"Tonight will be the last story."
"What?" Princess whined. "But you haven't finished it yet!"
Zelgadiss ruffled her hair fondly. "I'll be gone tomorrow night but I've heard from your mother that a bard will be coming. So you won't have to suffer through my terrible stories."
"I like your stories," Princess said firmly. "Now are you going to finish the story?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Do not fear, poor little innocent daughter of mine," roared Prince Phil. "Your prince is coming to your rescue!"
"Your highness~~~!" groaned the attendants trying to restrain him.
"I don't quite think you're the image of a prince that she's expecting," Lina muttered under her breath. She had gotten up early today for two reasons. One was to hunt down another set of her usual sorceress garb. The second was to set off to rescue Amelia. She hadn't counted on Prince Phil's enthusiastic response.
Gracia stepped in front of her father's path.
"Gracia..."
"Father, you cannot simply run off on your own to rescue Amelia."
So she does have some sense after all.
But Gracia continued. "I will go with you!" She threw off her gown to stand in all her glory as the White Serpent. "Those villains shall rue the day they crossed the path of Naga the White Serpent."
Or maybe not.
"That's my girl!" Phil smiled broadly, clamping a hand on Gracia's shoulder, somehow avoiding the large spikes on the shoulderguards.
"Of course! O-HOHOHOHO!"
Naga and Phil joined together in a cacophony of laughter. They didn't notice Lina get up and walk up behind them. She tapped each on the shoulder.
"What?"
"Sleep."
The Crown Prince and First Princess of Saillune slipped to the floor in a deep slumber. Attendants and palace guards breathed sighs of relief.
"Take them to their rooms," Lina ordered. And when the attendants hesitated she added, "If anyone asks, say it was by the will of the Knight."
Running a hand through her hair, Lina turned to study a map of the kingdom while the royals were carted off. The last thing she needed was a pacifist and a deluded sorceress whose spells didn't work correctly running half-cocked to Amelia's rescue.
"I take it that you're the one who put them to sleep," Zel stated stepping into the room.
Lina didn't look up from the map. "I don't need their...assistance in this. There's enough possibilities for trouble as it is."
"So what are we doing here, Zelgadiss?" asked the ever bright Prince Gourry.
"You wanted to go rescue the Princess Amelia," Zel reminded his liege.
"Oh yeah."
"Absolutely not," Lina said flatly, finally looking up from the map.
Zel looked at her narrowly and the falcon on his shoulder flapped its wings to keep its balance.
"Absolutely not what?" Gourry asked.
"You're not going after Amelia," Lina said firmly. "For the same reason that the Crown Prince and his first daughter aren't going."
"I would hardly think we'd be as helpless or as hindering as them," Zel replied coolly. "My prince and I are both skilled at the sword, you already know of my magic, and you may need my knowledge of guns since these beastmen seem to have a large supply of them."
"Those weapons they were wielding last night?"
Zel nodded. "Those were primitive examples. I've seen only a few advanced models but they are all deadly."
"And how exactly do you know about them?"
"As I mentioned last night, my prince and I have traveled quite extensively."
"And Prince Gourry is the other important link in this treaty. Is it part of your duty to put him in danger?" Lina asked acidly.
"Once he makes up his mind, there is little I can do but follow and make sure he doesn't get himself killed," Zel shrugged.
"Blind obedience to the crown?"
"I would prefer to think of it as part of what I do as his friend."
"Well I don't care what you call it. I'm doing this alone."
"That is completely like you, Lina," Sylphiel said softly, stepping into the room.
Lina frowned at her friend. "And just where are you dressed to go?"
"With you to rescue the princess," Sylphiel said matter-of-factly, holding her priestess rod in her hands.
"In case you didn't hear very clearly when you came in, I said - "
"I heard, and if you recall in Sairaag, I didn't listen to you then either."
Lina scowled. Sylphiel looked at Zelgadiss and Gourry, dressed in their mercenary clothes.
"Lina, I think it is safe to say that we are all going. The question would only be whether it will be together or separately. Please think it over carefully. You already know what I can do and I vouch for Zelgadiss and Prince Gourry."
Lina glared at all of them, at the logical and practical solution facing her. A solution she didn't want to accept because she didn't need help. Lina Inverse could take care of her own problems.
She looked at Zelgadiss's silver hair glinting in the early sun's rays and remembered someone else.
Damn it all to hell. I must be getting old.
Lina rolled up the map and stormed past the three. At the door, she turned around.
