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Slayers - Volume 2 - Chapter 3




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3: The Sealed Sleeper Beneath the Water

“Guh...” I moaned softly as I opened my eyes.

“You awake?” Gourry asked from nearby. I could just make out his silhouette in the darkness.

“Yeah, hang on.” Still lying flat, I brought my hands together in front of my chest and incanted a spell. “Light!”

A glowing ball appeared between my palms, which I promptly tossed into the air. It came to a stop at typical ceiling height, but was dimmer than I’d expected.

“Where... are we?” I asked, scanning the area.

The large room we found ourselves in was even bigger than the ritual chamber we’d fallen from—big enough to house Daymia’s entire estate. There was water all around us of uncertain depth. I could just make out the tops of five pillars—each wide enough that you could build a small room upon it—peeking out from the surface. We were currently sitting atop one of them.

The pool itself formed a perfect circle that matched the layout of the room above.

“Another rune breaker, huh?” I said with a grimace.

“A wha?” Gourry asked.

“The theory involved is a little complicated, so I’ll skip that part. All you need to know is that it’s a barrier that weakens magic. That’s why my Levitation spell crapped out while we were falling.”

Typically, rune breakers were used to mitigate the power of attack spells, curses, and other harmful magics. But to see this one weaken even the innocuous Levitation...

I figured that having a barrier both above and below doubled the effect. Or maybe it even caused a resonance, which could then be channeled to interfere with the use of any magic at all. As far as that went, the proof was right there: the Lighting spell I’d cast just moments earlier was already losing its brilliance. Guess Daymia hadn’t made it to vice chairman of the sorcerers’ council for nothing, huh?

“So... this complicates things,” I muttered to myself.

“But if it’s a barrier, can’t we just break it?” asked my own personal Captain Obvious.

I heaved a grand sigh. It was true that you could ordinarily disrupt a rune breaker by sundering its founding pentagram, but...

“In order to do that, we’d have to knock down one of these pillars.”

“Can’t you do that with one of your spells?”

Seriously, dude?!

“Have you been listening to a word I said?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Because I just finished explaining that my spells are compromised right now! If I could use magic to solve this, I would have already!”

“I don’t remember you saying that at all.”

Arrrgggghhhhh! I think I’m getting an aneurysm!

“What are you clutching your head for all of a sudden?”

“No reason!” I said, plucking myself off the ground.

I could feel the water just running off me and my clothes as I stood up. Gourry and I were as soaked as sewer rats. Granted, if I was still this drenched, that meant I couldn’t have been out for very long.

“Guess we’d better do something about our clothes, huh?” Gourry said.

“Yeah. We’ll catch a cold at this rate.”

“Hmm... Well, the usual thing to do,” Gourry said with a sudden smirk, “would be to strip naked and warm each other up!”

Grr! I clapped my hands together in front of my chest, slowly pulling them apart as I started chanting.

Gourry’s aura of smugness snapped over to panic.

“H-Hang on, Lina! I was joking! Just joking! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Please don’t—”

His desperate pleas, however, fell on deaf ears.

“Fireball!”

I threw the molten ball of light, which nailed Gourry square in the face and exploded on impact!

“Glargh! Glurk!” He let out a series of undignified burbles as he felt the heat envelop his body—then suddenly stopped and stared at himself in amazement. “Wait... huh?”

The blistering heat of my Fireball had been dampened by the rune breaker, reducing it quite literally to a ball of hot air.

“Well? All nice and dry, right?” I said with a smile and a wink. “So, now that our clothes are taken care of...”

I took another look around the room and quickly came to the conclusion... that just looking around wasn’t going to get us anywhere.

“Well? Anything?” Gourry asked nervously.

“Hmm... it’s tricky.” I turned my gaze overhead. The hole we’d fallen through must have closed by now, but the dark heights of the room were beyond the reach of my Lighting spell, so I couldn’t actually see it to confirm that. I then turned my gaze back to the dark, flickering surface of the water. “I mean, you’re probably right about breaking the barrier, but...”

