They had moved into the kitchen, the dining table making it easier for them to plan and giving an heir of officialness to the whole thing. Though the table was round, Lina still seemed to be seated at the head. Her hand moved to rub her temple, and her hand twitched absently, her mind expecting a pen to be there. Finally, after the initial silence, she spoke, "Alright, as much as I hate to admit it, it seems something's gonna have to be done. Otherwise, we'll never get these two away from us." She cast a glare to the intruders-that-weren't-really-intruders-but-were-because-technically-uh-dammit....
An odd look had come upon Amelia's face, her voice carrying something of question, something not like her at all, "Lina, you say we, but who do you mean, actually?"
She blinked, an edge creeping into her own voice, "What exactly are you implying?"
"Nothing much." She shrugged, but her tone belied her words, "Just that it seems Gourry and I have been included in something we didn't consent to..."
Zelgadiss cast her a cool glare, unsoftened by his human face, "No one's asking you to stay, Amelia."
It was now Amelia's turn to be confused, "But, I..."
Hmm. As much as he hated to do it, Xelloss took Zelgadiss' side, "He's right, princess. You can leave any time you want to. Though I'll admit you, or some semblance thereof, have been a help to us in the past, it doesn't mean we'll force you into something unwilling. Just why Ido/i you stay?"
"Because...Because Lina's my friend, and I don't want you two freaks pulling anything on her!" She felt as if she were on trail.
"If she's such a friend, why urge her against this? Something that could well be even more dangerous if left alone."
"Why should we believe you? For all we know, you're just two criminals ready to rob her blind!"
Xel chuckled darkly, a decidedly un-friendly look making his violet eyes shine, "Even in a different world you still look for enemies that aren't there, eh, little princess?"
"Stop calling me that!"
"Go on, then, run home and do your duty as a princess and a daughter. You're father would want it that way, and we couldn't have daddy being upset, now could we?"
The tension was building again, dark undercurrents lancing through the air invisibly. Lina got a hard look in her eye and Gourry stood, Amelia gasping for breath like a fish out of water for some reason, the water she was lacking quickly building in her eyes. She decided then and there was something about the purple-eyes man, something dark and inconceivable she couldn't quite place. Even Zelgadiss looked slightly surprised at the coldness in the once-priest's voice.
"Xelloss!" Lina?s voice was half astonishment, half growl.
"You want to say that again to me, man, instead of a little girl?" Gourry had taken his stance, ready to beat the man senseless should he be asked to. Ever the protector...
"No, Gourry..." Amelia's voice was eerily calm, her face now settled into a cool glower to rival Zel's own. She had seen Naga superimposed over Xelloss, but the words were the same. She straightened her shoulders, taking on a positively royal position, even though she herself couldn't see it. Even her voice befitted a princess...No, a queen, "I do Inot/i follow my father's wishes, only my own. I'm coming."
Zelgadiss, though he sighed inwardly in relief, was still unsure as to whether the girl would feel the same later on, "Amelia, are you sure....?"
She flashed him a warm smile, making a victory sign, "Don't worry, Mr. Zelgadiss, I'll be fine..."
Blush, "I wasn't exactly worrying..."
Gourry sat back down, confused as to the sudden conclusion of the argument, though he still kept his gaze on Xelloss. Said man merely smirked, as Lina once again took control, "Well, now that Ithat's/i dealt with..."
"A-HEM!"
"Geese, sorry Ame...Gourry, are you gonna get down on this?"
"Huh?"
Sweatdrop, "Are you gonna come along? I'd like you to, but..."
He blinked in that way only football players and their cheerleading counterparts can, "Was I ever Inot/i coming, Lina?"
"Ah....nevermind. You satisfied Amelia?"
She nodded.
"Good then...Er, Ianyways/i I guess the best question is what we should do...Any suggestions?"
It was then that Amelia noticed the clock, "Uh, Lina? It's nearly nine..."
Lina and the other's hadn't noticed the time had gone by. Zel glanced outside at the sun, hanging low above the western horizon and moaned softy. Lina sunk into her chair, "We can't really do anything 'till tomorrow, then...Do you two have a place to stay?" She half-dreaded the answer.
"Yes," said Zelgadiss.
"No," said Xelloss.
Zelgadiss blushed.
"Fine then, you guys can stay with me...In the basement," Xel's face fell.
"I'm staying too, Lina!"
"Me too!"
