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Birth Rite	By : tsutsuji Category: +S to Z > Slayers Views: 6584 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Slayers, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 16
- 17
- 18
Title: Birth Rite Chapter 17: A Matter of Duty
Author: Tsutsuji
Fandom: Slayers
Pairing: Xelloss/Zelgadis
Rating: NC17 overall / This chapter PG
Warnings: nothing to warn for in this chapter (again? darn!)
Length: around 4000 words
Chapter Summary: Zelgadis makes a discovery in the library, and Xelloss does something bizarre to help him out of an awkward moment.

Huge thanks to Rosethorne for encouragement and suggestions!

NOTE: If you already read chapter 16, as of 3/29/2010 there have been some changes to the end of that chapter to lead into this one better, so you might want to read at least the last half of 16 again before reading this. ^^

---

Melianthus turned slowly, finger to his chin, his gaze wandering all around the room at the multitude of books on all the shelves. Clearly, he was just as lost in the library as he'd seemed to be in the rest of his mansion. Zelgadis twitched impatiently, but the polite, attentive smile remained plastered to the chimera's face. Xelloss followed suit and just stood there smiling at nothing in particular, ignoring both Melly and Shuno as thoroughly as possible. He didn't even watch, really, when Zelgadis moved closer to Melly and practically leaned over his shoulder in order to follow his gaze.

Instead, Xelloss focused his awareness on his magical senses, and was mildly surprised to detect a faint magical aura in the room. It was hard to tell if any of it came from the books themselves or from some lingering spell cast by a past member of the Asmalath family. It was not unusual for a sorcerer to cast a spell of protection on a book of spells, or even on a whole collection, but some magical documents gathered an aura of their own merely from the words and symbols inscribed on their pages. None of it was strong enough to be worrisome, but it would definitely be enough to pique Zelgadis' interest even further.

Myona edged into the room behind them. Xelloss watched him slowly walk past a row of shelves, fingertips trailing across the lettering engraved on the spines of the books there, as if he was drawn toward the tales that might lurk within leather and paper. Xelloss wondered if that was part of the reason Myona had prompted them to come here. He loved stories, but he probably didn't get much of them from books at the Temple where "the old ways" of oral storytelling prevailed.

Shuno turned to go back to his own research project, whatever that might be. Xelloss wasn't about to ask. There was a crunch of broken glass, and Shuno paused to frown down at the shards of the fake relic under his feet.

"Huh," he said. He shook his foot, and pieces of glass scattered from the sole of his boot. "Useless. Even though the theory was sound. I suppose those swords and spears they use operate on a different principal..."

Xelloss managed not to cringe. The idea of Shuno attempting to create the Shrinekeepers' weapons was every bit as alarming as it was absurd.

"Surely, Shuno-kun, you wouldn't go to the trouble of trying to recreate those weapons merely out of scholarly curiosity?" he said, in the mildest, friendliest tone of voice he could conjure up.

Shuno blinked at him. "All knowledge is valuable," he said. "What better way is there to learn about something than to build it?"

"But, I hardly think..." Xelloss began uneasily. He hated to think that this scatterbrained scientist might be right, but he remembered Zelgadis' words in Shimeria: the Mazoku's disregard of Shimer's magic was exactly what the sorcerer had counted on. If they'd taken the trouble to understand it sooner, Shimer might not have nearly succeeded in destroying their entire race.

He winced. "Mazoku logic, I suppose," he said to himself.

Shuno wasn't listening anymore, anyway. His attention had already wandered away again, caught by something he'd spotted on one of the tables.

"Oy! Melly!" he called across the room.

Melianthus spun around, his long hair spreading around him like a veil. He didn't seem the least bit bothered by Shuno's casual form of address, however. He looked where Shuno was pointing, at a neat stack of books on a corner of the farthest table.

"They're right there," Shuno said. "Right where that Guild woman left them."

"Ah! Yes, of course." Melianthus said. He huffed, tossing a strand of hair back over his shoulder. "Well, I'm sure Zelgadis-san will appreciate them much more than that silly professor did."

