Chapter Thirteen

That night, Aric had a dream.

The very fact that this is noteworthy enough to mention signifies that it was not a normal dream. Normal dreams about snorkel-wearing bats swimming in cheese sauce and whatnot are never mentioned in narrative, simply because in spite of their surreality, they are still only meaningless dreams.

In Aric's dream, he strode through a dim, seemingly endless Great Hall, the plush red carpet soundless even under his booted feet, wall-sconces to either side illuminated not with torch flames, but with the soft artificial glow of countless Lighting spells. The ceiling was so high that it seemed to stretch off into eternity, far beyond the limited range of the mage-globes, and even the opposite end of the Great Hall was shrouded in darkness. Nevertheless, he walked tirelessly, like a golem automaton following a set of precise instructions.

After what seemed an eternity, he came to a stop before a pair of great standing doors, each door carved with the crest of a stylized eye. Raising his hands on instinct, he grasped the brass handles and pulled. The doors opened effortlessly, as though Ellisia herself had opened them, and he swept into the room as though it belonged to him. He felt no surprise when they swung closed behind him on their own, as though that had been his very intention from the beginning.

This chamber too was shrouded in darkness, the furthest walls and ceiling imperceptible to his eyes. All he could see was the red carpet itself, outlined by more magical lights set into the floor at regular intervals. They lead all the way to the opposite end of the room, stopping at the base of an upraised dais. The carpet itself continued onward, up the steps and beneath the legs of a throne.

The throne itself was black, darker than Ellisia's eyes, its contours gnarled and horned, rubies set into the eyes of snarling beast-heads at the end of each arm. However, before he could take further note of it than that, his dreaming mind belatedly realized that there was a figure sitting in it.

Pale white legs, stark against the black...material...of the throne, were crossed indolently at the knees. Below, they gave way to mottled gray wolf's-hide boots, bound together in a rather roughshod manner with some form of black leathery twine. Above, they terminated at the hem of a gray-furred wolf's hide tunic, snugged close at the waist with a belt of the same.

The sword propped against the arm of the throne, nestled in the crook of the lounging figure's arm, cinched the image. Black as the chair itself, with faintly glowing scarlet runes etched in parallel lines on either side of the fuller, it was entirely too familiar.

"Lhynn?!" he blurted, shattering the quiet and mysterious atmosphere of the dream entirely.

Emilio's recently acquired partner smirked, shifting her weight in her seat and arching a dark eyebrow. "You remember me. I'm touched. Flattered. Humbled, and whatnot."

He frowned, crossing his arms and taking on a more confident pose. Damned if he was going to let some figment of his own imagination have the upper-hand. "So you can talk. Well, at least, in my subconscious."

"Now, now, does this voice really sound familiar to you?" she asked, sitting up straighter in the throne. "The normally dreaming mind can only work with ideas, images and sounds that it has already experienced before, you know. You can't imagine something with no prior experience to base it on, no matter how outlandish it is."

His frown grew a bit, his fingers flexing slightly within his gloves. "Alright, alright, so this is another one of those dumb 'plot exposition' dreams. Can we just get on with it? I'm really, really tired."

Lhynn rolled her eyes, shifting her sword a bit so that its point scraped lightly over the stones of the dais. "Emilio is right about one thing. You have no sense of drama."

"Makes life easier. But still, I've gotta ask one question."

"Yes?"

"Why do you follow that moron around? And for that matter, why so quiet all the time while you do? You're sure being talky enough right now."

"That's two questions. But since I'm such a magnanimous soul, I'll answer them both. Last one first. To be frank with you? I can only talk here, in this place. One of the few powers She left to me. An idle whim, I suppose, the same as most everything She does."

Bemusement flooded his expression, but before he could question the raven-haired swordswoman went on.

"As for the other...you could say I owe Emilio Van Strahd. What say we just leave it at that?" Suddenly, she smirked, and her tone changed subtly. "I see your eyes straying, Aric Winterbourne..." He jumped a little, jerking his eyes back to hers. But she only shook her head in amusement, tapping her long fingernails against the ruby chips he had been gazing at on the armrest of the chair. "You want this...don't you?"

