"It's so beautiful here." Amelia said with a gasp. Lina would have disagreed, if she had the breath to do so, but the long climb to the top of the mountain pass had robbed her of her breath. Instead she crumpled into a sitting position and refused to budge.
"Haven't you been here before?" Gourry asked, looking out over the high pass valley. Amelia shook her head.
"Even though it's part of the Saillune Empire because it's so far away we rarely visit it."
"Oi, Amelia, what's so important about this province? I mean, it's nothing but mountain passes and ice." Lina asked, glancing over the stark landscape.
"Well, actually, it's the spiritual heart of our kingdom." Amelia scratched the back of her head and pinked slightly.
"Oh?" Lina asked raising an eyebrow. "But your family rarely gets out here?"
"Well, it's a bit complicated. You see, long ago, when the kingdom was first developing, my ancestors didn't believe in justice, they actually believed that might made right." Lina suddenly understood why Amelia looked so embarrassed. "It was during the period of empire expansion that one of my ancestors married a princess from here, in order to get this province. My ancestress, this princess, was also a miko for the holy order here, and she taught her husband and her children to use might for right. She also brought with her the most expansive knowledge of Holy and Shamanisitic Magic that is taught. Because of her, we always consider High Pass to be the spiritual heart of the Empire, even though the capital has incorporated most of the duties of the religious center."
"So that's why your father thinks a bit of the Claire Bible might be here? Interesting." Zelgadis appeared, as he always managed to, as if from mid-air.
"Is there a way down?" Lina asked. Zelgadis nodded, then smiled faintly.
"But it's another yak trail."
Lina groaned.
"You know, if you hadn't eaten our yaks we could have ridden them down." Gourry murmured, still gazing over the valley.
"You ate them too!" Lina shouted, jumping to her feet. "This is stupid, no more walking for me. LEVATATION!"
"Lina-san, wait for us!" Amelia called after her as the redhead cheerfully flew off.
Sitting on a boulder high above the pass Xelloss smiled down at the small band of intrepid adventurers. High Pass hadn't even been his idea, but already he was looking forward to the secrets it held.
Lina sauntered into town, much revived by the quick journey down from the pass. She felt a momentary pang of guilt at having left the others behind, but she was too hungry to really care. Looking around she spotted a likely looking mud and dabble building and hurried over with a gleeful grin. She was almost to the door when the world spun crazily and she felt herself growing faint.
"Easy!" A pair of strong hands caught her and gently lowered her on the front step of the inn. Lina looked up and was surprised to find herself resting against a woman with almost glowing white hair and a matching cape of feathers. The stranger's grey eyes met hers and Lina fancied that she saw a flicker of surprised recognition.
"Are you okay?" The woman asked gently. Lina nodded as the world stopped spinning.
"Wha's happenin'?" She asked thickly, feeling a bit as though she had challenged Naga to a drinking match.
"How quickly did you come down from the pass?" The stranger pressed cool fingers against Lina's jugular.
"Not s' long."
"Then it's just altitude sickness. Here, drink this." Lina felt something metal pressed against her lips, then gagged as something truly awful tasting slid down her throat.
"I know, I know." Murmured the woman, sounding just the tiniest amused at Lina's protestations. "But sweeteners render the potion useless."
"Potion? What sorta quack remedy didja just pump into me?" Lina asked with a screech, sitting up and glowering at the stranger.
"It's a very effective cure for altitude sickness that the adherents of local Order brew." The woman said with a slow smile. Lina blushed, suddenly aware of how not sick she was.
"Take it easy on yourself. You've enough problems without being your own worst enemy." The stranger stood and helped Lina back to her feet.
"Sorry - "
"It's okay, I get the same way when weird magics are used on me." The woman tilted her head towards the door of the restaurant. "This place does wonders with yak meat and buckwheat. Go, get something to take care of that nasty aftertaste."
Lina smiled sheepishly at the woman.
"Thanks."
"No problem. Just take care of yourself. Saving the world is considerably easier when you're not feeling nauseous." The stranger shook Lina's hand and walked off.
Xelloss, Lina wasn't terribly surprised to discover, was already sitting at a table near the hearth, although it made her wary.
"Yes?" She asked, seating herself opposite of him.
"Hello Lina-chan! Have you come to do some sightseeing as well?" The Trickster Priest asked as Lina waved a waiter over.
