· · · · · · ·
Xelloss's relation to Filia's lifestyle had been breaking things, making things was not in his skill set. Or interests. Or job description. Or nature.
Yet here he was, cross-legged on holy ground amidst sacred waters of a reviving temple, making things.
It needs to be understood that a master of puzzles may still be stumped when asked to create a image to place on a puzzle. Certain people are arrogant enough to try anyway, only to fail miserably. Xelloss had always considered such people amusing up until the point he became one.
Filia had been smug for the past hour.
Oh, he could magically imitate things he'd seen before, but Filia was dangerously familiar with the artistic world of vases and pottery. After the third time she had caught him recreating someone else's work, he had been forced to admit he was taking short cuts. This had resulted in a lengthy speech on why this was cheating and the heavy handed insinuation he was afraid she might have more than one thing to teach him. Devil of all trades surely only devilish trades, so she claimed.
He couldn't let that slide, so he set out to prove he could make these vessels just fine on his own, thank you very much. No staff, no reconstruction magic, just hands, spinning cones and his own imagination.
"You really are lucky your true form was not in your metaphorical hands. Who knows how much more ridiculous than a cone it would have been if it had been your decision. My, you might have counted as a handicapped devil."
"This just so happens to be my personal style. Merely because it does not suit your tastes does not mean it is poor work."
"Ha! That's what people say who are too weak to acknowledge failure."
"Weak? As if I'd need to prove myself towards you!"
Just to show her the point, he grabbed a slab of clay and created an artistically distorted triangle along with a smooth boring triangle. "See? This is the boring one, and this here is my style."
"Xelloss, that thing defies the laws of dimension and space."
"Must you always be so demanding?"
"Yes, I must be! Being dissatisfied drives one to improvement. That's why my vases only break when you knock them over, while yours break themselves or ... Xelloss, doesn't that hurt?"
He turned an eye down, followed her startled look. His hand had dissolved in a spatial anomaly cause by the impossible loop, and it had taken his body sense along.
"No, it doesn't. Don't worry." It was most inconvenient though.
Damn mathematics.
No. Wait. Was damning mathematics an affront to the Lord of Nightmares? Would She know this and be dissapointed?
While he pondered this grave question and tried to regenerate his hand, Filia resumed her work by pursing her lips, creating a needle thin ray of laserbreath. Using this she engraved her vessels with intricate patterns and a subtle flow of holy magic across its surface. As she was on her knees, she had the air of prayer.
Ironically, it was her who lacked any religious devotion in her work. Xelloss was perhaps unaware of the grand scheme of his lord, but he and Zelas had spoken often enough for him to know they were serving in the motions of chaos. It was a thrilling truth to know himself as an agent of the Bearer Of Light.
And in the name of Chaos, he probably should stop worrying about possible affronts and do something fun. He gave into the temptation of brushing a finger across her neck, hooking along a strand of gold hair. With her so lost in concentration, the results were bound to be lovely.
One small touch caused her to tense up instantly. Her hair floofed out and the needle ray turned wide at the same time as her head snapped up. The vessel in her hands was spared destruction, but three others in front of her were not.
This would never get old.
"Oh my, I'm so sorry, Elders!"
That wasn't the response he'd wanted.
Milgazia, Azonge and three lieutenants whom he vaguely recognized from the war clutched the doorposts. Xelloss recognized most of them from the war, they had been quick enough to evade him and smart enough to stay away, a skill they had not lost if their dodging of Filia's errant ray was any indication. There was so much hatred coming off of them Xelloss felt like Lina before an all you can eat buffet. Helplessness flavored their resentment in the most delicious way, for they hated not only him here, but also their own weakness.
Filia chose this tactful moment to slam wet clay in his face. "It's his fault! I normally never lose control of my laserbreath!"
Stark terror pushed to the forefront of the dragons that weren't Filia, who simply felt apologetic and somewhat gloaty.
Xelloss chose this tactful moment to manifest four small cones behind Filia's back, quietly lifting the water bowl as he peeled the clay off his face with distracting slowness. "Really, miss Filia, you expect them to believe that? They still haven't fixed that wall you so viciously attacked upon my arrival."
"That was your fault too!"
The bucket was slapped away by a golden tail. He leaned back just in time to avoid it.
"I saw their eyes move," Filia said with a smirk.
"Filia, what are you two doing?" Milgazia asked monotonously while waving off a delicious mixture of desperation, confusion and spiritual loss. That last one was particularly fantastic in flavor. How indeed would someone like Milgazia explain this absurd situation?
"I am making better vessels. He is just slowing me down," Filia said, puffing up her cheeks. She waved broadly at the (to her) mishapen creations that were scattered around Xelloss.
"Those are vessels?"
"Yes, but you don't have to use his. They're defective and the new ones he'll make will be more practical and not eat hands." Did she realize she was spicing them?
They were not fond of her vessels either, he noticed in the next inhaling of miasma.
Hers were smoother and resembled actual pottery, but were adorned with cats, maces, vulpen and other beastfolk, dragons and unicorns, embezzled with the occasional flower pattern or swirls.