"I...don't know what you're talking about," he said, forcing his eyes to remain on her mottled gray ones. She could see right through the lie, and he knew it.

"It's yours by right. But they don't want you to have it, none of them. The Dynast secretly covets it for himself, you know. They all do, all but one. But the Dynast is the most ambitious, the most ruthless. The most likely to take it. And they'll try to use you to get at it."

"What are you babbling about?" he demanded, with an aggressive step toward the dais.

"They'll try to use you to get at it," Lhynn repeated, smirking all the more at his ire. "And then they'll kill you once they have it. Oh, they say they have the truest of intentions, loyal to their cause to the end. But in the end, 'their' cause is all relative. And if you don't take it first, one of them will."

"I don't even want it!" he burst forth, glaring, dimly aware of a faint reddish haze beginning to tint his peripheral vision. He only realized what he had said after the fact, and it left him blinking in confusion that doused his anger, and with it the red fog.

"That's true," the swordswoman conceded, her smile turning rueful as her fingers continued to play over the stylized head at the end of the throne's arm. "But it's you or them. Weigh your priorities, Aric. Which is worth more? Your principles, or your life?" She was silent for a moment, and then amusement overtook her again as she rose gracefully from the throne. "It's an ill fit for me. I think it would be better suited for you." She gestured grandly to the plush ruby-satin cushioning, the high back whose gnarled horns oddly seemed actually formed to support a figure about his dimensions.

Involuntarily, he felt himself take a step forward, compelled toward the inviting empty seat. He pulled himself away by sheer force of will, whirling toward Lhynn's new position with clenched fists. "What is this place?!" It was his turn to gesture, sweepingly, encompassing the whole of the chamber and beyond. "Where are we?"

"This place?" She crossed her arms, the grip of her sword nestled against her side. "It's a metaphor. None of this is literal, child. You'll have to figure out what it means for yourself." She shrugged, as though it were a matter of profound indifference to her. "You'll learn, sooner or later. And then you'll accept it. Or you'll die. Or even both. Such is life for your lot."

"Wh...?"

"Aric..."

He jumped, whirling, and behind him stood the last person he had expected to see. Behind him, halfway between himself and the double doors, stood Ellisia. She was human-looking, once again, and dressed in the clothes she had worn when he met her. Her dark eyes were wide, her mouth agape as if he had grown a third arm. No...after a moment, he realized this expression was different. This was something else entirely. Horror, mingled with disbelief and a more than significant touch of betrayal. Slowly, gloved hands lifted to her mouth and she stepped back away from him. "Aric..what have you done...?"

"E-Ell...?" He tried to step toward her, a hand reaching out to stop her, but that only made her back away faster. "Ell, wait!"

She stumbled back until she fell to her bottom with a little "oof", but continued to edge away from him in terror. Looking over his shoulder, he sought out Lhynn with confusion, but she only stood with arms crossed and expression neutral, observing. He turned back to Ellisia, appealing to her again. "Ell, it's me! What are you doing?"

She shook her head, now absolutely silent with shock as though she faced Shabranigdo himself. Finally, she managed to choke out words. "Aric...your eyes..." It was only when she said this that he realized it was returning, that reddish haze at the corners of his vision. Only it was stronger this time, spreading until it consumed the entirety of his vision. "Aric? ...Aric!!"

- - -

"Aric!! Aric, wake up, you lazy buffoon!"

"Gwmph!!" he spluttered, as a very cold splash of water struck him in the face. He flailed mindlessly for a moment, thrashing at his soaked white cape he had curled up in to sleep, before finally rolling onto his back and getting it open. Planting his hands to either side of him and half-pushing himself up, he glared belligerently up at Ellisia. "What's the big idea?!"

The half-Dragon stood without her disguise for the moment, a look of faint irritation on her face and Selaena's water flask in her hand. Passing the flask back to its owner, she slowly crossed her arms under her chest. "I've never seen a human sleep as much or as deeply as you do. It's a wonder you get anything done."

