Heart of Darkness

Chapter 39

 

            Lina had left a soggy trail across the entrance of the Palace… an action that had sent servants flying to clean it up, Amelia cringing, and Naga laughing madly at the ensuing mayhem. Lina let her laugh. It helped reduce the stress they were all feeling.

            Her mind was still spinning, still absorbing the expression on Xellos’ face when he’d appeared, the near-instantaneous panic that had hit Jedah, the speed at which it had all happened.

            She was almost afraid to find out what had happened to alarm them so.

            And yet, she had to know. It pertained to Zelgadis. She needed to know.

 

            Off to her borrowed rooms Lina went, waving a hand at the queries of her companions. “I’m going to bathe and change. Let’s regroup in a bit.” It wasn’t a lie, she was going to clean herself up and get a change of clothes. She just had another plan too. One that was potentially dangerous and she couldn’t ask them to take part. She had a direct link to Zelgadis, and the tool she needed was the gift that Jedah had brought her, the gemstone that had been a gift from Zelgadis. She’d thought of it earlier, thought of the link it could yet provide, but it would have been too obvious to pull it out of her shirt and work the spell needed to locate Zelgadis in front of everyone. She’d used the stone to locate him before, it had to work again. And then, maybe, just maybe, she could use that spell. The one that she had learned from Filia, and had used to take them all to WolfPack Island. If she was lucky and there weren’t any barriers. She was counting on it being a bit easier because she was only moving herself this time.

            As Lina turned down the hallway to her room, Naga followed quietly, intent on having a few words with Lina before the redheaded sorceress did anything that might result in another near disaster. Since when had she become the voice of reason? The older Princess caught Lina by the arm, and the younger woman spun to see the steady blue gaze. “Whatever you’re planning, Lina… you have to do it alone?”

            When Lina looked away and tugged her arm free, Naga only nodded. She’d known it, but she had to say it anyway. “Be careful, Lina. And if you don’t come out of there in a reasonable amount of time I’ll find that Mazoku brat and send his sorry butt in after you.” She meant Jedah, though how she thought she might drag his ‘sorry butt’ into doing anything was, at the moment, beyond her.

            That made Lina turn back and look to Naga for a moment, searching the older Princess’ gaze. “Naga… I…” For that moment, that immeasurably short span of time that Lina’s crimson eyes met Naga’s blue ones, the redhead seemed suddenly shy and vulnerable. It passed between them like a ghost, the memory of a mirror and shyer versions of the pair of them.

            Infinite possibilities, infinite combinations.

            One reality.

            And then, Lina’s mouth quirked, and Naga knew. No matter what happened, Lina would be Lina. And part of that meant never giving up. Not even when the odds looked this stacked against her. “Do what you have to, Naga, but if he interrupts my bath, I’ll knock you both into the next city.” And with that, Lina entered her room and closed the door behind her.

            Naga felt the ward click into place and shook her head. “I hope you will, Lina. I hope you will.”

 

            Inside the room, forehead to the door, Lina sighed. I hope so too, Naga, she thought in reply to Naga’s comment, and then steeled herself. The bath had been drawn, and she made fast work of it, changing into a quiet black ensemble after. She’d been wearing a lot of black lately, maybe she was telling herself something.

            She pulled the necklace out, looking at the stone that shifted in color so as to appear aquamarine one moment, sapphire the next. It felt as if it slept, a promise of power there to use… if only one knew how to access it.

 

            You who sail the seas of the astral plane, reveal these shadows to me!”

 

            Nothing happened, the stone hanging from the chain, as if lost in a deep sleep. Frowning, Lina eyed the stone, seeing that the inner fire wasn’t there. Fine, it wanted to play hard to get, she could handle that. She’d learned a bit in her experiencing Zelgadis’ memories.

            Cupping her hands around the necklace, she summoned a ball of light, setting that glow around the gem so that the stone sparkled in the center. “Source of all souls which dwell in eternal and infinite, let thy power be called from beyond. Let the power of my soul join with it, bind to it and set itself free upon the Astral Plane. By the light of this gem, let these shadows be revealed!”

            The stone in her hands began to glow of its own accord, awakened into a dazzling blue fire that seemed to grow, then enveloped Lina’s own light spell, and then, she fell.

            Down, up, sideways, around, distance and time was nonexistent, a fragment of her feeble imagination. She ignored it all, her attention fixed upon the gem whose brilliant light almost hurt to behold.

 

            And then, it was gone.

 

            She turned, still in the Astral, looking at what appeared to be ruins of a city. All around her were clear signs of fire, buildings charred and left to ruin.

            As the gem in her hands faded to a dusky blue, she recognized where she was. “I’m in Ambervale. Oh, sweet Cepheid, somehow it all comes back to this. This is where it all started.”

            Before she could move, before she could look to see if Zelgadis was there as well, a black clad figure appeared beside her, grabbing her and pulling her backwards into darkness.