Chapter 3

Interlude

In Lina's room...

"There," said Holly patting the last curl into place. Lina's hair was swept back into a bun with curls falling from it to her waist. It had taken entirely too long to do in Lina's opinion, but the final effect was quite beautiful. Lina looked at it for a moment before remembering. She walked over to her cloak and felt around in a few pockets before coming up with the hair comb she had found last week. Walking back to the dresser she handed it to Holly.

"Um... can you put that in?"

"Oh Inverse-san this is lovely! Of course, I'll just tuck it here against your bun," said Holly already maneuvering the comb into the side of Lina's bun so that the rubies and pearls shimmered in her hair. "That looks wonderful! It's a lovely hair comb Inverse-san."

Lina smiled tentatively as Holly held a mirror that allowed her to see the back of her head. It really did look nice. Lina was even starting to not mind Holly so much, she'd never had a maid before and she certainly wouldn't have been able to put up her hair like this. She smiled a bit more at Holly who smiled back. In her good mood Lina even allowed Holly to apply a small amount of make-up to her face.

"Would you like me to help you into your dress?"

Lina considered that, the dress had tiny buttons up the back so it was probably a good idea.

"Sure."

When she was finally in the dress with her hair done and alone, Lina went to the full length mirror and looked critically at her reflection. She was surprised at how feminine she looked. Smiling shyly at her reflection Lina went to sit back down at the dresser. On it rested a jumble of assorted items, including her magic headband and the Demon's Blood Talismans. Lina regrettfully fingered the headband before turning to look at the talismans. They were beautiful, with dark red stones in archaic settings, but they were not the kind of thing one wore to a ball. Lina picked one up fingering it lightly, they were her most valuable possession and she was loath to go anywhere without them. Even on the road she always changed in the bath house, so they were never out of reach.

Tricking Xellos into "selling" the talismans had been a memorable experience, one rarely got the upper hand with him. Martina had played into her hand like she'd been given a script, immediately counter offering just because Lina wanted them. 550 gold? she chuckled just thinking about it. She'd well know that they were infinitely more valuable than that. Just as she'd hoped Xellos had mockingly stated a price so astronomical he thought she couldn't meet it. Five and a half million had indeed been a large sum of money, though still not what they were worth. You probably couldn't give the Demon's Blood Talismans a numerical value, they were very powerful and she'd seen no others like them. Seeing Xellos well and truly stunned when she'd immediately agreed to pay his price was one of Lina's very favorite memories. Her merchant instincts had never served her so well as they had in that moment.

In truth no one would have been able to guess Lina could afford something like that. What no one knew about Lina was that although her food budget was tremendous, she still was well in the black from her bandit raiding business. She sometimes ran out of gold, but being a merchants daughter she knew better than to carry all her wealth in coin. Any time she came upon something small and of significant lasting value she kept it, or bartered for it if it belonged to someone respectable. She idly wondered if Xellos had even sold the things she'd given him in trade. Money probably meant little to him. She wondered once again why Xellos had given them to her. She had no illusions about what had happened, she may have tricked him but she couldn't have forced him to give them to her. Xellos had surrendered them, and Lina had a suspicion that it was out of respect for the fact that she had managed to trick him. Actually it had been when Xellos used them to protect her that Lina had first realized he was a mazoku, and that she had been able to talk him out of such powerful magic amplifiers had given her a good idea how powerful he was. Powerful enough that he had let her have them.

Lina ran her fingers across the dark stone, considering. They wouldn't look right on her dress and she didn't want to leave them here. Just because things had been quiet lately was no guarantee they would remain so. These talismans were irreplaceable, and they were even more important now that she could no longer borrow The Sword of Light to amplify her magic. Gorun Nova, she corrected herself mentally, people of this world may have called it The Sword of Light, but it's name is Gorun Nova. Fishing around in the drawers of the dresser she came up with a hair ribbon, and pulled up her skirts. She carefully put the first two on her garters, on the outside of her thigh, then put one on her headband tying it just below her knee on the outside of her calf, and used the hair ribbon to mirror this arrangement with the fourth and final talisman. Letting her skirt pool around her once more she stepped in front of her mirror and moved around a bit. The skirt was full enough that it hid any telltale bumps, and the talismans were flat enough that they didn't catch her skirt as she moved. She reached out for them magically, and they responded, it was odd to have them there but they would still respond to her if there was an emergency. Smiling Lina sat down at the dresser again, she'd even have her headband with her.