In Which Old Friends Have The Same Old Arguments, Zelgadis Gets Spooked, We Find A Place At Which Even Lina Won't Eat, A Destination Is Reached, And Lots Of People Get The Willies.
"Are we there yet?"
"Not yet, Miss Lina."
"... I'm hungry."
"Me too."
"You're always hungry!"
"Are we there yet?"
"No, Gourry. No, we're not."
"I'm bored. Y'know, if we were to walk faster, we could get there and fight for justice sooner..."
"I am NOT walking any faster. We'll get there when we get there."
"Are we there yet?"
"Does it LOOK like we're there, Amelia?"
"I'm tired."
"Quit whining!"
"But you were whining..."
"...That was different. I wasn't whining. I was taking note of important facts."
"Is 'are we there yet?' an important fact?"
"...Shut up."
Walking for a really long time, even on a nice day, is rarely any fun, especially when you're out of the habit, as Lina, Gourry, and Amelia were. See, they'd been on a vacation of sorts. No Dark Lord slaying, no world saving, no great quest undertaking. Just a little casual bandit-bashing, and plenty of R&R.
Amelia had wanted to stay at the palace, but Lina hadn't been wild about the idea. Getting involved in Amelia's family squabbles wasn't her idea of a relaxing time. Not to mention, Amelia alone gave Lina cavities. Add her peace-and-justice loving relatives in (or, even worse, the crazy or ambitious ones), and Lina had to spend a lot of her free time attempting to keep down her lunch. Not the most relaxing locale for a vacation.
Instead, they'd been bouncing around from one little town to another (with the exception of the last four days in Sailoon City... at an inn), just seeing the sights. The towns were pretty close together, and some were just barely large enough to have an inn. Lina was determined that their little vacation would be spent the same way most teenagers spend sight-seeing vacations. Or in Gourry's case, most young twenty-somethings. Not that she really had any idea how most teenagers spent their vacations, but hey, replacing the adventuring clothes had to be a start, right? Lina's one exception to the "only normal stuff" rule was bandit hunting (wearing what almost looked like adventuring clothes), which had been how they were passing the time when the letter had arrived, cutting their vacation short.
Once the first wave of "go forth and act!" had worn off, Lina had been surprisingly non-P.O.ed that they'd had to give up the remainder of their vacation. Amelia suspected that Lina had really just been bumming around until she figured out what to do next. In any case, Lina had jumped right into action, commanding them all to get changed back into their normal outfits. Next order of business had been finding an early dinner, but that had to be expected with Lina. After that, they'd been ready to start on the road. They'd made pretty good time, despite having just eaten, and Amelia (who knew the countryside around Sailoon better than Lina or Gourry) was pretty sure they'd be to the town by about an hour after dark.
It was about two and a half hours after dark when they first caught sight of the town of Tevila. Amelia ran ahead. "We're there, we're there!" She stopped dancing and put on a thoughtful expression. "I think it should be 'we're here, we're here.'"
Lina shrugged. "Whatever. Let's go find the priestess-lady. Better yet, let's find something to eat!"
Gourry liked that idea, and said so. Amelia wanted to get to the helping people in the name of justice part, but truthfully she was in need of a meal too. So, she bowed to the consensus, like any true lady who happened to be really, really hungry would. Justice could wait a few minutes. It wasn't like it was going anywhere, right?
And so they went into the town.
What, you want action and adventure? Sheesh. I've already shown you the interesting parts of their trip into town. Nothing happened on the way there, or on the way in. They argued some, they made a little small talk, and did a lot of griping.
But, if it makes you feel any better, you can imagine that they killed a raging beast. Terribly interested (bored?) readers can mail the author for this scene.
In any case, things would begin happening in a big way in about ten minutes, so don't be too disappointed.
He was getting that feeling again.
It wasn't exactly the itching feeling between his shoulder blades that he got in Xellos's presence. It wasn't the twitchy "Move out of the way before the fireball hits!" feeling he got around Lina, either. Nor was it the first flush of embarrassment that hit in Amelia's presence. It wasn't even the nagging headache he tended to develop in Gourry's company...
...No, this was sort of like all four.
You could call it an early warning system, I suppose.
Zelgadis Greywers had long since learned to pay attention to instincts, gut feelings, and of course, his sixth sense. (As all Shamanists worth beans in the spirit category know, the sixth sense is quite real and non-impressive if you just work a little at developing it. It's the seventh sense that's something to be proud of.)
