"What is Daymia's studying and why is what he's studying make him ineligible for chairmanship?" Lina asked
The large plump man wearing silk violet robes said, "M-My rival for chairman is not w-worthy to take the office. H-e is studying a forbidden branch of magic: Immortality. The guild knows of his research and will never elect him no matter how many times he stands for office."
'Okay, this is a lot different. Daymia is studying it as well. Might as well get it over with,' Lina thought.
"My specialty," Tarim was going on. "Is that of words. For what is magic without the use of words? And...."
"What was Halcyform studying before he vanished?" Lina asked, while thinking, 'As if I didn't already know.'
Tarim the Violet coughed and stammered out, "Life. He was studying something about Life."
Lina idly cut apart her venison and remarked, "The way you're acting, it sounds like Halcyform made the pledge."
Lina ate a few bites of the meat in the eerie silence that descended upon the room.
"The pledge? What is the pledge?" Gourry asked.
Still concentrating on her meal, Lina idly explained, "The Pledge of Immortality. A few humans desperate to avoid death makes a pledge to a Mazoku. It is a partial immortality. There are three known ways to kill a person who made the pledge. One, you smash the pledge stone. Two, you kill the Mazoku. Three, you cast the Dragonslave at the partial immortal. With that last one, you run the risk of destroying the city. I have some ideas on other ways to kill a partial immortal, but I lack the resources to pull most of them off. If I had a magic item infused with a bit of holy magic, I could try combining Holy Magic that calls upon the Flarelord and Black Magic that calls upon Gaav to cast a fusion spell. It would be difficult to pull off. However, the spell would be far less likely to destroy Atlas. Granted, it is just a theory of mine. There is no way to test it."
Tarim looked at Lina in respect and a bit of fear. "Y-You are well read, little missy. W-W-Who are you?"
"Rod didn't tell you? No matter. My name is Lina. Lina Inverse," Lina replied, while still concentrating on her meal.
Tarim's eyes widened. "I've h-heard the st-st-stories about you."
Lina growled a bit. "So have I. Those stories are wildly inaccurate."
Tarim shrugged. "A-a-at any rate, H-H-Halcyform is not important. I need you to defend my personage from D-D-D-Daymia's assassins."
Lina did some quick thinking. 'If Rezo shows up, I'll try to get Rezo and Halcyform to go after each other. That should get rid of Halcyform and Seygrum with ease and Rezo should be weakened enough for the Ragna Blade.'
Lina stood up. "I'll give you my answer in the morning. I need to think about this a bit more and after I get a good night's sleep."
"I'll await y-y-your r-response," Tarim said, sweating heavily.
Lina and Gourry left Tarim's mansion. As they walked back to the inn that they were staying at, Gourry looked at Lina.
"You spooked that Tarim guy," Gourry said.
"I know," Lina replied and stopped walking.
She turned to look down a side road and gave a nod.
"Seygrum. It's been a while since the last time we met. I hoped it was the last time," Lina said. "Who's your friend?"
The stone masked Mazoku stared at Lina. "He is Gio Gaia. Do not get involved in this affair, Lina Inverse. You will not live long if you do. You were very lucky the last time we met. More important things than dealing with some upstart sorceress distracted me."
The other Mazoku wore a half mask of small stone tiles and nodded.
"Humans are such frail beings," Gio said. "This really does not concern you."
Lina just smiled. 'If he knew the exact details of our last meeting, he wouldn't be trying to bluff his way through it.'
Gio said, "I don't believe she's taking us seriously Seygrum."
"It matters not. We delivered the message. Whether it is heeded or not is none of our concern."
Lina let the two Mazoku go without a fuss. She held up a finger over her shoulder and wagged it at Gourry.
"We'll see the two of the again."
"We're taking the job aren't we?" Gourry asked.
"Yep. There is more going on than what Tarim told us. A whole lot more."
The pair continued on their way back to the inn and slept soundly. The next morning, they paid for a room to keep their things in and made their way back to Tarim's mansion. Lina stuffed the orihalcum statue into a pocket in her mantle
A beautiful woman walked in front of them before they made it halfway to Tarim's home. Lina stared in shock at the girl.
"Please don't get involved with this matter," the woman said, as she passed Lina and Gourry.
Lina whispered, "Rubia?"
'This has now gone into the really creepy category. Rubia is supposed to be a lifeless puppet, not a rational living being.'
Lina shook her head and continued on. Gourry gave Lina a concerned look.
"Is there something the matter Lina?"
"More than you know Gourry. Accepting this job from Tarim is just one step in understanding what is wrong," Lina replied, as the two of them walked.
An old man wielding a poleaxe had heard the conversation. He left and headed away from the pair. _______________________________________________________________________
Zelgadis crossed his arms and waited. Soon an old man wielding a poleaxe came up. The old man knelt before Zelgadis.
"What did you find out, Rodimus?"
Rodimus replied, "Lina and her companion has taken a job to become Tarim's bodyguards."
"I see. Logically, we should hire ourselves out to Daymia and hope to kill Lina in a confrontation. I think we'll do something different and see if Tarim could use some more bodyguards. We won't confront Lina just yet. I need to know more about her than just heresy to formulate a plan of action."
"This is going to be interesting," Zolf said, now free of his bandages. "We have to sorcerers who hate each other and their vanished chairman and we are trying to get something away from Lina Inverse without letting anyone know exactly what we are after. It can't get any more complicated."
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Disruptor
(Posted Tue, 25 Oct 2005 21:06)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.