Pure Flow
Prince Philoniel stood before the kingdom's high
priest, patiently awaiting the arrival of his bride
and whatever plot the Temple had planned. Surrounding
him were most of the nobles and merchants of the city.
Liberally placed through out the room were guardsmen.
All of them were carefully watching everybody, but
they also seemed to be waiting for someone.
There were, in fact, more guardsmen than were
normally seen in one place at one time. Of course that
only made sense. In addition to the fact that this was
a royal wedding there was the fact that Lady R'Lyeh
had already been kidnapped once already. If any
gathering needed increased protection, it was this
one.
Behind the rather irritable high priest, he'd been
called upon with hardly any warning at all, stood the
thrones. One of which had not been displayed in what
the collected nobles thought was far too long a time.
The presence of both royal thrones represented, more
than anything else, the hope they had for this
marriage.
As the nobility and merchant class of Sailoon sat
and waited, the common people and many of the younger
scions of the noble houses were engaged in the quickly
developing festival outside. As luck would have it, or
Regin had planned it, the marriage was falling on the
date of a pre-existing holiday. That combined with the
joy and charity surrounding the royal wedding was
causing the day to rise to almost mass euphoria.
The streets were flooded with people in all manner
of party dress, costumes extravagant and simple. Even
the destitute of the city were getting into the party
with costumes provided by Regin's Temple. It was a
constant stream of colors and people, with the odd bit
of magic thrown in by a minor spellcaster or two to
further liven the day. The illusionary dragons were
especially decorous, emotions were running high.
Considering the overall variety and festive
attitude it was odd that so many people had chosen to
dress up as monks or guardsmen. That was, until you
realized that they were guardsmen and monks. If you
were paying attention enough to notice that, then you
would easily notice that the monks weren't really very
monk-like. And if you noticed that, it was an easy
leap from there to notice that the guards and the
monks were watching each other like hawks.
Nobody much noticed five cloaked figures walking in
a tight line through the crowds. One of the smaller
figures had taken the lead, mostly out of long habit
still not broken by more than a year and a half mostly
on her own.
"I hope this doesn't take long," Lina grumbled from
under her cloak. Grumbling and trying to force her way
through the crowd were currently her only methods of
expressing irritation. For the first time in months,
Lina was in full human form.
"Well some things apparently don't change," Gourry
commented.
"What was that?" Lina snapped.
"We're trying to sneak in," Zelgadis reminded them.
"Not alert the entire city that the slayers are here."
"You could bring a tavern down around its ears and
they wouldn't notice us," Lina commented, stressing
the you almost unconsciously. She didn't generally
think about her lost magic any more, but it still
rested uncomfortably under the surface.
"This my city, I can't believe I'm sneaking into my
own home," Amelia grumbled in mood decently similar to
Lina's.
"Hmm, I wonder if its a female thing," Xellos
commented. The other two guys considered this under
their hoods.
"Xellos, dear."
"What is it Lina-chan?" the mazoku responded
playfully.
"Please be quiet, we're trying to sneak in."
"Don't you even think about agreeing with him,"
Amelia snapped at Zelgadis.
"Me agree with Xellos?"
"Okay, silly idea."
"Maybe sometimes." Amelia almost fell to the ground
when the chimera added that last comment. She righted
herself quickly, looked about at the other slayers,
cloaked though they were, and smiled slightly. Gourry
was right, some things didn't change, and she was glad
of that.
"Come on, the passage is this way." Amelia led them
along to one of the few places relatively free of
people. The fact that the palace garbage heap was here
might have had something to do with that.
"Nice place for a secret passage," Zelgadis
commented.
"Yeah, who could stand to get close enough to it to
search," Lina agreed.
"I've just completely re-evaluated my impression of
your family, Amelia," Xellos added. Amelia and Gourry
looked and saw that all three of them were near to
tears. Amelia wondered what the place smelled like to
people with enhanced senses of smell, and
sweatdropped.
"Oh, sorry," she said, opening the passage and
letting the three non-humans rush past her and release
strangled breaths.
"What's wrong with them," Gourry asked. "It wasn't
that bad." Lina, Xellos and Zelgadis glared at the
blonde swordsman who just shrugged it off as usual.
As soon as the passage was closed behind them, Lina
shifted again to her preferred form. She was glad in a
way that the armor didn't have scaled breeches, it
would have been difficult to explain why she needed
the armor designed with a hole for a tail.
"Let's not waste time," Zelgadis commented calmly.
"You go on ahead," Xellos said suddenly. "I have to
find something."
"You were the one that insisted all five of us, and
only us, go," Amelia pointed out.
"This is my part to play," Xellos explained. "I
have to keep the gate from opening. To do that I need
to find where it has been prepared." Lina sniffed at
the air and stared at her love. There was a scent
there that she didn't know and didn't trust.
