Slayers Fan Fiction ❯ Birth Rite ❯ 3 ( Chapter 3 )

Title: Birth Rite - Chapter 3 of ??

Author: Tsutsuji

Date written: October 2005. EDITED December 2005.

Fandom: Slayers!

Rating: R - M - for mature teens and older

Disclaimers and other warnings in Chapter 1

 

Summary: Xelloss mixes business and pleasure on a solo visit to Mystport.

 

AN: Slightly edited at the end.

 

Thanks for the reviews and words of encouragement... You all really make my day!

 

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Birth Rite, Chapter 3

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"They say 'Desire drives the will that casts the spell'," the Sorcerer's wise companion said. He was very well learned and a master of soul-magic, so he often said things like that in a voice so serious you just had to believe him, even if you didn't know what he was talking about.

 

There wasn't much that could scare him, but the Sorcerer turned to him and glared a dangerous glare, and snarled at him so fiercely that he actually flinched: "What kind of idiot says things like that?"

 

from Book Two: The Princess of Fate and the Soul-Sealing Spell

 

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As soon as he left the cottage and headed back into Mystport on his own, Xelloss wanted nothing more than to return there and take advantage of all that privacy Zelgadis had found for them to share. However, Zelgadis had been right when he suggested a Mazoku should prefer the atmosphere in town over solitude, even if it was shared solitude. After two weeks passing through deep wilderness and the occasional tiny village, he should be glad to take advantage of whatever Mystport had to offer.

 

While Zelgadis was busy ordering dinner and getting settled in the cottage, Xelloss hovered above the thin mist for a moment and looked over the town from the air. He got the layout of the place clear in his mind, from the mansions tucked into the bend of the river further up the valley down to the docks and shipyards. Then he perched on the top of the harbormaster's tower for a good view of the shipyards and the bay.

 

Now that he had his attention on something besides Zelgadis, he could feel the difference. Even a quaint little town like Mystport provided a steady stream of miasma from the collective negative emotions of its citizens, much more than a single, irritable chimera provided. On the other hand, Xelloss had begun to feel that more wasn't necessarily better.

 

He gazed from the harbor up toward the merchant's district they'd passed through earlier. There had been plenty of negative emotional energy in that crowd outside the bookshop, he reflected, even if it was in response to their own imagings rather than to real events (as human emotions often were, he'd found). The problem was that he'd had to force himself to enjoy that banquet when it right in front of him. Even the mild irritation from the chimera had been much more appealing. After Zelgadis complained that Xelloss preferred to pick on him over all others, Xelloss had decided to remind himself that there were other tables to feast at in the world.

 

Aside from that, a sense of duty had begun to tug on him as soon as they'd arrived at the coast. Following Zelgadis to the far end of the continent didn't exactly go against his orders, but doing so had made it difficult to follow through on the third part of the assignment he'd been given - the one that Zelgadis still didn't know about.

 

The first part of his assignment was easy enough. Xelloss found it both amusing and convenient that Zelgadis didn't care to take the credit he could claim for saving the Mazoku race from imminent destruction, so keeping that a secret was no problem. He knew Zelgadis didn't quite believe that he'd also been ordered by Xelas-sama to protect him from vengeful Followers of Shimer, but she had been quite clear about that. Humans never seemed to understand the Mazoku sense of obligation in these matters.

 

He'd had only a faint hope that he might be able to perform the third part of his assignment once they got to Mystport, but the afternoon's events had strengthened that hope a little. He would have to gather more information to be certain, though, and it would be easier to do that on his own while Zelgadis was safely occupied elsewhere.

 

Therefore, Xelloss had several purposes in mind when he reluctantly left Zelgadis alone out on the point and returned to town. His quest certainly seemed to start off much better than Zelgadis' had. He left his perch on the tower and landed near the docks, where the very first thing he found was a brawl that had already spilled out of a tavern onto the street. That provided a refreshing bit of aggression and violence for him to feed upon, until the local constables spoiled everyone's fun by hauling several drunken sailors away. Xelloss shrugged. It wasn't much,merely an appetizer for him. He hoped Zelgadis' dinner portions were more generous.

