomorrow I will talk to Sylphiel."
Gourry flushed with anger and embarrassment as Luna continued to storm off with Lina. "Do…do you really think she'll stay coherent enough to make it through the ceremony?" Amelia asked quietly.
Gourry stared after them mutely as he thought about all of the horrible ways that Lina could ruin the ceremony, and just what her sister would do to her if it didn't go smoothly. But he couldn't bring himself to voice it. The thought of talking hurt too much. Images of them marrying her as quickly as possible before the bridegroom found just how sick his new wife was flashing through his mind. He wouldn't even put it past Luna to drug her to keep her quiet and tell him that it was just to quiet her nerves.
Zel put an arm around Amelia's shoulder as she started to cry. Gourry turned and started to walk back to town, ignoring Amelia as she called after him. Whoever that merchant was, Gourry was sure he wouldn't see what made Lina special. He would just brush her off as crazy like everyone else.
His house came into view, and he stormed in. Sylphiel was finishing up the dishes. "Did you have a nice walk?" she asked.
"Fine." He muttered. Usually he could pull himself together enough to give her a perfunctory kiss on the cheek and ask her how her day was, compliment her cooking or something. It couldn't make up for the fact that he could not find it within himself to love her, but at least he was trying. But tonight he was so upset he felt as though he would dissolve into tears at any moment and curse her for not being Lina. All told, disappearing into the bedroom as soon as he could was the better option.
He changed into his pajamas and got into bed, ignoring the dull ache in his head, dreading the moment when Sylphiel would come in. When she joined him and attempted to cuddle up to him he got up, claiming he needed to go to the bathroom. He was mad at himself for being mad at her that she wasn't Lina. Mad at himself that he had married her. They were both toddlers when their parents had arranged it, and he had never questioned their decision. When he had met Lina it had been too late. But if he'd not married Sylphiel, he could have married Lina and taken her off her family's hands. He had a way of calming Lina's delusions and getting her to focus on mundane tasks. Granted, there were times she was too lost even for that, but he would have helped her through those times. Surely he could have made it work.
But while he resented Sylphiel for being in the way, he also had to acknowledge that it wasn't her fault. The fact of the matter was that Sylphiel was a very good wife. She was caring and attentive and put up with him being absent every evening. She kept the house immaculate, was a good cook, and was good at networking for his business. She seldom lost her temper with him, even with all he put her through. The fact that she was such a saint made him feel worse for not being able to return her affections.
What must it be like to know that you had lost to the village lunatic?
He could hear Sylphiel crying from the bedroom. Guilt stabbed at him, but he simply could not bring himself to go back into the bedroom and comfort her. He moved out of the house and onto the porch, and his eyes widened in surprise when he found someone already sitting on the bench. "What are you doing here?" he asked.
"The monsters got to my sis." Lina whispered, "She tried to drug me."
"How did you get away?" he asked as he sat next to her.
"Gave her a good Dil Brand, she hit her head on the table as she fell, knocked her out pretty good."
Gourry's stomach turned a bit as he hoped that Luna truly was only knocked out. If Luna was seriously harmed he had no doubt that Lina would be left to rot in a jail. Lina put her hand on his, "We have to get out of here! I saw it today, where we have to go."
"Huh?" Gourry said.
"Amelia gave me a book. I was looking at it. I found a code in the book, it told me about a library in Dosa where I can find the spell I need to destroy the monsters!"
"Where's Dosa?" Gourry asked.
"Follow me!" She said as she held out her hand.
He considered her for a moment. God, how he wanted to! But how would they support themselves? And could he really abandon Sylphiel?
But then, even if he jilted Sylphiel, she would be okay. Yes, she would be heartbroken at first. But her family would take her back and plenty of other men would be lining up to marry her. Sylphiel would have a shot of finding romance with someone who could love her in return. If he was gone, Sylphiel could move on and be happy.
But unlike Sylphiel, Lina was in danger. Gourry did not trust this mysterious merchant to take good care of her. At best she would be kept locked but cared for in some attic. At the worse she'd be locked up and left to rot in a jail. Sylphiel's prospects without him were good. Lina's were bleak.
What if the best thing for both Lina and Sylphiel was for Gourry to run away with Lina?
"Wait here." He said, and then he quietly went back into his house. He tiptoed to the cupboard where they kept their money and emptied the entire contents of their money jar into his wallet. Then he grabbed a bag and a few provisions. He wished he knew how to write so he could leave Sylphiel a note explaining that he knew he was a bad husband and that he wanted her to find happiness with someone else. But he couldn't, and he also couldn't risk talking with her. He had to get Lina as far away from town as possible.
He looked over the fireplace and saw the ceremonial sword he and Sylphiel were given as a wedding gift. He thought about how the metals in it could be melted down and sold for a significant amount of money. Putting aside his moral qualms, he grabbed the sword and belted it to his waist. And then he stepped outside.
Lina looked at him, and his heart lurched. Lina, I will follow you to the ends of the earth! Lina extended her hand towards him, and Gourry felt as though he were meeting his destiny as she asked, "Ready?"
He grabbed it and smiled. Somehow, it would be okay, "Ready."