Any who knew her would have been surprised at how motherly Lina Inverse was. She doted on her daughter, uncaring that she was albino. Considering all that happened to her in her life, Lina thought it was no small miracle to have even a single daughter. (She had no idea how right she was.) And Lianna, even though just a child, practically radiated magic. Lina was sure that, under her tutelage, Lianna would become the greatest sorceress the world had ever known.
Unfortunantly, that was never meant to be. Little Lianna Inverse-Gabriev would never know her mother.
Not even half a year after Lianna's birth, Lina and Gourry were summoned away by one of the remaining Dragon Gods. Lianna was left with Sylphiel and her husband for the time. They left, full of energy and confidence.
Only Gourry returned, broken in body and spirit. They had won yet again... but at a terrible price.
Gourry stayed long enough to heal his wounds. Then he took Lianna and left, unable to stay. The last any of their old traveling companions knew of them, Gourry had joined a caravan crossing the Desert of Destruction for the Outer World.
Lianna grew up traveling from one place to another, never knowing a true home. Gourry cared for her as best he could. He taught her to read from some of Lina's books, not realizing that they were books on magic and history. He taught her to fight, and she took to the sword like a fish to water. Gourry never quite realized how remarkable his daughter's mind was, able to absorb these things whole cloth, not that it would have mattered to him anyway.
But at the same time, Lianna was constantly isolated. Her uncanny intelligence and strange appearance drove people away from her. One mother in a town they visited even referred to her as "looking like a bone dried out under the sun."
They didn't remain in that village very long, but Lianna heard it all.
Still, she had her father. But sometimes she wished she knew what her mother was like. Or one of her parents other friends. Perhaps one of them could have answered the questions she had about herself.
Like why, despite having detailed instructions, she could never master anything more than the simpler white magic spells. Or how, if she wished, she could use empower the weapons she wielded. For in her hands, a sword could cut through anything. A mace could crush a castle if she wished. A wooden arrow could pierce orihalcon armor.
Still, she kept training with Gourry. When it was becoming obvious that she, like her mother, was going to remain rather short and slim, she began changing the focus of her training. Long swords would be too long for her, instead she choose to use the short swords, a pair of them. Concentrating on speed more then power, after all, when she wanted them to, the could cut through any armor or hide without resistance.
It was around that time that Gourry realized that his daughter really didn't need him anymore. More and more he began thinking of the past, and of Lina. Ultimately, he was wounded, shot by a bandit with a gun. Normally he would have been able to dodge or deflect that shot... but maybe that time, he just didn't want to. He lasted long enough to tell Lianna how much he loved her and that he was sorry for leaving. Then he was gone.
Lianna was thirteen at the time. She stopped using her birth name after that, and hasn't used it since. From that point on, she was just Bone.
That was four years ago. Now just over seventeen, and already one of the most feared people of the Outer World, Bone had finally made her way to the Inner World, to the city-state of Atlas. She came to find out about her past, and the mother she never knew.
So she headed toward the east, toward Zefielia and possibly her only living relative on her mother's side, Luna Inverse.
My, my, my. However shall the Knight of Cephied react, to meeting her niece... the person who pretty much amounts to the mortal incarnation of the Lord of Nightmares?
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(Posted Mon, 20 Jan 2003 20:29)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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