AN:

Here, the first chapter of the story. I don't actually know what to write as a foreword. I can only hope that I corrected most obvious errors.

I guess that this story is very calm adventure, it doesn't mean that there wouldnt' be any action in the future, but well. All characters had got themselves through a lot already, they aren't as young and reckless as they had been at the begining of their acquaintance – that means more planning and talking things over. I hope it doesn't meke the story completely dull and uninteresting.

Disclaimer: I do not own Slayers, all credits belong to Hajime Kanzaka and Rui Araizumi.

Chapter 1

Over Mazoku Barrier

Amelia stopped the horse.

Another crossroad. She sighed and pulled out the map. It was more the sketch than a proper map, but during her week and half long travel it had become very helpful.

Her daddy really had done a great job with organising the whole trip in that short period of time. When Amelia had gotten to the port on that side of the dessert, she had taken the horse and rushed forward without any assistance that could slow her down. It was kind of against her father's wish, who had hired about a half dozen bodyguards, but at this point she was sure, that she already was able to take care of herself.

"Right. The road to the left." Amelia answered herself, looking at the map with determination.

She was about to turn to the road on the left, when...

"GET BACK HERE AND TAKE IT LIKE A MAN!"

Amelia shuddered. The wild shriek that came from around the bushes sounded really frightening but oddly familiar. And as if to make her sure, that her suspicions were correct, Amelia saw the spell she would recognise everywhere. It was a good thing that the spell was aimed in a different angle and she could be safe while observing when the powerful Dragon Slave spell was blowing some bandits off.

"Lina-san!" Amelia was on her feet, running towards the source of rambling.

First what she saw was very angry red head sorceress, who was trying to chase those who managed to escape the dragon slave wrath, and the blond swordsman who was trying to stop her. Partially he managed, since one of his hands seemed to touch the wrong place, and Lina's anger turned towards him. He was saved from being bitten to the pieces by very enthusiastic princess, who hugged Lina tightly. Poor sorceress was unable to move.

"A-Amelia?" Lina seemed to be rather surprised.

"Lina-san, I'm so happy to see you! I was so worried that you haven't got my message." Amelia breathed out, and let go of Lina to hug her companion instead. "Gourry-san, I'm glad to see you too!"

"Hello, Amelia." Gourry greeted her with a smile, returning her hug.

Seeing Lina's rather unamused look, Amelia released Gourry quickly.

"You're taller than me." Lina noticed, taking a better look at the princess. "And your hair..."

"You also don't look the same like before, Lina-san." Amelia noticed back.

They hadn't seen each other for quite some time, and appearances of both girls had changed since then. Which actually was quite obvious considering that both of them matured from late teens to early twenties. But while in Lina's case the change mostly concentrated on her features, Amelia also grew up physically. Although for the princess herself it wasn't that surprising. Everyone in her family were rather tall, including her late mother, who was just slightly shorter than her own husband. Also quite recently Amelia had decided to let her hair grow and they were reaching below her shoulder blades.

She smiled sheepishly, brushing her hair with her hand, but avoided making the comment. Especially, that considering what had happened to that bunch of bandits from before, Lina's personality didn't change at all.

"Well. It actually does look good on you." Gourry noticed.

"Thank you for the compliment, Gourry-san." Amelia bowed, throwing very uncertain look at Lina. The sorceress only shrugged.

"Anyway... What does bring you here? Weren't you doing very important, royal things in Seyruun? Do you realise how far from your homeland is this place?"

"Errm... Which question should I answer first?"

"I'd start with the last one." Gourry advised. "But I already forgot the first four."

WHACK

"There were only two first questions, you jellyfish brain!" Lina rolled her eyes. "Just tell us what are you doing here, Amelia?"

"Don't you know, Lina-san?" Amelia looked at her sorcerer's friend with a puzzled look. "I just couldn't stay at home doing nothing, while that tragedy happened to Filia-san." Her voice became harder, indicating, that she already got into the justice mode.

Lina decided that in the end, her princess friend hadn't changed that much.

"How can some heartless kidnapper take something as innocent as unhatched dragon from someone as pure and just as Filia-san?!" Amelia continued emotionally. "But the law isn't blind and he'd be punished. And I, Amelia Wil Tesla Seyruun will make sure that those villains would face the justice just as they deserve! ..."

