THE
SORCERER’S FOLLY
Part 1
By: Ashe Rhyder
Disclaimers: Main Slayers cast and spell arsenal are property of the people
who actually own them and the people who produce the show, book, and other
stuff. Not me. Don't sue, I'm broke. Onegai?
Author's note: Please send me all reviews.
Warning: this isn't a WAFF fic
SLASH.
Blood splashed upwards, defying the
laws of physics to splash in her eyes as she completed the final lunge. He
looked at her in shock, partly because she had defeated him, and partly because
his blood dyed her deep brown eyes crimson, but mostly because he hadn’t
realized that he was even capable of bleeding anymore.
“I will find you,” he stated
simply, ignoring the long blade that pinned him to the wall like a bug. “Even
if I have to hunt you for a thousand years, I will find you.”
“Rot in Hell, bastard,” she
growled, pulling away from him. His pale hand fell limply to his side as she
turned and walked away.
“Rynia!” His cry was shortly
followed by a loud, hollow beat that shook the castle to the very foundation.
“RYNIA!”
She did not turn around.
“Rynia...” A familiar numbness
filled him as she left him to die. Alone. Again.
Ashe Rhyder presents...
THE
SORCERER’S FOLLY
Snow and sleet pelted a group of
weary travelers as it painfully made its way down the icy mountain side.
“How much farther do you think it
is to a town?” The leader, a girl who’s slender form and fiery red hair were
mostly obscured by her black traveling cloak, called back to her companions.
“It’s impossible to tell.” One
of her comrades who now spoke was a somewhat lean young man who was nearly
rendered invisible due to the combination of his slightly-darker-than-ivory
clothing and the blindingly white snow. “There should be a town at the
bottom of this mountain, but with this weather, it would be too easy to stumble
and break away from the group. We might be going straight down, or we may be
going in circles.”
“We’re lost!” A small girl with
black hair covered mostly by a green hood wailed.
“Yare, yare, minna, you’re not
lost.” A tall man dressed as a priest addressed them cheerfully, despite the
less than pleasant weather. “The town is less than half a mile ahead, provided
that you veer slightly to the right.”
“Really?” The final member of the
team was a tall blond man wearing blue armor. “But Amelia just said we were
lost...”
It was not the first nor the last
time that his friends collectively face-faulted on that trip.
Half an hour later they managed to
forge their way through the heavy snow and to the edge of town, where to their
immense relief, the town’s inn was located. Lina knocked impatiently on the
door, and was quite happy to find that she still had some feeling in her hand,
albeit a small amount.
After a very long minute the
innkeeper, a tall, skinny, middle-aged man in a brown tunic and pants, arrived
at the door, carrying a candlestick.
“Hurry up, hurry up, the story
teller is about to start!” The innkeeper held open the door for them, closing
it quickly behind the last traveler.
“Storyteller?” The priest arched
one of his purple eyebrows as he brushed the snow from his red-headed companion,
much to her distress. Oddly enough, the violet-haired man had no snow on him,
but the local wrote it off as a clerical spell and helped the others remove
their snow-caked over-garments.
“Aye. A story teller arrived in the
village before the blizzard began yesterday,” he nodded, hanging up the two
women’s cloaks. “He’s to earn his room and board by providing us with a
bit of entertainment while we wait for the storm to blow over.” He moved to
the white clad man to help remove his iced over clothing, but the youth drew
back quickly. With a sharp manipulation of the elements fire and air he stood
more or less dry, then slipped over to the red-head’s side. The innkeeper
shrugged; if the boy wanted to hide his face, he probably had a very good
reason... which was none of the older man’s business. As long as the young man
didn’t drip on the floor...
“What story is he going to tell?”
The violet tresses of the priest swayed slightly as he tilted his head to the
side. “I’m a... collector of rare stories from many cities. I’ve heard
some quite interesting ones regarding this area.”
“Not quite sure.” The older man
admitted. “Not that it matters. The important thing is to keep the people
entertained.”
“Ah.” Xellos Metallium smiled,
but it was a dark grin that graced his face.
The group sat down around an elderly
man with the rest of the audience, and listened intently as the story teller
constructed a legend of a beautiful heroine and an evil sorcerer who had
threatened to bury the entire valley in ice and snow.
Zelgadis frowned under his ivory cowl
and gently massaged away the growing discomfort in his chest as the story teller
ended his fable with the girl impaling the sorcerer on her sword. He glanced
over to Lina, and found the red-head with an statement of boredom on her face.
