"...thick-skulled... cold... unfeeling jerk!" The petite red-haired sorceress slammed her mug on the bar and yelled. "Barkeeper! Gimme another!"
"I think you've had enough, miss." The barkeep, being the most uninformed man alive outside of Gourry, tried to ease the glass away from Lina Inverse.
Moments later, she was helping herself to the alcohol, and the bar tender was being treated for third degree burns.
"It's not like having a friend would kill the moron..." She grumbled, totally ignorant to the blue-cloaked man who sat down beside her. "Dammit, why won't he quit trying to detach himself?!"
"Perhaps you should let him go?" The cloaked figure suggested. She glared at the speaker, sizing him up while considering his words.
"Right. Give up one of my three best friends?" She snorted. "Fat chance."
"The way you speak of him doesn't make him seem to be one of your three best friends," he replied.
"Zel can be a real jerk sometimes, but he's trustworthy and loyal." She downed another mug of ale.
"He seems to cause you a great deal of pain..."
"Only when he pulls that 'colder than thou' crap..."
"Is he really worth the agony?"
"He's one of the few people who can understand me." She narrowed her gaze. "One of the few people who I can really talk to."
"I see," he nodded. "Such a person is worth his weight in gold."
"He wouldn't agree to that idea," she scowled, mentally calculating the large fortune Zelgadis would be worth if that statement were true.
"And why is that?"
"Let's just say he's not a 'people person'..."
"And this justifies his treatment of you?"
"Hell no!" She laughed as she banged her glass on the counter again. "Ha. Look at me. Sitting in a bar in L-sama knows where, halfway to being drunk off my ass, and spilling my guts to a perfect stranger!"
Oh no, he thought, your guts have not yet begun to fall!
"Isn't that what a bar is for?" This he said aloud. "To unload your problems on people who have no bias on your situation?"
"Huh," she shrugged. "Hadn't thought of it like that."
"Many do not," he replied. "So. What do you intend to do about this 'friend' of yours?"
"I'm gonna march right up to him, whack him over the head with a sledge-hammer, and give him a piece or three of my mind!" She ground her fist into her palm for emphasis. "But first, I gotta go find him."
"An excellent strategy." Her still sober drinking partner agreed.
Zelgadis sat with his head in his hands, the contents of the box scattered around him carelessly. His dull blue eyes stared listlessly at the three objects he had 'inherited'; the rune-embroidered cape from the painting, a crimson jewel cloak clasp with Uruz engraved on it, and a black journal with a strange kind of lock.
"Why me?" he wondered absently. "I don't remember asking for any of this. Did I ask to be born with a crazy and ludicrously over-powered great/grandfather? No. Did I ask him to grant me strength by turning me into a monster? No! Did I ask to have a hand in the destruction of psycho clones, stupid Mazoku, or Demon Lords?! I don't fucking think so!
"Why me?"
Meanwhile, Xellos was having the crap kicked out of him by the Beast Master.
"Fool! How could you allow such an important thing to slip by your notice?!" She screamed, stripping him of his powers and beating him mercilessly.
"Forgive me, master!" the trickster cried, his physical form heavily damaged. "The Rune Purisaz, it shielded him from me! I was unable to determine the source of his power until just recently!"
"You must destroy the Runecaster, Xellos." She growled. "At any cost. Should he discover the method for creating Runestones, or worse yet, should he unlock that set's true power... The consequences will be great." She restored his abilities and stormed out of her great hall in search for some other method to vent her stress.
"My lord Korongar," Kwah bowed low to the blue-cloaked figure as he exited the tavern.
"She is thoroughly inebriated," he said plainly. "Bring her to me at the fort. Alive."
"Alive?" The ebony haired sword-slinger looked up sharply, deeply shocked by her master's orders. "To the fort? But, my lord..."
"But what, Kwah?" he questioned.
"... She has killed four others of our clan, both of mage and warrior..."
"The Runecaster killed them, not her."
"Is she not capable of it?"
"Are you questioning my judgment, Kwah?" His eyes narrowed menacingly. "Do you not think that you can handle the task?"
"I can do it, my liege... I am sorry I doubted your decision."
"Good. Now, go. I must find the Runecaster before she does and dispose of him."
"Milord..."
"What is it, Kwah?" Korongar spun around and snapped at her.
"Safe journey, milord." She flinched, then disappeared in a blur of ebony and scarlet.
"......" He scowled and sighed. "Impossible child, what will be done with you?"