Slayers FUTURE: Fallen Angel

Just another day

Love seems so far away

There’s no sign of life

In Eden’s garden

Just another day

Liberty’s coming out to play

Oh a Belfast street

Concrete stained

Blood and rain

I’m ashamed

There’s a broken man

Praying for a wounded land

Oh why can’t we shape the invisible

For faith that’s blind

The voice of reason cries

Oh why can’t we shape the invisible

Just another day

Brotherhood won’t show his face

In the neighborhood

Drive by shots

Time stops

Doors are locked

Behind my door

Fear is keeping score

Oh why can’t we shape the invisible

And the dealer won’t rest

‘Til he sells a child Death

Oh why can’t we shape the invisible

Just another day

Walking in the steps of Cain

In the desert sun

Lightning strikes

Chemical lights

Burn my eyes

A mother’s son

Is now a soldier marching on

He’s been told to shape the invisible

Under poisoned skies

The children wonder why

Our fathers can’t shape the invisible

Somewhere a small boy is playing with his toys

Someday his innocence

will Shape The Invisible

Chapter One: It Begins in Seyruun

Amelia Wil Tessla Seyruun sighed as she looked out the window of the carriage that carried her closer to the castle in Seyruun. She was just returning from a visit to some of the outlying villages in the kingdom, and was relieved that the journey was finally going to be over. It had been nearly six months since the attempt at summoning Darkstar, and she’d been relishing the peace. She couldn’t wait to return home to finish her shrine maiden training.

Thinking about Darkstar made Amelia shudder visibly. That had quite possibly been the most terrifying moment of her life. The prospect of having the Overworld Dark Lord loose in their world had frightened them all, the Slayers, as minstrels and bards were already beginning to call them.

She had honestly thought that once Valgaav got his hands on the Sword of Light, it was all over. They had been waiting, tensely, for him to place the sword in its slot, to release Darkstar on the world – but he hadn’t. Instead, he’d paused for a second, and then tossed the sword back to Gourry. He’d vanished without a trace then, and it was over. With the help of Almayce and his friends Erologos and Searius, they’d managed to seal Darkstar away permanently, and the crisis was averted. They hadn’t even needed to retrieve the final weapon.

Since that time, she’d pondered over the events of that day. Why hadn’t Valgaav summoned Darkstar? It’d seemed like that was his main goal, and that he wouldn’t stop until he succeeded. But he’d returned the sword to Gourry, and then he’d disappeared. She hadn’t seen nor heard from him or his two servants in the six months since then.

I wonder if Miss Lina’s seen him, she thought as she watched Seyruun grow larger in the distance. She smiled at the thought of her old traveling companion, and couldn’t help but wonder what Lina and the others had been up to these last six months.

“Princess?” the driver called back. “We’re approaching the gates now.”

Amelia nodded absently, and plastered a smile on her face as the carriage went through the gates and into the crowded streets. It seemed like every citizen in the city had turned out to welcome her, and even though she didn’t really feel like dealing with a big crowd – she felt more like just falling asleep – she had to admit that it was nice to be welcomed. She smiled and waved to the people, graciously accepting their cheers and applause.

It wasn’t long before the carriage itself was in the courtyard of the castle, and Amelia was able to make her way into the castle after only taking about half an hour to push her way through the crowd. When she was finally inside, she leaned against one of the walls and took a couple of deep breaths. “They were a bit more enthusiastic than usual,” she said.

“I think it was because your Highness was gone for so long,” one of her guards said, bowing to her. “Shall I escort you to your chambers now, Princess?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I can go by myself, thank you.” Then, before any of them could protest, she turned on her heel and marched briskly to the chain of rooms she liked to call home.

It was just the way she’d left it. Bright, cheery, and…okay, there was lots of pink. She really had to do something about that – she was beginning to grow out of her pink phase. She wasn’t sure what color she’d replace everything with, but she knew that it couldn’t be pink, or any color close to it. “I’ll do it later,” Amelia said. “After I’ve been home for awhile.”

“Talking to yourself now? What has the world come to?”

Amelia’s eyes widened and she gasped before whirling around. “Miss Lina!”

