Chapter 3. Happily Ever After – Part 1.
It was a warm summer night. A light, pleasant breeze blew through the plains of Lyzeille, easing the sultriness in the air. It was the time of the year when people travelling the road had a lot less to worry about when it came to a place to spend the night: without even the necessity of starting a campfire, the green grass next to the road seemed almost as inviting as an inn bed for the less prosperous – or for the greedy.
Lina Inverse was never truly among the former group, but boasted a lifetime membership of the latter – and so, even though Atlas City was only a few hours away on foot, she opted to take the night's rest in a small, secluded grove surrounded by cherry trees not far from the highway. Her sleeping form was almost invisible in the tall grass, if not for her earrings, which the stars and the full moon flooded with silvery light from the clear sky above, and their glitter could be seen from dozens of feet away. Not that she seemed to be welcoming the attention of these celestial bodies or anyone else: Snoring disapprovingly, she tussled and turned under the blanket, ever so often kicking into the man who lay next to her.
"…I'm telling you people," a faint murmur escaped her lips, "if we fight to lose, then we'll lose… Even if we had a one percent chance to beat Ruby Eye, it would become a… eh, never mind that, let's eat some cake…" She flailed her arms, as if trying to grab a giant piece of pastry in front of her, almost poking her travelling companion in the eye.
Her movements never managed to wake Xelloss though, especially since the priest wasn't really asleep. While his human form looked pretty much so to any unwary animal or bandit that might have approached (and indeed, luring them into a false sense of security was part of the idea), his mind, to which sleep was a completely foreign thought, wandered through the astral landscape, most likely looking for something interesting nearby to amuse himself with for the night.
Unfortunately for him, the countryside was not exactly filled with opportunities at such an hour, and the city was too far away to visit without making his body disappear – all the more eager he was to turn his attention to the approaching wagon that sped into his field of astral vision, its wheels rattling in protest of the hazardous pace that the coachman desperately tried to force on the two horses. It was obvious that he was being pursued, and after a few moments it also became clear by whom: several men on horseback appeared not far behind the wagon, waving swords and torches in the air, steadily gaining on the distance.
An intense jolt of panic flashed through the realm of spiritual existence as the coachman, an older man in his fifties perhaps, glanced back and realized how small the lead separating him from his attackers has gotten. His fear distracted him long enough not to see the sizable cavity before him on the poorly lit road, and as the tearing wagon ran across it, one of the front wheels cracked and broke. The vehicle lurched to the side, and then was turned upside down by the momentum, dragging the agonizedly neighing horses with it. It spun around uncontrollably several times as it veered off the road, before smashing into nearby huge tree, where it finally stopped, broken to pieces.
The pursuers halted as well and regarded the wreckage; they did not bother approaching it though, and after a few moments they turned around and took off, disappearing into the night. They could not see what Xelloss saw: somewhere, trapped between the broken wagon and the tree, a tiny astral flame belonging to a human soul still flickered, defiant of its fate.
"Lina-san."
The sorceress heard her name uttered from behind the veil of dreams, dissipating her strange vision about a birthday party with orange dancing penguins.
Aw, I barely started eating the cake…
"Ummh… What is it, Xel?" she asked woozily as she rubbed her eyes. "It's still in the middle of the night; humans need to get some sleep you know." She turned to the side to look at the priest. "You don't need to stay here like this if it bores you out of your mi--" Her sentence broke in half as she realized the mazoku was not where she thought him to be: the bedroll next to her was empty, but she also noticed a Xelloss-shaped black figure blocking out the light of the moon and the stars a couple of steps away.
"LIGHTING," Lina whispered; the lack of illumination suddenly becoming disturbing to her. The shining sphere bathed the grove in a cold bluish light. "Did something happen?" she questioned the priest, now sounding completely awake.
As usual, the mazoku's smile was impossible to decipher. "Nothing major," he answered and leaned forward to show what, the sorceress just noticed, he looked to be carrying in his arms. "I simply thought you might be interested in this."
Her first odd thought was that it was some kind of a marionette doll; with one of its arms bent in an unnatural angle, it rested in Xelloss' hands with its eyes closed, its face impassive and pale. But just a second later, it gave a tiny moan, and Lina had to realize to her horror that she was looking at a real brown-haired girl less than five years old, her home-made dress torn and stained with red, apparently severely injured.
"Damn!" She gasped. "Quickly, put her down here!"
Xelloss did as he was told, and lay the child down on his bedroll gently. The sorceress swiftly checked her over, her face becoming more troubled with every passing moment.
"She's got a couple of nasty bruises," she murmured. "Broke at least three bones too, maybe more, and then there are the injuries I can't see." She shook her head, looking frustrated. "I cannot risk casting Recovery on her; she's too young and too badly hurt. We have to take her to a priest in the city right now!"
Scooping the girl up into her arms, she faced north where Atlas City lay behind the dark line of the forest.
"Do you plan to leave right away?" the priest asked. "It should not take more than fifteen minutes to get there if you really make haste, but--"
"Right, let's go! RAY WING!" Lina cut him off and took into the air.
Xelloss hesitantly glanced at their former resting place, then shrugged and quickly followed suit.
The Temple of Flarelord in Atlas City had seen better days. It was a monumental structure, rich with ornaments, statues and other decorations, but time has not been kind to them, and their worn stone surfaces just made the building even scarier-looking during the night.
Behind the iron-laden double doors of the entrance, Officius Petrakos, the temple's sole priest and caretaker paced the great liturgical hall, unable to sleep. The precursors of what is to come have manifested days ago: It was merely a troubled feeling a first, without direct cause or object, a feeling that something important, something terrible would happen soon. But tonight it grew worse. While sleep evaded him, he felt as if he was dreaming while awake, if only for seconds. Images flashed before his eyes at irregular intervals: Gold clashing with black, the symbol of black magic covering the white magic hexagram, a scarlet sword parried by a wooden staff. They felt completely foreign, holding no meaning to him, and he was getting more and more desperate to learn something, anything about their origin.
In a habitual gesture of frustration, he ran a hand through his gray hair, once again noting with a wry smile that he did not have much left for such a purpose. It was more than a thousand-year-old legend that the priests of Flarelord Vrabazard sometimes received visions of future events from the God of Flames. While the tale was old, it did not seem entirely impossible, as of the four gods, the power of prophecy was indeed attributed to her. After the barrier of the mazoku fell many years ago, there were reports that this unique blessing had returned; still, Officius never met any of his fellows who could defend this rumor. Now, he could only think of two possible explanations: either it was really happening to him, or his sickness reached the stage when it began to cloud his mind.
