Chapter 17

Xellos reappeared with Filia beside him at the entrance of a small alley, looking out into a busy street lined with dozens of small stalls trying to sell their wares. The day was bright and sunny with nary a cloud in the sky. When they arrived Filia looked around herself and the surrounding street. No one seemed to notice their sudden appearance, to which she released a relieved sigh. She then looked towards Xellos's calm expression as they exited the ally and walked into the centre of the bustling street. "So, where are we exactly?" Filia asked as they walked at a leisurely pace.

"This, my dear Fi-chan, is known as the city of Thure, you might have heard of it as it is located only a few hundred miles from your past fire temple," Xellos replied, still facing the way he was walking.

"Oh, so this is Thure, I always wanted to see what this place was like, it's quite a beautiful city," Filia commented as she looked around at the well kept buildings and friendly, smiling faces all around her. Back when she was at the fire temple she had learnt a small bit about this city. The inhabitants where well known for their extraordinary skill at the looms, creating some of the most exquisite weaves known to the outer world. They where also famous for their production of the finest silks this side of the country, so naturally the town was very prosperous due to good trading.

"Indeed it is. If you like you are free to wonder about and browse the stores, just don't wonder too far," Xellos said, flashing a casual smile towards Filia.

Filia's face lit up at the suggestion. "Really? Do you think I can buy something while I'm here?" Filia asked as sweetly as she could, her hands clasped in front of her as she looked up at Xellos, little stars sparkling in her eyes.

"Well I suppo…wait a minute," Xellos opened one accusing eye at Filia, catching on to her 'sweet act'. "You don't have any money with you, do you? You're expecting me to pay for everything?" Xellos sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose, "And they call me the manipulative one".

Filia simply smiled and gave Xellos a small wink along with a familiar finger wag, "Now Xellos, what ever gave you that impression?"

Xellos shook his head with a small sigh as he reached into his bag that he carried with him. "I am clearly a bad influence on you," Xellos said as he pulled out a small pouch of gold and held it out to her.

"Well maybe that means I'm spending too much time with you," Filia stated as she took the pouch from Xellos's outstretched hand.

"Oh quite the contrary, I think this means you need to spend more time with me, to enhance and refine your new found skills," Xellos said with his own wink and finger-wag.

Filia gave Xellos a punch in the arm for that comment, not a hard one, just hard enough for the message to get through. "Stupid monster, be reasonable," Filia scolded as she made her way to the nearest stall and started browsing its contents.

"Hmhm, We shall see Fi-chan, we shall see," Xellos said to himself as he slowly made his way closer to the dragoness, just to keep an eye on her.

/

A while later.

An exquisite carriage drawn by two white horses was making its way through the now quieted main streets, the general public taking a break from the midday sun under the over hangings of nearby restaurants. Filia was still wondering around with Xellos close behind. Filia had made a few small purchases, a few nice bracelets, some hair combs and a simple golden necklace with an amethyst stone mounted in the centre of the pendant. Filia was now looking at a stall that sold clip-on earrings when Xellos started to wander to the other side of the street. "Oh Miss Filia, over hear, I think I've found something that you may like," Xellos called from the opposite side of the street. Filia looked up and over to where she heard Xellos call from, seeing him smiling and waving a hand for her to come over.

"Oh, ok I'm coming," Filia called back as she gave a polite bow to the stall keeper and made her way out onto the street. As Filia got halfway across the street, one of the handles of the bags she was carrying snapped, the bag spilling its contents onto the ground. "Oh curse it," Filia steamed as she crouched down to pick up the dropped items. While she was crouching down the two white horses came trotting around the nearby corner, the carriage driver paying more attention to the group of pretty girls on the sidewalk rather than the road. He grinned and gave the girls a final wave before he returned his eyes to the front of the carriage. His face adopted a look of shock as he realised the woman in the middle of the road gathering her spilled items off the floor. He yanked the rains of the horses, forcing them to veer around the woman. By the time Filia registered the sound of the approaching carriage she only had enough time to jump back out of the way as the carriage veered away from her at the last second. Unfortunately for Filia as she jumped backwards she had lost her footing in her heels and landed on her rear, the friction of the rough ground causing a huge tear in her blue dress.

