Slayers Fan Fiction ❯ Shadow Magic - Zelgadis and Lina ❯ After All ( Chapter 1 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Chapter One

After All

A Song by Delerium

Narrative by Sapphirefly

Lyrics - Navy

Narrative - Black

He hadn't meant to stop at that tavern. He was on his way somewhere else. He wouldn't have stopped at all except for an inescapable feeling that there was someone there - someone powerful.

It had been a very long time since he had encountered anyone like that. Sorcerers were becoming less and less common, especially humans.

He had to take a look.

All he did was look in through the window, and he saw her. She was sitting alone at a table, a huge mound of dishes stacked on the tablecloth. With that many dishes, she couldn't possibly be alone, but if she wasn't alone, where were her companions? She took a drink from a smoky goblet and leaned forward. Her white-gloved fingers drummed on the table highlighting her slender wrist. She had to be very young; that was when he noticed that none of the other chairs at the table had been pulled out. She really was alone.

It could only be one person. He had heard her name mentioned several times, but he had never seen her. The opportunity to observe her was irresistible.

Without thinking, he opened the door to the tavern and stepped across the threshold. The room was almost empty, as there weren't very many patrons at the tables and no one sitting at the bar. To get to the bar, he had to walk past her table. If he sat there it would afford an excellent view of her. He would have got there except a hand sprung out and grabbed the edge of his cloak. He turned around to see who was stopping him only to realize that it was Lina Inverse herself, the object of his interest, holding onto him.

She was looking down at the table, her face still covered by her tussled hair.

“Zel,” she said quietly without looking up. “Sit down.”

He sat down.

She let go of his cloak and rested one of her cheeks in the palm of her hand. “It's been a long time, ne?” she said, and looked up, but it was obvious to her guest that he was not who she was expecting. His name was not the name she spoke, and he was not the person she invited to sit with her.

“Gomen,” he said, “I'm not who you expected?” Regardless of her feelings, she was exactly what he was expecting. She was everything they said she was, her aura spoke volumes.

“No,” she said and allowed her hair to fall, covering her eyes.

Just then a waitress came to clear the dishes on the table. “Do you want anything?” she asked him.

“Red wine,” he said, unknowingly emphasizing the word red. “And please get her anything she wants. I'll cover the charges.”

“Well, in that case, chicken dinner for four on the double,” Lina said brightly, with a sudden reversal of her mood.

She really was everything they said she was. This was going to be very interesting.

“So what's going so wrong for you that you were looking that way when I came in?”

“It's a long story,” she said putting her hands behind her head. “You're not interested.”

“But of course I'm interested,” he drawled as he lazily pulled a pendant out of his inner pocket and swung it around by the chain. He watched her eyes as she followed the cycle he created with the heavy blue stone on the end of the chain.

She suddenly met his eyes, seemingly catching his meaning. “You're that interested?” she asked.

“I'm interested. I'm sure it will go very well with my wine,” he said.

“I used to travel with this man,” she started out. “When I first met him he saved me from a bandit gang. He . . . he thought that I would be different than I am. I'm pretty young,” she stumbled, almost choking on what she was trying to communicate.

She knows the voices in her mind
They tell her
To leave

“Even though I wasn't who he was looking for, we became friends and used to travel together. He used to tease me about my . . . body, and even though I was insulted, I never thought there was anything behind it. I thought that it was only that - teasing, but I was wrong.” She paused taking a drink of the wine he had asked the waitress to bring. “Then it happened. A woman hit on him in a way he could understand, and he couldn't turn her down. Baka!”

She's tired of smiling madly
Until silence becomes very silently
A noise in her mind

“And he left with her! Can you believe that skunk? She told him she had a job for him that only he could do, and the way she asked him . . . argh! I thought I would vomit. And that little outfit she was wearing - doesn't she want to leave anything to the imagination?”

He watched her rant from the other side of the table. Most amusing! It was like watching chaos consume the universe. It was interesting the way she tried to cover that she cared about being discarded. Why did she bother with the pretension of not caring when she allowed herself to show this much anger?

After all she has nothing inside
No good to give
No meaning to live
The mist engulfed tonight
Every single star

“Did you tell him that you didn't want him to go?”

Lina suddenly turned an unusual colour of red, a tone he had never seen before. She closed her eyes and nodded her head.

After all they shared
How could he simply say no?
After all they shared
He turned away from her to go
She said she wouldn't cry
That was really just a lie

“Were you in love with him?”

“How could I possibly be in love with that jellyfish!?! I have to explain everything to him fifty times and then he still doesn't understand, and he thinks I'm the child. He's a moron!”

She knows the noises in her mind
Nothing's left but
Screaming silence

“So, this person . . . you called me a name earlier - Zel. Was that the man?”

“Zel? No. Zel is nothing like Gourry. He's, well, he's everything that Gourry is not. Argh! That brainless cockroach!”

After all she feels numbness inside
The feeling's gone
She's upside down
The pictures behind her closed eyes
This time you went too far

“So what will you do if you ever meet up with him?”

“I don't think a Dragon Slave would be enough punishment. He said he was my protector.” Her hands clutched tightly around her dinnerware. When she set them down to take a drink, he noticed she had bent the fork terribly out of shape.

After all they shared
How could he simply say no?
After all they shared
He turned away from her to go
She said she wouldn't cry
That was really just a lie

He stifled a laugh. She was really the most delightful creature he had ever come across. So angry! So violent! He could listen to her forever.

“What are you going to do now?”

“That's why I'm here. I came to see the Book of Xoanan. There was no way I was going to miss that.”

“Who knows? Maybe you'll be able to find something in that to make you forget all about . . . what was his name? Gourry?”

After all they shared
How could he simply say no?
After all they shared
He turned away from her to go
She said she wouldn't cry
That was really just a lie

“Exactly! What was his name? What was your name?” she asked looking straight at the gentleman across the table from her.

After all she has nothing inside
No good to give
No meaning to live
The mist engulfed tonight
Every single star

“Oh,” he said, getting up from the table dropping the necessary coin on the table. “It was most pleasurable having dinner with you tonight. I do indeed hope that I will be able to treat you again, and that you will be in an even more enjoyable mood.” He took her hand in his with a smile and kissed it, “And I was right. You went very well with my wine.”

“Sayonara.”

After all they shared
How could he simply say no?
After all they shared
He turned away from her to go
She said she wouldn't cry
That was really just a lie

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. They are the property of Hajime Kanzaka and Shoko Yoshinaka.