"Positive anything is better than negative nothing." - Elbert Hubbard
How long he sat there in the chapel, unmoving and unseeing, he didn't know. The shock of hearing Lina question his identity had rattled him deeply. What would he do if Lina didn't remember him? Was it really that she didn't remember him or that she didn't realize what the soulbond was? No, she was a sorceress; she would know what it was right away, he was certain. Lina knew more about sorcery and magic than anyone.
He heard a footstep beside him and realized that it was time for the evening services. People were starting to enter the chapel and fill up the pews as they prepared to worship the Dragon God. Sighing, he stood and quietly left the chapel; whatever peace he'd found there had fled. Outside, the sun was nearly setting and the air had turned colder. He shivered as he walked through the lengthening shadows on the way back to the palace; it was a spiritual as well as a physical chill. Outside, in the great courtyard, he paused and looked up at the palace. He briefly considered going to the garrison and asking Archand if he could bunk there; there was nothing for him in that fancy apartment in the palace. Amelia would have a fit if he did that, however. Frowning, he turned towards the entrance to the palace. The guards let him pass freely and without a second glance.
"This is not good." Zel felt like an idiot for stating the obvious, but it was all he could say. He and Amelia had returned from a fruitless search at the Guild Library only to find that Gourry was not in the apartment. "His armor and sword are gone."
Amelia looked worried. "Can you tell if anything else is missing?"
The Chimera shook his head. "No, but the state Gourry was in this morning, he could have just left everything to go chasing after Lina." He smacked the table as he stood by it. "I was afraid something like this might happen."
"You don't really think he would just leave like that, do you, Zelgadis-san?" Amelia's eyes were very large.
"This is Gourry, Amelia," he said. "He acts first and thinks later - if he remembers. If he felt that going after Lina was the best thing to do and we weren't here to convince him otherwise, then he could have very well just gotten up and left. And you know how devoted he is to Lina."
The Princess nodded, her eyes sad. "He's lost without her," she said softly. "I'm worried about him, Zelgadis-san. He was so different from what he's usually like this morning. So...angry. He may hurt himself - or do something we might all regret later."
Sighing, Zel nodded and ran a hand through his hair. "We've got to find him. He can't have gotten far, not walking." He turned towards the door and pulled her along with him. "You go check with the guards and the staff and see if anyone's seen him. I'll go down to the practice yards. He's been going there in the mornings regularly; he may have decided to go work out some of his frustration and anger on the practice mannequins. I just hope he doesn't decide to use the garrison troops as target practice. They'll never survive."
Grinning wryly at that image, Amelia nodded. "Right. I'll meet you back here if I find anything." She squeezed his arm and they turned in opposite directions in the hallway outside on their quest to find the missing swordsman.
Zelgadis hurried down the corridor. This was not good. Where could the swordsman have gone? He hadn't thought Gourry would take off like this, but in the frame of mind he'd been in that morning there was no telling what he might have done. "Should have placed him under guard," he muttered as he turned the corner that lead to the main palace.
And ran into Gourry.
The taller man staggered backwards but the Chimera caught his arms and steadied him before he could fall. "Gourry!" he shouted.
"Zel," Gourry said back.
"Where have you been?" Zelgadis was as close to sounding anxious as Gourry had ever seen him. "We were just about to start searching for you!"
"I went for a walk," Gourry said in a dead, flat voice. He winced and nodded towards Zel's hand on his arm. "Uh, Zel, do you mind?"
Zelgadis startled and looked down. "What? Oh, sorry," he said quickly dropping Gourry's arm.
The swordsman rubbed his arm and entered the apartment. He didn't bother to remove his armor but just dropped on the couch and put his hands behind his head and leaned back.
"That was a long walk," Zelgadis said shutting the door behind him. "We came back from the library and found you, your sword, and your armor gone and were afraid you'd decided to skip out on us."
"My sword..." Gourry said softly. He grimaced as he remembered he had dropped it in the practice yard. Damn, he thought. Out loud he said, "No, I just went for a walk. Went to see Jardaan again and stopped by the Temple."
"The Temple?" Zelgadis said. "What for?" He'd never thought Gourry was a religious man.
Gourry shrugged and started removing his armor. "Just wanted a quiet place to think." He piled his armor on the sofa next to him; he was too emotionally drained to get up.
