"...The princess kissed the frog and he turned into a handsome prince. Everyone was very surprised, as you can imagine, but once they got over the shock, the princess and the ex-frog got married. They lived happily ever after."
The inn erupted into applause and chatter. The bard smiled and bowed. As her husband took over with a pretty lute melody, Zelgadis and Amelia slipped away.
"I wish undoing a transformation curse was as easy in real life as it is in stories," Zelgadis said bitterly as they climbed the stairs.
"How do you know it isn't?" Amelia asked, "Have you ever been kissed by a beautiful princess?"
Zelgadis stared at her for a long moment. "Don't be ridiculous."
He stormed up the rest of the stairs and into their room. They had to share a room because the bards had taken the only other guestroom in the inn, but at least they had separate beds.
Amelia followed him. "It's worth a try, isn't it? We both swore that we would do anything necessary to find your cure." She stood tall with a noble look of self-sacrifice.
This is insane, Zelgadis thought, but if there was any chance at all that it might work.... "I guess it can't hurt to try."
Amelia stepped toward Zelgadis.
"Wait." He held up a hand. "We are suggesting that you kiss me, right?" The last time he thought she was offering to kiss him, he got a nasty surprise.
"Yes," Amelia confirmed.
She took another step closer. They were both blushing furiously. She put a hand on his shoulder to pull him down into easier reach. She leaned forward. She pressed her lips against the smooth, cool stone of his cheek. She drew back. They stared at each other. No change.
Then Amelia darted forward and kissed Zelgadis quickly on the mouth.
"What did you do that for?" he spluttered as soon as he gathered his wits enough to react at all.
Amelia stared at her feet. "In the pictures of fairytales they always show people kissing on the mouth. I thought a kiss on the cheek might not be enough. Did it work?" She looked up hopefully.
"No, of course it didn't work. It was a stupid idea." Zelgadis kicked off his boots violently and flung his cloak over a bedpost.
"Oh." Amelia more meekly followed suit.
In the darkness after they had extinguished the lamp and crawled into bed, Zel was still blushing. He had never been kissed by a girl before.
Across the room, Amelia smiled in determination. That had been the first time she had ever kissed a man. She swore it wouldn't be the last.
"I found out where the one restaurant in town is. Amelia, did you hear me? I said that I found a restaurant."
"And I found a magic store."
"A magic store? In this tiny village?"
Zelgadis looked over Amelia's shoulder. Sure enough, there was a sign in the window.
Spells and Counter Spells
Ancient Languages
Magical Artifacts
"Ancient languages," Zelgadis read thoughtfully. "I wonder if he would be able to decipher that book."
"What book?"
"The one from the temple we stayed at while you were sick."
"Oh, I'd forgotten about that book! Let's show it to him."
Zelgadis walked into the shop. Amelia followed him. The inside of the shop looked like a typical magic shop. The walls were covered with shelves and the shelves were covered with strange jars, pots, rods and other ominous-looking things. It was a rather small room and most of the artifacts were dusty. Zelgadis stepped up to the counter at the far end of the room and knocked on its wooden top.
"Coming!" called a voice from somewhere else in the building. Zelgadis' ears detected clattering and rustling followed by footsteps. A small man with thick glasses and an inoffensive expression entered the shop from a door behind the counter. "Sorry, I was just washing the breakfast dishes," he was saying as he entered, still wiping his hands on a towel.
He looked startled upon seeing his customers. "Strangers! Well, what can I do for you?"
Zelgadis placed the book down on the counter. "I came into possession of this book a few months ago but I have not been able to read it. Do you know what language it is in?"
Wyrg immediately grabbed the book and started leafing through the pages. "Fascinating! This is a very ancient language. I believe it may be one the Ryozoku used centuries before the last Mazoku War. I have never seen this exact script before but it is similar to one I encountered several years ago on an ancient tablet."
Zelgadis and Amelia exchanged glances. Unless this man was a complete fraud, they had come to exactly the right place.
"Can you decipher it?" Zelgadis asked.
"Not immediately. Give me a day and I'll see what I can do." The man's tone was distracted. His eyes hadn't left the book once since he'd opened it.
"Then we'll come back at this time tomorrow?"
"Yes, yes. That would be fine." Wyrg was already wandering back into his house, leaving his forgotten dishcloth on the counter.
"Well," Zelgadis said with a shrug as they left the store. "It seems we're stuck here for another day. Is there anything you want to do?"
Amelia grinned predatorily. "Eat lunch!"