Her ruby-red eyes only reflected her displeasure. Amelia and Gourry, however,
were fascinated with the tale. Zelgadis sighed; there was just no accounting for
taste with some people.
“Pardon me, sir, but if I may,
I’d like to tell a story as well.” Violet-haired Xellos stood up and
approached the bard, who watched the priest carefully. “You see, I have also
heard of the legend you spun for us, but my version is right. This story
must be told properly, or else it loses its meaning entirely.”
The old story teller gaped at the
traveler’s audacity and sputtered in protest, but Xellos shoo-ed him away.
“This story has been spread
throughout my people for nearly a thousand years.” The trickster cleared his
throat purposefully, then began to gather power between his hands to form an
image spell. “We call it the Sorcerer’s Folly.
“Once upon a time, this valley was
ruled by a powerful sorcerer named Zeruphim. Zeruphim was a master of astral and
elemental magic, but he preferred to use ice magic because it was nearly as cold
as he was. Zeruphim wasn’t a cruel ruler, mind you, but he was cold; terribly
cold. He felt nothing. No love, no hate, and no pain. Because of this,
his heart ceased to beat. He did not breathe, did not bleed, and he most
certainly did not die.” Xellos’ spell showed a picture of a man who’s face
was hidden by shadows. “But he was not alive.”
“That’s you in ten or twenty
years if you don’t lighten up, Zel.” Lina whispered, elbowing her friend.
Zelgadis snorted in response and glared at her.
“The sorcerer ruled over the valley
for five hundred years, never changing, ever cold, until one day, something
terrible happened.” Xellos paused for dramatic emphasis.
“War broke out?” Amelia supplied.
“He lost his powers?” Lina looked
worried.
“He ran out of food?” Gourry
paled.
“He fell in love?” Zelgadis
rolled his eyes.
“Exactly.” The priest smiled at
the shaman, causing Zelgadis to have to swallow the discomfort that welled up.
“The sorcerer fell in love with a beautiful girl from the village named Rynia.”
The image spell showed a slender girl with unruly auburn hair and light brown
eyes. “Rynia was vibrant and energetic, full of very deep emotions. This is
part of what drew him to her. Others say that it was because of her beauty, but
no mater the reason, he fell in love with her. As most men do when they are
courting women, he gave her a gift.”
“What kind?” Amelia demanded.
“Was it sweet and romantic, and did he profess his undying love for her--”
the young princess was cut off as Lina whapped her upside the head.
“Let him finish,” the sorceress
scowled.
“Because this valley is located
between five mountains, it normally shouldn’t see weather as drastic as the
storm out there.” Xellos gestured towards the door. “That natural factor, in
addition to the sorcerer’s power, kept the weather here relatively mild at the
time. Most of the snow the villagers had seen was on the distant mountain tops;
it was rare for it to snow as much as once per generation. In an effort to
please her with the delicate beauty of the tiny crystals, he made it
snow, fashioning his domain into a winter’s wonderland. Then he disguised
himself well and went down to the village to see if she was enjoying his gift.
If she was, he would present himself to her and pledge his love. If not... well,
he didn’t want to think about that.
“When he appeared in the city, he
found her standing at the fountain in the town square.” A hunched -over figure
in a dark cloak hobbled to the girl in the picture. Despite the ragged cloak and
decrepit posture, if one looked carefully enough, he or she would find that the
flesh on the hands was a little too smooth to be an old man’s, and were far
too delicate looking to belong to a beggar. No one was paying close enough
attention but Zelgadis, who was always a little too observant than was good for
him.
‘He’s taking a great interest in
this story,’ the chimera thought. ‘With detail like that...’
“ ‘How do you like the snow?’
he asked the girl.” Xellos’ voice changed between characters; softer and
airy for the sorcerer, and higher and perky for the girl. “ ‘It is cold and
lifeless,’ the girl replied, ‘Much like the sorcerer who sent it to us. His
heart is like this snow. I doubt he could ever even love someone. The world
would probably end before then.’ The sorcerer was deeply hurt and shocked by
her words. He was so surprised that he let his disguise fall off, revealing his
true form.” On the spell’s image plane the heavy mantle fell down. The shot
showed him from the back, so only his long, silver hair could be seen as he took
a step back. The girl looked shocked, then angry.
