She wasn't quite sure why she'd agreed, except that Amelia and Lina had been quite firm about it, "C'mon! Zel can handle looking at all that stuff we found by himself for a while. He'd probably appreciate the time alone, and Gourry's more interested in sleeping today," Lina had said.
"Pleeeeaaaseeee?" Amelia begged, "Come shopping with us?"
Sylphiel sighed. She needed groceries anyway. "Alright." Their first stop was a pawnshop where Lina sold off some jewelry she'd picked up somewhere for a bit of cold hard cash. Then they hit the clothing stores.
Their current location was one of the better stores in town, as well as the largest. Lina and Amelia had split off from Sylphiel at the door, heading towards the summer clothes while Sylphiel strayed towards the more durable and useful garments. She figured she needed some new clothes to garden in. "Miss Sylphiel!" Amelia called and the shrine maiden looked over from where she was fingering the cloth of a utilitarian tunic. "Do you think this is your size?" the dress Amelia held up was made of fine soft cloth, a thin dress with a slightly wider skirt that would have fallen to Sylphiel's mid shins. The top was held up by a tie that went behind the neck, and the color was a light lavender. "This would be great for wearing on a picnic!"
Blushing, she had to admit that it was pretty, and approached to take a better look at it. "It's really expensive, though," she observed, catching sight of the price tag.
Smiling, Amelia swept it away and folded it over her arm, "My present, then," she stated and Sylphiel's hands went to her face in embarrassment.
"Oh, Miss. Amelia! But-"
Amelia waved a finger, "come help me pick out one for myself. I think Miss Lina found one too."
Lina had indeed found a sundress to her liking. It was light pink. The skirt floated around her hips like a cloud and the back of her chosen dress was an array of crisscrossed strings, leaving her shoulders completely bare. "Miss Lina! That's adorable on you!"
Twirling, Lina grinned, "Ya think so?" she asked and brushed her hands across the front of her skirt. "I think I'll buy it. You going to get the purple one?"
"I was going to buy it for her," Amelia replied.
Grinning, Lina held up a finger, "I'll go halfsies," she announced. Sylphiel covered her face again, shocked at her friends' sudden graciousness. But it was a pretty dress, and the other two girls had already agreed to the deal, so Syl really had no say in it at all. Turning, Sylphiel looked at the rack of dresses, finally spotting something in pale blue.
Pulling it out for better inspection, she heard Amelia gasp, "That's so cute!" The dress had a somewhat shorter skirt, but it was full and had a neckline that hung off the shoulders with thin straps. Embroidered on the bottom hem were little pink butterflies. Turning, Sylphiel held the dress up to Amelia who posed, holding the skirt out, "I think it'll fit," she said, "Thanks for finding it, Miss Sylphiel!" Lina gave her approval, and together, they went to pay for their selections, Lina deciding to continue to wear her dress, her clothes and other stuff tucked away into her subspace pocket.
Chewing on her lower lip, Sylphiel changed into her dress as well, Amelia doing the same but without as much deliberation. Thankfully Sylphiel had already been dressed for the weather, wearing her shirt-shorts without the pants or cloak and a pair of sandals. Together, they left the store and headed down the street, Lina with her head confidently high as usual, and Amelia walking beside Sylphiel. Abruptly, Lina dropped back, "Hey, Syl, whatcha think of that guy?" she pointed covertly.
Sylphiel shook her head, "That's Marty, he's not really very nice to anyone."
"Too bad he's so handsome," Amelia mourned.
Lina huffed and pulled a face, "Guys like that piss me off." Amelia nodded agreement. "What about him?"
Sighing, Sylphiel shook her head again, "That's Tym, he's married."
"Miss Sylphiel!" The three came to a stop as a rather familiar figure appeared out of the crowd on the street, holding a bunch of flowers in his meaty hand.
Lina paled, "Valoon?" Amelia shivered.
The dark haired hero presented the flowers to Sylphiel from one knee, then blinked, looking at the two females standing on either side. "Miss Lili? Miss Lulu?" he looked from Amelia to Lina, both of which paled and clung to Sylphiel. "You're friends with Miss Sylphiel?" his eyes watered.
Drawing Sylphiel back behind them, Amelia and Lina stepped forward, Lina folding her arms firmly, "Yeah," she stated firmly.
Slowly, Valoon got to his feet, eyes wide and teary, "If...you see your sister, Miss Lala... tell her... Tell her that, though she broke my heart, I'll always have a special place there for her. But- tell her I've moved on! Miss Sylphiel, I've come to ask you to marry me!" He thrust the wilting flowers out towards her, even stupid enough to have some dirt and roots clinging to the stems still.
