Disclaimer: Me no own slayers. Period.

A mysterious voice

A secret revealed

"Say Lina, where are we going?" Gourry asked for the 5 time that day. "For crying out loud, Gourry" the small redhead shouted, and smacked him for the 5 time that day, "we are going to a town called Xen. Now before you even ask, Xen is a town in the outer world. We are going there to beat the hell out of some rich guy, and to help Sylphiels friend with some dark counsel". She sighed "but honestly, couldn't they find a more original name than *Dark counsel* I mean, talk about lousy imagination!" . Eruk was secretly amazed, he had never seen anyone get beaten like Gourry had been, and they had only been traveling for a day. "Don't worry about them" Zelgadis told him "They always act like that, and besides Lina would never hurt him, seriously". Eruk nodded, but continued to watch the scene unfolding in front of him.

"I wish miss Lina would stop hurting poor Gourry-dear" Sylphiel said. She had tried to stop Lina beating up her blond friend, but was nearly caught in the crossfire. Amelia was busy trying to get Zelgadis to cheer up. The only one who didn't talk to someone was Taki, all day she had been walking alone. Eruk had noticed this and slowed down, to let her keep up with him. "what's the matter?" He asked "this isn't like you at all". She didn't answer at once, but then sighed "I'm just so tired, we have been walking for hours". Now that he had gotten a bit closer to her, it was easy to see that she was quite right, she was dragging her feet along the ground. "Just a bit longer" he assured her "I'll try to convince the others to take a break soon". He started to walk a bit faster to keep up with Lina and Gourry. "Excuse me, miss Lina" he said, as he caught up with her, "Taki can't keep walking like this, how far is it to the next town?". Lina flashed him a smile "Is she tired already? Well, we should be arriving at a town pretty soon now. Do you think she can keep going a bit further?". Eruk walked back to Taki and told her what he had just learned. "I guess, I just have to keep walking then" she didn't sound happy about it. The group kept moving on, and just like Lina had said, they could soon see a small town.

They settled in at the local inn. It was still early afternoon. The girls had left to find Taki some better travelling clothes. For the entire day she had been wearing an old dress, and high heels. Eruk was sitting at the inn, talking with Gourry and Zelgadis. They were mostly talking about swords, just to make sure that Gourry wasn't left out of the conversation. Eruk hadn't thought much about Gourry's intelligence, but he had to admit that he was pretty smart when it came to this particularly field of study.

Night came, and it was time for dinner. Eruk made sure to put some distance between himself and Lina. "So Taki, did you get some better clothes?" he asked, trying to start a conversation to distract himself from the feeding frenzy at the other end of the table. She nodded as a response, but didn't say anything. He tried again "come on Taki, don't be so gloomy". She shook her head forcefully "sorry, I'm just so tired. I think I should go to sleep soon, if we are to walk all day tomorrow too". Sylphiel cut in on the conversation "Don't worry Taki, It'll only be bad the first few days, then you'll be used to it, it was the same for me too, you know".

Eruk stood up "I think I'll go to sleep now, see you all in the morning. He left the restaurant and went to his room.

The next morning he woke early, just like he had planned. He quickly stood up and got dressed. He knew that he had a couple of hours before breakfast, and he wanted to do a bit of workout. He had noticed yesterday that the inn had a small garden. He went out there and started practicing some fighting maneuvers. He thought back to when he was training with Gen. So much had happened since then. That time he just wanted to be able to take care of himself, he never even imagined that he would ever have to fight for his life. After having seen Zelgadis skill in battle he knew that he still had a long way to go.

He started to do some moves, Gen had told him that it was important for him to find his own style. He still remembered how Gen used to say "If you fight just like everybody else, you'll end up losing". Eruk had always tried to train after that. He started a dancing maneuver. Instead of waiting for his opponent to attack him, he had learned to move fast, in a dance-like style. He really liked training, just to block everything out and just focus on his movements.

