A Whole Blotta' Trouble

Author: RVincent Title: A Whole Blotta' Trouble

A Whole Blott’a Trouble

Rejected Names:

“Don’t Worship a Dark Lord and Lose Your Virginity in the Same Night!”

“Sex and Magic don’t Mix”

“You think that’s stupid, you wouldn’t believe what I did when I was ten!”

“Lina’s Curse”

“Lina’s Forgotten Secret...”

“Pact in a Secret Place”

A Somewhat Lemon Slayers Fanfic by Rob.Vincent@gmail.com

What is it that I usually say...? Oh yeah, no one under 18 please, lemon / hentai warning! I don’t own these characters and have no relation or connection to the people that do own Slayers, well, aside from the fact that I buy things from them. But seriously, I make no claim to owning these characters and they remain copyright their respective copyright holders such as Hajime Kanzaka and Bandai Entertainment among others. If you’re offended by hentai acts you shouldn’t read any further, but, well, the hentai is a bit mild.... Regardless, if you are under 18 years of age don’t read any further, hit the back button on your browser or close your text viewing application. Don’t corrupt the innocence of Slayers unless you already have. You can reach me at the e-mail address above with questions, comments, and criticisms.

()@oO0Oo@<><>/\**\ Present Day/**/\<><>@oO0Oo@()

It was hard for Lina to keep her moans suppressed. Especially when Gourry had proven to be such an expert in the field. She tilted her head back slightly to give him better access to her neck, part of her eager for more and another part of her betrayed by the pace that she was giving into his advances. A few weeks previous they had hardly been comfortable kissing, but with the fevered pace they had ascended the stairs after dinner, and the heady feeling she couldn’t shake, she was sure that they were going to go further than ever before, much further.

She tried to gather herself, taking deeper breaths, trying to look around the room. Just to at least say she tried to play hard-to-get and fight him off, if only for her own self vindication. Another moan and Gourry used the opportunity to place his hand firmly on her chest. There was a gentle squeeze and then another more forceful. Lina smiled and forced her head down, limiting the space in the crook of her neck and forcing Gourry to back up a little, just enough for her to squeeze her way down and get in a kiss on his perfect lips. The kiss deepened and Lina put her hands around Gourry’s back, pulling him closer against her, she had been expecting it and she suddenly noticed the bulge in his pants, sitting in his lap it would have been difficult to ignore.

The last time she’d been afraid of how far she would go and that pressure against her leg had been enough to shake her lust filled head and get her reasonable again. But she had passed the tipping point, now it just made her want to keep going further. Screw the fact that she didn’t want her first time to be in some meaningless Inn with dingy curtains and a creaky bed. Lina pulled Gourry against her harder, panting in his ear as he massaged her chest. Skillfully Gourry moved from beneath her, putting her down against the bed causing it to strain loudly against the movement.

“Shhhhh…” Lina hissed out through clenched teeth, “Amelia and Zel are right next door…”

“..forgot about that..” Gourry whispered out, Lina only catching a piece of it but getting the point that it had slipped his mind like it had almost slipped hers.

Gourry already had his shirt off. It was one of those things she had never paid attention to before but now that she had had a chance to admire the human form she was all the more appreciative of it and Gourry caught on fast. He must have realized that he could get more out of Lina, get further with her if he took his shirt off first. Gourry dropped down on the bed, a bit more softly than Lina with a hand on each side of her head. Dreamily she reached out and ran her hands over his naked chest, especially focusing on the textured areas beyond his ribs, loving the feel of his taught stomach.

Timidly at first he moved in and kissed her, dropping erratic kisses across her face as she ran her hands along his sides. The slight bit of ticklishness to it actually accentuated the sexuality nicely, spurring him along further until his kisses were a constant stream of longing. He nearly stopped though as he felt Lina shift beneath him, and went wide eyed as he realized her hands were on her pants, and she was trying to lower them. He tried to pretend not to notice that Lina was taking the first big step and instead continued to drive her onward with his kisses and a hand that he began to slowly moving up beneath her shirt. He knew it was something that could kill the mood, but if she was that turned on already, he hoped that it would only drive her further.

Almost imperceptivity she stiffened, she was still extremely self conscious about her breasts, Gourry hadn’t even seen her yet with her shirt off even though she had teased him by wandering around without pants on one time while he had pretended to sleep, although she had known otherwise. So to get this far… he gave a shudder almost the same intensity as hers when he gently rolled the nub of flesh on her breast between his fingers. And then he felt her kicking off her pants. Things were moving a lot faster than either of them had expected.

Then her hands were on his hips, her small fingers struggling for purchase along the upper edge of his pants. Trying to push them off by sheer force alone without regard for the clasp at the front. With a little regret he removed his hand from under her shirt and used it to brace himself against the bed so his other hand could deal with the issue of his pants. He was more graceful than he had hoped and managed to release them expediently. Lina did the rest, she would have even if he had been determined to do so. Teasingly Gourry felt his pants come down, pulling past his erection in his underwear, causing him to tense. The way he was positioned on his legs prevented his pants from coming down past his knees and since there really wasn’t any other alternative he moved in and gave Lina a deep kiss and her breast another squeeze through her shirt before moving away.

Lina let out a low moan at the break of contact before opening her eyes. By this time Gourry was bent over pulling his pants off and throwing them aside before pulling down his underwear. His erection bobbed up, standing straight out in front of him. Lina felt her heart flutter as she caught sight of it, it was the first time she had seen one. Quickly though she came back to herself as Gourry laid down on the bed next to her. “I.. um..” She fumbled with her thoughts before quickly realizing her relative state of dress and pulled down her own panties, tossing them to the floor before turning to her side and grabbing Gourry in a hug.

Their kisses were faster, more feverish and Lina’s hands more probing than ever. They traveled down Gourry’s stomach and to the patch of hair between his legs and finally to his member. She pressed herself tightly against him, turning the kiss into a French kiss and tasting his mouth. The head of his erection was pressing against her middle thigh so she pushed herself down further on the bed, so that Gourry had to put his head down to continue kissing her. But from that angle his erection was pressing much higher, right up against the top of her wetness between her legs.

She could tell from Gourry’s response that he realized just how close he was. She gripped his erection more purposefully and rubbed the head up against the top of her clitoris, spreading out her lubrication and causing him to groan loudly and she continued to gyrate up against him. His kisses became more forceful, and his groping more intense, Lina could feel that the moment was right and rolled onto her back, blushing, longing, and embarrassed all at once.

Gourry raised his head at once as if he were coming up for air. He flung his leg up and used the momentum to bring himself into a sitting position on his knees. He was eager but tried to keep himself in check as best he could, brushing his hand across his erection, still wet from Lina’s teasing. Timidly he put his hands on Lina’s knees and gave them a little pull to the side. Quickly compliant, Lina spread her legs to accommodate his view although she used one of her hands to cover her face for a moment to hide her embarrassment.

Despite his eagerness, Gourry took a moment to savor the view, the love of his life offering herself to him, legs spread, on her back. He even quirked a bit of a smile at the fact she was still wearing the entire upper half of her sorceress outfit. “Lina…?” Gourry asked, almost afraid of the answer, the connotations of the unstated question clear, this was her last chance out.

“I’m ready Gourry…” Lina managed, her voice flighty and trembling slightly. She tried to pull herself to the here and now, she wanted to enjoy every moment of this, even the pain she knew was coming up. Gourry lowered himself down a little further, before deflowering her, he felt the need to look her over. Meanwhile, Lina held still, her heart beating a million miles an hour as she felt herself being admired, then she gave a slightly giddy laugh that she was thankful Gourry ignored as she realized she was enjoying being looked over.

However that pause that should have only lasted a moment crept onward… “Hey Lina.” Gourry said almost conversationally, the tone of it shocking Lina.

“What?” She asked surprised and disappointed with his lack of action.

“I didn’t know you had a tattoo.” He paused a moment, “When did you get that?”

“Oh for the love of…. I don’t have a tattoo.” She tried to keep her cool, and hoped against hope that Gourry would drop whatever line of thought he had come across and get back to satisfying their baser instincts.

“Yeah you do, right here.” The lust was all but gone from his voice as he touched her gently up high on her thigh.

Lina knew from the tone of his voice that she had to look otherwise he would pester her. Plus with his finger where it was she started to feel a little bit of her self-consciousness slip back into her state of mind as the lust filtered out. Lina sat up with great effort, groaning and turned her leg a little sideways as best she could, grabbing the skin there and pulling it a little upward to get a better look at the area in question. “Oh, that’s just a birth-” Then her eyes went wide.

“Oh, that makes sense, I didn’t think you had any tattoos.” He concluded, oblivious to the look of creeping terror on her face.

“Shab… shab… Shabranigdo!” She nearly shouted to herself as she took in the shape. Even with the inadequate light coming from the candle on the night stand, her brain forced cold realization through her veins.