Normal people might have attributed the sudden wave of oddness he got whapped in the psychic forehead with to the object strapped to his back, but Zel had gotten quite used to it's version of bad vibes. Besides that, Zel is no ordinary guy. We're not talking about his Chimeric curse here (that would be crude and tasteless, really). We're talking about a rare sort of person who's gotten very, very hard to surprise. At least twice in the same few days.
That's why he hardly batted an eyelash when he heard three very familiar voices calling his name from a block back.
"Zel!"
"Hey, Zel!"
"Mr. Zelgadis!!!!"
He turned just in time to catch the full impact of Amelia colliding with his chest.
"Oof," he said quietly, attempting to disentangle her arms. It was no use though. She was just too enthusiastic, and bubbly, and... and... Cute. She was also babbling something about having been so worried about him, but he wasn't exactly paying attention. He sighed, and cast a plaintive look in Lina's direction. The look fairly screamed, "Help me!" The grinning sorceress put on a "Who, me?" expression, and whistled innocently. He groaned.
"Amelia... Could you please step back?" She reluctantly complied, and he tugged his tunic and cloak straight, smoothing out the wrinkles. He sighed. "I suppose it would be useless to ask why you're here. I mean, I can pretty much guess."
A perplexed expression appeared on two faces. It was already there on one. "How could you have heard already, Zel?" Lina asked curiously.
He crossed his arms. "I was there when it happened," he said cooly. "I observed the whole thing."
Her eyes got huge, as did Amelia's. "Zelgadis!" hissed Lina. "That's cold, even for you!"
Amelia's reaction was a little more dramatic. "Mr. Zelgadis!" she wailed. "How could you see something like that and not do your best to help?! That's monstrous!" She seemed to realize what she'd just said, and had the grace to blush, but she didn't let up. "I can't believe that you-"
He cut her off with a sharp motion. "What the hell was I supposed to do, Amelia?! Run in there and get killed?" He jabbed a finger at her. "You weren't there, and if you had been, you couldn't have done anything either. And if you'd tried... You'd be dead." His arms returned to their crossed position. "It's not like I was close enough to do anything, anyway," he said defensively. He paused a beat. "Just how did you find out about it, and get here so fast, anyway?"
Lina rummaged in her cloak. "I got a letter from the High Priestess at the temple here." She offered it to him, then tacked on plaintively, "We had to walk all afternoon without any food at all!"
Amelia crossed her arms.
"...Without much food," Lina amended.
Amelia still didn't look happy, but let it go.
Zelgadis ignored the exchange, and simply furrowed his brow. "How could anyone here know what happened so soon? I've been running since last night."
She blinked. "Huh? But it happened here!"
"Uh, Lina, I'm confused," interrupted Gourry. "You sound like you're talking about two different things."
The rest of the group stared at each other in surprised silence.
"Oh," said Amelia at last.
Zel cleared his throat. "Err... Perhaps you should let me take a look at that letter now." He paused. "If you don't mind?"
Lina waved her hands. "No, no, go ahead. Then you get to tell us what you're doing here."
As Zelgadis skimmed the letter, Gourry scratched his head. "I still don't get it, Lina. What are we talking about?"
Zelgadis finished reading the letter about the time Lina finished pummeling Gourry. Zel folded the sheet of paper and returned it to Lina. "Let's get out of the street, Lina. We need to find somewhere private to talk." He pulled his hood up. "We may be here about the same thing after all."
It was the kind of restaurant that no respectable citizen, or even a sane non-respectable citizen would be caught dead in. Lina had sniffed the air when she walked inside, and declared that maybe she wasn't so hungry after all. Gourry had turned four different varieties of green, and Amelia had glimpsed a hoard of cockroaches bearing off a medium-sized rat. There was only one waitress, and she looked like the sort of person you'd find in a place like this. There might have been floorboards, or it might have just been really nasty semi-packed dirt. Lina had never seen dirty dirt before. It was exactly what Zelgadis was looking for - the one totally empty eating establishment in town.
Lina had taken up her traditional stance at the table, hands on the edges, and leaning in toward the others as though she might hit them with something any second. Actually, that was a real possibility, considering her current food-less state. "Well," she said. "Are you going to tell us what's up or not?"
Zelgadis opened his mouth to reply, then shut it quickly as the gristly looking waitress walked by.
