Chapter 2: Villains Appear, even if you're prepared...

The man who stood before me certainly did not look trustworthy. He wore a white robe and cloak, and had covered everything except for his eyes. However, he also had a companion, and I could tell my expression was quickly changing: it was the mummy man! Both of them walked into the room, though the mummy man was limping somewhat. He shivered as Gourry shut the door and turned toward us, though the man in white showed no reaction at all. He and his companion stepped into the center of the room, between Gourry and I.

I turned to the man in white, looking for answers. "Do you know that mummy man?"

"Mu....mummy man?!" the man in bandages began, shocked, before the man in white cut him off with a gesture, before turning to me.

"I apologize for his earlier actions," the mysterious man began, pointing to his mummified companion. "He is Zolf. He is a very loyal servant with a strong sense of responsibility, but sometimes it makes him rash. Please forgive him."

This made me smile a little bit, and I shrugged it off, turning a bit. "It's all right. I'll just raise the price." This act gave me some time to examine the mysterious man, and I realized he couldn't truly be human. It had been hard to tell at first glance because of the dim lamplight, but after closer inspection I was certain. The skin around his eyes was not flesh...although I couldn't tell without touching it, it appeared to be stone. My first thought was that he might be a golem, but his eyes were different than that. Golems existed onyl to serve; this man had a soul behind his eyes...

I slipped that into the back of my mind as he coughed, then spoke. "All right then...let us begin business, shall we?"

I kept my cool, keeping up the grin and trying to act disinterested. "There was something you wanted to buy from me, wasn't there?"

The man with the stony skin nodded. "It was an item you stole from the bandits..."

This was an interesting development, for certain. "And which 'item' would this be?" I inquired innocently.

Although it was impossible to tell behind his clothing, I almost thought he cracked a grin. "I can't tell you."

I laughed a bit at that, not quite believing what I'd heard. "You can't tell me?" He nodded a reply, and I smirked. "Then there's no way we can do business, is there?" I made as if preparing for the pair to leave.

The man coughed. "Wait. If I tell you which item it is, then you'll either try to rip me off, or get curious and try to keep it for yourself. That's my reasoning." I grinned and shrugged; he had me there. "Name your price for all the items. Once you've done that, I'll choose the one I want."

Inwardly I allowed myself a small smile; he was a shrewd man. "Alright, I understand..." I paused. "You don't seem like you're in with the bandits..." I stated dryly, probing for info.

The man in white nodded, taking the bait. "I've been looking for a particular item, using Zolf and a group of other followers of mine. Zolf had found it by infiltrating those bandits, and one day the group stumbled on it. He convinced them to steal it, then was going to deliver it to me, when..." He trailed off.

I grinned. "Then I appeared, right?" He nodded again; not big on spoken conversation. I shook a finger in the air. "Using bandits to get what you want and then stealing it from them is a dirty way of doing things!"

The man looked at me speculatively. "You are hardly one to talk about other people."

I couldn't resist a slight grin, but hmphed and then nodded. "Anyway, now that I understand your situation, let's start. There was a knife, a statue, and some antique coins." I paused, then turned somewhat away. "There were gems too, but they look perfectly normal and I plan to keep them." I smiled faintly. "Besides, you'd never buy them at the price I'd name." This earned me another nod from the man in white.

I gave this some thought, then turned back to the group. "First, there's the knife." After appearing to think about that for a moment, I turned and named my price: a rather steep one.

The reaction was not quite what I expected it to be! The man in white took a step or two backward, Zolf's eyes widened, and even Gourry's mouth hung open in surprise. I blinked. Wimps! "What's with that reaction? You said to name my price, so I did! It's only a hundred times street cost! Pay up!"

The man in white managed to pull himself out of his stunned disposition long enough to respond. "That's enough to buy an entire castle! I thought you'd charge two, maybe three times street value at best!"

I giggled, then put a hand behind my head. "Yeah, I guess that is a bit steep. Alright, I'll halve the cost!" That got much the same reaction, thought Zolf looked somewhat angry now.

"Half?" the mummified man shouted. "You impudent brat!"

That caught me by surprise, and I got a bit angry...I have a short temper, after all. The man in white hastily silenced his companion. "Be quiet, Zolf! I bet you won't let me buy on credit, either, will you...?"

My temper got the best of me, and I replied angrily, "Out of the question! I've been called a brat by a third-rate sorcerer who can't even tell the difference between a Lighting spell and a Fireball! Why should I make a deal with you?"

