"Just what is this 'Swords & Sorcery' thing anyway?" Lina grumbled, swallowing a sandwich whole.
Zelgadiss refrained from commenting on such wholescale eating. "It's one of the many campus festivals. In the beginning of each school year, each school draws lots for which festival it does. I guess Southern was the one that got Swords & Sorcery."
"But what is it?"
"I'm getting there. It's exactly what it sounds like it should be. The students who set up the festival base it off of old stories and legends. There'll be lots of demonstrations of magic and sword duels, mock battles with monsters, bards, stuffed monster exhibits. Those are the things they had last year at least."
"In other words, you get all the adventure on the road wrapped in a sanitized, safe, affordable package for city dwellers," Lina snorted. "So just what does the 'class representatives' do?"
"There's going to be a tournament and the winning class gets to go for free on the summer school trip."
Lina whistled. The cost for the school trip was not cheap. And everyone in the class that won got a free ride?!
"This'll be a snap!" Lina grinned, images of the competition being literally blown away crossing through her mind.
"You think it's just an ordinary spell duel?"
"Isn't it?"
Zelgadiss sighed. "No. Each pair has to work together to get through each of the trials of the tournament. And not all of them are dueling."
"Let me guess. More practice for the real world," Lina grumbled. So she had to work with the school idol in order to get an all-expense paid trip. And that meant she could spend the money elsewhere. Her mind switched to high gear as she began to rapidly calculated which magic tomes she could buy instead with the money she'd saved. "All right, I'll do it!"
Zelgadiss ignored the flames erupting around her. "It wasn't as if you ever had a choice."
"Don't be so gloomy, partner," Lina said pleasantly, at the same time tugging on his ear. "I'm, I mean we're are going to win this contest!"
"You must be a miser. And let go of my ear." Zelgadiss brushed her hand away.
"Aww, what's wrong? Did I hurt it?"
"Don't say that!" Zelgadiss hissed, jumping to his feet and immediately running away.
Lina blinked. And blinked again as some yellow blur ripped by her and right into the chimera, both of them sliding across least half of the courtyard.
"What the hell..." she looked over at Zel and the person who had bowled him over.
"Let go!" Zel yelped, struggling to get free.
"Where are you hurt? Who dared to touch even a strand of my darling boy? Just where the hell did your bodyguard get to? Does it hurt dear? Come let Mommy have a look."
"Mommy?!" Lina sputtered. The woman fussing over Zelgadiss couldn't have been any older than her late twenties with long rippling golden hair and a white dress suit.
Zelgadiss finally gave up trying to get loose, and grudgingly sat through his mother's coddling. She was always fussing over him as if he was still a kid. That was why when high school started, he moved out of the house to attend Eastern and not be under his mother's overprotective eye.
"There, all better." Zelgadiss's mother sat back, observing her handiwork which was visible only to her. Zel had no idea what she was doing but as long as she let go, he could go.
"Nice seeing you again, Mom, but I've really got to go and - " Zelgadiss quickly muttered, getting out of his mother's arms.
However, he wasn't fast enough as she hugged him tightly again, bursting into tears.
"I haven't seen you in so long."
"It's been only about a year."
"You live so far away."
"My apartment is a block away."
"And it must be the longest block in the entire world."
Zel rolled his eyes.
"Just look at you! You're so thin now, you aren't eating right are you?"
"He didn't eat anything for lunch," Lina added helpfully, thoroughly enjoying this.
"Traitor."
"And your skin is hard like a rock and your hair is all sharp and spiky and your eyes are all mean and evil - "
"Mom. My eyes were always like this."
Zelgadiss's mother blinked, letting go and stepping back. "Oh. You're right."
He was going to use this moment to escape but Lina was feeling evil as usual and stepped in.
"Hey, Zel. Aren't you going to introduce me to your mother?"
Zelgadiss bit his tongue to keep from swearing in the colorful vocabulary his mother used when she got too far into the cups. His mother looked at Lina, registering her presence for the first time.
"Yes, Zelgadiss, why don't you introduce me to your helpful little friend?"
A mental arrow with the the tag 'little' struck Lina's head.
"Of course, Mom," Zelgadiss smirked. "Mom, this is my little friend, Lina Inverse."
She raised an sharp eyebrow. "The new transfer student that almost got expelled yesterday?"
Lina wasn't sure whether to be proud or embarrassed that everyone seemed to know about that. It might have been a record but adults probably didn't see it in that light.
