Maybe it meant that she was weak, but Lina needed the cry. Gourry kept a gentle hand on the small of her back as she curled up on the bed with a pillow as he stared out the window, silent but present. Yet as the light grew dimmer through the window Lina knew she was going to have to pull herself together and face the music. Especially before Luna got it in her head to track them down and force the issue.
"Well," Lina said as she got out of bed, momentarily jolted into action by the thought, "Sis is a good cook at least."
"Hm," Gourry said noncommittally.
Lina went to the washstand and filled it with water and started to wash her face as she wondered if she could somehow convince Gourry that a good bandit hunt would be just what she needed to brace herself for facing her family. But she knew there was no way he would buy it. After toweling herself dry she asked, "Do I look like I've been crying?"
He stepped forward and gave her a hug, "We'll get through it together."
"That bad?" Lina said as her hands bunched into fists as she fought her desire to melt into his hug, "Don't tell me that being with you is turning me soft."
Gourry pulled away to give her a look, "Lina, you're easily the strongest person I know."
"Was," Lina said, "You saw what Sis did back there. She's way stronger than me!"
"But what does she do with it, aside from bully people weaker than her?"
Lina opened her mouth and then looked at the floor. "She slew a plasma dragon with a kitchen knife once."
"You were way hotter when you took down Shabranigdu that first time." Gourry said.
Lina laughed as she punched him playfully on the shoulder, "Now you're messing with me! I was bloodied and broken, greatly overpowered and desperate enough to try something risky."
"You were a living legend, fighting with everything you had. I don't think Luna's ever had to do that. Not even with the plasma dragon." Lina smiled a little as she buried her face in his chest and inhaled for a moment as he rubbed her back, "And nothing Luna says or thinks will change how amazing what you did was."
"Well, you may be making me weak…but you're so damn sweet I don't mind," she said as she felt a warm current flow through her. Leaving the inn and going home was the last thing that she wanted to do. Still, she would not want to face her mother's wrath if she missed dinner, "Let's get this done with."
"Hey Lina," Gourry said as they left the room.
"Hm?"
"I'm wondering. If your sister is so powerful and jealous of your accomplishments then why didn't she go off adventuring?"
Jealous? Lina thought. He thinks Sis is jealous of me? She shook her head at the absurd notion and sighed, "I don't think anyone expected me to do all this. I know I didn't. I thought I would be like my parents, get into a few mishaps but nothing to write home about."
"But it still doesn't explain why Luna never went adventuring."
"Well, she traveled with my parents a little, but of the four of us she was the only one who didn't like it." Lina said, "I don't think she's been anywhere since we visited Dils together. She also had an encounter with a priest there who discouraged her from it."
Though Lina had mastered spells with a rapidity that surprised the elders at the guild, she still could not even begin to touch Luna's power, and that seemed to satiate Luna a bit, so long as Lina stayed out of her way, something that Lina had gotten very good at. It may be cowardly, but now that she could levitate to her room she could even avoid having to walk through the house and draw Luna's ire in some manner. Sometimes she just had to suck it up, though, and dinner time was one of those times.
Lina got into her room effortlessly and closed the window shut behind her as she put her books on the bed and then froze as she heard Luna's voice as she whined from the kitchen, "But Mama…!"
There was a pipe that ran from the kitchen to Lina's room that carried the sounds of conversation well and had saved Lina's ass on more than one occasion. The muscles in Lina's neck tightened as she wondered what she had done this time to upset Luna and if it would be better to risk her mother's wrath by finding somewhere to camp for the night.
But Arline said firmly, "You're too young to travel so far on your own."
Lina slowly started to relax as she moved towards the pipe to listen better as she started to trust that for once Luna wasn't mad at her as Luna continued, "I'm more powerful than you, Mama! I can take down anyone who tries to harm me!"
"There's more to traveling than power," Walt said. "Managing money and resources, knowing who you can trust, knowing how to get good directions. Your mother and I would be happy to go with you, but it's hard to leave the shop at the moment. Perhaps in six months."
"Please, I'll be thirteen in three months. I'm old enough to do this now!"
"Luna," Arline said exasperatedly.
