Chapter One: Dead Kingdom


Don't stop

In the middle of a forest, a girl runs. Her beautiful, long, dark blue dress since long been torn, her shoes long since been lost, her hair no longer set in the pretty little bun she had put it in earlier. Red lines appear on her face, arms, and legs from the branches as they cut her. She ignores this, and still continues on. She feels the need to keep going, going until she can't go on anymore. Tears mix with blood as the girl cries. She doesn't even notice that she's crying, or the stinging sensation that she's getting from her cuts as the tears flow. All she notices is the forest ahead of her, howling at her, screaming at her as she leaves the only place she truly called home.

Don't stop.

The branches seem to be alive as they grab her and try to keep her back. She is persistent. She will not go back. The images of death beat in her brain, never letting her forget what happened, why she left, and why she could never return. All the horrible images that she was trying to keep enclosed within her, trying to ignore them and their horror. Glazed eyes looking, but not looking, at her. She knew she could not do anything about it and that was what had hurt the most. She was a healer, and she had failed at what she was best at. She couldn't heal them, she couldn't help them, she couldn't ease their pain. All she could do was stand and watch as her people died, one by one, while she herself was not affected.

Never stop. You can not go back.

The girl tripped on a large tree root and fell down. It was then that she realized that she was crying. It is then that she feels the pain. She ignores the pain and wipes her face. Compared to her people's suffering, her pain was insignificant. She decides to stand again and leaning on a tree, she uses it to try to get herself up. Pulling on a branch of the tree and using her right leg to push, she slowly stands. About halfway up she puts pressure on her left leg. The pain shoots up her leg life four inch thick needles, startling her and causing her to fall down again in pain. She grabs her leg and begins to slowly rock back and forth instinctively, trying to ease the pain away. She curses, this would slow her down and she didn't want that. They would come after her. They would find out what happened, and would come after her. She knew it would only be a matter of time. She didn't want them to come looking for her, she needed to be alone. She needed to forget. She had to forget.

Frowning, her hands began to glow white around her leg. She grimaced in pain for a moment and then her face smoothed out as the pain went away and the leg was now fully healed. She frowned again. She could heal herself but not others. It depressed her even more and she got up and continued running again. The entire time she had been running she didn't look back. She didn't look back at her past life, it was that that she was running from. She wanted to forget, she wanted to forget everything that had been in her past, her family, her friends, everything. She had failed, failed where they had needed her the most. She would never forgive herself for that loss. The tears came back in full force as the memories returned. This time the images were of her father. The way he looked at her before he died. He was so strong; there was no way that he could die! He was supposed to be with her forever. He was supposed to see her all grown up, with her own family. Her tears flowed as she remembered holding him in her arms as he slowly died and no healing spell that she could muster could save him. It was at that moment that she knew that she had to leave, she couldn't stay. She just couldn't. So she ran on, forcing the memories back, keeping the tears from flowing. She had no one to turn to, no one would listen. No one would believe that Seyruun was dead.

She looked up at the sky and at the moon. It was red. Finding it highly ironic she finally collapsed and wept. She could never go back to the life she held. She could no longer call herself Crowned Princess. She was no longer Ameria de Seyruun. She was simply, Ameria.


When Ameria woke up, she found that she was laying down. On a bed. She sat up, a bit confused and looked around to see where she was. It was a shack of some sorts, very small, very run down. All that was there was the bed she was in and a few barn supplies. She rubbed her head and stood up. Her head was pounding for some reason. She tried to think about the events that happened last night. She was running from something...she couldn't remember what though. As her head began to pound more she cried out. She didn't think she wanted to know. She forced herself to focus on the here and now and slowly walked out of the shack.

"I'm in a village." were her first words.

People far off in the distance moved about like busy bees. All around the people were shops and stores and inns. Ameria looked at her torn clothes and decided to do something about them. As she began to walk out of the barn she started to think about her friends. She knew if they found out that they would be looking for her. For some reason she didn't care too much.

"I'm hungry." she heard herself say. She held a hand over her stomach and realized that she was indeed very hungry. She looked around to see if there was any food around. None. Her stomach growled.

"I'll get some food in the village." she said to herself.

