Chapter 38! …I'm too tired to write a creative note… Anyway, the characters aren't mine, I'm just having some fun with them! Enjoy the chapter!
38- Divide and Conquer
Lina began to wake up the next morning, taking a moment to remember what had happened the night before. That would explain why Gourry was sleeping next to her. She could feel a person watching her as well, though she assumed it to be her over-protective companion.
However, it took her a rather short time to realise that it wasn't Gourry.
"AAAAAAAAAAAH~!"
Lina's scream echoed through the hallway. Gourry, who had just been asleep, was awake and alert in an instant, grabbing Lina defensively.
"Lina? What's going on? What's wro- AH~!"
"Tsk, tsk… so much screaming…" Xellos sighed. "Don't you think other people are trying to sleep? Honestly…"
"X-Xellos! Where did you come from?" Lina gasped.
"Uh… the hallway?" Xellos ventured.
"No, I mean seriously! Where'd you come from?"
"…Lord Beastmaster's imagination?" he tried again.
"Xellos! This is no time to be funny!" Lina spat. "What are you doing in our room?"
"Oh, I just came in to say 'good morning." Xellos replied, smiling. He paused for a minute, and then said "Good morning."
"XELLOS!" Lina growled. "I've got enough to deal with right now! I can't spend all my time having to mess with you! FIREBALL!"
She, Gourry, and Xellos paused, all waiting for the ensuing explosion. However, when that explosion didn't happen, they all seemed to look around in confusion.
"What in the…?" Lina murmured, staring at her hands. "What happened to my magic? I said Fireball, darn it! Come on!"
Xellos watched in curiosity as she produced a few assorted sparks, but nothing big enough to be considered a 'Fireball.'
"Interesting…" he murmured. "So the diseases have an effect on magical powers, it seems…"
"Disease? Because I'm sick? Is that why I can't use my magic?" Lina gasped.
"Well I would assume that's the case, since I haven't the slightest idea why else you wouldn't have your powers. Do you?" Xellos replied.
"No, none." Lina shook her head reluctantly.
"Yeah, me neither." Gourry agreed. "I mean, you've still got at least a week before you should lose your power agai-"
WHACK!
"Shut up, Gourry. The fact is that I should have my powers, but don't seem to be able to use them. We don't need your commentary." Lina spat.
"S-sorry…" Gourry replied, rubbing his head. Lina certainly was getting good with pillows.
"Well, reasons notwithstanding, this is a problem…" Xellos continued. "We should probably talk with Zelgadis and Amelia about it…"
"Yeah. I'd better not be the only one whose magic is affected by this!" Lina growled.
Lina was both relieved and disturbed to find out that she wasn't.
"It does look like my magic is affected somewhat too." Amelia sighed.
"I can't even make a fireball either!" Zara complained weakly.
"And even my powers are suppressed to some extent." Zelgadis agreed.
"You're not really sick, are you?" Pokota asked anxiously, sitting on Zel's head.
"Well, just a little bit- enough that I notice it. I think the fact that I'm part demon is what's keeping me from getting too sick, and losing the majority of my magic, like the others." Zelgadis replied.
"So what is there to be done about it?" Amelia asked.
"Destroy Vireas?" Xellos shrugged.
"And how the heck are we supposed to do that without our magic?" Lina snapped.
"Well, you've still got me, Pokota, who can't get sick since he's a stuffed animal, and Filia. Plus Elmyria and Lorelei could help if I asked them." Xellos replied.
"Lorelei! Where is she?" Zara asked.
"At the moment? Aiding Lord Beastmaster in doing some logical work They're doing their best to find any leads regarding the whereabouts of Vireas
"So you're going to make us sit back and take a sick day while you go out and try to save the world? I don't think so!" Lina exclaimed.
"Well of course not! We need all the help we can get!" Xellos defended. "In fact, I have a few ideas as to where you can go to gather information. The faster we can get our hands on whatever-this-is and destroy it, the faster we can get all these sick people well again!"
Lina raised an eyebrow. "Xellos, why do you care about getting sick people well? I thought you might enjoy it. "
"Um… I'm going to go with 'that's a secret." Xellos answered playfully.
