Chapter 4. The Black Dragon Falls – Part 1.
A bit tipsy, Lina's left hand hesitantly sought for her cup on the table, while her right stuffed yet another slice of apple cake into her mouth. She could not imagine ever getting tired of that taste.
Finally having found her cup of wine, the sorceress turned away from the table and yelled, "Hey, Mac! Come 'ere for a moment, will ya?"
A man around thirty approached, carrying several empty plates. Closer inspection would have revealed that the top of his head was getting bald, but Lina was not in the condition for close inspections. "Yes? What can I do for the newlywed Mrs. Gabriev?"
"Mrs. Gabriev, huh? You sure like living dangerously," she said with a smirk, and then lifted her cup into the air. "To the inn with the best cake on the continent!"
"… that has enough food so Lina won't end up stealing mine!" the blond swordsman sitting to her right added, raising his mug of beer.
"… but thankfully provides several other forms of entertainment instead," a man in a priest's robes spoke cheerfully from her left.
"… whose owners are righteous and kind!" a dark haired girl piped in from the table's other end. "Come on Zelgadiss, your turn!"
The man in question looked perplexed. "Hm… well… which is a fine place to be, I guess," he managed to say with a shrug.
"To the Black Dragon Inn!" Lina shouted, grinning widely. "May it stand forever and ever! Cheers!"
A weary-looking traveler trudged along the road leading eastwards to Sairaag. Her cloak, once an elaborate masterpiece, flapped behind her back almost torn to shreds; her gold-lined light green attire was smudged with dirt, with a giant tear running along her left shin which exposed her entire knee. She limped more than walked, as she tried not to place too much of her weight on her left foot, wincing at times when her tired mind momentarily forgot about it.
Despite her sorry state, the young woman still forced herself to move at a relatively quickened pace. Her eyes were fixed on the approaching landmark since it first entered her field of vision: a group of smaller, wooden buildings on the side of the road ahead, in front of the forest line the path disappeared into right after. They did not give off any kind of a remarkable impression, as the afternoon sun made their shadows long and their walls look even older than they actually were, but to the traveler, they seemed to be nothing less but the key to salvation at that moment.
Her destination finally close at hand, the woman approached the building closest to the road with shaky steps. As she reached for the door handle, she glanced up towards the sign above the entrance: a barely recognizable painting of a black dragon welcomed the visitors, or more precisely scowled at them from the worn piece of wood which hang on a smaller iron pole coming out of the wall of the house. A relieved expression materializing on her face, the traveler pulled the door open and stepped inside – and bumped right into someone standing near the doorway.
"What the— what do ye want?" the person demanded. He towered over the woman, being easily three or four heads taller than her. Although they were nowhere near the ocean, his clothes were strangely similar to a sailor's; a long, shaggy beard covered much of his face, which, along with his muscular build and narrow, aggressive gaze made him quite an intimidating sight to behold.
"I asked ye a question, lass." The man did not bother raising his voice; his commanding tone left little doubt that the woman would be wise not to try his patience.
"I'd… like to… acquire a room," the traveler replied in a fearful voice, her lips curved into a forced smile. "This establishment is an inn… right?"
"Oh… aye, it is," the giant said, although his expression did not ease even the slightest at the prospect of a new customer. Instead, he basically stomped to the table opposite to the entrance, and threw open the small book which lay upon it. "Give me yer name!" he ordered.
Not daring to hesitate on the answer even for a second, the woman replied with the first thing that came into her mind, "Li… Lina Inverse?"
The giant's hand moved to reach for the pen, but froze in place halfway. Slowly, he turned around to look at the traveler. Her feet began to shake as their gazes met, and she took a step backwards, ready to escape through the door if her words offended the enigmatic man for some unfathomable reason.
"Lina Inverse…?" he repeated, for the first time not angry, but confused. "Another one?"
In the same moment, a pair walked down the stairs to the right of the table which led to the first floor; a sorceress and a priest, if their clothes were any indication.
"I can't believe how long it was since I've last been here," the sorceress spoke to her companion merrily. "Might just be my memory getting fuzzy, but I remembered this place having cleaner rooms, not to mention a lot more traffic—" Her eyes widened in realization as they fell upon the woman at the doorway.
"My-my, it looks like we meet once more, Jane-san," the priest offered the newcomer a friendly greeting.
"… Jane Smith?" the sorceress yelled.
"Miss Li-Li-Lina?" the traveler yelped. Her gaze darted across the room as she clung to the desperate hope that someone might come to her aid. Instead, she only saw the innkeeper's face, once again taken over by scorn, the sorceress whose expression was even less encouraging, and the priest, who was smiling, but for her that fact made him even more fearsome. In panic, she spun around, reached for the door – but fatigue got the better of her and she fainted on the spot, crumpling unceremoniously to the floor.
I wonder what happened to this place…
Lina sat on a large wooden bench, in front of a table at the back end of the room. Much of the inn's base floor was one big open space, from the entrance with the staircase nearby to the restaurant section consisting of several sturdy tables surrounded by chairs and similar pieces of furniture not far from the sizable fireplace – currently looming empty in the gloom of the corner, unused in the summer heat. The same thing could be said about the establishment itself: Lina and her companion were the only guests around; at least, if she did not count the newest arrival, who slept slumped into the same bench to her left with the kind of serene look on her face which irritated the sorceress more and more every time she looked in her direction.
"Hey, wake up!" She nudged the girl impatiently, making her stir.
Jane woke slowly, gazing at her hands and feet with confusion and eventual amazement. "The pain is gone," she whispered, stretching her limbs with astonishment, and finally shot a dumbstruck glance towards the other two occupants of the table. "You have healed me…?"
"Lina-san did, yes." Xelloss nodded from his chair in front of her.
"T-Thank you…" The girl bowed towards the sorceress, looking flustered. "I… I don't know what to say…"
"Well I have an idea," Lina spoke with an overly sweet smile, "you can start saying your prayers."
"Uh—?" That was all Jane managed to say in response, before her back was slammed into the bench.
"Make no mistake, there was only one simple reason why I did that," the sorceress growled, leaning uncomfortably close to the other woman, "I wanted you to be in good condition before I beat the living hell out of you!"
