"That was an excellent strike, Inverse-san," Xina narrowed her eyes as she regarded the sorcerer carefully. She looked back and noticed that the rest of her group was running to catch up with the two of them.
"How did you get here ahead of them?" she asked tightly, still gripping her aching head. She sounded a deal more irritable than she wished, but she could attribute that to her headache and nausea.
"Raywing, a spell for flying," he answered simply. Xina nodded, unconcerned, the others would be on them quickly, and she still had one more thing to ask. "So what did the Necromancer steal from you perhaps?" Xina restrained herself from smiling at the question.
"He's a freak raising the dead to conquer the world, that's why we're after him," she answered. "Did he steal something from you?"
"An old staff, it has some sentimental value," he was probing her, she shrugged.
"We'll try to get it back for you I guess," she responded calmly, then everybody else was there. "What's your name?"
"Janus," the handsome sorcerer answered, smiling.
"What's taking you guys so long," Xina snapped at everybody. "We have wizards to kill and staves to reclaim."
"Is he bothering you," Val asked, pointing at the sorcerer
"No Val, he is not bothering me," Xina growled, glancing at Janus's pleased expression while the man was distracted. "Janus-san is coming with us, he has been wronged by our mutual enemy." Val noted the honorific applied to the man's name and glared at the man.
"Oh my, we shall definitely do everything in our power to see that you gain justice," Amethyst declared predictably.
"I don't trust him," Val grumbled. Xina glanced at the other two men and noted that they agreed.
"Your not...jealous? Are you?" Xina asked viciously.
"Why would I be jealous over a little runt like you?" Val asked angrily. The next thing he felt was Xina's practice sword across his skull.
"I am not a runt!" Xina yelled, then her eyes widened. "Oh...my head."
"Where does it hurt?" Tinuviel asked. She poked the pained kage-kitsune in the forehead and was rewarded with a snapped complaint. "How about here....here?"
"Quit poking me!!!.....owww?" by the time the ruckus over her ended, most of them had forgotten their distrust of the sorcerer. Jol sort of looked at her suspiciously, but that was the only indication anybody had noticed.
"These are the ones that destroyed Kurst? These...fools?" He was looking at the new slayers through a scrying pool. He found their antics mildly amusing, but they diidn't seem to be any sort of threat.
"Shall I go out and destroy them, Master?" Roquen turned to face the shadw with an annoyed expression.
"There is white magic there," Roquen grunted. "This will take something of a living bent."
"You think me unequal to the task?" the shade protested. "As you said before, these are just fools."
"I refuse to underestimate these travellers," the mage snapped. "That could prove fatal."
"What do you wish me to do, master?"
"There is a tribe of trolls not far from here," Roquen told him. He waved his hand over the enchanted water and the scene changed, revealing a dark and twisted wood.
There were crude dwellings in the wood and the ugly, massive shapes of shambling trolls. In the center was an ancient obsidian statue probably dragged from some ruin or another.
"They just happen to worship a being of shadow and darkness," the mage continued. "Perfectly fictional, but useful considering the nature of such minions as yourself."
"I understand, master," the shadow turned flowed out of the room, moving to fulfill its masters' wishes. As the mage watched the scrying pool's surface changed of its own accord. He saw an image of the moon, full and bright, shining down on a sylvan forest. An elven hunter stalked through on a hunt. "These are the threats, the elf and the moon."
Roquen grumbled, wondering if he would spot and solve the riddle in time.
"Jolrael," Xina called quietly to the swordsman. Everybody else was asleep, annd that was the way she wanted it. She double-checked Janus, collecting his scent and listening to his breath and heart. "Did anybody mention my mother before Janus talked to me?"
"No, why?"
"I was curious, thanks," she laid back down and immediately started snoring, cutting off any further comment from Jolrael. She wasn't asleep though, and Jol probably knew that, but she didn't care. Xina thought back over several years to an overheard conversation.
"Why did you give them Xellos's name?" Filia asked.
"I don't know, a memorial maybe, what other name should I have used?"
"Won't that cause them problems, why not use your own name?"
"Inverse?! Are you crazy?"
"What's wrong with that name?"
"There are only two Inverses in this world," her mother had said. Then she had grimaced and twitched. "Well maybe three, but I'd rather not go into HER at the moment. There's me and there's my sister, my sister doesn't have any kids. I don't think so anyway. Meanwhile, I'm supposed to be dead. If they go by Inverse, everybody is going to know who's kids they are."
"You'd rather them be known for their mazoku father rather than you?" As usual Lina had not responded well to people talking poorly of Xina's father.
"What's wrong with Xellos?"
"Nothing, but most people are going to distrust half-mazoku."
"How many people know the name Xellos Metallium? Include everybody you can."
"I wouldn't think many, he did a good job of laying low."
"How many people know Lina Inverse?" Filia was silent. "Practically everybody, right?"
"I see your point."
"Besides, this way the only people that know their mother's name are friends and foes. Anybody that doesn't have a connection will be clueless."
Xina thought about this, and she thought about how Janus knew that she was an Inverse. He was looking for the staff and using them to get there, what intentions he had beyond that, she didn't know. To make things moderately better, she had the added bonus of getting back at Val for the idea that she couldn't take care of herself in a fight.
Xina flashed a predatorial grin for a brief moment. Well, she might not have her brother's talent for fighting, but she had other talents. She'd play this game, but the rules were going to be hers.