Disclaimer: I have no rights. Well, not to the Slayers characters anyway.
Emily walked down the street followed by the children. She was totally oblivious to the wonders of the capital city. She ignored the entertainers. She even ignored the ice cream vendors. Usually she was a sucker for ice cream and Seyruun was famous for theirs. Still, she walked on.
Emily sighed and wiped away a tear. "Forgive me dad." She remembered her father's sword falling in the dirt in front of her after her loss to Vance. She had spent the rest of the trip to Seyruun trying to polish it. Although there wasn't a spot of dust on it anymore she still felt that it would never shine again. She had forever tarnished it with her failure.
They turned off the main road onto a side street. There wasn't nearly as much foot traffic now. Small shops lined the road. Emily stopped in front of one of them. "Is this it?"
The children ignored her and ran into the shop giggling. "Grandpa!"
Emily looked up at the sign hanging off the shop. "Seyruun Used Books. Creative name." She entered the shop.
After a few minutes of sitting with Amelia, Zelgadis was convinced that he was in hell. She hadn't spoken a word to him and seemed to barely notice that he was there.
"So that's why we're here." Lina finished explaining the story of their travels up to this point. The only thing she had left out was Zelgadis's involvment. She had claimed that bandits attacked Cruso.
"I see. Poor Gourry." Amelia wiped away her tears and sighed.
"Yeah. I know."
"I'd love to help, but the library was damaged by a fire recently. We lost a lot of information."
"Damn. Just my luck."
Amelia smiled. "You're more than welcome to look though. I just don't know how helpful it will be."
A voice spoke up from behind the group. "My dear, you should have told me that we had guests."
Amelia smiled sweetly. "Edward! I thought that you were meeting with the Elmekia ambassador this afternoon."
Edward was a tall thin man in his fifties. He had short blond hair and a fairly handsome face. He wore white as was the custom of Seyruun royalty and the crest of the Crown Prince was stitched on the right sleeve.
Edward smiled as he took a seat next to Amelia. "We're taking a break. Negotiations are going quite well though."
"That's wonderful." Amelia saw Edward looking at her guests. "Oh, where are my manners? You remember Lina of course."
"How could I forget? Half a million gold in property damage leaves a lasting mark on one's memory."
Lina chuckled nervously. "Yeah, about that. . ."
Edward waved dismissively. "No need to worry. It was all in the name of justice right? Consider yourself pardoned."
"Thanks." Lina breathed a sigh of relief.
Amelia continued with introductions. "This is Miss Filia and. . ." She gave Zelgadis a cold look. ". . .Zelgadis Greywords."
"A pleasure. If you'll excuse me, I just remembered that I have pressing business to attend to." Edward stood and turned to leave.
"Edward, Do you think we could have dinner together tonight?"
"Business before pleasure my dear. I will see you later tonight." Edward leaned down and kissed Amelia.
Zelgadis averted his gaze, wishing that he were somewhere else.
Lina watched Edward leave. "Well I see he's still Mr. Personality huh?"
"Miss Lina please!" Amelia looked over her shoulder. Luckily, Edward was already gone.
"I still don't see why you married that guy Amelia."
"I married him because it was good for relations between our kingdoms." Amelia thought for a moment. "And because I love him of course."
"Sure. Whatever." Lina glanced at Zel with an evil smile. She twisted the knife a little more. "So, how many kids do you have now Amelia?"
Zel twitched. Kids? Amelia had kids?
Amelia was totally oblivious to Zel's discomfort. "I have three now. I think you remember Phil. He's twenty-three now. The twins, Lana and Gouren, are fifteen."
Lina smiled. "You named your children after me and Gourry? We must have been a bad influence on you." She looked over at Zel again and grinned. He looked absolutely miserable. Good.
Zelgadis muttered to himself. "Damn it. Why didn't she just kill me? It would have been kinder." He looked up to see Lina smiling sweetly at him. He realized that she was just getting started. "No! Please!" He waved frantically at Lina.
Lina turned back to Amelia still smiling. "You know Amelia, Zel here just adores children. I'm sure he'd love to meet them."
Amelia's face lit up. "Of course! I'll go get them right now." She stood up and went into the palace.
Zel looked up. If he was quick enough he could Ray Wing over the wall. Maybe then he'd have enough of a head start on Lina. . .
"Don't you even think about it." Lina was sitting next to him with her hand clamped on his wrist.