"Cherry blossoms falling. Warm April showers," Amelia sang. She was sitting on top of the village fountain, trailing her fingers in the water and watching the clouds go by.
"Amelia, will you get down from there?" Zelgadis asked in annoyance.
Amelia quickly sat up. "There you are! Where were you?"
"I got you a present."
"Really?" Amelia dove off the fountain, flipped over in the air and landed in front of Zel. "What is it?"
Zelgadis just stared at her, stunned that she had managed to perform an acrobatic feat without landing on her face for once.
"What is it?" Amelia repeated, shaking his shoulder.
Zel snapped out of it. "Here." He pushed a handful of cloth into her hands.
Amelia unfolded it. "Gloves?" She tried them on. "They fit perfectly. Thank you!"
Zelgadis took one look at the hearts in her eyes and panicked. "They're to cover up the ring," he explained hastily.
"Oh." Amelia looked down at her hand as if she had forgotten the ring was there. The hearts faded away but her smile didn't. "They're still lovely. Thank you."
"Uh. Don't mention it."
"Now I'll find a present for you! Wait here."
She vanished into one of the shops. Zelgadis sighed and sat down on the edge of the fountain. After a few minutes, he pulled out a book and started reading. After a few hours, he grabbed the princess on her way from one shop to another.
"Are you almost finished? The sun's starting to set."
"Um, almost," she replied. "You go ahead to the restaurant. I'll meet you there."
Zelgadis sighed and tucked his book back into his pocket.
A man sat down at Zelgadis' table. Zel glanced up in surprise.
"Remember me?" the man asked, "We worked together a few times when Rezo was still alive."
"Zane. Yes, I do remember you."
"How many years has it been? Two? Three?"
"Nearly four now."
"Wow, it doesn't seem that long. Say, I heard that Rezo died but I never found out the details. Do you know what happened to him?"
"He summoned Ruby Eye Shabranigdo into his own body," Zelgadis said tersely. It had not been a pleasant moment.
Zane whistled. "I knew that he wasn't the saint people seem to think, but still...what possessed him to summon the dark lord above all other dark lords? I assume that the 'into his own body' part was a mistake."
Zelgadis nodded. "It turned out that he had Shabranigdo sealed into his eyes. When he opened them..."
Zane winced in sympathy.
"Actually," Zelgadis continued on a different topic, "Shabranigdo isn't the dark lord above all other dark lords. He is merely the greatest dark lord in this world. The lord above all dark lords, and gods too, is the Lord of Nightmares."
Zane looked torn between awe and skepticism. "How do you know that?"
"I traveled for awhile with Lina Inverse. She uses some spells that call upon the Lord of Nightmares."
"Lina Inverse? The one they call 'the Bandit Killer' and 'the Enemy of All Who Live'?"
Zelgadis sighed. "Yes, that Lina Inverse. She's not as bad as her reputation. Almost, but not quite."
"Is she cute?"
Zelgadis choked, but after a moment he answered, "Yes, in an irresponsible, insanely destructive sort of way."
"Do you really dislike her or are you just jealous because she dumped you for another man?"
"I don't dislike her, and she was with the other man from the beginning."
"You're kidding. 'The Enemy of All Who Live' has a lover?"
"No. She has a partner with whom she travels. They are not lovers, although I have never been able to figure out why not."
"It sounds complicated. Would I know the man?"
Zelgadis shrugged. "His name is Gourry Gabriev. He used to own the Sword of Light."
"The sword that slew the Demonbeast Zannafar? That Sword of Light?"
"Yes."
"I thought that sword vanished off the face of the earth long ago!"
"No, just last year."
"What happened?"
"It's a long story."
"Oh. But back to the cute girls. If Lina Inverse wasn't your love interest, who was?"
Zelgadis stared at him in disbelief. "What makes you think I had one?"
"Did you?"
Zelgadis was very tempted to say, 'None of your business,' but he didn't. There was something about Zane that made people talk to him. That talent had been very useful during the search for the Philosopher's Stone. Now it made Zelgadis reply, "There was one girl who thought she was in love with me, a justice-maniac named Amelia."
"Did you love her?"
"Of course not. She was obviously crazy."
"Why?"
"She thinks I look 'cool' as a chimera and, if that isn't reason enough for you, her hobby is standing in trees and ranting about justice."
"Is she cute?"
"...Yes, in a juvenile sort of way."
"Juvenile?"
"She was still a child when I met her."
