Step
Off the Edge…
Zelgadis awoke with a start, eyes
snapping open to the clear cold sky above him. He’d had a very strange dream.
He’d been in his room back in the Tower and Lina had been there. Only… he
hadn’t known her, hadn’t known who she was at all. He couldn’t remember
anything else… he knew that they had been talking, but he didn’t know what
about.
It was still night, and he sat up
and looked around. It was just too quiet. There wasn’t any snoring. He’d gotten
used to Gourry’s snoring and suddenly found the silence grating. He’d have to
get used to being alone all over again. He didn’t particularly care for being
alone, didn’t like the solitude, but what else was there for him? He was cursed
to be an aberration of Nature, and therefore shunned by the vast majority of
the people he had met. He could name a handful of people who hadn’t judged him
immediately, and sadly, some of them were gone. Xolf, Rodimus, lives tossed
away because of what I am. If not for Rezo and myself, they’d still be alive.
It made him hate the blue stone of his skin all the more.
He climbed down out of the tree and
decided to make use of the time by exploring the nearby ruins. That way, he
could be through them before the others came, and would avoid any… embarrassing
encounters. He could be through the ruins and off to the next town before
Lina’s little group got out of bed. There were some merits to traveling alone.
He could keep his own hours, his own schedule. But the freedom came with the
price of not having anyone around to talk to, to bounce ideas around with… to… Stop
it, Zelgadis. You made your choice. Besides, it’s better being alone. You get
into less trouble that way, and life becomes more peaceful. True, the spark and
excitement aren’t there, but at least I’m not getting tossed into jails or
bombed by overly zealous gunpowder carrying people. Best to get on my way now…
When he got to the bottom of the
tree, he turned and came to a sudden halt. At the foot of the tree across from
him was Lina Inverse. She was sprawled out on the ground, and he wondered if
she had been injured. She must have come out looking for me and tripped and
fallen. She doesn’t give up easily, I’ll grant her that. But why hasn’t she
gotten back up? She looks awfully
still… “Lina?” He knelt beside her, frowning slightly as she didn’t answer.
“Lina.”
She didn’t move, didn’t so much as
twitch when he put his hand on her cheek to wake her. Sensing that something
wasn’t entirely right, he opened his mind to the mage-sight and looked at her.
Lina had always had an aura of
formidable power around her when he looked at her with mage-sight. Until now.
Now there was nothing, not even a flicker of the basic magic of life. It was as
if she wasn’t even there in front of him.
Horrified, and without bothering to
transition his sight gradually back, he blinked back into real-sight and
checked for Lina’s pulse and breath. Both were very shallow but there. It
wasn’t heartening. Something was amiss, and he’d place his bets on it being
that spell that she had somehow diverted to herself, away from him. She always
tried to take on things for her friends… had she taken on something that was
too big for her this time?
He picked her up and began to move
towards the town. It wouldn’t do to have her out in the forests like this. He
had to get her to that hotel and safely out of the way of prying eyes. Then he
had to figure out what was going on. She wasn’t telling him something earlier,
and he was going to have to find out the hard way now. It was time to step into
the Astral Plane on his own and see what Lina was fighting with his own Self.
It was a small town with only one
hotel and he slipped into the hotel with her in his arms, careful not to let
the night clerk see them. It wasn’t hard to wait a few moments until the clerk
had turned, then slip around the corner. From there, he only had to worry about
the other guests. But other guests would cause less of a scene than the hotel
employee. Other guests would probably think that Lina had simply fallen asleep
somewhere, and he was bringing her back to the hotel room. Searching out her
room could be more difficult, unless… yes. She had left her ward ‘glowing’ at
the door.
At the door to her room, he paused
for a moment, uneasy at entering her room for some reason. What was wrong with
him? Was it the presence of her ward? No, it must be the spell of Rezo’s. He
hadn’t felt… rightly himself since the spell first caught him and pulled him
into the maze of memories that he still wasn’t sure were real. Pushing the door
open, he stuffed any thought not related to helping Lina aside and entered the
room.
