Episode 10
"Gods and Monsters?! The Revelations Just Keep Coming!"
Luna went into the room with her father and placed the talisman on his chest over his heart while everybody watched through the thick glass window from outside.
One could not see any changes, but Luna was certain this was a very important step toward prolonging his life. No medications, no spells, no prayers seemed to be working up to this point, so perhaps the talisman would at least slow the progress.
With that completed, the two girls embraced their mother and aunt and left with the others toward Sairaag, in hopes of locating the one person they hoped would know how to read the writing on the remaining talismans.
The road went along the cliffs of Elmash Vale and the waterfalls along its rim cast up a steady spray which created multiple rainbows, making such a beautiful view, it put Fillia in a very warm, nostalgic mood. Walking beside Luna, she impulsively took up Luna's hand and leaned her head against Luna's shoulder.
Luna glanced down sideways nervously at Fillia, but wouldn't have dared withdraw her hand!
"Luckily, Lina's too busy arguing with Gourry up ahead to notice!" Luna thought to herself pensively, "Because she would have made SUCH a scene out of this, who KNOWS how Fillia might react!"
As they neared the peak, there was a pass which opened up looking over Sairaag, Sylphiel's homeland.
Gourry pointed out along a strip of exceptionally dense forest, "Her home is down in there. I think I see her chimney right..." he strained his arm as Lina looked down it, "There."
"Ok, I see it." she replied, "Fillia-" she was saying as she began to turn to look back at the dragoness behind Gourry and herself.
Fillia reflexively jerked herself away from Luna and clasped them in front of her innocently while Luna ever so slightly startled at the prospect of Lina seeing them.
"- I say its fastest if you teleport us there." as she completed her turn.
"Yes, Miss Lina," Fillia replied while looking at the ground to hide the blushing of her face.
The group materialized in the small cleared space before Sylphiel's cottage.
"Hello?" Lina knocked on the door, "Hello?" knocking again, "Sylphiel?" she knocked some more. "I wonder if she went to town or something."
"Well we should just wait here for her if the door is not locked." Gourry offered. "I'm sure she'll be back soon."
"I'm hungry!" Lina complained. "I don't just want to sit around here all day waiting."
The door suddenly opened and Lina who was standing in front of it jumped up screaming, "Aaaaa!" as Sylphiel's head popped out, and a barely audible, "No need to wait any longer, I'm finished now-Oh hello Gourry darling!" her soft faint voice exclaimed at almost normal levels.
"Don't scare me like that!" Lina shouted as Luna and Gourry laughed, "Hey! It's not funny!" turning to Sylphiel she demanded, "Why didn't you answer the door?"
"I did answer the door." Came her very soft voice, "I just came once I was finished what I was already doing."
"Well why didn't you say anything?"
"I did," she began.
"Lina," Luna growled angrily, "You can clearly see she is not a very loud speaking person."
"Well then she needs to BECOME one so we can HEAR her!" Lina complained.
"YOU need to LISTEN more carefully 'Lina the PINK'." Luna rebuked sternly.
This made Lina's face turn two shades of red, from embarrassed to angry, but she knew she was powerless against Luna, so she just clenched her fists and stalked off muttering expletives under her breath.
"Uhhh...'Lina the Pink?' " Gourry asked quizzically.
"WATCH IT WISE GUY!" she shouted while hitting him in the back of the head with a large boulder.
"Oh, Gourry Dear!" Sylphiel's soft voice exclaimed softly in pity and compassion as she knelt by his side, holding his head as stars swirled in his eyes and a knot grew on his scalp.
Lina growled furiously and struggled fruitlessly in Luna's iron grip trying to get at the dazed Gourry, while Fillia covered her mouth to prevent her from speaking any spells.
Luna simply said to Sylphiel, "I think you should take him inside."
Ep 10, Chapter 2
Some time later, inside Sylphiel's cottage, the four visitors all sat at her table while she examined one of the warding talismans.
"Hmm.." she frowned quizzically, "This is undeniably Mazokese, but its like a very very old dialect. And seeing how old they are, that's very old!" she sighed, resting her head to one side in her hand while holding the talisman in the other, frowning, then relaxing, then frowning some more...
"Mazokese?" Fillia gasped partly in horror, partly in disgust, tossing her warding talisman out onto the table.
You should hang on to that Fillia," Luna said softly in an admonishing tone, then to Sylphiel, she asked, "What does it say?"
"It says something here about the wind of dying..." she squinted,"no I think its more accurate to read it as a proper name..." she turned the page 180 degrees and looked at it again, "Ah. There. Deathwind." she pronounced, "They turned the name its self upside down, as part of the warding spell."