Sylphiel covered her face and sighed, "No, Mr. Valoon. I'm sorry, but... I can't marry you. I have someone else," she lied.
Amelia and Lina looked back at her curiously. Valoon took a step back, lifting a hand near his face in horror. "No- I shall- I shall CHALLENGE him to a duel for your heart! Where is he?"
"Aww! C'mon you moron! She doesn't want to marry you!" Lina shouted, "Don't make me fireball you!"
Sylphiel watched in horror as Lina powered up a fireball, but the hair on the back of her neck stood on end, and she turned quickly, just in time to look up at the tall man that stood behind her. "Miss Sylphiel, is there a problem here?" he asked, lowering his hand from where he'd been about to place it on her shoulder. There was nothing physically wrong with him, but Sylphiel simply couldn't bring herself to look at his face, she really only recognized him by his dusty gray robes, gnarled old hands, wrinkled and bony with age, and his low resonating voice.
Shaking her head, Sylphiel clasped her hands together, "Um, no... Dean Magus," she answered softly.
"FIREBALL!" Lina shouted, and Valoon went flying.
Amelia pumped a fist, "Ha! Got him!"
Magus stared down at Sylphiel, a smirk creeping across his lips, "Are these sorceresses here to join our university?" he asked, "Perhaps as teachers?" The university had been established shortly after Phibrizzo had been destroyed. It was a remake of the old chimera and copy lab that had been based a short ways out of Sairaag. Though they cursed Lina Inverse for the inconvenience, they had truly intended to build a new facility for their projects, but had simply been nostalgically hanging onto the old building. Due to Sairaag's latest problems with magical mishaps, mages from across the land had begun coming to study there, pooling their knowledge on magic, much like the Shrine Maidens had always done, but now the classes at the university spanned from white magic all the way to black. And the one who ran the whole thing was none other than Dean Magus.
Lina turned, looking up at the man- and her eyes slid down to his wide lipped mouth, surrounded by wrinkles. "Uh, no..." she said, faltering.
Amelia turned as well, and found herself staring off to the left somewhere near his ear, which had some dark black hairs growing out of it. He had white hair otherwise, she could tell, but his eyes... "No, we're just visiting our friend," Amelia finished for Lina.
"Ah," Magus murmured, "I see. So this is why you asked for a few days off, Miss. Sylphiel." Though his tone wasn't patronizing, Sylphiel shrunk beneath his gaze. "I hope to see you refreshed and working hard after your break." He turned, and swept off with more speed than Lina would have given him credit for being able to possess.
The princess shivered, but Lina spoke first, "Who WAS that guy?"
Wrapping her arms around herself, Amelia tried to ward off the creepy chills that had seemed to make the day feel quite cold, "Yeah, he was scary!"
Closing her eyes, Sylphiel lowered her head, "That's Dean Magus, he runs the university. Miss Lina- can we get the groceries and go back home? I've had enough shopping for one day."
Lina nodded her agreement as did Amelia, and together, they headed towards the market lane.
Working together, putting the groceries away wasn't that difficult a task, it was just finding where to put them that was the problem, since Sylphiel didn't like keeping food in her subspace pocket. It was too easy to forget it there and have it go bad. The thought didn't appeal to Lina either, so they made quick work of sorting everything they could into the cupboards and icebox. At last, the three headed out into the backyard where Zelgadis was picking the lock on the old chest.
"Heyya Zel!" Lina called and he sighed, jiggling a pick in the lock. "Any luck here?"
Leaving the pick where it was, Zelgadis sat back. He'd taken his cloak off and was seated on it, his roll of lock picking tools on the ground beside him and plenty of picks that were discarded on the cloak around him. "Not really," he stated and stopped, actually –looking- at the ladies, and blinked, blushing slightly. "Uh..." Amelia brushed her hands on her skirt lightly, "Nice..." he finally stammered and shook his head, getting back to the business at hand, ignoring Lina's triumphant grin over getting a compliment from Zel. "I've sorted everything out and looked over the pile of gems. Most of them are just stones, nothing special at all, a few are just amplification stones. Emerald was Rezo's best focus stone, and that's what most of them are." He sighed, "The pile of books," he continued, "Are texts of magic, but nothing I'm interested in, or already know how to cast, or simply can't. Amelia and Sylphiel might want to look through that last stack over there though. Lina, that one by itself is yours."
Dashing over, Lina snatched it up, hugging it to her chest, squealing and jumping in circles. "You're so nice Zel! First complimenting us and then giving us presents! I'm beginning to think you –like- us!" she teased and sat down ungracefully where she was to crack open the book and start reading it. Amelia sighed and took a seat beside Zelgadis on his cloak, leaning forward to peer at the lock.