"Lina, this is my mother, Zelas Graywords." Zelgadiss purposely left out his mother's maiden name, which was also her working name.
"How do you do?" Lina squirmed under Zelas's scrutinizing stare. She could outstare most people but Zelas's look had an almost predatory gleam in it that bordered on madness.
The bell rang signaling the end of the lunch hour.
"What? But I haven't finished yet!" Lina groaned.
"You eat too much anyway."
"How dare you say I'm fatter than a gelatinous cube!"
"No one said that."
Zelas clapped her hands together to silence them. "Now then, this isn't the time for bickering. Zelgadiss, you're supposed to see the school counselor today."
He opened his mouth to protest but closed it after his mother's meaningful glare.
"Yes, ma'am," he grumbled, dusting off his dark pants and white dress shirt as he headed for the center complex where the administrative and school-wide staff were located.
"And as for you, young lady," Zelas caught Lina in a level look. "You will also need an appointment with the counselor if you don't shape up your attitude. I will not tolerate behavior such as that you displayed in Eastern."
What was Zelas? A teacher?
"You don't look a thing like your sister."
Lina choked.
"Though the penchant for destruction is the same," Zelas mused. "You seem to be a nice enough girl though a bit of a runt. R.E. knows Luna was never like that."
"Y-y-y-y-y - " Lina stammered.
"You should come over for dinner sometime. And bring Zelgadiss with you. That will probably be the only way I can get to see my little boy outside of school," sniffed Zelas.
"Dinner?!" Which equals free meal. Two of the most marvelous words in every language Lina knew.
"It seems I made you late for class. Well, here's a note." Zelas pulled out a piece of stationary from nowhere and handed it to Lina. "Your ancient history teacher shouldn't be too mad at you but make sure he gets this. It'll keep him in line."
"In line?" Lina repeated as she ran to class after a helpful and forceful push from Zelas. "What does that mean?"
The note in her hand glowed invitingly. It was only folded in half. No one would know if she accidentally saw what was written. Forewarned is forearmed after all.
She slowed down and opened the letter. "What the..."
"...hell am I doing here?" Zelgadiss grumbled.
"Sit straight and don't slouch," reminded the school counselor. "Remember to think positive thoughts. Remember your mistakes but don't be obsessed with them. Loosen up and get a nice girlfriend. Not necessarily all in that order."
"And what the hell are you doing here?" Zel asked sourly, ignoring his counselor's counsel.
"I'm your counselor of course," replied the young man sitting in the high-back cushioned chair.
"You're my father."
"Yes I'm your father but right now I'm your counselor. Just like your mother right now is your principal," shrugged Terim.
"Then you didn't see her right now during lunch then."
"Motherly instincts always take precedence."
"I'm sixteen."
"Your mother and I miss you."
"Like you don't see enough of me everyday at school," Zel retorted. "The hidden cameras in my classroom and all of my lockers, the mobile recording cameras that follow me around, that thing that's been watching over me since I was four, need I go on?"
"That's your mother," Terim pointed out.
"And it isn't like I live that far away either!"
"But you never visit."
"Oh, you noticed?"
"Come, come. How can I not notice my eldest son isn't there?"
"Maybe because everyone else is also there? Like Uncle Kitzero, Aunt Erika and Aunt Yumi, George - "
"Actually, George was sent to house-sit a house your Grand-Uncle Tommy O'Lin bought in the Kataart Mountains."
"Anyway, the point being that I see everyone at home and at school! Is it too much to ask for some quiet and privacy?!"
Terim only blinked in the face of his son's outburst. "You only had to ask."
"Only had to ask, it isn't that easy!"
"Did your moving out have anything to do with that cursed vase my father sent you for your fifteenth birthday?"
The armchair arm rests shattered into splinters in Zelgadiss's grip. "No."
"Hmmm. If you don't confront your true thoughts, these sessions aren't going to help."
"Good. Like I even wanted to be here!"
The door slammed on Zelgadiss's way out.
"Zelgadiss my boy, you need to work on your people skills." Terim stretched his arms over his head before looking at the memo his wife had sent him earlier. "Hmmm. So he's partnered with this Lina Inverse for the festival? Maybe that'll open him up."
"So exactly what are we doing?" Lina grumbled.
Zelgadiss hadn't come back for class until sword practice. Actually, he hadn't shown his stony hide until well into halfway through the class. And the first thing he did was grab her out of the sparring pairs and off to a more secluded portion of the field.