"If you want to come along, fine. Get your horses. Oh, and don't blame me if you get caught in one of my spells."
An hour later, the four were riding north of the city toward the foothills where, from Lina's information, a large number of beastmen had been sighted within the last several weeks.
"How did you learn that?" Zel asked.
He was riding next to her behind Sylphiel and Gourry. The brown feathered falcon was absent from his shoulder as Zel had let Torl fly free for awhile.
Lina's lips twitched. She couldn't exactly tell him that she had asked her fairy godmother and godfather to investigate. They had been furious that she had gone off to the ball without them. So last night she had placated them by letting them help her with her 'quest'. It was never a good thing to have a fairy angry at you.
"Some little helpers. Anyway, since you're all coming along for this outing, I'd better know what you can do."
"Gourry is an excellent swordsman for all of his simpleness. I am his equal in swordplay but I also command spells from Shaman and Black Magic."
Lina lifted an eyebrow. "And what's the most powerful spell in either that you can cast?"
"Ra Tilt."
Lina whistled. "Better than that probe you did the other day?"
Zel scowled but Lina didn't pay attention, busying tallying what strengths they had.
"Ra Tilt huh? Correctly used it could destroy it with one blow. Maybe better than using that against it. The problems of power that derives from the same source. She could handle defense, I already know offense is out of the question for her," Lina muttered to herself. "Would either of you two have enchanted blades?"
"I can enchant mine if necessary," Zel said cautiously. "You think Zeigram will appear."
"Absolutely."
Zel remembered Zeigram's parting phrase. "Such a lovely bird. A swan's wings should be clipped though."
"You heard that as well?"
"Yes. I didn't think of it then but he was referring to you wasn't he?"
"Isn't it obvious? Considering my costume."
"What were you?"
Lina's lips twisted in a bitter smile. "The Swan Princess."
"So this adds personal vengeance to Zeigram's motives."
"Who knows what Mazoku think?" Lina shrugged, looking up as the falcon swooped from the sky to land on Zel's raised arm. Changing the subject, she reached out a hand to touch the bird. "That's a lovely falcon."
"Don't touch him!" Zel jerked his arm away and Torl burst into the air screeching.
Lina froze, taken aback by the normally stoic chimera's outburst. Sylphiel and Gourry turned in their saddles to see what the commotion was about. Gourry took one look at Torl and motioned Sylphiel to face forward again.
"Wha-Well if you don't want anyone touching your precious bird then just say so!" Lina snapped, flushed with anger.
"That wasn't it!" Zel retorted and then tried to calm down. She just kept rubbing him the wrong way. "Torl will attack anyone other than me and Gourry."
Zel brushed back the silver fall of hair over the right side of his face. The skin was still light blue with gray blotches but there was a noticeable darker blue line running from below his eye down his face.
"I got this scar when Gourry tried to feed Torl before Torl had become familiar with him."
Zel didn't know why he shared that with her but he felt he had to explain his reaction to her.
"Oh." Lina chewed on her lip. So much for keeping control over her temper, blowing up over this little incident. "How did you get that if your skin is like stone?"
"It wasn't. Then." Zel answered shortly.
"Dismount!" Gourry called. The terrain had become steadily more rolling, bringing them closer to the beastmen's possible lair. The horses would be left outside.
"I meant to ask you last night," Zel said as he looped the reins of his stallion to a tree. "Who is Reilin? You said his name last night when you saw me."
Lina who had her back to him didn't answer. Zel didn't expect her to answer as she began walking to catch up to Sylphiel and Gourry up ahead.
"He was...a dear friend."
Neither the use of the past tense or the sorrow and loneliness in her reply escaped Zel. The four continued on foot into the foothills.
"Welcome to our home," growled a wolfman standing in the middle of the path with Jiras at his side.
The four would-be rescuers were surrounded on all sounds by various beastmen.
"Didn't expect such a paltry force to rescue the princess," sneered the wolfman. "What can four people do?"
"How about fashion advice?" Lina snickered. "That is the tackiest thing I've ever seen, leather armor on a wolfman."
Steam was hissing out of the wolfman's ears as the other beastmen and even Jiras laughed.
"Attack them! Kill them!" shrieked the wolfman.
"Let's go!" Gourry smiled, eager to get into some action.
"Sylphiel, you stay back," Lina admonished as she cut a beastman with a ram's head. Powering up a large Fireball, she threw it at a conveniently collected group of beastmen. "Fireball!"
The beastmen lay in a black burnt pile.
