AN: Don't you hate it when you know where you want to go in a story but just aren't sure how to execute it? I've got the last part of this fic clearly imprinted in my mind, it's just a matter of actually writing a believeable enough story to get there ^_^;;
Reviews make me happy! Feed the author! XD
Disclaimer: They ain't none of them mine.
* * *
Filia cried a bit after he left, although she was more upset with herself than she was with Xellos. She had almost said it, almost laid bare her soul, and just look what the mere mention of her feelings did to him. Her great sin weighed even heavier on her heart as she vowed never to make that mistake again.
When did his teasing begin to mean more to me? she asked herself for the thousandth time, wishing she could ignore the part of her that looked forward to his daily interruptions. She lied every time he asked her if she wanted him over the next day, which was just as well because he always knew she was lying and came over anyway.
Feeling sorry for herself wasn't going to get her work done, nor would it keep herself, Jillos, and Grabos fed. Filia immersed herself in the task of creating a plaster mold of the earthenware vase, which would be coated wth wax, filled with a wax plug to keep it hollow, and then filled with a porcelain slip. As the porcelain fired, the wax would boil away, leaving the bisque porcelain with an easily removed residue, but preventing it from sticking to the mold.. The plaster mold would be useable perhaps once or twice more before the intense heat crumbled it to dust. Porcelain was much much more time consuming than earthenware or stoneware, but the result was always worth it.
"I hope Xelloss' master likes this," she said to herself as she poured the hot wax into the plaster.
* * *
Xelloss kneeled before the Beastmaster who was idly counting the bangles on her wrist. She was burning with curiosity as to why Xellos had fled back to Wolf Pack Island this afternoon; he usually did not return unless he was called. Yet he'd teleported to his room almost an hour ago as if Cephied himself was on his tail. Her metal queries had garnered no response, which usually meant he was asleep. Yet he'd finally answered quietly, and actually walked to the main chamber from his own quarters several floors above in her castle. In the shadowy room he looked pale and drawn.
"So, speak up," she urged, trying not to sound too impatient. "You come back smelling much more strongly of the dragon than you usually do, and you refuse to even tell me what happened."
"It's a bit embarrassing," Xelloss admitted, his perpetual grin looking rather forced.
"What could embarass YOU, Xelloss?"
"Apparently Filia doesn't hate me." He winced even as he said it.
Zelas studied him for a moment before splitting into a wide grin of her own. "Oh REALLY," she said, stifling a giggle. "What could you have possibly done to the dragon girl to make her stop loathing your existance?"
"She has some sort of new resolution to . . . love everything, instead of hating it."
"Hmmm."
The very idea seemed to make Xelloss ill. She was beginning to have an inkling of what had happened to her high priest. It wasn't easy for a Mazoku to be brung low by a woman, but when it did happen it was in a spectacular and disastrous way.
"And what about you? Do you, er, not hate her in return?"
Xelloss was silent for several moments, his face twisting in rare mental anguish as he fought with the feelings that shouldn't exist.
"No, Juuoh-sama."
"Don't lie to your mother." She frowned at him; Xelloss rarely lied, preferring to withhold information in the hopes of causing more carnage and confusion.
He stared at the floor, clenching his teeth.
"No. She is my enemy as always."
She sighed and took a drag on her cigarrette. At this rate he wasn't going to be telling her the truth anytime soon. "Fine then. Be that way. But let me tell you this - if you don't wake up and grab a clue pretty soon, you're going to find yourself in deep trouble. And I don't mean from me."
He continued to stare at the floor like a petulant child, shaking in confusion and pain. Zelas petted one of her wolves in agitation, then shooed Xelloss away, the bracelets on her wrist jingling with the sound. "Go. Just . . . go annoy Lina Inverse some more. Keep your strength up."
Xelloss didn't even bother to stand up and say goodbye as he teleported away to sort out his inner turmoil. Zelas made a note to herself to replace her current stash of wine with something a lot more powerful; getting drunk lowers emotional barriers as well as inhibitions, and watching her favorite creation suffer so much was grating on what slight motherly instincts she posessed.