"Amelia, phone you're dad and make sure it's okay. Gourry, you can't."
"Why not?"
"Because, jellyfish, you're a Iboy/i!!"
"Umm....okay....Hey! Wait! They're boys too!"
Rolling her eyes, Lina slumped to the table, "Gourry, just go home, but be here first thing tomorrow morning."
"Okay, Lina...If that's what you want..." He stood, "I should be getting back anyways, mom probably has dinner ready." Brushing coldly past the two, he gave them both a look completely contrast to his stature as he moved out the back door and into the darkened daylight.
Phil had said it would be wonderful for Amelia and Lina to spend the night studying, and many plans were made, though not quite with the school's interests at heart. It was decided that the best place to start would be Rezz' bar, the Dragon Slave, since it seemed familiar to Zel and Xelloss, and since Lina knew all the dark types lurked around there, and the well of information the patrons held was unrivaled.
It was an odd night, to say the least. Having two virtual strangers sleeping in her house wasn't exactly a comforting thought, but Amelia and Lina did extremely well under the circumstances.
A stroke of good luck came with a phone call from Lina's sister, Luna. She had stopped by before Lina had come home from school and invited their parents to her boyfriend's house for the dreaded "Parents meet parents" night. Luna had been with Seph Fied for almost two years, and they liked each other quite a bit, though from what Lina could tell, with her minimal little sister connections, they seemed more like extremely close friends than anything sexual. Regardless, the house was her own. She had told her mom that Amelia was spending the night, but said nothing about Zel and Xelloss, since it probably wouldn't have gone over well.
Choosing the safest path she could think of, Lina suggested they watch a movie 'After, that is, insisting the 'boys' keep their weapons, the staff and sword, by the door. Aimlessly grabbing one from the cabinet, she suffered through "Chasing Amy" and the consequential comments arousing form the peanut gallery known as Xelloss. After the first bit, Zelgadiss had decided he'd had enough, and ventured back into the kitchen to see about making them all something to eat and examining the strange devices within. In reality, he just wanted to try the coffee grinder again.
After dealing with the resounding curses for a few moments Amelia, who had had quite enough of the movie and lewd remarks, entered the kitchen to see if she could help. She saw there a rather put-out looking Zelgadiss sucking on his finger, which had been burned by the evil known as the oven. She blushed despite herself, finding this stranger oddly alluring, even after he had spoken to her so tersely. He must have been hurt deeply, to be so cold...Feeling her ears burning even more, she coughed, pushing the thread of thought to the back of her mind.
Zel turned, startled, "Amelia?"
Cough cough again. Geeze, you'd think this girl was a smoker, "I didn't mean to bug you, but I figured you might want some help"
He almost smiled, "That's very kind of you to act towards a stranger, Amelia..."
What? Oh, he wasn't going to put any moves on Iher/i, "Well, I-I also didn't want you to make a mess of Lina's kitchen, or steal her silverware or anything..."
"I see..."
"..."
"..."
There's that cough again, "What are you cooking."
Zelgadiss again ran a human hand through human hair, an unconscious gesture he had had until he was transformed, and now had picked up again without realizing it, "To be honest, I don't know. All this stuff seems, I admit, beyond my ability to understand, though I - " A flash of something akin to realization flashed in his eyes and he mumbled to himself, turning to the stove and examining it as he did so, "Perhaps that's why my magic's stagnant in this world. Hrm..It appears to be nothing more than glass or rock, but it burns anyways, like a heat spell. Perhaps there devices channel the magic through the means of this odd looking plug thing back here and..."
Ri-ight...Weirdo, "Eh-heh...sure. Look, why don't we find something to make. She looked in the contents of the fridge, noting the already thawed steaks, "You like steak?"
"What?"
Oh, please..."Steak, you like it?"
She turned to look upon a raised eyebrow, "What kind of steak?"
"Umm....The kind from cows?"
A sigh of relief escaped his lips, "Yes, that'll be nice. Do you have herbs?"
Removing the meat from the fridge, she could feel herself slipping into the comfortable feeling she had when cooking, and gestured with the vacuum-wrapped package, "In those drawers. I'm not sure what exactly's in there, but there's gotta be something."
Zelgadiss made a non-committal noise when he opened the drawer, picking out this and that, "Are you sure that'll be enough?"
"I beg your pardon?" The spice drawer was more than adequately supplied.
