Hope turned to despair scarcely a week after Lina and Luna had returned home to Zephyr City as Lina studied in the city library with Mindy. At first Lina was surprised when Mindy said, "Your sister and her friends are coming."
Lina looked up from the book she was reading and felt her heart skip. Luna, Melissa and Ashley had never set foot in the library before, something she was usually grateful for because it was a place she could get away from them. So if they were there then they must have had a good reason. They were carrying a picnic basket. Maybe they were going to ask her to join them? Perhaps Luna had told them that she really wasn't a waste of space after all!
"Luna!" Mindy said as she smiled and waved them over as Lina felt herself go tingly with hope. Luna smiled when she saw them and walked over.
"Good day Mindy, Lina." Luna said as she set the basket before her as she glanced at her, and Lina felt herself grow rigid at the shaded look in Luna's eyes. That look was never good.
"Sis! What are you doing here?" Lina asked.
"I realized during our trip that I really should help you with your training." Luna explained.
Lina raised an eyebrow, "My training is coming along well…"
"Oh you're mastering spells left and right, but if you do go and live a life on the road then you need to be prepared. You know how Papa always talks about the dangers of poison."
Lina's stomach started to churn as she stood up, "You know, I just realized that I forgot…"
"Sit back down!" Luna said forcefully as Melissa and Ashley moved closer to her.
"Oh come on Lina, it can't be that bad. She's just trying to help you." Mindy said.
Luna reached into the basket and pulled out two bottles and two pastries. "Now, here is a bottle of the most common poison. It has a rather distinctive taste and I want you to have a little to familiarize yourself with it."
"You want me to eat poison?" Lina repeated, unable to keep her voice completely steady.
"Just a tiny amount. It won't hurt you. And I have the antidote here." Luna said as she indicated the second bottle.
"How do I know that is what you say it is?"
"Oh Lina, how can you think that Luna would really let you to die from this?" Mindy said, and Lina looked at her in disbelief as she wondered if she was the crazy one or if she was the only sane person in a town full of crazy people!
"We won't let you die, silly. Papa is rather fond of you for some reason. Even with the antidote though you're in for a bad night in the outhouse but you'll survive. Once you familiarize yourself with it, you will sample these pastries before you. One of these pastries is poisoned. Once you determine five times in a row which pastry has the poison then you'll have mastered the lesson and we'll give you the antidote."
"Is everything alright here girls?" Ms. Jacobs said as she came over, and Lina sent her a desperate, pleading look.
"Everything is fine," Melissa said with a sweet smile so fake Lina wondered how Ms. Jacobs couldn't see right through it. "We're just helping Lina with her training."
"That's nice of you." Ms. Jacobs said with a smile.
"Oh Ms. Jacobs! I love your brooch!" Ashley exclaimed as Lina realized that there was no way Ms. Jacobs would believe her if she told her what was happening now, "Those sapphires really bring out the blue in your eyes."
Ms. Jacobs blushed a little, "Oh thank you. You are sweet to notice."
"I hope you're not working too hard today." Melissa said. "You deserve to go home and put your feet up."
"Well, I won't be able to for a while now. As it is I have plenty of books to shelve. On that note I really must be going, but it was good talking to you girls."
As she turned and walked away Lina's stomach dropped as she realized that once again the only one standing beside her would be her. Walt would want her to fight. And she was used to fighting. And getting her ass handed to her in the process. Would it even make a difference if she had someone standing beside her and for her?
Well, perhaps she would still lose. But she would at least know that someone thought she was worth a damn.
Lina looked down at the table as Luna pulled a stopper from the vial of potion, "Now open wide."
Lina pushed the table over on Luna. She knew they would still beat her up but if she could at least smash the bottle then they wouldn't be able to give her any poison. Lina started chanting a Lei Wing spell as she hoped to reach the door as she ran. If she could get the spell completed she would be able to outrun them, and hopefully get home. Surely Luna wouldn't poison her in front of her parents.
But before she got far Melissa had grabbed her and then Ashley, and between the two of them she was good and pinned. She looked over and saw that Luna's dress was wet from where the poison had spilled as Mindy put her hands on her hips and scolded, "Lina, you really oughtn't cause a scene!"
Lina looked at her in betrayal. By now she knew to expect it but it still stung every time. Why did others not see how wrong this was? Why did others stand by Luna even when she was acting so horribly? Lina didn't get any of that support even when she did the right thing, forget about when she did the wrong thing. Why were the rules for Luna different?