Zel glared at her. "What's your problem? I don't want to see Amelia's kids."
Filia nervously drank her tea. "Oh dear." She sensed that there might be violence ahead.
"I don't give a damn what you want Zel! This isn't about you!" She poked him as she spoke. "You think that you're the only one who's suffered?"
"You can't possibly know what I've been through Lina."
Lina slapped him. "Ow. That hurt." She shook her hand for a moment glaring at Zelgadis the whole time..
"Wait! You did that to yourself."
"Shut up. If you say one more word about yourself, I swear I will Dragon Slave you into the next life." She stood up and crossed her arms doing an impression of Zel. "Nobody understands my pain! Everyone's against me! Blah, blah, blah!" She leaned down until she was nose to nose with Zel. "You saw that jackass that Amelia married right?"
Zelgadis nodded mutely.
"She married him because you never came back! She said that you promised that you would return for her! Do you know how sad she was when she finally gave up on you? She said she married him for the good of the people. That's why she thinks she did it. You know what I think?"
Zel shook his head.
"I think after you left, she just stopped caring about herself." Lina pointed to the door Edward had gone through. "He never makes time for her. She never has anyone to talk to! She's miserable most of the time and it's all your fault!"
Zelgadis saw his chance. "What about you? You haven't visited her for years either right?"
There was a dangerous tone in Lina's voice. "Don't you change the subject."
Filia spoke up. "That's right Miss Lina. Why haven't you visited in so long?"
"Because they kicked me out of the city. There were some. . .complications after I foiled an assassination attempt on Amelia." She turned back to Zelgadis. "You hear that? Edward had me banned from the city after I saved his wife's life. He said I was a danger to the population. Sounds like a real winner huh?"
Zelgadis grimaced. "But. . ."
"Shut up! Why'd you come back into my life anyway? Gourry and I were happy until you showed up. You weren't satisfied with ruining Amelia's life so you decided to come back and destroy mine too right?"
"That's not true! My cure. . ."
"Damn your cure! You're the only person that thinks there is something wrong with you!"
Filia looked at Lina nervously. "Uh, Miss Lina?"
"Not now damn it!" She grabbed Zelgadis's collar and shook him. "Amelia never cared that you looked like that! She stuck up for you more than anyone!"
"Miss Lina?" Filia tugged on Lina's sleeve.
Lina held up a finger cutting Filia off. "Shut up Filia!" She continued to shake Zelgadis. He was starting to look a little green. "Now, you are going to meet these kids and you are going to be civil! If you weren't so self-centered they might have been your children! Now if you try to sneak off, so help me. . ."
"MISS LINA!" Filia shouted at Lina.
"What?!" Lina turned on Filia. "Oh. Hello." She released Zelgadis, who immediately crawled to what he hoped was a safe distance. Standing next to Filia were Amelia and her children.
Emily read the title of a book. "Claire Bible? Am I in the religion section?" She shrugged and put the book back on the shelf. She needed something to read to take her mind off of her failure. Self-pity never did anyone any good.
Emily blew the dust off of another book and sneezed. "1001 Ways to Prepare Lake Dragon. Great." She enjoyed cooking, but Lake Dragon was kind of time consuming. She put the book back on the shelf and continued to look. The books didn't seem to be in any sort of order, but she really didn't want to bother the owner again. He probably had his hands full with the kids.
Emily sighed. She didn't think that there were any books from this century in the store. That's why she kept looking. Maybe she could find a book about ancient military history. When she wasn't practicing swordplay, she enjoyed reading about military tactics and history. Stuff that her mom would roll her eyes at.
"Oh, this looks interesting." Emily smiled as she pulled down a copy of "Style of the Howling Blade". She looked at the author's name. "Zangulus? Cool name." She glanced through it. Interesting, but not really her thing. As she put the book back on the shelf she accidentally knocked another one on the floor.
"Hmm. Ancient Artifacts of the Four Worlds." Her mom might find this useful. When she tried to pay the man for the book he wouldn't accept her money.
"Don't worry about it Miss. For all the trouble you've been through, you can have that for free." He scrunched up his large eyebrows. "Besides, I know every book in my store and I've never seen that one before."
That was strange. Emily smiled at the owner. "Thank you very much." Emily put the book in her cloak and turned to leave. She felt a tug on her cape. She turned to see the little girl looking up at her. She smiled and knelt down next to her. "You're going to be okay now right?"
