Sylphiel and Amelia found the library first. Rows upon rows of bookshelves, stuffed to the gills with books of lore. Since they had separated from the groups hours ago, they didn't bother to go look for the others; they might've lost the way back after all! The two raven-haired young women started to scan the shelves for interesting titles. Sylph found a book about white magic. She sat down and started reading. When the 'oohs' erupted from her lips, Ame came running.
"What did you find, Sylphiel-san?"
The shrine maiden looked up, her eyes showing a great sense of awe. "This book contains offensive white magic spells, Amelia-san."
"Hontou ni?!?"
"Hai!!!"
"WAI!!!!!!!!!" they screamed.
A little further away into the temple, Gourry searched through an armoury for a new sword. The one they had found for him just wasn't cutting it by his standards. He wanted to find another magical sword so he could protect Lina from monsters and stuff. He heard the girls scream, grabbed a sword, and ran as fast as he could towards their location.
He burst through the door, sword poised and ready to fight. Looking around, he spotted the two hunched over a book at a table.
"Oi, what was all the screaming for?"
The girls blinked. "Huh?"
//_-\|| "Somebody screamed in here, right?"
"Oh, right, Gourry-sama! Amelia-san and I did because we found a very interesting book."
"Oh, okay!" he exclaimed, giving his goofy grin.
"How's the search going for your new sword, Gourry-san?"
"Well, I found an armoury, but I can't tell if any of the swords are what I'm looking for. Some look nice, or have a good grip to them, but how am I supposed to tell if they're magical?"
"Wasn't Xelloss-san supposed to be with you?"
"Yeah, but he left. He said he had to go look for something else, or something like that."
"Oh. Well, we'll leave you to your work, then."
"Ganbatte yo!" Ame cheered, Fist of Justice ™ raised high in the air.
Gourry started back to the armoury. "Thanks!" he waved.
While the others had gone off on a wild goose chase for their items in the temple, Lina and Zel knew exactly where they were headed. Luna told her sister about a book of great power there. A book called The Sage's Pages. Legend tells that the book is a keeper of time, a scribe of the ages. Within its pages lies the story of every person who ever lived, who lives, and who ever will live. In essence, it is much like the Clair Bible, except it has the knowledge of all people, not just the knowledge of a shinzoku, like the Water Dragon King.
Lina had decided she wanted to know about her future. She knew she couldn't let the others know her intent; more than likely they would try to stop her. Amelia and Sylphiel would object to it at the very least. She had let Zel know, however. The way Lina figured it, this book knows everything about everyone. If there's a cure for Zel, he could find out where and how he could get it. He agreed with her reasoning, so here he was now, walking the corridors with her towards the ancient source of knowledge.
They rounded the last corner in the maze leading to the Room of the Pages. A large set of double doors stood before them with circular handles. Lina marched up and swung the doors open majestically, her held high and proud, a smug smirk on her face. At least, that's how she planned it. In actuality, she marched up to the doors, all high and mighty, pulled on the rings, and pulled, and pulled...needless to say, she couldn't open the door.
"A little help here?" she panted.
Zel stood behind her smirking, his arms folded across his chest. "Sure. One thing this form is good for." He took hold of the handles and pulled in exactly the way Lina first tried to do, the difference being that he succeeded.
"...I loosened it up for you," she huffed.
"Right. Let's just go inside."
The sorceress and shaman stepped into the room, their footsteps echoing in the large chamber. They checked for traps, both normal and magical. It struck them odd that they had faced nothing on their journey, so it made sense something bad ass evil would await them.
Nothing appeared, and no spell flew at them.
They continued walking to the room's centre, where a golden glowing orb hung, floating silently in the air. Zel had gotten himself quite nervous by now, his stomach knotted and all his senses on edge. If stone skin could sweat, he'd have sweated buckets. Lina felt pretty damn nervous, too, but she was taking the whole situation a lot better than Zelgadis. After all, you deal with one vast source of knowledge, you can handle any other. She grabbed his gloved hand, startling him out of his shock. He looked at her, confusion written across his face. Lina just smiled at him and flicked him a victory sign.
"Go on, Zel, you've waited long enough to find out."