She decided that was best and began to walk towards the village, not wondering how she even got to the shack or what happened the night before. Her mind being one track, getting food and getting clothes.

Meanwhile in the shadows, a man sat on a tree watching as Ameria the former princess walked into the village. He then stood, using his staff for little support. His face is hidden by shadows and all you can see is his mouth, which has a very big smile on it.

"This, I believe, will be fun." he said and disappeared.


"Something is wrong here."

Zelgadiss Greywords stood at the palace gates of the Kingdom of Seyruun, and frowned. The gate was closed so you could not see the city but Zelgadiss knew that something was amiss. The smell of death that he was all to familiar with was reeking from the gates, the normally lit up city was now a dull gray. Even the gate that was usually bright and welcoming was dark and desolate. Zelgadiss ignored the chills that went up his spine. It was his usual reaction to the feeling of death. He had learned to deal with it. Death was a fact of life, everyone died. Even he would die. He knew this, he had always known, he was a man who knew much and was a realist. Zelgadiss also knew that White Magic wasn't his specialty.

This was the reason why he felt uneasy. A person, who studied White Magic and was very good at it or had mastered it, could feel things. They could feel when someone was sick or had a spell put on them. They knew when something needed the talents of the Healing Field. This also applied to Shamanism in a lot of ways. Shamanism dealt with the Astral Plane so that would deal with one's spirit. A Shamanist could most likely tell how a person died by reading his or her Astral Signature. A person's signature stayed on the Planet for a good week before departing. This was so that the spirit could depart after seeing it's loved ones or seeing how something they had wanted to do or someone they had wanted to be with had gotten done or that person was all right. But that did not mean that a Shamanist could feel the death of someone. That was only if that person's Astral Signature had mixed with theirs which could happen in different ways. One would be that the two people were married. Another would be really close contact to someone you cared about for a long period of time. This explains how one can feel where the other is or if they're all right or not. Zelgadiss had figured this out when Gourry had once said that Lina was all right even though he didn't know and in all actuality Lina was the verge of dying. Zelgadiss had known then that Gourry and Lina's Astral Signatures had mixed more than they even knew.

However, it would still not explain this strong sense of death surrounding him. This was something only priests and priestesses should be feeling. Something a Shrine Maiden like Sylphiel would be feeling. But he was feeling it. Perhaps his Shamanist powers were stronger than he thought. But the nagging in his head told him something different.

The truth of the matter was, he didn't know why he was even in Seyruun. Under normal circumstances he wouldn't even think of coming here, he had no reason to return besides seeing Ameria and he didn't really want to see her. She was his friend but that didn't mean that he wanted to see her at that moment. He loved his friends, but looking for them he never did. That's what made it strange all together. It had actually been a dream that he had had which had made him return to the White Magic capital. A week ago he had been dreaming of being Human, as he always did, but then his dream skipped to Seyruun. The city was covered in plague and death. Bodies laid sprawled everywhere; the entire scene a horrible sight. The Healers knew no cure. The Crown Prince was dead. The King was dead. Ameria was not to be found anywhere. This was what had disturbed him the most. He may not visit his friends on a daily basis but if it was something this serious he would do anything in his power to help. Besides that, Seyruun was the White Magic Capital of the world so how could it fall to disease? This was Zelgadiss' biggest question.

However, at first he did not believe that the dream was real. He thought his mind was playing tricks on him. But then the dreams wouldn't go away. They kept coming each and every night without fail. Each dream was more real than the last. The bodies were still there, gray and covered with spots of sickness. They still looked at him with their blank gaze. The city healers were burying Prince Phil. The king had already been buried earlier. Ameria was still not there. Another woman was there though. She was taller than Ameria but looked a lot like her just with longer hair. Her blue eyes were sad and she was wearing priestess clothing. Something told him that he should know her. Everyone was sad and crying, at least the ones that were alive anyways, mourning over their lost ones. But Ameria was not with them. Had she died as well? Did something horrible happen to her? Suddenly his face donned a painful expression as he thought of the fight with Hellmaster, when Ameria had died in his arms. Never before in his life had he felt so helpless. He had wanted to help her. She was his friend. She was annoying, full of "sunshine" as he had dubbed it, her speeches drove him up the wall, but she was cute and she was kind. She loved everyone and tried not to judge people. She was a girl that had changed over the course of the group being together and so she was way too young to die. She needed to grow up, see the world from more mature eyes, to fall in love...

