Chapter 6: All That Follows and Finds Us

Lina looked up at the blue sky and breathed the fresh air in. The crisp air circulating through her lungs felt so good, so invigorating. And for some reason, she felt as if she'd not felt this way in the longest of times.

She looked back at Myra, who was now leaving her friends and coming towards her. Still wearing Lina's old sorceress outfit, and looking rather comical in it since it was several sizes too big on her, Myra playfully walked towards her. Probably going to ask her more questions, no doubt. But Lina didn't mind. She enjoyed her company.

"Tell me another one," Myra asked Lina as she sat beside her under the tree. "Another funny story!"

"Another one?" Lina asked incredulously. "It's like you want to know everything about me!"

"I do," Myra replied enthusiastically. "Everything."

"Well," Lina rubbed her chin in exaggerated pondering, "did I tell you the one when my friend Naga summoned a bunch of sea cucumbers?"

"Sea cucumbers?" Myra repeated in amusement. "No, you haven't!"

For the next several minutes, Lina related the unusual exploit of her old travel companion, and did so in a way that maximized its appeal to the ten-year old Myra. And it seemed to work: the smile on her face seemed immovable, the jubilance in her eyes almost bright enough to light a night sky. She hung on every word Lina said.

"So then she says, 'they taste real good pickled,' and we..."

"Sold them to a local fisherman?" Myra added unexpectedly.

Lina winced. "Yes. How did you know?"

The little girl shrugged. "Lucky guess."

"Sure," she shrugged back as she looked back towards the other children. She wondered where the parents were; there seemed to be no adults in sight. "So what now?" she said, sighing under her breath and speaking more to herself than to Myra.

Myra's mouth curled into a smile. "There's something I know we can do now."

"Oh yeah," Lina humored her, "what is it?"

She shook her head playfully. "Oh, I'm not going to tell you. It's a surprise."

"A surprise?" Lina again exaggerated her excitement. "For me?"

"For you and no one else," Myra responded as she got up. "Come with me."

Resigning herself to her apparent baby-sitting duties, Lina reluctantly got up from her comfortable little spot and followed Myra, who was heading for the village next to them.

"Come on!" she encouraged her as she waved her hand, the shoulder guard on her arm buckling awkwardly as she did so.

"All right, all right," Lina sighed as she picked up her pace and followed her. She looked at the village and wondered what it was. She never remembered being there, nor did she even know its name. Maybe she'd ask one of the children.

"You're too slow!" Myra teased before Lina could get anyone's attention. "Come on!"

"What's the big rush?"

"It's a surprise," she responded, her smile still on her face.

"But where is this place? I don't even know the village's name."

Myra seemed impatient. "Like that matters!"

"Well..."

"Come on!"

Lina knew she'd have no choice but to humor Myra the whole way through. Her friend seemed too impatient, too much like a ten-year-old to give her enough of an explanation to her query. Soon enough, she hoped. Soon enough, she'd satisfy Myra's little caprice.

But as they walked deeper into the village, Lina began to notice the solitude that had slowly and gradually begun to engulf it. She hadn't even noticed it, but the voices in the village had begun to die down until nothing but the footsteps from her and the small girl leading her could be heard. And even those seemed to echo eerily throughout the emptying streets. And then they were empty. The children were gone. No adults. No sounds came from the several little houses through which they were passing. It was like everyone there had either gone to sleep or gone away for good. But in the middle of the day?

"Come on already!" Myra persisted, jarring Lina's attention away from the solitude and forcing her to follow her towards another set of houses beside several trees and a small fountain. The village center, maybe?

"We're almost there," her friend added. "Just in that little house over there!"

"But what's in there?" Lina asked nonchalantly, knowing full well Myra would give her no real answer.

"It's a surprise. I told you so!"

"Lucky me," Lina sighed again. Little Myra was really becoming a pain.

The girl reached the door of the small house she had pointed to and waited for Lina to catch up to her. Myra looked back up at her expectantly, and beamed that eager smile of hers again.

"Are you ready?" she asked, a hint of mischief, or something else, in her voice.

"Sure," Lina tried to sound enthusiastic. "so long as you don't have any scary monsters in there or something."

Myra giggled. "Oh, it's not a monster. Not a monster at all!"

With that she suddenly pushed the door wide open and waited for Lina to peer inside.

The interior was unusually dark, especially considering the brightness of the afternoon sun. The smell of smoke suddenly hit Lina, making her throw her head back outside and wave her hand in front of her face. "There's something burning in there?"

"Not always," Myra answered cryptically as she slowly walked in. The darkness inside seemed to consume her.

"Myra, wait," Lina called out, still trying to get herself used to the stench of smoke coming from inside the house. "We don't know if..."

"Come in here, Lina," Myra responded with new assertiveness in her voice. The playfulness was suddenly gone.

And Lina found herself walking into the house despite her trepidation. It was as if her feet were carrying her in there in spite of her objection, as if attuned to the command of Myra's voice.

"Come on, there's nothing to be afraid of," Myra continued as Lina walked besides her. She looked around and noticed the plain interior. The walls were bare, their white adobe streaked with black ash and chipped along several different spots. The roof, supported as it was by rows of dilapidated wooden beams, seemed ready to collapse on them at any moment. The ground seemed bumpy with all the debris having fallen from the roof, while also covered in a film of black ash. There didn't seem to be any furniture there, other than a small, wooden table, and a single chair.

And the house's only inhabitant was the person sitting on the chair.

Myra smiled at Lina. "I believe you know her?"

Without realizing it, Lina nodded. Again, it was as if her body were responding to commands other than her own. She tried to turn her head to Myra and ask her what all of it meant, but she suddenly realized, in that one moment, that her suspicion was correct: she couldn't turn her head. She had no control over it or any part of her body. Nothing except her eyes, which began to look frantically around but finding no solution to anything within the bare walls of the crumbling house.

"Manners, Lina," Myra reprimanded, the childishness in her voice returning just as suddenly. "Say hello."

"Hello, Natalia," Lina's mouth voiced on its own. Her eyes now looked upon Natalia, who, in fact, was the person sitting on the chair.

Natalia didn't say anything. She didn't move, even though it seemed that she did have control over her own body. At least she seemed to: she was breathing heavily, her eyes bespeaking what her body language already made evident: she was scared. It wasn't like her, though. It was as if she knew that she was in danger, and couldn't do anything about it.

"What about you, Natalia?" Myra asked casually. "Aren't you going to say 'hello' back?"

Natalia's eyes shifted towards Myra and looked at her with a hatred that seemed almost familiar. Like Natalia had known her from before. She didn't say anything to Lina or to Myra, but continued to stare at the small girl spitefully. Yet she didn't make a move towards either one of them.

"You're so rude," Myra childishly reprimanded. "You're always rude. Didn't your mother teach you anything?"

Myra had placed added emphasis on the word 'mother,' and judging by the way Natalia winced when she did, Lina knew that there was something very much familiar between the two.

"Fine, then" the girl shrugged and looked back at Lina. "She's so rude, isn't she?"

"Yes," Lina's mouth voiced. "She's the rudest person in the world."

"Don't you hate rude people, Lina?" she asked.

"I do. I hate rude people very much."

"But that's no reason for you to be rude, is it?" Myra continued as if playing a game. "Show her how much nicer you are."

Lina's eyes could only widen as she found her body taking her closer towards Natalia. She couldn't stop herself as she did so, nor could she control her right arm as it lifted itself towards the black-haired woman as if to offer a handshake. Natalia only looked at her. Sadly.

"I forgive you, Natalia," Lina's mouth said. "I still want to be your friend. Just like I've always been your friend. Let's shake hands and be friends again."

Lina was now fighting desperately to regain control over her body, the struggle evident in the way her eyes flinched as they did. But it was pointless. No matter how much she concentrated, she couldn't even get her fingers to move as they remained outstretched towards Natalia.

"Shake her hand," Myra ordered with new seriousness in her voice. "Or are you going to refuse that too?"

Natalia slowly turned her attention back towards Myra, the hatred returning to her eyes. She then looked back up to Lina and then towards a small, darkened window on the wall to her left. Her eyes motioned towards it, and Lina's followed. What she saw would have made her step back in terror had she control over her body. The bright afternoon sun was gone: in its place, a pitch black darkness remained. The houses visible on the outside were no longer the real colors they had been when Lina had walked past them, but instead seemed to be drawn upon the black landscape as chalk upon a blackboard. As if their very existence had been inverted into a realm of black and white and in which they stood as empty shells.

But even more frightening were the dark, shapeless forms peering in through the half-open window, observing Lina and every one of her actions. She found herself scared at the way they frenzied at the window without making a single noise, like a pack of muted hounds ready to be unleashed upon her but being kept at bay by something. Or someone. The window was open enough for them to come in, but they did not. She didn't know why.

"Natalia, what are you doing?" Myra asked suspiciously as Lina's eyes were glued to the hideous images outside the window. "What do you think you're doing?"

"It's cold in here, Lina," Natalia suddenly said, the calmness in her voice contradicting the fear now very evident in her eyes. "You should close the window."

"No, Natalia," Myra shook her head as if reprimanding a child. "That just won't do."

"You should close the window," Natalia repeated as she looked at Lina's eyes.

"Such a rude person," Myra said playfully again. "Your mother taught you no manners, it seems."

"You should close the window."

Lina continued struggling to regain control over her body, but was unable to do so despite the exertion. The only thing moving out of her own will were her eyes and the tears now forming around them.

"Lina, do you like Natalia?" Myra asked with a childish casualness that contrasted sharply with the dark frenzy outside threatening to burst into the room at any moment.