Zelgadis watched him carefully. Amelia was right to be worried about the big swordsman. He could hardly believe this was the same man with whom he'd visited the rummage shop just yesterday. He didn't know which was worse: The anger and frustration that had gripped the other man that morning or this...empty defeatism that he was now suffering from. He was a far cry from the easy-going, laid-back swordsman they'd grown to care for and depend on so much. During all their travels, Gourry had been the stabilizing factor; it was his strength - both emotionally and physically - that had kept them going during the worst of times. He accepted all of them for what they were, he kept Lina from flying too far off the handle at times, and even provided his own insights on events as they were happening at the time. Zel sighed. It hurt to see the other man in so much pain, just as it had hurt to see Lina in the same type of pain back when Hellmaster had taken Gourry from her.
"Did you find anything?"
The Chimera jumped at the sound of Gourry's voice. "No. Nothing." He sat down and folded his arms. "The question of how to fight him is moot, however, until we can determine some way to find where he's taken her."
"I can help there." Still that same, flat voice.
"Look, Gourry, we've already been over this: You can't go to Wolfpack Island alone. We don't even know if that's where he's gone."
The swordsman sat up and shook his head. "That's not what I meant. I meant I can find her through our Soulbond."
"Soulbond?" Zelgadis stared at Gourry. "But - how's that possible? Only Elves practice Soulbonding!"
Gourry nodded. "That's right," he said matter-of-factly.
"I know Lina isn't an elf - Wait a minute," Zelgadis said as the truth dawned on him. "Does that mean you're an elf?"
"Only part. My grandfather was human."
"Now I've heard everything!" He gaped at the swordsman. "How is it you can touch steel, then? I thought elves couldn't touch steel without suffering."
"Like I said, my grandfather was human. Human blood lets us touch steel."
Still feeling off-balance, Zel demanded, "Why didn't you ever tell us this before?"
The other man shrugged. "No one ever asked." His voice held no rancor; it was just the truth.
Zelgadis winced at that and realized that he'd never given much thought to the swordsman's past. It was just accepted that Gourry was there, had always been there and would always be there. He remembered his promise to himself that he'd made yesterday.
Gourry was looking at him with a strange expression on his face. "You sound surprised."
"I am. I didn't think elves and humans intermarried."
"They do occasionally. My grandfather saved the elves when a Mazoku showed up at one of their festivals."
Zelgadis shook his head in amazement. "That explains your friend Jardaan. You're full of surprises lately, Gourry. Anything else you should tell us?"
Being Gourry, he took this seriously. He concentrated a bit then shook his head. "Nothing I know of."
Praying for patience, Zelgadis leaned forward in his chair and fixed Gourry with a pointed stare. "You said you could help find Lina through the Soulbond. Is it true what I've heard about Soulbonds?"
"What have you heard?"
"That you can speak to each other through them."
Gourry shook his head. "No, it's nothing like that. I can't just ask Lina where she is and expect to get an answer. I can only feel her, sense what she's feeling and then it has to be very strong emotion." He hung his head. "That's what I was doing in the Temple, trying to link with her." His voice was quiet.
Sensing something was very wrong, Zelgadis asked, "What happened?"
Before Gourry could answer, however, the door burst open. "We can't find him anywhere, Zelgadis-san! A guard saw him this - Oh!" Amelia stopped in her tracks as she saw Gourry sitting on the sofa. "Gourry-san! We were so worried! Where have you been?"
Zelgadis stood and took her by the shoulders. "I'll tell you later." Steering her into a chair, he turned back to Gourry. "What happened, Gourry?"
"I - I was able to link with her." Amelia looked questioningly from Gourry to Zelgadis, but he held up his hand. "It's - " He shook his head in frustration. "I don't have the words to explain it. We touched, but we didn't. I could feel her here." The blonde man touched his chest.
"I think I know what you mean," Zelgadis said. "Is that all?" He suspected it wasn't. To be able to feel Lina and get a sense of where she was should have had Gourry bouncing off the walls.
Gourry shook his head. "She didn't know who I was," he said in a low voice. "She practically yelled it at me." He put his head in his hands.
Both Amelia and Zelgadis sat back, twin expressions of horror on their faces. "Oh, no," Amelia said with her heart in her throat. She got up and went to sit by Gourry and put an arm around his shoulders while taking his hand. He squeezed her hand but didn't look up. "Maybe it's not what you think," she said. "It could be just that she doesn't understand what the soulbond is."
"She'd know."
"Then she didn't realize it was you - " she offered.
"There's no way to mistake it." His brows drew together. "I know you're trying to cheer me up, Amelia, and I appreciate it, but the fact is she didn't know who I was."