The girl nodded. "You're nice. Thanks for helping."
"Your very welcome. Goodbye." Emily tried to stand but the girl held her hand.
"Be careful. The bad man might get you."
Emily thought of Zelgadis and scowled. "I'll be fine."
"Mommy said priests were nice. The bad man wasn't nice."
"He said he was a priest?"
She nodded. "Uh huh. He said he was Mister Priest."
Emily thought for a moment. "Funny. Zelgadis doesn't look like a priest." She looked out the window to see the sky darkening. How long had she been in the store? If she didn't hurry, she'd miss mom and the others at the castle.
Edward stormed into his office. "Damn it! After the big stink you make about being the one to kill Inverse, all you do is sit around! Now she's here in the castle!"
Vance looked up from where he was sitting in the corner. "Oh? Is my little kitten with her?"
Edward stared at the man dumbfounded. "What are you talking about? You said that you would get rid of her!"
"And I will. However, I'm not stupid enough to try to do it in public. Offer them accommodations in the castle. While they sleep tonight, I will kill them." Vance thought back to his battle with Emily and grinned. Hair the color of flame, determination burning in her eyes, the sweat on her pale skin. He chuckled. She would be his.
Edward sighed. "Are you still with me?"
Vance shook his head. Thinking like that might get him killed. Besides, it wasn't very professional to get involved with a potential target. On the other hand, she wasn't specifically listed as a target in the contract. . .
Something hit Vance in the face. He looked down to see the keys to several rooms sitting in his lap.
"You'll take care of them tonight right?"
Vance smiled. "Of course. I've never lost a target."
Edward frowned. "You lost your target earlier today."
"Hmm. True." Vance stood up. His knee seemed to be fully healed now. "I never lose a target twice." He walked out of the office. There was work to do.
Next Chapter: Lina is close to the edge and is about to be pushed over.
Notes: Oh jeez. Deep cleansing breaths. Repeat after me. The story is not in trouble. I can do this. Okay. . .
Hello readers! This might be the last chapter for a while. However, I'm not abandoning the story. In fact I have a couple more chapters done. It's just that they aren't really good chapters. In fact, I would go so far as to say that they're pretty bad. But, I'm trying to hammer the bugs out as we speak, so you'll probably see some updates next week. Later!
Emily walked down the street followed by the children. She was totally oblivious to the wonders of the capital city. She ignored the entertainers. She even ignored the ice cream vendors. Usually she was a sucker for ice cream and Seyruun was famous for theirs. Still, she walked on.
Emily sighed and wiped away a tear. "Forgive me dad." She remembered her father's sword falling in the dirt in front of her after her loss to Vance. She had spent the rest of the trip to Seyruun trying to polish it. Although there wasn't a spot of dust on it anymore she still felt that it would never shine again. She had forever tarnished it with her failure.
They turned off the main road onto a side street. There wasn't nearly as much foot traffic now. Small shops lined the road. Emily stopped in front of one of them. "Is this it?"
The children ignored her and ran into the shop giggling. "Grandpa!"
Emily looked up at the sign hanging off the shop. "Seyruun Used Books. Creative name." She entered the shop.
After a few minutes of sitting with Amelia, Zelgadis was convinced that he was in hell. She hadn't spoken a word to him and seemed to barely notice that he was there.
"So that's why we're here." Lina finished explaining the story of their travels up to this point. The only thing she had left out was Zelgadis's involvment. She had claimed that bandits attacked Cruso.
"I see. Poor Gourry." Amelia wiped away her tears and sighed.
"Yeah. I know."
"I'd love to help, but the library was damaged by a fire recently. We lost a lot of information."
"Damn. Just my luck."
Amelia smiled. "You're more than welcome to look though. I just don't know how helpful it will be."
A voice spoke up from behind the group. "My dear, you should have told me that we had guests."
Amelia smiled sweetly. "Edward! I thought that you were meeting with the Elmekia ambassador this afternoon."
Edward was a tall thin man in his fifties. He had short blond hair and a fairly handsome face. He wore white as was the custom of Seyruun royalty and the crest of the Crown Prince was stitched on the right sleeve.
Edward smiled as he took a seat next to Amelia. "We're taking a break. Negotiations are going quite well though."
"That's wonderful." Amelia saw Edward looking at her guests. "Oh, where are my manners? You remember Lina of course."
"How could I forget? Half a million gold in property damage leaves a lasting mark on one's memory."
