Chapter 13

Entrances

Xellos smirked as he mentally put the finishing touches on his plan. It was delightfully wicked, yet he would be almost impossible to blame, the best kind of plan really. He wondered how long he needed to give Lina to sleep before he could get started.

Lina yawned and rubbed her eyes, slowly becoming more aware of her surroundings. As she sat up the cool air hit her shoulders... more cool air than should have been hitting her there. Glancing down she saw that she was still wearing her gown from last night. Further inspection revealed that her hair comb and pins were on the night table beside the bed, and her shoes were on the floor, but otherwise she was still completely dressed. Slowly the events of last night filtered back to her. I must have fallen asleep in the astral plane... which means Xellos brought me here. The drapes were closed as well, slowly Lina pulled herself out of bed and made her way over to them. Opening them she realized that it was much later than she usually slept, in fact it was nearly noon. Looking down at her wrinkled finery she quickly decided that cleaning up was in order.

Removing the gown she found it was a bit wrinkled, but otherwise still in fine condition. She hung it in the wardrobe, and moved her shoes in there as well. Her undergarments went into her laundry basket, and the Demon's Blood Talismans, as well as her headband went on the vanity. Now fully undressed she collected her robe and entered her bathroom. She once again scrubbed off and rinsed before climbing into the warm water of her tub. She had slept surprisingly well considering she'd still been in her dress. Still slightly fuzzy minded from sleep she settled down a bit in the hot water and began to comb her hair out, enjoying the last of her sleepiness in the warmth of the bath.

Lina stretched slightly before climbing out of the now tepid water. Pulling the stop up so the bathtub could drain, she dried off and wrapped up in her robe. Moving to the wardrobe Lina rummaged around to see what she had to wear. Her usual outfit hadn't made it back from the laundry yet, but... she rummaged a bit more. I don't know how this got so messy, I haven't been here that long... she mused. There it was, Lina pulled out the crimson pants and sleeveless yellow shirt. It was an older outfit of hers, but it still fit, and would feel nice in the summer heat.

She was sitting at the dresser, tying on her headband when she heard the knock, it was soft and polite, but firm. It was also not coming from the door to the hallway. Her brow furrowed Lina got up and looked around trying to find where the sound had come from. In the warm afternoon sunlight the room looked sleepy, peaceful, and far too boring to have knocks coming from odd places.

"Lina-chan? May I come in?"

Lina turned in surprise, Xellos voice had come from her bathroom. While she knew Xellos could teleport himself just about anywhere, the idea of him teleporting into her bathroom seemed rather ludicrous. Nevertheless she crossed her room and opened the door. Xellos stood there in his usual garb, looking for all the world as if people regularly appeared in other people's private baths. She noticed with regret that his eyes were closed.

"Xellos?" He looked at her, "you're in my bathroom."

"Yes. You were in here and I thought it would be inappropriate to show up without asking."

She blinked at him. It wasn't that his logic wasn't sound, it was that it didn't explain why he was in her bathroom instead of the hall. Well he had knocked... I guess that counts for something. With a slight sigh and shake of her head she opened the door a bit wider and let him in, sometimes it was better to just accept without trying to understand... this was probably one of those times. As she shut the door Xellos turned to face her, his eyes now open.

"Are you ready to go?"

"Um, sure," she said heading towards the door, she paused as she realized he wasn't following her. She raised an eyebrow inquiringly.

"Ah," he said smiling a bit sheepishly. "I thought maybe we should go somewhere with more information on trans-location. The Seyruun library is one of the greatest, but it really doesn't have much to offer on certain subjects."

Lina smirked, "like black magic?"

"And trans-location."

Grinning she said, "but I bet you know of a library that DOES have information on it." He smiled back, that same pleased smile he'd had when he was explaining his pocket dimension. Lina laughed softly at his expression.

"All right, let me get my things then." Moving around she gathered her things, pulled on her belt, made sure her talismans were firmly in place, and collected her cloak. With a final glance to make sure she hadn't missed anything she needed she turned back to Xellos. "All right, so where is this library anyway?"

"That is a-"

"The last word in that sentence had better not be secret," she threatened in a low voice.

He blinked, but smiled and said, "surprise."

Well... he didn't say secret. With a slight quirk to her smile she said, "well then, let's get going."

"Very well," agreed Xellos cheerfully. His open eyes locked with hers, and he stepped forward. Her breath caught slightly as he moved into her personal space, then slowly he reached out and put an arm around her. She tensed, but didn't pull away. He smiled at her, and then they were gone.

The first thing Lina noticed was that it wasn't as hot and muggy as it had been, the next was that it was early morning on a hilltop with nothing in sight. Looking up at Xellos, who still had his arm around her, she gave him a look that quite clearly stated he should explain why there was no library in sight.

He smiled at her "the library is just over that hill," he said pointing at the next hill along the road. "I didn't want to cause a commotion by just appearing in the streets."

"You live to cause commotion," Lina pointed out with a look of mixed amusement and exasperation.

"Well..." he mused, "I thought we'd have more luck doing research if we arrived more conventionally."

Lina tilted her head up slightly to look more intently at his eyes. "Alright then," she said at last. Suddenly realizing they were on a public road and standing virtually pressed against each other she blushed and quickly began to walk in the direction Xellos had indicated. She'd only taken three of four steps before Xellos was walking in sync beside her, though he made no move to touch her again.

Xellos was surprised he had gotten away with so much physical contact before Lina's embarrassment got the better of her. He decided not to push his luck... though it was tempting, and settled into pace with her, waiting for her blush to lighten so they could begin talking again.

When they crested the hill Lina looked down in surprise at the city below, it was smaller than Seyruun but still fairly large with taller buildings than she was used to. There was a small fortress style castle on the highest bluff of the area, but the largest structure by far was the huge multi domed building near the center of the city.

"The library here is one of the finest anywhere in the world," said Xellos watching as Lina took in the size of it, it was at least half again as big as Seyruun's library.

"Where are we?"

"Well Seyruun is on the eastern end of the area that was enclosed within the barrier until recently," he paused as Lina nodded. "This is the very western most tip of the land within the barrier. Because of the barrier's shape and how close the edge is, it was almost impossible to sail around the coast to other areas, though there was a bit of area straight out that was fairly safe for fishing. But one good storm would crush a ship into the barrier. Since the land was nearly inaccessible by sea, the only way people usually get here is by going over the mountains." He turned and pointed back towards the mountain range. Even from this distance it was clear the mountains were large, with snow capped peaks even this late in summer.

"Is that why they have information on trans-location?"

"Exactly! Unfortunately trans-location takes far too much energy for most mages to transport even themselves, let alone other people. So even though they have research, and even successful experiments, it never really developed enough to make this area easily accessible."

Lina nodded, then slyly looked up at him. "So what's it called?"

Xellos laughed, "you'll appreciate this. It's called Disdan City, but it was originally called Distant City."

Lina chuckled, "seems appropriate."

"Well how about sampling the local cuisine before we start?"

Lina felt her stomach remind her that she hadn't yet eaten since waking up. "Hmmm, that's probably a good idea."

Xellos offered his arm, and in her good mood she took it without thinking about it. As they walked down the path to the city, Lina began quizzing Xellos down to find out if there were any specialties.