Chapter 21. Homeward Bound (I Wish I Was)

Night was falling fast and early in Vye. The air practically buzzed with the current of a coming storm. If Filia thought that the fog level had been high earlier that day, it was a pittance to the peasouper she was currently in the midst of.

It was so bad that she couldn't even see her own feet. She ambled forward through the squelching of mud and prayed she wouldn't step on a frog. Her hands were reached out in front of her like a blind person.

She was somewhat lost. She hadn't been able to follow Sangoma. She'd disappeared somewhere into the swirly white vapors. But it probably wouldn't have been worth it to follow her anyway. It sounded like she wasn't headed for the swamp witch's domain directly. She just wanted a nice seat to watch the drama unfold. Just like a monster.

Speaking of monsters…

No, Filia thought firmly. I don't want to speak of monsters.

But she had to admit it was really… peculiar what had happened. Not the weird moment when he'd looked into her eyes and she'd looked back into his one open eye as if transfixed. Not that that wasn't peculiar or anything. It was extremely peculiar. But she preferred to tuck that as far away into the back of her mind as possible because it was, well… let's say 'unpleasantly intense', and she just didn't want to think about it at the moment.

The peculiar thing was that Xellos had purposely kept her from going with Zelgadis and Amelia. If he'd wanted to just excuse himself from joining them he could've said it was some kind of holy ground that he wasn't particularly willing to lower himself to tread upon. Or he could've just ditched them without a word again. That wasn't a problem. No, he'd kept her out of it deliberately.

Of course, he said that he just didn't want her to get in the way of Sangoma's plan. But Sangoma didn't seem to buy this as viable. And, anyway, it would've been odd for him to just assume she'd get in the way. If Sangoma's plan really hinged on Filia not being there, she would've done something about it herself. Monsters are detail-oriented like that.

This implied that he had some ulterior reason independent of the instigator of this scheme, Sangoma. He himself had some reason for keeping her from the swamp.

Or, she thought as a sudden shiver shook her, he had some reason for keeping me with him.

No, she thought and tried to force a harsh laugh. That was just Sangoma's joke. Just Sangoma's thoughtless and utterly crass joke! No one could honestly believe that he…

Well, the fact remains, Filia thought as her last thought fragment was allowed to fizzle out in disbelieving panic before it could become complete, Mister Zelgadis and Miss Amelia are in danger because of whatever is at that swamp. If I'd gone with them, I'd be in that same danger.

Applying a little logic to that fact would imply that he'd lied to Filia to keep her out of danger; which seems downright nice until you remember that Xellos is a monster. Now, monsters sometimes save people, but it's not because they're nice; it's because they're coldly pragmatic. Ask a monster why they saved you and, if they were honest at all (which they aren't), they'd answer: "for later".

He'd saved her life back in Valgaav's old base, hadn't he? Probably he'd only done that because he thought she might be useful later on since he needed a dragon if he ever wanted to fuse magic.

But this time was different. What did he expect of her… what was he planning for her?

She didn't want to know. But as a stormy gale nearly lifted her off her feet, the memory she'd so carefully tucked away was pried free. That look he'd given her back at the diner as he tried to wrest control of the conversation back away from the track Filia had been determined not to give up on. It wasn't a nice look. It was aloof and calculating and strangely… proprietary.

No, she thought. That's impossible.

She turned around abruptly. She could've sworn she'd felt that unforgettable aura close by. The mist revealed nothing. She hoped it was just her imagination getting carried away.

But no. There was a shadow there. It was practically blotted out by the haze and by the darkness, but it was there. It didn't move, but it watched her. He knew she knew he was there.

"Xellos!" she yelled out into the fog. "Where are they? I know you know!"

The dark patch of fog made no response. She'd expected as much. He'd gone to the trouble of keeping her away from there already and he wasn't about to undo all that at the end.

"Sangoma didn't tell you what was in the swamp that was so dangerous, but you figured it out anyway, didn't you?" Filia interrogated onward as if the snub hadn't occurred. "What's in there?"

The shadow made no answer. It didn't even move.

"Why?" Filia began desperately, knowing she would have to ask what she knew was unwise to ask. "Why didn't you want me to go with the others?" She knew he was no more likely to answer this question than any of her others, but she couldn't stop herself from asking. The question was like a fiery coil around her mind.

She couldn't see his face, but in her mind's eye he was smirking. Xellos had a natural talent for smirking. He was always smirking smirkily at people, the smirker. She thought he wouldn't answer. She thought he'd just let her questions flap in the breeze and say nothing. This would leave her with only two choices. She could turn around and continue her blind trek through the swamp, doing her best to ignore him and trying to find the others. Or she could stay there and continue interrogating him, which was a bit like punching fog.