"So," Luna asked, "Who made it?"
"It doesn't say" Sylphiel replied.
"No history of any sort?" she probed further.
"None I can detect from the parts I can make out." she sighed at Luna.
"I hope this is not a dead end!" Fillia said worried, "How can we learn more about it?"
"The Claire Bible naturally," Lina said glumly, rubbing her bruised arms where Luna had clamped onto her to keep her from harming Gourry.
"That's impossible now isn't it?" Gourry asked, rubbing the bandages on his head.
"I don't know about that," Lina replied, "But then right now, the only one who I can readily say does know, is Xelloss."
"That worthless sack of orc turds." Luna growled at the name.
"Well," Lina smiled at her sister's discomfort, "It looks like we'll be going to see him eventually..."
Ep 10, Chapter 3
Naga knew the days were drawing near, there was dirt encrusted to her cheeks from so many years of tears streaming down her face.
He hair was matted down, plastered to her head and somewhat on her face, and she could do nothing about it.
Her wrists were almost too painful to move, but she would move them simply to keep them from atrophying. They would not allow her to reach her face because if she could remove the mask, she would be able to cast spells and break free.
She would shift as much as her chains would allow, and she would kick away the rats as best her weakened body would cooperate.
The best she could hope for was an occasional bucket of water or two if she was lucky, being thrown on her to wash her off.
"I don't know who you know, you worthless hag," Theolis Rhystan said in an evil tone, "But it seems somehow, somebody eliminated one of my men here recently."
She could only eye him in pain and hatred, not a word to even say or spit on the scum of a man who was brazenly accusing her of even more actions she knew nothing about.
"I'll find out who did it," he said, "And when I do," he pointed a threatening jewel encrusted finger at her, "They'll be right there next to you as you burn!"
Suddenly, Naga was led to think of the only person she knew who was prone to kill henchmen, the beautiful and lovely Lina Inverse. Her eyes grew wide with realization, "This means 'his men' are bandits!" she said within herself.
"Ah-hah!" he misread her realization as a reaction of fear, "So you DO know who it is!" he declared with an air of triumph. Waggling his finger, he continued, "I won't stop until I have what I am after and not you, not your cohorts, whomever they may be, not even this pathetic excuse for a QUEEN is going to get in my way." there was so much venom in his voice, he forgot to mask himself and it was suddenly obvious that even the act of being old was just part of a clever and elaborate ruse.
"I think he's admitting something of importance here," she came to the sudden realization, "I need to act terrified so I can perhaps get more information from him!" she planned within herself. With this she started shaking her head as one who is terrified for another, eyes wide as one in dear, making sounds like a frightened denial.
"Oh..." he said with a sinister and smooth voice, "I see I have touched a nerve!" rubbing his hands together in eager anticipation, "Is it a lover? A parent? A sibling? A CHILD even perhaps?" a wicked laugh of delight came from him.
She continued to act terrified and he continued to probe while pride swelled within him, "You knew who my men were, didn't you?" he sought leads, thinking she knew so much more than she ever would have dreamed of knowing, "You came to save Elyst VanHusen from my men, didn't you?"
She continued to shake her head in denial while thinking to her self, "I'm amazed he's telling me all of this so plainly!"
"I bet you went to interfere with my plans to take his magic rune stones so you could take them your self, didn't you!?" and with that, while still rubbing his hands, he did a full upper body nod while turning a slow circle, before coming back to face her, "You know," he said, suddenly going from an icy expression to one of mock sympathy, "You were such a beautiful young woman, and with so MANY useful talents," he took a deep breath and then let out a heavy sigh, "I could have used a woman like you." while shaking his head in mock regret, "Both as a part of my endeavors as well as in my bed." at this his eyes took on an evil gleam, and for the first time in the entire conversation, a very REAL fear came to her!
"This wicked bastard would try to have his way with me?!" she realized in terror, "Oh my dear Lina! What have I DONE?!"
"No matter," he continued, "Even if your people were to kill off every one of my men, I could simply get more, and arrange them all under a new name and nobody would ever be the wiser for it." then pointing directly at her, "But YOU!" his eyes went livid and all traces of his phony old man's voice completely dissolved, "YOU had the NERVE to interrupt my perfectly orchestrated plans by keeping my men from retrieving for me the Tahstern Rune Stones!" with this he lifted one hand palm up, fingers upwards in a gesture of frustration, "You have DELAYED my plans these past two full YEARS!"
"What plans is this mad man talking about?" she asked herself in deep concern.