A violent knock on the temple doors interrupted his ruminations. He turned towards the sound worriedly; any visits this late at night were unusual and possibly dangerous, and he was in no condition to deal with muggers.
"Why this place, Lina-san?" he heard a male voice say from the outside. "There should be a lot more priests at the Temple of Ceiphied."
"Yeah, plenty of priests whose magic education ended somewhere around tying their shoelaces," an impatient female voice answered. "This guy's got a good reputation as a healer in these parts."
Officius closed his eyes, his mind made up. If these people were looking for healing, he could not reject them. He took an uneasy step towards the entrance-- and felt as if a bolt of lightning had struck him. Suddenly it all became clear: who his visitors were, what they wanted and also what he must do. He rushed to remove the physical and magical locks, and swung the doors open.
"Bring the child to the guest room, please," he instructed the man standing in the doorway. "It's the second door to the right if you go through the opening behind the altar."
The man, also dressed in a priest's clothing, raised his eyebrows in surprise. "My goodness, this place has much better surveillance magic than I thought," he said, stepping into the temple. Officius stared into the darkness outside, but could not see anyone else.
"Where is your wife?" he asked the man.
"You mean Lina-san? She is behind that tree over there." The reply came in an amused tone. "She does not consider herself to be… presentable right now."
"Oh, shut up Xelloss, it's not like I can dress up with a thought!" The irritable yell did come from behind one of the trees of the park which surrounded the temple. "Instead of making funny comments, you could have at least brought my gear with you!"
"Your gear?" the man called Xelloss repeated, as if the idea presented by the woman was well into the realm of impossibility. Then he let out a soft chuckle. "Actually, I did."
The moment the words left his mouth, Officius heard the sound of several smaller objects hitting the grass next to the tree.
"Now, could you lead the way to the guest room?" the other priest continued. "You can leave the doors open for a while; I'm sure Lina-san will be joining us shortly, and I would certainly pity any criminal who would try to rob the temple in the meantime."
"O-Of course, follow me." A bit perplexed, the old man turned around and started heading towards the altar at the other end of the hall.
As amazing as the prophecy was, he realized, it did leave out a number of strange details.
The lieutenant could not help but shudder as he entered the dimly lit hall. Not wanting to spare even another glance towards the line of glimmering armors, hanging weapons and trophies which decorated the walls, he quickly made his way to the giant armchair and knelt before the sitting figure covered in pitch black plate armor.
"The room's got a nice scary atmosphere, doesn't it?" the armored figure asked in a low, rich voice, sounding pleased.
"Actually my Lord, it doesn't." The man adjusted his eye patch, looking flustered. "I'm sorry, but of all the people that have hired me in the past, your headquarters are the least frightening."
An amused snort escaped the black helmet. "Hah, you think you can hide your fear from me? When you came in, I've seen you shudder in terror. Don't you dare to think that such things can escape the notice of the Baron of Evil!"
The lieutenant, whose eyes were cast down to the floor thus far, suddenly looked up, his face both annoyed and tired. "My Lord, I shuddered because I've found the head of a pink plush unicorn among those trophies on the wall!" He paused to see if his master gave any reaction; he did not, which apparently made him even more frustrated. "It is indecent in my profession to have fits of laughter in front of my employer, but you're a pushing my willpower to the limits! If I think about the fact that I'm signed up to serve you for a whole month, the prospect feels almost… frightening."
"You see, that is exactly what I've been talking about," the self-titled Baron of Evil nodded. "There is no shame in showing your fear; my palace was designed to scare all kinds of people." He gestured his subordinate to rise. "Now tell me, did you successfully complete the mission I've tasked you with?"
A hint of a smirk appeared on the lieutenant's face; appreciating the change of subject. "Of course, my Lord. We've pursued the target as it tried to take refuge in Atlas City. There wasn't even any need to dirty our hands: the old idiot crashed his own wagon into a tree. Even if the girl survived somehow, there is no way she will reach Karthon in time--"
"What?!" Enraged, the armored figure bolted from his seat. "You mean you did not bring her here?!"
"N-No my Lord, I thought--"
"Don't you understand?! She is the most important piece of my plan, everything else is just smoke screen!" he bellowed. "Get your men and go back! And you better pray that she is still alive!"
"Forgive me my Lord, it will be done right away." the lieutenant saluted dejectedly, and quickly left the room. On his way out, his gaze inadvertently fell on the pink unicorn trophy on the wall, and he could not help but shudder once again.
Lina watched in awe as Officius' palm gently rested on the last small wound on the little girl's forearm. After a few seconds, he raised his hand, and the injury was no longer there, it disappeared like it never was to begin with.
The rumors weren't exaggerating; this guy really knows his stuff. He wields the Resurrection spell's energy like it's his third hand!
"There." A bit out of breath, the priest of Flarelord plopped down to a chair next to guest room's bed, not far from where the priest and the sorceress were sitting. "The spell will need a bit more time to mend her bones, but don't worry, your child is no longer in any danger."
"Thank you, Priest Officius." Lina smiled gratefully. "You do know a thing or two about healing spe-- 'our child'?"
"Well, you are her parents, are you not?" the old man said more as a statement than a question. The sorceress unwittingly glanced at Xelloss, who just flashed her an annoying smile.
"For some reason he believes we're married, you see," he said with a shrug.
"Ehm, no," Lina shook her head. "And don't say another word," she warned the priest dourly, who looked to be keen on adding further comments to the subject.
"That is most strange; I could have sworn that you were." Officius knitted his brows in confusion. "Are you sure?"
"I'm sure I'm sure!" Lina snapped with colored cheeks, jumping to her feet. "Which one of us should know that better, hm?!"
"Of course, forgive me," the old man said defensively. "It was just an intuition of sorts; forget that I said anything."
The sorceress folded her arms and turned around to face the mazoku once more.
"So Xelloss, with the emergency out of the way, could you perhaps clue us in on what happened out there?" she asked, her voice still sounding stern from her previous outburst.
"It was quite an unusual scene, Lina-san," the priest smiled thoughtfully, eyeing the girl's sleeping form. "She was travelling in a wagon with an older man – not likely her relative, as her clothes are a lot plainer than his were – which was pursued by several men, bandits at first glance."
"They didn't manage to get away it seems," the sorceress noted, her expression troubled.
"Indeed, but before you inevitably ask, even if I've woken you up the moment I became aware of this, it would not have changed a thing: the wagon quickly became uncontrollable and crashed into a large tree." Xelloss took a slow breath; accustomed to his speech patterns, Lina knew it meant that he was about to explain what really intrigued him in the episode. "Their pursuers stopped and surveyed the vehicle, and then left without doing anything else. If they were bandits, I'm sure they would have searched it for anything valuable, while if they were assassins sent to kill the passengers, they would have made sure that they were both dead. But instead, the men seemed to be content with the mere fact that they greatly hampered their quarry's efforts to reach whatever destination they were heading to."