"It means that you also got the letter." Lina cut through Amelia's speech when the princess made a break for catching her breath. She started to pick up her belongings while Amelia was talking, not actually paying too much attention to the youngest girl's words. First part of them already told Lina all she needed to know, but it was better to stop Amelia before she would get so worked up that she wouldn't be able to babble about anything else.

Some of her things were scattered in quite big radius... Stupid bandits! Lina picked up something that looked like a very dirty, blue string. "Aww... look my lucky charm got burned to crisp." she complained.

Amelia blinked, looking at the remnants of the charm that Lina was holding. The sorceress shrugged and threw it out, stretching herself. She was looking pretty serious already.

"Have you been considering the option that this letter could be a trap?" she asked Amelia. "Something that had to lure all of us in one place."

"This thought crossed my mind once or twice during my journey." the princess admitted. "But it doesn't change a thing. I don't see any valuable reason for setting a trap for us, to be honest."

Lina sighed and started to walk, explaining all her suspicions.

"You can be so naïve sometimes, Amelia. We've got a lot of enemies." she noticed matter-of-factly. "And from since you've been hanging with us, I'm afraid that you too."

Amelia cringed. Personally she didn't like that thought, but even she knew that it was impossible to be liked by everybody. Especially while travelling with Lina. She had an amazing skill to be loved or hated wherever she had appeared. And mostly it was rather the second case, since she had been leaving rather... painful impression. Still for all those times when Lina had saved the world, she should be forgiven for one or two blown taverns.

"I know that much." the princess clarified. "I just don't see a purpose of setting up a trap for us just now. What I mean, Lina-san, we haven't travelled together for years. If this enemy is someone we've met earlier, why was he waiting for so long? If he's someone you've met recently, there would be no reason for dragging the rest if us into this."

"Yes, it seems logical." Lina nodded. "But there are types who don't handle logic so much." she noticed.

"This also is true." Amelia had to agree. "But well, the only way to find out is just go to meet Filia and ask." the princess smiled.

Lina smiled back, although the sorceress' smile was more threatening than cheerful.

"There is no other way to know who's behind it, right?" she kind of repeated Amelia's statement. "Besides, running away without the answers isn't my style."

Gourry who was walking calmly next to Lina, now decided to add a little bit of something. "Actually I would say it's pretty much your style, just..."

WHACK

"Listen, buddy." Lina muttered in a low, threatening voice. "I never run."

Gourry massaged the lump on his head. She must hit the wrong spot because instead of shutting up, Gourry tried to explain all his doubts. "But Lina, we were running away plenty of..."

WHACK WHACK

A perfect knock out. Gourry found himself pinned to the ground before he even saw that Lina's fist had been coming.

"We weren't running away, you idiot!" she yelled angrily. "It was a strategic retreat! And I was always doing it after getting the answers..."

Amelia's eyes were saying 'Or after finding out how strong the enemy is, not carrying about the answers', but she didn't dare to open her mouth.

When Gourry managed to collect himself back, Lina got back to the main subject. They already reached Amelia's horse, and now the poor animal was loaded with all their belongings, following the group right next to Amelia.

Soon the tree travellers found themselves in the nearest city. It was getting late, and they decide to stay there for the night and set off a journey the first thing in the morning.

After leaving their things in the inn, Lina and Gourry dragged Amelia to find some food. A decent looking tavern that was luring them with some promising, delicious smells, was lying very close to their inn, and they decided to not wander around too much.

Lina made rather impressive entrance. Just after crossing the door, she loudly demanded the big table and everything from the menu. A pretty scared waiter bowed to her politely, guiding her to the largest table in the room... Amelia suspected that it was predicted for a family with at least twelve kids, and grandparents. But Lina only nodded with approval, and not bothering with opening the menu card, she ordered everything edible.

While they were waiting for their meals, Amelia decided to take a look at the map. She stretched the sheet of paper flat in the tabletop, and looked for the town they were in.

"Hey, I wasn't aware that we've already travelled this far." noticed Lina with contentment, when she took a look at Amelia's map.

The expression of happy ignorance on Lina's face made Amelia to shiver in horror. "Wait, Lina-san? Don't tell me that you don't have a map. Do you?"

"What for?" Lina answered carelessly.

"How could you travel without it? You wouldn't even know if you were walking in the proper direction." Amelia pushed, questioning her senses. With that attitude how it was possible that they three had even met today?

"I don't need a map. I've got a women's intuition." Lina answered, patting Amelia's back reassuringly.

"Come on, Amelia. Do you really believe, that having the Dragon Slave spell, Lina couldn't get the information she needed?"