 

He spent some time wandering around the docks where ships brought goods and passengers from the north and south. There wasn't as much activity as he'd expected, though, and the office of the harbormaster was closed and dark. Even the gulls were settling for the night.

 

The sun disappeared behind a band of cloud at the far edge of the sky before sinking below the horizon. A few fishermen and sailors were quietly finishing their work for the day, mending nets or stacking crates for loading onto ships in the morning. He overheard talk of the winter storms brewing out at sea, ready to sweep ashore in the coming days.

 

The bay was filled with fishing boats empty of the day's catch and ready to sail out at dawn, but the last of the coastal tour boats were docked for the season. For the next few months there would only be passenger vessels sailing in once or twice a week, slipping in between the storms. If it was a mild year, they might not lose any on the rocks out beyond the headlands.

 

Xelloss heard the last of this from a couple of dockworkers who were hurrying to finish their work before it got completely dark. When they were getting ready to leave, he stepped up and asked them if they knew when ships were scheduled to arrive and depart within the next few days. They grinned at each other knowingly and then at him.

 

"You and everyone else wants to know!" said one of them, a stocky young man with a gap-toothed grin.

 

Xelloss cocked his head. "Are you saying there are no regular schedules?"

 

"Sure there are, but not for the one boat everyone's asking about. You want to know when the Princess is due in port, don't you?"

 

"Do I?" Xelloss replied, even more puzzled. The Coastal States were self-governing, so he wondered why royalty from the northern kingdoms would be visiting at a time when travel was becoming difficult.

 

The stocky man laughed. "Well, maybe you don't, but I'd sure like to know! Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow, maybe not till tomorrow night, but it'll be guarded like a shipment of gold whenever it comes, that's for sure. They're keeping that under wraps, they are, and with good reason! There's been riots and mobs swamping ships when they dock with that book in their holds! "

 

"Ah!" Xelloss exclaimed as understanding broke like the wave on a rock. "You're talking about the arrival of the new Princess of Fate book!"

 

"What else?" the stocky man said, and his companion laughed. "Don't worry, we won't tell anyone else you're all excited about a kid's book! I'm as excited as you are, tell the truth. My daughter's picking up her copy soon as it comes in, then she'll bring her kids and stay the weekend so she can read it to all of us."

 

His partner grinned and shook his head. "You're getting feeble in the brain, you are, Mac," he said. He turned to Xelloss. "I like a good yarn as much as anyone, but from all Mac here has said, that book spins a pretty far-fetched tale. Give me a good old tale of the sea, stuff that really happened! If you read stuff like those Princess books, you might as well start believing in those old stories about Skye that they tell the tourists."

 

Xelloss opened his mouth to ask what tales they told of Skye, but Mac cut him off.

 

"Oh, it's better'n those by a long shot! You don't recall any beautiful princesses in those old myths, just a lot of wizened up old sorcerers and weird old creatures. But these Princess books, there's something about the story that makes you think it could have happened -- though you'd be glad it didn't happen to you! It just stirs you up, somehow."

 

"Well, I guess it's stirred people up," his buddy replied. "You just better hope your shipment of books doesn't get stolen by pirates, or worse'n that."

 

"I'd be more worried about those book-burning maniacs setting fire to my ship with them books on it, if I was captain of the ship bringing it in," Mac said. "You think it's crazy to want to read a book so bad, but I say it's crazier to burn it!"

 

"Book burners?" Xelloss asked curiously.

 

"Oh, yeah!" Mac said. He gave Xelloss a quick look up and down. "You don't get much news where you've been, I take it? Up north there in Ralteague, they've got some folks who think those Princess books are evil. Somehow they got hold of a whole lot of books from somewhere and had a bonfire with them. They say The Princess gives children bad ideas and that she makes Dark Magic and Monsters look like a load of fun!"

 

"Does she, now?" Xelloss said, growing more interested. "And I understand there's something about a dead dragon...?"