Amelia glanced over at Zelgadis with a frown on her face. Zel held his breath; he'd seen that determined look in her eye before. Sure enough, Amelia jumped up and struck a pose.
"Gourry-san! I demand that you stop this at once!"
Startled, Gourry sat back and stared at the little Princess. "Stop what?"
"This gradual decline into despair that has gripped you! You, of all people, must know that True Love can turn around even the most hopeless-seeming situations!" She reached forward and grabbed his hands, holding them tight as she gazed into his eyes. "No matter what Xellos has done, Lina-san will always know who you are - because you love her!"
Gourry blinked. He glanced over at Zelgadis, but the Chimera simply shrugged, a rueful smile on his face. Finding no help there, Gourry looked as if he wanted to shrink into the sofa cushions. "Uh...I don't know what to say," he said meekly.
She wouldn't let him escape. In an earnest voice, all pretense at melodramatics gone, she repeated softly, "Lina-san will know you."
Relaxing, he squeezed her hands tightly. "Thanks, Amelia." He smiled at her, the first time he'd felt like smiling in over a day.
Zelgadis stood up. "We seem to have found some sort of solution to locating where Xellos took Lina, at least. Now all we need is to find a way to fight the bastard."
The swordsman nodded and stood up, letting go of Amelia's hands. He wandered over to the table where Lina's research was spread out. "I wish there was more that I could do." He picked up a leaf and read it. He set it down again and picked up another one. "If only I had one of these swords here - " Stopping suddenly, he spread the leaves out in front of him. "What if I did have one of these swords? That would even up the odds, wouldn't it?"
"What are you talking about?" Zelgadis asked, approaching the table.
Amelia hurried over. "What swords, Gourry-san?" She picked up one of the leaves of paper and Zelgadis picked up a handful of others. They started reading them over, frowning at Lina's sprawling, careless handwriting.
"Lina was researching swords," Gourry explained. "Said she wanted to find me a magical one. There's lots of swords listed here. What if we could find one?" He picked up a list of swords that Lina had made and read the first name. "Bless Blade. I've heard of that one, haven't I?"
While Amelia smacked her forehead, Zelgadis supplied calmly, "Lina used it to defeat Zanaffar and Kopii Rezo, remember? In Sairaag?"
Gourry thought a moment then nodded. "Okay. That one has been crossed out. Wonder why?"
"Not the kind of sword we need to defeat a Mazoku. It's too closely tied to Flagoon. Besides, we don't even know where it is; it disappeared when Phibrizzo destroyed Flagoon." Amelia glared at him and smacked his arm lightly. Frowning, he looked at her in askance then winced as she jerked her head towards Gourry. They both watched the other man closely, but other than a slight tightening around his lips, Gourry showed no sign of the comment having registered.
"All right. Bless Blade out. Next on the list is something called a 'Demon Blade.'"
"Ah!" Amelia exclaimed, holding up a leaf. "You don't want that one, Gourry-san! It's evil! It summons demons and possesses the soul of anyone who touches it!" As if offended by the very leaf, Amelia crumpled it and hurled it into the fireplace.
Picking up a quill, Gourry dipped it in the ink well and scratched through 'Demon Blade.' "Next is 'Soul Slayer.'" He winced. "That sounds bad."
Zelgadis nodded, handing Amelia another leaf. "It is. It warps the wielder's soul and devours the souls of those it kills."
Tossing the crumpled leaf into the fireplace, Amelia shuddered. "Why do people make such things? It's an affront to the name and cause of Justice!"
"Some people want power any way they can get it," the Chimera said as he looked through more of Lina's notes.
"Well, it's not one I want," Gourry said as he scribbled through that entry. "What about 'Xkaliver?'"
Zel and Amelia hunted through the notes. The Princess found it and together they scanned through the information jotted down. Zelgadis sighed. "Doesn't seem to be more than a special sword keeping a long lost king and his knights asleep."
"Okay, scratch that one," Gourry said, suiting words to actions. He scanned the list again. "What about 'Firedrake?' 'Elidor?' 'Doppleblade?'"
More searching. "The first one has been lost for centuries," Amelia said as she set aside another leaf. Gourry scratched it out.
"The second, Elidor, is a dark elf blade - " Zel read.
Gourry shivered at that. "Definitely not that one," he said as he scratched through the name 'Elidor' vigorously.
The Princess of Seyruun looked at the swordsman strangely. "You know about dark elves?" she asked.
"Of course I do," Gourry replied. "But we don't like to talk about that side of the family," he added.