"Mama, this is an invitation from the High Priest of Dils! We can't ignore someone so important or expect him to wait…"
"Dils!" Lina burst out and then she threw her hand over her mouth as she hoped that none of them heard her as her mind started to race as the jealousy flared within her. Of course it would be Luna who would be invited to Dils. Luna was worthy after all. Meanwhile even though she'd worked her ass off for two years and had nearly exhausted the library in Zephyr City and was on the cusp of mastering the Dragon Slave, no big shot priest had taken notice of her to invite her. And what would Luna do in Dils anyway? There was so much research that Lina could do in Dils that she couldn't do in Zephyr City. It wasn't fair.
"That's just it, Luna. How do you know this high priest is who he claims to be?" Arline asked as Lina realized she'd avoided detection. And Lina smiled a little as she hoped that her parents would remain firm with her. If Lina wasn't going to get to go then she sure as hell did not want Luna to go.
But then, what if there's a way that I can use this to go to Dils?
"It has his seal." Luna said as Lina made the short trip from her room to the landing and started to walk down the stairs.
"Even if he is the Head Priest of Dils you can't be too careful. Not every priest is like Priest Carpun at our temple. Some are wolves in sheep's clothing." Walt said, "I want to know why he didn't contact us but started sending missives to a twelve-year-old."
"It's not like that!" Luna said as Lina came to the ground floor and noted how she was blushing.
"I'd like to read the letters." Arline said.
"What letters?" Lina asked innocently.
"Letters some priest in Dils has supposedly been sending you sister." Walt said as he lit his cigarette.
"Do you have to do that when we're about to eat?" Luna snapped.
"I agree with Luna there honey," Arline said pointedly as she pulled the rolls out of the oven.
"Me too." Lina said as she held her nose. "But what's this about Dils? I've always wanted to go there."
"Since when?" Luna asked.
Lina froze a moment as she realized that being honest about her motivations would be a mistake she would regret. "It's the city of legends, isn't it? Well, I like reading about legends, and they have better books in Dils than they do here."
"The Head Priest invited me to visit." Luna said importantly, and Lina wanted to slap the smug smile off her face.
"So does that mean we're all going together?" Lina asked innocently as she looked at her parents.
Luna opened her mouth and then closed it contemplatively, "You know...Look, if the head priest is the scum bag that you fear he is, Lina will be so annoying she'll send him running. And you've taken the two of us on enough trips that we can figure out how to get to Dils between the two of us."
Who are you calling annoying? Lina thought as she bit her tongue. If she was going to be traveling with Luna alone she was going to have to get used to a lot worse. And much as Lina dreaded the idea, she also knew that if she wanted to be more powerful then she would have to suck it up and put up with it. So as soon as she swallowed her first retort she settled on the more enticing, "Watch who you're calling annoying. Otherwise I won't share the magical ways I have of procuring food with you."
"You might prove useful then. Save us money. And the Head Priest has offered to compensate us for travel expenses."
Walt looked at Arline forlornly, "I don't think I have the energy to fight both of them on this."
Arline ran a hand through her long blonde hair, "Fine then. You can go. But you have to stay together at all times."
Lina looked at Luna, who smiled slightly as they both made a shallow promise, "Of course. We'll watch out for each other."
But as soon as the matter was settled, an icy pit of dread formed in Lina's stomach. Luna may be her ticket to getting to Dils, and getting to Dils may have been important enough to her to suck it up, but it didn't mean that Lina was looking forward to it. There was no way that the next few weeks were going to be anything but a nightmare.
"You know," Luna said as Lina caught another fish on their first night away from home, "You actually are useful to have around at times."
A warmth spread through Lina as she took the fish off the hook and handed it to Luna to clean. Lina couldn't remember the last time that Luna had given her a compliment, "Thanks."
"Papa would say this spell takes all the fun out of fishing though."
"If we're going to get to Dils quickly we don't have time to waste." Lina said as she put the line back in the water. Thanks to her fishing spell it wasn't long before another one was biting.
"Now if we could just find a way to get Papa to stop smoking."
