Sapphires And Sakura Blossoms

Epilogue:

Written By:

Samanda Hime-sama


Lina Inverse-Graywords was sitting under a shady tree and watching the chaos around her. Children were running amok around her but she wasn't paying attention. Instead she was concentrating on what Amelia was telling her.

"And so Matthius thought he could sneak back into the Palace and I'd never know." Amelia finished telling a story about her oldest child.

Syphiel shook her head. "And what did Dmitri do?"

"He knew all along and didn't say a word to me!" Amelia said. "It was just a joke, he told me. Daring his brother to put a dress on my great grandfather's statue in the city square. That was unpardonable."

"Family history is important to Amelia." Lina tried not to laugh. "He should have known that doing something like that would get Matthius grounded and him without privileges for a month."

"Well at least all of you are married." Filia said grumpily.

Amelia was smiling. "You could be too if you didn't hit Xellos so often."

"What? I don't want to be married to him!" Filia sputtered.

Lina shook her head. Xellos didn't love Filia. But he was obsessed with her. He tormented her as a way of showing his devotion and faithfulness to the one he adored. Mazoku were strange, masochistic creatures.

"But I want to, Filia-chan!" Xellos popped up out of nowhere wearing a tux and carrying flowers.

"No!" Filia cried out in despair. "Why does he always torment me?"

She fainted dead away. Amelia and Syphiel fluttered around her and finally revived her. After twenty minutes of fruitlessly chasing the mazoku with her mace she finally collapsed again into her chair, breathing hard.

Xellos waved to her and blew her a kiss. "Until later, my soon to be wife." He called before disappearing.

Filia continued heatedly, once she caught her breath. "He told little Val all sorts of improper language. And Val repeats it every once in a while and shocks me!"

"Oh my." Syphiel shook her head disapprovingly.

"And how are your children, Lina?" Amelia asked.

Lina smiled. "Just fine. I'm staying one step ahead of them and their tricks."

"Don't you ever catch them doing something wrong?" Filia asked.

Lina said cheerfully. "All the time. The difference is that I already know about it and occasionally I let them get into trouble."

"But why?" Amelia was curious.

Lina shrugged. "Their both mine and Zel's kids. They're gonna have to learn how to get themselves out of trouble without our help."

"Good point." Syphiel smiled.

At that point six boys ran up and skidded to a stop. They all bore a resemblance to Syphiel and her husband, Michael, depending one which you were looking at. They were between the ages of five and thirteen. Michael was a magician and he had been needed to stay and protect the rebuilt town of Sairaag. Which left Syphiel and the kids traveling the distance by themselves in a carriage.

"Mom, we're hungry again." The youngest complained.

Syphiel gave them one of the hampers of food beside her. "Here you go. Just try and not fight so much this time."

The youngest grabbed the basket and began running with the older five chasing after him. Syphiel just shook her head and sighed. There was only so much you could do with five boys who all had their father's bottomless stomach.

"How do you deal with all of them?" Amelia asked her in awe.

"For the most part they are all well behaved." Syphiel smiled. "And as for food, well I just cook a lot."

The others just shook their heads. Syphiel was too kind sometimes. Her sons behaved like wild animals out of the sight of their mother and they had the same starving appetite on top of it.

At least Amelia and Gourry's kids had inherited their mother's good memory and brains. They were all good natured and put up with their father's inability to sometimes call them by the right name. (Or so Amelia claimed later out of the hearing of Syphiel.)

Lina's youngest child complained. "Mooooom, they won't let me play with them. They say I'm too young."

Lina smiled fondly down at her only daughter. "You're five, Hana. Do you think you are too young?"

"No," Hana piped up.

"Daiyuki and Keichi are both older and bigger than you." Lina warned. "Be careful."

"Oh, I'm going to play meteor with them." Hana said cheerfully. She hugged Lina and took after them.

They watched the tiny copy of Lina run towards a set of twins around thirteen years old. They were uncannily alike with the exception of their hair color. The red haired one was teasing her about something but then Hana spoke.

"Why did you encourage her?" Amelia's voice was faintly dissaproving.

Lina looked at her. "Just because she's a girl doesn't mean that she ought to be acting like a lady, Amelia. The world is full of hardship and telling Hana to stop challenging herself and others is something I won't ever do. I don't her to ever lose that quality."

"I'm sorry, Lina. It's just that if I had a girl..." Amelia shrugged and tried to smile.

Lina got up and hugged her. "I know, she'd be a lady like her Mom. Don't give up hope, Amelia."

"I won't." Amelia wiped away the tears. "I think your boys are trying to get your attention."

Lina turned around. Her boys yelled. "Aww, Mom! Do we have to?"

"No, you don't." She replied.

"Alright!" The boys cheered over the little girl's despairing., "Mooom!"

Lina winked at her and then the girl started to smile as Lina spoke around the back of her hand. "It's going to be a very unusual day today weather wise, folks. I predict a sudden rise in temperatures and some freak activity."

"What did you do to encourage her, Lina?" Syphiel asked nervously.

"Zel swears she's nothing but mine, you know." Lina said proudly. "We already had to start teaching her magic control because her power is going to be enormous once she hits her teen years."

"Oh no. Incoming magic everyone," Amelia yelled.

Small fireballs began exploding around the two boys, who yelped, jumped and hopped their way around the clearing. Hana cackled and just increased the pace. "Go on and dance some more, Daiyuki-oniisan. Having fun yet, Keichi-oniisan?"

Everyone was putting up shields or simply running which only caused more chaos. No one was really terrified but simply acting like it. The kids were having a blast with the 'little spitfire' as they took to calling her.

Zel came up from behind and put his arms around Lina's neck. "Is this for last week when they put the frogs in her bed?"

"Yes and they thought I forgot about punishing them." Lina laughed. "But I think frogs are to Hana what slugs were to me."

"L-sama, save me!" Zel said, pretending to be horrified. "She really is your child. I guess some people's genetics always shine through. The more things change, the more they stay the same."

And somewhere in another dimension a shower of golden light watched over Lina and the disturbance surrounding her. If the being could have smiled it would have done so. Golden shimmers danced and it seemed to be it's way of laughing.

*YOU ALWAYS DID TAKE BEING THE CHAOS CHILD TOO SERIOUSLY, CHILD. I WONDER IF THERE IS ANY ORDER IN YOUR CHARACTER AT ALL. LET'S HOPE NOT.*



~Fini!~