"You are pretty good at that" he stopped to see who had spoken. It was Lina. He stopped to whipe the sweat from his forehead. "Well, I guess I'm getting better. But what are you doing up this early, miss Lina?" he asked. She walked over to him "I was just enjoying the sunrise, when I heard somebody out here". He started his training again, a little less concentrated this time. "Do you mind if I join you?" she asked "I'm not to shabby with a sword, but it's been awhile since I have trained". Eruk nodded, training was always better with a partner.

Much to his surprise, Lina actually was a very strong opponent. He had heard a lot of stories about her skills from Sylphiel, but all of them where about her magically abilities. He backed up a bit, and lowered his guard "Wow, I must admit that you are much stronger than you look" he said. Lina smiled a bit and charged forward. Her attack knocked him off his feet. She flashed him a victory sign, before extending her hand to help him up. He took her hand and allowed her to help him back on his feet, not that he really needed the help, but he saw it as a gesture of good will. "I guess this round goes to the incredible Lina Inverse" he said, as he dusted himself off. She didn't have time to respond, as Gourry came out of the inn. "HEY LINA!!" he shouted "BREAKFAST!!". Eruk didn't have time to do anything before she was running back. He merely shook his head, that girl was incredible. She could switch personality in a matter of seconds.

He walked back to the inn, only to find Lina and Gourry eating like there was no tomorrow. He had noticed how Amelia had changed too, she no longer acted like the princess he thought he knew. She was acting more like a sister to Lina, of course with a strong sense of justice. It was obvious to him that she was trying to get as much food as possible, without getting hurt. He sat down next to Sylphiel. "Good morning" she said "you sure got up early". He started drinking a cup of tea "yeah, I was training, and got beaten by Lina". Sylphiel was shocked "you mean Lina beat you up?" she asked. He almost choked on his tea "No no nothing like that" he said, and explained how he had been practicing with Lina.

After breakfast they set out. On the way Lina told them that they where heading for a harbor town nearby. If they walked all day, they could probably reach it by nightfall. It was a nice day, not to cold, and not to hot either, perfect for walking. Even Taki was in good spirit, she had become quite good friend with Amelia over the last few days. Eruk looked at the two girls, Amelia was trying to teach Taki some posses and speeches of justice. Eruk laughed a bit himself, he couldn't imagine Taki actually trying to copy any of the princess's moves, but they had fun anyway. "It's nice to see that she has fund a friend" Sylphiel said, Eruk agreed. Somehow he had expected that they would get along, mainly because of their similar age.

The day was fairly uneventful, except from Lina and Gourry's usual fight over the food. It was late when they arrived at the town. Lina insisted that they found an tavern as fast as possible. Both Gourry and Amelia agreed with her, and Zelgadis merely followed out of habit. Sylphiel and Taki found and inn, and got some rooms for all of them. The two girls were pretty tired, and settled with some of their traveling rations before going to sleep. Eruk had initially planned to go with Lina and the others, but changed his mind. All day he had felt like somebody was watching him. A few times he was almost certain that he saw a person from the corner of his eye, but when he turned to look, there was noting. He hadn't told anybody of this strange feeling.

Now he was standing on a field outside of the town. He was almost certain that his unknown stalker was around somewhere, he could feel it deep inside. "Why don't you stop hiding and come out here" he said out loud. There were no response at first, not that he had expected anything. "So, your powers have grown as far as this, have they?" the voice seemed to come from all around him. He had never heard anything like it before, even though he seemingly was in the middle of the whole thing, he was not sure if it was shouting or whispering to him through his heart. "Who are you?" he asked, he had gotten pretty uncomfortable by his situation. "Now now, you needn't worry about that, you can trust me" this time the voice sounded amused, unlike how Eruk felt right now.

