Slayers Fan Fiction ❯ Birth Rite ❯ 12 ( Chapter 12 )

Birth Rite, Chapter 12 of ?

by Tsutsuji

 

Date written: 9/6/06

Rating: M

Warnings: Yaoi, UST, original characters, a little language.

Disclaimer: I do not own the copyright to the characters of Xelloss and Zelgadis or anything else from Slayers, and I'm making no profit from this fic and intend no copyright infringement.

Spell-checked and self-beta'd. Anyone who reads this is welcome to consider him or herself a beta reader and inform me of any errors (especially since I don't trust Open Office's spellcheck). Thanks, as always, to those who review and offer suggestions and corrections.

 

Summary: Kemara has a talk with her brother; then, after a little late-night reading, Xelloss gets caught up in an impromptu practical magic lesson that Zelgadis initiates.

 

 

Chapter 12

 

 

The Mother of All Things is an Existence too vast to comprehend. Her Ways are mysterious, Her Works are marvelous, Her Words are unfathomable. Any fool who wishes to perceive Her Being must love futility, because he will never succeed. To realize this, one must only consider Her most inexplicable Creation: humans.

from "Collected Musings of Black Crow Sage: Thoughts on the Unthinkable."

 

---

 

Kemara smiled as she watched Zelgadis and Xelloss leave the dining hall porch and fly off into the rain together. She remained there by the door for a few more minutes, wishing goodnight to other temple residents as they left the hall. The black haired Loremaster stopped beside her.

 

"So," he said, "that was the Mazoku who broke the Curse of Shimer! It's quite an honor to meet him. I wanted to thank him for incidentally allowing our High Priestess to return to us, but I suppose that would be impertinent, wouldn't it?"

 

"Actually, Nigel-sama, I think Xelloss-sama would be quite amused if you did thank him for that," Kemara answered with a grin.

 

"Perhaps I will, then," he said cheerfully. "He looks like such a pleasant young man that it's hard to imagine him doing anything destructive - but I suppose that's deliberate. Looking at the two of them, Zelgadis-sama seems much more likely to be the dangerous one!"

 

Kemara's smile grew so wide that her twinkling eyes nearly disappeared, but she didn't reply to his comment.

 

"Zelgadis-san has asked for Myona to be their guide here at the Temple," she said. "If you'll excuse me, Nigel-sama, I had better go and tell Myona so he can be ready in the morning!

 

"Certainly, High Priestess-sama," he said, bowing to her. "I hope you and our guests will do me the honor of attending one of my recitations while they're here," he added, with a little hesitation.

 

"Thank you, Nigel-sama. I hope that can be arranged," Kemara answered.

 

Nigel left her with another small bow. As she went back into the hall to look for Myona, Kemara's cheeks had a little extra flush of pink to go with her smile.

 

A few minutes later, after searching through the hall and the kitchens, she returned to the porch and stood at the opposite end, looking out into the rainy dusk. Her smile had disappeared.

 

"Myona," she sighed, her shoulders slumping. Then she drew herself up and raised her arms to cast Levitation.

 

With a light wind shield around her as well, she was mostly dry when she drifted down to land on the point south of the bay a few minutes later. A fews streaks of light broke through the clouds far to the West, giving enough light to see the familiar shape huddled among the stones and sparse grass, halfway out on the windswept arm of land.

 

She shook her head as she came closer. Myona had thrown a cloak over his server's uniform, at least, but he had no hood and he was barefoot again. He sat with his back to the village, gazing out to sea and right into the rain and wind, but he turned to look up as she approached. His wet hair was plastered in dark curls around his face, and his eyes looked almost as dark as the black stones of the ruins and the black sea below.

 

Startled, he stood up quickly and pulled his cloak closer around himself. "Sis?" he said worriedly. "What are you doing out here?"

 

"I'm looking for you, of course," she said lightly, forcing a smile. "I was worried when I found out you'd left midway through dinner without telling anyone. Are you all right, Myona-chan?"

 

He fidgeted with the folds of his cloak. "I'm fine. I just couldn't wait to tell Dream Master that Xelloss-dono and Zelgadis-sama are here!"