Zelgadiss looked at the gates again and began to wonder if what he had felt was true. Was the city beyond this gate dead? And if so would the plague spread? And who started it? Mazoku? So many thoughts raced in his head. Why Seyruun? He knew that it had been a target for Maryuoh Garv but would the Mazoku really be capable of doing this to a powerful White Magic city? It was just unbelievable. And why? What was their purpose of doing this? And the biggest question of all: did Lina know?

If Lina knew, Zelgadiss knew that it would be a matter of time before the red-head showed up. Lina may not act like it, but she really enjoyed Ameria's company and saw her as the little sister she never had. Lina really cared about Ameria and Ameria really cared about her. In a way, Zelgadiss felt bad for Ameria for almost all of Ameria's family was corrupt save a few and so Ameria really had no one to look up to save her father and he well.... wasn't the best person to look up to in Zelgadiss' opinion. Ameria's father was disillusioned with justice. Ameria had been the same way. She had changed a lot though between. He could actually say that he was proud of her.

Zelgadiss shuddered as a wind picked up a bit causing the air of death to spread around him. He let out a breath that he hadn't known he had been holding and went to open the city gates...


"Ameria...." a voice sighed

Inside the Royal Palace of Seyruun, a tall woman with long purple hair paces slightly. She looks sad and worried at the same time. She knew this was not like her normal behavior but she couldn't help it. The woman was not in her usual garb that everyone knew her(or didn't know her) in which was her skimpy bikini black getup that was her mother's and her treasure but she was in priestesses robes which covered her from head to toe. She was pacing nervously, wondering what to do next. This tall woman was now Queen of Seyruun. Whether she liked it or not.

Queen Gracia Naga Ul Seyruun stopped pacing and sat down on her throne. For three days she had had her search out for her sister, the true Queen of Seyruun, Ameria Wil Tesla but with no luck. The eighteen-year-old princess had completely disappeared from sight. Naga was certain that Ameria had left the kingdom but she did not want to think that even her own sister had left her behind like her mother and father had. Naga was highly upset. This was not her place. This was not her. Naga wanted to be rich, however she didn't want to be a Queen of something that she had been running away from her entire life. Her past had been just that, her past. She had never wanted to think about it, ever since her mother had been killed she knew that staying in Seyruun was something that she didn't want to do. She had felt guilty about leaving Ameria behind. She was so alone and she would have to deal with father's ideals of "justice". Naga knew the truth. Justice was what you made of it. It wasn't something that was fair. It was something that you had to fight for. Her father, their father was narrow-minded and naive. He knew nothing about the real world. His kingdom was his shelter. Naga knew the truth. Shamanist and Black magic was the way to go. Even though Naga's skills in White Magic surpassed even her own mother's, she never tried to show it. Every now and then she would slip but it was small healing spells or something similar to that. She never let anyone, not even Lina; know just how powerful she was in White Magic. Ameria, from what Naga had seen, was also good at White Magic although not as good as Naga. But then again, Naga hadn't been there when her father had died. Ameria had gone through it all and while Naga was upset that Ameria was gone, she couldn't blame her. Ameria's life had been one of sadness but yet she was always happy. This was word that had been told to her by servants. Naga couldn't understand how Ameria could go through so much and still be the way she was. Perhaps her father's death was what did it. Perhaps the death of their father was too much for even the strong little Ameria to go through. If that were the case, Naga would give her time. She knew exactly how Ameria felt.

Suddenly a man came in and walked over to the throne. He was a sickly looking man of about twenty, his shaggy blonde hair made him look like a beggar but he was far from it. His face was in a deep scowl as he faced the new Crowned Queen.

"Your Highness. We have buried a thousand more bodies today. More will be buried by the 'morrow."

This was not interesting news to Naga. She did not want to hear of death. "Continue." she said in her natural regal voice

"Also...it has been confirmed that over a thousand more has died from the Virus. If this continues, we will have no room to bury the dead Highness! What are we going to do?" he implored

Naga frowned "That's what I hired you for." she sighed "Find me Lina Inverse. Tell her that the Queen requests an audience with her that consists of an reward." she began to think "Ah yes. A reward. That will get Lina running here in a flash. Better yet, post all over the country that I wish to speak to Lina Inverse about a job that I want her to do for me that consists of a huge reward should she succeed. Do not tell her that it is me that is looking for her, understand?"