“Oh, I thought that looked familiar, but why do you have a birthmark in the shape of Shabranigdo?” Lina looked up from her leg, her gaze caught for just an instant as it passed over Gourry’s still erect member and up his abs before settling on his face. Any lust that remained quickly bolted from her as she took in his mindless expression. And things were going so good too…

“I don’t wanna talk about it.” Lina stated with finality.

“Oh?” Gourry paused a moment, “Okay, maybe later?” Sometimes Gourry did seem like he was catching on, getting a little sharper but at other times. Lina sighed deeply, this put a whole new cramp in things.

“I gotta go use the toilet, could you let me up for a sec?” Taking the hint Gourry moved his leg to her side and allowed her to roll off the bed. She bent over and grabbed her pants, putting them on before walking out the door. She didn’t look back, fearful of seeing Gourry’s disappointment but also afraid of how angry she might feel if he still had that same mindless look on his face.

Quickly she padded down the hallway, worried that someone might see her in the fragile state she found herself in. Finally to the bathroom she cloistered herself inside, the candles lit inside were not light enough so she cast a brilliant light spell and set it afloat right above her head before pulling down her pants and sitting down on the toilet. Fearfully she grabbed her leg again, pulling the flesh around a little bit to get a better look, and there it was, she remembered how it used to look, just a little character of her and Shabranigdo holding hands, in a field or something as she remembered it.

But now, she took in her own expression in the picture, experiencing the same kind of pleasure she would have no doubt experienced with Gourry. She was bent over, on all fours, naked, the picture was almost alive, she could almost hear the moaning. And behind her, the Dark Lord Shabranigdo stood, pounding into her from behind.

“Damn, there goes my mood.“ She groaned out to herself before falling back up against the toilet, an involuntary sigh escaping her lips as she tried to remember how she had gotten herself into such a situation all those years ago.

()@oO0Oo@<><>/\**\ Six Years Previous /**/\<><>@oO0Oo@()

“Dragon Slave!” Her voice rang through the clearing, its intention unmistakable and confident. But the notes of noise hung in the air, greeted not by the reckless sound of destruction, or by the humming of power gathering at a source before release, no, Lina’s voice died there - unanswered.

“Humph!” Lina turned timidly to the perturbed tone of her instructor, a sweat drop coming to her head and her hand going to the back of her skull in a visual display of her embarrassment. Breathing in deeply Lina prepared for the worst. She tried to distract herself, looking over her teacher and wondering why a person like her would even involve herself in the craft. Dressed more like a bureaucrat than a sorceress she carried a clipboard, the image was completed by her occasional tapping of the paperwork with her quill, showing her impatience at Lina’s little show.

Cowering a little as the instructor loomed over her, Lina held her breath as she heard the woman take in a deep breath of her own, “I thought you called me out here to show me your Dragon Slave,” Lina nearly stumbled backward as he instructor lifted up slightly on their toes to get an even greater height advantage, “But instead you called me out here to see you fail, just like you always have.” Recomposing herself and taking a moment to scribble something in her notes the instructor started in again, “You think you’re special just because of your sister don’t you? Well, I’ll tell you, there is no ten year old on this continent that could ever cast the Dragon Slave.... Not to mention the blatant disregard you are showing for the black magic hierarchy!”

“But teacher I...” Lina tried to cut in but was immediately overtaken by her professor’s authoritarian tone.

“You can’t just go straight to the Dragon Slave without mastering the basics, and I’ve seen your scores from the other instructors, you’re far from the prodigy you make yourself out to be...” The initial scolding over, Lina tensed slightly, preparing for the multiple attacks on her personality she could feel coming on. She looked down at her little feet for a moment trying to ignore her teacher.... it didn’t work.

“...go their whole life without mastering the Dragon Slave, the absurdity of you even completing the spell, however inadequately, is mind boggling.” Sighing and obviously frustrated with Lina’s lack of caring for her usual triad the instructor simply made a few more notes before turning away. “I recommend you give up on this fools quest and put your devotion more into protection spells, I realize that you’re a black magic practitioner but to get recognized as a sorceress from our guild you must diversity, and make at least an attempt to learn some white magic.” Lina didn’t try to retort, she could hardly swallow the knot in her throat. But just like that, the instructor was finished with her. Lina heard one last huff before turning her head up and watching her teacher hurry off in the fading light of the sun, not even giving her the courtesy of a ‘good-bye‘. Finally, once her instructor was out of her vision, Lina collapsed onto her bottom, drained. Even a miss-fired Dragon Slave was quite taxing no matter what the age.

The light was rapidly disappearing from the clearing, its lively rays leaving a void that was quick to fill with piercing silence. One that was punctuated by strange sounds from the forest. Lina though was preoccupied, working her fingers into holes in her torn outfit. She’d been wearing the same clothes day in and day out for nearly two years. Wearing them symbolized her unranked status as a sorceress in training, and she was greatly looking foreword to the day when she could get out of the rags and into vestments with the color representing her status. “I hope I get blue...” She muttered while slightly pulling at a seam that was coming apart already before stopping herself. Still, it took another moment before she realized the atmosphere in the clearing was changing. Darkness was setting in more fully and the silence that came with it became all the more apparent. And once it was noticed, a strange pricking sensation started to rise up her spine, fear...

“Damn!” She cursed to herself, feeling a little rebellious for her coarse language. But despite the sudden creeping fear she held steadfast to her place on the ground. Waiting for the complete darkness to set in. “Shabranigdo has domain over our fears...” She justified out loud to herself in an attempt to bolster her confidence, but the effects were mixed so she continued for her own benefit, “If I can get used to this feeling...” She continued, her fear starting to turn into terror as she allowed the sensation to filter into her essence, “I’ll be more able to draw from his power..” She gulped and forced herself not to move as the sounds from the forest picked up. The moon obstructed from view beyond the horizon by the tree line. She didn’t want to hide it or block it out, she simply let her own panic continue to grow until it had build to unbearable proportions. Finally though she broke, “Ahhhhhh!!!!!” Lina cried out, throwing her body onto her already stumbling feet. Nearly crashing head over heal as she tried to rapidly gain her balance, her small body pitching foreword as she streaked off toward the path her teacher had taken earlier.

####()0---=---+++^^\/\/^^+++---=---0()####

It wasn’t until much later that Lina finally made it home. She kicked off her shoes and stumbled into the back door of her house, breathing heavily. Worn out from the breakneck pace she’d set through the woods. Looking around, she didn’t immediately see anyone. Seizing her chance she made her way up the stairs, keeping low to avoid any prying eyes from the area below. Wondering the whole time which of her parents would kill her first if they found out she’d stayed out after dusk.

Thankfully, death was not forthcoming and she ascended the stairs without any fanfare. Perhaps her mother and father had found a cozy spot in the den that prevented their attention from wandering. Her sister though was another matter. Lina could picture her being anywhere, she tip-toed past her room as she reached the top of the steps and after a paranoid thought whirled around to check to see if she was being followed. Without seeing anyone, she whirled around again in case she had magically appeared to block her path. And in order to be entirely sure she repeated the process twice.

Feeling especially sneaky after her unexpected success, Lina continued onward down the hallway and to her own room. Carefully turning the doorknob and pulling in on the door at the same time avoided the distinct ‘click’ the door gave ever so often as it opened. Additionally she didn’t open the door further than necessary for fear of it creaking and so she slid herself into the narrow gap before pulling the door shut just as methodically. Not allowing herself a moment of relaxation she stripped off her shirt, replacing it with her usual loose fitting top and dropped her pants. Now more prepared for sleep in an oversized shirt and underwear she finally started to feel like she might have got away with something.

Getting away with something like this though… that was something Lina wasn’t used to. And as such she began to worry anew, afraid that perhaps her sister or her mother was waiting in a corner somewhere, or even outside her window. Waiting for just the most vulnerable time to spring out and catch her. In spite of her paranoia, as time passed she finally started to settle in. Laying down on the bed she honestly began to feel comfortable. But her comfort wasn’t easing her frustration at failing at the Dragon Slave earlier, this fiasco bringing her total number of failures to eight. Still, she’d been on the verge, each time she had felt more of her power going into the spell, and by the fifth time, she could feel a power coming from someplace else….

She sighed and contemplated burying her head in the pillow and going to sleep but she had to do something to take care of her frustration. With an ‘oomph’ she hefted her legs off the side of the bed and sat up. Thankful that she hadn’t snuffed out the candles she had lit earlier she got up and padded over to her closet. Not her main closet though, the closet that she had along the outside wall, a smaller closet that she had put her dresser against. Before she’d put her dresser there she cleared out all of her clothes from the closet and put them in her other closet or in her new dresser and as far as anyone else in the house knew, Lina didn’t use the closet any more, simply because she’d made it inaccessible.

Actually though, Lina had been using the closet more than ever, though instead of clothes she used it to house any contraband she knew she would be reprimanded for possessing. Making her way over to the closet she slowly dropped to one knee then put her ear to the floor. It had been some time since she first came in and she was fairly certain that her parents were asleep by now. It wouldn’t do to have either of them come in while she was in the closet. There was no way that she could make a clean escape from the closet and back into the bedroom before anyone would make their way into the room and it would be hard to explain some of the things she kept hidden in there.