On the other hand, literally punching fog might be an acceptable third option in this situation.

Just as Filia contemplated whether violence might actually be the answer in this case, the black silhouette in this mist stepped forward just once. She stared.

"Go home, Filia," was all it said and then it vanished.

Somewhere else in the sprawling dreamscape of Vye's marshland there was a tree. It was dead, and had been dead, for many years, but it was currently upright – currently being the operative word. Its bark was thicker than paper, but just barely so. Its insides had been devoured by parasites long ago. Every breeze that passed its way caused it to creak as its ancient root system nearly snapped. A crane would not land on it. It was too unstable to take the weight.

Yet, balancing on one of the branches was a woman. She might have been on the petite side, but certainly not petite enough to keep the branch from breaking under her weight. But it did not break. The tree did not fall.

The woman stared into the blinding mist with wide green eyes. Her eyes saw far.

They saw…

"Can you stand?" Zelgadis asked Amelia.

Amelia was somewhat distracted by her hand in his, but she looked up abruptly and nodded. "I think so."

He helped her to her feet. He was still holding her hand, but at this point Amelia was beginning to suspect that he wasn't entirely aware of that fact.

He looked from Amelia to the oracle, who quietly watched them with cold eyes. He turned back to Amelia deliberately. "Let's get out of here," he said.

"But Mister Zelgadis!" Amelia protested, not quite believing what she was hearing. "What about the cure for your body? You came all this way just to ask her, didn't you?"

"I know," Zelgadis said, glancing backwards at the swamp witch. "But she wouldn't tell me even if I asked. Would you?"

The oracle shook her head.

"Anyway," Zelgadis said, as though this was a minor disappointment and not a world-crushing, anger-inducing failure. "I'm starting to think it's time to move on. Maybe I can… live with this."

Amelia goggled at him. She finally managed to get the words: "Well, yeah! Sure you can!" out. "But this just doesn't… sound like you."

Zelgadis nodded. "I've… done some thinking."

Amelia stared at him curiously. "What happened while we were underwater?" she finally asked.

Zelgadis looked pensive. "Oh, it doesn't really matter now," he said dismissively. "Let's just go home."

Home. Amelia didn't think she'd ever heard him say that. She said it all the time. It's good to be home. That's what we used to do at home. It's at times like this I miss home. There's no place quite like home. She loved to travel, but what made traveling even better was knowing she had a special, welcoming place to go back to. Zelgadis didn't have that, so he never said it… until now. Something had happened when they'd nearly drowned. Whatever it was, Zelgadis now felt he had a place that he could call home. What touched Amelia's heart was that it was the same place that she called home.

"Yeah," Amelia said cheerfully. "I'm sure Daddy will be happy to see us back."

"Just don't mention the part where you nearly drowned," Zelgadis warned, remembering Phil's little heart-to-heart with him before they'd left. "I get the feeling that wouldn't go over well."

"Not so fast," a voice they'd nearly forgotten about said from behind them.

Zelgadis winced and turned back to the oracle. He had a bad feeling about this.

"What?"

"If I'm not mistaken," the oracle said in a voice that indicated that she knew she was not. "You are under an obligation to do whatever I ask of you on pain of death."

Zelgadis grimaced. Damn Sangoma. He had no intention of being the errand boy for a crazy swamp woman for the rest of his life.

"I will only ask two things of you," she said. "And once you've accomplished these two things, you will have completed your obligations and I will free you of your geasa."

Zelgadis nodded slowly and tried to prepare himself for the worst. "What are they?"

"First, free me from my ties," the oracle said, hitching up her watery skirts slightly and revealing a shackle around her ankle. It was attached to a chain coiled behind her and seemed to come out of the ground itself. Zelgadis recalled that he'd heard the jangle of mental, but hadn't seen the chain before.

"I cannot break it myself with any amount of strength," the oracle explained. "It is a kind of curse placed on me. But you should be able to break it easily."

Zelgadis released his hand from Amelia's and drew his sword slowly. He knew all about how unwise it is to free a cursed and extremely powerful creature from its bonds. That was all part of the story where the ancient evil must be recaptured and sealed away once more or finally defeated. But he had no choice. If he didn't do this then he'd be struck down.

He slashed at the rings of the chain, which shattered cheaply on impact. It seemed odd that a creature in control of all the raw energy of the swamp could not break something he could with ease. Such is the nature of curses.

"What else?" he asked, eager to move on.

The swamp witch wasn't listening to him. She stretched out her one captive foot in the air in front of her like a dancer. She flexed the ankle and smiled as she brought the foot back down to the ground. "I wanted to be free before I died," she said mostly to herself.

"Before you what?" Zelgadis repeated.

"Ah, yes," she said, closing her eyes slowly. "That's the other thing. You must kill me, Zelgadis Greywords. That's the last thing."