"No, I don't like her," her mouth responded.

"Neither do I," the girl said as she moved beside Natalia. She stood and looked at her, examined her, silently laughed at her, before shrugging and smiling at Lina. "Kill her."

"Okay, Myra," Lina's mouth responded as her right hand drew her sword. Now the forms outside were making loud thumping noises as they pushed against the window and the exterior walls of the house. Now it looked like they wanted in. Desperately.

Lina's tears now fell unchecked, her eyes widening with horror as she realized her arm was raising the sword without the slightest bit of hesitation. As if her body wanted Natalia dead as much as Myra did. The thumping had grown louder now, her eyes flinching with each one that struck.

You should close the window, Natalia's pained voiced somehow echoed through her mind.

"Kill her," Myra repeated, her smile broadening and her voice becoming cold.

Natalia didn't even try to evade the strike. The steel blade entered right below her rib cage and went clean through in an upwards motion. Her only reaction was to instinctively grasp at the blade and then at her wound once Lina's arms withdrew the sword. She fell to the ground, closing her eyes and coughing out blood even as her own blood gushed from her wound and past her two hands.

Close the window, Lina, please her dying voice said in Lina's mind.

But Natalia's voice was being flooded out by the maddening sounds of those creatures trying to smash themselves through the walls of the house. Lina's eyes, looking down at her dying body, also noticed that the walls were, in fact, beginning to crack. The window shutter was banging violently against the wall with each push from outside.

Natalia's body went still, her hands falling towards her side and resting upon the blackened floor. Her blood poured down her white blouse and formed into a pool beside her. And that was it.

The thumping stopped as suddenly as it had started. Lina looked at the shutter and at the walls and realized that the forms had stopped in their efforts to break through. Right at the moment Natalia died.

"She was so rude," Myra's childish voice broke through the eerie silence as she looked down at Natalia's dead body. "She should have known better than to be so rude."

Lina's eyes looked upon the girl, the sadness and rage she felt manifesting in their fierce gaze even as her body continued unresponsive.

And it was then that Myra looked directly at her.

Her mouth curled into a smile unbecoming a ten-year old child. It seemed downright evil. As was the voice with which she now spoke, a voice that wasn't hers.

"You're mine."

And the last thing Lina could see was the sight of seemingly hundreds of those dark shadows bursting through the window and the walls, engulfing Natalia's corpse and heading straight towards Lina's paralyzed body.

Close the window, Lina, please.

Lina rose from her sleeping bag, breathing heavily and nervously feeling her hands to reassure herself that she had control over them again. Her eyes remained wide open in terror, the moisture on them conspicuously blurring her vision. She looked around and reminded herself where she was: not in a dark house in a surreal village being overrun by dark shadows, but back in the New Sairaag Settlement, inside the tent Sylphiel had provided for the three of them. She closed her eyes and tried to control her frantic breathing, finally able to do so after a few seconds of concentration. The dream was over, she kept telling herself.

She opened her eyes and strained to see beyond the darkness of the tent, but she could make out Zangulus' sleeping body towards the entrance. Judging by the regular breathing, she could tell he was deep asleep. She nervously turned towards her right to see if Natalia was still sleeping as well. Natalia was lying down with her back towards her, so Lina couldn't see if she was as wide awake as she now was. She watched her for a several seconds, and finally surmised that the semi-regular breathing and the lack of movement meant that Natalia was, somehow, still asleep.

Lina almost sighed with relief. For a moment, she had worried that the two had shared their dreams again. Their situation was awkward enough without the two of them sharing dreams in which Lina killed her in cold blood, so it was with considerable relief that Lina rested her head back down on her sleeping bag and concluded that, at least for tonight, she and Natalia had not dreamt the same thing.

For the ten or so minutes she lay awake before falling back asleep, Lina thought hard about her dream and what it meant. The image of Myra in her old sorceress outfit was frightening enough, but the fact that she had commanded over Lina's body and ordered Natalia's death as if it were some game was nothing short of terrifying. She wondered if the dream was, in any way, induced by her close proximity to Natalia, now that she'd never had that dream or anything even resembling it before. Whatever the case may have been, she was certain that there was meaning to it. The way in which Natalia just sat there expecting Lina to kill her, and the way those formless shadows had appeared and destroyed them both seemed too conspicuous to be random. But try as she might, Lina couldn't think beyond the immediate. Already, she found herself nodding off, her faculties refusing to think about the dream and its meaning any longer. She started mixing in strange, irrelevant images with those of her dreams, and despite her best efforts to shake off the sleep which she now knew was upon her, her exhaustion finally overwhelmed her.

And it wasn't until the sound of Lina's light snoring circled around the small tent that Natalia finally got up.

Lina had thought her asleep, but she had woken up at the same moment Lina had, and had remained awake even as the other was busy trying to determine whether she was asleep or not. Her eyes had remained wide open, even as Lina lay there in the darkness trying to make sense out of their dream. For it had been their dream: Natalia had dreamt the same thing simultaneously, and had felt everything from the hatred of the dark form standing next to Lina to the pain of Lina's blade running her through. The only reason why she too didn't awake in terror, as Lina had, was because she'd dreamt it before. Many times.

But there was something different about it this time. She didn't know what it was that was standing next to and ordering Lina around, nor did she know why Lina kept referring to it as Myra, but in the dream, she instinctively knew that it was her enemy. Also different was the fact that Lina herself hadn't killed her, at least not willingly. In all her other dreams, Lina walked in on her, alone, and murdered her out of her own accord. This time, it seemed that she was struggling to keep herself from doing so; her eyes bespoke resistance even as her arms were running the sword through.

The strangest and most inexplicable thing, though, was why Natalia had suddenly felt it completely necessary to voice the most irrelevant of statements. Why had she so suddenly been overwhelmed with the idea of asking Lina to close the window? Why had her entire mind begun to revolve incessantly around that one single thought as if it were the only thing that mattered? Why had she clung to it even as she saw Lina raising her sword, and even as she saw the dark forms appearing outside of the house?

Natalia looked around and knew her two companions were fast asleep. There was no way, however, that she'd be able to fall back asleep herself. Dreams like hers jolted the sleep right out of her for good; they always had. She looked up and ascertained from the darkness that it was close enough to dawn, meaning that there was no point in returning to sleep even if she could. She rose from under her blanket and grabbed her sword, but knowing that to start securing her cape and shoulder guards on her might wake Zangulus and Lina up, she decided to simply go out and see what New Sairaag had to offer.

Sylphiel's eyes looked more red than green. Resting her head beneath her hands, she looked up through the faded canvas of her tent and wished the night would just end already. She hadn't slept a wink since she went to bed. Too many thoughts kept her awake; too many bitter memories had rushed back and kept her mind working throughout the red night.

She didn't even feel tired. Her eyes stung and felt heavy, but she was simply too preoccupied with the situation at hand to even feel the exhaustion that would, she knew, catch up to her sooner or later. Just as Lina had.

She cursed under her breath. When she saved Lina's life two years ago outside of New Sairaag, she was merely following Gourry's last wish. Somehow, she had believed that her rival, weakened and alone as she would be when she woke up, would succumb sooner than later anyway. She'd never really believed in Lina's inner strength and endurance: she was convinced that, minus her companions to bail her out of trouble, she wouldn't last a day on her own. Sylphiel had been wrong. She realized it now. Surely, she had underestimated Lina's resolve.

That, however, didn't make her feel any better about her being in the settlement now. Lina's immediate presence seemed insulting on its own: Sylphiel found it even more cynical on Lina's behalf that she should return and take shelter amongst the people she had failed so miserably at what might have well been the turning point in the war. She bitterly recalled the shouting match that had erupted between them in the council room back in the New Sairaag Armory, and bit her lower lip in silent frustration in thinking how things might have turned out had the Dragon Army been deployed as she had suggested.

"You know what?" Lina swatted her hand in front of her as if shooing Sylphiel away. "Forget I asked you. Forget I even came to ask for your damn help."

"Don't you dare walk out on me," she responded vehemently as Lina turned her back on her. "I'm not going to let you run this army on whim like you've ran your entire, worthless life."

Lina turned back again, flushed with rage. "And who are you to tell me what to do? As far as I'm concerned, I'll be better off following the ideas of an Orc than following your asinine ideas about bunching up the army in this deathtrap city of yours."

"Just because you're too stupid to understand it doesn't mean my plan will fail. If you'd just stop to think for a moment..."

Lina moved closer to her. "I've been thinking the moment the attacks began. All you've been doing is wallowing in self-importance in that little safe Shrine of yours."

"My duties as Shrine Priestess don't make me the worthless, sheltered kind, if that's what you're implying. You think you're the only one with brains around here?"

"Look, Sylphiel," Lina said, angrily brushing her hand through her hair, "I don't have time for this. If we're going to catch them by surprise, we have to move out now."

"Listen to me," Sylphiel now sounded more desperate than angry. "The fight has to be made here. Here. Why else do you think the Swordman of Light planted Flagoon here? Why do you think Flagoon is able to draw so much of its power from the ground and from the surrounding area? Because..."

"I know your story," Lina said, hardly subtle about how quaint she thought Sylphiel's theories were. "But your fairy tales are ignoring the fact that a fight inside the city will decimate it and its population one way or the other."

"You're the last person in the world to be ignoring the worth of legend, Lina Inverse!"

Lina ignored her as she turned around and headed for the door. Outside, the sub-commanders of the Dragon Army were waiting for their final deployment orders. As was Gourry.

"Lina, don't!" Sylphiel yelled after her in desperation.

Lina stopped and muttered to herself. Sylphiel, however, heard what she said.

