Chapter 12

Amelia and Gourry sat by the entrance to the underground city and waited. Gourry wasn’t particularly upset, but Amelia fretted silently, an irrational fear filling her. Suddenly, the petite girl got up and started to pace back and forth, unable to do anything, and nervous about Lina and Zelgadis being down there.

“Amelia, just relax. They know what they’re doing,” Gourry said, watching the girl. He wasn’t having to do much of anything, so he could think straight for the moment.

Amelia turned to look at Gourry. “But, Mister Gourry… they’re down there in that city… and there’s something really bad in there.”

Gourry closed his eyes and considered. “Well… I can’t say that I’ve got any magic sense at all… but I don’t think anything weird is going on. Just sit down and relax.” He paused, opening an eye. “I know! You can tell me why you’re so afraid of that place. I’ve never heard of it.”

Amelia sighed at him. “There’s a lot of places you’ve never heard of, Mister Gourry.” She shook her head and sat down again. “Shigai no Ishi… it can mean two things, equally. Both the Corpse of Stone, and the City of Stone. Either way, it’s accurate. Supposedly, this city was in one of the two physical locations that the Great Staff was thrust through the world. Legend says that before the barrier existed, this city was one of the foremost in magic. There was nothing that they wanted, because they could bring it about by magic. It was supposedly a truly idyllic society. But magic brings power… and power brings corruption.”

Gourry thought this over, nodding. "But so far, it doesn’t sound so scary, Amelia."

Amelia allowed herself about five seconds to boggle over the fact that he was following her. “Well, it isn’t. But the tales of a perfectly magical society brought people from all over the world to discover the truth behind it. Most of those who came simply moved in and became part of the city’s inhabitants, satisfied that it was truly a blessed place. But one sorcerer started to wonder about the validity of the society. And the more he investigated, the scarier it became,” Amelia continued, picking at the grass.

Gourry frowned. “How could a perfect place be scary? I don’t get it.”

Amelia looked at Gourry. “The sorcerer found out that the city’s head magician was actually an evil Mazoku. And that the magic that the city was using was the Mazoku’s own. Which meant that everyone in the city was unknowingly and unwittingly serving this evil creature.”

“Wow!” Gourry said, both eyes open wide. “That is pretty bad. You don’t think that it was Xellos, do you?”

“No,” Amelia said, shaking her head. “It wasn’t Mister Xellos. You see, the sorcerer decided that he couldn’t allow these poor people to be used to feed the Mazoku, and so he cast a great spell that defeated the Mazoku, but cost him his life. He had intended only to turn the Mazoku to stone… but the spell went so horribly wrong due to the infused magic of the Mazoku… that everyone in the city was also turned into stone, as well as the Mazoku. The sorcerer was immune from the effects of the spell, but the magic that backlashed made him almost completely insane.”

“I don’t see what good he did, other than to stop the Mazoku, Amelia. If he turned all those people into stone…” Gourry started.

“He didn’t do much good, really, Mister Gourry. Eventually, a traveler found the city and the lone sorcerer told him the story of the battle. After hearing the story, the traveler took the sorcerer to a nearby city, where it was decided to encase the city in a stone shield to prevent anyone from being able to bring the Mazoku back by accident. They shielded the city, and the sorcerer insisted that he be locked within for his crime of turning every inhabitant into stone. He wasn’t denied… for everyone knew a half-mad sorcerer was a dangerous thing, but no one wanted to say it. The traveler was the last to see the sorcerer… and he returned to tell the tale that the sorcerer had drowned himself in the fountain of Ishi.” Amelia said, looking quietly into the hole.

“Gosh. What if Lina and Zelgadis find the Mazoku?” Gourry asked nervously.

“Miss Lina knows the story, even though she doesn’t believe in it. I’m pretty sure that she won’t do anything really stupid. And Mister Zelgadis is with her…”

“You like him, don’t you, Amelia?”

Gourry’s question caught her completely unprepared. Wringing her fingers, she hedged around it for a moment, then sighed. “I do, Mister Gourry… but I’m not what he needs. He needs someone who isn’t dependent on what the people think. I mean… eventually, one day, I’ll have to be the Queen of Sailune… and that’s not exactly a low-profile position. Mister Zelgadis is a very private person, and he wouldn’t want an entire city watching him.”

Gourry nodded thoughtfully. “Besides, he seems to like Lina a lot.”

Amelia’s head snapped around and she looked at the swordsman with wide blue eyes. “But… I thought you liked Miss Lina…?”

Gourry nodded. “I do. But not like that. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately, and Lina’s a great friend… someone that I really like to travel with. But I grew up with Sylphiel… and she’s the one I’m in love with.”

Amelia blinked, confused. “But what about when you chased down the Lord of Nightmares and made her give Miss Lina back?”

Gourry shrugged. “Lina’s a good friend. I couldn’t just let the Lord of Nightmares steal her away from us.”

“Oh,” Amelia said, considering. “I’m glad, then. I’d hate to see you and Mister Zelgadis have to fight over Miss Lina. It’s bad enough that Mister Xellos seems to like Miss Lina a bit too much.”

“Yeah, well, Lina can take care of herself when it comes to Xellos. She seems to be the only one who can touch him,” Gourry said.

“That’s what makes me worry. I mean, why should Miss Lina be able to hurt him? Unless he wanted her to…?” Amelia asked.

Gourry only blinked, considering. That was a nasty thought, indeed. One never knew that the Trickster Priest was ever really up to…

Zelgadis had searched the entire church for Lina, ending up back in the tiny little room with the statue of the priest. He hadn’t found her, and he was beginning to get a very nasty feeling about this. Damnit, I told her to stay put! Why can’t she ever listen to me? There’s something strange about this place, and the last thing I need is Lina missing.

The strangest sensation came over him, as if a high-level spell was being cast, and suddenly, the room shook again. He brought his arms up over his head to protect himself from the bits of rock that were falling from above, and in doing so, inadvertently looked down.

There was what looked like a bolthole under the ledge beside him, and he kneeled, peering into it, breath catching in his throat.

Lina was on the floor of the bolthole, eyes closed, out cold.

He opened his mage-sight to see with a cold despair, that her life force, her Astral sense was somewhere else. And he had a very sinking feeling that he knew what had happened. Rezo’s spell had taken her again.

Very carefully, he lowered himself into the tunnel and knelt by her side. Her pulse was strong, she hadn’t been Astral for too long. With a sigh of resignation, he cast the Astral Transference spell again, orienting on her.

Once again, she was caught up in the swirling ribbon of chaos.

Determined to get to her, he set his jaw and forced his way into and through the chaos, ignoring all that buffeted him. Damned if he’d let her fight this one alone. Especially when the spell had been on him to begin with.

When the ‘world’ around him settled, he stared in abject shock.

Lina was standing with her sword against another sword, obviously locked in heated battle… with himself!