"I was worried this would happen. You really are such a baby." Luna said as she pulled another vial from the basket, "I brought more just in case."
Melissa and Ashley tightened their grip on her arm as Mindy said, "You're just making this harder for everyone by being so stubborn. Just do what she wants. She really wants the best for you."
As Luna drew forward with the stopper Lina felt her confidence in the belief that this was wrong waver. What if this was just a typical part of training. Training hurts sometimes. Learning to use the sword certainly hurt. What if she was being too sensitive? Would this ruin her chances of becoming a powerful, successful sorceress if she refused?
Luna forced the bottle between her lips. Later Lina would regret how she gave up in that moment and stopped fighting. Lina coughed and sputtered as she swallowed it as her stomach roiled. She had consumed poison! It was in her now, killing her! Panic surged through her, "Sis, give me the antidote!"
"You have a few hours." Luna said. "The quicker you pass the pastry test the sooner you'll get the antidote."
"Fuck you!" Lina spat.
"Lina, how could you?" Mindy said.
"Really Mindy?" Lina said as she looked at her and wondered what Mindy would say if she died! Was that what it would take to get her to change her tune?
"If you just cooperated with her this would go a lot more smoothly. Can't you see she's just trying to help you?"
Lina shook her head in disbelief as tears formed in her eyes, but she knew she had to stop them. Luna would make it worse if she cried. But the thought that if this did kill that there was a strong possibility that Mindy would argue in a court of law that Lina was begging for it as she pleaded for leniency for Luna was not something that Lina could dismiss.
"That's enough of this ruckus. All of you get out of here now!" Ms. Jacobs said.
Melissa and Ashley let her go and Lina dusted herself off as Melissa said, "We're real sorry Ms. Jacobs. Lina just wigged out for no reason, it was all we could do to keep her from knocking the shelves over."
No reason. Being poisoned was no reason to wig out. What would be the point in telling Ms. Jacobs that Luna had just poisoned her? Lina felt it would break her completely if Ms. Jacobs agreed with them, that she was just being a baby, that this was just part of any rigorous training.
Everyone else can't be wrong, can they Lina?
"Lina?" Ms. Jacobs said in surprise.
"I'm going to be sick!" Lina said she threw her hand over her mouth as she bolted for the door. Her footsteps felt heavy as she walked outside with the others as she worried about the poison racing through her. As soon as they were outside Luna rounded on her, "You're wasting time. It's only your life. Let's start the pastry test."
"Fine." Lina said.
It took a long hour and thirty-two minutes for Lina to consistently determine which pastry had the poison. By then she wasn't feeling great and she still wasn't sure she trusted Luna to give her the actual antidote. But she gulped it down. Without a word she started home.
"See, that wasn't too bad." Mindy said as she started following her.
But Mindy wasn't the one feeling sick to her stomach and dizzy. Mindy wasn't the one scared to death that she would die. Mindy wasn't the one feeling worthless and unloved. How could Mindy even say that? "Get the hell away from me!" Lina growled.
"Now really Lina…"
"You're not the one feeling sick from having poison shoved down your throat, don't tell me I'm overreacting!" Lina said.
"You know it's for your own good."
"Burst Rondo!" Lina said as she blasted Mindy away from her.
Mindy started crying, "How could you? You're going to have to live with what you just did for the rest of your life!"
"Get the hell away from me or you'll get another one!" Lina yelled.
A sense of satisfaction washed through her as Mindy ran away. At long last she had the power to stop one person from hurting her. Unfortunately she wasn't the one who mattered.
Lina went straight to her room and locked the door. She didn't stay in there long once the belly rumblings started. Soon she was running to the outhouse as fluids started pouring from both ends. Arline quickly got the message that she was very sick. Lina didn't dare tell her why. The part of her that hoped her own mother would be outraged was too scared at the possibility that she would react like Mindy. So she was going to cling to the shard of hope she had left that someone would have cared enough about her to say that this was wrong of Luna rather than see that dashed as well.
At some point after Lina had made a disgusting farting sound she heard laughter from outside and her stomach sank as she heard Luna say, "Since you was such a baby about it I figured some extra punishment was in order."