 

"You didn't need to come all the way out here to tell Dream Master that, did you, Myona-chan?" she chided gently. "It's dangerous to walk up here on the cliffs in the dark, especially in the rain!"

 

"Dream Master won't let anything happen to me out here," he said confidently. "And it's easier to talk out here, away from the Temple and all the people."

 

Kemara bit her lip, while Myona gave her a crooked half-smile. She glanced around nervously; the point was fairly wide here, but it sloped steeply down a treacherous, grassy bank on the southern side, while the north side dropped off sheer into the bay. Further out it became narrow and steep on both sides where it curved back sharply to the north. That hooked point, where a few gnarled, dark trees grew around the huge stones of the ruins, seemed even more menacing than the cliffs.

 

"Myona-chan, do you really feel more safe out here?" she said wonderingly. When he just gave a little shrug, still smiling, she asked him more directly. "Did something happen tonight in the dining hall?"

 

He hunched his shoulders and hugged the cloak around himself more closely, but he shook his head. "It's just that, you know, I'm not very good at serving..."

 

He shrugged again and gave her another apologetic smile. Kemara waited, but he didn't say anything more.

 

"Well," she sighed. "Perhaps you'll find you're a better guide than a server, Myona-chan!"

 

He gave her a puzzled look. "Guide?" His expression grew even more confused when she smiled.

 

"A Temple guide ,and storyteller as well! Zelgadis-san has asked that you guide him and Xelloss around the temple, starting tomorrow. You can attend any recitations they hear, if you like. And they also want to hear your stories."

 

Myona's eyes grew very large in his pale face. "Zelgadis-sama asked for me?" he said wondrously.

 

"Yes, and I said I thought you would be willing to do it, but it's up to you. If you want to, you'd better say goodnight to Dream Master and come back home and get to bed, because I expect they'll be ready to start early in the morning!"

 

"Oh!" He blinked and pushed wet hair back out of his face. "Really? Of course I'll do it! Really?"

 

A rare smile broke out on his face, and Kemara smiled back. Her shoulders dropped again, but this time it was in relief.

 

"Now, you see, if you'd kept up your studies, you could be their scribe as well, but Marcus-san will have to do that job for them," she said teasingly, reaching out to ruffle his dripping hair.

 

"Oh, Marcus," Myona said, frowning a little. "He's okay, I guess..." He trailed off absently, still smiling as if he was already distracted by thoughts of the task ahead.

 

They both looked up quickly as lightning flashed out at sea, briefly lighting up the darker clouds that were rushing up from the south. A gust of wind buffeted them with rain and flattened the grass. Myona turned to look across the wind-torn top of the cliff, tipping his head back as if to feel the rush of wind and rain against his face. He looked past the ruins to the the ragged sky in the West, where streaks of sunset afterglow still broke through the clouds on the horizon. The dark arms of the approaching storm stretched out as if reaching for the last of the light.

 

"Isn't it wonderful here?" Myona said breathlessly. He was still smiling, but his smile had changed.

 

Kemara bit her lip as she followed his gaze. She shivered at the sight of the ruins on the point; the huge broken stones looked like black teeth in a great, rocky jaw. She turned away, and muttered quickly to renew her barrier against the buffeting wind.

 

"I don't know why you think so, Myona," she said. "But anyway, it's time to go home, now!"

 

Myona sighed, but he turned back to her with a smile. She held out her hand. He looked at it doubtfully, and then at her.

 

"I can walk back," he said. "I'd really rather not, you know... fly..."

 

"Myona-chan!" Kemara shook her head more in wonder than in protest. "How can you still fear flying when you climb around up here near the ruins all the time, even in the black of night in the middle of a storm?"

 

"I know, but," he said, still hesitating to take her hand. "Up there, Dream Master isn't..." he began but didn't finish.

 

"Myona-chan," Kemara said softly. "Don't you trust your sister to protect you, too?"

 

"Oh!" He looked surprised, then his face fell into another apologetic smile. Finally he took her hand.

 

"Now that you're back, Kemara-san," he said quietly. "Of course I do."

 

He hid his eyes against her shoulder and clung to her tightly with his arms around her waist, while she lifted them both into the air.

 

"I'm glad Zelgadis-san destroyed that place so you could come home," he said, with his face muffled against her robe.

