Disclaimer: I don't own Slayers. I don't own any of the characters from Slayers either, sadly enough.
Author's Note: Wow! I got reviews! Thanks so much!! More interesting people to come. No, I really don't like Eris. I try to be fair to her, but I'm sure you can tell who I like and who I don't. I'll try to keep posting new chapters fairly often. And Moro, I'm making sure to write Zelgadis into the next chapter I'm writing. Remember, the more you review, the more I'll post!
Ramblings of the Doomed
Chapter 6: The Trickster Leading the Blind
It was a trying time for Eris. She had been experimenting with new types of chimeras. Some were beautiful and strong. However, some of these combinations of creatures had failed. These were disgusting, lumpy, misshapen abominations that looked like they had begun to melt. These failed chimeras were not very smart. They only had half the intelligence of the stupidest of creatures they were made out of. The successes, on the other hand, were just as intelligent as the smartest of the creatures they were made from. The chimeras, including some of the stronger failures, were now kept in hundreds of vats and cages around the basement. There were whole rooms full of them. Quite a few were even kept in the lab, near Kopii's cage. They couldn't speak, but they often stared at him. It made him nervous sometimes. And of course, he annoyed Eris by watching her every move as she made the chimeras. He would occasionally ask a question. She would never answer, of course.
Eris was also constantly annoyed by the little kopiis. They were responsible for more than half of the failed chimeras, she was sure. Whether they dropped things into her potions, fell in themselves, or just distracted her, she was at the end of her rope when it came to those little giggling pests, even if they did look like Rezo-sama.
And speaking of Rezo-sama, Eris was worried about him. Lately, he seemed to be constantly in pain from a minor month-long headache. It was making him very irritable. He hadn't been going out to help people for a long time either. Eris really didn't know what to think.
Rezo was in his study reading. He was getting more desperate to gain his sight. He knew that golden dragon had known something. How dare he withhold important information from the great aka houshi Rezo! The fact that he had had a nasty little headache for the past month didn't help things any either. Before, he had derived all of his pleasure in life from helping others. But lately, he had no altruistic urges at all. Any time he even considered going out to cure the ailments of the world, he was overcome by either a strange headache or a terrible lethargy. It was really starting to bother him, but he could never seem to tell Eris. Or even Kopii. He couldn't seem to stop himself from snapping at Kopii, so he usually tried to avoid speaking to him at all. The lack of control he had over himself lately terrifed him. What was even more frightening was the fact that he couldn't tell anyone.
So to keep his mind off of the strange turn his life was taking, Rezo was looking up powerful mazoku in an old thick book. He thought that if the servants of the gods wouldn't help him, perhaps the mazoku could. He was looking at the five mazoku lords under Shabranigdu. One of them might be able to help him. Somehow, he had a good feeling about them.
But which one to summon? The Hellmaster was the strongest, so it might be very hard to keep him contained. Chaos Dragon Gaav had been turned into a mortal long ago, and he was just as unpredictable and war-loving as the name suggested. He was not likely to be very helpful. Deep Sea Dolphin was said to be insane, so she probably wouldn't be much help either. That left Dynast Grausherra and Beastmaster Zellas Metallium. The author of the book hadn't known much about either of them, except that Dynast was associated with cold and lived at the north pole, and the Beastmaster was probably the weakest of the five and kept wolves as servants.
After giving it some consideration and asking Eris's opinion, Rezo dedided that summoning the Beastmaster would be safest. And the book had said that although she was the weakest, the others still feared her. Perhaps she had some forbidden knowledge or power that could cure the incurable blindness!
* * *
So Rezo and Eris discussed it, and began setting up for another summoning. Milgazia had been the priest of the Water Dragon King, who was on the same level of power as the five mazoku lords. So the summoning and barriers would both have to be a lot stronger. This time, Eris drew a large pentagram on the floor with a circle and magic symbols around it. She put a large white candle at each point of the star.
Since it was a mazoku this time, and he knew the name, Rezo had a completely different spell to chant. He had studied this before, but he had never tried it. There were some tricky intonations and pronunciations in this one, so Rezo was going over it carefully in his mind. One wrong tone of voice or mispronounced word could summon a completely different mazoku or even doom the summoner to eternal torment at the hands of a swarm of lesser mazoku.