The man smiled and bowed "Yes Highness! I will get on that right away! I'm sure that the Bandit Killer and the killer of two dark lords will be able to help us. Lina Inverse is the greatest sorceress who ever...."

Naga, a bit disturbed by his blabber, stood up. "Come now, surely you must know that it is I that is the greatest sorceress! Lina is just my sidekick. The reason I want her here is so that I can have my sidekick at my side when we get to the bottom of this. Never forget that it is I, Naga the White Serpent, and not Lina, that is the greatest Sorceress!" she threw her hair back and with a hand in front of her face began to laugh "OHHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO! I, Naga the White Serpent am the greatest! OHHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!"

The servant nodded a hasty agreement and left quickly.

When the servant left, Naga stopped laughing and sat down. She sighed and dug out a picture of her family. It was one of Ameria, herself, her father and mother. Ameria had only been a little girl at the time. She smiled at the picture and then her expression became sad again.

"Ameria..." she said softly "My little sister. Where are you? Did you get into some kind of trouble? Why did you leave me all alone to rule this dead kingdom? Ameria...."


"Thish ish kinda good!" Lina said in a mouthful

In a village, outside of Seyruun, Lina Inverse, self proclaimed Sorcery genius, and a man great with a sword named Gourry Gabriev sat at an all you can eat bar and ate. And ate. And ate. And ate some more. And then after that they had dessert. These two, mainly Lina however, were well known all over the land. Lina Inverse who was called the Bandit-Killer, the Girl Who Leaves Wreckage In Her Wake, the Dragon Spooker... ect... ect. If you were her friend you just called her Lina.

But the real question was, why were they outside of Seyruun? Well the answer to that is simple.

There is a word that is universal. Doesn't really matter how you say it, if it's in gold, silver, or bronze you know what it is. Money. And Lina Inverse was all about money. If you showed her something shiny and valuable she becomes "Lina the Businesswoman" or "Lina the Bandit-Killer" take your pick. Lina had heard about the big reward that the newly made Queen of Seyruun was giving out for a job that she wanted only Lina Inverse to do. Lina thought it was strange for Ameria to have to send out posters for something that she could've simply asked personally about but Lina decided not to complain, especially if Ameria was going to give an reward. But Lina couldn't get that nagging feeling out of her head that something was wrong and that was one of the major reasons why she decided to go and take a little trip to Seyruun.

Which made her thoughts turn towards Zelgadiss. Did he know about what Ameria was doing? Did he care? Lina knew that Zel cared for all of his friends but she seriously doubted that Ameria giving out a reward would get him running to Seyruun. But she couldn't get he feeling that perhaps Zel had went to Seyruun as well but for his own personal reasons.

Lina couldn't understand the things she was feeling at the time. She knew that something was wrong with Seyruun and it was a strong feeling. It had first started with rumors that she and Gourry had heard. They were traveling along around Karlia, a small village that was renowned for it's arts and musical talents that came from there. The rumor stating that Seyruun had fallen to disease. Lina had protested this to the person that had said the rumor jokingly at first but then the more she thought about it and the more rumors she heard, she started to get a weird feeling about the rumors and decided to go and check it out. Of course, Gourry had also suggested that they should go and visit the princess...wait not a princess anymore, a Queen! Of all things. Lina smiled to herself. Queen Ameria. That was something she would never have thought of calling Ameria. She would now have to call Ameria, Ameria-sama....

Gourry looked up from his eating and noticed that Lina had stopped eating a while ago. A bit curious he decided to ask about it.

"Lina?" Gourry asked.

Lina was interrupted from her thoughts as Gourry looked at her with his normal puzzled expression. "What Gourry?" she asked.

"Well...I was wondering...." He began

Lina sighed. When Gourry "wondered" about something a stupid question always followed along with it. "What is it? And please try to not make this one stupid okay? I'm not in the mood for stupid questions right now."

Gourry nodded, understanding "Well I just was wondering about Ameria...is that what you were thinking about too?"

