* I don't own the Slayers. A BIG Thank you to every one that reviewed this and yes they are still out of character. And yes I am working on my other fics so please stop threatening me; it doesn't really work.
The Room Was Dark
"Now that's much better," Luna smiled, as she looked at the two of them, now in more suitable clothing. "Xellos why don't you tell me the words the that spell now?" Luna suggested.
"Alright," Xellos agreed as he walked over and sat in the chair across from Luna. "The spell he said was
'A power,
Beyond the
Darkest night
A place beyond
Death
Your memories
Will hold
Half of your
Life
And half of your
Flame
Will be
Gone to darkness
Beyond the light of day
The rest left to crumble
Ever slowly into madness and
Death!'"
"I've never heard that spell before and trust me I've heard all most all of them." Luna said as she frowned, this was going to be harder then she had originally thought. It wasn't just a matter of reversing the spell it was a matter of tracking down whose spell it was and what it did.
~ Mean while Lina had wandered into another room in her home the Beast Master's fortress.
Maybe if I find something that I know beyond a doubt belongs to me, I'll start to remember the things I seam to have forgotten. Lina thought to herself as she wandered out of her and Xellos' bedroom, and into a room across the hall. The room had a thick wooden door with the word, 'Library' engraved in delicate script across it cautiously Lina opened the door. She looked inside and saw hundreds of high shelves stacked to the very top with leather bound books, she also saw tall windows, which let in the late morning sunshine. Lina entered the library warily; as she walked in she noticed the large leather armchairs and a desk made of a dark wood with a matching chair. She stepped closer to the desk and sat in the chair, she ran her long fingers absently over the wooden grain of the desktop.
Lina looked down at the desk drawers, and noticed that the bottom right draw was somewhat ajar; she leaned slightly in her chair to open the drawer fully. Once she had the drawer open she put all its contents on the desktop to look at them she found, a ledger book, a fountain pen, a bottle of ink, and a portfolio full of notes and letters.
Lina reached for the ledger and found her name, Lina Inverse Metallium more proof that she and Xellos were married, embossed on the dark cover. She ran her fingers over it as if to make sure it was real, she opened the book to the first entry; '5/01/39, bandit gangs 3, 15 copper, 49 silver, 107 gold, 2 swords, 1 magic ring, total + $399 ' was written neatly on the first few lines and so it went on Lina saw as she flipped through the pages of her carefully kept accounts of treasure she had liberated over the years.
Lina put the ledger aside and next picked up the portfolio; again in a delicate script her name was written atop the cover, this time in gold, lettering. She opened the front cover of the portfolio, her portfolio. Lina found stacks of letters neatly tied together with different coloured ribbons, one pile bound with a blue ribbon, another tied with red, a third tied up with black, the fourth bound with green and last stack tied up with purple ribbon.
Lina reached out and took on stack of letters from the portfolio, she unwrapped the blue ribbon and took the first envelope the letter was from Gourry it read:
"Hi Lina
How are you? I'm fine just in case you asked. I wish we hadn't stopped adventuring; I really miss all those big dinners we used to have. But now that I don't have the sword of light it wouldn't be good for me to keep adventuring. I would be a hassle to you more then a protector. And besides didn't you always tell me you didn't need a guardian?
Any way I was I'm staying in town with Filia and Valgav, I mean Valterra. By the way Filia says that Val should be hatching any month now. Zel has gone to find his cure again; I wonder why he wants to do that. I mean he looks fine the way he is. I hope this letter got through, I asked Filia to find you so I could send this letter.
Your friend and guardian, Gourry Gabriev."
Short and to the point good old Gourry, Lina though, it was strange though, Gourry hadn't mentioned her being married to Xellos. She put the letter back with the others of its kind and picked up the pile bound with the red ribbon. She took the one off the top it was written on pink paper with the seal of Seyruun across the top; it was from Amelia.
"Dear Lina
I' m well, although I'm board stiff most of the time, going adventuring with you, Gourry, and Zelgadis was much more exciting then signing the endless amounts of paperwork that always seems to come out of no where. What about you are you well? Are you and Gourry still adventuring together? Is Zelgadis with you?
I miss Zelgadis, I offered to let him come and search the royal libraries but he hasn't taken up the offer yet. If he is traveling with you, please tell him the offer is still open. You should come for a visit to the palace soon; we'll have a huge feast to celebrate the defeat of Dark Star.
Did you and Gourry ever find a replacement for the Sword of Light? If you haven't I recently heard a rumour about a place north of Elmekia Mountain with a sword called the righteous battle blade. I thought you might want to check it out. The place is an old shrine to the war god Aries, so it's bound to have a lot of traps and probably still has a few worshipers attached to it so if you go please be careful.
I knew where you were to get this letter to you by asking travelers what part of their journey had the least amount of bandits. Please when you get this letter send one back immediately, to the palace. I am so board here that even a letter would be good, maybe if you're in the area we can have that feast. Write back quickly.
Always your companion and friend, Amelia Wil Telsa Seyruun."
That was Amelia, a princess through and through, even with her odd taste for adventuring she still cared for her friends. Lina wondered, what had happened to Zel any way? Lina also wondered why Amelia's letter hadn't referred to her alleged marriage to Xellos either, what did that mean? That she wasn't married to him after all of that or that Amelia didn't know? Lina considered this for a second; she would tell Amelia about something as important as getting married, wouldn't she? Lina recalled how Amelia had tried to make Xellos 'stop being evil' when she had first learned about his being a monster. She also remembered that he had more then a little green. Maybe she wouldn't have told Amelia until after she had gotten married. She put Amelia's letter back with the others tied with a red ribbon and reached for the pile with green ribbon; this pile was thin.