"What did you call me?" she asked in shock.

Lina turned around, the expression on her face a mixture of anger and shame. "I said that the Dragon Army would be quicker doomed if led by a bitter old maid like yourself."

Sylphiel hadn't known how to respond to Lina as she exited the room, leaving her venom behind to eat away at her. She hadn't known what to do when she could hear her through the door, talking to Gourry and again calling her the "old maid." She heard Gourry reprimand her, but Lina yelled back at him. Insult to injury. All she could feel was an all-consuming rage that nearly drove her to rush after Lina and pound her senseless. She hadn't thought Lina capable of being so insulting, so cynical, especially since her marriage to Gourry had pretty much ended her prospect of marrying anyone. Lina, of all people, knew the reality of Sylphiel's bitterness, of her status as so-called "old maid."

Sylphiel sat up on her sleeping bag and closed her eyes. That bitterness never did leave her. It had only flared up with Lina's insult right before the Dragon Army's final destruction.

"Keio," she called out as she secured her cape and reached for her staff.

"Matriarch?" her bodyguard opened the door to the chamber and stood at its entrance. "How can I serve you?"

"Send word to my detachment to marshal outside of the Ceiphid Temple and prepare to move out. Word is we move against the Monsters within the hour."

"Yes, Matriarch," Keio bowed his head as he closed the door behind him.

Sylphiel didn't approve of Lina's plan. She knew that trying to catch Monsters by surprise was like trying to catch a dragon with a butterfly net: it couldn't be done. She knew that, at best, they'd run into the smaller elements before the higher-level Monsters showed up. But after that, it was anyone's guess as to how well, and how long, the Army could put up a fight.

Be that as it may, Sylphiel couldn't just abandon the army. They needed every defensive spell caster they could find, now that to expect even the most powerful sorcerers to attack the Monsters and defend themselves from those devastating spell attacks was inconceivable. The situation was tense enough as it was: much to everyone's surprise, too few defensive spell casters were present among the three thousand or so assembled sorcerers. For Sylphiel to not take part in the battle just because of her own squabble with its commander would be an act of utter disgrace un-befitting the High Priestess of New Sairaag. Besides, the new spell she was learning could give the Army an edge, even if she still couldn't control it completely.

She stepped out into the city expecting to catch glimpses of her detachment of about four hundred sorcerers: the Ceiphid Temple was close enough to the city's Holy Palace. Only she didn't see anything or anyone. Her eyes narrowed in confusion as she proceeded down the steps of small Palace and towards the Temple. The Dragon Army had been marshaling close by: Keio should already have had at least half of her sorcerers assembled there. Something was wrong.

That something made itself apparent soon enough, as Keio came running through the now emptying streets accompanied by a very serious-looking Gourry.

"Matriarch!" Keio called out as he neared her. "The Army's gone! All of them!"

"What?!" Sylphiel couldn't keep her voice from rising.

"Sylphiel," Gourry spoke softly to her as he stood before her, "Lina had the Army move out about an hour ago. She said something about not being able to wait anymore."

"Gourry," she said, her eyes betraying her despite her resolve, "are you saying Lina's left me behind?"

It was almost unnatural to see Gourry as serious as he was when he nodded his head gently. "Yes. She said they could manage without you. Your detachment was given to another sorcerer."

"Matriarch," Keio interrupted as he saw Sylphiel grow pale, "The Army will be hitting the Monsters at any moment now. What are your orders?"

Sylphiel turned away from both of them, but her effort was useless: both saw the tears rolling down her face. She clenched her fists, closed her eyes, and silently worded a prayer to her father, and a curse to Lina. She opened her eyes again and realized, in that one moment, that Lina would forever be her enemy. She found herself hating her more than she'd ever thought herself capable of hating anything. The insult of Lina's marriage to Gourry was one thing: for her to now spurn her like this and deploy the Dragon Army without her was an insult far surpassing even Lina's usual levels of immaturity.

"Matriarch," Keio sounded more alarmed. Clearly, he was concerned about the Army's chances.

She turned back to him and nonchalantly brushed away her tears. She steadied her voice and assumed control once again. "Are the perimeter defenses ready?"

"As ready as they'll ever be," Keio nodded.

"Then I have a job for you. I need you to start the evacuation. The Palace guards and the reserves are at your command. Do whatever you can to get as many of our people out from the south entrance. Remember our discussion about the outer territories? Head for them once you're in the clear."

Both men were stunned at her words, and hardly did a thing to hide it.

"Matriarch," Keio said in utter disbelief. "Do you really think that..."

"The Army will fall," she said firmly, "and we can't be caught unprepared."

"Sylphiel," Gourry jumped in, "how can you be so sure?"

"Because Lina will lead it into a trap from which it won't escape. I know it. And when the Army falls, New Sairaag will be hit immediately and furiously. We have to get as many people out of here as possible."

"But shouldn't I take part in the defense then, Matriarch?" Keio sounded confused and worried sick.

"No, Keio," Sylphiel said, her tone softening suddenly. "We'll need you. I'll need you. You're a good leader, and we'll need that when we rebuild."

Sylphiel's words were evasive but clear: she didn't expect her outer defenses to survive, and she was asking Keio to forgo his own death in order to assist the city's survivors. After the fall of New Sairaag.

"Matriarch?!"

"Keio, we don't have time. Please follow my orders."

With that, Keio reluctantly bowed and hurried off to the Armory. Sylphiel was relieved that he had finally come to appreciate the urgency of the matter. She turned to Gourry.

"I ask that you help us, Lord Gourry," she said, traces of her love for him breaking through despite the situation.

"Sylphiel," his look hardened, "how do you know the Army will fall?"

She hesitated for a moment. "Because I believe the Monsters are massing outside of New Sairaag for a reason. They want to draw us there, away from here where our Terrestrial energies are most powerfully linked to those of the Astral Plane. It's here that our magic will have the greatest effect on the Monsters."

Gourry tried to understand, but couldn't. Even being married to Lina didn't make him any more fluent in the intricacies of magic and spiritual planes. Only one thought grabbed his attention.

"What about Lina?"

Her mouth dropped open, but she couldn't say anything. She found herself feeling almost as sick in spirit now as she had when she first heard she had lost Gourry forever.

"Sylphiel!" he grabbed her by the shoulders suddenly.

"She won't survive," she finally said, her voice a mixture of compassion and hatred.

"That can't be!"

"No one will, Gourry. The Army is doomed. I just know it.!"

Gourry just as suddenly let her go and began running down the Palace steps.

"Gourry, wait!" she inadvertently screamed out, afraid of what he was about to do.

He stopped, however reluctantly, and jogged back up to her. He didn't look at her, only towards the ground in front of her, and rested his hand on his sword.

"Sylphiel," he said, his voice again becoming serious, "I know what you think of Lina, but don't ask me to forsake her. I married her because I love her, and I won't abandon her now. I'm sorry."

"But Gourry," she pleaded, finding it more and more difficult to resist the temptation of asking him, once and for all, to forget about Lina, of telling him that Lina didn't really love him, of telling him that she herself could give him everything Lina had given him and everything she hadn't. If only...

"Don't worry about me," he finally said, his voice soothing her gently. "I'll be back. I promise."

"But..."

"Have I ever let you down?" he smiled.

She forced herself to smile, only because she knew that to plead anymore was pointless. He would go no matter what. All she could do was to pray that he would keep his promise.

She sadly watched him as he ran from her, through the narrow streets and the growing crowds of people gathering outside.

About ten minutes after he had disappeared from view, she heard the first faded sounds of distant explosions.

The battle-the massacre-had begun.

The two years of wandering, evading, and surviving had hardened Sylphiel. Not that she wasn't already hardened with the huge responsibilities bestowed upon her when named the city High Priestess. The two years, however, had served one additional purpose: they had nearly desensitized her. It was because of this that she would not now allow herself to cry over the bitter remembrance of her last real conversation with Gourry. Her days of crying over any little thing had long since ended.

Anger, however, was another thing. As mature as she had become, she couldn't help but to brood over the situation, over the insult of Lina's very presence, and about how exactly she'd deal with her. She sighed bitterly. She would have to deal with her one way or another. She would, at some point, have to talk to her, be it to discuss the settlement's plans or their relationship. Because Sylphiel needed to speak her part, needed to unload the emotional burden Lina had mercilessly forced upon her. Lina had hurt her on two separate occasions, but had never given Sylphiel the chance to retort. Now, the chance had come, if somewhat late.

She threw the covers off her and got up. Dawn was fast approaching, and there were many things that needed to be done. Sitting there brooding over Lina would accomplish nothing. And her people were a hell of a lot more important to her than getting back at her former friend.

At least, she hoped so.

Lina startled from her sleeping bag for the second time, again looking around the tent and slowly deciphering reality from illusion. She closed her eyes and rested her forehead on her palm; she should be used to it by now, she knew, but there hadn't been a single time since the War began that she didn't wake up from slumber in this fashion. Even with all her dreams being the same, she always woke up as frightened as if each dream were new. She opened her eyes again and looked towards Zangulus, who was still asleep. Rolling her eyes to her right, she noticed Natalia's things were there, but there was no sign of her.

It was the same dream. She had, in a single night, murdered her companion twice in her dreams. Angrily brushing the moisture from her eyes, Lina got out of the sleeping bag and began to put her boots on. She could tell by the light cracking through the tent that it was shortly after dawn, meaning that there was probably some activity in the settlement by now. She felt a small pang of hunger, and hoped that she'd be able to ask someone friendlier to her than Sylphiel if they could spare her a bite to eat. Thinking of Sylphiel made the pang sharper: she wasn't looking forward to having to talk with her again on a one-to-one basis.

