AN: Telepathy is one of those things that appear in the novels but not the anime. During the plotline with Halciform (which is significantly different in the novels, and while there are scenes in the anime I really liked, there are also parts from the novels I wish had been adapted better), Halciform uses telepathy to talk to Lina. It establishes telepathy as a skill some people are born with and not something that can be learned.
For once, the Eternal Queen had come to visit and Lina's manor hadn't been destroyed. They sat in the upstairs parlor with Luna, Lina's parents, Gourry, Zel and Amelia as they discussed the very sensitive issue of who should learn to use the Giga Slave. Lina read over the notes she had taken about her various students as she said, "Honor, Susan, Maeve, Danielle, Cuchulain, Jean-Luc, Marcus, Clark, and Bruce were the ones who were able to keep their rumor a secret. Of them, Honor, Susan, Maeve, Jean-Luc, Marcus and Clark likely have the magical skill and capacity to attempt to cast the Giga Slave. I'm thinking of having them in my most elite class. But I still worry."
"Jean-Luc and Indy are pretty tight." Zelgadis observed.
"But he still kept his rumor a secret from Indy." Amelia pointed out.
"I don't think Jean-Luc would jeopardize it, or at least I hope he wouldn't. But it would certainly put him in an awkward position. It might make things awkward between them." Gourry said.
"It will be good for him." Han said, "There are going to be times on the battlefield when you have to choose between doing what is easy and standing up to your friends."
"I can't argue with that." Lina said.
"It would be hard to break up such a duo." Leia said.
"But if their friendship is strong enough then it will withstand such a challenge!" Amelia said.
"Right." Lina said as she looked at the Eternal Queen, "I have a lot of confidence in these students. Still, given the nature of the spell, and with hindsight being perfect and all, if you are wanting me to scrape this idea I will follow your discretion."
"We have to trust Ceiphied's will." The Eternal Queen said, and Lina raised her eyebrow while Luna looked respectfully solemn. "Most people aren't going to be powerful enough to even attempt to try a Giga Slave. If someone is strong enough, then we have to trust that there is a reason that they are."
Lina thought to Naga, who likely was strong enough to cast it, but never in a million years would Lina even dare teach it to her. But she didn't dare voice such thoughts in the Eternal Queen's presence. "Right."
"I have every confidence that this is the right step, and that you have the right group." The Eternal Queen said. "Sir Gourry, who have you picked for your group?"
"I'm liking Jackie, Gomez, Cuchulain, Owen, Ripley, Adam, Adora, Pippi, Honor and Danielle for my class." Gourry said.
"That will be good." Han agreed. "They're the only ones who can keep up with you!"
"Huh?" Gourry said.
"You move so fast the less skilled kids can't keep up!"
"What about you, Zel?" Lina asked as she took notes. "Considering you and Ace had that success with curing her friend I presume Ace will be in your group?"
"Yeah," he said, "She's all fired up about finding chimeras and curing them. I'll also let Kara, Mara Jade, Maeve, Peter, Indy, Marcus, Jean-Luc Susan into my group. And…Nerys."
"Nerys?" Lina said, surprised.
"She is really talented with Shamanist magic. Even if she does drive me insane." He conceded.
"I'm going to have her in my group, too." Leia said, and then she listed a few more students for her Black Magic group.
"How are you feeling, Princess?" Luna asked Amelia as she started fanning herself.
"I'm getting better. The lack of air circulation gets to me. In a few weeks I think I'll be able to return to my duties, as well as take on a White Magic group."
"We don't want you to overdue it."
"I already feel like such a third wheel!" Amelia moaned. "And so much that is exciting is happening!"
"Growing a baby is hard work and we don't want you to overdue it." The Eternal Queen said. Still, there is something we need to discuss."
"Oh?" Lina asked nervously.
"Some rumors have started, some from the Elmekian Empire and others from Dils, that the mission of this school is to invade our neighboring kingdoms."
Lina sighed, "Why does that not surprise me?"
"So in a few months we're going to bring a delegation from several different kingdoms to show them what we're doing and that there's nothing to worry about."
Lina exhaled, "Sounds like fun."
"But why are people targeting our school?" Gourry asked.
"If we had to guess," Luna explained, "We've got the Mazoku race scared. Till now things have always been at a stalemate. But now that we have the upper hand and are pressing forward they would see Maninstit as a risk. So they're trying to turn the opinion of the other kingdoms against us."
"I guess we'd better keep on our guard." Gourry said as he looked at Lina.