"How old is she now?"
"Sixteen."
Zane stared at him. "Let me get this straight. There is a cute sixteen-year-old girl out there somewhere who loves you despite the fact that you are a chimera and you let her get away? Maybe you're the one who's crazy."
Zelgadis smiled, "Maybe."
"Zelgadis, old friend, I'll tell you what to do. You march yourself straight to - where does she live?"
"Seyruun."
"...Seyruun and ask her to marry you. Wait, I think I've heard of some Amelia connected with Seyruun."
"Amelia Wil Tesla Seyruun?"
"Amelia Wil Tesla Seyruun? A member of the royal family?"
"The daughter of Crown Prince Philionel."
"And she's probably an only child, isn't she?"
"No, but her sister ran away from home several years ago and hasn't been seen since."
"Oh yes, I remember hearing about that. And is this princess your Amelia?"
"She is the Amelia I traveled with."
"Gods preserve us! You could have married a princess and become the future ruler of one of the most powerful kingdoms in the world, and you passed that up just because the girl likes speechmaking?"
"Why would I want to marry a princess or rule Seyruun? I just want to be human again."
"Please tell me that she has some other flaw, that she's stupid or spiteful or..."
"Judge for yourself. Here she comes."
Amelia walked across the room towards them. "I'm sorry I took so long, Zelgadis-sama, but I found you a wonderful present!" She noticed Zane. "Am I interrupting something?"
"This is Zane. We both used to work for Rezo," Zelgadis introduced, "Zane, this is Amelia. She's helping me look for my cure."
Amelia smiled politely "Pleased to meet you." She headed toward the fireplace to get a bowl of stew.
Zane stared at after her in shock. "Zelgadis, she's beautiful. Why didn't you tell me that? And why didn't you tell me she's still traveling with you?"
"You didn't ask."
"Is Lina Inverse here too?"
"No, don't worry."
Zane looked relieved. "Now I know you're crazy. That girl is beautiful, young, charming, aristocratic..."
"She's a powerful sorceress too," Zelgadis added.
Zane shook his head in disbelief. "What more are you looking for? I would marry her like that," he snapped his fingers, "if she would take me."
Zelgadis winced. Why did this guy keep bringing up the subject of marriage? "Maybe if I was human. I can't ask any girl to marry a hideous chimera like me," he said lightly.
"If she doesn't care, why should you?"
Then Amelia returned and the conversation turned to the less intimate topic of Zelgadis' present. It turned out to be a pair of pliers that could also be used as wire cutters and a can of metal polish. "For your hair," Amelia explained, glowing with pride.
"Uh, thanks," Zelgadis managed.
"Which way are you two going?" Zane asked curiously.
"North," Amelia replied just as Zelgadis said, "East." They exchanged a look.
"North-east," Amelia compromised, "toward, um..."
"Toward the Karatoe Mountains."
"Right. There's a powerful temple there that we once visited."
"It was destroyed."
"But we might still find something useful among the ruins."
Zelgadis nodded.
Zane showed no sign that he'd noticed they were making it up on the spot.
"That's a pity. I'm headed southwest, back toward civilization. I have to get an artifact back to my employer."
"What is it?" Amelia asked innocently.
"Sorry, can't talk about it. You know how it is."
"Oh."
They chatted for another hour or so until the restaurant began to empty. Then they went their separate ways. Since Zane had already rented the only guestroom in the only inn in town, Zelgadis and Amelia ended up camping just outside the village.
Zelgadis woke early the next morning but Amelia must have woken up even earlier. She was nowhere in sight. Zelgadis shrugged, then turned the shrug into a stretch. He wandered over the pool they had camped beside last night and splashed cold water on his face to wake himself up.
It was a beautiful setting. The shallow, crystal-clear pool was at the foot of a waterfall. The rock was covered with trickles of water, and patches of vividly green moss. Currently, the sunrise was throwing pink and gold reflections on the rock. Sights like this made all the rainy nights and weary days of life on the road worthwhile. Zelgadis leaned back to look at the lightening sky above the cliff. What was that patch of white up near the top of the waterfall? It looked almost like...Amelia's cape!
"Levitation." Zelgadis flew up to the top of the waterfall without a moment's hesitation. Amelia's body had somehow ended up wedged in the angle between two rocks just to one side of the waterfall itself. She was completely limp. Her eyes, he saw when he flew closer, were closed. What had happened?
"Amelia!" he shouted.