"I get plenty done after a good night's sleep," he grunted, wrestling his sodden gloves off in order to rub his bleary eyes.

"It's nearly noon!" Ell almost snarled, jabbing a finger almost accusingly at the sun overhead, though the fire in her black eyes was directed at him. "Now would you get up so we can figure out where we're going, and then finally get moving?"

"We're going to Elmekia," Aric said instantly, automatically, as he began to struggle to his feet. The two women had already packed up what meager supplies had been taken out for mealtime and fire maintenance, and seemed ready to go, though Selaena tactfully remained out of the conversation as she rummaged through her pack. Her head lifted at the mention of the distant empire, though, and Ell blinked as his tone threw her off-kilter.

"Come again?" Ellisia asked, disconcerted.

"We're going to Elmekia. I know Emilio--we'll bump into him somewhere along the way, I'm sure." He wrung as much water as he could out of his cape, shook his head and raked fingers through his hair for the little good that did. Taking a moment to study his wet leather gloves, he gave them up as a lost cause and dropped them into his own travel-pack. If we're lucky, we'll be able to get the coin--"

"Token."

"--from him with little fuss. If we're luckier, we'll be able to avoid Lina Inverse and keep from pissing her off further." He glanced up at Ell, and she looked away innocently. "Frankly I'm really not counting on our luck to change anytime in the near future, so we should probably be prepared for the worst in both cases." Selaena gulped audibly, fastening her pack closed and using her staff to pull herself to her feet.

"Now wait just a minute," Ell protested, fists settling onto her hips as her eyes narrowed. "Why Elmekia? Do you have any idea how far that is?"

"Not really. We don't have a map, remember?" He shrugged, taking in a deep breath and then releasing it slowly. "But I know the direction. We'll just keep going until we get there. We're two-thirds of the way to our goal with no particular need to rush--Emilio will need to come to us anyway. Maybe when he catches up we can finally get some answers about these things." In truth, he half-suspected that Ell herself could probably read the markings on these Artifacts, but considering the circumstances he decided pushing her would be unwise, possibly leading her to push back. He had no delusions about how she'd react to learning he'd struck a deal with a Mazoku, even if it was for her safekeeping of all unlikely things.

"But why Elmekia?" she pressed, frowning suspiciously. "I mean, I'll grant that the place is to Astral Shamanism what Seyrune is to White Magic, but...this is a little sudden."

(Author's Note: If I'm wrong about any of this, please don't hesitate to tell me; in all the researching I've done on varying Slayers info sites, all I've been able to find out about Elmekia (aside from the obvious that two spells are named after it) is that it's the home of one Gourry Gabriev. Any further information is more than welcome!)

"Well, why not Elmekia?" he asked with a shrug that he hoped wasn't too casual. "I'd rather keep moving than just sit around where any number of lunatics who want to get their hands on the Artifacts could surround and jump us, and Elmekia's as good a destination as any. We don't know where Emilio is, so no matter what direction we take we're likely to pick wrong. All we can do is wait for him to find us--he's shown an unpleasant knack for doing that anyway."

Ell frowned, clearly still reluctant, but this time it was Selaena who stepped forward and briefly cleared her throat. "In attrition, Miss Ellisia, if the Artifacts are intended to unseal Zenafa Armor--an armor suit related strongly with the Astral plane--it would seem likely that an Empire devoted to Shamanism (and particularly Astral Shamanism) would be a likely place for such armor to be sealed away."

"…you know something?" Ell said conspiratorially to Aric, while Selaena went back to finalizing her preparations to move. "I hate when she's still right even after getting a word wrong."

He could only stand and smirk, arms crossed.

- - -

Elmekia was not a short hop to the next town over, like the trips they'd been making. Thus far, it had been a simple goal of "pop over to the next closest town or village and figure out the next move" driving them on. Now, however, with a true long-term destination, the leagues seemed to drag on. Their fortunes finally seemed to rise after an ill-fated mugging attempt, that left their pockets lined and the muggers stranded in high tree branches (or in some cases somewhere in the upper atmosphere). Once again Aric found himself thankful for the overabundance of highwaymen and robbers on the roadways, always a boon to the money-pressed adventurer.