Lina, a bit startled that the question was actually decent was quiet for a moment before she smiled. "Yeah Gourry. I was thinking about that too. What about it? What were you thinking about?"

Gourry finished off the last of his meal and gave Lina one of his serious looks "Well, uh, isn't Ameria's dad the Prince of Seyruun?"

Lina sighed. Perhaps the decent questions only came once a year or month or something. "Yeah, last time I checked he was. What does this have to do with Ameria, Gourry?" she asked starting to get exasperated. There was bound to be a stupid question coming up somewhere in here.

"Well I was just wondering. If Phil is the Prince and Ameria is the Princess, well then who was the King of Seyruun?"

"How should I know?!" she demanded "And what does that have to do with Ameria?!" she stood up, fangs bared, ready to strike. What were all these questions leading to anyways?

Gourry began to sweat drop "Lina don't get mad!" he said hastily "Hear me out this time! Well if Ameria is queen then what happened to the guy who was King and Phil? If Phil was next in line then why is Ameria queen?"

"Well..." she stopped and blinked at Gourry, not really knowing the answer to the question herself. "Gourry, you have a very good point. If Ameria is queen, what did happen to Phil? And Christopher was next in line after him. What happened to Christopher as well?" she pulled out the notice that had got her on the way to Seyruun. The one about the reward. She frowned as her mind began to start to piece thing together "Is this a way to...is this perhaps to get us to Seyruun? But Ameria knows how to get in contact with us so why didn't she just do it herself? Too many questions and not enough answers. Come on Gourry, this just got serious. We gotta get to Seyruun as soon as possible."

Gourry nodded though a mouthful of food and grabbed his sword. "Lesh go." he said and stood, still finishing off his food. "To Seyruun!" he exclaimed after the gulped the food down.

Lina smiled "And I might still get a reward out of this..." she said to herself. "Okay let's go." she said and the two left leaving a very relived cook to finally close.


Outside of the kingdom, Zelgadiss still stands. His thoughts are running wild and most of them are falling on Ameria. For some reason he could feel that something had happened to her. Was that the reason why he had to come back to Seyruun so badly? Because of Ameria? He knew it had been a drive; to come back and see if she was all right and, so he thought, the main reason he was returning was to see if his dream had become a reality. But the more and more he thought about it, the more and more his thoughts returned to Ameria. So was she the main reason after all?

Zelgadiss walked up to the gate and opened the gate slowly. What used to be smooth opening doors were now rough and you had to jerk them to get them open. With a sickening squeak the gate slowly opened and Zelgadiss began walking in, his heart now at the bottom of his feet.

He didn't see it at first. He felt it more than anything. He had felt it behind the gate as well but it was so much stronger than before. It was the feeling of Death. It had almost made Zelgadiss stop breathing. It was so thick that it almost hard for him to breathe! What had happened here?

It was when his mind began to trail off was when he saw them. His eyes widened in terror as he looked at eyes. Dead, glazed over eyes staring at him, peering into his soul. He began to turn and that was all he saw. Dead bodies. Most gray, some spotted from whatever it was that ended their lives.

"By L-sama." he said, his voice barely a whisper "What...what happened to these people? And Ameria!" he began to look around frantically "Ameria. If all these people, if my dream came true..." he let the sentence trail off. "Oh God! I have to find her!" he exclaimed and began to run towards the palace, ignoring the sea of dead bodies that laid below him...


There was no resistance when it came to getting inside of the castle. All the guards were dead or dying. The air of death around Zelgadiss was so thick that he found it hard to breathe.

"A...almost everyone in Seyruun is...dead. As big as this place was, there must have been thousands that died. How could this have happened?" he asked no one

"It's ironic isn't it?" a voice asked

Zelgadiss turned "Who said that?!" he demanded, a scowl on his face.

There was no answer, and no one alive around to answer his question.

"You're losing it Zelgadiss." he scolded himself and walked inside of the castle.

When he walked inside, the air of death was not as thick, if it was thick at all. He sensed some life ahead of him and followed where his senses were leading him. He thought perhaps that it was Ameria but for some reason, something was telling him that it was not her.

Ameria isn't in Seyruun. he thought to himself and then wondered why he thought that.