"Not particularly." She glanced at the young boy taking her order. "Double helpings of everything. What would you recommend I see?" She asked sweetly of Xelloss.
"The Grand Library is always a good place to visit." Lina wondered if Xelloss's face ever got tired of smiling. "And of course the caves of the hermits are also worth a peek, but I have heard," His voice lowered as he leaned forward a little. "That the entrance to a laboratory of a very powerful Shamanist is located somewhere on Entropy Peak." Xelloss sat back, looking very much like that cat that swallowed the canary.
"So what's in it for you?" Lina asked as the boy returned with a mug of steaming liquid.
"Lina, you wound me!" Xelloss looked hurt for all of five nanoseconds.
"Yeah, whatever. Why else would you tell me this unless there was something you wanted, but didn't want to get yourself." She sipped the drink, then made a face. "Ugh, buttered tea."
"Sugar helps." Xelloss said in a bland voice, making Lina eye the honey pot on the table suspiciously.
"Uh... maybe later." She put her mug back down on the table. "So what are you after?"
Xelloss stood, his trademark smile back in place.
"Sore wa himistu desu."
"Fruitcake." Lina muttered as the first of her dishes arrived.
The others didn't catch up until dusk, and by then Lina had eaten, bathed, and mulled over Xelloss's not-as-cryptic-as-usual remarks.
"You should have waited for us." Amelia said in a peevish tone as they joined Lina by the fireside, where Lina was tossing bones from her dinner to the small curly tailed dog at her feet.
"Sorry." The others gave her a collective dirty look.
"I reserved the rooms didn't I?" Lina demanded.
Zelgadis rolled his eyes as Gourry perused the menu and Amelia sighed.
"Amelia, can you get us - "
"Eeeeeeyaaaaaa!" Amelia screamed as a pitcher of icy liquid splashed her.
"Kendar!" The innkeeper rushed over as Amelia stood, sopping wet. On the floor a 12 year old boy struggled to his feet, an action made all the harder by his obviously lame foot.
"Oh, honored travelers I am so, so, so sorry, please don't be angry - " The innkeeper babbled as the other waiters hurried to clean up the mess.
"It's okay." Amelia said weakly. "I needed a bath anyway..."
"Here, it's a bit rumpled, but it's clean." Amelia was offered a towel by another inn patron sitting at the table next to theirs. She took the towel from the brunette and patted herself dry as the innkeeper and son continued to bow and apologize for the mess.
"Really it's okay..."
"Relax Pemba, she means it." The brunette smiled at the innkeeper, who looked anxiously back at the dripping sorceress. Amelia smiled reassuringly and Pemba finally allowed her son to return to the kitchen. The boy picked up the heavy metal pitcher and lugged it away. Amelia watched the boy with growing concern.
"Why hasn't he gone to any of the priests for a healing spell?"
"Oh no honored guest, that wouldn't do." The innkeeper looked horrified at the thought.
"Why not? Their service is to the people." Amelia said indignantly.
"Honored guest is kind, so kind, but does not understand. Snowstruck are not able to be healed." The innkeeper bowed once more before she escaped back to the kitchen.
"What was that all about?" Lina wondered aloud.
"Kendar is snowstruck." The brunette explained. "That means anyone who tries to heal him dies. Apparently his curse took the lives of several local priests before the reason was discovered."
"That's horrible." Amelia said with dismay. "Can nothing be done...?"
"Not unless you want to die an unpleasant death." The brunette bent down and picked up a fluffy white cat that gave her a grumpy look.
"I'm Selena Marshcraft and this " She held up the cat. " is Neko."
"I'm Lina, that's Gourry, the silent one is Zel, and the wet one is Amelia." Lina made the introductions while Amelia blotted the worst of the spill from her hair.
"You're going to want to bathe," Selena noted a little mournfully. "that was my pitcher of lemonade he got you with."
Amelia glanced at the others, then looked around feeling helpless.
"Here, I'll show you where the baths are." Selena put Neko down and lead Amelia away as Pemba returned to their table with a tray of mugs. Selena called over her shoulder to the raven haired innkeeper,
"Pemba, if you see ‘Dancer please tell her I'll be right back."
Zelgadis spat out the tea he was drinking.
"Oi, Zel, I know buttered tea tastes strange, but you don't have to spew." Lina grumbled, wiping off the little bit of tea that got her arm. Zelgadis stood and stalked off, or would have, if Lina hadn't grabbed the hem of his cloak and brought him up short.