Jane looked at her with an awkward expression. "Uhm, that implies that you are still mad at me, right?"
"Oh, not at all, this is just a traditional form of greeting in Zephilia— of course I am mad at you, you idiot!" Lina yelled. "You not only ran away without a simple 'thanks' after we saved your sorry butt, but from the looks of it you went straight on with the Lina Inverse-act like nothing has happened!"
"No, that's not true!" The girl vehemently shook her head. "I did not continue with the… okay, maybe I did attempt it a few times, but the results were always catastrophic! After we split, the name 'Lina Inverse' caused me nothing but trouble!"
"Of course, why should we ever doubt what you say," the sorceress muttered, turning to Xelloss, who followed the conversation with an amused look on his face. "Hey, Xel, look at all the flying pigs! They're everywhere!"
"I am entirely serious!" Jane attempted to bang her fist on the table – although considering the strength she put behind it, the verb 'caress' might describe the move more accurately. "My powers have disappeared! I can no longer cast any of the spells I could before!"
"That isn't surprising," the mazoku priest commented. His decision to join the conversation made Jane jump in her seat a bit; she was perhaps even more afraid of him than she was of Lina. "All these 'powers' as you call them were part of the Nameless One's own might in reality. They could not last after its departure."
"Well… I guess the bandit gangs I attempted to confront were pretty happy to take advantage of that." The girl cast her eyes down to the table. "I could barely escape; you saw the condition they left me in…"
This is so tragic, I think I'm going to cry.
The priest raised an eyebrow. "Bandit gangs, as in… more than one?"
Jane kept her eyes on the table, now looking not only bitter, but embarrassed. "A-At first I thought that I simply made some small mistake with the spells, so I tried again a few times… well, four or five times…"
Okay, now this really is getting sad.
"Then there was the occasion when I jumped off a cliff before I remembered that I cannot cast Levitation…" The girl sniffed, her voice wavering. Lina gazed at her with bewilderment, trying to find some traces of dishonesty in her tale, but shockingly came up empty-handed. "…or when I wandered into the Desert of Destruction although I could no longer summon any water with Aqua Create…" Without warning, Jane broke out in a full-fledged wail. "I was found by a caravan, but they sold me into slavery! And when I finally managed to get away, I met three hungry trolls and—"
"Fine, fine, we get it already!" the sorceress snapped exasperatedly. "All right, you win. I guess being so incredibly pitiful and hopeless is a fitting punishment in and of itself. So… stop the bawling and just get out of here, okay?"
Lina leant back on the bench, and began massaging her temple with an annoyed look on her face. At least I won't need to worry about her anymore; I've seen a few sorry cases, but this surely makes the top ten. If I hadn't heard it with my own ears, I would never believe that she wasn't bluffing. But there you have it…
"Madam, I brought your dinner."
The last word immediately snapped the sorceress out of her thoughts. She grinned at the twenty-something blond woman who appeared by their table carrying a large wooden tray in her hands. "Oh thanks, you're a real lifesaver! I can only take so much stupidity with an empty stomach!"
The waitress returned the smile, and began unloading the tray's contents on the table. "A Bunny Soup Special, a bottle of red wine, two servings of Taforashian Pasta, an apple cake… and a cup of warm milk for the gentleman." She put the cup in front of the priest, who smiled in acknowledgement.
Her graceful movements and mannerisms looked to be entirely out of place for her occupation; they reminded Lina more of a well-educated noblewoman than some girl working as a waitress in an inn in the wilderness. For some reason there was also a layer of nervousness underneath it all, although she tried her best to hide it. "Is that really all, sir?"
"Yes, thank you," Xelloss replied politely, and took a sip of his drink. "It's because of… dietary concerns."
"You don't know what you're missing, Xel,"Lina commented as she grabbed on to her fork and knife, sizing up the feast before her with delight – right before her face abruptly fell.
"N-Now just a moment here," she stared at the plates in front of her, "is this really what I ordered?"
"Yes, madam." The waitress gave an uncertain nod. "Rabbit soup, pasta and apple cake."
"I guess that's true, but…" The sorceress risked another glance at the food in front of her and shuddered. The soup looked to be drowning in grease, while the pasta had an unidentifiable, sickly green colored powder sprinkled on top of it; its smell reminded Lina of dried seaweed. "I don't think it's just the nostalgia talking when I say that this isn't what food around here used to look like."
"Could you at least try it… please?" the waitress asked in an unexpectedly beseeching tone.
After a moment of hesitation, Lina placed the plate containing the apple cake in front of her. Of all the courses of her meal, this looked to be the most innocuous; its light brown crust and the faint smell of caramel and apple sauce could even be considered appetizing. The sorceress sliced off a small piece, spent a few seconds scrutinizing it on her fork, and ultimately, not finding anything suspicious, flung the bit into her mouth.
Then the fork fell out of her hand. With all of her willpower, she forced herself to chew.
"Uh, Lina-san, just so you know, your face has began to assume an interesting variety of colors," she heard Xelloss speaking tentatively, but she could no longer see the priest; tears started to fill her narrowing eyes, blurring her vision.
After several agonizing moments which felt more like an eternity, Lina finally managed to swallow the bite. She slumped back on the bench, panting from the shock and exhaustion.
"W-Was it really that bad?" she heard a mumble from the waitress' direction.
"Bad… Bad, she tells me…" The sorceress let out a mirthless chuckle. "Saying that this was bad would be an insult to all the stuff at least qualifying to be called as such!" She shivered. "I mean, just for starters, you mixed up the sugar with the salt… ugh…"
"I-I am really sorry, madam," the girl stuttered, "I will take it away and—"
"Do ye have something to complain about?" someone behind her cut in, addressing the sorceress. The tall, shaggy sailor approached the table; there remained little doubt now that he wore the scowl as his default expression. "If something's bothering ye," he leaned forward to stare into Lina's face, "ye can always pack yer things and scram."
"Really?" The sorceress met his morose gaze easily. "Says who?"