He laid her on the bed, brushing the
dirt out of her hair and sitting beside the bed. Resting a hand on her arm, it
was a simple act of his will to transfer himself into the Astral Plane and
orient on her. He was far better at it than Amelia. He’d had far more practice.
His specialties were the Astral magics, and he was counting on them now.
Images, memories buffeted him, like
a river swelling through the Astral Plane that was made entirely of his own
life. It was out of control, out of phase, chaotic and uncontained. He was
caught by it, dragged away from her, dragged away from everything that he knew.
Nothing was smooth, the feel of the Astral Plane far more warped and wrenched
than he had ever experienced. If this was what a Ra Tilt felt like on the
receiving end, well, he could almost feel sorry for whatever foe he cast it
upon. But even the Ra Tilt had form and structure to it. This felt like the
Astral Body of Chaos gone shapeless and wild.
Panic started to rise; this was nothing he’d ever encountered in the Astral Plane before. Always before there had been a clear path and a certain calm that was associated with Astral Traveling. The silver thread that bound his spirit to his body had been thin, but strong. Now, with the chaos thus unleashed, the silver thread was becoming tangled, confused. He wasn’t sure how to re-orient himself and get back to the real world. A moment of breathless fear swallowed him, and then he was suddenly thrown back into his body with a solid thud.
He caught his breath, opening his eyes to see Gourry
standing there beside him, a hand on Zelgadis’ shoulder. The blonde swordsman
was fully dressed; eyes steady as he looked to Zelgadis.
“Are you all right, Zelgadis?”
Zelgadis blinked, then nodded. “I think so.” He
looked over at Lina. “Something’s dragging her back to the Astral Plane and
it’s not letting me get to her to help.”
Gourry nodded. “I thought there was trouble. Lina
left to go looking for you three hours ago. I was about to go looking for her
when I saw the light on and you two were in here.”
That long ago…? Zelgadis thought. “I see. But I have to help
her. I can’t just leave her like that. Not when she helped me.” He said,
turning to Gourry.
The blonde swordsman nodded again. “If she stays on
the Astral Plane too long, she’ll die. A high level magic user like Lina can’t
survive on a purely spiritual plane. It would drain every fragment of magic
that she had.”
Zelgadis tried to keep his eyes from becoming too
large. “Gourry? Are you simply quoting what you’ve heard Lina say?” The
frightening thing is that Gourry had just explained why Zelgadis couldn’t see
Lina’s mage-aura. How long as she been Astral? How much time do I have left?
Gourry shook his head. “Heck no. Not a lot of people
can stay on the Astral Plane for longer than a few hours without having some
after-effects. So you’ve got to go find her and bring her back before it’s too
late.”
Somewhere in the back of Zelgadis’ mind, a miniature
Zelgadis fell over. Gourry understanding a situation? It was unheard of. He
narrowed his eyes and looked hard at the blonde. “Are you absolutely certain
that you are Gourry?”
Gourry glanced back at the door. “I’m Gourry Gabriev
and I’ll explain it all later. But right now, go help Lina. Take Golunova. It
might just help you.” He pushed the bladeless hilt into Zelgadis’ hands and
stood at the door. “I’m not letting anyone in here unless it’s Amelia or
somebody who can help. Get going.”
Zelgadis was confused, but he didn’t have the time
to deal with it at the moment. Grabbing the hilt of Golunova, he cast the
Astral Transference spell. “Infinite power, the Light of the Spirit… I call
upon thee in my time of need. Heed my call and open the door to the Astral
Plane!”
Gourry looked back to see Zelgadis slump over
slightly in the chair. There was a good deal that he’d have to explain to the
chimera, but the first priority was bringing Lina safely back. He owed Lina the
greatest life-debt of them all… but only Zelgadis could actually do what was
needed.
He could wait.