He took Zelgadis' arm again, but it was hardly necessary; the chimera was already halfway to the spot before he'd finished speaking. Xelloss sensed his excitement spiking as he reached for the top book on the pile. It seemed he might have stumbled upon some of Professor Herringull's "original sources" after all.

Xelloss ambled over to the table to take a peek at them too, but by the time he got there, Zelgadis was already frowning. Xelloss sensed disappointment creep back in as he scanned the pages of the journal.

"That one is the better version, I think," Melly said, nodding toward the book Zelgadis held while he leafed through another book from the same stack. "The scholars seem to think this one is more, well, scholarly, but it's so dry! I've never been able to read it all the way through."

Zelgadis visibly winced at something on the page, but he caught himself and snapped the book shut before Xelloss could get a peek at it.

"Yes, this looks like a rather more... colorful...description of the journey," he said. He picked up another from the pile and frowned at it. "You say these are different versions; is there an original chronicle somewhere that these are all based on?"

"Oh yes, of course," Melly said, "They're all compiled from my ancestors' journal of the events as they happened. That should be right here somewhere, too. That Professor what-was-her-name who was here a year or two ago insisted on seeing it, even though I warned her...

"Three years ago, actually," Xelloss heard Myona say in a rather dazed-sounding whisper, "last spring..."

He grinned; Herringull had obviously made a more favorable impression on one person in the village! But Myona was staring around at the books and hardly seemed to realize that he'd spoken out loud.

Warned her of what? Xelloss wondered. He saw Zelgadis' brow furrow with the same question. Melly shuffled through the stack of books, but as far as Xelloss could see, none of them were old enough to be the journal of an event that had happened thousands of years ago (assuming it had happened at all).

Melly soon wandered off toward the shelves again, but this time Zelgadis didn't follow. With a brief shudder of some emotion that Xelloss couldn't quite catch, Zelgadis stifled a sigh. He pressed a finger to the bridge of his nose and then looked up at the shelves beseechingly, as if begging them to reveal their secrets in spite of their owner.

Myona had paused in front of a small bookcase crowded with books of all shapes and sizes, some bound with leather and cloth, some merely tied together between thin wooden covers, with a few old parchment scrolls jumbled in among them. The boy tipped his head to try to read the lettering on their spines, his fingertips spread to trail over them as if he could decipher them by touch.

Zelgadis squinted at the books that had caught Myona's interest, and then, leaving Melianthus to his ineffectual search, he went over to take a closer look. Curious, Xelloss strolled over to join them.

"Have you found something interesting, Myona-kun?" Zelgadis asked quietly.

Hopeful again, Xelloss realized; after all, Myona knew what they were really looking for. But the boy shook his head with a little shrug.

"I don't know. These look really old, but I can't read any of them," he said. "I was just wondering what kind of stories might be in old books like these."

"Hm, I see," Zelgadis said. He carefully plucked one of the old volumes from the shelf. "None of these are written in our language."

"Ah!" Xelloss said. "Yes, Myona-kun said there might even be books in that old dialect that no one learns to read anymore! Although, of course, merely being old or in an ancient language doesn't mean..."

He broke off as he sensed Zelgadis' excitement spiral up to a breathtaking peak.

"Well, you never know," Zelgadis said casually, but his tone of voice was just the opposite of the eager gleam in his eyes. "There might be something a little interesting, even in some old book like this."

He turned the volume in his hand; Xelloss tipped his head to read the faded letters on the cover. It was, indeed, written in the same nearly forgotten language as the writing on their cottage wall.

"The Warp and Weft of Spellweaving," Xelloss read aloud quietly. "An rather quaint concept of magic," he added.

"I thought that was what it said." Zelgadis nodded, the grin starting to spread across his face. "Do you think it's only a quaint idea? I wonder. Rezo spoke of a book with this title. It's supposed to be very ancient, written by nameless sorcerers in the days before the War of the Monster's Fall. He spent some time searching for it, in fact, although hardly any fragments of it exist in our language. As a matter of fact," he continued, still carefully casual, although Xelloss could hear the tremor of excitement in his voice," he said that it was one of the legendary original books of magical knowledge. If it even existed."