“She rejected him?” Amelia’s
jaw dropped. Several angry glares turned on her.
“Don’t interrupt!” Lina whapped
her again.
“Pained by her scorn, the sorcerer
fled back to his castle, and was not heard from again all winter. He spent a
very cold month brooding alone, and because of his distraction and depression,
the light snowfall became a heavy blizzard. By the end of that first month, the
valley was almost buried in snow. Finally the village elders decided to send the
girl up to the castle in hopes that she would apologize. The girl agreed to go
because the lives of her friends and family were at stake, but she had no
intentions of apologizing. She saw the blizzards as a childish act of vengeance
on the sorcerer’s half, just as she saw him as a spoiled-rotten over-grown
child throwing a temper tantrum when something didn’t go his way.”
“How terrible!” Once more Amelia
interrupted, and once more people glared.
“It is how it happened.” Xellos
shrugged. “She made her way through the storms, up the mountain and to the
castle named Kokoro no Yami.” The trickster’s spell eliminated the need to
explain why the fortress was named Heart of Darkness. With high walls
made of the blackest stone and windows made of blood-red glass, the castle
appeared to be the very heart of all darkness. Lina could imagine standing in
one of the great halls that the palace must have, watching the rain run down the
windows, lightning throwing the crimson hue onto the walls. The glare from the
windows almost made the light seem like blood running down the walls...
The red head shuddered, expelling the
gruesome image from her conscious thought.
“When the girl arrived at the
castle, the sorcerer was waiting for her.” Xellos’ spell showed a young
woman dressed in winter furs standing in a large entrance chamber facing a tall
man garbed in white robes leaning against the railing of one of the twin
staircases. “He easily disarmed her, but he was still in love with her, so he
could not bring himself to kill her. Zeruphim’s heart ached when she attacked
him, and a slight tremor ran through his body. The sorcerer and the girl reached
a stalemate; she could not kill him, and he would not kill her. So Rynia
decided, being the bluntly honest person she was, to tell him why she had come.
‘I want you to stop the snow,’ she told him. ‘The village will be buried
under snow and ice if the blizzards don’t stop.’ The sorcerer was shocked,
partially because he had forgotten about the weather, but also because she spoke
to him. ‘I will stop the storms under one condition,’ he said at last.
‘This valley will remain free of the snow and ice, but only as long as you
stay with me in this castle. Should you decline, or ever leave, I will bury this
valley in the cold forever.’ ”
“What an unjust thing to do!” The
young princess yelled.
“Amelia, would you please just BE
QUIET!” Lina finally lost her temper and nearly threw a fireball at the
shorter girl, but Zelgadis gently grasped her wrist.
“Not here.” His cool, detached
voice whispered, reminding her in two words that it was neither the time nor the
place for ventilation of anger.
“If I may continue?” Xellos
gestured to the frozen image.
“Go ahead.” The white clad youth
nodded.
“In order to protect her family and
friends in the valley, Rynia agreed to stay with him.” The girl in the spell
nodded. “And so she spent three months with him. He endeavored to become her
friend, offered her gifts and was kinder to her than to anyone in his five
hundred years of life. Yet he never once told her that he loved her, because he
knew that she hated him, and that she would use his love of her to hurt him
further. So while he grew to love her more and more, the intensity of her hatred
for him grew. She hated him for keeping her away from the people she loved, and
she never knew that he loved her at all. His love for her was to be his
downfall, though, because it was an emotion of the essence of life. It caused
the impossible to happen.”
The whole tavern seemed to shake as
the sound of a single heartbeat magnified a hundred times echoed throughout the
chamber. Zelgadis jerked at the noise; the long, pointed ears hidden by his hood
caught the sound waves and further amplified them.
“What the hell?” Lina gasped.
“A heartbeat...” The hooded youth
murmured.
“That’s right.” The priest
agreed. “The sorcerer loved her so much that his heart began to beat again.
Not anywhere near the rate of a normal human heartbeat, of course, it began very
slowly, only around one beat per day. But his heartbeat would echo through the
castle, and Rynia knew that he was weakening.
