Heart of Darkness

Chapter 42

 

            Over the years that she’d traveled the world, though no-one would ever believe it, Naga had developed a habit: she thought. And she did her best thinking while walking, so she walked. She walked and thought, thought and walked. Sometimes it led her to cities unknown. Sometimes it led her in circles. Today it was out to the Palace Gardens, where she could stretch her legs and still not end up too far from home.

            It was a decent afternoon for walking, too… not too hot with a gentle breeze. She’d left Lina in her room and wandered the halls of the Palace before deciding to take to the garden paths for a bit. There was less a risk of running into some poor servant this way, which allowed her to sink into her thoughts and pick at the problems at hand.

            As she walked along, she considered what she knew.

 

            First, Zelgadis was lost, become a powerful Mazoku with whereabouts unknown. That was bad on so many varied levels that Naga couldn’t pick just one level of badness. It upset Lina, which just led to all sorts of problems, from the minor kind like not knowing when the nearby small towns would start randomly exploding to the big kind that resulted in the really big spells being called down from the Great Sea of Chaos to set everything to ruin.

 

            Second was Jedah. Beyond being a powerful Mazoku, he seemed about as concerned about Zelgadis as the rest of him. But he was an enigma, and Naga didn’t like people being akin to words she couldn’t spell. It made her feel as dumb as Gourry looked… and she was Naga, the White Serpent, she wasn’t supposed to look dumb. Well, okay. She hadn’t been the White Serpent since… she forced her thoughts back on track.

 

            Xellos... Lina had called him a fruitcake on several occasions, and he was a Mazoku too, so Naga thought he was a reasonable third on her list. As far as she could tell, he was up to his eyeballs in this, though was loathe to admit it. He was clearly beholden to Jedah, though how the General-Priest of Beastmaster was beholden to anyone other than Beastmaster herself was beyond Naga. The only thing that she could think was to kick up her evaluation of Jedah a notch. Or two.

 

            It was a puzzle how those three fit together, and one thing Naga didn’t care for was puzzles. Especially when the pieces rendered any of her friends to tears. Even more so when the aforementioned friend was Lina Inverse.

            Thinking of Lina made Naga add another mental tick on her list. Lina was most definitely fourth.

            The redhead was up to something, Naga just knew it. She didn’t know what, didn’t know how, but she would bank her best bikini on it. Lina was bound to be in over her head, running off half-cocked and ready to blast anyone and anything in her way. Including Naga, if she tried to figure out what Lina was up to. With a small sound of frustration, the eldest Princess of Saillune flopped down rather ungracefully on the bench that looked out over the fish pond.

            “Yeah… I know,” agreed Amelia, looking up from her position by the water’s edge. She’d been feeding the koi when her sister had walked up. “I do feel bad for Lina. I mean, why can’t she and Zelgadis be happy?” Her bright blue eyes settled on Naga’s careless slouch on the bench, and for a moment she was jealous of her older sister’s ability to simply be herself. Maybe it came with age.

            Naga looked over and shrugged. “You know that Lina thrives on adversity. If there isn’t something or someone to hit with a fireball or a Dragon Slave, she’s out to deliberately cause trouble. That’s just who she is.” Oh, dear Cepheid, I’ve grown up and hadn’t even noticed doing it!

            Amelia had to laugh softly. “You have a point…” Lina was always out chasing after something. The redheaded sorceress just couldn’t sit still for trying. If there was one thing that Amelia had learned in her travels with Lina, it was that life was never dull around the redhead. The younger princess looked back to the water, fish food forgotten in her hands. “I just wish that that adversity didn’t have to use Zelgadis.”

            Naga quirked an eyebrow and rose from the bench to walk up to her sister. She put a hand on Amelia’s shoulder and looked at the woman her sister was becoming. “You care for him, don’t you?” She’d suspected something had been there once upon a time, imagined that had been the reason behind her sister’s strong reaction to the swordsman’s ‘death’ but hadn’t been able to say anything at the time because she’d been in the care of the city clerics.

            “I…” Amelia started to say, but closed her mouth. How could she explain how much she cared for Zelgadis, how much she wanted him to be happy and how she knew that she couldn’t make him happy? “He is a very dear friend, and I want him to be happy.” It was as close to truth as she could make it without admitting that she loved him. She figured Naga knew anyway.

            Naga nodded, squeezing Amelia’s shoulder slightly before moving to take a bit of bread from her sister and toss it to the waiting fish. “Zelgadis is good at heart. I don’t understand what’s going on, but I have faith that he’s fighting for himself as hard as he can.” As they watched, a single koi leapt out of the water, twisted, and dove back in with a small splash.

            Before Amelia could reply, there came a shrill scream from the residential wing of the Palace. There was a pause, and Naga and Amelia cried out at the same time: “Lina!” Fish, food, and heartache forgotten, the two took off for the sorceress’ room at a dead run.