Kopii had been given the task of keeping the little kopiis out of the summoning area. He knew that with their short attention spans, it would be impossible to do anything to keep all the kopiis in the lab occupied for more than two minutes. He had gotten the kopiis obedient enough by now that if he whistled softly, a few of the nearest kopiis would come to him. If he whistled loudly, the lab's whole population of kopiis would come. So he whistled loudly and waited a moment. He had been planning this for quite a while now, and last night he had cast a small spell to keep them all from getting much sleep. Being tired made the kopiis more obedient, so they all came to him.
When all the little kopiis were inside his cage, Kopii put up a barrier going all over the bars so that they couldn't get out. He had told Eris about these plans yesterday, and she had agreed to allow him to do that. As long as he was meek and submissive towards her and Rezo, she didn't mind letting him do things occasionally.
The little kopiis all climbed around searching for something new or a way out of the cage. When they realized that there wasn't one, they gradually all came back to Kopii to tug at his robes, look up at him, and ask, "Out?"
"Sorry my friends," Kopii said, truly meaning it. "They're doing some dangerous summoning today. They don't want you to get in the way, and I don't want you to get hurt. Why don't you sleep for a while?"
So Kopii sat up to his ears in hundreds of sleepy little kopiis and watched the proceedings in the rest of the lab. Eris and Rezo seemed about ready to start. Rezo lit the candles all at once and began to clang his staff in an odd rhythm. The words of the spell were strange, even otherworldly. Rezo was very pleased with how it was going so far. The words and intonations were almost impossible to get right, but he was doing it almost easily. Blackness radiated from the pentagram, which itself was glowing red.
Suddenly a very human-looking mazoku appeared inside the wards. Kopii saw the mazoku's eyes for a second before they closed again. They were a strange amethyst color.
Eris and Rezo looked at the mazoku in confusion. This couldn't be the Beastmaster! It looked nothing like the sketch of her in the book. She was supposed to be female and smell like cigarette smoke and alcohol. This one was definitely male and smelled very faintly of coffee, but nothing else.
The purple-haired mazoku grinned, not opening his eyes. "Ah, aka houshi Rezo! To what do I owe this pleasant intrusion upon my personal time?" he said cheerfully. All three watched him warily for a second, but then Rezo stepped foreward.
"Err… forgive me. There seems to be some mistake. You see, we were trying to summon Beastmaster Zellas Metallium," Rezo said nervously. This could not be good. "I… umm… don't know how you got here instead."
"I know!" the mazoku said gleefully, his grin growing even bigger. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Xellos, the mysterious priest, servant to Juuou-sama. We've been watching all three of you, especially you and your Copy over there," he said, nodding to Kopii in a friendly way. "You're both of great interest to us, although your lady-friend will play a small part also."
"But we don't want to talk to you!" Eris burst out. "We summoned the Beastmaster! We don't want to talk to her lackeys!"
Xellos's smile turned dangerous for a minute. "You should be glad that I came of my own accord, instead of letting you try to imprison Juuou-sama like this. She would have ripped out your throats and thrown you to the wolves," he said in a dark, slightly scary voice. Then his smile became happy again. "So, how can I help you?"
"Xellos-sama, my eyes have been sealed shut since my birth," Rezo said humbly. "I have tried all sorts of black, white, and shamanistic magic to open them. I even summoned the priest of the Water Dragon King, but he refused to help me. Please, is there anything you can do to help me?"
Xellos smiled and walked casually through the barrier Eris had drawn without a flinch, though it glowed brightly as he stepped across. Eris and Kopii stared, frightened at the obvious power in this mazoku. Xellos approached Rezo, opened his eyes, and stared intently at Rezo's eyelids. The red priest tried not to breathe.
"Hmm…" Xellos said. "You've got a while yet." He then turned and walked over to the very nervous Kopii. "And even longer for you." Kopii was confused and wanted to ask Xellos what he meant, but the mazoku was already turning back to Rezo. "It was not a good idea to ask Milgazia-kun. He's an old acquaintance of mine. Very reasonable and intelligent, but he's just not the type who would be able to help you."
"So you can help me?" Rezo asked eagerly.
"Well…" Xellos considered, "…Nope!" he said, grinning. Rezo and Eris facefaulted.
