Pilgrimage – Reunion

Part Seven

        The only reason that Amelia didn’t hit the ground was that fact that Zelgadis was a good deal faster than your average mortal. He caught her, and she whispered one word before passing out in his arms.
        “Lina…”
        Lina? What the Hell? He looked around both physically and mentally. Guards were approaching, but other than that there was nothing. No strange sense… and no Lina.
        But why was he uneasy? Was it because he’d thought he’d sensed Lina just moments before Amelia screamed? Things were getting strange, and Zelgadis was tired of strange. He just wanted a normal life…
        The guards came running up, checking themselves when they saw that it was only Zelgadis, and not an attacker.
        “Lord Graywords! What happened?” A guard asked.
        Zelgadis made a mental note to find out why everyone kept insisting on calling him ‘Lord’ and looked at the man. “Take her blade. We’re too exposed out here.” And with that cryptic answer, he turned and carried the unconscious Queen inside the Palace.

        He carried her into the vast rooms held by the Queen amidst a flurry of servants and somewhere the back of his mind noted that Amelia’s daughter was quiet and sedate as she walked beside him. She’d caught up with them in the foyer, and simply fallen into step beside him without asking what had happened.
        Once he rested Amelia on the bed, the physicians immediately crowded around the stricken Queen and began to listen to pulse and breathing. Zelgadis tacitly got out of the way. Lina moved over to stand beside him, watching the physicians flutter around her mother. She didn’t look at him, but he was surprised to feel her tiny hand slip into his. He looked down to see her watching the physicians intently; the only sign of anxiety the tight grip of her hand on his. He let his fingers curl gently around her hand and looked back to the bed, keenly aware that he was the only one in the room that knew her daughter was there.
 

        Where was she? What was going on? Amelia looked around, seeing nothing but darkness around her. “Hellooo?”
        A gold brilliance flared around her, and she had to look away. Even without her magic senses, she knew beyond shadow of a doubt what was happening.
        The Golden One stood before her in the form of Lina Inverse.
        “Amelia!”
        But that wasn’t the Golden One’s cold voice. It wasn’t the Golden One at all. It was Lina herself… or as much of herself as she could be. Amelia started, feeling the urge to blubber all over herself rising. “Lina!”
        “Amelia, you have to go back.”
        Amelia blinked in confusion. “Go… back…? Am I dying? What’s happening, Lina?”
        Lina folded her arms and scowled. “You’re not dying, Amelia. But you have to go back to the cave. And you have to go now. There’s no time.”
        “Lina! How? My magic is gone!” Amelia felt the pull back to consiousness cash over her and the image of Lina was fading.
        “There’s no time.”
        “There’s no time.”
        The little hand in his tightened its grip at the words whispered by the Queen as she opened her eyes. “There’s no time. We have to go back!”
        Zelgadis looked at Amelia through the herd of physicians. “What? Back where?”
        Amelia glared at the physicians who were trying to keep her lying down. “Get off of me. We have to go back to the cave where we left her. We have to go now. She says there’s no time.”
 
        A water droplet fell.
 
        A blue brilliance filled the corner of Amelia’s room, a door unseen bursting open from sheer magical force.
        The quarterstaff sat in what Zelgadis would have called a closet, the sapphire set atop it burning with a blue fire. He raised an eyebrow as he looked at it, and young Lina took a step backwards, tugging at Zelgadis’ hand. He too inadvertently stepped back.
        Amelia shoved a physician out of the way and moved off of the bed, walking over to take up the staff in her hands. When she did so, the blue fire crept up her arms, encircling her like two insidious magical snakes. They twined around her and she closed her eyes, ignoring the worried cries of onlookers.
        She knew what was happening.
        She felt it, the magic reawakening. That which she had spent time learning in theory suddenly became a certainty. That which she had learned as an abstract became founded in reality, the magic knowledge coming to life as only a dormant spell can.
        Diem Wind.
        Dill Brand.
        Holy Bless.
        Megido Flare.
        Dragon Slave.
        Rune Flare.
        Laguna Blade.
        All the spells that she had cast before, plus all the new ones that she had studied in the years past. They were all at her command now, ready and waiting.
 
        The sapphire dimmed, the tendrils of magic fading. Zelgadis and young Lina watched in breathless anxiety to see what had happened to Amelia.
        Amelia opened her eyes. Without explaining to anyone what had just happened, she walked over to the window and opened it. Reaching out one hand, she gave a little half-smile and called the spell. “Fireball!”
        A brilliant sphere of fire formed into her hand, which she immediately lobbed outside. Once it was safely outside, her eyes narrowed. “Break.”
        The resultant explosion was quite impressive.
        Somewhere in the back of Zelgadis’ mind, a little voice was being very secretly glad that his hand was made of stone because Amelia’s daughter would have cut off the circulation of blood to his fingers otherwise. But it was being so secretive about it that Zelgadis himself wasn’t even aware of it.
        And that was probably a good thing.
 