“Yeah, we don’t even know how deep this thing goes,” Gourry said, joining me as I stared into the pool below. “Say, what’s all this water doing here anyway?”

“I’m guessing Daymia’s got water affinity,” I answered, then curiously turned to look at Gourry.

“He’s got what-the-what?”

Yeah, didn’t expect him to know what that meant. Let’s see, how to explain...?

“Okay, analogy time. You know how people sometimes compare themselves to animals, like so-and-so’s got ‘the heart of a fox’ or ‘a real feline energy’?”

“Yeah,” Gourry said, nodding after a moment.

“You can draw similar associations with magic. Like, so-and-so’s got a connection to fire, or to water, et cetera.” I was limiting myself to the elements of shamanistic magic, obviously. Throwing in black magic, rituals, astral shamanistic magic, and white magic would only confuse Gourry, so I glossed over all that nuance. “So, you see, sorcerers with an affinity for water get better results when they use water-related magic.”

“So this ‘water affinity’ thing means that he’s a real watery kind of guy, right?” Gourry asked after a moment’s thought.

“You could say that. But people with an affinity for a particular element can boost the power of their magic by integrating that element. So putting his barrier in water like this makes it stronger. You follow?”

“Hmm...” Gourry crossed his arms. “So Daymia created a barrier that weakens magic. Then, by putting it in water, he made it more powerful?”

“That’s the idea,” I answered with a firm nod. “But it’s just a theory... And it still doesn’t explain what’s going on under the water.”

I chanted another Lighting spell and tossed the ball of radiance into the pool.

“Whoa...” Gourry breathed in awe as he watched it sparkle beneath the water’s surface.

Here we go again...

“You’re wondering why the water didn’t put it out, aren’t you?” I asked.

“Well, yeah,” he said, nodding vigorously.

“See, things like lamps and campfires burn fuel to generate light and heat. But Lighting is different; it’s powered by magic. It doesn’t burn physical matter in order to work, so the water doesn’t affect it.”

“Huh... Seems awfully convenient, but I think I understand,” he said, then fell silent. His arms remained crossed as he stared into the illuminated depths.

Hrm... It was a hot minute before I could say anything myself. This thing was freakin’ deep!

I didn’t spy any carnivorous fish or other hazards in the water, but it was deeper than most humans would be able to dive. I could see some sort of pattern drawn all the way at the very bottom, probably the barrier’s magic circle. And at its center...

“What’s that?” Gourry asked.

Smack in the middle of the barrier was a giant submerged gemstone—like an emerald, but paler. There was a dark spot in the middle, suggesting something was inside, but it was impossible to tell what between the glare on the water and its obscuring depth.

“It’s something,” I replied vaguely.

Gourry and I sat there silently staring at it for a while.

Eventually, he softly whispered, “It looks like... a person inside a big emerald to me.”

“Huhhh...” I muttered unconsciously.

“Yeah, it definitely looks like a person...” Gourry leaned forward and gazed at it.

He must have had good eyes. Mine were pretty sharp, but all I could make out was the shadow.

“We should check it out. My gut’s telling me it’s relevant to the barrier.”

“Check it out? But how?”

“Well...”

Wham!

With no warning, I planted my boot on Gourry’s back and shoved.

“Bwah!”

He made a satisfying splash when he tumbled from the pillar and hit the water hard.

“What was that for?!” he yelled when his head bobbed up on the surface.

I crouched at the edge of the pillar and grinned down at him.

“Well, I figured you could be the one to investigate. I don’t wanna get wet again.”

“Ohhh... I see.”

For some reason, Gourry started grinning back at me. And then...

“Yeek!”

Hey, don’t pull my legs out from under me!

I tumbled into the water too, and in my surprise, took some into my lungs...

The world slowly went black around me.

“Ugh... blugh...” I sat up and coughed a few times.

“You awake?” Gourry asked me for the second time today.

“What the heck were you thinking?!”

“You’re one to talk,” he said, brushing off my interrogation. “I didn’t think you’d just up and drown, though. But I cleared your lungs, so you don’t have to be all upset about it.”