 

"So am I," Kemara said softly.

 

---

 

Zelgadis may have had a body made of stone and super-human stamina, but after two days plus half a night of hiking, a good meal, and some intense physical intimacy, Xelloss observed that he slept like the proverbial log.

 

Sitting beside him on the bed in the dark, Xelloss cocked his head and regarded the sleeping chimera musingly for a few minutes. Actually, he decided, it was more natural to say that Zelgadis slept like a stone. Gourry was the one who slept like a log, one that a woodsman was hard at work on with a gigantic saw. He'd often marveled that Lina's other companions could sleep at all with Gourry anywhere in the vicinity.

 

Zelgadis didn't snore at all; in fact, Xelloss often had to stay close to hear the sound of his breath in the night. Sometimes Zelgadis had nightmares, though, and then he would pant with sharp breaths as if he was running in his dreams. All of Lina Inverse's companions, even Gourry, had nightmares once in a while. Xelloss supposed they would hardly be human if they didn't, after all they'd seen. But unlike the others, Zelgadis only ever muttered the name of the Red Priest in his troubled sleep.

 

Tonight, however, Zelgadis slept soundly and, as far as Xelloss could tell, in deep contentment. His soft breath and occasional movements were quiet against the patter of rain outside, lulling Xelloss into a sleep like state of stillness as well. He could have spent the entire night like that, as he often did when Zelgadis slept, but the odd aura of the Temple hummed at the edge of his senses and nudged at his thoughts.

 

Quite suddenly and uncomfortably, it occurred to him to wonder if Zelas-sama knew of this place. He couldn't quite recall whether he'd mentioned Kemara or her grandmother's temple in his report about the events in Shimeria, since they were only of the slightest passing interest at the time. On the other hand, it was hard to imagine the Mazoku Lords had never heard of a place where humans honored the Golden Lord, and especially of a place where not one but several Claire Bible manuscripts were kept.

 

Zelgadis sighed and turned in his sleep, and Xelloss frowned, shifting restlessly as well. The more he thought about it, the more it seemed he should report to Zelas-sama about what he'd found here. Except, he reasoned, he hadn't actually found very much yet. He didn't really have anything to tell her about the Temple itself, beyond the fact that it existed - which she might well already know, anyway.

 

Xelloss scowled, tearing his gaze away from Zel's comfortably sprawled body with an impatient twitch of his head. If he went to Zelas now, most of his report would consist of an explanation of how he came to be here in the first place. It had seemed clear enough this morning, but trying to figure out how he would put it in words to Zelas-sama, it still seemed a bit - complicated.

 

Pulling the form of his shirt and trousers into place around himself, Xelloss stood and started to pace beside the bed, muttering now and then as he tried to figure out what he would say to his mistress.

 

"Well, there were the Soldiers in Mystport... but Zelgadis-san... and Skye... so then...and there's Marcus... but besides that...the Loremasters... and also - "

 

He stopped short, then spun around and went to pick up his bag where he'd dropped it earlier, when he and Zelgadis were getting undressed in a bit of a rush.

 

"Ah, yes, Martina-san's book," he said softly. He pulled out the book and smiled at the figures on the cover. "Perhaps I'd better find out how much trouble this manuscript is going to be, before I worry about obscure lore that I can't even put my hands on!"

 

Satisfying himself that this was a more useful way to spend night hours than either flitting around the temple grounds or paying a visit home, Xelloss settled himself on the windowsill in the bedroom with the book propped up on his knee. The night outside was black with occasional soft flickers of lightning, and rain blew against the window. He looked over once more to see that Zelgadis was still happily asleep, and then he opened the book to page one and began to read.

 

---

 

By the time Xelloss read through the detailed (and exaggerated) description of the Princess' glorious wedding and finally came to the words "The End," a pale and foggy dawn had arrived. He stood up and peered outside, but there was little to see in the dim, misty light. The rain and wind had stopped sometime while he was caught up in the Princess' tale. Everything seemed very still and quiet outside the cottage.

 

He'd stifled his laughter several times while reading Martina's story. Parts it were clearly meant to be amusing, but in other places he had to laugh for his own personal reasons. Zelgadis had not stirred in all that time. Xelloss set the book aside with a final fond pat and a grin.