"Perhaps that's why I lately I always feel as though I'm being watched." Lina said.
Lina used the extra energy her unique pregnancy gave her by spending her nights working on projects she'd never thought she'd have time for, such as cataloging the library. She usually got into bed late and woke a scant few hours later, feeling rested and energetic. One morning she woke when she noticed Gourry unbuttoning the bottom of her pajama top to caress her stomach. She sighed a bit as he commented wondrously, "It's starting to feel different."
"Yeah, it is starting to get hard." She agreed as she put her hand over his. Creating life had thus far been very different from everything else she had done. While destroying Mazoku required thought and concentration and a good deal of fear and pain, growing a baby had been an experience so effortless that it felt like cheating. She didn't even have to chant a spell! Her body just knew what to do without her input.
"I think you're starting to show a little."
"I can't! Amelia still isn't showing!" Lina exclaimed.
"Well, she's been throwing up so much she's been losing weight. You've been eating so much that Nellie has figured it out."
"What!?" Lina said as she sat up.
"Shh!" he said as he put a finger over her lips, "You'll wake everyone up! Besides it's not noticeable with your shirt buttoned."
Lina relaxed a bit onto the pillows as he moved so his ear was at her stomach. "What are you doing?" she asked.
"Listening for the heart beat." He explained.
She shook her head, "You don't really expect to hear it, do you?"
"Shh! I'm going to try."
She smiled at him as they laid there silently for a bit. Then she asked, "Any luck?"
"Well, either you've been seeing a goblin behind my back or your stomach makes really weird noises!"
"What did you say!?" she yelled as she sat up again, and he leaned forward to kiss her, and she felt her irritation melt away. "Hmm…How much time do we have?"
"Enough." He said as he firmly put his hand on her stomach again.
"Oh! Don't do that so hard!" she said as she jumped off the bed.
"I didn't hurt you, did I?" he asked, alarmed.
"No, you idiot!" she screeched as she ran to the bathroom. "I nearly wet the bed!"
As Lina and Gourry left for breakfast, they walked by the hallway where the postings for which kid got into which classes were listed on the blackboard. The kids were gathered round in a group as they looked for their names and muttered amongst themselves. Some exclaimed excitedly when they saw their placements. Others were in tears. And others, like Maeve, appeared very, very angry.
Forcefully she strode over to them and looked at Gourry, blue eyes flashing. "I want in your group."
Gourry looked a bit taken aback as Indy came up to Lina and said, "What gives? Jean-Luc and I have been making the same grades! How does he get in your group and I don't?"
"Because Jean-Luc can keep a secret." Lina said as she folded her arms across her stomach while Gourry looked nervous. "You remember that yarn I spun about a contingent of goblins sacking and raiding an Elf Village? That you actually swallowed and spread as truth?"
Indy reddened as Lina nodded. "Go get your breakfast."
Maeve looked at Gourry as Lina saw a few kids approach Zel and Amelia as they came down into the foyer. "What test did I fail, then? I want to do better."
"There wasn't a test really." Gourry said as he scratched the back of his head, and Lina wanted to smack him and tell him to be firm. "Your talents just lie in other directions. And you are going to be busy you won't have time to catch up. You got into all of the other groups.
"I need to be in all of them! I can do better!" Maeve insisted.
"Well, if you're that passionate about it, then welcome aboard." Gourry said, and Lina felt her hand bunch into a fist.
Maeve nodded, "Thank you. I'll go down, get in some extra practice."
"Don't think about skipping breakfast." Lina said, "You're going to need the energy it provides."
"I ate before I saw the postings." Maeve said as she walked off.
Lina sighed as she shook her head, "Let's get to the dining room before any more see us and you end up letting the whole school into your specialized group."
"What would be so bad about that?" he asked.
"You can't let them push you around!" Lina said as they got into the dining room. "They have to learn to live with disappointment."
"They also have to learn how to argue a case." He said.
"But she didn't make a good argument!" Lina countered as she sat down. "You just didn't want to hurt her feelings and get mad."
"She was already mad." Gourry said as he started loading his plate. "But it's not like it's creating more work for you. So why should you care?"
"Because I do!" Lina said exasperatedly as Zel and Amelia came in.
"And how is that a good argument?"
Lina turned red as she opened her mouth to yell, but before she could Zel said, "Wow, I didn't realize how passionate they would get about this."
"I know!" Gourry said, "I guess we're lucky to have students who care so much."