“Oh, please! Clearing my lungs isn’t gonna— Wait, you did what?” I asked hesitantly.

Did he... Did he mean mouth-to-mouth?! I could feel blood rush to my cheeks.

“Um, Gourry... when you say you cleared my airway...”

“I rolled you onto your stomach and stepped on your back.”

Grk! I fell flat on my face. Y-You! Give a little thought to a lady’s feelings!

“What’s wrong with— Ooh, I get it. You thought I did mouth-to-mouth or something,” he said teasingly.

“I d-did not!” I argued desperately.

“Aw, someone’s mad!”

“Am not! Am not! A-Anyway, back to the barrier! That’s the real problem here...”

“Yeah,” he murmured, turning back to the water too. “Teasing you isn’t helping, even if it’s fun.”

H-Hey now...

“But it is what it is,” he continued. “And this is too deep to dive. No way I could hold my breath that long.”

“Hmm...” I folded my arms, still soaked to the bone.

“You got a spell that’ll let you breathe underwater, Lina?”

“Huh?” I replied, surprised.

“You know, magic. For breathing underwater. You got any?”

“Hrm...” I scratched my head.

“Guess not, huh?” Gourry said, disappointed.

“Actually, that was more of a ‘hey, this might just work’ kind of hrm.”

Gourry pushed me into the water again.

I climbed back out of the pool, dried myself off, and prepared for my dive—by which I pretty much just mean that I readied a spell.

“Be right back, okay?”

I had two spells in my repertoire that would fit the descriptor “let me breathe underwater.”

The first was a water spell that allowed me to safely breathe the water itself. The second was a wind spell that formed a pocket of air around me; I could take that into the water with me and it would be like diving inside a big bubble.

I ended up choosing the latter, as the former had a disqualifying flaw: I’d have to get wet again. As I started to chant, wind encircled me and lifted my feet lightly off the ground.

“Lei Wing!” I incanted, plunging into the water with great speed.

What’s that you ask? “I thought that spell was designed for fast flight, so how did you learn it could be used for diving?” Well, you see, one time I was playing around with it at the beach, but lost control and went flying into the water. That’s just between us, okay?

Of course, the rune breaker was interfering with my Lei Wing too. The bubble it produced around me was a lot smaller than usual, and my movement speed was considerably slower. I decided I’d go up for air the second it got hard to breathe. Suffocating in my own bubble would be an epically embarrassing way to die.

That said, I couldn’t imagine running out of air before I reached the bottom...

I steadily drew closer to the large jewel. It had been hard to judge from the surface, so I couldn’t really appreciate how big the thing was. Now that I was down here, I could say with confidence: it was definitely large enough to hold a person.

“Hmm...”

The Lighting spell I’d chucked in the water earlier only dimly illuminated the bottom of the pool. To brighten things up, I tossed another one toward the giant gem... and was aghast at what I saw.

I floated there speechless for a moment, but there was indeed a man inside the enormous jewel. His eyes were closed as if he were sleeping.

“Th-This is...”

I hovered right up to the giant pale emerald in my bubble. This had to be the center of the rune breaker—in other words, where its influence was strongest.

As for the man sleeping inside the gem... His long hair, cape, and robe all marked him as a high-ranking sorcerer. He seemed to be of average height; he was a little too young to be called “middle-aged” yet a little too old to be called “young.” Though his eyes were closed, I thought he was pretty good-looking.

The tint of the emerald made it impossible to say exactly what color his robes were, but I had to wonder.

Could this be...?


A speculative thought crossed my mind.

But if that were the case...

I slowly moved my bubble closer. The second it made contact with the emerald...

“Who are you?” said a voice in my head.

“Telepathy?” I found myself whispering aloud.

“You’re... a woman? But I sense no hostility from you. That means Talim and Daymia haven’t gotten any new ideas into their heads, at least...”

“Um... I’m not entirely sure what you’re talking about.”

“Ah, no need to speak aloud. It’s telepathy,” the voice explained, much to my red-faced embarrassment.

