"Wait a minute..." Zelgadiss gave his younger sister a 'look' as she marched up with him in tow to Sylphiel's door. "How did you know where I was staying? That I was with other people? I only arrived here a day ago."
"If you don't want attention Zel, then don't dress in a way that just screams 'hey look at me'. In addition to the hood which just makes most people want to know what's underneath it, you keep skulking around as if you're up to something. Besides, my friends," she gestured to the empty air around her, "were already watching those Gourry Gabriev and Lina Inverse people anyway. Then you came along, won that Collar the Beast game without a hitch, and the carnival was on to you."
"You've had your spirits following us?"
"Oh don't look at me like that," Terisa rolled her eyes, her voice colored with exasperation as she knocked on the door. "I'm quite sure some of them still have their sense of proprieties so they don't go spying on you when you're in the bath or when you're spending the night with your girlfriend. And they aren't 'my' spirits, they're just the ones that like me and help me."
"Some of them don't?"
"If you were dead and floating around, would you be happy that someone who was warm and living could see and talk to you? Jealousy and all that. There were even a few possession attempts." She spoke of it in a matter-of-fact voice, as if they were discussing something mundane and normal like next year's crops.
There was some crashing and yells coming from the other side of the door and the excited yips of a young wolf pup. After some fumbling with the door knob, the front door was thrown open and a flour covered bundle of sunny cheerfulness attached itself to Zel's leg.
"Nii-chan! You're back early! Did you find the older, I mean the lady who eats a lot?" Lin bubbled, as he pulled Zel inside. "I've been helping Miss Sylphiel and her food is really good because she lets me try some but she doesn't let Mister Gourry have any and he looks like Furball when you don't give him any food and - "
"Okay. You pick up strays but you don't give a second thought to your long-lost sister." Terisa invited herself into the house and looked around at the furnishings. "Quaint, homey place. Nothing I've had for oh about eighteen years was it?"
"Terisa," Zel said through gritted teeth, peeling Lin's sticky hands off of his arm. "This isn't the time. Can you put aside any personal, unexplained grudges or oaths of vengeance until after we solve this investigation?"
Terisa's eyes narrowed, her resemblance to their mother increasing with that rare but still natural feral expression of irritation and simmering anger. If she still had the half of her mother's temper and occasional mean spirits, Zelgadiss knew he would be in hell after this all blew over. She was truly her mother's daughter.
"Zelgadiss-san, is that the person who sent the note?" Sylphiel asked, wiping her hands on the bib of her checkered apron. If to Terisa's eyes, this house was an example of the familiar and domesticated, then to Sylphiel's eyes, Terisa was the epitome of unknown and untamed.
Garbed in a bright green, loose, lace-up blouse embroidered in gold and black thread belted over black pants and knee high boots, she looked more at home on a pirate's ship. The way her hair hung loose and her arrogant stance reminded Sylphiel of Lina, though the priestess could sense some grimness in this strange young woman that only rarely appeared in Lina.
"I'll introduce her as soon as everyone is here. There you are Gourry. Everyone, I'd like you meet my younger sister, Terisa. Terisa, these are Gourry and Sylphiel of whom I believe you already know. The little boy is Lin." Zel padded Lin on the head and noticed that Furball was rubbing against Terisa's leg. He could tell she was resisting the urge to pick it up and he kept his smile hidden. Looked like neither of the Graywords children could resist wolves. "And that pup is - "
"Joe Furball Maneater!" Lin proclaimed proudly.
Terisa raised an eyebrow.
"Nii-chan said I couldn't call it Furball forever so I gave it three names to use whenever it sounds right! Like I can use Joe when he's older but not very mean and when he's mean or attacking someone, I can call him Maneater."
"How...nice," Terisa said in a strained voice, as she tried to keep from laughing at the very serious expression on the young boy's face. She wasn't amused by the boy's simple way of thinking but by the similar way of thinking. Looking directly at Zel, she said solemnly, "I think I know someone else who thought that way."
