Capriones 8/29/2006
Disclaimer: We shall make use of several of the characters from The Slayers, none of whom belongs to us.
Chapter Thirty-Two – Putting It to Bed
Milgasia shifted on his feet, attempting to ignore Xelloss and Lina locked in a passionate embrace and decide what to do next. He did not want to engage the Red Guard. He was a man of peace, fighting only when pressed to the extreme. There were sure to be countless other endeavors which better suited his nature.
"I should look for any injured to tend and collect the dead."
"You're right. We'll join you," Filia said, pulling Valgaav's attention away from the departing backs of his friends. "We should try and save as much of the Capriones' property as possible."
Valgaav was running on high spirits no amount of "duty work" could kill, so he followed along a docile as a lamb. Filia and Valgaav reunited with their forces, squirreling out the remnants of the Red Guard hiding within the encampment and locating any remaining living Capriones. Fires were squelched, loose animals rounded up and secured; the Cepheid troops assisted wherever necessary.
"What's wrong?" Filia asked him.
Valgaav studied the battlefield, hunting for his friends. His impulse was to avoid getting involved, but his growing conscience drove him to action. "I should be out there. This work's done."
Filia agreed. He had satisfied his obligations and she would encourage his good motives. "I'll join you then."
Leaving a couple men with the fallen, Valgaav directed his remaining soldiers to fall in behind. Gravos and Jillas scrambled their fighters and rushed to keep up as Valgaav and Filia streaked toward Zelgadiss and Amelia.
"Filia," Valgaav shouted, concerned, and shorted his gait abruptly. "Hold up! You lost your pink ribbon. I'll go back with you and look..."
"No, don't bother. I don't need it anymore. I need no reminders of the past, not with the future to look forward to." Filia smiled.
Valgaav warmed to that smile, responding with one of his own. He hoped Filia meant what she'd said, because it conveyed to him a special meaning: Filia was making room for him in her heart. There was no time to dream, though, with not with the enemy advancing on the camp.
Valgaav and Filia united the Cepheid warriors into a tight front line, completely blocking the Red Guard's progress into the camp. Gourry and Sylphiel drew back, joining them. The Seyruun army and Zelgadiss' Atlas City forces pressed from above, and continued to push the guard into a slow retreat toward the forest.
"This could go on for hours," Xelloss muttered.
"But it won't," Lina said, with the return of her usual air of bravado. "Time to put this battle to bed, so to speak."
"As you wish," Xelloss murmured.
As she began chanting and drawing on all her power, Xelloss prepared protection spells to protect the camp and the armies from the blast. The other magic users must have sensed the change in the air, the faint smell of ozone and the buildup of static charge, because they switched from creating attack spells to devising defensive shielding ones.
"Oh! Look there! Lina's going to do something big!" Amelia cried out.
"You're right," Zel agreed, throwing up his strongest barrier spell.
Sylphiel and Filia simultaneously conjured white magic defenses to reinforce the others.
"Dragon Slave!" Lina shouted, casting her widest-spreading, most destructive spell.
White-hot fire arced from her finger tips to race upwards, cutting a wedge through the front lines of Red Guardsmen, then blossoming into an earth shaking explosion. The forest and all within it were instantly incinerated. Ash and rock hailed down upon the survivors, testing everyone's shielding strength. Zelgadiss added a powerful wind spell to disperse some of the material away from the settlement. In a matter of minutes, the dust settled revealing a gigantic crater where a forest had stretched for miles, and no Red Guardsman.
"Dear gods above protect us!" Philionel said, awed by the suddenness of such immense destructive force. "It's over."
"We've won, and you said that you would win in the end. You were so sure," Zelgadiss said to Philionel.
"Certainly! If our cause was just then in the end we would prevail against any ignorance or self-interest," Phil replied clearly, as if the answer would have been obvious.
"It's just begun, I'd say," Rodimus grumbled. "We must take this to Atlas City. Finish the job before winter and travel is too difficult."
"Absolutely," said Zelgadiss.
"Then it seems we have plans to discuss, later," agreed Philionel.
He squinted past the dust and saw the tiny figure of Lina standing beside Xelloss and shook his head. So much power and fight in such slight people; it was difficult for him to fathom. The couple was looking his way, and so he waved, giving them an enthusiastic "thumbs up" sign before returning to duty.
"Magnificent job, my dear," Xelloss told Lina, waving to Philionel, and then draping his arm over her slender shoulders.
"Thanks, but getting me dinner would go along way to making me a happier person right now."