"And you want to know what the attackers' plans were?" Lina asked, her tone noticeably skeptical.
"To be completely honest, I am not really interested in such a trivial affair." Xelloss shrugged, before turning to the sorceress with a grin. "But I thought you might be."
"Maybe I am," she said, returning the smile. "Plus, men like those are usually motivated by money, so perhaps there'll be a bit of coin in it for me, too."
"Not to complain, Lina-san," the priest chuckled, "but your attempts at backing your altruistic acts with claims of financial gain are getting more and more transparent, if also highly amusing."
"Pardon my interruption," Officius stood and stepped closer to the pair to join the conversation, forestalling a particularly nasty comeback from the sorceress. "A wealthy nobleman did pass away recently in the village of Karthon, a few days east of Sairaag. I sadly don't know his name, but I do remember that he has no known relatives, and his fortune will be split between several local guilds if a descendant does not show up soon to claim the inheritance." Both the sorceress and her companion stared at him with a look of surprise on their faces. "It's just an idea of course," he added quickly, "it might have nothing to do with this."
"My, for a humble priest of Flarelord, you are pretty well-informed in such matters, Officius-san," the mazoku remarked good-naturedly.
"Well, I do hear a few things from here and there." The old man nodded, pretending not to notice the question hidden behind the priest's words.
"No matter how we look at it, that's the only lead we have for the moment, so we have to check it out," Lina asserted, suppressing a yawn. "But that can wait until morning; we already bothered our benefactor far too much for tonight. Can she be moved safely now?" she asked, glancing at the bed.
"Yes, she just shouldn't run around for a few more hours." Officius carefully lifted the girl and put her into the sorceress' arms. "And you didn't bother me at all, I was glad to help."
They left the guest room and began to walk through the liturgical hall. Only now finding the time to look around carefully, Lina noticed how out of kilter it was, even more so than from the outside; Officius was visibly making a big effort just to keep things from falling apart.
Speaking of which--
"I meant to ask earlier," she addressed the old man, "where did you learn to cast white magic with such skill?"
"You overestimate my expertise," the priest of Flarelord protested humbly. "Healing spells are the only area where I show some ability, and after having the opportunity to learn from the best mages of this field, that should only be expected."
"You learned from the best healers? Wow, you have some pretty good connections then," Lina commented.
"You misunderstand," Officius smiled at the sorceress' words which sounded more like a half-accusation. "My faithful paid them for their time, even though I told them that we should renovate the building from the money instead. The temple doesn't flourish the way it used to, before the priests of Ceiphied became this popular in the city. Saillune's influence on us is becoming troubling."
"And why was this so important?" Xelloss asked, not allowing him to change the subject.
Arriving to the temple doors, Officius turned his back to them with a sigh, and began opening the locks once more. "You see, I suffer from some kind of exotic illness. Strange seizures come upon me at times, accompanied by extreme pain, and they've gotten increasingly frequent lately. None of the healers I've met know what it is, and no magic seems to affect it in any way."
The other two fell silent for a few moments, while the old priest finished his work with the locks and opened one of the doors.
"Sorry to bring it up," Lina said finally, "it was really none of our business."
"Don't be," Officius turned away from the door; his calm, serene face was lit by the light of the moon and the stars, giving it a strange otherworldly feel. "There is truly no reason to fear death if you live your life without regrets. I've already accepted my fate; when my time comes, I will gladly join my god in a peaceful rest – I only wish more people would think the same way."
As Lina said her goodbyes and left the temple, she could not keep her mind from mulling on how much truth were in those words, and how uneasy they made her feel regardless.
What then happened would have taken by many mortals as a sure sign of the end of the world, if they have been aware of it. They would have screamed in terror as Lina Inverse, the stingy businesswoman to the end, who almost spent the night camping, marched into the most expensive inn of the city, woke the owners and rented a room. They would have scurried under their beds, covering in fear as she picked out the most expensive two-bed suite, and their belief that the universe had gone off its hinges would have been cemented by the fact that she even paid the staff extra to clean it up out of turn and replace all the sheets, just to make sure that the whole room was squeaky clean.
Thankfully, the only person to know the specifics of these horrific events was Xelloss, who, being a witness to a number of odd things in his lifetime, merely raised a curious eyebrow.
"I must say, Lina-san," he spoke while leaning against one of their room's expensive-looking dressers, "that while I have been aware of the maternal instincts such a situation might bring forth in a human woman, you reaction…" He looked around the room once more, sizing up the carpets, the ebony furniture and the spectacular chandelier. "…goes well beyond my expectations."
"You should have visited us more often when I was with my kids then," Lina said softly as she tucked the still unconscious girl under the silky covers of the bed, "I guess if I didn't have a soft spot for children, I would've gone crazy having so many of them." She turned around and playfully flicked a strand of hair away from Xelloss' face. "But no, I wasn't spoiling them, that was Gourry's job. Well, unless," she added in a more serious tone, "they nearly died in an accident and were about to wake up in a room full of strangers. That warrants a little bit of spoiling I think."
Lina glanced at the second bed on the other side of the room; it looked inviting, but while her body would have welcomed the rest, her mind was reeling with countless thoughts. With somewhat aimless steps, she wandered out to the balcony, and gazed at the panoramic view of the Atlas City skyline.
"While we are at the accident," the mazoku spoke again after a moment, following her out of the room, "what do you think of our selfless, helpful, admirable martyr of a priest?"
"You don't like him very much, do you?" The sorceress made a face. "Sure, he was suspicious; he looked like he knew we were coming, and conveniently presented us news about a distant village which did not sound nearly as interesting as a rumor to reach these circles of the city. But still," she shook her head, "he had to know that if he lied to us, we would find out right away when the kid wakes up. All in all, I think he's either a very good actor, or he's really not the type to purposely mislead and delude others." With a smirk, she shot a meaningful look at the priest.
…unlike some people I know.
"Perhaps he isn't, but that's not the real problem. I, after all, greatly enjoy the company of people who others might deem suspicious or even dangerous, Lina-san." Xelloss smiled, shooting a meaningful look right back. "It has more to do with--" he trailed off as a faint voice could be heard coming from inside.
Uh-oh.