The sad part was that this was still better than what the dragons had come up with : dragon shaped statues engraved with ovelry solemn sayings about warding off evil in runescript, which just oozed Milgazia's cutting boredom and Azonge's boastful dullness.
It took the dragons half a minute before they decided what to say, a time span not helped by Xelloss cracking one eye open and staring at them with an all too pleasant smile.
Filia waited all the time for what she thought would be praise.
"I'm afraid we will have to ask you to ... they are very ... "
"What is it?" Filia asked. She didn't snap at dragon elders like she did at him, but it tasted almost the same.
"Make something less human looking. Simpler. If we are to use tools at all, they ought to reflect their origins, not common household decorations. The shapes we had in our prior vessels are most convenient and worthy."
The miasma that accompanied rebellion was one of many neutral tastes. Defiance could be fueled by a need to do the right thing, or a desire to just ditch the restrictive rules. He could feed on it just fine, though it was tasteless. Filia always felt a little intimidated by elders, but that wouldn't hold her down long. Any second now ...
"But the vessels you are making are too weak! I've seen them used before and they can break just by pushing them together a little too hard, and yours are even worse! Vessels shouldn't be like scripture cubes! What I'm doing here is making them in a more sturdy way, they need to be rounded."
"You should trust her on this. Miss Filia would know all about pottery since it's the meaning of her life."
Oh, finally! That did it. She snapped her head at him and ...
Her nostrils flared and her miasma spiked, but she didn't shout anything.
"I'm glad you finally admit my expertise, albeit with such silly exageration," she said with a haughty hairflip. Turning back to their visitors, she said, "You don't need to check up on us, Elders, I'll let you know once I'm done getting Xelloss up to date with the art."
Oh, come now. It was getting harder and harder to get a rise out of her. She had to be quietly reasoning with herself to make those feelings behave. That probably was a required skill to running a shop, but ... was he honestly competing with her brief history with customers being always right?
"Is it necesary you misuse your laserbreath in such a way?" Milgazia tried.
"It is not misuse! My engravings are very shallow and they aid in the magical structure. I invented it myself."
The dragons were edging out of the room, however, because Xelloss had lost his cool again. Smoothing out his expressions he smiled at them, which only unsettled them more.
Filia used the window of distraction to ram more wet clay in his face. This time, he returned the favor.
All in honor of ancient feuds, off course. Not at all because he wasn't self controlled enough to endure this particular golden dragon.
· · · · · · ·
In between vessels, Xelloss investigated the exact status of the dragons. He had as little clue as anyone else what had started the tension, so it wasn't even an entirely horrible task even if it meant the company of dreary dragons. He might learn something new.
The northern dragons were involved in empowering the kingdom of Dills, largely because for once they hoped to beat the devils to getting the hook in. No devil could be there unnoticed with dragons and elves all over the place. They were also in contact with the western wind dragons, who had no interest at all in human kingdoms. Wisely, they did not speak to them about their local project. Their vision spells, even when conducted through crystal balls, were too unsafe from prying astral eyes. Besides, surely the gods would tell the other dragons what was occurring.
Surely not, Xelloss knew.
This led to delightfully confusing conversations when the wind dragons had a vastly more depressing idea of how well warfare against devils would go, while the water dragons came across as crazy with their poor attempts at coded talk. Magic grabby shields shall make a great difference, really?
Nothing was said about Xelloss. Milgazia came close to alluding to a temporary ally, but had been assured by said ally that it was to his best interest not to speak of this to anyone outside of the mountains.
The more complicated details of his involvement with the dragons would be dealt with by Earthlord Rangort. This god had subtly seized the northern lands by using Fibrizo's access point to Hell in the Desert of Destruction. By filling the framework of the barrier with her power, certain places could be hazed from Vrabazard's view. At most, a look to the north would tell Vrabazard the dragons were more anxious lately, but the god wasn't likely to pry over that and notice that small missing patch.
Which was just as well, considering the new time frame.
Xelloss had believed his job had been to escort Filia below this barrier, and then be done with it. The plan, whatever it was, wouldn't be happening for a few more years. He returned to Wolfpack Island expecting a different mission only to be sent to Kataart to assassinate certain devils, and then retrieve fusion magic vessels. He was given the parting words that he'd figure the rest out on his own. Well, it fell in place when he arrived to find there were no functional vessels, but there was her.
It was one thing to spend a few hours taunting Filia, it was another thing entirely to be educated by one with such a foul tongue as hers.
Four months he had to endure this before he had mastered holy teleportation, along with a detailed vow to only use it to bring people out of trouble, and suffering through one tasteless insult after another. When Xelloss needed something from her, it meant a reversal of power that she latched onto with claws and teeth. He did not look forward to a repeat, but that was exactly what he had to face.
No matter how much vases he broke, in the end she could forge new vases while he was still seen as the avatar of all filth, worthless to regard. Her looks, her very feeling told him this. He couldn't truly win even if she had a thousand vases for him to trick her into ruining.
It was an ongoing assault of psychological warfare. Amelia at least knew what she did to him, he had needed to betray them before she played mean. Not so with Filia. With Filia, it came naturally. She just knew how to get under his skin, how to shake up his self image that was so vital to a devil's integrity.