Lina smacked her palm against her forehead. "AUGH! What's with all this cloak and dagger junk, Zel? We could've gone somewhere decent to eat, but nooooooo! You had to find the quietest, moldiest, cruddiest table in the corner of the deadest restaurant we could find!" Zel locked his gaze with hers, and after a brief stare-off, she blushed the tiniest bit and sat down. "You just better have a good reason," she muttered.
Zel glanced around, and, satisfied that no one gave a snot about them, shrugged off the long cloth-wrapped package on his back. "I trust this'll be a good enough reason for you, Lina?" He started unwrapping the package slowly, as if hesitant to touch it. Lina leaned forward anxiously as he pulled away the last of the cloth. A long staff, with a forked top and a fist-sized crimson gem, lay in a pool of grimy fabric.
Three jaws nearly hit the table. There was silence, then everyone began talking at once.
"Zel!" hissed Lina. "Where did you get that?!"
"Is that... What I think it is?" asked Gourry hesitantly.
"But... But... But... [1] If you have it... Where's - "
They all shut up as the candle light flickered, and a red light was cast against Zelgadis's fingers. He recoiled, bumping the table as he did so. The staff jumped into the air from the impact, and rolled across the uneven table toward Zelgadis. It landed in his lap, and he gaped.
We established not so long ago that Zel was a tough guy to surprise. Really, there's nothing that weird about an item rolling across a sloped surface toward you.
Unless, of course, the surface happens to be sloped in the other direction.
Lina let out a low whistle. "I think it likes you."
Zelgadis spoke through gritted teeth. "Now is not the time to attempt humor, Lina." He plonked the staff back on the table, and the others moved back perceptibly as it did strange things to the light.
She swallowed. "Right."
"Uh... Zel?" asked Gourry. "Why did Xellos give you his staff?"
Zelgadis grimaced. "He didn't." He settled back in his chair, moving a little further away from the staff as he did so. "Last night, an hour or two before dusk, I glanced up in time to see a... What looked like a rip in the sky, about a mile and a half away. Really, I'd have to have been blind and deaf to miss it. It was spilling off raw, uncontrolled black magic in waves, like a spell that had gone crazy, and roaring and tearing up the field it had opened over."
He paused to collect his thoughts. "For a while, I didn't move. Lina... I haven't seen anything like that before. Not even when you..." He cleared his throat. "Anyway. I didn't want to get a closer view. At some point, this ball of silver and black energy came exploding out of the rip, and then... Well... There were more explosions. I mean big explosions. There was debris landing not two feet from where I stood. A minute later, the first rip disappeared, and a new one opened perpendicular to the ground. After a second, it snapped shut, and everything died down. I waited a little bit to make sure no one was coming back, then went over to check things out..." His voice registered awe. "I'd bet there'll be a magical residue there for decades.... That kind of power..." He shook his head quickly. "Anyway, I found that," he gestured at the staff, "laying on the ground. When I touched it with my foot I got this sort of impression that I should head in this direction as fast as I could."
He frowned. "Lina, I didn't know what else to do, so grabbed the staff, and started in this direction. After I got some weird looks from other travelers, I wrapped it in some old cloth I found in an abandoned barn. It wasn't until an hour or so after dark that it started producing bad vibes."
"Bad vibes?" Lina inquired.
He shrugged. "I don't know what else to call it. It's just this weird feeling it gave me..."
Lina raised an eyebrow. "Okay, so it looks pretty creepy by candlelight, but really Zel, 'Bad vibes?' You're just letting the whole thing spook you."
She touched the staff with the tip of her finger, and gasped as a cold shockwave zapped her system with all the subtlety of a falling brick. "Or... uh. Maybe not." She shook it off. Lina's good at that. "Uh... Anyway... So, Xellos is up to something weird. That's not different. He could have just left the staff there as part of a set-up for some plan-"
Zelgadis shook his head. "Nuh-uh. No one wastes that kind of power. Whatever he was doing, he was putting everything he had into it."
Lina sighed. "I guess it's not just a happy coincidence that you got pulled to the same rinky-dink town as me, huh?" She looked at his expression. "Didn't think so."
"So, uh, what now, Lina?" asked Gourry.
"Yeah," said Amelia, just happy to get a word in edgewise, "What now?"
"Now," said Lina, "We find this priestess, and get her to show us this guy she's taking care of."
Amelia and Gourry stood and quickly exited the restaurant, glad to be able to escape. Lina caught Zelgadis by his sleeve. "Zel... What do you think about all this? The guy in the letter, I mean? Do you think it's...?"