"It looks like she woke up already," Lina winced. "Alright, let's get this over with." She stepped back into the room from the balcony, yanking the priest by his cloak with her. The child was indeed awake; she sat in bed, staring at them with wide blue eyes, her expression one of confusion. The sorceress pulled Xelloss close and whispered into his ear: "Listen, just wear your usual 'harmless priest' looks and act naturally. She'll be scared for sure and we cannot avoid a bit of drama, but we can at least shorten it if we give off a friendly impression."
"That sounds easy enough," the mazoku whispered back, nodding. As Lina let go of his cloak, he turned to the girl with a big grin on his face, and bowed politely. "Greetings, young one. I am Xelloss, a humble priest by occupation, and this is Lina-san, a capable sorceress if I do say so myself. It is a true pleasure to meet you; I sincerely hope our time spent together will be mutually enjoyable and benefi--"
The sorceress grabbed him again, this time in a more strangling fashion by his neck collar.
"What the heck are you doing?!" If it was possible for someone to yell while whispering, then Lina was doing exactly that. "Drop the formalities! This is a kid, for Ruby Eye's sake, not the Eternal Queen of Zephilia! You're just making things worse!"
"But you were the one who told me to act naturally!" Xelloss complained.
The sorceress hid her face behind her palm. "Gah, just follow my lead then, got it?! Khm--" she cleared her throat, and, to the mazoku's bewilderment, her voice jumped almost an octave as she addressed the girl, "Hi, I'm Lina. What's your name?"
The child did not answer; she kept staring at the pair in exactly the same position ever since they entered the room. A drop of sweat rolled off Lina's forehead.
This is so not going to work. She probably thinks we're some kind of scary lunatics by now…
Suddenly, the girl raised her right hand from under the covers, and pointed straight at the sorceress.
"You look just like my grandma!" she exclaimed in a high, bubbly voice.
"Huh--?!"
Lina quickly glanced at the large, golden-framed mirror hanging on the wall. She looked the same: no wrinkles, no gray locks or anything else which could possibly lead to her being identified as someone's grandmother.
I don't know whether I should feel touched or insulted…
"My name is Nellie," the little girl continued unsurely, answering the sorceress' question. "Are you my grandma too?"
"I, uh--" The sorceress tried hard to think of a way to sidestep the topic, when an idea formed in her mind.
Hey, why not? This will make things so much easier!
"Of course I am your grandma!" she grinned. "And this is, uhm, Uncle Xelloss!" she pointed at the priest over her shoulder.
"Uncle…?" the priest in question looked baffled, but Lina Lina paid him no mind.
"Wow, I didn't know I had another one…" the little girl muttered as she continued to study the sorceress' features. As her eyes drifted to the priest however, her face lit up. "But Uncle Xelloss looks funny!"
"Say, Nellie dear," Lina stepped closer to the bed and crouched down to get to the same eye level as her, "can you tell your grandma where you were travelling to today?"
"We were going to visit my other granny in Karthon," came the enthusiastic reply. "She always has lots of magic things in her shop there! Can you do magic too, Grandma Lina?"
"LIGHTING." With a flick of her hand, the sorceress made a glowing blue orb appear in front of Nellie, who gasped in awe and tried repeatedly to touch the immaterial sphere. "So Officius really told us the truth," she said, turning to Xelloss. "But why couldn't he tell us where he knew this from?"
"What did she mean by 'funny'?" staring at the child confused, the mazoku did not seem to hear the question.
"Xel, hello, your default looks are those of a fruit bowl-headed goofball with a silly smile, what did you expect?" the sorceress answered impatiently. "Can we get back on topic here?"
"O-Of course," the priest said quickly, like someone who's been caught dozing off. "One possible explanation is that he is also involved in the events somehow, or perhaps he might've simply thought that we would not believe him." His gaze fell back on to the girl. "But the way she said 'funny' – there was something in it which I found strangely unsettling."
"Either way, we're going to have a little more chat with Officius in the morning," asserted the sorceress, not wanting to get involved in the mazoku's odd ruminations any further.
"This is so cool…" The little girl was meanwhile still preoccupied with the shining ball of light. "The guy mom hired to take me to grandma doesn't like spells, but he's wrong, right? Hey," she looked around in the room once more, "where is he right now?"
"I'm afraid he won't be able to take you along after today," Lina ruffled the girl's hair, a hint of sadness lingering in her voice. "But don't worry; we'll get you to Karthon. And if someone stands in our way, this is going to happen to them."
The light sphere exploded in a silent, sparkling, if entirely harmless burst, making Nellie erupt in a fit of giggles. The sorceress chuckled with her; the only person in the room not to share the cheer was Xelloss, who continued to stare at the child befuddled, as if he had seen a ghost.
Pulling aside the curtains of his bedroom window, Officius looked at the rising sun as it slowly ascended from behind the jagged line drawn by the rooftops of the city, feeling careworn and bone weary.
He did not manage to sleep a single moment that night. He had received a prophecy from the Flarelord herself, of that he was now certain, and with it he was able to help save a young girl's life and aid those who took care of her, but for some infuriating reason, the relief he thought he would feel afterwards did not come. The sporadic visions stopped after the revelation, but in many ways the silence that came in their wake was even worse: it was like the calm before the storm, a small peaceful prelude to tragedy. Officius found himself wishing for anything, even another seizure, to break the suffocating monotony of the hours, minutes and seconds that crawled by at a snail's pace, but no such distraction came to his aid.
Now, as the reborn sun's rays dispelled the darkness, and with it his last miniscule hopes of getting any rest, the priest of Flarelord was duly fed up with everything. Dressed in his bright red priest garb, he stormed through the temple halls, opened the doors and stepped out into the huge garden. He strode along one of the paths with large steps, determined to either keep walking in the morning haze until the troubling feeling leaves him, or until he collapses from exhaustion, whichever came first.
Little did he know that there actually was a third possibility, which would manifest itself just a minute later.
At first he did not even think that he was seeing a person: a hundred feet ahead, a bit off the path, next to a bed of roses stood a glowing thing, bathed in sunlight – and at the same time it not only reflected, but amplified the sun's radiance. Only after approaching it did Officius realize that the source of that radiation was a suit of metal armor. It looked to be steel, but with the noteworthy difference that it glowed the same hot red hue as in the forge. When the priest left the path to walk directly towards the mesmerizing sight, the wearer's person was also revealed: A stunningly beautiful woman of indiscernible age, with long blond hair that disappeared behind her armor – her hair color seemed to be strangely inconsistent though, with streaks of orange and blue randomly appearing and disappearing between her flowing locks. Officius never saw anyone like her in his entire life; it was obvious that she did not belong to the mortal world, but it never occurred to the priest even for a moment that she would be dangerous or threatening.
