The
Sorcerer’s Folly
Part 2
By Ashe Rhyder
It was raining heavily, and
occasionally lightning flashed across the dark sky. Lina glanced around and
found herself standing in a large chamber. The high stone walls were made of
smooth black marble, and the windows were of scarlet glass. The lightning threw
the crimson hue against the far walls, and made them bleed.
“Is this... the Heart of
Darkness?” She wondered aloud, and was answered by the empty echo of her own
voice. “Hello?” This time, there was no echo, only a familiar, deep, slow
beat.
“A single heart beat?” A distant
memory of a hooded youth stirred. “Who’s there?”
“Rynia?” A soft male voice called
out. “Rynia, have you come back to me?”
‘Rynia was the name of the girl in
the story...’ She realized. “ Who’s there?”
“I can here your voice, but I
can’t see you.” The man said. “You must think I’m crazy, or stupid to
still be... here. I mean, I should have... I mean...”
‘What was the name of the guy in
that story?’ Lina racked her brain in an attempt to recall the sorcerer’s
name. “Zeruphim!”
In an instant the darkness that
obscured the back of the room was lifted. Lina found herself staring at a pillar
of white marble, against which was tied a man whose garb and pallor almost
camouflaged him.
“That’s right, it’s me.” The
captive was bound with heavy coarse ropes and as according to the legend was
pinned to the tall slab by a sword through the heart. Slowly his eyes opened,
revealing deep blue eyes that shifted slightly between pain and bliss. “Rynia,
please come where I can se you.” He coughed violently, a deep, moist sound
that told Lina that blood was seeping into his lungs.
“Zeruphim...” Once more she
marveled at the figure from a fairy tale.
“I must be dreaming,” he
murmured. “You swore you’d kill me before you spoke my name, yet three times
you have already said it... Although, if this were any good dream, I
would be free... do you know how much you torture me? I’ve been with you,
giving you power and strength for nearly a thousand years, and you never once...
no. I won’t dwell on the past. I don’t have enough time to dwell on the
past.” Another heartbeat rippled through the air, mirroring the agony on his
face.
“Zeruphim?” she walked up to him
and reached out.
“I forgive you, you know.” He
gazed straight through her. “There will never be anything I can’t forgive
you for, because I love--”
Her hand touched his face; connected
with his frigid and smooth flesh, and he shattered.
Lina woke up feeling his saddened
cerulean gaze upon her. She opened her eyes and found herself nose to nose with
Zelgadis.
“Lina?” he blinked. She noted
that his color had returned, and he looked as if he had never collapsed.
“How are you feeling?” She asked,
drawing back quickly.
“Fine.” He blushed. “What
happened?”
“I think you had a heart attack.”
Lina’s grim statement relied the severity of the situation.
“That’s ridiculous.” Zelgadis
shook his head. “I can’t have a heart attack.”
“Zel, I’m serious.”
“So am I.” His voice turned cold.
“If I had a heart attack, there’s no chance I could have recovered as neatly
and as quickly as I have. Hell, I wouldn’t even be able to sit up, no matter
how much healing magic you and Amelia have pumped into me. I’m fine.
Nothing’s wrong.”
“Like Hell nothing’s wrong!”
She yelled, jumping to her feet. Her outcry woke Amelia and Gourry, who had been
sleeping in nearby chairs.
“Zelgadis-san!” The princess
cried joyfully.
“Oi, Zel, so you survived your
heart attack?” Gourry beamed.
“It wasn’t a heart attack!”
Zelgadis shouted.
“Maa, maa, Zel-kun, settle down or
you really will have a heart attack,” Xellos teased as he materialized
into the room. The chimera glared at him coldly, barely resisting the urge to
growl in his frustration.
“What do you want, Xellos?” He
settled for speaking in a very low, very quiet tone laced with malice.
“I came to check on you.” The
trickster retained his smile. “No one really expected you to live through the
night, except Lina and myself, of course.”
Zelgadis was about to snap back, but
he was stopped short by a violent earthquake. He fell forward and out of bed,
landing hard on his rear by Lina.
“What was that?” Amelia
whimpered.
“Well, it felt an awful lot like an
earthquake,” the chimera replied dryly.
“Maybe.” Lina frowned and stuck
her head out the window to look around. “There’s no fissure in sight,
though.”
“Lina-chan, be careful, there may
be--” a tremor ran through the ground as Xellos spoke, “--aftershocks...
Yare, yare, there’ve been a lot of interruptions as of late.” Lina was
thrown backwards, but caught quickly by Zelgadis.
“You okay?” The blue-skinned
youth asked quietly.