"Ahm, let me introduce you to my husband, Elric," the waitress said quickly. "Dear, I can handle this—"
"That's Captain Henton to ye, Inverse." Despite her plea, the giant was not nearly in the mood to back off. "I don't care how legendary ye think ye are, ye'll either behave or get out, if ye know what's good for ye."
Captain? What kind of an innkeeper calls himself captain?
"Ooh, scary," the sorceress commented dryly. "So you want to throw me out? I'd like to see you try."
The man must have found something funny in her last sentence, as although his mouth remained set in a frown, his eyes lit up in a disturbingly jovial way. "Cause ye'll set the place on fire then?" he asked. "Ye know what, Inverse, ye'd actually do me a favor."
"Elric!" his wife cried out in disbelief.
The giant promptly turned his head away and began marching towards the kitchen door in the other end of the room, a tiny amount guilt showing in his slightly slumped shoulders. "Do what ye want… I don't care…" he muttered. After a few moments of hesitation, the waitress dropped her tray on Lina's table and hurried after him.
"It would seem that the current owners of the inn are still rather inexperienced," Xelloss remarked while the sorceress stared at the departing woman's back with her arms folded.
"That's putting it lightly." Lina shook her head. "Now I'm not at all surprised we're the only guests here."
"I think the captain was… pretty frightening…" someone said from next to the sorceress.
Lina turned around in surprise, glancing to the far side of the bench: Jane sat in the same position as she did a little while ago, looking straight at her.
"This might sound rude, but: why are you still here?" the sorceress demanded.
"I-I'm sorry!" The girl shrunk back. "I just thought that I would inquire if… well…"
"Well?"
"…you could teach me how to produce real magic?"
—come again?
The muffled sound of the owners arguing in the kitchen became by far the loudest noise in the entire room. Xelloss scratched the top of his head, his expression stuck halfway between hilarity and incredulity, while the sorceress just stared at Jane with a nasty look.
"All right," she finally sighed, "there are probably a hundred ways I could make fun of this request before refusing, but I feel too hungry and insulted to bother. So I'll just say this: HECK NO!"
"But... why not? Please, I promise I'll do my best to be a good pupil…" the girl pleaded. "I'll work very hard and—"
"Are you really that retarded?" Lina snapped at her. "Do you honestly expect me to help you to pretend to be me? You are the very last person I would ever consider teaching anything!"
"I won't do that, I swear!" Jane responded hastily. "I won't say I'm Lina Inverse ever again!"
Of course! That changes everything!
"I won't, and there's nothing you can say that'll convince me otherwise," the sorceress asserted. "I have some pride as a magic user, you know. I'll never stoop so low that—"
"I have outrageous amounts of money at home..."
"Like I said, I have my pride to think of and there's nothing—" Lina fell silent, and started eyeing the girl with a vary look. "…what do you mean by 'outrageous amounts'?"
"Around two and a half million in gold bullion's worth of valuables, I think," Jane answered, with the same straightforwardness like she had been asked about which day of the month it is.
Again, the sorceress sought for even the smallest sign that she was bluffing, but there simply was not any. "Two and a half… million?" she whispered, her eyes cast down at the tabletop.
"Do you agree with the Elmekian philosophers then, Lina-san?"
"Huh?... With who?" Xelloss' question caught the sorceress entirely off-guard.
"You know, those who say that the path to enlightenment is through abandoning pride," the mazoku quipped with a cheeky smile.
"Ha. Ha. Very funny," Lina huffed as she made a face that was meant to look offended, but was laced with just the touch of self-irony to make it more lighthearted than anything. Or at least it was for a moment, because when she turned to the other girl, her face was once again all business. "Listen and listen good, because these are my final conditions. The fee will be two hundred thousand gold pieces per day… plus another three hundred thousand as compensation for my wounded pride. Not a copper less, got it? And if you fail to pay every single coin you owe me, let me just tell you that you're going to wish you were never born. Have I made myself clear?"
"Y-Yes, very clear." Jane nodded vehemently. "The price is a bit… pricey—" The sorceress glared at her, making her squirm. "—but I'll accept of course!" She hurriedly stood. "I'll go to my room to change… although I am not sure my room reservation was established in the end… I'll be back in a second!"
With that, she ran away from the table. Before she disappeared behind the kitchen door to speak with the owners, Lina could still see her make a small leap of joy – which caused her to lose balance and fall head-first into the other room.
"Great, just great," the sorceress muttered.
"Why did you accept the job then?" Xelloss shrugged. "I can see that the sum is tempting, but—"
"Because that money is mine!" the sorceress growled. "Where do you think she got it, from charity? She made that fortune using my name so it rightfully belongs to me!" A nasty glint appeared in her eyes. "Anyway, even if Miss Jane 'Copycat' Smith is the greatest spellcasting prodigy I have ever seen, she won't have much time to learn anything before her money runs out. I'll teach her the Lighting spell, some basic protective magic, maybe, and then she can go on her merry way." She relaxed her posture, her expression now more contemplative. "Actually, this won't be so bad at all. I plan to stay at this place for a day or two anyway."
"You wish to stay?" Greatly surprised, the mazoku's gaze wandered from Lina to the untouched soup and back, as if trying to figure out the apparent contradiction which stood between that sight and her words. "May I ask why?"
"You may." The sorceress grinned. "But it's a secret."
Lina promptly decided that the face the priest displayed in reaction to his own catchphrase have made the coming days worth it already.
As his one-horse carriage edged towards the setting sun on the road leading towards the western coastline, the merchant sitting in front counted his remaining funds with a troubled look on his lined face.
"No, this won't do at all," he murmured. "With this much money, I can barely set up a stand in town… damn those people in Gyria City for raising taxes again!" He reluctantly poured the pile of coins back into his purse. "Then there are the upkeep costs, my savings for another horse… gah, and I forgot about that debt I owe the guild in Crimson Town! I need to plan my expenses a lot more carefully…"
Seemingly without reason, his horse halted.
"So much worry over mere wealth. Such people do not know what they are missing until it's too late."
Alarmed, the merchant sprang his head up towards the unknown voice coming from right in front of his carriage. An aging man stood there alone, dressed in fine scarlet robes.