Which to Zelgadiss, was a very good question. Was there something that his mind knew that it wasn't telling him?


It was finally the middle of the day and the sun was set high in the sky. The birds chirped in the forest, which was their rightful home. Around the forest a river ran and if you were walking on the path through the middle of the forest you could faintly hear the sparkling water from afar. It was a very beautiful day.

The timing however was completely off, the atmosphere was off, everything was wrong. Death filled the air around the kingdom known as Seyruun. Anyone, whether a master of magic or not, could feel it, smell it in the air. The kingdom itself had a dark glow around it and even the animals stayed a safe distance from it. This however did not stop the two travelers walking towards the kingdom, even on a somewhat beautiful day.

Lina walked, Gourry right along with her. Lina's normal expression was changed to a deep scowl as she neared the kingdom that was her best friend's home. The tall blonde next to her had his usual expression of total blankness, however his eyes betrayed the emotions that were confusing him. Something had happened to his friend and he didn't really know what it was. The fact that Lina had received a letter not too long ago from this mysterious Queen of Seyruun had him even more confused. He turned to Lina and almost started.

Gourry had known Lina for years and yet he had never seen her so upset in his entire life. He had seen her fight monsters, Dark Lords and mysterious creatures but he had never seen her look as mad as she did now. Her fists were tightly clenched by her sides and her dark red eyes were darker than usual, now a deep crimson. They held anger and confusion. He couldn't quite understand what she was so confused about. Lina was very smart and she usually figured things out before he ever could. The fact that her eyes betrayed her confusion confused Gourry even more than he was already, if that were possible. Not just that but the closer they got to Seyruun, the more quiet Lina became. Gourry was now so confused that his head was beginning to ache. He decided that the best thing to do was to break this never-ending silence.

"Lina?" he asked

Lina turned and looked at him, her eyes still sparkling in anger. Gourry paused for a moment. He had never noticed just how pretty she looked when she was angry like she was. It was probably due to the fact that Lina was usually kicking the crap out of him to notice.

"Yeah Gourry?" she finally answered after she started looking ahead again.

"I got a question."

"Don't make it stupid." She snapped "I already told you that I'm not in the mood for it today."

Gourry shook his head "No, I really thought about it this time. It's kinda important."

Lina actually smiled "You thought about it? That's a first. So then Gourry what is this question?" she asked, genuine amusement creeping in her voice.

"Well I've been thinking about a lot of things. One was that letter that you got from this Queen. Ameria is the only person that's in line to become Queen right? So then why would Ameria send you a letter and not say it was her? The letter is kinda formal and that's not like her."

Lina was quiet for quite some time, a bit amazed that Gourry was thinking about the same thing she was. He probably got it because of the simple fact that it was too obvious NOT to notice. She then sighed and looked at Gourry.

"That's EXACTLY what I've been wondering." Lina said, "Ameria isn't the kind of person who would be all secrets. Something is wrong here, not just that..." she trailed off as they reached a hill. The hill was high and it enabled you to see the kingdom from afar. It was also a sign that you only had but a few hours before you reached the kingdom. Lina pointed towards the very dark kingdom. "Look." She finished and turned to Gourry, worry in her eyes "This kingdom is huge and it was always bright with white magical power. Now..." she trailed off, unable to go on. What had happened here?

Gourry frowned "Lina, it's almost as if a war had happened here."

Lina nodded "But there's no sign of it. There's the crater that I created long ago but other than that it looks fine. But the kingdom is so dark. It's like no one lives there anymore. We gotta go and see if Ameria's okay. C'mon Gourry!" she exclaimed and started running down the hill. Gourry ran after her, just as worried as she was about his friend's current position.

The letter that Lina received was still going through her head though. Something wasn't right about it. She could have sworn that she had seen the handwriting before but she just couldn't place it. It wasn't Ameria's handwriting she knew that, but it was still awfully familiar. Who could it be that decided that she was going to be the new Queen of Seyruun? Were she and Gourry running into a trap? It would seem likely, however there was simply something wrong with the whole thing. What power could be strong enough to have the kingdom of White Magic be surrounded by Mazoku influence? Lina knew that was what it was. Could the letter have been sent from a Mazoku trying to lure her into a trap? But why Seyruun?

