"We've been going straight for HOURS now! We can't possibly be going straight because this is a CIRCULAR tower!" Lina whined, stomping her foot. Gourry was looking wilted and Amelia was as well.
"Well... Damn," Zelgadis said softly in response. Looking up, he still could not see any sort of ceiling. He made his way over to the wall, looking down at the tiles and walking along toward the next door. They'd untied themselves long ago, having not come into any more traps for the past few hours.
"Double Damn! We've been walking in circles!" Zelgadis exclaimed from the corner.
"What?! How? We've been walking in a straight line!!" Lina screamed at him.
"Come over here." Zelgadis said, squatting in the corner. The others made their way over, looking down as Zelgadis took out a piece of string, showing them that the corner tile was not an exact square, but tilted on one end yet flush against both walls. "The rooms are tilted slightly and the square tiles gives the impression of a straight room but it's not! Damn." Zelgadis put his hands on his knees as he continued to squat there.
"Well then," Lina said, straightening, looking very mad. "Then the only way to go is... UP!" They all looked at her, then up at the dark expanse above them.
"Well, that makes sense," Gourry said. Everyone gave him a long look. "Well- it does!" he defended and they looked at each other.
"Lets get going then," Zelgadis said, standing. "I'll take Gourry. Rei Wing," he grabbed the swordsman under the arms as the blonde grabbed him around the waist and they lifted upward. Lina grabbed hold of Amelia, following.
Amelia murmured softly to herself then opened her hands, a light spell glowing between them as Lina carried her, allowing them to fly and have light at the same time. "I've never seen anywhere so dark before in my life," she commented, feeling scared as the floor disappeared from sight.
"Over there- A hole in the ceiling," Zelgadis said, floating toward it.
Canthrea appeared beside him, "Ahha, the mighty freak has reached his limit of intellect!"
"What do you mean? I figured it out," Zelgadis defended, glaring at her as she simply floated upwards at the same rate as him.
"It took you long enough, certainly." Canthrea continued to smirk.
Gourry blushed deeply, "Woah there, Zel, not while I'm hanging like this please!" Zelgadis flushed bright red as well and Canthrea disappeared, cackling in mirth.
"What're you doing?! What'd you do to set that mad woman off like that?" Lina called up at them.
"Nothing Lina," Gourry called, covering for Zelgadis who was so embarrassed he was unable to speak. The dark tunnel opened up to a large room suddenly. The floor was tiled in a star pattern around the hole they just entered from in the center. Zelgadis set Gourry down and landed as well, huffing, he stomped off to somewhere else.
Lina set Amelia down, though it wasn't the lightest of landings. "What's with Zel?" the red-headed sorceress asked of the blonde swordsman.
Gourry was still blushing faintly, "I think that Catran woman made him mad," he said, shrugging, though it was slightly obvious he was lying, but Lina had the feeling she didn't want to know. She shrugged as well, looking around. None of them bothered to correct Gourry on the Silver Lady's name, seeing as how he would forget again anyway.
The lights suddenly came on, leaving the quartet blinking and covering their eyes from the light after so long in the dark. The room was rounded, like the tower itself, there were the outlines of doors in the walls all around, but there seemed to be no way to open them. Zelgadis was the first to recover from the sudden light change and found himself standing in front of one of the doors. Running his fingers along the bricks and paint, he pondered how to open the doors.
"Ah! You've finally made it to the top, have you? Congratulations. You are the first to survive," Canthrea said, simply appearing in the center of the room, floating over the hole as if it were solid floor.
"So now that we're up here, can you tell us the truth?" Lina asked.
Canthrea paused a moment, thinking, "I suppose I could, considering that you did get past all the traps and puzzles relatively unharmed." She smiled, favoring Zelgadis with a long look, causing him to blush once again. She laughed softly to herself. "Yes. I will tell you the truth now."
"Where's the book?!" Lina bounced from foot to foot like an excited child, her hair bobbing wildly.
Canthrea laughed aloud this time. "Any other questions?"
"Where is your body?" Zelgadis asked.
"This way," she said, turning and walking over to one of the doors on the other side of the room. She pointed to a brick beside the door. "Press that and the door will open."
Zelgadis looked at her warily and she gave him a sweet smile, which caused him to flush yet again. Zelgadis pressed the brick, ready to jump to the side should anything unpleasant come out. Nothing did. He crept into the room, the others following.
"Lookit all the books!" Lina gasped, dashing over to one of the bookcases and carefully prying one of the dusty books off the shelf. The dust covering the floor was thick, and puffed up in clouds whenever someone stepped. The room was once again round with the star pattern in the center of the floor. The majority of the tiles were butter yellow the star dark blues and light greens. The walls were the usual bricks, but were painted a creamy white. Near the bookcase was a desk covered in things as well as dust. Off on one side of the room was a bed with silver hair trailing off the edge.
Zelgadis made his way over, finding Canthrea sprawled across the bed, seemingly asleep. Her sheet was covering most of her body, that being all of her except the top of her head. Slowly, he reached forward, pulling the sheet back. He would have pulled it back further, but he found out that some people sleep completely in the nude, Canthrea was one of them.
He put the sheet down at her shoulders and glanced toward Amelia, Gourry, and Lina. The tiny sorceress was busy ogling over the books while Gourry and Amelia were poking at the things that littered the desk near the bookshelf, completely oblivious to Zelgadis.
Zelgadis looked down at the woman who seemed to sleep peacefully. Gently he shook her, "Hey-" he said softly. She didn't even twitch an eyelid. Thinking back, Zelgadis remembered an incredibly stupid fairy tale where a beautiful princess had been trapped in a tower and put to sleep. The only way she could be awakened was by a kiss from a prince. Zelgadis admitted that he was no prince, but perhaps the kiss would work.
He knelt on the bed slowly so as not to disturb the dust and hesitated. He couldn't quite believe what he was about to do. Zelgadis's stomach clenched with nervousness. If Amelia saw me do this, she'd have a fit, Zelgadis thought, blinking, Why did I just think that? Who cares what Amelia thinks! With that, he swept down, placing a gentle kiss upon Canthrea's lips.