"Hey priest, or whoever you are, get out of the way!" he shouted in annoyance. The man obeyed, but his horse would still not move an inch. In the meantime, the robed figure made his way to the side of his wagon.
"And regrettably, the final hour could not be closer at hand…"
The next thing the merchant knew, the man in scarlet was sitting immediately next to him on the driver's seat, and he could feel the soft touch of fingers on his forehead.
Then he screamed.
"Okay… here I go… L-Light which burns beyond crimson flame, allow thy—"
"That's 'let', not 'allow', Jane. I would rather skip you setting yourself on fire with your first spell, as hilarious as it might look like," Lina instructed her student in a serious voice. They were both sitting on the end of the double bed in the sorceress' room, upstairs in the inn; Lina looked rather bored, while Jane, now wearing a much less extravagant but also less frazzled loose tunic and pants, stared nervously at her own extended right hand with excruciating intensity, her eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.
"R-Right. Allow, I mean let me try that again." The girl took a deep breath. "Light which burns beyond crimson f-flame, let thy power gather in my hand!" Another quick breath. "LIGHTING!"
A tiny, candle-like blue speck of flame appeared in her palm, danced wildly for a moment, then dissipated. Jane continued to gaze at her hand for several seconds afterwards, like the greatest miracle in the known world had just taken place right then and there.
"I did it…" Her whisper broke out into a jubilant cry. "Miss Lina, I did it!"
"Yeah, well, congratulations." The sorceress could not help but smile at her enthusiasm. "The thing is, though, that you could do this only because the Lighting spell requires zero magical training. A guy from the mage council in Sairaag trained his parrot to recite the Chaos Words, and it works almost every time, annoying the hell out of everyone around him with the dancing lights."
"So… this wasn't anything special?" As quickly as it came, Jane's celebrating mood disappeared.
"No, but it is good for one very important thing: to practice how spellcasting works. What it feels like," the sorceress explained. "Normally, beginners study the fundamentals of magic for months before they are let anywhere near a spellbook, but considering this is a crash course of sorts and explaining things like the π-field would bore both of us to death, we just have to rely on your gut instincts." She stood up and patted Jane on the shoulder. "And these instincts can only be attained through practice, so keep practicing!"
"W-Wait! Where are you going?" the girl called when Lina's hand was already on the door handle.
"I think you can handle this on your own." The sorceress gave her an encouraging grin. "When your Lighting spell stays as bright as a torch and you can keep it going for more than a minute, then we'll continue."
Not waiting for an answer, Lina stepped through the door, leaving a dumbfounded Jane Smith alone sitting on her bed.
Now to get some real stuff done…With these decisive thoughts in mind, the sorceress went to the one place where things usually got done: the inn's kitchen.
A few yards from the inn's main building, the tall man sat on a tree trunk, and let the still gentle rays of the morning sun warm his back as he whittled a short branch of wood with a pocket knife. Birds could be heard singing from the trees of the nearby forest – the Miasma Forest, which lay all the way to the outskirts of the rebuilt city of Sairaag – but the man chose not to listen to them; indeed, the faint tune he whistled to himself tried to drown out the song from his ears with an almost spiteful effort. The birds triumphed in the end, though; the whistle died away as the man felt a shadow sliding up his back, blocking the sun out.
"Captain Henton?" The voice came from behind.
"What? Is there something ye want, priest?" He turned his head back just enough to confirm the other's identity, then went back to his work.
"Oh, I'm sorry if I offended you," Xelloss' tone quickly became apologetic, "I personally would have preferred Elric-san, but you seemed to be fonder of the former form of address."
"Yeah, that's mighty swell of ye," the captain said without an ounce of actual gratitude. "So, what do ye want, again?"
"I was simply wondering," the priest answered, looking unaffected by the man's hostility, "I remember hearing about a certain Captain Elric Henton from the port town of Gasshik." The pocket knife once again stopped moving in the giant's hands. "He is among of the best tradesmen on the sea these days, respected by his crew and feared by pirates all along the coastline – or so they say, at least."
The captain set down the branch he's been working on. "Maybe he was all that, at one time," he murmured. "But take my word for it, lad, the women of this world can be the undoing of any man, no matter how good or proud they think they are."
With small, lazy steps, Xelloss wandered around the trunk into the captain's field of vision. "It was your wife's idea to come here then?" he asked in a carefree voice, like he simply wanted to maintain conversation.
"Aye, that it was." The giant dipped his chin sourly. "Once she heard that this bloody inn was for cheap sale, she jumped on it and never let go."
"Cheap?" The priest sounded intrigued. "One would think that an inn next to such a well travelled road would be profitable."
"It wasn't that; the owners died out." The man shrugged. "The 'Vrumugun' family, or whatever they were called. The remaining distant relatives didn't want to run the inn no more." He cast a suspicious glance at the priest. "Why do ye care, anyway?"
"Nothing special, I am simply curious… Vrumugun, you say?" Xelloss spoke in a thoughtful manner. "Of course, that does make a lot of sense. Thank you for your time, Captain Henton." With a wave of his hand, the priest retreated into the inn. The tall man watched him go with a disgruntled expression.
"Curious… yeah, and I'm the sea serpent's granddaughter!" he muttered to himself. "Ye ought to feel lucky that we're not on my ship…"
Lina skimmed through the cookbook in her hands with a look of bewilderment on her face.
"You made the stuff on the menu from this? These recipes are obviously bogus."
She glanced questioningly at the waitress, who leant against a kitchen table in the center of the room and tried to look anywhere but at her.
"I don't have much experience with cooking yet," she mumbled. "Before we came here less than a month ago, the best I could manage were pancakes."
Ugh. Not the best way to start running an inn.
"But I've heard that some of these dishes were unique to this place," the waitress continued, "so I tried making them. Then I tried to learn from my mistakes… " She sighed. "Then I tried to figure out what mistakes I've made while I tried to correct my mistakes, and so on. The customers were pretty unhappy."
"Yeah, I can imagine." The sorceress gave a grave nod. "Now look… what was your name again?"
"Nilian, madam."
