The King in White

Chapter: 4

Connection

Been a little while but what can I say...I've never been the greatest at keeping my update schedule. Sorry. But, also seeing as how this is my last semester of college so I'm a bit busier that normal. But, on with the fic.

Zelgadis awoke and sat up in his bed. He stretched before swinging his legs over the side of the bed. He stood before heading towards the closet that held his clothing. He opened the door to be greeted with many white shirts and pants. Zelgadis dressed in a lower key outfit seeing as how he would not leave the grounds of the tower and not into the town. After he had donned the shirt and pants he pulled on a simple white cloak before stepping into a pair of brown shoes. He then grabbed a pair of white gloves and pulled them on his hands. After finishing Zelgadis turned to a small cabinet and opened it to reveal a less ornate mask made of ivory. He picked up the mask and ran his fingers over it as it was just a curved slate of ivory. There were no inscriptions or inlays like on the masks he wore into public. 'If I'm not in public the simple things are better,' Zelgadis thought before placing the mask on his face.

The mask fit onto his face and stayed in place by way to the magic woven into it. Zelgadis then reached back and pulled the cloak hood over his head to finish off his disguise. He was the king in white once again. He became the person that villagers took hope in and looked up to. He walked to his balcony as he took in the morning. The sun slowly peaked above the ridge of mountains in the east as the haze of the morning came into the valley. The king in white looked down into the valley as he saw the farmers beginning their work as the sun came onto their crops. He turned his view to see the shop keepers beginning to open their shops for the day. He pulled his view down to the rose garden he kept next to the tower. He saw a figure moving around in the rows of flowers. The figure had bright red hair but the body type was too lithe for it to be Shaya. 'Lina,' he thought before lifting himself on the railing and then stepping off.

Lina had awoken early and could not get back to sleep. She had dressed in a yellow shirt and mauve colored jeans. It had been a while since she had worn an outfit like it but she was not traveling so she could take it easy with what she was wearing. She did not need any of her talismans or amulets while she was in the shadow of the tower. 'I can actually relax here. I don't have to worry about being attacked by anything out of the blue,' Lina thought as she walked among the rows of roses in the king in white's garden.

Lina walked up to a bush of roses and ran her fingers on the petals of the roses. The garden was immaculately kept with not a single vine or flower out of place. It seemed that everything the king in white touched or created was made with a sense of beauty. 'But, there is something missing from the things I've seen,' Lina thought as she withdrew her hand from the roses.

Lina was about to turn around when she felt some thing on her bare arm. She looked down to see a white gloved hand on her arm. She was about to look back when she felt the other hand on her neck. Lina did not know how to react as she knew it was the king in white that was holding her. She felt the hand on her arm move slowly up before she heard him say, "I see you've been enjoying my roses."

Lina nodded before replying, "I wanted to relax and this garden seemed like a good place."

Lina began to turn and felt the hand withdraw from her before she came face to mask with the king in white. She looked at him and even the mask was a thing of beauty that he had created but that same thing nagged at her in the back of her mind. "You've noticed even if you can't say it," the king replied as he walked forward and took a rose in his hand.

"What do you mean," Lina asked.

Lina knew there was something wrong but at the same time she could not put the feeling into words or thoughts. She walked forward and looked at the rose before she heard his reply, "All that I make is a thing of art and beauty but they are all static."

Lina's eyes widened. She had felt that but could not express it fully. The king in white's creations were all things that were static and not truly living. The roses where the first organic thing that she had seen him work with. "Not, everything. The roses are not static. They live and grow and die just like other things."

"No," the king replied, "These roses are a bit different. Once they began to bloom I cast a renewal spell on them. They will never wilt or die."

Lina's eyes widened again before saying, "Well that makes it a bit different. But, I can understand."

"Can you," the king replied as he turned and ran his right hand against Lina's chin.

Lina pulled away and turned to look down into the village. She nodded before saying, "We are a rare breed you and I. We have extended our lives well beyond what they were supposed to be and we are not sure if we are still mortal or not."

The king nodded before replying, "Yes, throughout our lives we have done things that have caused us to live past our contemporaries. But, we are different in the way we have chosen to continue once we figured out the inevitable."

Lina looked back at the king in white before saying, "I don't think we are truly that different. I choose to keep traveling so that I wouldn't get attached to anyone or place. You settled down but originally in a place that was devoid of anything. When the world found you, you interacted but you've still kept your distance. And, not just through this tower but through the mask you wear."

The king in white watched Lina before replying, "True, I have locked my visage away in that of white and ivory. But, it is better for everyone this way. I do not become attached to the lives I will out live but it provides the villagers with a glimmer of happiness and hope to know that I will always be here."

Lina smirked as she looked down at the town. The farmers had been in their fields for a while and the shops were just opening. It was like watching an ant farm kick into gear as light came into the tank. Lina continued to look down as she replied, "My story has become legend and fairy tales that are told to children. Not many people know I'm alive but they take hope in the idea that there was a human that reached my level of power."

The king in white looked at Lina before saying, "We have both earned our way into legend. Others have joined us in this realm, but we are the only two to continue to live with the legend."

Lina looked back at the king before asking, "Who are you talking about?"

The king smiled under his mask before replying, "Your companions joined you in legend. Gourry Gabriev the swordsman of light, Amelia Wil Tesla Sailoon the hammer of justice, Xellos the trickster priest, and Zelgadis Greywords the mysterious sorcerer swordsman."

Lina's eyes grew wide as the king listed off the names of her former companions before she turned away as the sting of loss hit her. Lina gripped at her shirt with her hand while holding back the pain that remembering her lost friends brought. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked to see the white glove. "Did I overstep my bounds," the king asked.

Lina shook her head before saying, "No, it's just been a while since someone could remember their names and titles."

"Your story is well known in this town. Before I settled down I had heard of the red head sorceress and her traveling companions. It is a story I have shared with the town and it is a story they have kept close to their hearts," the king replied before removing his hand and began to walk away.

Lina turned and looked at the man before asking, "Why did you share my story with them?"

The king in white stopped and sighed before saying, "Because, your story gives them a figure with a face of humanity full of emotion. It gives them a human hero and not the cold face of this mask."

Lina watched as the king in white walked away towards the front of the tower. She moved a hand in front of her mouth as she watched the mysterious man walked away and disappear behind the tower. Lina could not help but feel something about the man that was rather familiar. Something about the king in white brought Lina's mind back to an older time. She smiled as she thought, "We might have more in common than just what was talked about."

Disclaimer: Any characters or ideas from The Slayers do not belong to me. I am not selling this material, just writing for the heck of it as I go.

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