Punishment. You had to do something wrong to earn punishment. Tears welled in her eyes as she heard a boy who was sweet on Luna named Aaron say, "No wonder no one likes her. She's so gross!"
"She'll never be a proper lady, that's for sure." Ashley said.
"No one is ever going to want to marry her."
"If you don't leave now I'm going to start throwing fireballs!" Lina yelled.
"Come on, it's time for the dance anyway." Another boy said as Lina trembled to think about how many people Luna had brought with her. Was Mindy with them? Having fun, laughing at her behind her back as she ate treats and watched the show while Lina was there alone, sick and weak in the outhouse. Lina still wasn't convinced she would survive the night.
Of course, Mindy would just say she was being dramatic.
When Arline knocked on the door Lina still wasn't sure she'd gotten everything out of her system and that she wouldn't suddenly need to bolt back to the outhouse. But the cup of water she had for her was nice and cold, and once she rinsed her mouth she drank it gratefully as Arline helped her into the house. "I hope this isn't some bug that we're all going to get. Walt, can you carry her up the stairs? She's as weak as a kitten."
Walt scooped her up and started to carry her up the stairs, "Do you think we should get a healer?"
"No, I think I'm better now," Lina said. A healer might have been able to tell that she'd been poisoned. And right now Lina didn't want to risk destroying the sense of being cared for that she felt as Walt carried her into her room and Arline pulled back the covers on her bed.
Walt sat her down and tucked her in and Arline grabbed a bowl of broth, "Do you think you can hold a bit down?"
"I'll try."
The poisoning was something Lina wanted to move away from. But it was hard when she would walk through town and other kids would hold their noses and ask each other if they smelled shit. And what was even worse now was that she and Mindy weren't talking to each other. Mindy might have been a horrible friend, but Lina soon learned that she was better than no friend. It was hard to argue when people talked about how no one liked her as she walked past when she didn't even have the appearance of someone being by her side.
No one liked her. She heard it often during her daily walk of shame to the Sorcerer's Guild. She smelled like shit despite the fact that she had bathed that morning. She got upset over harmless jokes. Lina tried to ignore it. Or at least appear as though she didn't hear what was said just loudly enough for her to hear. What they wanted her to hear. That she was so hated that people felt it was okay to do this publicly...
I really suck.
She'd just endured another round of torments as she approached the Sorcerer's Guild when a man said, "Little miss?"
Lina felt herself go rigid as she wondered what now. She saw a few of the kids who'd been saying mean things to her turn to look at what was happening and then she heard Ashley say, "Wow, he's cute."
Lina wondered what fresh humiliation was about to be rained down upon her and turned around and saw a tall young man dressed as a mercenary standing behind her. "Yes?" she asked nervously.
He handed her a bag of candy. Lina stared at it and wondered why he was giving it to her. Candy was rare and expensive. "Life can be rather unfair at times, can't it?"
Lina lifted her chin to stop herself from crying. "Hey, I get it." He said quickly, "And you hang in there. It's amazing how cruel other can be."
Cruel? Lina repeated to herself as her heart started to race as it sank in that someone else had seen it for what she knew it had to be no matter how hard others had tried to convince her otherwise.
"It's hard to believe right now but it will get better. I see you're going to the guild so that must mean you're working hard at something worthwhile. In the meantime I see what you're going through, so take the candy and remember that you deserve kindness." He said as he put the candy in her hand and ruffled her hair.
"Thank you, sir!" Lina said as a strange feeling washed through her as her heart raced. And then she ran into the guild. She spent most of her time there now. Kids who weren't training to be sorcerers weren't allowed there under any circumstances.
She was baffled as she walked to the guild library as she thought of the strange man and his beautiful blue eyes and his kind smile and felt her skin go warm. She'd never understood what Luna and her friends saw in boys. But now she was starting to understand.
She got out a book, but for once she couldn't concentrate as she found herself staring at the beautiful bag of candy to assure herself that it was real, that it had really happened as she started thinking about things she never had before. Was the man just passing through, or was he going to stay? And why had he been so nice to her? The older Lina got the more astonished she was at how others were able to rationalize Luna's growing cruelty. Why could the people in town not see what the man saw?
But he saw it. Someone else saw it! At times Lina would drive herself crazy wondering if she was too sensitive and wrong to be hurt but not anymore. Not everyone agreed with Luna anymore.