"He's not concerned with the health of the overall population- he just wants to make sure that Vireas doesn't manage to take over the world. Xellos is just using the sick people as a way of encouraging us to help him." Zelgadis stated.
"Zelgadis~!" Xellos whined. "That was a secret!"
"It was kind of obvious." Zelgadis replied.
Xellos sighed. "I suppose it was. I was surprised that Miss Lina didn't catch on at first."
"W-well… that was… I'm sick, okay?" Lina defended. "Don't judge me!"
"That's eleven." Pokota said.
"Oh, you shut up! Quit counting already! Come here, you stupid stuffed animal!" Lina growled, reaching for Pokota. The small animal jumped up from his perch and hovered overhead, so Lina ended up knocking over Zelgadis instead.
"Ow… geez, Lina! Pokota!" Zelgadis sighed, picking himself up. "Would you two quit arguing?"
"If Pokota stops being stupid!" Lina yelled.
"You're the one being stupid! I'm just keeping track of it!" Pokota yelled back.
"Miss Lina, Pokota, please…" Amelia began, trying to calm her companions.
"Excuse me," a voice interrupted. The group, sans Lina and Pokota, who were still arguing and fighting, turned to address the person. The maid continued. "There are guests for the prince and princess… are they well enough to receive them?"
"Guests?" Zelgadis asked. "Yes, we're well enough for them to visit- but what kind of guests are you talking about?"
"Erm, I'm not sure." The maid confessed. "It's a tall, blonde woman and a short, dark-haired woman… and they seem to have some sort of important item, though I'm not sure what it is…"
"Oh! That would be Filia, Elmyria, and Val!" Xellos exclaimed. "Those are my guests."
"Filia's our friend too. She can be our guest." Zelgadis growled, unhappy with the thought of welcoming 'Xellos' guests.'
"Well, of course." Xellos nodded, sarcastically apologetic. "Sorry for being possessive of your friends, Zelgadis."
The chimera shot a glare at the monster, but didn't say anything more. "Just bring them in, please." he told the maid.
"At once, sir!" the maid bowed and left.
In a matter of minutes, Filia and Elmyria had joined them. "Oh, my goodness!" Filia exclaimed, hearing of the recent events. "Sick and with weakened magic? That's not good!"
"Tell me about it!" Lina groaned. "I mean, I'm feeling way better than I was yesterday, but still…"
"Miss Lina, at what point did your magic begin to phase out?" Xellos asked.
"Uh… I don't know…" Lina admitted. "I really hadn't tried to use it since we left to visit Taforashia… so I have no idea exactly when it faded out…"
"I just discovered that I couldn't use magic this morning." Zara said.
"I know that mine was working just fine up until four days ago when I began getting sick." Amelia added.
"And I've noticed the effects just a little while shorter than Amelia has…" Zelgadis said.
"That probably means that Amelia made you sick." Xellos pointed out.
Amelia gasped. "What? No! Oh, Zelgadis! I'm so sorry~!" she hugged him frantically.
"Amelia, please… it's not your fault…" Zel replied, attempting to comfort the princess. He turned back to the source of the problem. "Xellos, shut up!"
"Oh, well pardon me. I was just being logical." Xellos defended.
"You cruel monster! There was still no need for that!" Filia snapped.
"Amelia, it's really not your fault. I promise…" Zelgadis continued trying to calm her down.
"Anyway, anyway~" Xellos said again, trying to get their attention. "The fact is that we have so much work to do if we are going to find Vireas before he is released. On that note, I have located a temple, just a couple days' journey northwest of here, in Ralteague. They are apparently skilled at locating magical items of great potency. I think it would be a good idea for you- or at least a group of you who are well enough to travel- to go and visit, just to see what you can find."
"And why aren't you doing this, Xellos?" Zelgadis asked suspiciously.
"Well, that's because the people at that temple are well-versed in holy magic, and having a monster show up to request help would not exactly be a good idea, now would it?" Xellos pointed out.
"I guess that makes sense…" Zelgadis sighed.