"Well, perhaps I could find a potion that makes them taste funny." Lina said as a weird feeling settled over her. Luna was being nice and it wasn't normal. Well, it hadn't been for awhile anyway. When they were younger they had played together and chased fairy lights. But as they'd grown older Luna had grown meaner and Lina could never understand why.
"Anything to get him to stop smoking." Luna said.
The wheels in Lina's head spun as she caught a few more fish. Perhaps the reason that Luna started to hate her was because she thought she was useless. But if Lina could prove that she was useful on this trip then maybe Luna would ease up on her some. "There's bound to be a few manuscripts in Dils I can look at."
"Or maybe we can put your theatrics to good use and start pretending that we're dying every time he lights up." Luna said as she got out the frying pan.
Lina smiled as she set the line down and then threw her hands over her throat as she screamed theatrically and fell to the ground as though dead. She opened one eye to look at Luna and said, "Do you think something like that would work?"
Luna laughed, "Well if I had to listen to that every time I started a bad habit I'd soon nix it." But then the smell of burnt fish permeated the air and Luna scowled, "I gotta say, I'm glad for the food but cooking outdoors sucks. I don't get what Mama and Papa love about traveling."
The trip to Dils had been surprisingly pleasant right until the moment that they got to Dils. And then it was as though Luna remembered just how much she hated her. "Now when we meet Head Priest Izek don't do anything to embarrass me." Luna said as they walked to the palace.
"Right," Lina said as she took in the grandeur. She was so eager to get settled and to let Luna canoodle with Head Priest Izek while she hit the library that she didn't want to get into it with her. As it was Lina was resentful of the time they'd wasted before even entering the city as Luna put on a fresh dress and donned some make up. Surely the reason that Luna was being so catty right now was because of the infatuation she had with the priest that she was so desperate to deny existed.
"Head Priest Izek is a man of refined taste." Luna said, "He thinks rather highly of me, and I don't need you ruining it."
"I'll be out of your hair as soon as I can." Lina said as she reflected that Luna had it bad.
They got to the temple and Luna walked in as though she owned the place, and Lina decided to go with it. Luna boldly strode to the reception desk and handed the clerk a piece of paper as Lina's eyes fell on a sign that pointed to the library, "Please tell Head Priest Izek that Luna Inverse, Knight of Ceifeed, is here to see him."
"He's been expecting you. Follow me." The receptionist said as Lina started to wander off in the direction of the rather enticing library. But before she got too far Luna grabbed her rudely by the hand and towards the opposite hallway where the receptionist had directed them.
Lina scowled as she followed them to an ornate room. Luna nudged her with her elbow in the ribs and Lina swapped the scowl for a smile and straightened her shoulders as the receptionist opened the door, "Luna Inverse and her sister are here to see you."
"Welcome, Luna! It is so good to meet you!" a little old man said as he stood up from behind the desk, and Lina quickly glanced at her sister, whose face could barely conceal her disappointment. Lina smirked a little as Izek hobbled over and grabbed Luna's hand and started to bring his face down to kiss it, but she quickly turned it into a handshake.
"It is good to meet you as well," she said stiffly. "I hope you don't mind that I brought my sister, Lina."
"It is good to meet you," he said enthusiastically as he glanced at Lina. "Why don't I take you two on a tour of the palace?"
Luna gave her a looked that told Lina in no uncertain terms that she was coming with them. But then Lina didn't mind. She'd never been in a palace before and while the library was the main draw it would be neat to see the palace, "Sounds like fun!"
And Lina could tell she was enjoying the tour far more than Luna, mostly because Izek demanded her attention and happily let Lina be as she lagged behind them and indulged her curiosity while Luna was left to pretend to be interested in the minutiae of whatever boring interests Izek had. Still, Lina was careful not to let them get too far ahead, and she tore her eyes away from the beautiful tapestry depicting the Incarnation War and hurried to follow them, stopping in her tracks only when she found herself in front of the library.
Her heart started racing as she looked at it. She would have settled just for access to the library at the sorcerer's guild or in the temple. But the palace library! She looked over and saw that Luna and Izek were standing a few doors down and that Luna was looking bored while Izek prattled on about something that he was obviously very enthusiastic about. Lina turned back to the library and marveled at the sheer number of books she could see within it, and that was just being on the outside looking in!