"Eh... I'm afraid I can't cook; however, I'll bet Sylphiel can. Why don't you see what the two of you can rummage up in the old canteen?"
Xelloss and Lina made their way over to join the friends at the edge of the camp. Milgasia stepped out to meet them, pulling Xelloss to the side.
"Is one of these your tent? Where can speak privately?"
Xelloss nodded and led him into his damaged tent.
"At least it's still useable," he said, sighing. He pushed around broken bits of crockery with his toe. "So, what's on your mind?"
"Zelas will require a proper burial. I'd like to take her to her first home," Milgasia said stiffly, feeling as if his protective mask had been stripped from him and Xelloss had seen him as nakedly as he had seen himself. "I must go."
"Milgasia, please, wait," Xelloss said. "Valgaav needs to know about his past--the truth. I think he should hear about it from you. Don't leave me with that responsibility alone."
"But... All right, Xelloss, you don't have to do this." In a few words Milgasia had betrayed an admiration of him. "He doesn't have to ever know."
"It's okay, really. I love my expanding family," Xelloss said, smiling, but also nervous. "Stay here."
Milgasia stood uncomfortably at the far end or Xelloss' "home." He found it both interesting and difficult to believe how little Xelloss personally owned. For a prince, he was a pauper.
Meanwhile, Xelloss trapped Valgaav parading around the camp and drew him into his tent. Milgasia straightened stiffly the moment Valgaav caught his eyes.
"Valgaav," Xelloss began quickly. "I could draw this out, but I won't. Meet your father. I'll let him tell you the real story of your mother and her sacrifices, but first," Xelloss grabbed him in an embrace, pulling his head close to his. "I just have to tell you I love you, brother."
"It is true..." Milgasia began.
Stunned to silence, Valgaav flopped onto a cushion and listened, awed by Milgasia's story and of what it meant. He had lost his mother, but gained a father and a brother, a real one. And wasn't there a half-sister that he met the day before? It was nearly too much to absorb all at once.
"All these years I was sure you knew," Milgasia told Xelloss. "I lived in constant fear that you would turn me in."
Val sat up. "For what?"
"Resurrecting the dead is frowned on. Dangerous. Imagine having all those old people lingering forever, being brought back to life over and over. Never get rid of them!" Xelloss said. "So it is a tightly controlled, very restricted spell. He couldn't take the chance that the elders would approve of him applying it to his son by a wife that had left him for the Capriones."
Xelloss looked up, gazing into Milgasia's eyes a moment. Seeing unease reflected in the man's eyes, Xelloss released them. "All I knew was what mother had told me, which was that you'd do anything I asked– that you were forever in her debt."
"Sounds like it shoulda been the other way around," Valgaav said, addressing Milgasia. "She owed you for risking your position to save me, and then you had to let her take me away, never knowing if you'd see me again."
"Misunderstandings abound," Milgasia said.
"I, ah, won't ever tell, if that's still worrying you," Xelloss told Milgasia. "You saved Val's life. I have a real brother I never would have had, or known about."
Xelloss made a face as he turned to Valgaav, and said, "And to think I thought you and mother were sleeping together."
Valgaav, who wore first an expression of shock, then horror, started to laugh, loudly, expending the pent up tension from the last few days.
"I'll be right back," Xelloss said, excusing himself.
Xelloss found Filia and asked her to join them. He left Val to fill her in, in his own words, and let her offer what comfort she could.
"Come on, Mil, I had a topic of interest to discuss with you," Xelloss said, leading the man away from the new couple.
"And that is?" Milgasia asked with interest.
Xelloss tossed his staff from hand to hand as they picked their way down a lane between caravans. Littered with debris and fragments of damaged structures, the path was dangerous. The camp was strangely quiet and empty of people. Xelloss had to fight the feeling of melancholy from overwhelming him.
"So, earlier, you say I wasn't linking up with the gods, drawing power from their storm and funneling it through my staff?"
"You superstitious man," Milgasia answered somberly. "You should know better than that. The clouds generate electrical charge from the collision of particles of hail, ice and super-charged water. When enough sinking negative particles clash with the positive ones, we get lightening."
"Really? You'll tell me next that Cepheid isn't striking us with thunder bolts either."
"No, sorry."
Milgasia smiled and rolled his eyes, uncertain how much Xelloss said was intended to be taken seriously.
"And all this is taught in school?"
"Yes, science. There is also history, math, reading, writing, arts, music..."