"What bit you?" She asked him.
"Not now." He snapped, pulling his cloak free. Lina blinked, then looked over at Gourry, who just shrugged.
"Maybe he's not hungry?" He suggested. Lina threw a bone at the swordsman.
Amelia laid in bed that night as the cold wind howled outside and reviewed again the events that happened before dinner. In the bed next to hers Lina mumbled in her sleep and rolled over, oblivious of her roommate's dilemma. Amelia thought for a moment longer, then quietly crept out of the room. Despite the near total dark Amelia moved noiselessly down the hall to the inn's family quarters. She paused at the door for a moment, trying to quash the nagging feeling she had when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"It's admirable that you want to help the boy, Princess, but you're only endangering yourself."
Amelia whirled around to find a cloaked figure addressing her.
"How did you know - " Amelia's eyes grew round. "You know my title? How coul - ?" The stranger raised a finger to the princess's lips, silencing her.
"I'll explain, but not here. Come down to the common room." It was undeniably a woman's voice. She lowered her arm and something soft brushed Amelia's cheek.
Amelia silently followed the woman downstairs. As the stranger passed under the night lamp, Amelia saw that the woman wore a floor length cloak of white feathers almost the same hue as her hair. And yet, it had been the voice of a young woman... Amelia sat down on a cushion in front of the hearth as the woman stirred the coals back to life. As she backed away for the dancing flames Amelia could see that the stranger was indeed a young woman, despite the shock of white hair. Amelia sat with her chin on her knees and watched the woman as she got comfortable opposite the princess.
"How did you know who I was?" Amelia asked softly. The stranger smiled warmly.
"Your Father's very proud of you. Certainly proud enough to do this." She tossed Amelia something small and flashy. Amelia caught it, and when she opened her hand, she recognized it as a small 5 piece coin from Saillune. Turning it over she saw her own profile pressed into the dull metal.
"He didn't!"
"'Fraid so." The woman smiled sympathetically. Amelia stared at the coin for a moment, both annoyed and pleased, then glanced back up at the stranger.
"That doesn't explain how you knew I would try to heal Kendar."
"That was pure guesswork on my part. Selena told me about your conversation with the innkeep, and I suspected that you might feel obligated to try and help. You're a lot like your father in that."
Amelia blushed.
"You know my father?" The stranger coughed, which sounded suspiciously like a laugh.
"Yes, I had the... pleasure of being... rescued by him."
"Oh?" Amelia asked.
"It's a bit embarrassing..."
"Oh! Sorry." Amelia looked back down at the coin before looking back at the woman.
"Why do you think my healing spells won't work?"
"Because he's not ill." The stranger put the fire bucket on the floor between the two if them.
"Are you familiar with the spell Scrysoul?"
"That's the one that lets the viewer see a person or thing's aura?" Amelia asked. The woman nodded, and touched the surface of the water. The water clouded, then cleared to reveal the slumbering form of the innkeeper's son. His aura was a uniformly pale, washout yellow, except for his affected leg, which pulsed black.
"He's possessed!" Amelia gasped.
"It's more like the snow demon took up residency in his leg, but you have the gist of it." The stranger explained.
"How do you know it's a snow demon?" The princess wanted to know.
"More conjecture. The boy developed his lameness during the last winter storm, according to people of this neighborhood. Snow demon are pretty common to the mountains, but usually they possess the entire person." The woman rested her head against her hand and stared into the fire. "It makes me almost think that it's trying to hide."
"From who?" Amelia asked, startled at the thought of a demon hiding within a person.
"Not from humans, I know that much... no, I'm going to go out on a limb here, but I think it might be hiding from other demons." She glanced at Amelia, who sat chewing on a thumbnail, thinking.
"Then if it's expelled it'll just find a new host..." Amelia thought aloud. The feathered stranger nodded.
"So it would have to be sealed away, rather than just expelled." Amelia closed her eyes for a moment.
"Or destroyed." Zelgadis growled.
Amelia's eyes flew open. Zelgadis stood in the foyer staring at the woman opposite Amelia. The stranger stood, and swallowed.
"Zelgadis..." The woman tried to say something more, but words failed her.
"You... know each other?" Amelia asked, getting to her feet.
"Amelia... could we please be alone?" Zelgadis asked, never taking his eyes off the other woman.
"Ah, certainly." Amelia retreated to the shadows in the staircase, out of sight, but not out of hearing range.