"Why not!?" Eris exclaimed.
"Sore wa himitsu desu!" Xellos said cheerfully.
"But…I…" Rezo started. "Can't you tell me anything?"
"Actually, I can," Xellos said smugly. "Your eyes will open."
"What!? When? How!" Rezo exclaimed quickly, getting excited. Kopii and Eris leaned foreward to hear.
"Now that…" Xellos said. Everyone leaned as close as they could. "…Is something I can't tell you!"
Everyone facefaulted. The sleepy little kopiis complained at Kopii's movement. Xellos looked over at the noise, and went to crouch down by the kopiis. A few came over to investigate him, and he let them play with his fingers. Kopii watched warily.
"Oh, how kawaii!" Xellos said. "Rezo-kun, I'm jealous! I only have pictures of myself in my home. You have actual copies!"
The kopiis perked up at this praise. "Kopiis!" they corrected him. "Kopiis! Kopiis! Kopiis!"
"Ah, forgive me!" Xellos said immediately, sticking his fingers farther in to stroke their heads. They giggled, almost purring, at his attention. Kopii relaxed a great deal. He trusted the kopiis' judgment of people, and this Xellos seemed nice enough, despite being a creepy mazoku.
Still playing with the kopiis, Xellos opened his eyes and looked up into Kopii's green and yellow eyes. "Of course, you have your sight already. But you'll have your chance with power also. After Rezo-kun, of course. But I'm sure you're used to that by now."
"What do you mean?" Kopii asked. "What kind of power?"
"Sore wa himitsu desu!" Xellos said happily.
"Don't give him any ideas!" snapped Eris.
Xellos turned to Eris, the grin still plastered on his face. "Oh, jealous of a kopii?" he asked. "Afraid he's better than you are? Well I'm afraid you're right!"
Eris glared at Xellos, then at Kopii, with a murderous glint in her eyes. "Be quiet! He needs to know his place, and so do you! You're not so –"
Rezo figured out where Eris's mouth was by the sound of her voice and quickly clamped his hand over it. "Please forgive my assistant. She's just a bit… over-zealous. But please, is there anything else you can tell me about gaining my sight?"
"Oh no, I'm afraid not," Xellos said apologetically. "That just wouldn't do. I can only tell you to try something stronger. But you may want to get your affairs in order first." Xellos knew that the last statement would frighten most people. But he also knew that Rezo's obsession was so great that it didn't matter. Eris gasped softly and Kopii looked worried.
"Well, I'm afraid that's all, minna. I may see you again," Xellos said. His grin widened. "Or I may not! Ja ne!" And he disappeared.
* * *
"Hmm…" said Rezo, already thinking about what he could try next. "He said something stronger…"
"He also said to get your affairs in order!" Eris exclaimed. "Rezo-sama, whatever he was talking about could kill you! You can't! Don't even think about it! You remember how easily he passed through even our strongest barrier. We couldn't even handle him, much less something stronger!"
"I don't care," said Rezo flatly. "I've waited too long to give up now. Besides, he said I would see. And he knew what he was talking about. The Lord of Nightmares helps those who help themselves, you know…"
Eris and Rezo went upstairs arguing, without a second glance to Kopii. He shrugged slightly and took the barrier around his cage down. It occurred to him that since Eris had changed the barrier to allow spells to work on the inside, he might be able to blast his way out. But he was tired from working that prolonged spell and when he thought about it, his life here wasn't all that bad. He had food, shelter, and the other kopiis. The little ones had mostly run out into the lab, back to their usual hiding places. A few of his favorites had stayed, however. They snuggled into him, chattering in a happy sleepy way. The eerie chimeras watched as the caged kopiis slept peacefully.
*Japanese for Beginners*
mazoku – demon race
kopii – copy (Slayers term, not real Japanese)
Juuou – Beastmaster
-sama – Lord, Master, or Dear
-kun – friendly address to a male
facefault – not Japanese. In anime, when a person falls over, usually on the face, with an "ack"-like sound.
Sore wa himitsu desu – that is a secret
Kawaii – cute
Minna – everyone
Ja ne – goodbye
I have the next 2 chapters done, waiting to be typed, and I'm working on the 9th. Please give me some suggestions! More Zelgadis, I promise. He comes enters in the next chapter, Moro! Everybody's about to go crazy, so tell me what you want to see!