 

He jumped backward as both men reacted immediately and loudly. Mac grimaced and clapped his fist to his forehead, while his friend threw up his hands and groaned.

 

"Don't get him started on that again!" Mac's friend said. "He's driven himself crazy worrying about that damn dragon! He had to talk about it nonstop for days after he heard that part, 'till my own head was spinning."

 

"It just doesn't make sense!" Mac insisted. His brow furrowed and he looked at them beseechingly. " See, if the dragon is really dead, then all that stuff with the monsters back in the third book doesn't make any sense at all, unless there's something else going on that the Sorcerer doesn't even know about...."

 

Mac's friend groaned again. He grabbed Mac's arm and started to drag him away. "Great. I'll have to get him drunk now just to shut him up, before he drives me crazy too!"

 

Amused, Xelloss watched them leave. Mac walked sideways up the street beside his befuddled friend, waving his hands in the air and arguing earnestly. His buddy could only shake his head and coax him along toward the nearest tavern.

 

"My, my! I might actually have to read this book someday," Xelloss said softly. "I'm beginning to wonder about that dragon myself!" Besides that, he thought, it would be worth buying it just to see Zelgadis' reaction. He hoped they still had copies at Gosling's.

 

For the moment, however, he had other things to wonder about besides the fate of a storybook dragon. There didn't seem to be much more useful information to be found around the docks, so he wandered up the streets toward the center of town.

 

There were no more tavern brawls going on this early in the evening. He followed the smell of seafood and the sound of lively music to a restaurant where an elegant wedding party was under way. The guests had just toasted the bride and groom, and all were sitting down to dine on a gourmet dinner featuring freshly caught salmon, the finest local delicacy of all.

 

Xelloss walked past the open windows from which the music and the smell of seafood spilled. Some of the guests happened to glance his way. They smiled and raised their glasses to the passing priest. He smiled back and waved his hand in what they took as a gesture of benediction. A second later, their feast became his when the gourmet dinner exploded.

 

Fish heads, steaming hot vegetables, and of course, rice flew up in the air and pelted down on the guests in their gowns and tuxedos. Dishes crashed as they jumped from their chairs and screamed at the bewildered waiters, who ran back into the kitchen and threw their trays at the cooks. A few minutes later, Xelloss had to hide his grin behind his hand as the head chef raced past him up the street with an angry mob on his heels. The bride outpaced the rest, even though she was running with her fish-stained dress hiked up in one hand and a kitchen knife in the other.

 

As they streamed past him, Xelloss imagined the glare Zelgadis would have turned on him for causing such a riot. When he caught himself thinking that glare would be more thrilling than the riot itself, he stopped and shook his head. It was time to stop thinking about Zelgadis for a few minutes and concentrate on business.

 

He wandered through the center of town for another half an hour, trying to get down to business, but he frequently found his gaze pulled toward the high point of land at the far end of the bay. Zelgadis would have had time to eat his own seafood feast by now, he thought, and might even be lounging in the bath already...

 

That thought brought such a surge of lust that it nearly lifted him into the air to go streaking toward the cottage. He took a deep breath to remind himself where he was in physical space, and stood still in the dark street while he dragged his awareness back into his body, His breath came out in a sigh. He tried very hard not to think about where Zelgadis' body was at that moment, and what he would be doing if he were there as well. Unfortunately, there wasn't much else to distract him on the quiet streets of Mystport after the sun set.

 

The sea breeze had lifted the mist that hung over the town. Xelloss looked up to see the first bright stars in the darkening sky overhead. Faintly, from all around, he sensed the emotional energy of humans. Small waves of despair mingled with the love of life as they went about their ordinary affairs. Even the darkest, juiciest strains of it held little appeal compared to the vision of Zelgadis that kept returning to his mind.

 

Frowning, he shook those thoughts out of his mind and dragged them back to his business in town. He lifted into the air and skimmed the rooftops and treetops. Circling out from the center of town, he searched determinedly for one more chance to do something productive that evening.