"What in Ceifeed's name!" Filia growled as she righted herself into a sitting position, checking the damage done. The carriage that had nearly trampled her came to a halt, the driver jumping down from his seat and running over to Filia.

"Oh lord I am so sorry Miss, are you hurt?" the driver asked Filia in a panic, reaching a hand out to her.

"Is everything alright?" Xellos spoke as he made his way around the carriage and towards the panicky driver and Filia. "Oh my, now what happened hear?" Xellos asked quizzically as he eyed both Filia and the driver.

"What happened! What happened was that I was nearly trampled!" Filia snapped, shooting the poor driver a death glare.

"I am terribly sorry Miss, I wasn't…"

"What on earth is going on out here?" A gruff voice spoke. The small group looked over to where the voice came from, from the carriage that had nearly run Filia over a tall burly figure clothed in a fine green and gold robe and matching cloak stepped down onto the street.

"Highness, please I beg forgiveness, I lost control of the carriage and this Miss here-"

"'This Miss here' was nearly trampled to death," Filia growled as she took Xellos's outstretched hand and pulled herself up. When she was righted up she turned her head to look at the back of her dress. "Oh no, my dress!" Filia whined, clasping the two torn end of her dress and holding them together.

"Here Miss, take this," The passenger of the carriage spoke as he removed his cloak and draped it over her shoulders, covering up the tear and hiding herself from prying eyes.

"Thank you kind sir," Filia bowed respectfully to the bulky man as he clasp the cloak at the front, securing it on her.

"That's quite alright. Maybe you and your companion would like to accompany me back to my home, we can get you a change of clothes and your dress can get repaired while you're there. It's the least I can do to make it up to you," The man offered, bowing to Filia and Xellos as he stepped aside and motioned towards the carriage.

"Oh, well I don't know," Filia said hesitantly

"Come now Fi-chan, he's only trying to help you, and it would be rude to turn down his offer," Xellos whispered in her ear, giving her shoulder a small nudge towards the carriage.

"Well, I guess that seems like the reasonable thing to do," Filia reluctantly agreed, grasping the mans large arm and proceeding towards the carriage, Xellos and the driver close behind. "Excuse me, I don't mean to sound rude, but who are you?" Filia asked, turning her head up towards the towering figure.

The man chuckled deeply as he regarded Filia. "You must be new in town. My name is Oceus von Thure, crowned ruler of this fare city," Oceus proclaimed, giving one big wave of his free arm, indicating the entire surroundings.

"Oh, well I am honoured your highness," Filia responded, bowing her head in respect.

Oceus chuckled again and patted Filia's hand on his arm, "Now now there's no need for that, after all with a fair maiden such as yourself, it is I who should be giving my thanks to you for gracing my city with your presence," Oceus bowed his own head slightly towards Filia, making her blush and turn her head.

Xellos was watching the whole exchange from behind the two, the driver had run ahead to get the carriage and horses in order, lucky he did. Otherwise if he had stayed he would have been in the danger zone of a fuming monster. 'Calm yourself Xellos, think about the mission, it'll all be over soon, you can do this, just ignore-ok that is just unnecessary touching!' Xellos fumed to himself as we watched Oceus open the carriage door and guide Filia inside while placing a large hand at the small of her back. Xellos managed to keep his composure and hide his temper behind his ever present smile, even managing to give Oceus a polite bow and thanks as he allowed Xellos to enter the carriage before him.

When the pair entered the carriage they where greeted by a young woman with flowing black hair, big green eyes and a dress made of what appeared to be fine silks of green with gold trimmings. Xellos took the seat next to Filia and opposite the young woman while Oceus sat opposite Filia.

"I'd like you to meet my younger sister, princess Layla," Oceus said as he took his seat, motioning towards the girl. She smiled towards the pair and bowed her head towards them.

"How do you do?" She said politely

"Very well thank you," Xellos replied, giving his own polite bow to the girl.

She smiled sweetly at Xellos, giggling slightly behind her hand. "And what, may I ask, are your names?" Layla asked, looking between Xellos and Filia.

"How rude of us. My name is Xellos, and my companion here is Filia." Xellos responded, indicating himself and Filia respectively.