"To Lina
Zangalus and I are well, as we would be the Monstrous Zolmogostav smiles upon us. But what about you, how have you been? We haven't seen you since just after Hell Master Phibirzo was defeated.
Although it took me a long time to realise it, I owe you a great deal, for it was you who helped me in so many ways. If you hadn't destroyed my castle I wouldn't have learned how spoiled I was, now I appreciate things much more, also you helped me curve me need for world domination. And with out you Lina I would never have met Zangalus, the new king of Xona.
I hear that you've gone on in your exploits to go to the outer world. Did you ever find out what caused the pillar of light?
On a different note Zangalus and I now have a beautiful baby daughter, we named her Talia Cor Mela Xona. You should come and visit us soon and bring Gourry, Zangalus is itching to fight him again.
Your friend Martina Mel Novarac Xona."
Martina had actually written her a letter to thank her for destroying her castle? This was confusing; Lina had thought that she would stay angry about that little incident for the rest of her days. But on the other hand if not for Martina vowing revenge on her she wouldn't have met Zangalus and found a king, albeit won with little or no back bone what so ever when it came to dealing with his wife, for new Xona. Lina carefully put the short letter back with the others of its kind as she did she thought, Martina's letter didn't say anything about her being married to anyone either especially not to Xellos.
~ Back in Xellos and Lina's bedroom, Xellos sat in a chair across from Luna. Both were racking their brains trying to find out whose spell the bandit leader had used on Lina.
"The line about a power beyond the darkest night, sounds like the spell calls upon the Lord of Nightmares," Xellos mused his amethyst eyes shut again. "Don't you think Lina?" There was no response.
"Lina, I know your still upset about this and don't really want to talk right now," Luna said without turning in her chair. "But let's not forget your manners, after all we're only trying to find away to reverse the spell they used on you."
Still there was no answer; this was very unlike Lina who usually couldn't keep herself away for any talk of spells or potions. "Lina, are you awake?" Xellos asked as he looked over his shoulder.
At that moment Allison running into the room. "Mommy, Dad, aunty Luna we found it, we found the powder on your clothing mommy." Allison said in an excited voice, she looked around the room, "mommy?"
Xelas came walking in at a slower pace behind her granddaughter. "We found the powder on you clothing Lina but I don't know what it is or even what it should do, I'm not sure it's even magical." Xelas looked around the room, and asked the crucial question, "Where did Lina go?"
Luna got up, looked around the room then, back at Xellos as she and said coolly, "It appears Xellos that you have misplaced Lina."
Xellos started to panic at the words 'misplaced Lina', how could he have misplaced his wife? Where could she go? The answer was far to many places, very few of them safe if she had lost her memory of Wolfpack Island's layout. "Lina?" He called out as he got up from his chair and walked out the bedroom door, where could she have gone?
Allison walked out the door after her father, "Daddy where did mommy go?" She asked him as they walked down the halls.
"I don't know Allison, where does mommy like to go when daddy's not here?" He asked his daughter as he walked down the hall ways, "Lina, Lina are you there, answer me if your there."
Allison walked up behind her father and tugged on his cape, "Daddy why don't you just concentrate on her emotions to find her like usual?"
Xellos suddenly stopped walking and turned to his daughter, "that's a very good idea Allison, thank you." Xellos lowered his head and concentrated on first a mental map of the Beast Master's fortress and then on the emotions of every mortal and part mortal inside the fortress. He got three readings; one was cool worry that was from Luna in his and Lina's bed room, the next was worry mixed with a tiny bit of fear that was Allison in the hall next to him, and the third was sadness mixed with longing and worry, that was Lina in the library. Xellos grabbed his daughter's hand and teleported into the library. "Lina are you here? Answer me if you're here." He called out in an almost frantic voice.
Lina heard her name and looked up from the letter she was currently reading, "I'm over here Xellos." She called out and wondered why there was a touch of panic in the General and Priest of Xelas Metamilium. Lina put Zelgadis' letter down on the desk as she saw Xellos and the little girl who must be Allison, who must be her daughter.
"Lina what do you think your doing?" Xellos demanded as he let go of Allison's hand and she ran to her mother. "You could have wondered out of the fortress and been eaten by wolves or something far worse."
Lina stared at Xellos while Allison hugged her, was Xellos trying to chastise her, her Lina Inverse and now apparently Lina Inverse Metamilium? "I may not remember separating form Gourry, Amelia or Zelgadis and I may not remember agreeing to get married or getting married to you and I may not even remember having a child of my own but," Lina reached down and covered Allison's ears, "damn it Xellos I can still remember how to read! And I know the difference between the words library and outside." She yelled at him, "Xellos I may be affected by a some stupid bandit's spell but I'm not an invalid and I haven't lost all my senses yet."
Xellos lowered his head knowing that Lina had defeated him, he said, "Your right, your right and I'm sorry I was just worried about you."
Lina was surprised so much so that she dropped her hands from her daughter's head and dropped her shield of hostility, "You were worried about me, really?" Xellos only nodded as Allison climbed into her mother's lap.
Allison sat in her mothers lap and looked at the smooth dark wooden desk and saw five neatly tied boundless of letters on the desktop and one of the was opened. "Mommy what's this?" Allison asked as she picked up the letter.