SLAM

"You make me to look violent on purpose!" she yelled, wielding her infamous slipper.

Amelia blinked, looking at Gourry who was massaging his forehead. These two would never change.

He definitely got the message this time, since he waved his hands in the air, trying to calm down his travelling partner.

"Oi, Lina. I was saying that we were asking for directions."

"That too!" she agreed. "But my guessing was always correct." she added firmly and the turned her attention to Amelia's map.

"Geez, that's pretty rough." she commented, pointing at the roads that were drawn with the ink. "It doesn't look like printed by the Cartography Institute."

"I swear Lina-san, your memory is getting as bad as Gourry's. Amelia shook her head with disbelief. "Don't you remember how Zelgadis-san was making it on our way back home, after that fight with Dark Star?"

Lina shrugged.

"Well how could I remember? You guys were constantly lagging, I wasn't paying attention on what you were doing." she answered. And then she smiled mischievously. "I thought it was safer that way." she teased.

Amelia's cheeks flushed, but then she caught the meaning of Lina's words. She remembered their journey back very well. Zelgadis had been really trying to do proper calculations that had allowed him to mark their position on the map with very good precision. But it had required some time, and Amelia had been keeping him company, not wanting him to be alone for all that time. Besides she had preferred the calm conversations with Zelgadis than wild fights over the food with Lina and Gourry... Not to mention she had really liked to spend her time with Zelgadis... And he had taught her some of those very useful methods of setting the position using the altitude of the Sun and the tables of the declination of the Sun.

But Lina had been nagging them to pick up the pace all the way back, impossible that she hadn't noticed how they had been working on the map.

Although it was safer not go into the details so much.

"The map may not be perfect, but it is very helpful." she insisted, defending their friend's navigating skills.

Lina nodded reconcilable.

"I wonder if Zelgadis-san also got Filia-san's letter." Amelia added after a short while of silence.

Lina flashed her really knowing smile.

"I bet you are." she said grinning teasingly. "But you don't have to worry... WELL HELLO!"

The last two words, exclaimed in such loving way, were directed towards the first dish that the waiter just brought them. Before Amelia understood the change of the subject, Lina already claimed half of the meal for herself.

"Hey, I'm hungry too!" Amelia shouted, ready to fight teeth and nails for just a piece of food.

With Gourry and Lina it wasn't easy to satisfy the hunger. She mentally chuckled. Somehow fighting for food helped her to develop her speed and reflex better than any training.

"If it's a trap, the answers probably won't be complicated." Lina picked the most concerning subject, when the pile of empty plates and bowls was already taken back to the kitchen.

Between the moment Amelia had stated she hadn't exactly believed in the 'trap' option and Lina questioned sanity of their enemy and the moment when Lina brought the subject back, the princess had a plenty of time to think this over once again. She got her own conclusions and immediately she knew what was on Lina's mind.

"You mean that the reason would probably be a revenge." she guessed. "And probably from someone close to the person, who, our four or more, managed to kill."

Lina nodded.

"But if it really was Filia and if Val really was kidnapped..." Lina looked at Amelia and Gourry with rather uncertain look. "I can't guess who could be behind it."

"Why did someone want to kidnap Val-chan?" Amelia asked with a worry. "Do you think that someone can hold a grudge against unhatched baby, or against Filia-san?"

Lina shook her head.

"I doubt it's strictly about Filia. If it is, we also will be involved. Every fight Filia was involved into, contained us as well. So I don't think that she is the only target."

Amelia sighed, but then her eyes fired up, while the princess stomped her foot on the tabletop hardly, and pointed somewhere above.

"Lina-san, we can't let anyone hurt Val-chan now, when he's unable to defend himself! What kind of monster would kidnap the baby that didn't hatch yet?! It's so unjust! We must..."

"Calm down, Amelia." Lina mumbled with embarrassment, tugging her mantle down. "People are staring at us."

"Come down, Amelia." Gourry pleaded. "You know, that the last thing Lina can deal with is embarrassment. You don't want to put us into that situation, do you? I'm hoping we can eat the breakfast here, and if Lina blow up this place..."

Gourry was smiling friendly to Amelia, hoping she would understand. Amelia was watching him with wide eyes, but she did seat back on her chair. She threw a really uncertain look at Lina, who was still too shocked to move.

"Uhm... Gourry-san, I think that it's high time for you to get to your room." she said sympathetically, noticing that Lina's shocked expression started to change into anger. "It's really a good advice." she added trying to convince him.

