*Disclaimers* All Slayers Characters are property of Kanzaka Hajime, Rui Araizumi, and T.V. Tokyo. Lin is my property.

Chapter 3:

Lin laid down on her bed in the room she had at the Dist family’s house. She was tired beyond belief. Never in all of her life had she ever imagined so much physical strength was needed for sorcery. Still laying down she reached for the glass of water that was on the nights stand right next to her bed and in the process knocked over a box.

Lin groaned and sat up reaching for the box. She picked it up and undid her pony tail, folded the ribbon and placed it in the box. Her hands slowly traced the outline of the box, it was beautiful. The box itself was made from gold and rubies, sapphires, diamonds and amethysts. On the middle of the cover was a huge pearl cut in the shape of a diamond and in the middle of it was a star ruby.

The box and the ribbon were the two things she treasured more than her own life, excluding her master. She had received the box on her 16th birthday from her master, the birthday of the year she stopped showing physical aging. The box and the ribbon were in a set when he had given it to her, and she had not allowed anyone else but herself to touch it, not even her master’s master.

Suddenly, a thought occured in Lin’s mind and before she knew, she was standing in front of the castle that stood in the Wolf Pact Island, the only building on it. She must have teleported without knowing it herself.

Lin reached out to open the huge wooden doors. As her hand touched the brass doorknob, she felt it read her own magic pulse. The doorknob was designed to keep intruders from entering, it was impossible to teleport into the castle, and only magic pulses that have been stored in the doorknobs memory could enter.

She opened the door and than was greeted by a wave of garbage after garbage. Next thing Lin knew she was on the other side of the Island. She screamed out in frustration and flew in through the door, changing her clothing from her towns girls one to her official mazoku clothing.

After she flew for awhile she came to a room. It had maximum security on the outside, protecting the occupant of the room from any possible intruders. The doors were designed only to let in the master of the room, and the master was the only one who can open the doors from inside as well. Lin sighed and knocked on the door. A high pitched voice ordered her to come in and Lin did as told.

In the room, a woman with long wavy blond hair with tanned skin, wore a white dress and she had out a glass of wine and some tobaccos. Her eyes were hidden behind the shadows of her bangs and she refused to reveal them.

"Xelas-sama!!" Lin started in a strong voice. "What is the matter with that huge amount of garbage and dirty laundry that attacked me when I tried to enter the castle!" She demanded towards the woman.

Xelas Metalium, also known as the Beast Master, one of the five dark lords under Shablaniguduu, the demon king, just looked at Lin and gave a simple answer. "I had other matters to worry about."

"Such as?!" Lin tried to drain information out of the Beast Master, an impossible task to say the least, but the huge amount of garbage bugged her.

"…..Shablaniguduu-sama, the one at the north has told me to go search for another part of him. Now that Garv and Fiblizo are gone, a lot more pressure is put on the remaining dark lords. Hasn’t Xelloss told you that."

"My master, Xelloss-sama has informed me of all that he knows about the dark lords. I do know that the pressure put on you, Graushelaa-sama and Dalfin-sama is a great amount. But you surely do have SOME time to clean up the house."

"….That is your job Lin-chan." Xelas replied with a chuckle. "Besides, where have you been? My priest had worried himself sick over where you were."

That small bit of information bought a smile to Lin’s face, but she quickly wiped it off. "I have gone to do some research on the human Lina Inverse. I am trying to reduce the load of work for Xelloss-sama. By the way, is he in his room"

"He is off looking for you still. You can reduce his workload by cleaning up the house. Also, I am hungry can you make me something to eat?"

Lin just merely bowed as she left the room. She than went to the storage closet and grabbed out all the cleaning utensils she will need. "This is going to be an all-night project….. I hope Xelloss-sama would come home soon so that at the least I can talk to him…."

Lina sat down by the window of her inn as she gazed out into the night sky. It was a beautiful night to say the least. The stars were shining and the moon gave a nice glow. She picked the book back up and started reading again. Soon though, her mind wasn’t focusing on the book.