"And in that regard, I happen to have found a group that specialises in black magic, who lives in the far north Kataart Mountains. Since that's much farther away, I figured that those of us who can teleport easily- myself, Filia, and Elmyria- would be best to search there."
"But Xellos, the Kataart Mountains?" Filia protested. "That's demon territory! I-"
"Let me finish, Filia." Xellos continued, quieting her. "Since you are a dragon and would most likely not be welcome by the group of black magic users, I thought it would be a good idea for you to split up and head to Dragon's Peak, to see what, if anything, the dragons there know about this problem."
"But Xellos…" Filia began again. "I… I severed my ties with the dragon race… they may not accept me as a priestess, since I am no longer of the Temple of the Fire Dragon King-"
"But you are one of their own kind, are you not?" Xellos replied. "I see no reason why they would withhold information from you- especially if your intentions are pure. You only wish to make the sick people well and rescue the world from potential danger, don't you?"
"Y-yes…" Filia nodded.
"Good. So, how many of you are going to this temple in Ralteague?" Xellos continued.
"I'm going! I refuse to sit around here like a sick person! I'm doing something about this problem!" Lina exclaimed, jumping up.
Gourry sighed. "I doubt there's anything I can say to convince you otherwise, so I'll just come too."
"Yeah! And I'll help you guys out! Since I can't get sick, that's an advantage." Pokota added, jumping onto Gourry's head.
"Lucky little stuffed toy…" Lina muttered under her breath.
"I'll come as well. Pokota can use magic, but it may not be enough. I'll at least be able to provide a little help in that regard." Zelgadis said.
"And I'll come too!" Amelia said, standing up weakly.
"No." Zelgadis said simply, sitting her down on the bed again.
"Zelgadis, there are people out there who need help! A warrior of Justice cannot sit by and let things happen when people are in need! A true warrior of Justice works against any and every obstacle in order to help society! It is my duty as the Princess of Seyruun, to do everything I can that will make our citizens well again! That is why I must accompany you!"
Zelgadis sighed, defeated. "Alright, alright. You can come with us. But I'm going to keep a close eye on you, okay?"
"Got it! Of course!" Amelia exclaimed.
"And… uh… Zara…" Lina began. "Listen… I think it would be best if you stayed here for a while… just so that you stay safe, and can get better faster. Are you… okay with that?"
The little boy leaned on Lina's arm, with his eyes closed. "I'm sleepy…" he murmured softly.
"Well, I'd take that as a yes." Gourry commented.
"I'd say so." Lina nodded. "I'm just glad that he isn't making a big fuss over us leaving. You know, normally he would."
"I guess the sickness is just affecting him the same way it's affecting everyo-" Gourry sneezed, cutting himself off in the middle of the sentence.
"YOU JELLYFISH! WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT GETTING SICK?" Lina yelled, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt.
"Aww, c-c'mon Lina! That wasn't a 'sick sneeze'… it was a… a… 'regular sneeze'… I'm not sick, I promise!" Gourry defended.
"You'd better not be…" Lina murmured.
As Xellos had told them, the journey did, indeed, take about two days. Their energy seemed to be coming back. This was the case with their magic as well, though Lina's seemed to be returning slower than the others, which irked her greatly. They arrived at the temple a tired bunch, but determined nonetheless.
A young priestess with dark golden hair approached the group as they entered.
"Greetings, travellers." she began. "Welcome. What brings you to this temple? Is it the illnesses that are ravaging the land?"
"Yeah, sort of." Lina replied.
"I see." the priestess sighed sadly. "We've received lots of visitors to this temple asking for help curing their diseases. Unfortunately, our holy magic does not seem to have any effect on the pathogens whatsoever. We can do little to help you, I'm afraid."
"Thanks for the sympathy, but that's not what we're here for." Lina replied.
"Oh?" the young woman asked curiously.
"Yeah!" Pokota exclaimed. "We don't want specific cures for single people, we're trying to fight the root cause of all the epidemics!"
"Root cause?" the priestess gasped. "I had no idea… please, follow me into the library. If there is a root cause of all this disease, I want to know about it!"
