3 – The Disappearing Act

The next morning dawned bright and clear. Well for me it didn't so much dawn as afternoon. The sun was quite high by the time I rolled out of bed and nearly did the same down the stairs, yawning loudly. Down the hall, Gary's door was open and the bed already made. I glanced at my parents' door, which was still closed, and sighed. Sleeping late ran in the family about as well as appetite. The only one who didn't have it was my brother. What a freak.

The breakfast table was empty, but I saw a plate piled high at one end, glowing slightly under a preservation spell. A note next to it read 'Gone down to town, saved you some food. –Gary'. I smiled, broke the spell, and dug in.

Only after a sufficient amount of food had restored my thinking processes and I was about to start on the pile of dishes did I stop to...well, think. Then I remembered; today we were supposed to learn the Dragon Slave.

Today we were going to learn the spell I'd been waiting for my whole life, and Gary had gone to town like it was any other day. Today I was promised the ultimate black magic, and my parents were still sleeping like they had all the time in the world. Today, the day when the house should have been alive with beautiful explosions, it was silent as an airless tomb.

I threw my plate and cutlery at the sink, just to make some noise. It clattered and caused a chain reaction that made the entire precarious stack tumble to the floor with a crash. After the echoes had faded, I waited. Nothing happened. Not a peep from my parents' room. I frowned and waved at the dishes. They repiled themselves with enough clanking to wake a dead dragon.

Still nothing.

Stomping my feet, I stormed over to their door and knocked loudly. "Mom! Dad! Come on! Wake up already! Humans aren't meant to be nocturnal!" When no groggy reply was forthcoming, I gave up and pushed the door open. "Mom, come on, you promised..." I whined, and froze.

The room was a mess. No, that is an understatement for better times. It was destroyed. The bed had been slashed in two and the stuffing had settled over it. The end tables and shelves were in little splintery pieces all over the room. The lamp had fallen and the oil was pooling towards a dent in the floor. There were nine torn pages of a book floating around, six burn marks on the walls, four sections of missing paint, one chunk of wood fallen from the ceiling, five torn shirts, two pairs of pants, seven...

My mind continued to catalogue the damage as my hand slipped nervelessly from the doorknob and I sat down hard. Collision with the floor jolted my brain and brought the most important piece of information to the forefront; there were no bodies.

Five seconds later, I slammed out the front door and ran full tilt down the hill. Four more after that I hit a rock and sent myself sprawling in the path. Three after that I scrambled to my feet, two, shouted "Ray wing!" and one, sped towards town like a Lira-class rocket.

I fell into the town square like said rocket running out of fuel and stumbled towards the closest alley, barely noticing the whispers and stares that followed me. Inside the alley, four pairs of eyes glanced up from the dice.

"Gary!" I ran towards him, unable to keep the tears from my eyes anymore. "They're gone! Gone!" I flung myself at him and sobbed on his shirt.

"Lira?" he sounded understandably confused. "Lira! What's wrong? Hey? Talk to me."

I regained my voice after a couple of tries. "Mom and dad, they're gone. The room's been torn apart, and they're gone...and...and, it was him! I know it!" I slammed a fist into Gary's chest, which he stoically ignored. "It was him, the weird guy from the market, the one with the vegetable fixation, he did it and I told him. I told him where we lived and who we were and how to get there and to drop by some time and I answered all his stupid questions and now he's done something to them and they're gone...and I'm going to kill him!" I screamed the last line, ran out of air, and started crying again.

Gary took me by the shoulders and shook me a little. "Lira, calm down. Come on, let's go home. Can you hear me? I'm sure it's fine. Come on," he kept talking. His voice was shaking, but I knew he could tell I was hysterical, and so was trying to be the practical one for my benefit. Somehow, this realization calmed me faster than anything he said. I nodded, finally, wiping my eyes. Gary took my hand and we were about to levitate home when Red latched on to us.

"Hey," he said. "Take us with you. In case it's dangerous."

Gary nodded, and I couldn't care enough to care, if that makes any sense, so the five of us rode a giant bubble back to the house. It was still there, sitting on the hill, surrounded by gently waving trees, and absolutely peaceful. We landed by the front door and walked inside. Gary immediately ran to our parents room and looked in. His friends followed.

"Oh sh..." Red started, just before Black kicked him. Gary only stared. For a long time. I walked up next to him and stared too. Finally the guys got uncomfortable and started looking around the house.

"I think we should look around outside. There might be...traces or something," Blue said. Gary turned around.

"Yeah, that would be good, but be careful."

The trio nodded, and left. I thought it was about as tactful as they were capable of being, and was impressed. Gary began to go over the room, looking for what, I don't know. I sat down on the floor in the hall and practiced being useless. Finally my brother emerged, shutting the door behind him.