Lina chuckled nervously. "Yeah, about that. . ."
Edward waved dismissively. "No need to worry. It was all in the name of justice right? Consider yourself pardoned."
"Thanks." Lina breathed a sigh of relief.
Amelia continued with introductions. "This is Miss Filia and. . ." She gave Zelgadis a cold look. ". . .Zelgadis Greywords."
"A pleasure. If you'll excuse me, I just remembered that I have pressing business to attend to." Edward stood and turned to leave.
"Edward, Do you think we could have dinner together tonight?"
"Business before pleasure my dear. I will see you later tonight." Edward leaned down and kissed Amelia.
Zelgadis averted his gaze, wishing that he were somewhere else.
Lina watched Edward leave. "Well I see he's still Mr. Personality huh?"
"Miss Lina please!" Amelia looked over her shoulder. Luckily, Edward was already gone.
"I still don't see why you married that guy Amelia."
"I married him because it was good for relations between our kingdoms." Amelia thought for a moment. "And because I love him of course."
"Sure. Whatever." Lina glanced at Zel with an evil smile. She twisted the knife a little more. "So, how many kids do you have now Amelia?"
Zel twitched. Kids? Amelia had kids?
Amelia was totally oblivious to Zel's discomfort. "I have three now. I think you remember Phil. He's twenty-three now. The twins, Lana and Gouren, are fifteen."
Lina smiled. "You named your children after me and Gourry? We must have been a bad influence on you." She looked over at Zel again and grinned. He looked absolutely miserable. Good.
Zelgadis muttered to himself. "Damn it. Why didn't she just kill me? It would have been kinder." He looked up to see Lina smiling sweetly at him. He realized that she was just getting started. "No! Please!" He waved frantically at Lina.
Lina turned back to Amelia still smiling. "You know Amelia, Zel here just adores children. I'm sure he'd love to meet them."
Amelia's face lit up. "Of course! I'll go get them right now." She stood up and went into the palace.
Zel looked up. If he was quick enough he could Ray Wing over the wall. Maybe then he'd have enough of a head start on Lina. . .
"Don't you even think about it." Lina was sitting next to him with her hand clamped on his wrist.
Zel glared at her. "What's your problem? I don't want to see Amelia's kids."
Filia nervously drank her tea. "Oh dear." She sensed that there might be violence ahead.
"I don't give a damn what you want Zel! This isn't about you!" She poked him as she spoke. "You think that you're the only one who's suffered?"
"You can't possibly know what I've been through Lina."
Lina slapped him. "Ow. That hurt." She shook her hand for a moment glaring at Zelgadis the whole time..
"Wait! You did that to yourself."
"Shut up. If you say one more word about yourself, I swear I will Dragon Slave you into the next life." She stood up and crossed her arms doing an impression of Zel. "Nobody understands my pain! Everyone's against me! Blah, blah, blah!" She leaned down until she was nose to nose with Zel. "You saw that jackass that Amelia married right?"
Zelgadis nodded mutely.
"She married him because you never came back! She said that you promised that you would return for her! Do you know how sad she was when she finally gave up on you? She said she married him for the good of the people. That's why she thinks she did it. You know what I think?"
Zel shook his head.
"I think after you left, she just stopped caring about herself." Lina pointed to the door Edward had gone through. "He never makes time for her. She never has anyone to talk to! She's miserable most of the time and it's all your fault!"
Zelgadis saw his chance. "What about you? You haven't visited her for years either right?"
There was a dangerous tone in Lina's voice. "Don't you change the subject."
Filia spoke up. "That's right Miss Lina. Why haven't you visited in so long?"
"Because they kicked me out of the city. There were some. . .complications after I foiled an assassination attempt on Amelia." She turned back to Zelgadis. "You hear that? Edward had me banned from the city after I saved his wife's life. He said I was a danger to the population. Sounds like a real winner huh?"
Zelgadis grimaced. "But. . ."
"Shut up! Why'd you come back into my life anyway? Gourry and I were happy until you showed up. You weren't satisfied with ruining Amelia's life so you decided to come back and destroy mine too right?"
"That's not true! My cure. . ."
"Damn your cure! You're the only person that thinks there is something wrong with you!"
Filia looked at Lina nervously. "Uh, Miss Lina?"
"Not now damn it!" She grabbed Zelgadis's collar and shook him. "Amelia never cared that you looked like that! She stuck up for you more than anyone!"