"Huh? Why?" he asked looking at her with puzzled expression.

It was already too late. Lina angrily grasped him by the neck from behind, trying to plunge her knee into his back painfully. "What's wrong with you today?!" she yelled in the process. "You keep complaining on me all of the day!"

"But Lina... I didn't... mean it... this way!" Gourry protested in moments when he was able to catch his breath.

"Lina-san, please." Amelia intervened, trying to separate those two. "I'm sure Gourry-san wasn't complaining. It was an admiration."

"Do you think I'm stupid?" Lina didn't seem to buy it. "I can see the difference between complement and complain."

Amelia decided to be radical. She hit the tabletop with her fists.

"Stop it already! We should discuss some serious matter, there is no time for that foolishness!"

Lina dropped Gourry immediately. But it was the only part of Amelia's plan that worked. The look that the sorceress sent her, that one that promised a lot of pain, made Amelia to gulp. She wondered how the heck Zelgadis was doing it without being targeted back.

Fortunately, Lina's twisted sense of humour was on Amelia's side. Instead of beating the foolish princess, Lina decided otherwise.

"I bet Zel would be so proud of you." she winked, getting back on her seat. "You almost sounded like him. Just less gloomy. We get back to the serious conversation, but I warn you both. If you don't have anything worth to say, stay shut. Understand?"

That sounded threatening enough that both of them, though sure that they hadn't been saying anything unworthy to say before, nodded with agreement.

"If we consider that Filia's letter was real, I will have only one guess about it all." Lina said surely. "Someone kidnapped Val to get the revenge on the ancient dragon race."

Zelgadis was already experienced enough to know that the first steps in new town he was visiting, shouldn't be directed towards the library.

Big city libraries had usually contained a lot of books and it was as much its advantage as disadvantage. With some many books around the probability of finding something useful was significantly over zero. Yet with so many books around, finding the useful one was a really hard work. Librarians usually were trying to be very helpful, but even then, it was still way too many books to take a good look at them.

Entering the city of Genravia, Zelgadis was sure it was pointless to visit the library as the first thing. First it was best to take care about accommodation, then look for the sorcery store. People would be really surprised to know how much knowledge the merchants of sorcery stores used to have.

The inn he had chosen had come with reasonable price and people there didn't seem to be eager to put their noses into other people businesses. His entrance surely caused some interest, but it ended as fast as it started. No matter how weird the guy looked, as long as he kept his weapon sheathed, he wasn't a tread then it was no need to bother him.

He paid for three nights in advance.

Considering the size of the city, he believed that their library (or libraries) would be quite a work. But first was the sorcery store – if he had luck, his library searches might not start blindly.

To his surprise the sorcery store was located in a market street. He passed a long row of different restaurants and taverns (practically the same thing, yet less sophisticated) before he reached quite big and modern looking doors. In the back of his mind he thought that if Lina was there, they probably wouldn't have left the city before she tried all food. But restaurants weren't his concern now. Instead he pushed the door and entered the 'Sorcery emporium'.

The shop was certainly a neat one. Dark and dim to keep the atmosphere of mystery, but quite tidy. It also seemed to contain surprisingly big amount of real magical items, exposed on the shelves that were reaching to the high ceiling. It was something unexpected at this side of Mazoku Barrier, since the magic here was barely evolved.

At the sound of the bell from over the door, the merchant looked up from above the counter.

"Good morning, what can I help you?" he asked politely, yet it was really hard not to notice the wary tone of his voice and the long, measuring look he was throwing at his only customer.

It might make Zelgadis angry if it was the first time. But right now he, kind of, used to it. As long as the merchant wasn't gong to be hostile towards him, Zelgadis didn't see the reason to be violent. Especially that after examining him, the merchant seemed to calm down and acted more friendly.

"I'm looking for any valuable magician treatise. Anything beyond typical textbooks. Something that is worth to take a look on."

The man in front of him nodded. "I believe trying to manipulate you in some common books would be pointless, sir."

"Precisely."

"Well, I could always try." the merchant smiled to him naively. "But that would get me a bad reputation. I have a book that might be interesting for you, though. I'm keeping it on the rear, please wait sir, I'll fetch it to you."

Zelgadis nodded. "Mind if I look around in meantime?"

"Not at all." The merchant smiled.

Zelgadis though that he would be a bit more careful about people wandering freely around his store, but he decided that probably every item had a spell that protect it from being stolen. This was nothing to worry though, since he intended to pay for his purchase.

