Chapter
9
Secrets
Revealed
Lina woke up with the headache to end all headaches. Naturally, this made her even more irritable than she normally would have been in the morning, but it didn’t stop her from noticing that Gourry wasn’t in the chair by the door anymore. Sitting up, she looked across the room in the early morning light through the
shutters
and saw two blue eyes looking back at her from the shadow that had fallen by
the door.
It was Zelgadis, having no doubt
relieved Gourry sometime during the night. He simply nodded to her, the ghost
of a smile flickering across his face before he turned to the door to allow her
to get up and prepare for the morning.
“Hey… Zel…?” Lina asked quietly.
A small grouping of rocks that
might pass as an eyebrow lifted as he turned back to look at her. “Yes, Lina?”
Lina picked at the blanket,
looking down at it as he walked closer. Okay, Lina, get yourself together. You
meant to tell him before he pulled his vanishing act, you went into the Astral
and he came to fetch you… so why can’t I get up the courage to say anything?
She inhaled sharply, holding her breath as she drew up some courage.
Zelgadis stopped beside the bed,
frowning slightly as he looked to her, hearing what he thought was a pained
intake of breath. “Lina? Is something wrong?
She shook her head, closing her
eyes and releasing her breath with very quiet and slow words. “No… I… about
yesterday, Zel. I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to snap at you.”
He offered a half-smile to her, a
gesture that she couldn’t see. “I know. That’s why you came out to find me last
night, isn’t it?”
Lina looked up at him. “Did you
find me? I went out to the woods, to find you, and I remember falling, then I
was caught in the spell.”
He nodded. “You fell almost at the
foot of the tree where I was sleeping. How did you find me, anyway? I was using
a blocking spell…”
Lina dropped the corner of the
blanket. “Zel… I know you. It’s not like I’m a complete stranger. You’ve been
sleeping in trees since you were old enough to climb them!” it hit her not
three seconds after the words fell out of her mouth that there was no way she
should have known that, and she clapped both hands over
her
mouth.
He stared at her, uncertain if he
should stay, or flee the now-incredibly awkward situation.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Let me
explain!” Lina said, reaching out to grab the cuff of his sleeve. “Please…
sit…?”
He sat slowly on the edge of the bed, looking at her with
conflicting emotions. How could she know? He wasn’t sure he wanted to know.
Lina sighed, took a deep breath,
and plunged in. “Since that night I found you caught by the spell, I’ve been…
seeing and sometimes even interacting with your memories, your past. I’ve
climbed trees with you, learned spells with you- which has an interesting
promise indeed, and I’ve…” her voice trailed off as she
looked
to the closed shutters. “I know what it felt like when…” She turned to look at
him, making eye contact as she whispered the last few words. “Rezo turned you
into a chimera.”
Silence fell in the room like a
thick blanket, shock creeping unbidden into his wide, unguarded eyes.
She cringed in her mind, afraid that she had overstepped
the friendship that existed between them. “Zel… I-“
He lifted a hand, stopping her in
mid sentence, gaze still holding hers. “What else?” He asked. “What else do you
know?” He looked at her, intensity filling his eyes with a strange desperation.
Lina blinked, looking at him. That
certainly wasn’t the reaction that she had seen coming. He was taking this
almost too well. Um… have I fallen back into the spell again? She did a quick
mental cast-about for signs of being in the Astral Plane, but found only solid
reality and mentally shrugged. Okay, Lina. Time to
start
talking, she thought. So, she opened her mouth and started to talk.
“Well… the spell acts oddly and
sometimes I’m just watching, unable to do a thing against it, but other times
I’m there talking to you. You remember the first night…” she started.
“The night that you had to heal
yourself afterwards, yes,” he replied, a tinge of shame creeping into his
voice.
“That was just the start of it….”
She told him everything, from beginning
to end, the memories that she had seen, the ones she had interacted with, and
occasionally she saw him shake his head, or nod slowly. At the end of the long
monologue, she sighed, and shook her head. “I’m sorry, Zel. I didn’t mean to
intrude on your life.”
He shook his head slowly,
considering the situation. “I know, Lina. But now… what? Some of it I recall as
if it were a dream I was having with you in it… others I am unaware of your
being there. After all is done, where does it end? Where does it leave us?”
Lina watched him stand up and turn
to open the window and look out to the town with a brooding sort of glare. Glad
that she’d only taken off her belt and boots, she tiptoed out of the bed and
padded up behind him. “Zel… look… I don’t know how you feel about this… I know
that I’d be fairly upset if someone else suddenly knew almost everything about
me growing up. I just wanted to let you know that… well, I understand more now.
I want to help you with whatever this spell is that is trying to destroy you…”
He turned around suddenly,
catching her into another embrace, only this time it was entirely intended as
the hug that it was. “Lina… I…” Clumsy
fool, he thought to himself. How do
you say how you feel to someone like her? If I say it wrong… I don’t wish to
offend her!
To his utter surprise, she stepped
in closer to him, wrapping her arms around him, to hug him close. Burying her
face into his chest, she whispered “Zel… I don’t want you to feel…”
There was a sudden knock at the
door, and Amelia’s voice could be heard quite clearly through the thin wood.
“Miss Lina? Are you awake? It’s breakfast, and Mister Gourry might eat it all
if you don’t hurry and come down…”
Lina jumped, pulling herself
guiltily out of Zelgadis’ embrace and hollered back. “Yeah, I’ll be down in a
minute, Amelia. Tell that jellyfish-brain that if he doesn’t leave me some
food, I’ll have to fireball him!”
“Okay, I’ll do that…” There was a
pause and Lina grabbed for her belt on the table by the bed. “Miss Lina, have
you heard from Mister Zelgadis?”
Zelgadis looked up to the ceiling and
sighed. This could get sticky…
Lina shot Zelgadis a look, then
hollered back at Amelia as she pulled on a boot. “I’m sure we’ll run into him
in town, Amelia. Give me a second to put my boots on…” She looked down to pick
up the other boot and pull it onto her foot.
When she looked up, the room was
empty except for her. Zelgadis had obviously utilized the open window, taking
the hint that Lina had offered by way of talking to Amelia. She shook her head
and pulled her boot on. She would have liked more time to talk to him, without
the pressure of the others. There was so much
to
ask him, so much to say…
She walked over and opened the
door to see Amelia still standing there. “Oh! Miss Lina…” the girl frowned
slightly, looking past Lina, and into the room behind the sorceress. “ Um…was
someone in there with you?”
Lina looked to Amelia for a
moment, then stepped out of the way so Amelia could see clearly into the
now-empty room. “I was in there, but it’s empty now. Come on, Amelia. I’m
hungry, and Gourry’s going to eat it all.” Okay,
so it wasn’t exactly an answer, but if I know Amelia, she won’t ask… and that’s
a good
thing right now, because I
don’t know what I’d tell her, Lina thought.
Amelia nodded to Lina, still frowning as she looked into Lina’s room. Strange… but she could have sworn that she felt the trace of Zelgadis’ magic in there. She looked at Lina’s retreating form and shook her head. Something was definitely up, and Amelia was going to get to the bottom of it, no matter what.