Still, the monotony was beginning to take its toll, driving Aric to distraction and beyond. He supposed that he had gotten accustomed to things being lively lately, always something going on (no matter how life-threatening it was at the time). He knew, consciously, that he should probably be grateful for the lapse in people and things trying to take his life...but then, if he'd wanted a life free of scrapes and dangers he could have taken up fishmongering or something.

He kept hoping for something, anything at all, to happen as they traveled. Another highway robbery attempt, a village under attack by monsters or demons--or better yet, his rather intensive imagination suggested, one plagued by the old "sacrifice a virgin once a month" routine, which would naturally require the efforts of a suitably heroic figure to step in and save the girl while his two lackeys did all the hard work...

Naturally, before this line of thought could get far, Ellisia would exert what seemed to be some kind of sixth Dragon-sense and find some excuse to bash him. But aside from that, nothing was forthcoming. Worst yet was the fact that neither of the two women seemed particularly affected by the lack of chaos in their current lives. For two weeks they traveled thus, in largely uneventful monotony, through three boring villages and little-changing landscape. Even another strange and mildly disturbing dream would have been welcome, at this point.

Aric wasn't sure whether to be relieved when his wish for something eventful came to pass, or to regret ever having taken up this whole venture.

It had been another long, rather dull day of travel. The two girls were walking a little ahead, casually chatting about varying female matters that he chose to tune out for the sake of his own sanity, and Aric strode behind with his hands stuffed into his pockets, kicking a small rock ahead of him along the path to amuse himself. A faint twinge of hunger, a persistent itch at the back of his neck and a small laundry-list of other minor irritations allowed him to focus on something other than how infernally bored he was...but it was the sudden, unmistakable sound of laughter that truly lifted his head, ceased the conversation in front of him and finally brought him out of his bored funk. And not just any laughter, but...

"Ahahahahahahahaha!!"

"See?" Aric said with a smirk, already tugging his gloves down tighter and stepping forward between and past the girls. "I told you we'd bump into him sooner or later. Come on out, Emilio, we've been--"

But he blinked, for though he heard the muffled sound of his would-be nemesis' voice, there was no way it could possibly have been directed at them. It was too far off, and Emilio was far too dramatic a man to let his speech be ruined in such a manner. He passed a glance over his shoulders to each young woman, and when each nodded in turn he sprinted forward along the path, followed by the two.

Rounding a final bend in the road brought them to quite the sight, indeed. Emilio and Lhynn stood facing off against another pair, and from the looks of the torn-up landscape (what had once been a forest clearing now looked like a deforested meadow), this had been going on for a bit. Both the treasure hunter and his partner had their weapons drawn, and Emilio additionally lofted a hovering ball of flame over one hand, but both looked rather the worse for wear--hair mussed, light scorch marks and scrapes on what could be seen of their skin, clothing somewhat torn and ragged at the edges. But Emilio bore the same confident bearing as ever, and Lhynn wore her minor injuries with typical stoicism.

Since the battle seemed to be at a brief breather for both sides, Aric took a look beyond his self-proclaimed arch-rival at his adversaries...and blanched, for standing confidently tall (stature notwithstanding) upon a grassy knoll surrounded by scorched ground was the unmistakable figure of none other than Lina Inverse herself. Her gloved fingertips were lightly smoking from released magic energy, her billowing black cape bore rents and small tears and scorch-holes, and her own slightly wild, fiery red hair was a little disarrayed as well...but she certainly seemed in better shape than the platinum-haired treasure hunter.

This time, however, she wasn't alone. To her left a swordsman wearing a deep blue breastplate over lighter-blue clothing, with blonde hair even longer than Lhynn's, grasped a sword with a strange hilt-design in both hands, fire in his blue eyes. His armor was somewhat chipped in places, and a lingering trace of red on his cheek marked where one of the two blades had scored, but once again he seemed in somewhat better condition than the two before him.