Author's Note: Wow! I got reviews! Thanks so much!! More interesting people to come. No, I really don't like Eris. I try to be fair to her, but I'm sure you can tell who I like and who I don't. I'll try to keep posting new chapters fairly often. And Moro, I'm making sure to write Zelgadis into the next chapter I'm writing. Remember, the more you review, the more I'll post!
Ramblings of the Doomed
Chapter 6: The Trickster Leading the Blind
It was a trying time for Eris. She had been experimenting with new types of chimeras. Some were beautiful and strong. However, some of these combinations of creatures had failed. These were disgusting, lumpy, misshapen abominations that looked like they had begun to melt. These failed chimeras were not very smart. They only had half the intelligence of the stupidest of creatures they were made out of. The successes, on the other hand, were just as intelligent as the smartest of the creatures they were made from. The chimeras, including some of the stronger failures, were now kept in hundreds of vats and cages around the basement. There were whole rooms full of them. Quite a few were even kept in the lab, near Kopii's cage. They couldn't speak, but they often stared at him. It made him nervous sometimes. And of course, he annoyed Eris by watching her every move as she made the chimeras. He would occasionally ask a question. She would never answer, of course.
Eris was also constantly annoyed by the little kopiis. They were responsible for more than half of the failed chimeras, she was sure. Whether they dropped things into her potions, fell in themselves, or just distracted her, she was at the end of her rope when it came to those little giggling pests, even if they did look like Rezo-sama.
And speaking of Rezo-sama, Eris was worried about him. Lately, he seemed to be constantly in pain from a minor month-long headache. It was making him very irritable. He hadn't been going out to help people for a long time either. Eris really didn't know what to think.
Rezo was in his study reading. He was getting more desperate to gain his sight. He knew that golden dragon had known something. How dare he withhold important information from the great aka houshi Rezo! The fact that he had had a nasty little headache for the past month didn't help things any either. Before, he had derived all of his pleasure in life from helping others. But lately, he had no altruistic urges at all. Any time he even considered going out to cure the ailments of the world, he was overcome by either a strange headache or a terrible lethargy. It was really starting to bother him, but he could never seem to tell Eris. Or even Kopii. He couldn't seem to stop himself from snapping at Kopii, so he usually tried to avoid speaking to him at all. The lack of control he had over himself lately terrifed him. What was even more frightening was the fact that he couldn't tell anyone.
So to keep his mind off of the strange turn his life was taking, Rezo was looking up powerful mazoku in an old thick book. He thought that if the servants of the gods wouldn't help him, perhaps the mazoku could. He was looking at the five mazoku lords under Shabranigdu. One of them might be able to help him. Somehow, he had a good feeling about them.
But which one to summon? The Hellmaster was the strongest, so it might be very hard to keep him contained. Chaos Dragon Gaav had been turned into a mortal long ago, and he was just as unpredictable and war-loving as the name suggested. He was not likely to be very helpful. Deep Sea Dolphin was said to be insane, so she probably wouldn't be much help either. That left Dynast Grausherra and Beastmaster Zellas Metallium. The author of the book hadn't known much about either of them, except that Dynast was associated with cold and lived at the north pole, and the Beastmaster was probably the weakest of the five and kept wolves as servants.
After giving it some consideration and asking Eris's opinion, Rezo dedided that summoning the Beastmaster would be safest. And the book had said that although she was the weakest, the others still feared her. Perhaps she had some forbidden knowledge or power that could cure the incurable blindness!
* * *
So Rezo and Eris discussed it, and began setting up for another summoning. Milgazia had been the priest of the Water Dragon King, who was on the same level of power as the five mazoku lords. So the summoning and barriers would both have to be a lot stronger. This time, Eris drew a large pentagram on the floor with a circle and magic symbols around it. She put a large white candle at each point of the star.
Since it was a mazoku this time, and he knew the name, Rezo had a completely different spell to chant. He had studied this before, but he had never tried it. There were some tricky intonations and pronunciations in this one, so Rezo was going over it carefully in his mind. One wrong tone of voice or mispronounced word could summon a completely different mazoku or even doom the summoner to eternal torment at the hands of a swarm of lesser mazoku.