Standing near the window – the extremely large window – was none other than Lina Inverse, all five feet, three inches of her. She hadn’t grown in height much, or in other ways, but a few things had changed. She didn’t hold her usual crazy light in her eyes, and she seemed to have calmed down a bit. Not too much, it having only been six months, after all. But a little.

The biggest change, however…

“What happened to your hair?!” Amelia blurted out.

Lina grinned and fingered her now shoulder-length red locks. “I was experimenting with a few fire spell variations, and accidentally singed most of it off. I evened it out so that it would grow easier, but then I started to get attached to it. It’s a lot easier to deal with, for one thing.” Lina eyed Amelia. “You’ve grown yours.”

“Just a couple of inches,” Amelia said, shrugging, but failing to hide the growing smile on her face. “What are you doing here? And where’s Mr. Gourry? Didn’t he come with you?”

“Gourry’s in Sairaag for awhile,” Lina replied. “We passed through there on our way here, and he decided to stay with Sylphiel for awhile, to help with Sairaag’s Starlight Festival.”

“The Starlight Festival!” Amelia sighed. “I always wanted to go see it, but Daddy never let me. He said it was too far away, and besides, I had to be a full shrine maiden before I could go, not just an apprentice.”

Lina nodded. “Yeah, well, so I left him there and came here by myself. I’ve only been here a couple of hours. The guards know who I am – naturally – and since they were expecting you today, they just told me to wait here. So here I am.”

“Wow,” Amelia breathed. She sat on the edge of her bed and looked at her mentor. “So what brings you to Sairaag?”

Lina leaned against the wall, crossing one leg over the other. “Well, it’s kind of complicated, and it may take awhile.”

“I’m in no hurry,” Amelia replied. “Just please don’t get offended if I start to drop off. It’s been a hard day.”

“I understand,” Lina said, nodding. She really has calmed down, thought Amelia. “It started a couple of weeks ago. Gourry and I were in Atlas City, just checking out some of the new restaurants that opened up since we were last there.” She shrugged. “You know how it is. Anyway, we were just coming out of this one place when a strange man in a black cloak came up to us.”

Amelia bit her lip to restrain from groaning. “Are we going to have to save the world again?”

Lina shrugged. “I haven’t a clue. This guy didn’t say anything about that. He just came up to Gourry and me and said, ‘Beware of dark forces. Don’t let any of you travel alone.’ Then he turned around and left.”

“He just…left?” Amelia asked, puzzled. “You didn’t find out who he was?”

“Well, I tried to run after him, but I lost sight of him in the crowd,” Lina replied. “Gourry and I just kind of shrugged it off and went to the inn, but the next morning when I woke up, I found that someone had left something on the windowsill of my room.”

“What?” Amelia asked.

Lina reached into her pocket and removed a small, perfectly spherical stone. There was nothing remarkable about it, and it had no distinguishing features save an odd symbol scratched into it, in a language that Amelia had never seen before. “What is it?” Amelia couldn’t help asking. She stepped closer and reached out for it, and Lina placed it in her palm.

“Ouch!” Amelia shouted, dropping it instantly. Lina moved quickly to stop it from crashing to the ground. “It shocked me!”

“Yeah,” Lina said, nodding, “it did the same to Gourry. And his did the same to me when I picked it up.”

“Mr. Gourry has one, too?” Amelia asked, rubbing her hand gingerly.

“It has a different symbol in it,” replied Lina. She placed the little sphere on the windowsill and glared at it. “This thing has been giving me nothing but trouble since I got it. I haven’t run into a single gang of bandits since it came into my life. I’m seriously hurting for money.”

Amelia sweatdropped. “But…Miss Lina, isn’t it a good thing not to run into bandits?”

Lina glared at her.

“My fault,” Amelia muttered. “For a minute, I forgot who I was talking to.”

Lina glared at her again, then laughed. “Oh, it’s okay. Actually, I’ve kind of been enjoying the lull.”

“Back to the strange man,” Amelia said, sitting back on the edge of her bed. This time Lina came and joined her, retrieving the sphere in the process. “Do you think he’s connected to them?”

“I wouldn’t doubt it,” Lina replied. “And the way he said what he said: ‘Don’t let any of you travel alone’. I got the feeling he wasn’t just referring to me and Gourry. I think he meant other people, too.”