Was he smitten with her? Would he finally be the person who would defend and stand beside her? Would he want to kiss her even? Lina blushed as she thought of it. But she liked the thought of him kissing her right smack dab in the middle of town, proving everyone who said she was too ugly for anyone else to love wrong!
You're acting just as silly as Sis! Lina told herself. But she couldn't help it. The thoughts around her handsome mercenary were too delectable.
Lina never saw the young mercenary again. But she thought of him often as she fantasized about him telling all of the other kids to leave her alone and of the shades of sour apple green that Luna, Ashley and Melissa would turn when they realized what a dreamboat that Lina had ensnared. Someone who would love her, treat her kindly, buy her lots of candy and who would take her to a house far away from Zephyr City where they would love each other deeply.
"Lina?" Mindy said, jolting Lina from her studies as she looked at her. Mindy held up a lunch pail. "Lunchtime?"
Lina's stomach turned as it always did. It was not the first time she and Mindy had fallen out over her taking Luna's side. And it wasn't the first time that Lina had rebuilt the friendship. And each time she did she felt more and more pathetic. That this was the only choice she had, that even though she'd been wronged that this was all she'd had to go back to.
Because what Luna had done couldn't be right, no matter what anyone else said! Every time she wavered she thought of the mercenary and it helped to keep her grounded. Luna had the others in this town under some strange spell. Because Lina knew she would have fought Luna like hell if she'd tried to do that to Mindy. It just hurt like hell that Mindy would never fight for her.
"Right," Lina said as she grabbed her lunch and followed Mindy.
I am completely pathetic.
Lina looked at her pink robes in the mirror with a sense of pride. She was now a full fledged member of the Sorcerer's Guild and she had a color status! And not only that, but she was the youngest person in Zephyr City to get a color status. Yes, her parents were pinching pennies, but their investment had paid off. Now Lina could go out and make money and…
"Hey," Mindy said as she came in. "You look so pretty! I wanted to say congrats."
Lina smoothed the folds of the robes and smiled. She did look pretty in them! "Thanks."
"A real color status! The youngest person in Zephyr City to get one!" Mindy said as Lina reflected sadly that her bust didn't quite fill out the garment. She was sure Luna had been more developed by the time that she was her age.
"I can't wait to show my folks." Lina said. Finally. She could stop being a drain on her family's limited resources.
"Let's go then!" Mindy said as they headed for the door. They were so hard up for funds at the moment that her parents couldn't shut down the store to watch Lina pass her test. Walt was even taking an extra job at the lumber mill to make ends meet. Lina understood. Especially since paying for the testing and membership fees was part of the reason they were so strapped.
As soon as she stepped outside the guild Lina saw Luna waiting there with Melissa, Ashley and their boyfriends. "Sis?" Lina said as her mind went blank with anxiety.
"May I introduce Lina the Pink!" Mindy said exuberantly.
As the group started laughing Lina felt her stomach drop. "Sounds like a good name for you when you have to take up stripping." Luna said.
Lina flushed crimson as her hands balled up into fists as Aaron said, "Who'd pay to see her strip? She doesn't even have any boobs."
Beside her Mindy was laughing along with them as Lina's mortification grew as Melissa said, "Luna would be worth paying to see. She'd get your family out of Lina's debt in ten seconds! Sucks for Lina that one sister gets all the beauty."
"She must have had to seduce someone real desperate to get her color status." Ashley said.
"That's not true!" Lina roared. "I worked hard…"
"Worked someone over hard." Luna corrected.
"You don't know a damn thing about studying hard. Ceifeed blessed you with your damn powers because he needed someone stupid otherwise you'd be a waste." Lina snapped.
"Lina," Mindy said warningly, "It's just a joke! Stop being so sensitive! You really should apologize to her."
As Luna smiled smugly at her Lina felt something within her snap. "If this is a joke then you are the world's worst comedian!"
"Lina Inverse!" Mindy said, but Lina was already chanting.
"Lei Wing!" Lina roared as she hightailed it home, faster than anyone could follow her as the tears started to fall. People gasped and got out of her way and it was satisfying to see them scramble. She canceled her spell outside the store, but before she could go in she saw Arline outside, waving goodbye to a regular customer.
"Lina!" Arline exclaimed, "You did it!"
"They're pink Mama!" Lina screamed as she pulled at her robes.
"What?" Arline said, baffled.