        Amelia stuffed the staff in the belt at her waist and looked at her daughter again. “Absolutely not. You can’t go and that is final.”
        “But mother! You’ve told me that you’d take me to see her! And the Clerics… They gave me so many things over the years. I should be a proper Princess and go thank them in person,” Lina Wil Gracia Sailune explained.
        Zelgadis took it all back. The girl had a lot of spunk. More than that, she was deceptive, conniving, intelligent, and a far faster thinker on her feet than her mother was. It was beginning to amuse him to no end, and a snicker escaped him.
        He was rewarded with a fierce glare from Amelia. “Zelgadis, I do not need you siding with her right now!”
        Zelgadis only lifted an eyebrow and folded his arms.
        Lina mimicked him.
        Amelia sighed heavily. “I’m outnumbered, aren’t I? Fine. You can go. I don’t have the time to stand here and argue with you about this. But this isn’t a pleasure trip. Now go get packed!”
 
        It didn’t take them long before they were on the road, the three looking suspiciously like a simple family on a trip. Amelia was suitably rushed, young Lina excited, and Zelgadis keenly aware of what the group looked like. But Amelia had commandeered a carriage, and they would be there in only three days.
        Three days. Amelia was afraid that it would be too long. She fretted over it as they bumped over the roads.
        “Amelia, as neither of us can cast a teleportation spell or turn into a dragon, we’re just going to have to make do with this,” Zelgadis replied calmly. They’d stop at Solaria first, then Vezendy, and finally Gyria before they left on foot for the cave. He’d already made arrangements for fresh drivers and horses to be waiting at all the stops, and if they all slept in the carriage, they could drop the trip to just over a day and a half. But then, he was a chimera. Sleep was optional. Technically, he could play the part of the driver himself… but then no one would be watching Amelia and her daughter.
        Amelia sighed unhappily as she looked out of the window at the passing scenery. “I just don’t know what to do. Now that my magic has come back… it seems as if I should know something.”
        Lina looked to her mother. “Why don’t you just rest, mother? It’s going to be a while before we get there, regardless.”
        Amelia frowned at her child, as if about to say something, and then shook her head. “I suppose I ought to.” With the hint of laughter in her eyes, she looked at Zelgadis. “If she bothers you too much, you have my permission to put her on the roof.”
        Zelgadis simply nodded.
        Lina looked at her mother and Zelgadis with horror. “But mother! There’s nothing to hold onto… and the bugs… and…” It dawned on her that they were playing a joke, and she folded her arms and huffed.
        “We were only joking, Lina. I wouldn’t put you on the roof of the carriage…” Zelgadis said.
        The girl looked at him.
        “I’d hang you upside down from the ceiling,” he finished.
        Amelia hid her laughter and settled in to nap.
        Needless to say, it was a long time before young Lina said anything else.
 
        Zelgadis was lost in his own thoughts when a hand patted at his arm. He looked over to see Amelia’s daughter looking at him. In question, he raised a stone eyebrow, and she looked down at her hand, pulling it away. He tilted his head at her.
        “You don’t have to be afraid of me.”
        She whispered, looking across at her mother, who seemed to be sleeping peacefully. “I’m not. I just didn’t want to bother you. You looked so sad.”
        He regarded her quietly for a moment. What had he been thinking about when she’d tapped on his arm? He couldn’t recall. But given the situation, he was probably remembering the past. He did a lot of that. “I was contemplating our journey.”
        “Oh,” she said. “I wish I had known Lina Inverse. It’s almost hard to believe that mother was a part of those adventures. But you were a part of them too… and you’re right there… as real as I am.”
        Zelgadis nodded. “It’s true, your mother was involved in a lot of adventures. A lot of things couldn’t have been done without her. And she did defeat the Demon King of the North.”
        The girl gave this a good deal of thought. “It’s still hard to believe that my mother…”
        Zelgadis looked over to the sleeping Amelia. “Sometimes it’s hard for me to believe too… and I was there. Lina, your mother has changed so much in the past ten years… I’m not even certain that she’s the same person anymore. She’s a lot stronger than I am.”
 
        “Lina, your mother has changed so much in the past ten years… I’m not even certain that she’s the same person anymore. She’s a lot stronger than I am.”
        Amelia had heard the words; she was awake and listening. Zelgadis’ words gave her cause to think. Had she really changed all that much? In retrospect, perhaps she had. It was enough to bear some thinking. She let herself go back to sleep while considering what it was that had made Zelgadis think that she was so much stronger than him.
 
        It was late when they pulled into Solaria, and only Zelgadis was awake, Lina having curled up beside her mother and fallen asleep as well. He stepped out of the carriage to make sure that the horses and driver were exchanged, and was startled to hear a familiar voice seeking passage to Gyria.
        “Gourry,” Zelgadis called out. “Over here.”
        The blonde turned, walking over to Zelgadis. “Zelgadis! Why are you here? Are you going to Gyria too?”
        “There and to the caves beyond. Get in, but be quiet. They’re sleeping,” Zelgadis said, opening the door to the carriage.
        “They?” Gourry asked before stepping in.
        Zelgadis nodded. “They. I’ll explain on the way.” He watched the new driver check the hitches and entered the carriage himself. And then they were on their way to Vezendy.