 

He skirted around the local Temple of the Gods in the middle of its wide green lawn dotted with pools, and spotted the governor's stately mansion on a hill above the river. Mystport was indeed a quiet little town; there were no more than a few sleepy guards on duty even at the gated mansion.

 

In fact, there was nothing else to capture his interest at all, until he heard a sound that was music to his ears: a pair of voices raised in a lively little domestic squabble. Thin and sharp, twin strands of anger drew him to dive closer, like a seagull swooping down to catch a crumb.

 

"OW! Quit pulling my hair!" screamed a girl's high-pitched voice. It drifted up from the open window of a house in the residential area near the governor's mansion. Dry leaves rattled in the trees and rustled in the yards around the well-kept houses. Xelloss landed on the roof and settled down cross-legged to listen in.

 

"Oh, stop whining! I didn't do it on purpose - this time," said a second girl's voice, sharper but not as high as the first. "Just stop stealing my stuff! You're not old enough to wear this, anyway. You look like a tramp!"

 

"I look better'n you do in it, slob! Ouch! Stop it! Mom!"

 

"What a baby! I can't believe you actually went out in public dressed like this, and I can't believe you wore all that cheap junk along with my good jewelry. And that's my blouse, too!"

 

"Hey, give that back! Those are mine!"

 

There was another screech, the sounds of a struggle and ripping cloth, ending with a slap.

 

"Ow!" the older girl yelled this time. "You are such a brat! Fine, here, take your junk back. Just leave my stuff alone from now on. You shouldn't even be touching these, anyway; they aren't toys, you know!"

 

Xelloss heard the rattle of trinkets and beads -- a peculiar, familiar rattle that made his lip curl up in distaste.

 

"These are magical," the older girl scolded. "They're not just for show. If you broke them, I'll kill you!"

 

"Oh sure. Just because Uncle Ned gave them to you for your biirtth-daay" the younger girl said in a sarcastic, sing-song voice, "you think they're special. Just like you think you're special!"

 

"Look, these aren't like the rest of that junk you wear, tramp. You know what Uncle Ned said, they can't make any more like this stuff, so they're getting rare and really valuable."

 

The beads rattled again. "I didn't break anything. Anyway, I don't think they're all that magical. You just think there's something special about them because Uncle Ned gave them to you. Well, even if they are rare, he's bringing me some, too, when his ship comes in tomorrow. He said he would."

 

Xelloss leaned forward, listening intently.

 

"Don't be an idiot. That's just Uncle Ned's squadron coming in on that boat. They're soldiers; they're not bringing a whole boat load of jewelry."

 

"Yes, they are! He said he was going to give me some beads and rings, too, and he's bringing a necklace for Mom."

 

Xelloss smiled in the dark above the roof. He'd finally found what he'd been looking for.

 

"Huh! Well, good! You need them, since they're supposed to make you into a nicer person."

 

"HA! They sure don't work on you, then!"

 

There was the sound of more struggling, muffled curses of "fish-girl!" and "werewolf breath!" and another slap, followed by another insistent cry of "Mom!"

 

Xelloss heard Mom's muffled voice coming from another part of the house. It sounded irritated but resigned, as if she heard all this on a regular basis. "Stop fighting, you two! Della, don't hit your sister! Rya, stop taking Della's things without asking first!"

 

From the sound of things, the girls weren't even listening. Obviously, Rya was right; the Relics had no power over these two.

 

Xelloss looked around when he heard footsteps come up the walk, crunching dry leaves on pavestones. He was not the least bit surprised to see one of the two girls he and Zel met up with earlier. She knocked on the door and called for Rya.

 

"Jin's here, I gotta go!" Rya said quickly.

 

"Brat!" Della snapped one more time. Xelloss could hear her sorting through the jewelry; the Relics rattled distinctively among all the other trinkets. "Go play with your little tramp friend. If you ever touch my stuff again, I'll get Uncle Ned to cut off your fingers next time he's here!"

 

"Nyah!"

 

Xelloss recognized the sound of a tongue being stuck out and wagged, and then the final rattle and thunk of jewelry as Rya jumped up and dashed out the door. He sat back and hugged his knees happily. Tomorrow he could finally get back to work.