* * *
Xelloss dropped into the astral plane, clutching his chest in incredible pain. Filia's declaration had hurt him far more deeply than he had realized.
"What's wrong with me?" he asked himself, experience a rare flicker of doubt which made the pain even worse. He felt literally as though he were being eaten from the inside out.
He rested for a few moments, dwelling on all the torture he was going to inflict on innocent bystanders as a means of recuperation, then teleported off to torment Lina Inverse and her friends a little more. By now they should have at least gotten halfway through the false map.
"Keep your strength up," Zelas had said. Xelloss had a feeling that she knew far more than she was letting on. Perhaps she knew what had happened to him? Mazoku didn't get sick as a rule; only positive thoughts and creative order weakened them. Yet Xelloss had a feeling that if he were a human with a nasty flu, this is what he'd feel like.
"Starve a cold . . . and feed a fever, wasn't it?" he asked himself before leaping forth.
* * *
Jillas and Grabos helped Filia load up the kiln with mixed pottery. The porcelain, which had to be fired at the hottest temperature and for the longest time, was shoved in its mold into the back corner next to the furnace. Less delicate pottery, ranging from earthenware to a few pieces of glazed china, were arranged in a separate kiln near the front, where the temperature was much cooler. They wouldn't reach a firing temperature until tomorrow, but they could be removed the day after as well.
Filia had decorated many other pieces with the yin-yang motif after receiving several positive comments from her customers who saw the earthenware. Even Jillas had recognized it.
"The yin-yang has a special meaning where I come from," he had said, his fox eyes lighting up at the memory. "It is said to stand for two lovers, the sun and the moon, who give and take equally and exist in perfect harmony despite their clashing ways."
Lovers, eh? Filia sighed and shoved bowl after bowl of leather-hard clay into the kiln. It wouldn't do her any good to dwell on the events of that afternoon any more.
* * *
After an eventful day of scaring, teasing, and aggravating Lina Inverse and the ever-traveling group with her, Xelloss felt much more like his normal self. Yet something still seemed to gnaw at him from the inside, to the point where he was unable to rest later that evening.
"I want to see her," he said aloud, surprised to hear his own voice in the darkened room he slept in. It was true. He wanted to see her, if only for a moment, to gaze upon the beautiful waterfall of golden hair that spilled down her back, to see her blue eyes snapping with fire as she chastised him for interrupting her work, to kiss that lovely, pursed mouth once more.
He teleported himself directly to her bedroom.
She was asleep there, on her modest four poster bed, curled up underneath the soft white sheets like a dream in the moonlight that spilled through the open window. Xelloss could only stare at her as the gnawing in his gut bit him more sharply, this time accompianied by a fire that spread lower.
Lust, he finally recognized. Part of what I feel is lust. I haven't felt that in centuries, and never before with someone who wasn't also a Mazoku . . . well, well, little dragon. So this is what you've done to me.
She stirred, her face innocent in sleep. Her classic features were so different when they were snapping with fire at him. He had liked her before, but seeing her like this . . . she was the forbidden fruit, the one woman in the whole world that he could not have, by her laws as well as his own.
"I think I know what Juuoh-sama is trying to warn me about," Xelloss said, the affable grin returning to his face. "But she needn't worry about that. I just didn't recognize the sensation I've been feeling all this time . . ."
He crept closer, sitting on the edge of her bed, minimizing the shift of the mattress so as not to wake her. He reached out one hesitant hand, to tuck an errand wisp of hair behind her ear then softly cup her cheek.
"Xelloss," she mumbled. He froze. She hadn't woken, but she had known even in sleep who trespassed upon her. He slid his gloved hand away, testing her emotions in her dreams.
Powerful ways of mixed positive and negative emotions crashed into him, and he recoiled, fascinated by the mixture. The negative, the baser, carnal, more primitive emotions far outweighed the positive ones. Her mind was without barriers in her sleep. He could feel her desire.
"So, it seems we both want the same thing, after all," he whispered to both her and himself. "That makes things a lot easier."