"Well mine is Lina. Use it." The girl said with a tiny cringe. "Anyway, Nilian, the recipes we're talking about were passed down through the family that ran the place – there was no need to write them down. One of them likely wanted to use this book to fool the competition, or just had a pretty strange sense of humor."
Or, knowing Mac, probably both.
"But I don't think that's your biggest problem right now," Lina said as she tossed the book down to the table. "Even with the real recipes, you wouldn't have a chance until you got familiar with the basics, and I'd wager you still need a few lessons in that department. So," she looked around the kitchen, "what do you plan to give your brooding husband for lunch?"
"Uh… pancakes?" Nilian fidgeted.
"Wrong answer!" The sorceress grinned. "We're going to give him a three course meal that will send his jaw falling all the way to the basement!"
"We?" The waitress stared at her in confusion.
"Sure, why not? I've been so much on the road lately, it's been ages since I've last done something like this," Lina replied cheerfully. "Come on, we have lots of stuff to do!"
A large drop of sweat rolled off Jane's forehead, down her cheek and finally tickled its way along her neck until it disappeared behind her collar.
"Stupid… perspiration…" She grimaced, struggling to maintain her concentration. "Come on… come on…"
The speck of light dancing on her palm hardly seemed to listen. It moved left and right in random patterns, its color changed from cold blue to light red and back, but it showed no intention of growing any bigger or brighter – and finally, as if to signal its utter disinterest toward the girl's demands, it jumped off her hand and dissolved into a patch of purple smoke.
"Gaah! This isn't working! What am I doing incorrectly?" Jane bolted from the bed and stomped around like some child who had been denied entry to the amusement park. "I can't just continue on like this, it's completely pointless! I need to find Lina…" As she considered tracking down her tutor, her gaze fell upon the coat stand placed next to the entrance. The sorceress' black cloak and shoulder guards hung there, slowly swaying in the gentle breeze from the room's open window. "Or… maybe I shouldn't bother her? She's probably doing all sorts of important activities right now," she muttered to herself as reached towards the piece of clothing with scarcely hidden excitement.
She barely touched the cloak, merely nudged it with her hand in fear that some powerful protective spells will be unleashed on her for her transgression; but instead of a column of flame, a large leather-bound book fell out of one of the pockets – something which looked much too big to fit in there in the first place.
"Yes! This will surely help a lot!" Jane's eyes sparkled as she sat back on the bed with the book in her hands. She marveled at the illustration of a large demon with long red horns on the cover for a while, and then threw it open around the middle.
All pages were hand-written, and each of them seemed to be the work of a different person; the book was likely a collection of manuscripts which Lina have acquired on her previous travels. As Jane browsed the pages, she came up on one which was covered completely by a large pentagram, with only a short, miniscule text written in the middle. It immediately piqued her interest.
"Beware," she narrowed her eyes and leaned closer as she tried to spell out the writing, "do not ru… read this text aloud or the seal will be broken."
The moment she finished the sentence, dense black smoke began to pour from the covers to her legs and the floor. It felt wet, malevolent and chilling, like its mere touch robbed her of part of her life force.
"Oops…"
The pleasant smell of spices and roasted meat filled the kitchen as the three-course lunch slowly advanced towards completion, and, to Lina's surprise and relief, with much fewer complications along the way than she had expected.
"Next, we need to chop these carrots into pieces about as thick as your little finger. Yeah, like that," she instructed Nilian. "Hey, that's a pretty nice technique you got there!"
"I tried to watch how our servants were doing things back at home, and I saw this there," the woman commented absent-mindedly, her attention focused on the carrots.
Did she say servants…?
"Well, if you learn this quickly, then I think you'll get the hang of things in no time— whoa!"
Out of nowhere, a violent tremor shook the building. Nilian just pushed the carrot pieces to the side and reached for an egg on the table, when it slipped out of her hands and took to the air across the room.
"I'll get it!" Although the egg was already very much out of reach, Lina lunged forward, whispering something under her breath. A moment later, she disappeared with a flash of golden light – only to reappear in the same position upside down in the air. "Drat!" That was all she managed to say before her less than glorious re-introduction to the ground.
"W-What was that?" Nilian asked in surprise.
"The holy magic teleport spell," the sorceress muttered as she picked herself up from the floor. "Ridiculously short incantation, ridiculously hard to translate from the dragon language and even harder to cast correctly. I managed to put it together a week ago, but it hasn't worked a single time so far." She looked around. "What happened to the egg, anyway?" A stream of sticky, half-transparent half-yellow liquid began to pour down from her hair to her face. "Oh, perfect."
The book still in her trembling hands, Jane watched as a creature of nightmares took form, its ash-colored figure solidifying out of the surging black smoke. Two unnaturally long, clawed arms sprung from the barely humanoid torso, legs nowhere to be found; its face was featureless, with glowing dark red holes where its eyes and mouth were supposed to be.
"Re-seal, re-seal… come on, how I am supposed to return this accursed thing into the book?" Jane paged through the tome frantically, but found nothing – in fact, she came to the bitter realization that she couldn't even understand half of the text on the pages.
"Finally! After so many long years, the shackles are no more," the creature spoke, although the girl could not tell whether the unnerving, deep voice sounded in her ears or in her head. "Now the world will once again fear the name of Wyqixaould! Nations will fall before his overwhelming power, and his obsidian darkness will cover the sun itself! The time for grievous, horrifying vengeance has come, and will be carried out by his hands!"
"Wyq-who? Y-You mean there was another demon in the book?" Jane asked, the prospect making her even more terrified.
"Hah, the foolish mortal fails to understand that Wyqixaould had spoken about Wyqixaould himself!" The being sounded affronted. "But she will listen… to the language of pain and suffering!" The smoke swirled even more violently as the creature drew closer. "Yes, she will be the first of this age to taste the Great One's limitless power and cruelty… along with her priest friend—" The demon froze in place, its head turned to the side in alarm. Jane followed its example, and was shocked to notice Xelloss standing beside the bed.
"Why hello, Wiki-san!" The priest waved. "It has been a while, hasn't it?"
"Uhm… ahm…" The monster started to back away. "The great Wyqixaould has suddenly decided that he needs to be somewhere else!"