I don't care if Sis beats me black and blue, I gotta check this out or I'll regret it forever!
Lina took a deep steadying breath and moved a step forward but froze as an authoritative voice said, "What that…Evie!" Lina blinked as she realized that she wasn't the one being yelled at and quickly rushed into the library and saw an older man brandishing an ancient looking manuscript as he approached a young woman. "Evie, what have I told you about leaving that scroll out?"
"Oh!" Evie cried as she flushed red with embarrassment as tears formed in her eyes, "I'm so sorry Master Giles! I got distracted."
"That's no excuse! This is the most dangerous manuscript we have in the city, perhaps even the kingdom! Do you know what will happen if word gets out about the Dark Lord of all Dark Lords!?"
Lina turned around and pretended to be interested in the bookshelf even as her ears perked up. The Dark Lord of all Dark Lords? Did he mean Shabranigdu? Surely there wasn't anyone more powerful than Shabranigdu.
But what if there was?
Lina's mind raced with the possibility as Evie said, "I'll put it up right away."
"And you will turn in your key after you do. I can't trust you with this anymore."
"I'm understand, sir. I'm sorry." Evie said.
Master Giles turned around and Lina froze as he spotted her. "The kiddie books are in the west wing." He said to her brusquely.
"Right," Lina said, "Thanks."
But he was already stalking off to his office, and Lina took a breath of relief as she hurried off in the direction that Evie had gone in and hoped that she could find her. She caught up with her just as Evie was opening a door disguised as a bookshelf. Lina quickly hurried for a dark corner of the library and kept an eye on Evie as she looked around but must not have seen her, for she then unlocked another secret door and went inside with the manuscript.
A burning desire flared within Lina to get inside that room as she started to scheme as Evie came out and closed the door behind her. Lina couldn't get a good look at the door, but surely a library such as this would have a book on how to pick locks. And…
"Lina!" she heard Luna yelled and Lina went rigid as she wondered just how much trouble she was in. Still she squared her shoulders and prepared to face the music.
"Coming Sis!" she said as she ran towards the sound of Luna's voice and quickly saw her with Izek right outside the hallway. "Sorry, I can't resist a library."
"Do you like books Little Miss?" Izek asked cheerfully.
"Oh yes, sir." Lina said as she clasped her hands and did her best to look cute and innocent.
She was very aware of Luna's gaze on her and she cringed as Luna said, "I'm apologize for my sister, she doesn't mean any harm."
"Nonsense, there's no harm done from peaking in a book." Izek said cheerfully, "I can make sure you have permission to use the library if you like, Little Miss."
"Really!?" Lina said as she favored him with her best smile, "Oh I would be ever so grateful!"
Izek then smiled at Luna as though he was expecting her to see what a catch he was and as Luna returned his smile with a stiff grin Lina had to suppress her mirth. Luna had gotten herself into this mess and she had no doubt that Luna would find a way out, but for the moment Lina was going to enjoy seeing her flounder.
Finding a book on picking locks was the easy part. Opening the door that was disguised as a bookshelf was harder than it looked, especially since Lina couldn't be too obvious about what she was doing and would have to stop when people came into the room. But picking the lock to the hidden door was one steep learning curve.
Fortunately, as ever, Lina was up to the task.
Once she'd opened it she pulled the bookshelf mostly closed behind her but left it open a tiny crack. She could hear out of it but hopefully no one outside would notice it. She chanted a light spell and when its glow had illuminated the room she looked around and saw a shelf with hundreds of tiny cubes, each cube containing a scroll. It had taken Lina hours of searching, especially since there was so much to be distracted by in the other scrolls, but eventually she found the scroll she had seen Evie holding. And as she unfolded it and read the information it contained Lina's heart raced as she realized that if this was all that she got from the trip it would be more than worth it!
The Lord of Nightmares...
She pulled out her sorcery journal and took down some notes as she read and reread the scroll. She was almost confident that she had gotten everything she could from it when she heard Izek's voice waft in from outside her tiny archive, "I have a son. He is in his late twenties and looking for a wife. I would be honored to have you as my daughter-in-law."