Truth be said, not as vital for him as it was for other devils. But it was the principle of the thing.
Then there were dragon related duties of an entirely different nature ...
"Is the principle of the thing worth risking your mission? You should spend less time contesting Filia and more time securing the area. Why is the boy allowed to even go out?"
"I don't see any harm in him played with miss Memphis and mister Jillas. I have ascertained she is spooked by what she sees on the astral plane and is unlikely to cast the spell that allows her to see there. Furthermore, their destructive play keeps the more curious dragons at bay."
"That was playing? Oh my, what has become of my gift of wisdom? I honestly believed that was exercise."
"Personally I'd commend the little elf for her risky tastes. Perhaps you too can learn a varying concept of play. I recall you putting in quite some effort into the role of weak old lady."
"Heheh ... I was. Though, you are wrong to assume it was play. It was effort to exist. This persona was amongst the last thoughts of the water dragon king, that is all."
"How disappointing."
"I see not why. Your idea of play often does not leave you happy. At least, not from what I have recently observed."
"Let's say it is the overall experience that I favor."
"How so?"
"I'm afraid that may simply be too complex for you to understand yet."
"Don't get condescending with me, Beast Priest."
"I meant no offense, honestly. It is simply that you have not been very ... how do I say this? Not very interested in evolution."
"I think I'm capable of amusement after all."
"Really? What makes you think that?"
"I experienced a favorable emotion by being lectured about evolution by someone who won't evolve because of the principle of the thing."
"That's a completely different situation!"
· · · · · · ·
At dawn, he passed by Filia to feed on her miasma, curtsy of her nightmares.
· · · · · · ·
Filia had demanded a kiln within the work hall as the dragons in charge of the regular kilns were too clumsy for her liking. Paranoia was involved, curtsy by Val, Jillas, Gravos and Molly breaking things. He earned theoretical credit too, but really, that was a matter of her just being distracted too easily.
It was on the left side of the entrance, not too far from their work spot but far enough so that Xelloss couldn't feign accidentally redirecting a canal into it. The vessels they had forged the prior evening would be just about done right now. Xelloss floated above their work spot, waiting for Filia to open the kiln.
"Xelloss! You put that triangle in here!"
"Oh my, oops. I did?"
"Yes!" She whirled around and pointed at the kiln. "The inside is five times bigger than before and all the vases have converged into this ... this thing that shouldn't exist. You put it out of its misery right away!"
"Always a drama queen, are you not? It can't be that bad."
"Take a look yourself!"
Preparing the understatement of the century, he stuck his head into the kiln and looked.
And looked.
And looked.
The unshape.
The mathematic crime.
Exist not.
Cannot be.
Yet it was.
He should have realized that the dimension would unstable on an area where a god had died. While not as severe as in the center of the demons ocean, there were certain exploitations that could be ...
"I have sinned against our Mother ..." he muttered.
Horrified, Xelloss exploded the kiln with blue fire and plenty of spacial reconstruction. He phased to the opposite of the hall and hunched in a corner, eyes wide open and arms around his knees. Gloomy shadows surrounded him.
"You sewer priest! You could have at least tried to get our vessels out! How are we going to see whether they worked?"
Xelloss needed an hour and then some before he could think about that.
Filia was in the middle of building a new kiln by the time he rejoined the land of the coherently thinking. A pile of rubble was what remained of the ... unthing ... lay in a heap near the door with a neat little note for the clean up crew, which contained an apology that roundly blamed the garbage on the other garbage. He'd have tampered with the message, but something drew his attention. The vessels Filia had made were in pieces, but recognizable pieces. His vessels were only recognizable because they kept his fire burning.
Well, this was embarrassing.
The foremost step was to build vessels that could hold magic. Xelloss knew a thing or two about the structure of magical containers, he had investigated the soul jars in Taforashia at leisure. Off course Amelia had sent Filia a soul jars for her collection, so Filia was just as up to date but couldn't possibly be better. That meant that there was something fundamentally wrong with his approach.
The door creaked up and Xelloss was hit with a wave of nutritious but bland miasma and astral distortion. Val peeked in, blood on face and hair.
"Mom?"
Just like that, entertaining Filia vacated for troubled Filia. She set down the bricks she'd been holding and ran over.
"Val! What happened?"
As he stepped in, he turned his eyes down. There were more than a few gashes on him. Filia pulled a cloth from her gem's subspace and gently dabbed at the wounds.
"I was out helping Jillas with his new cannons when a few devils attacked us ... Memphis killed them, but one of them got to me ... I killed that one." His voice was shaking, but Xelloss tasted not so much fear as he tasted exhilaration. "I didn't know I could ... I just breathed on him once, you know, laserbreath, and he died. Heh ... didn't need to try clawing at it ... Are you angry that I killed it?"
"Oh, Val. It's okay, that was just self defense." She pulled him closer and lifted the jacket, revealing more gashes on his back. A restrained transformation, most likely. Xelloss couldn't tell.
Val's astral body was technically normal, but he cast a shadow on the astral plane that was roughly that of his true form at his appropriate age. It would be interesting to learn whether the failed transformation was self sabotage or a spell by the attacker, but there was no way to discover right now. In any case, he would have to do something about the exposure risk.