Before he had time to fully assimilate all this, however, the sorceress supreme caught sight of his small group past Emilio's shoulder. Instantly, her eyes lit with recognition, and a twinge of ire that nearly made Aric swallow his tongue. "You!" she spat, eyes narrowed and fingers curling as she glared at Ell--even with the disguise, she had probably made the inference from Aric's own presence.

"Who?" Emilio turned, blinking, as did Lhynn and the blonde swordsman. It was Ell's turn to freeze, like a deer staring at a Lighting spell. Upon recognizing them, Emilio drew himself up, sheathed his sword and tossed his fireball over his shoulder so he could properly cross his arms. "Ahahahahahahahaha! Well, if it isn't Winterbourne himself! I imagined this might be your doing. Still getting others to do your labors for you, I see, but you'll not take the Token as easily as you did the other two."

Even Lina's ire dissipated briefly at this, blinking as she returned her attention to Emilio as Aric tried frantically, belatedly, to shush him. Before anybody could speak, however, a new, female voice piped up in overtures of "cute and perky" that rivaled Kaia's worst.

"There! Miss Lina, these are the ones the guards in Atlass described! I knew rallying the militia would allow the cause of Justice to triumph!"

Whirling on their heels, Aric, Ellisia and Selaena found their path of entry blocked by two more figures, one shrouded much the same as Ell in a hooded cloak and white face-mask...and the other about four and a half feet of spunky wild black hair, dark blue eyes and exuberant disposition. Both wore white, the young girl's attire accessorized by pink bracelets with blue stones set into the backs, the young man wearing a sword belted at his hip whose pommel poked beyond the fringe of his close-drawn cloak.

"Awh, crap..." Aric muttered, slowly backing up only to realize that there was no refuge in that direction either. "Surrounded..."

Ellisia had other priorities in mind, however, turning a dark glare on the bright-eyed young girl. "You mean you're the one who had the guards after us?! I thought it was odd that Atlass City would be interested in the Artifacts."

"You've got to be kidding me," Aric muttered, glancing to his two companions, and then back over his shoulder. This was getting out of hand. Lina Inverse was after the Artifacts now?! Given that, the logical answer at this point to anyone with half a brain would be to simply surrender them, but if they did that then Ell would never get back to normal. And reward or no, Galamoth would probably not take well if Aric were to renege on their bargain.

"Indeed!" the dark-haired young girl proclaimed gallantly, striking a noble pose with a fist curled before her and her eyes raised toward the heavens. "Even the wiliest of evildoers cannot escape the long arm of the Law forever, even if it be but a fingernail that reaches them! And we are that fingernail!" With a dramatic flourishing gesture that caused her short white cape to whip about her shoulders with a snap, she pointed an accusing figure at the five in the center of the clearing. "Now, like the grime that builds up beneath that fingernail, prepare to be swept away by the cleansing force of righteousness!"

"What the hell is she talking about?" Aric murmured to Ell from the corner of his mouth. The half-Dragon could only shrug, bewildered. Glancing around, Aric saw that he wasn't the only one out of sorts--everyone else present, even the girl's own companions, stood in awkward speechlessness, a small bead of sweat rolling down the temple of everyone present save Emilio Van Strahd.

It was then that the white-shrouded figure next to Amelia stepped forward, looking decidedly weary himself. At least, what could be seen of him, around the eyes. Aric couldn't help but note, before the man began to speak, that the skin around them was oddly bluish-gray. "I think what Amelia's trying to say is that you're obviously stuck here. Surrounded, overmatched and generally outclassed. So how about handing over these 'Artifacts' you're carrying, and we can all go home without a fuss."

"Look," Aric began, "If we could just talk about this reasonably..."

"Never!" Emilio protested, causing both Aric and Lhynn to fall flat on their faces. "But perhaps if you all surrender now, we shall deign to spare your lives!"

"My, but he switches royalties quickly," Selaena murmured with a finger lifted to her chin as Emilio brandished his sword threateningly.

"Um, I think you mean 'loyalties', Miss Artifact-thief," Amelia said awkwardly.

"That's what I said."