"Pink! The worst possible color! No one is going to take a sorceress with pink robes seriously!" Lina yelled.
"Really, Lina, get ahold of yourself…"
"Shut up!" Lina said as she ran into the store and to her room and slammed the door behind her and locked it. She tore the robes off of her and threw them in a drawer and dressed in her regular clothes as a plan took form. Soon Arline was knocking at the door. "Save your money on an expensive dinner! There's nothing to celebrate!"
"Lina, please! Talk to me." Arline said, but Lina was already opening her window.
She cast another Lei Wing spell and headed for the woods as a plan formed. Even now that she was a fully trained sorceress she wasn't powerful enough to hurt Luna physically. But she could still show Luna she was a force to be reckoned with and make her regret how mean she was. And if Luna killed her for it so be it. But Lina couldn't fathom the thought of being the town's punching bag anymore. She would force Luna to stop humiliating her or die trying.
"What the hell Lina!" Luna said as she tore through the house.
"We needed money." Lina said, "I remembered you saying something about how all of our debts would be paid if…"
Luna smacked her so hard she went tumbling to the ground. "Cut the bullshit!"
Lina braced herself for what would come next. She wasn't going to cry or scream. She wasn't going to let Luna have the satisfaction. She rolled to a sitting position and looked at Luna firmly, "This will teach you to mess with me! Don't you ever publicly embarrass me again…"
"I've never done any such thing and you know it! Even Mindy knows it! Stop with your lies! I've been nothing but nice to you, you're the one who's been horrible to me, always ruining my life!"
"If you ever embarrass me again…"
Luna kicked her down as she got out a fork and Lina braced herself. But she wasn't going to back down. Not even as the volts of electricity ran through her body, the pain more intense than anything she'd felt before. She bit her tongue and tasted blood and her hands reached for something to hold and found the table legs. She squeezed tight. But she wasn't going to scream, she was not going to cry…
"What are you two doing in here?" Arline said as she came in, trailed by Walt.
"Lina made projections of me taking a shower and sold them to whoever wanted to see them!" Luna yelled, "I was completely naked! All the boys in this town have seen me naked!"
"Lina…" Arline said as Lina slowly pushed herself off the ground.
"We needed the money." Lina said as she stared at the floor.
"How could you even begin to think that was a good way to make money?" Walt yelled.
Lina continued to stare at the floor. How could she begin to explain? No one ever saw anything wrong with what Luna did. A morsel of doubt crept into Lina's mind as she wondered if she was the crazy one, but then she shut it out as she remembered the mercenary. He'd not seen anything funny about how the other kids treated her.
He was the only one who didn't think she deserved to be treated like dirt.
So for the next hour her parents yelled and railed at her in a way she'd waited for them to rail at Luna for years. But she endured it silently. There was nothing she could say that would justify what she did to them. She knew it was wrong and horrible. But as Walt had told her numerous times growing up, she had to fight back. No one else was going to help her. This was the only way she had to protect herself.
Or are you just excusing the inexcusable?
"No dinner for you tonight! You will kneel on rice until bedtime!" Arline said.
"For the next month!" Walt added.
"For the next three months!" Arline said.
"Fine. I'll kneel on rice for six months!" Lina said as she got off the floor and grabbed the jar of rice and took a handful of it. She turned and looked Luna in the eye as she sprinkled it on the floor and knelt down, never wavering in her gaze. At least she'd actually done something to justify the punishment this time, unlike when she'd been forced to eat poison and the numerous times after that when she'd been publicly humiliated. Somewhere deep inside Luna had to know what she was doing was wrong. And Lina needed her to know she wasn't giving in. Luna watched her as she knelt as Lina stared right back at her, gaze unwavering. She was not backing down.
Because after years of being tormented by Luna and people looking the other way, after years of being smacked down every time she tried to fight back, Lina had finally drawn blood. She had shown Luna she was someone to be reckoned with. She may not be able to beat her in a physical fight, but she could use sorcery to humiliate her. And if Luna ever hurt her again then Lina would humiliate her right back, she didn't care what punishment she received. How could it be any worse than the daily torments she already received?
"What's gotten into her?" Arline said as she stared at Walt hopelessly.
I finally have power, that's what's gotten into me, Lina thought. And she was right. Lina turned thirteen four months later and left town to begin her own adventure. But for those four months Luna and her gang left her alone.