After all -- to a Mazoku, what is the purpose of laws besides to be broken?
* * *
End chapter three
Reviews make me happy! Feed the author! XD
Disclaimer: They ain't none of them mine.
* * *
Filia cried a bit after he left, although she was more upset with herself than she was with Xellos. She had almost said it, almost laid bare her soul, and just look what the mere mention of her feelings did to him. Her great sin weighed even heavier on her heart as she vowed never to make that mistake again.
When did his teasing begin to mean more to me? she asked herself for the thousandth time, wishing she could ignore the part of her that looked forward to his daily interruptions. She lied every time he asked her if she wanted him over the next day, which was just as well because he always knew she was lying and came over anyway.
Feeling sorry for herself wasn't going to get her work done, nor would it keep herself, Jillos, and Grabos fed. Filia immersed herself in the task of creating a plaster mold of the earthenware vase, which would be coated wth wax, filled with a wax plug to keep it hollow, and then filled with a porcelain slip. As the porcelain fired, the wax would boil away, leaving the bisque porcelain with an easily removed residue, but preventing it from sticking to the mold.. The plaster mold would be useable perhaps once or twice more before the intense heat crumbled it to dust. Porcelain was much much more time consuming than earthenware or stoneware, but the result was always worth it.
"I hope Xelloss' master likes this," she said to herself as she poured the hot wax into the plaster.
* * *
Xelloss kneeled before the Beastmaster who was idly counting the bangles on her wrist. She was burning with curiosity as to why Xellos had fled back to Wolf Pack Island this afternoon; he usually did not return unless he was called. Yet he'd teleported to his room almost an hour ago as if Cephied himself was on his tail. Her metal queries had garnered no response, which usually meant he was asleep. Yet he'd finally answered quietly, and actually walked to the main chamber from his own quarters several floors above in her castle. In the shadowy room he looked pale and drawn.
"So, speak up," she urged, trying not to sound too impatient. "You come back smelling much more strongly of the dragon than you usually do, and you refuse to even tell me what happened."
"It's a bit embarrassing," Xelloss admitted, his perpetual grin looking rather forced.
"What could embarass YOU, Xelloss?"
"Apparently Filia doesn't hate me." He winced even as he said it.
Zelas studied him for a moment before splitting into a wide grin of her own. "Oh REALLY," she said, stifling a giggle. "What could you have possibly done to the dragon girl to make her stop loathing your existance?"
"She has some sort of new resolution to . . . love everything, instead of hating it."
"Hmmm."
The very idea seemed to make Xelloss ill. She was beginning to have an inkling of what had happened to her high priest. It wasn't easy for a Mazoku to be brung low by a woman, but when it did happen it was in a spectacular and disastrous way.
"And what about you? Do you, er, not hate her in return?"
Xelloss was silent for several moments, his face twisting in rare mental anguish as he fought with the feelings that shouldn't exist.
"No, Juuoh-sama."
"Don't lie to your mother." She frowned at him; Xelloss rarely lied, preferring to withhold information in the hopes of causing more carnage and confusion.
He stared at the floor, clenching his teeth.
"No. She is my enemy as always."
She sighed and took a drag on her cigarrette. At this rate he wasn't going to be telling her the truth anytime soon. "Fine then. Be that way. But let me tell you this - if you don't wake up and grab a clue pretty soon, you're going to find yourself in deep trouble. And I don't mean from me."
He continued to stare at the floor like a petulant child, shaking in confusion and pain. Zelas petted one of her wolves in agitation, then shooed Xelloss away, the bracelets on her wrist jingling with the sound. "Go. Just . . . go annoy Lina Inverse some more. Keep your strength up."
Xelloss didn't even bother to stand up and say goodbye as he teleported away to sort out his inner turmoil. Zelas made a note to herself to replace her current stash of wine with something a lot more powerful; getting drunk lowers emotional barriers as well as inhibitions, and watching her favorite creation suffer so much was grating on what slight motherly instincts she posessed.
