Ha! Should've known better. ^_^
Please forgive any blunders in the grammar or spelling. At this time, I've no beta reader and though I read the thing through more than once, I'm sure to have missed something.
My thanks go out to those of you who sent me replies and encouragement on the first part. (And asked for the next part so as to find out just what Zel's problem was...) You know who you are. ^_^
Hope this part was worth the wait!
"There's something wrong."
Lina glanced over at Zelgadis, slightly irritated at this repetition of the obvious but making an effort to hold her tongue until he'd explained. He shook his head, looking frustrated.
"That's the whole problem, you see. There's something wrong but it's not with me. And I don't know what it is."
"Huh?" was Lina's reply to this statement. "I'm not following you, Zel."
"Whatever's wrong, it's not with me. It's external and I'm being affected by it," he elaborated.
"Oh." Lina thought this over. "Ok. I think I see what you're getting at. So what is this external problem that's affecting you?"
"That's what I'd like to know." Catching the look of disbelief Lina was aiming at him, Zelgadis shrugged helplessly. "I can't tell you what I don't know. If I had to venture a guess, though..." He hesitated. Lina gestured impatiently for him to continue. "My guess would be that there's some sort of disturbance on the Astral Plane."
"A disturbance on the Astral Plane?" Lina echoed, intrigued by the possibility. "Why would you think that?"
Zelgadis' expression became faintly sheepish. "Maybe the idea would make a bit more sense if I explained how I was being affected?" Lina nodded, annoyance at the tangled answers momentarily overridden by amusement at Zelgadis' demeanor.
Gee, he's cute when he's embarrassed. I'm half tempted to tell him that - it'd embarrass him even more! No, better save it for some other time. I'll never hear the end of the story, otherwise. Firmly curbing her wandering thoughts, Lina focused her attention on Zelgadis again. Noticing that he was looking at her suspiciously, she smiled innocently and made a show of waiting patiently for him to resume.
After a few moments of that, Zelgadis shook his head and announced, "I don't want to know."
Probably not, Lina thought mischievously.
Apparently deciding to overlook Lina's continued mirth, Zelgadis launched into a description of his reaction to the disturbance.
"Some of this doesn't lend itself to description very well so I don't know how much sense this is going to make," he warned her, barely waiting for her to acknowledge the point before continuing. "The majority of what's affecting me isn't really much of a problem. It's merely distracting. An incredibly annoying distraction but no more than that," he paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts.
"Imagine having a vague but unshakeable feeling that something is not right when there isn't anything obviously wrong. It's not in anything you can see or hear but it's there. The feeling isn't strong enough to be alarming - just a constant, nagging presence in your mind quietly announcing that things are not as they should be. Imagine that feeling prickling at you every day, all the time. Sometimes, it's even there in your dreams. You can't deal with the problem since you don't know what the problem is. You can disregard it, you can avoid thinking about it, you can focus your attention on other matters but you can't ever ignore it because it's always there."
Zelgadis kept his voice even and his face calm but Lina couldn't help but hear the intensity behind his words. There was a certain detachment in his eyes, she noted, as though he were distancing himself from the feelings he spoke of. And this is the unimportant part of the problem?
As though he'd heard her dismayed thought, Zelgadis waved a hand dismissively. "It's not as bad as it sounds. After a while, you stop noticing it as much. It becomes so constant that you just get used to it. Really."
"If you say so," Lina replied dubiously. "So, what's the rest of the problem? You said that was the main part, not all of it. Besides, what you just told me might be distracting but it couldn't have caused what I saw earlier."
"No," Zelgadis agreed with a grimace, "it doesn't. There is definitely more to the issue than what I've told you but unfortunately, I understand it even less than I do the feeling of wrongness. I can tell you this, however; what you saw earlier was the result of an unexpected and violent surge of some sort of power."
"What?? What kind of power? If that's what it was, why didn't I feel anything?" Lina demanded.
Frustration clearly marking his expression, Zelgadis shrugged. "I really don't know. All I'm sure of is what I felt when it happened."
"Which was...?"