"It took me two full years to obtain enough magical power to defeat The Monstrous Zolemegustar!" he clenched those upraised fingers into a trembling fist which he slowly and deliberately pulled downwards as if pulling down the very name out of the air, and into his chest as he folded over it quite melodramatically.
Then it struck Naga, "This fool believes in that make believe thing she made up!" he's REALLY mad!
"With the kingdom of New Xoanna in my control," he raised to stand to his full height, revealing even further how far his elaborate old man ruse had been worked upon people, "I shall SMASH the puny nations around me and take over the WORLD!" with this, and his eyes wide like an insane person, he raised his clenched fist slowly into the air, as he trembled with mad excitement.
Ep 10, Chapter 4
Later that afternoon, after much discussion concerning the odds of finding Xelloss at Wolf Pack Island, it was determined that in all likelihood, he would find them if they just went there, seeing as it was his home base in this world and that Greater Beast Zelas Metallium also lived there as well.
Getting him to give up the answers they sought, however, would be a lot more difficult!
As it drew on toward evening, after another healing spell by Sylphiel, Gourry felt alright enough to go out and chop some firewood.
As Sylphiel set out to cook the group dinner, she asked if anybody would be willing to go out and look for mushrooms in the woods.
Fillia volunteered, and Luna decided it would be a nice way to spend some time with the lovely dragoness, so she said she would go along with her for protection.
"It was very nice of you to come to help me," Fillia said after they walked a distance from the cottage, "But you know I could simply turn into my other form and -"
"I know," Luna replied in a gentle tone while gazing upwards at the clouds, "I just wanted to come along."
"I appreciate that." the golden haired girl replied, "I like being able to spend time like this," she sighed, "As a temple priestess, all I did was pray, burn incense and talk to people about their problems all day," she shrugged looking around for mushrooms as they walked in the woods, leaves scrunching under their feet, "I never had a person like you," she paused while thinking of how to say what she felt, "somebody to talk about my own self with that is."
"You know," Luna pondered, "I would have never imagined that, seeing as you are so beautiful..." she trailed off, as they both blushed. "I-I-I didn't mean anything by that..." she said in nervous caution, "I just meant -"
"A priestess of the Dragon King is not allowed to have friends, lovers, or ever marry Luna." she said as she stopped and turned toward the tall buxom woman, "We're devoted to service and worship our entire lives."
"Oh." Luna looked down at her feet, "I see." then looking up at the late afternoon sky as it began to turn colors, "Neither am I."
"Because you are The Knight of Ceiphied?" Fillia ventured.
"Yes." Luna responded with a heavy sigh, "I don't even really serve any purpose to be realistic about it though," she began walking, arms swinging in youthful wistfulness, Fillia matching stride, "I didn't ask for this, it just happened, and nobody knows how or why."
"Surely it has to be of some divine purpose," Fillia suggested, "I can't imagine simply being born with such power and responsibilities with no purpose at all..."
"It seems that way I suppose," Luna conceded, "But as long as I have been alive, its been nothing but work and practicing with Einlanzer, day in, and day out," then she paused, turned, and looked directly into Fillia's upturned gaze, "That is, until now."
Fillia reflexively inhaled deeply and sharply at the presence of the moment, before shyly breaking their mutual gaze and blushing, while looking away and ever so softly saying, "I'm no longer a priestess you know..." the tone of her words almost having a leading note that there was more to be said, yet she left it there without finishing the unknown conclusion of her thoughts.
With another deep sigh, jerking her head sharply toward the sky with her own shy blush, yet a sense of both sorry and frustration, Luna replied, "But I'm still a Knight."
Bending down and picking up a stick she saw on the forest floor and throwing it off into the distance with an air of disgust, "And on top of that," she added with pain in her voice, "I'm immortal too."
"So you must live throughout eternity forever alone..." Fillia said in soft realization, tears coming to her eyes, as she still looked away shyly, then turning back toward Luna, snatching up her hands driven by emotion on the spur of the moment "That is such a TERRIBLE fate to lay upon a person!"
Luna almost choked as the powerful intense emotions from the lovely dragoness washed over her and coursed through her like an ocean, "Isn't is though?" then, in fear she may break down in tears, Luna forced herself to completely change the subject, "You know," she said haltingly, "We really should find those mushrooms you were sent to collect."
"I suppose you are right," Fillia replied, catching herself and releasing Luna's soft hands, "I passed several by several minutes ago."
"You did?" Luna said in realization, "Oh, my..." then regaining her composure, she chuckled, "Well best we get them and get back before they eat without us!"
With that, the two girls turned back toward the cottage and the waiting mushrooms.