Lina allowed her gaze to wonder out to the starry night. The cold night wind attacked her and she shivered a little. Even though it was May, the night air was still a little chilly. She debated on whether to close the window or not, and decided against it since the night air was so beautiful. As a child, the darkness of night had scared her until she was seven. Lina couldn’t recall why she stopped fearing the night other than that there was some one near her one night. Not her sister, and it wasn’t her parents, but that someone had stroked her hair until she was sound asleep, and when she woke up, that person wasn’t in sight.

The more she thought about it the more it seemed like a dream. The only thing to prove that it wasn’t a dream, was that on her night stand there was a stone in the shade of a deep purple, almost the color of a night sky. It was a beautiful stone, and looked extremely expensive. But that stone, more than the amount of money it possibly could’ve brought to her, it had eased her fear of the night. Since then, Lina had always thought that the night was beautiful.

Suddenly, she heard a knock on the door.

"Come in." She called. And the figure that entered her room surprised her. Zelgadiss was the one that entered. Although Lina had known Zelgadiss for a long time now, he had never really visited her in the night.

"What’s the matter Zel? It’s weird for you to pay me a visit." Lina walked away from the table and went to the cupboard where she had stored some tea packs. "Want some tea?" Zelgadiss just merely nodded as he sat down on one of the chairs in the room. "I’ve got rose, herb, and orange which would you like?"

"Orange." Zelgadiss replied.

Lina took some of the orange tea and put it in a cup with hot water for Zelgadiss, and took some rose tea for herself. She handed Zelgadiss his tea and sat down on the chair on the opposite side of the table from him. For a while, neither one of them said a word.

"Lina." Zelgadiss started off. "What is…. That girl you teach sorcery to like?" He asked slightly blushing.

"Lin? Well, she’s very honest for one thing. She learns quickly as well. She doesn’t have much physical strength, or rather endurance but that can always be worked on. She has a natural talent for sorcery and…"

"I didn’t mean that, I meant…. Sort of like, you know, her personality." Zelgadiss mumbled and looked away from Lina.

"….Zel… you aren’t falling for her are you?" Lina asked looking slightly mad. "You can’t Zel, you’d just get hurt."

"How can you say so?" Zelgadiss asked.

"Because she likes someone else, simple as that." Lina told him. "She is always saying that she will do anything for this person and this and that. I advise you forget about her as quickly as possible."

"…I never….really had any sort of feeling like that…" Zelgadiss muttered.

"You sure about that Zel?" Lina asked. "Are you sure about it? Because I don’t think what you are saying is true."

"I said… so, Lina, I know what I feel."

"Good. Because remember this. Amelia may be annoying but she is still my friend. If you hurt her, I won’t forgive you."

"I know Lina, I will never hurt her intentionally. She is my friend is well, I just want her to understand that I’m not that interested in her."

"I have proof that contradicts that theory." Lina said with a mischievous smile on her lips. "Let’s take the time that you got mad because Phiblizo killed Amelia."

"Tha…. You were mad as well!!!" Zelgadiss started blushing. Lina just smiled at his reaction and continued to tease him, something only her and Xelloss were capable of doing.

"Xelloss-sama!!!!!!!" An enthusiastic thing screamed and hugged him the moment Xelloss entered the castle. The first thing Xelloss was able to notice was that the castle was cleaned, and which meant that the thing that was still hugging him was….

"Where have you been for the past week Lin?" He asked patting her head. "You worried me to death."

"I am sorry." Lin replied as she released Xelloss. "I have been doing something that required a lot of my devotion and time." She smiled and snuggled against him. Then, was it that she noticed the figure next to her master and grimaced. "Sheela-san….what are you doing here?" Lin’s voice was cold and intense.

"I helped Xelloss-san look for you." Sheela replied in just about the same tone.

"Hn." Lin turned and faced Xelloss. "I am making Xelas-sama something to eat. Will you care for anything Xelloss-sama?"

"I would like some coffee and some toast." Xelloss told her with a smile. Lin returned the smile and ran off to the kitchen.

"She still hasn’t told you where she was." Sheela pointed out as soon as she was sure Lin couldn’t hear her. "Aren’t you going to ask? She might run off again." Which was fine with Sheela.

"No, if Lin doesn’t want to say where she was, that is fine with me. She is stronger than you think Sheela-san. I am very proud of her."

Sheela looked away from him. She hated it when Xelloss praised Lin.