Nothing. She couldn’t hear anything from below. Lina’s parents were not the quiet types, usually while they were awake before bed they would just sit together and talk, and since the hour was so late, if Lina didn’t hear them talking or laughin then she could be fairly certain that they had turned in for the night.

Lina brought her attention to her sister’s room next. That was a different story all together. For one Lina wasn’t sure if she had even come in for the night yet, on the other hand Lina had been laying in her bed for quite a while listening and hadn’t heard so much as a peep out of her sisters room. Nonetheless, her sister was a quiet person to begin with. All of this reasoning though was going nowhere as Lina reached her usual conclusion when it came to her sister. Unless she had a really good reason to, there was no way she would come in to check up on Lina. And since she seemed to have gotten away with getting home so late there was likely no other reason for her to show up at Lina’s door so late in the evening.

A little giddy in anticipation, Lina tip-toed over to her dresser. It was a long rectangular cherry piece that was placed right in front of the sliding door to the closet. Thankfully it wasn’t tall at all, its upper lip was nearly at Lina‘s hips. And that made all the difference in the world. She gripped it strongly and lifted with all of her might. Sturdily built and packed with clothes it was quite heavy in spite of its small stature but Lina was remarkably strong for her age and build. It lifted from its spot on the ground and Lina pushed it to the side away from the wall, angling it so she could make her way into the closet. Carefully she lowered it again to the floor to keep things quite.

With controlled movements she turned to the side and slowly slid open the closet door. The large wooden door on well-crafted rollers slid open without a sound. Lina's breathing returned to normal as she turned around and grabbed the candle off the nightstand next to her bed, taking it with her into the closet. The darkness disintegrated with its dim yellow glow and she took a moment inside to light a few different candles off her companion candle’s flame.

The room was small, long enough for her to lie in long ways, but just barely. From side to side she could easily touch both walls, but she used the space thriftily, hanging odds and ends from the ceiling and out of the way so she could fit more illicit artifacts and such. Most striking was the hardwood floor, which was covered with the remnants of several attempts at spells, half erased pentagrams in chalk and ash, symbols of Dark Lords, but notable among them, present again and again in bits and pieces was the symbol representing the Dark Lord that she coveted above all others, Shabranigdo.

Looking to the end of the closet she looked over the alter she had created. She was eye-level with an effigy of Shabranigdo. Or at least what she thought he might look like. Tall and green, big slitted eyes like a deer, and thick sturdy legs like a troll. She sighed as she grabbed a piece of chalk from next to the alter and dropped to her knees, lowering her head and blowing the chalk dust out of the way, clearing a new spot on the floor.

It didn't take too long. The wood was well polished, and soon she had a spot cleared directly in front of the alter, and her clothes were a mess for doing it. Without pause, she started yet again on drawing Shabranigdo's signet. A large circle, she'd gotten great marks in her summoning class, she was the only one at her level that could draw a perfect circle freehand. It was all of the practicing that she'd been doing at home but only she knew that. She followed it up by starting in on the design, another circle scaled down centered in the larger circle, and another yet smaller inside of that. Carefully she used her calligraphic skills to place his words one at a time in the circles surrounding the center circle, those showing the circle as belonging to Ruby Eye. Finally she completed his mark, a large eye centered in the smallest circle above a pool of black.

Sitting back she dusted the chalk off her hands and looked over her handiwork. Her notebooks at the academy where covered with the same insignia and she hoped that each was more perfect then the last. This one looked, at least to her, to be following that trend. Tonight though would be different then all of the other times that she had made offerings to the Dark Lord. Tonight she would force Shabranigdo to grant her the power to cast the Dragon Slave.

Her pulse quickened at the thought of what was to come. Nervous she padded out of the closet, still trying to keep quiet. She grabbed her notebook from her belongings and flipped through the pages to the end. It was a simple spell but highly effective, and with the wave of her hand the blank pages were covered with her signature chicken-scratch. Lina made her way back into the closet where the light was best to go over the incantation one last time.

As much as she tried she couldn't find any flaw to her thinking. The spell would tie her to Shabranigdo, and if successful, would allow her to access his power more readily. And it was fairly simple too, well within her abilities. Still... it had been difficult to come across, necessity forcing her into the forbidden section of the Library at the academy. It wasn't something of the magnitude one would expect though, at least once a week one of the students at the academy was caught trying to sneak into the forbidden section. She had made it though, and after this she might even gloat about it. She did wish she could have taken the whole book though, to read more of it, to read what it said in the pages before, and the pages after the spell....

Her notes would have to suffice though. Biting her lip she read through her scribbles once again, some parts obvious shorthand at the time where cryptic on revisiting them causing bits of doubt. "Now or never..." She put the book to the side and stood up, reaching up she pulled her shirt up and over her head, tossing it outside the closet and onto her bed, then in one fluid motion reached down and pushed her panties down to her knees before stepping out of them and tossing them to the same fate. Next she untied her hair, letting its medium length fall across her back before stepping into the circle. She gulped, her mind fighting just to remember the beginning of the spell, struggling to remember all of her teachings on magical circles, hoping that if she could just get started that the rest would come to her.

Eyes glittering with reflected candle light she steeled herself. Focusing on her pure state and locking her gaze lethally on the effigy of the Dark Lord in front of her. Reaching out she grabbed a small knife from in front of the alter and gave her index finger a little slice. She waited a moment for blood to well up and pouted when she realized her failure, in vain she squeezed the finger to get even a drop of red liquid to no avail. Cringing she brought the knife back to her finger tip, drawing the edge over just as fast but with more pressure, hoping to do the minimum to coax a drop of blood from her body. She was met with success, a drop welled up in the cut and for a split second the positive meniscus held in place, the liquid black by the candle light before running down the length of the cut and spilling off her finger, spattering within the symbol on the ground. She hadn't cut her finger to put any of her blood in the circle, the spell hadn't called for it but she figured it could only help matters and she needed all the help she could get. Slowly. Her voice began in a creeping tone, confidence missing from it entirely she forced out the start of the spell. Holding her bleeding finger toward the effigy she began.

"Thou who is darker than dusk
You who are more red than crimson blood
I call upon you, master of darkness..."

Lina swallowed audibly, feeling the tickling at the edge of her senses, a presence was coming, her pulse quickened and her voice increased in volume though it did waver noticeably. Still, she was hoping that it would let her feel more confident and less, afraid.

"I pledge myself to you, tie to you my honor and life
Infuse me with power, your strength with mine
To do your bidding I give myself to you
To be your ally as you need me..."

She gestured widely, a wind had picked up in the small room out of nowhere, the candles were snuffed out quickly but Lina had thrown herself into the spell. Gesturing wildly in the darkness she brought her bloodied finger above her head, "With this finger I do mark!" And brought the finger down between her legs, touching her upper-most inner thigh. Then, all at once, the chaos swirling around her stopped. Silence, then, footsteps.

Already her bloody finger had become tacky and it pulled away from her thigh with a disturbing adhesive cling, she bolted out of the door, still naked and closed the closet behind her with more grace than she could have hoped for on a good day. The footsteps were fast approaching, coming up the stairs. She grabbed the dresser and hefted, biting her lip as she felt the cut she made on her finger open as pressure was applied to it, mentally visualizing blood dripping from the wound in the darkened room. Regardless, the dresser was back in place in record time, she nearly tripped over herself diving into the bed, giving herself an abrasive burn from dragging her bare knees over the rough comforter before disappearing under the covers just before the footsteps reached her door.

And continued on their way past it. Not even a pause. Lina let out a shaky breath, her heart beating as fast inside her little chest as she had ever felt it pound. She laid there, excited, scared, and anxious, time passing more slowly than ever, before finally getting the guts to move from her bed. Rolling out of it a little she reached under her night stand to retrieve another candle, and managed a small spell to light the candle. Despite the ease of casting it though, Lina still was proud of herself, it was the first spell she had ever learned, the first one most people learn as it was highly utilitarian. The urgentness of the situation though prompted her thoughts to move away from reminiscence.

Tossing the bedspread aside she flung her legs over the side of the bed and lifted her left leg up to get a look between her legs. Where she had touched herself there was a small dried circle of blood, she scraped at it for a moment with her fingernail before sticking her finger in her mouth and wetting it. The blood wiped off easily with her wet finger but to her surprise that was it. Just a little irritated spot. She'd expected something more significant, maybe a smaller version of the signet she had drawn earlier, or at least something... then again, maybe it just didn't work.

Lina had been getting desperate though, she had to progress, her sister expected it of her. She praised her so highly when she lived up to her expectations, but falling short even the slightest bit.... she hated her sister. Still, if it had worked, tying herself to Shabranigdo would have been sure to grant her easier access to his power, and it wasn't like the Dark Lords really took a personal interest in the people that tied themselves to them. After all, nearly every major spell in the sorceress' handbook called for the caster to pledge themselves to someone or another. Lina was just making that initial connection more concrete. As she thought about it more she was convinced it didn't work. Distractedly she picked at the edges of the knife slash on her finger and kept at it even though it hurt.