Telepathy was the art of communicating mentally rather than verbally. So, obviously, when communicating telepathically, you didn’t actually need to say anything.

You had to be born with certain aptitudes in order to use telepathy, however, so it was beyond most sorcerers—myself included. That meant this guy was using telepathy to transmit his thoughts to me, then reading mine back in exchange.

It occurred to me that his technique couldn’t be magical. There was no discernible interference or interruption, despite the fact that we were smack at the center of the rune breaker.

“So, er... might I inquire as to your identity?” I asked.

“Ah, forgive me,” the man replied calmly. “I am the chairman of the Atlas City sorcerers’ council, Halciform.”

“H-Halciform?!” I found myself thinking extremely loudly. I knew it!

An awkward silence followed.

“There’s no need to shout... Rather, there’s no need for such surprise.”

“B-But this is a huge surprise, sir. Everyone says you disappeared six months ago...”

“Yes, those two made sure of that.”

“By ‘those two,’ do you mean...?”

“Talim and Daymia, yes.”

Whaaat?! I knew all along that there was more to the story, but... Ooh, that rotten old geezer!

“They had only the pettiest of motivations, I’m sure... My position, perhaps. One day, Talim... Oh, pardon me.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I just realized that I don’t know your name either. If you’ve made it this far, surely you’re no mere passerby.”

“I’m Lina. Lina Inverse.”

“Oh, I’ve heard of you...”

And so I gave Halciform the lowdown. Twice during my story, however, my bubble started to weaken and I had to resurface for air.

“...And that’s how I wound up finding you here.”

“I see... While I question the necessity of all the internal monologue and dramatic descriptions in your account, I believe I understand the situation now. It sounds like Talim had you completely taken in, though I can hardly blame you there. He lured me here as well, then sealed me inside this strange thing... He’s truly a distasteful man.”

No kidding. Ain’t nothin’ tasty about that face.

“...Excuse me?”

Ah, crap! I forgot he could read my thoughts!

“Oh, uh, nothing! Anyway, now that I’m involved, I’d appreciate it if you could explain to me what’s going on here.”

“Certainly. About six months ago, Talim summoned me for ‘important business,’ so I obliged. He ended up leading me to Daymia’s estate, and once I set foot in the center of the room on the top floor, a slime-like creature abruptly appeared. Before I could even cast a spell, it engulfed me and turned solid. Then they dropped me down here.”

“Aha, so this emerald thing is the hardened slime.”

“Yes. Talim and Daymia must have been conspiring to steal my seat as council chair... but it sounds like they’ve had a falling out since then. Ahaha.”

Seriously, dude? This is funny to you? You know you’re the one they trapped down here, right?

Nevertheless, I gotta say... Talim really cheeses me off! I knew he was hiding something when I asked about Halciform, but this?! Oooh, he’s gonna pay! Not for Halciform’s sake. No, screw Halciform! This was about me! No one pulls the wool over Lina Inverse’s eyes and gets away with it!

“Pardon, but I’d like to remind you that I can still hear your thoughts. It’s rather painful to hear oneself spoken of that way...”

Whoops.

“Oh, sorry, I misspoke... er, misthought? Anyhoo! Lina Inverse shall surely avenge you!”

“Well, it’s not as though I’m dead. I was more hoping that you would help me out of here.”

“Hmm... Okay. I just have to break this thing open, right?”

“Most likely,” Halciform responded (most unhelpfully, if I’m being honest). “Er, my apologies. It wasn’t my intention to be unhelpful.”

Guh! Give me a break with this telepathy stuff!

“Gourry!” I cried as I burst out of the water. “I need your sword! Gimme!”

“Sheesh, a little warning would be nice,” he grumbled, sitting up from where he’d been lying atop the pillar.

What a jerk! Lazing around while I slaved away underwater... Ah, but no time for grumbling!

“You were right! There’s a guy trapped down there! I wanna bust him out, but I need your sword to do it!”

“Oh, fine.”

Gourry reached for the sword on his belt with one hand and produced a narrow pin from his pocket with the other. He poked the pin into a tiny hole on the sword’s hilt, and a small piece of metal fell to the floor with a clink—the fastener which held the blade in place.

