--- Cute Neko Hibiki <wbanks@jam.rr.com> wrote:

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lawrence Chu" <lawrence@sandwich.net>

How quickly do you toss these things out, anyway?  Are they just
spur-of-the-moment things that you whip up in half an hour and hit

'send'

immediately upon typing 'The End'

Yep.

...okay, I'm not *quite* understanding this.  The below took about half
an hour (though including my usual glance throughs as part of it wrote
themselves), was spur-of-the-moment, et cetera and so forth.

---

Lina wanted to scream.  To call her an idiot, an imbecile.  Only the
most naive MORON would forget stuff like this!

Instead, as Amelia awoke, Lina found herself gently laying a hand on
the princess's head, smiling, and saying just "Hey."

Amelia blinked her way to consciousness.  "Oooh...Lina, 'zat you?"

Then again, given the opportunity this presented, a little acting was
worth it.  Besides, Amelia was a friend - and Lina was fairly certain
this would not blow up in her face.  "Yeah.  It's me.  How ya feeling?"

"Like m' head is on fire, my chest is buried in a cave in, my stomach's
in a very long earthquake, and I can't even feel my arms and legs.
Lina..."  She tried to turn her head towards the sorceress, but winced
in obvious pain the moment she tried to twist her neck.  She settled
for rolling her eyes in Lina's direction; said senior magician recoiled
a bit from the bloodshot eyes, even as she noticed that Amelia's irises
were unable to focus on her.  "Am I going to die?"

Lina stroked Amelia's hair, partly to get her hand off Amelia's hot
forehead.  "Not today.  Not under my watch."

"Wha' happened?"

"*You* forgot a little traveller's insurance, and went walking in the
rain with the rest of us."  Lina's other hand traced patterns in the
air above the princess's torso, gathering power for an enchantment.
"I'm going to fix that, once and for all."

"Traveller's...insurance?"

"Yeah.  I'm a little surprised, actually - you've been travelling with
Zelgadis for how many years, and you never thought to protect yourself
from getting sick?"

Despite her condition, merely thinking of her chimera boyfriend - much
as he might object to the title - made Amelia smile.  "Zelgadis doesn't
get sick, and he always had herbal remedies he'd prepare with such
care..."

Lina nodded, her suspicions confirmed.  She had not wanted to speak
ill of him to her, but Lina thought Amelia might well have become
addicted to his attentions when ill.  Still, knowing Zelgadis, having
to care for her like this was probably one of the many things that got
under his stone skin.  Sealing Amelia against the flu would be doing
him a favor he would greatly appreciate, though it might take him a
while to admit it.

"Where is he, anyway?  And Gourry?"

He dumped you here and ran off because he was sick - in his own way -
and tired of dealing with this, she did not say.  "Remember the gems we
took from the bandits yesterday?  Someone had to enchant them before we
got back to town, so we could sell them for enough to cover our costs.
Since we can't go far with you like this, he wanted to get some
practice in enchanting.  The enchantment has to have solitude, so he's
in another cave, just up the road.  Gourry's outside, guarding both of
these caves."

"But you're the better enchanter.  Why isn't he here and you with the
gems?"

Lina had dreaded this question - but now she just smiled, her prepared
answer coming to her lips.  "Because, Amelia.  I am going to be
enchanting too.  And you're more precious than any gem."

Realization seared through Amelia's mental fog like a sunbeam, as
Lina's hand completed its gestures and red power glowed in the lines
she had traced.  "L-Lina!  No!"  She tried to struggle, but was unable
to summon the strength to lift more than a couple fingers.

"I know, I know.  As the rightful heir to your kingdom, any long-term
enchantment placed on you is also placed upon the land, yielding
control of your lands to the enchanter.  Unless it's specially
modified, and how to do that is a royal secret only passed down among
the royal family."  Lina twisted her hand just so, and the pattern
turned white.

Amelia blinked as the pattern descended on her, passing through her
clothes to merge with her body.  Her sickness dissolved in seconds,
and what she had feared - an ineffable feeling of submission, which
she had no memory of but knew she would be able to identify if it ever
happened - failed to materialize.  Almost by reflex, she sat up,
testing her muscles one by one and marvelling at the complete lack of
unresponsiveness or pain.  "...how?"

So.  That was it.  The particular variation Naga had taught her was
indeed what she had suspected it was, ever since having had a chance to
closely observe the details of Amelia's style of magic.  Lina slid her
hands behind Amelia's back, gently embracing her.  "Your sister
considered me family."  In her own twisted way, she did not add.

"You knew...then that means..."  Amelia's smile seemed to glow almost
as much as Lina's magic just had.

Now for the hard part: confession.  Lina wondered how long she had
agonized over this; how many times she had gone over the exact wording
to apologize for what she considered to be the worst sin she had ever
committed.  "I'm sorry for losing track of her-"

Amelia GLOMPED Lina, tuning out her words.  "I get to be the bridesmaid
at your wedding!"

"..."

"Umm...you *did* know that the women in my family get to set each
others' wedding dates if they're not married by a certain age, right?
And if my sister adopted you as her sister..."

Even though the blowing up in her face was metaphorical and not
literal, Lina still managed to cough out a puff of smoke.

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