What disappointed her most though, aside from the injury, aside from the fact that another one of her spells had failed, was that she had spent so much time trying to figure out where to put Shabranigdo's mark on her body. Somewhere where it wouldn't be seen, by anyone. It just dawned on her one day that there was no way someone would see between her legs. It was perfect! And she had prayed to her alter of Shabranigdo every day too, the disappointment was almost enough to make anyone give up. Even her confidence was wavering. And on that note she blew out the candle causing the muted flickering light to give way once again to darkness. "I won't give up on you Shabranigdo..." She proclaimed one last time before falling back into the bed and covering up again, content to sleep naked for the night. Sleep claimed her quickly for once, her body exhausted, dark visions on the horizon.

####()0---=---+++^^\/\/^^+++---=---0()####

Even through her eyelids Lina could see the light streaming through the window, pooling on the sheets in front of her and reflecting with a radiance powerful enough to smite any Nosferatu careless enough to glimpse it. Lina groaned and rolled over in bed, grabbing the pillow from beneath her head and using it to cover her wildly tussled hair in an attempt to blot out the sun and garner a few extra hours of sleep. It was too late though and the light had forced her to a level of awareness where sleep was managing to elude her, despite her best efforts to the contrary. She was still reluctant to get out of bed. So she laid there for sometime, contemplating a rank taste in the corners of her mouth among other things.

With great satisfaction she remembered that there were no classes this day, that brought a smile to her bleary features. She grumbled a bit and pushed the pillow off her head, rolling off to the side and tossing her legs over the edge. The movement of the fabric over her bare skin though reminded her quite succinctly that she was still naked. Lina smirked, it didn’t bother her as much as she thought it would. Her clothes had actually landed on the floor by her feet so with a stretch she picked them up, slipping her panties on without exposing herself from beneath the covers and bringing her shirt up and down over her washboard chest.

She pushed herself fully upon her bare feet and headed for the door. Listening for the distinct tell-tale sounds of her mother and father and sister running around the house. But it was fairly quiet, “Maybe she’s at work already?” She mussed, wondering about her sisters new job. Not that she missed her, far from it, she messed with her constantly, talked down to her, and acted so damn smug all the time, no, but there was something missing when she wasn’t around. And her parents, “Mom must’ve needed Dad to help out again.” Normally her father would stay at home until the latter half of the day before heading off to help her mother, holding down the fort so to speak as she ran errands down at the port, inspecting shipments and doing her best to get the best commodities at bottom dollar.

A little down at being left alone again Lina descended the steps in silence. And just as she suspected her mother, father, and sister were nowhere to be seen. Lina could take care of herself, she steeled herself and went to the linen closet to fetch a towel, then to the clothes line out back to grab a change of clothes. She was reminded quite suddenly that the weather had been turning cold. Without pants, without shoes, the ground was glacial, she hurried along, trying to limit her contact with it, while simultaneously thankful that the wind wasn’t blowing with any intensity. She snatched her clothes off the line and rushed back inside, heading to the wood burning stove in the middle of the home to warm her hands for a moment and allow the warmth from the floor to soak into the soles of her feet.

After her body was warm she held her clothes out between her and the stove to let some of the warmth permeate them as well. Tossing off her shirt she lifted a leg to put into her pants when she noticed something. The bloody stain from the night before that she’d rubbed off… She lifted her leg more and tried to bend down at the same time, in the inadequate fire light that predominated at the center of the home. The details were too fuzzy though so she wandered into the kitchen where the light was strongest, propping her foot up on a chair to get a better look. The spot where she had marked herself had discolored, and now there was something there, Lina strained to make out details.

There were two people or something there. Sketchy like it was drawn in charcoal. She thought that one of them might have been her judging from the hair, then after spending a minute looking it over she was sure of it. And standing next to her holding her hand, was what looked like a demon. No, it was more, “Shabranigdo…” She mouthed on the verge of freaking out. “By the nine hells, it worked… it worked!” Lina hopped away from the chair, leaping into the air, shouting out. “My spell worked!” She lifted her leg again to check her handiwork over. It wasn’t much, but it wasn’t what she pictured, so… by her reasoning some other force must have at least acted on it. Which in her mind was proof positive that the spell had the desired effect. Shabranigdo had marked her as his disciple and as a consequence she would now be able to access his powers. Already her smile had twisted, forcing her to hold back a slightly disturbed laugh as she contemplated the look she was going to put on her instructors face in just a few short days.

####()0---=---+++^^\/\/^^+++---=---0()####

“Darkness beyond twilight…. “

Brining her hands up to her chest Lina continued the evocation, feeling the power flowing into her fully for the first time and surprising herself, she hadn’t even been close before.

“Crimson beyond blood that flows..“

There was a tingling there, starting at the base of her spine and working its way up her back. Small pebbles were swept up by wind currents in the otherwise placid field. And out of her peripherals she caught hints of a wispy red mist, the power of it penetrating the air like the acrid smell of burnt hair. There was no doubt in her mind that the spell would go off. Even without her putting any more effort into it she could feel a pressure building just below her belly button, a power gathering there and even more power working through her veins. Giving them a physical sensation, forcing her to, for the first time ever, feel her circulatory system. The enhanced sensation amplified at her fingertips, where even the capillaries had their own discriminate feeling.

“Buried in the stream of time…”

Suddenly there was a crackle of energy, a spark arced between her outstretched palms. Lina cried out at the suddenness of it, dropping her hands down some as she realized that she‘d inadvertently passed the point of no return. She’d only wanted to see if things felt different, and they were different, a lot different. Her mind had dropped from the spell but she still felt the power growing inside her and the creeping realization that it was more power than she had even captured within her at any single time was terrifying. Realizing that even a hundredth of the power she was currently carrying would be enough to maim her, the image flashed though her head of her body suddenly exploding into a red fog.

She had no out, it was too late to stop now. Hoping for a misfired Dragon Slave though she tried to take her mind away from Shabranigdo. Thinking about, puppies, flowers, the sun, whatever she could. It wasn’t really helping. She clenched her teeth, a sudden buzzing throbbing in her eardrums, her body literally trembling as its capacity to hold energy was taxed beyond its limits.

“Is where your power flows… I pledge myself to conquer all the foes who stand before the mighty gift bestowed in my unworthy hand.”

It was evident she was rushing now. The pause earlier, the hesitation, like stopping in the middle of lifting a heavy weight and now she wasn’t sure she could finish. Sweat was beginning to bead on her brow, some of it forming together into larger drops, dripping from her forehead and running down into her eyes. ‘There!’ She nearly cried out. Lina felt herself cross the line where she had enough power for the Dragon Slave. The buzzing from earlier had muted all of her other senses. She was hot, tired, air suddenly felt heavy in her lungs, but it was more than that, she was having trouble focusing. Her sensations started to mix, tasting her heart beat she forced herself to complete the chant.

“Let the fools who stand before me be destroyed by the power you and I possess…”

“Dragon Slave!”

Lina hiccupped the last part out, on her emptied lungs. Suddenly that pounding sensation in her veins. The noise, throbbing, heat. Rushed out of her in one great torrent. The sensation of water being pulled out of her arms. The heat was replaced with soothing comfort, then cold. She felt the wind, her hair being blasted back by a concussion before she saw any real evidence the spell had worked. But all at once it grew into existence. A great red light blossoming between her hands. And a larger but concentric sphere of shimmering power extending just beyond that. The small part of her mind still analyzing things surmised that the larger sphere was there to act as a shield for the caster.

Her body ragged, hardly on her feet she felt herself wobbling unsteadily just as the irradiant ball of energy grew to new dimensions.

“Boom!”

The concussion was resounding even behind the magical shield. And the poorly braced Lina was thrown back by the completion of the spell. Loosing all control over its aim. Luckily it chose its trajectory as she was falling back and shot harmlessly into the sky. For a moment though, she caught the color of the sky. Red. Blood red. Crimson… The whole sky lit up as the spell pierced the heavens. Lina struck the ground just as it reached the apex of its flight. Her eyes closed in reflex missed the deflagration of the magical power. But even through her eyelids she saw the flash, and laying there limp she watched the red glow fade away, only a gradually parting hole in the clouds to signify that anything had ever happened there.

Letting out a shaky breath she had to wonder when she had bit her tongue as she scraped it over her teeth, feeling the flesh on one part of it hang loosely. Still… She laughed, it was a good feeling despite everything. Needless to say, her test was successful. Her smile grew to new proportions when she thought about her smug instructors and how they had doubted what Lina Inverse was capable of.

####()0---=---+++^^\/\/^^+++---=---0()####

Thus the scene replayed a few days later….

“Dragon Slave!!!!”

