Lina Inverse watched as the sun rose over an unmarked grave underneath the great tree Flahgoon. Lina sighed and shook her head.
“You passed Rezo when you opened your eyes,” Lina whispered. “All this death and destruction for nothing.”
Lina turned her back on the grave and looked around the devastation of Sairagg. She saw glints of sunlight shining on the water and from the dew that had formed on some the blades of grass and a golden glint shining off some metal structure.
“Stop for a second. Gold glittering in the sun?” Lina muttered.
Lina stared in the direction of the flash of gold light. Unlike water that had a rippling sort of shine, the gold light remained steady. Lina carefully picked her way through the ruins of Sairagg until she came to an area that looked like the edge of the blast zone from Copy-Rezo‘s destruction of the city. She soon came to a building that one wall was sheered away from the force of the blast, exposing its contents to the world. Lina was able to tell at a glance that the wrecked building was abandoned even before the destruction. She was disappointed when she saw that the metal she spotted was brass, but she was confused by what she had found.
“Why would anyone build a giant wooden and metal octopus inside a storehouse, when it looks like you could use it as a cabin?” Lina muttered to herself.
She spotted a ladder on one side of the construct and climbed it and boarded the bizarre structure. She spotted a door leading into the octopus proper. She took a glance around and spotted what looked to be two ballista on two of the tentacles that were lying close to the ground. She glance up and saw two catapults on two more tentacles that were held above the octopus. All four of the weapons were far larger than the ones Lina has seen in the past.
“This thing is making less sense the more I find out about it,” Lina grumbled.
“Lina? Are you here?” a male voice called.
“I’m up here Gourry,” Lina called and leaned out to wave. “How did you find me?”
Lina saw that Gourry, Zelgadis, Prince Phil, Amelia, and Sylphiel were all gathered around the front of the octopus.
“We followed your tracks. Is this some kind of parade float?” Gourry asked.
“I don’t think so. Those weapons are full scale siege weapons and they look like they mean business. Furthermore, this thing is wider than any road I have even seen,” Lina replied.
“Well, let’s look around,” Zelgadis stated.
“I’ll stay out here and keep an eye on things,” Prince Phil said.
“Fine,” Lina replied and led the group into the interior and soon came to a spiral staircase that went up and down. There was some bizarre twist right as the staircase went down than no one could figure out. Amelia and Zelgadis headed downstairs. Despite he reservations, Lina allowed Gourry and Sylphiel to explore the current leve, while she went upstairs.
Down one level, Amelia was staring up at the ceiling in annoyance. “Why would anyone nail beds to the ceiling, and why are the wardrobes also nailed to the ceiling upside down?”
“This thing is stranger than what it first appeared to be,” Zelgadis observed. “Let’s keep looking. I think I the staircase continued down some more.”
Sylphiel and Gourry weren’t having much better luck on the level they were searching. They found some wooden boards that had some strange spring device at one end.
“What is this?” Gourry asked of no one in particular.
Sylphiel looked at it and spotted another like it lying on the ground and she picked it up. The one she picked up, had a piece of paper being held by the strange device.
“It’s some kind of mobile desk and this device on the end can hold papers so they don’t slip away,” Sylphiel explained and she frowned as she read the piece of paper. “I don’t know what this means. This seems to be a type of form that merchants use.”
“Maybe Lina would have some clue as to what it means,” Gourry said, while scratching the side of his cheek.
On the level Lina was at, she opened a door and put a hand on her hip.
“This makes less sense than what it did before. That looks like what I would find in a sailing ship,” Lina said, as she picked up a sextant.
Lina searched a bit more and started putting things together by using the sextant as a reference to sailing. She entered a room with a bunch of small books lined against a wall. She opened one book and shook her head in annoyed disgust.
“A captain’s log? This is the best place to get answers,” Lina mumbled and sat down at the desk and started going through the books in order.
She stopped reading once she heard the others were done searching and coming up to see her. Sylphiel was the first to reach her and handed her the paper and the strange board.