To his relief, Amelia yawned and opened her eyes. "Zelgadis-san?"
"What are you doing up here?" he snapped.
"I climbed up here to watch the sun rise," she replied mildly. "I must have fallen asleep."
She started to get to her feet.
"Don't!" Zel grabbed her before she could fall.
"It's okay," Amelia said reproachfully. "The rocks are completely stable. I'm not going to fall."
Zelgadis sheepishly released her. "You shouldn't have climbed up here in the dark. It's dangerous," he said, trying to sound annoyed rather than frightened. "You might have slipped on a wet rock, and then what would I tell your father?"
Amelia rolled her eyes and levitated down to the ground with exaggerated slowness.
The dishcloth was still lying on the counter when Zelgadis and Amelia returned to the magic shop. Zelgadis rang the bell beside it. After a minute, he rang it again. Just as he raised his hand to ring it a third time Wyrg stumbled into the shop, rubbing his eyes.
"Is it noon already?" the translator asked querulously. He squinted at the bright sunlight pouring in the shop window. "Yes, I suppose it is."
"What have you found out?" Zelgadis inquired pointedly.
"Some very interesting things. Come into my workroom and I'll show you."
The visitors filed around the counter and followed him through a narrow hallway, past a rather dirty kitchen, and down a flight of stairs to the basement. It was a single large room full of magical paraphernalia and mismatched tables, shelves and cupboards. There was a pool of light surrounding one of the tables. When Amelia and Zelgadis got closer they saw that it was cast by a pair of magical lanterns and their book was at the center of it. There were also several other books spread out around it as well as several slates covered in chalked symbols.
Wyrg tapped the open page of their book. "Look here. I believe this first symbol means 'Lord of Nightmares' or, more literally, 'Lord of Dreams that Terrify.'"
Zelgadis and Amelia stared at each other wide-eyed. "Lord of Nightmares?" Zel repeated faintly.
"Yes. These lines form the symbol for 'Lord' and, if I'm not mistaken, this part is the symbols for 'dream' and 'terrify' intertwined. I've never heard of this 'Lord of Nightmares' but he sounds powerful. Look, here is the symbol for Shabranigdo. See, it's an eye with a suggestion of the symbol for red. Well, I'm sure you've seen it plenty of times before. And here is Cephied four symbols later. I haven't been able to work out the symbols in between but they seem to be in the same style."
Zelgadis tapped the symbol just before Shabranigdo. "I'm almost certain that this one with the lightning bolt is Dark Star."
"Then this one," Amelia tapped the one in front of Cephied, "must be Volphied. Yes, it looks right although I don't know why."
"That makes these," Zelgadis pointed to the ones next to Shabranigdo and Dark Star, "the dark lords of the other two worlds, Death Fog and Chaotic Blue."
Amelia bit her lip. "I don't know the names of the gods of the other two worlds."
"You two are very good," Wyrg said in amazement. "Can you get any more of it?"
"Please go on," Zelgadis said.
"Well, judging by its similarity to the symbol in this text," Wyrg pointed to one of the other books open on the table, "I believe that this word at the end of the line is 'make' or 'create'. So would that make the line 'Shabranigdo and the other mazoku lords and Cephied and the other gods created the Lord of Nightmares'? He must be extraordinary if they all worked together to create him."
"No," Zelgadis corrected. "The Lord of Nightmares comes first. The line is 'The Lord of Nightmares created Dark Star, Ruby Eye, Death Fog, Chaotic Blue, Volphied, Cephied...and the other gods.'"
"The Lord of Nightmares created...How do you know that?" the older sorcerer spluttered indignantly.
"I know something about the Lord of Nightmares," Zelgadis replied with calm smugness. Amelia nodded in agreement.
"Actually, the rest of the passage makes more sense with that interpretation. The beginning of the next line is 'Monster and God' and the last symbol is 'create' again. I can't make out the symbols in between but I'm pretty sure that the third one, the last one before 'create', is a verb. The second one may be a stylized 'four' or it might be something else entirely."
"'Mazoku and God, she created them to something the four somethings," Zelgadis murmured.
"Rule the four worlds, of course!" Amelia exclaimed.
"Uh, something like that," the translator agreed nervously. "She?"
"I tend to think of the Lord of Nightmares as female although it is quite possible that such a being has no gender," Zelgadis explained.