 

"Martina-san, you actually had me worried for a moment there," he said, gazing at the book fondly. "Fortunately, you only managed to comprehend enough to sound just like the charming idiot you are, and perhaps also to make the Sorcerers' Guild look foolish as well!"

 

He wondered once again what Lina would think of the story when she heard of it. If nothing else, the parts where Martina strongly suggested there was something romantic going on between the Sorcerer and the Golden Haired Swordsman were likely to earn the Princess a Fireball or two.

 

He thought for a moment of waking Zelgadis by reading the story out loud to him, but decided not to bother; the chimera often woke up grumpy enough as it was. It was still very early, and he felt a little restless after reliving past events through the Princess' silly, human eyes. He decided to slip outside for a look around instead. He might just have time to learn something useful about the Temple before Zelgadis woke up.

 

Xelloss stood out in front of the cottage on the wet grass of the green, and looked around. The sky was light above, but the sun would not rise above the tops of the mountains behind the town for some time yet. Thick mist hid everything more than a few feet away from normal sight.

 

He closed his eyes and considered the aura of the temple again. It was like a wind-blown mist swirling around him, and like a scent he couldn't catch or a smoke that obscured his vision.

 

As he stood there, he became aware for the first time that there were people nearby; a few of the other cottages around the green were occupied with residents who were still asleep. He remembered that Marcus had mentioned the house he and Kervan shared, and he guessed it must be nearby, but he couldn't seem to pinpoint them when he tried to. It was disturbingly difficult to sense individuals through the swirling veil of the Temple's miasma.

 

Xelloss turned around and looked back at the cottage where Zelgadis slept, just to make sure he could sense the chimera as clearly as ever. His eyes flew wide open with surprise - Zelgadis was not only awake, he was right on the other side of the door. He sensed that the chimera had woken up both grumpy and gleeful, and unless the temple's aura was completely baffling Xelloss' sense of things, there was a power field gathering around him as well - the kind that gathered around a sorcerer when he was preparing to cast a spell.

 

For a second, Xelloss thought he felt Zelgadis touch him on the astral side, and then just as suddenly his awareness of the chimera's spirit was blocked. He knew he'd been tagged, but he didn't have time to decide whether to dodge or counter-attack before the astral blast hit him.

 

His senses reeled and his mind went as fuzzy as the fog that was all around him. All he could think of, as he went flying backward several feet in the air, was that he was certainly glad Zelgadis hadn't used a Ra Tilt, because he'd scored a direct hit. It must have been Zel's newly-invented, blunt-tipped version of Elmekia Lance, but that wasn't why it was so impressive.

 

He sat up - having landed on his butt in the wet grass - and shook his head to clear it. It hurt all right, in fact his body and spirit would likely feel the ache for hours, but he couldn't help grinning. For the first time since they'd started their battle practice, Zelgadis had actually managed to hit him from the astral side.

 

Like Zel's first touch on the astral side, their mock battles had begun by accident, because Zelgadis really did wake up very grumpy some mornings.

 

It had started one morning a few days after leaving Seyruun, shortly after Zel's initial discovery of his astral body's reach. Since they'd become intimate in Shimeria, Xelloss had forgotten how unsociable Zelgadis used to be early in the morning, back in the days when they were all traveling together with Lina. Even Amelia had learned to give him a wide berth for a while after he first woke up. That morning outside Seyruun, for the first time since Shimeria, Zel so clearly wanted to be left alone to drink his coffee in peace that Xelloss couldn't help badgering him with questions and bad jokes.

 

He knew Zelgadis was growing more frustrated with him by the second, but when Zel began to mutter something under his breath, Xelloss assumed it was just ordinary grumbling. Then Zelgadis looked up, straight into his face, and smiled.

 

"Zel-san?" he asked innocently.

 

"Blam Blazer!"

 

He'd figured it out just before the words left Zel's lips, and dodged - or at least, he'd meant to. The problem was, he'd only dodged on the physical side. It was an astral attack spell, but the energy normally passed through physical space toward the target. To his astonishment, Zelgadis had somehow managed to cast it on the astral side at the same time.

