Episode 12
Disaster?!
Too Late!
Lina kneeled beside Lalli in the
still silence that had fallen over the courtyard. Above, in the gardened
balconies that led off of the ballroom, others were gathering, but she paid
them no attention. Her focus was the broken Dragon maiden on the stone before
her. She wasn’t a Healer, and she knew before touching the maiden’s shoulder
lightly that the injuries would be far beyond what she could do unaided.
Amelia and Zelgadis landed beside
them, supporting Xellos and Gourry. Lina’s gaze didn’t flicker as she tried to
cast what healing she knew, hoping that the extra strength from the Lord of
Nightmares would aid. It wasn’t doing anything but flowing back onto herself.
It wasn’t like the Lord of Nightmares was exactly a healing spirit. She needed
Cepheid’s magics more. “Amelia…”
Amelia didn’t need the rest of the
sentence, kneeling beside Lina to cast Healing on Lalli. She felt the magic
feed back on itself, and looked at Lina. “I’m blocked… my spell isn’t doing
anything…”
Zelgadis frowned, looking at Xellos.
The Trickster Priest was obviously in shock, and Zelgadis decided that he
wasn’t going be of much use that way. “Xellos, are you just going to stand
there?” Zelgadis demanded.
Purple eyes turned to stony blue
ones. “I… can’t do anything… I can’t even sense the spells that Lina and Amelia
are casting…”
“What’s going on… Lalli? You!” Aurin
leapt at Xellos, catching the off-guard now-human by his throat and throwing
him to the ground.
Filia clasped her hands, casting a
holy spell, but it too failed to heal Lalli. Instead, it resulted in Lalli
crying out and opening her eyes. Where before Lalli was unconscious, she was
now awake and aware of everything. Including the pain of her broken body. And
the fight between Aurin and Xellos. Aurin was winning.
“Aurin… leave him… alone…” she
whispered, trying to reach out, but failing.
Aurin froze, for a moment, hand
wrapped around Xellos’ throat. Dropping the hapless priest, he turned to look
at Lalli. “Why?” He demanded.
The chimera sighed and reached down
to pick Xellos up off of the stone flagstones. It was amazing how useless
Xellos was… with or without his powers.
Lina supported Lalli as the Dragon
maiden tried to sit and look at Aurin. “Because… because I love him… and I
can’t be with him…” Lalli’s head fell back against Lina, and Lina again tried
to cast a healing spell. Whatever Lalli had cast before taking to the air above
the courtyard was certainly preventing a good deal of magic. And she couldn’t find
any trace of a magic absorption spell or amulet.
“Fool,” Aurin snapped, a trace of
that which had become Valgarv showing in his eyes. “What do you want with a
Mazoku anyway, Lalli?” He flung his hand out to indicate the still-shocked
Xellos who was now leaning on Zelgadis. The chimera was doing a very good job
of restraining himself: there was no telling what could happen at any given
moment with Aurin as angry as this. And he had no desire to face off Aurin.
Having faced off Valgarv, he knew all too well what an enraged Aurin might be
capable of.
Xellos moved forward, finally
recovering himself and stepping away from Zelgadis to falter as he kneeled
beside Lalli and Lina. Taking the Dragon maiden from Lina, he shook his head.
“Lalli… what were you thinking…? You had everything you wanted here, except me.
I’m not worth throwing it all away. We’re different sides of the same thing…
we’d never work out.”
Lalli reached up weakly and brushed
a tear off of Xellos’ cheek. Was he crying? Lina wondered as she slipped
backwards some to allow them room.
That was unexpected.
Yes, now what will you do
about it?
It seems that I have little
choice, doesn’t it?
Indeed. After all… it is after
midnight…
Lina frowned suddenly. Something was
tingling at the edge of her mind, something a whole lot bigger than she was,
and she was afraid that it might be Aurin. If he lost his fine control and
turned into Valgarv… she’d have a lot more on her hands than just trying to
protect Xellos.
The magic hit Xellos with a blinding
rush, unseen and unfelt until it was too late. As everyone watched, the magic
enveloped the Trickster Priest, and the transformation from human back to
Mazoku was vivid. A darkness beyond what Lina would call dark rippled over
Xellos, changing his appearance. His clothing rippled with the wave of
darkness, turning back into the Priest’s outfit that he favored. His staff
materialized beside him on the ground, and his eyes opened, head lifting to
look up. “Mistress…?”