"Filia. That is a very beautiful name," Oceus said, smiling friendly towards Filia, causing her to blush and avert her eyes towards her feet.

"I'd say Xellos is also a rather unique and intriguing name," Layla said, eyeing Xellos from her spot across from him.

"Yes, I will admit to being rather fond of my name," Xellos said, flashing Layla a rather suggestive smile.

Filia had spotted the look Xellos had given the princess, she looked towards the girl and saw her responding in favour to Xellos's flirting, least to say Filia was not too happy about that. 'He's actually flirting with her, right in front of me!' Filia sat back in her seat with a humph, 'well, two can play at that game,' Filia plotted as the carriage jerked forward slightly and restarted its journey.

Xellos could sense Filia's anger and jealousy growing, inside he was grinning sadistically, 'and so it begins'.

/

Most of the beginning of the trip was spent in silence as the carriage made its way through the town. The silence was then broken by Oceus in an attempt to make some casual conversation. "So, what brings you two to this city? And how long did you plan on staying?" He asked, looking between Xellos and Filia for an answer.

"Oh I'm afraid it's only a short stay before we have to be on our way again. And as to what brings us here, well news of your cities extraordinary sights and markets was enough for us to want to come and see it for ourselves," said Xellos.

"Oh, so you two are travelling together?" Layla asked the pair, a slightly disappointed look on her face.

"I guess you could say that," Xellos responded, scratching the back of his head.

"Well, you are very much welcomed here, although I do hope that you will choose to prolong your stay," Oceus leaned forward and clasped a hand onto one of Filia's own that was clasped on her knees, "This city would seem a lot more duller without you in it". Filia felt her face go scarlet at the contact and the compliment. She then felt a rather large jolt go through her whole body, making all her muscles tense up. She looked at Xellos at the corner of her eye, he looked the same as usual, his expression calm, almost bored in fact. But Filia knew better, she had felt that large spike in chaotic energy that he released when Oceus had reached over and clasped her hand. She saw Xellos turn his head slightly towards her and barely open one of his eyes to look into her own from the corner. From that stare she knew that he knew that she felt that spike. She also knew that it was a warning that she was treading on dangerous ground at this point. Filia could feel herself being encircled by a mass of invisible dark energy, almost completely consuming her own aura. She felt a strong need to pull her hand away from Oceus's grasp, but she fought it.

She placed a hand over the top of Oceus's larger hand and gently squeezed it. "I thank you for the hospitality your highness. But as to prolonging our stay I'm afraid that we are on a tight schedule and must be on our way again soon. But I would love to return to your lovely city sometime in the near future if time permits," Filia responded, giving the king a kind smile. Ignoring Xellos's influences, her natural stubbornness commanding that she give Xellos a taste of his own medicine.

Completely oblivious to the surrounding danger, princess Layla was intently studying Xellos from her place beside her brother. She will admit that the man did have an aura of superiority, while still retaining an air of boyish charm. Layla could feel herself quickly becoming smitten with this new man and his charming smile. Maybe if she could somehow convince her brother to let her marry him instead of that prince from Elmsar. Layla smiled at this thought. Yes that would be a most desirable outcome. Prince Trogen, while a very powerful figure in his domain was unfortunately not on the attractive side, and he was such a bore to be around. Layla was confident enough in the power she and her brother already had, and she felt that it wasn't a necessity for her to marry him, if only to gain a little extra power that they could honestly do quite simply on their own. She was the princess of one of the richest kingdoms! She should at least have the right to choose a husband that she desired, and not someone who was chosen for her for the sake of unneeded political ties.

Xellos could feel he was being looked at. He turned his attention towards the princess sitting opposite him. When he did Layla knew she had been caught staring and averted her eyes to the side, a slight blush making itself known on her smooth features. She looked back up to Xellos from the corner of her eye. Xellos saw this and flashed her a friendly, open eyed smile, winking at her for good measure.

The rest of the trip passed in a relatively comfortable silence, only disturbed by the occasional small talk that the group would engage in. Eventually the carriage pulled up to a pair of large golden gates, reaching at least 20 feet into the sky. Either side of the gates where high watch towers with what could be made out as large crossbows mounted on stands pointing straight out the windows of the tower. At the sight of the royal carriage the guards standing either side of the gates gave a shout and the gates where opened from the inside, allowing the carriage to drive straight through.