"Val, sit down and I'll clean these wounds. I have to make sure there are no infections before I heal them, understand? Otherwise the spell might help the germs."
"Okay."
Filia took Val to one of the canals that had an alcove while questioning him about the exact events. Xelloss started humming, finding time went too slow when it came to Val leaving. He wanted back to work and that brat out of his sight.
When Filia was done, Val kicked that hope in the gut by picking up one of Xelloss's earlier vessels, which had been in the kiln before the nocturnal batch.
"Looks like garbage," he said.
"Indeed it does," Filia said, voice tinted with motherly pride and schadenfreude.
"Hey, mom, wanna try doing fusion magic? I bet we can do it better than you with Evil Wizard Cone Thingy."
Filia was thrilled with the idea of not needing Xelloss for fusion magic. Eagerly, she knelt at his side and told him just how to tap into the magic. She was so happy with the idea, it was a personal affront, really.
Xelloss crossed his arms and leaned against the kiln, observing the scene with one eye open and all of his astral senses alert.
Filia created a light spell in her hands, and Val held the vessel ahead of himself.
Nothing. Not even a glimmer of darkness leaked out of Val's vessel.
Xelloss raised a finger and cheerfully said, "It may be his unusual magical construction getting in the way. Or maybe he's just pathetic at magic. Probably the latter. I mean, how much clothes did he wreck again?"
"Shut up, trash! Val controls magic excellently for his age!" She ran a hand over the boy's head and soothingly added, "It's probably just because you're not a channel for Shabranigdu, like he is, and this vessel is defective. For the prophecy we were part of, I believe the gods did something special to the flow that allowed us to conduct more power than we could wield and combine it. Let's try when there are proper fusion magic vessels with a connection. Then you shall see we can do fusion magic much better than I can with Xelloss."
That's what it was to Filia, just a gimmick installed by higher powers. It betrayed a concrete lack of respect for the complexity of magic, especially something so difficult Xelloss didn't even get it. Outwardly though, he just kept smiling.
"I guess that makes sense. I bet we can do awesome things, like erase devils. They're made out of magic, right? Maybe we can make Xelloss a lot weaker, I bet he won't be so rude anymore! If he survives it."
Filia's smile turned stiff. "Let's not speculate that far ahead, Val. Xelloss may be a nuisance, but he doesn't need to die now. Nobody should die for such shallow reason, okay."
"Hmmhmm."
Filia liked to tell herself he was just a good, solemn little kid, but she had no experience with children of any sort. Val was too serious for a seven year old. He felt no trepidation at devil aura because he was used to it, but he had an innate fear for golden dragons. Sometimes he had that look in his eyes, the same potential for obsession.
It took something as severe as a casual mention of murder for her to see Valgarv, but she was quick to shove it aside.
"Can't you two do fusion magic to show me how it's done?" Val asked.
Ah, there it was. That nasty little question they had been avoiding. Xelloss and Filia could fuse magic alright if their goal was the same. They just couldn't wield it all that well, as had become painfully evident three years ago. Now, Luna and Laust couldn't even fuse magic, but there was still that final step they needed Lina for.
What exactly did the trick was a riddle to Xelloss.
When those royal children with their shallow bond, undefined goals and lack of magic experience knocked together the vessels, it had glowed white a little, chaffed away at the offensive energy and then exploded around them.
In contrast, out of those same vessels Amelia and Zelgadis had brought forth a highly controlled web of black light which neatly absorbed all the energy they meant it to absorb, but left Lina's spell alone. Amelia and Zelgadis were experienced magic users with a far more profound familiarity to one another's magical resonance. To date, they were the only duo to have successfully wielded fusion magic.
When Xelloss had taken Filia's energy and merged it with his own, there was no blending at all. It remained a cloud of darkness with some yellow streaks and paid no effect on the seal, contrast to the instantaneous effect of the former two scenarios. Possibly because there were no actual two wielders, or no concord, or their goals were too different.
When they had channeled the energies of Siephied and Shabranigdu and the effect had yet again been different : a cloud of white burning with a net of darkness. It had been Lina alone who had directed it, but the magic had been in the hands of Xelloss and Filia. At Lina's command, it turned to gold. A similar thing had happened in the battle against the third Shabranigdu.
He set aside the last scenarios, as Lina had been host to the Sea of Chaos and thus the most unknown factor.
The other three ... There had to be rhyme and reason somewhere but it was far to be sought, and for once Xelloss was not entertained by this. Unpredictable scenarios were only fun if he was the engineer behind it.
· · · · · · ·
"There are thirty six lesser devils that have noticed him when he went out today. Don't slack off, beast priest, alright?"
"Hmmmph. Do those idiots not understand the dangers of going near a rabid Zenaffa wielding girl?"
"You have entirely too over reaching ideas of the intelligence of devils in this area. It is only the fools that remain."
"I suppose we will have no conversation tonight then."
"Yes, unfortunately. I was looking forward to tea."
"I was under the impression you never were capable of consuming tea."
"True, but I can pretend. It comes with this persona, you see, as it once did with yours."
"A shame you never got to live it."