"G-Good morning, lady," as he approached the stranger as close as his legs would carry him, Officius uttered a faint greeting, silently berating himself; he did not feel so flustered in the presence of a woman ever since he was a teenager.
She slowly turned her head in his direction; as the priest felt her coal black eyes meet his, gravity seemingly multiplied itself several times, almost brining him to his knees; he felt naked and helpless, as if those eyes could see into the deepest corners of his soul.
And yet, he still wasn't afraid. Perhaps she noticed this as well, as her scarlet lips curved into a small smile.
"Good morning, my priest," she returned the greeting. She spoke in a strangely low register, like the humming of the flames inside a furnace.
Officius tried hard to fight against the very same sensation he craved for hours before, but quickly lost, and fainted.
"Would you like some Fireball Crackers, madam?"
Not appreciative of anyone interrupting her breakfast, Lina lowered her eighth bowl of cereal to glare at the young woman in front of her. The basket in her hand was filled with some odd-looking orange colored cookies, and for reasons completely beyond the sorcerer's imagination, she looked to be wearing a huge red mushroom on her head as a hat.
"What crackers?" the question slipped out of Lina's mouth. She immediately realized it was a bad idea; the mushroom-girl apparently thought that she was actually interested in her wares and began an utterly boring and transparent explanation about carefully chosen ingredients and secret recipes.
"…and all this is available for a limited time only while the festival is taking place here in Atlas City! So get them while you can! It's only five coppers a piece!"
While the sorceress attempted to appear as the embodiment of disinterest during it all, the last sentence did make her drop her bowl to the table.
"Five coppers?!" she yelled, outraged. "For one single cookie?! Why don't you just try robbing me instead! Get out of here missy, before I teach you a lesson about--"
"Let's buy some, Grandma Lina! Pretty please, pretty please!"
Lina threw a sidelong glance at the chair next to her: Nellie was at her third bowl of cereal; with her age that was an appetite comparable to her own. Her technique could use some work though, the sorceress thought absent-mindedly; while she spent years to devise the perfect method for maximum cleanness and efficiency, the little girl's face was now entirely covered with milk and crumbs.
"Sorry sweetheart, but the price of this stuff makes our lodging charges look like a bargain," Lina stated matter-of-factly. "And don't bother with those puppy dog eyes; perhaps they would have worked on me eighty years ago, but I'm already--"
"Pleeeaase!"
Eh, maybe I'm not as immune as I thought. Things were so much easier when the kids tried to wheedle everything from Gourry and my job was just to say 'no'!
"You do realize, Lina-san," Xelloss joined the conversation from the other end of the table, calmly sipping his tea, "that putting the cost of our room aside, the money we will pay for this meal alone is actually quite comparable to the price of those cookies. You are simply not accustomed to the level of hedonism a place like this requires."
"Yep, yep!" Nellie agreed vehemently, even though the sorceress was quite sure she had no idea what 'hedonism' meant.
Conspiring against me, are you?
"Nellie, it looks like Uncle Xelloss would be more than happy to spend some of his own money." Lina grinned mischievously. "I think you should ask him instead."
"Me--?" the priest blinked.
"Uncle Xelloss, please-please-please--!"
"Now just a minute," Xelloss raised a hand to silence the girl; oddly enough it worked. "Tell me one good reason why I should buy any of those."
"Because they look yummy!"
"A pretty good reason if you ask me, Xel." the sorceress' voice basically dripped of glee. "It also goes really well with 'the level of hedonism a place like this requires', too."
"Point taken. I would like twenty of those cookies, please," said the mazoku, seemingly giving up on the argument – but then he added: "It would be unseemly of me not to help out a poor penniless grandmother like you, Lina-san, after all."
The grin quickly disappeared from the sorceress' face.
Grr, I hate it when he gets the last word like that.
The rest of the breakfast was spent in relative peace. After paying for the meal (Lina gave her purse to Xelloss to pay in her place, as she preferred not having to look at the bill – naturally though, she could not resist counting her remaining money afterwards), they retreated to their room to decide their next move.
"When do you suppose we should leave town towards Karthon then?" the priest asked Lina while he closed the door behind them.
"Soon, but I want to check out something first," said the sorceress. She retrieved her cloak from the chair near her bed and secured it to her shoulder guards. "I need to go back to the crash site to see if I can find any clues Nellie didn't know of, especially about the attackers. Keep an eye on her while I'm away, okay?" The mazoku looked at her questioningly after her last sentence. "Hey, we obviously can't leave her alone. Of course, it's fine by me if we switch places and you do something worthwhile for a change," she added with a smirk. A few silent moments passed. "No? Big surprise here." She turned around and began walking in the direction of the balcony.
"Be sure to visit Officius-san as well!" Xelloss called after her cheerfully.
"Sure thing," Lina gave him a thumbs-up. "I'll be back in half an hour or so. Be a good girl until then, Nellie! RAY WING!" With the wind barrier appearing around her, she took off from the balcony into the sky.
"Wow, Grandma Lina can fly!" the little girl squealed in awe, watching her disappear from view. "My other grandma can't do that on her own! She always uses her magic things for this stuff!"
"Lina-san is capable of a lot more than that, I assure you." The mazoku waved his hand dismissively. "But right now, we have more important things to talk about. Babysitting is hardly within my job description, but--" his smile went from cheerful to unnerving in an instant, "--I am actually grateful that we are given a bit of private time."
"Really? What do you want to talk about, Uncle Xelloss?" Nellie asked innocently. "Oh, I know! You want to say that you are a big demon from the… the big demon-city who wants to eat me!"
Caught unprepared, Xelloss stared wide-eyed at the girl.
"No, that was, uhm, not among my immediate plans. But how do you know about my identity??"
"Or if you don't like that," she continued without paying attention, "we can say that I am the big demon from the big demon city who--"
"I want to say no such thing," the priest interrupted, his voice uncharacteristically stern. "I'd simply like to see some of my questions answered; that is all."
"Nnn, but I wanted to play demon hunter...!" the little girl pouted. "Hey, I let you be the hero if you want to," she offered, trying to tempt the mazoku into playing, with limited success.
"Sorry, but I think I'll pass. Wait, did you say demon hunter?" Suddenly, an amount of his usual cheerfulness returned. "Someone like Gilford in the legend of the Pools of Overflowing Blood?"
"No, like Lily the demon-hunting fairy princess! But the other sounds cool too!"
"'Cool', you say? We shall see about that," Xelloss chuckled rather diabolically. "But let's start with something slightly less serious at first, a favorite of mine, actually. Would you like to hear the tale of Mina the Sorceress, Nellie-chan?"
"Yay, I love fairy tales!" Nellie jumped into the air.