There were indeed many interesting items around. But one was specially interesting. On the corner shelf there was an item that immediately has caught his eyes. Not because it screamed magic from the first side. Although it was hard to ignore the magical vibration when being in vicinity.

It seemed to look a lot like a talisman, yet it was made of wood. On a simple leather band there was an octagonal wooden medallion radiating magical energy. Not very strong, but strong enough to pay attention to it. If it was some ordinary talisman, Zelgadis would let it be, but this one had a thing that it never supposed to have, considering the history the outer world.

"I found it, sir." The merchant returned, carrying book covered with dust.

Zelgadis grabbed the talisman, and brought it to the counter.

First he examined the book. The title and author was blurred, but the pages were readable enough to learn the contents. As far as he was able to check, the book was about languages. Not just the common language people all over the world were using, but about languages that ancient sorcerers were using to create spells. At least that was, what it looked like at first glance.

Well, definitely it was something worth to buy and examine.

"I would also like to know about this talisman. Where do you get it from?"

The merchant examined the wooden piece. He smiled, but his gaze was really serious.

"Interesting." he commented. "Well, it wasn't me." he answered. "This shop is a family business, passed from generation to generation to the oldest offspring. Most items in here are brought or crafted quite recently – my father and I got them. But this talisman was almost like a family treasure." He smiled. "My great-grandfather had been given it by the powerful mage for protection. He helped him with really valuable information about Earthlord Rangort and got it in exchange. It was long time ago. My dad and I decided to sell it if anyone would be interested."

"I'll take this and the book."

Merchant smiled happily. "It won't be cheap." he added and told his price.

Zelgadis sighed but nodded in agreement. It wasn't as expensive as it probably would cost in his area, but it wasn't that cheap. He could actually leave the talisman, but something told him that it was important to buy it.

Transaction was done quickly and both sides seemed to be content.

"Sir, if I may say… It seems that you are interested in powerful magical artefacts." the merchant pondered before Zelgadis was able to ask about thing the man had mentioned earlier.

"I am." he admitted.

"There is a cursed tower in the marshland. No one was brave enough to go there, because the magic surrounding this place seemed to be out of this world, but you look like a person whose magic isn't illusionary. The legends are saying that there is some powerful artefact that was left there by the one of the demon kings."

Zelgadis pulled out the map. It wasn't very detailed, but it was the best one he could get. It showed a lot of southern piece of land, with main cities, mountain ranges and the dessert.

The merchant scanned it and drew a circle with his finger somewhere even quite near the city. "I think it's somewhere around here." He said with very pensive impression on his face. "Yes, I'm pretty sure of it." He added.

The map didn't show anything near the place the man was pointing but marshes. But it wasn't actual proof of anything. Zelgadis doubted that whoever created the map was interested in anything magical, since nothing like that was marked on the map. Certainly it wasn't created for adventure seeking but for simple navigation and it played its role perfectly.

"Thank you." Zelgadis bowed. "You also mentioned something about Earthlord Rangort."

Merchant sighed heavily. "The location of the sanctuary is kept in secret, sir. My father might know something about it. You can find him in the Roaring Dragon, but he's probably drunk as always and I doubt he'll tell you anything."

"Still, it's worth a try."

"If you think so." The merchant sounded sceptical. "Oh well, ask about Riander then."

"Thank you."

Zelgadis turned around and left. The visit in the store was quite worthy. He obtained a book that, if he ever get the spell that had been used to make a chimera from him, with the help of the book, he might be able to find the counter spell. Also he learnt about tower and temple that were worth to investigate. A place that was told to contain some artefact that might have belonged to one of the demon kings seemed to be very promising. The temple was actually less interesting, if thinking that it was White Magic temple, but it was still worth to take a look at. He also learnt that someone in this city could posses a knowledge about one of the four Dragon Lords that were subordinates of Flare Dragon Ceiphied – it seemed to be the most promising lead.

'And then, there is this', he thought clutching the talisman tightly in his hand.

It seemed so ordinary and even a bit worthless. The magic field it radiated was not very impressive from the start, and it didn't changed when the talisman became his legal possession. Besides wooden talisman were known from short lifespan. Stronger spell and they were breaking in pieces or burnt to ashes. Yet this one was special.

Because it was hardly possible that so far South, huge distance over Mazoku Barrier, there was a talisman with Rezo's crest engraved on it.