He cast her a glance, "The meat. Will that be enough. Unless Lina's eating habits have changed..."
The creepy feeling crawled at her neck again, though less intense, "Well, she does eat quite a bit, but this should be plenty. Even for her."
"I HEARD THAT!!"
"Oops..."
While Zelgadiss and Amelia went about preparing supper, Lina was getting increasingly uncomfortable. She had placed herself on the couch, wrapping her afghan tight around her shoulders and snuggling into the plush cushions in the perfectly contented movie-watching position. After a few minutes, she looked up and noticed Xelloss seated on the other end of her couch. Hrmph. A few more minutes later and he was right in the middle, shortening the gap between them by half. Again Lina looked away.
A soft sizzling sound was emanating from the kitchen, mixing with the muted voices of the two within conversing. It was then that Lina felt the weight beside her and saw the fruit not six inches away. He glanced at her, rolling his purple eyes towards the kitchen and waggling his eyebrows suggestively. She snorted softly and shook her head, they weren't doing anything. The smell of him so close to her was mingled with the slight tang of herbs and spices from the kitchen, and she was becoming decidedly uncomfortable. She reddened, her face fast becoming the colour of her hair, and she turned to look away.
An ivory hand caught her chin and turned her back to face him, he was leaning towards her with a wry grin on his face and intensely shining eyes while the young man on the television professed his love to the lesbian girl in his SUV. She tried to pull her head back, but Xelloss would not be put off, he readied himself and moved in for the kiss. Hey, maybe this world wasn't so bad after all...
DING!
"Suppertime!" Amelia's voice was the happiest it had ever been since the discovery of the strangers. Not one to waste an opportunity when it arose, she ducked away from a rather surprised ex-priest and made her way to the table, suddenly ravenous as only Lina Inverse could be.
~I
Supper went by uneventfully. A lot of silence, save for gobbling sounds on Lina's end of the table. Sidelong glances and the accidental meeting of eyes was all it was. Why? Well, partly because Lina was fairly uncomfortable about the purple haired man's attentions, and partly because the author was just too damn lazy to think of anything to happen, and is sure that everyone's sick of all this filler. One thing that must be said, though, is that the steak was good, cooked just right, and Chef Zel did wonders with the herbs he had found. So ends the meal and the shortest part of this chapter. /i
~
They had eaten late, but finding people from an alternate world that you supposedly lived in would keep anyone wired. Xelloss, oddly quiet, had ventured to the cushy chair and sat himself down for a good old fashioned brooding. Amelia was doing her homework, the scratch of pen on paper comforting her in these oh-so-stressful times. Lina and Zelgadiss were seated fairly close to each other. There was a book in Lina's hand that Zel was reading over, and a low conversation was taking place, much to quiet for the others to hear.
The trickster priest studied his steepled hands as he thought. He thought he could have her, get away with that. Well, at least he found out he might have to do things a bit differently to achieve what he wanted, but he was patient. Still, Ihis/i Lina Inverse would have clocked him for even thinking about it. It was indeed odd what was happening. He tried to picture what kind of memories this Lina had, and how it might have altered her. She still seemed basically the same on the outside, but it was hard to tell. This let to the thought of whether this Lina may, in fact, be the real Lina, and they were just visitors from a passing fantasy. As unlikely as this seemed, it was a possibility nonetheless. He then decided he didn't like this train of thought all that much and decided to stop thinking about this. Sadly, even an ex-mazoku's mind works in the same way a human's does in the fact that it does not so easily ignore the things it really should. And so he sat, pondering and speculating, all the while casting his violet gaze between the raven haired princess-yet-not-a-princess and the girl with fire in her eyes and magic in her soul.
Her concentration was mostly on her paper, but not totally. As she attempted to write her report on the genocide of the ancient Ryu Zoku Indians, she found her mind wandering. This wasn't a complete problem, but it did call for excessive white-out on the paper's part. Her mind first wandered through the school day in a feeble attempt to place things. On it traveled to Gourry, which she spent a bit more time than usual on. He had been quick to defend her, but it was probably only because she was Lina's friend. She cast a glance to Xelloss, and could almost swear she saw his own gaze upon he before it slid away, smooth as silk on water, towards Lina. He was fascinating, in an odd sort of way. Her thoughts went ever back to Zelgadiss, and she didn't quite know why. She was scared as all hell of those two. They had come and shattered he own 'somewhat narrow' view of the world, and she had no intention of doing anything they asked or depend on them for anything other than a headache. But she felt she could trust Zel, that she could look into those cold cerulean eyes and see the fire within. She was being silly now, and she knew it, but she was currently having the same problem as our brooding priest over there. She wouldn't trust him as far as she could spit him. But there was no doubt that he was enticing in the dark, dangerous way skydiving off a Boeing could be.