"Ah, did he?" Xelloss said softly. He could see why Zelgadis didn't want to make his interest in the book too obvious, although the Mala probably didn't even realize he had such a rare and valuable document in his library.

He peered at it curiously. The Red Priest's interest in weaving together disparate aspects of magic - or of magical beings - certainly explained the chimera's reaction to the ancient document. In fact, it was a charmingly predictable reaction, but he couldn't help feeling a little disappointed.

"I suppose," he said, doubtfully, "weaving itself includes the art of unraveling things that have been woven together..."

"It might," Zelgadis said. "But if you remember, there was another sorcerer in Rezo's day who was particularly adept at weaving spells into magical nets for the unwary!"

Xelloss stared at him, as blank as Melly for a moment, until he remembered Zelgadis' own description of the intricately woven magic of Shimer's Relics.

"I see! I guess a book like this might make an interesting bit of bed-time reading, at that!" he said.

He briefly considered tucking The Warp and Weft of Spellweaving away in his cloak, but it left a rather obvious gap in the shelf. Even if Melly was probably too oblivious to notice, he decided it wasn't quite worth taking the chance on being banned from the mansion for theft. Not yet, anyway! After all, if there was one possibly legendary book of magic in the Asmalath library, there might well be others.

Besides, Melianthus had wandered over to them now, still gazing around absently at the shelves above their heads. He peered over Zelgadis' shoulder, standing on tiptoe and placing a hand on said shoulder as if it was necessary to steady himself, Xelloss noticed. One delicate hand held his impossibly long hair back from his face with the other hand as he looked at the book in Zelgadis' hand.

"Oh, that old writing," he said. If he knew that one of his books was supposed to be a lost legend of magical lore, he certainly didn't seem concerned about it. He squinted briefly at the other books on the shelf and shrugged. "Hm, yes, the family chronicle of the exodus is written like that, too, but I don't see it here. Of course, that professor couldn't read it; I told her she wouldn't be able to. I suppose that's why it's not with the others she asked to look at, but I can't think where it could have got to since she was here..."

"This," Shuno said, suddenly stepping up behind them. "Here."

He thrust the manuscript in his hand out toward Zelgadis. It was a thick stack of yellow sheets of paper, held together with cowhide strips inside an old leather cover.

"Oh, very good, Shuno, you found it!" Melianthus said. "It's not much to look at, as you can see, but there it is! It's a shame no one can read it anymore, I suppose, but really, the translations are supposed to be very accurate."

Zelgadis handed The Warp and Weft of Spellweaving to Xelloss. He took the manuscript from Shuno, carefully opened it and scanned a page at random.

"Well, it's not easy to read this handwriting, but..." he murmured.

"You can read it?" Shuno said. He stared at Zelgadis, watching his eyes cross the page as intently as if they were one of his magical experiments. "That language?"

Zelgadis nodded absently and turned the page.

"Yes, a little," he murmured. "I learned it when I was with Rezo. He even kept some of his personal notes in this dialect. This is a little different, but I can..."

Shuno stepped forward, shoving in between Xelloss and Melly to get right in front of Zelgadis. Xelloss barely restrained himself from wedging himself in between them with his full, open-eyed glare turned on the scholar. But then Shuno's words made his eyes fly open in surprise, anyway.

"Teach me," Shuno said.

Zelgadis looked up from the book, startled. "Uh - what?"

"Even the Sorcerer's Guild doesn't teach that language anymore. I tried to teach myself, but it's taking too long. You can teach me."

"Oh, that would be lovely!" Melianthus said, before Zelgadis could form any more coherent answer. He clasped his hands over his chest like a swooning maiden. "I didn't think anyone in the world could still read that language! Well, if even a Guild scholar couldn't, you know. Even up at the Temple, there isn't anyone who remembers it."

He sighed, and petted the limp manuscript fondly. "I would so love to be able to read my ancestor's journals, too, but I'm afraid I'm terrible at languages! But if you're giving lessons, Zelgadis-san, perhaps I can look on and learn a little too?"

"I, uh," Zelgadis stammered.

