Lina sat down on a bench in the park of Atlas City. The tree positioned a few feet behind the bench supplied a comfortable shade against the sun's rays, which were becoming a tad too warm. Lina and Gourry had been enjoying themselves for quite some time, and all seemed to be well in the relationship between them. Lina smiled at her friend who was too busy trying to scrape dog excrement off his boots to notice her glance.

"I hate it when I step in that stuff," Gourry complained more to himself than to Lina.

Lina giggled and scooted a little closer to him. He didn't notice.

"So what's up next?" Gourry asked while still scraping his shoe.

"Oh, I dunno. What do you want to do?" Lina asked innocently.

"Hmm. . .let me think a minute,"

Lina didn't seem too impressed by that answer because it could mean a very long delay. Her facial expression changed to one of annoyance and she leaned back in the bench with her legs crossed, a sign of impatience.

"Excuse me, but if you two aren't too occupied with each other, I have a information you may be interested in," a voice from behind Lina and Gourry stated.

Lina immediately scooted about a foot away from Gourry, and then the two turned around to see a woman with tan skin and long wavy white hair standing near the tree behind them. She wore a blue sleeveless tunic and a necklace made of a material Lina guessed was silver.

"Who are you?" Lina asked while trying to hide the suspicion and embarrassment in her voice.

"My name is Renima," the woman stated with a simple smile, "I have information I think you may be interested in, Lina Inverse."

"How do you know my name?" Lina asked; she no longer tried to hide the suspicion in her voice.

"You're better known in the hired murder industry than you might suspect," the woman replied. There didn't seem to be any malice or hidden agenda in her voice, but Lina kept her guard up anyway while inwardly flinching at the title Renima had given their profession. Lina didn't view hired killing as murder. They people she and Gourry were hired to kill were outlaws, and thus she was dispensing an effective, if bizarre, form of vigilantism.

Throughout the whole conversation between the two women Gourry just sat watching with mixed interest. Actually, most of the time he was looking at Renima's figure. It was kind of like the time that Lina and Zelgadis were having a conversation for the first time with Filia. Gourry didn't say anything, but he watched the newcomer both because she was quite attractive and because there was something peculiar about the person.

"Anyway," Renima explained, "There's a very good offer from the guild master in Seyruun. Apparently a bandit horde has been growing more or less underneath the Monarch's nose. The outlaw force has amassed quite a horde and we're looking for the most skilled mercenaries to aid the Seyruun Royal Guard in taking out the infestation."

Lina frowned at the reference to bandits as an "infestation." Lina never liked the thief-types, in fact, she even preached that they had no rights, but she never viewed them as being sub-human.

"I see. And this is worth my time why?" Lina asked skeptically.

"I think you'll understand when you see this," Renima explained while handing Lina a flyer. Lina's eyes grew wide with interest when she saw the sum of money being offered to help exterminate the bandits. Gourry looked at the flyer over her shoulder. He may have been dense and clueless, but even he understood the power of money, especially that much money.

"Will you do it?" Renima asked.

Lina gave the matter an honest hard consideration. . .for about five seconds.

"Gourry," Lina said to the blonde swordsman, "Let's get back to the inn. We need to pack our stuff so we can head out to Seyruun."

"Do you really think it's safe to travel now?" Renima asked upon meeting up with Lina and Gourry again outside their inn, "Night travel isn't what I would call wise."

The sun was setting and it bled a red color across the small front lawn of the inn. The sun's position and the color reminded Lina of that horrible dream she had last. She inwardly shivered, but shrugged it off. Lina wasn't going to let some bizarre nightmare send her into insanity.

Renima seemed honestly concerned at moving about at night, but Lina shrugged.

"We'll survive. Besides, aren't you a mercenary too, Renima?" Lina asked suspiciously.

"Well, yes, I am," Renima admitted, probably grudgingly, "But I always try to be careful about my actions. . ."

"You need to be more gung-ho to make it as a mercenary!" Lina chided her semi-sarcastically while shaking a finger.

"Hey! Wait a moment!" Gourry stated unexpectedly.

"Hmm, what is it, big guy?" Lina asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I remember you now!" Gourry pointed to Renima.

Lina looked confused, Renima face faulted realizing what he was referring to.

"You were there when that cart with the fireworks exploded, right?" Gourry asked while offering a hand to help Renima stand back up again. Renima took the offered hand and stood again.

"Umm, yeah. I was following you around 'cuz I thought you were pretty cute," Renima explained while ignoring Lina's evil eye aimed in her direction, "Just my luck it turns out you're a dumbass."

Lina wasn't sure if Gourry ignored the insult or just plain didn't understand the connotations, but either way he didn't seem too bothered.

"But what was I thinking?" Renima scolded herself, "I can't fall for anyone except for my true beloved!"

"Oh? And who's that?" Lina asked. Her eyes seemed bored and her tone of voice was rather unimpressed. Renima blushed.

"You'll see him later," Renima informed Lina shyly, "He's going to meet up with us on the trail to Seyruun."

Lina sighed and started walking off with her equipment slung over her shoulder. She hated listening to women who had rather active hormones. That was probably the main reason why she had hated Martina (aside from the little fact that Martina was always trying to kill her). Lina suddenly wondered how Martina was. They hadn't seen each other since that day about four years ago when Martina and Zangulus had been married.

"You two coming?" Lina asked while turning around and walking backwards for a few moments.