She finished putting on her boots and stared at Zangulus, who hadn't even flinched in his sleep despite her commotion. "Lucky bastard," she muttered to herself as she got up, grabbed her cape and shoulder guards, and got out of the tent.

Once outside, she took in a breath of the dry, warm air as she secured her armor and nonetheless found it fresher and far more appealing than the musty stench that had bottled itself up in their tent. She knew that the apocalypse had given humanity a lot of other more important things to worry about, but she still wished that baths could be as easy to take now as they had been in the past. She hadn't remembered just what an inconvenience it was not to be able to bathe until last night, when the sweat-soaked, unbathed bodies of Zangulus, Natalia, and herself, had filled the tent with an odor not exactly pleasant.

She looked around and saw people already coming in and out of other tents, some forming around several fires and roasting what seemed like potatoes again. She saw a couple of men carrying large bundles of burnt wood; they were probably in the process of making more firelogs or arrows. Other people seemed occupied in tasks too unfamiliar to her; one woman was carrying her child over to another tent conspicuously separated from the others; two other women were carrying bundles of supplies and heading who-knew-where; a few other men were dismantling several tents farther into the settlement. Whatever the routine was in the New Sairaag Settlement, it seemed to be a very busy one.

Lina started to move towards the nearest fire when her eyes caught sight of another one not too far off. Gathered around it were several of the settlement's warriors-some of which she even recognized from yesterday's battle-sharing what looked like breakfast and exchanging a good, hearty conversation. At least she thought so judging by the laughter and jubilance in their exchange. The sight itself was nothing out of the ordinary; certainly, she'd seen plenty of warriors in similar exchanges of camaraderie yesterday. What did strike her as unusual and worth going over to them for was the sight of Natalia standing among them, seemingly sharing in the food and the mirth. Seeing her smile and laugh without all that cynicism was a sight to behold indeed.

The group noticed Lina as she approached them. It surprised her that they responded as enthusiastically as they did considering that their Matriarch hated her above all other things, Terrestrial and Astral, on Earth.

"Hey!" one of the women warriors cheered, "it's the Swordswoman of Light!"

"Here, here!" another man chimed in as he lifted a roast sweet potato as if it were a toast. "To the Swordswoman of Light!"

Following his lead, all the warriors lifted their breakfast and patted Lina on the shoulder as she stood beside them. Natalia simply smiled at her and shrugged in amusement.

"Did I miss something?" Lina finally spoke as she saw several sets of eyes look at her as if waiting for her to give a big speech.

"Your friend here," one of the men pointed at Natalia, "told us all about your battle yesterday! She told us about everything you and the Sword of Light were able to accomplish. Let me just say, if we all had swords of light, those Monsters wouldn't last a second!"

"Damn right," another one joined in. "we'd show them just what humanity's mettle was!"

"But at least we know," the same man continued, "that you're on our side. And with the Matriarch leading the way for us, we know we can turn the tide of this war!"

Now Lina felt hesitant in joining in their jubilance as all of them broke into another cheer. And to think they weren't even drunk. Actually, they were: drunk with the taste of a recent and unexpected victory.

"Having said all that," another woman spoke, "we'd offer you a toast, but all we have are roast potatoes. We'd like you to join us."

"Thank you," as Lina helped herself from the small pile set besides the fire. "These look quite good."

"And as you eat," yet another of the warrior's spoke, "you can tell us more about your fight yesterday. It sounds like you were in one hell of a scrape!"

Lina took a bite out of her potato and cast a glance at Natalia, who was still smiling at her in silent amusement. Chewing quickly and swallowing sooner than she would have liked, she nodded her head and motioned towards her companion.

"I wasn't the only one in a scrape," she told them. "Didn't she tell you about her ordeal in the mist?"

Admittedly, it wasn't that Lina was being modest, even if she was no longer the braggart she had been as an adolescent. She was, more than anything else, interested herself in hearing Natalia's account of what had happened to her in the mist. Even as she saw her emerging limping from the darkness the day before, she had wanted to ask her about it. Now would be as good a time as any.

But judging by the way her companion suddenly blushed conspicuously, it was obvious that Natalia had neither told them about it already or had even been willing to. Maybe it was all the attention she was suddenly getting, now that all seven of the warriors, and Lina herself, were now staring at her with a mixture of wonder, disbelief, and enthusiasm. Whatever it was, Natalia hardly looked as calm and happy as she had been when the attention had been on Lina.

"You were in there with the Monsters?" one of the warriors gasped. "You're kidding, right?"

"Of course not," Lina answered for her when she saw Natalia hesitate. "You can say she held them at bay and made it possible for all of us to go in after them."

"Why didn't you mention it before?" one of the men asked Natalia. "Now that I think about it, you've been awfully evasive about your whole part in yesterday's battle."

"Yeah," yet another warrior added. "It's almost as if you're hiding something."

Lina suddenly realized why it was that Natalia had kept silent: she was afraid to tell anyone about her Astral powers. If what she had said about her village thinking her a monster was true, then it was safe to assume that she wanted to keep her abilities concealed out of fear that others would similarly react to her. Lina bit her lower lip, knowing that she'd blown it.

"Natalia," she said gently, trying to ease her companion out of the awkward situation, "I'm very curious as to how you were able to shift your spirit back and forth between Planes so as to keep yourself invisible to them."

She could have done better, she knew, but at least now it was in the open. No more mystery, no more space for the warriors to brood with. Of course, what both she and Natalia now had to deal with was their collective disbelief and their confused looks.

"Shifting your spirit?" one of the men repeated. "What do you mean?"

"I'm an Astral Wanderer," Natalia suddenly answered assertively. Lina smiled; she had overcome her fear.

"From birth I've possessed the ability to travel through the Astral Plane and project my spirit through it with some degree of control," she continued, preemptively answering the question she saw forming on all their faces. "When I shift to the Astral Plane, the Monsters can't sense me the way they can sense a human spirit on the Terrestrial Plane."

Now they were silent. Now they were waiting to hear the rest of the story. Natalia noticed it and sighed; she didn't like talking about herself to people.

"I cast the Dark Mist," she began anew, "knowing that they'd be unable to physically see me. I then shifted my signature into the Astral Plane and became invisible to them spiritually, for lack of a better term. I think I had my eyes closed, I really don't remember, but I could definitely sense them. After all, their Astral signatures are very strong, and humans simply don't radiate them. In that way, I was able to move among them and go with a hit-and-run attack. I seriously doubt I actually killed any of them."

"But they were in there for a while," one of the women pondered. "How come they didn't just come rushing out of the mist anyway?"

"Because I kept shifting back and forth between planes. I knew that to get their attention, I'd have to let them sense me periodically. Following an attack, I'd move to a position between several of them and shift to the Terrestrial Plane, only to shift back into the Astral after only a second or two. I wasn't sure if it would work, but I guess it did, since they stayed in there looking for me. Monster arrogance at its worse, I suppose: forgoing logic in order to catch a single human in their midst."

Lina rubbed her chin. "I'm surprised they didn't catch you all the same. Those were very close quarters, you know."

Natalia shrugged nonchalantly. "Who says they almost didn't? I thought they had me for sure at least three times. No one's more surprised than I am about actually having been able to survive."

The warriors, following along as best they could though understanding only parts of Natalia's story, nodded for her to continue. Natalia shrugged again.

"Not much more to talk about, I'm afraid, other than that nasty barrage of arrows."

And just like that, the seven warriors burst out laughing. Lina looked at their armament and knew why: these were all swordsmen.

"I tell you," one of them laughed, "archers wouldn't know how to fight a war if you wrote them a book!"

"Yeah!" another joked, "I'd say their only use on the battlefield is as canon fodder. Next time, let them rush into the attack!"

Lina and Natalia smiled at each other even as the warriors continued their belittlement of their bow-and-arrow counterparts. The latter didn't seem to mind the way they joked about the archers and the way they almost killed her. So long as they were happy and done asking her questions, she felt fine. And Lina, sensing Natalia's tranquillity, felt thankful that the situation had somehow defused itself before things got too hairy. After all, the warriors didn't need for Natalia to start blasting them with Diem Winds and Burst Rondos just because they made her feel self-conscious about her abilities.

The warriors, however, were causing enough of a ruckus with all their laughter and their joking to grab the attention of the one individual in the settlement who wouldn't find any of it funny. And they knew it: as soon as one of the men noticed her walking towards them, he quickly motioned to his comrades to hush up at once. It was, however, too late.

"Are you all on guard, or do you intend to share jokes with the Monsters when they return?" Sylphiel said angrily as she stood before them all. "You do realize that they will come back for us, right?"

"Matriarch, forgive us," one of the women spoke as her companions stood at attention and bowed their heads almost in unison. "It's just that Lina and her friend were telling us about their battle yesterday."

"You'll all do well to mind the present," Sylphiel answered coldly, averting her eyes from either one of the women referred to. "I won't have you put the safety of our people at risk just because you're busy listening to silly stories."

"Yes, Matriarch," another warrior answered. "We'll assume a position along the western ravine and await your orders."

She shook her head. "The settlement must be moved. Three of you will watch the western ravine, the others will report to Keio and assist in the necessary preparations."

Again, they bowed their heads before dispersing as ordered. And only then did Sylphiel look at Lina.

"Just because you're welcome to stay here," she said angrily, "doesn't mean you can distract my warriors with your stupid anecdotes."

Lina didn't say anything. She didn't even know what to say that wouldn't be an insult, and she knew that the last thing she needed to do was now was to anger Sylphiel. More than she was already angered.

