Pilgrimage – The Beginning

        “That’s it! That’s where we’re going next!” Lina said, cheerfully setting her glass down on the table.

        “I doubt that someone who makes chimeras would have something on how to undo a magical curse, Lina,” Zelgadis replied sullenly.

        Privately, I agreed with Zelgadis. But I knew better than to go against Lina when her mind was made up. Besides, I didn’t really think that Zelgadis needed a cure. He was… well… let’s just say that I liked him. A lot.

        So we all headed out of the inn after Lina, heading deeper into the frozen north in search of this forgotten city that Lina had heard of. But less than a week after we headed out of Gyria, Lina noticed the spires of an abandoned castle towering over the frozen trees and thought it might have something worth exploring for. It’s just like her to get sidetracked. Money and treasure: her two biggest loves.

        I guess if we had known why the castle was abandoned we’d have gone in anyway. But at least we could have been prepared.

        It was a lot colder in the Kataart Mountains than any of us had anticipated, and we were grateful to have found the castle and gotten out of the wind. As we walked in, Lina cast a Light spell and suddenly shivered. As I looked around, the chill that settled into me was from more than just the cold.

        We were standing in the Castle of the Demon King of the North.

        “Miss Lina, I don’t like this…” I said uneasily. The place felt dirty to me, an ancient evil permeating everything around us. “Let’s just leave…”

        “No way!” Lina replied turning to look at me with that ‘we’re not going anywhere’ look. “Think of the opportunity here! This castle must be filled with ancient secrets!”

        I cringed at the thought of half the secrets within these walls, but I could tell that I wasn’t going to get very far in my protests. Sometimes it just wasn’t worth getting up.

        “I agree with Lina. The Demon King of the North was reputed to have locked away a great many things that would work against him. If he controlled it, it was no longer a threat,” Zelgadis said as he walked over to a set of runes over a door.

        I sighed and hung my head. There was no hope for it. We were staying in the castle, and I had no choice but to go along and hope for the best.

        Gourry, of course, didn’t really seem to have a clue, but he put his hand on his sword anyway, surprising us all with his comment. “I have to side with Amelia on this one. This place just doesn’t feel right. And without the Sword of Light…”

        Lina shook her head. “How many times am I going to have to say it? We’re investigating this castle, and that is that.”

        That was that indeed.

        We wandered the darkened halls for hours, looking here and there until Lina finally came up to a set of doors that looked frightfully imposing.

        “This must be the library! Come on… there’s bound to be a whole lot of information in here that’s been lost for hundreds of years!” Lina cried, shoving open the doors.

        The room was dark and immense, the vastness of it almost swallowing Lina’s Light spell. I cast my own Light and looked around nervously. My blood froze in my veins when I saw what was in the center of the room. “Miss… Miss Lina…?”

        Lina turned from her study of something on the wall and looked over in irritation. “What is it, Amelia? We’re not leaving…” her voice faded as she saw what I was looking at.

        There was a figure standing in the center of the room, frozen, but with an awareness that watched us all. I had no doubts whatsoever that I was looking at the Demon King himself.

        Lina whistled under her breath and walked up to stand beside me and look at the frozen Demon King. “Wow. And here all this time I’d thought it was an exaggeration of the story. I mean, when Auntie Aqua told me… I never imagined…”

        Zelgadis was silent as he walked up to stand on the other side of me, hand on the hilt of his sword. Gourry joined us, and the four of us stood looking at the one who would have resurrected Shabranigdo a thousand years ago.

        Mortals. Have you brought the chimera for me? It has been long since I was granted a… snack.

        I jumped backwards, looking at the statue in horror. It had not just spoken!

        “Like Hell, he’s a snack. Look, we all know how powerful you were, and how you defeated the Water Dragon King, so we know that we have no chance against you. But we also know that you’re pretty much stuck here, unable to move, and destined to spend the rest of your existence here in this castle.” Lina said. I admired her bravery. “We’re here to see if there’s a cure for our friend. You see… he’s only been turned into a chimera. So if you know of any ways to undo that, maybe you’d like to tell us. It beats staring into the dark all day.”

        And why should I do that? I sense the touch of Shabranigdo on that one. And you have the touch… the Golden One. How do you, a mere mortal, have the touch of the Golden One?

        Lina smirked and folded her arms. “That is a secret.”

        I fell over as Lina quoted Xellos. I wasn’t the only one, Zelgadis was on the floor beside me, and even the statue of the Demon King had a sweatdrop. As I picked myself up off of the floor, I noticed that there wasn’t any dust around the feet of the statue. That was odd. As my eyes traveled up the statue, I started to notice other things. There were signs of wear on the armor that it wore, wear that could only be gotten through movement. Which meant…

        I put it together too late. As I cried out, the Demon King suddenly moved, grabbing up Lina by her throat and holding her in the air. You will serve my purpose in restoring my reign. With your power, I will be free to leave this castle once again.

