Zelgadis did not open his eyes.
There was nothing left. He could barely move.
If Xellos were to suddenly return, he wouldn't have the strength to suicide. And where he'd been run through was raw throbbing agony, but he wasn't dying....
Presently the throbbing began to slow, and there was a warm sensation - a faint pressure -
"zel wake up"
What for? (What was he good for?)
"please i'm so sorry"
He was needed. Zelgadis opened his eyes.
There were Lina's small soft hands on his chest, Lina's face, illuminated by her healing spell, awash with tears....
"He hurt you!" Zelgadis rasped, amazed at his own speech.
"Huh?"
"Your face - he hit you!"
"It's nothing - I'm just glad you're alive - " she choked, dropped the healing spell and wiped her face, still fighting for composure.
"Lina, what happened to ... my Ra Tilt - it went strange," he managed, and she smiled.
"I drew Xellos' name on your heart," she answered. "I used it to kickstart the exorcism, and you used it to blow a hole in him."
"His sigil - on my heart?"
Lina smiled again and hugged his arm. "You're now a living anti-Xellos talisman. A powerful one, too."
"Lina ... I didn't think I'd survive it," Zelgadis recounted anxiously, just above a whisper. "And I said something before the exorcism - I'm not sure how you took it - "
Her eyes went glassy and a disturbingly blank look came to her face.
"You .. don't .. love me, then?"
Zelgadis felt the world turn beneath him. He wanted to hold all of her at once, but he couldn't move enough to hold her hand.
"Lina, I can't live without you," he confessed.
That was when she kissed him. So sweetly, so perfectly, so unlike Xellos ... a kiss of union, rather than invasion.
and she loves me! Gods, me!!
Xellos teleported to safety to assess the damage. It was bad; he'd fed enough in the past thirty-six hours to sustain him for months, but now he'd need all that energy just to repair himself.
A golden-bronze voice interrupted him in the darkness.
Looks like you got stung, Xellos, she laughed. And that one had your name on it
"I was careless, sama," he pouted.
It's less than you deserve, Xellos. What did I tell you about the younger Inverse
Xellos lowered his head, bit his lip. He held his arm across the hole scorched through his torso.
"I - forgot myself, sama," he admitted.
Did you think I couldn't see you, inside that golem? You directly violated my orders - twice! Now, go fetch my whips.
"Sama - I'm injured - "
I said NOW.
"How's that?"
"Stop fussing!"
With the door shut again, Lina was building a nest of pillows and blankets on the floor around Zelgadis.
"I have to fuss." Lina called in her light spell and extinguished it. "I shouldn't have run you through - I almost killed you!" She waded into the pillows, slid under the quilt and cuddled up close to him.
"I think you did the right thing," he assured her. "You're lucky he didn't - er - "
"Why did you stop - ?"
"Well, no one found you tied to a tree," Zelgadis grumbled. "This whole mess was my fault to start with."
"Your fault?" Her head came off his shoulder and he knew he was getting a glare. "How is it suddenly your fault? I suppose you just begged Xellos to chain you up and possess you, huh?"
"He said I wasn't - "
"I can't believ you listened to him!" Lina seethed. "Oh, Zel." Her head came down again and he felt her warm hand on his chest. "... You shouldn't have offered yourself to him. He'll see that as a binding agreement...."
"I couldn't fight him. And I couldn't let him...."
"He wasn't going to kill me - "
"I couldn't let him," Zelgadis repeated through clenched teeth.
"... we'll get you a loophole," Lina decided, and yawned. "I love you." And she fell asleep o his shoulder.
Zelgadis lay awake a little longer, with a warm sorceress pressed full length against his right side. Her fine soft hair stirred against his collarbone with her breath.
By every god, I am the luckest man alive!