 

He glanced down from the roof through nearly bare tree branches. It was dark in the yard, but he could see the two girls well enough. They were barely recognizable as the two little fashion dolls he'd seen earlier. Jin, the pale-faced one, was dressed in less eye-catching clothes now, a plain dress with long sleeves and plain black shoes. Her eyes were large and rimmed with lashes so thick he could see them even in the dark; she wouldn't need jewelry to catch boys' eyes in another year or two. Rya had a fiery mane of hair and a fierce look in her emerald eyes. She'd tossed a tunic over her head in place of the stolen blouse, and she was barefoot.

 

"I heard your mom yelling. Are you in trouble?" Jin said anxiously.

 

"Nah. Della got mad, as usual." She shrugged.

 

"Did you tell her who we saw today?" Jin asked. She leaned forward and twisted her hands together eagerly.

 

Rya shook her head. "Course not! She was too mad to listen! She would've just said I was lying. Anyway, it's not like it really was them, you know."

 

"Why not? They looked just like them, you even said so!"

 

"Because it's a story, stupid!" Rya poked Jin in the arm. "Ever since you heard it, you think every stranger in town is one of those guys! Just 'cause one of them was a priest doesn't mean he's really that Xelloss."

 

Xelloss nearly slipped off his perch onto their heads. Of course, he realized as he caught himself: the tale of the priest and the chimera who had destroyed the Shrine of Shimer had traveled to Mystport along with the Relics. Still, it was disconcerting to hear his name tossed out so casually from the lips of a giggling schoolgirl.

 

"Yeah, but the other one with him, he looked just like the chimera, too! He must have been Zelgadis."

 

"Yeah?" Rya said skeptically. "How could you tell? You couldn't even see his face!"

 

"Exactly, ' cause he's always all covered up like that - you saw, though, he had, like, blue skin, and little rock chips around his eyes, just like the chimera-guy in that story!"

 

"Well, maybe," Rya said doubtfully. She put her finger under her chin. "But why would they come here of all places? More likely they were some beast-man and one of those weird priests from that temple over in Wyndcliff. You know they wear funny clothes up there."

 

"C'mon, Rya!" Jin's cry was a wail of betrayal. "It had to be them!"

 

"It's just a story, Jin! You'd believe anything. Mazoku don't really go walking around town looking like humans!" She shuddered "That would be too creepy. Even worse than having Della for a sister! Anyway, they were just a couple of guys."

 

Xelloss sensed a different kind of shiver replace Rya's horror with girlish excitement, which was quickly conveyed from her to Jin. "But they were handsome guys, and they were looking at us!"

 

Her words ended in a squeal, and then giggles took over again. Glee rose like a sour perfume up through the tree branches. Xelloss decided he'd heard all he needed to hear for now. He'd done all he could do in town, and it was high time for dessert. Still grinning, he shot up into the air and gave in to the force of desire that had been pulling him toward the point all along.

 

---

 

It was more of a challenge to sneak up on Zelgadis since he'd been tutoring him in astral magic, but it was worth it to try. Even before he came in sight of the bath from the air, he sensed the familiar aura, rich with desire. With a rush of delight far stronger than anything in town had provided, he realized Zelgadis was thinking of him... waiting for him... It was worth tearing himself away for a couple of hours just to come back and feel it so sharply.

 

He shielded himself from Zelgadis' sharp senses, but he could tell that Zel was too relaxed to notice him anyway. The sight of him was just as enticing as he'd imagined. He paused to gaze down on this rare view of the chimera's strong, slim body, limbs spread and relaxed under the water. Steam rose around him and drops glistened on silver strands of hair, and his face was flushed and damp. Zelgadis' eyes were closed as he leaned back in the water, his lips parted in a little smile. Another wave of desire crashed through Xelloss when he finally sensed the sexual energy swirling below the still surface of his aura and simultaneously noticed Zel's physical arousal.

