"Where is a healer?" Luna asked cooly, scanning the crowd. As her gaze passed everybody founnd somewhere else to look. Luna was about to arbitrarily pick some one out of the crowd when she noted the two figures running in towards town at a blur. At that rate and this distance it would take them several minutes to get to the town, assuming she left them to their own devices.
"Raywing," she sounded almost bored as the bubble of air surrounded the other two strangers, at the insane range they were away from her, and then pulled them forward at an equally insane speed.
"aaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!" Then she stopped the air bubble about two yards from her. The pair inside were still screaming.
"Excuse me, can either of you cast healing spells?" Luna said. They continued screaming, Luna narrowed her eyes. The air bubble rocketed up into the sky. Jolrael and Amethyst saw the day fade into night, and then they rocketed down again. By the time they got back down they were both trying to catch their breath. ""Shall we try this again? Are either of you a healer?"
"Uh....I am," Amethyst whimpered.
"Luna Inverse...I presume?" Luna arched an eyebrow, and mentally cut the Raywing spell. Amethyst and Jolrael blinked in the moment before gravity took hold and then fell the two feet to the ground. She set Xina on the ground, straightened her uniform and achieved an officious pose.
"You heal, you explain, wait," Jol snapped his mouth closed. She turned to the surreptitiously dissipating crowd "You four!" everybody turned to face her and sighed as they discovered that she didn't mean them. Or trembled when they realized that they had been picked. "Fix that."
"Umm, Luna-sama?" the purple haired waitress regarded the speaker, who flinched. "Is there any chance that this won't take long, lunch rush will be..." She looked up away from him and back at the crowd.
"Everybody else go home," she shouted. "And stay there until you hear otherwise. You were discussing the lunch rush?" she asked the nervous innkeeper.
"No, everything is covered."
"Good, gomen, Derek this should not take long," Luna assured him.
"That's fine...take however much time you want," he bowed his way back from the irritated sorceress.
"Now you, I take it you can explain what is going on here?"
"In part," Jol nodded.
"Then DO so," Luna whispered angrily.
"I'm not casting recovery on Xina," Amethyst declared.
"She does not seem badly injured," Luna protested.
"But she's already exhausted," Amethyst said sheepishly. This woman really was terrifying, anybody with the power to use raywing like THAT was no one to be annoyed by the likes of her. "I don't know whether she's beyond the point of safety or not."
"I can heal her a little," Jol suggested. Luna fixxed him with her coldest gaze yet.
"Do you ever do anything, or do you just talk?" she asked. Jol edged around her to where Xina lay on the ground. They all heard the sound of Val waking up, Luna glanced in that direction and then at Amethyst. "Heal the dragon before he starts rampaging, unless you see a problem there as well."
"Yes, Luna-sama," Amethyst bowed and walked to the dragon nervously.
"Elven blood?" Luna asked as she saw Jolrael place a hand on Xina's forehead. She noted the lines of strain form on the young man's face. He didn't seem to have heard her question. "Excuse me, I asked you a question." Then he slumped back, breathing heavily.
"Ow, my head," Xina moaned. "What...the mazoku brat!" She tried to sit up and succeeded in triggering her upset stomach. Jol managed to see it coming and turned her away from anybody. While Xina was purging herself of her hunting efforts earlier, Jol felt himself lifted up by the scruff of the neck and turned around to face Luna.
"I asked you a question,"she repeated. "Are you..."
"I heard you the first time," Jol snapped, recovering in some measure his normal attitude. "Judge for yourself." The fingers around his neck were forced back, and Luna betrayed a slight surprise.
"Your arrogance is certainly pure elf," Luna said, causing Jol's eyes to snap wide. "Even if you look..."
"Watch who you're calling an..." Jol was lifted up and held above the ground. Xina gasped from where she hung her head over her knees. The sorceress hadn't budged a muscle in casting the spell.
"Don't try me, boy," she hissed. "Now what is going on here? Four strangers, one of them CLAIMING to be my sister's child..."
"What do you mean claim..." Xina suddenly found herself unable to move, even talk. Luna noticed the dragon taking human form, but chose to ignore it. Amethyst ran from that direction and kneeled before the irritated sorceress.
"Luna-sama, please, we don't mean any offense," Amethyst pleaded.
"I've never tolerated impudence," Luna looked to the glaring Xina and noticed the silvery shimmer about her. As that occured she could feel the elf-blood countering her other set spell and lowering himself to the ground. She considered testing the other two as well, but it would seem over-zealous. There were other ways that such direct spells.
Luna let the shimmer about Xina grow, she could have squashed the power like nothing, but she was curious. The light ate through the spell she had left quickly and then Xina could talk and move again.
"Hmph, I suppose that next you'll be telling us to chop down a tree with a herring," she mumbled, Luna arched an eyebrow. The effort had taken a toll though. The fox girl started to waiver.
"Xina, don't do that," Amethyst gasped and steadied the girl. "I'm not sure Jol can heal you again." The young chimera began healing Xina then, and soon the drain on Xina's resources caused by the spell made her faint again. Amethyst stopped momentarily afterword. "I dare to heal her no more."
Luna sniffed and picked up the staff from where Xina had dropped it. She mumbled something under her breath and a light shimmered forth, and channeled through the staff. It revealed a familiar cloaked man that was glancing about himself curiously.
"I should have known you'd sense me around," the translucent image said, in voice as if far away. Amethyst immediately recognized the man.
"Xellos Metallium," she breathed in a whisper. Val and Jol looked at her shocked.
"Its been nearly twenty years," Luna said. "And I know you're dead, why then, spirit, do you linger here and not pass on to whatever is in store for you?"
"I worry about my family," he admitted.
"No 'Sore wa himitsu desu'?" the ghost smiled.
"Even such as you, sister, cannot give me voice and face for long in this world," he told her. "I have no time for my usual games. I have my children to consider."
"Sister? She is my blood then?" The image flickered briefly, large blank spots appearing in its form. Luna regarded the unconscious half-mazoku doubtfully.
"Yes," he answered. Then the flickering returned and the appearing and disappearing face frowned and started yelling. "It's ..ming....p..ce...f...t..oid...old...eed...mo...TIME!!!" and then he was gone totally. Just before the spirit vanished he seemed to be struggling to remain, adding his power to the sorceress's. After he vanished, even Luna had to drop to one knee.
"That is never easy," she muttered standing up, since Phibrezzo's death the channels to realms of the dead had been harder to tap. A more permanent summoning would have required twisting the spirit and maddening it with pain until it was a foul undead thing. She suddenly regretted casting the spell, now the dead mazoku would be thoroughly weakened. "Come along, bring...my niece....with you." She refused to let these misgivings show themselves as she coldly turned from the children.
"I hate to interrupt," Jol commented. He noticed Luna's glare. "I REALLY do, but there is the small matter of an undead army heading this way."
"Oh please," Luna sighed, frustrated. "They are at least a week out at least, you underestimate your own speed. I would hear the full story soon, but first I have to work my shift." The three awake adventurers face faulted.
"Well now you truly are useless. You won't be even able to talk for a long time yet."
"I...can find...a...fill in."
"Really? Why did you accept the summons? You didn't even get your message across."
"I keep...telling you....Sore wa....himitsu...desu."