He pulled himself together "what do you want with me?", he was slowly getting ready to run away. The voice was silent for awhile, as if it wanted to scare him even more, "I'm just to watch over you for the time being". That didn't exactly calm him down, especially that part about "for the time being". He started to get scared out of his mind, there was something very wrong. He felt like he didn't have any other choice than to try a bluff "so, apparently you know a lot about me, but unless you can help me recover something about my past, you're useless to me" he tried to hide his feelings and find a chance to escape. "you can't hide anything from me, my dear half-breed" the voice mocked him "but I like your boldness, so I'll give you some advice. Just go on with you travels, and don't tell anybody about this conversation".

Eruk got into a fighting stance, not that he believed that the owner of the voice would show himself, but it gave him a bit of confidence. "My my, so violent" once again the voice was mocking him "your true feeling are becoming much more clear now. Go back to your friends, and remember, don't say a word about this, unless you want to force my hand". Eruk looked around more carefully this time "Are you threatening me?" he asked "Don't bother. Just come and get me". He wasn't as confident as he wanted to sound. The voice turned even darker "You don't have to worry, I'm under strict orders not to harm you, but…". Eruk shuttered this whole thing was really getting to him, he didn't really want to know, but he just had to ask "but what?".

"But that doesn't mean your pretty purple-haired girlfriend can't get involved in some kind of accident". Eruk was shocked, he had not thought of any of the others as hostages, especially not Sylphiel. Eruk fell to his knees, he was beaten. There was no way he could defy the voice now.

He raised his head a bit "what kind of monster are you?" he asked weakly. "that is a secret" it said, for some reason it seemed very amused. Eruk didn't say more, but he could fell the heavy atmosphere gradually disappear. It was all gone now. Eruk got up and started to run towards the inn. Sylphiel, please be okay he thought as he ran. He reached the inn pretty fast. After entering he went directly to the innkeeper "Where is Sylphiel?" he asked, breathing pretty hard from his run. The innkeeper was a small man, he was completely taken by surprise by the young warrior in front of him "I…. don't know this Sylphiel, sir".

Eruk slammed him up against the wall "Don't give me that!" he shouted "she's here, and I want to know which room". The small Innkeeper was terrified "how does she look like, sir?" he managed to ask. Eruk calmed down a bit of course he don't know her by name he thought, and started describing how she looked like. "Oh, that young lass," the innkeeper nodded after a few seconds, she's staying in room number 5. Eruk ran up the stairs as fast as he could. He quickly found Sylphiels room, and knocked loudly on the door. There was no response, he started to panic.

Without thinking he kicked the door as hard as he could, it flew open. He charged into the room. Sylphiel sat up with a shock, because of the dim lights she couldn't see the intruder, she started screaming. Eruk realized his mistake "Sylphiel it's me, Eruk" he said. It took a while for her to calm down, "what? What's going on Eruk?" she asked. He sat down next to her "I'm really sorry about charging in like that, but I had my reasons, I'm just glad you are safe". She sat up "if there is something wrong, you should tell me", She still sounded a bit shocked. He stood up, "it's nothing. Just a bad dream. I guess I just over-reacted". With those words he left the room.

Damn, I should have known better. Now I'll have serious trouble avoiding questions. He was still uneasy. I can't stay here tonight. I could endanger everybody.

He quietly left the inn, and headed for the wood. It was a nice evening, not too cold, and not too hot. He had slept under the stars before. Not only when he was travelling, but also before in New Sairaag. He sat down under a large tree, and wrapped his cape around him. It was times like this, he was happy that he bothered dragging that thing along. The night air felt pleasant, and made him relax. So much have happened to me in the last year. It's like I'm right in the middle of something big. There's the " Dark counsel", and that bounty on me, and to top it all off there's that mysterious voice. I wonder who I really am. The last thing he thought of before drifting off to sleep was how the voice had called him a half-breed.

Authors notes:

Who does the voice belong to? What does half-breed mean? So many questions, and the answer is…… A secret!!!!

I hope I'll be able to get another update ready in the weekend. Hope that you enjoy the story.