"If you are sitting here, it is for two reasons." Lina said as she sat in a circle with Jean-Luc, Honor, Susan, Maeve, Marcus and Clark. Nimitz, the golden tabby Honor had found and had since been inseparable from, was curled on Honor's lap. "The first is that your magic is powerful enough. And the second is that you can keep a secret."
Lina allowed for a moment of silence as she looked at each of them to let her words sink in, "I'm going to teach you about a spell so dangerous that, if it were miscast, it will destroy the world. And I'm taking a big risk. For obvious reasons we don't want the specifics of this spell traveling far and wide. At the same time, there may be times when you have to cast it."
"But you've cast it?" Honor asked.
"I have." Lina confirmed. "Four times. The first time I had just pieced together a spell from a manuscript I found in Dils. I had no idea how dangerous the spell was. To this day, nothing grows in the lake I cast it at. Gourry and I checked on our way back."
Maeve put her hand over her mouth as Lina continued, "The second time was the first time I took down Shabranigdu. I still had no idea how dangerous the Giga Slave was. I probably still would have cast it. I was going up against Shabranigdu so I didn't have a lot of options. It was shortly after that that I learned just how risky the spell was. I thought if I miscast it the biggest risk was that I would die. A friend told me that it could end up destroying everything."
"What about the other two times?" Clark asked.
"Both happened when I was confronting Hellmaster Phibrizo." Lina said quietly as, to her dismay, she started glowing.
"How are you doing that?" Jean-Luc asked.
Lina blushed and stammered. If that wasn't awkward enough, Nimitz jumped off Honor's lap and onto Lina's and started kneading her lower belly as he purred loudly, "Um, well, the effects of casting it that time altered me and now I can't talk about it without glowing. Hee hee."
Everyone seemed satisfied with her answer, with the exception of Susan. Lina felt the hairs prick on her neck as the feeling arose that Susan could read her mind. Susan suddenly averted her eyes as a look of fear washed over her. Lina decided to talk to her later. "It won't hurt me or anybody." Lina continued, "There were some strange circumstances then. The original version of the Giga Slave that I had cast was a weak, incomplete version, but given my natural magic capacity it was the best I could do. Hellmaster Phibrizo wanted me to cast the full, complete version and for me to lose control of it and bring about the end of the world. So he arranged for me to find a way to amplify my magic and to learn the complete version. And then he sprang his trap."
She was silent for a moment as she glowed while the kids looked at her expectantly. "None of this leaves this room."
"Right, ma'am." They said.
Lina nodded, "He kidnapped Gourry. Long story short, Hellmaster said he wanted me to cast the Giga Slave to try to destroy him so I could get Gourry back. He didn't specify which version. So I cast the incomplete one first. With my magic amplified I knew I could control it. And I did. Unfortunately the bastard dodged it, and he decided to punish me by killing Gourry. So I cast the full one, like he wanted. What no one anticipated was that the Lord of Nightmares itself would be summoned. I was possessed by them. And it destroyed Hellmaster."
The class was silent for a moment, and then Jean-Luc said tentatively, "With all respect, was casting such a dangerous spell to save one man's life a good enough reason when the world could have been destroyed?"
"I wasn't thinking about that at the time." Lina snapped. "Just that I couldn't do nothing when I had the power to try to stop him."
"We must do what we can to save life where we can." Marcus said. "Especially when it's someone we love."
"Romantic notions aside," Susan said, "What would have stopped someone like Hellmaster from moving on to the next innocent human and killing them? Or taking whole towns hostage? Stopping him early was the best way to minimize casualties."
"When people stand their ground, eventually the bully gets the message." Jean-Luc said.
"But at what cost?" Marcus asked, "And how many have to die before he stands down?"
"Not when they have all the power." Susan retorted. "They will break you, by whatever means necessary."
"It's not as though we can argue that her decision was bad." Maeve said, "We survived and no lives were lost, aside from those of Mazoku."
"It could have easily gone the other way, though." Honor pointed out.
"It could have." Lina agreed, eager to steer the topic away from her actions, "And that is something everyone in here needs to keep in mind. It's easy to debate what you would have done when you're not in the hot seat. It's a lot harder when you're in it. You lose perspective, your emotions take over, and you don't have the luxury of thinking things through. You follow your gut and hope you did the right thing. What I'm going to do now won't fully simulate what it's like, but I'm going to present each of you with a scenario, and you have three minutes to tell me what you would do."
Lina indicated the hourglass by her seat. "Honor. Dark Star has invaded this dimension and is out of control, attacking towns and cities randomly. Nothing stops or slows him down, and he's headed straight towards Zefiel City. Go."