"Family? We?" she exclaimed. Zel put a hand on her shoulder to calm her.
"Gourry was explaining to me that he's part elf when you arrived, Amelia. Apparently, there's more to our friend than meets the eye."
Blinking, Amelia looked from Zel to Gourry. When she'd arrived, seeing that their friend hadn't hared off by himself-or worse-had been such a relief that it had completely slipped her mind that only elves Soulbonded. Forcibly pulling her mind back onto track, she closed her mouth and shook her head. "Well, that explains a few things," she muttered cryptically. Before either of them could ask her what she meant, Amelia smiled a sweet-if somewhat strained-smile at Gourry. "What was that other sword?"
"Uh..." Gourry consulted the list. "Doppleblade."
She shook her head. "That one just throws phantoms of the wielder to confuse the opponent. Xellos would see through that in a second."
Sighing, the swordsman scratched through another entry. "There's only three swords left. Graeswandyr, Skädwe, and Belgarion's Sword."
More rustling as they shuffled through the notes. Things were starting to look hopeless when Amelia found a stray leaf that had been tucked into a book. It had the names 'Graeswandyr' and 'Skädwe' written at the top. Instead of a listing of it's magical properties like the others had, this one just cited a reference.
Zelgadis found the book and opened it to the page cited. Instead of immediately dismissing these two suggestions, he pulled out a chair and sat down.
"Did you find something?" Amelia asked.
"Hold on," he replied absently, holding up a hand for them to be patient. Both Amelia and Gourry crowded around him as they tried to read the book.
"Zelgadis-san, do you think this might be the one?" Amelia asked after reading a moment.
"What?" Gourry asked, looking bewildered. He couldn't understand most of what the text was referring to. He could read the words just fine; they just didn't have any more meaning than a bunch of words printed together randomly on the page would have had.
"The sword, Graeswandyr, may be the one we're looking for. The two of them, Graeswandyr and Skädwe, are actually twin blades, each the opposite of the other."
"What's special about them?" the swordsman asked.
"Hold on," Zelgadis said, skimming the next few pages. "Ah, here we go: No one knows for sure exactly what Skädwe's properties are since no one has ever been able to claim the sword from its resting place." He read on in silence. Gourry and Amelia watched his face closely; there was an excited glow to it that they rarely saw on the Chimera's solemn visage. "This might actually work!" He laid the book on the table and looked up at the two of them. "Graeswandyr has several magical qualities. Firstly, its spelled to stay sharp. It also gives its wielder a limited protection from magical attacks, and enhances speed and reflexes."
"That's good!" Gourry exclaimed excitedly. Then his face fell. "But it's not enough to defeat Xellos, is it?"
Holding up a finger, Zel continued, "Perhaps not just that, but there's more: It can also negate dimensional gates."
"It can?" Amelia said. She seemed excited by the bit of information.
"I don't - "
"It can keep Xellos from phasing in and out of this plane like he's fond of doing. He'd be forced to fight on one plane only."
Gourry felt hope bloom inside of him. "Where is this sword?" he exclaimed. "Let's go get it!" He turned and headed for the door.
"Wait, wait, Gourry!" both Amelia and Zelgadis shouted as they lunged after him. They caught his arms and pulled him around.
"It's in a temple that's located in a town called Beram - in the southern mountains of Seyruun," Zel said. "But you can only get Graeswandyr on the night of the full moon."
"That's - Last night was the full moon," Gourry said, slumping into a nearby chair. "We have to wait a month. We have to leave Lina in Xellos' clutches for a month..."
"Gourry," she said in a gentle voice. "It won't be that bad. Lina can take care of herself, you know that."
He remained silent and stared into space.
Amelia and Zelgadis looked at one another; another setback. And yet...even as they looked at their friend, he seemed to gather himself. Looking up at Amelia, he asked, "Do you know where this Beram is?" She nodded. "How long will it take us to get there?"
"It takes two weeks to get to Melkur, the town that's at the mouth of the pass that leads to Beram. It's another few days travel through bad terrain from there. And if the weather is bad, even longer."
He nodded, face grim. "We need to get started as soon as possible. How soon do you think we can start?"
She thought a moment. "It's high up in the mountains so we'll need plenty of supplies, proper clothing and mounts before we leave. And I've got to make arrangements for Uncle Christopher to take over the official duties while I'm gone. Two, three days at the most."
Standing up, Gourry put a hand on each of his friends' shoulders. "Then let's start getting ready. In three days we leave for Beram."