Zel cringed. Okay, so perhaps he had give rather childish, and cute, names to the wolves he and Terisa befriended when they were little. But he didn't know any better then and she was just as responsible for those names.
"Welcome," Sylphiel greeted, but gave Zelgadiss a sideways glance. "I didn't know you had any family. Is she here alone?"
"She's the one who sent the note and has some information on what happened to Lina," Zel answered Sylphiel's first question when she saw Terisa but not the one she just asked. He didn't want to bring up old demons right now. "Apparently, the abductor isn't human."
"Mazoku?" Gourry asked, sitting down at the table. Everyone else also took a seat, just to erase the varying height differences. "Maybe they don't like the new magic tree and are trying to scare people away?"
"I don't think it would be something that simple, not based on what complicated plans we got entangled in before," Zel frowned. "Besides which, the disappearances haven't caused that big of a disturbance. If they really didn't want humans here, they would have done something more obvious, like kill everyone in particularly gruesome and bloody ways. But kidnappings seem too...human."
"Whoever said it was a Mazoku anyway?" Terisa asked bored, twirling a violet lock around her finger even as the other hand was under the table, stroking the sleepy wolf pup on her lap. "The one following Lina Inverse never said it was a Mazoku."
"You had someone following Lina-san?"
"The carnival was doing some investigating of its own," Zel explained. "Lina's shadow saw someone who was floating knock Lina out with a mallet and then, supposedly, drew her and itself into a book."
"A shadow can see?" Lin asked, resting his head on his folded arms on the table that to him was up to his shoulders. "And how did the red-haired lady get inside a book?"
"Not a shadow from light, Lin. A shadow can also mean a person who follows another person so closely without being noticed that they are like a person's shadow. As for being drawn into a book..." Zel looked at Terisa.
Terisa shrugged. "That's what he said. And he can identify a Mazoku when he sees one, as most of them can if they've been around long enough, and whatever it was last night wasn't one. What else can it be? I don't know."
"But if this person was floating, that would indicate a mage of some sort. However, with the number of capable spellcasters in the city now and the split between the mages and priests, any random accusation could set off a small war." Sylphiel sat in thought quietly for a moment. "Terisa-san, could we speak to the witness?"
"That...might be a problem." Zel looked at his sister, not sure how she wanted to take this. Being able to hear spirits was often a sign of insanity, if you talk to them as well, you were either proclaimed a saint or burned as a heretic.
"I speak for him," Terisa said firmly in a voice that allowed no argument. "I represent the carnival's interest in this. The rest will not be involved."
"I see. Well then, can you give us a complete description of Lina-san's assailant? Everything if you please and details of the book as well if you know them."
Rolling her eyes, Terisa gave the same description she gave to Zel with only a few additional details. "Some stick thin person, couldn't tell his height when he's bent over and floating, dressed in the outfit of a ringmaster complete with a top hat and tailcoats. The mallet he was wielding appeared much to heavy for one with his build to be able to swing much less lift over his head. There was no face, only a white mask with two black half-crescents for eyes and a wide red smile. As for the book..." She tipped her head to the side as if thinking but Zel could tell she was listening to something. "It doesn't seem to be anything special, probably a vellum cover, but there was something like a boy and a griffin on it."
"A dime novel? Even in a new town like this one, there could be several copies that match that description. Nothing else you can tell us?" Zel asked, crossing his arms, skepticism showing again in his narrowed eyes.
Terisa mimicked his action, matching him narrow stare to narrow stare. "It's probably a smart thing to disguise the magical book like something you wouldn't look twice at. Maybe this false ringmaster doesn't always go around knocking people out to bring them in, perhaps it's only a matter of opening the book."
"We can't go and ask everyone if they have a book like that. Besides the fact it takes too much time to make sure you did get to everyone, the kidnapper could just change the cover once he learned we were looking for it couldn't he?" Gourry looked around the table. "Besides, Lina isn't that helpless or careless. Even if he was floating, she should have sensed something. Don't you think, Zel?"