"How perfectly wonderful!" Xelloss said with a laugh. "I want that for us. I want my children to be able to read and write."
Xelloss grabbed Milgasia by the tunic and pulled him close. In a low, conspiratorial voice, he whispered, "You see I can't."
Milgasia stepped back, surprised. "You can't read or write?"
"Shhh..." Xelloss hissed. "That's right and I'm not proud of it. Now you know a secret about me."
"You are an odd duck to be sure, Xelloss of the Capriones, but you've changed my way of thinking about your people and you."
Milgasia shook his head, regretting his admission as Xelloss smiled widened into a demonic grin. "No... now what have I said...?"
"You'll help me establish my people in schools, won't you?"
And leaving Milgasia with his mouth agape, Xelloss turned on his heel and marched to the tent where food preparations for the many hungry soldiers were underway. He flung open the door flap.
"Lina! You have to hear about where lightening comes from! Kids learn this in school! The Caprione children will be so lucky!"
Meanwhile, Valgaav and Filia changed tents. He wanted to see the condition of his place and speak privately with Filia for a moment.
"You know," she said as he held open the cloth flap at the tent entry, "I was right. Martina is related to you. She's your cousin."
He groaned and fell onto the remnants of his bed, pulling her along. They lay side by side, gazing about the room. His belongings had been viciously torn apart and strewn all over the floor by a Red Guard soldier, a dead one, judging by the dark spot of drying blood alongside the door.
"We really should be out there helping, not hiding in here," Filia said. "What is it?"
"I just wanted..." he said halting to swallow. "Um... So, I did good today, right?"
"Yes, you did. You make a fine military leader. As a prince, though, you're a little rough around the edges."
"Oh yeah? Well, I think you've got what I need to smooth out those rough spots."
He made no attempt to conceal the true meaning behind his words. His lips widened into a seductive smile. Filia looked away, blushing furiously.
"Yes, I could. I may not be a proper lady, but I know how one should behave, and a gentleman, too."
"That's good, real good. How 'bout tonight we drop the proper act and just enjoy ourselves. Sleep, ya know? Just sleep. I could use your help finding places for everyone to camp out. Your tent was plundered. You can't use it. Mine's okay. Good enough. Hey, I'm not asking for anything more, just a friend to hold tonight. Whaddya say?"
Filia nodded. "Let's see what we can do for everyone else, first."
Valgaav considered that encouraging, and so he bravely leaned over and kissed her. She would either kiss back or slap him, he was certain. He was thrilled when he felt her fingers in his hair and her lips soften. She was first to break the kiss.
"We should go before we're missed."
Valgaav let out his breath. Being a leader was hard work, and required a level of self-denial he had never before achieved. One look at the soft, blue eyes of the woman in his arms, and he knew he could make the sacrifice, again.
"Sure, let's go."
Philionel's troops carried their own supplies, tents, and food, so preparations as the evening drew near were already underway. His brother, Prince Randolph was wrapped in shrouds and loaded on a wagon. Philionel and Zelgadiss solemnly watched a select contingent of the Seyruun army depart accompanying the dead prince back to Seyruun. There, Prince Randolph would rest in state and await burial in a quiet ceremony later. Messengers carried news of the battle, the death of Rezo, and the triumph of justice.
Valgaav and Filia found tents and blankets sufficient for the Cepheid troops. Sylphiel, Lina, and Amelia did their best to assemble meals for everyone, while Milgasia and Xelloss tended to Zelas' body. By nightfall everyone was exhausted. They doubled up in tents, sharing bedding and space.
The fall had surely faded into the shorter days of early winter, which meant that night arrived quickly. Xelloss stood at the opening to his tent, gazing over the dark landscape, once familiar to him as his own face and both stifling and comforting, but now the view filled him with unease. In one direction the velvet landscape was dotted with campfires marking the Seyruun army bivouac. In another, an ugly scar gaped, reflecting raw earth in the starlight, where a deep forest once stood.
"I can't sleep," Lina complained. "I'm tired, my body aches, but I'm so excited. My mind's reeling with images and thoughts."
"I was neglecting you. I'm sorry." Xelloss returned to the bed, adjusted his arm under her neck, and said, "I'll see what I can do."
His forefinger swept away her bangs with a feather touch. She sighed and closed her eyes and he leaned over, pressed his lips to her hot skin, and whispered the magic words, "Sleep..."
There would be time to think of the next steps in all their lives– in the morning.
End Capriones, Chapter Thirty-Two