It is your choice, Xellos.
He looked down at Lalli. She was
dying, it was indisputable. He could see that now with his Mazoku powers
restored to him. There was no way that he could stop her from dying as a
Dragon. He looked over to Aurin, pain etched into his normally un-emotional
eyes. “Will you just let her die? All because she fell in love with a Mazoku?
Isn’t she more to you than that?”
Aurin closed his eyes, remembering
the very first argument between himself and Lalli.
“You will not see him again!” He
rounded on her, still recovering from the shock of finding her with that…
Mazoku.
“But why, Aurin? I love him…!” She
protested, clutching at her skirt to keep herself from picking something up and
throwing it at him.
“Because you’re my sister! You’re
the second heir of Kuroryu and how do you think it would look for the Crown
Princess of Kuroryu to be involved with a Mazoku? The very Mazoku who destroyed
so many Dragons?” He shouted at her, rage filling him at the thought of the two
kissing.
She turned red, though not from
embarrassment. “I don’t care about that! I’m in love with Xellos, and there’s
nothing that you can do about it.”
“You’re wrong, little sister, there’s a great deal I can do about it. If you persist in seeing him, I will remove you from the family and reduce you to my servant. Do you understand me?”
“Go ahead! I don’t care. Do what you
will!” And with that, she had stormed out of the room, leaving him to watch her
in a blind rage.
The second memory came unbidden, the
most recent of arguments held in her room before the ball…
“You understand that he’ll be Mazoku
again in the morning. It makes no change whatsoever.” He had said quietly, arms
folded as he watched her fuss with her hair.
“Even after he helped free you and
Kuroryu? Helped us restore the Ancient Dragons, you would deny him that?” She
glared at him from under uncooperative hair.
“It is not he that I care about.”
“That doesn’t matter. I’m not your
sister anymore, you were extremely clear about that. And I refuse to listen to
you any longer. You’re distracting me from getting ready for the ball.”
“You mean getting ready for Xellos.
Have it your way for now, Lalli. But when the ball is over and the morning
dawns, what will you do, I wonder.” He turned and left the room. He hadn’t
known what she’d planned.
Aurin opened his eyes, returning to
the present and looking at the Mazoku holding his broken sister. “It would
never work, Xellos. She can’t be Mazoku. Dragon and Mazoku don’t mix. I ought
to know.”
Xellos recoiled as if Aurin had
reached out and hit him. Lalli smiled faintly, awareness beginning to fade.
“It’s okay, Xellos… it… doesn’t bother me…”
“Well it damn well bothers me,” Lina
snapped, drawing the attention of everyone who wasn’t injured. She looked off
for a moment, head down, eyes on the stone floor.
Ah… there she is. It’s time,
Zelas.
Yes, it would seem so. Almost all
of the players will be in place.
Lina lifted a hand, magic coalescing
into a ball of light, the light lifting into the sky and shining down upon the
group on the courtyard stones.
He saw how badly injured she truly
was and made his choice then and there. It would either work, or kill her at
once, and either way was preferable to this lingering death that she was now
caught up in.
Magic came to call, a darkness
offsetting the light provided my Lina’s hands, and Lina looked over to Xellos,
her mouth falling open. He wasn’t… he couldn’t!
Let it be, Lina. It will be as
it should be.
But how? She’s a Dragon… it
will kill her!
No… the Beastmaster has made her
choice. No longer will Xellos be the General-Priest.
What? Lina thought
incredulously, looking at the Mazoku curled around the dying Dragon. Before she
could call the power of the Lord of Nightmares to her hand, Xellos and Lalli
were swallowed into darkness that could not be penetrated by her light. For a
heart-stopping moment, Lina could see Xellos holding Lalli in bas-relief, the
Mazoku looking away in pain.
Xellos didn’t know what was
happening. He’d started to try to give some of his powers to Lalli, but they’d
been pushed back, as if rejected by her Dragon blood. Determined, he’d tried
again, and felt the gentle hand of Zelas Mellatium pull him away from her. He
couldn’t resist, couldn’t argue. He could only watch. In despair, he reconciled
himself to her death, and turned away. He couldn’t watch her die in his arms.
Aurin watched with a sinking feeling. It would fail, just as he had known it would. He hadn’t stopped her for dislike of Xellos. He’d stopped her because it would be her death. But she’d seen through that at last, and made it a moot point. Had he been so wrong?
Gourry just stood there, clueless.