"I'll take that as a yes." His confident smile back in place, the mazoku sat down cross legged on the expensive carpet covering the inn room's floor. The girl quickly followed his example, and expectantly waited for him to begin. "Now how was it again? Ah, yes. Once upon a time, there lived a merchant who had two beautiful daughters, named Mina and Nina."
Xelloss raised his right hand, palm upwards, as if offering something to Nellie. Two small ghostly figures appeared, seemingly standing on his palm: One of them looked a lot like Lina, but had a different haircut, slightly altered clothes and a more developed figure, while the other one was an equally young looking woman with long blond hair, who dressed in the white garb of a priestess, and wore two strange orb-like pieces of jewelry that covered most of her elf-like pointy ears.
"You can do magic too, Uncle Xelloss…?" Nellie whispered, as she gazed mesmerized at the illusion.
"The older one, Nina, was so beautiful in fact that even the Evil Overlord, who lived in the mountains with his diabolical army, became interested in her and wished to take her as his wife," the priest continued. "One day, when Nina was out buying food at the marketplace, the troll servants of the Overlord appeared, quickly bound her arms and legs before she could even blink, and thus capturing her delivered the maiden to the giant fortress high above, surrounded by ever-snowy peaks."
While he spoke, the mazoku raised his other hand next to the right one, enlarging the illusory scene, where the events took place as described: the blond girl appeared to walk among a row of stands, when the ugly creatures jumped forth from all directions, seized her and quickly disappeared from view.
"When the merchant realized what happened, he became completely disheartened. Imagine his horror when Mina told him that she intends to rescue her sister from the Evil Overlord's clutches! He begged her to stay, so at least one of his daughters would remain by his side, but the girl's decision did not waver, and she set out towards the high mountains."
"She travelled for three whole days and three whole nights before she reached the foot of the mountains, where she had found a small inn." A strangely foreboding one-storey high wooden building came into view. "Feeling hungry and tired, she decided to spend the night there. The inn was empty save from the innkeeper, a middle aged, shrewd looking woman, who regarded her with a suspicious look." The innkeeper appeared on the scene dressed in a waitress' outfit, with middle-length dark hair and features again strangely close to Lina's. "When Mina approached, the woman showed her a knowing smirk and said..."
"Are you looking for Priest Officius, my dear?"
"Excuse me?" Surprised, Lina turned towards the old lady standing behind a small wooden stand on the side of the road, next to the park which surrounded the Temple of Flarelord.
"I'm sorry, I just saw you knocking on the temple doors earlier," the gray-haired woman said in a kind voice, "Officius-sama is not there right now."
"Well, thanks, I figured as much," the sorceress sighed, "Do you know where he went?"
"I've seen him walking in the park a little while ago, but not since then. I'm sure he did not return to the temple," came the answer.
Meaning that we would have to scour the entire town and we might still not find him. Terrific!
"I'm sorry I couldn't help much, little miss. But here," the old lady took something out of one of the bowls on her stand. "I'll give you a magic bean free of charge."
"M-Magic bean?" Lina glanced at the woman's hand with puzzlement. The bean she saw looked pretty normal – if she disregarded the fact that it was pink in color with some small blue dots on it for good measure. She couldn't suppress a snicker. "Wow. Don't tell me that if I plant this, a giant beanstalk will grow out of it by tomorrow."
"No, but they do taste pretty nice. Try it!" the old woman said. After a moment of hesitation, the sorceress took the bean and flung it into her mouth.
"Mmm, chocolate! It is good, thank you very much!" she exclaimed. "Good luck with your, ehm, enterprise!" She waved to the lady before taking to the air, and started flying out of the city, towards where she guessed Xelloss had found the crashed wagon last night.
First the mushroom-chick with the Fireball Crackers, and now the magic beans. What's going on with this town today?
"…And so, armed with the information of the overlord's one weakness, Mina set out to climb the dangerous steeps of the Mountain of Doom." Xelloss continued his story, measuring vivid description, funny comments and dialog with the preciosity of an alchemist conducting a dangerous experiment with volatile reagents, completely captivating his preschool-aged audience. "Little did he know, however, that the evil mastermind was well aware of her mission and her abilities as a sorceress, and sent out numerous minions to make sure that she will never ever reach the summit alive…"
Lina put a couple of larger stones as a marker on top of the freshly buried grave.
Rest in peace old man, whoever you were.
As things stood, her trip was completely fruitless. Officius had disappeared, and the untouched wreck on the side of the sparsely travelled road did not offer any clues either: the coachman had been carrying lots of letters along with a few trinkets, but nothing out of the ordinary or even of mentionable value. If he knew anything about what was going on, he took the knowledge with him to the afterlife.
Oh well, the sorceress shrugged in resignation, while rummaging through the contents of one of the wagon's trunks one last time, we can always just continue on to Karthon and wait for the bad guys to find us first.
"Hey, you! What are you doing over there?!" Lina's head snapped up to see a man in leather armor, with an eye patch over one of his eyes glaring at him from the road, a hundred feet away. Behind him stood about a dozen of his fellows, all of them armed mercenaries.
Or maybe we don't even have to wait.
"I could ask you the same question!" the sorceress said flippantly. "If you were just passing by, then for all you know, this could be my wagon and I would only be trying to save what I can from the crash. But with your attitude, I think you know exactly what happened here, right?"
"You're one smart girl," the man with the eye patch smirked. "Too smart, I'm afraid. You're right, this was my handiwork. I didn't want to involve others in this, but it looks like there's no way we can let you go now."
"You didn't want to involve others? Give me a break!" Lina seethed, clenching her fists as the mercenaries began their threatening approach. "You know what I hate even more than bandits? Bandits who are also hypocrites to boot! You people--" She opened one of her palms, and a sphere of angry flames blazed up in it instantly. "--are going down."
"And what did Mina do to the trolls then, Uncle Xelloss?" Nellie asked, her eyes fixed on the illusion which showed the protagonist surrounded by a mob of monsters.
"Oh, that question has a very easy answer," said the mazoku, his cheerful voice taking on a darker tone. "She showed them absolutely no mercy."
"Someone heeelp, this girl is a demon!!" screamed one of the mercenaries, desperately trying to combine the activities of running for his life and putting out the fire which was quickly eating away at his pants.
"Regroup, you cowardly morons!" Their leader tugged at his eye patch in anger. "You should be seasoned veterans, damn it! Get behind her back and surround her!" he bellowed at the top of his lungs, but no one seemed to listen; they were all busy trying to get as far away as possible from Lina. "She's only one wet behind the ears sorceress, for crying out lo--"
"FLARE BIT!"