"Uum, right. As you can see, the names of the darklords and gods appear again in these four lines." Wyrg pointed to four lines separated from each other by many lines of symbols. "The last symbol in each of these lines is 'gave'. I believe that it describes which worlds the Lord of Nightmares assigned ('gave') to each dark lord and god pair. On the next page, here, Shabranigdo creates his five generals. I think that the rest of the page is descriptions of them. The third page is Cephied creating his generals. That's as far as I got. Would you like the details of the descriptions? I have some of them partially worked out."
"No, I get the idea. Can you tell me anything about the rest of the book?"
"The words 'mazoku' and 'ryozoku' appear frequently. Other than that, not much. If I could have a few weeks with it..."
"We don't have enough time."
"We had to camp out by the waterfall last night," Amelia agreed.
The linguist sighed and ran a longing finger over the page. He closed the book.
"Oh, there's one other thing you should know."
"What?"
"The book generates a strong magic field. You might be able to use it as a magic amplifier and it has some other properties too. Before you ask, I don't think it's because of anything in the binding. If I had to guess, I'd say that the words themselves are generating that power. I can sense faint traces of that power even in the symbols I copied onto this slate."
"Amazing!" Amelia replied. "Thank you for telling us."
"Are you sure that you can't let me hold on to the book for just a few more days?" Wyrg pleaded.
"No," Zelgadis refused. He picked up the book and tucked it back into his cloak pocket.
The shopkeeper looked from his customer's inhuman face to his large sword and back to his cold blue eyes. Wyrg nodded in resignation.
"Will this pay for your trouble?" Amelia handed the man a small leather pouch full of valuable magical artifacts.
He quickly looked them over. "These are rare! Yes, it's generous pay, but my real reward was the chance to look at that manuscript." He sighed again.
Outside the shop, Zelgadis allowed himself a rare expression of joy. "It's a Clair Bible. It must be. I've never seen any other book that mentions the Lord of Nightmares, and the magical field he described is a well-known property of the Clair Bible!"
Amelia was too stunned by his smile to register his words. Zelgadis took her wide-eyed silence as agreement. "I think we should go back to the temple of the Clair Bible with the stone slabs. I've been dreaming about it." He muttered the last sentence with a puzzled frown.
Now that the dazzling smile had been turned off, Amelia caught up with the conversation. "Me too!" She exclaimed. "I've been dreaming about the Clair Bible a lot, I think, although I can't remember any of my dreams clearly."
"Then that is our next destination."
Author's Note: I wrote the first section as an out-of-context scene a long time ago and this seemed like the best place to put it. If it seems like it has nothing to do with the rest of the chapter, that's because it doesn't. Still, aren't you glad I put it in? Now you can't say there isn't any mush in this story. (Okay, he just did it for his cure, or so he claims, so I guess it doesn't really count.)
Other than that, there's not much to say about this chapter. Therefore, this would be a good opportunity for some general comments on the story as a whole.
I'm trying to be as true as possible to the style of the Slayers anime series. In my mind, the slightly crude animation style translates to minimal physical descriptions of characters and setting. Besides, it's fun leaving the details to your imaginations. For example, exactly what do you think Amelia and Zel's festival costumes looked like? If I was writing CLAMP fanfiction (which I actually have tried), I would put in a lot more references to hair and eyes and flowering trees.
The romance in this story is Slayers romance. That means that it moves at the speed of glacial drift. Two steps forward, three steps back. Martina and Zangulus excepted of course. Look at the plot and you'll see that I'm trying as hard as I can to throw Amelia and Zelgadis together, but the harder I throw them at each other, the more they bounce off. If you watch very carefully though, their relationship does evolve. A little. Very slowly. I love mush as well as anyone else but it wouldn't be in character, or nearly as much fun, if it was too easy.
The one area in which I obviously failed to be true to the Slayers style is the lack of world-shaking battles - the lack of any kind of climactic plot at all in fact. For this, I apologize. The story I wanted to tell just doesn't involve any villains. Besides, Zelgadis and Amelia aren't nearly the trouble magnets that Lina and Gourry are. No one is likely to try to recruit them for the mazoku race or ask them to save the world when Lina's not around. They also aren't quite as inclined toward impulsive destruction and mayhem as their fiery-haired friend. I did put in a few fights with bandits and chimeras and the accidental destruction of a couple of villages. I hope that makes up for it a little.
It's probably unprofessional of me to reveal so many of the thoughts behind the story - if I have to explain what I'm trying to do then I'm not doing it right - but this seemed like the best way to answer all 40+ reviews (!) at once. I read and enjoy every review even though I don't answer them individually.