"Wh...what?!" The widening of Zolf's eyes satisfied me a little bit; apparently he hadn't realized the spell was really Lighting. Infuriated by his own stupidity, he lashed out at me verbally. "I called you a brat because that's what you are! In the first place..."

However, the mummy man was cut off by his companion in white. "Zolf, enough!" He turned to me with a stern look in his eyes. "This is my last offer...will you join me? In a year...no, maybe even six months, I can pay double, no, TRIPLE your asking price."

I blinked. He was serious...and desperate. "I guess since you're so desperate, if I refuse it will make us enemies, won't it?" That elicited nothing more than a raised eyebrow from the man in white, and I continued. "I personally would like to avoid that... call it woman's intuition."

I paused, then turned a bit to the side again, glancing at the pair with a quirked grin. "But my intuition tells me...that I'd rather die than join forces with you." Zolf seemed about to act, but soon backed away when the air between the man in white and myself crackled with aggression. We glared at each other for a moment or too, and I knew by the look in his eyes that he could be a dangerous man, but he backed down first.

He sighed heavily. "I guess this means no deal."

I nodded. "A shame."

The man in white turned his dark eyes toward me and spoke in a grave tone of voice. "As I promised, I'll leave you alone for today. But that item will be mine, even if I have to use force. When you leave this inn tomorrow morning, you and I shall be enemies!" I couldn't do more than nod before he turned to his companion and made to leave. "Let's go, Zolf."

Zolf looked surprised, and started to protest. "B...but..." However, the man in white ignored him and turned to go as Gourry opened the door. Zolf looked confused a moment, then huffed and followed his companion toward the door.

As he stepped into the hallway, then man in white turned to me. "I forgot to mention my name." His eyes flashed slightly, as he spoke. "I am Zelgadis."

I tried to remain as calm as possible. "I'll remember that."

Gourry then shut the door, and turned to me. He listened for a while, then turned to me. "It looks like they've left." He shook his head, then looked at me, confused. "Why did you name such an outrageous price?"

I blinked, then smirked. "Would you have respected me if I'd named a reasonable price and sold it to them?" Gourry blinked, then shook his head no...

I sighed dreamily. "Ahhhh! The sun feels great! It's so warm..." I was sitting and looking at the sky; it seemed like such a great place to do it. Weather was warm, we'd cleared the forest and were in an open area, the birds were singing in the blue sky...and the air smelled of blood.

Gourry didn't seem to enjoy it was much as I did. He kneeled down on the ground, taking deep, shoulder-heaving breaths. "What's with you? Making me do all the fighting, and you just sit there all lazy..." I glanced over at the area behind him, covered in the corpses of berserkers.

I at least managed a slight giggle. "Sorry, sorry...but hey, I fought a little too."

Gourry frowned. "Only in the beginning! You coulda cast a spell or something, but you just wandered off..."

I blinked, then laid back and said, with a hint of defensiveness, "Something bad might have happened!"

Gourry scoffed. "Not like it did." Using his sword to prop himself up, he rose and dusted himself off.

"You'd better rest a bit more."

The swordsman sighed and shook his head no. "If we don't reach the next town by nightfall, we're just going to get attacked...let's go." He sounded irritated, but I can't blame him, I guess; he was mad that I hadn't helped and the fatigue made him kind of agitated.

I didn't make a sound; instead I simply rolled over and tried to enjoy some more of the day.

"Lina..." Gourry said in a scolding, parental tone, before walking to my side and glaring down at me in annoyance.

I moan like a child wanting to stay in bed before school. "Just a little bit more. The sunlight feels so good..."

"Cut it out!" he yells, and before I could do anything, Gourry had grabbed my arm by the rest and started to pull me upright! I cried out in pain, clutching my midsection. Gourry blinked in confusion, setting me down.

I grimaced; I'm not very good about handling pain. Annoyed, I gathered magical power once again in my hand, recasting the healing spell that Gourry's grab had interrupted. I placed my hand on the wound and finished the spell, the magic making the pain subside a little bit. Normally, a wound like that would be very easy to heal, but for some reason that one took somewhat longer...which meant...

Gourry's voice cut into my thoughts. "...Lina?"

"Mmmm...?" I tried to sound normal and nonchalant, but I realized I couldn't keep him fooled much longer.

"Are you hurt?"

I nodded, trying a smile. "I just ate a little too much..." I murmured, then blinked as Gourry sat down in front of me. We stared at each other a moment, before I moaned again in pain, realizing he had put his hand inside my cloak, touching the wound on the right side of my stomach. He quickly withdrew his hand.

"You're bleeding!" he said, intensely but in a hoa.r.s.e voice.