Zel looked at Gourry in surprise. The swordsman usually kept silent during these kind of conversations, except to insert the occasional comedic relief. And why did he ask Zel about Lina? Having traveled with Lina longer, wouldn't Gourry be the better judge?
"Well, yes. Even if she couldn't hear him approach, this person is likely to at least be some kind magic user and I hardly think he had other than hostile thoughts to Lina. But from what you say, Terisa, she never noticed or registered the person's presence. As if he wasn't even there."
His sister caught his unspoken question and answered it with the slightest shakes of her head. The assailant wasn't the spirit of some dead person, nor was it a Mazoku. Just what was it then? Could it be something created from that magic glut from which sprouted the new Flagon?
Lina opened her eyes, grimacing at the stiffness in her shoulders and neck from her awkward sleeping position. Sleeping while sitting in a high back, wooden chair was not good for the muscles. She stretched her arms high above her head, feeling her loose hair brush against her shoulders and her back. It felt nice but also strange in a way.
She paused, her mind kicking in for the first time to process exactly why the sensation felt strange. Her long hair was brushing against her bare skin. With several curses on the tip of her tongue and many more brushing off the dust in her brain, Lina quickly looked herself over to make sure she wasn't living one of her worst nightmares.
No, thankfully, she wasn't wearing her birthday suit. Of course, she wasn't too keen about being in the off-shoulder dress made of some material that looked and felt like white silk. A crown along with some of her hair had been pinned up and some type of jewelry with a heavy gem setting hung from her ears and around her throat. If there was a mirror, Lina wouldn't have been too surprised if she looked like Amelia attending a royal court.
Just in case she was still dreaming, though she couldn't remember ever falling asleep, Lina pinched herself. It hurt. But then if it was her dream, couldn't she make herself believe she hurt herself? Okay, that was too deep. Let's just say this wasn't a dream.
"Who the hell changed my clothes!" Lina muttered, praying that this wasn't some demented surreal attraction like the one of those island nations where she met that irritating Pig. "When I get my hands on that creep..."
She fell ungracefully to the floor in a billow of white layers and petticoats due to a combination of indecently high pumps, two sleeping feet, and petticoats that were too long and just asking to be stepped on. Lina decided that if she should ever be the ruler of a country, wide-hoop ballgowns would be outlawed. Oh, and pumps, pumps would also be outlawed. In fact, while she was on it, she'd also outlaw marauding Demon Kings and their servants, holier-than-thou Ryuzoku, the cold, slugs, and arrogant, thick-headed idiots going by the name Zelgadiss.
"My lady..." A gentleman bowed low before her offering his hand. Never keen on playing the damsel in distress, especially when she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, Lina tried to get up herself. However, her dress continued placing its layers under her shoes. Now she knew why ladies always waited for help. Grudgingly, she accepted the white-gloved hand with her own.
"Where is this?" Lina demanded, once she was on both feet again. The room was like something out of a fairy tale, smooth white walls gilded with gold, crystal chandeliers draping their prismatic raindrops from the ceiling, marble swirled with white and gray tiled the floor.
"The place of your dreams," answered a young voice filled with laughter. Thick velvet curtains rose on their own, followed by the thinner ones underneath to reveal the speaker standing on the end of a red carpet. "A place for your dream and everyone else's."
"I've heard that one before. Usually right before I'm offered some new potion steeped with hallucinogenic, and sometimes euphoric, herbs." Lina studied the person as he approached, better for him to come to her than the other way around, small ego boost and all that nonsense. Besides, she still didn't trust the dress.
The 'man' stopped an arm's length before her, clearly dressed in a formal suit of costly fabrics. His attire matched hers in formality and style, Lina noted sourly, but his face was hidden behind a mask of roughly cut blue stone that covered the upper half of his face. That was a change. Lina was more familiar with the mask hiding the other half of the face.
