Scarred Reflections
They drew glances and looks from almost the moment they were seen on the edge of the town. It was fairly obvious, as they walked, a small crowd was forming with the gaze fixed on the six of them. Filia glanced about nervously, she hadn't seen such a reaction to them before, even when they were travelling with Lina.
"I think we should get inside," the dragon suggested suddenly. "This is getting ugly."
"There's an inn over there," Zelgadis noted.
"Well, I'm certainly getting enough of a meal out here," Xenith muttered.
"What's got these guys so worked up?" Gourry asked as they reached the inn.
"I've never received a welcome like this," Zelgadis admitted as he stepped inside.ahead of Filia. "It appears to be more welcoming in here." He whispered as Filia and Amelia walked in behind him. Xellos followed soon after.
"Well," Xenith addressed Gourry. "Go in."
"You first," the swordsman insisted.
"Hey, jelly-fish brain, I'm mazoku, you're human," she pointed out. "I can take care of myself."
"That's what Lina always said," Gourry countered. Xenith hmphed, and tried to blow a loose bundle of hair out from in front of her eyes.
"Okay, back up together then," she said.
"Allright," and the pair backed into the inn room, and turned to face dozens of drawn swords.
"What is going on here?" Gourry and Xenith turned back to find a similar situation outside, but they had expected that.
"Its her, the Destroyer of Souls." one of the villagers muttered.
"Let's kill her now and be done with it."
"Destroyer of Souls?" Xenith repeated. "That's a new....wait a minute." Amelia seemed pale and shocked at the scene.
"Look again," a shrill voice called from the back. "Notice anything missing. There's no scar." The voice added, exasperated after a few moments silence. The figure walked into the light and revealed herself to be a tall cloaked woman.
"Who are you," Zelgadis demanded. "And what are you talking about."
"Well you KNOW what I'm talking about," the woman laughed. "That madwoman in the palace calling herself Queen. I'm fairly certain you're here for the same reason I am. Getting rid of her."
"You haven't said who you are," Filia commented. The figure started to pull in a breath and Xenith blurt out.
"Oh by Cei...I mean Ruby-Eye, DON'T laugh!"
"Why ever should I not, little girl?"
"This is the rightful ruler of Sailoon, Pretender. Gracia Wil Mylie Sailoon" The figure threw back her hood and loosed a hideous shreiking laugh that had everybody cringing.
"Better known as Naga, the White Serpent!" she announced, then smiled smuggly.
"You mean that you're Amelia's..." Zelgadis started.
"....Sister?" Xenith finished. "You!"
"Yes, she's my sister."
"Out of curiousity," Gourry started, looking at Xenith. "Why are you so surprised?" She twitched and started scratching her head.
"Oh, no reason."
Sherra breathed a sigh of relief as the Queen strode down the hall. She hadn't expected her to still be in this part of the castle. For a moment she wondered just what the woman was doing, but she had more important things to consider right now. She quietly opened the door to the royal chambers. She walked immediately to the sword mounted up on mantle.
~What are you doing HERE.~ Duofolger demanded as she grasped the hilt and scabbard.
"I'm looking for the pledge stone, what does it look like?" She belted the mazoku sword on and began searching the room.
~You can't sense it?~ She stopped and stood up straight for a moment, before continuing searching for the tablet.
"I can barely feed," she said tightly. She paused, frustrated, and scanned the room, her senses were still better than human. If she passed close to something of such high magic as the pledge stone, she'd notice.
Tes frowned, somebody was messing about in her room. Some servant looking for something to steal perhaps. On the other hand, she had felt shadows throughout the palace. She didn't completely trust her husband, she didn't completely trust anyone. She didn't think Zelgadis would stick his neck out to actually help her, but concealing the fact that she was still in the palace, however.
The already terrified courtier pleading his case before her began gagging as an aura of darkness surrounded her. Soon afterward a wailing cry drifted down to the throne room.
"Excuse me," Tes said quietly as she stood up. "It appears that I have business elsewhere." The courtier collapsed to the ground as she phased out to her rooms. She was disappointed to find nothing there. "She was here. She is here. She couldn't have gotten out on her own after " The sword was gone, she came for her sword. The door creaked open and Tes turned to face her husband.
"Sherra is still here, my dear," she smiled at him.
"Quite stupid of her," Zelgadis said. "She should have left the first time."
"She should be lying here in a pained stupor," Tes said wistfully. "Somebody must have dragged her out."
"Surely, you don't suspect me," Zelgadis said.
"Of course not," she said. "You don't have the guts for it." She walked back out of her room. Zelgadis watched her leave before looking about the room himself. He didn't really need his eyes, the scents and sounds about the room were quite definitive on their own. He walked to the huge bed and knelt down to find the mazoku lying there only barely conscious.
"What are you doing," he sighed.
"Pledge..." Zelgadis reached under the bed grabbed her. Pulling the mazoku out as gently as he could manage without her help. He glanced at the door and decided not to risk it. Wrapping a field of invisibility about himself he stepped outside the window and dropped down three floors, enacting a levitate outside another window. He didn't have to worry about any of the servants seeing through his spell, and Tes had eliminated most of the really talented spell casters. Which left only Tes herself, and she probably wouldn't think he do anything like this.