Sylphiel, noticing her hesitation, simply turned her back on her and walked away. Her morning had already started off on the wrong foot.

As if realizing that her chance was fading away, Lina made one step towards Sylphiel only to feel Natalia's hand grab hold of her right arm. Lina turned and frowned at her.

"What?!"

Natalia only shook her head. "Not now. You won't be able to get anything out of her in this state. Give it some time."

Impatience flared up, almost in defiance to Natalia's own composure. "In case you missed it, we don't have time."

She shook her head. "Speaking to her now won't make any difference than if you speak to her later today. You think the fate of the world will be decided in that time?"

Lina felt inexplicably angry at Natalia, the look in her eyes making it entirely obvious. For a moment, she found herself resenting the casualness with which Natalia was standing there, holding onto her like Lina was her kid, and spouting all that nonsense about being patient and understanding. For a moment, she felt a tremendous urge to push her away, to smack her across the face, or just outright punch her lights out. For that briefest of moments, it was as if Lina's adolescent temperament was re-surfacing and calling out for blood.

And she quickly understood why it was she felt this way: she was merely displacing her anger at Sylphiel towards her companion. She couldn't bring herself to answer Sylphiel the way she wanted to because she knew she had to play the part of diplomat, not enemy. When Sylphiel walked away from her, Lina's anger and frustration had remained bottled up in her; when Natalia interceded, Lina found an outlet for that pent-up hostility.

Lina closed her eyes and whispered "I'm sorry" more to herself than to Natalia. The latter simply smiled.

"It's not the first time someone's wanted to kill me," she joked as she let go of Lina's arm.

Lina didn't say anything. She tried to ignore Natalia's joking and concentrate more on calming herself, now that she felt herself hanging by a thread. Understanding her anger didn't exactly make it go away.

"Hey," Natalia motioned to Lina's left hand, "are you going to eat that?"

Only then did Lina realize that she hadn't even taken a bite beyond the first one out of her potato. She had become too engrossed in Natalia's brief story, and had become similarly distracted away from her hunger when Sylphiel showed up. She lifted it to her mouth but stopped herself before she could take a bite. She dropped her hand back down.

"I'm not hungry anymore."

She sounded defeated, fallen, tired physically and emotionally. She sounded as if she was just ready to give up the whole thing and wave a white flag around when the next Monster attack came. It was then that Natalia realized the extent to which the deteriorated relationship between Lina and Sylphiel was affecting her companion. She knew that Lina was blaming herself for most of what had happened between them, and now it looked like that self-inflicted guilt was going to begin taking its toll. It didn't help that Lina's plan for humanity's survival was contingent upon Sylphiel's cooperation. Knowing that, and knowing that she'd have to confront her guilt and her anxiety before moving another step, was probably eating away at her relentlessly.

Natalia knew that to begin spouting little encouragements would do nothing but emphasize the magnitude of Lina's problem. And she knew that she herself was the last person in the surviving world to play the part of delicate psychiatrist. But there was something she could do to help her. She smiled in spite of herself.

"Lina," she said energetically, "you look like crap, you know?"

"Excuse me?" Lina's attention was suddenly jarred back from Gloomsville.

"I said you look like crap. How long have you been wearing that outfit for? Looks like it should have been placed to rest about two years ago."

"Well excuse me," Lina sighed, failing to see what had Natalia so enthusiastic all of a sudden. "It's not like I can just go into the local shop and get a new one, you know."

Natalia nodded and continued to smile. "There's something I need to go look for. Care to join me?"

"Natalia, I..."

"Remember my backpack?" she said, ignoring Lina's lack of interest.

Lina's thoughts stopped and recalled the backpack she had seen Natalia secure to herself when they left her cave. Yet she hadn't seen in since.

"I dropped it yesterday before the fight," Natalia continued. "I need to go look for it."

"What's in it?" Lina couldn't keep the exasperation from her voice.

Natalia nudged her on the arm. "The local shop. Grab your breakfast and let's go look for it."

Zangulus opened his eyes and immediately jumped up from his sleeping bag. His hands instinctively reached for his Howling Sword before he remembered that it was resting beside him on the ground. And by the time he had taken hold of it and drawn it in alert, he realized his reaction had been unwarranted.

Several people had, at that moment, rushed by the tent, seemingly alarmed about something or other. Another Monster attack, perhaps. Zangulus had pried himself from sleep thinking the worst, and was now relieved to hear that, apparently, no such attack was taking place. He lifted the canvas opening to the tent and stepped outside. Only then did he realize what the commotion was all about: several of the warriors were moving about, seemingly organizing and preparing everything to move the settlement.

He secured his sword to his belt, adjusted his hat, and began to scan the area for either Lina or Natalia. His mind recalled the conversations he had with several of the inhabitants last night, and again felt the great urgency he'd felt when he heard the strange stories related to him. So urgent did he find the matter, in fact, that he had come within centimeters of nudging Lina awake and relate to her what he had heard. But he knew that, if her snoring was anything to go by, the woman was utterly exhausted, and to wake her up then would have been inconsiderate. Reluctantly, he himself went to sleep, plagued in his dreams by the strange stories he had been told.

He walked away from the tent and craned to get a look at the groups of people farther away from him. He could see that most of the settlement was up and awake now, and that everyone was sharing in a breakfast of sorts around several fires. He could not, however, catch a glimpse of either one of his companions. He sighed to himself: he'd have to find them before anything else.

Before he could take another step, however, Sylphiel came into his line of sight. He stood there and looked at her as she passed by without either noticing or acknowledging him, and concluded that she'd probably already had a run-in with Lina that morning. She had that same bitter, angered look that he had seen on her the day before during their brief exchange, and she walked past everything and everyone, seemingly oblivious of her surrounding. There was no doubt about it: the way she allowed her anger to consume her outward appearance could only mean that she'd already begun the day's fight with Lina.

He grunted to himself. Either Lina hadn't mentioned anything to her about her plan, or Sylphiel had flat out refused. He knew, however, that he himself still needed to talk to her. And if Lina hadn't done so already, then it was the better for him.

He trotted over towards Sylphiel, the sound of his approaching footsteps finally grabbing her attention. She stopped in her tracks and looked at him with that same iciness she'd looked at him yesterday. And she didn't say a word to him even as he stood beside her, fumbling mentally over the right thing to say to her.

"Have you spoken to Lina yet?" he said before instantly realizing it wasn't the best thing to have started off with.

Her look hardened. "I have nothing to say to her. Why do you think I would want to speak to her?"

"We've come a long way to find you," he began anew. "I think it's in all our best interest if you listen to what she has to say."

She rolled her eyes. "You know, Zangulus, I really don't have time for this."

"Why is that?" Politeness came to a grinding halt. He knew he himself, unlike Lina, didn't have to be putting up with Sylphiel's nonsense.

She met his gaze. "Because in case you haven't noticed it, we're preparing to move out. We've been discovered and it won't be long before we have another Monster attack upon us."

"And do you intend on running forever?"

Sylphiel impatiently thrashed her hands. "Do you have a point or not? I didn't ask you, Lina, or that other friend of yours to come here. Don't hold me or my people accountable for your troubles."

With that, she turned away and resumed her walk towards her tent, only to sigh impatiently when she realized Zangulus was following her stride for stride.

"It's not that simple, Sylphiel," he said, trying to control his own impatience. "Lina didn't come here to pick a fight with you."

"It doesn't matter what she came here for. I won't have any of it."

"Even if it means saving what's left of humanity?"

Sylphiel stopped again. She didn't look at Zangulus, but he could tell by the far-off look in her green eyes that something had struck a nerve.

"She's had her chance," she hissed before resuming her pace. "The imbecile had three thousand sorcerers at her command at New Sairaag. What makes her think she's found a solution now?"

"That army was never her idea," his voice rose slightly. "She's told me that..."

"Oh," she turned to him again and smiled cynically, "so she told you, huh? She told you that she can save us all if we trust her, right? What else did she tell you, you gullible simpleton?"

Zangulus' lower lip quivered in anger, but he held his tongue from throwing a healthy insult or two at her. "Don't speak of her that way. You have no right."

Her eyes flared up as she stepped closer to him. "What do you know about what I have a right and don't have a right to? Who are you to come here acting like you've known me all your life and bear judgment on me?"

He smirked at her. "You're right. I'm no one to do so because I don't know you or what you've become. All I know is that Lina has come here seeking your help, and if you're simply too bitter and frustrated with your life to even give her a moment to hear her out, then you're a worse person than even you think you are."

Sylphiel was shaking visibly, her anger no longer allowing her to keep her thoughts or her speech coherent.

"To hell with you," she finally said between gritted teeth after several seconds of silence.

"Is that any way for a Shrine Priestess to talk?"

Sylphiel fell silent. She didn't know what to say to him anymore short of infantile insults. Unlike her people, who respected her as the settlement Matriarch, and unlike Lina and that friend of hers, both of whom held too much disrespect for her, Zangulus seemed to speak to her without the hindrances of either. He knew her and her flaws well enough to speak them, and he held enough respect for her not to be downright nasty about it. She felt that she could no longer verbally battle with a man who seemed to be able to read her and her past like an open book.

Zangulus noticed the hesitation in her eyes and softened his voice as he spoke anew. "Your people are getting ready to move out, huh?"

"Yes," she replied simply, her eyes looking at nothing in particular.

"Well then," he said as he adjusted his hat again, "I imagine there's plenty to do. How can I help?"

She looked back up at him but remained expressionless. "We'll be going over the details at my tent. Come with me if you wish."

Zangulus followed her as she led the way. He had a chance now, he knew: one way or the other, he'd get her to talk and explain her side of the story.