He sighed, cast his eyes toward the ceiling, sighted something he wished he hadn't, and returned his gaze to Lina's face. "I don't know Lina. Normally, I'd say no, but there is that thing." He waved a hand at the staff. "I can't imagine him leaving it in my possession, although it could just be part of another fruitcake plot of his. He could have just taken the opportunity presented by his fight. The other big option is that the man you got called here about is the one Xellos was fighting. That Mazoku could be off laughing at all of us." He sighed. "Or, Xellos could be dead, or captured by the Order of Cepheed, in which case you're going to want to avenge or rescue the weirdo, right?"
She shrugged, and held out her hands. "Guilty as charged. Look, Zel, I know you dislike... err... really hate Xellos, but you will stick with me on this one, right?" She raised her wrists, and gave the stones of demonblood a quick shake. Her voice dropped even lower. "I sorta owe him, Zel. These are worth way more than I paid him. We all know that. If I save his ass, or collect his enemy, then we're more than even. I'd have the upper hand again."
He considered a moment, glanced at the big eyes staring up at him, and felt his resolve crumble like sugar cubes in hot water. "I'll stick with you for a while, Lina, but I can't promise anything, alright?" Besides, he added mentally, I want a chance to get even with him for pulling me into this.
She smiled. "Thanks, Zel. I knew I could count on you." She wrinkled her nose. "Now let's get out of this pit, okay?" Without waiting for an answer she headed for the exit.
The waitress tapped Zel on the shoulder from behind. "Ya gonna pay, son?"
He blinked. "Pay? What for? We didn't eat anything!"
She shrugged, setting extra flesh wobbling. "Ya used our tables, didn't ya? That should be worth sump'thin."
He turned to face her, and glared. "You want to charge me for refusing to eat food from your filthy establishment?"
She swallowed hard, glancing between his face and the sword at his hip. "Uhh... Maybe not. You have a nice evenin', kay?" She hurried off in the manner of all people who suddenly realize that even if they don't really have something important to do, they had better act like it. Zelgadis snorted, picked up Xellos's staff, and headed in the direction the others had gone.
The High Lady Priestess Dainala rose from her seat next to her patient's bedside and stretched. She had been tending him nonstop since he'd been brought to the sick-house yesterday evening. The other members of the Order had refused to help him, as Cepheed had kept him from being healed by magical means. They were afraid he carried some curse. Dainala had nodded understandingly, and set all of them, from novice to ancient priest, to scrubbing down every inch of the temple. She would not tolerate such ignorance from the priests and priestesses under her care. If Cepheed denied this man healing, there had to be a good reason for it.
She just hoped the reason wasn't what she thought it was.
She glided away from the bed silently, and opened the door to step outside. She could do with a quick walk and some fresh air. That always helped one think better, and it should wake her up, besides. She passed her gaze over the room, checking that everything was in order. Satisfied that the world was as it should be, she shut the door softly behind her.
Lina snagged the first person she encountered as she walked out of the filthy restaurant, a tall gangly man dressed in outdoorsman's gear. "Hey. Where do you treat sick people around here?" she demanded.
He bent down to her level, his shaggy brown hair falling into his face. "Why, are you or your friends sick, little girl?"
She ground her teeth. "No. I just need to know."
He nodded sagely. "I see. Girl problems."
She turned bright red, and sputtered. "NO! I just want to know, okay? Isn't that enough for you?"
He smiled condescendingly. "Okay, okay. If it's serious, you can go over to Cepheed's temple. The priests and priestesses there can treat most anything, I hear." His smile faltered. "Didn't help that poor guy they brought in last night, though..."
She grabbed his shirt front. "What?! Is he dead?"
The man gaped. "I - what?"
She shook him. "You heard me! Is the man they brought in last night dead?!"
"N... n... no!" he stuttered. "Not last I heard, anyway. But I hear they don't think he's gonna make it past tonight, and - "
"Where is he?"
The man stared incredulously at her face. He'd never seen anyone with red eyes before, he thought absently. He glanced from her to her two - no, there were three now - friends. A mercenary, a... something... and a little girl? He decided that maybe he should stop gawking and start answering as she shook him again.
"At the sickhouse!" he yelped. "Two streets down, and three to the right!"
She dropped him to the ground, and stepped over him. "Thanks!" she said cheerfully. "C'mon, guys!"
"Coming, Lina!" said the tall mercenary.
He raised himself up on one elbow. Wait... Not... Lina Inverse?