The Chimera blushed faintly and sighed, slouching somewhat as he stared at the lock as well, "Damn thing's broken, I think. I've tried spells to break it, been working at trying to pick it for the last hour, nothing's worked so far. I broke four picks on the thing," he complained, waving an irritated hand at it.
Amelia smiled, "Maybe..." she stood again and moved around to the back side of the trunk and crouched, "Mr. Zelgadis, the hinges are on the outside."
Peering at her over the trunk, Zelgadis leaned forward, squinting at her face, "Didn't know you were a thief at heart," he said, a hint of amusement in his voice.
"Stealing other people's things would be Unjust. However, since it's rightfully yours, figuring out how to open it any way we can is a good thing."
Zel laughed and moved around to look at the hinges more closely, "Yes, I could possibly inch the pins out." Reaching back over the trunk, he shuffled through his picks while Amelia admired the view of his rear. Settling back down to his heels, Zelgadis applied the wedge and small hammer he'd selected from his tools and began tapping. Slowly, the pin came out, rust cracking from the hinge at every pound of the hammer. Finally the pin fell to the grass and Zel moved over to the other hinge. "Wish I'd thought of this," he muttered, "would have saved me several hours and some good picks."
Placing her hands on his shoulder, Amelia leaned down near his ear and replied, "I'll buy you a new set, if you want." He blushed, and after a hesitating second, nodded. Grinning, she hugged him, sending his blush even deeper.
The second pin dropped to the grass. "Move back, Amelia, in case it's got a trap on it." Nodding, Amelia let go of him and stood, stepping back several paces, then moved around to the front of the box to take hold of Zelgadis's cloak and move it, tools and all, out of the way. Hooking his fingers under the edge of the lid, Zelgadis heaved. The heavy lid raised and crashed to the ground on the other side, still attached by that bloody lock. Nothing but a puff of dust rose up from the box, and Zelgadis peered in curiously.
Leaning forward, Amelia peeked in as well. "Wow, that's... kinda pretty in a... creepy way," she observed.
Reaching in, Zelgadis lifted the statue out. It was a figure, vaguely human, slender and maybe a little tree-like swaying slightly to one side, from it's hands and arms dangled panels of metal, which tinkled together musically as it was moved, and in the center of the statue's chest was a gem that looked like a spider's eye.
Lina looked up from her book and looked around, finding Sylphiel tending her flowers, rather than minding what her guests were doing, then spotted Amelia and Zel's prize. Slapping the book closed, Lina got to her feet and walked over, crouching down to look at the strange creation. "That's creepy," she pronounced it, but closed her eyes as she fell into a light trance. "It certainly has a lot of power on it, though." Reaching out, she touched one of the chimes and sent it clinking against it's neighbor as she snatched her hand back, looking at the blood creeping down from a cut on her finger. Wincing, she stuck it in her mouth, "Bloody things are sharp!" she complained. Zelgadis took his turn, and safely lifted one of the metal bars. It was a long thin triangular shape, and though all the bars appeared to be the same size, they gave off different tones when struck with one of Zelgadis's lock picks.
"You think this is the Mirror Breaker?" Amelia asked.
Frowning, Zelgadis shook his head, "I really don't know. I don't have enough information to go on at all. I was thinking of stopping by the university library to see if they had any information. Maybe I'll take this with me? It's the most powerful thing we've found so far."
Amelia reluctantly nodded, "Though, I think we should probably stick it back in the trunk, so it doesn't get damaged in transit." Nodding, Zelgadis lifted the strange statue up again and placed it back into the cubby within the black velvet padding of the trunk. Carefully, he pulled the lid back up and set it into place to match the hinges, then tapped the pins back in lightly to hold it down. "Besides," Amelia added, "The University started as a lab researching chimeras and copies."
"Exactly my thoughts, Amelia," Zelgadis replied and cast her a smile.
Lina shivered, "Just so long as we don't have to talk to Dean Magus. He's creepy!"
Looking from one female to the other, Zelgadis looked back towards Sylphiel, "Should we all go?" he asked, a subtle invitation for Lina and the others to join him in his little quest.
Standing, Lina brushed the back of her skirt off, "I think we should," she stated. "Just in case they decide to make an experiment out of you. I wouldn't want –you- to get all the fun of blowing them up!"
Getting to his feet, Zelgadis worked at collecting up his tools and stuck them back into his subspace pocket, then pulled his cloak on. "Alright-" he started.
"But AFTER lunch!"