The shadow-Zelgadis didn't stop until he was deep in the dungeons of the palace, in a room that he doubted even Tes knew about. Though now it was well stocked, this is where Sherra had been hiding after she recovered enough to walk out of the servants quarters. Though she probably didn't know that Zelgadis had traced her scent down here.
The chimera was preparing to leave when Sherra grabbed him.
"Why do you keep helping me?"
"A mazoku general is certainly a more powerful and safer ally than a madwoman who's going to bring herself down," he answered. Sherra laughed weakly.
"I failed to kill a dark lord's minion," she whispered. "Dynast won't accept me, not if he doesn't want to give Zelas a reason to fight him."
"You're still safer than Tes," he said. "Why don't you just know why I'm doing this, you're mazoku, you should be able to feel my emotions."
"Just go away," she lay back against her make shift bed and closed her eyes.
"If that's what you want," he said. The chimera walked out of the room. Sherra cracked open her eyes and took Duofolger out of its sheath.
~What are you doing, now?~
"Ending this," she turned the sword's point toward her, and then Duofolger was out of her hands.
~That is the stupidest thing you have yet thought up.~ Sherra ignored the sword and reached for a dagger.
~Get back in here!~ Zelgadis had almost exited the dungeon when the sword's call came. He considered it for a moment, and then ran back to Sherra's shelter. The mazoku was reclining against the wall with a dagger in her chest. There was no blood but a stream of shadow stuff that drifted like mist from the wound.
"Damn it," he knelt before her and carefully drew the dagger out of the wound. "How much did Tes take from her? This isn't even an enchanted dagger." His hand covered in white glow as he reached out to heal the wound, then he pulled back. A recovery might just finish the job.
~Are you just going to sit there and watch her die then?~ The shadow-Zelgadis narrowed his eyes and felt the rage grow inside him, how dare that tool insult his chivalry? Then he blinked, and let the rage build.
"Stupid mazoku! What do you think you're doing?" The flow of black mist seemed to slow as the shadow's flow of anger continued. Eventually it stopped completely. She remained unconscious, which made Zelgadis's next task easier. Chanting quietly Zelgadis magically reformed the stone about her into restraints. Under normal circumstances he wouldn't consider the manacles capable of holding a mazoku, but then Sherra had already proven rather weak.
"Tell me when she wakes up," he told the sword. He came out of the dungeon and to the rooms above to find chaos. He stepped out of his reformed invisibilty and caught a servant. "What's going on?"
"The Queen collapsed!" Zelgadis let go of the frightened man and followed to the source of the chaos. Tes lay in a stupor similar to the one he had left Sherra in. Unfortunately he was fairly certain that Tes would recover just as well as Sherra, and probably faster.
"Everybody leave," he shouted. "Don't worry about the Queen, I'm sure she'll be fine." The horde of guards and servants glanced at each other before complying with the chimera's order.
Zelas blinked open one eye and cautiously removed one hand from her head. For a moment she had been about to reprimand Xenith for trying to stop the woman from laughing. After all, how bad could a laugh be that she should risk being recognized? Then, of course, Naga had laughed.
"Hmmm, I suppose its stopped," she said. "Best not to listen in while that one's around I guess." She reclined back and created another wine glass to replace the one that had broken when Naga had unleashed her metal bending tones.
This was turning out a lot more profitable than she had originally thought. She had finally brought Lina into the fold. Dynast had been forced to give up his general, leaving him in no condition to stop her plans. She had yet to determine whether the appearance of Amelia's true sister was good a thing or bad thing. She could determine that after her children and their little pack finished off the Queen.
"It shouldn't take much longer," Xelas laughed. She sipped the wine a little and then considered her children. "Maybe I should go ahead and listen in for a moment longer."
Gourry was thinking, which surprisngly enough was a rather common thing for him to be doing. He was thinking almost constantly, common subjects being food, swordfighting and Lina. It was just that he didn't really apply his brain to anything outside those subjects. It never really seemed important to him. Which is why he didn't really understand why he was paying Xenith much mind, and it was probably also why he wasn't giving the issue as much intense study as she should.
He thought about Xenith's sudden outburst trying to keep Naga from laughing. Obviously she knew Naga from somewhere, but where. Xellos said that Xenith was created just right after Lina's....death. And she joined them right afterwards. So there was no way she should have been able to meet Naga before, unless.
"By Ceipheed, there's only one way Xenith could have recognized you," he shouted standing up from the table. Filia glanced at Xenith, who was staring in shock at Gourry.
"And how is that?"
"You must be Zelas Metallium!"
Somewhere on an island far away, a dark lord face faulted. This was about the standard reaction within the inn room as well.
"NO SHE'S NOT ZELAS METALLIUM!!!" Xenith, Xellos, Amelia and a fourth voice shouted.
"That sounded like..." Xenith started.
"...Juuou-sama?" Xellos finished. But found nothing behind them.
Tes's eyes snapped open, instantly filling with rage.
"She DARED?!?"
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