"Miss Lina?" Filia tugged on Lina's sleeve.
Lina held up a finger cutting Filia off. "Shut up Filia!" She continued to shake Zelgadis. He was starting to look a little green. "Now, you are going to meet these kids and you are going to be civil! If you weren't so self-centered they might have been your children! Now if you try to sneak off, so help me. . ."
"MISS LINA!" Filia shouted at Lina.
"What?!" Lina turned on Filia. "Oh. Hello." She released Zelgadis, who immediately crawled to what he hoped was a safe distance. Standing next to Filia were Amelia and her children.
Emily read the title of a book. "Claire Bible? Am I in the religion section?" She shrugged and put the book back on the shelf. She needed something to read to take her mind off of her failure. Self-pity never did anyone any good.
Emily blew the dust off of another book and sneezed. "1001 Ways to Prepare Lake Dragon. Great." She enjoyed cooking, but Lake Dragon was kind of time consuming. She put the book back on the shelf and continued to look. The books didn't seem to be in any sort of order, but she really didn't want to bother the owner again. He probably had his hands full with the kids.
Emily sighed. She didn't think that there were any books from this century in the store. That's why she kept looking. Maybe she could find a book about ancient military history. When she wasn't practicing swordplay, she enjoyed reading about military tactics and history. Stuff that her mom would roll her eyes at.
"Oh, this looks interesting." Emily smiled as she pulled down a copy of "Style of the Howling Blade". She looked at the author's name. "Zangulus? Cool name." She glanced through it. Interesting, but not really her thing. As she put the book back on the shelf she accidentally knocked another one on the floor.
"Hmm. Ancient Artifacts of the Four Worlds." Her mom might find this useful. When she tried to pay the man for the book he wouldn't accept her money.
"Don't worry about it Miss. For all the trouble you've been through, you can have that for free." He scrunched up his large eyebrows. "Besides, I know every book in my store and I've never seen that one before."
That was strange. Emily smiled at the owner. "Thank you very much." Emily put the book in her cloak and turned to leave. She felt a tug on her cape. She turned to see the little girl looking up at her. She smiled and knelt down next to her. "You're going to be okay now right?"
The girl nodded. "You're nice. Thanks for helping."
"Your very welcome. Goodbye." Emily tried to stand but the girl held her hand.
"Be careful. The bad man might get you."
Emily thought of Zelgadis and scowled. "I'll be fine."
"Mommy said priests were nice. The bad man wasn't nice."
"He said he was a priest?"
She nodded. "Uh huh. He said he was Mister Priest."
Emily thought for a moment. "Funny. Zelgadis doesn't look like a priest." She looked out the window to see the sky darkening. How long had she been in the store? If she didn't hurry, she'd miss mom and the others at the castle.
Edward stormed into his office. "Damn it! After the big stink you make about being the one to kill Inverse, all you do is sit around! Now she's here in the castle!"
Vance looked up from where he was sitting in the corner. "Oh? Is my little kitten with her?"
Edward stared at the man dumbfounded. "What are you talking about? You said that you would get rid of her!"
"And I will. However, I'm not stupid enough to try to do it in public. Offer them accommodations in the castle. While they sleep tonight, I will kill them." Vance thought back to his battle with Emily and grinned. Hair the color of flame, determination burning in her eyes, the sweat on her pale skin. He chuckled. She would be his.
Edward sighed. "Are you still with me?"
Vance shook his head. Thinking like that might get him killed. Besides, it wasn't very professional to get involved with a potential target. On the other hand, she wasn't specifically listed as a target in the contract. . .
Something hit Vance in the face. He looked down to see the keys to several rooms sitting in his lap.
"You'll take care of them tonight right?"
Vance smiled. "Of course. I've never lost a target."
Edward frowned. "You lost your target earlier today."
"Hmm. True." Vance stood up. His knee seemed to be fully healed now. "I never lose a target twice." He walked out of the office. There was work to do.
Next Chapter: Lina is close to the edge and is about to be pushed over.
Notes: Oh jeez. Deep cleansing breaths. Repeat after me. The story is not in trouble. I can do this. Okay. . .
Hello readers! This might be the last chapter for a while. However, I'm not abandoning the story. In fact I have a couple more chapters done. It's just that they aren't really good chapters. In fact, I would go so far as to say that they're pretty bad. But, I'm trying to hammer the bugs out as we speak, so you'll probably see some updates next week. Later!
