Chapter Eight: The Eye of Gods
Lina's head shot towards the stage at the words. The prophecy they had found underneath the floorboard in Filia's house. They were reading it off and no one seemed affected by it. How could the prophecy be out here? How could these people know about it?
She turned towards the group just in time to hear the prophecy end and Filia pass out onto the ground. Grumbling, she stepped forward and lifted Filia in her arms and shook her.
"Wake up."
"What happened?" Amelia questioned feeling anxious due to her inability to understand the circumstances yet.
"Get Gourry." Lina commanded. "I need yogurt for brains to carry Filia out of here."
Nodding, Amelia quickly disappeared into the crowds in search of Gourry who had wandered off in the darkness. Her cape left a small visible light as she ran through the various people.
If only she could find Gourry, perhaps Lina would explain to her the reason Filia had fainted.
"Mr. Gourry?" She asked, coming upon a man that looked relatively his size and with blond hair down to his mid waist. Smiling proudly to herself she tapped him on the shoulder.
The man turned when the lights flashed towards him but it wasn't Gourry. In his place stood a man with Silver hair and robes, his facial expression very grave.
"Oops." Amelia blushed. "Sorry." She turned away from him to rush off in another direction when the man grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
"Let me go!" She yelped, trying to pull her arm away from him.
"Please Miss. I'm not going to hurt you," He whispered, apparently trying to keep his voice down so no one would hear him. "Are you a sorcerer?"
Amelia stopped struggling when she noted his face had turned from grave to panicky.
"Yes." Amelia said quickly without thinking.
He let out a breath of relief. "I need your help."
Lina looked up to see Zelgadis come back with Gourry. She knew it wasn't a smart idea to send Amelia off like that but she had needed to get rid of the little pest.
"Get over here and help me." She snapped, trying to lift Filia up.
Gourry immediately was by her side lifting Filia up over his shoulder. "How much do you think Dragon's eat?"
Lina narrowed her eyes. "Shut up."
"I was only asking." Gourry said defending himself as Lina led them through the crowds and back towards the inn.
Zelgadis shook his head as he followed the three back to the inn and up the stairs towards Filia's room. They set her down on the bed lightly, and after Lina checked to see if something more was wrong they decided it best to leave Filia alone until she gained consciousness.
The three sat around a table in the dinning room looking gloomily.
"So?"
Lina turned towards Gourry, fully aware of what his next question would be. "A lot."
"It would make sense for Dragons to weigh a lot I guess...but is that in Dragon form or human form...." He started to drone on about the different weights a Dragon could be as Lina turned towards Zelgadis.
"Why were they using the prophecy?" she asked.
Zelgadis crossed his arms and looked towards the roof. "Iola and Minori..." he said slowly. "It must have something to do with their connection and the real ceremony of worlds in three days."
"Actually that is true to a certain degree but not entirely."
Lina blinked at Zelgadis then turned towards the voice. A man no older then she, stood just beside the table attempting a weak smile. She was about to tell him to mind his own business when Amelia popped her head out from behind him.
"Miss. Lina this is Amory." She told her. "He's the protector of the eye of gods."
Amory's smile wavered when Amelia explained who he was to the group of three. He wasn't quite sure who the blue man was, or the man with blond hair that was droning on about a Dragon's weight but he for certain recognized the girl that had been glaring at him for interrupting. Lina Inverse, the dragon slayer. He had heard about her many times from travelers. Experiences of crossing paths with her, of her destructions of towns but he had heard from a certain dragon Malgasia that this was where he would find the best sorcerers in the world so here he was. Face to face with Lina Inverse.
"Amory? Protector of the eye of gods? What the heck is that?"
Amory shook the thoughts out of his head to call his full attention to Lina. "It's a crystal that opens a pathway between the Monsters world, as well as the Gods. It's called such because the Monster race themselves have lords and masters just as we have Gods and kings."
"Miss. Lina, Amory needs help."
Lina immediately turned away from him. "For what?"
"Miss. Lina, the eye of gods was recently stolen from the temple." Amory stated trying to catch her attention without making her upset. "A monster stole it while another guardian was on watch."
Lina's eyes darted towards him. "So what do I have to do?"
"I need your help on getting it back."
"How much?"
Amory raised an eyebrow. "Pardon me?"
"How much are you willing to pay for this job?"
Amelia nearly hit her, her face turned purple as she glared at Lina. "Miss. Lina, see here. He is doing this because he has to not because he has a choice. I know that deep down you want to help without asking much of him."
"Three hundred?" Amory offered, trying to mentally count the money they had at the temple.
Lina shrugged. "Why should I help you out anyway? You were suppose to be guarding the thing-"
"-Eye of gods." He corrected her."
"Yeah...whatever, anyway, you were the one that was put in charge of guarding this stupid...crystal. You should have to suffer by getting it back yourself."
"How do you know?"
The conversation stopped completely when Zelgadis started to speak.
"How do you know what the Prophecy is about?"
Amory bit his lip, eyes flashing around the empty room as if someone was watching them. "The prophecy," he started slowly, eyes scanning just behind Gourry. "...The eye of gods is part of it."
Lina's jaw dropped. "What?"
"The eye of gods is the single star that will shine." He explained quickly looking rather nervous.
"So it will shine again. What's the problem with that?" Lina said trying to pretend she could care less on the subject.
"And die out." Amory added. "Three days before the prophecy is to be fulfilled and it goes missing."
"The problem with it going missing is?"
"If the Monster uses it and the seal on the scroll is broken then the Lord of Nightmares enemy will once again be released. The story of Minori and Iola will become a reality."
"Seems that is what the people wanted." Zelgadis commented by the cheers they had heard earlier.
"They do, but they have no idea what they are wishing for." Amory said slowly. "They think it's some silly romance story that would be wonderful to see acted but they have no idea how many people suffered in order to make that love possible."
"And the crystal?"
"The scroll traps the Lord of Nightmares enemy but the Crystal, the eye of gods, holds the remnants of Iola and Minori's being. If worn during a ceremony by either race...well, to be honest it will release both of their beings."
"To the decedents."
Lina leant back in her chair to see Filia making her way down the stairs still pale from fainting.
"Morning." She said grinning.
Filia just ignored her and approached Amory with an urgency. "The Crystal? Have you tracked down who has it?"
Amory nodded slowly. "I tracked it here. I followed Malgasia's advice. He said you had heard of the prophecy as well and had come this way. I never expected to see the man who had stolen the crystal here."
"Where is it now?" Filia asked.
"He doesn't know." Xellos said, appearing behind Filia
Lina fell out of her chair. How many more people were going to show up out of nowhere tonight.
"I do," Amory said, glaring at Xellos. "The crystal was used in the performance. Which is alright since the performance at the ceremony was completely done by human beings."
Filia blinked. "No it wasn't."
Amory's head nearly snapped as he turned towards her. "Pardon?"
"Val...He's an ancient dragon."
Xellos shook his head. "Some guardian, you let the crystal be worn at a ceremony by a dragon none the less. Seems your little spell was set off."
Amory glared at Xellos with a newfound hatred.
Filia had slowly begun to fall away from the conversation. She couldn't seem to concentrate on what the prophecy had said, or what the crystal had done all she knew was that something was wrong with this situation.
Suddenly it occurred to her.
"Where is Val?"
A/N:
I'm going to try and get this story done for you. I know how it feels to have an Author leave the story for dead and I really don't want to do that, so I'm slowly going to be updating this. Maybe be far apart (hopefully not to far apart) so don't loose complete faith in it yet. I'm just trying to get back into the groove of Xellos.