"Don't waste your strength," Zel warned, slashing through almost ten beastmen at once.
Lina stuck out her tongue in reply.
In almost no time at all, all but the wolfman were dead.
"So what are you going to do now, Mr. Wolf?" Lina smirked.
"Heh, let's see if you can beat me," the wolfman challenged, pulling out a very sharp sword.
"Alright then," Gourry accepted, stepping up.
Lina blinked and looked at Zelgadiss. "Is this really alright?"
"Watch for yourself."
Within several strokes, Gourry disarmed the wolfman and sliced him cleanly across the torso. The wolfman fell over dead.
"Oh Prince Gourry," Sylphiel sighed.
"Oh please." Lina rolled her eyes.
"Aren't we missing someone?" Zel asked, scanning the dead bodies.
"I'm right here."
Jiras appeared, standing on a metal contraption with wheels and a barrel aimed straight at them.
"You may have gotten away from my bombs last time but you won't be as lucky with this baby." Jiras chuckled as he dropped inside his contraption and closed the hatch.
"What is that?" Lina gasped.
"A tank," Zel answered absently, looking around the ground.
"Can I blow it up?"
"Is blowing things up the first solution you have to everything?"
"It's worked so far."
Zel found what he was looking for. Hefting it in one hand to get a feel of its weight, Zel smirked.
"What are you doing?" Lina asked, watching the chimera easily toss the stone as large as her head up and down in one hand.
"Using my head."
Zel threw the rock straight into the tank's barrel. "I suggest everyone duck."
Jiras pulled the tank's trigger.
BOOM!
The tank exploded, sending a burnt Jiras hurtling into the sky and off into the distance.
"I could have done that with a spell," Lina grumbled.
"You should save your power for what's important."
"And that would be me?"
Zeigram appeared, floating several feet above the ground, draped in his black cloak. His red glowing eye surveyed the humans before him.
"And it is this that you're after?"
Amelia, wrapped in barbed wire, materialized in the air next to him.
Lina bit back a gasp. Zeigram's eye turned to her.
"Is this familiar? Lina Inverse. Like a certain person that you used to know over a hundred years ago."
Zel glanced quickly at Lina's ashen face, as if she had seen a ghost. "Reilin?"
"Ohh, so she's actually told someone. How much did she say?"
"Shut up, Zeigram!" Lina screamed. "Mega Brando!"
The ground underneath the Mazoku erupted skyward.
"Gourry, Zel! Grab Amelia!"
The two dashed after the princess sent flying by the spell.
A red blast of energy ripped toward Lina only to be deflected several feet away. Lina didn't need to look to know that Sylphiel had erected a shield.
"The little white priestess has some backbone after all," chuckled the Mazoku. "More so than when her father was killed."
Sylphiel bit her lip hard enough to draw blood. She knew she was no good in a fight but her shields were one of the most powerful on the continent.
"Lina, please."
Lina barely nodded, chanting the Chaos Words for a spell. Zeigram watched and waited. Bright violet energy glowed at Lina's fingers as she traced a pentagram in the air. Zeigram watched idly as the same pattern traced itself around him on the ground.
"Laguna Blast!" Lina summoned.
A pillar of light burst straight up from the pentagram, followed by black plasma, completely enveloping the Mazoku.
Did it work?
Zel saw the movement first. "Lina!"
Zeigram, unharmed by the spell, shot out an arm toward Lina.
But Gourry moved first. His sword flashed slicing easily through the Mazoku's bandage wrapped arm. Zeigram barely gave the annoyance a glance.
"You idiot!" Lina yelled, grabbing the dense prince and Sylphiel by the arms and flying away over to Zelgadiss. Dropping the prince, but setting Sylphiel down much more gently, she whacked Gourry over the head.
"Just what the hell do you think you were doing?! Attacking a Mazoku with a normal sword like that!"
"Huh?"
"She is referring to this," Zeigram explained as the arm that was cut regrew itself.
Gourry looked at the new arm and the old one still on the ground. He scratched his head. Zel rolled his eyes and pulled out something from under his cape and handed it to Gourry.
"Just use this."
Sylphiel and Lina looked at the bladeless sword, or more accurately, sword hilt.
"Isn't that missing something?" Sylphiel asked.
"Are you sure you're trying to help him?" Lina gave Zel a disbelieving look.
"This will even things a bit more," Gourry grinned, bringing the hilt to guard position.
"Have any ideas on how to kill Zeigram?" Zel asked calmly.