"That sense of wrongness I told you about suddenly intensified - to the point of being painful. I could feel power building but I couldn't tell where from. At first it seemed as though the ambient power was being amplified but then power started seeping, then rushing in. Before I could get any reading from the situation, it found some sort of focus. I remember feeling as though one of your fireballs had detonated inside of my skull, then nothing. Nothing, that is, until I blinked and found you staring at me." Zelgadis, stiff with remembered tension, dropped his eyes and turned away. Lina could barely make out his next words, delivered in a raw whisper. "I know something happened but I don't know what. All I know is that every instinct I have is screaming that it isn't good."
The mere idea was frightening and Lina hated to think how the experience itself must have felt. Wait a minute...
"I never felt anything. Not a thing! How is that possible...?"
"That's one of the reasons that I think this has something to do with the Astral Plane."
"What? That I didn't react?"
"No. That no one other than myself has reacted."
This isn't the first time that it's happened. The realization was not a pleasant one for the sorceress. With an effort, she wrenched her thoughts away from that path and returned them to the issue at hand. "How does that imply that the problem stems from an astral disturbance?"
"Because very few people are inherently sensitive to astral emanations. I'm one of them, being tied to that plane on more than one level."
"How's that?"
"Well, there's the fact that my specialty is shamanism, more specifically, the spirit-based spells of shamanism. I have something of an affinity for that sort of energy." He glanced over at Lina.
"I get it. Essentially, you're more open to that kind of power than most, right?"
"Right. Of course, there's this to consider as well." The remark was accompanied by a pointed gesture at himself, at the chimera body that Rezo had inflicted upon him.
"Part of you is Mazoku..." breathed Lina in sudden comprehension.
Zelgadis nodded grimly. "And they're astral beings. Which results in my being much more open to astral energy than most." He hesitated briefly before adding, "Aside from which, the idea of astral energy being involved somehow just feels right. Given we're dealing with forces which tend to manifest emotionally, I'm inclined to believe that feeling."
Mulling over Zelgadis' reasoning, Lina found herself agreeing. "Hmm. It all makes sense so far. I don't suppose there's any way to confirm your guess?"
When Zelgadis shook his head, Lina wasn't all that surprised. "Not that I've found. I have done some astral traveling since this started, looking for some sort of clue as to what was going on but I haven't learned anything. Being able to observe the one of the surges astrally would undoubtedly be enlightening, unfortunately I'm always quite occupied when one occurs." Zelgadis' voice was very dry and his smile sardonic. "At the moment, my plans involved journeying to some city with an extensive magical library. Hopefully, some research will result in useful information."
"Sounds like a good idea. Any particular city you were aiming for?"
Zelgadis shrugged indifferently. "One is much like the other, so long as it has a decent library."
"Want some company?"
"What?"
Why does he sound so startled?
Exasperation colouring her tone, Lina demanded, "You didn't think I'd let you wander off by yourself after hearing that did you?"
"Now just wait a second...!"
"Why shouldn't Gourry and I come with you? You know I can help with this. I might not be suffering from the same problem but that isn't stopping me from helping you solve it. It'll hardly be my first time researching a magical mystery. Aside from which, having an unaffected magic-user with you is probably a good thing, don't you think?" Recognizing Zelgadis' frown, she sighed heavily and cut him off before he could begin to argue. "What happens if one of those surges catches you in a vulnerable moment while you're alone?"
"I've dealt with them for this long without anyone's help," Zelgadis informed her coolly.
"I know you can handle this alone, Zel. But why should you have to?" Lina asked softly.
He blinked, apparently startled by her words.
"Besides," she continued, her voice brightening, "you might run across something interesting and I'd definitely want to be there for that." Lina's abrupt attitude shift surprised a reluctant chuckle from Zelgadis. She grinned delightedly at his brief laughter.
Zelgadis sighed, a trace of humour still curving his lips, his stubborn determination deflating into a sort of bemused resignation. "How is it that you always manage to talk me into these things?"
"My irresistible charm and beauty, of course," Lina told him smugly.
"Of course. Not to mention your modesty," Zelgadis replied, deadpan.
"That too," she agreed.
Shaking his head in amused disbelief, Zelgadis allowed Lina to latch onto his hand and drag him back towards the inn, as she rambled about getting them a "snack" for the road.
Part 3 | Fanfiction