Kopii had been given the task of keeping the little kopiis out of the summoning area. He knew that with their short attention spans, it would be impossible to do anything to keep all the kopiis in the lab occupied for more than two minutes. He had gotten the kopiis obedient enough by now that if he whistled softly, a few of the nearest kopiis would come to him. If he whistled loudly, the lab's whole population of kopiis would come. So he whistled loudly and waited a moment. He had been planning this for quite a while now, and last night he had cast a small spell to keep them all from getting much sleep. Being tired made the kopiis more obedient, so they all came to him.
When all the little kopiis were inside his cage, Kopii put up a barrier going all over the bars so that they couldn't get out. He had told Eris about these plans yesterday, and she had agreed to allow him to do that. As long as he was meek and submissive towards her and Rezo, she didn't mind letting him do things occasionally.
The little kopiis all climbed around searching for something new or a way out of the cage. When they realized that there wasn't one, they gradually all came back to Kopii to tug at his robes, look up at him, and ask, "Out?"
"Sorry my friends," Kopii said, truly meaning it. "They're doing some dangerous summoning today. They don't want you to get in the way, and I don't want you to get hurt. Why don't you sleep for a while?"
So Kopii sat up to his ears in hundreds of sleepy little kopiis and watched the proceedings in the rest of the lab. Eris and Rezo seemed about ready to start. Rezo lit the candles all at once and began to clang his staff in an odd rhythm. The words of the spell were strange, even otherworldly. Rezo was very pleased with how it was going so far. The words and intonations were almost impossible to get right, but he was doing it almost easily. Blackness radiated from the pentagram, which itself was glowing red.
Suddenly a very human-looking mazoku appeared inside the wards. Kopii saw the mazoku's eyes for a second before they closed again. They were a strange amethyst color.
Eris and Rezo looked at the mazoku in confusion. This couldn't be the Beastmaster! It looked nothing like the sketch of her in the book. She was supposed to be female and smell like cigarette smoke and alcohol. This one was definitely male and smelled very faintly of coffee, but nothing else.
The purple-haired mazoku grinned, not opening his eyes. "Ah, aka houshi Rezo! To what do I owe this pleasant intrusion upon my personal time?" he said cheerfully. All three watched him warily for a second, but then Rezo stepped foreward.
"Err… forgive me. There seems to be some mistake. You see, we were trying to summon Beastmaster Zellas Metallium," Rezo said nervously. This could not be good. "I… umm… don't know how you got here instead."
"I know!" the mazoku said gleefully, his grin growing even bigger. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Xellos, the mysterious priest, servant to Juuou-sama. We've been watching all three of you, especially you and your Copy over there," he said, nodding to Kopii in a friendly way. "You're both of great interest to us, although your lady-friend will play a small part also."
"But we don't want to talk to you!" Eris burst out. "We summoned the Beastmaster! We don't want to talk to her lackeys!"
Xellos's smile turned dangerous for a minute. "You should be glad that I came of my own accord, instead of letting you try to imprison Juuou-sama like this. She would have ripped out your throats and thrown you to the wolves," he said in a dark, slightly scary voice. Then his smile became happy again. "So, how can I help you?"
"Xellos-sama, my eyes have been sealed shut since my birth," Rezo said humbly. "I have tried all sorts of black, white, and shamanistic magic to open them. I even summoned the priest of the Water Dragon King, but he refused to help me. Please, is there anything you can do to help me?"
Xellos smiled and walked casually through the barrier Eris had drawn without a flinch, though it glowed brightly as he stepped across. Eris and Kopii stared, frightened at the obvious power in this mazoku. Xellos approached Rezo, opened his eyes, and stared intently at Rezo's eyelids. The red priest tried not to breathe.
"Hmm…" Xellos said. "You've got a while yet." He then turned and walked over to the very nervous Kopii. "And even longer for you." Kopii was confused and wanted to ask Xellos what he meant, but the mazoku was already turning back to Rezo. "It was not a good idea to ask Milgazia-kun. He's an old acquaintance of mine. Very reasonable and intelligent, but he's just not the type who would be able to help you."
"So you can help me?" Rezo asked eagerly.
"Well…" Xellos considered, "…Nope!" he said, grinning. Rezo and Eris facefaulted.
"Why not!?" Eris exclaimed.