When Gourry then drew the sword, the blade remained in its sheath and he handed me the hilt alone. “Is he just messing with you?” you ask? Nah, not this time. I took the hilt in my hands and held it out in front of me.

“Light, come forth!”

A blade appeared from the hilt—a blade of sparkling light. This was the legendary Sword of Light that slew the demon-beast of Sairaag long ago. (Truth is, this sword is the main reason I’m traveling with Gourry. It manifests a person’s spiritual power in the form of a blade, and I am just dying to study it.)

Interestingly enough, even with Daymia’s powerful rune breaker inhibiting magic around us, the blade of light I conjured from the sword was no less impressive than normal. I’d braced myself to get some crummy little dagger, but... Maybe the sword was fundamentally different from your standard magical item. I’d need to do some serious research to be sure.

“Quick check: This is just a loaner, right? I don’t get to keep it, do I?” I asked over my shoulder.

“Of course not. Now get going,” Gourry called, shooing me away.

“Greedy bastard,” I pouted before reciting the same spell for the umpteenth—and hopefully final—time. “Lei Wing!”

“Val Flare!”

“Dam Blas!”

Crash!

The peals of light Chairman Halciform and I unleashed broke through the ceiling far overhead, causing light to stream down on us from the room above, along with dust and bits of rock. We, along with Gourry, then began climbing up toward the light.

After I’d busted the chairman out of slime jail, we set about using the Sword of Light to destroy the barrier by taking out one of its founding pillars. Okay, so I accidentally cut down the pillar Gourry was standing on in the process, but give a girl a break, okay?

The three of us then swapped a little more info on the situation, smashed up the floor—well, the ceiling—and ascended with a Levitation spell. As we approached the ritual chamber above, we were greeted with incomprehensible wailing.

“By the way, Chairman Halciform, Daymia’s got two pretty powerful demons in his service, so be careful.”

“Oho... I see,” Chairman Halciform said... cheerily? What a weirdo.

Anyway, we rose up through the broken floor to find Daymia standing there, staring at us blankly.

“We’re back,” I said with a grin.

It would’ve been a super-cool entrance if I hadn’t had Gourry clinging to my waist.

“Grwawmwrah!” Daymia clamored nonsensically, falling backward onto his rear.

The three of us then touched down on an undamaged part of the floor.

“Ch-Ch-Chairman Halciform!”

“Greetings. How long has it been, Vice Chairman Daymia? Half a year?” Halciform asked, the same cheerful grin still on his face.

It was... honestly pretty scary. Daymia seemed to think so too, having gone white as a sheet.

“N-No... no... it wasn’t me! I didn’t do this!” he managed to squeal out.

You kinda gotta appreciate the balls it takes to look at a guy who just broke out of your own basement, and say, “Nuh-uh! It wasn’t me!”

“Oh, I see... Then who did do it, might I ask?” the grinning Halciform inquired.

Like I said: scary.

“T-Talim! Talim came! He flattered me! He made me do it! I always liked you, really! So... So please forgive me!”

Oh, come on, man! You’ve gotta do better than that!

“Ah, I see. I suppose I should have a talk with Talim, then.”

Huh? That took me a little by surprise. I glanced over at Halciform in confusion.

“Y-Yes...” Hope blossomed on Daymia’s face. “Yes, of course! Hail Atlas City’s great council chairman! Yes, oh yes! How worthy of that title you are!”

“Now, Mistress Lina, Master Gourry... shall we?” Chairman Halciform beckoned, turning on his heels and walking swiftly toward the exit (I assumed).

Gourry and I hurried after him.

“Are you sure you just want to... leave him there?” I asked, tossing a glance back at Daymia. He was crumpled on the floor, a smile flickering intermittently on and off his face.

“Positive,” the chairman replied casually. “He’s never exactly been a stirring conversationalist, but... his condition appears to have worsened while I was sealed away. I’ll speak with Duke Litocharn in a few days and hold a council meeting to deal with him. Oh, but in the meantime, kindly refrain from informing Talim that I’ve returned.”