Her instructor, the same woman from a few days previous, dressed in heels with clipboard in hand stood there, mouth agape and was nearly knocked onto her butt by the resulting shockwave. Lina though pulled it off like she’d done it a million times, knowing what to expect this time around she’d braced herself and didn’t dally in the casting, going through it quickly to prevent some of the fatigue she’d felt from trying to contain the power previously.

“Ya….ya… ya… you!” Her teacher stumbled back a bit as the blinding light from the subsequent detonation of the spell took her by surprise. She turned her attention from Lina to the distance, the upper most portion of the mountain some expanse away completely gone, vaporized, and she was sure that if Lina had aimed just a bit lower the whole thing would have been gone. She held her breath a moment, trying to compose herself and failing miserably. “How did you do that?!” Her tone allowed for no excuses, but Lina could feel she had her so off her game that she didn’t have to say anything.

And getting no response the instructor took an incredulous tone yet again, “Just a few days ago you couldn’t even begin to do that!’

Lina decided that it was time to take control though, toughly enjoying her teachers distress, “And what difference does that make now, want me to do it again?”

“No!” Her teacher shouted out on reflex. Again she tried to calm herself, running her hand through her hair and adjusting her glasses on her nose. “Well, you are Luna’s sister after all…” She commented offhandedly, irking Lina but eliciting no other noticeable retort. “There must be something else at work here though….” The instructor took a few steps towards Lina, looking her over carefully as if some physical clue might give away the secret she was beginning to desperately search for. “I’ve seen enough,” It was abrupt, the kind of statement meant to end an argument, “just go home for the day, and we will discuss this matter tomorrow, you are dismissed.”

Shocked, Lina turned away, she took a few steps and mumbled to herself, “Dismissed, class ended an hour ago…” Secretly hoping that she had said it loud enough for her instructor to hear. Slightly disappointed with no reply Lina didn’t show it with her actions and kept her pace in the opposite direction of her teacher, already, as before, the night was settling in, but it just didn’t bother Lina as much as she expected it to.

####()0---=---+++^^\/\/^^+++---=---0()####

“Liiiinaaaa!’”

Growled out like that Lina came to the conclusion that her name carried fairly well through the house, even from the front door. That temporary diversion of thought only distracted her from the fact that it was her sister who had growled it out so deliberately, and there was no way that it was a good growl. Dread setting in, Lina hysterically looked around the room she thought she knew so well, hoping that considering the stressfulness of the situation that inspiration might strike and she may be lucky enough to come up with a hiding place better than all of the other ones her sister already knew of.

Time ran out too quickly though, she heard her sister sprint up the stairs, taking them two or three at a time, obviously as eager to catch her as she was to hide. So she held her ground, pretending like she hadn’t herd her sister at all. Keeping her eyes locked on the book she was reading illustrating some of the more memorable exploits of the great sage Lei Magnus. She wasn’t reading any more though, simply waiting for her door to be knocked off its hinges again by her sister in a rage. What followed though took her completely off guard. There was a knock at the door. Not at all gentle, but nothing like the ‘Open up NOW!’ knock that she was used to

Curious, especially as to if it was a trap Lina pushed herself off the bed and walked over to the door. Opening it a little. “Lina, can I come in?” Luna was a bit winded, like she had been running for some time, but still none of the anger she had expected from that initial yell was there. She sounded almost pleading.

In the situation words failed Lina, big words at least, “Yeah…” She managed a little light, opening the door the rest of the way before walking back over to her bed, plopping down on it and facing her sister standing in the doorway. The day though was full of surprises as Luna came in and walked over to Lina and, after a moments hesitation, sat down on the bed next to her. Lina noted that she was still in her work uniform. That she wanted to talk to her before she got changed out of it made it seem particularly important.

Nothing was going like Lina thought it would. Regardless of the fact she didn’t know what she was in trouble for, things just were not supposed to go like this. It didn’t help that the two of them were sitting next to one another now without a word being exchanged. Just a gentle tension hanging in the air but nothing threatening or consuming. This just left Lina with more time to worry, and more time to anticipate what kind of terrible punishment her sister might dish out.

“Lina…” Lina turned and looked up at her sisters face. The unusual softness of her voice catching her breath for a moment. Her gaze though was again pulled down as Luna put her hand over Lina’s on her knee. “Your instructor told me about the Dragon Slave…” Although the statement could have been said in a number of ways, it was the hint of pride in it that caught Lina completely off guard.

“Yes…” Lina managed out unsure of herself, still worried where the conversation might head.

“She came to my work, probably right after you left her.” Luna sighed, likely thinking about lost wages before continuing, “Knowing you, you were expecting to impress her, to knock her socks off with your talents,” Seeing the smile start to come up at the corners of Lina’s face Luna chuckled, she knew her sister, “…. that wasn’t the case though.” Just like that things had become serious. Lina turned to look up at her sister again, trying to get her to continue.

“I have to know how you did it Lina. You’ve got talent, don’t get me wrong….” Lina beamed at the compliment, they were few and far between from Luna, “… but even you shouldn’t be able to cast the Dragon Slave at ten, no one, should be able to cast the Dragon Slave at ten unless they have a piece of Shabranigdo hiding inside them, and believe me, I’ve checked you.” Luna took her hand off Lina’s, the loss of comfort noticeable until Lina felt a weight across her back, her sister pulling her close, “I need to know how you did it Lina, they want to kick you out of the PMS, the more rational of the teachers there apparently think you made a pact with a Mazoku, the less rational… well… they want you dead…” Luna let that thought hang in the air before asking as directly as possible, “So Lina, I need to know, how did you manage to cast the Dragon Slave…?”

“Oneesan…” Lina tested her vocal cords, she wasn’t used to acting so familiar with her sister, preferring to distance herself usually by calling her Luna. But… she tried to think up a lie, she was on the spot, too much time wasted and her sister would know something was up. That forced Lina, the partial truth would have to do. “I… I’ve been praying to… Shabranigdo.” She forced out the last half. Although that was the easiest part to admit. She just hoped to Ceefeed that Luna would accept that worshiping a demon lord was the extent of her obsession. Subconsciously she scratched her thigh over the tattooed mark.

Lina heard Luna let out a deep breath. “Is that all…” She sounded a little more relaxed and Lina nodded her head.

“That’s it Oneesan…”

Again Luna sighed, “You don’t have a shrine to Shabranigdo or anything do you Lina?” The gasp was a dead giveaway to Luna. Thankfully for Lina she didn’t have to delve any further, “Just destroy it, okay? Nothing good ever came from worshiping a Dark Lord. Lina… you should have known better, but… I kind of thought you might do something like that…” She sounded like she wanted to continue with the though but instead Luna pulled her sister closer to her, “Everything will turn out okay Lina, I’ll take care of everything so don’t you worry about it.”

Feeling Luna shift Lina looked over, her sister standing and walking to the door. “Maybe later I’ll take you out for some iced cream, okay? Even if you did kind of cheat you managed a Dragon Slave at your age, that’s definitely something to celebrate.” It was the first time Luna had ever left Lina in her room with Lina still smiling.

####()0---=---+++^^\/\/^^+++---=---0()####

Later that night I snuck back into my closet. It was kind of messy after what I did a few nights ago, but I picked up in there and, actually listed to my Sister for once. She just seemed so serious, and if she was desperate enough to try and win me over with kindness instead of brutality I knew she was looking out for the best. True to her word she talked to my professors and the issue never came up again, after that I really got my reputation as a prodigy, not just an upstart, but still, I never got my iced cream….

()@oO0Oo@<><>/\**\ Back to Present Day/**/\<><>@oO0Oo@()

Almost two full weeks had passed before that spark managed to manifest itself again. Lina melted beneath Gourry’s barrage of kisses, I’d been too long. She held no delusions about even attempting to appear hard-to-get as she kissed back full of fervor. Gourry’s hands had found their way beneath her shirt again, lifting it up, partially exposing her breasts, she couldn’t bring herself to care this time except to moan and push into his hands.

Lina nearly flung herself onto the bed, she’d been looking forward to this for so long and she didn’t want to wait a moment longer. “Gourry, take your pants off.” Lina half-demanded and Gourry complied as fast as his hands would go. Lina meanwhile reached down and unclasped the belt holding her pants up, lowering them around her ankles before kicking them off and doing the same with her panties.

“I-” Gourry tried to say something as he moved in closer to Lina, but she silenced him with a kiss. Then deepened it, grabbing his member and giving it a few squeezes, feeling it firm fully in her grasp and loving the sensation. It was a sexy feeling having that much control and power. She wrapped her hands around Gourry’s back, moving them away from his crotch and maneuvered him atop her on the bed. It took a moment for him to settle himself between her legs and she spread them eagerly.

“I want it Gourry, I want to be yours.” She added the last bit with an endearing quality to attempt to negate the brazen lust she had come on with, afraid of scaring Gourry off. Apparently though that shouldn’t have been one of her worries.