The page crackled as Lina turned it, absently running her fingers over the raised foil letters of the title, "Magic in the Modern World and Ceremonial Dancing" by M.M. and N.N. Zelgadiss read over a few of the lines before snorting to himself. She turned, indignant, "What? You don't like my reading?"
"It's not that, it's just so vague about the important things and goes into too much detail about the stuff it doesn't need to."
Snapping the book shut and tossing it to the floor, Lina crossed her arms and leaned back, "Fine."
"What?"
"Well, Mr. Mage-from-another world?"
"Alternate universe, I think..."
"Whatever. How about you explain to me, then? Since the book is so wrong."
Erm. He didn't quite know where to begin, "Well, for example: Magic is one part interpretation, one part logistics, and eight parts intention."
"S'cuse me?"
"Look, that book is way too specific on dates and festivals and the positions of the moon and symbols and all that. Granted, some spells are more powerful during parts of the year, such as black magic near the autumnal and white near the vernal, but if you're a strong enough mage, it's not that big a deal. Even the incantations aren't necessary if you know the spell and are powerful enough to cast it without."
"And how would you know?"
"Because I saw a powerful mage, perhaps the most powerful magic user in my world, cast a monstrous destruction spell with nothing but the name."
"Who and what?"
"The Dragon Slave, and it was y - Lina Inverse, the one from my world, that cast it."
A small vision of her vanquishing dragons for treasure and burning up bandits bubbled up into her mind. She was interested now, and leaned closer, "What else?"
He proceeded to give her a crash course in magic theory, which included a brief history of the world he had come from. He explained to her, in the simplest terms he could, the nature of magic and feel of it within you. The author would go on, but she knows that most people really don't care.
Time passed, as it has a slight tendency to do, and the group retired. Zel and Xelloss locked tightly in the basement, given sleeping bags and pillows, and Amelia and Lina on the third floor of the house, safely in her room. They had another long day in the works tomorrow, and Lina was snoring almost before her head hit the pillow, despite the nap earlier in the afternoon. Amelia conked a while later, her last thought of her in a glittering gown fit for a princess.
An odd look had come upon Amelia's face, her voice carrying something of question, something not like her at all, "Lina, you say we, but who do you mean, actually?"
She blinked, an edge creeping into her own voice, "What exactly are you implying?"
"Nothing much." She shrugged, but her tone belied her words, "Just that it seems Gourry and I have been included in something we didn't consent to..."
Zelgadiss cast her a cool glare, unsoftened by his human face, "No one's asking you to stay, Amelia."
It was now Amelia's turn to be confused, "But, I..."
Hmm. As much as he hated to do it, Xelloss took Zelgadiss' side, "He's right, princess. You can leave any time you want to. Though I'll admit you, or some semblance thereof, have been a help to us in the past, it doesn't mean we'll force you into something unwilling. Just why Ido/i you stay?"
"Because...Because Lina's my friend, and I don't want you two freaks pulling anything on her!" She felt as if she were on trail.
"If she's such a friend, why urge her against this? Something that could well be even more dangerous if left alone."
"Why should we believe you? For all we know, you're just two criminals ready to rob her blind!"
Xel chuckled darkly, a decidedly un-friendly look making his violet eyes shine, "Even in a different world you still look for enemies that aren't there, eh, little princess?"
"Stop calling me that!"
"Go on, then, run home and do your duty as a princess and a daughter. You're father would want it that way, and we couldn't have daddy being upset, now could we?"
The tension was building again, dark undercurrents lancing through the air invisibly. Lina got a hard look in her eye and Gourry stood, Amelia gasping for breath like a fish out of water for some reason, the water she was lacking quickly building in her eyes. She decided then and there was something about the purple-eyes man, something dark and inconceivable she couldn't quite place. Even Zelgadiss looked slightly surprised at the coldness in the once-priest's voice.
"Xelloss!" Lina?s voice was half astonishment, half growl.
"You want to say that again to me, man, instead of a little girl?" Gourry had taken his stance, ready to beat the man senseless should he be asked to. Ever the protector...