He shrank back against the book case. Shuno merely stared at him, green eyes unblinking, and of course Melly's most intense enthusiasm was almost indistinguishable from total disinterest, but caught between the two of them, Zelgadis cringed like a thief caught with the goods.

Normally, Xelloss would have had to giggle over the chimera's predicament. Of course, Zelgadis couldn't refuse Shuno's request for fear of offending the Mala, even though having the two of them hanging over him at every moment would make it decidedly difficult for him to pursue his own line of research here. But this time, for his own reasons, Xelloss wanted him to do that research. Under the circumstances, he couldn't really enjoy the familiar sense of desperation as magical knowledge threatened to slip from Zelgadis' fingertips once again.

Because, he heard himself reasoning silently, it was his duty to protect Zelgadis from the Soldiers of Shimer, and therefore it was also his duty to ensure that Zelgadis could find any magical lore that he could use against those Soldiers, and that meant - reason went on, insistently - it was also his duty to keep Shuno from nosing around him while he investigated the Mala's library, but it also meant keeping the Mala happy so that he would be allowed to do so, and that meant he couldn't very well vaporize the annoying little magical scientist as he so dearly wanted to do...

Therefore - Mazoku logic dictated - there was only one thing he could do.

"I'll teach you, Shuno-kun," he said.

A rather shocked silence followed this offer.

Or maybe, Xelloss thought a second later, it only seemed shocked to him because he could hardly believe what he'd just said. Shuno merely shifted his unblinking stare to him, and Melly turned to him with no more or less than the same empty smile as ever. Zelgadis drooped with relief, then did a double-take, and out of the corner of his eye, Xelloss saw Myona arch one eyebrow, mildly startled, but neither of them looked or felt as if the sun had just starting going backwards across the sky. Which is what he felt like had happened, even though he was the one who'd said the words.

"Of course," Shuno said. He nodded, as if that settled everything. "Even better."

He turned and glanced up at the high window behind them. The light had faded, even though it was still the middle of the day, as far as Xelloss could tell; he hadn't kept track of time while they were wandering around the mansion.

"We can't start today, or tomorrow," Shuno said shortly, turning back to him. "The storm's moving in, and I have to get back to the Temple for a Recitation. Tomorrow it's The Drowning Seas passage of the Making of Worlds. I have to hear that. I'll be here the day after tomorrow, though."

He seemed to assume this meant that Xelloss would be here, too, ready to teach him all he knew of ancient, forgotten languages.

"I suppose we can begin then," Xelloss said, stretching his face into a grin. "If Melianthus-sama doesn't mind, that is!"

"No reason he should," Shuno said.

Without waiting to find out if Melly minded or not, he turned away and walked out of the library, leaving Xelloss to stare after him with his mouth hanging open and wonder what on earth he'd just gotten himself into.

--
The Mala didn't seem the least bit bothered by Shuno's presumption, in fact, he was already going on about lesson plans and study schedules. He almost seemed excited, but if he actually felt anything, Xelloss couldn't detect it. Zelgadis' puzzling, shifting mix of emotions caught all of his attention.

The chimera stared at him bemusedly for a second, and then turned back to Melly with the family journal in his hand, and the most demure (and obviously false) smile Xelloss had ever seen on his face.

"I'm definitely looking forward to reading this, Melianthus-sama," he said, quite earnestly. "However," he paused and glanced up at the darkening window, "we've imposed enough on you for today. Shuno-kun was right, it looks like the storm is coming in, and I'm sure Myona's sister the High Priestess will be concerned if we don't get him back to the Temple soon."

Xelloss couldn't quite believe what he'd just heard: Zelgadis voluntarily walking away from a library full of magical knowledge? He'd expected the chimera to camp out here until he was physically dislodged from the place. But the little pout of disappointment on Melly's face seemed to indicate that he'd heard correctly. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Myona make a face; clearly he thought this concern was unnecessary, but he didn't say anything. Melly deflated from his brief flutter of energy.

"Oh, dear! Well if you must go, I suppose you must," he said.

