Part 1: The War
Chapter 3
Mission Assignment
"It's better to move forward with your head held high, because the post is not going to move out of your way!" ~Unknown [1]
Lina was at the Seyruun palace for several more days. She waited impatiently for King Philionel to tell her where she was supposed to go and what she was supposed to do. As she lay on her back on the floor in her room, staring at the ceiling, she tried to remember what Diol had told her several nights before.
According to Diol, she had to want to kill the person she was sent after. If she didn't want them dead, she couldn't kill them. She'd only end up charring them like she did with all those bandits she blew up. But if she wanted with all her heart to kill that person, she could.
What else had he told her? Something about darkness... Lina found herself cringing, thinking maybe she should have paid a little more attention to Diol the other night. She frowned, and focused on a spot on the ceiling, trying her utmost to remember everything he'd told her. But, for the life of her, she couldn't remember his whole final speech. She'd nearly dozed off during his droning warning. It wasn't her fault lectures held no interest for her, and they never held her attention for very long.
A sudden knock on the door startled Lina so much she almost cried out in surprise. She sat up quickly, and said, "It's open."
The door opened, and a page stood at her door. He bowed his head, and said, "Lina Inverse, King Philionel el de Seyruun requests your presence in his study."
Lina sighed. Finally, she'd be getting out of the palace. Sure, the food was great and the service was undeniably convenient, but her impatience and apprehension slowly ate away at Lina every day. She hated waiting, and wanted to get out on the battle field and do something. She stood up in one fluid motion, and told the page to lead the way. He bowed his head again, and led her on through the palace corridors.
As Lina got closer to Philionel's study, she thought she heard someone laughing. The page opened to doors to the study, and the laughing grew louder. It was coming from inside Phil's study. Lina looked inside. Over by the fireplace, Phil and his wife were laughing and playing with a little girl of about five or six years old who looked exactly like Phil's wife.
"Lina Inverse, as you requested," the page announced.
Phil looked up from the floor. He was on his hands on knees, pretending to be a ferocious monster. The little girl had a stick in her hand, holding it like a sword. When Phil got distracted from their game, she bopped him on the head a couple times, trying to get him to play again.
Grinning, Philionel stood up, holding the little girl in his arms. His wife stood up beside him, tall and elegant. She was nearly as tall as Philionel himself. "Thank you for coming, Lina Inverse," Phil said, walking over to her. He nodded to the page, who bowed, and left the room, closing the door behind him. Phil smiled warmly, and said, "Lina Inverse, I'd like to introduce you to Lydia, my wife, [2] and my youngest daughter, Amelia."
Lina nodded, and shook Lydia's hand when the older woman held it out. Lina smiled at Amelia, who broke out into a huge grin and a fit of giggles.
"Unfortunately," Phil began. "My older daughter, Gracia, [3] isn't here right now. She's off at her lessons. I'd introduce her to you if she were here. She's about your age."
Lina fidgeted a little. "No problem," she said. She itched to know why Philionel was introducing her to his family, and if that was the only reason he'd called her to his study.
Phil turned to Lydia, and smiled. "Would you take Amelia and see if you can get her to sleep?" he asked her, handing the restless child to her. Lydia nodded, and left the study, leaving Philionel and Lina alone. Phil turned back to Lina, his face a mask of seriousness, and Lina wondered how he could switch from a laughing father to a stern king in such a short time. "Lina Inverse, I have a job for you," he said officially.
"Finally!" Lina nearly exploded. "It's about time! I've been sitting in this stuffy palace forever! I want to get out and do something!"
Startled would be a good word to describe how Phil looked after Lina's outburst. Then he nodded slowly, and told her, "There is a man working for King Feron, of the Outer World. His name is Aka-Houshi Rezo. [4] He works as a man for hire, but only for Feron's men. He'll heal people, give them protection spells or strength charms, which increases their efficiency in battle. We can't have Feron's army stronger than it already is. Rezo is a threat, and one that must be removed."
Lina nodded in understanding. "You'll get me to the Outer World, right?" she asked hopefully. She had no desires to walk that far. "Get me on a ship?"
"Of course I will," Philionel told her. "It won't be a delegation ship. We don't want to be alerting King Feron of this mission. I'll send you on a small boat under the sail of a fishing crew. I apologize for it, but we must proceed with caution and discretion."
"Sure," Lina said. She understood that necesity. It'd blow the whole idea if Phil sent her to the Outer World in a ship with flags and banners declaring Seyruun's increasing interference in the Outer World. The idea of actually going on a mission now was very exciting. At least, that's what Lina told herself the butterflies in her stomach were. "So I go in, take out this Aka-Houshi guy... then what?" she asked.
Phil replied, "You will remain in the Outer World. I will contact you with your next mission from there, but it would be too suspicious if you kept coming and going from here to there."
Again, Lina nodded in understanding.
With a lighter expression on his face, Phil asked, "Did you have a nice conversation with your Master the other night?"
"I guess so," Lina told him. She laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her head. "I don't remember half of it, but since he didn't blow me up (or vice versa) then I guess it went pretty well!"
Authoress Note
[1]- The only reason it's Unkown is because I was being a dork, and didn't type up the person's name before I closed Explorer, and I didn't want to go find it again. So it's Unknown. He says a lot of stuff.
[2]- Phil's wife's name isn't really Lydia. It's a name I made up. We don't know what his wife's name is.
[3]- I'm a strong supporter of the idea that Naga the White Serpent is really Gracia, Phil's oldest daughter. There's too much evidence to be ignored.
[4]- Aka-Houshi Rezo is Rezo the Red Priest. "Aka" means red, and "houshi" means priest or monk.
Well, here you have it. Yet another chapter of Dark Memories. I hope y'all like it. I'm getting nice reviews, which makes me happy ^___^ I have lotsa readers and people like it. That's all that matters. If I like it, and you like it, then it's all good, huh? ^_____^ You should see what I have in store for just a couple chapters ahead. I really want to get to the part where Lina kills her first person..... But I hafta write everything in between first, and it's kind of irritating. By the way, in the last chapter, Lina calls Diol "Diol-jiisan" and I forgot to say what that meant at the footnotes. Basically, it's a polite way of calling him an old geezer. I'm almost positive that's what she calls him in the episode he's in, and if not, it still fits anyway.
And I'll advertise this here, too, in case y'all don't visit my bio (which you should since I have spiffy pictures linked), but if you have a high-quality sound clip of the Lord of Nightmare's first entrance from Slayers Next, I will draw and color you any picture from any anime except Pokemon, Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh, things like that. Okay? I NEED IT!! I have a high-quality clip in English, but I'd like one in Japanese, too, since I like subs better. I will be eternally indebted to you!!!
ALSO!!! Happy birthday to my buddy Mercurius!! He doesn't have an ff.net account, but it's his birthday on Monday. YAY! So happy birthday!! I would have written you a fic, but with the family reunion, and the whole dying thing, I just ran out of time. Sorry. So this chapter is dedicated to you! YAY! Also, thank you so VERY VERY much for keeping my clone out of Lina's hands. I don't know what I would have done if I went back to my body and it was.... like..... that.....
Happy birthday to you!
You're an Otaku!
You're obsessed with The Slayers,
And wish you were one too!