“One day right before summer’s
equinox, she found him kneeling before a pillar of white marble located inside
the temple of the castle.” Xellos continued. “It was a great surprise to her
to find something as pure and white inside the Heart of Darkness, at the very
heart of the castle, no less. Still it was here that she issued her final
challenge to him. ‘Either kill me or let me go,’ she told him, ‘because I
can no longer stand to be kept here.’ Zeruphim looked up at her and very
calmly asked, ‘Why? Do I not give you everything you need, and anything you
want, save your freedom?’ To which she replied, ‘I hate you and cannot stand
to be near you! I would kill you before I called you by name!’ And Zeruphim
fell silent for a moment as he thought about her words. ‘Did you know,’ said
he, ‘that you have never once smiled at me? I will do anything if you will
smile at me.’ Rynia was infuriated. How dare he ask for a show of kindness
when he kept her prisoner for so very long? ‘The only thing that would make me
smile,’ she growled, ‘is to see my family sword buried in your heart.’ A
great pain went through the sorcerer, because at that moment he realized that
she would never love him.”
The picture spell showed the man’s
hand twitch nervously, as if he were debating on grabbing an object by his side.
Finally his hand closed, but not on open air. The sorcerer’s hand tightly
gripped the handle of Rynia’s family sword.
“Finally the sorcerer made a
decision.” Zeruphim drew the sword out of its scabbard and handed it to the
girl on screen. “ ‘If it will make you smile, I will allow you to pierce my
heart with your blade. But know this, no wound you can inflict upon me now will
ever compare with the damage you have already dealt me.’ The girl shrugged;
his words held no meaning to her. Then all at once, she lunged and caught him of
guard. Her sword easily cut through his flesh and impaled his heart, but the
damage did not stop there. The power of the thrust plunged the blade deep into
the marble behind him, pinning him there forever.”
Amelia opened her mouth automatically
to say something about the horrible circumstances, but a glare from both Lina
and Zelgadis silenced her.
“As if by magic, a bit of his blood
splashed from his wound into her eyes and dyed them forever crimson.” A faint
trail of scarlet liquid lit up the otherwise dark screen. “He was capable of
bleeding again from the moment that his heart began beating again, you see,
though not very much for his heart did not beat anywhere near human pace.
“He grabbed her by the hand while
she was blinded by the blood and held her palm to his cheek.” Xellos looked
over at his traveling companions and made note of Lina’s rapt attention,
Amelia’s shocked statement, Gourry’s frown, and the slight pressure the
chimera was applying to his white clad chest. “He said, ‘Do you see what I
am willing to do for you? I will suffer for you, create or destroy for you, I
would grant you your freedom if you ever would return to me once I let you go. I
bleed for you, and no other, because I lo--” He was cut off by her slapping
him. ‘You are sick,’ she spat and turned to leave. ‘Wait, Rynia,
please!’ He grabbed her hand again. ‘Won’t you smile for me? I have done
all you asked of me, please smile at me.’ She spun to glare at him and hissed.
‘I will never smile at you, Zeruphim,’ she sneered. The sorcerer was shocked
into silence because she had said his name, but recovered as she tried to pull
away again. ‘I will find you,’ he said simply, ignoring the pain that
blossomed in his chest. ‘Even if I have to hunt you for a thousand years, I
will find you.’ Rynia jerked away and growled, ‘Rot in Hell, bastard.’
Then she turned and walked away. ‘Rynia!’ The sorcerer cried. ‘RYNIA!’
And when she was gone from his sight, he tenderly whispered, ‘Rynia... I love
you...’ ”
“Xellos-san, that’s a horrible,
depressing ending!” Amelia shouted.
“I’m not finished,” the priest
smirked darkly, causing the princess to swallow the icy lump of fear that
suddenly leapt into her throat. “There’s more to he Sorcerer’s Folly than
a mere unrequited love, or it wouldn’t have been so widely known amidst my
people.” Xellos tapped his staff on the ground, causing the image of a blurred
silvery figure to sharpen.
“Oh, is there now?” Zelgadis
snorted and flexed his left hand, as if it went to sleep and he was trying to
reawaken the numb appendage.
“Zeruphim could have removed the
sword from his chest on his own strength at any time, you see,” the Trickster
explained. “But he didn’t, because his beloved had willed that he be in that
position. After a year, though, his depression and the growing weakness of his
heart, he was unable to move it. Not that he tried very hard, mind you, he
didn’t try at all. However, it was at this time that he was approached by a
demon.”
“What kind of demon?” Lina raised
an eyebrow.
“Probably a Vengeance one.”
Gourry shrugged and received many surprised and bemused looks from the people
who knew him. “What?”