"Yes," Zelgadis said, nodding firmly. "We must. But would you be so kind as to allow me to borrow this journal until we return? I'd like to see how much of it I can translate on my own before I read the other versions."

"Oh dear, I'm sorry, but I can't let you do that," Melianthus said airily. "I'm afraid the only one I can allow to leave the library is that rather dry version, if you'd care to borrow that for a day or two."

Zelgadis didn't seem to be much disappointed by this, nor even surprised.

"Thank you very much," he said with a polite nod. "I'll start with that one then."

He slipped out of Melly's grasp and went over to snatch the book in question from the table, and left the untranslated manuscript with the others.

Xelloss barely had a chance to tuck The Warp and Weft of Spellweaving back into its place on the shelf before Zelgadis was back at his elbow with the neatly bound, "scholarly" copy of the Skye chronicle firmly in hand. He nudged Xelloss toward the door and gestured to Myona. Xelloss went along obediently, too surprised to say anything, and almost too confused to remember to smile politely to Melly - just in case he even noticed - as they left the library.

Zelgadis led the way, striding purposefully along the maze of corridors. Melianthus trailed along at one side, chatting continuously about the family chronicle and the various versions of it, while Xelloss, on Zel's other, side alternated between fretting over his impulsive offer to teach Shuno an ancient language and puzzling over Zelgadis' sudden urgency to leave. It seemed to him that Zelgadis' excitement still simmered under his ingratiating smile, but for some reason Xelloss couldn't figure out, he was clearly far more eager to get away than to stay.

They came back to the front entrance hall much more quickly than they'd found the library. Melly was halfway to the door with them before he seemed to realize where they were.

"I'm so dearly looking forward to seeing you again the day after tomorrow!" he said when they paused to say goodbye at the door. He barely glanced at Xelloss as he spoke, of course. His hand was once again on Zelgadis' arm, and he was staring at the chimera's silvery hair as it glinted in the light from the windows beside the door. "Perhaps, while you're having lessons, I can make some sketches of you, Zelgadis-sama. For your portrait, you know!"

"Uh, yes, perhaps," Zelgadis said, although Xelloss saw him cringe at the reminder. His dread at the thought of being Melly's model was nearly as sharp as his horror at being Shuno's teacher. Somehow, though, he managed to twist a grimace into what passed for a gracious smile.

"I'm looking forward to returning as well, Melianthus-sama," he said, and he almost managed to sound as if he really meant it.

Then he fled out the door as if the Demon King of the North himself was nipping at his heels.

--

Once outside, the rush became more of a necessity. The storm was indeed coming ashore with fury. The wind lash the point from all directions, and the first drops of cold rain pelted their faces as they hurried across the garden to the path above the bay. Zelgadis dropped back to walk beside Xelloss, letting Myona lead the way again.

"Thank you, sensei," he muttered aside to Xelloss, too quietly for even Myona to hear over the rush of the wind. "I hope Shuno's a slow learner, because it's going to take me months to explore that entire library," he added with a grin. "But for heaven's sake, don't teach him any real magic!"

"Of course not!" Xelloss said, horrified. "A mazoku teaching a human... well...anything at all, actually..." he added weakly.

"Heh," Zelgadis said. He leaned a little closer, and such a heady mix of emotions wafted from him that Xelloss felt dazed for a moment: excitement, eagerness, even gratitude, all bound up with a dark swirl of frustration. His voice dropped even lower. "Does that mean you plan to set aside your other magical lessons while you're busying teaching Shuno how to read?"

His voice was more of a suggestive purr than words, but it took Xelloss a gaping second longer to realize that the chimera's frustration had as much to do with him as with Melly and his library. He finally recognized the subdued flutter of emotion he'd felt from Zelgadis earlier, which welled up in him now mingled with the relief and gratitude. It was barely subdued lust, and it wasn't all for the Mala's library after all.

Which meant offering to teach Shuno a dead language had been exactly the right thing to do, whether Mazoku logic said so or not.

"No, Zelgadis-san," he said, and smiled. "I certainly do not."

---

next! Zelgadis finds ways to make it up to Xelloss for ignoring him... and then some other stuff happens. >.>

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Birth Rite