"What?!"

"But why would you want Mister Zelgadis to kill you?!" Amelia asked, horrified.

The swamp witch turned a sad eye on Amelia. "Because no one has been able to for over three-hundred years." Her voice strengthened in bitterness. "Three-hundred years. That's more than my life stolen away from me. Three-hundred years of knowing things no one was meant to know. Three-hundred years living among muck and grime. I may be free of this place now, but I'll never escape the swamp no matter where I go; I am the swamp. I am the muck; I am the grime; I am the rot. I am a creature of constant sorrow, whose torturous life should've ended once the natural span ran out. But it didn't. And it never will unless someone ends it for me. I am a made thing. I cannot end myself."

"But can't you just—," Zelgadis began. "It's not my responsibility to kill you just because you're unhappy!" Sure, he'd killed people before. But them asking just gives the whole thing an aura of pure wrongness.

"Unhappy?" the oracle repeated. "Would you like to see what I see all the time, Zelgadis? Would you like to know it all? Would you like to see every mind?"

Zelgadis gritted his teeth. Even earlier today he would've said yes, but he was starting to believe that oracular knowledge had some pretty steep costs.

"Kill me, Zelgadis," she said. "You know you must. If you don't then you will die and leave your friend in a great deal of danger. Yes… if you don't send me to peace then I will hurt her. Know that I will."

Zelgadis didn't doubt this for a minute. She'd nearly drowned them both just to make a point about priorities, and clearly this was her main purpose for them all along. She wouldn't hesitate to use force to get what she wanted, and she had them at a severe disadvantage.

The swamp witch gripped her watery dress which contained all the raw, vegetable force of the swamp. She would use it if he hesitated even a second longer.

"Damn!" he said, and thrust his broadsword straight through her stomach.

When he looked up, his sword was thrust all the way through her midsection. She was looking down at the sword herself and met his gaze. She blinked boredly. There was no blood.

Almost on cue it started to rain.

He pulled his sword out of her. She completely failed to scream, gush blood, crumple to the ground dead or adhere to any of the other prescribed courses of action to follow when stabbed with a sword.

"What are you?" he asked in awe.

"I'd prefer not to go into that," the swamp witch said in jaded tones. "The sword is not enough. You can't stab the swamp to death." She thought for a moment. "But you can use magic, can't you?" she suggested.

"Not here," Zelgadis said, shaking his head.

"Yes, that would be the handiwork of those execrable sages and their damned magic circles," the swamp witch said, massaging her temple as though she was fighting off a headache. "I can see we're going to need a change of venue." She looked up at the bone-weary form of Zelgadis. Nearly drowning really tends to take it out of a person. He was still occasionally coughing.

"And perhaps you would not be able to do it now anyway," she said calmly, and then turned her gaze to Amelia. "And perhaps not alone at all."

"What are you—" Zelgadis began.

"Yes," the oracle cut him off, seemingly having arrived at a decision. "I will go somewhere else to finish the job. But you will need ample strength to defeat this form. I am afraid that the motivation of being my angel of mercy will not suffice to draw out this strength. So I will have to take measures."

Zelgadis didn't like the sound of that. This oracle made dangerous decisions far too easily.

"There is a place," the oracle began, "that is important in both your minds. Though, Zelgadis, it's only important in your's because it is important in her's. So I will go to Seyruun, where your magic can reach me. And until you can muster the strength to destroy me, I will destroy Seyruun."

"What?!" Zelgadis shouted, dumbstruck.

"You can't!" Amelia yelled helplessly.

"I will," the swamp witch affirmed, "if you do not do your duty. Remember Zelgadis Greywords, it's more than your life on the line now."

With that she turned to the southeast and… and… cascaded is the only word for it. She resembled the black swamp much more in her movements. She spewed like a flood across the land, making great speed toward Seyruun City.

Amelia turned to Zelgadis, her fists balled in acute worry. "We've got to do something, Mister Zelgadis!"

"We'll never overtake her," Zelgadis said almost numbly as he watched the swamp witch move toward her destination with a mighty current all her own. Thunder rumbled.

Before they even had a moment to think further about what to do, there was a rustling from the bushes behind them. They turned around just in time to see a muddied and thorn-scratched Filia burst out from the overgrowth shouting, "It's a—" she took in the half-drowned Zelgadis and Amelia standing in the middle of the parched land where the sentient swamp once lay. "…trap," she finished lamely. "What happened?"

"Never mind that," Zelgadis said abruptly. "We need to get to Seyruun fast! Can you get us there?"

Filia nodded firmly and resolutely. Then she had a sudden thought and her resolution diminished slightly. "…Can I just go behind one of these bushes to transform?" she asked shyly.

"ONLY IF YOU HURRY!"