Chapter 3

The five keys

She opened her eyes with great pain. She tried to remember where she was, but painful headache prevented her from analyzing the situation. The only thing she could remember was Sairaag which was under attack. There were also falling barriers and such an unpleasant emptiness. She was so confused! It was as if she was drugged.

"Hello, sweetheart" Cool, filled with false passion voice interrupted her thoughts. She tried to concentrate on the sound hoping it would help her to overcome stupefying effects of the drug. She tried to look at the man's face, but the world was dangerously spinning before her eyes. She could only see some blurred image.

"Who… are… you?" She said, with great difficulty.

The man leaned over her and whispered in her ear in response.

"I have a lot of identities, but primarily I am a collector." His mouth caressed her neck after every word, touching her lower and lower. Sylphiel shivered, this feeling was getting more and more unpleasant as she slowly realized she was completely naked.

" Stop it." She stammered with pleading voice.

" Wrong answer. But don't worry, soon you'll be begging for my touch." He whispered, but the healer heard every word very clearly. His hands began to gently stroke her breasts. "You are really beautiful. You'll be a real gem in my collection. You need just more… time."

"Stop it." She repeated. She wanted to run away, run away from here and from this terrifying man, but her legs were so numb she could hardly move. All she could do was to focus on the very person, who had always encouraged her. "Gourry." She whispered.

" You'll soon forget him." Once again she could hear the same cool voice in her ears, which was this time deprived of false passion. "You'll think only about me." His mouth violently grabbed her lips. She had no strength to fight him. She could only pray that this nightmare would be over as soon as possible.


Sairaag was being quickly rebuilt after the disaster. The leaders of the nearby towns sent to the city a lot of building materials and several disciples of white magic as soon as they learned of the attack. Such an instant reaction was a result of showing the crest of Seyrun by Amelia, who said that her dad surely wouldn't be angry if some part of the royal money was spent on people who really needed help instead of spending it on stomach of certain red-haired sorceress.

A makeshift, temporary canteen was arranged in the least damaged area. There were several rows of long tables and few relatively comfortable, wooden benches. In the end of one of them there were four people lost in a quiet discussion.

"I lost a trail of them in that forest." Gourry pointed trees located half a mile from the small group. He seemed to be much calmer since his return from a short walk, but at the very same time he was really subdued.

"They had to teleport somehow…" Zelgadis noticed.

"So… Some Mazoku was helping them?" Amelia asked.

"Not necessarily." Lina shook her head. "They could have used a modified summoning spell."

"What do you mean?"

"In case of well planned attack of several really powerful mages almost everything is possible. If they had had a partner in a different place and manipulated with some artificial dimension, they could have created something like teleportation. Of course, it wouldn't be possible to teleport for such a long distance like Mazoku or Ryozoku, but it would be enough to delay the pursuit." The sorceress explained. "But that's just a theory. I've no evidence to prove it. "

" Hmm ..." Zelgadis muttered at the same time taking out a map and compasses from his pocket. "Do you think this distance could be about 10 kilometers?" He asked.

"More or less."

"Within a radius of 10 kilometers from Sairaag there are three cities. I doubt they appeared near them. On the other hand, there's a huge forest." He pointed the western area of the map. "I think somewhere in here they might have some hideout."

"So can we start searching?" Gourry asked quickly looking at them with hope in his eyes.

"Gourry, we don't have enough data. This is just a speculation." Lina answered him.

" But we have to do something! We don't know what's happening to Sylphiel right now as we are talking doing nothing!" The blond man slightly raised his voice.

The sorceress Immediately looked at him furiously.

"Do you think that if you just run headlong, you'll find Sylphiel? Calm down and let us think!" The redhead told him off. Swordsman became silent for a moment.

"Sorry. I just ... I have a bad feeling." He admitted quietly. Lina also calmed down and put her hand on his shoulder.

"We are also worried about Sylphiel and I promise you that we will find her." She smiled slightly. Gourry also smiled in response, but said nothing more.

Amelia was shocked watching the man she thought she knew quite well. She would've never thought that the blond could surprise her in any way. And yet, as it often happens in such situations, it turned out that she was wrong. She saw how Gourry fell into hysterics when the master of black magic was pierced through the enemy. It was obvious to her that the swordsman reacted in such a way to the alleged death of his beloved. But in current situation Gourry was so ... different ... This unusual mixture of deep sadness and aggression made the princess wonder who was the healer of Sairaag to the usually cheerful and carefree swordsman. And what's more, did the blonde understand his raging emotions?

"Amelia!" The adept of white magic felt that someone poked her gently.

" Yes?" She asked confused.

"I've just asked you what have you found out from other priestesses." Said a little annoyed Lina. She never liked to repeat twice the same sentence.

"Overall, they haven't noticed anything suspicious. It has been recently pretty calm here, except for one wounded man from the neighboring village, who was brought here in order to be cured by Miss Sylphiel." Amelia replied.

"What happened to him?" Suddenly asked the chimera.

" Actually, it was not nothing that normal priestess would be incapable of healing, but the man insisted he didn't trust anyone but priestesses of Sairaag." The princess explained, not really understanding what made the mage so interested in the issue.

"That would fit." Said Zelgadis.

"What do you mean?" Asked the adept of white magic.

"They didn't take Sylphiel because of her trying to stop this attack. Sylphiel was their real target from the very beginning. They planned it very carefully on the basis of her abilities, which had been already thoroughly investigated under the cover of some patient. The question is, why do they want Sylphiel?" Said grimly the mistress of black magic.