“Yeah, just shaken.” The red head
smirked at her pun.
“Lina...” he groaned. “That was
horrible.”
“I know,” she grinned. “Ain’t
it grand?” Zelgadis only sighed and helped her stand upright.
“What do you think caused the
earthquake?” Amelia asked tearfully.
“Well, normally, earthquakes are
caused by the shifting of tectonic plates...” The red headed sorceress
launched into a long and technical explanation of what normal earthquakes looked
like and why it couldn’t have been a normal earthquake and lost everyone to
dreamland via boredom. This included Xellos and Zelgadis, who usually paid close
attention. The former would occasionally whip out a pad of paper and a pen,
eliciting exasperated sighs from his companions, while the former would merely
stow the information mentally.
“... and so, due to the lack of
damage despite the violence of the shake, coupled with the lack of fissure and
location of the mountains, this cannot have been a normal earthquake.” Lina
came off her “professor” kick, only to find her whole “class” asleep.
The petite sorceress fumed, then released her tension in the form of a large but
weak fireball. Her friends woke abruptly, and lightly toasted.
“So it’s a magically induced
earthquake?” Zelgadis yawned. “For what purpose? It doesn’t appear to do
too much damage...”
“Maybe someone’s making
milkshakes?” Gourry suggested. Lina sighed and put her head in her hands.
“Lina-san, Lina-san!” Amelia
called, looking out the window. “All the snow is vanishing!”
“Eh?!” Lina, Gourry, and Zelgadis
darted over to her and saw the last of the once thigh-deep snow vanish without a
trace.
“Wow, that’s convenient,” the
blond marveled.
“A little too
convenient...” the red head scowled. Beside her, the chimera remained as
silent and a still as the statue he sometimes appeared to be.
“Local folklore says that the snow
often vanishes like that around here because of the Heart of Darkness.” Xellos
said from behind them. “Legend has it that the castle orchestrates great
blizzards every winter to represent the sorcerer’s grief, and then causes the
snow to disappear to represent Rynia’s stay with Zeruphim. These freak storms
can come and go at any time, and can last anywhere from three days to three
weeks.”
“Romanticized nonsense.” Zelgadis
snorted in response, startling his companions with his sudden speech.
“Perhaps...” The Mazoku shrugged.
“Or perhaps Kokoro no Yami merely misses its master...”
The chimera snorted again, rolling
his eyes and crossing his arms.
“In any case, I say we should get
as much information on that castle as we can.” Lina slammed her fist into her
palm. “I’ve got a feeling that whatever’s going down has something to do
with that castle.”
“You mean the castle’s real?”
Amelia shuddered.
“Hmm? Oh, yeah,” Lina pointed out
the window to one of the not-so distant mountains. “It’s right there.
We’ve got a perfect view.”
Amelia and Gourry peered through the
portal at the slightly misty mountain, trying to see what the sorceress saw.
Their eyes swept over the vast spans of rocks and haze, then finally found the
darkest patch. A fortress’ outline formed from that black blur as their eyes
focused on the Heart of Darkness.
The young princess yelped and
scrambled back.
“Gee, that’s kind of far away.”
Gourry scratched his head. “I wouldn’t want to have to walk there.”
“You won’t; we’ll be flying
when we go.” Lina replied, matter-of-factly. “Gourry, I want you to ask
around the taverns. Amelia, you hit the libraries. I’m on the streets.”
“What about me?” Zelgadis asked,
having a feeling that he already knew the answer.
“Zel, you stay here and hold down
the fort.” The red head’s look dared him to object. “I don’t care how
well you say you feel; you nearly died last night. Take it easy today. If you
really want something to do, try to get Xellos to let you look through his Big
Book of Stuff. It’s bound to have something about Kokoro no Yami in
it.”
Zelgadis fell silent as he debated on
protesting. Finally he sighed and put his hands up in a ‘surrender’
position.
“As you wish,” he shook his head.
‘Didn’t expect him to go along
with that so easily,’ Lina thought. ‘Must be my lucky day.’
“Everybody meet back here in three
hours to share and for lunch.” She beamed. “Let’s go!”
Zelgadis sighed as his friends ran
out of the room. When would they ever grow up?
“Ne, Zel-kun, it is down to you and
it is down to me.” Xellos smiled. “Shall we play a game?”
“Whatever games you’re playing,
fruitcake,” Zelgadis snarled, “you can count me out.” His icy blue eyes
narrowed.
“Shall we play ‘Twenty
Questions’?” The violet haired pries seated himself upon the bed.
“No.” The chimera answered
coldly.
“That wasn’t very nice,
Zel-kun.” Xellos chastised him. “I am thinking... of an object.”