He collapsed back to the ground in a dead faint.
"OW! Gourry! Carefully, damnit! I... Oh, OW! Slowly!!"
It's not what you think.
They'd found the sickhouse pretty easily. It had been the one building in town painted red, with ominous signs and symbols plastering the outer walls. "Sickness!" it had declared. "Do Not Enter!" it advised. "Stay OUT!" it commanded. "And When You're Feeling Better, Eat At Joe's!" recommended a flier tacked to the side.
The door was locked from the outside. All the windows were too high for even Gourry to peek through. There were no back entrances, and no loose boards. There wasn't even any rust on the lock, so that was out. The whole building was in really good shape, surprisingly enough. Lina had hit upon the idea of having Gourry hoist her up to the lowest window so that she could look through. Bashing the door down was all well and good, but she had to make sure it wasn't about to hit the guy she was here for. It had been an uncharacteristic display of wisdom on her part.
Gourry, however brilliant he was with his sword, had apparently never taken the standard adventurer's course on lifting young ladies up so that they might peek through windows, or climb onto ledges. And while Lina was no young lady, she was about the size and shape of one, so it might have helped. At least, if she had stopped crunching her boot into Gourry's face.
For once, Zel was glad he wasn't the tallest. "Guys!" he hissed. "Keep it down! You're going to attract attention!"
Lina grunted. No, definitely not a young lady. She decided to thank Zel for his advice, and return some of her own, all in the same well-crafted phrase. "!@$&# off," she said graciously.
Zel tried to raise an eyebrow, a useless gesture he still attempted on occasion. He missed having eyebrows. You could say more with one arched eyebrow than Amelia could in five speeches. Peeved by his inability to get the proper facial expression, he returned to his lookout post to sulk.
Actually, if Zel's little nugget of advice had been the first one passed on to Lina in the past five minutes, she probably could have handled it a tad better. As it was, Amelia had suddenly become the Queen of Advice as to all Things Dealing with Grace, Dexterity, and Window-Peeping.
"No, no!" she said in a stage whisper. "Move your foot to the left, Miss Lina! No, the other left, that's Mr. Gourry's hip-"
Lina's foot slipped.
"Eeeee!" said Gourry, dropping Lina and curling up like a centipede.
Amelia turned the same color as the sickhouse, and clapped her hands over her mouth in embarrassment.
Lina dusted herself off, and nudged Gourry out of her way with her foot. He whimpered slightly. "Okay, that's not gonna work," she announced. "Amelia... See about giving Gourry some asprin [2] or something. No spells. Zel, you come here."
Zel had to leave behind his sulk (which he was well into. He'd already gotten to the list of Amelia Grievances.) and come see to an annoyed Lina Inverse. He added this to his list of things to be annoyed because of, and went to see what Lina was going on about.
"Alright, Zel," she said. "You're going to have to help me up there. Just do a better job of it than this bozo." She pointed at the still-recovering Gourry.
Zelgadis rolled his eyes and knelt on the ground. "Fine. Lina, climb onto my shoulders." She did as he asked, only slightly awkwardly, and he continued, "Okay, I'm going to stand. Lina, hold on to my shoulders." She did that too, and he stood slowly and carefully. "Well, can you see anything?" Apparently Zel had taken the adventurer's class on lifting young lady-ish entities. Or at the very least, he had learned from Gourry's stunningly bad example.
"Errr..." she said. "I think I can see a bed. Too bad it's so dark in there, or maybe I'd be able to see who was in it."
Zelgadis shifted Lina on his shoulders slightly, and glanced over to where Amelia was helping Gourry stand. "Lina... Why exactly don't you want to use spells? You could have levitated yourself up here with ease."
She hopped to the ground. "Didn't wanna risk there being a priestess in the room. She would've felt the spell. Same with using Lighting so I can see, or a Fireball on the door." She shrugged. "But I don't see anyone, so I guess it's safe to go in." Lina tapped Gourry on the shoulder. "Hey, big guy. Time to do your thing with the door."
Gourry, now fully recovered, nodded decisively, drawing his blade. A few mind-numbingly swift movements later the doorknob was rolling about on the floor inside the door. The group held their breath for a moment, waiting to see if anyone had heard the noise. After a lengthy pause Lina declared it safe to go in, and they headed through the door.
Lina crept in first, shadowed closely by Gourry. Next came Amelia, with Zelgadis bringing up the rear. It wasn't because he was afraid - more like reluctant to walk into any enclosed space where the Trickster Priest might be waiting for them. It's a healthy sort of survival instinct, developed through experience. Or maybe it's paranoia. In any case, he definitely had his reasons.