The driver brought the carriage about so its side was facing the beginning of a long green carpet, two guards standing either side of the carriage door. The driver jumped down from his seat and went around and opened the door. As the door was opened Oceus was the first to step down onto the carpet, closely followed by Xellos. They both stood beside the carriage as Layla was coming out, Xellos offering his hand to her to help her down the step. A small blush spread itself along her cheeks as she accepted Xellos's offered hand and stepped down from the carriage.

Filia followed closely behind Layla as she stepped on to the ground, Oceus offering her his hand in aid. Filia took his hand and stepped down, smirking to herself when she felt a familiar spike in Xellos's aura. 'Hmph serves you right you creep,' she thought to herself. She felt that he deserved to be made jealous for what he made her go through during the trip.

As Filia looked up towards the palace she was left in silent awe. It looked like the type of castle one would find in a child's fairytale book, high pointed roofs with flagpoles included. The walls where pure white save for the emerald green rooftops and window frames. There where green and gold flags atop every pointed roof with what Filia assumed to be the royal families crest. From what Filia could see of the closer flags it appeared to be the outline of some type of strange creature with long ears, a long face and large powerful legs with a long, thick tail.

Filia's eyes where darting all over the place, trying to take in the sight before her. 'Honestly the only thing missing from this picture is the rainbow arch over the castle and the knights on horseback at the entrance, oh wait, there they are,' Filia corrected herself as she spotted two men dressed in silver armour riding two white horses guarding the front steps, each with a sword at their side and a long flagpole in their hand.

"Shall we?" Oceus said as he held his elbow out to Filia. Filia swirled her head towards Oceus and his offered arm. Smiling softly she gently grasped his arm and the four of them ascended the stairs and into the castle.

As they entered the rather large entrance hall Oceus brought two fingers to his mouth and whistled into the room. At his whistle two maids came rushing into the room, bowing before the group in respect. "Escort Miss Filia here to one of the guest rooms and organise a change of clothes for her while her dress is repaired," Oceus commanded.

"Yes your Highness. Right this way Ma'am," One of the maids answered, stepping to the side and allowing Filia to pass by her, following behind the other maid as she made her way down a nearby corridor.

The room Filia was taken to was a decent size with simple furniture. Bed, vanity, table and chairs, closet, nothing too fancy, but it did seem to have a homey feel to it. "Ma'am, here is your dress. If you need any assistance we will be just outside the door," One of the maids said, holding out the dress for Filia. It was a rather elegant white dress with long sleeves and a long skirt, both lined in gold lace along with the low neck line and around the waist where the skirt of the dress met the top.

"Oh, thank you," Filia said as she took the dress and watched as the maids bowed deeply and left to wait outside her door. After a short while Filia had finally changed into her new dress and had handed over her old one to the maids so it could be repaired. She took a small moment to admire herself in the mirror. The dress was a perfect fit, almost as if it was made for her. She gave herself a nod of approval and left the room with the remaining maid to where the others would be waiting for her.

The maid led her to a pair of double doors at the end of a very long hall. At their arrival the two butlers standing either side of the doors bowed before her and opened the doors for her. As she walked in she saw Oceus at the head of a long dinner table seated in an elaborate chair decorated with red cushions on the back and armrests. To his right sat Layla, whose eyes never seemed to leave Xellos's figure who sat beside her. Filia had to restrain herself from openly growling at the princess and her obvious attentions to Xellos. Sure the elders at the fire temple taught her that charity was a virtue and that it was good to share, but they didn't say anything about sharing ones potential mate. 'Not that it's looking too potential with Xellos's constant hints and flirtations,' Filia seethed to herself as she watched Xellos raise his glass to Layla in a toast, which she obviously accepted.

Fighting the urge to throw her mace at the monsters two-timing face, Filia made her way around the table to sit on Oceus's left, giving him a small bow in respect before taking her seat.

"Now then, while you're here you might as well join us for lunch," Oceus proclaimed as he clapped his hands twice and the doors swung open, a small group of butlers and maids entered, each carrying one silver platter loaded with different varieties of foods.