 

The shaman's spirit reached out toward him blindly, barely missed touching him, and then fell back. Xelloss closed his eyes and sighed, firmly drawing his own awareness into the physical plane. Now he knew for certain that Zelgadis had been thinking of him and wanting him. That was all he needed to know.

 

He dropped down and materialized a few feet above Zelgadis. The scent of his bath-warmed stone body rose up on the steam to engulf his senses. Blue eyes flashed up at him with surprise, and then with something more welcoming.

 

Xelloss wanted nothing more than to touch his lithe body until those eyes glazed over. He gazed down to see Zelgadis spread out under the water like the most delicious feast waiting to be caught and taken. Nothing Mystport had to offer could compare with this.

 

It reminded him of the last time he'd seen Zelgadis immersed in a steaming bath, not long ago on their travels. He remembered how deeply he'd wanted the chimera on that occasion, and the intense pleasure of letting Zelgadis fill him and touch him in ways that had astonished both of them. He wanted him as strongly now as he did then.

 

He dropped into the bath in the most expedient way possible; the fact that this startled Zelgadis and left him sputtering in wet surprise was just an added bonus. He landed in Zel's lap and stradled his hips. The contact with warm stone skin under water made him hard almost instantly.

 

Zelgadis shook the water out of his face and focused on him a second later, and Xelloss knew from the steamy look in those eyes that his chimera had been thinking of the same thing he had been - that previous time in the bath when he'd reversed their usual positions. He'd had to coax the shaman to take him that way the first time, but this time Zelgadis was as eager as he was. Within minutes, he was shuddering with pleasure as Zelgadis' hardness filled him again and that small but powerful spirit pulsed within his. Xelloss felt like he would never have need of anything else again.

 

Some time later, after the sea wind had torn his sharp moans and Zelgadis' scream away over the dunes, after sensation and desire had peaked and swept all thoughts away, Xelloss carried Zelgadis back into the cottage and settled next to him on the bed. He watched the chimera's relaxed body settle into sleep and listened to his breathing along with the muffled sound of the surf. Zelgadis' astral body settled as well, losing the form Zel's desire to touch him had given it as his consciousness gave up its grip. Reluctantly, Xelloss let it withdraw from his.

 

As it slipped from his grasp, Xelloss realized how strange it was to have held it like this in the first place. Wanting to hold on to a moment just as it was, to keep it from slipping away into the chaos of passing time - he'd never imagined such a feeling before. Mazoku exist for the sake of destruction; there was no word for preservation in his language, and no place for it in his thought.

 

As far as he knew, there was nothing inherently wrong with touching a mortal spirit this way. It had probably never been done before, certainly not for pleasure, but he couldn't see the harm in it. But ever since leaving Seyruun - in fact, ever since he'd left the ruins of Shimeria and returned to Zelgadis - he hadn't thought of much else beyond finding opportunities to be alone with him, and finding excuses to touch his body and feel his spirit. He wanted to hoard these moments like pirates' treasure and guard them against all other intrusions.

 

It had been easy enough to ignore when all he had to do was follow Zelgadis through the wilderness, but tonight it had become clear that, ever since he'd left Shimeria, something was very wrong with his priorities. As soon as Uncle Ned's ship sailed into the harbor tomorrow, he was going to start putting things back in order.

 

Zelgadis rolled over and slid up against him. His rough cheek rubbed against Xelloss' shoulder, and wire-stiff hair tangled his own dark strands. Somehow Xelloss found his hand had come to rest on Zel's hip. For a moment he fought against the urge to pull him closer and feel the cool, stony skin pressed against his physical form.

 

Xelloss decided he had no other duties pressing on him at the moment. He might just as well lie here in the dark, listen to the waves, and let his thoughts drift aimlessly. And if he was going to do that, he might as well do it with his arms around Zelgadis.

 

---

to be continued.

 

Coming up: Well, I'm going to quit writing these preview summaries while the story is in progress. I thought I knew what the next chapter was going to be, but Xelloss insisted on having another chapter to himself first. I only think I'm the one making up this story, but we know who's really in charge, don't we?