"You wanted to win the festival tournament didn't you?"
"Yes but what does that have to do with dragging me out of the middle of my lessons? Don't think that because you're the son of the principal, you can get away with anything you want."
"How, how did you know that?"
"Who cares how I know, I just do," she snapped. Actually, the stationary header on the memo said it quite clearly. Lina pushed back some stray strands of hair that escaped her ponytail. "Now what is it that you want to discuss about winning the free trip?"
Zelgadiss gritted his teeth, repeating a mantra to keep himself from doing something reckless. "We need to learn how to work together."
"That's simple. I blow up everything with my magic. You stay out of the way unless you enjoy pain. Now that that's cleared up, I have a class to get back to."
She turned to march back to the sparring matches when Zelgadiss grabbed her arm and yanked her back to face him.
"I am currently in a very bad state of mind. Either you get off of your I'm-so-special pedestal and take this seriously or I'll interfere in every way possible to make sure you not only lose tournament but that you come in dead last," he said in a very low voice.
"If I lose, then so do you."
"It doesn't matter to me. You on the other hand are a different question."
"You want me to work with you? Fine. Then there are two things you need to do. One, prove that you're capable of even keeping up with me."
Zelgadiss smirked coldly. "The test being?"
"Magic duel of course."
"How predictable. And the second?"
"You'll have to do whatever I tell you for one whole day."
"Not asking for much are you?" Zelgadiss glared, crossing his arms. "If you're putting up conditions, then I have some of my own. One, get off your high horse and play by the house rules. You're no different from any other student here. Two, you'll have to do whatever I tell you to do for one whole day. I won't bother testing your sword skill since we both know it's inferior to mine."
Lina's eyes narrowed in anticipation. Finally, a chance to cut loose again. She hadn't expected him to accept her second condition but it was skillfully parried with his own condition. Wonder how long they'd go before one of them invoked it?
"Alright then. After school today."
"At the third hour from midday."
"You're...pretty good..." Lina gasped, trying to catch her breath as she wiped the perspiration from her eyes. Now this had been fun.
"Not too...shabby yourself," Zel replied in an equally breathless manner. He had never gotten this much of a workout with the Vrumuguns. In fact, he sort of felt rather empty, all of those angry thoughts channeled into his spells earlier.
Both of them had collapsed in the grassy field in the middle of Slayers HS after nearly two straight hours of spellcasting. As they agreed, no higher level black magics were allowed though just about anything in the Shaman category was open season. As such, the practice field was now a mess of mud, scorched earth, trenches, stone spikes, and broken rock golems.
"Eris is going to have a heart attack tomorrow when she sees this," Lina grinned.
"Perhaps we did overdo it a bit."
Lina snorted. "A bit? A Burst Flare and its water counterpart Vice Freeze is just overdoing it a bit?"
"You're right. It could have been worse. You could have Dragu Slave'd another school building."
"I didn't Dragu Slave the building, I was aiming for the cannon. It just happened that the building was in the same direction," Lina said innocently.
"That is so like you."
"You certainly sound better. Work all of that bottled up anger out of your system?"
Zel started. "How did you know that?"
"Maybe because you came back after skipping two and a half classes looking like a blue skinned demon with accompanying black thunderclouds? Or perhaps that you stormed out of the central administration building, nearly slamming the door off of its hinges?"
Zel was silent for a moment. "Not paying attention in class I see."
"You wouldn't have either. Guess who our ancient history teacher is."
"I don't have to guess. I know. It's Xelloss isn't it?"
"No wonder you didn't show up."
"Just ignore him, like Filia suggested."
"You didn't ignore him this morning."
"I've had to deal with him for almost my entire life. Patience and tolerance only go so far."
Lina raised an eyebrow even though her eyes were closed as she enjoyed the cool breeze against her hot skin.
"Anyway, do I meet your expectations for a partner?" Zel asked drolly.
"You'll do I guess," Lina grinned.
Zelgadiss rolled his eyes as he sat up. "The sun is already setting. I suppose we did make some progress today."
Lina lazily opened an eye. "How so?"
"We know that if we get into an argument, fighting it out with spells wouldn't solve it."
"That's only because we stuck with Shaman."
"Which is the only branch of magic we can freely cast in the tournament. Well, we'll just have to start bright and early tomorrow morning."
"Oh no," Lina groaned. "And I still have homework to do. Modern literature stinks."