“As Gourry said, it was a Vengeance
demon.” Xellos marveled. “This demon was drawn to the Heart of Darkness by
the intense loathing and depression surrounding the sorcerer. The demon was
unaware that Zeruphim’s hatred was of himself for messing up his once chance
at love, but it didn’t matter. The demon offered the sorcerer a deal; the
demon could set Zeruphim’s soul wandering for a thousand years so that he
might possess a body, hunt down the girl, torture her, and kill her (not
necessarily in that order). However, if Zeruphim failed to get revenge on her
within those thousand years, the sorcerer’s soul would be destroyed. On top of
that, if he ever returned to the castle, his soul would be ripped from whatever
body he was wearing and thrown back into his old body.
“Zeruphim knew that he had very few
options because his heart was beating. If he remained in his body, he would die
slowly and painfully. Yet if he left, he would never be able to bring himself to
kill her.” Xellos’ spell showed the silver-haired man with his face bowed to
the ground. “He accepted the deal, though, even knowing that his body would
suffer and his death would be drawn out over a millennium, because he knew he
could be near her. He could be near her, and she would never have to know. In
this way, with him as a free-floating spirit and her as a being of flesh and
blood, he was sure that he could love her and not get hurt.
“It took three days for the demon
to strip Zeruphim’s soul from his body.” Xellos’ illusion shone upon a
pale man bound to a pillar by steel and rope; steel to hold his heart, and rope
to prevent a premature death due to the sorcerer’s struggling. “Three days
of mind-numbing pain, worse than any he had ever felt before. A lesser man would
have snapped. By all rights, he should have snapped. To go five hundred
years without feeling a thing, and then to violently be assaulted by pain on
levels usually reserved for the damned, it was a miracle and a testament to his
love for Rynia. Finally, when the spell was finished, Zeruphim was free.
Naturally, the first thing he wanted to do was check on Rynia, but the demon
cautioned him once more. ‘Remember, should you return to this castle while the
sword is still in your body, your soul will be thrown back into it’s original
body, and you will die. Or, should you fail to extract revenge by the time one
thousand years is up, your soul will be destroyed.’ Zeruphim nodded. He
didn’t care, after all. He only wanted to be near her for as long as he could
before he vanished.
“Zeruphim followed Rynia in spirit
form for the rest of her life, by her side, but eternally out of sight. When she
died, he followed her soul into her next life. He was pleasantly surprised to
see that when she awoke as a new born child, she retained the brilliant crimson
eyes of her former life. It was a sign to him that he was still a part of her,
to transcend time and space...
“He spent many of her lifetimes by
her side in the form of an invisible and untouchable ghost of the past. He found
that he was able to use his magical powers as a spirit, and would secretly use
them to protect her throughout her life.” The image spell showed a wispy
silver figure floating happily by a young woman with sandy blond hair and
scarlet eyes. A large beast crept up silently behind the girl, but there was a
brief flash of blue light, and the creature disappeared. The girl continued on
without noticing. “However, after nine hundred and seventy-nine years, he
found that he would only be able to be near her one more lifetime before he was
destroyed. His one thousand year time limit was almost up, and in not one
of her reincarnations has he done a thing that could be counted toward
‘revenge’. So Zeruphim made a very difficult decision; he decided to take a
mortal body in order to pursue her as a living being. He dreamed of holding her
in his arms just once, and telling her he loved her before he was destroyed.
Over the years, he had watched her grow and develop into a kinder, more loving
person. He watched her become someone who could love him.
“Zeruphim took great care in
finding a body. He did not want to displace another soul in his abrupt
‘hijacking’ because his experience on the astral plane taught him that it
wasn’t an ordeal to place innocent people into. Cold he may have been, but
still he had morals. Besides that, he knew Rynia wouldn’t have wanted him to
steal another’s chance at life. So he chose the body of a still-born child,
one that was strangled during birth by accident. The original soul had fled the
dying body, so Zeruphim settled in with ease. However, the majority of his
former powers were lost when he did this, for they were used to restore life to
the child’s body. As a result, he was incredibly weak.” The baby on the
illusion’s plane suddenly moved in the grieving midwife’s hands. The elderly
woman had given up the child or dead when he quite sharply grabbed her hand and
opened his wide, crystal blue eyes.
“Whatever happened to him?”
Amelia asked. “Did he find Rynia and confess his love for her?”