Lina turned the hourglass upside down as Honor took a deep breath.
"Susan, can I have a word?" Lina asked after she had dismissed the group. Susan's eyes widened and her face paled, but she nodded.
"I'll catch up." She said to Marcus.
Lina waited until the door had closed behind Marcus as he left, and then she folded her arms across her now non-glowing stomach as she stared at Susan and thought, You're a telepath.
Susan's eyes widened again, and then she looked down and nodded. I promise I won't tell anyone that you're pregnant.
Lina exhaled and thought before she could think better of it, Damn, I hate talking to telepaths! They hear everything I think but they get to decide what they do and don't transmit. Oh, um, Susan, sorry you had to hear that!
Susan shrugged and said magnanimously, I get it.
Lina looked at her quizzically, Why didn't you say anything?
Susan sat down and stared at the ground, My family is from Dils. My mom was a sorceress who could use telepathy, and she taught me how to hide it from others. When the kingdom learned of her talents they wanted to recruit her to be a spy, but she didn't want to leave my father, brother and me. When she wouldn't work for them, they declared that she was a risk to the kingdom because she could gather and sell their secrets to our enemies. So they took her and performed a lobotomy. She was never the same after that. The lights were on but no one was home as they say. That's why we fled Dils, before they found out about me.
Susan wiped at her eyes as Lina put a hand on her knee. Damn, what do I say?
There's not much to say, is there? Susan replied.
Lina blushed. Look, you're safe here. I won't go telling your secret, but I don't know of any other kingdoms that do this.
Susan frowned, Give them time.
You're too young to be so pessimistic!
Susan shrugged and Lina sighed. With the foreign dignitaries coming to visit Maninstit it would be so helpful to have a telepath, but I don't know how to ask given what happened at Dils. Oh, damn, I'm transmitting my thoughts.
It's okay. Susan thought, I know what's at stake. I'll help. Besides, we've already been infiltrated.
Lina froze, What do you mean?
Susan took a deep breath and set her eyes forward, From the astral plane. A presence that isn't human watches us. I can't read its mind, but whenever you're in the room I can feel it.
Lina felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up as her thoughts raced, And you're only telling me this now!?
Don't look behind you. And Lina had to use all of her will power to prevent herself from doing so. No, it's not going to attack. It's just watching. It's suspicious.
I've felt as though I've been watched for a while, Lina reflected as she did her best to keep from grinding her teeth and to appear as unshaken as possible. My instincts are screaming its Xellos for some reason. Or perhaps it's because he's the Mazoku I'm most familiar with? Damn! I'll kill him if I find that he watched me get undressed! Or worse, when I was having sex. DAMN! I'm transmitting my thoughts!
Susan turned beat red, "I, um, think I should go."
"No, um, wait here." Lina said, still blushing furiously. But if someone was watching them, she needed to let the others know, and she would need Susan's help. Telepathy was the only means she could be sure that their interloper wouldn't figure out their conversation. Oh, whoever was watching was likely suspicious. But all they would have were suspicions. "I need you to talk to Gourry and the others."
"Right, ma'am."
AN: I hate having to do warnings like this, but I don't think my surviving grandmother is going to live for much longer. I'm lucky to have lived as long as I have and to have experienced no deaths until my mid-thirties, but life is quickly making up for it now. My mom's mom died this time last year, one of my grandpas in February, and an aunt died on New Year's Day. In addition, I have a massive case of caregiver fatigue between working in the helping professional, having to deal with a string of grandparent emergencies one right after the other, and raising two kids who are both amazing and autistic and dealing with societies' prejudice against autistic people, and those suck up the formerly massive well of patience I used to have. Anyone who wants to tell me what is and is not necessary to write and cause drama can please take that somewhere else, especially because if that ever happens on the day I am burying a loved one again I will snap.
In better news, though I'm not sure how the former is going to affect this, but I am going to be leaving next weekend for a much needed vacation (see caregiver fatigue above). Usually I continue to write on my tablet, but my loving son spilled milk on the keyboard attachment so the tablet works, the keyboard doesn't, so I'm not going to get much in the way of writing or editing done. So if you contact me after Thursday, I likely won't respond for awhile, because I'll be enjoying reading on the beach (or I hope my kids will let me read on the beach) and doing my best to not get sunburned. But hopefully it'll provide a lot of time to think and reflect on where I want to go with my writing and I'll come back refreshed and whatever the opposite of burnt out is.