Lina stopped first, was bumped into by Gourry, who was bumped into by Amelia, who hoped she would get bumped into by Zel, who saw the silliness up ahead, and stopped in time. Amelia sighed in disappointment, and started to wander away from the rest of the group, sighing again when Zelgadis didn't even notice.
"This isn't going to work," muttered Lina, while elbowing Gourry in the ribs. "Lighting!" Light sprung from her palm, and she tossed the glowing ball into the middle of the room, where it hung in the air. "Okay, now, let's see..."
Amelia tugged at Lina's sleeve. "Miss Lina!" she whispered urgently.
"What IS it, Amelia? I'm trying to look around!"
"Miss Lina... He's right there."
Lina, Gourry, and Zelgadis swivelled in Amelia's direction as one. "Oh, hell," muttered Lina, swallowing hard. After a second of stunned silence, they all moved in the direction of the bed, straining to get a better look.
Rarely had Lina seen the Trickster priest look anything less than perfect. He always looked precisely the same, and even when he was injured, he regenerated the damage within seconds. Not so, now.
A blanket covered his body up to his chest, and his arms rested on top of the covers. His forearms were covered with bandages, but some cuts could still be seen past the edge of the white cloth. Lina recognized the shape the cuts took. It was a defensive pattern, the kind of thing you saw on people who had tried to shield their faces with their hands and arms. He hadn't really succeeded. His faced was puffed, and deep purple and black bruises were interrupted only by long gashes. His forehead had been bandaged, covering up much of his hair. What she could see of his hair was crusted with blood. She touched it hesitatingly, and her fingers came away red. So. His wounds weren't closing properly.
Lina moved closer. She could hear his breathing now, coming in tortured rasps. She backed off involuntarily and swallowed hard. "Amelia."
The young white magician squeezed her eyes shut. "Yes?"
"Try and heal him. If you need more power, I'll supply it."
Amelia nodded and placed her hands on Xellos's chest. A white glow flared around her hands, and she gritted her teeth. "I... The wounds are sucking power... This doesn't feel right."
Lina placed her hands over Amelia's and fed more power into the healing spell. The princess was right - this didn't feel the way it should. Xellos wasn't radiating the sort of raw energy he usually did. Normally, you could feel it rolling off him in waves when you brushed past him. Lina was sure that Amelia had been counting on being able to draw on that power. When she hadn't found it, she'd been knocked for a loop.
Lina tied off the flow of magic to Amelia, and the younger girl smiled in thanks. She dug back into the spell, and the members of the group who couldn't cast white magic watched with interest as scrapes and bruises disappeared. Next the cuts closed, and finally Amelia did something that even Lina couldn't catch. Whatever it was, Xellos was breathing easily now.
Gourry caught Amelia as she slumped. "I'll be okay in a minute," she whispered.
Lina brushed back the bloodied hair and bandages from Xellos's forehead with a cool hand, then touched his cheek in a gesture that was surprisingly gentle. "C'mon," she whispered. "Wake up."
Voices. He could hear voices again. In the time he'd drifted in and out of consciousness, he'd only heard voices twice. It was comforting to hear someone else. He was tired of listening to himself. He didn't have anything good to say, and was, on the whole, completely worthless as a conversationalist. He could be forgiven, though. A man couldn't expect himself to be witty when he was having nightmares like the ones that had plagued him since he entered this half-existence of sleep and pain.
He breathed in sharply.
There was no more pain. That was different. Normally he had passed out from pain by the time he'd really become cognizant of the fact that he was awake. He cautiously considered his body's condition.
Hmm. No real pain anywhere. His lips were dry. He could fix that. His tongue brushed against them before he realized that it was almost as dry. He felt the beginnings of a dry chuckle escape, and the voices grew louder.
So. The voices didn't just happen to be in the room with him. They were in the room because of him. At least, from the lack of a breeze, and the presence of a bed, he supposed it was a room. Time to figure out who they were. He yawned softly, and opened brilliant blue eyes.
1 - I'm sorry about that. I really am.
Xellos: No, you're not.
I know. But I felt like I should say something. 'Twas shameless, really.
2 - Asprin, strangely enough, is one of the few universal constants. It's found in most worlds with varied spellings, Asprin, Aspr'n, Aesperin, and Asperin being a few of them.