"Alright, everybody hold it!!" People jumped on all sides, instinctively whirling to face a rather flustered-looking Lina Inverse. She stood with fists on her hips and eyes narrowed, a vein bulging ominously in her brow. "Okay, look. You kids were muscling in on my territory awhile back, and mouthed off. I can forgive that. Blowing somebody up once per transgression suits me just fine. Your looney friend here reminds me unpleasantly of an old association, but as long as he doesn't laugh again I'm fine with that too. There's no need for anyone to get hurt here, so why don't you just hand the magic items over to the world-saving veterans and find yourselves another ancient lost treasure to unearth. We sort of need these for personal reasons."

"As do we," Ellisia spoke up, taking on regal tones as she took the role of group spokesperson upon herself. Emilio was currently too busy hopping around on one foot in pain, after Lhynn (unable to take the part for obvious reasons) had stomped on his toes to prevent him from laughing once again, Selaena was out because simply conversing with her resulted in too much word confusion, and Aric was entirely too intimidated by his career-choice ideal to speak. "So it seems we are still at odds. Besides, at least two of us are...unable to give up the Artifacts we carry, for our own individual reasons." Selaena nodded emphatically, clutching her staff protectively to her chest.

Lina crossed her arms, her brow furrowing. "This isn't a game, you know. Those things are dangerous. If they fall into the wrong hands--"

"And what guarantee do we have that yours are the 'right hands'?" Ell retorted, mirroring the posture. Even with her voice muffled by the scarf covering her lower face, she managed to sound like a negotiating diplomat.

Lina, however, had never been accused of being diplomatic in nature. Already, her temper was beginning to slip, her brow twitching as she spoke through clenched teeth. "You mean aside from saving the world from utter annihilation at least three times, I'm guessing?"

"Your reputation for wanton destruction precedes you, Miss Inverse," Ell continued calmly, gesturing offhandedly with one thick and unwieldy glove. "Besides, this is an affair of the Dragons. While humans have been recruited to assist the affair, this concern weighs far more heavily than your petty human treasure hunting."

Aric and Selaena both jumped at the sudden sound of steel being unsheathed, behind them. Half-turning, Aric saw that the white-shrouded man had drawn his sword, and was now holding it in a preparative stance with a cold gleam in his eyes.

"Now come on, Zelgadis," Lina hastily tried to placate, as more eyes turned toward the man. "Things are finally getting sort of sane around here. I'm sure we can work this out."

"This is too important for simple negotiation, Lina," the man named Zelgadis said coolly, edging a little closer until the point of his sword nearly touched Aric's chin. He reached up his empty hand, revealing a fingerless glove that exposed the blue-gray tips of his fingers, and pulled away first hood and then face-mask. "This may be my last remaining chance to turn my body back to normal. We can't afford to just squander it. Let the Dragons do what they want with it, after we've used it for this."

His face was perfectly human in configuration, save for the pointed ears, but the entirety of his visage was all rocky blue-gray, with little chunks of darker blue stone set at seemingly random points about his face. Aric even noticed an odd little detail, as one tends to at the strangest moments: crossing one of his eyes, from brow-ridge to cheekbone, were two very narrow rib-like arches of stone.

(Author's Note: Little-known detail I read about somewhere. Can't remember which eye it is, if the source even said...)

While Aric and Selaena, Emilio and even Lhynn could only stare, eyes wide, Ellisia was quick to recover her mental feet. Snatching her own hood she let her wings unfurl with a snap and send her mantle flying across the battle-scarred clearing. While the four surrounding them took their own respective turn to stare, Ell lifted a gloved hand to curl around the blade of the sword and pull it away from Aric. "You aren't the only one who needs them for a mystical makeover."

There was a long moment of tense silence. Zelgadis and Ellisia glared coolly into one another's eyes. Aric felt his muscles tensing, saw Lina doing the same. The blonde swordsman (presumably Gourry to whom she had spoken in their last encounter), silent the entire time, raised his sword slowly as his fingers curled closer around the grip, and Lhynn mirrored him. Emilio finally stopped hopping around on one foot, looking around in bewilderment, and Selaena seemed at something of a loss.

Amelia sneezed.

All hell broke loose.