Once more, please forgive the formatting, they're starting to
screen out some of the parameters that Word inserts into the html and I'm too
lazy to change the coding!! –'Veshka
Pilgrimage – The Beginning
Part Two
It's been several months since Lina… died. We laid her to rest in the frozen north, forever captured within a variation of the Dynast Breath spell. I enchanted an amulet to continually hold a Grey Buster spell in place, and the frozen crystal grave was complete. In retrospect, I can only surmise that Zelgadis was too numb from shock to realize what I was doing. You see, I'd cast a Resurrection spell on Lina just before I'd locked her in the crystal. In effect, I'd saved her life… only to lock her away alive within a prison of ice.
I couldn't bear to feel her die.
Even now, I'm vaguely aware of her, that link diminished over time and distance. But I can still feel a vagueness of her presence when I am tired, just before I fall asleep.
I remember the horror that washed over her, snapping her back into herself when the Demon King forced her to stab Gourry.
Gourry leapt for Lina, intent on knocking her out again. "Amelia! We have to do some-!"
Those blank eyes were turned to him, white-gloved hands holding the dagger that was firmly embedded under his breastplate armor.
The color drained from his face and he staggered back, the dagger still in her hands, his blood staining her gloves. "Lina…" Gourry said, staggering forward, obviously in pain, but still unwilling to give up on her.
I felt the angry rush of despair crash through her, felt her draw upon the power of Chaos within her and displace the Demon King. I knew it was only temporary, and I started to run towards her. If only I could get to her before the Demon King took over!
Like a bad dream, everything moved in slow motion. Zelgadis was at Gourry's side, casting a recovery spell to heal the dagger-wound, but Lina… Lina looked at her hands and the dagger. Gourry's blood… on my gloves… She turned the dagger, as if looking at it. But I sensed it, through the strange link that had formed; I knew what she was going to do.
I screamed and Zelgadis turned to see as Lina brought the dagger to her chest. A fleeting thought touched my mind, and suddenly time moved too fast for me to catch her. The dagger found its home, and she started to fall.
Zelgadis and Gourry both moved like lightning, catching her before she hit the ground. But it was too late; she'd known precisely where to place the blade. Even if I could save her… the Demon King would take over. I ran up to them, tears streaming down my cheeks.
She smiled so slightly, whispering, "I'm sorry…" before slipping into that bleak darkness that precedes death.
But I couldn't let her go. I cast the resurrection spell as I pulled out the dagger, and pretended that it was too late. I lied to Zelgadis and Gourry, drawing on my inner anger to cast the Dynast Breath and encase her in crystal ice.
I alone knew that she was still alive.
Lost in that twilight, suspended between life and death, but ultimately still alive.
In the months that passed, we continued to travel. I know that Zelgadis blamed himself, as much as I tried to tell him that it wasn't anything that he had done.
"Damn it, Amelia! Don't you see? The only reason we headed in that direction to begin with was because Lina had heard of a lost library that supposedly had texts on chimeras."
I sighed, looking at Zelgadis. Anger burned in his eyes, his very stance stiff and angry. "But, Zelgadis… we couldn't have known. We all made mistakes that day… it's not any one person's fault!"
"Guys, don't fight. There's no point to it. Lina's gone," Gourry's voice was empty, and I longed to tell him the truth: that Lina was only suspended between life and death until I could figure out a way to release her from the Demon King's possession.
I looked over to Gourry. He'd lost some weight, lost that light in his eyes that had shone so fiercely before. He was alive in body, but his spirit had taken a hard blow… to reveal the lie would only do more harm. With a sigh, I shook my head.
Something flashed through the link, as if Lina had saved up her energy and sent me a wealth of information. I blinked, absorbing it and understanding.
I stood and looked to my two remaining companions. "I'm going back. I'm going back to the castle. There's something that I must do. For Lina."
I couldn't explain it to them, they wouldn't understand. But somehow I knew that I must do something, and I knew how to do it. It would cripple me for years, but that was a small price to pay for what I had to do.
I had to destroy the Demon King of the North.
And Lina had told me how.
I went to the town's magic shop and spent more money than I had ever seen Lina possess. Even Zelgadis' eyebrows went up when the shopkeeper finally calculated the price. I paid it without word, signing the document and pressing the Seal of Saillune into the wax. My Daddy would pay it and complain about it later.
I didn't let it bother me.
The next stop was a clothier's. I exchanged my old white and pink outfit for a blue tunic and solid black pants. Over the tunic went a tight black bodice and then a belt, which housed the only weapon that I would ever allow myself to touch: the weapon that would help put an end to the Demon King.
If it hadn't been Lina, I never would have touched the dagger. The reasons aren't important. They belong to a different story.
At my throat went a talisman that supposedly came from the Kataart Mountains area, and thought to be a fragment of the Water Dragon King. It felt familiar, like the touch of Auntie Aqua's hand on my shoulder, so I almost believed it.
