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Chapter One   |   Chapter two   |   Chapter Three   |   Chapter Four   |   Chapter Five   |   Chapter Six   |   Chapter Seven   |   Chapter Eight   |   Chapter Nine   |   Chapter Ten   |   Chapter Eleven   |   Chapter Twelve   |   Chapter 13
Chapter two
Illumination
Getting the story straight


     Kain’s eye’s boggled as he watched Lina eat.  She probably could even put away one of Milly’s spreads without blinking.  Her companion was a more self-restrained taking only a cup of tea and relaxing in a chair.  Who were these people?  He had a feeling that  they were related to the burgeoning problems with Nightmare, but would they be a help or a hindrance.  Rail had just gone missing and both Canal and Himself  were unsure of what that meant in the scheme of things.  The Lost Ship Nezard had attacked them once and Canal was scared.  She kept on asking for more powerful weapons systems as a back up to what they had.  From the gleam in her eyes she had already thought of a few ways she could use these newcomers to power up her weapons systems.  Damn all this thinking was hurting his brain.

     “Well Lina, do you think the Mother planned for us to be here?”  Xellos asked Lina.

     “I think so.” Lina answered touching her sword meaningfully. “Do you feel anything different?” Kain’s eyes narrowed as he watched the exchange.  

     “No just a feeling of waiting.  I feel no evil here.” Xellos answered.

     “What do you mean by evil?” Kain interjected.

     “Monsters of course.” Xellos answered smirking.  “Now tell me about Canal and why she feels like a dragon.”

     Lina nodded, “That’s what was so familiar about the ship,  it feels like dragon magic.”

     Kain looked at the pair as if they had gone crazy.  “Canal is an artificial intelligence.  A made person.”

     “Who made her?” Lina asked pointedly.

     “No one knows who made the lost ships, but Canal is part of the computer that runs the ship.  She’s a person but a computerised one.”  Kain answered.

     “Oookay.  Now what is a computer?” Lina asked.

     Kain’s eyes boggled, these people were really strange.  “A computer, you don’t know what a computer is?  From what backwater are you from...” he trailed off as he saw Lina’s eyes begin to glow .  “A computer is a machine that thinks.”  

     As he took another breath to explain further, he noticed Xellos and Lina nod their heads in understanding. “Wasn’t the sorcerers guild working on something like that near Sairag a thinking golem or some such Lina?”
     “Yeah, they had control problems though the Golems kept leaving because they found the sorcerers too stupid too endure.” Lina answered.

     “Not surprising.” Canal interjected, materialising in front of them.  “I really don’t know how I can put up with this lunkhead most of the time.” She glanced at Kain fondly.  “Do you mind telling me your reasons for being here?  I can tell from Xellos’s physical makeup that you’re definitely not from this dimension.  I’ve been around for a while so I probably can help you figure out what you need to know.”

     Lina looked at Xellos and nodded.  “I’ll tell them, you’d just lead them on a merry chase and then tell them that it was all a secret.”

     “Lina-dear would I do that?” Xellos laughed.

     “O course, you’ve done it to me too many times and I don’t think you’ve reformed that part of you Mr Trickster Priest.”

     Xellos just laughed and motioned for Lina to continue.  They all settled in while Lina explained what had happened to them leaving out most of Xellos’s history.
     At the end of the story, Canal was nodding her head in understanding, especially after she had Lina expand on the story of Darkstar.

     “I can give you some information.  This is the world of Darkstar, he must of tried to enter your world after he fought with Kain’s grandmother and I.  He lied about having joined with Vorfeed.  I don’t know who those men were fighting him.” Canal sighed.  “The problem is that while Darkstar was weakened he wasn’t killed.  He’s another Lost Ship and he is just now beginning to move.  Kain and I are the only ones opposing him and the other lost ships.”

     Lina looked at Canal and smiled “No you’re not you have the mighty and beautiful sorceress Lina Inverse to help you along with her side kick Xellos.”

     “Umm Lina, when did I get demoted to sidekick?  Strength wise I think you should be the sidekick..”

     After Lina finished pounding Xellos into submission, she looked over to the two who were watching her antics with big sweatdrops forming on their heads.  “Now that I’ve fed Xellos, tell me about the other lost ships what are their goals.”

     “To cause pain and suffering and feed off of it.” Kain answered bitterly.

     “Monsters.” Lina shouted. “I want as much detail as possible on each one, what is their hierarchy and individual areas of expertise.  How do they relate to those around them?”

     Canal eyes widened at the barrage of questions.  She took a deep breath and tried to answer them all.  “Darkstar is the most powerful of the lost ships.  I was made specifically to battle him.  I’ll give you a printout of all their attack capabilities later, but each of the lost ships myself included us the energy of human to power our attacks.  Anger tends to bring out the stronger psi energy, the other lost ships enjoy pain and the negative emotions as well.  To them humans are so much fodder for the taking.  They will destroy entire worlds just to feed on the pain that is caused.  Besides Darkstar there is Nezard, Lagudo Mezigisu and Golun Nova.”

     Lina looked confused for a second.  “Golun Nova is the sword of light.  The analogues are not perfect.”

     “Lina-dear” Xellos added patting her hand.  “Remember that we were going on myths handed down through generations from glimpses though the dimensional barrier.  Many of those myths came from the half baked ranting of seers.  We can’t expect all of them to be correct.”

     “I know.” She answered, then looked at Kain.  “Can I see your sword?  I will give it back unless of course you decide to give it to me.”

     Kain looked at Lina suspiciously as he handed over his sword.  “I want it back.” He stated firmly see the avariciously gleam in her eyes.

     Lina looked over the sword carefully and surprised Kain as the sword responded to her direction and flared easily to her “Light come forth.”  He smirked as he never had to talk to it to get it to work, his smile soon died as the blade grew longer and glowed brighter than when he used it.

     Lina extinguished the sword and handed it back.  “It is similar but that isn’t the sword Gourry had.”  She told the others.  “I was sure that the sword of light returned to the same world as Darkstar.”

     “There is one other psi blade.” Canal said.  “Dark Seeder is the master of it. I haven’t seen them since the fight with Darkstar.”

     “The big question is where is Vorfeed in all of this if Darkstar didn’t destroy him?”  Lina asked, puzzled as Canal blushed and Kain looked embarrassed.


     “Vorfeed would be me.” Canal offered as the silence drug on.
     “You are Vorfeed!” Xellos exclaimed shocked out of his usual complacency.  “Lina I told you I could feel a dragon here.”

     Lina  just nodded her head.  “It does make sense if the bad ships were monsters then the good ship must be a dragon of some sort.  Four against one though I can see why the Mother sent us here, this is really out of balance.  If nothing is done this world will be lost completely.”

     “Now where do we go from here, I know I have to familiarise myself with the magic here.  I’ll have to familiarise myself with how this psi energy thing works here.  Xellos why don’t you check out the astral plane and see what differences there are there.”

     Xellos nodded, “Your wish is my command Lina-dear. Maybe I can capture a lesser monster and get some information from it.  There are lesser monsters here aren’t there Canal?”

     Canal shook her head.  “Not really as such, there are humans who work closely with the lost ships but the ships would realise it if you took them.  Once we’re in port there are employees that can give you information on Gaza Corp which is the cover for Nightmare, Darkstar’s organisation.”

     “How long before we’re in port?” Xellos asked.

     “Two days.” Kain replied.

     “Okay then. Let’s get going.” Lina stated as she jumped up.

Slayers - Universe