Lina and her friends glanced at each other. "Alright…" Zelgadis said. "We'll tell you about it. …and we may want to check out this library…"
"So, Lidya," Lina began, addressing the young priestess who they had informed of the situation. "basically we came here to see if you had information regarding high-capacity magical items. We need any information we can get, in order to apply logic and figure out where Vireas might be hiding. Do you… have any information that might be able to help us…?"
Lidya nodded. "Just look around you. This is entire library is devoted to the storage of information on just that subject."
Lina gasped, looking around at the vast amount of books surrounding them. "A-all of them?"
"It could take weeks just to look through all of them!" Pokota exclaimed.
"I'm sorry that I'm the only one here to assist you." Lidya apologised. "Everyone else at the temple was a well-versed healer… all except for me… so they all went out to help with the plagues while I stayed here to watch over the temple. I'm not good with medical things, it seems…"
"That's alright. Our main concern is the information." Zelgadis replied. "And it would be ever-so-kind of you if you'd allow us access to this library."
"Well, I'm not totally sure I believe this whole story, but it's better than sitting around and doing nothing to help anyone. If it helps with the situation at hand, I'm definitely willing to let you have access to the library. It's all public information anyway, so there's no problem in it. You may certainly have access to it." Lidya nodded.
"Alright! Thanks! That's awesome!" Lina exclaimed.
"But… we still have to look through all these books…" Amelia murmured.
"So many books… it almost hurts to look at them all… much less read them…" Gourry groaned.
"It's actually not a big deal." Zelgadis said. "I've actually gotten pretty good at searching through books to find the information needed. You just need to know where to look to get the right information."
"Well, there's no doubt that Zel is the undisputed expert at information hunting! With his help, we'll be able to find exactly what we're looking for!" Lina exclaimed.
"Right!" Amelia agreed. "We'll be able to find and destroy Vireas for sure! No doubt about it!"
"And I'll help in any way I can." Lidya offered.
"Alright! Thanks! Now we're making some progress!" Lina exclaimed. "Maybe… things are going to turn out alright after all!"
"Oh Xellos… I'm just not sure… I haven't had contact with other dragons in so long… what if they won't accept me? What if they think I'm lying? What if they don't even acknowledge the fact that I'm a dragon-"
"What if you just try going there and finding out for yourself?" Xellos interrupted. The group had made their way to the Kataart Mountains, and were going to split up. "Filia, I'm sure you'll be fine! Dragons are supposed to be a peaceful race, right?"
"They were supposed to be… but that's not always the case… remember?" Filia asked, motioning toward the egg she was carrying.
"Well… look- I've been to Dragon's Peak recently… several years back with Lina and her friends… before they met you, of course. The dragons there are just as I remember them. You should be fine." Xellos replied. "Come now, El-chan. We have work to do as well."
"Y-yes sir…" Elmyria nodded.
"Xellos, wait!" Filia exclaimed. "Don't just go running off, you idiot!"
Xellos paused for a moment. "What is it?" he questioned.
Filia ran up and hugged the monster tightly, much to his surprise. "Thank you…" she murmured.
"What? What did I do?" he stammered, slightly flustered. "All you have to do is talk to the dragons. But, you really can't do that while holding on to me… so if you would please let go now…"
"Thanks for all the support, though." Filia continued, not letting go- much to Xellos' irritation. He quickly phased out of her arms and appeared again behind her. Filia nearly fell over as the object of her affection suddenly disappeared. She quickly caught her balance and spun around.
"Have a good time, Filia dear! Write us a postcard if you'd like!" he laughed.
"Xellos you namagomi, that was cruel!" Filia yelled.
Xellos laughed. "And that, Filia dear, is why you love me!" he teased, appearing beside her to kiss her on the cheek, and then disappearing with Elmyria in tow. Filia looked around for them for a minute, but they were gone.
"Dang it! That stupid monster!" Filia growled to herself. "I won't let him get to me… I've got more important things to worry about now…"
Finally, she turned around toward the direction of Dragon's Peak. Finally, after all this time, she was going to see another dragon.
She wondered if she really wanted to.
(A/N: I feel bad for Filia… her situation is rather difficult… though I also feel bad for Lina and her troubles with her magic! Not good!)