With that, it promptly disappeared; the only thing left behind from the swirling mass of smoke was the faint smell of brimstone.
"An odd thing to say when it comes to our race, perhaps," Xelloss commented cheerfully, "but for a mere low-ranking mazoku, I believe Wiki-san has too much of an ego for his own good." He looked at Jane, whose face was still ruled by terror. "No need to worry, Jane-san, I highly doubt he will return."
The girl pointed a shaking finger at the priest. "B-But you're still here!"
The priest raised a hand to his cheek as a gesture of puzzlement. "Oh dear, you wouldn't be still upset about that unfortunate scene in the swamp at Man's End, now would you?" He turned towards the door. "But regardless, I'd advise that you come with me downstairs to join Lina-san and the others. A few interesting developments will shortly take place, of that I am sure." He glanced back with an impudent smile. "That is, unless you feel overjoyed by the prospect of practicing the Lighting spell all day long."
That obviously had an effect on the girl; with hesitant steps, she caught up to the mazoku, although still made sure to stay out of arm's reach.
"Why, what is Miss Lina doing?" she asked warily, as they exited the room and began to walk towards the stairs leading to the ground floor.
"Right now? Just cooking lunch," Xelloss answered lightly. "From what I've managed to catch of the conversation, she is pretty good at it."
"Uh…what?" Jane stared at him, mouth hanging open.
"Did I say something strange perhaps?" The priest raised an eyebrow of amusement.
"Yes! I mean, no…" The girl hung her head embarrassedly. "I just thought she was participating in something more important after she just left me here… Although, it sure would look strange seeing Miss Lina doing something like that." She faced the priest again. "Can you tell me… just what kind of a person she is exactly?"
"My goodness, Jane-san," Xelloss spoke, his face showing obviously exaggerated surprise. "You would seriously consider seeking information from an evil demon?"
"Who else could I ask? You seem to know her well." Jane mumbled under her breath, breaking eye contact. "I know that she has every reason to be hostile, but I must at least try to get on her good side. Even if I don't learn anything while I'm with her, we could at least… I don't know, blow up an amount of bandits? Anything but just sitting here like this."
"And you thought throwing money at her would be the quickest way to become friends, I take it?" The girl's head snapped up in reaction to the priest's words, who just cocked his head to the side. "Why do you look so surprised? Perhaps you are somewhat unlucky and common sense is not your strong point, Jane-san, but yesterday showed clearly that you are not nearly as dense as you might seem at first glance – and that is not bad at all. Getting others to underestimate you is in fact a usable tactic." He raised an index finger to emphasize his point. "However, you too underestimate Lina-san if you believe that you can get anywhere near her with your current methods."
By then they have reached the bottom of the stairs. Xelloss leisurely leant against the wall, studying Jane with interest from under his hooded lids; the girl gazed at the floor, her expression thoughtful and also somewhat sad.
"But what can I possibly do then? Please tell me!" she finally said, her voice pleading.
As if he was waiting for this exact question, the priest smiled and began to move his index finger towards his lips – but stopped and let his hand fall down half way.
"Oh dear," he sighed, "ever since Lina-san began introducing her own secrets yesterday, mine no longer feel as fun. I must get to the bottom of her claims as quickly as possible, or this may even have lasting results..."
Jane was about to ask what he meant, but had to notice that she was no longer looking at the mazoku, but at an empty portion of the wall.
She also noticed someone yanking her collar from behind.
"Hey Jane, you're just the person I need!" Lina exclaimed as she began dragging her through the room towards the exit. "We need some milk for the pudding, and you could really give me a hand!"
"We're going to milk cows?" the girl whimpered.
"Yep, unless you came up with a milk-summoning spell during practice," the sorceress replied; her pupil involuntarily jumped a little when the word 'summoning' reached her ears. "Don't tell me you never did that before."
"No, I did, I did." Jane said in a solemn voice and dejectedly followed her tutor out of the building. "I'm sure it will be… a huge amount of fun."
The old constable's eyes narrowed as he regarded the small village house ahead.
"This is the place, sir." A neighbor woman spoke to him in a shaky voice. "They went in, I heard a scream… they did not come out yet."
"Go back to your home and lock the door," he ordered, drawing his sword; the woman's fast paced footsteps signaled her departure as he approached the building. The rays of the midday sun sparkled on his battered plate armor – a keepsake from his old days as a professional soldier.
The region had a problem with bandits; 'Lina Inverse hasn't passed by here in a while', as people said, and even though the ruffians feared and respected the constable, he was in charge of four small towns and could not be everywhere at once. Thus came the idea to hire a few swords as help. They managed to secure some funds from the local nobility in order to defend the trade route passing by here towards Sairaag to the east, and began to assemble a militia; or, at least, they tried. With the recent wars between Lyzeille and Raltague, they found precious few men available for hire – until a group of mercenaries from Saillune came along.
The constable never trusted the soldiers of that feared nation and was against hiring them from the start, but they had good equipment and decent training, so left without alternatives, he gritted his teeth and prayed that his fears would turn out to be unfounded.
Apparently, they were not.
The old veteran kicked the remains of the building's cut-down door out of the way and stepped inside. The room was in complete disarray: he was greeted by overturned tables, smashed chairs and piles of other broken furniture. The owner of the house was sprawled on the floor in the middle with several cuts on his body, obviously dead. Next to him lay one of the mercenaries – there was no mistaking Saillune's black and brown armor – but strangely, it was also a sword of his fellows that was sticking out of his chest.
Passing through the wreck, the constable found the rest of the mercenaries in the next, similarly devastated room. Apparently, they gathered all the alcohol they could find in the house and were pouring it down their throats one bottle after the other.
With a furious cry, he threw a broken chair into their midst – that certainly got their attention.
"I don't know what has gotten into you," he seethed, "but you Saillune dogs are going to pay with your hides for this."
The mercenaries looked at each other, and then broke out in roaring laughter.
"You don't get it, huh?" one of them said, his words barely comprehensible, but underneath his uncontrollable mirth, the constable saw clear despair in his eyes. "It doesn't matter anymore; we're all going to die! The priest showed it to us! This is the end!"