"Sore wa himitsu desu!" Xellos said cheerfully.
"But…I…" Rezo started. "Can't you tell me anything?"
"Actually, I can," Xellos said smugly. "Your eyes will open."
"What!? When? How!" Rezo exclaimed quickly, getting excited. Kopii and Eris leaned foreward to hear.
"Now that…" Xellos said. Everyone leaned as close as they could. "…Is something I can't tell you!"
Everyone facefaulted. The sleepy little kopiis complained at Kopii's movement. Xellos looked over at the noise, and went to crouch down by the kopiis. A few came over to investigate him, and he let them play with his fingers. Kopii watched warily.
"Oh, how kawaii!" Xellos said. "Rezo-kun, I'm jealous! I only have pictures of myself in my home. You have actual copies!"
The kopiis perked up at this praise. "Kopiis!" they corrected him. "Kopiis! Kopiis! Kopiis!"
"Ah, forgive me!" Xellos said immediately, sticking his fingers farther in to stroke their heads. They giggled, almost purring, at his attention. Kopii relaxed a great deal. He trusted the kopiis' judgment of people, and this Xellos seemed nice enough, despite being a creepy mazoku.
Still playing with the kopiis, Xellos opened his eyes and looked up into Kopii's green and yellow eyes. "Of course, you have your sight already. But you'll have your chance with power also. After Rezo-kun, of course. But I'm sure you're used to that by now."
"What do you mean?" Kopii asked. "What kind of power?"
"Sore wa himitsu desu!" Xellos said happily.
"Don't give him any ideas!" snapped Eris.
Xellos turned to Eris, the grin still plastered on his face. "Oh, jealous of a kopii?" he asked. "Afraid he's better than you are? Well I'm afraid you're right!"
Eris glared at Xellos, then at Kopii, with a murderous glint in her eyes. "Be quiet! He needs to know his place, and so do you! You're not so –"
Rezo figured out where Eris's mouth was by the sound of her voice and quickly clamped his hand over it. "Please forgive my assistant. She's just a bit… over-zealous. But please, is there anything else you can tell me about gaining my sight?"
"Oh no, I'm afraid not," Xellos said apologetically. "That just wouldn't do. I can only tell you to try something stronger. But you may want to get your affairs in order first." Xellos knew that the last statement would frighten most people. But he also knew that Rezo's obsession was so great that it didn't matter. Eris gasped softly and Kopii looked worried.
"Well, I'm afraid that's all, minna. I may see you again," Xellos said. His grin widened. "Or I may not! Ja ne!" And he disappeared.
* * *
"Hmm…" said Rezo, already thinking about what he could try next. "He said something stronger…"
"He also said to get your affairs in order!" Eris exclaimed. "Rezo-sama, whatever he was talking about could kill you! You can't! Don't even think about it! You remember how easily he passed through even our strongest barrier. We couldn't even handle him, much less something stronger!"
"I don't care," said Rezo flatly. "I've waited too long to give up now. Besides, he said I would see. And he knew what he was talking about. The Lord of Nightmares helps those who help themselves, you know…"
Eris and Rezo went upstairs arguing, without a second glance to Kopii. He shrugged slightly and took the barrier around his cage down. It occurred to him that since Eris had changed the barrier to allow spells to work on the inside, he might be able to blast his way out. But he was tired from working that prolonged spell and when he thought about it, his life here wasn't all that bad. He had food, shelter, and the other kopiis. The little ones had mostly run out into the lab, back to their usual hiding places. A few of his favorites had stayed, however. They snuggled into him, chattering in a happy sleepy way. The eerie chimeras watched as the caged kopiis slept peacefully.
*Japanese for Beginners*
mazoku – demon race
kopii – copy (Slayers term, not real Japanese)
Juuou – Beastmaster
-sama – Lord, Master, or Dear
-kun – friendly address to a male
facefault – not Japanese. In anime, when a person falls over, usually on the face, with an "ack"-like sound.
Sore wa himitsu desu – that is a secret
Kawaii – cute
Minna – everyone
Ja ne – goodbye
I have the next 2 chapters done, waiting to be typed, and I'm working on the 9th. Please give me some suggestions! More Zelgadis, I promise. He comes enters in the next chapter, Moro! Everybody's about to go crazy, so tell me what you want to see!