Secret Reflections
Xenith paced about the room seemingly unaware of the world around her.
This was actually quite true. Filia knew about her, and she had almost
revealed herself when Naga showed up. Even Gourry had almost figured it out.
She stopped looked over at the where the blonde swordsman sat and rolled her
eyes. Well....he had sort of almost figured it out. He had been so close
too, why couldn't he just figure it out?
"Back to the problem," she mumbled to herself. She stopped in front of a
table and concentrated on a spoon. Or rather what had once been a spoon.
She weaved ties about it, the same dimensional magics that dragons and mazoku
used to teleport. That down she tried to teleport it...again. She expected
to twist into some newly deformed shape, but instead nothing happened. She
blinked, tried to teleport it again, and nothing happened.
~Hey Xellos, can you come over here? I want to try something.~
~We're doing real work over here,~ her brother responded. ~Not playing
with spoons.~ Xenith narrowed her eyes and tried something more than a
little audacious. She looked over at where Xellos was standing with the
others, reached out and then he was in front of her, and not very happy about
it.
"Okay, show me what you want me to see and then," the younger mazoku
weaved the effect about herself, ignoring her brother.
"Teleport me," she said. Xellos looked at her curiously and attempted to
do so, nothing happened. He frowned. "It worked! I locked the space!"
"This is very impressive, but can you teleport yourself?" Xenith's
escatic smile faded a little and then she slumped.
"Uh...no, but at least this means that we can keep any of us from being
snatched away by Sherra." Xellos nodded and examined the younger mazoku.
She was inordinately happy at having discovered a new application for her
powers. "And since we can teleport we don't really need it."
"This is usful," he admitted. "Now, for my own curiousity, how do you
know Amelia's sister?"
"I don..."
"I am fairlly aware of the 'Great Naga's' career," he noted. "She
traveled with Lina Inverse for a time, and I know it can't have coincided
with your life until now....unless."
"Unless wha..." She glanced over to see Zelgadis striding over towards
her. The tension and discomfort on his face was enough to tell her what was
on his mind. She didn't need to feel his emotions.
"While we seem to holding this little social discussion over here, I
suppose this is as good a time as any too..."
"Great, she told you." Xenith sighed. Xellos noted the surprise in
Zelgadis.
"Yes," Xenith through her arms up in exasperation. Xellos sat back and
watched, realizing that his "sister" had made a series of assumptions just
now. "But I guess now isn't the time to discuss that." Xellos smiled as
they looked at him.
"Excuse me," they turned to look at Amelia and Naga. "Are we going to
figure out a way to take the kingdom back from Tes or are we going to
gossip?" The chimera and two mazoku sweatdropped.
"Should it be safe now?" Lina scratched her head and scanned about for
the source of the voice.
"Oh Xellll-chan, where are you? Oh...its YOU." Nuriko sniffed. "Have
you seen that darling Xellos anywhere?"
"Well, I thought I heard him just a moment ago," Lina scratched her head.
"Shouldn't you all be heading back to your own world pretty soon?"
"I guess they should," Lina sighed. "But I'd probably just be a threat
to the business."
"You can afford it."
"But Janner and Leila and all the rest will lose their jobs and I can't
do that to them."
"Then why not fight in this revolution you have going on?"
"You mean HURT people?" Nuriko rolled her eyes and stomped off in search
of Xellos.
"Is she gone?" Lina looked around again, scratched her head and then
looked up to see Xellos clinging to a rafter.
"Is who gone?"
"Nuriko of course."
"Oh, Nuriko? Yeah he's gone." shadow-Xellos blinked and shook his head
clear.
"He?"
"Boy he's really high up there isn't he?"
"Miaka-chan, Tamehome! I was wondering where you were."
"Who's that up there?"
"It's a guest of my darling Lina's, but what he's doing in the structure
of my roof is beyond me." All this talk of high places was making the
shadow-Xellos dizzy.
"It really is high uppppp...." the floor blurred as he began to faint and
crash to the floor. Everybody winced as he smacked into the floor.
"Oh XELL-chan what happened to you?" and everybody sweatdropped as
Nuriko tried to shake shadow-Xellos awake.
Sherra woke up slowly, feeling tired and drained. This was
disappointing, she had thought death would be feel more unusual. Then she
felt the restraints around her arms and opened her eyes to see that she was
still deep in the dungeon. She was very much alive and held captive.
"She found me!" She gasped and searched around for the Queen's
diminuitive form. Much to her relief she didn't find Tes.
~Calm down, the chimera saved your life.~
~Why did he do that?~ Then the chimera appeared in the door way, well
not really, but she felt the magic of his invisibility weave. She turned
slowly to face him as he blurred into visibility.
"Feeling better, milady?"
"Get me out of these things!" she strained against the magic-shaped
stone.
"Are you going to be ramming anymore daggers into your chest?"
"Its the only way, I won't find the pledge stone." she said quietly.
"She knew when I was in her room, the stone will be much better guarded. I
die, she dies."
"There will be another way, Lina's friends are close now."
"And they have reason to kill me, I die either way, might as well do it
now."
"I will not have you killing yourself, is that understood?"
"I am NOT one of your servants," Sherra hissed. "And what possible
rea...." Sherra's eyes widened as the shadow-Zelgadis leaned forward and
kissed her full on the mouth. She was too surprised to do anything at first,
but was soon was reciprocating the action. Her arms will still pinned to the
wall so she settled for grabbing the chimera with her legs.
After what seemed an eternity shadow-Zelgadis broke away from her.
Sherra knew he probably just saw her as a possible source of power and
prestige, but he was still the only one other than Duofolger that had treated
her affectionately in the past weeks.
"No suicide, and I'll remove the restraints," he said. She nodded
quietly, still surprised. The stone manacles vanished back into the walls.
Sherra lifted her arms and examined them, they seemed no weaker than the rest
of her body. "If you'll excuse me then milady?" He started to stand up.
"Wait!" Sherra called, grabbing hold of the shadow. It turned around and
looked at her with blank pleasant expression.
"Do you need something?" he asked politely as she pulled him down toward
her.
"Yes," she said simply, silencing any further niceties with a kiss of her
own. This time the chimera didn't pull away.
Tes's magical sight was scanning quickly through the palace. She had to
find the mazoku girl before she tried to kill herself again. It was proving
difficult, Tes knew that she was in America and weak, but that was all she
knew for certain. On a whim she sent the spell down into the dungeons. The
Queen watched as the scrying pool showed the shifting motion. Then suddenly
she halted the movement.
Tes growled as she watched the scene in the scrying pool. She had
underestimated the chimera-shadow. He apparently was involved more directly
than she had thought. Much more direct, they were right in front of her,
clothes scattered, caught in the heat of the moment, unware of the
surrounding world. The Queen traced the little room out of the dungeon and
then jabbed her hand into the scrying pool. The disturbance to the water
ended the spell.
Back to Reflections