 

Fortunately, Zelgadis had pulled his punch, so to speak - he was irritated as hell, but he wasn't really trying to kill Xelloss, after all. He didn't even realize what he'd done, or why Xelloss was knocked flat by the spell rather than just knocked silly as he'd intended.

 

Xelloss shouldn't have said it, but he couldn't help the first words to come out of his mouth when he was able to speak again a few minutes later.

"Amazing, Zel-san" he croaked, grinning like a fool. "Do it again!"

 

Zelgadis couldn't do it again. He hadn't planned to do it in the first place, just as he hadn't planned to touch Xelloss on the astral side in the first place. When he realized what he'd done, attacking from the astral side as a Mazoku would, he balked.

 

"It's not dangerous," Xelloss said, partly to convince himself. "Not to me, anyway, and not to you either. You're not a Mazoku, just one-third brow demon, after all!"

 

In spite of this supposed reassurance, Zelgadis couldn't even begin to try again. Xelloss reminded him that the Soldiers of Shimer had used weapons that affected his spirit as well as his body.

 

"If you can attack from the astral side, you can shield yourself there as well," he said reasonably.

 

That got Zel's attention, at least, and he stopped protesting the whole idea long enough to think about it. Of course, at that time, Zelgadis had hoped never to see another Soldier of Shimer, but the idea of being able to defend himself from astral attacks wasn't one to take lightly.

 

"You think you can teach me to fight like this?" Zelgadis said, looking at Xelloss doubtfully. "Besides that, do you really think you ought to?"

 

"It's my duty to protect you from the Soldiers; therefore, teaching you to protect yourself is within the parameters of my orders as well." It made perfect sense as far as he could see.

 

When Zelgadis still seemed hesitant, Xelloss narrowed his eyes and raised his hands, and let Zel see the power gathering there. He waited until he was sure Zel felt it with his astral senses as well.

 

"Why don't you just try shielding yourself against this, at least?" he said with his best demonic grin.

 

Zelgadis tried, and failed. Then he grew frustrated. Xelloss should have known that would do the trick.

 

So their astral magic sparring practice had begun. In all the time they'd been practicing, though, Zelgadis hadn't quite managed to land another blow from the astral side, until now. Xelloss suddenly thought he knew what the expression "punch-drunk" really meant, and it had nothing to do with fruit juice at all.

 

It took a few seconds longer for him to gather his thoughts than he realized, because by the time he did, Zelgadis was halfway across the lawn toward him, and he'd never noticed him leaving the cottage. He was wearing only his trousers, which Xelloss couldn't help noticing and appreciating even if his mind was still half numb, and of course he was grinning.

 

"Nicely done," Xelloss said, with slightly halting speech. "Just don't (pause) tell me (pause) you didn't know (pause) what you were doing (pause) this time."

 

"I knew," Zelgadis said. "It's a little easier here for some reason. Like learning to swim in salt water, I guess."

 

Xelloss was even more surprised to sense that Zelgadis was already gearing up for another attack. If the energy gathering around him wasn't a clear enough indication, the wicked grin on his face made it quite obvious.

 

"Zel-san, I must say," he began - still feeling a little studdery in the speech department - "I'm surprised you want to practice this morning. Not that I have any objections, but I thought you'd be eager to dig into your Claire Bible manuscripts and your Beast Tribe legends before anything else!"

 

Zelgadis stopped in his tracks, stared at Xelloss a second, and then laughed. "Xelloss, you really have become as forgetful as Gourry, as pig-headed as Lina, and as - uh, no, forget it; there's no way to compare you to Amelia!"

 

"Eh?" Xelloss squawked. "Why in the Four Worlds would you want to?"

 

Zelgadis laughed briefly again. Xelloss was completely confused, but it wasn't just because of Zelgadis' spell now. Why was he being compared to Lina Inverse?

 

"I know what you're up to, Xelloss," Zelgadis said bluntly, beginning to walk toward him again. His hands made spell-casting movements as he walked. "I must have been thinking in my sleep, because as soon as I woke up I knew exactly what you were trying to do last night. You're trying to distract me from my search, aren't you?"

 

Caught out like that, Xelloss blinked rapidly and stammered something, but he couldn't quite figure out how to deny it - not in any way that Zelgadis would believe, at least.