The silence fell on them and for a moment nobody made the slightest noise.

"But if they need her for something, it means they won't do her any harm, will they?" Noticed Amelia who really wanted to believe in her own words.

"At least for a while." Said Zelgadis skeptically. Under the murderous look of Lina, chimera quickly changed the subject. "Anyway, there is something I would like to check. Wait for me till sunset, ok?"

"All right. Amelia, you stay here. You need to treat the wounded. I will go with Gourry to explore this place, where traces of attackers were lost. Agreed?"

Three nodes were her answer.

"So we'll meet here at sunset."


Gourry was extremely anxious. He wanted to do anything that would make him feel he was doing something to improve the situation of Sylphiel. He wanted to get rid of those awful images that still haunted his mind. He couldn't stop himself from thinking that if nothing had been done, this nightmare would have become a reality. He shook his head. Lina promised they would find her. Zelgadis had some kind of plan. Thanks to them Sylphiel would be found in no time.

"Actually, there's an echo." The voice of the red-haired sorceress stopped his trail of thoughts. Gourry stood leaning against a tree watching the sorceress who was examining the place.

"An echo? Well we're in the forest, of course there is an echo." Replied the blonde surprised that he had to explain such elementary things to the brilliant girl.

" I don't mean echo in the forest, you idiot!" Growled the annoyed sorceress. "I mean a magical echo, which always appears after using a spell. This confirms my theory concerning the modified summoning spell."

"Um ... can you repeat this theory once again?" Asked timidly the blond man.

Lina clutched her head in frustration.

"It doesn't matter." She answered and then after a pause she asked. "Gourry, who is Sylphiel to you?"

"Who is Sylphiel to me?" Repeated slowly the swordsman.

"Forget it. Let's go back, the sunset is approaching." She said quickly and headed toward the Sairaag. Gourry somewhat surprised followed her wordlessly.


The group met punctually at sunset, sat at the same table, they occupied few hours earlier. First to speak was Zelgadis sitting next to the exhausted princess. Lina and Gourry sitting in front of him listened to his words carefully.

"Just as I thought, not only Sylphiel has been kidnapped. In the past few months, four other women have gone missing. The culprit is moving all the time, but it seems to me that I know his main destination. It should be the old temple near Rayheiss. He should be there in two days. If we left tomorrow at dawn, we should be on time."

"But how do you know it?" Asked Amelia.

"Why don't we go at once?" Gourry asked hopefully.

"Gourry, don't tell me that you have the strength for a whole-day trip." Said doubtfully the chimera. "We have to rest and I assure you if we left tomorrow at dawn, we would reach our destination before the evening."

"All right." After a moment of silence the swordsman gave up, though a few seconds earlier he didn't look so convinced.

" Well, I think I'm going to sleep if we have to get up so early." Said the princess, rising from her chair.

"Amelia, you'd better stay here." Said Lina, who had been so far silent.

"But why?" Asked the surprised adept of white magic.

"To help Sylphiel just the three of us would be enough and here there are still a lot of injured people who need your help." Said the sorceress.

The younger girl sat for a while looking at the red iris, then she lowered her head.

"I think you're right ... I promised Mr Mucfin spell on sore shoulders. But are you sure you will not need me?" Asked with hesitation the dark-haired girl.

"You are needed here, Amelia." The redhead said.

"All right. I'll be here waiting for you. Good night." Amelia smiled and walked toward the shelter.

"I will check the wood supplies." Said Gourry all of sudden and without waiting for any response he got up and walked away.

"Ok. So I'm going as well. After all we have to get up early." Zelgadis said as soon as the blond man disappeared into the woods.

"Later." Lina said firmly, giving him a stern look. "First, tell me the truth."

For a moment the chimera looked silently into her eyes.

"Are you sure you want to hear everything?"

"Don't treat me like Amelia. Just ignoring my question won't be enough to make me leave you alone."

Zelgadis sighed heavily.

"You know I'm always up to date with information about local temples." Lina just nodded her head in response. "Some time ago I heard about a missing woman found in a nearby temple. Then I paid no attention to this. A month ago I heard the same rumor about another woman. When I was gone, I checked the news from surrounding villages. In total, five women got lost. The circumstances were different each time, but these disappearances had one feature in common. It was a perfection of the perpetrator." He pulled out a map with highlighted areas from his cape. "Women disappeared from those villages." Lina quickly paid attention to the fact that the points were arranged in a pentagon shape. "And they were found in those places." Zelgadis took a pencil and marked the next four points, which formed the four vertices of the pentagram, created on the basis of a pentagon. The fifth vertice was located close to Sairaag, which wasn't so far away from Rayheiss.

Red eyes widened in shock.

"The five gates and the five keys." She whispered. "In two days will be a full moon ... But that's just an old tale! What does this madman want to achieve?!"

"I don't know, and I hope we won't find it out."

For a moment there was a silence.

"Zel ... In what condition were those woman?" She asked fearing the answer. She could sense that there was a reason why Zelgadis hadn't answered Amelia's question so eagerly using the fact that Gourry asked other question at the very same time, and was so reluctant to answer her own questions.

Zelgadis sighed heavily once again and looking at the setting sun he responded.

"This son of bitch drugged them, raped them and left their bodies in a pool of their own blood."