"A priest? What in the world are you blathering about?" While it would have been easy to dismiss the man's words as a drunk's babble, the old veteran's instincts told him differently. He felt that something sinister and horrifying was afoot, and that thought sent a chill down his spine.
The mercenaries suddenly fell silent, their laughter cut in their throats. Their widening eyes gazed out the room's broken window.
"They're… here…" A soldier spoke, his voice but a mere frightened whisper.
The constable caught something from the corner of his eye; he spun around and struck, but his sword hit nothing but the wall. Now the presence was behind him; but just as he tried to face it again, another one appeared in the far end of the room. Then a third one. And a fourth.
The mercenaries were yelling something in panic, but the constable could not listen. He swung his sword around frantically, trying to keep the elusive attackers which he knew they were there at bay, or at least get a good glimpse of them – but all he saw were the flames of the building's burning thatched roof as it came crashing down upon him.
Captain Elric Henton stared suspiciously at the bowl of soup on the table.
"Are ye sure the sorceress didn't put something in it?" he asked his wife, who moved uncomfortably in her seat and tried her best to pretend that she did not hear him.
With an annoyed shrug, Lina grabbed her own bowl and poured its contents into her mouth all at once.
"Miss Lina be careful, that's very hot!" Jane cried out, but by the time she finished her warning the sorceress was already refilling her bowl from the cooking pot at the center of their table.
"There, are you satisfied?" she growled. "If you are, then shut your mouth and dig in, captain."
Nostrils flaring, the giant rose from his seat, shooting a murderous look at the sorceress. However, he received not one, but two similar looks in return, both from her and from Nilian as well. Outnumbered, he reluctantly sat down, showed a spoonful of soup into his mouth – and his anger instantly began to melt away. Lina could barely recognize the captain during the rest of the meal; he ate silently, took double portions of everything and although she could never say for sure, it was possible that she even saw a tiny glint of joy in his eyes.
Maybe all this time he just wanted something edible to stuff his stomach with?
"This was wonderful. I can't thank you enough, madam— uhm, Lina," Nilian said as the supply of the pudding desert began to run out due to overwhelming demand. "We always heard that you were a great sorceress, but the stories never said anything about you being such a great cook, too."
"Yes, this is even more surprising to me," added Xelloss, idly fiddling with a teaspoon in his hands. He ate only small portions, but seemed nonetheless interested to have a taste of the food. "My last pieces of information were admittedly dated, but I was under the impression until now that Lina-san's cooking talents were miniscule to say the lea—"
The priest could not finish due to the fact that the chair was yanked out from under him by some mysterious force.
"Thanks a lot, Xelloss," the mysterious force deadpanned. "He's right though. While the compliments feel great for my ego, I actually know only a handful of recipes, which I practiced for decades in order to get them right." The sorceress began twiddling her thumbs, looking slightly flustered. "You really wouldn't have wanted to be the test subjects for my first pudding… it came to life." Eager to change the subject, she turned to Nilian. "You, on the other hand, do have something to brag about. Anything I've shown you once, you could do right after. I might be no expert but that's not something you see every day."
The woman was left speechless by the praise – and blissfully unaware of the sharp look of jealousy she received from Jane.
"I only got one question to ask," the captain broke his lunch-long silence, his voice once again loaded with concern bordering on suspicion.
Oh great. Lunch break's over and we begin the show anew?
"Why are ye doing this?" the giant stated his question.
Lina shrugged nonchalantly, attempting to hide her surprise. "Doing what?"
"We're complete strangers to ye," the man continued with unprecedented patience. "I heard ye saying that the rooms were dirty and the food was bloody awful. Other folks just packed up and left after this. Ye ain't got no reason to be here, so why the heck are ye helping us?"
Nonchalance gradually disappeared from the sorceress' face as his words sank in, replaced by indecision.
"Why, you ask… hehe…" She tried to buy some time with a small, forced laugh. "Well… how about if I say that it's a sec—"
"Stop! Please don't say it again, Lina-san!" A protesting hand emerged from under the table. "It'll be ruined if it becomes too commonplace!"
"You mean you think it hasn't become commonplace already?" Lina cast a flat look at the hand's owner. "Xel, I frame the days with red and draw little flowers and hearts into my calendar for every week that passes without you saying that little catchphrase of yours, but the awful truth is that you never gave my drawing skills much of a chance to improve."
"Lina, please…" Nilian interrupted the argument.
Okay, okay, I'm trying to evade the subject, so sue me!
"Fine." The sorceress stood. "I'd wanted to wait at least until tomorrow with this, but if you're so insistent…" She walked up to the empty fireplace in the corner. "Where did I put that again? Oh, I remember." She crouched down, and drew a small pentagram into the dust on the floor in front of the hearth. Shortly afterwards, the drawing flared up with blue light.
The dishes and pieces of silverware began to rattle on their table as the fireplace slid to the left, the cavity revealing a low stone passageway behind it with steep stairs leading down underground.
"Right this way, folks," Lina flashed a half-smile, gesturing the others to come closer.
Xelloss picked himself up from the floor and complied without a word. Jane only hesitated for a moment before running to the fireplace, the morning's excitement reappearing on her face in a blink. The captain and his wife, however, remained glued to their seats.
"R-Right this way my eye!" the giant cried out after managing to pick his jaw up from the floor. "Why the hell should we go with ye to that… dark cave or whatever?"
"No one is forcing you to," Lina replied, her impish grin still in place. "You can decide whether to explore this place with a powerful sorceress by your side to help out, or stay and live here with the knowledge that there is a dark, scary cave below your home which you know nothing about."
Nilian put a gentle hand on her husband's fist. "Dear, I think we should trust her."
The captain muttered something nasty under his breath – but the matter was nonetheless decided.
The passageway was not only steep and low but also pretty narrow, and the careful descent proved difficult even in a single file for the taller and wider members of the party – true to his former occupation, Captain Henton swore like a sailor as he tried to push himself forward without falling down the stairs.