"Coming!" Gourry shouted back to her. He grabbed his equipment and walked after Lina.

Renima was still staring embarrassedly at the ground and shuffling her feet. After a few moments longer she suddenly seemed to realize that Lina and Gourry were quite a distance down the street. She grabbed her equipment and ran after them.

Night was in full swing. The howl of a wolf could be heard off in the distance. Crickets chirped with their repetitive song. The cooing of an owl perched in a tree along the roadside occasionally could be heard. The moon overhead was full and blood red. That really bothered Lina.

"Shouldn't we camp?" Renima asked worriedly, "It's probably past midnight. It isn't safe to travel like this."

"Oh, c'mon," Lina scolded her, "You call yourself a mercenary and yet you shy away from the darkness of night?"

"I'm not well versed in the methods of how darkness works like you, Lina," Renima told Lina.

"How did you know I specialize in darkness sorcery?" Lina asked suspiciously while she stopped walking.

Lina looked back at Renima, who along with Gourry had stopped walking. Lina couldn't see Renima's face very well in the moonlight, so it was difficult to guess what was running through her mind.

"Simple," Renima replied without hesitation, "When you're around sorcerers as much as I am, you begin to notice patterns that connect what form of sorcery used with the magic-user's personality. I would guess you specialize in darkness sorcery, perhaps even Black Magic, and you also are proficient in some Shamanistic Magic, probably fire sorcery."

Lina tried to hide how amazed she was that Renima had guessed her profession perfectly. Fortunately, the poor light helped to hide Lina's face so she didn't have to worry too much about it.

"So, tell me then," Lina asked curiously, "What form of sorcery do you specialize in?"

"How'd you know I was a sorceress?" Renima asked in astonishment. It was true that Renima didn't have any hand-to-hand weapons in easy view on her, but that didn't mean much. She could very easily have a concealed weapon on her; such things were pretty common nowadays.

"Woman's intuition," Lina informed her, "You should feel it too."

"Shamanistic Magic," Renima told her, "Wind."

Gourry by now had sat down on the grass at the side of the road. He was pretty bored. He got bored whenever people talked about things he didn't understand, and he really didn't get how magic worked at all. Suddenly Gourry's ears picked up a small noise that apparently the two women hadn't noticed. Gourry was actually one-fourth elven, not enough to make a huge difference, but there were some appearances of heightened senses.

"Someone's coming!" Gourry whispered harshly to the two women who were still conversing about sorcery. Gourry drew his long sword and shifted his eyes left and right in an attempt to find the source of the noise.

Lina and Renima stopped their conversation cold and looked about like Gourry was doing. The sound appeared again, all three of them heard it that time and turned to face the source of the noise: a bush on the other side of the road. The three watched and waited for the noise to emanate again. After about a minute of waiting, the noise came from the bushes again, this time followed by a wild ferret that bounded out of the bushes and ran along the edge of the road after some sort of prey.

All three of them relaxed visibly, Gourry lowered his sword. Lina was about to make a snide comment about how they were all fooled by a ferret when she stopped suddenly. She felt five cold metal points touching her throat; they were quite sharp. Lina didn't dare look down to try to figure out what it was for fear that they would pierce her throat.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Gourry yelled. At first Lina thought maybe he was talking to her, but then she realized he was looking past her, behind her to be exact.

Gourry swung his sword at whatever it was that was standing directly behind Lina. Lina couldn't see too well without turning her head, but she heard the clash of steel on steel. She could just barely see out the corner of her eyes that Gourry's sword had been stopped by something in midair. Her peripheral vision wasn't so good, but it looked like a black-cloaked arm had stopped the sword with the fingertips of the hand.

"Stop this right now!" Renima shouted, "You should be ashamed of yourself, Akira! These are Lina Inverse and Gourry Gabriev! Don't be so rude to them!"

The sharp point at Lina's throat moved away. Lina turned around quickly to see the source. A person covered entirely by a black cloak stood not far away. Lina could see the moonlight reflect off the person's hands, he must have been wearing taloned gauntlets. That would explain how his fingertips could pierce skin and how it could block a sword in full swing.

"My master apologizes, please forgive us," Renima stated while bowing deeply.

"Your master?" Lina asked carefully. She and Gourry exchanged glances quickly.

"Yes," Renima explained as she walked over and stood next to the cloaked man, "This is Akira. He's the man I told you about earlier, the person who was going to meet us on the trail."

"What the hell is the deal?" Lina shouted angrily, "Were you trying to kill me? I thought you needed my help!"

"My master is truly apologetic," Renima bowed again, "He just wanted to see your reaction to the situation."

"Oh, really?" Lina stated sarcastically, "Well then, let's hear it out of his mouth!"

Akira was silent. Lina couldn't see his face, so it was impossible to tell what he was thinking.

"My master is dumb," Renima stated.

"Hey! Join the club!" Gourry told him happily and gave Akira a hearty slap on the back. Akira's head turned to look at Gourry, but again neither Lina nor Gourry could see his face.

"Idiot," Lina scolded Gourry, "She means he can't talk."

"Oh," Gourry said. Lina inwardly chuckled about the hint of disappointment in Gourry's voice.

"I'll explain everything later, alright?" Renima asked, "Let's just camp! I'm tired of trudging through the darkness!"

"Alright, alright. . ." Lina gave in.

The four of them set up camp next to the road.