"No, Gourry..." Amelia's voice was eerily calm, her face now settled into a cool glower to rival Zel's own. She had seen Naga superimposed over Xelloss, but the words were the same. She straightened her shoulders, taking on a positively royal position, even though she herself couldn't see it. Even her voice befitted a princess...No, a queen, "I do Inot/i follow my father's wishes, only my own. I'm coming."
Zelgadiss, though he sighed inwardly in relief, was still unsure as to whether the girl would feel the same later on, "Amelia, are you sure....?"
She flashed him a warm smile, making a victory sign, "Don't worry, Mr. Zelgadiss, I'll be fine..."
Blush, "I wasn't exactly worrying..."
Gourry sat back down, confused as to the sudden conclusion of the argument, though he still kept his gaze on Xelloss. Said man merely smirked, as Lina once again took control, "Well, now that Ithat's/i dealt with..."
"A-HEM!"
"Geese, sorry Ame...Gourry, are you gonna get down on this?"
"Huh?"
Sweatdrop, "Are you gonna come along? I'd like you to, but..."
He blinked in that way only football players and their cheerleading counterparts can, "Was I ever Inot/i coming, Lina?"
"Ah....nevermind. You satisfied Amelia?"
She nodded.
"Good then...Er, Ianyways/i I guess the best question is what we should do...Any suggestions?"
It was then that Amelia noticed the clock, "Uh, Lina? It's nearly nine..."
Lina and the other's hadn't noticed the time had gone by. Zel glanced outside at the sun, hanging low above the western horizon and moaned softy. Lina sunk into her chair, "We can't really do anything 'till tomorrow, then...Do you two have a place to stay?" She half-dreaded the answer.
"Yes," said Zelgadiss.
"No," said Xelloss.
Zelgadiss blushed.
"Fine then, you guys can stay with me...In the basement," Xel's face fell.
"I'm staying too, Lina!"
"Me too!"
"Amelia, phone you're dad and make sure it's okay. Gourry, you can't."
"Why not?"
"Because, jellyfish, you're a Iboy/i!!"
"Umm....okay....Hey! Wait! They're boys too!"
Rolling her eyes, Lina slumped to the table, "Gourry, just go home, but be here first thing tomorrow morning."
"Okay, Lina...If that's what you want..." He stood, "I should be getting back anyways, mom probably has dinner ready." Brushing coldly past the two, he gave them both a look completely contrast to his stature as he moved out the back door and into the darkened daylight.
Phil had said it would be wonderful for Amelia and Lina to spend the night studying, and many plans were made, though not quite with the school's interests at heart. It was decided that the best place to start would be Rezz' bar, the Dragon Slave, since it seemed familiar to Zel and Xelloss, and since Lina knew all the dark types lurked around there, and the well of information the patrons held was unrivaled.
It was an odd night, to say the least. Having two virtual strangers sleeping in her house wasn't exactly a comforting thought, but Amelia and Lina did extremely well under the circumstances.
A stroke of good luck came with a phone call from Lina's sister, Luna. She had stopped by before Lina had come home from school and invited their parents to her boyfriend's house for the dreaded "Parents meet parents" night. Luna had been with Seph Fied for almost two years, and they liked each other quite a bit, though from what Lina could tell, with her minimal little sister connections, they seemed more like extremely close friends than anything sexual. Regardless, the house was her own. She had told her mom that Amelia was spending the night, but said nothing about Zel and Xelloss, since it probably wouldn't have gone over well.
Choosing the safest path she could think of, Lina suggested they watch a movie 'After, that is, insisting the 'boys' keep their weapons, the staff and sword, by the door. Aimlessly grabbing one from the cabinet, she suffered through "Chasing Amy" and the consequential comments arousing form the peanut gallery known as Xelloss. After the first bit, Zelgadiss had decided he'd had enough, and ventured back into the kitchen to see about making them all something to eat and examining the strange devices within. In reality, he just wanted to try the coffee grinder again.
After dealing with the resounding curses for a few moments Amelia, who had had quite enough of the movie and lewd remarks, entered the kitchen to see if she could help. She saw there a rather put-out looking Zelgadiss sucking on his finger, which had been burned by the evil known as the oven. She blushed despite herself, finding this stranger oddly alluring, even after he had spoken to her so tersely. He must have been hurt deeply, to be so cold...Feeling her ears burning even more, she coughed, pushing the thread of thought to the back of her mind.