"Don't you?" Lina growled. "Try a Ra Tilt."
Zel shrugged. "Just wondering."
"Such a minor attack can not harm me," Zeigram gloated, spreading out his arms. Globes of red energy began to dot the space between them.
"I can shield you from part of it," Sylphiel said, her brow creased in concentration. "Do what you can."
"Gourry, you first."
"Right!"
Gourry rushed forward, nimbly dodging the red globes and leaped into the air.
"Light!"
From the hilt, a beam of white light shot out like a blade.
"The Sword of Light?!"
Meanwhile, Zel completed his spell. "Ra Tilt!"
Blue-white energy burst from his gathered hands.
"What are you aiming at?" Lina yelled as the energy flew upwards.
The Sword of Light in Gourry's hands brightened as it absorbed the power of the Ra Tilt. With a smug smile, Gourry brought the combined blade and spell crashing down on Zeigram.
Zeigram's only eye widened as the sword ripped through his magical defenses and tore into his shoulder. Roaring in anger, Zeigram threw lances of red energy at the prince.
"Your highness!" Zel cried, flying in and grabbing his liege out of the way. Another blur flew by him.
"My sword!"
Zel looked back to see Lina flying toward Zeigram, the Sword of Light in her hands.
"Lina!"
Lina was beyond hearing, her mouth forming the words of the spell that had become her trademark. Before, she had used it against a Mazoku and it still stood. However, the Ra Tilt was absorbed into the Sword of Light and it cut through Zeigram's shield and its body. If she figured it right...
"Dragu Slabu!" Lina shouted, channeling the ruby red power into the sword in her hands. White swam and clashed with red and black as the Sword of Light drank in the dark spell.
"Fool!" More red lances materialized in Zeigram's hands.
"Dynast Breath!" Zel cast.
A blue pentagram glowed briefly beneath the Mazoku before tentacles of ice eagerly raced up, wrapping itself into a shell around its victim.
Lina didn't hesitate, plunging the red-black blade into the tear Gourry created in Zeigram's shoulder. That tear would open directly to Zeigram's astral self. She let the spell-blade release itself in there.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" screamed Zeigram in an inhuman wail as black streams of energy ripped out of him. The force blasted Lina away. She shielded herself from any last retributive strike surprises but none came.
"Lina!!" screamed three voices. She cringed.
"Give me back my sword!" Gourry snatched back said sword.
"Are you alright?" Sylphiel was already casting Recovery on Lina's scratches and bruises.
"I'd like an explanation about all of this," Zel said with barely concealed anger though he wasn't sure exactly what he was mad at. "Starting with what Zeigram meant about a hundred years ago."
Lina studied the suddenly very interesting ground. She spoke so softly that at first only Zel could hear her.
"A hundred years ago, I attended a masquerade with my...friend Reilin. But I had gotten on the bad side of a Mazoku and Reilin was captured that night. The Mazoku sent me challenge, to face him the next day. Reilin was entrapped just like Amelia. But that time...I failed. My Dragu Slabu didn't affect him and...Reilin died."
"Oh Lina..." Sylphiel murmured, giving her friend a hug. "I never knew."
"Few people do," Lina remarked, a bit of her usual humor returning.
"But that makes you a grandma right? Over a hundred. You sure age well."
Lina beat the stuffing and then some out of the prince as Zel and Sylphiel watched bug-eyed.
"Sorry, Sylphiel. I know you like him but there was no way I'd let him off with that crack."
Sylphiel blushed.
"Umm..." Amelia whined weakly. "Could someone untie me?"
"Oops."
"The four returned the second princess safely to Saillune and the treaty between the countries of Emaar and Saillune was finished without incident. Then Prince Gourry, in either an extremely rare show of intelligence or just being the simple man he is, asked for the hand of the Priestess Sylphiel before the entire royal court of Saillune. So when the Emaar royal envoy began its journey home, it had two more people. The second prince's betrothed and her friend."
"So the Prince Gourry and Priestess Sylphiel married and lived happily ever after," Princess finished.
Zel pulled the silk coverlet up to her chin. "Isn't that how all fairy tales end?"
"And what about Zelgadiss and Lina?"
Zel looked at her oddly. "Why do you ask?"
"Well, now that Lina can stop grieving over her friend she can get on with her life. So what happened?"
Zel snuffed out the candle. "You already know."
It wasn't until he closed the door and was in the hall when Princess's mother spoke.
"That wasn't the exact truth."
"When were fables ever the truth?"