“I don’t think that’ll be a problem. He lied to us and manipulated us, so our contract is void. And even if it weren’t, I don’t think I could work with him anymore anyway.”

“Good. That sounds like it’s for the best.”

In that moment, I was struck with a strange premonition.

After that, the three of us made our way outside. The sun was up already, and the streets were filling with people headed out to work.

“Well, I should be returning to my house.”

“Of course. Mistress Rubia will be delighted to see you, I’m sure.”

When I said that, Chairman Halciform’s smile froze up.

“You’ve met Rubia?” he asked.

“She’s your assistant, isn’t she? Talim mentioned her,” I lied swiftly. I wasn’t sure why.

Gourry remained perfectly expressionless in spite of it. Either he had a great poker face, or he’d completely forgotten who Rubia was.

“I see... Well, do take care. Talim may yet try something, and I may ask for your help again.”

“You got it. We’re staying at the Silver Dragon Inn downtown. You be careful, too.”

“Of course. Now, I must be on my way...” he said with a wave as he turned away, his white cape billowing lightly behind him.

I stood there for some time, watching him depart.

When I woke up, the town was shrouded in twilight.

Gourry and I had ended up making it back to the inn where we’d left our luggage just before noon. We shared a bite to eat, then went to our rooms for some shuteye.

Gourry was already awake by the time I got up, however, so we then went to a tavern to grab some dinner and discuss our next move.

“Well, I guess we’re helping Chairman Halciform now, huh?”

“Hmm...” Gourry hummed unhappily as he poked at his green salad.

“What’s wrong?”

“I just can’t stop wondering... If Daymia was controlling those two demons, why didn’t he call for them when we broke into his house?”

“He was standing in the middle of a rune breaker, duh,” I said with a sigh between bites of pork sauté. “Demons are basically fonts of magical power, so even if he’d summoned them, they would’ve been helpless inside the magic-weakening barrier.”

“Okay, but we destroyed the barrier and left. It didn’t even occur to him to send the demons to finish us off? You’d do that, wouldn’t you?”

“Sure, but... the guy isn’t exactly in his right mind. There’s no way for a normal person to know what goes on inside his head.”

“That’s why I’m asking you.”

“...What exactly are you implying?”

“Nothing particular,” Gourry said, looking up at the ceiling. “You’re just not exactly normal.”

That’s extremely particular!

“Well, maybe he couldn’t summon them for some reason,” I offered. “Maybe he didn’t think we’d escape that easily, so he sent them off on some errand or something.”

“Hmm... Yeah, I guess that’d explain it. But also, why didn’t Talim and Daymia just kill Halciform in the first place?”

“Maybe... they wanted to use him for something later?”

“Maybe...” Gourry conceded, though he didn’t look particularly convinced as he took an inelegant slurp of diluted herb wine.

I likewise took a sip of warm milk and postulated, “The real question is what Daymia will do next. He’s a hard one to read.”

“Yeah,” Gourry agreed, nodding somberly.

I could imagine a few possibilities, but there was no way of knowing which direction he’d break in. The guy was bonkers, after all.

Option one: He might try to kill us and Chairman Halciform. Daymia probably had his reasons for keeping the chairman alive before, but they might no longer be at play.

Option two: He might attack Talim and offer his head to Halciform to beg forgiveness. I mean, that obviously wasn’t going to make up for what he’d done. It might even get him in worse trouble... but those sorts of rational concerns might elude him until it was too late.

Other options: He might remain cowering at home. Or he might skip town.

Maybe I should’ve taken care of the guy before we left his estate, despite Chairman Halciform’s dissuasion...

“The other big question is what Talim will do. If he realizes we’ve bailed and decides to take action, he might try to get in touch with Daymia.”

“And they might team up again.”

“Right.”

“Which means the only thing we can do is...”

“Protect Halciform from the shadows?”

“Yup. Even if we have to do it pro bono. But dinner first, then we’ll get going. Hey, barkeep! One more dinner special!”



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