* * *
Xelloss dropped into the astral plane, clutching his chest in incredible pain. Filia's declaration had hurt him far more deeply than he had realized.
"What's wrong with me?" he asked himself, experience a rare flicker of doubt which made the pain even worse. He felt literally as though he were being eaten from the inside out.
He rested for a few moments, dwelling on all the torture he was going to inflict on innocent bystanders as a means of recuperation, then teleported off to torment Lina Inverse and her friends a little more. By now they should have at least gotten halfway through the false map.
"Keep your strength up," Zelas had said. Xelloss had a feeling that she knew far more than she was letting on. Perhaps she knew what had happened to him? Mazoku didn't get sick as a rule; only positive thoughts and creative order weakened them. Yet Xelloss had a feeling that if he were a human with a nasty flu, this is what he'd feel like.
"Starve a cold . . . and feed a fever, wasn't it?" he asked himself before leaping forth.
* * *
Jillas and Grabos helped Filia load up the kiln with mixed pottery. The porcelain, which had to be fired at the hottest temperature and for the longest time, was shoved in its mold into the back corner next to the furnace. Less delicate pottery, ranging from earthenware to a few pieces of glazed china, were arranged in a separate kiln near the front, where the temperature was much cooler. They wouldn't reach a firing temperature until tomorrow, but they could be removed the day after as well.
Filia had decorated many other pieces with the yin-yang motif after receiving several positive comments from her customers who saw the earthenware. Even Jillas had recognized it.
"The yin-yang has a special meaning where I come from," he had said, his fox eyes lighting up at the memory. "It is said to stand for two lovers, the sun and the moon, who give and take equally and exist in perfect harmony despite their clashing ways."
Lovers, eh? Filia sighed and shoved bowl after bowl of leather-hard clay into the kiln. It wouldn't do her any good to dwell on the events of that afternoon any more.
* * *
After an eventful day of scaring, teasing, and aggravating Lina Inverse and the ever-traveling group with her, Xelloss felt much more like his normal self. Yet something still seemed to gnaw at him from the inside, to the point where he was unable to rest later that evening.
"I want to see her," he said aloud, surprised to hear his own voice in the darkened room he slept in. It was true. He wanted to see her, if only for a moment, to gaze upon the beautiful waterfall of golden hair that spilled down her back, to see her blue eyes snapping with fire as she chastised him for interrupting her work, to kiss that lovely, pursed mouth once more.
He teleported himself directly to her bedroom.
She was asleep there, on her modest four poster bed, curled up underneath the soft white sheets like a dream in the moonlight that spilled through the open window. Xelloss could only stare at her as the gnawing in his gut bit him more sharply, this time accompianied by a fire that spread lower.
Lust, he finally recognized. Part of what I feel is lust. I haven't felt that in centuries, and never before with someone who wasn't also a Mazoku . . . well, well, little dragon. So this is what you've done to me.
She stirred, her face innocent in sleep. Her classic features were so different when they were snapping with fire at him. He had liked her before, but seeing her like this . . . she was the forbidden fruit, the one woman in the whole world that he could not have, by her laws as well as his own.
"I think I know what Juuoh-sama is trying to warn me about," Xelloss said, the affable grin returning to his face. "But she needn't worry about that. I just didn't recognize the sensation I've been feeling all this time . . ."
He crept closer, sitting on the edge of her bed, minimizing the shift of the mattress so as not to wake her. He reached out one hesitant hand, to tuck an errand wisp of hair behind her ear then softly cup her cheek.
"Xelloss," she mumbled. He froze. She hadn't woken, but she had known even in sleep who trespassed upon her. He slid his gloved hand away, testing her emotions in her dreams.
Powerful ways of mixed positive and negative emotions crashed into him, and he recoiled, fascinated by the mixture. The negative, the baser, carnal, more primitive emotions far outweighed the positive ones. Her mind was without barriers in her sleep. He could feel her desire.
"So, it seems we both want the same thing, after all," he whispered to both her and himself. "That makes things a lot easier."
After all -- to a Mazoku, what is the purpose of laws besides to be broken?
* * *
End chapter three