Slayers Seperate
Sailoon was recovering, and doing it very well considering. For the
first month or so one would have thought that the capital city had been
struck by a plague. In a way it had, but the people came together well, and,
much to the chagrin of the surviving bureaucracy of nobles and merchants, the
remaining slayers pitched right in to help. Many of the lesser nobles took
the example and stepped in to help as well, with in a month the city seemed
more or less as it had before.
Of course the sheer number of deaths that had occured before the
guardsmen could catch every single cultist meant that some lands were now
without lords. This meant the raising of lesser nobles to high positions,
and in many cases, the founding of a new noble house by royal decree. The
old powers of the kingdom didn't like this, but remained helpless to stop it.
The fools might have seen Zelgadis as a peasant freak, but he had proven
incredibly adept at preventing assassinations on him or Amelia. Also Amelia
might have seemed naive and vulnerable at first, but she was proving to be an
effective ruler, and just as unsurprised by people randomly trying to kill
her as Zelgadis. They tried, one by one, and were found out one by one.
Amelia and Zelgadis's wedding was the final blow to the ego of the old
houses, the commoners had been invited. It was also the last attempt at
assassination, resulting in the final blow to the old establishment. The
bureaucracy had died when Regin betrayed the kingdom, too many nobles and fat
merchants had died, and the new generation was too strong. Within three
weeks of Amelia and Zelgadis's wedding, only one or two of the great houses
remained, and they were near to dying out from lack of heirs.
"Too bad Lina decided she had to go," Amelia sighed one day, looking out
the window of their bedroom. "She would be glad to hear what most people
have to say about Xellos."
It was true, the common people didn't have the education to know much
about mazoku. They knew that someone named Xellos Metallium had died in
destroying the traitor's spell. Legends were already growing around what had
been seen on the top of the tower that day.
"She's right about me," Zelgadis said suddenly. Amelia turned to face
him, then walked over and leaned against his back.
"You didn't know what he was thinking, Zelgadis," Amelia comforted him.
"How could you?"
"I should have guessed, he practically said farewell to Lina in the
tunnel," Zelgadis noted. "But its too late now."
"Yes, let's just concentrate on our life now, not the past," she turned
him around gently and looked into his eyes. "If we pay too much attention to
the past, the present will get us."
"Or the future," Zelgadis whispered as he hugged Amelia.
"You're not mad that I turned down the offer of a title are you?" Gourry
asked Sylphiel.
"No, whatever gave you that idea?"
"I don't know, you just seem rather quiet."
"I was thinking about what your homeland must be like."
"Well, that's easy enough to fix, why don't we go there?"
"We are, Gourry-dear," she answered.
"We are, oh yeah, that's right." Gourry thwacked his head and then
smiled. He loved doing that to people. "Are you sure about this? Its
mostly just elves, aren't many humans this way yet."
"I'll make do," she smiled at him. "If they give me any trouble, I can
always make chili."
"Yeah, that'll be good for a laugh," Gourry agreed.
It had taken long enough, but she finally had a creditable home. Finding
a cave had proven easier than she had at first thought it would be. It had
to be a cave, something with natural camouflage and lots of space. She
didn't really like the idea of a cabin anymore, too many avenues of attack.
This cavern, that Filia had found had helped excavate, was huge, dry and had
already been carved into rooms by something. There was a small pool in one
corner, providing water, and several well hidden exits.
Now the natural mansion was well furnished with a little help from Filia.
Lina suspected that some of the money for the various pieces of furniture
came from Amelia, but that was okay. She had a home now, in the forest,
close enough to Filia that she wouldn't have to worry about her kids one full
and new moons, but far enough from town and the road that she wasn't going to
be running into many other hunters.
She sat down in one of the large soft chairs that Xellos seemed to favor,
at least when he went looking for furniture for her, and sighed. This was
hardly going to be the easiest segment of her life, especially without
Xellos. She'd get through, however, she'd faced every other challenge in her
life. Xellos had bought her this chance with his life, she wasn't going
to just throw it away.
The sound of her twins waking up and crying snapped her out of her
reverie.
Martina shrieked in glee as she rooted out another piece of power. Her
new masters had directed her here, and though she had protested at first, it
was a good decision. By the time she had found it the effects of Zelgadis's
Ra Tilt mixed with the pure flow had faded. Now the essence of destroyed
mazoku was scattered throughout the whole island. It would take her years to
find them all, but by then she would have more than enough power to destroy
Lina Inverse and her friends. More importantly, she would be able to further
rip the walls of reality for her masters.
I was right, you are here.
The Old Ones and the Fallen are responsibility, where else would I be?
I prefer that you don't meddle in my world.
Everybody prefers that I don't meddle in their world.
Perhaps if you warned them before appearing?
Sometimes I do. The Vagabond had a sense of the Lord of Nightmares'
scowl.
Are you going to be much longer?
No, everything is going as I expected it would.
Good, then I expect this is the last time you'll interfere in my world.
The Vagabond shrugged.
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