 

Zelgadis smirked, then glared. "Weren't you listening yesterday morning? I have other reasons for seeking magical knowledge here now, remember? I'm going to find something to help you against the Shrine Keepers and their cursed weapons, and to do that, I'm going to need more practice in offensive astral magic." He smiled and focused his power. "Are you ready?" he said, and then he began to chant.

 

"Oh!" How could he have forgotten, Xelloss wondered. Well, probably because it was so incredible in the first place, he supposed. He knew Zelgadis so well by now, and knew how badly he wanted to have a normal body, that it was hard to believe he'd set that goal aside for anything. On the other hand, he also knew how dogged Zelgadis could be in the pursuit of any goal he found worth reaching for. And he had always wanted power, after all.

 

Xelloss smiled up at him from where he was still sitting on the ground, but he didn't get up just yet.

 

"Excellent," Xelloss said happily. He still spoke more slowly than usual, but it was mostly just for the effect now.

 

Brow furrowing with concern, Zelgadis hesitated in his chant and bent forward to look at him more closely - a predictable but foolish move. He was only a couple of feet away now.

 

"If casting an astral attack is easier for you here, this should be easier as well," Xelloss said. He looked the chimera right in the face and grinned. "Shielding yourself, that is," he added, and that was all the warning he gave.

 

Zelgadis wasn't caught off guard after all. He leaped backward and arced to the side, with the fighter's grace and magical speed Xelloss admired in him. At the same time, Zelgadis swept his hand through the air as if he was waving a flag. That was only a gesture that helped him focus his thought on the astral side. Instead of an imaginary flag, a solid ribbon of power followed his hand, creating a shield in front of him. Unfortunately, it was only about as wide as, well, a ribbon. That didn't begin to cover his astral body.

 

That was what came of not wanting to look at what he was doing, Xelloss thought sadly as he released his attack. His low burst of power slipped past the narrow belt of the shield and grazed Zelgadis' spirit. On the physical plane, Zel's eyes went wide and he grunted in surprise. His Elmekia Bunt went wild as if it was knocked from his hands, and shot up over Xelloss' head to dissipate in the fog.

 

"Damn," he muttered. He landed from his leap backward and almost fell over sideways before he caught himself. His senses were disrupted enough to lose his balance, but he could still concentrate enough to chant another spell.

 

"No, no," Xelloss said crossly. "Defend, don't attack!"

 

Zelgadis was more comfortable attacking. It made sense, in a way. After all, the reason he'd reached out onto the astral plane in the first place was to touch Xelloss, not to shut him out. Unfortunately, Xelloss felt that defending himself on the astral side was much more to the point.

 

Zelgadis was going all out in his attack this time, though, with a full-fledged Blam Blazer. He dropped to one knee, concentrating so hard on the astral plane that he was unsteady on the physical side. He cast the spell so quickly that he might have gotten away with a move like that - if he'd been fighting something relatively weak and stupid, like a Brass Demon.

 

Xelloss felt that he needed to make a point. He waited and let Zelgadis cast his spell. It was certainly a potent one, and Zel had even managed to cast it on the astral side, but he didn't have the element of surprise in his favor this time. Xelloss jumped aside and dodged it - although it grazed him enough to singe the flapping end of his sash - and landed a foot in front of Zelgadis, who was still down on one knee in the grass.

 

"Shit," Zelgadis hissed. His lovely burst of panic hit Xelloss, but it was as much to the chimera's advantage as it was to his own. Pumped with adrenaline, Zelgadis started to jump up and back, already beginning to chant another spell. Xelloss simply reached out and caught him on the astral side, and pinned him in place with his own recently-devised Mazoku version of a Shadow Snap. He would be ashamed to use even such a simple astral attack against a mere human in real battle, but this was lessons, so he felt it was justified.

 

Zelgadis snarled, showing his demon-sharp teeth. That was nice, and Xelloss paused before his next move to savor it. Unfortunately that must have been what Zelgadis was hoping he'd do, because he took advantage of Xelloss' brief lapse in concentration to twist free of his grasp on the astral side. Xelloss grimaced; his chimera was getting entirely too clever about using his emotions like that.