Natalia was, for all intensive purposes, walking in unfamiliar territory. Not literally-both of them were searching along the ravine they had come in from the day before-but figuratively. Her morning conversation with the warriors was the first time since she'd joined the Feathered Serpent Order that she'd actually engaged in such camaraderie. And she felt beyond jubilant about being able to be in real people's conversations instead of floating over them as an invisible, disembodied spirit.

Her jubilance, according to Lina's frayed nerves, could not have come at a worse time.

As both Lina and Natalia searched among the uneven road and the steep hills, Natalia took it upon herself to comment repeatedly over the previous day's battle and the battleground upon which they now walked. More than once, she would point to a spot and remind Lina of how it had been in that spot that so-and-so had taken place. Of how it had been in this spot where Lina had broken through the line of Monsters. Of how it had been over towards that spot where they had been encircled by them.

"Natalia," Lina groaned, "I don't need a tour of this place, okay?"

Her companion hesitated for a moment, then shrugged. "Fine. Just trying to get your spirits up. You've just been moping around since your chat with Sylphiel."

Lina sat on one of the rock formations and pushed her hair back. What she wouldn't give for a good bath right now. And what she wouldn't give for Natalia and her insensitive remarks to shut the hell up.

"Besides," Natalia continued as she resumed her search, "I'm sure I dropped it around here someplace. Don't give up on me now."

"What's in that backpack of yours anyway?"

"I told you already."

"No you didn't."

"Patience, then. You'll know soon enough."

Lina looked at her as Natalia continued to look around the crevices and craters and found her enthusiasm almost as annoying as her nonchalance. She knew that it was irritating to her that Natalia could be so calm, almost happy, only because she herself could not share in that mirth. It was envy, more than anything else: her companion, after all, wasn't the one who had to deal with Sylphiel and her monumental bitterness.

But looking at her also triggered back the memory of last night's dreams, and Lina almost shuddered despite the warm climate. To see her now, so carefree and excited about that stupid backpack of hers, when in her dream she had died that slow death and been consumed by those creatures, was a contrast too pronounced for Lina to deal with. She tore her eyes away from her and looked back towards the settlement.

"If you don't mind," she began, "I'm heading back."

"Oh, I do mind," Natalia answered jokingly. "If I leave you to your own devices, you'll end up slugging it out with Her Worshipfulness."

"So you're my baby-sitter now?" she mumbled to herself before looking once again at Natalia. It surprised her somewhat to notice that Natalia was now looking at her too. Only she wasn't looking at her with the usual cynicism, coldness, or anger. This time, it was more like pity. Like compassion.

A strange thought, exacerbated by Natalia's account of her engagement in the mist and now by that seemingly compassionate look on her face, resurfaced in Lina's mind. It was time to call her bluff.

"You said," she began as she got up from the rocks, "that you would kill me if you saw the Monsters overrunning us."

Natalia's expression suddenly went serious. "Yes I did."

"Yet yesterday," Lina continued slyly, "we came within seconds of being wiped out. Surely, being surrounded by Monsters counts as being overrun, doesn't it? Then you apparently went into the mist with no real hope of survival, and did so without accomplishing your self-imposed task of killing me."

"What's your point?"

"My point is that you could have killed me, but chose not to. That you know you're ultimately unable to bring yourself to do it because you're not a murderer."

Natalia's expression went soft again. The small laugh she let out seemed even stranger than her usual fluctuating behavior.

"Well, well, Lina," she laughed as she turned her back on her. "What can I say? I guess I don't have the killer instinct in me after all."

"Guess not," Lina repeated absently as Natalia motioned with her hand.

"Now cmon and help me find my backpack already."

Lina shrugged, deciding to shelve the conversation for later, and walked towards where Natalia was standing. The other simply stood there, apparently looking towards one spot. She'd found her backpack, no doubt.

But Natalia hadn't found anything. Only her backhand did.

Natalia struck Lina's forehead firmly, causing a split-second's worth of wooziness to make the latter stumble backwards onto the ground. Before Lina could even yell at her or get up, Natalia unsheathed her sword, spun around, and brought it down to her neck. The look in her eyes said everything Lina needed to know: jubilance had been completely displaced by fury.

"Lina," Natalia hissed, "don't ever, ever make assumptions like that again. I didn't kill you yesterday because it was taking every bit of concentration just to keep my spell attacks going. And I didn't go into that damn mist thinking myself a martyr, so don't think I didn't kill you because I was compassionate."

"So what are you saying now?!" Lina yelled, trembling with rage herself.

"I'm telling you to drop your little pretensions," she replied coldly. "Don't think for a moment that I won't, or can't, kill you."

"Pardon my skepticism, then. To be all that honest with you, I think you're just hot air. I think that, given the several chances you've already had to kill me, you just don't have the guts."

Natalia pressed the tip of her sword against Lina's neck, just enough to push the skin in without drawing blood. Lina gritted her teeth, but was confident that Natalia wouldn't do it.

"Pray that you never know just how wrong you are, Lina," she said calmly.

"Stupid girl."

"Oh, and do yourself a favor: don't mistake me for a friend. Now or ever. I'm here to help humanity, but I'm not here to be your friend."

"Don't flatter yourself so much," Lina snarled. "My friends are all special people. Don't you dare put yourself in their company."

Natalia inexplicably stood still for a moment, her eyes looking at Lina but also betraying their keeper's preoccupation with something else far more distant.

"Yeah, whatever," she finally muttered as she turned away suddenly and sheathed her sword.

Lina immediately jumped up and rushed at Natalia, not even stopping to think as to why the latter wasn't even responding to the threat. She jumped on her and slammed her violently into the ground, again not even stopping to think why Natalia was just taking it without fighting back or even defending herself. Lina grabbed her in a headlock, breathing heavily as she pressed her forearm against the other's throat.

Natalia refused to move or make a sound, and it was only because Lina finally recovered enough of her senses to ease up that she didn't pass out altogether. Lina got off of her, angry, frustrated, enraged, and embarrassed that she had gone so violent. She ran her hands through her red hair, grabbed at it, and wanted to pull it right out. She stood still and wanted to scream, but contented herself with cursing out loud. And it was then that Natalia, still on the ground, turned over and looked at her nonchalantly.

"Maybe you're right," she managed as she tried to regain her breath. "Maybe I don't have it in me. Because maybe the only murderer here is you."

Lina felt herself freeze in place. Her sudden rage had dissipated with the remembrance of those infernal dreams. But they had been her dreams. Natalia hadn't dreamt them this time. Or had she? Her eyes widened in realization.

"That's right," Natalia continued. "Don't think we didn't share dreams again."

"Damn you," Lina whispered angrily as she turned to look back at Natalia. Only upon doing so, she could hardly believe her eyes and what they saw: Natalia was crying.

"Yeah, I am damned," Natalia said as she angrily brushed silent tears away. "So what else is new? Just remember when you do it: below the rib cage, straight up. Anything else might make it more difficult to break through bone."

"Natalia," Lina whispered, more ashamed now at her behavior in her dreams than in real life. "I didn't mean..."

"Don't flatter yourself," she retorted viciously as she got up and cast her sight somewhere towards Lina's left. "Don't think for a second that I'm crying because of what you've done. I've been through far worse."

"I'm sorry," Lina said absently as she stood there.

Natalia ignored her as she walked by Lina and towards the spot she had seen moments ago. Lina didn't even turn to look where she was going: her body had gone numb, as had her mind. There had simply been too much emotional stress this morning, far more than she would have wanted. Between the knowledge of the coming conversation with Sylphiel, the knowledge that a Monster attack could come at any moment, and the terror and silent shame of her dreams, her exhausted mind had been given more than it could handle. She hadn't felt this overwhelmed since that night in the Jenna Settlement.

This outburst against Natalia hadn't helped matters in the least. It was usually the case that such an outburst would be the catharsis necessary for her to relieve her stress, but this time, she knew, she had gone too far. Admittedly, Natalia had attacked her without warning and pulled her sword on her, but she felt she should have known better than to retaliate like some child and push Natalia to the ground like that. That behavior was more fitting her as a fifteen year old, not a twenty two year old.

She closed her eyes sadly. That was the sort of behavior she remembered Gourry hating about her, the one thing he told her-six months into their marriage-that had always bothered him about her. She remembered how, at first, she felt angry at him and wanted to sock it to him again for saying it, but how his composure and the fact that he expected her to hit him had inexplicably broken through layers of immaturity and convinced her, in that one moment of lucidity, that he was right. He had been too right: too often, she'd let her fists and her kicks take our her frustrations on those that barely deserved it. Afterwards she matured. She matured because she had felt so ashamed of herself when she realized it was that singular, but overwhelming, blemish in her personality that had given Gourry second thoughts about her more than once. She learned that such a violent temperament was childish, stupid, outright cruel and mean-spirited.

Maybe Natalia herself hadn't reached that point of maturity with that penchant of hers for attacking people without prior warning. But she sure as hell had. Just because her companion had been immature didn't give her a right to indulge the childish behavior she had worked so hard towards eradicating from her personality.

Lina turned around, thinking she should say something to her and smooth things over. She hadn't realized that Natalia had, in fact, found her backpack, and was now walking back towards her. Only Natalia wasn't even looking at her. She held her backpack limply in one hand while her eyes remained fixed on a point well beyond where Lina was standing.

"Natalia, I..." she began before being interrupted by the thud of the backpack being dropped at her feet.

"You can have what's in it," Natalia said simply as she walked past her and towards the settlement.

Lina didn't know what to say now that her companion had shut herself off like that. And she knew even less what to think when she noticed that Natalia's tears were still falling.