Zel turned, startled, "Amelia?"
Cough cough again. Geeze, you'd think this girl was a smoker, "I didn't mean to bug you, but I figured you might want some help"
He almost smiled, "That's very kind of you to act towards a stranger, Amelia..."
What? Oh, he wasn't going to put any moves on Iher/i, "Well, I-I also didn't want you to make a mess of Lina's kitchen, or steal her silverware or anything..."
"I see..."
"..."
"..."
There's that cough again, "What are you cooking."
Zelgadiss again ran a human hand through human hair, an unconscious gesture he had had until he was transformed, and now had picked up again without realizing it, "To be honest, I don't know. All this stuff seems, I admit, beyond my ability to understand, though I - " A flash of something akin to realization flashed in his eyes and he mumbled to himself, turning to the stove and examining it as he did so, "Perhaps that's why my magic's stagnant in this world. Hrm..It appears to be nothing more than glass or rock, but it burns anyways, like a heat spell. Perhaps there devices channel the magic through the means of this odd looking plug thing back here and..."
Ri-ight...Weirdo, "Eh-heh...sure. Look, why don't we find something to make. She looked in the contents of the fridge, noting the already thawed steaks, "You like steak?"
"What?"
Oh, please..."Steak, you like it?"
She turned to look upon a raised eyebrow, "What kind of steak?"
"Umm....The kind from cows?"
A sigh of relief escaped his lips, "Yes, that'll be nice. Do you have herbs?"
Removing the meat from the fridge, she could feel herself slipping into the comfortable feeling she had when cooking, and gestured with the vacuum-wrapped package, "In those drawers. I'm not sure what exactly's in there, but there's gotta be something."
Zelgadiss made a non-committal noise when he opened the drawer, picking out this and that, "Are you sure that'll be enough?"
"I beg your pardon?" The spice drawer was more than adequately supplied.
He cast her a glance, "The meat. Will that be enough. Unless Lina's eating habits have changed..."
The creepy feeling crawled at her neck again, though less intense, "Well, she does eat quite a bit, but this should be plenty. Even for her."
"I HEARD THAT!!"
"Oops..."
While Zelgadiss and Amelia went about preparing supper, Lina was getting increasingly uncomfortable. She had placed herself on the couch, wrapping her afghan tight around her shoulders and snuggling into the plush cushions in the perfectly contented movie-watching position. After a few minutes, she looked up and noticed Xelloss seated on the other end of her couch. Hrmph. A few more minutes later and he was right in the middle, shortening the gap between them by half. Again Lina looked away.
A soft sizzling sound was emanating from the kitchen, mixing with the muted voices of the two within conversing. It was then that Lina felt the weight beside her and saw the fruit not six inches away. He glanced at her, rolling his purple eyes towards the kitchen and waggling his eyebrows suggestively. She snorted softly and shook her head, they weren't doing anything. The smell of him so close to her was mingled with the slight tang of herbs and spices from the kitchen, and she was becoming decidedly uncomfortable. She reddened, her face fast becoming the colour of her hair, and she turned to look away.
An ivory hand caught her chin and turned her back to face him, he was leaning towards her with a wry grin on his face and intensely shining eyes while the young man on the television professed his love to the lesbian girl in his SUV. She tried to pull her head back, but Xelloss would not be put off, he readied himself and moved in for the kiss. Hey, maybe this world wasn't so bad after all...
DING!
"Suppertime!" Amelia's voice was the happiest it had ever been since the discovery of the strangers. Not one to waste an opportunity when it arose, she ducked away from a rather surprised ex-priest and made her way to the table, suddenly ravenous as only Lina Inverse could be.
~I
Supper went by uneventfully. A lot of silence, save for gobbling sounds on Lina's end of the table. Sidelong glances and the accidental meeting of eyes was all it was. Why? Well, partly because Lina was fairly uncomfortable about the purple haired man's attentions, and partly because the author was just too damn lazy to think of anything to happen, and is sure that everyone's sick of all this filler. One thing that must be said, though, is that the steak was good, cooked just right, and Chef Zel did wonders with the herbs he had found. So ends the meal and the shortest part of this chapter. /i
~
They had eaten late, but finding people from an alternate world that you supposedly lived in would keep anyone wired. Xelloss, oddly quiet, had ventured to the cushy chair and sat himself down for a good old fashioned brooding. Amelia was doing her homework, the scratch of pen on paper comforting her in these oh-so-stressful times. Lina and Zelgadiss were seated fairly close to each other. There was a book in Lina's hand that Zel was reading over, and a low conversation was taking place, much to quiet for the others to hear.