The chimera blinked, then gave her a small smile and nodded. He stepped up to the orb, reverently placing his un-gloved fingers on its surface, then sliding his palms along it as well. As he rested his hands there, the golden light flashed brilliantly, causing both to close their eyes.
When Zel opened his eyes, the orb was gone. Lina was gone. The temple was gone. All his surroundings had been replaced with grass and trees. He looked around, then put his hand on his head, scratching it in confusion. A thought flitted through his mind. My hair is brown... He stared at the strands in front of his face for a few seconds, making sure that it wasn't a trick of the light. No, indeed his hair was brown, and the clump of it he held in his hand near his scalp was quite soft. He brought his hands out into his line of vision, and took off his gloves, in full awe of the normal human flesh that greeted his eyes. Zel sat down to better examine that he was indeed that way all over, smiling like an idiot.
Lina blinked the spots out of her eyes, then focused her attention back on Zelgadis. He still held the orb in his hands, but now seemed like he was in a trance or something. As she moved in front of him, his face went from a total lack of emotion to a largest grin she had ever seen him wear, full of happiness and elation. She smiled herself.
"Good news, I guess."
"Hello?"
"Hell-ooo!"
"HELLO?!?!?!"
BONK
"ITAI!!!!" Zel finally looked up. His sight was met with a young woman, about his height, with crimpy auburn hair and lavender eyes. Her face was framed by her pointed ears, probably of fae origin, in which she place two sets of earrings, one set of dangling golden baubles at the bottom, and a second golden bauble on the ear, connected to a golden cuff higher up by a thin silver chain. She wore a very light blue shift of Greco-Roman design and held a silver staff with an orb of gold on top. That must be what hit me...gods that hurt like hell.
"That's better! Hello, my name is Michi Kindra. I am the guardian of the Sage's Pages. Now, are you quite done staring at yourself?" The woman tilted her head, making the chains jangle against the hanging baubles.
Zelgadis sweatdropped. "Uh, do you mind if I ask you a question?"
"Not at all!" she grinned. "That's what I'm here for after all. To answer questions about any whom one who enters here wishes to know about."
"Why am I human?"
Michi blinked. "You mean you don't know where you are?"
"No," he deadpanned. "I was in a temple at the city of Tromper, then a bright flash came from the orb, and when I opened my eyes, I was here, where this is," he flung a hand towards the scenery.
"Well, physically, you still are in that temple. But your mind has been transferred to the Astral Plane, specifically to my realm in it. As your astral being is human, so you are here."
"Oh."
"Quite. Now, what do you wish to know?"
The scream of 'WAI!!!!!' pierced the air yet again, sending Gourry and Sylphiel back to the library. Sylph went to help Gourry find a sword, knowing the search would go faster with her magical guidance. After all, she had already found a priceless item. Offensive white magic hadn't been seen or used since the end of the Kouma War over a thousand years previous. With this book, the lost branch of the white magic lore could finally be returned to practice.
They entered the library, and caught sight of Amelia laying on her stomach on the stone floor. She had a book in front her, and she was trying hard not to cry on its ancient pages. That was the amount of joy she felt at her find. The shrine maiden knelt in front of her ecstatic face and turned the book around, seeing a complex pattern of magic circles before her on the book's pages.
"What are all these circles for?" Sylphiel asked her.
Ame sat up folded her legs, still smiling. "It's the design plan for Seyruun's magic circle wall! I don't know how the plans got here, but I'm glad they did. The originals were lost in a fire over a century ago. With this, we can strengthen our magical defence for the sake of justice!" she finished, pointed her smiley face finger into the air dramatically.
"I don't get it. It's just a bunch of squiggles and designs all over a piece of paper. How's that supposed to defend a city?"
The girls facefaulted, which wasn't very pleasant, considering that the floor was granite.
As the Lina and Zel exited the chamber, both with smiles on their faces, but for completely different reasons, a figure stepped out from the room's shadows. It moved towards the golden orb and set its gloved fingers gingerly on the surface, as if expecting to be shocked. Its mind entered the Astral Plane, standing before the guardian.
"This is not a place you are welcome in." Michi growled, her lavender eyes flashing.
"Perhaps that's so, but I've come to inform you of something."
"And what, pray tell, do you think you need to tell me?"
The figure smiled darkly. "It begins."