 

Having wiggled out of Xelloss' Astral Shadow Grip, Zelgadis was free on the physical side as well, but it was too late. His reflexes were inhumanly fast, but that wasn't fast enough against a Mazoku who could fire up a spell attack with no more than a lightning-quick thought. Zelgadis twisted and leaped away in a blur of speed. Xelloss raised his hand and spoke.

 

"Drku shizt!" he said, or at least that's what it sounded like to human ears, as far as he'd ever been able to tell. The air buzzed with concentrated energy. An invisible force hit Zelgadis in mid air. He stiffened, and then crashed in a heap in the middle of the green.

 

Xelloss strolled over to him. Zelgadis lay there, twitching a little, panting and glassy-eyed. He was conscious, which was a sign of how much Xelloss had pulled that punch, but he wouldn't be having any deeply meaningful conversations for a minute or two. There were smoking holes in his trousers and a couple of light scorch marks on his bare stone skin, places that would have been gaping holes in an ordinary human. That's what a Miasma Shockwave could do to a person - but the flash burns were just a side effect. It was the blow to the nervous system that was lethal.

 

However, at the low level of power he'd used and with the chimera's supernatural stamina, Xelloss knew Zelgadis would recover in minutes. Such a tightly controlled Miasma Shockwave took a little out of the Mazoku who cast it, though, so Xelloss sank to his knees, straddling Zel's hips, and relaxed.

 

"Mem," Zelgadis said, wincing with the effort of merely making a word come out of his mouth. Xelloss cocked his head. From the glitter in Zel's eyes, he decided the chimera probably meant to swear at him. That was perfect; the more pissed off Zelgadis got when he lost like this, the better he fought the next time.

 

Trying to regain control of mouth, mind, and body, Zelgadis could only curl his lip and glare - and even that was less than frightening when the effort made him quiver all the more. Xelloss couldn't help but grin down at him happily.

 

"You'll be fine in a minute, as you know perfectly well," he chided. "But I must admit, you're so adorable when your nervous system is all scrambled!" He leaned down closer, with one hand in the grass by Zel's head. "I'd help you recover, but of course you know..."

 

He was cut off by a shout that made him jump; Zelgadis twitched so hard he nearly left the ground.

 

"Xelloss!"

 

He froze. Zelgadis managed to raise an eyebrow. Feeling the power behind the voice beating on his back, Xelloss moved his hands away from Zelgadis and sat back slowly. He turned to look toward the voice that had shouted his name with nearly the force of a Blast Bomb.

 

"Kemara-sama," he said, smiling weakly. "You're up and about early, aren't you!"

 

-- to be continued --

 

 

Notes: The Miasma Shockwave isn't in the lists of Slayers spells, but it appears in the second Slayers novel, "The Sorcerer of Atlas," where the Mazoku Gio Gaia casts it at Lina (and misses). It seems to be one of the few named spells that is only used by Mazoku. I made up the Power Words for Xelloss to use here, but it's really supposed to be a sound that's unpronounceable to humans. I'm still trying to understand exactly how Mazoku use magic - since it's said in some places that they don't use human magic except when necessary to maintain their human disguise, and it's also said that they would never attack a human from the astral side. I'd love to discuss this with anyone else who's thought about it; please email me with your ideas.

 

On the use of honorifics and titles in this story: After discussions with a couple of people while I was writing "Poison," I realized that honorifics are not really used in Slayers as they are in Japanese culture - which makes sense, since Slayers isn't supposed to be set in a Japanese culture. They are used to indicate the personality of the speaker, not necessarily the actual status of the person whose name they're attached to. In this story, the people of Mystport don't use them much at all, just as Lina, Gourry, and Zelgadis don't, although they sometimes use the more casual sounding "mister" - which doesn't mean they're rude, only that they speak in a casual, modern manner. The people of Wyndcliff, and particularly at the Temple of the Golden Lord, are more old fashioned, most of them are also well educated, and they have a more formal speech pattern, so they use honorifics extensively - just as Amelia and Xelloss do. (Although when Xelloss uses them for humans, he's probably being facetious, as well as passing himself off as a well-educated and polite human priest.)

At least, that's the logic I'm trying to stick to. Just in case anyone was wondering.