"You're not going to do something stupid, are you?"
she asked cautiously.
"Don't worry about me, I have everything well in
hand," Xellos promised. Lina narrowed her eyes, but
the scent said he was telling the truth.
"Be careful," Lina said, and on impulse she
embraced him quickly.
"I will, you don't have to worry about anything,"
he said brushing her ear before fading away into
nothing. Lina stared in confusion at where he had just
been in her arms before turning about.
"Well? Let's get on with this!" she growled. Amelia
blinked and started leading the way through the
passage, Zelgadis lingered, remembering his
conversation with the mazoku.
"What are you up to, Xellos."
"Are you coming stone-boy!"
A somber procession of men in monk's robes moved
through the halls of the palace under the watchful eye
of the city guard. At the group's head was Regin,
still appearing to be a staid, emotionless little man.
Only now people were actually meeting him eye to eye.
His unimpressive appearance wasn't causing him to be
overlooked anymore, too bad for the pathetic humans
they hadn't bothered to pay attention to him earlier.
Most of the humans didn't notice anything about him
that they didn't see before. One or two, however,
recoiled as they met his gaze. The slit pupiled gaze
of a mazoku. Regin would have preferred that they not
suspect anything at all, but he could use this
preparation to his advantage.
Behind the procession, in a position of respect
walked Martina. She hardly seemed now like the
maniacal princess that she was in truth. Martina
walked slowly to the pace of the "monks'" march
smiling sweetly while draped head to toe in flowing,
silvery white silk. Her eyes were narrowed in what was
truly ecstatic anticipation. Regin felt the
guardsmen's pity and concern for her, the innocent
girl being used by these evil men, and laughed
inwardly. When the betrayal came, the Pure Flow would
be great indeed.
As they entered into the great throne room Regin
sensed the reverent awe of those humans still unaware
of what was coming. The various guardsmen added spices
of loyalty and conviction to the rather sickening mass
of emotions, with Philoniel's own righteous desire for
justice, and love for his "Lady R'Lyeh", completing
the revolting combination.
The rogue mazoku suffered through it as the
ceremony proceeded ever onward until it came to the
culmination of the ritual. That would be the point
where all the hope and love and expectation of the
masses would be at their highest. That would be the
point at which they would be the least prepared for
the strike. That would make the reversal of emotions
as great as possible. That would....
"In the name of Justice I demand that this wedding
come to an end!" All eyes turned to see Amelia Wil
Tesla Sailoon gesturing down the aisle in front of her
well known companions. Regin's expressionless face
broke into an enraged snarl.
"DO IT NOW!!" The mazoku's magic carried the
message far and way, its volume never dropping from
that roar, fading away only at the edges of the city.
Wedding guests looked from the slayers to Master
Reginald in blank surprise, celebrants in the streets
quieted in confusion, and monks across the city
brandished knives and started randomly attacking
anybody in reach, just as they had been ordered to.
Regin rushed upwards towards the bride and groom.
Philoniel placed himself in front of the on-rushing
mazoku, not noticing that his bride was drawing a
blade of her own. Regin wasn't interested in the
prince however, he batted the huge man aside with a
strength that could only be ascribed to creatures like
chimera and mazoku. Martina stared in open shock and
unbelieving betrayal as her "servant" extended an arm
and blasted a hole through her chest.
Throughout the city in a single instance, hope,
joy, and happiness was suddenly converted into hate,
fear, and despair. The sudden reversal heightened the
new emtions above and beyond what they would have been
if the attack had taken place on any other day. Runes
had been painted and carved in out of the way places
by thugs and monks not really aware of what they were
doing. These runes collected, concentrated and
channeled the force of the collected terror of the
city along a specific route.
Zelgadis's eyes popped open as he saw the faint
trails of energy collecting into one mass stream and
leading away deeper into the palace.
"That's what he was talking about," Zelgadis said,
turning his glance to Lina's amulet. "But what is he
planning." They entered battle trying to fight there
way to the murderous rouge mazoku.
Inside the top of the palace's highest tower,
Xellos watched as the energy collected into a drawn
circle of the guard post, and explode upward through
the roof. Only he, Regin and Zelgadis would have been
able to see what caused the tower's roof to be
demolished. All the humans would see were the shards
of stone and wood raining down on the courtyard below.
"A pure flow," Xellos smiled. "Thank you, Regin."
He stepped up from his seat and walked into it.
=====
"Caffeinated Kender? What's that, a berserk spell?" -
Tribble, Kender Warrior of the Celestial Kingdom
Signed
He of Too Many Names (Thrythlind/Thryth/Luke/Hyperbole/Pika/Pooka)
http://members.aol.com/thrythlind/snake.html
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