Over dinner Luna listened in stony silence as Lina told Arline about her adventures since she left home, with Gourry interjecting here and there to set the record straight. By the time the dessert plates were cleared Lina had covered most of the highlights. "That about wraps it all up. What all have you been up to?"
"Years go by but things remain the same," Arline said, "I work hard at the store. Luna splits her time between the restaurant and here."
Something about the way that Luna's face flinched as she quickly glanced at Gourry unsettled Lina as Arline continued, "Mindy got married a few years ago. She never did go far as a sorceress and then Aaron got her knocked up. They say the baby is premature of course."
"Aaron?" Lina said as Luna went puce.
"A jerk like him is not worthy of the Ceifeed Knight." Luna said evenly. A little too evenly.
"Not many men are I'm afraid." Arline said as she sipped her tea. "Men are such frail, jealous creatures. I was so lucky to find Walt. And you're still young, Luna. You have plenty of time to find someone special."
Arline gave Lina a knowing look as she got up and started to collect the dishes, "Land's sake, it's getting late! You must be exhausted from your trip. I freshened your room up for you Lina. And Gourry it was so good to meet you."
"I'll help you with the dishes before I go if that's alright." Gourry said.
Arline's eyes widened, "Well that's how you know you've found a special man. Go on ahead and put your stuff up."
Lina felt her stomach flip as she wondered if Gourry was going to finally do what she hoped he would do as she grabbed her bag, "Right."
She hurried up the stairs and made a beeline for the pipe and sat beside it so she could hear their discussion from the kitchen loud and clear.
"It's not often I see a man do the dishes." Arline's voice sounded through the pipe.
"When you're cooking on the road alone no one is there to clean them for you." Gourry said, "And once I met Lina she tended to cook the food while I washed up. It's only fair."
"You talk as though you're already married."
"We function like a marriage, but we've not overstepped our bounds. Through the years I have grown to love and care for Lina." Lina's heart raced as she gripped the pipe tighter. "I can provide for her too. I don't have a job right now but it's never hard for me to get one and we have some reserves from our travels to live off of for another month or so. She will have a good life with me if she chooses to. I will love and care for her and I hope you will bless our union, if Lina agrees to have me."
It was all Lina could do to keep from screaming that she would. But then Luna's voice came through the pipe, "You want my mama to bless your union when you don't even have a job?"
"I can get one easily."
"But can you keep it?" Luna asked. "Really, you travel from place to place like vagabonds. For all we know you do shoddy work and have to get out of town as soon as your reputation is trashed."
Lina pulled away from the pipe as though scalded as Arline said, "She has a point I'm afraid. Look, this isn't a no. This is a not now. You say you can get a job easily. Prove it and hold it for a few months."
"A year." Luna said.
"Of course you're right," Arline said. "A year. And then I'll reconsider."
Lina could barely hear what Gourry was saying over the rush of blood in her ears as she felt as though she was going crazy. Something about this town made her crazy! The thought of staying her for a year, currying favor with Luna, when her whole life there was only one, short lived time she had been in Luna's favor…
But there was no way Gourry would go against her mother. He was such a goody. He would want to do things the right and proper way. What had she thought coming back home? She'd convinced herself that it wasn't so bad, that it couldn't have been that bad. No one else but her thought it was that bad after all so she had to be the crazy one, right?
But no one stood up to Luna. And soon Gourry would be wrapped around Luna's finger, just as everyone else in this town was. Telling her to appease her. Just like Mindy did. As though that would magically make Luna treat her better.
The walls seemed to close in on her as Lina felt as though she was going out of her mind. She had to get out of this room. But she couldn't talk to Gourry. She couldn't bear to hear from his lips how they should do as Luna and Arline asked, how they should stay here for a year and jump through Luna's hoops and play the game that Luna had rigged against her and…
She needed to beat up bandits. Lina calmed down a little at the thought. She was going to find a bandit camp and beat the hell out of them. She flung open her window and chanted a levitation spell. As soon as her feet touched ground she nearly jumped out of her skin as she heard Gourry's soft voice from behind her saying as he grabbed her shoulder, "I think I know now why you pick on bandits."
AN: In the novels Lina does talk about how Luna poisoned her to teach her how to detect poisoned food and was traumatized by it, to the point where she told Gourry it was the one thing she would not talk about. The bit with Lina's first love being a man who gave her candy is also in one of the Blaster interviews.