"Ah, a shame indeed. And a lie too. I can't say I honestly need this persona once we are done."
"My self of long ago would have reasoned similarly, yet here I am."
"There's no guarantee how I would turn out. Be on your way, beast priest. Rangort will give additional directions."
· · · · · · ·
At dawn he found Filia already awake, in their work hall and dunking her head in the basin.
He stepped on her tail, and she shot up. Her tail she curled around her legs protectively as she glared at him.
"My my, picking up local customs? I hear many a dragon uses this tactic to recover from mister Milgazia's jokes."
"I don't have tea, alright? I need to do something to be awake properly! Off course, a devil like you wouldn't get that."
"You realize I eat emotions, do you not?"
"That's knowing them, not getting it. You couldn't understand how it feels to lack sleep."
He could imagine it, though. The principle was being low on energy, but he wasn't affected by thing such as headache and tired muscles.
As she wrung her hair out in a towel, Xelloss could see the exhaustion in her movements. She was not physically ill, but the mental costs of the very sympathy she praised as a wisdom called a heavy tax. So much worry for the fate of her child that it could throw her off balance. At that price, Xelloss had no interest in understanding.
Then again, granny Aqua had no interest in understanding anything he advertised. It was no mere theory that mental facets looked very different from inside the madness.
He wasn't quite mad enough to experiment with understanding exhaustion though, he liked his mind and projection just fine.
"Xelloss, I have a question. We are allies again and more than ever, how we cooperate is important. In the interest of that, can you give me a straight answer?"
Normally he would have given a diagonal answer to that, but she'd take that as a no and drop it. That might just complicate things for the reason she had mentioned. How they cooperated ...
"That depends on what you'll ask me."
"Whose idea was it, this whole plot to have us here and working on these vessels? Why?"
"That is a secret," he said happily. He planned to pepper the conversation with that phrase.
Instead of the usual frustration, she only sighed as she gave him a flat stare.
"Doesn't that get boring?"
"What?"
"At some point, people get used to you keeping secrets and learn not to be irritated by it. What do you have left then?"
Gourry had effectively used that against him already, actually. Not that she needed to know.
"Was that your question? Well, that is easily answered, I'll have —"
"No, that wasn't it."
Still that flat stare. They were falling out of the rhythm and he didn't like it one bit.
"Can I and my family expect to suffer the consequences of this plot? Miss Luna disappeared, I have no idea who the big bad enemy is and I'm in the middle of a golden dragon colony with a toddler of a nation that believes he is inherently violent. I'm helping you, the least you can do is warn me when we should run."
Xelloss hated not knowing enough, and he hated that she had to inadvertently point this out.
"I do not know what the plan is and I have heard no word or implication of miss Luna being involved by us. Perhaps the dragons managed to recruit her after all."
"As if!"
"A well placed sleep spell—"
"Miss Luna isn't dense, Xelloss."
"But she is young and inexperienced."
"No, we're not doing this. We're off topic again. Xelloss, you can guess the plan."
"No. My liege the Beast Monarch has deemed is necessary not to tell me the goal. But ... I can say this. Six years ago, I went to see whether I could repay a favor I owed to Aqualord Ragradia. I discovered certain things which I strongly suspect inspired my lord to set certain events in motion. What I discovered is a main component of the plan, while your involvement extends to the providing of fusion magic vessels. Nothing about the current plan should send you fleeing, but I cannot predict the dragons."
One of the devious things about languages with no difference between singular and multiple you was that you could tell the truth about one individual, while the other would assume it to be multiple.
She tilted her head to the side. "How did you come to owe a favor to a god?"
"Surely miss Lina told you of her first confrontation with Garv? I didn't get out of the desert on my own, you see. The Aqualord teleported me out along with the others, even though she had to send her power out of the way for this. Perhaps it was merely so I would continue protecting miss Lina, but that doesn't matter."
"That is how the Aqualord was, was she? She truly must have cared to allow as many as possible to live. Is what remains of her involved too?"
"Indirectly, yes."
With a deep breath, she turned to the statue of the broken god and didn't regard him anymore. It was a stolen moment of rapture, a small indulgence when she fell back into her priestess self and forgot to be ashamed of holiness. Still he tasted that deep sensation of a person who had to let go of their faith. Xelloss found it difficult to imagine what mind accompanied this feeling, though. For him no world had ever existed where there was a higher power taking care of the deserving.
The holiness in return acknowledged her with a gentle ripple across the water. That was how the illusion of divine sympathy laid in the minds of those seeking to believe, but reality was nothing more than one form of magic responding to another as chemicals did to their environment. Did she grasp that much now?
Ah well, it did nothing for him to understand that aspect of her. He knew what it was and how it functioned, that was enough. How she felt wasn't his concern as long as she didn't get too desperate. When she got taken over by sorrow, she observed but the most personal of details and forgot the whole picture. She was useless in such times.
Not to mention far less entertaining.
It wasn't sorrow, however, that suddenly took her now. It was a slumbering rage waking.
"If Earthlord Rangort is in on this ... " Her brow furrowed and her eyes narrowed, her fists balling together in sudden rage. "Xelloss, doesn't it bother you to be pushed around by a stronger being?"