"Did you sleep well?" he asked politely. At best, Lina figured it was a young teenager whose voice hadn't changed yet even though he was taller than she was.
"I asked a question first," Lina snapped. "Where is this? And *don't* give me the crap about dreams and such. I want specifics. The last place I was didn't have anything even approaching a palace nor was I dressed like this!"
"You don't need to worry about that," smiled her mysterious host, taking her by the arm. To her surprise, Lina found herself accepting it, her arm moving on its own. He led her out to a balcony overlooking a stereotypical view of a prosperous town below and green and yellow rolling hills beyond. "You've come to a place where hardship doesn't exist, where you won't be hurt, where sorrow never let's fall its tears."
Lina wanted to retort or at least groan at the overly poetic verses. They just seemed overdone in this picture perfect, fairy tale setting. Sure, she always dreamed of living one of them, especially the ones of marrying a young, handsome prince and living in riches for the rest of her life, but she did like to keep her feet on the ground and her cape saturated with magical items and gold.
"That's nice." Her tongue was heavy but Lina managed to move it to her own will. "But where are my things? Where are my clothes? I want them back and I want them back now. Along with a thorough explanation of how I got to wherever here is from the carnival."
Her host shook his head disapprovingly. "Why would you want those trappings of a life filled with hardship? Here, you can have the life of a princess, you can rule kingdoms, even continents. There are countless things that are yours for the asking. Everything you've ever dreamed of, wished for."
"For nothing?" Lina snorted, stumbling away from the person, her head clouding with something. If she only had her ribbon, she wouldn't have had to deal with this. "You never get anything you want for nothing."
"Perhaps," he said soothingly, watching the newest arrival to fall under the sway of the land's magic. "But ask a child. Is there anything you would deny the innocent spirit of a child?"
"Are you sure this is it?" Zelgadiss looked at the slightly battered book on the table with a boy and a griffin on the cover. "I can't get a sense of anything magical about it."
"Look, Zel," Terisa hissed. "This was the only book they found matching the description and they looked everywhere in this town. It was your bright idea to ask them, trust me, it wasn't easy to get enough of them to agree to do it to make this go fast enough. It's the book, even he says so."
"Just who is the 'he' and 'they' she keeps talking about?" Gourry asked quietly to Sylphiel. They stood a bit farther away from the table to avoid the somewhat fearsome aura between the two siblings. "And they don't seem to get along do they."
"Apparently, there's some unresolved problem between them," Sylphiel whispered back. "I'm sure Zelgadiss-san knows what he's doing and trusts her but I can't help feeling uncomfortable and slightly...afraid around her. There's something about her that I can't put a finger on."
"Fine! The great mage needs his concentration to do some grand spell. I'll be downstairs with the rest of the dead if you need me!" Terisa stormed out of the room, after some rather intense arguing with her brother. Gourry and Sylphiel turned questioning eyes toward Zelgadiss who shrugged. He wasn't going to explain family problems to them.
"What's eating her?" Gourry asked, ever oblivious to, or completely ignoring, the signs that clearly said Zel didn't want to talk about it. "And why did she leave?"
"She can't cast spells. At least not kind we need for this," Zel explained shortly. He hadn't been able to cast much, if any spell, before his transformation. "Sylphiel, I'd like you to try to divine anything out of this book. I'm not getting anything."
"But it looks like an ordinary book," Gourry pointed out, opening the cover to the water-stained pages. Though somewhat blurred, the large print letters were still legible and the colors of the pictures were only brightened by the damage. "Hmmm, looks like some kid's story."
"What?" Sylphiel gasped, eyes snapping open as she lost her concentration and hold over her divination spell. "Where is - "
"Damn it, Terisa was right - "
"Where - "
The book's pages flipped rapidly in wind generated out of nowhere, circling into a whirlwind that grabbed the nearest living things and pulled them into it. Against all reason, the spinning cone of air was sucked into the book. With a snap, the book closed, pages and cover fell shut in the silence of an empty room.