"Thank you Sheela-san."

"What for?" Sheela replied still not looking at him.

"For helping me look for Lin, as well as trying to stop me from worrying about her. I also need to apologize for taking away your time, I will make it up to you sometime."

"You… don’t need to." Sheela stammered.

"Xelloss-sama!!! You’re coffee is ready!!!" Lin called from the kitchen.

"I need to go now. Good bye Sheela-san." He waved good-bye to her and left.

"This Sunday? I’m not doing anything but why do you ask?" Xelloss was sitting in his room drinking his coffee when Lin asked him if he had plans for this Sunday.

"I’ve been in the human world, and I found this great restaurant. I was wondering if you would like to go with me?" Lin kept on smiling as she took a sip of her tea. "I think it would be fun. Is it okay Xelloss-sama?"

"…I guess it is fine with me." Xelloss replied. "What is this place like though?"

"It is a formal restaurant. It is located right outside the city of Seyluun, It’s name was….. ‘Iris’, if I remember correctly."

Xelloss nodded and smiled at Lin. "That is fine with me."

Next Day.

"Sunday? Why are you asking?" Lina asked Lin. They had just finished their lesson and Lin had ‘mastered’ Flare Arrow. Just as Lina was getting ready to go back to the inn, Lin asked her what she was doing Sunday.

"You have heard of ‘Iris’ haven’t you Lina." Lin asked as she wiped the sweat off her face. "I’ve been wanting to go there and wanted to know if you would go with me?"

"…That’s the formal restaurant that’s right outside the city of Seyluun, and not too far from here right?" Lin nodded. "I guess it’s okay with me but why aren’t you asking your other friends.

"Because….there’s a dance Sunday night in the town, and they’d rather go to that. But I don’t want to go." Lin hoped Lina took it that Lin was tired of going to the dances.

"Well…I’ll go. I need to get a new dress though…"

"Thank you so much Lina!!!!"

"WHAT!!!!!!!!" Gaury demanded the moment he heard that. "Lina don’t you remember what I warned you about!!!!!"

"Stop screaming Gaury. Lin is…I won’t say she’s not a mazoku at all, there are a few things that make me suspicious, such as her magic capacity, but she has no intention of harming me. Trust me, I can tell if someone wanted to kill me vs. Someone who has no intention of killing me." Lina replied as she took another bite of her hamburger.

"But Lina, I’m just worried about you!! Especially when mazoku get involved." Gaury stopped her from eating and made her look into his eyes. "Please Lina, don’t go, you can’t, you’re putting your life in danger." He pleaded.

"Gaury!!!" Lina screamed in frustration. "Don’t you trust my judgment?! If I say Lin means no harm to me she means no harm to me!! Got that!? I am not, and repeat NOT going to tolerate you not trusting my judgement!!!!" Lina screamed and stormed up to her room.

Gaury punched the table in utter rage. He hadn’t meant it to come out like he didn’t trust her judgment. But, he was afraid, afraid that that girl would take Lina away from him. No, he couldn’t allow that to happen. Lina was HIS and only his. He deserved her, he had been with her through thick and thin, he had always offered to listen to her problems(Although most got turned down), and he had always tried to be there when she needed someone. Yes, he thought to himself, he deserved.

Sheela had over heard her master, Dynast Graushelaa talking with the Beast Master of Xelloss taking Lin some place formal in the human world. It was some human restaurant, and that they were going this coming Sunday. Which meant Sheela had enough time to prepare.

She was not going to allow that girl to have a good time with Xelloss. She would make sure that it went the worst for Lin, and the best for Sheela. She was going to sabotage it so bad, that Lin will never be able to face Xelloss again.

In the darkness Sheela’s laugh echoed.

Amelia could tell easily that something was different about Zelgadiss’s behavior but she couldn’t pin point the problem. She thought about it for a while but still came up with no explanation.

Finally Amelia decided that the only way to find out will be to go on a search. She would follow Zelgadiss until she knew for sure what was up with him. In the privacy of her own room, Amelia took a dramatic pose and screamed.

"In the name of justice I will be sure to find out what it is you are hiding from me Zelgadiss-san!!!" The next day she got yelled at the inn keeper for causing a commotion.