"It does if it is anyone other than my liege the Beast Monarch. Alas, Fibrizo did not last long after he did such," Xelloss said with a chuckle, waving a hand as if merely dismissing a fly.
"I meant her. Zelas Metaliom."
"I have every reason to assume that what liege desires is something I will enjoy as well. I may not like all my orders, but we want the same and you have no business questioning my lord. In fact, that is lord Zelas Metaliom to you."
"I like Slimy Hairball better," Filia said dismissively, her eyes still fixed on the statue.
Xelloss fazed before her, looking down with both eyes open. "You have no right to refer to her in such a way! Really, you and miss Luna, what do you even want to achieve with your stupid nickname habit?"
She looked at him now, still unimpressed. "What do you and Zelas want?"
It was so clear what question lay on the tip of her tongue, but she never asked. Sometimes he wanted her to.
"Take it back," he snapped, but it fell on barren ground. She just glared back at him, and the canals flooded out, burning him.
He withdrew to the astral plane and spent the rest of the day searching for loose witness ends.
· · · · · · ·
"Can you tell me anything about what happened today?"
"Resonance of a designated channel with Siephied's power. You should experience a similar thing when close to any piece of Shabranigdu, correct?"
"As a matter of fact, I do not."
"Strange. Perhaps it is because she has access to the flow in a way a being such as you cannot. I was busy scrying for more witnesses, so you tell me, what did you argue on?"
"She questioned me about what might lay in store for her and implied we are responsible for the missing of miss Luna. I suspect spiritual difficulties."
"Are you responsible?"
"Not to my knowledge. She didn't even thank me for being open!"
"She thinks your lord may be, and that you might hide it indirectly. Let me tell you something about faith, or rather, my favorite dish. There are a lot of ways one can have faith, for some it is belief, for others it ties strongly into their moral code. Oh, don't interrupt me, I know you know all this. But did you ever think about how faith exists in every relationship? The poor girl can't afford much faith, not even in you. That is exactly because she knows what you are and can guess what your creator is like."
"She isn't supposed to have faith in me, that would sorely disappoint me. It would mean she is a fool."
"Just hope she won't end up distrusting you too much then."
"No, that would be impractical."
"If you admit that, why are you stalling? Evolution, no?"
· · · · · · ·
At dawn, he woke her from a nightmare and was repaid with a hurled vase. The worrisome part was that she didn't even seem to realize it was him until he turned the lights on. In this moment, he saw her self just before she pulled the shroud of duty back over her face.
It wasn't an act when she was the cheerful mother, but it was missing a lot of things that made her Filia. Val sucked all the fun out of Filia.
· · · · · · ·
"Alright."
"Alright what?"
"Show me how you make a stable vessels, I'm getting tired of being here more than I'm tired of your attitude."
She stared at him wide eyed, but said nothing. Instead she grabbed one of his hands, pulled off the glove and inspected his skin.
"The texture isn't useful. Project something more like worker's hands. A little roughness works best with this type of clay."
She was right, he realized as he worked on his next slab of clay, spinning atop of a cone.
Silence and spite was the work motto for the day. He wasn't in the mood for taunting her and instead fed on her many other negative emotions, though this left him mentally unsatisfied.
It was depressing that this meant far quicker progress. They went through several builds of vessel and pinned down the right magic to contain light and darkness.
Near the end of the day, Xelloss had suggested to make the vessels entirely out of metal to begin with, but Filia wouldn't hear any of it. She could work metal too, but claimed there was something about clay that was superior to metal.
"Care to elaborate on that? I've never heard such a thing before. Metal should do just fine."
That's when she did it. She raised a finger to her smirk and said, "It's a secret."
· · · · · · ·
"Who does she think she is, using my own catchphrase against me?"
"Metal conducts energy, clay is a better isolator. This reflects even in shamanistic magic."
"That is not the point!"
"What is?"
"It's not important." He set down the first stable holy vessel on the ever shifting floor. "Try it."
A wire of light folded out, rapidly became thick and finally converged into the illusion of a small old elf. She tapped the vessel with her staff, which passed though the clay but stirred the magic within.
"There is no other half yet, is there?"
"We have not yet figured out how to create a flow between the vessels, but it should happen soon."
"Can you two wield fusion magic yet?"
"Unfortunately, no," he said, scratching the back of his head. "I don't think I'm likely to have a similar goal as her when she's acting like that. She insulted my liege the Beast Monarch and stole my catchphrase. I cannot cooperate with a dragon like that!"
"You're as much of a problem, don't you think so? You've complained about her for years yet you still lose your cool over such a little thing as a nickname and a catchphrase."
He chuckled nervously. "Anyway, anymore witnesses?"
"No, you were successful. I did however noticed something else. Ever since that little incident, the boy has been searching for a place to hide on his own. He appears to be following something and generally strays towards the entrance of the Claire Bible. Bring him here, will you?"
Xelloss had to consider this.
The up side would be that if he wouldn't have to worry about elves with astral sight spells and devils. He wasn't comfortable though with bringing an anomaly like Val close to an unstable entity that he very much needed alive.