“I love you.” Gourry moved in, settling each hand on the side of her chest before repositioning one of them and reaching down to guide himself to her womanhood.

“I’m ready.” She decided to answer the question before he asked it this time.

“Okay.” Lina shivered as Gourry slid himself up and down her entrance, feeling the initial jerkiness of the motion give way to a wonderful smooth sliding sensation as the lubrication spread over them both. Apparently she hadn’t been ready but Gourry had rectified that. Then she felt him pushing inside her. At most she had before put a finger inside herself, and even then not far. But this was something else all together.

A sudden thought came to the forefront of Lina’s thinking once again, “Just go slow… it might hurt.” She decided to reiterate in case Gourry had never been taught that particular fact. His movements were just as methodic though, moving into her a centimeter at a time, she felt herself expanding to accommodate him, the feeling… it was hard to explain, not exactly as fantastic as she had imagined, but whole, fulfilling, wonderful. And getting better. Then he stopped. “What’s wrong?”

Gourry looked down at her a little worried, “It’s that thing…” He trailed off and Lina immediately filled in the blank. Despite years of activity, reckless abandon, being smashed into and through walls, somehow her hymen had survived it all to make it to this one moment.

“It’s okay, do it.” Lina bit her lip, expecting any of the spectrum of pains she had been told about from various sources. She felt the pressure, Gourry pressing against it, she was aware of a dull rumbling in her chest, almost like purring. She just wanted him to get over with it, rumbling, a crescendo. It took her a moment to realize it was real and not coming from her.

“Gourry!” Lina called out startled just as Gourry pushed back off her and onto his butt.

“Lina, what’s happening?” He shouted above the growing noise and the walls around them shook, dust and debris falling from the ceiling.

“Earthquake?” Lina asked aloud for her own benefit before grabbing the cover of the bed and pulling it over herself, modesty winning out over safety.

The floor boards buckled with a deafening crack, sending splinters in all directions and forcing Gourry to the floor on the side of the bed. Finally, the beams in the ceiling above Lina’s head split in two, pieces falling to either side of the bed as the windows exploded outward. Then the sounds and rumbling faded off until everything was still once again. Lina looked around expectantly, the room was trashed, there were holes in the floor, and a new window in the ceiling, but at least her and Gourry were okay.

“Gourry?” Lina called out softly, causing Gourry to stand up from his spot on the floor.

“What was that?” He asked, scratching his head and surveying the damage.

“I don’t know, I might have been an earthquake or something like that, I’ve never been in one though…” Lina trailed off as she heard pounding nearby. Accentuated by her door being pushed open, the fact that the door knob was destroyed by whoever was turning it, rendering the locking mechanism useless, gave Lina her first clue as to who it could be.

With the door flung wide open, Zel and Amelia made their entrance. Both were wearing more traditional bed clothes which put them leaps and bounds ahead of Gourry and Lina. For a moment the sudden disaster was forgotten, Zelgadiss looked between Lina and Gourry a few times before straightening the smirk off his face whereas Amelia balled up her fist, looking somewhat angry.

Lina looked over at Gourry, he wasn’t even trying to cover himself, whereas she was still wearing her shirt and had her lower regions covered. If it wasn’t for Gourry they might have gotten away with it. Still, she decided to try and get the conversation going toward something more productive than seeing if Amelia wanted them to continue the peep show.

“Amelia, Zel, what the hell was that!?” Lina shouted, apparently bringing Amelia back to her senses.

Zel gave the room yet another look over, trying to avoid the openly naked Gourry. “It looks like whatever it was, was based in this room. The rest of the Inn is untouched.” He took another look up to the hole in the ceiling and his eyes went wide as he looked up and down slowly, scanning something.

It was the fact that Zelgadiss’ mouth had dropped open that drew Lina to look upward again, and soon enough her mouth was hanging as well. It took a moment before she could sputter out, “Shabranigdo!” Bringing the remaining two sets of eyes in the room back up to the ceiling.

A storm had gathered overhead. Lighting flashed across the sky and stray drops of rain were pelting Lina now. But amidst the flashes a spectral form was outlined against the blackness. Legs beginning in the splintered holes on the floor, going to a body extending up through the ceiling, the uppermost part of the head hidden from view. “No..” Lina mouthed, “No… no…” she repeated, “No!” She cried out as the form began to gain substance, becoming more opaque.

The room shook yet again as it resonated to the booming voice from above, “Who are you to defile the whore of Shabranigdo!” Thunder cracked ominously over head.

“Hey!” Lina shouted, but was apparently unheard as Gourry, Zel, and Amelia jerked at the particular term for Lina. Zel though took a firm grip on his sword in anticipation and Gourry started to look around for his sword as well while trying to keep a low profile. Amelia though was transfixed by the full mass of the Dark Lord.

“The human known as Lina Inverse is my property, she has willingly marked herself with my brand.”

Lina took the pause Shabranigdo gave to stand up out of bed, holding the blanket around her waist to keep her private parts out of view. She didn’t have any fight in her though, her face ashen as she remembered the mark, flashed back to wanting it, being elated at having it. “I never though…” She muttered shakily to herself, as if by saying it she might make it true.

“Lina, is that true?” Zelgadiss yelled louder than he intended, provoking Lina to turn toward him, the pleading look in her eyes answered him as fully as any spoken response could.

“How could you…” Amelia stuttered almost as shakily as Lina had.

The half-naked sorceress turned her pleading eyes to Amelia, but the vindictive look she got in response forced her to turn to Gourry. He too looked betrayed, but more unsure, it was more worry than anything. It was enough to force Lina into action.

“So, what if I don’t want your brand anymore Shabranigdo?” She called out, summing her bravado.

“It will not be long until I come for you who bears my mark. Was it not the agreement that you gave yourself to me in exchange for my power?”

Lina could hear the little smirk the Dark Lord must have been wearing when he said that, even though his face was hidden by what remained of the ceiling.

“Until then your purity must not be compromised, or I will rescind the protection I have always offered you.”

Looking around shyly, Lina noticed that all of her friends were waiting anxiously to see what Lina’s next move would be. She looked up and down Shabranigdo’s form, he wasn’t even really there, just an astral projection, even if they were to attack his astral form successfully, it wasn’t his full body and would only serve to piss him off. Or at least that was her take on it.

“I understand.” She said loud enough for everyone to hear, but to be honest she really didn’t especially when it came to just how much protection Shabranigdo had bequeathed on her over the years. Was he the reason she had made it unscathed through so many difficult situations, how much weaker would she be without her pact? She’d always mocked sorcerer’s abilities when they were unable to cast the Dragon Slave, but she never expected them to even know the spell. It was the strongest and not just anyone could cast it, so it always surprised her when she ran across someone who knew it, even someone like Zolf that had trained all of his life as a Wizard, she hadn’t expected him to pull it off. Would she even be able to use it if she lost the mark, how much of her power really came from with herself.

“I am hopeful that you do, farewell for now Lina Inverse.”

And much more gracefully than he had made his entrance, Shabranigdo faded out of vision and out of existence. No one said anything for a few moments, Gourry though was the first to speak up, “So, that wasn’t a birthmark…”

Lina looked over surprised, he was being unusually sharp today, maybe just the placement of that mark on her body though had etched it in his mind.

“Let me see this mark.” Zel said moving in from the doorway.

“No!” Lina took a step back and pulled the blanket around her tighter.

“It’s between her legs.” Gourry added helpfully which caused Zel to back off a bit.

“Oh… I guess…” The redness that came to his chimerical features was enough to show that he had given up on that line of questioning from Gourry’s succinct answer.

Gourry seized up as he heard Lina take a deep breath and his hands were already on his way to his ears as she started, “Would everyone please GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE ALREADY! GET OUT!!! LEAVE ME ALONE!!!” The volume of her voice surely woke anyone in the Inn still sleeping and left Gourry with a ringing sound in his head despite his forward thinking approach of covering his ears.

By the time he could really focus again Zel and Amelia were out of sight and the door was slamming shut in their wake. Slowly Gourry turned to the virginal sorceress and the look she gave him showed that he was no exception to her demand. Slowly he moved himself from the bed, afraid of any sudden motion before bending over at the waist and gingerly picking up his discarded pants and slipping them on. Walking backwards purposefully he took care not to take his eyes off the sorceress who appeared to be baring her teeth at him before fleeing as quickly as either Amelia or Zel had, if not faster.

Outside the doorway the Inn Keeper was looking down at his own feet. For a moment Gourry stood there, waiting for him to try and start the questioning he was expecting instead he finally heard him sigh to himself, “I should have known better, shouldn’t I?” Before he walked away slowly down the hall and into the blackness of the night.

####()0---=---+++^^\/\/^^+++---=---0()####

The unexpected knocking at the door startled Amelia, quickly she lifted her head from the pillow. Still blearily from her nap though she looked around her room, surprised that she had fallen asleep. After what had happened with Lina she had come back to her room, and Zel had left downstairs to drink some coffee seeing as how he expected the Inn Keeper to be up and about running things already. Still, with the lamp in her room burning and the bed covered with assorted scrolls she wondered to herself how she’d managed to fall asleep in the middle of it. Another knock prompted Amelia, “What is it?” She called out, not quite frustrated but still not in the most peaceful of manners.