"Nothing," he said. "And the rest of the house seems to be untouched. I'm just surprised we didn't wake up. That," he waved at the closed door. "Must have made a ton of noise."

"That Xellos thing is a magic-user," I hissed. "A sorcerer. He has to be. A good one."

Gary nodded. "Yeah." I waited. Gary didn't say anything else, and I could see his control slipping. I jumped in quickly. If my brother broke down, I was in serious trouble. I had to keep him talking. "What do you think we should do?"

"Obviously, we have to go after him," he said. "They're probably still alive, you know. No one would go through all that trouble to get them out of here just to kill them. So if we can find that Xellos guy, we'll find them."

"How?" I said despairingly. "There're no clues, I have no idea where he's gone, who he is, where he lives, how we can find him. Other than sitting here and waiting..."

"We won't do that. I was thinking as I searched the room. We do have a clue. Remember, you told me the night after you met him. He said 'Lina has a secret', something about your parentage, remember?"

"I don't believe any of that."

"Of course not, but it's a clue. Obviously he knew mom, or he never could have known enough to do something like this." Gary was pacing now, a habit he had while thinking hard. "So obviously he had a reason for making up something like that. Obviously he wanted to...disrupt our family somehow. Obviously it's all about something from the past."

"Gary, if you say obviously one more time, I'm going to fry you into the next continent."

"Sorry." He stopped pacing abruptly. "So who would be most likely to know about mom's past?"

"Dad," I said, irritably.

"Don't be obtuse, Lira, this is serious," Gary snapped.

"Sorry. Sorry," I shook my head. "Mom's friends from her adventuring days. Amelia and Zelgadis. In...Seyruun." I stopped, looking up at him. "But that's...so far..." Gary nodded.

"But they're the ones who'll know. Plus, I'm sure they can help. And we've been to Seyruun before, remember? How hard can it be?"

"Last time I was nine! How much can you remember? And we traveled in a carriage, and mom and dad were there. Do you even know the right road to start on? Or how long it'll take? Or..."

"Lira, we have a library. There are maps. Seyruun's a big city, everyone can give us directions. Would you stop sulking and think for a minute?"

I opened my mouth to protest again, then shut it quickly. I was sulking. I was mad at myself for ever talking to that guy, and I was sulking. I don't sulk. "I'm sorry," I said. "I'm being an idiot."

"It's okay," Gary smiled at me, but before he could continue the front door burst open again and the color trio piled through.

"There's nothing outside," Black reported. "And we looked everywhere."

"I didn't think there would be," Gary said. "But thank you."

"We could stay here tonight," Red suggested. "Keep watch or something."

"Um, I don't think that would do much good," Blue spoke up hesitantly. "I mean, whatever it was took out Lina Inverse..."

"Yeah, though, someone that strong wouldn't need to bother with us, so we're probably safe..." Black continued.

This was so not helping.

Luckily, Gary jumped in again before I could yell at them. "Thanks, guys, but I've thought of something better for you to do. Lira and I are going to look for them, so we'll need some help."

"You want us to go with you?" Blue frowned. "I don't know if that's..."

"No, no, no," Gary interrupted. "But we want to go tomorrow, if possible, and that means we need a few things fast. Can you help me?"

"Of course," said Red.

"Yeah, this is rough. Anything I can do," agreed Black.

"Thanks," Gary turned to Blue. "Can you and Red run down to town and get us, say, a week's worth of traveling provisions?" He glanced at me and thought about it. "No, make that two weeks, or we'll run out after the first day." I was about to be insulted, but decided against it.

Gary turned to Black. "Your sister's not working right now, is she?" Black shook his head. "Good, can you and her watch the house while we're gone? I'll give you the keys. You don't have to clean that...mess...up or anything, just keep an eye on it, water the plants, you know."

"Of course. It'll be better than my place anytime." He watched Red and Blue scurry out the door before continuing. "And I'll make sure those two don't start any wild parties or anything in here while you're out, you know?"

"Thanks," Gary grinned. "That's why I asked you."

Black gripped his hand for a minute. "Hey, good luck. I hope you...well, you know." He waved and cleared out. Gary sighed and seemed to relax a little.

For the first time, I noticed how his whole voice, posture, and way of speaking had suddenly changed. He was with his stupid friends, but he wasn't being stupid. He was being...in charge. I suddenly felt a lot better, and realized it was high time I started helping.

"Okay," I said. "Now that they're gone...we should get packing. And I know something we should take."

"What?"

I looked blankly back at him, then let myself smile, slowly. "In the library."