His sentence was interrupted by several fiery explosions dangerously close to his face; as he felt the air knocked out of him, the spell's power flung the man to the ground.
"Wet behind the ears? Please! When I was actually as old as I look now, I could already kick the butts of idiots like you all day." The sorceress' form appeared above him, blocking the sun. He could not make out her face because of the backlight and the stars dancing before his eyes, but despite her ostentatious words, her voice sounded clearly unamused. "I'm going to ask this only once: Who are you working for? What do you or your boss want with Nellie exactly?"
"The hell I know!" the man spat the words, glaring at her. "At first I thought it was about the inheritance, but my employer doesn't seem to care of it at all. I'm supposed to be his lieutenant, but he never tells me anything! As for his name," he rolled his eyes, "you wouldn't believe me even if I told you."
"Try me," said Lina skeptically.
"He calls himself the… the Baron of Evil." the mercenary garbled the words quickly, as if their mere mention embarrassed him. "Yeah, I know what you think, and you're probably right; he's pretty much insane. But he's also filthy rich, and that was enough to get me trapped before realizing what I was getting into. Now I'm under a contract to serve him, and I cannot back out of it."
"You say that like I should feel sorry for you," the sorceress deadpanned.
"Hey, look, I really wasn't talking for nothing when I said that I don't want to involve other people." The man carefully stood up while he tried to get his most sympathetic face on; unfortunately that one was just as bad as all the others. "I'm a professional. If someone stands in my way, I'll kill them, no sweat, but just killing randomly isn't my game. Same thing with a contract: If I sign one, then I'm bound to it, plain and simple. But that guy forced me into something I didn't want, so if you look at it from this angle, then… well, I'm actually the victim here."
The mercenary quickly realized that was not the best thing to say, when Lina's face began to assume the same color as her eyes.
"And, well, after all was said and done," Xelloss spoke, the previous enthusiasm notably missing from his voice, "they went home and lived happily until the mazoku destroyed the world. The end."
"That was a great story, Uncle Xelloss!" Nellie jumped to her feet and started to hop about with unbridled zeal. "Tell it again from the beginning, please!"
Unfortunately, Xelloss' passion for storytelling had vanished.
"Perhaps some other time," the priest shook his head, eyeing the girl with a skeptical look, as if he had been told something truly unrealistic. "Tell me, Nellie-chan didn't you feel--" He chose not to finish his sentence as his head turned towards the balcony. "Hmm, just as well."
"Have you ever heard of someone called the 'Baron of Evil'?" Lina approached from said direction, her expression less than happy.
"Of course I did," the mazoku stood up from the carpet to greet her, "it was one of the worst costumes I have ever seen on a masquerade – although I do have the feeling we are not talking about the same person. Where did you hear this?"
"A few thugs attacked me at the crash site," the sorceress folded her arms. "Their leader told me that this baron or whatever is the one behind last night's attack. In the end I couldn't ask him where the guy lived though, so maybe he just made it all up…" she trailed off, not really wanting to admit that the reason the pivotal question was left unanswered had a lot to do with the Fireball which nearly knocked the mercenary into orbit.
Luckily for her, Xelloss seemed to have other things on his mind; Lina did not notice it until now, but behind the hastily donned cheerful façade, he appeared to look inexplicably frustrated. The mazoku apparently also took note of her realization, because he dropped the act entirely and spoke to her in a more serious tone.
"Forgive me, Lina-san, but before we delve into that, may I speak with you privately for a moment?" He reached out to touch her arm, and the next thing the sorceress knew, they were perched precariously on the spine of the inn's rooftop. The row of tiles was pretty thin, and she had to grab on to Xelloss' cloak to keep from losing her balance – a problem which the priest did not seem to face.
"I assure you that I can monitor Nellie-chan's activities just as well from up here, so you don't need to worry," he said while the sorceress steadied herself. Not appreciating the change of scenery regardless, she shot him an annoyed look.
"Well then, what was so darn important that you had to drag me up here?"
"Lina-san, I am now completely certain, something is decidedly…" The priest struggled to find the right word. "…decidedly wrong with that girl."
"What are you talking about?" Lina furrowed her brows in confusion. "She's pretty well-behaved for her age; she does what she's told and doesn't really complain or throw tantrums. Of course, she wants to have everything that looks interesting and cannot remain in one place for five minutes straight, but that's hardly shocking for a less than five year old kid."
"That may be so - you are the expert, after all," the priest begrudgingly agreed, "but tell me what do you think of the following then: by my experience, children of her age do not appreciate frightening stories, as they are too easily scared by them. Am I correct in this assumption?"
"You were trying to scare Nellie and failed? That's your problem?" the sorceress interjected, staring at him incredulously. Xelloss nodded, his expression completely serious, grave even.
Well, he's a mazoku and all, but that still sounds pretty stupid.
"Okay look," Lina tried to humor her companion by forcing herself not to laugh, "it depends a lot on the story itself, actually. Fairy tales can be pretty nasty and children listen to them all the time, because they don't describe things in detail and the kids imagine those scenes in ways which aren't frightening to them."
An odd smile returned to the priest's face, like he was proud of some accomplishment.
"Oh, I was well aware of that," he extended an open palm towards the sorceress, "that is why I decided to use some visual aids."
Two tiny illusory figures appeared on his palm, locked in a bloody battle. The bigger one was a golden dragon, majestic even with the numerous scars and wounds on its body, inflicted by its opponent, oddly enough, a beaver of roughly the same size, its fur having an even stranger purple hue. The dragon managed to get behind the beaver, slashed out with its claws, and--
"Ugh…" Lina winced as she watched the gory scene unfold. Then she realized why the mazoku showed this to her. "Are you out of your astral-dwelling mind?!" Ignoring their unstable location, she grabbed the priest by his collar and shook him violently.
For a second, she thought she lost her balance as the footing below her legs abruptly disappeared, but the sensation only lasted an instant – the next moment they were back in their room.
"Perhaps you should look around before jumping to conclusions," Xelloss gestured towards Nellie. The little girl was busy trying to shape a pillow to something which resembled a hat; she did not even notice they were away.
"Grandma Lina, let's play!" She whirled around suddenly, putting the pillow on her head. "I'll be Mina the Sorceress, Uncle Xelloss can be the Evil Overlord and you can be the golden dragon or the purple beaver! But watch out, because the beaver's gonna' lose his head in the end!"
"Ehe… That's, uhm, nice, sweetheart," Lina mumbled semi-coherently. "We'll play a little later, okay?"
"Okay!" Nellie chirped, transforming her pillow-hat into a pillow-sword and making several swipes with it in the air. Xelloss gazed at the child pointedly before turning to the sorceress once again.