There was a slight pause before the response she expected, “It’s Lina…” Another pause, “Can I come in?”

Again Amelia didn’t know if she should be more embarrassed for Lina or embarrassed herself for what she had seen in their room when she and Zel had busted in. A little worried at how things were going to turn out she finally gave her answer, “Yeah, come on in.”

The door knob turned unsteadily, a bit of a catch at the end of the sound of metal rubbing against metal then another shakier bit as it was jiggled to get the mechanism to engage correctly and allow the door to be pulled open. Her hair was tussled, more than she remembered it being and she couldn’t tell but she though it looked like she might have been crying.

“Amelia, I need your help.” Lina crossed the space between the door and the bed, taking a seat at the foot of the bed just as the door swung itself shut.

“”What do you need?” Amelia suspected the answer already.

“I need you to help me get rid of this mark.”

“Lina, I can’t…. it’s just that-” Amelia was going to go on about how difficult such a task would be, and how specialized the task would have to be when she was cut off.

“I can’t do it myself, I suck at white magic. But you’re a priestess, I know you can help me.”

Already having thought it over on her own, Amelia shook her head, “Maybe Sylphiel or someone else with more experience working with curses, but I can’t do it. I’ve never even tried to remove anything but a simple curse. But this is something much more…” She wanted to say Evil but was afraid of upsetting her friend so instead she trailed off uncomfortably. It was a horrible feeling not being able to help but she understood that anything she did could only make matters worse.

“Something much more complicated.” Lina mercifully finished herself sounding downcast. “I thought as much… but it was such a simple spell…” She said to herself with a laugh. “It figures.” Lina let herself drop onto her back, landing soundly against the bed.

With Lina sounding so defeated Amelia felt the need to justify herself yet again, “The curse is just too strong to break Lina, it’s been growing just as your magical abilities have. I can’t destroy it, the energy released… It could even summon Shabranigdo, the real Shabranigdo!” Amelia’s voice picked up as the possibility dawned on her for the first time. “I don’t even known if it could be done by anybody.”

The two of them laid there in silence for several more moments, the only sounds those of the newly awoken patrons of the Inn making a ruckus below them in the tavern. “What if…” Lina started, pausing to gather her thoughts a moment before continuing, “Could you somehow transfer it from me to someone else?”

Lina laid there starring at the ceiling, afraid to look at the princess, “I guess that would be easier than destroying it.” Amelia scratched her head and lifted it slightly to look at her friend, “It might be possible.”

“Could you do it?” Lina asked trying not to sound too hopeful.

“Maybe… I’d have to do some research, and maybe with your help too.” A smile perked up on Amelia’s features as she thought about some of the possibilities and saw that the plan might not be too far fetched.

“Can we start tomorrow?” Lina asked, not able to keep the hopefulness from her voice this time.

“Are you really in that much of a hurry?” Amelia asked with a giggle. As Lina thought about the question she couldn’t keep the blush from her face, which caused Amelia to laugh all the harder.

####()0---=---+++^^\/\/^^+++---=---0()####

“Hey Xelloss?” Lina mumbled between bites of bread. Lately she’d taken to eating in the library along side Amelia as they researched.

“What can I do for you Lina?” He replied in his usual sing-song manner, causing her to scrunch up her forehead and rub her temples.

“Maybe since you’ve been such a big help with working out this spell you could be kind enough to let me transfer this brand to you, hummm?” The question caught Amelia’s attention causing her to look up from some notes she’d been sketching.

Although the sarcasm was more apparent than usual he took the words at their usual face value. “Oh, I couldn’t do that, you see, I already belong to Shabranigdo, after Best Master of course.”

Lina sighed, burying her head in her hands, “Whatever…. I guess you can go back to whatever you were doing.” But by the time she looked up he was already gone. He’d been more active than usual as of late, spending hours with the two of them in the library but hardly saying a word. Except on the days that Zel decided to join them, whenever that was the case Xelloss would follow him around and keep up a barrage of questions, keeping the chimera in a constant state of agitation. It was no surprise he didn’t seem eager to join them any more.

With a sigh Lina looked back down at the leather bound tome in front of her. Nothing about it seemed troubling at all, until she had found a note on the inside of the back cover conveying that the book itself was bound in human skin. She flipped the book over yet again, looking over the tanned hide at the various magical circles in whole or in part covering its surface. The book itself was titled, ‘The Efficacy of Magical Enhancement Through Dermal Application’ and the contents appropriately fit the title. Covering the effects that certain magical circles when tattooed on the flesh could have on the magical capacity and strength of a magic users abilities.

Although it was quite interesting and gave her some ideas that previously she might not have considered, for the most part it was useless seeing as how she already knew such a connection could work. Furthermore all of the applications of the patterns were accomplished with physical means of creating the tattoos. Save one instance, however as many times as she read the passage hoping to learn something new, she was disappointed each and every time. She traced the simple circle encompassing a triangle on the back cover, almost in the center of the volume. Seeing as how the magically applied brand was still there, even on this skin hundreds of years old, she really didn’t see it giving her much hope.

She pushed the book away from her roughly, shaking slightly, of all the things to gross her out… “Amelia, how’s it coming?” Lina asked for the umpteenth time that day.

Amelia looked up from her book, huffed, and then went back to reading, not giving Lina even a glance. Lina chuckled, she’d been trying to see how far she could push Amelia during some of their library sessions ever since it was obvious they were making decent progress. Given a few weeks time she was certain the two of them could pull the transfer off. They’d found multiple spells that mimicked what they were attempting to some extent and all that remained was to find precedents for their specific tweaks and get everything in order before trying it on a real live person.

The hardest part had been to decide whom to bequeath the mark upon. Initially Lina had suggested Zel, partially for fun but mostly because she didn’t see him as having to deal with the ‘negative’ aspects of the mark. The angered retort from Amelia though quickly put her on the defensive, forcing Lina to make the excuse that she thought Zel would want to do it for the power, despite the fact that such a situation had put him in his current predicament in the first place. For a few days Lina even considered dragging in some vagrant off the street and passing it along to them haphazardly. Amelia though would have no part in it so Lina continued for awhile to play as if she hadn’t really meant it.

It was only the night before that Amelia had stumbled upon the answer. It didn’t have to be a person at all. They’d debated about goblins, trolls, and other creatures to who they could bequeath the brand but eventually took Amelia’s idea a step further. To transfer it to a magical object. There were numerous instances of magical objects acting as the receiving end of some enchantment or spell to hold an evil or harmful presence or power. Like using a cut onion to draw the puss out of a wound.

Now all that remained really was for Lina to wait until Amelia finally felt confident enough to try the spell for real. Which seemed to be taking much longer than she expected. Lina had always figured Amelia for perfectionist though she didn’t often show it, though part of it could have been just her rebelling against her father and relishing not having people tell her what to do (or just a lack of servants to pick up after her). Nonetheless, she was certainly taking her time on this one to make sure that everything went off flawlessly.

Lina blew a strand of hair out of her eye, she just wished that Amelia would hurry up.

####()0---=---+++^^\/\/^^+++---=---0()####

“I really don’t see why I have to be naked for this.” Lina whined again as she prepared to strip off her pants, holding herself in a pose hunched over as if Amelia might finally crack and decide that such steps were unnecessary.

Amelia sighed, “Just get out of your clothes already, I’m the only one here anyway so why does it matter? I’ve seen you naked plenty of times.” She tried not to sound irritated but the question was beginning to grate on her nerves.

“But… couldn’t I just cut a hole in my pants so that you can only see the mark?” Lina pleaded again, still holding out hope that Amelia might decide to the contrary.

“Lina…” Amelia seethed, dozens of threats filtering into her mind before she seized on the most obvious of them, “Just do it or I quit for the night and we head back to the library again tomorrow.” There were more pressing reasons, logical reasons involving the purity of the body, necessity of a good view of the mark, and other more metaphysical reasons that were of the utmost importance, but the two of them had been over them more times than she cared to count and they never seemed to have an impact on the sorceress so Amelia decided not to reiterate them yet again.

Lina held motionless for a moment longer before pulling her pants down at her hips and proceeding to undress. She felt a little embarrassed, at first she attributed it to Amelia’s presence but really it was because she was thinking about her and Gourry being together, maybe even later that night. Her first time. Amelia was also busy undressing, finally dressing herself in more ceremonial attire. A long white flowing robe. Her normal bangles were gone, her childish attire. Over the robe she donned her chasuble, cerulean and embroidered in a deeper blue with a fractal-like pattern of repeating pentagrams and hexagrams.