The waiting staff laid one platter of food in front of every seated person, along with a few extra containing different types of salad in the middle of the group. The meal itself was simple enough, a decent size piece of meat with vegetables and gravy. Not exactly an extravagant midday meal, but definitely satisfactory. "So Miss Filia, won't you tell me a bit more about yourself? Let's start with where you're from since you're obviously not from around here," Oceus commented as he began to sample his lunch, all the while looking at her.

"Oh, well I actually used to live in a town about a day away from here a while ago, but just recently I moved a bit further away for a change of scenery and opened up my own little shop," Filia started, tasting a few of the vegetables and giving a small nod of approval as she continued to eat.

"Is that so? Tell me what sort of shop do you run? I wouldn't be surprised if it was a beauty shop, after all it would make sense to have a beauty shop be run by a beautiful woman," Oceus said in one of the most gentle of voices she ever heard, his eyes quickly but noticeably running over her figure before resting on her eyes, showing that he was not just making this up.

Filia couldn't help but blush a bit at Oceus's obvious flirting. No matter the type of woman, all females, either secretly or not, liked to be told their beautiful every once in a while. "Ah, well no actually, I run a shop that sells pottery and weaponry, mace's to be more specific".

Oceus's eyes widened slightly in shock at Filia's confession, at first not quite sure what to make of the information. "Hmm, a woman that sells pottery and weaponry. Elegance and strength, beauty and power," Oceus thought out loud as he studied Filia's face, a small smile gently tugging at his lips, "I like that. It suites you," Filia averted her eyes from Oceus's searching emeralds, opting instead to gaze thoughtfully at her plate, fiddling with her food with the fork she held in her hands, a small goofy smile tugged at her lips at the flattering comment. 'Hn, I never thought about it like that before,' she absently thought to herself.

However at the other end of the table, there was a whole different atmosphere. Xellos was sitting there quietly as he ate his food and listened to Layla conversing about some mundane shopping trip she had where she brought herself some new make up and dresses and a whole list of other things he had next to no interest in, but continued to smile and nod in the appropriate places. What he was really focussing on was the exchange between Filia and Oceus. Xellos had strained to stop himself from dry retching at the remark Oceus made about the beauty shop. 'Honestly that was so cheesy even the rats down in the streets could taste it'. But what really got Xellos ruffled was the fact that Filia actually liked that remark. He could practically taste her flustered emotions as she smiled goofily at her food. Xellos's grip on his cutlery continued to tighten as Oceus stared longer and longer at Filia as she picked at her food. More than once he caught the royals gaze drift to the cleavage that was shown by the dress he lent to her. So what if Xellos took a few looks too, as far as he was concerned he was allowed to, that cleavage belonged to him as well as everything attached to it, and this bear thinks he can just take a peek whenever he wants to, oh hell no! Absently at the back of his mind, behind all the images of bloody corpses and a certain royal's maggot-eaten head, Xellos had to commend the workmanship done on the cutlery he was gripping. Any other ordinary pieces of silverware would have snapped by now under his hand, yet this set seemed to hold strong, not even bending. 'Hmm, I wonder if I can get a tea set commissioned out of this stuff,' Xellos absently pondered to himself.

In an event completely unrelated to unbreakable tea sets, (which might have been very useful to certain dragons who liked to throw said pottery at unsuspecting monsters) Zelas was having the time of her extremely long life watching the events shown to her in a brass bowl of silver liquid. "Oh my-my, it's become a game of 'who will be the first to snap'," Zelas said more to herself than the minion who was holding the bowl for her.

"Who do you think will win mistress?" the minion asked her as he peeked over the rim of the bowl.

"Hmm, usually my wine's on Xellos, but the dragon girl is showing remarkable restraint, and Xellos isn't exactly all together at this point," Zelas tapped her chin in thought, "this should concern me, oh but this is so much fun!" Zelas exclaimed as she took another sip from her glass.

"But mistress, what if Xellos were to lose first?" The minion couldn't help but ask.

Zelas smirked darkly, her sharp teeth gleaming in the low light emitted from the bowl, "Well it's always fun to watch things blow up".