"I'm honored to be asked. But I'm not old enough to marry." Luna said as Lina's mouth dropped.
"He will wait for you."
"I'm not sure being a wife is the right path for me."
"Well, what else will you do? Do you really like waitressing that much?"
"It's good steady work." Luna said.
"It's a waste for someone like you." Izek said. "Unfortunately you're destined to be a waste wherever you go though."
"Excuse me?"
"Here," Izek said as there was a scraping sound against the floor, and with a start Lina realized that he was going to open the bookcase. She canceled her light spell and hid beside the shelf and hoped that she was small enough to be undetected, "That's funny this is unlocked, Evie must have…"
Lina held her breath as Izek approached the shelf and grabbed a scroll and opened it, "I'm afraid, my dear, that you have to be careful about upsetting the balance of travel in this world."
"What?" Luna said.
"It's not often that the Ceifeed's energy manifests in a human. But when it does, instability in the kingdom follows. Humans aren't meant to wield such power and kingdoms start to try to outbid each other for her services. As you can see the last Ceifeed Knight was hired by the Ralteague Kingdom and three kingdoms united together to assassinate her family. Heaven forbid you do more traveling, you would call attention to yourself, and by calling attention to yourself you would cause trouble, war and strife. Even getting a job with your sovereign in Zephyr City worthy of your talents would tip the balance of power. Waitressing is a good job as far as keeping yourself under the radar goes, but it's a shame really, that for someone as powerful as yourself your options are to stay small. But waitressing is so demanding and a waitress is treated so poorly at times, you may like it well enough now, but what about five years down the road?
"Zephelia won't worship you. Your queen takes powerful people like you for granted. But in Dils you would be treated like a princess. You wouldn't have to work hard, you'd have all of the pretty clothes that you like," Izek said as he stared at Luna's budding breasts in a manner that evoked warring feelings of revulsion and envy within Lina. "You'd have a life of ease and luxury."
"And what will Dils get out of it?" Luna asked.
"The honor of being able to say the Ceifeed Knight resides here." Izek replied.
"And that's all you're after?" Luna asked as Lina held her breath as she wondered what Luna was thinking and what she would do.
"It is. And what better way to serve Ceifeed than to see that his host is well cared for?"
"I don't believe you." Luna said as she turned around and stormed out.
"Wait, Luna…!" Izek said as he rushed to follow her without shutting the door behind him.
Lina got up from her hiding spot and took a breath and ran out of there.
Lina wasn't surprised when Luna tracked her down that she insisted on leaving immediately. Lina asked no questions and merely packed up quickly, even if she was burning to know why Luna had turned Izek down. Still, she didn't dare ask. While part of her ached to think about the manuscripts she had yet to peruse, Lina knew that the odds of finding something equivalent to the manuscript about the Lord of Nightmares was low. And already she was thinking of ways that she could make a spell with it.
They traveled for half a day in silence before stopping to set up camp. Lina alternated between thinking about the new spell and the incident with Izek as Luna glared moodily at the scenery. Lina wondered if she would ever have the chance to see Dils again. She ached at the thought of never being able to. But then certainly she could come back again when she was older, without Luna? As Lina set up her tent she reflected that a life on the road wasn't too bad.
Luna sighed in exasperation as her tent collapsed. "I got it, Sis." Lina said as she walked up to help.
"You sure seem more suited to this life than me." Luna said.
"I guess I got Mama and Papa's wanderlust." Lina agreed.
"I guess it skipped me completely." Luna said as Lina finished setting up the tent. "Maybe you should go and travel some more. See the world. Come back as a wise adult. Hopefully you won't annoy me so much then."
Lina wiped her hands on her pants as she asked, "But what will you do?"
"Waitressing isn't too bad."
"You really like waitressing that much?" Lina asked.
"Well, I can't exactly figure out what it is that you like about books so much." Luna said. "Besides, I get to see a lot of cute guys."
Lina looked at her in confusion as Luna laughed dismissively, "You really don't understand these things, do you?"
"I think I'd best get to bed," Lina said as she felt more confused than ever. But one thing she did know for certain was that there was no way in hell she was going to ask Luna about what happened between her and Izek.