Lina Inverse, I know you are out there and I need you in Seyruun as soon as possible. I have a job that I would like you to do. Money is no object. Please hurry.

Signed,
The Queen of Seyruun

Lina let the letter play in her head once more. Why didn't she put her name? What was the big secret? Was Ameria trying to warn her or draw her to Seyruun for something so important that she couldn't even reveal the fact that she was now Queen? Had Phil died? If Ameria was queen then it was more than likely. Now Lina felt bad. Ameria was VERY close to her father. The time he had "died" she had been very depressed. If he had really died this time then Ameria might be very traumatized. Lina could do no other than try to help Ameria and kick whoever's ass that killed her father should that be the case. Lina cursed under her breath; this wasn't good. It didn't matter what the reason was; this whole situation just wasn't good.


"You are here."

Zelgadiss shrugged and looked around the palace hallway. He had long since entered the palace and had now just met up with some guy named Kavin who was a priest to a Seyruun shrine. Kavin had been ordered to meet him and show him to the "queen". Zelgadiss as of now was slightly irritated and confused. If Ameria was the queen she would had met up with him personally. Was she somehow injured? Suddenly a swarm of emotion washed over him and he frowned. The last thing he wanted was to see one of his close friends injured or worse...dying.

"Where is she?" Zelgadiss finally asked, still looking around. His senses were on high as he felt around the area. The feeling of death had left as soon as he had entered the palace. What followed it was a strong flow of White Magic. He knew it was simply because of the fact that there were many people who practiced White Magic around in this palace. It really creeped him out for some reason. Why were all these healers around? Why were so many normal people dead and dying but the healers stronger than ever? Nothing made sense to him anymore. Where the hell was Ameria?

"She?" Kavin asked "You mean the Queen?" the man was clearly confused

"Well if the "Queen" is Ameria Wil Tesla de Seyruun, yeah, I want to know where she is." Zelgadiss snapped sarcastically

Kavin visibly paled making Zelgadiss more alert than ever. What was going on here?

"You mean the Princess?" Kavin asked, looking quite disturbed "She isn't here. She's gone."

I will not get angry, I will not get angry, I will... Zelgadiss thought as he glared at the poor man. Gone? What did he mean gone? Zelgadiss fought for control of his emotions. If Ameria wasn't the Queen who was? And why did they need a Queen now anyways? What had happened to Phil?

"I think you need to start explaining." Zelgadiss growled "Before I meet this "Queen" I want to know what happened to Ameria. Was she kidnapped, killed,what happened?"

Kavin bowed his head, almost ducking as if Zelgadiss was going to hit him in his anger. "She's gone." He said "She left. No one could stop her. She was so upset that she left without a word. The Queen sent a search party for her, but we could never find her. Everyone has been so upset at her disappearance but there was nothing that we could do."

Zelgadiss grabbed Kavin by his shirt and pulled him very close "What do you mean, she just ran away? So you're saying that for some strange reason she just up and left? I find that a bit hard to believe. Ameria is somewhat impulsive, but she has her reasons." he sneered at the trembling Priest "And I have the strangest feeling that you're not telling me everything now are you?" he asked

Kavin shrunk under his questions. "I'm sorry. I don't know all of what's happened. Only the Queen knows since she was the last person who spoke to her. And I was only told to bring the outsiders to the Queen. Nothing more, nothing less. I'm truly sorry but I'm just a messenger for now." "Looks like it's time to see this queen." he said and slowly started to follow Kavin towards the throne room.


Notes

I guess I will end this chapter here. I had actually started rewriting this chapter and so I took some of the rewrites and put them with this chapter and got this. I hope you all enjoy it. Yes I realize that America only had two scenes in this chapter while Zel and Co. had many more(Actually Zel had the most scenes). This will change. Some chapters will focus on certain people, while others will not be focused on as much. I doubt you'll see too many made-up characters in this story that are important, but you will see some old friends from TRY. Sorry if this story is very dark and depressing but it will(hopefully) get better. Please contact me with comments and/or questions. I'll be happy to answer questions as long as they don't involve what I'm going to do with the story. If you do e-mail me asking what's going to happen, I'll simply let Xelloss answer those e-mails ^_~


Chapter 2   |   Fanfiction