"I can keep him hidden in the maze far better than you can outside, you know this. Also, if he is attacked here by devils, he can use his full power without risk of discovery. There is space for full out transformation too."
"Hmm ... and after that little incident, it would be credible to the dragons and elves if Filia were to keep him indoors. I'm am more worried what will happen to you, should you touch his strange shadow."
"I will keep my distance, don't worry."
"Perhaps you could attempt to entertain him? Not only will it be easier to convince him to stay put, you might attempt to feed on his miasma."
"That'll be fine. Say, he is the son of the one who destroyed my first stage, is he not?"
"I would not say so. This is his third life, he is the son of miss Filia, not of Garv."
"I find this question much akin to whether or not I am the Aqualord or Granny Aqua. As with that question, you fail the point."
"You retain memory of all these lives, he does not."
"He retains personality, I do not. Bring him here, I'm curious what we can sort out about one another."
He really shouldn't now he knew she planned to poke. But it would be so interesting and he might get some answers. Besides, who was he to discourage people poking at things?
Especially since she might stop poking at anything at all otherwise. The construct he spoke with was no real person, just a program vaguely imprinted on raw power. It had to start changing and growing, and so far Xelloss had not succeeded in pushing her that far.
"I'll be back in in a minute."
He found Val wandering on the slope below the entrance, unable to go higher without growing his wings. The moonless night could cover him, but he had been told that it took a mere lightning spell and a curious dragon to betray him, so Filia had made him promise not to fly unless in emergency. That he was keeping, even if he had obviously broken the rule to stay inside at night.
The boy seemed to follow something, but Xelloss detected no magic. Off course, this didn't mean there was no magic, merely that whatever it was was in range of Val's shadow.
Xelloss hopped over to him.
"Hello, Val. What would you be doing out here so late?"
"You're here again?" He looked straight up at him, though Xelloss saw no source of light. There was a hint of suspicion coming from the child.
"Again? What do you mean?"
"There was a trail of feathers. Last time I followed it, I was being chased and it led me to you. Though it takes a lot longer now. I can't find a way, the trail keeps changing or stopping ... and right now it's still pointing away from you, so it's not you."
Xelloss's hadn't been waiting in that meadow, he had just followed the dragons as they followed Val. It certainly was unusual though the child survived long enough for Xelloss to catch up when he had been so far away. From the sound of it, whatever caused this trail had some radar for danger, likely changing path to avoid curious devils. Oh, how annoyed that he couldn't see what was up with the boy.
"Perhaps I can get you where you want to go?"
"To the door you go through every night?"
"How ... why do you think that?"
"Mom dreamed that and I got curious, and then the feathers appeared. What do you do there?"
"Let's say I need more endurable company than the local dragons when your mother sleeps."
Val's suspiciousness of him ebbed away further. Xelloss had long since found out that anti-dragon sentiment was a good way to get the boy on his side.
"Someone's in there? It's not another bad dragon then?"
"No, she is not. She is a memory of someone who was too stubborn to properly die. A quite admirable lady, I must say. Unfortunately, she rather lack drive and passion. Perhaps you can help her and she will hide you in return."
"Huh ... okay. Mom's finally sleeping, but it's okay if I go with you, right?"
"Naturally!" Xelloss grabbed his leg and flew up the slope, child dangling upside down all the way.
"Hey! That's mean!" Val hissed.
"Have you forgotten I'm a devil?"
He flicked him to the ground before the portal and watched whether his strange astral form would affect the magic. It did cause a haze, but nothing severe. The principle behind the entrance was akin to Filia's teleportation, though stagnant. As expected, it remained stable.
Val was still sitting on the ground, rubbing his head. "You don't always have to be such a jerk."
"Now now, don't complain over such a small thing. You're starting to sound too much like miss Filia."
Truth be said, that was preferable to him sounding like Valgarv, which would be more like heretic rants about the injustice of the Lord of Nightmares.
"Val, hold onto my cloak. Inside is a maze that lies a little towards the astral plane. It means weaker devils will be able to manifest, so you may encounter some that are stupid enough to try and get you lost."
They passed through the radiant portal to land into the strange zone of the Claire Bible's space. Val's eyes almost popped out of his head as he realized the very fabric of matter constantly changed. Sometimes it was a landscape of crystals, only to ebb into biomechanic halls, and then blank blue space, and back again. It didn't happen as smoothly or rapidly as it once had, so Xelloss was told. Garv's attack had done some damage.
"What now?"
"We walk about two thousand miles, but don't worry, it takes a few steps if we have the right space below our feet," Xelloss said.
Val prodded the ground with his feet before unfolding his wings.
"You can do the steps," he said, a little shakily. Still holding onto the cloak, Val followed flying. "So, this place is the bible? That's a weird name for a place. What's the girl's name? Claire?"
"Ehm ... I suppose you can call her Claire if she approves. I'm not sure you should call her a girl, though."
Xelloss wasn't entirely sure what was here, actually.
When Aqualord Ragradia died, the remnants of her astral body found souls to attach to. Her power went into the Knight of the Aqualord, her knowledge into the Claire Bible and her wisdom went into the Queen of Zephyria. And then there are the kind of memories that make up personalities. They are inevitably tied to knowledge, but a little bit extra. Garv had nearly eradicated this remnant, but within the Claire Bible itself there was a sort of ... remnant of the remnant.