“No one really knows.” Xellos
smiled mysteriously. “No one even knows if he ever found her before his
thousand years ended. Actually, according to legend, Zeruphim is still
wandering. If my calculations are correct, he’s got less than a year left. Who
knows? Maybe he’s found her. Maybe he’s by her side, waiting for the right
moment to say that he lo--”
“ARGH!!!” Zelgadis suddenly
pitched forward, clutching his chest.
“Zelgadis?” Lina and Amelia were
at his side in a second, while Gourry hovered protectively above them. Xellos
stayed where he was, but his violet eyes slipped open and regarded the scene
with detached interest.
“Zelgadis?” Lina reached out to
touch his shoulder, but his gloved hand darted out and intercepted. His smooth
stone fingers closed tightly around her wrist; tightly, but not painfully. His
glacial eyes pierced hers, but they were no longer cold and calculating.
Instead, the blue depths were full of fear and pain. No one else could see these
emotions because his hood had miraculously stayed in place during his fall, and,
as he was facing Lina, only she was able to look under his cowl.
“I’m going to die,” he
whispered. “This adventure will kill me.”
“Zelgadis, what are you talking
about?” She hissed.
“The Heart of Darkness will destroy
me.” His eyes did not move, but the fear subsided and was replaced by deep
sorrow.
“Gourry, let’s get him
upstairs.” She shifted to the side to allow the tall blonde to pick up the
semi-conscious young man, then turned to the innkeeper. “How much...?”
“On the house.” The elder man
waved it off. “Your priest tells excellent stories.”
Lina’s glee was cut short as
Zelgadis let out a choked cry and Gourry grunted under the exertion of carrying
the chimera’s weight.
“Thanks,” she smiled weakly.
“Which room?” He told them, and then sighed as the rushed to find it.
“Hope that kid will be okay,” he
shook his head.
“Oh, he’ll be around for a little
while longer.” Xellos shrugged as he walked past the innkeeper. “He’s
survived much worse. It’s probably just something that he picked up from
wandering around in the snow. I hear that the atmosphere here can be
killer...” The Mazoku smirked as he ascended the stairs to follow his
companions.
Zelgadis was lying still on the bed
inside the room; too still. The violet haired youth barely moved to even
breathe; if Lina and her friends hadn’t long ago become accustomed to his
slight motions, they would have thought he was dead. His normally blue skin was
an ashen shade of blue-gray found only in clouds on rainy days and was freezing
to the touch. His icy blue eyes were glazed over and unfocused, adding to the
notion that he should be dead. Lina clasped one of his frigid hands in hers, and
Amelia did the same with his other hand. Both girls whispered the incantations
to every healing spell they knew, hoping that one of them would effect him.
“C’mon Zelgadis, please snap out
of it,” Lina thought. “Whatever’s wrong, you’re stronger than this,
aren’t you?” Please, Zel, please...”
The chimera, under their watchful
gazes, suddenly sat up with a coughing fit. Lina took the opportunity to relax
and prepared to scold him--
“L-sama, Zel, you scared the--”
-- but stopped as she noticed flecks
of crimson staining the hand he was using to weakly cover his mouth.
“Zelgadis!” Immediately she had
him lay on his side and focused her healing magic on his upper chest.
Gourry turned and left the room;
there was nothing left that he could do.
“How is Rock-head doing?” Xellos
asked from the hall, sitting cross-legged in mid-air. The swordsman paused,
watching the dark priest through jaded eyes.
“I don’t think he’ll make
it.” The blond finally admitted. “I had an uncle once who had similar
symptoms... The healers said his heart just gave up; they couldn’t do anything
for him. Didn’t sound like Zel had much of a will to live earlier. Why is he
sick, Xellos? Why here, why now?”
“Sore wa himitsu desu,” the
purple haired man taunted, but his smile was strained. “I don’t have your
answers, Gourry. And even if I did, I don’t think I’d be at liberty to tell
you.” The blond gazed at him with in confusion, as if he was trying to see
behind the trickster’s mask.
“You know.” The swordsman stated
at last. “You won’t tell us, but you do know what’s making Zel
sick.” His statement didn’t change as he spoke; his face remained neutral
and relaxed. Upon saying that, the taller man turned away and went back into the
room.
Xellos opened his eyes and stared
intently at the chamber wherein the comatose chimera lay.
“We shall see,” he murmured with
a returning smirk. “We shall see...”
To be continued. . .
