"They got Arbez." The ebony-haired woman glared at her blonde companion as she sharpened her blade.
"I realize that." He replied, pacing before her like a caged tiger.
"What do you intend to do about it?" She remained apathetic, even while his expression warped with chagrin.
"Counter, naturally." He halted in his walk. "They killed Arbez, so it is only right that we kill his killer."
"Of course." She ignored his twisted logic, testing the edge of her sword and finding it to be acceptable.
"Oh yes, stone-man." He muttered darkly, with vengeance and insanity on each word. "You will be sorry you ever laid eyes on a Runestone!" His mad cackle echoed into nothingness, and his female companion attempted to massage away the beginning of her new headache.
For the longest time, neither Zelgadis nor Lina made a move to touch the Runestones. The two spell casters sat in silence, wary of the dull but ever present power emanating from the talismans. After a brief statement about how the imprinter would most likely be on their way to claim the stones, they lost the will to converse.
"Well..." Lina sighed at last. "What are we going to do?"
"I don't know about you," Zelgadis snorted, "but I'm going to get a closer look."
"What?!" Her jaw dropped. "You can't be serious! Zel!"
"If you don't remember, the lightning didn't effect me earlier." He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and caught her gaze with his steel glare. "Perhaps the spell doesn't acknowledge me because of my stone skin."
"Zel..." She glowered.
"It's worth a try, Lina." He reached towards the tiles, his cold stare never moving from the target.
"Zel..." She warned.
Both of them held their breath as his fingers brushed the smooth surface, then closed around the disk.
"The... the power level!" He hissed. "It dropped!"
"What?" Crimson eyes stared at the tablet, trying to find what Zel felt. "How can you tell?"
"You mean that you can't?" His attention diverted to her.
"No." She shook her head. "Odd, usually I sense these kind of things.... Are you sure they're imprinted?"
"Positive." He nodded. The feel of magic is all around them."
"But that would mean..." She looked up at him, the actuality dawning in her gaze. "They're imprinted to you..."
"What?!" He dropped the stone and fell back in shock. "Impossible!"
"Let me guess; you lifted this off of a bandit gang, right?" She waited for him to answer, and he barely nodded in reply. "These stones are probably enchanted to imprint to their original owner, and then whoever kills that owner. I'm betting one of those outlaws stole them from the owner without knowing about the power of the Runes, and never found out."
"All right, I suppose it is possible..." Terror filled his voice as he looked at her cautiously. "You wouldn't..."
"Gods, Zel, lighten up!" She slapped him on the back, ignoring the sharp pain in her hand. "You're one of my best friends! I wouldn't kill you to gain the powers of the Runes. Although, if you could teach me..."
"Lina, it could take me years to decipher the spells on these stones." He sighed in aggravation. "Even with your help - "
"Yare, yare," Xellos phased in, smiling as arrogantly as ever. "What kind of toys are you playing with now, children?" Lina shot him a Death Glare, and Zelgadis scooped the disks into the bag.
"None of your business, fruitcake." The chimera snarled.
"Touchy, today, aren't we?" The Mazoku's amethyst eyes opened slowly, shadows playing over his face.
The blue eyed youth's hand clenched tightly around the forgotten stone in his hand, which glowed dully in reaction to his temper, that blood trickled down between his fingers. Xellos attempted to pry into his mind, but was met with solid mental barriers without as much as a hairline fracture in them. He pressed against the walls, and received a good psychic kick in the pants for trying. The blockades shone with figures that looked like triangular flags at half mast.
What is that? The Trickster pondered, withdrawing reluctantly from the chimera's brutal mind-scape. What could you be trying to hide?
The worst thing was, Xellos couldn't even read his emotions. It wasn't that he couldn't tell from Zelgadis' stance that he was livid with rage; that was obvious to even a passer-by. No, it was in the fact that Zelgadis' aura was repressed and hidden by the shields in his head. Normally, the priest was able to read the body's aura, with the exception of his Mazoku superiors. For a mortal to be able to block him out was, to say the least, humiliating. Breaking the Shaman's walls should have been an easy task. He was only 1/3 Mazoku, surely he couldn't be able to shield that well...
Then again, it might have been that the symbol I saw earlier, could have something to do with it.... He teleported off, leaving the sorceress in a silent, stunned trance with a seething Shaman.