It was a little of a god and Val wasn't keen on gods. Whether this was Filia's raising, Luna's influence or remnants from the past he could not tell. Either way, it was better to let him form an opinion before a prejudice played up.
It was a good thing she didn't look like a god or dragon in the Aqua form. A tiny old elf was a strange choice but ...
... oh.
"Is that her?"
Up ahead was a wide crystal that slowly morphed into a dark platform. Atop this sat a humanoid roughly the size of Granny Aqua, and with the very same magical vibration. Aside of the white dress and blue cloak, she looked nothing like the former though. She was young, with blue hair and teal eyes that lacked pupils. From below her blue cloak stuck a set of batwings. In her own way, she mirrored Val.
She smiled and waved at Val. "Hello! I'm Claire! Will you be my playmate?"
Xelloss suppressed a chuckle when he recognized the hairstyle, a thick low tied ponytail arranged so it fell over her shoulder. A fitting homage to the most aquatic adventure Lina Inverse had been part of. It would be no surprise if a taste for octopus would reveal itself in the imminent future.
"What am I supposed to do?" Val asked, waving back hesitantly. "And why does she have wings? You said she was no dragon!"
"I'm not an enemy dragon, don't worry!" she called. "I'm not even a real dragon, I just thought I'd have wings since you did."
"Just play with her. I will be back in the morning." He prodded Val in the back, towards her.
Val looked over his shoulder, but then found his resolve and flew over to her. The newly named Claire stood up, flapping her wings and widening her smile. The expression she produced was a tad artificial, indicating her limited behavioral patterns, but he'd seen worse. (He'd seen Milgazia, who could do only as much as look blank, frown and sometimes smirk.)
Xelloss left the Claire Bible, but didn't stray far from the entrance. If Val screwed up the dimensional balance, he would interfere. Just perhaps, he'd indulge himself and be mean about it.
Xellos didn't do grudges. It was pointless. However, if Valgarv shadowed through too much, it would be a matter of retaliation.
Valgarv had been an idiot wallowing in his own misery. He always could have had the life he led now if only he'd allowed himself to. Instead, he had been out to ruin this world and all its complexities, out to take away all choice — the choices of his lord and himself — raging after women who had done him no harm.
Even raging against the omega, the Lord of Nightmares. He had questioned Her, the One Being deserving of all respect in the world. He had tried to subvert Her Will.
Yet he still existed in some way. Xelloss could only accept it, but he still wanted to know why.
Perhaps it was Lina's golden nature, the touch of Her on her soul. Perhaps it was Volphied. Perhaps it was the creation magic. Perhaps it was just the system Valgarv had set up for the rebirth that he had promised. Perhaps it was a combination of some those things, perhaps it was all of them combined.
· · · · · · ·
At dawn, he found Filia in a panic because Val was gone.
He happily informed her he had a solution for the hiding issue, as he now wandered around in the Claire Bible and couldn't be found by anyone but him and its guardian. She called him garbage for taking her son without asking, but when Xelloss teleported said back back she was elated.
Just perhaps, he might have heard a thank you in there.
"If there's an emergency, will you help us hide by bringing us to the Claire Bible, and out again, even if I'm done being useful?"
"Yes."
"That's good enough."
· · · · · · ·
Across the next days, Xelloss and Filia perfected their vessels to the point they could hold magic without a single leak, and they responded to the pull of magical command. The flow itself, well ... it didn't just happen, but he could pick up the details on the principles Filia had taught him years ago.
It was on the fifth day that they decided to mass fill the vessels by summoning the power of Shabranigdu and Siephied, from there on they'd try reverse engineering the flow. Xelloss realized it was easier than ever before, and in a quiet corner of his mind had to attribute it to Filia feeling safer. This allowed her energy to spread out.
She was under the impression that he'd gone out of his way to make her a little more at ease, and in turn, that made her a little easier to cooperate with. That was all it took? A little touch of trust? He hadn't thought that would be possible. Then again, he hadn't thought she'd ever rebel against her temple, aid him when he was injured or give him a sincere smile. Took a Götterdammerung, though.
Like it was the most casual thing, they drowned the hall in a cloud of black. The holy waters stilled and all magic but their own ceased.
Once again, the fusion looked different. More than ever Filia's affinity to a god of fire was apparent : the cloud filled with a prism of flame colored triangles, some of them impossible. The triangles might have been his doing, indirectly. A little imprint on local space, most likely. He was at liberty to see a sign in it, so he did.
It also gave a nice atmosphere, the kind that made Filia mesmerized for just long enough to let him concoct another abomination of clay.
When Filia retrieved herself from her admiration of the shiny, she noticed what he'd done.
"Xelloss, that rectangle can't exist logically! Why did you make another one?"
"Based on scenery and recent calculations of magical, spiritual and miasmic nature, I just concluded that the Lord of Nightmares is fine with this type of small sin too."
"You're hopeless ... what do you mean, too?"
"That's a secret."
· · · · · · ·