“I’ve heard of these. They are called clipboards. They are used a lot by sailors hauling cargo,” Lina explained, as she looked over the paper. “This is a manifest from a ship on what it was carrying.”
“You can read that, Lina?” Gourry asked.
“I am the daughter of a merchant,” Lina replied, rolling her eyes.
Amelia and Zelgadis reported what they found below and the strangeness of how some of the stuff was set up. Lina shook her head and sighed.
“Everything points to this thing being some sort of ship, but it is nowhere near water and I don’t think it could float all that well,” Lina said, and gestured to the books. “I’m going to go over these books and see what more I can find out.”
“I’d better help and try and get the reconstruction started,” Sylphiel said.
“Don’t worry about me. I’m going to stay here and read these books. I really don’t want to deal with people who might still be hunting me, even though Copy Rezo is dead,” Lina stated.
“I can try and take care of that for you, but how are you going to explain about killing Rezo?” Sylpihel asked.
“Rezo allowed himself to be possessed by a powerful demon to hold it back and had me kill his body to send both him and the powerful demon to the afterlife,” Lina said with a shrug. “Yes, I killed Rezo, but he sacrificed himself to allow me the chance to kill the demon.”
“Miss Lina, I thought you said that you fought Rezo,” Amelia stated.
“Yeah. When he was possessed,” Lina replied. “Leave it that he at first underestimated the strength of the demon and needed my help to put an end to it. He’s dead and doesn’t need his name tarnished.”
The other two girls nodded, as Zelgadis looked out to where Copy Rezo was buried and nodded. The group quickly left Lina alone, save for Gourry who kept watch to make sure no one tried to attack Lina. Lina went back to the books and kept reading. She soon put together a fantastic tale that went with the giant octopus. She got up and headed for another room on the same level and saw strange throne and started chuckling. She went back to the books and was able to figure out the rest. Lina put the books back in order and started laughing.
“Well, I wanted something to do. But first, I’m going to improve that silly chair or replace it. I should know just enough about golems to make this work. Stupid old man and his son and those two idiot tailors gave me some information,” Lina muttered.
Lina headed back to where the chair was and started casting some spells on it. She frowned and pulled out some flawed gems she had in her cloak and started working on replacing the chair outright. She paused and looked at a small cupboard that was full of scrolls. She unfurled one and then another. She shook her head, as she realized that they were all the same scroll.
“Too much power for too little to show for it. Why would they have multiples of the same type of scroll? Why is the thing only temporary?”
She found one that was different and made something half powered from the other scrolls or the chair itself. Lina gave an amused snort and worked on finishing her replacement for the chair. The information from the scrolls helped her refine her little magical construction. After a couple hours, she finished and had a small oblong box made out of a light blue gemstone and decorated with fine gold wire. She also had a wrought silver circlet decorated with a small pale blue gemstone.
“This should do it. This will allow the ship to fly and not drain my magical power to do so. It should be even faster. The chair can serve as an emergency back up,” Lina muttered to herself.
Lina took her construction back to the room with the books and sat it on a small stand.
“This is the Captain’s Quarters. I’m going to claim this ship and go exploring. I tend to doubt the Mazoku Barrier is going to block this ship from making the journey. I remember three instances of Meteor Fall being used. Two of them being from the same person. I wonder what happened to the remnants of that stuffed dragon?”
Lina tapped a finger on her chin and gave a laugh. “Bandits are still bandits, even if they are called pirates. I’m going to go pirate hunting. I might not have the Dragon Slave in other Crystal Spheres and I‘ll have to watch using my fire based spells as well. This might be for the best. I used to foil Naga and others with other spells or using my wits. I‘ve gotten too lazy. Before I do leave, I need to name this ship. I‘m not calling it the ‘Fluffy Bunny‘. If I give it that name, maybe I can lose it and not be called by it any more. I name you the ‘Dra-Mata‘.”
Lina smiled and quickly found a brass plate that she quickly etched the name into and took it outside and found where the old name tag used to hang.
“I’m going to take this spelljamming ship into wildspace and see what’s out there. Maybe when I come back the rumors about me will have died down. Now, I just have to tell the others.”
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(Posted Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:28)
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