"I almost forgot to mention: aren't children of her age and gender supposed to play with dolls or similar, instead of swinging make-believe swords and enjoying horror-tales?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "You cannot possibly say that's normal, Lina-san."
The sorceress looked from the merrily playing girl to the priest, who seemed to have gained new confidence from his prior argument, and let out a tired sigh.
"You sure have a narrow definition of 'normal', Xel," she muttered. "No, not all little girls play with dolls. And there are kids who aren't scared of horrific things simply because they don't know they should be – they just haven't learned it yet. It's not commonplace, but it happens. Though luck for you, huh?" smiling faintly at the mazoku, she turned around and headed for the door. "I'll get us something to drink. All this philosophical debate is getting me thirsty."
Xelloss remained standing in the same position long after the door closed behind her.
"She does not know what she should be afraid of? …I see," he murmured thoughtfully, an evil smirk slowly materializing on his face.
He casually walked to the nearby bed and sat down. "Nellie-chan, would you mind coming over here for a bit?" He gestured to his side. The girl glanced up from her sword practice-routine, grinned, and started running towards him at top speed. "There is a very serious matter I would like to talk to you abou--" His sentence was abruptly cut off by the all-purpose pillow, which rudely crashed into his face.
"Pillow fight!"
"No, Nellie-chan, there won't be any pillow fights right now," Xelloss said with a forced smile as he removed the bed accessory from his head, in which moment it immediately burst into blue flames and burned away in the blink of an eye. "Sit down, please."
"Aaaw…" The girl looked a little annoyed by the loss of her toy, but she did as he asked.
"To tell the truth, I have a confession to make," the priest cocked his head towards her in a patronizing manner. "Previously, the reason I was so surprised by your suggestion to play 'demon hunter' was the very fact that… I am indeed, a demon." He halted to measure her reaction; when he saw her eyes widen, he continued at a slow, relished pace. "My full name and title is Xelloss, the Priest. I am the mazoku servant of Greater Beast Zellas Metallium, and as such I am currently the fifth most powerful demon in existence. Considering this, it might not be unreasonable for you humans to view me as a personification of evil." A thin, fluorescent purple-black aura appeared around Xelloss, its glow making his features look eerie and inhuman. "You know, we mazoku are feared by all, and with good reason: The purpose of our existence is to return this world into the Sea of Chaos, destroying everything – and everyone. We are already working since thousands of years to make this happen, and in doing so, I personally have spilt the blood of all kinds of intelligent beings; elves, dragons, and of course humans as well, of all ages and variety."
"The fact of the matter is, Nellie-chan," the mazoku leaned closer, "that I could easily – very, very easily – do the same thing to you."
"…Why?" The uncertain question left the girl's mouth after a few moments of silence.
Xelloss chuckled. "There must be a specific reason for me to do that? We mazoku live off the pain and suffering of others – off the pain of your so-called grandmother, and off yours, too. As far as the immediate reason goes," his expression was both contemptuous and horrifyingly sincere, "it needs to be nothing more than that I simply feel like doing so."
Nellie blinked.
"Why?"
"We represent the dark side of everything there is." The priest was now really getting into it. "Your fears, your troubles, insecurities, we are somewhere there at the heart of it all. We are here to ruin your little sand castle of civilization, to break apart everything that you would so desperately try to keep in one piece. When your mind dreams up the worst horror you can imagine in your nightmares while you sleep, that still very much pales in comparison to the real nightmare that we mazoku are--"
"Why?"
The ominous glow around Xelloss completely backfired when it made his face even more ridiculous-looking than it already was as he stared at the girl. "I beg your pardon?"
"Why?" Nellie giggled. "Why-why-why-why-why-why?"
The mazoku's expression, which usually contained at least the hint of a smile, now turned entirely dark. Opening his eyes, he glared at the child, his mouth set into an angry frown. A faint rumble could be heard from below them, as if the earth itself had moved; the furniture in the room began to rattle, and the fresh flowers put into the vase on the cupboard suddenly withered and died, before crumbling to fine dust.
"You have gone way too far, young lady," he drawled, his voice low, but still almost cutting. The girl stared breathlessly into the lifeless slit pupils, which's darkness threatened to swallow her whole any moment.
Then the unthinkable happened.
Lina reentered the room with a jug in her hand.
"You guys better like this orange juice," she muttered, "because the bartender downstairs seems to think it's made out of liquid gold or something considering the money he made me pay for it."
She halted in mid-step when she was struck by the positively ice-cold atmosphere which penetrated the room. Xelloss stood with his back to her at the exit to the balcony, while Nellie sat on a chair at the table twiddling her thumbs, looking a bit guilty.
"Okay, what the heck has happened here while I was away?" she asked, putting the jug down on the table.
"I have no desire to speak of it," the mazoku stated in a stern voice, not bothering to turn around.
No 'that is a secret'? Yikes, that's got to be serious.
"Well, ahm…" Nellie started unsurely, "Uncle Xelloss wanted to talk about something, but I wanted to do a pillow fight, but then he made the pillow disappear, and… and then he started talking about 'mozaku'-people and sand castles but I didn't understand, and then the room began to shake and he opened his eyes real wide," judging from her exaggerated gestures, the priest's eyes supposedly grew bigger than a watermelon, "and did you know grandma, that Uncle Xelloss' eyes look like a kitty's?"
"A... kitty?" the sorceress had to admit the similarity, but stating it that way had a certain ridiculous ring to it which felt really out of place.
"So then I laughed and told Uncle Xelloss that his eyes are cute like that, but I think that made him a little mad." Nellie finished her explanation, looking hopefully at her 'grandmother' to provide her with a solution. "Do you think he doesn't like kitties?"
"I… am… NOT mad," came a barely audible but nonetheless very angry statement from the mazoku's direction.
"But Uncle Xelloss, your hands are shaking," Nellie commented innocently.
The priest's said hands slowly clenched into a fist, and he spun around violently.
"Aren't you being a tad egoistical?!" he snapped at the child, his expression a twisted parody of his normal smile. "How dare you think that a tiny, insignificant, inchoate human like you of all beings can make me angry?! It takes a lot more than that, I assure you!" His furious eyes fell upon the sorceress. "My apologies, Lina-san, but it has just occurred to me that my paperwork is long overdue, and so I'm afraid I won't be able to take part in the 'fun' any longer. Have a nice day!" And with that, he disappeared.
Nellie looked up to the sorceress with sad eyes. "He really doesn't like kitties, right?"
"I have absolutely no idea," said Lina, slowly shaking her head. And it was the truth.
End of Part One.
(Parts 2 and 3 are also up, so you can go right ahead! :) )