"The builder didn't have much room to work with, you know," Lina commented with some resentment, after the giant attached a few colorful adjectives to 'the one responsible for this trash'. She walked ahead, with a sphere of light in her hands to illuminate the way. "But while we're at the subject, you might be wondering who this stuff belongs to."
"Was it an evil warlord who attempted to conquer the nation?" Jane offered her theory eagerly.
"With an inn as his headquarters? Did you really learn to be a historian?" The sorceress chuckled. "But he wasn't an everyday guy, I'll give you that. His name was Macen Vrumugun, and he was a sorcerer."
"Vrumugun?" Her unwelcome pupil repeated, like she realized something of great importance. "Was he related to Erisiel Vrumugun? That woman played a huge part in the second destruction of Sairaag!"
"Yes, he was her cousin, and he also had the dubious glory of serving as the template for her army of copies, but that's where their connections end," Lina replied, sweeping a spider web out of her way. "Actually, he also lost his home after Sairaag was laid to waste, so not long after his friend Zangulus married a brain-dead princess from Zoana, Mac decided to settle down too and built this inn next to the Miasma Forest, way before the reconstruction of the city began. He wasn't that great of a sorcerer, to be honest, but I really mean it when I say that he was a fantastic cook."
"But if he settled down, why did he build a hidden passageway like this?" Nilian asked. With a hand on the wall to steady herself, she moved extra carefully in her long skirt.
"That's a good question." Lina smirked mysteriously. "Don't worry, you'll find out soon enough; the vault isn't really that…" She came to a stop at the bottom of the stairs. There were no more walls to reflect the light of the spell in her outstretched hand – as far as her eyes could see, ahead of her was nothing but a vast darkness. "…big?"
The mouth of the passageway widened considerably at the very end, so all five of them could gather there to gaze into the black void. Jane looked enthralled, Nilian slightly scared, while the captain introduced brand new, even nastier words to his grumblings. Xelloss was the only one who hardly showed any reaction – but that was nothing unusual.
The sorceress raised the brightness of her spell as high as she could, but could not see anything ahead still.
Like a permanent, diluted Dark Mist… it feels as if the air itself absorbs the light around us.
"This isn't the way it should be," she muttered. "Not even close."
"Maybe yer fine sorcerer buddy built a few upgrades since ye have last visited?" the giant suggested, putting an amount of disgust behind the 'sorcerer buddy' phrase.
"Rubbish, he couldn't even make a large enough dent into the ground!" Lina snapped; the captain gradually began to wear down her patience. "I built this damn thing, and I should know pretty darn well how big it should be, for Ruby Eye's sake!"
Gah, real smooth Lina, real smooth…
"You? But you just said—" Jane began, but the sorceress cut her off.
"Stop getting lost in the details and help me out, okay? Cast your own Lighting spell, maybe we can see more that way."
Intimidated by her somewhat stern order, the girl quickly gabbled off the incantation, which resulted in a mutated-looking blob of faint light, vaguely similar to a human head – perhaps it was just Lina's imagination, but she could swear she saw it sticking out a fluorescent tongue at its caster before dissipating after a second or two.
"I guess the practice didn't go all that well, huh?" The sorceress sighed, while Jane just stood there looking entirely devastated.
"Here you go, Lina-san." Xelloss raised his staff; the others had to avert their gaze as the jewel on top began to glow with a blinding greenish light.
Shielding her eyes with her hand, Lina could finally look around. The ground before them turned into a rocky, uneven slope right away, which continued as far as the priest's magic allowed her to see, widening the passageway into a humongous cave. A three foot wide winding path along the slope was their only option to safely carry on forward.
"Ye better go back up, woman," Captain Henton told his wife as they also took in the scenery. "Trusting Inverse is all fine and dandy, but she obviously ain't got things under control. Who knows what'll happen."
"Had I been so afraid of what would happen, I would never have left home, Elric," Nilian replied evenly. "I'm not going anywhere." She raised her head up and started to walk down the path without another word.
"H-Hey, wait up!" Lina ran after her, with Jane, Xelloss and an incredibly frustrated Elric Henton not far behind.
And I was about to tell them both to go back – so much for that idea…
While the cave floor around them looked entirely natural and untouched, the path itself was covered with a shiny material that reminded the sorceress of marble, but with the difference that no joints could be seen along the surface; the entire path was seemingly crafted from one impossibly big slab.
"This construction is very odd," Lina, once again in the lead, continued to study the parts of the chamber illuminated by the priest's staff. "It tries to force us to go along the path, even though if we were real thieves, chances are we'd all be able to levitate down and ignore it. And anyway," she added contemplatively, "why go even further down? The staircase I made back in the day leads deep enough already…"
She heard a decisive thump from behind.
"Hey, what's with the stomping?" She shot a questioning glance at the captain. "You'll bring the roof down on us."
The giant gave an ignorant shrug. "That ain't me!"
His words were followed closely by the approaching sound of stone grinding on stone.
Is that really what I think it is? The sorceress listened to the noise incredulously. Her thoughts were interrupted by a shrill scream from Jane's direction.
"Gaah! A giant rock sphere is coming down the path, right after us!" she yelled.
It sure looks like it.
"Coming through!" Lina made her way to the back of the group, eyeing the spherical boulder, twice the height of even the captain, which indeed approached them with great speed along the path. "Wow, I can't believe it." She chortled. "The oldest thing in the book!"
"Lina, what should we do?" Nilian asked, trying to appear calm. She did not even finish her question when a ball of red light crashed into the sphere; numerous cracks appeared on the stone surface right away, and a second later the boulder fell apart, its remaining pieces slamming against the cave wall.
"Just that," the sorceress replied cheerfully. "Anti-climatic, I know, but that trap really was terrible; even without magic, we could've just jumped off the path. There's nothing to worry about."
"But if ye blew that thing up," the giant commented quizzically, "then why is that accursed noise still getting stronger?"
Lina cocked her ears, her smile fading; the rumble now came from multiple sources above them, a lot louder than before.
She spun around. "On second thought, run!"
The urgency in her voice had the desired effect: without a sound (except for a frightened yelp from Jane), they all began sprinting down the path at top speed.
End of Part One.
(Part 2 is also up of course! :) )