        Gourry and Zelgadis had their swords at ready, I called up a series of spells, allowing the power to build around me. But Lina wasn’t doing anything. In fact, to my horror, Lina was turning blue.

        “Let her go!” I cried, firing off an Elmekia Lance. The magic flared out, hitting him in the arm.

        He looked at me, turning his head and focusing his black-eyed gaze on me with a coldness that I had never seen in anyone’s eyes. Your spells are no more than an irritating bug that flies around my head. He reached out with his free hand, the power that radiated from him lifting me off of my feet and sending me into the wall. It didn’t hurt as much as I had expected it to, and I landed on my feet in time to see Lina fall from his hand, to catch herself with levitation. She’d managed to free herself.

        Or had she?

        She hovered in the air in front of him, and when she turned, I could see that her eyes were blank.

        Gourry ran up to her as I headed that way, and I froze in shock as she reached out and a fireball enveloped Gourry. Oh no! He’s controlling her somehow!!

        Zelgadis snarled, the Astral Vine spell flaring brilliantly on his blade without warning. He leapt up, swinging the blade down at the Demon King’s arm, but a careless gesture from Lina sent him flying backwards, a flare arrow breaking across his chest.

        Gourry was singed, but mostly okay, and I knew that I had to do something to keep Lina from being controlled by the Demon King. Clasping my hands, I drew on the training that I had received in Saillune’s Royal Magic Guild. “Oh power of Light and Earth and Wind, break now this evil spell! Flow break!!” I unclasped my hands, casting the spell at Lina.

        She froze, hung suspended like a marionette, and then fell like her strings had been cut.

        Zelgadis moved the fastest, catching her and we fled the room without delay.

        Outside the castle, we stopped in the courtyard and Zelgadis laid Lina on the grass. Gourry knelt beside her, looking at her anxiously. After a glance from Zelgadis, I walked over and cast a healing spell. When I touched her arm, I heard her voice in my mind, as if she had used a telepathy spell… even though I knew she wasn’t very telepathic.
        Amelia… I can’t… stop him. He’s in my mind…

        I blinked, looking at her as she lay on the grass with her eyes closed. “Miss… Lina…?”

You have to stop me… stop him… he’ll use me to free himself. Every spell I cast… I don’t know how…don’t understand. It has something to do… with the Nightmare… magics…

        I grabbed her hand, trying to will her awake. “Miss Lina! How can I stop him? How can I keep him from controlling you?!”

        The answer came to me, two words that froze me to my soul.

        “No! I can’t do that, Miss Lina!”

        I dropped her hand, backing away in horror. No… there was no way I could do that… no way that I could… no. “There has to be another way!”

        Her eyes opened, and once again there was nothing of Lina within them. Gourry and Zelgadis both sprang backwards, Zelgadis landing beside me. “What was all that about?”

        “Miss Lina said…” I dodged a fireball, “that the only way to stop him was…” a flare arrow shot between us, causing us to leap apart for a moment. When we regrouped, I finished my sentence. “The only way to stop him from controlling her is to… kill her.”

        “What?” Zelgadis froze, staring at me. A fireball detonated on his back, and he went staggering into me. I helped him keep his balance, watching Gourry get blasted with an icicle lance.

        “I can’t do it, Zelgadis! I just can’t do it!” I cried, feeling as though I was on the verge of falling into a vast abyss from which I could not escape.

        “Maybe we don’t have to. But we have to knock her out again!” Zelgadis said as he headed back towards Lina. I was afraid of what he might do, but her flare bit kept him at a reasonable distance.

        I cast the flow break again, but this time she only laughed in a ragged voice that was not hers. “Foolish child to think that would work again. Your magic is no match…” Her eyes rolled upwards and closed as she collapsed.

        Gourry stood behind her with a grim look on his face. The hilt of his sword was aimed downward, as if he’d just hit her on the back of the head with it. In fact, he had.

        As Zelgadis landed beside me, we watched Gourry carefully pick her up and look over at us. “Let’s go.”

        I’m sitting in the cave that Zelgadis had found. I can’t write the rest of the day out… I simply can’t do it. There’s too much emotion, too many feelings to work through. A summary will have to suffice.

        We thought that by leaving the castle and his area of influence… but we were wrong. The possessed Lina almost killed Gourry, and for a moment after she’d run her dagger into him, she was herself, uncontrolled.

        And then she turned her dagger on herself before the Demon King could take her over again.

        As she fell, Gourry and Zelgadis caught her.

        “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

        And I couldn’t save her.