“I said I’m not--” Pain tore
through the blue-skinned youth’s chest as he fell to his knees.
“You’re going to play.” Xellos
replied cheerfully, yet somehow with an ominous tone to his voice. Zelgadis
gritted his teeth and glared.
“Is it... alive?” He managed to
grind out.
“No.” Xellos smirked. “That was
one.”
“Was it ever alive?” Zelgadis
pulled himself up using the window ledge for balance.
“No.” The Mazoku watched in glee
as his companion staggered to a chair. “Two.”
“Is it stone?”
“No... Three.”
“Is it metal?”
“Partly. Four.”
“Is it something I would like to
use to rip you apart?”
“Definitely.” A dark smile spread
across Xellos’ face. “Five.”
“Is it a sword?” Zelgadis’ hand
found the hilt of his own weapon.
“You guessed it!” The priest
clapped and grinned. “Now for your reward...”
“Fruitcake, I want nothing
from--” The chimera growled, but was cut of by the Mazoku dropping a rather
large and dusty tome on his head. Xellos dusted off his hands as he watched the
shaman twitch in pain and anger.
“Oh, I think you’ll find
something interesting in this book, Zel-kun.” He chuckled. “Maybe not what you’re
looking for, but I’m positive that Lina-chan and the others will be quite
interested.” Upon saying that, he promptly disappeared, leaving Zelgadis to
nurse his wounded head and badly bruised pride.
Zelgadis growled and glared at the
space that the Mazoku had just occupied. Then with a sigh he took the Big Book
of Stuff and sat down on the bed to read.
Three hours later, the travelers
reunited at the lunch table. By this time, Zelgadis was more moody than he was
before, and sat hunched over in his chair with his hood and mask pulled as much
over his face as physically possible. The other three, seemingly oblivious to
his dark attitude, discussed what they had found out about Kokoro no Yami.
Gourry had, expectedly, gone to the
taverns and forgot why he was there. Amelia searched every inch of the library
and came up with a few outside sketches of the castle, but nothing as solid as a
map. Lina had shaken down innocent bystanders, but found that most people simply
ignored the Heart of Darkness.
“Well, that’d didn’t help
much,” Lina sighed, leaning back in her chair. “seems like everyone’s too
scared of the place to go up there.”
“I’m not surprised.” Zelgadis
snorted. “Some of the local folklore about that place is downright
disturbing.”
“Oh?” The sorceress glanced at
him. “How so?”
“Well, I managed to get a hold of
Xellos’ book, and I looked up Kokoro no Yami.” The chimera folded his hands
under his chin.. “Popular theory states that somewhere in Zeruphim’s castle
is hidden a magnificent treasure, but the whole castle is booby trapped to keep
people from getting at it. Personally, I don’t believe it. Why would someone
like Zeruphim, who had no need of trinkets like gold and jewels, bother with
rigging his castle with traps? He would be much better suited to guarding it
himself.”
“Good point.” Lina reluctantly
put thoughts of treasure out of her mind. “By the way, how did you get
a hold of Xellos’ book?”
Zelgadis paused, remembering the
painful ‘game’ Xellos played.
“That is a secret!” Speak of the
Mazoku... “Ne, Zel-kun, what else did you find out?” The purple haired
trickster barbed the chimera.
“Xellos...” The off-white-clad
youth snarled.
“There’s more?” Amelia prompted
in an effort to prevent a fight.
“Well, one of the older legends
presents the idea that the castle was formed by Zeruphim’s will alone.”
Zelgadis forced himself to calm down. “This theory is supported by the fact
that there’s no where near here that produces black marble, and at the time of
the castle’s creation, red glass wasn’t made until about five hundred years
later. This is a possible truth; since Zeruphim’s time would be running out
soon, the earthquakes could be caused by the castle’s slow destruction.
Depending n how much of Zeruphim’s power was used to stabilize this valley and
make it habitable, the whole city may be destroyed.”
“That’s terrible!” Amelia cried
out.
“The whole city, destroyed?”
Gourry looked confused. “Just because some fairy tale guy dies?”
“It’s just a theory!” Zelgadis
replied. “There’s no proof that anything will happen to the town. Hell, if
anything, they’ll be better off without the castle screwing around with their
weather. You saw the earlier quake. There wasn’t any damage to the city.
Nothing will happen to--” The chimera halted in mid-sentence and clutched his
chest. His eyes closed tightly as he doubled over, so he did not see the
concerned looks on everyone’s faces-- even Xellos’.
“Take it easy, Zel.” Lina put her
hand on his shoulders. “You’re still sick...”