Amelia rubbed her hands together with sanctified ashes, “Ready?” She asked a little shakily, but gaining eagerness for the task at hand. Beginning to anticipate the culmination of weeks of effort.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.” Although not actively trying to cover herself up, the way Lina was pulling her hands to her sides made it obvious that she was fighting the urge. “Let’s do it!” Lina clapped her hands together in front of herself trying to hype herself up for the big event.

Amelia nodded and the two of them exited the bathroom and made their way into their room for the night. She giggled slightly when she thought again how upset the Inn Keeper would be if he found out they were performing a magical ritual in his hotel, as usual this Inn had a policy against doing such things but since they were on the road they didn’t have too much of an option, especially with Lina in such attire. At least without breaking and entering. The bottom floor of the Inn at least afforded the luxury of a stone floor which would make the cleanup later easier. The bed had been pushed further against the wall to make room for the large magical circle dominating the room.

As the two of them approached the lines making up the circle began to fluoresce in the candle light, growing in intensity until Lina crossed the threshold into the larger circle when the inner circle took on a mellow pink glow and the outer circle a more aqua shade. Lina took a seat on the wooden chair they had placed in the center of the hexagram in the center circle and Amelia rounded around in front of her. Purposefully Amelia reached inside of her robe and brought out a sphere of rose quartz, handing it to Lina, it was to function as the inanimate vessel for the brand. The choice of mineral had been easy, as quartz had a long history of relation to the Dark lord of the North, and Lina had chosen the more cherry variety to mimic the fieriness of herself.

“Okay…” Amelia said more to herself than Lina, “Hold still…”

Lina’s mute nod was about all she could manage, between the anticipation and the magic in the air she was finding it hard to think.

Amelia closed her eyes, focusing on the concentric circles surrounding her, the five points of the outer star encompassing the six points of the inner star. She extended her astral senses as much as her priestess training would allow her, giving her the image of the circles rotating within each other in free space, her energy and Lina’s contained within as two burning dots with a fathomless abyss surrounding them, occasionally interrupted as some unseen astral form passed by or took a moment to stop and watch the proceedings.

She fought past the strange feelings of helplessness and insignificance, raising her hands up she focused instead on bringing her power to her hands and began the incantation:

“You who are lost, formless, without a body of your own.
We give to you a new host to call yours alone.
You and your ilk of Shabranigdo would do well to dwell within quartz,
The stone of the ages.”

Amelia ducked down, reaching out blindly toward where she imagined the spot to be before opening her eyes to ensure her finger found its mark rather than a more embarrassing place. Her finger situated directly on the mark she closed her eyes and again expanded her senses and powers:

“Come with me, you who are born of Shabranigdo, and I will take you there.”

Gently Amelia pulled her finger from Lina’s thigh and opened her eyes slightly. She almost gave out a squeal when there on her finger she found a spot that looked like a smear of blood, and Lina’s body was now free of the brand. Quickly she continued the spell, standing upright again and bringing her finger to the stone in Lina’s hand.

“I relinquish thee and give to you a new place of rest.
Abandon me for your true home in stone!”

There was a flash, the sound of cracking. Amelia shouted out the final words of the ritual, filling them with the feeling necessary to complete the most difficult part, the transition from a human host to a soulless rock. Her eyes flew open afraid for a fleeting moment that the rock had shattered but found it fully intact.

“Did it work?” Lina and Amelia asked almost in synchronicity.

Amelia picked the stone out of Lina’s hand, superficially it didn’t appear to make a difference but held in the glare of one of the candles she could vaguely make out the outline of something on the rock surface, etched into the polished features.

“Is that what he looks like?” Amelia asked, rotating the rock around so Lina could see it and keeping her finger next to the spot in question.

Lina took the stone from Amelia and held it up to the glare on her side, “Yeah, that’s him….”

“So it worked!” Amelia shouted, all vestiges of a powerful priestess shattered like candy glass.

“Yeah, I guess it did!” Lina perked up just as quickly as she realized the implications.

“Amelia-” Lina jumped up from her seat and grabbed the girl in a hug, “…thank you.” Holding the priestess wasn’t at all uncomfortable; actually the feel of the vestments against her bare skin was quite nice.

“I’m so relieved…” Amelia confessed pulling away. “I never really made up a spell like that before, ceremonial magic has always been my weak point.”

“Now you tell me!” Lina joked although she had been told numerous times before she still managed to get Amelia’s ire by acting ignorant of the facts.

Amelia gave Lina a raspberry before looking around the dimly lit room. The energy of the atmosphere was dissipating with the completion of the spell and the markings on the floor were loosing illumination because of it. In the face of the fading light, Amelia started walking eagerly toward the door, “I guess we should go out and tell everyone the good news then.”

“Wait, this is a little private to be telling everyone.” Lina shielded her face with her hands, the quartz still gripped tightly.

Amelia turned back to her confused and decided to list everyone off, “Let’s see, you know,” Then added with a silly grin, “Because you were there,” Then ticked off a second finger, “And I know for the same reason. That just leaves Gourry and Zel, and I’m sure Gourry’s going to find out tonight.”

Lina went red; Amelia had been messing with her more and more about that particular situation that she had been caught in.

“That just leaves Zelgadiss, why don’t you want him to know.” Amelia asked sincerely.

“Because it’s personal!” Lina shouted but refrained from using her usual voice.

“But he already knows, he was there when everything happened, he was in the library helping out….”

Lina sighed exasperated, “Well, I guess it really doesn’t matter then does it.” Reminding herself that sometimes the easiest way to shut Amelia up was to just give in. “Tell them whatever you want, I’m going to go take a bath.” And with that the princess watched the naked sorceress head back to the bathroom.

####()0---=---+++^^\/\/^^+++---=---0()####

Zelgadiss rolled over slightly from his position on the edge of the bed, smiling anew at the smile he saw on his Princess’ face. “And just what are you grinning about?” He asked playfully.

“Oh, you know…” She said with a giggle. The two of them laid next to each other in the dimly lit room listening illicitly to the sounds of their friends love making the next room over. Softly Amelia let out an encouraging whimper as she felt Zelgadiss slide his hand under her shirt, cupping her breast. Amelia turned to her side facing Zelgadiss and pushed against his hand with her chest.

They both realized that with Lina and Gourry busy next door with their own business that neither one of them would care to check Amelia’s room. And here Lina had been so diligent to ensure there was no hanky panky between the two of them (Per Phil’s request). Zel continued to massage Amelia’s chest and worked one hand down below the waist band of her pants.

Driven by the hardly muted first encounter between their friends Zelgadiss rolled out of bed to turn off the light, something he still couldn’t stand while the two of them were making love. Amelia has since tossed her vestments off exposing her supremely fair skin covering her chest, something that Zelgadiss took a moment to admire before he forced the light to expire. Amelia though was perplexed when instead of turning off the light Zelgadiss leaned in toward her chest and gently put his finger an inch or so above her nipple, “Amelia, the mark that Lina had on her thigh didn’t happen to look like that did it?”

Amelia craned her neck downward so sharply it hurt, “Oh Crap.”

End

Authors Notes

Hey, thanks for reading through another one of my fanfics. And if you haven’t read one of my works before feel free to visit http://www.destructve.com to be pointed toward more of my works of fanfiction. Congratulations to me, I’ve been writing fanfiction now for about seven or eight years so I just keep on rolling. And I seem to be cranking them out faster than ever.

Now onto the fanfic. The entire idea for this fanfic stemmed from some strange hallucination that I had while sleep deprived about a super deformed Lina bent over with a super deformed Shabby taking her from behind. Then I just had to find a way to get that into a fanfic. From there I thought things went well, using it as an explanation for her early magical ascendancy and parlaying that into a longer work with one of my usual twists at the end. Of course, as is necessary in most works of fanfiction, I had to take some liberties such as the location of the tattoo and some characterization issues. But as usual I hope I didn’t do too horrible.

Some additional notes, the PMS is mentioned, this is something that is mentioned in the Slayers OAV’s from ADV Films, it stands for the Professional Magic Society and is the group to which Lina belongs, they put bounties on various people as well. To wrap up the last of the fanfic, the spell backfired off the rock and managed to ricochet onto Amelia, it didn’t like being forced onto an inanimate object and kind of burned an image of itself into the rock in the process, though it wasn’t the real mark itself. As for Lina’s new magical capacity, it is comparable though she can notice a difference in strength. I would imagine that although Amelia is cursed with the mark now preventing her from getting busy with Zel (despite her being promiscuous with him before in this fic) I would think that since they did so much research it won’t be long before they get things right. The other ending that I was debating for this fanfic was having it get transferred to Zel, and then have Shabby come up and not make a distinction between him and Lina in terms of insinuating that he will be there some day to take Zel’s innocence leaving him horrified. Fun stuff, right?

Nevertheless, feel free to check out my Slayers hentai forum and my Slayers hentai fanfiction archive, both accessible from the link above. Finally, support Slayers, buy Slayers stuff, the Novels from Tokyopop and the re-released digitally remastered DVD’s form funimation. See ya later everyone!

RVincent

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