Bracers went around my wrists, laced tight and with inlaid orihalcon tracing the magical runes and symbols that I had dictated to the crafter. They were Chaos wards, expressly designed for one use.
A black cloak completed the clothing, but mine wasn't nearly as impressive as Lina's. Silver threads worked quiet spells around me, weaved into the fabric as it was created. I did not flinch at the cost. The work was well done, the Workings held true.
At this point, Zelgadis was obviously alarmed, but tactfully saying nothing. He still hadn't deciphered what I was doing, even though the clues weren't hidden from him.
In the morning, I finished my preparations and went for one last purchase: a half-staff of oak wood. This was less a necessity, and more a trivial item designed for me alone. I had an orihalcon gem setting placed in the end and put a special sapphire in the metal working. While the link with Lina was still active, there was a tiny spark of life within the gem. It alone could tell me when it was time. But that role would be played out in the years to come… after I succeeded in my duty.
Standing in the road, looking out towards the Kataart Mountains, I was nothing remotely like the girl who had limped into the town a week ago, crying and lost, weeping for the loss of her friend. My dedication and decision had changed me in that week, forcing me to grow into shoes that I had never intended to wear, but now fit all too well.
I had stepped away from white magics and become a sorceress.
Zelgadis walked up and looked at me quietly, those silent eyes taking in my change and one stony eyebrow lifted as his eyes met mine. "You can't become a sorceress in one day, Amelia."
I smiled thinly. It wasn't a pretty smile, and I could tell that it left him decidedly uneasy. "I am what I am, Zelgadis. And I am royally pissed off."
Gourry was completely clueless, and had managed to arrive for my last comment. With a frown, he scratched his head. "But you are Royalty, Amelia…"
I turned, not even phased by Gourry's non sequitur. "Yes, I am, Gourry. Yes, I am," Straightening my shoulders, I started to walk back towards the castle. I had a date with a Demon.
The trip to the castle was a quiet one, Zelgadis and Gourry each lost to whatever thoughts that they might have had about this. As for myself, I focused on the task at hand, preparing myself mentally for what was to come. I would have to challenge the Demon King of the North in his own castle, for he could not leave the grounds. I was pretty sure that he couldn't leave that room, and I knew that I couldn't let him touch me. If he touched me, it was over. So that wasn't an option.
At the gates of the castle, I turned and looked at Zelgadis and Gourry. "You don't have to come any further. This isn't your fight."
Gourry looked to me, and for the first time in a week, I saw the old light flash in his eyes. "That monster took Lina away. That makes it my fight."
Zelgadis simply nodded in concurrence. He didn't need to say anything.
I nodded and turned back to the gates. "Then the line is drawn here. So it begins."
The room hadn't changed; had I expected it to? Perhaps, but perhaps not. As I entered the room, the wards woven into the cloak began to glow, casting an eerie light about me. They were, however, for more than just effect: they allowed me to see without casting a Light spell.
Zelgadis obliged, however, and the secondary wards in the cloak began the near futile effort of keeping me protected.
"Demon King of the North, prepare yourself. I'm sending you back to the hell that you came from."
And so I began the spell. Silent at first, the words only within my mind. I could not let them know what it was that I was casting until it was beyond the point where they could stop me.
I drew the dagger, focusing my will into it, keeping just out of the reach of the Demon King who glared at me in impotent fury. He knew.
Mother
of all Creation, shining gold on the dark sea of Chaos…
Lord of Nightmares, heed my call.
My voice was a whisper now, the words that must be vocalized would be. I had to embrace the chaos within me, that force of will which allowed me to have no nature but that which I chose, that force of Self which was alien to the Demons and the Dragons, alien to the Mazoku, but such an integral part of us Humans.
"Let rise Your wrath against one who has opposed you."
The dagger in my hand began to glow with a faint yellow sheen. It was working.
"Grant me the Sword of Darkness and Chaos."
I heard Zelgadis' sharp intake of breath as he realized what it was that I was doing: I was casting the Laguna Blade with an oath bond. My very nature would change, and with that, my magic.
"I pledge myself to you, bind myself to you!"
The words were loud now, the power swallowing me, catching me in waves and washing over me. But I knew to focus on the dagger until the magic path was laid clear.
"Let our power become one as we walk the path of destruction!"
Gourry clued in, horror etching itself across his face. "Amelia!!"
"By your great power, let us deliver the final blow!" I cried as Zelgadis grabbed Gourry, keeping the swordsman from reaching me.
"It's too late!" I heard him call to Gourry just as I called the blade from nothingness.
"Laguna Blade!"
It hurt to look at it, the darkness laced with yellow fire. I felt it reach within me for my emotions, and suddenly I understood. Chaos was the product of rampant Human emotions… which Mazoku and the others could never understand. Willingly I gave it my love, my despair, my pain at losing Lina.
The Blade answered my heart, and with my bracers shining brightly, I swung the Blade down upon the Demon King of the North.
For a moment, a brief shimmer of the One shone in my mind, and then the Blade cut through the Demon King and darkness swallowed us all.