A day's worth of bustle and movement. Tents disassembled. Supplies marshaled. Nearby vegetation gathered. Water bottles filled from a nearby hole. Runners sent ahead. Information returning in bits and pieces. Archers re-supplied and re-deployed. Dead hastily buried. The sick carefully prepared. Adults assuming their load of materiel. Children assisting with the packaged supplies.

No one moved without a sense of urgency, for the New Sairaag Settlement would move out at dawn. One day was all the time allocated to get everything packed and prepared.

Zangulus, true to his word, had assisted in an assortment of tasks, from dismantling tents to securing the packaged canvases onto the settlement's makeshift wagons. The endeavor had consumed his day, and energy, and he hadn't found the time to even look at Sylphiel. In any case, she had joined another group and worked with them for the whole day. He supposed it naïve to actually believe that the two would have ended up working side by side.

By dusk, things had slowed down considerably. Most of the heavy stuff was ready to be moved, the only things not being packed being the personal belongings and sleeping bags the people would use that night. Already, the weary and tense people were preparing for the evening's meal, while others consulted with several warriors, no doubt to establish volunteer patrols and scouting parties. By the sounds of it, the settlement was moving into new territories, and Sylphiel wanted as much information about their condition before actually moving her people through them. Only by the time the first reports came, Zangulus realized that their direction would take them no where near the Lagrimas Province where Lina had said they might find Zelgadis.

Zangulus, walking through the settlement looking for any one of the three women so recently making his life both interesting and unbearable, wiped the sweat off his brow as the exertion of the day's work was making the temperature seem warmer than it normally was. He found it strange that, for the whole day, he had not seen either Lina or Natalia, and wondered if the two hadn't conveniently disappeared in order to avoid the load of work. Not likely, he imagined. At some point they must have come back into the settlement and volunteered to do something. But what?

The repetition seemed almost uncanny. For the second time that day, when his mind had focused upon looking for Lina and Natalia, he ran into, instead, the settlement's Matriarch. And for the second time that day, their mutual reception was slightly less than cordial.

"Thanks for your help," Sylphiel said absently as she was apparently going to walk right past him.

"Not to bring up a sore subject or anything," he began, again beginning to walk beside her, "but have you seen Lina?"

"I saw her hours ago," she said coldly. "Wanted something to do. Can't even figure that out for herself."

"Did she say anything to you?"

"About what?" she responded impatiently.

"About anything."

"I hate to be rude, but I don't have time for this."

"You said the same thing this morning," he said as he picked up his pace to match hers. "If you won't talk to her, then listen to me."

"What is it?" Judging by the tone of her voice, Zangulus could tell that she was less interested in actually listening to the coming proposal and more in just getting him to speak his part and leave her alone.

"I understand you're planning to move south," he began, calculating his every word so as not to lose her again.

"Yes. The Monsters will probably think we'll be going deeper into the mountains for protection, so we'll move where they won't expect us to."

"I have a question, then."

Sylphiel stopped but didn't say anything.

"Lina thinks we can fight the Monsters. She thinks that we can find a way to defeat them by launching a concentrated attack and keeping a tight defense around the magic-users. She thinks that if we can get Zelgadis into the mix, we'll stand a chance."

"I don't believe this," Sylphiel muttered as she shook her head in disbelief. "She has three thousand sorcerers, fails, and now thinks she can fight them with a handful?"

Zangulus did his best to hide his own skepticism. Even he wasn't entirely convinced of Lina's little scheme. "I think her plan can work. You know her magic skills. Natalia's aren't too shabby either. I understand Zelgadis is a Master Shamanist. In other words, there won't be the confusion and disarray that caused the Dragon Army's destruction."

"Confusion?" she retorted. "Is that what she called it? I call it incompetence."

"Drop your petty hatred for a second," he said, anger now fully evident in his voice, "and answer me this: will you join us? Apparently, your defensive skills are the key to this entire plan. Without them, we wouldn't stand a chance, and we'd be defeated as we would have been yesterday before you intervened."

She looked back at him. "Fine. I'll drop my, what did you call it, my 'petty hatred.' Okay? Well then, now that we got all that settled, the answer is no."

"Don't think your answer surprises me," he snickered. "I knew you wouldn't just abandon your people like that."

"Then you're smarter than you look," she said bitingly, "because if you had thought even for a second that I would leave my people defenseless just to join that imbecile's crusade..."

"Leave Lina out of this for a moment," he interrupted impatiently. "Forget about her for a moment and listen for a change. Will you and your settlement, instead, help us search for Zelgadis? Lina thinks he may be near Lagrimas."

Sylphiel rolled her eyes and looked upwards in disbelief. She simply couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"You're asking me to have my people go on some wild goose chase just because Lina thinks Zelgadis might be in Lagrimas? You're asking me to disregard their safety just to follow a hunch? I might as well leave them defenseless if I'm to ask them to embark upon such a fool's journey!"

"Answer me this, then: how is moving into unexplored territories any safer? What makes the territories to the south any safer than those heading back to Lagrimas? How much longer do you seriously believe you can keep running from the Monsters before being caught? How is this pointless flight from Monsters that are everywhere any better than at least attempting to forge a plan and stand against them once and for all?"

"Moving into unexplored territories is one thing," she said, her eyes fixing on him in frustration, "but searching blindly through areas potentially infested with Monsters is another thing all together. The answer is no."

"So you're willing to sacrifice your people?"

"Of course not, which is why I'm not going to do as you ask."

"Sylphiel," he said, taking off his hat and lowering his voice. "You're smarter than this, I know. All your bitterness can't have changed you so much to the point that you would blindly continue this futile wandering instead of conceding to the fact that Lina's plan, however shaky it sounds, may well be the last chance humanity's ever going to have. Or do you think that there's anyone else left alive that can put up even half as good a fight as her? You think someone other than Lina will figure it out and save us all? Sylphiel, I'm asking you to drop your anger and think objectively. What's in your people's best interest?"

Sylphiel looked at him but said nothing. She knew he was right, but she wasn't about to, just like that, agree to follow a woman who had already failed them all so tragically two years back. It was, more than anything else, her skepticism that Lina was in any way capable of putting up this good fight Zangulus was alluding to, that kept her from agreeing. Though she was too smart to imagine that the solution would appear out of the blue and save humanity, she had hoped that someone other than Lina would figure out a way to fight back. Someone, somewhere, had to figure it out.

Because he was right in saying that they couldn't run forever. The Monster attacks had come more frequently and more strongly, and it was only because of Lina's intervention the day before that Sylphiel's people weren't all dead now. Though she would not concede to it, and though she never spoke of it to anyone, she knew that it was only a matter of time before her settlement was annihilated. No one would survive the Monster Resurrection, no matter how wily and elusive.

But pride was, at this moment, working against reason. She would not concede, not for Zangulus, and certainly not for Lina.

"I know full well what's in my people's best interest," she tried to sound firm. "Traveling towards a given spot is, in any case, safer than wandering a region looking for a man who may not even be alive anymore. I'm sorry, Zangulus, but I can't take that risk with my people. If we meet our end, it'll be on our terms, not Lina's."

With that, she turned to walk away from him, leaving him behind with one last card to play.

"You know I'm right, don't you?" he called after her. When she didn't respond, he figured it was time to play it. "Especially since, judging by your people's accounts, Zelgadis' whereabouts are less a mystery than we originally imagined."

And just like that, Sylphiel stopped in her tracks and stood still in silent disbelief.

And fear.

Lina had never stayed with a settlement long enough to partake in its activities, particularly those dealing with moving. When she had gone to Sylphiel, she had intended to talk to her then. But her own uncertainty arose; she realized that she was now putting it off because she was afraid to have to ask her for something so monumental. When she realized that Sylphiel was inordinately busy and in no way available for an extended conversation, Lina finished chickening out. She ended up saying that she was looking for something to do.

And so Lina found herself single-handedly dismantling and packing tents for the entire day. Sylphiel had forgotten to assign someone to help her out.

It was not until dusk that Lina finally had the time to sit down and rest her aching muscles. She hadn't exerted herself physically in this fashion for quite some time, and found the soreness a discomfort all too undesirable. She returned to where their own tent had been staked the night before to sit down and relax for a moment. She felt hungry, but decided that putting dinner off for a while would allow most of the people gathered around the several fires to finish their meal and disperse, thereby avoiding them and their countless questions.

But her return to their allocated space had another purpose: to see what it was that Natalia had stashed in that dilapidated backpack of hers. Out of frustration and anger, she didn't open it when Natalia gave it to her, and almost ended up leaving it in the ravine altogether. Again, however, she reprimanded herself for her lack of maturity and decided to take it to their tent and figure out what to do with it later. Later came after a day's worth of hard work and brooding curiosity. For as much as Lina had refused the backpack's contents earlier, her curiosity had sufficiently gotten the better of her by the time she was finished dismantling the final tent in her assigned row.

As she reached their spot and sat down on the rocky ground, she grabbed the backpack and began to open it. For a moment, she felt the lack of privacy unnerving-she had hoped that their tent wouldn't be dismantled-but realized that her thoughts were instinctual and illogical. They were simply the echoes from times long gone, where a would-be treasure like a mysterious backpack would be opened within the private confines of a cozy bedroom or something. Brushing that bitter thought aside, she lifted the flap off the top and began to unpack the contents.

