"It seems so... harmless, ya know?" Amelia's words were slightly breathless and hung in the sir as delicate vapor. She was also correct in everyone's estimation. Whatever Gourry had been expecting, it hadn't been this. He was weaving slightly on his feet, the trip, normally about ten hours, had been broken into three days because of Gourry's weakened state. He was better now, stronger on his feet that he had been; the weave seemed gone from his stance as healing spell after healing spell had been applied to him. Recovery would come shortly, but Amelia was still afraid for his system.
"What shall we do now?"
"I'm not sure. Gourry seems to be the captain on this ship of fools." Zelgadis still had yet to forgive Gourry for giving up. And for... other things, a fractured mirror to hold up and see his own flaws the least of the list.
"C'mon." Gourry said quietly. He strode foreword over the lawn, and that damn cape...
"He's not...oh dear GOD he is! OI! GOURRY!" Amelia had been thinking the same; a direct approach was rarely the best fashion in these situations, yet Gourry-san was all set to just go and pound on the door. The situation left her feeling detached; it had all become too surreal. She was going to go through the front door and step into a room where she and Lina-san were sleeping, and she was never going to get back into her own body, she just knew it.
But the large stone and wood house with it's mullioned windows seemed to smile delightedly into the cold sunlight. Rows and rows of some kind of plant life stretched behind the house like a carefully tended row of splayed fingers.
"This kingdom is known for really great wine.. I'd guess those are grape vines.." Amelia murmured as she trudged after Zel and Gourry.
Agony made a poor cape in the cold air, the numbness in the pit of his stomach abiding here and there in fragments to play peek-a-boo with the depth of intensity inside him. There was no ending; it had been consumed by the beginning and a great wyrm had consumed both in a meal if circles that endlessly forced him onward. There would be no end to this path until Death came in a ride of fire and took him away. His two friends at his back didn't need this. Damn you that took away the balance and blew out the flame.
The door loomed, a normal portal given a sinister paint job by the nerves and disbelief and doubt that grew in primroses to strangle the calm each deserved. Exhausted anger pulled his arm back on a rubber band and it crashed into the door, the resulting noise obscenely large in the frozen air the peaceful surroundings seemed to stop being so tranquil and turned to glare at him. "Uh, Gourry -- "
The creak the door made as it slowly swung open raised the wire all over Zelgadis' head. Amelia's reflexive gulp was audible, and the house was still silent, but with expectation now.
"Oh no. We've never seen this before." Zelgadis' nerves were pulled a little too tight and he sought to ease them in his favored fashion. Gourry's face for one minute twisted and he shook, but the magicked steel in his soul straightened, and he quietly stepped over the threshold. One by one they all stepped onto the hard wood and looked.
The room they stood in was large, and polished wood gleamed with friendly charm. The deception of it... It was also empty of living persona, though the presence of someone was very strong. The furniture was nicely arranged, but the throw pillows were tossed about, and there were piles of clean clothing piled here and there on the adjoined sofas.
Amelia stared, unnerved by it's presence. A killer doing laundry. The door suddenly slammed shut, though all were certain that no wind touched it. Zel ran towards the portal, a flare arrow powering up between his clawed hands. Gourry's method of demanding wasn't going to work this time --
"If you so much as SCRATCH that door I can show you several things WORSE than being a Chimera!" Zel tripped and feel at the blast, the power behind the words. The spell gone, he turned to face The Voice. The rest of the tired group turned and saw her. Amelia felt.. something.. in the back of her stomach.. a tickle of awareness with a lilting voice and neat purple hair. A young woman stood at the top of the angled staircase, her frame clad in a loose top and a pair of knock-about pants. For one glimmer of an eerie moment, all three would have sworn that it was.. Xelloss.. standing there. But.. but.. the face.. Gourry's legs gave out suddenly, and he fell hard to sit with his head between his legs, gulping air.
"Who are you...?" Zel asked, moved as well by the ..something in the air that only this woman and Gourry seemed to recognize. He hated feeling uninformed. She smiled and his jaw dropped. He had seen that smile. The little smirk and the twist in the corner that said "I'm not evil but I'm not above it either....".
Instead of answering she padded the rest of the way down the stairs, silent on the hardwood floor in her thick, brightly colored socks. She crouched before Gourry, and gently pushed his butter-yellow hair from his worn face. "You took your time coming, my friend." She spoke quietly and gently tucked the errant bangs back, where they lay docilely. "Nearly too late." Gourry lifted his heavy head and looked at the composed person touching him so gently. So much like Lina.. and yet so not.
"You're Luna, L-Lina's big sis."
"That's right, I am." She ignored Amelia and Zelgadis' loud, stunned silence.
"I-I'm Gourry, Gourry Gabriev her -- "
"Protector, I know. And you've done an excellent job. You've always given to her what she needs most." At these low words, Gourry's face crumpled like tissue paper in strong wind.
"No," he murmured, "I'm not. I'm not at all. Didn't anyone tell you... no, they didn't. L-Lina is.."
His voice wore down into the mere threads as emotion stripped it raw, the weight ripping out all sound in savage respect over a memory that would never be just that.
"Come along Gabriev-san. You need a proper seat."
"The word listen contains the same letters as the word silent."
-- ?