He didn’t understand a thing except that Lalli was dying and that was upsetting
Xellos. He knew that if it were Lina lying there, broken, he’d be upset too.
But he didn’t know what to do about Xellos. After all… he was the powerful
Mazoku, the Trickster Priest. And Gourry was only human. Sort of. Well… mostly.
Amelia sat there, fighting tears as
she clung to Filia. The two were dissolved into the princesses that they were,
unable to offer aid or anything worth calling useful. Instead, they were each
trying not to bawl on each other.
Zelgadis sighed, folding his arms.
This was not what he had wanted to do tonight. He was going to escape the ball
early, get some sleep, then head out in the morning. Now he’d have a funeral to
go to, no doubt having to be the one that Amelia would be sobbing all over…
great.
The darkness evaporated into the
nothingness from which it came, leaving Xellos sitting there, cradling Lalli,
who was still in his arms. For a long time, no-one moved. Then, ever so slowly,
Lina lifted her head and looked.
Xellos was still looking away,
unable to stop the tears that fell down his cheeks. His Mistress had stopped
him because she knew it would have been a waste, hadn’t she? And now he had to
bury the only woman he’d ever truly loved. The only woman who could break the
barrier of emotionless Mazoku and remind him what it was to feel emotions
again.
A hand touched his shoulder.
“Xellos…”
He looked up to see Lina Inverse
looking back at him, eyes unreadable. “Come on, Xellos. Let’s go inside…”
Someone was pulling Lalli away from
him. He fought for a moment, then saw that it was Aurin, and gave her over
without comment. He couldn’t look at the Dragon, couldn’t look her brother in
the eyes. Instead, meek and seemingly broken, he allowed his hands to slip away
from Lalli and rose to follow the Chaos Knight.
Aurin took his sister into his arms
and turned to walk back into the Palace. He knew Filia was behind him, he could
hear her footsteps soft and hesitant on the stone floor. “She will be buried as
befits the Crown Princess of Kuroryu.”
“I am sorry, Aurin… there’s nothing
that I could do…” Filia whispered.
“I know. What she cast… it is a
spell that only our family knows how to cast. It locks out our magics and turns
other magics away. It is the Kuroryu Spell of Sealing. It is what we cast when…
when we wish to die.” Aurin answered, resting Lalli on the table in the center
of the room.
Filia clasped her hands and lowered
her head. “I wish there was something I could do…”
He placed his hands on the table,
bowing his head and closing his eyes. “No… there is nothing to be done for her.
Not even his power could grant her life. And somehow, I feel that she is
happier for it. She’s away from me.”
Filia placed her hand on his
shoulder. “Aurin…I…”
He turned to look at her a mixture
of anger and sorrow turning his golden eyes liquid. “Was I that wrong, Filia?
Would it have worked, do you think? The Dragon and the Mazoku within me… their
very natures warred…”
Filia took him into her arms.
“Aurin… It’s over. It’s all over now. You’re tired, worn out… you need to rest.
Come…” She began to gently pull him away.
He went along with her, like a
little boy whose favorite toy has been broken, disconsolate and lost.
Lina turned out the light in Xellos’
room and stepped out into the hallway, closing the door softly behind her. He’d
been like a puppet with its strings cut, just going through the motions. He’d
taken his shoes off, and collapsed into the bed with the rest of his clothing
on. Lina hadn’t pressed the issue, she had an inkling of how he’d felt. She’d
felt much the same when Phibrizo had stolen Gourry away from her.
Three pairs of eyes looked at her as
she leaned on the door. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen him like that. I didn’t
know… didn’t have a clue that he was ever in love with her.”
Amelia sniffled. “It’s so sad, Miss
Lina… why can’t Mister Xellos be happy?”
Lina sighed. “Come on. Let’s all get
some sleep. Tomorrow’s going to be a very long day, I fear.” She turned and
began to walk down the hallway to her room, listening to the tell-tale
footsteps that told her that the rest of them were doing the same.
The room was dark, but the figure
that materialized beside the table didn’t need light to see. There was the soft
clink of bracelets as the figure rested her hand on the shoulder of the one
lying on the table.
Awake. It is time.
Lips parted to take a breath, and
golden eyes opened. Confusion crossed the finely featured face, and before
words could be uttered, a finger was gently placed across her lips.
Not yet, child. Tonight, you will
come with me.
There was a flicker of magic, and
the room was empty.