I frowned, having been hoping to avoid his reaction. "I'm all right." I wasn't lying to him; the pain was beginning to go away.

Gourry, however, didn't seem to buy that. "What do you mean, you're all right? You're..."

I cut him off, annoyed. "I'm telling you I'm all right! I'm casting Recovery now; the wound should close in a little bit."

"But..." he protested.

I sighed. "I pretended to be lazy because I didn't want to hear 'Are you all right? Are you all right?'"

Gourry's face fell. "I'm so sorry."

"It's all right, I said. In a little while the wound will heal, so why don't you just rest until then?" I grimaced inside as he took a seat in front of me and looked at me protectively, with maybe a bit of pity. I wished he would stop looking at me like that...

He bit his lip. "You were wounded early on in the battle..."

I sighed. "I underestimated them..."

Gourry continued as if I'd not even spoken. "...You were busy healing yourself...I'm sorry, I didn't understand..."

Finally getting a bit sick of the mothering, I snapped, "I said it's all right!" Gourry seemed placated by this, or worrying...for a while, only time pa.s.sed as the wind blew.

Inwardly, the silence began to bother me, so I decided to change the subject. "About what they're after...last night, when I was alone, I did a little investigating."

"Investigating?"

I nodded. "Yes. Yesterday I told you the mummy man probably marked one of the items..."

Gourry blinked. "Did you find anything?"

I shook my head no. "The items we have are an orihalcon statue, a large knife which was enchanted to make it sharper, and a dozen antique coins." I sighed. "None of them were marked."

Gourry nodded. "Then..."

"The coins are obviously out of the picture, because there's no way to mark them all. That only leaves the knife and the statue."

"Is it all right for you to be talking?"

I sighed. "I'm nearly fully healed."

Gourry looked worried. "Nearly..."

"I'm fine!" I snapped, though not so harshly as before. "About the other two. The knife is enchanted to increase its sharpness, but the enchantment has some negative side-effects." I glanced at the sky a moment. "It's possible to use that as a mark. The statue is made of orihalcon, a metal which has the ability to seal magic to a certain degree..."

"Then it won't serve as a mark," Gourry added.

I shook my head. "But it can. When you search from the astral plane, a spiritual wave heading toward the metal..." I blinked, glancing over at my companion. "Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Gourry gave that a moment of thought, then answered decisively: "Not a bit."

I sighed. "The POINT is, it's possible to use it as a mark."

Gourry blinked, then nodded. "That means they're after one of the two items. But is either one worth what they're going through to get it?"

"That's what I can't figure out. Orihalcon is far more valuable than gold and the knife is beautifully crafted...but it doesn't make sense that they'd want either of these things THAT badly..."

"They said, 'triple in six months'..." Gourry mused, putting a hand to his chin, "...so that must mean to them the item is worth more than the actual value. Maybe they need it to find a bigger hidden treasure or something." I blinked at that. Although it sounded more like a fairy-tale, it certainly was possible...

That sparked an idea in my head. "Or maybe it's some sort of key..."

"Key?"

I nodded. "Using magic, it's possible. I heard of a n.o.ble with something like it...whenever a young woman enters a pool in a certain place, a treasure room somewhere opens up. In this case, the young woman is the 'key'..."

"So the key itself has no magic..." Gourry said.

"Right."

He hmmmed. "Then if the knife or the statue is used somewhere..."

"...something might happen," I said, finishing the thought. I stood up; a bit wobbly, but I'd be able to walk. "There just aren't enough clues."

Gourry blinked when I rose, putting out an arm. "Hey now..."

I shook my head, fighting off the dizziness. "I'm all right. Just a bit tired, but there's not much I can do about it...hey!" I had little time to say much else, as Gourry lifted me into his arms. I felt a blush cover my face and furiously cried out, "Wha...what are you DOING?!"

"I'll carry you for a while," Gourry replied. "Walking seems like it's still kind of hard for you."

The blush was only getting worse, I could feel it. "I'm telling you, I'm fine! You're tired, too..."

Gourry shook his head, wandering off - with me in his arms - toward the next town. "It was my grandmother's wish. She told me to be kind to women and children," he said, winking.

When we reached the town, Gourry and I checked into an inn and made ourselves at home. I was tired, but I had a lot to think about and couldn't really get to sleep very well. As I laid up awake, I heard footsteps in the hallway...deliberate footsteps, not those of a drunk finding his way to his room. There was a group, trying to be quiet...and that worried me. I got up and got ready in case it was me they were after...I didn't know for sure, but no sense taking chances.