“Maybe there are other people he gave little spheres to,” Amelia said. “Maybe that’s who you’re not supposed to let travel alone.” She paused. “Wait a minute. You left Gourry in Sairaag, so…you traveled here alone, right?”

Lina rolled her eyes. “Yeah, but nothing happened. I’m thinking he was just some weirdo who thought Gourry and I looked like a couple of idiots who’s minds he could mess with. He was right about Gourry – that jellyfish hasn’t been able to stop thinking about all of this – but I’m not that gullible.”

“Still,” Amelia said cautiously, “maybe I should send an escort with you when you head back for Sairaag.”

“I’m not going back to Sairaag,” muttered Lina. “Gourry said he’d meet me here in about a week.”

“Is something wrong?” Amelia asked, noticing the change in Lina’s voice.

“No, nothing,” Lina replied, a little too cheerfully. “Anyway, so what I’m doing here is that I’m hoping one of the libraries in the city will have something on this strange language these symbols seem to be in.”

Amelia looked thoughtful. “Maybe. I know I’ve never seen anything like it, but then, I don’t know everything in our libraries.”

“Now, one more thing,” Lina said. She leaned closer. “Due to my lack of bandits, I kind of don’t have enough money to rent a room for more than a couple of nights, and I think this may take me longer than that.”

“Well, of course you’re going to stay here!” Amelia said, laughing. She’d been expecting Lina to try and stay in the castle anyway, and really didn’t have any problem with it. “I’ll tell one of the servants to fix up the guest room down the hallway for you.”

“Cool,” Lina said, grinning. She sighed and flopped back onto the bed. “So, how’s Phil?”

“Daddy’s fine,” Amelia said. “He’s still recovering from the tsunami that hit the port when Miss Filia attacked and you accidentally fired  a Dragon Slave into the ocean, but he’ll be back on his feet pretty soon. I’ve been having to run things since I got back, and I’ll be glad when I can just go back to being a princess, and not a Crowned Princess.”

“You’ll be taking over soon anyway, won’t you?” Lina asked.

“I’ve still got a few years,” Amelia said. “Daddy wants me to finish my shrine maiden training first, like my mom did.”

Lina nodded thoughtfully. “Um, Amelia…I was wondering.”

“What?”

“Well, when you’re Crowned Princess, you’re gonna need somebody to keep an eye out for you when you’re on the road, right? Someone you can…trust?” Lina absently ran her finger around in a circle on the blanket. “Someone you’ve traveled with before?”

“Usually I’ll have guards with me, but…” Amelia looked at Lina. “Miss Lina, are you asking for a…job?”

“No!” Lina protested emphatically. “It’s just that, well, once you’re Crowned Princess, there’s bound to be people trying to kill you. And whoever gets sent after you might be more powerful than anyone who’d be sent after Phil, since you’re a sorceress…you might need someone a little more magically inclined then the guards.”

Amelia frowned. “Miss Lina, are you sure something isn’t wrong? This isn’t like you.”

Lina sighed and sat up, wrapping her arms around her knees and drawing them up to her chin. “I’m almost eighteen, Amelia. I’ve been traveling around since I was thirteen, sometimes alone, sometimes not. Lately it’s just been me and Gourry. I’ve seen more things in the last five years than most people see in five lifetimes. I’ve saved the world three times, killed countless Mazoku, and I’ve made some pretty cool friends.”

“Your point?”

“I guess what I’m trying to say is, I’ve done just about everything a girl can do with her life, and all before I’m even twenty. But there’s one thing I’ve never done – and that’s settle down and have a normal life.” Lina buried her face in her arms and mumbled, “Pretty silly, right?”

“No,” Amelia said softly. “I don’t think it’s silly at all.”

The two friends looked at each other and exchanged smiles. Amelia opened her mouth to speak again, but was immediately cut off by a loud, inhuman scream from outside the castle.

“What the hell was that?!” shouted Lina, jumping up and running towards the window. Amelia was right behind her.

“By the gods,” whispered Amelia. “What is that?”

Twisting and diving above the city was a huge wyrm. Its claws dug into the stone of buildings, and it poured lava out of its mouth and onto the streets. It shot up into the air again and screamed one more time.

Then it turned, and headed straight towards the castle.