//------------------------------// // In My Unworthy Hands // Story: The Great and Powerful Slayers: Next // by Belligerent Bindlestiff //------------------------------// Trixie was shaken awake by Lina in the middle of the night. “Hey,” She whispered. “We’ve got company. I just heard a few of the traps go off.” Lina was getting her gear together. “Get dressed Trixie, I’m going to get Gourry.” Trixie put on her cape and hat. She moved to the corner of the room to get her rod. She held it out and made it glow red with magic. “Nopony will mess with the prepared and savvy Trixie.” She said to herself. The three of them moved into the hall, which had grown dark as the night dragged on. “No sense in fighting them right now.” Lina said. “Let’s see if we can give them the slip.” They quietly moved downstairs, looking for a passage of some sort. “Lina.” Trixie whispered. “Trixie doesn’t understand. Why aren’t we going to fight them?” Lina continued in the hushed conversation. “I don’t really want to fight them. If I started firing spells I could bring down the whole palace, and even if we managed to survive that, Nepanox might have the place surrounded. We’d be better off finding another way out.” “Wow Lina, I’m surprised.” Gourry said. “I thought you always wanted to fight anyone who got in your way.” “Do you really think there’s another way out?” Trixie asked. “Given what this place already has fully stocked kitchens and bedrooms.” Lina said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there wasn’t a secret passage out of here like a royal palaces do.” The trio had found a stairway leading down after passing through an array of corridors. The area started appearing less regal and much more mystical with less luxurious furniture and more empty halls. Almost everything seemed to be entirely made of the same blue crystal. At the end of the hall was a door made of crystal as well. “Well, looks like there’s only one place to go.” Lina said. Then she opened it to find a narrow hallway with another door at the end. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.” “What’s the matter Lina?” Gourry asked, passing into the newest hall. “I don’t see anything. Is there something here?” “Doesn’t this seem familiar to you?” Lina asked. Trixie entered the hallway. "It looks like any other place we’d find in the palace so far.” She said. “Well, I didn’t t expect you to recognize it, Gourry.” Lina said. “Don’t you remember when we were in Rezzo’s laboratory?” “Umm…” he replied, scratching his head. “Who was Rezzo again?” Lina smacked him on the side of his head. “Nevermind him!” Lina said. “The point is that we’re probably going to get led in circles now.” “Well, let’s just have a look then.” Trixie said as she moved forward. Gourry and Lina followed the apprentice. “Watch, you’re just going to see another room that looks like this one.” Lina said. “We ended up seeing huge halls repeat themselves the lower and lower we went.” “Hey, I remember Sylphiel helping us with something like that!” Gourry said, putting a fist in his palm. “Look who finally caught up.” Lina said. She turned to Trixie. “Say Trixie, you wouldn’t happen to be a diviner, would you?” “Well, there was that one time when we were unicorns in the desert.” Trixie said. “I was a unicorn?” Gourry asked. “I don’t remember having a horn.” “No Gourry, you were an earth pony.” Trixie said. “Oh right.” Gourry replied. “I remember how you two were cute, funny little unicorns. Even Lina looked a lot less scary.” Earning another smack from Lina. “Geez, can’t you even go walking down a hallway without saying more stupid things?” Lina asked. “At least wait until we’ve gone into the…next…room.” Despite all of their banter, they’d gotten no closer to the other side of the hallway. “What the heck’s going on?” Lina asked. She tried running forward, but Trixie and Gourry only saw her running in place. “There doesn’t look like there’s anything wrong with the floor.” Trixie said. “We’ll see about that!” Lina said and then incanted a spell. “Raywing!” Lina lifted off of the ground, but when she tried to shoot forward she stayed idle in the air. “Agh!” Lina screamed. “Fine, let’s just make it so that there’s no more room!” Trixie and Gourry screamed and attempted to get away. The hallway was too narrow to dive aside, so they retreated to the entrance tohide from Lina’s wrath. She’s being crazy again! Trixie thought. What if the spell doesn’t travel? She then felt the heat of the spell as Lina unleashed her magic. “Fireball!” Trixie turned to see the fireball flying through the air, but not gaining any distance. Lina shrieked and grabbed Gourry. The three of them ran out of the room and turned to look back at the spell, hovering in the center of the room. “It’s not going anywhere.” Trixie said. “Yeah, I put a lot of potency into that one.” Lina replied. “It won’t fade away anytime soon.” “It looks like nothing is going to get past that spot.” Trixie said. “Well, let’s try another room.” Gourry said. “We can’t.” Lina replied. “this is about the closest thing we’ve found to progress. And if we go back upstairs, I’m sure Nepanox will just get in our way.” “There has to be something here.” Trixie said. “Nopony would go through the trouble of making a trick if it didn’t lead somewhere.” Lina then smirked. “I’m not done with this room, not yet.” She walked back into the hallway and stared at the spell still held aloft. “I’ve got a plan, and it’ll be a lesson at the same time.” Lina walked backed to the entrance with Gourry and Trixie. “If anyone ever uses a fireball spell, you should never fire one back.” “Why is that?” Trixie asked. “It’ll cause a massive explosion, much bigger than either spell alone could produce.” Lina said. “It envelopes the whole area.” The sorceress turned to her apprentice. “I want you to shoot a fireball at mine.” “What?!” Trixie exclaimed. “Hopefully, it’ll mess up whatever’s screwing with us in that room.” Lina said. “It’ll take way too long for me to figure out the counter magic to whatever is manipulating that room.” Trixie cautiously moved towards the portal of the hallway. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to leave you in there.” Lina said. “We’ll grab you the moment you cast the spell, and then shut the door right behind us.” Trixie readied her rod in her left hand and began the incantation. Source of all power. Light which burns beyond crimson. Gather thy power in my hands. “Fireball!” Trixie incanted and shot the spell from her rod. Her magic sparkled and whizzed through the air. Trixie felt herself get tugged backward and thrown to the floor. There was a distinct “thump” heard, and then she saw a bit of smoke come out from the surprisingly still intact door. The trio got to their feet, and then opened the door, to their surprise, absolutely nothing had changed. The fireballs were gone, but not even a burn mark was visible in the hallway. Lina stomped into the center of the room. “Are you kidding me?” she yelled. “We could be here forever before we get through!” Trixie looked at the hallway curiously. Why doesn’t this room trap us? She thought and made her way down the hall to join Lina. She looked at both doors. “They look the same.” She said. ‘It sort of reminds Trixie of a funhouse.” “Well, it’d be news to me!” Lina said. “I’ve never seen a spell do something like this!” Gourry stood at the entrance of the hallway and waved. “Nothing is pushing us here, or Gourry wouldn’t be standing over there.” Trixie said. “What if something is happening at the start of the room?” “Let’s see then.” Lina said and the both of them returned to Gourry. Sorceress and apprentice walked away from the swordsman, without breaking sight of him. “Nothing’s happening.” Lina said as they were approached the center of the room. Trixie, however, never having dealt with walking backwards in this form for so long, continued moving and noticed that she was moving away from Lina. “Wait Lina, moving backwards!” Trixie said and looked to the door that had eluded them for so long. Suddenly, she was making no progress and felt a force lift and send her flying back. Lina dodged the screaming apprentice, only to see her caught by Gourry. “Well, that works!” Lina said. “That was cool. I think Lina might have used the Dragon Slave if you hadn’t figured it out sooner!” Gourry said. The trio made their way to the door and passed through it awkwardly in order to avoid looking at it. When they turned around they beheld a massive space with crystal gears spinning about. The gears were interlocked with each other, some intersecting vertically and spanning various heights and distances. “What’s with this place?” Lina asked. Gourry approached the end of the walkway. “Whoa.” He said as he noted the abyss below. “That’s deep.” “Look there’s the next door!” Trixie said, pointing to a level further below, amid the mass of spinning gears. “Well, this shouldn’t be a problem Lina. You can just fly us there.” The apprentice continued. “Yeah, give me once second.” Lina said, before beginning another spell. “Ray Wing!” She rose in the air and then felt herself being pulled towards the massive mechanism. The sorceress flew feet first towards the rotating gears. “Agh!” she screamed before crossing her arms and swinging them outward. She fell to the ground and slid along the walkway, coming short of a moving gear. “This thing is sucking any active magic." Lina said. Trixie and Gourry came running to check on their friend. “Should we really be this close to this thing then?” Trixie asked. “Yeah, its fine as long as you don’t cast any spells.” Lina said. “Can you still feel your magic in you, Trixie?” The apprentice felt her untapped energy. “Yes, its still there.” Trixie said. “I don’t know, I just feel air.” Gourry said, taking in a breath. “I wasn’t asking you!” Lina yelled. “But this means we can’t just go over the gap as easily as I’d like. The whole palace must really mess with magic. I bet its all of this crystal.” “Look, we can ride the gears down to the next door!” Gourry said, pointing to the one that was near the end of the walkway. The trio approached the end of their own path. The gear in front of them turned horizontally at a steady speed, and began the interlinking with the rest of the machine. "It’s all we’ve got.” Lina said and jumped onto the gear. Trixie looked over the edge and then regarded the moving platform. “Wheels...” She seethed. Along the way, the speed at which the mechanism spun, increased and the closeness of the gears did as well. “I’m not going to risk it.” Lina said, standing on top of a horizontal gear. “Well, we can’t turn back now!” Trixie said. “How are we supposed to get back up anyways?” “No, I’m just talking about this spot.” Lina said, and she removed her cloak. “I’m noting to let it get caught in that mess.” “Oh, right.” Trixie replied, doing the same. “I never understood why everyone wore capes.” Gourry said. “You, Amelia, and Zelgadis. My dad always said it was dangerous. Why do you wear them then?” “Storage-Style.” Lina and Trixie responded simultaneously. “Hey, remember that my cloak holds all of my stuff and there’s no way I’d ever wear a backpack.” Lina said. “Trixie needs it to show how alluring and mysterious she is!” she said. With their capes bundled up, they raced through the next collection of gears. At one spot, Trixie lost her balance. She flailed her arms, trying to grab at anything. That anything turned out to be Lina as the sorceress rushed to save her apprentice. Unfortunately the only place Trixie grabbed was her shirt from a rather unpleasant angle. That in turn caused Lina to lose her balance. Gourry sprung forward and caught Lina’s left arm. The gear continued to rotate towards an interlocking point where Trixie and Lina were dangling. “I need your other hand!” Gourry said. Lina looked at her right hand, the treasure she’d been collecting throughout her adventures was tied to her cloak. “No, I’m not losing it!” she exclaimed. “You’ll lose a lot more if you don’t let go!” Trixie yelled while holding on for dear life. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way!” Lina said an then brought her cloak to her mouth. She bit down and used her free arm to grab Gourry’s hand. “Now!” she yelled, muffled through the cloak. Gourry pulled them so hard that they sailed in the air a bit before landing back on the gear. Trixie held on to Lina as she flew through the air. She felt the energy from Gourry passed all the way through into her arm. At the height of the maneuver, she almost thought she lost her grip and would be thrown away, but hitting the gear banished those fears. “See!” Lina said, standing over Trixie. “We’re alive and I got to keep my treasures!” Gourry blinked. “Umm...” “Speechless, I know.” Lina said. “Come on Trixie, you have to agree it was pretty-“she stopped talking when she looked down at her apprentice. Trixie had had such a vice grip on Lina that when they flew through the air, Trixie had opened her mentor’s shirt. Lina looked at her opened clothing. Thankfully it hadn’t been spread wide open, but the sorceress turned rapidly and fixed her outfit. “Let’s just get out of here.” She said, with her face still red. It looked like something out of an ancient temple, but its blue crystal body looked so new and unblemished The machine had three arms in front of it, each arm on top of one of three domes. The domes themselves were opaque and shined like pearls. A large, crystal ball was spat out of the construct’s mouth and rolled towards the center dome. “Choose correctly, and pass through.” The machine said in a voice that sounded as if it had an echo and rang with crystal. The construct then covered the orb and began sliding all three about with efficient movements, not making a single sound. “Oh, it’s this game!” Gourry said excitedly. “I loved watching this at the fair! I got really good at it.” Then, the construct’s speed picked up. “Oh man, this is gonna be tough.” Gourry said. The machine stopped. “Choose correctly.” The construct said. “That one!” Gourry said, pointing to the right. The construct then lifted the chosen dome to reveal nothing. “Wrong.” It said and shuffled the domes again. The walls in the room started to close in on the group. “Choose correctly.” The construct said, bellowing in is crystalline voice. Gourry put a finger to his chin. “The right one.” He said. The same result followed as from before, and the walls shifted closer. “Alright, let me try again.” Gourry said before being grabbed by the ear by Lina.  “Ow, ow, ow!” “Gourry, a moment please?” Lina asked. With a smile. “What are you doing? I thought you said you were good at this!” the sorceresses anger began to rise in her voice. “The walls around us keep closing in on us every time you’re wrong!” Trixie said. “Really?” Gourry replied. “Yes!” Trixie said. “What’s your technique for guessing the right one anyways?” Trixie asked. “Oh, I just keep picking the same one over and over.” Gourry said. Lina clocked him over the head. “You idiot!” Trixie is worried, she almost wanted to do the same. She thought to herself. Maybe she shouldn’t have so many violent tendencies. The sorceress turned and approached the construct. “I’ll take a chance at it!” The machine started its series of movements to begin the challenge again. “Choose correctly.” It bellowed. “This one.” Lina said pointing to the left dome. The construct lifted the dome to reveal nothing as it did so many times before, and the room grew smaller again. “Eh heh!” Lina laughed nervously. “How about we try that again?” Trixie watched at the machine silently went through its motions again. Its so perfect. Trixie thought.  Trixie has seen many ponies perform slight of hoof, but this is almost like… she gasped. Lina had given another incorrect guess, causing there to only be a space the size of the bedroom from the palace. “Stand aside, Ms. Lina” Trixie said, stepping forward. “Your apprentice will now astound and amaze you!” Lina eyed Trixie. “You’d better not cast any magic.” Trixie unfurled her clock and grabbed the brim of her hat. “For this, The Grrreat and Powerful Trrrixie does not need any spells! You may begin!” The construct whirred its parts and slid the domes as rapidly as it did before. “Choose correctly.” It said. “Oh, Trixie will choose!” she said and made her way to the puzzle. “Trixie says that the orb is not under this one!” she pointed at the center dome. “Show us that it isn’t there!” “Very well.” The construct said, lifting the dome to reveal nothing. Trixie made her way to the right. “Trixie says that there is no orb under this one either!” It was almost as if the construct groaned to comply, but it lifted the dome to reveal nothing as well. “Thank you for your time!” Trixie said. “Now, if you’d let us pass!” The construct shifted and made an exit visible from beneath its body.  The trio then made their way through the passage. “Wow Trixie!” Gourry said. “That was amazing!” “I’m impressed.” Lina said. “I guess your practice with stage magic was pretty useful.” “But how did you guess it in one go?” Gourry asked. Trixie put her left hand to her face with a finger extended. “Oh, Trixie isn’t allowed to tell. That is a secret!”