The trickster priest studied his steepled hands as he thought. He thought he could have her, get away with that. Well, at least he found out he might have to do things a bit differently to achieve what he wanted, but he was patient. Still, Ihis/i Lina Inverse would have clocked him for even thinking about it. It was indeed odd what was happening. He tried to picture what kind of memories this Lina had, and how it might have altered her. She still seemed basically the same on the outside, but it was hard to tell. This let to the thought of whether this Lina may, in fact, be the real Lina, and they were just visitors from a passing fantasy. As unlikely as this seemed, it was a possibility nonetheless. He then decided he didn't like this train of thought all that much and decided to stop thinking about this. Sadly, even an ex-mazoku's mind works in the same way a human's does in the fact that it does not so easily ignore the things it really should. And so he sat, pondering and speculating, all the while casting his violet gaze between the raven haired princess-yet-not-a-princess and the girl with fire in her eyes and magic in her soul.
Her concentration was mostly on her paper, but not totally. As she attempted to write her report on the genocide of the ancient Ryu Zoku Indians, she found her mind wandering. This wasn't a complete problem, but it did call for excessive white-out on the paper's part. Her mind first wandered through the school day in a feeble attempt to place things. On it traveled to Gourry, which she spent a bit more time than usual on. He had been quick to defend her, but it was probably only because she was Lina's friend. She cast a glance to Xelloss, and could almost swear she saw his own gaze upon he before it slid away, smooth as silk on water, towards Lina. He was fascinating, in an odd sort of way. Her thoughts went ever back to Zelgadiss, and she didn't quite know why. She was scared as all hell of those two. They had come and shattered he own 'somewhat narrow' view of the world, and she had no intention of doing anything they asked or depend on them for anything other than a headache. But she felt she could trust Zel, that she could look into those cold cerulean eyes and see the fire within. She was being silly now, and she knew it, but she was currently having the same problem as our brooding priest over there. She wouldn't trust him as far as she could spit him. But there was no doubt that he was enticing in the dark, dangerous way skydiving off a Boeing could be.
The page crackled as Lina turned it, absently running her fingers over the raised foil letters of the title, "Magic in the Modern World and Ceremonial Dancing" by M.M. and N.N. Zelgadiss read over a few of the lines before snorting to himself. She turned, indignant, "What? You don't like my reading?"
"It's not that, it's just so vague about the important things and goes into too much detail about the stuff it doesn't need to."
Snapping the book shut and tossing it to the floor, Lina crossed her arms and leaned back, "Fine."
"What?"
"Well, Mr. Mage-from-another world?"
"Alternate universe, I think..."
"Whatever. How about you explain to me, then? Since the book is so wrong."
Erm. He didn't quite know where to begin, "Well, for example: Magic is one part interpretation, one part logistics, and eight parts intention."
"S'cuse me?"
"Look, that book is way too specific on dates and festivals and the positions of the moon and symbols and all that. Granted, some spells are more powerful during parts of the year, such as black magic near the autumnal and white near the vernal, but if you're a strong enough mage, it's not that big a deal. Even the incantations aren't necessary if you know the spell and are powerful enough to cast it without."
"And how would you know?"
"Because I saw a powerful mage, perhaps the most powerful magic user in my world, cast a monstrous destruction spell with nothing but the name."
"Who and what?"
"The Dragon Slave, and it was y - Lina Inverse, the one from my world, that cast it."
A small vision of her vanquishing dragons for treasure and burning up bandits bubbled up into her mind. She was interested now, and leaned closer, "What else?"
He proceeded to give her a crash course in magic theory, which included a brief history of the world he had come from. He explained to her, in the simplest terms he could, the nature of magic and feel of it within you. The author would go on, but she knows that most people really don't care.
Time passed, as it has a slight tendency to do, and the group retired. Zel and Xelloss locked tightly in the basement, given sleeping bags and pillows, and Amelia and Lina on the third floor of the house, safely in her room. They had another long day in the works tomorrow, and Lina was snoring almost before her head hit the pillow, despite the nap earlier in the afternoon. Amelia conked a while later, her last thought of her in a glittering gown fit for a princess.