By the looks of it, it was some sort of emergency travel kit, a package assembled and kept ready in case its owner ever needed to leave her home suddenly and without time to prepare more thoroughly. Just as the previous days' rush to save the New Sairaag Settlement had forced Natalia to abandon her cave. Almost feeling the eagerness of a little girl ripping through a bag of surprises, Lina proceeded. She took out a small box containing a sowing kit in surprisingly good condition. She found a block of flint, a small knife, and a tight bundle of rope. There was a small wooden cylinder with a removable cap. When she opened it, she found it filled with an assortment of metal utensils. Lina found the resourcefulness rather interesting: the cylinder was, no doubt, a makeshift bottle with which to gather up and keep water, while the utensils could be melted down for their metal and used for a variety of purposes. Wrapped in a faded cloth handkerchief was a small bar of soap. Lina's eyes widened when she saw Natalia had a book in there as well, but her enthusiasm subsided when she realized it was a journal of sorts. She placed it aside: she wouldn't be rude enough to read through it, at least not until she had Natalia's permission to do so. The only other personal possession in there was a thin silver necklace with the name Lucia engraved on the little oval-shaped pendant hanging on it. Lina looked at it, wondered why Natalia had it in there amidst such a collection of overly-practical items, and put it aside before looking at the backpack's final contents.

And it was then that she noticed what it was taking up most of the space at the bottom of the backpack: a spare outfit. She took out the gray shirt and looked at it in disbelief. While streaked with black ash which apparently never could come out, it was relatively intact, far more intact than her own tattered shirt. The black pants at the bottom seemed in similar condition, even if they held the faint smell of smoke. Lina realized at that moment what Natalia had meant when she said she could have what was in the backpack. She looked down in instant shame for the umpteenth time that day: that's why she had been so eager for Lina to help her find it. It had been her way of cheering her up, and instead, Lina had ended up nearly asphyxiating her.

Her hands, still holding the pants, dropped to her lap in frustration. She closed her eyes and cursed to herself.

Now she had two people she'd need to approach apologetically before the end of the day.

Zangulus couldn't help it as a smile arched on his face. He simply hadn't expected to accomplish what he had thought was un-accomplishable. But the ace in the hole had worked; the stories he'd been told the day before had served their purpose far better than even he had imagined. And as he heard the growing conversations among the picket warriors on the eastern ravine, he knew Sylphiel hadn't lied. Tomorrow, they would proceed in the direction of the Lagrimas Province; the New Sairaag Settlement would backtrack towards a path taken several months earlier.

He figured he'd speak to Lina later. Much later. After Sylphiel spoke to her. It was childish, he supposed, but he wanted to see the expression on her face. He wanted the satisfaction of showing her that he did have value within Lina's battle plan, even in the political realm. He would playfully gloat over it, he supposed, poking fun at her over how it was him, and not her, who had talked Sylphiel into having her settlement join the search. He nodded to himself solemnly: he was just glad that he had been able to help Lina in that way. He hadn't been sure if she herself would have managed it, given the tension between the two women.

His thoughts had turned to Natalia, and how she had basically disappeared for the entire day. When he asked around for her among the general populace, no one even knew whom he was referring to. When he described her as the woman with the funny-looking pigtails, he was answered in shrugs. He had thought it strange: she really hadn't been kidding when she said that people tended to not notice her. Thankfully, one of the warriors he had met the day before knew of her and her whereabouts. She had, apparently, taken two warriors with her back to her cave to bring back all her supplies she had stored there. He wasn't sure if she had already figured out that they would be staying with the settlement as he had the night before, or if she was merely volunteering her own supplies so that the settlement would have more provisions on its coming journey. Either way, she had returned at around dusk. After that, the warrior informed him, she just kind of headed off towards the eastern ravine and disappeared.

Zangulus was now well away from the settlement, his thoughts carrying him through the solitude and the silence of his walk. So engrossed did he become in his thoughts, he failed to realize just how far he had strayed. He had not, however, seen Natalia anywhere, and was beginning to think that the information given to him was either inaccurate or outdated, when he finally made out the distant silhouette of someone sitting on one of the nearby cliffs. As he moved closer, he wasn't sure if it was her, now that this person had her long black hair down. He imagined that Natalia would sooner dance a jig on a theatrical stage before she un-braided her hair.

But by the time he was close enough to make out the familiar white and black outfit, he realized that it was her.

And by the time he realized that, she had taken notice of his approach and began to braid her hair frantically, as if terrified that he should see her any other way. Zangulus frowned: this woman was getting stranger with each passing hour.

"Hey," he greeted when he was close enough, trying not to call attention to the way she was now briskly working on her left braid. "We kind of missed you back there."

"What did you throw at me?" she tried to joke, but the way her voice shook made it sound anything but comical.

Zangulus was now close enough to tell she wasn't okay. Her eyes were red and swollen, and despite her efforts to smile at him, she looked downright miserable. She had, to his complete disbelief, indulged in some rather good crying.

"What's wrong?" he said gently before he could stop himself from doing so. He knew that the emotional approach was probably the last thing to try with someone as emotionally constrained as Natalia.

"Nothing, nothing at all," she responded on cue, again trying to seize control over her voice but failing significantly.

"I see," he tried to switch tactics and looked towards the canyon below them. "Nice view."

"Yeah, it's really nice in the winter if you..." she stopped. There hadn't been a real winter in over two years. "It's still nice, I suppose."

"Where I grew up," he continued, trying to sound casual, "we didn't have anything like this. Ours was a little boring village situated in a little boring province with no real natural beauty. At least none like this. That's probably why I decided to become a swordsman: I just had to get out of there and do something in somewhere not quite so boring."

"You just had to walk several kilometers to the west," she said quietly as she finished braiding her hair.

"What?"

"Delinde was close enough to the Oscuras. Either you were a very lazy boy who couldn't walk a few kilometers to see a natural splendor like this, or you just didn't appreciate the immediate beauty around you."

He looked at her in confusion. "How did you know I was from Delinde?"

"Lina told me."

"I see."

The silence that followed seemed awfully long despite its actual brevity. Zangulus thought that a more awkward and uncomfortable situation was impossible to imagine, let alone experience. He figured that the nonchalant approach was only going to get him so far given Natalia's own mastery of the art of nonchalance.

"Why were you crying?" he finally asked in a firm, direct, yet distracted manner, as if he was interested only so much in what she actually had to say.

"Just some old ghosts coming back to haunt me," was all that she would reply.

"Pretty potent ghosts, I would guess," he said as he eyed her curiously.

"Yeah, I suppose."

"You look rather pale."

"Oh, just yesterday's exertion still doing a number on me," she tried to sound normal. "I haven't been able to cast a single spell today. I'm just hoping it's not permanent."

"I can't imagine it would be."

"So, what are you doing out here anyway?"

He smiled. "I remember someone asking me that same question yesterday. Nothing, really. I was just wondering what had happened to you."

"Well," she forced a smile again, "as you can see, nothing has happened to me, unfortunately for everyone."

"We've got to work on that self-deprecating sense of humor of yours."

"Among other things, I suppose."

His eyes narrowed. "What does that mean?"

She looked down and sighed. "Nothing, really."

"Rhetorical statement, then?"

"Strictly rhetorical."

"I see."

Silence again. Zangulus kept himself from saying anything this time. Because by the looks of it, Natalia was close to finally breaking down a bit and begin revealing more about her so-called ghosts.

"Well," she finally said, "I'm heading back. Enjoy the view."

It hadn't been what he expected, but he imagined that it would take significantly more for her to drop the charade and come clean.

"There's no reason for me to hang around here by myself, then," he said as he got up.

"I'm flattered," she said absently as she tried her best to keep her ghosts at bay before they wreaked havoc on her for the third time that day.

And as the two walked back to the settlement together, Zangulus had to bite his tongue more than once to keep himself from asking her why she didn't keep her hair down.

Lina munched on a potato as she contemplated her next move. With the pangs of hunger removed, the only ones left were those of nervousness. But enough was enough: she'd have to talk to Sylphiel this evening before the settlement moved. She also had to figure out what to do with Natalia and her gift: whether or not she'd actually accept it, whether or not she could commit herself to trusting someone who could turn so violent on moment's whim.

Before she could decide, however, which of the two problems to deal with first, Sylphiel appeared from among the crowds of people and headed straight for her.

Lina thought she'd almost choke on the potato as Sylphiel came to her. She felt she needed to carefully plan out how she would approach and deal with her would-be enemy, but suddenly realized that she would not be afforded such a luxury. What would she tell her? How would she deal with her in a non-violent way? She almost found herself thankful that she'd taken out some of her frustration on Natalia that morning.

Sylphiel hadn't been standing over her for a second before she spoke her part, brief and to the point.

"We're moving towards Lagrimas tomorrow. Be thankful that Zangulus is a better thinker than you'll ever be."

Lina was stunned, and it showed in the way her mouth opened without being able to utter a single syllable.

"Oh, and don't thank me," Sylphiel continued coldly. "I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing it for my people. I pray you won't fail us again."

"Sylphiel," she finally managed to say, "I thank you anyway."

Sylphiel shrugged indifferently. "I only hope you'll be as thankful when we find Zelgadis. I can assure you that you're not going to like what you find."

"What do you mean?" she asked as she got up, now that Sylphiel was now walking away from her. "Are you telling me you know where he is?"

"Not precisely, no. But some of my people had a run-in with him and we know that he is, in fact, in the Lagrimas Province."

"Then I was right," Lina said to herself in disbelief, instantly enthusiastic about the now-conceivable prospect of him joining the battle. "With his help, I know we can..."

"Don't count on it."

"Sylphiel, you know what a powerful sorcerer he's become. I know that you think..."

"His competence is besides the point here, Lina," Sylphiel said, turning around to face her.

Lina's eyes narrowed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that your friend Zelgadis is a murderer."

Chapter 7   |   Fanfiction